RIP Hugh Hefner

You've probably already heard that Hugh Hefner, the founder of Playboy, died today at the age of 91.

You're probably also wondering why the heck I, a science fiction writer, care.

Well, I care because...

...Playboy published science fiction. Yup, in amongst the girlie pics, and also in a number of tie-in anthologies.

And it was a surprisingly good fit - because neither science fiction nor pornography were considered real literature.

Except, of course, a lot of men (and probably quite a few women too) read Playboy - 7 million subscribers by the 1970s - and that meant a larger audience for science fiction than...well, almost any other outlet, at the time, before, or since.

Hefner hired a series of fiction editors - Ray Russell, A.C. Spectorsky, Robie MacAuley, Arthur Ketchmer and Alice K. Turner all played a role. (Why yes, yes, a woman). And Playboy ran stories by Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Arthur C. Clarke...and by some authors you definitely wouldn't expect. Ursula K. LeGuin? Margaret Atwood of Handmaid's Tale fame? Doris Lessing? (Feminists writing for a girlie mag?) Playboy stopped producing a lot of science fiction after Turner retired in 2000, but who knows - maybe they'll get back to it.

And then there was a little story called "The Crooked Man" published in 1955. Hefner got hate mail for this story. It was a science fiction story where most people were gay and heterosexuality was punished - I believe the original of the classic reversal trope to heighten awareness of persecution.

See, Hugh Hefner was an outspoken advocate for LGBT rights and same sex marriage. Oh, and racial equality. Oh yes, and he called himself a feminist, although some people question that. In fact, on that front his legacy is distinctly controversial. He challenged prudish norms and fought for sexual liberation, but he's still seen as a pornographer. And he did have a harem.

I'm not going to hold him up as a feminist, because I don't know that he was one.

But he was in favor of gay rights.

And he published some dang good science fiction.