John J. (John Joseph) McGuire

Born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, in 1917, John J. McGuire was an American science fiction author whose work appeared during the pulp and digest-magazine era. He wrote both on his own and with other writers, building a small but lasting reputation among classic SF readers.

He is especially associated with H. Beam Piper. Together they produced works including Crisis in 2140—which first appeared in shorter form as Null-ABC—and A Planet for Texans, later also published as Lone Star Planet. Reference sources on speculative fiction also note a handful of solo stories and his connection to the magazine world of the 1950s and early 1960s.

McGuire died in 1981. Though he was never among the biggest names in the field, his fiction has continued to interest fans of vintage science fiction, especially readers drawn to sharp premises, political speculation, and classic space-age adventure.