Latham, Philip
Entry updated 13 January 2025. Tagged: Author.
Pseudonym used for his sf by US astronomer Robert Shirley Richardson (1902-1981). He began publishing sf in the magazines with "N Day" (January 1946Astounding), and continued to 1977, with twenty or so stories in all; many had astronomical themes (seeAstronomy). The most anthologized is "The Xi Effect" (January 1950Astounding), in which Earth is found to be in a segment of the Universe that is contracting without limit – leading toDisaster as the shrinkage eventually makes light itself (whose various wavelengths remain constant) inaccessible to humanPerception (seeAlternate Cosmos). Many of his later stories, oddly, are as much aboutMagic as they areHard SF.
Latham wrote twoChildren's SF novels:Five against Venus (1952) andMissing Men of Saturn (1953), and around the same time also wrote scripts for the juvenile television seriesCaptain Video. As Robert S Richardson he wrote many astronomical and scientific articles for sf magazines, the story "Kid Anderson" (Spring 1957Space Science Fiction Magazine), the semifictionalSecond Satellite (1956), and more than ten books on astronomy, including the juvenileExploring Mars (1954; vtMan and the Planets1954). His essay "Inside Out Matter" (December 1941Astounding) as R S Richardson contains the earliest known use of "contraterrene" to describeAntimatter. [PN/DRL]
see also:Outer Planets;Physics;Scientists;Sun;Venus.
Robert Shirley Richardson
born Kokomo, Indiana: 22 April 1902
died Altadena, California: 12 November 1981
works as by Philip Latham
- Five against Venus (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: John C Winston Co,1952) [hb/VirgilFinlay]
- Missing Men of Saturn (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: John C Winston Co,1953) [hb/AlexSchomburg]
works as Robert S Richardson
- Exploring Mars (New York: McGraw-Hill,1954) [nonfiction: hb/]
- Man and the Planets (London: Frederick Muller,1954) [nonfiction: vt of the above: hb/]
- Second Satellite (New York: Whittlesey House,1956) [hb/MelHunter]
- A Move Too Far (place not given: Pen Press,2009) [chap: pb/]
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