author
Theodore L. Thomas
1920–2005
A science-fiction writer with the mind of an engineer, he brought legal puzzles, scientific curiosity, and a dry sense of wit into magazine-era SF. His stories often turned big ideas into clever, human-scale thought experiments.
5 Audiobooks
The Good Work
by Theodore L. Thomas
Satellite Passage
by Theodore L. Thomas
The Fatal Third
by Theodore L. Thomas
The Professional Approach
by Charles L. Harness, Theodore L. Thomas
The magnificent profession
by Theodore L. Thomas
About the author
Born in New York City on April 13, 1920, Theodore Lockard Thomas built an unusually varied career before and alongside his fiction. He worked as a chemical engineer and later as a patent attorney, and that technical background gave much of his science fiction its distinctive feel.
He published more than 50 short stories between the early 1950s and the early 1980s, writing mainly as Theodore L. Thomas and sometimes as Ted Thomas or Leonard Lockard. He became especially associated with magazine science fiction, where he was known for intelligent, idea-driven stories and for legal or professional twists that reflected his experience outside literature.
Thomas died in Tucson, Arizona, on September 24, 2005. Readers who enjoy classic short-form science fiction often remember him for the way he blended hard scientific thinking with sharp, playful storytelling.