author
Harry Bates
1900–1981
A key early voice in pulp science fiction, this American editor and writer helped shape the field in the 1930s and later wrote the story that inspired The Day the Earth Stood Still. His work blends big ideas, brisk pacing, and the adventurous spirit of classic magazine SF.
2 Audiobooks
Under Arctic Ice
by Harry Bates
Seed of the Arctic Ice
by Harry Bates
About the author
Born Hiram Gilmore Bates III in Pittsburgh on October 9, 1900, he became an important figure in early American science fiction as both an editor and a writer. He is especially remembered for helping launch Astounding Stories of Super-Science in 1930, a magazine that played a major role in the growth of the genre.
As a fiction writer, he is best known for the 1940 short story Farewell to the Master. That story later became the basis for the 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still, which gave his work a lasting place in science fiction history.
Bates died in September 1981. Even though he is not as widely known today as some later science fiction names, his influence reaches both through the magazines he edited and through one of the genre’s most famous screen adaptations.