Wilson Tucker (writer)

Wilson Tucker (born. (1914) is an American science fiction writer and fan. He occasionally publishes under the name Bob Tucker.

Tucker became involved in science fiction fandom in 1932 and in that decade began publishing a fanzine, The Planetoid. From 1938-1975, he published the fanzine Le Zombie, which lasted for more than 60 issues and later was revived as a webzine. He published the Bloomington News Letter from his home in Bloomington, Illinois which dealt with the writing field. Active in letter-writing as well, Tucker has long been a popular fan, coining many phrases familiar in fandom. On multiple occasions fallacious reports of his death have been made.

In 1941, Tucker published his first short story, "Interstellar Way Station." His complete short fiction canon has been collected in The Best of Wilson Tucker (1982). Instead, he turned his attention to writing novels. His most famous novel may be The Year of the Quiet Sun (1970), which won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Although Tucker has written more then twenty novels, both science fiction and mystery, he has always viewed it as an avocation instead of work. He worked instead as a projectionist.

Tucker won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 1970 and the Retro-Hugo for same category in 1954. His Science Fiction Newsletter (a.k.a. Bloomington News Letter) won the Retro-Hugo Award for Best Fanzine in 1951.