Wilson, Richard (1920–1987)

Richard Wilson began selling science fiction stories
during the 1940s, usually under one pseudonym or
another, but it was not until the 1950s that he
began producing the high-quality, satirically humorous stories that would be typical of the rest of
his career. Most of his early work ages quite well,
and stories such as “Press Conference” (1954) and
“The Voice of the Diaphragm” (1958) are still
quite effective. An atypically serious story, “Love”
(1952), is set on a Mars we now know to be impossible; yet the story remains a savage indictment of
intolerance.
Two of Wilson’s novels are humorous interpretations of the invasion-of-Earth story.
The Girls
from Planet 5
(1955) is set in a future America
where women are the dominant sex, except in a
rigidly chauvinistic Texas. Both societies are wonderfully exaggerated, and the amusement is compounded by the arrival of emissaries from an alien
civilization, who are themselves exceedingly alluring females.
30 Day Wonder (1960) describes an
Earth flooded with alien creatures who obey every
human law quite literally, compelling all humans
to do so as well, with results that are very funny
and that also cleverly indict our propensity for not
saying what we mean and not meaning what we
say.
And Then the Town Took Off (1960) describes
the consequences when a precocious inventor encases his town in a force field and separates it from
Earth to make it an independent nation.

Most of Wilson’s better early stories can be
found in
Those Idiots from Earth (1957) and Time
Out for Tomorrow
(1962). During the late 1960s he
appeared with some regularity and produced some
of his best work, including “Mother to the World”
(1968), which won a Nebula, “A Man Spekith”
(1969), and “The Day They Had the War” (1971).
With the exception of a small-press edition,
The
Kid from Ozone Park and Other Stories
(1987), no
collections of his later short fiction have been published. With several publishers actively involved in
reprinting the work of overlooked authors, it seems
unlikely that this state of affairs will persist, but at
present Wilson’s fiction is very difficult to find, despite the high regard in which it is held.

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