Do you remember the 1974 Hollywood blockbuster, The Towering Inferno? The movie starred Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Fred Astaire, Susan Blakely, Robert Vaughn, Robert Wagner and Richard Chamberlain. So what does that have to do with the author of our lost sci-fi short story? Well, after writing sci-fi for more than two decades Frank M. Robinson switched gears and started writing disaster novels with a partner. And one of those novels “The Glass Inferno” was used to create the Hollywood movie with a budget of $14 million that did more than $200 million at the box office. Robinson received a hefty payday.

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Born in Chicago, Illinois on August 9th, 1926 it’s been said that Robinson was the son of a check forger. In his teens he was a copy boy for International News Service and then became an office boy for Ziff-Davis publishing, which published the sci-fi magazine Amazing Stories and later added Fantastic Adventures. 

Robinson attended Beloit College and earned a master’s degree in journalism at Northwestern University. He served two tours of duty in the U.S. Navy as a radar technician during World War II and the Korean War.

His career as a science fiction writer started in 1950 and with 10 stories published in 1951 his career took off.

From the pages of Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy in June 1955, WANTED: One Sane Man by Frank M. Robison...

Robinson wrote 11 novels starting with The Power in 1956 and ending in 2004 with the release of The Donor. He passed away on June 30th, 2014 at the age of 87.

Next week on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, Ed Morris didn’t know what sales technique was until the fasrad invaded his life…There are pushy salesmen and then there are PUSHY salesmen who refuse to give up… until they make the sale!Another vintage science fiction short story from legendary author Philip K. Dick. That’s next week on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.

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