(1901-1995) US playwright and screenwriter, blacklisted by Hollywood studios in 1951 for his left-wing political views; he is best known in sf circles for scripting the famous Orson Welles Radio adaptation of War of the Worlds (1938), which caused at least some US listeners to panic – though not, it would seem, to the extent conveyed in The Night that Panicked America (1975). Koch also published one short sf story, "Invasion from Inner Space" (in Star Science Fiction #6, anth 1959, ed Frederik Pohl), an early but probably not significant instance of the term Inner Space.

He should not be confused with Howard W (Winchel) Koch (1916-2001), who produced Frankenstein 1970 (1958) (> Frankenstein) and was executive producer of The Manchurian Candidate (1962). [DRL]

Howard E Koch

born New York: 12 December 1901

died Kingston, New York: 17 August 1995

works

• "The War of the Worlds" in The Invasion from Mars: A Study in the Psychology of Panic, with the Complete Script of the Orson Welles Broadcast (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1940) by Hadley Cantril, Hazel Gaudet and Herta Herzog [nonfiction: includes first publication of the script: hb/]

links

Previous versions of this entry

• 11/08/2011