(1895-1972) US writer and pesticide chemist for the Department of Agriculture until his retirement in 1963. He was not a prolific writer, publishing only 11 stories altogether, the first of which was the novella "Frontier of the Unknown" for Astounding in July and August 1937. He made his main contribution by collaborating with James Blish on A Torrent of Faces (1967). This novel – whose Under-the-Sea sequences and amphibious Tritons (genetically engineered humans; > Genetic Engineering) are taken from Knight's first story and from "Crisis in Utopia" (July-August 1940 Astounding) – depicts an ambiguously Utopian Earth whose trillion people (> Overpopulation) must face up to the potential Disaster when an approaching meteor impacts upon the planet. [JC]
see also: Asteroids.
Norman Louis Knight
born St Joseph, Missouri: 21 September 1895
died Tacoma Park, Maryland: 19 April 1972
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