Hugo Gernsback

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Hugo Gernsback
Born: August 16, 1884
Luxembourg City
Died: August 19, 1967
New York City, New York
Occupation(s): Editor, Publisher, Novelist, short story author
Genre(s): Science fiction
Debut work(s): "Ralph 124C 41+" (1911)

Hugo Gernsback (August 16, 1884 – August 19, 1967) was a Luxembourg American inventor and magazine publisher who also wrote science fiction and whose publications included the first science fiction magazine, for which he is sometimes popularly called "The Father of Science Fiction".[1]

Born in Luxembourg City, Gernsback emigrated to the United States in 1905 and later became a naturalized citizen. He married three times: to Rose Harvey in 1906, Dorothy Kantrowitz in 1921, and Mary Hancher in 1951. In 1925, Hugo founded radio station WRNY and was involved in the first television broadcasts. He is also considered a pioneer in amateur radio. He died in New York City.

Gernsback started the modern genre of science fiction by founding the first magazine dedicated to it, Amazing Stories, in 1926. He said he became interested in the concept after reading a translation of the work of Percival Lowell as a child. He also played a key role in starting science fiction fandom, by publishing the addresses of people who wrote letters to his magazines. In 1929, he lost ownership of his first magazines after a bankruptcy lawsuit. There is some debate about whether this process was genuine, manipulated by publisher Bernarr Macfadden, or was a Gernsback scheme to begin another company.

Gernsback wrote some fiction, including the novel Ralph 124C 41+ in 1911. Though hugely influential at the time, and filled with numerous science fiction ideas, the plot, characters, and writing strike most modern readers as shallow and old-fashioned.

The Science Fiction Achievement award, given to various works each year by vote of the members of the World Science Fiction Society, is named the "Hugo" after him. He was one of 1996's inaugural inductees into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

Before creating a literary genre, Gernsback was an entrepreneur in the electronics industry, importing radio parts from Europe to the United States and helping to popularize amateur "wireless". In 1909, he founded the Wireless Association of America, which had 10,000 members within a year. The same year he also founded Modern Electrics, the world's first magazine about electronics. In 1912, Gernsback said that he estimated 400,000 people in the U.S. were involved in amateur radio. In 1913, he founded a similar magazine, Electrical Experimenter, which became Science and Invention in 1920. It was in these magazines that he began including scientific fiction stories alongside science journalism.

Gernsback held 80 patents by the time he died.

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[edit] Popular Culture

  • The anime series Ergo Proxy features a character named Re-l Mayer, whose manufacture number (124C41+) references Gernsback's novel Ralph 124C 41+.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Siegel, Mark Richard (1988). Hugo Gernsback, Father of Modern Science Fiction: With Essays on Frank Herbert and Bram Stoker. Borgo Pr. ISBN 0-89370-174-2.. Others who are popularly called "The Father of Science Fiction" include H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, see the list of people known as father or mother of something.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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