He is one of the first writers to include sexuality in science fiction: Who is Theodore Sturgeon?

Science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon is known to many as the author of Microcosmic God. This short story features a biochemist and tiny beings living in an accelerated manner inside an artificial shield. Sturgeon also wrote Slow Sculpture (1970, which won the Nebula and Hugo Awards), The World Well Lost (1953, which was one of the first science fiction stories to feature homosexuality), Some of Your Blood (1961, a vampire novel without supernatural elements), More Than Human ( He wrote other notable works, including 1953 (which won the World Fantasy Award) and Godbody (1985).

Godbody was one of his greatest works, published posthumously, dealing with the subjects of love and religion. Along with Isaac Asimov, Robert A Heinlein, and A E van Vogt, he is considered among the main writers of the period known as the "Golden Age" in science fiction. On the other hand, he is one of the first writers to include sexuality in science fiction.

Theodore Sturgeon (Edward Hamilton Waldo, February 26, 1918 – May 8, 1985) was an American fiction author of primarily fantasy, science fiction, and horror, as well as a critic. He wrote approximately 400 reviews and more than 120 short stories, 11 novels, and several scripts for Star Trek: The Original Series.

Many of his students and colleagues also remember Sturgeon for his trademark “Ask the next question” phrase (symbolized by a forward-pointing arrow and a capital “Q”). This motto emphasized Sturgeon's belief in the importance of people being fueled by genuine curiosity and a hunger for truth, not just individually but also collectively. For him, this passion was not just an expression of value, but also an urgent need. He also put forward the principle that "ninety percent of everything is nonsense" in his work Sturgeon's Revelation.

Theodore Sturgeon was born Edward Hamilton Waldo in 1918. He legally took his stepfather's surname when he was eleven. In his youth, he dreamed of becoming a circus acrobat. He was an excellent gymnast, but at the age of fifteen, he contracted rheumatic fever, the side effects of which ended his dream and caused him to direct his energies to writing. He ran away to join the military at the age of seventeen and wrote his first short story, Heavy Insurance, while he was in the military. According to Sturgeon, the story was an unrealized byproduct of a plan to “defraud an insurance company of several hundred thousand dollars.” Preferring common sense to criminal mastermind, he chose to write only about the perfect crime, and the resulting short story was published in 1938. Sturgeon's first science fiction work, The God in the Garden, met with readers in Unknown magazine the following year.

Although he was quite good at selling small articles and stories, Sturgeon's meager earnings per article allowed his to work as a door-to-door refrigerator salesman, a circus keeper, a resort hotel manager (in Jamaica), a bulldozer driver (in Puerto Rico), and a gas station operator. and relying on a number of different day jobs, such as operating a tractor lubrication center for the military. Later, more literary work included editing Tales of Tomorrow and Worlds of If, and as a book reviewer for the New York Times.

By the 1960s, Sturgeon could only make ends meet with the money he earned as a writer. During this period, he also began to dabble in television and wrote scripts for series such as The Invaders, The Land of the Lost, and The Wild, Wild West (starring Robert Conrad). He wrote six Star Trek episodes, although only two of them (“Shore Leave” and “Amok Time”) were aired. Author James Gunn turned the draft of the third episode titled "The Joy Machine" into a Star Trek novel. Over the years, a number of Sturgeon's other projects have been translated directly or through adaptation into mediums such as sound recordings, radio plays, comic books, and stage dramatizations. He also wrote adaptations such as The King and Four Queens (filmed with Clark Gable and Eleanor Parker), The Rare Breed (Jimmy Stewart and Maureen O'Hara), and the Disney classic Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

Although he published many books, he also suffered from writer's block from time to time. So much so that he once asked his friend and science fiction writer Robert A Heinlein to send him a story idea. Heinlein responded by sending 26 different drafts, two of which Sturgeon turned into the stories “The Other Man” and “And Now the News.” Other interesting facts about Sturgeon include that he plays the guitar and knows almost inexhaustible dirty songs, that he never graduated from high school, that his brother Peter Sturgeon is the co-founder of American Mensa, and that his book More Than Human has been published in more than twelve languages. It is also said that Kurt Vonnegut based the character Kilgore Trout on Sturgeon.

Theodore Sturgeon died of pneumonia in 1985 after struggling with lung problems for a decade. He was married five times and had seven children. His books, manuscripts, and documents were stored at the University of Kansas. He received the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1985 and was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2000.