Torkel Franzén

(April 1, 1950 -- April 19, 2006)

A close friend since his late teens of fellow fans Ulf Westblom, Per Insulander, John-Henri Holmberg and John Ågren, Torkel Franzén was a prolific contributor to their various fanzines throughout the 1970s, attended club meetings and conventions and was held in high regard as one of Sweden's finest fan writers, sharpest critics and most brilliant humorists. Professionally he was a mathematical logician; after his doctoral thesis, Provability and Truth, 1987, his most noted work was Gödel’s Theorem. An Incomplete Guide to Its Use and Abuse, 2004. Apart from his work as a professor of philosophy he was also highly praised for his fiction translations, which included novels such as Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness, Bruce Sterling's Schismatrix Plus, and several novels by Jack Vance who was both one of his favorite authors and a friend. Torkel Franzén died of skeleton cancer at 56.