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Robert Tralins

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Robert Tralins
Born28 April 1926 (1926-04-28)
Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Died20 May 2010 (2010-05-21) (aged 84)
NationalityAmerican
OccupationNovelist
Years active1960s–2010

Sandor Robert Tralins (April 28, 1926 – May 20, 2010) was an American author of science fiction and pulp magazine fiction. He reportedly authored more than 250 books, including pornography,[1] and used numerous pseudonyms.[2]

Life

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Tralins attended Eastern College in Baltimore (later merged with the University of Baltimore).[3] He was a Marine Corps reservist during the mid-1940s.[3]

In 1966, Tralins sued the Federal Communications Commission, National Collegiate Athletic Association, and American Broadcasting Company, claiming that residents of the northern United States were being shown games of better-quality football teams than those in the south.[4]

Career

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Tralins' work The Sexual Fetish describes agalmatophilia ("statue-love") and frottage.[5] Kelso notes that Black Stud (1962), along with similar texts of the period that she traces to Mandingo (1957), "can perniciously reinforce hostile constructions of blacks", as they depict black people in a dehumanizing and hypersexualized manner.[6] In 1963, Tralins' work Pleasure Was My Business—a ghost-written account of the life and times of Rose Miller ("Madame Sherry"), a madam in Miami[7]—- was declared obscene by a Florida court.[8][9] The finding was later reversed by the Supreme Court, in a per curiam opinion.[10]

In 1964, Tralins and a neuropsychiatrist, Dr. Michael M. Gilbert, taught ten-lesson memory courses.[11]

In 1966, he wrote Strange Events Beyond Human Understanding, a collection of stories of the paranormal. Some of his stories were adapted for television in 1992 in CBS' Miracles And Other Wonders.[12] In 1997, Tralins' tales were adapted for the TV show Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction.[13]

References

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  1. ^ Meacham, Andrew (May 25, 2010). "Robert Tralins wrote banned and bordello books, as well as stories that inspired 'Beyond Belief'". Tampa Bay Times. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015 – via Wayback Machine.
  2. ^ The Writers Directory 1980–82. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 1979. p. 1248. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-03650-9. ISBN 978-1-349-03652-3. Archived from the original on September 23, 2020. Retrieved July 26, 2020. Also writes as Ray Z. Bixby, Norman A. King, Keith Miles, Sean O'Shea, Rex O'Toole, Leland Tracy, Richard Trainor, Ruy Traube, Cynthia Sydney, and Dorothy Verdon.
  3. ^ a b Tuck, Donald H., ed. (1978). "Tralins, (S.) Robert". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy through 1968. Vol. 2. Chicago: Advent:Publishers. p. 424.
  4. ^ "Author sues, claims football TV plot" (PDF). Broadcasting. Vol. 71, no. 19. November 7, 1966. p. 58. ProQuest document number 1014490231. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 6, 2020. Retrieved July 26, 2020.
  5. ^ Love, Brenda (2002). The Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices. London: Abacus. pp. 7, 119. ISBN 0-349-11535-4. OCLC 59462960.
  6. ^ Kelso, Sylvia (1997). ""Across Never": Postmodern Theory and Narrative Praxis in Samuel R. Delany's Neveryon Cycle". Science Fiction Studies. 24 (2): 289–301 at 296–297. ISSN 0091-7729. JSTOR 4240612.
  7. ^ Freedman, Warren (1965). Society on Trial: Current Court Decisions and Social Change. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas. p. 148. OCLC 974108628.
  8. ^ Tralins v. Gerstein, 151 So.2d 19 Archived September 23, 2020, at the Wayback Machine (1963) (Florida District Court of Appeal).
  9. ^ "Writer Sues on Book Ban". The Miami Herald. March 22, 1961. Archived from the original on July 26, 2020. Retrieved July 26, 2020.
  10. ^ Tralins v. Gerstein, 378 U.S. 576 Archived July 26, 2020, at the Wayback Machine (1964).
  11. ^ Wardlow, Jean (November 15, 1964). "Remember Madame Sherry's Ghost? You probably do, but for the wrong reason, says S. Robert Tralins, author turned memory-teacher". The Miami Herald. Archived from the original on July 26, 2020. Retrieved July 26, 2020.
  12. ^ Deggans, Eric (May 25, 1997). "Pinellas man's tales make their way to TV". Tampa Bay Times. Archived from the original on July 26, 2020. Retrieved July 26, 2020.
  13. ^ "S. Robert Tralins". Baltimore Sun. May 23, 2010. Archived from the original on July 26, 2020.
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