Fredric Brown

His first science fiction story, "Not Yet the End" was published in Captain Future in 1941. Many of the stories which followed are short, practically extended jokes rather than actual stories. Nevertheless, Brown wrote with an engaging style.

Humor carried over into his novels as well. His science fiction novel What Mad Universe (1949) plays with the clichéd conventions of the genre by throwing a pulp magazine editor into a parallel world based, not on the adventure stories he published, but rather on a child's image of those stories and the man who published them. Similarly, Martians, Go Home (1955) looks at a Martian invasion through the eyes of a science fiction author.

One of his most famous short stories, "Arena" was used as the basis for a popular episode of Star Trek.

His work includes:

WHAT MAD UNIVERSE (1946)

THE FABULOUS CLIPJOINT (1947), Edgar winner for best first novel

THE SCREAMING MIMI (1949)

NIGHT OF THE JABBERWOCK (1950)

SPACE ON MY HANDS (1953)

MARTIANS, GO HOME (1955)

THE LENIENT BEAST (1956)

KNOCK THREE-ONE-TWO (1959)