George E. Slusser was born in San Francisco, California on July 14, 1939. He received a bachelor's degree from UC Berkeley, a Diplôme d'Études Françaises from the Université of Poitiers, and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Harvard University. He was curator emeritus of the University of California, Riverside's Eaton Collection and professor emeritus of comparative literature, joined the UCR Library in 1979 and, beginning in 1991, held a joint position as professor of comparative literature until his retirement in 2005.
During his lifetime, he wrote or edited nearly 40 books including Robert A. Heinlein: Stranger in His Own Land, The Farthest Shores of Ursula K. LeGuin, The Bradbury Chronicles, Harlan Ellison: Unrepentant Harlequin, The Space Odysseys of Arthur C. Clarke, and The Delany Intersection: Samuel R. Delany Considered as a Writer of Semi-Precious Words. He also co-authored several books with his wife, Danièle Châtelain-Slusser, including Three Science Fiction Novellas: From Prehistory to the End of Mankind and a study of Balzac's The Centenarian. In 1986, he received the Pilgrim Award for lifetime achievement in the field of science fiction scholarship. He died on November 4, 2014 at the age of 75.
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