Poul Anderson was born on November 25, 1926, in Bristol, Pennsylva-nia, to Anton William Anderson and

Astrid (nee Hertz) Anderson. In 1953, he married Karen Kruse, and they have a daughter. In 1947, while still a college student, Anderson had his first story published. When he graduated in 1948 with a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Minnesota, he devoted himself to writing. By 1951 he was publishing several stories a year, and in 1952, his first book, Vault of the Ages, a novel for young adults, appeared. By the end of the 1950s, Anderson was a well-established author whose works included mysteries, historical novels, and nonfiction articles, as well as science fiction. From the 1950s on, he has remained an industrious writer, publishing scores of articles, hundreds of stories, and about thirty novels.

In recent years, Anderson's productivity has dropped, continuing a trend begun in the mid-1970s...