Fredric Brown, who died way back in 1972 and is long out of print, was a science fiction pioneer and more importantly a major influence on other writers, myself included. In fact, no book has had a greater impact on me than WHAT MAD UNIVERSE (1949) when it comes to writing exciting pulp fiction. It's about a man named Keith Winton
trapped in an alternate universe where the world of the pulp science fiction magazine stories he edits are literally true. And space travel is accidentally discovered during a freak sewing machine mishap. No joke. (Want a copy? Check out Ebay. Really, it's great.)
And it's not just me. Brown was a major influence on the much more famous Phillip K. Dick, but where I find Dick almost unreadable, Brown's novels are light, breezy, fun page-turners full of mind bending ideas. Brown was also a dedicatee in Robert A. Heinlein's STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND.
Sci-Fi not your thing? Brown also wrote detective novels and crime stories with equal aplomb. I truly hope this writer will someday be back in print and receive the recognition he deserves.
Fredric Brown's Wikipedia Page
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