Mari Wolf

Mari Wolf (born August 27, 1927) was an American science fiction writer and magazine columnist. She is credited with the first use of the word "droid" for a robot, in a science fiction story.

Early life

Mari Wolf was raised in Laguna Beach, California, and studied mathematics at the University of California Los Angeles. She was also interested in rocketry as a young woman.[1]

Career

Wolf worked in the aerospace industry in Southern California,[1] and was described as a "calculating-machine operator" at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1955.[2] She was active in the earliest days of science fiction fandom and publishing in Los Angeles, and a member of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society.[3] She wrote a monthly column about fandom, including fan conventions and fanzines. "Fandora's Box" appeared in Imagination magazine from 1951 to 1956.[4][5] When she resigned from the column after her divorce, Robert Bloch took over as the feature's author.[6]

Stories by Wolf include "Robots of the World! Arise!" (If: Worlds of Science Fiction, 1952), "An Empty Bottle" (If: Worlds of Science Fiction, 1952), "The House on the Vacant Lot" (Fantastic Story, 1952), "Prejudice" (Destiny, 1953), "The Statue" (If: Worlds of Science Fiction, 1953), "Homo Inferior" (If: Worlds of Science Fiction, 1953), "The First Day of Spring" (If: Worlds of Science Fiction, 1954), and "The Very Secret Agent" (If: Worlds of Science Fiction, 1954). The word "droid" for a robot first appears in a 1952 story by Wolf ("Robots of the World! Arise!").[7] Her mystery novel, The Golden Frame, was published in 1961.

A retrospective anthology, Mari Wolf Resurrected: The Complete Short Stories of Mari Wolf, was published in 2011.[8]

Personal life

Mari Wolf married fellow science fiction writer Rog Phillips in 1951, in Chicago. They divorced in 1955.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 Eric Leif Davin, "Brief Bios: Mari Wolf" Sigma (November 2017): 4.
  2. ↑ "In the Jet Laboratory" Saturday Evening Post (March 5, 1955): 112.
  3. ↑ "Authors Celebrate Initial Issue of Fanzine Magazine" Van Nuys News (June 29, 1952): 28. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  4. ↑ Eric Leif Davin, Partners in Wonder: Women and the Birth of Science Fiction, 1926-1965 (Lexington Books 2005): 89-91. ISBN 9780739158685
  5. ↑ Ted White, "Mari Wolf & Me" e*I*5 (December 2002).
  6. ↑ Earl Kemp, "Tales of Imagination and Space Travel: A Capricious Chronology" e*I*5 (December 2002).
  7. ↑ Rebecca Hawkes, "Star Wars Lawsuits: Who Has Lucasfilm Sued and Why?" The Telegraph (October 18, 2016).
  8. 1 2 Greg Fowlkes, ed. Mari Wolf Resurrected: The Complete Short Stories of Mari Wolf (Resurrected Press 2011). ISBN 9781935774952
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