L. Sprague de Camp, born in New York City and educated there, in the South, and in California, received his BS in Aeronautical Engineering from Cal Tech in 1930 and earned his MS from Stevens Institute three years later. He served as a Lieutenant Commander in the US Naval Reserve in WWII. For the last half-century, he has spent his life pounding a hot typewriter, first in Suburban Philadelphia and then in Texas. Author of over 120 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books and several hundred short stories, he is also well-known for many non-fiction works in history, science, and biography. In 1978, Sprague received from the Science Fiction Writers of America their Grand Master Nebula Award. L. Sprague de Camp, well-known legend of the Golden Age of Science Fiction, passed away on November 6, 2000.