Author Julius Fast died 16 December 2008 in Kingston, New York (he had lived in Manhattan until he suffered a stroke in 2007). Born in Manhattan in 1919, he won the Mystery Writers of America’s first Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1946 (the MWA didn’t institute an award for Best Novel until 1954), for his first novel (1945’s Watchful at Night). That first novel was published under the byline Sgt. Julius Fast, because he wrote it while serving in the US Army Medical Corps during World War II.
While serving in the Army, Fast edited the science fiction anthology Out of This World, which Penguin published in 1944. He also wrote a story in that volume, “My Friend Merton.” In 1966, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction published his story “Grow Old Along With Me”. His only sf novel, The League of Grey-Eyed Women, was published by Lippincott in 1969.
Fast was more prolific in the mystery field, writing several novels after his Edgar win, but he was best known for his nonfiction work in a variety of fields. His most successful book was Body Language (1970), which “analyzed the unconscious messages sent out by the human body,” according to The New York Times. He also wrote and edited medical magazines, and his writing speed and wide interests led him into odd realms of publishing, including What You Should Know About Human Sexual Response (1966, a response to the Masters and Johnson work on human sexuality), The Beatles: The Real Story (1968), You and Your Feet (1970), The New Sexual Fulfillment (1972), and Weather Language (1979).
He is survived by his wife, Barbara Sher (also a writer; they co-wrote Talking Between the Lines: How We Mean More Than We Say in 1979) whom he married in 1946, two daughters, one son, and five grandchildren. His brother, novelist Howard Fast, died in 2003.