Robert Franklin Young was an American science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 writer born in Silver Creek, New York

Silver Creek, New York

- Demographics :At the 2010 census there were 2,656 people, 1,048 households and 718 families residing in the village. The population density was 2,213.3 people per square mile . There were 1,174 housing units, with an average density of 978.3 per square mile...

. Except for the three and a half years he served in the Pacific during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, he spent most of his life in New York State. He owned a property on Lake Erie

Lake Erie

Lake Erie is the fourth largest lake of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the tenth largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. It is bounded on the north by the...

.

He remained little known by the public, in the USA as well as abroad. His career spanned more than thirty years, and he wrote fiction until he died. Only near the end of his life did the science fiction community learn he had been a janitor

Janitor

A janitor or custodian is a professional who takes care of buildings, such as hospitals and schools. Janitors are responsible primarily for cleaning, and often some maintenance and security...

 in the Buffalo

Buffalo, New York

Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...

 public school system.

His production started in 1953 in Startling Stories

Startling Stories

Startling Stories was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published from 1939 to 1955 by Standard Magazines. It was initially edited by Mort Weisinger, who was also the editor of Thrilling Wonder Stories, Standard's other science fiction title. Startling ran a lead novel in every issue;...

, then Playboy

Playboy

Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...

, The Saturday Evening Post

The Saturday Evening Post

The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...

 and Collier's. It mainly consisted of a long list of short stories with a poetic and romantic style that made him compared to Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury

Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...

 and Theodore Sturgeon

Theodore Sturgeon

Theodore Sturgeon was an American science fiction author.His most famous novel is More Than Human .-Biography:...

. A good deal of these stories have been published in France by Galaxie

Galaxy Science Fiction

Galaxy Science Fiction was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by an Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break in to the American market. World Editions hired as editor H. L...

, Fiction and the science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 anthologies in the Livre de Poche. In Italy most of his short stories were published at Urania

Urania (magazine)

Urania is an Italian science fiction magazine published by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore since October 10, 1952.-History:The first issue featured the novel The Sands of Mars by Arthur C. Clarke...

.

His most famous short stories are perhaps "The Dandelion Girl

The Dandelion Girl

"The Dandelion Girl" is a science fiction short story written by American science fiction author Robert F. Young. The story, roughly 5,600 words, first appeared in The Saturday Evening Post on April 1, 1961. The story was later republished in a Robert F. Young short story collection in 1965 called...

", which influenced the director of the anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 series RahXephon

RahXephon

is a Japanese anime series about 17-year-old Ayato Kamina, his ability to control a godlike mecha known as the RahXephon, and his inner journey to find a place in the world...

, and "Little Dog Gone", which was nominated in 1965 for the Hugo Award for Best Short Story

Hugo Award for Best Short Story

The Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...

.

Novels

Robert F. Young wrote only five novels, including La Quete de la Sainte Grille (1975), an expansion of his short story "The Quest of the Holy Grille" which was released only in France (in French). They are:

• Starfinder (1980).
• The Last Yggdrasill (1982).
• Eridahn (1983).
• The Vizier's Second Daughter (1985).

Short stories

• "Above This Race of Men"
• "Abyss of Tartarus"
• "Added Inducement"
• "Adventures of the Last Earthman in His Search for Love"
• "Alec's Anabasis"
• "Arena of Decisions"
• "As a Man Has s Whale a Love Story"
• "The Black Deep Thou Wingest"
• "The Blonde From Barsoom"
• "Boarding Party"
• "Boy Meets Dyevitza"
• "Chrome Pastures"
• "City of Beasts"
• "City of Brass"
• "Clay Suburb"
• "Cousins"
• "Crutch"
• "The Curious Case of Henry Dickens"
• "The Dandelion Girl
  The Dandelion Girl
  "The Dandelion Girl" is a science fiction short story written by American science fiction author Robert F. Young. The story, roughly 5,600 words, first appeared in The Saturday Evening Post on April 1, 1961. The story was later republished in a Robert F. Young short story collection in 1965 called...
  
  "
• "Darkspace"
• "The Day the Limited Was Late"
• "The Decayed Leg Bone"
• "The Deep Space Scrolls"
• "Dialogue in a Twenty-First Century Dining Room"
• "Divine Wind"
• "Doll-Friend"
• "Down the Ladder"
• "The Earth Books"
• "Emily and the Bards Sublime"
• "The Eternal Lovers"
• "Findokin's Way"
• "The First Mars Mission"
• "Fleuve Red"
• "Flying Pan"
• "The Forest of Unreason"
• "The Garden in the Forest"
• "Genesis 500"
• "Ghosts"
• "Ghur R'Hut Urr"
• "The Giant, the Colleen, and the Twenty-One Cows"
• "The Giantess"
• "The Girl in his Mind"
• "Girl Saturday"
• "The Girl Who Made Time Stop"

• "A Glass of Mars"
• "Glass Houses"
• "Glimpses"
• "Goddess in Granite"
• "The Hand"
• "The Haute Bourgeoisie"
• "Hex Factor"
• "Hologirl"
• "The Honeyearthers"
• "Hopsoil"
• "The House That Time Forgot"
• "I Bring Fresh Flowers"
• "In Saturn's Rings"
• "In what Cavern of the Deep"
• "Invitation to the Waltz"
• "Jonathon and the Space Whale"
• "The Journal of Nathaniel Worth"
• "Jungle Doctor"
• "Jupiter Found"
• "Kingdom Come, Inc."
• "A Knyght Ther Was"
• "L'Arc De Jeanne"
• "Let There Be Night"
• "Little Dog Gone"
• "Little Red Schoolhouse"
• "Lord of Rays"
• "The Lost Earthman"
• "Mars Child"
• "Milton Inglorious"
• "The Mindanao Deep"
• "Minutes of a Meeting at the Mitre"
• "The Moon of Advanced Learning"
• "More Stately Mansions"
• "Neither Stairs Nor Door"
• "New Route to the Indies"
• "Nikita Eisenhower Jones"
• "No Deposit, No Refill"
• "O Little Town of Bethlehem II"
• "One Love Have I"
• "On the River"
• "Origin of Species"
• "P R N D L L"
• "Passage to Gomorrah"
• "A Pattern For Penelope"
• "Peeping Tommy"
• "Perchance to Dream"
• "Pithecanthropus astralis"

• "Plane Jane"
• "The Princess of Akkir"
• "Production Problem"
• "Project Hi-Rise"
• "The Quest of the Holy Grille"
• "Redemption"
• "Reflections"
• "Remnants of Things Past"
• "Report on the Sexual Behavior on Arcturus X"
• "Revolution 20"
• "Romance in a Twenty-First Century Used-Car Lot"
• "Romance in an Eleventh-Century Recharging Station"
• "Rumpelstiltskinski"
• "Santa Clause"
• "The Second Philadelphia Experiment"
• "The Servant Problem"
• "Shakespeare of the Apes"
• "The Space Roc"
• "Spacetrack"
• "The Sphinx"
• "St. George and the Dragonmotive"
• "Star Mother"
• "The Star of Stars"
• "The Stars Are Calling, Mr. Keats"
• "The Star Eel"
• "The Star Fisherman"
• "Starscape with Frieze of Dreams"
• "Stop-Over"
• "Storm over Sodom"
• "The Summer of the Fallen Star"
• "Sweet Tooth"
• "Techmech"
• "The Tents of Kedar"
• "There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe"
• "Thirty Days Had September"
• "The Thousand Injuries of Mr. Courtney"
• "Three-Mile Syndrome"
• "Tinkerboy"
• "To Fell a Tree"
• "To Touch a Star"
• "Universes"
• "Victim of the Year"
• "Visionary Shapes"

• "What Bleak Land"
• "When Time Was New"
• "Whom the Gods Love"
• "The Winning of Gloria Grandonwheels"
• "The Year"
• "Your Ghost Will Walk"

External links