Frederik Pohl | Science-fiction force, 93

Frederik Pohl, 93, who helped shape and popularize science fiction as an influential agent, editor, and award-winning author, died Monday at a hospital near his home in Palatine, Ill., after experiencing respiratory distress.

Mr. Pohl had been a presence in science fiction since the 1930s, when he began to organize fan clubs and conventions. He published his first work - a poem under an assumed name - in 1937 and worked as an agent and editor before he turned 20.

"It is difficult to sum up the significance of Frederik Pohl to the science fiction field in few words," his editor, James Frenkel, said in an obituary released by the family. "He was instrumental to the flowering of the field in the mid- to late 20th century."

His greatest achievement came through his own writing, which included more than 65 novels and 30 collections of short stories, many written with coauthors. He won science fiction's Hugo and Nebula Awards multiple times and in 1980 received an American Book Award (later called the National Book Award) for his novel Jem: The Making of a Utopia, about the efforts of three groups of people to survive after colonizing another planet.

After serving in Italy with the Army during World War II, he worked in advertising and as a literary agent. While writing his own novels and stories, he spent years as an editor at various publishing houses and was credited with publishing many notable writers, including Samuel R. Delany and Joanna Russ.

He is survived by his fifth wife, author and professor Elizabeth Anne Hull, and four children from earlier marriages.

He was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 1998. His final novel, All the Lives He Led, was published in 2011. - Washington Post