Mark Clifton

Mark Clifton (1906 - 1963) was an American science fiction writer. About half of his work falls into two series: the "Bossy" series, about a computer with artificial intelligence, was written either alone or in collaboration with Alex Apostolides or Frank Riley; and the "Ralph Kennedy" series, which is more comical, and was written mostly solo, including the novel "When They Come From Space", although there was one collaboration with Apostolides.... more

Mark Clifton (1906 - 1963) was an American science fiction writer. About half of his work falls into two series: the "Bossy" series, about a computer with artificial intelligence, was written either alone or in collaboration with Alex Apostolides or Frank Riley; and the "Ralph Kennedy" series, which is more comical, and was written mostly solo, including the novel "When They Come From Space", although there was one collaboration with Apostolides. Clifton gained his greatest success with his novel They'd Rather Be Right (a.k.a. The Forever Machine), co-written with Riley, which was serialized in Astounding during 1954, and which was awarded the Hugo Award, perhaps the most contentious novel ever to win the award. Clifton began publishing during May of 1952 with the widely anthologized story "What Have I Done?". Clifton's other most popular short story is "Star, Bright", the first of three appearances in Horace Gold's Galaxy (July 1952), about a super-intelligent toddler with psi... less