So much American science fiction is parochial -- not as true now as it was years ago, but the assumption is one culture in the future, more or less like ours, and with the same ideals, the same notions of how to do things, just bigger and flashier technology. Well, you know darn well it doesn't work that way...

Van Rijn is however far from the modern type of business executive being a kind of throwback to the merchant venturer of the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century. The family returned to the United States after the outbreak of World War II settling eventually on a Minnesota farm. Biography
Poul Anderson was born on November 25 1926 in Bristol Pennsylvania of Scandinavian parents.

He received numerous awards for his writing including seven Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards. Poul William Anderson (November 25 1926 – July 31 2001) was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century.