Henry Kuttner
1 universe Last reviewed 2026-10-12
Henry Kuttner was born on April 7, 1915, in Los Angeles, California; his paternal grandparents had emigrated from Leszno, Prussia, to San Francisco in 1859, while his maternal grandparents came from Great Britain. He grew up in relative poverty following his father's death and as a young man worked for his uncle's literary agency, where he discovered the manuscript of writer Leigh Brackett in the slush pile and helped mentor her toward her first publication. He sold his first story, 'The Graveyard Rats,' to Weird Tales in 1936, launching a prolific career across science fiction, fantasy, and horror. In 1940 he married fellow writer C. L. Moore, whom he had met through their mutual association with the 'Lovecraft Circle' of correspondents around H.P. Lovecraft; the couple collaborated so closely throughout the 1940s and 1950s that, according to fellow author L. Sprague de Camp, it was often impossible for either of them to recall afterward who had written which parts of a given story. Kuttner published under numerous pseudonyms, most prominently Lewis Padgett and Lawrence O'Donnell, as well as Edward J. Bellin, Scott Morgan, and Woodrow Wilson Smith, among others. His best-known works include the Gallegher stories, centered on a bumbling inventor and his sardonic robot creation, and the short story 'Mimsy Were the Borogoves,' later adapted into the 2007 film The Last Mimzy; his story 'The Twonky' was adapted into a 1953 film, and he contributed several stories to the Cthulhu Mythos. Kuttner died of a heart attack on February 3, 1958, in Los Angeles, at the age of forty-two.
Universe(s)
- Core Canon books: 1
- Current rank: #599 in the official ranking
- Weighted average: 3.54
- Award recognitions: None recorded
Books
Aggregate across all universes
- Total Core Canon books across all universes: 1 book
- Award recognitions across all universes: 0 (None recorded)
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Elak of Atlantis (1985) · Elak of Atlantis Core Canon