Reginald Bretnor

Reginald Bretnor (b. July 30 1911 in Vladivostok, Russia - d. July 22 1992 in Medford, Oregon) was a science fiction author, born Alfred Reginald Kahn. He flourished between the 1950s and 1980s. Most of his work was in short story form, and usually featured a whimsical story line or ironic plot twist. His works include:

• "The Man On Top"
• "Maybe Just A Little One"
• "Cat"
• "Genius of the Species"
• "The Past and Its Dead People"
• "Old Uncle Tom Cobleigh and All"
• "The Ladies of Beetlegoose Nine"
• "Papa Schimmelhorn's 'Yang'"
• "The Gnurrs Come from the Voodvork Out"
• "The Proud Foot of the Conqueror"
• The Future at War I: Thor's Hammer
• The Future at War II: Orion's Sword
• The Future at War III: The Spear of Mars

Under the pseudonym Grendel Briarton (an anagram of Reginald Bretnor), he published a series of science-fiction themed shaggy-dog stories featuring the time-traveling hero Ferdinand Feghoot. Known as "Feghoots", the stories involved Feghoot resolving a situation encountered while traveling through time and space (a la Doctor Who) with a bad pun. In one example, he explained his inability to pay his dues for a Sherlock Holmes fan society by turning out his empty pockets and declaring "share lack". In his adventures, Feghoot worked for the Society for the Aesthetic Re-Arrangement of History and traveled via a device that had no name but was typographically represented as the ")(". In 1980, "The Compleat Feghoot" collected all of Bretnor's published Feghoots and included a selection of winners and honorable mentions from a contest run by The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The book is, as of 2006, out of print and very rare.

In the latter 1970s, Bretnor also edited several books about writing science fiction. These titles include:

• Science Fiction Today and Tomorrow: A Discursive Symposium (1975)
• The Craft of Science Fiction: A Symposium on Writing Science Fiction and Science Fantasy (1976)
• Modern Science Fiction: Its Meaning and Its Future (1979)

In 1969, Bretnor published a book on warfare titled Decisive Warfare: A Study in Military Theory. Largely unnoticed by his science fiction readership but hinted at by his Future at War series, it proved him a scholar of varied talents.

Bretnor also wrote nonfiction articles for the survivalist newsletter P.S. Letter, edited by Mel Tappan.

He was also known as an early associate of Anton Szandor LaVey in the days before the founding of the Church of Satan.

External resources

• Biographical introduction to The Timeless Tales of Reginald Bretnor
• Biographical remembrance of Reginald Bretnor by Poul Anderson
• Reginald Bretnor at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Reginald Bretnor's online fiction at Free Speculative Fiction Online