Dirk Wylie
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Joseph Harold Dockweiler (1920 – August 1948), professionally known by his pen name Dirk Wylie, was an American science fiction author and literary agent. Wylie was a member of The Futurians, a 1940s-era science fiction fan community.[1]
Biography
Wylie attended Brooklyn Technical High School in the 1930s, where he became friends with fellow student Frederik Pohl.[2]
In 1934, a teenage Wylie had a letter published in periodical Wonder Stories inquiring about "Science Fiction Week."[3] Both Wylie and Pohl dropped out of high school after their junior year.[4]
In 1937, Wylie published a fanzine titled Fantasy Mirror.[4] As an adult, he wrote stories in collaboration with Pohl, Arnold Kummer Jr., and Cyril M. Kornbluth.[5] Wylie also used the pen names "Dennis Lavond" and "Elliott Whitney".
In 1937, Wylie joined the Committee for the Political Advancement of Science Fiction (CPASF), a left-wing group of Futurians who supported the views of fellow member John B. Michel.[6]
When the Futurians group fractured, Wylie and Pohl followed Michel and Donald Wollheim to form the East New York Science Fiction League.[2] In 1940, Wylie married fellow Futurian Rosalind "Roz" Cohen.[2][4]
Wylie was drafted and served as a sergeant in a military police company in World War II. He was stationed in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge.[2] Wylie suffered a spine injury after jumping from a transport truck; he was evacuated and spent two years in a Veterans Administration hospital.[4] While hospitalized, Wylie penned a letter to Amazing Stories in which he reported two instances of having witnessed an unidentified objects, in some cases rising from the ocean and returning to it.[7]
In 1947, Wylie and Pohl set up the Dirk Wylie Literary Agency.[8][9] In August 1948, Wylie died from tuberculosis of the spine.[2] After his death, Pohl and Rosalin continued to run the agency.[2]
Works
- "Stepsons of Mars" (April 1940 Astonishing Stories) (with C M Kornbluth and Richard Wilson)
- "Vacant World" (January 1941 Super Science Stories) (with C M Kornbluth)
- Stuff (1940)
- The Mantle of Graag (1941) with Robert A. W. Lowndes and Frederik Pohl
- Something from Beyond (1941) with Robert A. W. Lowndes and Frederik Pohl
- Highwayman of the Void[10][11]
- Asteroid of the Damned (1942)[12][13]
- Sky Test (1942)
- Outpost of the Eons (1943)
- Star of the Undead (1948) with Robert A. W. Lowndes and Frederik Pohl
- When Time Went Mad (publish posthumously in 1950) with Frederic Arnold Kummer, Jr.
