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Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Authors

Harry Bates

Added By: gallyangel
Last Updated: gallyangel


Harry Bates

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Full Name: Hiram Gilmore Bates
Born: October 9, 1900
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Died: September 1, 1981
New York, New York, USA
Occupation: Writer, Editor
Nationality: American
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Biography

Harry Bates was born Hiram Gilmore Bates III on October 9, 1900 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He began working for William Clayton in the 1920s as the editor of adventure pulp magazines. When Clayton proposed a period adventure magazine, Bates suggested several alternatives that he said would be easier to edit, and Astounding Science Fiction was the result. Bates, who was not a fan of science fiction, edited the magazine from its inception in January 1930 until March 1933, when Clayton went bankrupt and the magazine was sold to Street and Smith. During that time, he edited other magazines for Clayton, including Strange Tales, intended to compete with Weird Tales.

Using the pseudonyms Anthony Gilmore and H.G. Winter, Bates and his assistant editor Desmond Winter Hall collaborated on the "Hawk Carse" series and other stories. In 1952, the Hawk Carse stories were collected in Space Hawk: The Greatest of Interplanetary Adventurers. Bates's most famous story is "Farewell to the Master" (Astounding, October 1940), which was the basis for the well-known science fiction movie of 1951, The Day the Earth Stood Still, as well as the 2008 remake and the 1973 Marvel Comics Worlds Unknown series adaptation.

Two novellas by Bates appeared in Gernsback's Science-Fiction Plus, edited by Sam Moskowitz. "The Death of a Sensitive" (May, 1953) was ranked by Moskowitz as the best story he ever published in the magazine. Both Gernsback and Moskowitz, however, wanted changes in "The Triggered Dimension" (December 1953). Bates agreed to make the changes and arrived at the magazine's offices at 25 West Broadway to do the revisions.


Works in the WWEnd Database

 Non Series Works

 (1940)