is The Penultimate Truth About Philip K. Dick produced in 2007. In the early 1970s, Nelson ran a writers' workshop at the First Unitarian Church in the San Francisco Bay Area. One of his students was Anne Rice. He was a lifetime member of the California Writers Club. His 1975 book Blake's Progress, in which the poet William Blake is a time traveler, was described by John Clute in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction as "Nelson's best work". Richard A. Lupoff called it "a revelation," saying "Nelson's style is sharply focused and carefully colored... His plotting is exactly as complex as it ought to be [and] his characters are nicely drawn." It was rewritten and republished as 1985's Timequest. At the 1982 Philip K. Dick Awards, Nelson's novel The Prometheus Man gained a special citation (runner-up). Propeller beanie Ray Nelson has professed that his greatest claim to fame is to be the creator of the iconic propeller beanie as emblematic of science fiction fandom while a 10th-grader at Cadillac High School. He also claims to have invented the "Beany" character in a 1948 contest for what would become Time for Beany while visiting relatives in California. "I think it's probably my best bet of being remembered", Nelson says. "I've never been on the New York Times bestseller list." Publications Perdita: Songs of Love, Sex, and Self Pity The Ganymede Takeover (with Philip K. Dick), 1967 Blake's Progress, 1975 Then Beggars Could Ride, 1976 The Ecolog, 1977 Revolt of the Unemployable, 1978 The Prometheus Man, 1982 Timequest, 1985 Dog-Headed Death (Gaius Hesperian Mysteries), 1989 Virtual Zen, 1996 References Citations General and cited sources Ray Nelson at the FictionMags Index External links Eight O'Clock in the Morning 1931 births 2022 deaths 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers American male novelists American male short story writers American science fiction writers Beat Generation people Novelists from New York (state) University of Chicago alumni Writers from Schenectady, New York