Frederik Pohl was one of the major figures of twentieth-century American science fiction: a writer, editor, agent, anthologist, and critic whose career helped shape the field from the magazine era through the modern period. Born in 1919, Pohl was closely associated with the Futurians and with the development of socially aware, idea-driven science fiction. His later novels, including The Space Merchants, Man Plus, and Gateway, made him especially known for fiction that examined commerce, advertising, bureaucracy, technology, and the systems that shape human choice. His work often treated the future not as distant machinery but as an extension of existing social and economic pressures.