author
Varley Lang
A little-known mid-century science fiction writer, remembered today for bleak, imaginative stories about ecology, scarcity, and survival. The surviving record is sparse, which gives the work an added air of mystery.
1 Audiobook
Ecology on Rollins Island
by Varley Lang
About the author
Varley Lang appears to have published only a small number of works, but they left a distinct mark in the pulp science fiction world of the 1950s. Project Gutenberg lists Ecology on Rollins Island, originally published in Worlds of If in August 1955, and bookseller records also show a story called Thereby Hangs in Astounding Science Fiction in May 1956.
Ecology on Rollins Island suggests the kind of fiction Lang was drawn to: hard circumstances, ecological imbalance, and the uneasy relationship between human control and the natural world. The story has lasted long enough to be preserved and rereleased in the public domain, even though dependable biographical details about its author are hard to confirm.
Because reliable source material on Lang is so limited, much of the person behind the byline remains unclear. What can be said with confidence is that the name is associated with a small but intriguing corner of classic American science fiction magazine history.