del Rey, Lester (Ramon Felipe San Juan Mario Silvio Enrico) (1915–1993)

US writer and editor. After graduating from George Washington University, he moved to New York City and became a well-known and prolific fantasy and science fiction writer. He also taught fantasy fiction at New York University.

He was born in Clydesdale, Minnesota. He used many pen-names such as John Alvarez, Cameron Hall, Marion Henry, and Philip James. He also sometimes collaborated with other writers under such names as Edson McCann and Charles Satterfield. As editor of the del Rey imprint at Ballantine Books, he was credited with promoting a revival of fantasy and science fiction as a serious genre. A sampling of his own work is in The Best of Lester del Rey (1978).