Alan E. Nourse
Alan E. Nourse was an American author and physician, born on August 11, 1928, in Des Moines, Iowa. He served in the U.S. Navy's Hospital Corps from 1946 to 1948 before pursuing higher education, earning a B.S. from Rutgers University in 1951 and a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1955. Nourse transitioned from practicing medicine to a full-time writing career in 1963, establishing himself as a notable science fiction author, particularly for young readers. His works often featured themes of human interaction with extraterrestrial life and incorporated his medical background, as seen in titles such as "A Man Obsessed" and "The Bladerunner." Beyond science fiction, he wrote extensively for various periodicals and authored popular nonfiction works, including the medical column "Family Doctor" for Good Housekeeping. Nourse received several accolades, including the Washington State Governor's Award, and was actively involved in medical and community organizations. He passed away on July 19, 1992, in Thorp, Washington, leaving behind a diverse literary legacy.
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Alan E. Nourse
Writer
- Born: August 11, 1928
- Birthplace: Des Moines, Iowa
- Died: July 19, 1992
- Place of death: Thorp, Washington
Biography
Alan Edward Nourse was born on August 11, 1928, in Des Moines, Iowa. His father, Benjamin Chamberlain Nourse, was an electrical engineer and his mother, Grace Ogg Nourse, was a teacher. Nourse lived in Des Moines until 1943, when his family moved to New York. He graduated from high school in Forest Hills, New York. Upon graduating, he enlisted in the U. S. Navy, serving in the Hospital Corps from 1946 to 1948.
He returned to school after his military service was completed, earning a B.S. degree from Rutgers University in 1951. The following year he married Ann Jane Morton, and the couple later had four children. Nourse obtained his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1955. He completed his internship at the Virginia Mason hospital in Seattle, Washington, and conducted a general practice in North Bend, Washington, until 1963, at which time he embarked on a full-time writing career.
Nourse had been publishing science fiction since 1951, when his short story “High Threshold” appeared in the March,1951 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. He soon established credentials as a well-regarded author of science- fiction novels for young readers with Trouble on Titan (1954), Rocket to Limbo (1957), and Star Surgeon (1960). Most of these books were conventional space operas featuring interaction between humans and extraterrestrials and presenting science and technology in a mostly positive light. Raiders from the Rings (1962) earned him a Junior Book Award from the Boys Club of Amerca in 1963.
Nourse drew on his medical background for much of his adult science fiction, including A Man Obsessed (1955), the stories collected in Rx for Tomorrow (1971), and the novel The Bladerunner (1974), the latter concerned with the medical implications of overpopulation. His other short science fiction was collected in Tiger by the Tale (1961) and The Counterfeit Man (1963). Between 1953 and 1955 Nourse was owner and manager of the Chamberlain Press, a specialty press for science-fiction publishing. He served as president of Science Fiction Writers of America between 1968 and 1969. His last work of science fiction, The Fourth Horseman (1983), was an apocalyptic tale of worldwide plague.
In addition to science-fiction magazines, Nourse published in the Saturday Evening Post, Playboy, Boy’s Life, Argosy, Better Homes and Gardens, and other periodicals. The majority of his work was not science fiction. He wrote the “Family Doctor” medical column for Good Housekeeping for sixteen years and earned renown with his best-selling mainstream novel Intern (1965), published under the pseudonym Doctor X. He also wrote the novel Junior Intern (1955) and the nonfiction science book Nine Planets (1960).
Nourse was awarded the Washington State Governor’s Award at the Governor’s Festival of the Arts in 1966 and 1974. He was a member of the Kittitas County Medical Society and Kittitas HIV/AIDS Coalition, and he authored the popular science book AIDS (1989). His other books of popular science include Inside the Mayo Clinic (1979) and Hormones (1979). He died on July 19, 1992, in Thorp, Washington.