Theodore Cogswell

Theodore Rose Cogswell, (10 March 1918 - 3 February 1987), was an American science fiction author. His first published short story, "The Spectre General" in the magazine Astounding (June 1952), was a humorous tale in which a long-forgotten maintenance brigade of the Imperial Space Marines holds the promise of reinvigorating a declining Galactic Empire. Cogswell wrote nearly 40 science fiction stories, most in the same lighthearted vein as his first, and was co-author of a novel in the Star Trek franchise.

Cogswell was also the editor of the long-running "fanzine for pros", Proceedings of the Institute for Twenty-First Century Studies, a collection of which was published in 1993. In this, writers and editors discussed their and each other's works.

During the Spanish Civil War, he served as an ambulance driver on the Republican side in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

In recent years, Cogswell's short story "The Wall Around the World" (1962) was rediscovered and got much attention due especially to the many similarities between its protagonist and Harry Potter: Like Potter, Cogswell's Porgie is an orphan boy living with his aunt and uncle, who learns magic in school, flies on a broomstick and is constantly persecuted by a nasty cousin (who is, in this case, part of the magical community). There is, however, no direct evidence that J.K. Rowling read Cogwell's story or was influenced by it.

Bibliography

• The Wall Around the World (1962) (short stories)
• The Third Eye (1968) (short stories)
• Spock, Messiah! (1976) (Star Trek novel with Charles A. Spano, Jr.)
• The Friggin Falcon (1981) (poem)
• PITFCS: Proceedings of the Institute for Twenty-First Century Studies (1993)