Bold and ruthless, he was famed throughout the System as a big-game hunter. From the firedrakes of Mercury to the ice-crawlers of Pluto, he'd slain them all. But his trophy-room lacked one item; and now Riordan swore he'd bag the forbidden game that roamed the red deserts ... a Martian! Duel on Syrtis by Poul Anderson, that’s next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, with at least one lost vintage sci-fi short story in every episode.

Today’s episode of the podcast marks the debut of Poul Anderson. Anderson was no ordinary science fiction author. He has been called ''one of the five or six most important writers to appear during the science-fiction publishing boom of the decade following the end of World War II.''

To call him prolific would be a vast understatement. His wife, Karen, said she did not know how many books he wrote, saying. ''We lost count after 100.'' As for short stories, I stopped counting at 150.

Poul William Anderson was born on November 25th, 1926, in Bristol, Pennsylvania, to Anton and Astrid Anderson. His father had anglicized the spelling of the family name, originally Andersen. He told his wife she could name their first child, and she chose Poul.

His father died in a car crash when Poul was 11. His mother took him and his brother first to Denmark, then to Maryland, and finally to a 40-acre farm in southern Minnesota.

While growing up in Minnesota Poul found himself spending all of his tiny allowance on subscriptions to science fiction magazines. And so, his love of science fiction began.

A former president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, he won numerous awards, including three Nebula and seven Hugo awards. In 1997 the association named him a Grandmaster and he was inducted into the Science Fiction Fantasy Hall of Fame.

He had a few short science fiction stories published in the 1940s, but his career really took off in the 1950s when more than 70 of his stories appeared in Astounding Science Fiction, Super Science Stories, Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy and other publications.

Today’s story appeared in March 1951 in Planet Stories magazine. Let’s turn to page 5 for Duel on Syrtis by Poul Anderson…

Next week on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, After space, there was always one more river to cross ... the far side of hatred and murder! The Hated by Frederik Pohl. That’s next week onThe Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, with at least one lost vintage sci-fi short story in every episode. Support the show

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