I awoke this morning to the sad news that the dean of science fiction, Jack Williamson, had passed away at his home in Portales, New Mexico. Jack Williamson had a remarkable career in science fiction. He published his first story, “The Metal Man”, in 1928 and has continued to publish stories and novels in every decade since then. His last novel, The Stonehenge Gate was serialized in ANALOG in 2005. He was already a well established writer when 18 year old Isaac Asimov published his first story. The last thing I read by Jack Williamson was his novel Terraforming Earth.

There are not very many old-timers remaining and it is always sad to see them go.