E. G. Valens
E. G. Valens, born Evans Gladstone Valens, Jr. in 1920, was an American journalist, television producer, and author known for his contributions to science communication and children's literature. He graduated from Amherst College in 1941 and began his career as a reporter before becoming a traveling correspondent for United Press International during World War II, where he reported from various locations, including Guam and Germany, and was awarded a Purple Heart for his service. After the war, Valens joined KQED in San Francisco, where he produced and directed science programs that explored complex topics in an accessible format. His notable works include the award-winning book "Elements of the Universe," co-authored with Glenn Theodore Seaborg, and titles focused on geometry and gravity. Additionally, he wrote children's books, including the story of champion skier Jill Kinmont Boothe, which were later adapted into films. Throughout his career, Valens's work garnered attention, and his writings were translated into multiple languages. He was married to Winifred A. Crary and had four children before their divorce in 1975. Valens passed away in San Francisco in 1992, leaving behind a legacy in both television and literature.
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Subject Terms
E. G. Valens
Author
- Born: April 17, 1920
- Birthplace: State College, Pennsylvania
- Died: February 11, 1992
- Place of death: San Francisco, California
Biography
Evans Gladstone Valens, Jr., was born in 1920 in State College, Pennsylvania, the son of a salesman and a housewife. He attended Amherst College in Massachusetts, receiving a B.A. in 1941. He then took a job as a reporter for the Herald-Post newspaper in El Paso, Texas. In 1943, he became a traveling correspondent for United Press International, reporting from San Francisco; Salt Lake City, Utah; Helena, Montana; and Honolulu, Hawaii. During World War II, he covered the conflict in Guam, Germany, and Okinawa, Japan, where he was wounded and received a Purple Heart in 1945.
Valens joined San Francisco public television station KQED in 1954, working as a producer, writer, and director until 1961. In 1957, he was on loan to the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in New York City, where he produced the ten-episode live documentary series, A Small Planet Takes a Look at Itself. That year, he also worked at Johns Hopkins University and for the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) television network. During his seven years as a public television writer, Valens worked on several science programs, including The Atom, The Elements, Virus, and The Measure of Man.
Valens wrote several books on the themes he explored in these science programs. His first book, Elements of the Universe, was cowritten with Glenn Theodore Seaborg and received the Thomas Alva Edison Foundation National Mass Media Award in 1959. He and Wendell M. Stanley published Viruses and the Nature of Life in 1961. Valens also wrote books about geometry and gravity, The Number of Things: Pythagoras, Geometry, and Humming Strings and The Attractive Universe: Gravity and the Shape of Space. The latter book inspired Valens’s poem, Cybernaut, published in 1968. In Contemporary Authors, Valens described this poem as being “about a lone man’s return from a long, sterile journey into space.”
Valens wrote several children’s books, beginning with Me and Frumpet, published in 1958. He also wrote two books about Jill Kinmont Boothe, a champion skier who was injured in an accident that left her a quadriplegic, A Long Way Up: The Story of Jill Kinmont and The Other Side of the Mountain: Part II. Universal Studios produced film adaptations of both books. Valens’s books have enjoyed broad popular success, although not at the best-seller level, and have been translated into Czech, Danish, German, Italian, Japanese, Swedish, and Russian.
Valens married Winifred A. Crary in 1941, and the couple had four children before they divorced in 1975. He died in San Francisco in 1992.