Science fiction author Philip José Farmer was born in North Terre Haute, Indiana on January 26, 1918. He worked in a steel mill while attending Bradley University at night and writing in his spare time. In 1952, his story The Lovers, in which a human has sex with an alien, was published in a pulp magazine called Startling Stories and won him the Hugo Award in 1953 for most promising new author. He quit his job to become a full-time writer, but a string of misfortunes eventually forced him to take jobs as a manual laborer. He worked as a technical writer from 1956 to 1970, but continued writing science fiction, increasingly winning a name for himself. He finally found success in the 1960's with the Riverworld series. He wrote more than 75 books throughout his lifetime including the Dayworld series and the World of Tiers series. He also wrote short stories. He was known as a writer who breaks taboos, making fun of the solemn and sacred. He was considered a mocker of traditions and a writer who upset the conventions that come to surround every culture. He won the Hugo award again in 1968 for his work Riders of the Purple Wage, best novella and in 1972 for To Your Scattered Bodies Go, best novel. In 1988, he was the recipient of the Writers of the Past Award and for his work Riverworld, the Nova (Brazil) for best book. In 2001 he was awarded the Grand Master Award and the World Fantasy Award (Life Achievement). He died on February 25, 2009 at the age of 91.
