Steven H Silver is reporting the death of Richard A. Hoen of Hamburg, New York, on 2 August 2010. Born 14 September 1928, he was a first lieutenant in the US Army during the Korean War.
Hoen cemented his place in science fiction history as a twenty-year-old college student at Buffalo’s Canisius College. In October 1948, he wrote a letter to Astounding Science Fiction‘s editor John W. Campbell. The letter, which appeared in the magazine’s November 1948 issue, was a critique of the November 1949 issue (cover at right). When Hoen’s predicted issue hit the newsstands, Time magazine thought its genesis worthy of an article (available here). The article notes that Campbell ran the letter in 1948 with the comment “Hm-m-m—he must be off on another time track.” Then Campbell contacted the authors and artists mentioned in the letter, to prepare the issue Hoen had predicted. The contents of that issue included:
“What Dead Men Tell” by Theodore Sturgeon
…And Now You Don’t, part 1 of 3, by Isaac Asimov
Gulf, part 1 of 2, by Robert A. Heinlein
“Over the Top” by Lester del Rey
“Finished” by L. Sprague de Camp
“Final Command” by A.E. van Vogt
When the predicted issue arrived, Campbell sent Hoen a fully autographed copy of it. Time then interviewed Hoen, who said “I’d forgotten all about my letter. They didn’t even answer it.”
Campbell’s editorial on prediction, which lead off the issue, is available here.