Theodore Sturgeon was born Edward Hamilton Waldo in New York City. He later adopted his stepfather's surname and took on a new first name. While still a teenager he went to sea for three years. He began publishing sf in 1939 but stopped producing it after a few years and went abroad. He began writing again in 1946 and, in the next fifteen years, produced almost all of the work for which he is famous. He is one of sf's great short story writers and his acclaimed novels include More than Human, the winner of the International Fantasy Award for 1954, The Cosmic Rape and Venus Plus X.