Stover, Leon Eugene
Born: April 9, 1929, in Lewistown, Pennsylvania
Died: November 25, 2006, in Chicago, Illinois
Vocations: Professor; Anthropologist; Historian; Non-fiction Writer; Fiction Writer
Geographic Connection to Pennsylvania: Lewistown, Mifflin County

Keywords: Columbia University; H.G. Wells; Illinois Institute of Technology; Science Fiction Writers of America; Sinology; Western Maryland College

Abstract: Leon Stover was born on April 9, 1929, in Lewistown, Pennsylvania to parents George Franklin and Helen Elizabeth Stover. He received his M.A. in 1952 and his Ph.D. in 1963 from Columbia University in the field of Sinology (the study of Chinese culture.) Stover then began a career centered on his love of anthropology, spanning 40 years. Stover’s main post was at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, where he retired at the rank of professor emeritus after working at the institute from 1965-95. Stover spent the next decade focusing on his writings, eventually dying of complications from diabetes at his home in Chicago on November 25, 2006.

Biography:

Leon Stover was born on April 9, 1929, in Lewistown, Pennsylvanai to parents George Franklin and Helen Elizabeth Stover. Stover firstly attended Western Maryland College, achieving a B.A. in 1950. Stover then moved to New York to study at Columbia University, where he received his M.A. in 1952.

Stover began a career centered on his love of anthropology, gaining a post at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City as an instructor from 1955-57. Stover then moved to an assistant professor (later becoming associate professor of anthropology) post at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY, from 1957-65. During this period, Stover met and later married Takeko Kawai, a professor, on October 12, 1956.

Stover completed a Ph.D. in the field of Sinology (the study of Chinese culture) in 1963, at Columbia University. After this, Stover started a career at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, where he rose to the rank of professor emeritus after working at the institute from 1965-95. Stover spent the next decade focusing on his writings, eventually dying of complications from diabetes at his home in Chicago on November 25, 2006.

Works:

• Apeman, Spaceman: Anthropological Science Fiction (anthology). New York:  Doubleday, 1968.
• Stonehenge. London: P. Davies, 1972 (revised edition published as Stonehenge: Where Atlantis Died, New York: Tor Books, 1983.)
• Above the Human Landscape: An Anthology of Social Science Fiction. Ed. with Willis E. McNelly.  Pacific Palisades, CA: Goodyear Publishing, 1972.
• The Cultural Ecology of Chinese Civilization: Peasants and Elites in the Last of the Agrarian States. New York: Mentor Books, 1974.
• Stonehenge and the Origins of Western Culture. London: Heinemann, 1978.
• The Shaving of Karl Marx. Chicago IL: Chiron Press, 1982.
• Robert Heinlein. Boston: Twayne, 1987.
• The Prophetic Soul: A Reading of H. G. Wells’s “Things to Come.” Jefferson: McFarland and Co., 1987.
• Harry Harrison. Boston: Twayne, 1990.
• Science Fiction from Wells to Heinlein. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2002.
• Stonehenge City: A Reconstruction. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2003.

Sources:

• “Leon Eugene Stover.” The Gale Literary Database: Contemporary Authors Online. 13 Dec. 2006. 30 Mar. 2007. <http://www.galenet.com>.

This biography was prepared by Matthew Billingsley.