82-year-old SF scholar Marshall B. Tymn died of pneumonia on May 24, 2020. Tymn was a key figure in the field in the 1970s and 1980s, and did much to advance the study of SF in academia. He won a Pilgrim Award for his lifetime contributions from the Science Fiction Research Association in 1990, and the Robert A. Collins Service Award from the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts in 1989.

Tymn’s first work of interest in the genre was A Directory of Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing Houses and Dealers (1974), and other books include A Research Guide to Science Fiction Studies: An Annotated Checklist of Primary and Secondary Sources (1977, with LW Currey & Roger C. Schlobin), Recent Critical Studies of Fantasy Literature: An Annotated Checklist (1978), and A Basic Reference Shelf for Sci-Fi Teachers (1978). he edited The Science Fiction Reference Book: A Comprehensive Handbook and Guide to the History, Literature, Scholarship and Related Activities of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Fields (1981) and Science Fiction: Teacher’s Guide and Resource Book (1988). He also compiled the ‘Scholarship of the Year’ checklists for the academic journal SF Extrapolation from 1927 to 1987, most of them collected in book form in several volumes. He compiled bibliographies American Fantasy & Science Fiction: Toward a Bibliography of Works Published in the United States, 1948-1973 (1979), Index of stories in science fiction thematic anthologies (1979, with LW Currey, Martin H. Greenberg & Joseph D Olander), Fantastic Literature: A Basic Collection and Reference Guide (1979, with Robert H. Boyer & Kenneth J. Zahorski), Horror Literature: A Basic Collection and Reference Guide (nineteen eighty one), Sci-Fi Literature Survey: Bibliographic Supplement (1982, with Frank N. Magill), and (most important) Science Fiction, Fantasy and Strange Fiction Magazines (1985, with Mike Ashley).

Marshal Benton Tymn was born December 11, 1937 in Detroit MI. He taught English at Eastern Michigan University until a car accident in 1989 resulted in a head injury; his wife Darlene took care of him afterwards. He is survived by his wife, son and daughter.

For more information, see its entry into the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.