Andrew J. Offutt
| Andrew J. Offutt | |
|---|---|
| Born |
August 16, 1934 Kentucky |
| Died | April 30, 2013 (aged 78) Kentucky, U.S. |
| Occupation | Writer, editor |
| Nationality | American |
| Genre | Science fiction, fantasy |
Andrew Jefferson Offutt (August 16, 1934 – April 30, 2013) was an American science fiction and fantasy author. He wrote as Andrew J. Offutt, A. J. Offutt, and Andy Offutt. His normal byline, andrew j. offutt, has all his name in lower-case letters. He also wrote erotica under seventeen different pseudonyms, principally John Cleve, John Denis, Jeff Morehead, and Turk Winter. He is the father of novelist Chris Offutt and professor Jeff Offutt.
The Sword of Skelos (1979), one of Offutt's contributions to the Conan The Barbarian saga, included a short, facetious biographical note: "Andrew J. Offutt is the recently "tired and re-tired", as he puts it, president of the Science Fiction Writers of America. He loves heroic fantasy though at 6' 1" he is built for speed, not combat. Kentuckian Offutt has a number of other books in and out of print, and has been a helpless fan of Robert E. Howard since birth. Now he calls himself the Steve Garvey among writers; "Surely it's every boy's dream to grow up—but not too much—and get to write about Conan". Offutt researches with gusto, both in and out of books, having—briefly and painfully, he says—worn chainmail and helm and wielded sword. He is also tired of aged, bald, ugly, sexless mages and squeaky females in heroic fantasy."
Offutt was born in a log cabin in rural Kentucky. He was married for more than 50 years to Jodie McCabe Offutt of Lexington, Kentucky. They had four children: writer Chris Offutt; Jeff Offutt, Professor of Software Engineering at George Mason University; Scotty Hyde, copy editor for the Park City Daily News in Bowling Green, Kentucky; and Melissa Offutt, a sales executive for Sprint in San Diego. Offutt also had five grandchildren, Sam, Steffi, James, Joyce, and Andrew.
Offutt began publishing in 1954 with the story "And Gone Tomorrow" in the magazine If. Despite this early sale, he did not consider his professional life to have begun until he sold the story "Blacksword" to Galaxy in 1959. His first true science fiction novel was Evil Is Live Spelled Backwards in 1970. Offutt disliked the title of this book, calling it "embarrassingly amateur".
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