Knight, Damon Francis

▪ 2003

      American science-fiction writer, editor, and critic (b. Sept. 19, 1922, Baker City, Ore.—d. April 15, 2002, Eugene, Ore.), wrote more than a dozen novels and over 100 short stories—the best known of which, “To Serve Man” (1950), was adapted for the television series The Twilight Zone and became a classic—but made a greater impact on the genre as an editor and critic. In the 1940s, as a member of the Futurians, a group of influential writers, he began his mission of raising the standards of science-fiction writing and treating it as serious literature. Knight founded (1956; with James Blish and Judith Merril) the Milford Science Fiction Writers' Conference and (1965) the Science Fiction Writers of America and edited dozens of anthologies, and in 1994 he was given the Nebula Grand Master Award in recognition of his many achievements.

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