Frederick Winsor (1) (1900–1958)

Frederick Winsor, Jr. was born in Massachusetts in 1900. He earned a degree in architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and spent his working life in architecture and related areas. His friends were scientists, teachers, lawyers, artists and writers. For most of his adult life he wrote light verse. He produced poems for family occasions, to amuse his friends and to entertain his children. He also wrote lyrics for amateur musical shows, many of which were produced by the St. Botolph Club of Boston. A voracious reader, he devoured detective fiction faster than the bookstores could keep him supplied and he was delighted by the emergence of science fiction to which he turned with enthusiasm. He retired in 1951 and wrote The Space Child's Mother Goose over the next few years, inspired perhaps by the development of space research and the birth of his first grandchild. He was working on a second book of verse when he died unexpectedly in 1958.