Hugo Gernsback

Hugo Gernsback
Gernsback portrait by Fabian, date unknown
Gernsback portrait by Fabian, date unknown
BornHugo Gernsbacher
(1884-08-16)August 16, 1884
Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
DiedAugust 19, 1967(1967-08-19) (aged 83)
Manhattan, New York City
Pen nameBeno Ruckshagg, Erno Shuckbagg, Grace G. Hucksnob, Grego Banshuck, Greno Gashbuck, Gus N. Habergock, Kars Gugenchob
Occupation
  • Inventor
  • magazine publisher
  • editor
  • writer
NationalityLuxembourgish, American
Period1911–1967 (fiction)
GenreScience fiction
Gernsback demonstrating his television goggles in 1963 for Life magazine
Gernsback watching a television broadcast by his station WRNY on the cover of his Radio News (Nov 1928)

Hugo Gernsback (/ˈɡɜːrnzbæk/; born Hugo Gernsbacher, August 16, 1884 – August 19, 1967) was an American editor and magazine publisher whose publications included the first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories. His contributions to the genre as publisher were so significant that, along with the novelists Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, he is sometimes called "The Father of Science Fiction".[1] In his honor, annual awards presented at the World Science Fiction Convention are named the "Hugos".[2]

Gernsback emigrated to the U.S. in 1904 and later became a citizen. He was also a significant figure in the electronics and radio industries, even starting a radio station, WRNY, and the world's first magazine about electronics and radio, Modern Electrics. Gernsback died in New York City in 1967.

  1. ^ Siegel, Mark Richard (1988). Hugo Gernsback, Father of Modern Science Fiction: With Essays on Frank Herbert and Bram Stoker. Borgo Pr. ISBN 0-89370-174-2.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference SFAwards-hugo was invoked but never defined (see the help page).