T. L. Sherred

Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1915, T. L. Sherred worked in Detroit's auto industry and later became a technical writer. That background shaped much of his fiction: instead of distant heroes and spotless laboratories, he often wrote about practical people, workers, and the pressures of modern industry.

Although he published relatively little, Sherred earned lasting attention for "E for Effort," first published in 1947, a story about a machine that can view the past and the dangerous consequences of such a breakthrough. He later published the novel Alien Island in 1970, and his fiction was collected in First Person, Peculiar.

Sherred died in 1985. His reputation rests on a modest but memorable body of science fiction, admired for strong ideas and a down-to-earth tone that set him apart from many of his contemporaries.