Alexei Panshin (1940 – )

He is perhaps best known for the 1968 Nebula Award-winning novel Rite of Passage.

Panshin is also noted for the cult favorite Anthony Villiers series which consists of three books

* Starwell
* The Thurb Revolution
* Masque World

The fourth volume of the series, The Universal Pantograph, never appeared, reputedly because of conflicts between the writer and his publisher. Of the Villiers series, noted SF writer Samuel R. Delany writes "It...examines the proposition that the world is composed of small communities of mutual interest...[Starwell] is a gallery of gamblers, duels and doublecrosses, a minuet of manners and manners mangled; the machinery of the universe is speculated upon; inspector generals arrive to inspect it. And Anthony Villiers, gentleman par excellance, dashes through it all, buckling a swash or two, bungling a couple of others."

Panshin published a study of SF legend Robert A. Heinlein, Earth Magic with wife Cory Panshin.