author

Lee Sutton

1916–1978

A mid-20th-century American librarian, professor, and administrator who also wrote imaginative science fiction for younger readers. He is best remembered for Venus Boy, a 1955 adventure about the first human child born on Venus.

1 Audiobook

Venus Boy

Venus Boy

by Lee Sutton

About the author

Born as Homer Lee Sutton on September 24, 1916, Lee Sutton built much of his career in education. Reliable reference sources describe him as an American librarian as well as a university professor and administrator, and later accounts note that he taught humanities at John F. Kennedy College after earlier work at Parsons College in Iowa.

Alongside that academic life, he wrote science fiction in the 1950s. His best-known book is Venus Boy (1955), a young-adult novel set on Venus that follows a boy who forms a bond with a strange native creature while facing dangers on the planet. He also wrote at least a small amount of other speculative fiction, which helped earn him a place in science-fiction reference works.

Sutton died on September 21, 1978. Though he was not a prolific novelist, his work still stands out for its blend of adventure, wonder, and a gentle classic sense of future exploration.