Carl Freedman is the William A. Read Professor Emeritus of English Literature at Louisiana State University and the author of many books, including The Age of Nixon: A Study in Cultural Power; The Incomplete Projects: Marxism, Modernity, and the Politics of Culture; and Versions of Hollywood Crime Cinema: Studies in Ford, Wilder, Coppola, Scorsese, and Others. As you can see, his interests range widely but one of the main ones through the years has been science fiction. In addition to his book Critical Theory and Science Fiction, he has written many articles on the subject and edited collections of interviews with several sci-fi writers, including the subject of this episode, Samuel R. "Chip" Delany.

Delany was born in 1942 and started publishing at the age of 20. He is a prolific author in many genres, most frequently science fiction--and he was named a Grand Master of the form in 2013. Among his books mentioned in this episode are Babel-17; Dhalgren; Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand; Times Square Red, Times Square Blue; Sods and Surds; and Of Solids and Surds.

Delany's website. Delany's Facebook page.

Carl Freedman's website. His Facebook page.

Following up on a couple of points mentioned in the podcast, Delany's aunts Sadie (born 1889) and Bessie (born 1891) were first the subjects of a magazine article in 1991, then a book called Having Our Say in 1993, and then a Broadways play (also called Having Our Say) in 1995.

Green's Dictionary of Slang lists the first appearance in print of the following terms:

Horse opera: 1927
Soap opera: 1939
Space opera: 1949

Photo of Delany by Delany.