William Tenn

Phil Klass was born in London in 1920. His family emmigrated to the US during the '20s. Phil grew up in New York City. He took to writing fiction during the lengthy commute to his day job at Bell Labs in New Jersey. Phil helped many young writers. 'Daniel Keyes', who wrote "Flowers for Algernon" (Charly (1968)), was a friend of Phil's. Daniel told Phil that an editor wanted him to change the ending to a happy ending and Phil encouraged him not to! Under the pseudonum William Tenn, he sold about 60 SF stories in about 20 years, including "On Venus, Have We Got a Rabbi." Phil was an English professor at Penn State for over 20 years. One of his students was David Morrell, who went on to write First Blood (1982). Phil has retired as a professor and lives in the Pittsburgh area. Phil's nephew is screenwriter David Klass and his nieces are Perri Klass and Judy Klass.