Alfred Elton van Vogt was born on April 26th, 1912 on a small farm in Canada, near Winnipeg. His family moved to Winnipeg itself when he was ten, where his great love of reading began to grow. As a young man, he made his living with farming and clerical work while trying to start a career in writing. His first published science fiction story was Black Destroyer in 1939. The story was later included in Voyage of the Space Beagle and is the inspiration for the movie Alien.

Van Vogt married Edna Mayne Hull on May 9, 1939. In 1979, four years after her death, he married Lydia Brayman. During the last decade of his life, van Vogt struggled against Alzheimer's disease, finally succumbing to pneumonia on January 26, 2000.

Van Vogt's greatest works are widely considered to have been written during his early years of writing. In the 1950s, his focus shifted from writing to working with L. Ron Hubbard on Dianetics. After this time, the quality and quantity of his writing declined, as did his health conditions. By 1996, when he was recognized as a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, he reportedly remembered only that he was a writer, nothing of what he had written.

Despite his decline and death, van Vogt will be remembered. Tattered old paperbacks of Slan and The Pawns of Null-A will be treasured by fans for years to come. While van Vogt may not have been the greatest or more popular writer, his contributions to science fiction during its Golden Age helped shape and define the genre. His influence on modern authors and fans has been great.

A. E. van Vogt also recieved an Aurora Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1980, a Special Award from the Science Fiction Convention in 1996, and in that same year became a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.
A. E. van Vogt's published novels and collections: sources:
http://www.mmedia.is/vanvogt/
http://www.locusmag.com/2000/News/News01e.html
http://members.tripod.com/~gwillick/vanvogt.html