author
R. C. FitzPatrick
Best known for a small but memorable run of science fiction stories in the 1960s, this American writer is especially remembered for "The Circuit Riders" and the Nebula-nominated "Half a Loaf." Though biographical details are scarce, the work itself has kept a quiet afterlife among classic SF readers.
1 Audiobook
The Circuit Riders
by R. C. FitzPatrick
About the author
R. C. FitzPatrick was an American science fiction writer whose known published work appears to center on the 1960s. Reliable reference listings connect the name with stories including The Circuit Riders (first published in Analog in April 1962), Half a Loaf (published in 1965 and nominated for the 1966 Nebula Award for Best Novelette), and Winkin, Blinkin and PiR² (1968).
His reputation rests largely on short fiction rather than a long book list. The Circuit Riders was later reprinted in notable science fiction anthologies and has remained available through Project Gutenberg and audiobook/public-domain archives, which has helped keep his name in circulation for new readers.
Very little confirmed personal background seems to be available from the sources I found, so it is safest to remember him as one of those mid-century genre writers known more through a handful of striking stories than through a well-documented public life.