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Arthur Porges

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Born: August 19 1915

Died: 1111 05 20062006

was an American author of numerous short stories, most notably during the 1950s and 1960s, though he continued to write and publish stories until his death. He was a teacher of mathematics, brother of Irwin Porges; he began publishing sf with "Modeled in Clay" for Man to Man , and subsequently published about 220 stories – a few as Peter Arthur, Abel Jacobi, Derek Page and Pat Rogers – without releasing any of them in book collections. Over half that output is mystery fiction and the balance fairly evenly divided between fantasy and sf. He was a strong and inventive writer, especially of fantasy; many of his ingenious mystery stories fall into the "impossible crime" category or are Sherlock Holmes parodies featuring Stately Homes. In the sf world, he is probably still best known for "The Fly" , not to be confused with George Langelaan's twice-filmed tale with the same title, and "The Ruum" involving an implacable alien Robot programmed to collect specimens of certain Terran lifeforms, leading to a memorably long and gruelling chase of the protagonist. Most of Porges' best fiction appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and in Amazing Stories and Fantastic under the enlightened editorship of Cele Goldsmith. Porges was fascinated with puzzles resolved by invocation of basic scientific principles. This was the basis of his Ensign de Ruyter series, which began with "Urned Reprieve" ; in "Wheeler Dealer" , for example, natives of a low-pressure world who devote most of their time to ritual prayer become a useful workforce when the protagonist adapts the Crookes radiometer principle to make their prayer-wheels turn unaided. The series was collected posthumously as Eight Problems in Space edited by Richard Simms.
Porges was content to write and sell stories and did not pursue book collection, so it has been left to others to compile volumes of his best material. Mike Ashley assembled a selection of his best supernatural fiction in The Mirror and Other Strange Reflections , but the majority of his collections have been compiled by Richard Simms, who maintains an Arthur Porges website [see links below]. These include a volume of previously unpublished early writings, The Calabash of Coral Island and Other Early Stories . The essential volume of Porges sf stories is The Ruum and Other Science Fiction Stories . A full list of other volumes is given below

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Arthur Porges

Arthur Porges

Books from Arthur Porges

Alfred Hitchcock's Get Me to the Wake on Time

The Ruum and Other Science Fiction Stories

The Year's Best SF 10

The Misadventures of Ellery Queen

Fantasy & Science Fiction, February 2003 (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, #614)

Los mejores relatos de ciencia ficción: La era del cambio [1956-1965]

Sirius - Biblioteka znanstvene fantastike broj 19

The Devil and Simon Flagg and Other Fantastic Tales

Ιστορίες με εξωγήινους εισβολείς

Frontiers in Space

The Further Misadventures of Ellery Queen

Звезды зовут

Alfred Hitchcock's A Choice of Evils

These Daisies Told: The Casebook of Professor Ulysses Price Middlebie

Fun and Games at the Whacks Museum and Other Horror Stories: From Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine

Ciencia ficción, selección 18

The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1954 (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, #42)

The Unwilling Professor

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Analog Science Fiction, July 1962