Harry Harrison dies
March 12, 1925 - August 15, 2012

Born Henry Maxwell Dempsey in Stanford, CT, Harry Harrison was a major sf writer for nearly 5 decades, from the 1960s on till the 2000s. 

His books were a major part of my reading during that time, starting with The Stainless Steel Rat series and the Deathworld series of the 60s and 70s; the Eden series of the 1980s; The Hammer and the Cross series of the 1990s, and the Stars and Stripes Forever series of the 2000s.

And a bunch of singleton novels, stories, and Harrison-edited anthologies all along the way.

Even during the height of the New Wave movement, Harrison never adopted the stylized prose styles then much in vogue, preferring to stick to comparatively straightforward narratives. His writing was deceptively simple at first glance, but as one continued to read a given Harrison novel or short story, it gradually became qite clear that he knew how to plot, and how to keep a story rolling along.

Harrison was a prolific author, and not every one of his novels or stories were gems. But plenty of them were, more than enough to justify him as one of the best sf authors of his time.