Di Fate’s Infinite Worlds (1997) may be the best historical-biographical showcase of sf art ever, but Di Fate on his work and the interests that influenced it is better reading. Besides displaying some 100 of his pen-and-ink scratchboard drawings and marvelously colorful acrylics, this album includes three well-written, congenial, and absorbing essays. The first is autobiographical and centered on his career rather than his private life, though the latter impinged uncomfortably on the former at the very beginning, when his wife, diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, was given mere months to live; fortunately, he thrived, and she survived. The second is a celebration of sci-fi--that is, science fiction movies, especially those of the ’50s and ’60s--which he loved then, still loves, implies we might at least enjoy, even now, and distinguishes from sf, the literary genre, which he says is invariably more intelligent than sci-fi. The final essay is about his longtime, career-influencing interest in UFOs, especially the wave of sensational late 1940s sightings.
