Poul Anderson was born in Bristol,

Anderson was publishing several stories a year by the early 1950s, and his first book Vault of the Ages, a novel for young people, appeared in 1952. Anderson was a well-established author by the end of the decade whose works included mysteries, historical novels, and nonfiction articles, as well as science fiction. He was clearly one of America's most popular science fiction authors, with a following comparable to those of Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and A. E. Van Vogt. He has remained an industrious writer since then, publishing dozens of articles, hundreds of stories, and scores of novels.

Anderson is admired as much by his fellow authors as by his wide readership. The Science Fiction Writers of America have given him annual Nebula awards in 1971 for the best novelette "The Queen of Air and Darkness," in 1972 for the best...