Horace L. Gold, former editor of Galaxy magazine and father of E.J. Gold, died at his Laguna Hills apartment on February 21, 1996, of congestive heart failure.

Canadian born H.L. Gold—his preferred use of the name—was brought to the United States at age 2. A legendary editor of science fiction—one of the all-time greats—in the company of Hugo Gernsback, John W. Campbell Jr., and Anthony Boucher—his first science fiction story appeared in Astounding Stories in 1934 under the pseudonym Clyde Crane Campbell.

Known for his ascerbic wit, in 1950 he created and brilliantly edited Galaxy Science Fiction, a magazine in whose pages he featured numerous Los Angeles authors, among them Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Frank Quattrocchi, Fritz Leiber, Helen Urban, Richard Matheson, Cleve Cartmill, Jerome Bixby, James Causey, Mark Clifton, Him Harmon, Kris Neville, A.E. Van Vogt, Floyd Wallace, Henry Kuttner and Catherine Moore; and an array of national and international favorites including Frederik Pohl, Isaac Asimov, Roger Zelazny, Robert Scheckley, Robert Silverberg, Clifford Simak, Jack Williamson, John Wyndham, Alfred Bester, Avram Davidson, Theodore Sturgeon, L. Sprague de Camp, Frank Robinson, Arthur C. Clarke and Damon Knight.

Among the writers indebted to H.L. Gold’s editing was Alfred Bester whose successful novel The Demolished Man is said to have been made possible through the ideas and encouragement of H.L. Gold. His best known story, "Trouble with Water,” has been anthologized numerous times. He was a distinguished member of the Pinckard Science Fiction Writers Salon.

The great secret of the universe is that there is no great secret of the universe.—H.L. Gold