Robert F. Young

Born on June 8, 1915, in Silver Creek, New York, Robert F. Young was an American science fiction writer whose career stretched across several decades of magazine and book publishing. Reliable reference sources identify him as Robert Franklin Young and note that, apart from his World War II service in the Pacific, he spent most of his life in New York State.

He became especially known for short fiction, and readers still remember him for a style that felt gentler and more poetic than much of the hard-edged science fiction of his era. His stories appeared in leading genre magazines, and his reputation rests largely on tales that blended imaginative concepts with emotion, wit, and a strong sense of place.

Young also wrote novels as well as short stories, building a body of work that kept finding appreciative readers long after its first publication. He died on June 22, 1986, but he remains a distinctive voice in mid-20th-century science fiction: thoughtful, humane, and quietly memorable.