Pederson, Jay P. 1961–

(Jay Porter Pederson)

PERSONAL: Born June 18, 1961, in Springfield, MN; son of Charles Kenneth and Faith Lorene Pederson; married Linda Margaret Plotz (a nurse), June 2, 1984; children: Kyle, Mark, John, Scott, Clare. Education: St. Olaf College, B.A., 1983. Religion: Roman Catholic.

ADDRESSES: Office—Write One, 19162 Koetter Lake Rd., Richmond, MN 56368. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Certified secondary school teacher in Michigan; Gale Research, Inc. (now Thomson Gale), Detroit, MI, editor, 1984–87; Write One, Richmond, MN, owner and editor, beginning 1988.

WRITINGS:

EDITOR

(With Kenneth Estell) African American Almanac, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1994.

(With Jessie Carney Smith) African American Breakthroughs: 500 Years of Black Firsts, three volumes, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1995.

St. James Guide to Science-Fiction Writers, 4th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1995.

St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1996.

(With Helene Henderson) Twentieth-Century Literary Movements Dictionary: A Compendium to More than 500 Literary, Critical, and Theatrical Movements, Schools, and Groups from More than 80 Nations, Covering the Novelists, Poets, Short-Story Writers, Dramatists, Essayists, Theorists, and Works, Genres, Techniques, and Terms Associated with Each Movement, Omnigraphics (Detroit, MI), 2000.

International Directory of Company Histories, Volume 32, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 2000.

SIDELIGHTS: After gaining several years' experience with Gale Research, Inc., Jay P. Pederson moved out on his own in 1988 to found an editorial services firm, the Write One. As its owner and primary editor, Pederson produces and edits reference works. African American Breakthroughs: 500 Years of Black Firsts, edited with Jessie Carney Smith, was in large part derived from Smith's 1994 Gale reference book Black Firsts: Two Thousand Years of Extraordinary Achievement, as was noted by reviewers for Booklist and School Library Journal. Entries are listed by subject and, within each subject, chronologically. Subjects include business and labor; education; media; science, medicine, and invention; religion; and justice, law enforcement, and public safety. The brief entries chronicle a large and impressive number of achievements that have ranked as "firsts" for African Americans. Source notes, cross-references, and photographs add to the work's value. Dana McDougald, a reviewer for American Reference Books Annual, noted the book's "attractive format" and noted with approval its inclusion of such relatively obscure "firsts" as the first black woman to drive a U.S. mail coach, the first black member of the New York Stock Exchange, and the first black woman to become a licensed pilot. A contributor to Booklist observed: "There are several chronologies available on African Americans, but this one is unique in being arranged by subject and limited to firsts." Alicia Eames, in the School Library Journal, warned against possible duplication by collections that included both African American Breakthroughs and Black Firsts, but noted that the former title contained updated information on popular culture and a notable section on explorers, pioneers, and heroes of the Wild West.

In 1995 Pederson edited the fourth edition of the St. James Guide to Science-Fiction Writers, which was formerly published as Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers. The fourth edition includes entries on 649 authors. Among the contributors were several individuals who, as science fiction writers, also had entries in their own rights. The approach for the new edition was more multicultural than for previous edi-tions, and nineteenth-century writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Edward Everett Hale were added. An effort was made to include crossover writers from the mainstream or from other genres, such as Mark Twain, Marge Piercy, Lord Dunsany, and J.R.R. Tolkien. One reviewer, Neil Barron of Extrapolation, cited the edition for doing away with lists of authors' uncollected short stories; Barron, however, expressed his wish that some other bulk-expanding aspects of the work, such as lists of non-genre works by genre authors, would be omitted as well. In Barron's view, the reference book could have used fewer entries on virtually unknown writers, and more careful proofreading. A much more enthusiastic review came from Charles R. Andrews in the American Book Review Annual, who, observing that the guide had been "a staple" in many libraries, called it "superlative." The entries, Andrews felt, were "helpful and interesting," the book was "attractively formatted," and as a reference source, it "nicely complements the various SF handbooks and guides and is a trove of information for even the beginning SF reader."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Reference Books Annual, 1996, Dana McDougald, review of African American Breakthroughs: 500 Years of Black Firsts, p. 157; 1997, Charles R. Andrews, review of St. James Guide to Science-Fiction Writers, p. 435; 2001, review of International Directory of Company Histories, p. 75.

Booklist, April 1, 1995, review of African American Breakthroughs, p. 1437; April 15, 1999, review of Twentieth-Century Literary Movements Dictionary: A Compendium to More than 500 Literary, Critical, and Theatrical Movements, Schools, and Groups from More than 80 Nations, Covering the Novelists, Poets, Short-Story Writers, Dramatists, Essayists, Theorists, and Works, Genres, Techniques, and Terms Associated with Each Movement, p. 1464; May 15, 1999, review of St. James Guide to Science-Fiction Writers, p. 1720.

Extrapolation, spring, 1997, Neil Barron, review of St. James Guide to Science-Fiction Writers, pp. 85-88.

Library Journal, February 1, 2000, Neal Wyatt, review of Twentieth-Century Literary Movements Dictionary, p. 77.

School Library Journal, May, 1995, Alicia Eames, review of African American Breakthroughs, p. 134.