Fix-up Artist: The Chaotic SF of A.E. van Vogt

Science fiction writer A.E. van Vogt, who would have celebrated his hundredth birthday on April 26, introduced a new term into the literary vocabulary: the fix-up. A fix-up is a novel constructed out of shorter works of fiction, a kind of Frankenstein's monster of narrative, stitched together with hopes that the seams don't show.

Although van Vogt origin…