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He is an old fashioned Science Fiction writer. I have a special fondness for him because he wrote, "Time of the Great Freeze."
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It was published in 1964, and it was the first book I ever read from the non-kids section of the Hawthorne Library.
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Jeanie (my baby-sitter) would take us to the Hawthorne Library every week or so, and we were allowed to get 2 books (or maybe just Cindy and I were allowed 2 books) and she would get a Dr. Suess book to read to us all.
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And I usually got kids books.. You know about alligators, or snakes, or dinosaurs with lots of creepy pictures.
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But one day - and I had to be about 7 years old, she steered me to the older kids section.
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I thought it was the adults section but, looking back, it had to be like "teen-ager" section.
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Anyway, I found this book - Time of the Great Freeze. And I loved it..
It is set in New York City underground after a freak Ice Age. After not hearing from any other cities for decades (centuries?) - they hear a radio broadcast from London, and set out over the frozen Atlantic to visit.
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So, clearly, adventure.
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Then in London they find out that, over the decades, history has been rewritten by each side. London(ers) think that they gave up "the colonies" because they were too much trouble. While Americans know they won the Revolutionary war. My first introduction to propaganda (although they didn't call it that, I didn't fully get it at 7 years old). I was fascinated.
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And in the end, both parties made it to Brazil, where life had progressed well. The idea that another place (in Latin American at that!) was doing better than the USA was amazing at the time.
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I was hooked on a world of ideas. One I haven't ever really given up on. Not Brazil or London (although, I do actually visit and love both places) - but the challenge that science fiction brought me to look at things differently. Speculative Fiction has, in many ways, left science aside now. Science moves too fast. And I have, therefore, abandoned a lot of "speculative" fiction aside - Vampires don't thrill me.
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But I have never really forgotten the debt I owe to Mr. Silverberg and the Hawthorne Library.
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Or, to be honest, Dr. Suess. Here are final words to live by from the good doctor.
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