Charles L. Fontenay

Born in Brazil in 1917 and raised in Tennessee, Charles L. Fontenay built two writing lives at once: one in newspapers and one in science fiction. Reliable reference sources describe him as an American journalist and SF author, and note that he spent about half a century in journalism, including work with the Associated Press and the Nashville Tennessean.

As a fiction writer, he published novels and short stories, with much of his shorter work appearing during the 1950s. Science fiction reference sources remember him for imaginative, idea-driven stories and for novels such as Rebels of the Red Planet and The Day the Oceans Overflowed.

He also wrote nonfiction, including a biography of Estes Kefauver. Fontenay died on January 27, 2007, at age 89, leaving behind a career that bridged everyday reporting and classic mid-century speculative fiction.