R. A. Lafferty

Biography

Raphael Aloysius Lafferty (1914–2002) was an American science fiction and fantasy writer whose wildly inventive, linguistically exuberant, and utterly unique fiction has earned him a devoted cult following and the admiration of fellow writers. Born in Neola, Iowa, and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Lafferty worked as an electrical engineer until he began writing fiction in his mid-forties. He published his first story in 1960 and went on to produce over two hundred short stories and nearly twenty novels, including Past Master (1968), The Devil Is Dead (1971), and Fourth Mansions (1969). Lafferty’s fiction defies easy categorization: his stories combine Catholic theology, Native American folklore, Irish tall-tale tradition, absurdist humor, and wild speculative premises into a voice entirely his own. He won the Hugo Award for the short story "Eurema’s Dam" (1973) and received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1990. Neil Gaiman, Gene Wolfe, and many other writers have praised Lafferty as a singular, irreplaceable genius of American fantastic fiction.