Philip José Farmer

"A part-time student at Bradley University, he gained a BA in English in 1950. Two years later he shocked the sf world with the publication of his novella The Lovers , in Startling Stories . This won him a Hugo Award in 1953; his second Hugo came in 1968 for the story 'Riders of the Purple Wage' written for Harlan Ellison's famous Dangerous Visions series; and his third came in 1972 for the first part of the acclaimed Riverworld series." [publishers bumpf in Gods Of Riverworld , 1983].

Farmer also wrote an early (non-sf) novel about an interracial relationship (Fire and the Night ).

Winner of the 1953 Hugo Award for the novella The Lovers .
Winner of the 1968 Hugo Award for the novella Riders of the Purple Wage .
Winner of the 1972 Hugo Award for the novel To Your Scattered Bodies Go .

"Other than a short hiatus in Los Angeles, he has primarily lived in Peoria, Illinois (USA), where he writes reams of erudite science fiction. In fact, cataloging Farmer's prodigious output would be a herculean task of research.

"Reading Farmer is an experience in intellect and imagination. Even his least memorable books have educational aspects which entertain as well as inform.

"Farmer was unafraid of tackling taboo subjects. He was responsible for breaking the ground for alien sex in science fiction literature. He also acted as apologist for the literary mistakes or well-meaning fabrications of authors such as Edgar Rice Burroughs, L.Frank Baum, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by writing the true stories of their protagonists.

"For instance, his analytical study of Tarzan takes on both academic and whimsical dimensions. In The Lord of the Trees , Farmer sets the historical record straight about the jungle hero. In A Feast Unknown , Farmer presents both a more primordial and a truly science fictional perspective. Scholars take note." --Henry W.Targowski (in Mark/Space , 1995).

"'The Sage of Peoria', that 'Holy City by the Kickapoo', PJF has donated so much sheer pleasure to SF readers since the 'Golden Age' that a brief assessment of his stature can only fizzle into inadequate superlatives. A supreme pulpster, yes, but something more: a Trickster, a 'rough' surrealist, a progenitor of new waves, dangerous visions and cyber-porno weirdness. We look on him as an ancestor -- but unlike other ancestral SF figures, he has never become an embarrassment, a 'BOF', a curmudgeon.

"His current 'Dayworld' series is as potent and picaresque as the classic Riverworld . Everything he writes is a gem, even his letters -- and nothing compares with the warm thrill of discovering yet another previously-unknown Farmer paperback, tattered and louche, in a heap of used books on some city sidewalk vendor's blanket." --Peter Lamborn Wilson (in Semiotext(e) SF 14 , 1989).

Influential.
Highly recommended.