Poul Anderson

4 universes Last reviewed 2026-10-02

Poul William Anderson was born November 25, 1926, in Bristol, Pennsylvania, to Danish parents. His father moved the family to Texas shortly after his birth; following his father's death, his mother took the children to Denmark, but they returned to the United States before World War II and eventually settled on a Minnesota farm. Anderson studied physics at the University of Minnesota, earning his BA with honors in 1948. His career began while he was still an undergraduate, when editor John W. Campbell published his story "Tomorrow's Children," co-written with F. N. Waldrop, in 1947. He became a freelance writer after graduating and, following his 1953 marriage to Karen Kruse, relocated to California's San Francisco Bay Area. He was a founding member of the Society for Creative Anachronism in 1966 and served as the sixth president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1972. His celebrated novels include The Broken Sword (1954), Tau Zero, and Three Hearts and Three Lions. Anderson won seven Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards, received the Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy award in 1978, was named SFWA Grand Master in 1998, and was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2000. He died of prostate cancer on July 31, 2001, at age 74, in Orinda, California.

Universe(s)

Books

• The Broken Sword (1954) · The Broken Sword Core Canon
• Three Hearts and Three Lions (1961) · Three Hearts and Three Lions Core Canon
• Hrolf Kraki's Saga (1973) · Hrolf Kraki's Saga Core Canon
• The Merman's Children (1979) · The Merman's Children Core Canon

Aggregate across all universes

These are separate, unrelated universes; the totals below are plain sums of already-published per-universe facts, never a blended or averaged score across them. See each universe's own figures above.

• Total Core Canon books across all universes: 4 books
• Award recognitions across all universes: 1 (1 won)

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