Biography
Poul Anderson was born on November 25, 1926, in Bristol, Pennsylvania, of Scandinavian parents. Shortly after his birth, his father, Anton Anderson, an engineer, moved the family to Texas, where they lived for over ten years. Following Anton Anderson's death, his widow took her children to Denmark. The family returned to the United States after the outbreak of World War II, settling eventually on a Minnesota farm.
Anderson received a degree in physics from the University of Minnesota in 1948. Although he earned his baccalaureate degree with honors, Anderson made no serious attempt to work as a physicist. His first story was published in 1947 while he was still an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota, and he worked as a free-lance writer after his college graduation in 1948.
Anderson married Karen Kruse in 1953 and moved with her to the San Francisco Bay area. Their daughter, Astrid, was born in 1954. They made their home in Orinda, California, near Berkeley. After Poul's death, his wife donated his typewriter and desk to The Other Change of Hobbit bookstore, in Berkeley, where Poul had given readings over the years.
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