Arthur Byron Cover

... is the guest speaker scheduled for the 130th meeting of the Karl Hess Club, to convene on April 18, 2005.

Arthur Bryon Cover on "Is Libertarianism Bad for SF"?

Each April is dedicated to our SAMUEL EDWARD KONKIN III MEMORIAL LECTURE in which we present a topic and speaker that we imagine that Sam would have liked and booked.

Arthur's topic addresses two areas of which Sam was expert: the subjects of Libertarianism and Science Fiction. We think that Sam would have been intrigued at our query of the effect of one upon the other. We also belieive he would have heartily approved of our speaker, who is both a practitioner and fan of science fiction.

Many SF fans are technocrats, placing their confidence in science, technology, and the strictly intellectual, and a lot of SF reflects that sensibility. Arthur will also provide an appraisal of libertarianism's impact on the genre and of any subsequent effect on its readership.

Also, in keeping with our annual theme, Arthur will address Ayn Rand's influence on Science Fiction, politics, and culture.

About Arthur Byron Cover

The son of an American doctor, Arthur Byron Cover was born in the upper tundra of Siberia on January 14, 1950. He attended a Clarion Science Fiction Writers' Workshop in 1971, where he made his first professional sale, to Harlan Ellison's Last Dangerous Visions.

Cover migrated to Los Angeles in 1972. He has published many short stories, in Infinity Five, The Alien Condition, Heavy Metal, Weird Tales, Year's Best Horror Stories, and elsewhere, plus several SF books, including Autumn Angels, The Platypus of Doom, The Sound of Winter, and An East Wind Coming.

He has also written scripts for the comic books Daredevil and Firestorm, as well as the graphic novel Space Clusters.

ADDENDUM: David Harmon took this image at the above meeting.