Jefferson Howard Sutton (July 25, 1913– January 31, 1979) was an American writer who wrote 23 books of science fiction, war, political and juvenile fiction.

Biography

Sutton was born on July 25, 1913, in Los Angeles, California. He began work at fourteen as an office boy in the editorial department of the ''

Los Angeles Examiner The ''Los Angeles Examiner'' was a newspaper founded in 1903 by William Randolph Hearst in Los Angeles. The afternoon '' Los Angeles Herald-Express'' and the morning ''Los Angeles Examiner'', both of which had been publishing in the city since t ...

'', where both he and his father worked for many years. He was a staff photographer and writer with International News Photos from 1937 to 1940. Sutton was in the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...

from 1932 through 1936 and reenlisted at the outset of World War II, serving with the

2nd Marine Division The 2nd Marine Division (2nd MARDIV) is a division of the United States Marine Corps, which forms the ground combat element of the II Marine Expeditionary Force (II MEF). The division is based at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina a ...

in the South and Central Pacific areas. His novel ''The River'' owes much to his experience on

Guadalcanal Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomons by area and the second- ...

. He married Eugenia Geneva Hansen on February 1, 1941, and they had two children: Christopher and Gale. Sutton did not immediately turn to writing after the war, but worked in a number of jobs, including as an assistant to

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

Mayor Harley Knox. After receiving his master's degree in

experimental psychology Experimental psychology is the work done by those who apply Experiment, experimental methods to psychological study and the underlying processes. Experimental psychologists employ Research participant, human participants and Animal testing, anim ...

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1897, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CS ...

, he worked as a research engineer in

human factors Ergonomics, also known as human factors or human factors engineering (HFE), is the application of psychological and physiological principles to the engineering and design of products, processes, and systems. Primary goals of human factors eng ...

engineering in the aerospace industry. He then worked in editorial public relations for

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales and fifth largest in the Unit ...

, an experience he used when writing his novel ''The Missile Lords'' a few years later. As a human factors engineer working for

Convair Convair, previously Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, was an American aircraft-manufacturing company that later expanded into rockets and spacecraft. The company was formed in 1943 by the merger of Consolidated Aircraft and Vultee ...

, he explored man's adaptation to machines and established his business as an editorial consultant to industry. Several years later he returned to writing.

Writing

Sutton began publishing fiction in 1958. Throughout his writing career he remained a free-lance editorial consultant to aerospace industries and published articles in related professional magazines. He published 23 novels in more than 10 languages, including a number of science fiction, war, political, and juvenile books. In one of his interviews he said that writing came naturally to him. He wrote that his greatest interest had always been people and the settings in which they function. As a writer, he focused on subjects related to his earlier work – space, astronautics, war, newspapers – and on science fiction. Among his books about space exploration are ''Bombs in Orbit'' (1959), ''Spacehive'' (1960) and ''Apollo at Go'' (1963). Sutton's 1963 fictional look at the first Apollo crewed lunar landing prophetically set the historic event in July 1969 although he did get the date wrong by a few weeks, July 8 instead of the July 20 date that the real

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 was a spaceflight conducted from July 16 to 24, 1969, by the United States and launched by NASA. It marked the first time that humans Moon landing, landed on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin l ...

landed on the Moon. Jean Sutton helped edit fifteen of her husband's novels, starting with his first fiction book ''First on the Moon'' (1958). They first collaborated as coauthors on the juvenile book ''The Beyond'' (1968). They published some juvenile books as coauthors, ''The Programmed Man'', ''Lord of the Stars'' and others. Three of them, ''Apollo at Go'', ''Beyond Apollo'' and ''The Programmed Man'', were Junior Literary Guild selections.

References

External links

Jeff Sutton
San Diego State University – Special Collections & University Archives * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sutton, Jefferson Howard 1979 deaths 1913 births Writers from Los Angeles 20th-century American writers 20th-century American male writers