Fletcher Pratt
| Fletcher Pratt | |
|---|---|
Fletcher Pratt, as pictured in the June 1929 issue of Science Wonder Stories
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| Born |
April 25, 1897 Buffalo, New York |
| Died | June 10, 1956 (aged 59) Long Branch, New Jersey, US |
| Pen name | Irvin Lester , George U. Fletcher |
| Occupation | Novelist, historian |
| Nationality | American |
| Genre | Science fiction, fantasy, history |
Murray Fletcher Pratt (1897–1956) was an American writer of science fiction, fantasy and history. He is best known for his works on naval history and on the American Civil War and for fiction written with L. Sprague de Camp.
According to de Camp, Pratt was born near Tonawanda, New York, and attended Hobart College for one year. During the 1920s he worked for the Buffalo Courier-Express and for a Staten Island newspaper. In 1926, he married Inga Stephens, an artist. In the late 1920s he began selling stories to pulp magazines. Again, according to de Camp's memoir, when a fire gutted his apartment in the 1930s he used the insurance money to study at the Sorbonne for a year. After that he began writing histories.
Pratt was a military analyst for Time magazine (whose obituary described him as "bearded, gnome-like" and listed "raising marmosets" among his hobbies), as well as a regular reviewer of historical nonfiction and fantasy and science fiction for the New York Times Book Review.
Wargamers know Pratt as the inventor of a set of rules for naval wargaming before the Second World War. This was known as the "The Fletcher Pratt Naval War Game" and involved dozens of tiny wooden ships, built on a scale of one inch to 50 feet. These were spread over the floor of Pratt's apartment and their maneuvers were calculated via a complex mathematical formula. Noted author and artist Jack Coggins was a frequent participant in Pratt's Navy Game, and de Camp met him through his wargaming group.
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