Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
del Rey, Lester
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1915-1933
History
Lester del Rey was born in Saratoga, Minnesota in 1915 as Ramon Felipe San Juan Mario Silvio Enrico Smith Heathcourt-Brace Sierra y Alvarez-del Rey y de los Verdes. Del Rey’s father was a poor sharecropper of partly Spanish ancestry; his mother died shortly after his birth. Between his family’s financial difficulties, and the onset of the Great Depression, del Rey had a tough time obtaining an education, although he did manage to finish high school and put together two years at George Washington University before dropping out. Del Rey’s writing career started off when he became disgusted with the low quality of many of the science fiction stories published in his day and protested that even he could write a better story. By l947 del Rey had written enough solid short fiction to generate his first book, the anthology "And Some Were Human". By 1950 he was able devote himself full time to writing (and editing). In addition to his science fiction and fantasy, del Rey also produced considerable juvenile science fiction, and some non-fiction. In 1953 he left a number of his editing positions (Fantasy Magazine, Rocket Stories Space Science Fiction, Science Fiction Adventures) after a dispute. Recognition for del Rey had included the 1972 E. E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction (the Skylark Award); the 1985 Balrog Special Award; the 1990 Nebula Grand Master Award; and the title of SFWA Grand Master in 1991.