Background
Horace Gold was born on April 26, 1914 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He was Jewish, and there are claims that he at first had to write under pseudonyms because publishers feared the readers' potential antisemitism.
(Perhaps best known for editing the popular post–World War...)
Perhaps best known for editing the popular post–World War II magazines Galaxy Science Fiction and Beyond Fantasy Fiction, Horace L. Gold also wrote comic-book scripts for DC Comics and penned numerous pulp adventures and science-fiction stories. Perfect Murders, a collection of seven of these stories, captures the timeless emotions evoked by pulp and science fiction for the twenty-first century. Though the main character is always called Gilroy, his identity shifts from story to story: the horserace handicapper fighting for his dame, the private eye sussing out the murderer, or the hard-boiled journalist exposing the mad scientist. And though Gold uses the traditional genres—time travel, Armageddon, science gone awry, murder, extraterrestrials—Perfect Murders is nothing less than a horrific, page-turning, fictional thrill ride engineered by one of the leading science-fiction writers and editors of the mid-twentieth century.
(This dark fantasy novel was serialized in 1939 but never ...)
This dark fantasy novel was serialized in 1939 but never before published in book form. It tells the Faust legend with a twist, set in Depression-era New York City. This dark fantasy novel was serialized in 1939 but never before published in book form. It tells the Faust legend with a twist, set in Depression-era New York City. This dark fantasy novel was serialized in 1939 but never before published in book form. It tells the Faust legend with a twist, set in Depression-era New York City.
Horace Gold was born on April 26, 1914 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He was Jewish, and there are claims that he at first had to write under pseudonyms because publishers feared the readers' potential antisemitism.
Unfortunately, nothing is known about Horace Gold's education.
Horace Gold was known for both his editing and writing of science fiction. A long-time resident of New York, Gold was born in Canada and retained his dual citizenship. He made a name for himself in the world of New York publishing, first as a fantasy writer for "Astounding", then as an editorial assistant to Mort Weisinger on the magazines Captain Future, Startling Stories, and Thrilling Wonder Stories, and finally, as editor and publisher of his own magazine, Galaxy.
Gold began his career in the mid-1930s as a writer for Astounding Stories, the flagship science fiction publisher at the time. Run by John W. Campbell, Jr., Astounding paid the highest author rates, boasted the largest circulation, and benefited from its parent publisher, which was “the largest, wealthiest, and most influential” house from 1930 to 1950, according to Twentieth-Century Science Fiction Writers essayist Richard A. Lupoff. All of these factors make Gold’s first sale, a short story titled “Inflexure”, to Astounding in 1934 all the more impressive.
Because of the anti-Semitism of the editors working under Campbell, Gold was required to publish his early short stories under the pseudonyms Clyde Crane Campbell and Leigh Keith. He later wrote under his own name, shortening his byline to H.L. Gold, even though he expressed a preference for the longer “Horace L.” With his career quickly established and name recognition achieved, Gold continued to use his initials professionally when he switched to editorial work. In 1950 Gold founded his own magazine. Galaxy Science Fiction, an event which served to break Astounding's monopoly of the science fiction market.
Gold ran his magazine out of his New York apartment and conducted the bulk of his business over the telephone. The reason he worked in such reclusive quarters, according to a critic in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, was because of his acute agoraphobia, a condition he developed during his wartime service. Under Gold’s editorial stewardship, Galaxy published pieces that “placed heavy emphasis on social satire, combining relevance of theme with reverence of outlook,” according to Lupoff. Writers such as Frederik Pohl, C. M. Kornbluth, Charles Simak, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein and others, found Galaxy to be an appropriate venue for their work, resulting in what Lupoff considers “a magnificent flowering” of hitherto untapped writing talent.
While Gold made many brilliant editorial suggestions that his contributors developed in their now-famous pieces, he was also criticized for the heavy-handed editing, which, as publisher and editor, was his prerogative. "What Will They Think of Last?" is a collection of Gold’s editorials during his tenure at Galaxy. On the occasion of Gold’s serving as guest of honor at the Westercon in Los Angeles, five hundred copies of this book were reprinted by the Institute for the Development of the Harmonious Human Being, a Sufi imprint owned and operated by the author/editor’s son, Eugene J. Gold.
Reflecting on his career. Gold once remarked in Twentieth-Century Science Fiction Writers: “I would like very much to be rediscovered as a science fiction and fantasy author (including work since 1955), but I’m overshadowed as editor.” Lupoff considered Gold’s writing to be “of limited quality and impact.” His only full-length novel, "None but Lucifer", which he co-wrote with L. Sprague de Camp for serialization in Unknown magazine in 1939, has never been published in book form.
His short stories, in contrast, are more highly thought of. "The Old Die Rich", a collection of twelve stories of which “Trouble with Water" is the most famous, reflect Gold’s “considerable, often acid, wit,” according to Lupoff. In this edition, the author provides a page of illuminating notes on each story that explain Gold’s original idea, the technical difficulties that arose, and his personal stylistic approach to each separate story.
Gold left both the publishing business and the East Coast, moving to California for health reasons and to be near his son. However, he is remembered as “a brilliant fantasy writer” during the golden age of science fiction and fantasy during the 1930s and 1940s, and an “equally brilliant magazine editor (Galaxy) in the fifties,” according to Fantasy Review critic Jack L. Chalker. He died in 1996.
Perfect Murders (Bison Frontiers of Imagination)
(Perhaps best known for editing the popular post–World War...)
None But Lucifer (Gateways Retro Science Fiction)
(This dark fantasy novel was serialized in 1939 but never ...)
How to Write Great Science Fiction: Working Journal and Best-Known Classics
2008Quotations: "Amazing Stories had been out for a year then, but it was Wells' War of the Worlds, sitting innocently on a Providence library shelf, that I found first. The personal impact was that of an explosive harpoon, and when I belatedly discovered those beautifully garish Paul covers, decorated with heroically paralyzed men in jodhpurs and simperingly paralyzed women in blowy veils, among giant insects and plants with leering heads, I was hooked."
He suffered from increasing agoraphobia (originating from war trauma).
Horace's marriage to Evelyn Stein ended in divorce in 1957, and his second marriage was to Muriel "Nicky" (Nicholson) Conley. His son E. J. Gold is an artist, writer, musician and one of the oldest online gamers.
