Thomas M. Disch | Praised sci-fi author, 68

Thomas M. Disch, 68, who has been called one of the most important science-fiction writers of his generation, died Saturday in New York.

Friends said Mr. Disch was found dead in his apartment. He had shot himself in the head, according to the New York medical examiner.

In the genre of science fiction, Mr. Disch was considered unconventional. The strange new worlds he created were an odd mix: dark and horror-filled, humorous and playful. His work outfoxed readers' expectations, one critic said, and made labeling a chore for publishers.

But being outside the box was a Disch trademark

(hear his interview in June with blogger Edward Champion via http://go.philly.com/disch)

.

"Tom Disch is one of the few people I have ever met who I would consider a genius," said Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. "He was like a brilliant child in the richness of his imagination, although certainly no child had as dark and twisted an imagination as Tom did."

He also wrote poetry, drama criticism, book reviews, opera libretti, a computer interactive novel, plays and children's books. Critic John Clute once wrote that Mr. Disch was "perhaps the most respected, least trusted, most envied and least read of all modern first-rank SF writers."

Though he never won mainstream fame, he was highly regarded in the world of science fiction. Three of his novels,

Camp Concentration

,

334

, and

On Wings of Songs

, were named in

Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels

, a survey by critic David Pringle.

His nonfiction work,

The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World

, received a Hugo Award in 1999.

One of his best-known works, the New York Times noted, was

The Brave Little Toaster: A Bedtime Story for Small Appliances

(1986), which was turned into a movie. A Times reviewer wrote that the book was more sophisticated than it seemed, saying, "Buy it for your children; read it yourself."

- L.A. Times