William Tenn

William Tenn was the pseudonym of Philip Klass (1920 - 2010), a British-born American science fiction author, notable for many stories with satirical elements. Klass published academic articles, essays, two novels and more than 60 short stories. He began writing while working at Bell Labs and his radar lab experience prompted his first story, "Alexander the Bait," about a radar beam aimed at the moon. It was published in Astounding Science Fiction (May 1946) and within months a Signal Corps lab...See more

William Tenn was the pseudonym of Philip Klass (1920 - 2010), a British-born American science fiction author, notable for many stories with satirical elements. Klass published academic articles, essays, two novels and more than 60 short stories. He began writing while working at Bell Labs and his radar lab experience prompted his first story, "Alexander the Bait," about a radar beam aimed at the moon. It was published in Astounding Science Fiction (May 1946) and within months a Signal Corps lab bounced a radar beam off the moon, making his story obsolete. He commented, "It was a bad story, just good enough to be published. Others in the same magazine were much better, so I really worked hard on my second one. I did as well as I knew how." See less