Editing Fredric Brown (section)

==Life and works==
Fredric Brown was born in [[Cincinnati]].<ref name=ATuttascuola>{{cite web| url = http://www.atuttascuola.it/liceo/deciechi/la_sentinella_di_fredric_brown.htm| title = Italian short bio at Tuttascuola.net| access-date = 2016-07-19| archive-date = 2018-12-29| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181229112949/http://www.atuttascuola.it/liceo/deciechi/la_sentinella_di_fredric_brown.htm| url-status = dead}}</ref><ref name =BlogUrania>[http://blog.librimondadori.it/blogs/urania/2014/05/01/fredric-brown-vagabondo-nello-spazio-della-mente/ Introduction to ''Rogue in Space''], Italian edition,  [[Urania (magazine)|''Urania Collezione'']] n. 135, by [[Giuseppe Lippi]]</ref> He spent a year at Hanover College, Indiana, before returning to Cincinnati. In 1929 he married and relocated to [[Milwaukee]], working various jobs before settling into a career as a proofreader.<ref name=":0">''Mystery Book Magazine'', Winter 1948, pages 8, 10.</ref>

According to his wife, Brown hated to write, and did whatever he could to put it off: play his flute, challenge a friend to a game of chess, or tease Ming Tah, his Siamese cat.  When Brown would have trouble with a certain story, he would take a long bus trip in order to sit and think for days on end.  When he would finally return home to sit himself in front of the typewriter, he produced work in a variety of genres: mystery, science fiction, short fantasy, black comedy.

Many of his books make use of the threat of the supernatural or occult before the "straight" explanation comes at the end. For example, "Night of the Jabberwock" is a humorous narrative of an extraordinary day in the life of a small-town newspaper editor.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Fredric |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-RjLYgEACAAJ |title=Night of the Jabberwock |date=December 2010 |publisher=Langtail Press |isbn=978-1-78002-000-6 |language=en}}</ref>

Brown began to sell mystery short stories to American magazines in 1936.<ref name="BlogUrania" /> His first science fiction story, "Not Yet the End", was published in the Winter 1941 issue of ''Captain Future'' magazine.<ref name="djm" /><ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?61748| title = Bibliography page at isfdb.org}}</ref>

The 1944 [[short story]] "[[Arena (short story)|Arena]]" bore similarities to the [[Arena (TOS episode)|episode of the same name]] in the [[Star Trek: The Original Series|original ''Star Trek'']] series. In order to avoid legal problems, it was agreed that Brown would receive payment and a story credit.<ref>{{cite book|last=Cushman|first=Marc| first2 = Susan | last2 = Osborn|title=These are the Voyages – TOS: Season One|location=[[San Diego, California]] |publisher= Jacobs/Brown Press|year=2013|isbn=978-0-98923811-3|lccn=2013940946|pages=399–400}}</ref> 

It was also adapted in 1973 for issue 4 of the [[Marvel Comics]] title ''[[Worlds Unknown]].''

Brown's first mystery novel, 1947's ''[[The Fabulous Clipjoint]]'', began a series starring Ed and Ambrose Hunter depicting how a young man gradually ripens into a detective under the tutelage of his uncle, an ex–private eye now working as a carnival concessionaire.<ref name="BlogUrania" />

His science fiction novel ''[[What Mad Universe]]'' (1949) is a parody of [[Pulp magazine|pulp]] science fiction story conventions.

''The Lights in the Sky Are Stars'' (1952) tells the story of an aging astronaut who is trying to get his beloved [[space program]] back on track after Congress has cut its funding.

The short story "Answer" (1954) is thought to be the earliest representation of the "Yes, ''now'' there is a God" science fiction trope of a supercomputer that releases itself from human control.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fredric Brown - "Answer" |url=https://www.roma1.infn.it/~anzel/answer.html |access-date=2023-01-25 |website=www.roma1.infn.it}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Thomas Anderson |date=2017-10-01 |title="Answer" |url=https://schlock-value.com/2017/10/01/answer/ |access-date=2023-01-25 |website=Schlock Value |language=en}}</ref> The story was originally published in ''Angels and Spaceships'' and the entire collection was later re-published as ''Star Shine'' for paperback adaptation''.''

''[[Martians, Go Home]]'' (1955) is both a broad farce and a satire on human frailties as seen through the eyes of a billion jeering, invulnerable Martians who arrive not to conquer the world but to drive it crazy.