View source for Frank M. Robinson

{{short description|American science fiction writer}}
{{About|the science fiction and techno-thriller writer|the man who named Coca-Cola|Frank Mason Robinson|other people named Frank Robinson|Frank Robinson (disambiguation)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Frank M. Robinson
| image       = Frank M Robinson 5506.jpg
| alt         = 
| caption     = Frank M Robinson c.1955
| birth_name  = Frank Malcolm Robinson
| birth_date  = {{Birth date|1926|8|9}}
| birth_place = [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], U.S.
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|2014|6|30|1926|8|9}}
| death_place = [[San Francisco]], [[California]], U.S.
| other_names = 
| known_for   = 
| occupation  = 
}}
'''Frank Malcolm Robinson''' (August 9, 1926&nbsp;– June 30, 2014) was an American science fiction and [[techno-thriller]] writer. He was a speechwriter for gay politician [[Harvey Milk]] and Milk's designated successor in the event of his death but declined to be appointed to or run for office.<ref name="Obit">{{cite news |last1=Hawkins |first1=Steve |title=Frank M. Robinson dies at 87; author and Harvey Milk speechwriter |url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-frank-robinson-20140710-story.html |access-date=August 10, 2022 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=July 9, 2014}}</ref>

==Biography==
Born in [[Chicago]], Illinois.<ref>{{Citation |last=Smith |first=Curtis C. |author-link=Curtis C. Smith |author2=R. E. Briney |title=Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers |publisher=St. Martin's |year=1981 |page=[https://archive.org/details/twentiethcentury0000unse_o0x9/page/452 452] |isbn=978-0-312-82420-4 |title-link=Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers }}</ref> Robinson was the son of a check forger.<ref name="robinson">{{citation |url=http://frankmrobinson.com/bio.html |title=Frank M. Robinson's Official Website |access-date=2008-12-05 |archive-date=February 11, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120211124315/http://frankmrobinson.com/bio.html |url-status=usurped }}</ref> He started out  in his teens working as a copy boy for [[International News Service]] and then became an office boy for [[Ziff Davis]].<ref name="robinson" /> He was drafted into the [[United States Navy|Navy]] for [[World War II]], and when his tour was over attended [[Beloit College]], where he majored in [[physics]], graduating in 1950. He could find no work as a writer, so he ended up back in the Navy and serving in [[Korean War|Korea]], where he kept writing and reading, as well as publishing in ''[[Analog Science Fiction and Fact|Astounding]]'' magazine.

After the Navy, he attended graduate school in journalism, then worked for a Chicago-based Sunday supplement. Soon he switched to ''[[Science Digest]]'', where he worked from 1956 to 1959. From there, he moved into men's magazines: ''[[Rogue (magazine)|Rogue]]'' (1959–65) and ''[[Cavalier (magazine)|Cavalier]]'' (1965–66). In 1969, ''[[Playboy]]'' asked him to take over the ''Playboy Advisor'' column. He remained there, without revealing that he was gay, until 1973, when he left to write full-time.

After moving to [[San Francisco]] in the 1970s, Robinson was a speechwriter for gay politician [[Harvey Milk]]; he had a small role in the film ''[[Milk (2008 American film)|Milk]]''.<ref name="milk">{{Cite news |last=Duin |first=Steve |title=Van Sant's "Milk" helps writer visit the past |newspaper=[[The Oregonian]] |date=March 11, 2008 |url=http://www.oregonlive.com/movies/index.ssf/2008/03/milk.html}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Davis |first=Andrew |title=Frank Robinson: On Harvey Milk |newspaper=[[Windy City Times]] |date=November 19, 2008 |url=http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=19839 }}</ref> After [[Moscone–Milk assassinations|Milk's assassination]], Robinson was co-executor, with [[Scott Smith (activist)|Scott Smith]], of Milk's last [[will and testament]].<ref name="Scott Smith obit">{{cite news |title=Scott Smith — Harvey Milk Friend |newspaper=[[SFGate]] |date=February 7, 1995 |url=http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Scott-Smith-Harvey-Milk-Friend-3046027.php }}
</ref>

Robinson was the author of 16 books, the editor of two others, and penned numerous articles.<ref name="robinson" /> Three of his novels have been made into films. ''[[The Power (1956 novel)|The Power]]'' (1956) was a [[supernatural]] science fiction and government [[Conspiracy theory|conspiracy]] novel about people with [[superhuman]] skills, filmed in 1968 as ''[[The Power (1968 film)|The Power]]''. The technothriller ''[[The Glass Inferno]]'', co-written with [[Thomas N. Scortia]], was combined with [[Richard Martin Stern]]'s ''[[The Tower (Stern novel)|The Tower]]'' to produce the 1974 [[feature film]] ''[[The Towering Inferno]]''. ''The Gold Crew'', also co-written with Scortia, was a nuclear threat thriller filmed as an NBC miniseries and re-titled ''[[The Fifth Missile]]''.

He collaborated on several other works with Scortia, including ''The Prometheus Crisis'', ''The Nightmare Factor'', and ''Blow-Out''. More recent works include ''[[The Dark Beyond the Stars]]'' (1991), and an updated version of ''The Power'' (2000), which closely followed ''Waiting'' (1999), a novel with similar themes to ''The Power''. His novel{{Update after |2015|8|reason=He is dead; this should mention his ''last'' novel}} is a medical thriller about organ theft called ''The Donor''.<ref>{{cite web|author=Locus Publications |url=http://www.locusmag.com/News/2014/06/frank-m-robinson-1926-2014-2/ |title=Locus Online News » Frank M. Robinson (1926-2014) |publisher=Locusmag.com |access-date=2014-06-30|date=2014-06-30 }}</ref>

In the 1970s, Robinson started seriously collecting the vintage pulp-fiction magazines that he had grown up reading. The collection spawned a book on the history of the pulps as seen through their vivid cover art: ''Pulp Culture: The Art of Fiction Magazines'' (with co-author Lawrence Davidson).<ref>Frank M. Robinson and Lawrence Davidson, ''Pulp Culture: The Art of Fiction Magazines'' (Portland, OR: Collectors Press, 2001).</ref> He attended numerous pulp conventions and in 2000 won the Lamont Award for lifetime achievement at Pulpcon.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.pulpfest.com/2014/07/a-tribute-to-frank-m-robinson|title = Remembering Frank M. Robinson – PulpFest}}</ref>

In 2009 he was inducted into the [[Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.glhalloffame.org/index.pl?page=inductees&todo=year |title=Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame |access-date=2015-11-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151017032241/http://www.glhalloffame.org/index.pl?page=inductees&todo=year |archive-date=October 17, 2015 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

== Works ==

=== Novels ===

* ''[[The Power (1956 novel)|The Power]]'' (1956)
* ''[[The Glass Inferno]]'' (1974, with [[Thomas N. Scortia]])
* ''The Prometheus Crisis'' (1975, with [[Thomas N. Scortia]])
* ''The Nightmare Factor'' (1978, with [[Thomas N. Scortia]])
* ''The Gold Crew'' (1980, with [[Thomas N. Scortia]])
* ''The Great Divide'' (1982, with John F. Levin)
* ''Blow-Out!'' (1987, with [[Thomas N. Scortia]])
* ''[[The Dark Beyond the Stars]]'' (1991)
* ''Death of a Marionette'' (1995, with Paul Hull)
* ''Waiting'' (1999)
* ''The Donor'' (2004)

=== Short story collections ===

* ''A Life in the Day of... and Other Short Stories'' (1981). Contains 9 short stories: 
** "The Maze" (1950)
** "The Reluctant Heroes" (1951). Novelette
** "The Fire and the Sword" (1951). Novelette
** "The Santa Claus Planet" (1951). Novelette
** "The Hunting Season" (1951). Novelette
** "The Wreck of the Ship John B." (1967). Novelette
** ""East Wind, West Wind"" (1972). Novelette
** "A Life in the Day of..." (1969)
** "Downhill All the Way" (1974)
* ''Through My Glasses Darkly'', Edited by [[Robin Wayne Bailey]] (2002). Contains 5 short stories: 
** "Causes" (1997). Novelette
** ""East Wind, West Wind"" (1972). Novelette
** "The Hunting Season" (1951). Novelette
** "A Life in the Day Of..." (1969)
** "Hail, Hail, Rock and Roll" (1994)

=== Short stories ===

Uncollected short stories.

* "Situation Thirty" (1951)
* "Two Weeks in August" (1951)
* "Beyond the Ultra-Violet" (1951)
* "Good Luck, Columbus!" (1951)
* "Untitled Story" (1951). Novelette
* "You've Got to Believe" (1951)
* "The Girls from Earth" (1952). Novelette
* "Viewpoint" (1953)
* "The Night Shift" (1953)
* "Muscle Man" (1953)
* "Quiz Game" (1953)
* "The Day the World Ended" (1953)
* "Decision" (1953)
* "Guaranteed - Forever!" (1953)
* "The Siren Sounds at Midnight" (1953)
* "Planted!, AKA The Observer" (1953)
* "Quarter in the Slot" (1954)
* "The Lonely Man" (1954)
* "The Worlds of Joe Shannon" (1954)
* "One Thousand Miles Up" (1954)
* "The Oceans Are Wide" (1954). Novelette
* "The Dead End Kids of Space" (1954). Novelette
* "Cosmic Saboteur" (1955). Novelette
* "Dream Street" (1955)
* "Four Hours to Eternity" (1955)
* "You Don't Walk Alone" (1955)
* "Wanted: One Sane Man" (1955). Novelette
* "A Rover I Will Be" (1960)
* "Merry Christmas, No. 30267" (1993)
* "The Greatest Dying" (1993)
* "1969 Hail, Hail, Rock and Roll" (1994)
* "Dealer's Choice" (1994)
* "One Month in 1907" (1994) (collected in [[Mike Resnick]]'s alternate history anthology ''[[Alternate Outlaws]]'')
* "The Phantom of the Barbary Coast" (1995). Novelette
* "Infallibility, Obedience, and Acts of Contrition" (1997) (collected in Mike Resnick's alternate history anthology ''[[Alternate Tyrants]]'')
* "Love Story" (2003)
* "The Errand Boy" (2010). Novelette

=== Poems ===

* ''The Nether Gardens'' (1945)

=== Nonfiction ===

;Autobiographies:
* ''Not So Good a Gay Man: A Memoir'' (2017)

;Guides:
* ''Pulp Culture: The Art of Fiction Magazines'' (1998, with [[Lawrence Davidson]])
* ''Science Fiction of the 20th Century: An Illustrated History'' (1999)

;Self Help:
* ''Therapeutic Re-Creation: Ideas and Experiences'' (1974)
* ''A Holistic Perspective on the Disabled Child: Applications in Camping, Recreation, and Community Life'' (1985)
* ''Coping+plus: Dimensions of Disability'' (1995, with Dwight Woodworth Jr., Doe West)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20050408133633/http://frankmrobinson.com/ Frank M. Robinson's Official Web Site]}}
* {{Gutenberg author | id=34076}}
* {{Librivox author |id=11795}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Frank M. Robinson |sopt=t}}
* {{isfdb name|id=1266|name=Frank M. Robinson}}
* {{IMDb name|id=0732631|name=Frank M. Robinson}}
* [https://www.freesfonline.net/authors/Frank%20M._Robinson.html Frank M. Robinson's online fiction] at ''Free Speculative Fiction Online''

{{Authority control}}

{{Harvey Milk}}
{{Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Frank M.}}
[[Category:1926 births]]
[[Category:2014 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century American novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century American male writers]]
[[Category:American gay writers]]
[[Category:American LGBTQ military personnel]]
[[Category:American LGBTQ novelists]]
[[Category:American male novelists]]
[[Category:American science fiction writers]]
[[Category:Beloit College alumni]]
[[Category:Harvey Milk]]
[[Category:Hugo Award–winning writers]]
[[Category:Lambda Literary Award winners]]
[[Category:LGBTQ people from California]]
[[Category:LGBTQ people from Illinois]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Chicago]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Illinois]]
[[Category:Novelists from Chicago]]
[[Category:Pulp fiction writers]]
[[Category:United States Navy personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:United States Navy personnel of the Korean War]]
[[Category:Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area]]
[[Category:LGBTQ rights activists from California]]
[[Category:LGBTQ rights activists from Illinois]]