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| William Nolan | |
Author William F. Nolan, who was best known for the Logan's Run series of science fiction novels, the first of which was adapted into a film and TV series, died July 15. He was 93. Locus reported that Nolan worked as a writer and designer of greeting cards for Hallmark, a painter of murals, an aircraft assistant and at various other jobs in the '40s and '50s. In 1956, he became a freelance writer. In addition to his fiction and TV writing, Nolan was an editor for and contributor to auto and racing magazines, and a book reviewer.
In the 1950s, he helped found the San Diego Science Fantasy Society, contributing substantially to the fanzine Rhodomagnetic Digest, publishing and editing the Ray Bradbury Review, "working with 'The Group,' a coterie of up-and-coming young writers which included Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, John Tomerlin, George Clayton Johnson and others, and later served as managing editor of the first three issues of Gamma (1963-1964)," Locus noted. Nolan published short fiction and criticism frequently throughout his career under his own name and multiple pseudonyms.
His first novel was Logan's Run (1967, with George Clayton Johnson), which became a Nebula Award-nominated film in 1976 and later a TV series. Nolan wrote several sequels, including Logan's World (1977), Logan's Search (1980) and the novella Logan's Return (2001).
Nolan's Sam Space series was an SF/hardboiled homage to Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade, and included the Edgar Award winner Space for Hire (1971). He also wrote horror and paranormal works, as well as numerous crime and mystery titles, among them one "Nolan considered his best novel, The Marble Orchard (1996)," Locus noted. He was a prolific anthologist, editing numerous reprint volumes and some originals, along with nonfiction books about authors and writing.
His many awards include a Living Legend Award from the International Horror Guild (2002), a SFWA Author Emeritus Award (2006), the HWA Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement (2010), and a Special Convention Award from the World Fantasy convention (2013). He was named a World Horror Grandmaster in 2015.