Bernard Wolfe was an American writer. He was educated at Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

, and worked in the United States Merchant Marine

United States Merchant Marine

The United States Merchant Marine refers to the fleet of U.S. civilian-owned merchant vessels, operated by either the government or the private sector, that engage in commerce or transportation of goods and services in and out of the navigable waters of the United States. The Merchant Marine is...

 during the 1930s. Wolfe worked briefly as secretary and bodyguard to Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....

 during the latter's exile in Mexico. During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 he was employed as a military correspondent by a number of science magazines, and then in 1946 he began to write fiction. Wolfe was the co-writer of musician Milton Mezzrow

Mezz Mezzrow

Milton Mesirow, better known as Mezz Mezzrow was an American jazz clarinetist and saxophonist from Chicago, Illinois. Mezzrow is well known for organizing and financing historic recording sessions with Tommy Ladnier and Sidney Bechet. Mezzrow also recorded a number of times with Bechet and...

's autobiography Really The Blues. He married actress Dolores Michaels

Dolores Michaels

Dolores Rae Michaels was an American actress.-Biography:She was born in Kansas City, Missouri, to Esther Marie "Essie" and Raymond Roscoe "Ray" Michaels .Her father was at one-time a professional baseball player who spent time as a catcher in the Chicago Cubs...

, with whom he had twin daughters.

Limbo

He wrote several novels, and plays, mostly for television, but is known primarily for his 1952 science-fiction novel Limbo. Because Limbo was set in the then-distant future of 1990, the original British edition is titled Limbo '90. The publisher claimed that Wolfe had written "the first book of science-fiction to project the present-day concept of 'cybernetics

Cybernetics

Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to information theory, control theory and systems theory, at least in its first-order form...

' to its logical conclusion". David Pringle

David Pringle

David Pringle is a Scottish science fiction editor.Pringle served as the editor of Foundation, an academic journal, from 1980 through 1986, during which time he became one of the prime movers of the collective which founded Interzone in 1982...

 selected Limbo for inclusion in his book Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels

Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels

Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels, An English-Language Selection, 1949-1984 is a nonfiction book by David Pringle, published by Xanadu in 1985. The foreword is by Michael Moorcock....

. Boucher

Anthony Boucher

Anthony Boucher was an American science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short stories. He was particularly influential as an editor. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle...

 and McComas

J. Francis McComas

Jesse Francis McComas was an American science fiction editor. McComas wrote several stories on his own in the 1950s using both his own name and the pseudonym Webb Marlowe....

, however, received the novel poorly, calling it "pretentious hodgepodge" and describing its theme as "a symbolically interesting idea . . . never developed with consistent or convincing details." P. Schuyler Miller

P. Schuyler Miller

Peter Schuyler Miller was an American science fiction writer and critic.-Life:Miller was raised in New York's Mohawk Valley, which led to a life-long interest in the Iroquois Indians. He pursued this as an amateur archaeologist and a member of the New York State Archaeological Association.He...

 gave Limbo a mixed review, describing it as a "colossus of a novel" while faulting its "endless talk."

Novels and collections

• Limbo (1952)
• The Late Risers, Their Masquerade (1954)
• In Deep (1957)
• The Great Prince Died (also published as Trotsky Dead) (1959)
• The Magic of Their Singing (1961)
• Come On Out, Daddy (1963)
• Move Up, Dress Up, Drink Up, Burn Up (short story collection)(1968)
• Logan's Gone (1974)
• Lies (1975)

Short stories

Many of his short stories were published by Playboy Magazine

Playboy

Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...

, and two stories placed in Harlan Ellison

Harlan Ellison

Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...

's Again, Dangerous Visions

Again, Dangerous Visions

Again, Dangerous Visions is the sequel to the science fiction short story anthology Dangerous Visions, first published in 1972. It was edited by Harlan Ellison and illustrated by Ed Emshwiller....

 anthology.

• "The Never Ending Penny", originally published in Playboy Magazine
  Playboy
  Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
  
  , 1960