(1928-    ) US writer of thrillers and some sf, who began publishing the latter with "First Man in a Satellite" for Super-Science Fiction in December 1958; sixteen further short sf/fantasy stories followed, chiefly for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. His first sf novel Pig World (1971) depicts a Near-Future USA governed by a right-wing tyranny challenged by a vicious would-be demagogue. Soulmate (April 1970 F&SF; exp 1974) is a novel of possession (> Horror in SF), the victim being a young prostitute. I, Weapon (1974) features much violence and Sex involving Aliens. Runyon's sf tends to be action-filled, without extensive displacement or speculative content.

Runyon was one of several sf authors who ghosted paperback-original thrillers under the Ellery Queen byline. [JC/DRL]

Charles West Runyon

born Sheridan, Missouri: 4 June 1928

died

works (selected)

• Pig World (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1971) [hb/Jan Faust]
• Ames Holbrook, Deity (New York: Curtis Books, 1972) [pb/Jack Faragasso]
• Soulmate (New York: Avon Books, 1974) [short version first appeared April 1970 F&SF: pb/]
• I, Weapon (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1974) [hb/Richard Mantell]

nonfantastic as Ellery Queen

• The Last Score (New York: Pocket Books, 1964) as Ellery Queen [pb/]
• The Killer Touch (New York: Pocket Books, 1965) as Ellery Queen [pb/]
• Kiss and Kill (New York: Dell Books, 1969) as Ellery Queen [pb/]

links

• Charles W Runyon bibliography
• Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Picture Gallery

Previous versions of this entry

• 01/01/2005
• 20/12/2011
• 21/04/2012
• 19/05/2012
• 21/08/2012
• 12/08/2013
• 18/03/2014