Poul Anderson was born in Pennsylvania in 1926 to an American father and a Danish mother. They lived in Texas until the death of his father in late 1937. After some time traveling and a year and a half living in the Washington, D.C. area, Poul, his brother, and his mother settled in Minnesota in 1939. Poul attended the University of Minnesota where he graduated in 1948 with a degree in Physics. His first story was published in 1947 and he went on to have a prolific and successful writing career. He was the President of the Science Fiction Writers of America from 1972 to 1973 and was named a Grand Master in 1997. His works were widely recognized across the profession and fandom, winning 7 Hugo awards, 3 Nebula awards, a John Campbell Memorial award, and more. Poul’s writings encompassed most of the speculative spectrum including hard and soft science fiction; fantasy, folklore, and mythology; and alternate and future history. His writing was consistently informed by his love and knowledge of science, his Scandinavian heritage, as well as mythology and history. Poul passed away in 2001.

Karen Kruse was born in 1932 in Kentucky. She became involved with theater and acting in high school and discovered science fiction fandom after her family moved to Washington, D. C. Karen joined the Washington Science Fiction Association in 1952, started publishing fanzines, and attended her first Worldcon in Chicago. She was a frequent convention attendee and active participant in costume competitions. Karen is credited with the first intentional usage of the term “filk music” and wrote and staged a number of plays, musicals, and filk operettas, perhaps most notably “H.M.S Trek-a-Star.” Karen’s writing career included short stories and poetry, a number of fanzines, and she co-authored several books with Poul.

Poul and Karen met in 1952 at Worldcon in Chicago and they continued their relationship through correspondence for the next year with Karen living in Washington, D. C. and Poul traveling in Europe. They were married in 1953, settled in Orinda, CA and their daughter, Astrid, was born in 1954. The Anderson family was a staple of the science fiction and fantasy communities for many decades. Beyond science fiction and fantasy the Andersons participated in Sherlockiana groups and were founding members of the Society for Creative Anachronism.