Theodore R. Cogswell

Theodore R Cogswell was an American science fiction author, poet, and university professor. His first published short story, "The Spectre General" in the magazine Astounding (June 1952), was a humorous tale in which a long-forgotten maintenance brigade of the Imperial Space Marines holds the promise of reinvigorating a declining Galactic empire. Cogswell wrote nearly 40 science fiction stories, most in the same lighthearted vein as his first, and was co-author of a novel in the Star Trek franchise. He credited Poul Anderson and Gordon Dickson with encouraging him to write. Cogswell was also the editor of the long-running "fanzine for pros", Proceedings of the Institute for Twenty-First Century Studies (PITFCS), a collection of which was published in 1993. In this, writers and editors discussed their and each other's works. He was SFWA secretary during 1974-1975, and Guest of Honor at SECon I in 1955. During the Spanish Civil War, he served as an ambulance driver on the Republican side in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, and later served in the U. S. Army Air Force (1942-1946) in India, Burma, and China. He taught at several colleges and universities, including The University of Minnesota.