author
Max Tadlock
A mid-century science fiction writer remembered today for the story "Cause of Death," which first appeared in Galaxy Science Fiction in 1955. Little biographical information is widely available, which gives the work an extra air of mystery.
1 Audiobook
Cause of Death
by Max Tadlock
About the author
Published records for this author are sparse, but Max Tadlock is credited with the science fiction story Cause of Death. Project Gutenberg and The Online Books Page both list the work under that name, and the Gutenberg edition notes that it was originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction in November 1955.
That surviving story is the main reason readers still encounter Tadlock today. It is a compact piece of classic magazine-era science fiction, focused on mortality, curiosity, and the risks of pushing human experience past its limits.
Because reliable public sources offer so little beyond the publication trail, it is best to think of Max Tadlock as one of the many lightly documented pulp-era writers whose work outlasted the details of their biography. In this case, the story itself remains the clearest introduction.