Tom Purdom was born in 1936, and grew up primarily in West Haven, Connecticut, the Tampa Bay area, and San Diego. He moved to Philadelphia in 1954, after abortive attempt to study engineering at Lafayette College.

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His first short story, “Grieve for a Man,” appeared in the August, 1957 issue of Fantastic Universe. Since then, his short stories and novelettes have appeared in Asimov's, Analog, F&SF, Galaxy, Amazing, other magazines, and various anthologies. His novels have been published by Ace, Berkley, and Fantastic Books. He edited one anthology, Adventures in Discovery (Doubleday, 1969), a collection of specially commissioned articles on science by Asimov, Silverberg, Anderson, and other leading science fiction writers of the time.

 

He has written non-fiction about arms control, education, home safety, and the performing arts, and spent a career as a freelance business and corporate writer. In 1988, he started his career as a music critic, writing essays and reviews for several Philadelphia-based newspapers and magazines.