1940-02-02

On this date the American poet, critic and science fiction author TOM DISCH was born (d. 2008). Born in Des Moines, Iowa, as Thomas Michael Disch. He also worked under the pen names “Tom Disch,” “Tom Demijohn” and “Dobbin Thorpe.” 

Disch won the Hugo Award for Best Related Book (previously entitled “Best Non- Fiction Book”) in 1999, and had two other Hugo nominations and nine Nebula Award nominations to his credit, plus one win of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, a Rhysling Award, and two Seiun Awards, among others.

He is perhaps best known for his story “The Brave Little Toaster.” This other works include The genocides (1965), Mankind under the leash (1966), Echo around the bones (1967), Black Alice (1968), Camp concentration (1968), The prisoner (1969), 334 (1972), Getting into death (1973), Clara Reeve (1975), The brave little toaster (1978), Neighboring lives (1981), The business man (1984), The brave little toaster goes to Mars (1988), The M.D. (1991), The priest (1994), The castle of Indolence (1995), A child’s garden of grammar (1997), and The dreams our stuff is made of (1998).