Jameson281 wrote:
We aren't talking about their quality as a writer, or their popularity amongst sci-fi fans.  We're talking about general fame. 
I was talking about their general fame in a specific time period--the late 1940s and early 1950s, since that was what was under discussion.  I did add "and is now," which I think it still correct.  The biggest difference between then and now in terms of fame is that there is now a LOT of famous science fiction writers.  I wouldn't include Rod Serling, though.  In the early 50s, Bradbury was  better known than even Jules Verne, whose latter-day popularity kicked off with 20000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA.  Probably also better known (as a science fiction writer) than H.G. Wells.  I strongly suspect that people who remembered that Halloween radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds" associated only one name with it--and it wasn't. H.G. Wells.
    NONE of this has any relationship to my own fondness for these writers.  In those days, I liked Heinlein as much as I did Bradbury, though Bradbury finally won out by the early 1960s.  But H.G. Wells tops my greatest-sf-writer-ever list now.  Incidentally, Bradbury has almost always said that most of what he wrote was fantasy, not science fiction; Rod Serling, I believe, often said something similar (about himself).  As for Michael Crichton--I interviewed him once upon a time and asked what he thought about his work in terms of being science fiction.  I thought he would tell me that no, it's not really science fiction, it's speculative fiction, or some other issue-dodging claim.  Instead, much to my surprise, he said that his favorite writers as he grew up were the great science fiction writers, that he read SF in books and magazines omnivorously.  He initially wrote mysteries because he also liked them, and he didn't have to do as much research.  When ANDROMEDA STRAIN was published, he was hoping, very much, that he'd be welcomed into the fraternity of science fiction writers.  Instead, most SF reviewers castigated him for not calling his book science fiction (a decision of his publisher), that he was some kind of pretender.  This both crushed Crichton and stiffened his backbone; he never again tried to be a science fiction writer in the Heinlein-Pohl-Asimov sense, and, I think, somewhat resented the science fiction community until he died.  Not sure what he thinks of it since then.

Last Edited By: Bill Warren Aug 10 10 2:05 PM. Edited 3 times.