Murray Leinster

Murray Leinster is the pen name of the esteemed American author William Fitzgerald Jenkins. Leinster was a prolific writer, particularly in the genres of alternate history and science fiction. His writing spanned various other genres as well, including horror fiction, fantasy, pulp fiction, western fiction, and mystery fiction. Over the course of his career, Leinster wrote and published more than 1,500 articles and short stories, hundreds of television plays and radio scripts, and 14 film scripts.

Leinster was born on June 16, 1896, in Norfolk, Virginia, in the United States. His father, George Jenkins, was an accountant, and his mother, Mary Jenkins, was a housewife. Although both of Leinster's parents were from Virginia, the family moved to Manhattan in 1910.

Leinster's career as a writer spanned six decades, during which he wrote mystery and adventure stories in his early years and science fiction in his later years. He was a highly professional and skilled writer, producing high-quality work consistently over the years. In 1956, Leinster won the Hugo Award for his novelet "Exploration Team," and in 1995, the Sidewise Award for Alternate History was named after his classic story "Sidewise in Time." Leinster's last original work was published in 1967. His contributions to the literary world have been significant, and his legacy as a writer continues to this day.