Theodore Sturgeon

Theodore Sturgeon (born Edward Hamilton Waldo) was a prolific writer of science fiction and fantasy for several decades. He followed in the footsteps of David H. Keller, often thought to be the first writer in the science fiction and fantasy genre to focus on character, along with scientific extrapolation and/or fantastic settings. Although he wrote a few novels, including the award-winning More than Human, the vast bulk of his work is short fiction. His complete short fiction is being published by North Atlantic Press in a giant multi-volume project.

Sturgeon was an influence on Samuel R. Delany and many other writers of the 1960s and 1970s. Much of his work looks at issues of gender and sex, and even more looks at relationships between men and women. Among his works that are of particular interest to a feminist sf audience are:

• More Than Human, (1953) winner, International Fantasy Award (1954) In this novel, Sturgeon uses gestalt theory to postulate a post-human race of creatures which are comprised of several humans, crossing race, gender, age, and ability to make one entity.
• Venus Plus X (1960) (a race of apparent neuters)
• "Affair with a Green Monkey," (1957) a short story about why a woman would love an alien
• "The World Well Lost," (1966) (one of the first, if not the first, sf story to deal directly with homosexuality)
• "Amok Time" (1967) (episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, which presented pon farr, the Vulcan need to mate-or-die every seven years)
• "If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Want Your Sister To Marry One?" (1967), first published in Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison (examines sexual repression & taboos)

Sturgeon's work features many strong and smart women, often scientists. They are always beautiful, frequently red-headed, and often (but not always) a love interest for a male character. In comparison to Heinlein's women of the same period, they tend to be more varied, less stereotypical, and more independent even when they are in relationships with men.

Sturgeon wrote endlessly about class: many if not most of his heroes (and some heroines) are working-class people in dead-end and/or low-paying jobs. In a period where virtually every science fiction protagonist was a spaceman or a scientist or a tycoon, Sturgeon writes about bank tellers, janitors, musicians, bulldozer operators, and much more.

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