Alexei Panshin

Alexei Panshin (born August 14, 1940) is an American writer and science fiction (SF) critic. He has written several critical works and several novels, including the 1968 Nebula Award-winning novel Rite of Passage and the 1990 Hugo Award-winning study of science fiction The World Beyond the Hill (written with his wife, Cory Panshin).

Alexis Adams Panshin was born in Lansing, Michigan.

Panshin is also noted for the cult favorite Anthony Villiers series, which consists of three books: Star Well, The Thurb Revolution, and Masque World. The fourth volume of the series, The Universal Pantograph, never appeared, reputedly because of conflicts between the writer and his publisher. Of the Villiers series, noted SF writer Samuel R. Delany writes in the foreword of Star Well:

It ... examines the proposition that the world is composed of small communities of mutual interest ... [Star Well] is a gallery of gamblers, duels and double-crosses, a minuet of manners and manners mangled; the machinery of the universe is speculated upon; inspector generals arrive to inspect it. And Anthony Villiers, gentleman par excellence, dashes through it all, buckling a swash or two, bungling a couple of others."

Panshin published a study of SF legend Robert A. Heinlein, Heinlein In Dimension. He also co-wrote Earth Magic with wife Cory Panshin. His general critical work SF in Dimension (1976) was also co-written with Cory Panshin, as was the lengthy theoretical-critical book, The World Beyond The Hill (1989). His works also include a short story collection, Farewell To Yesterday's Tomorrow.

Heinlein In Dimension first brought Panshin to wide public notice. Robert A. Heinlein objected strongly to it, and attempted to stop its publication, which Heinlein had legal standing to do, because Panshin had used personal letters without permission. He wrote the prospective publisher and reserved his right to seek legal redress if appropriate. As a result, sections were published in fanzines in 1966, for which Panshin won the Best Fan Writer Hugo award in 1967. This in turn helped the book achieve professional publication. Opinions are divided on the propriety of Panshin's research techniques and of Heinlein's response. Spider Robinson and Sam Moskowitz have strongly criticized both. Panshin's own views on the matter, along with some views by others, can be found on his website The Abyss of Wonder.

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