Robert Abernathy

Born in Tucson, Arizona, on June 6, 1924, Robert Harwood Abernathy became an American science fiction author whose reputation rests largely on his magazine short stories. His fiction appeared during the great pulp era, and many readers remember him for the lively, idea-driven stories he contributed to the field in the 1940s and 1950s.

He began publishing while still very young, with early work appearing in Astounding, and he went on to place stories in several major science fiction magazines of the time. Reference sources describe him as especially associated with short fiction rather than novels, with a body of work of roughly a few dozen stories.

Abernathy also worked as a teacher and academic, a background that sits neatly beside the intelligence and clarity often noted in mid-century magazine science fiction. He died in Tucson on April 6, 1990.