Robert Silverberg

(January 15, 1935 – )

Bob Silverberg (1957).

Bob Silverberg (often known as Agberg or Silverbob) was an early fan who began submitting stories to the prozines in the late 1940s and found fandom in 1949. He was GoH at Heicon '70, the 1970 Worldcon in Heidelberg, Germany.

He is on the rolls of Most Senior Fen and Most Senior SF Writers.

Fan

He was one of the coiners of the indispensable word croggle. He is an associate member of the First Fandom club, and has been nominated for the First Fandom Hall of Fame.

AgBob. Courtesy of Grant Canfield.

He was a prominent and active fan in the 1960s, and wrote frequently for fanzines. His own fanzine was called Spaceship and the early issues did not, perhaps, contain his best writing. He extended Jack Speer's theory of Numerical Fandoms in an influential article, “First and Last Fans,” in Quandry 25 (October 10, 1952, p. 3).

He has been a member of FAPA continuously since November, 1949, publishing Irusaben with Saul Diskin and Spaceship and Snickersnee by himself. In 2007, Silverberg was elected president of FAPA.

He was a member of the ISL, SAPS and the N3F. He ran the (unsuccessful) Virgincon in '65 Worldcon bid. In 2001, he won the 1951 Best Fan Writer Retro Hugo.

Pro

Silverberg's first published novel was a YA book called Revolt on Alpha C (1955). He won the 1956 Most Promising New Author Hugo. Over the next few years he was incredibly prolific, writing a million words a year, mostly for prozines and Ace Doubles. When the sf market collapsed in 1959, Silverberg turned to other fields, including carefully researched historical nonfiction and softcore porn.

In the 1960s, Silverberg returned to SF, writing more literary stories and novels, including To Open the Sky, To Live Again, The World Inside, Downward to the Earth and Dying Inside. His story Nightwings won the 1969 Best Novella Hugo. He won a Nebula Award in 1970 for the short story "Passengers". He won two more the following year (his novel A Time of Changes and the short story "Good News from the Vatican") and one more in 1975 for his novella "Born with the Dead". He was half of Robert Randall.

He moved from New York to the Bay Area in 1972 and announced his retirement from writing in 1975. But in 1980, he returned triumphantly with Lord Valentine's Castle, the start of the popular Majipoor series. He received another Nebula in 1986 for his novella "Sailing to Byzantium", a Best Novella Hugo in 1987 for "Gilgamesh in the Outback" and a Best Novelette Hugo in 1990 for "Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another."

The April, 1974 issue of F&SF was a special Robert Silverberg issue. His autobiography, Other Space, Other Times: A Life Spent in the Future, appeared in 2009 from NonStop Press.

Personal Life

Silverberg was born in Brooklyn in 1935. He has been married twice. First to Barbara Brown, in 1956. In 1987, he married fellow science fiction author Karen Haber.

More reading:

• Official website.
• Entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.
• Robert Silverberg Comments on Juanita Coulson's Reminiscence of Fandom in 1953.
• Reminiscence by Frederik Pohl from The Way the Future Blogs. Part 2.

Fanzines and Apazines:

• Irusaben [early 50s] (for FAPA; with Saul Diskin)
• Logarithmic [1961-]
• Snickersnee (for FAPA)
• Spaceship [1949-55] (Some issues were in FAPA)

Awards, Honors and GoHships:

• 1956 -- 1956 Most Promising New Author Hugo
• 1957 -- Knight of St. Fantony
• 1968 -- Disclave 12, Toastmaster at Baycon
• 1969 -- PgHLANGE 1, 1969 Best Novella Hugo
• 1970 -- Heicon '70
• 1971 -- Toastmaster at Noreascon
• 1972 -- 1972 Open ESFA
• 1974 -- Toastmaster at Westercon 27, Jupiter Award, F&SF special Robert Silverberg issue (April)
• 1975 -- Bubonicon 5
• 1976 -- Mancon 5
• 1977 -- LepreCon 3, Toastmaster at SunCon
• 1979 -- Intervention 1
• 1980 -- Toastmaster at Noreascon Two
• 1981 -- ASFiCon 2
• 1982 -- OryCon '82
• 1983 -- Fantasycon VIII, Jack Williamson Lectureship
• 1984 -- Skylark Award
• 1985 -- Loscon 12, Forry Award, toastmaster at Norwescon VIII
• 1987 -- Philcon 87, 1987 Best Novella Hugo
• 1988 -- Westercon 41, Con-Version V
• 1990 -- 1990 Best Novelette Hugo
• 1993 -- New Orleans SF & Fantasy Festival '93
• 1995 -- Norwescon XVIII
• 1999 -- 25th World Fantasy Convention
• 2000 -- Big Heart Award
• 2001 -- Swancon 2001, 1951 Best Fan Writer Retro Hugo
• 2002 -- Prix Utopia
• 2004 -- Con-Dor XI, SFWA Grand Master, Jack Williamson Lectureship
• 2005 -- VCON 30
• 2006 -- The Avram Davidson Treasury (edited by Silverberg) was Book of Honor at Potlatch 15
• 2015 -- Alfie Award
• 2018 -- First Fandom Hall of Fame
• 2019 -- World Fantasy Convention 2019 (Toastmaster)
• 23,309 -- Silverberg has agreed to be Toastmaster of the Terminus in 23,309 Worldcon bid should it win. Unless the rules are changed, the winning bid will be selected in 23,307.

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Person

1935—

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