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Summer 2009 • Volume 15, Issue 3

Promising enrollment for fall | High graduation rate | MBA students place first — again | Getting down to business | Fulbright prof in Romania | “Most promising find of 1952” | Coach Orsborn honored | Building leaders | Blagojevich impeachment | Student impressions of India | Academic hall of famers | Top tour guide | Biotech fellowships | Slideshows and Video: CHRIS ROBERTS ’10 75-foot bank shot video; Undergraduate commencement; Graduate commencement; Air Force commissioning story and video; NCAA softball tournament; Team Bradley, Peoria’s Race for the Cure; A Celebration of Bradley University: St. Louis and Washington, D.C.; Bradley rocket engineering camp

Writer Phil Farmer is named “most promising find of 1952”

As it appeared in the October ’53 issue of Hilltopics

A Bradley alumnus has received the honor of being the “most promising find of 1952” in the science fiction field. Philip Jose Farmer of 621 Barker Ave., Peoria, was given this award at the World Conference of Science Fiction Fans in Philadelphia on Labor Day weekend.

At the same convention Farmer lectured on “Science Fiction and the Kinsey Report.” A Bradley graduate, he has rapidly become recognized as an outstanding author in the scientific writing field.

Farmer has had stories published in “Startling,” “Wonder Stories,” “Science Fiction Plus,” and “Fantasy and Science Fiction.” In addition, he has sold stories, as yet unpublished, to “Argosy,” “Beyond,” “Wonder Stories,” and “Fantastic Universe,” making a total of more than a dozen short stories.

Farmer has also delved successfully into the science fiction novel category, having sold four. His “Lovers,” has been considered as one of the two best science fiction novels of 1952, according to reports in the September issue of “Writer’s Digest.” In January, he won a $4,000 first prize in a contest, sponsored by Shasta and Pocket Books, for his novel, “River of Eternity.” Both companies will soon publish the prizewinner.*

Farmer first began writing seriously during his college days. One of his published poems, “Sestina of the Space Rocket,” was done for a creative writing course at Bradley. Many of his other stories originated in collegiate classes. For two years after his graduation, the young author worked in the industry in Peoria, and did free-lance writing on the side. The August, 1952 appearance of “Lovers” marked his first publication.

Currently, Farmer has stories in the October issues of “Fantasy and Science Fiction” and “Science Fiction Plus.” He gives particular credit to his literary agent for such an array of sales in one year. She was introduced to him by a New York publisher, when she expressed a desire to handle a promising science fiction writer. Among her other clients is John Steinbeck.

*EDITOR’S NOTE: Farmer never received the $4,000 prize as it was embezzled by one of the book publishers. In order to support his family, he became a technical writer for defense companies. Almost 20 years later when Farmer began writing science fiction full time, River of Eternity became the basis for his popular series, Riverworld.

Writer Phil Farmer is named “most promising find of 1952”

As it appeared in the October ’53 issue of Hilltopics

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