Henry Kuttner worked alone and in collaboration with his wife, the great science fiction and fantasy writer C.L. Moore, one of the four or five most important writers of the 1940's, the writer whose work went furthest in its sociological and psychological insight, to making science fiction a human as well as technological literature. He was an important influence upon every contemporary and every science fiction writer who succeeded him. In the early 1940's and under many pseudonyms, Kuttner and Moore published very widely through the range of the science fiction and fantasy pulp markets.
Their fantasy novels, all of them for the lower grade markets like Future, Thrilling Wonder, Planet Stories, are forgotten now; their science fiction novels, Fury and Mutant are however well regarded. There is no question but that Kuttner's talent lay primarily in the shorter form; Mutant is an amalgamation of five novelettes and Fury, his only true science fiction novel, is considered as secondary material. Three are, however, 40 or 50 shorter works which are among the most significant achievements in the field and they remain consistently in print. The critic James Blish, quoting a passage from Mutant about the telepathic perception of the little blank, silvery minds of goldfish, noted that writing of this quality was not only rare in science fiction but rare throughout literature; "The Kuttners learned a few thing writing for the pulp magazines, however, that one doesn't learn reading Henry James."
In the early 1950's, Kuttner and Moore, both citing weariness with writing, even creative exhaustion, turned away from science fiction; both obtained undergraduate degrees in psychology from the University of Southern California and Henry Kuttner, enrolled in an MA program, planned to be a clinical psychologist. A few science fiction short stories and novelettes appeared (Humpty Dumpty, finished the Baldy series, in 1953.) Those stories -- Home There Is No Returning, Home Is the Hunter, Two-Handed Engine and Rite of Passage -- were at the highest level of Kuttner's work. He also published three mystery novels with Harper & Row (of which only the first is certainly his; the other two, apparently, were farmed out by Kuttner to other writers when he found himself incapable of finishing them).
Henry Kuttner died suddenly in his sleep, probably from a stroke, in February 1958; Catherine Moore remarried a physician and survived him by almost three decades but she never published again. She remained in touch with the science fiction community, however, and was Guest of Honor at the World Convention in Denver in 198l. She died of complications of Alzheimer's Disease in 1987.
Their fantasy novels, all of them for the lower grade markets like Future, Thrilling Wonder, Planet Stories, are forgotten now; their science fiction novels, Fury and Mutant are however well regarded. There is no question but that Kuttner's talent lay primarily in the shorter form; Mutant is an amalgamation of five novelettes and Fury, his only true science fiction novel, is considered as secondary material. Three are, however, 40 or 50 shorter works which are among the most significant achievements in the field and they remain consistently in print. The critic James Blish, quoting a passage from Mutant about the telepathic perception of the little blank, silvery minds of goldfish, noted that writing of this quality was not only rare in science fiction but rare throughout literature; "The Kuttners learned a few thing writing for the pulp magazines, however, that one doesn't learn reading Henry James."
In the early 1950's, Kuttner and Moore, both citing weariness with writing, even creative exhaustion, turned away from science fiction; both obtained undergraduate degrees in psychology from the University of Southern California and Henry Kuttner, enrolled in an MA program, planned to be a clinical psychologist. A few science fiction short stories and novelettes appeared (Humpty Dumpty, finished the Baldy series, in 1953.) Those stories -- Home There Is No Returning, Home Is the Hunter, Two-Handed Engine and Rite of Passage -- were at the highest level of Kuttner's work. He also published three mystery novels with Harper & Row (of which only the first is certainly his; the other two, apparently, were farmed out by Kuttner to other writers when he found himself incapable of finishing them).
Henry Kuttner died suddenly in his sleep, probably from a stroke, in February 1958; Catherine Moore remarried a physician and survived him by almost three decades but she never published again. She remained in touch with the science fiction community, however, and was Guest of Honor at the World Convention in Denver in 198l. She died of complications of Alzheimer's Disease in 1987.
Genres: Science Fiction, Mystery, Fantasy
Series
Dr. Michael Gray
The Murder of Ann Avery (1956)
aka Masked for Murder
The Murder of Eleanor Pope (1956)
Murder of a Mistress (1957)
Murder of a Wife (1958)
The Murder of Ann Avery (1956)
aka Masked for Murder
The Murder of Eleanor Pope (1956)
Murder of a Mistress (1957)
Murder of a Wife (1958)
Novels
The Creature from Beyond Infinity (1940)
Earth's Last Citadel (1943) (with C L Moore)
The Dark World (1946)
Valley of the Flame (1946) (as by Keith Hammond)
Fury (1947)
The Mask of Circe (1948) (with C L Moore)
The Time Axis (1948)
Man Drowning (1953)
The Well of the Worlds (1953)
Destination: Infinity (1956)
Elak of Atlantis (1985)
Prince Raynor (1987)
Earth's Last Citadel (1943) (with C L Moore)
The Dark World (1946)
Valley of the Flame (1946) (as by Keith Hammond)
Fury (1947)
The Mask of Circe (1948) (with C L Moore)
The Time Axis (1948)
Man Drowning (1953)
The Well of the Worlds (1953)
Destination: Infinity (1956)
Elak of Atlantis (1985)
Prince Raynor (1987)
Collections
The Proud Robot (1952)
Robots Have No Tails (1952)
Ahead of Time (1953)
No Boundaries (1955) (with C L Moore)
Bypass to Otherness (1961)
Return to Otherness (1962)
The Best of Kuttner (1965)
The Best of Kuttner 2 (1966)
The Best of Henry Kuttner (1975)
Clash by Night (1980)
Chessboard Planet and Other Stories (1984) (with C L Moore)
The Startling Worlds of Henry Kuttner (1986)
Kuttner Times Three (1988)
Secret of the Earth Star (1991)
Mountain Magic (2004) (with others)
Mimzy and Other Stories (2007)
Thunder Jim Wade (2008)
Don't Look Now and Two Others (2009)
Detour to Otherness (2010) (with C L Moore)
The Michael Gray Mysteries (2015) (with Catherine L Moore)
The Fantasy Super Pack 2 (2018) (with others)
Robots Have No Tails (1952)
Ahead of Time (1953)
No Boundaries (1955) (with C L Moore)
Bypass to Otherness (1961)
Return to Otherness (1962)
The Best of Kuttner (1965)
The Best of Kuttner 2 (1966)
The Best of Henry Kuttner (1975)
Clash by Night (1980)
Chessboard Planet and Other Stories (1984) (with C L Moore)
The Startling Worlds of Henry Kuttner (1986)
Kuttner Times Three (1988)
Secret of the Earth Star (1991)
Mountain Magic (2004) (with others)
Mimzy and Other Stories (2007)
Thunder Jim Wade (2008)
Don't Look Now and Two Others (2009)
Detour to Otherness (2010) (with C L Moore)
The Michael Gray Mysteries (2015) (with Catherine L Moore)
The Fantasy Super Pack 2 (2018) (with others)
Novellas and Short Stories
The Graveyard Rats (1936)
I, the Vampire (1937)
The Jest of Droom-Avista (1937)
Raider of the Spaceways (1937)
We Are the Dead (1937)
Avengers of Space (1938)
The Shadow on the Screen (1938)
The Spawn of Dagon (1938)
Thunder in the Dawn (1938)
Towers of Death (1939)
Beauty and the Beast (1940)
Dr. Cyclops (1940)
The Mad Virus (1940)
Chameleon Man (1941)
Dragon Moon (1941)
The Crystal Circe (1942)
Crypt-City of the Deathless One (1943)
Endowment Policy (1943) (with C L Moore)
The Eyes of Thar (1944)
Sword of Tomorrow (1945)
Absalom (1946) (with C L Moore)
Call Him Demon (1946) (as by Keith Hammond)
What Hath Me? (1946)
Don't Look Now (1948)
Ex Machina (1948)
Carry Me Home (1950)
The Ego Machine (1951)
Tomorrow and Tomorrow (1951)
I, the Vampire (1937)
The Jest of Droom-Avista (1937)
Raider of the Spaceways (1937)
We Are the Dead (1937)
Avengers of Space (1938)
The Shadow on the Screen (1938)
The Spawn of Dagon (1938)
Thunder in the Dawn (1938)
Towers of Death (1939)
Beauty and the Beast (1940)
Dr. Cyclops (1940)
The Mad Virus (1940)
Chameleon Man (1941)
Dragon Moon (1941)
The Crystal Circe (1942)
Crypt-City of the Deathless One (1943)
Endowment Policy (1943) (with C L Moore)
The Eyes of Thar (1944)
Sword of Tomorrow (1945)
Absalom (1946) (with C L Moore)
Call Him Demon (1946) (as by Keith Hammond)
What Hath Me? (1946)
Don't Look Now (1948)
Ex Machina (1948)
Carry Me Home (1950)
The Ego Machine (1951)
Tomorrow and Tomorrow (1951)
Non fiction
Omnibus editions
Henry Kuttner SF Gateway Omnibus (2014)
Thunder in the Dawn / The Uncanny Experiments of Dr. Varsag (2015) (with David V Reed)
Thunder in the Dawn / The Uncanny Experiments of Dr. Varsag (2015) (with David V Reed)
Series contributed to
Black Cat Weekly
14. Black Cat Weekly #14 (2021) (with others)
34. Black Cat Weekly #34 (2022) (with others)
35. Black Cat Weekly #35 (2022) (with others)
39. Black Cat Weekly #39 (2022) (with others)
44. Black Cat Weekly #44 (2022) (with others)
45. Black Cat Weekly #45 (2022) (with others)
71. Black Cat Weekly #71 (2023) (with others)
82. Black Cat Weekly #82 (2023) (with others)
14. Black Cat Weekly #14 (2021) (with others)
34. Black Cat Weekly #34 (2022) (with others)
35. Black Cat Weekly #35 (2022) (with others)
39. Black Cat Weekly #39 (2022) (with others)
44. Black Cat Weekly #44 (2022) (with others)
45. Black Cat Weekly #45 (2022) (with others)
71. Black Cat Weekly #71 (2023) (with others)
82. Black Cat Weekly #82 (2023) (with others)
Anthologies containing stories by Henry Kuttner
The Other Worlds (1941)
Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow (1952)
Science-Fiction Carnival (1953)
Best SF (1955)
Circus of Dr. Lao and Other Improbable Stories (1956)
A Treasury of Great Science Fiction, Volume 1 (1959)
A Treasury of Great Science Fiction, Volume 2 (1959)
The Unknown (1963)
The Pseudo-People (1965)
Best SF 6 (1966)
Beyond the Curtain of Dark (1966)
Robert Silverberg's Worlds of Wonder (1969)
Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos Volume 1 (1969)
The Unspeakable People (1969)
The 5th Fontana Book of Great Horror Stories (1970)
The Hollywood Nightmare (1970)
Savage Heroes (1975)
Creatures from Beyond (1975)
Christopher Lee's 'X' Certificate (1975)
Planets of Wonder (1976)
Realms of Wizardry (1976)
Weird Legacies (1977)
The Great SF Stories One (1979)
Les Meilleurs Recits de Weird Tales Tome 3 (1938-1942) (1979)
The Great SF Stories 3 (1980)
A Century of Science Fiction 1950-1959 (1981)
The Great SF Stories 8 (1982)
The Great SF Stories 7 (1982)
The Great SF Stories 10 (1983)
The Gruesome Book (1983)
Science-fiction Classics (1986)
Robots (1989)
The Vampire Omnibus (1995)
The Azathoth Cycle (1995)
The Best of Weird Tales (1995)
Virtuous Vampires (1996)
UFOs (1996)
The Fantasy Hall of Fame (1998)
aka The Mammoth Book of Fantasy All-Time Greats
The Mammoth Book of Twentieth-Century Ghost Stories (1998)
Tales of The Cthulhu Mythos (1999)
Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow (1952)
Science-Fiction Carnival (1953)
Best SF (1955)
Circus of Dr. Lao and Other Improbable Stories (1956)
A Treasury of Great Science Fiction, Volume 1 (1959)
A Treasury of Great Science Fiction, Volume 2 (1959)
The Unknown (1963)
The Pseudo-People (1965)
Best SF 6 (1966)
Beyond the Curtain of Dark (1966)
Robert Silverberg's Worlds of Wonder (1969)
Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos Volume 1 (1969)
The Unspeakable People (1969)
The 5th Fontana Book of Great Horror Stories (1970)
The Hollywood Nightmare (1970)
Savage Heroes (1975)
Creatures from Beyond (1975)
Christopher Lee's 'X' Certificate (1975)
Planets of Wonder (1976)
Realms of Wizardry (1976)
Weird Legacies (1977)
The Great SF Stories One (1979)
Les Meilleurs Recits de Weird Tales Tome 3 (1938-1942) (1979)
The Great SF Stories 3 (1980)
A Century of Science Fiction 1950-1959 (1981)
The Great SF Stories 8 (1982)
The Great SF Stories 7 (1982)
The Great SF Stories 10 (1983)
The Gruesome Book (1983)
Science-fiction Classics (1986)
Robots (1989)
The Vampire Omnibus (1995)
The Azathoth Cycle (1995)
The Best of Weird Tales (1995)
Virtuous Vampires (1996)
UFOs (1996)
The Fantasy Hall of Fame (1998)
aka The Mammoth Book of Fantasy All-Time Greats
The Mammoth Book of Twentieth-Century Ghost Stories (1998)
Tales of The Cthulhu Mythos (1999)
Short stories
The Black Kiss (1937) (with Robert Bloch) | |||
Quest of the Starstone (1937) (with C L Moore) | |||
The Salem Horror (1937) | |||
Hydra (1939) | |||
The Misguided Halo (1939) | |||
Dr. Cyclops [short story] (1940) | |||
Threshold (1940) | |||
A Gnome There Was (1941) | |||
Deadlock (1942) | |||
Masquerade (1942) | |||
Piggy Bank (1942) | |||
We Guard the Black Planet! (1942) | |||
Clash by Night (1943) (as by Lawrence O'Donnell) | |||
Gallegher Plus (1943) | |||
Ghost (1943) | |||
Shock (1943) | |||
Time Locker (1943) | |||
The World is Mine (1943) | |||
The Children's Hour (1944) (with C L Moore) | |||
Housing Problem (1944) | |||
Camouflage (1945) | |||
What You Need (1945) | |||
Juke-Box (1946) | |||
This is the House (1946) | |||
Vintage Season (1946) (as by Lawrence O'Donnell) | |||
Pile of Trouble (1948) | |||
See You Later (1949) | |||
The Sky is Falling (1950) | |||
Android (1951) | |||
Those Among Us (1951) | |||
By These Presents (1952) | |||
De Profundis (1953) | |||
Home is the Hunter (1953) | |||
Or Else (1953) | |||
Year Day (1953) | |||
Two-Handed Engine (1955) (with C L Moore) | |||
The Grab Bag (1991) (with Robert Bloch) |
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