Updated: July 1, 2014.
Longtime pulp fictioneer, collector and fan Frank M. Robinson died Monday, June 30, 2014. He was 87.
According to his website bio, Robinson started collecting pulps when he was 16, in 1942, including a number of Weird Tales and Wonder Stories. Soon after, he was working as an office boy at Ziff-Davis in Chicago, publisher of Amazing Stories.
He had stories published in Astounding, Amazing Stories, Beyond Fantasy Fiction and Fantastic, among others. His novel, “The Glass Inferno, written with Thomas N. Scortia, was one of two books that formed the basis for the hit movie “Towering Inferno” in 1968.
With Lawrence Davidson, Robinson produced “Pulp Culture,” an overview of the pulps featuring hundreds of color images, in 1998. He collaborated with Robert Weinberg and Randy Broecker on “Art of Imagination,” a 2002 book examining art in science fiction, fantasy and horror publications.
He was given the Lamont Award at Pulpcon 29 in 2000 for his contributions to pulp fandom.
In 2012, Adventure House auctioned off Robinson’s pulp collection of more than 10,000 items.
LOCUS ONLINE: Locus magazine posted an obituary for Robinson on Monday.
MYSTERY*FILE: As part of his “Collecting Pulps” series of posts, Walker Martin has a fine remembrance of Robinson at the Mystery*File blog.
I own a copy of “Pulp Culture”, the book on pulp cover art that Robinson co-wrote with Lawrence Davidson. And Robinson’s novel “The Power” became the movie of the same name, produced by George Pal and directed by Byron Haskin. The film also boasted an eerie score for cimbalom and orchestra by the great Miklos Rozsa (his last for MGM).