George Alec Effinger

George Alec Effinger wrote nine novels, including thrillers and mysteries, and six short-story collections. He enjoyed sucess with his first novel, What Entropy Means to Me in 1972 and with a series of "Cyberpunk" novels in the 1980's, including, When Gravity Fails." "Schrodinger's Kitten" won the Nebula prize in 1988 and the Hugo Award in 1989 for best novelette. Mr. Effinger was born in Cleveland and grew up poor. He earned a scholarship to Yale, where he went in the 1960's intending to become a doctor. He dropped out twice and never received a degree. He moved to the East Village of New York and met the science fiction writer Damen Knight, who became his mentor. He began publishing stories in magazines, then had a hit with his first book. he had a knack for picking up a variety of styles and making them his own, said Harlan Ellison, a science fiction author and firend of Mr. Effinger. "George was a genre into himself," Mr. Ellison said. "They called him a fabulist, but he could write the New Wave or he could write pure fantasy or mystery." Mr. Effinger was perhaps best known for a series of stories featuring Maureen Birnbaum, a shopping-crazy teenager dropped into settings and situations that parodied science fiction. The Stories were collected in 1993 in "Maureen Birnbaum, Barbarian Swordsperson."