Lester Del Rey (1915-1993) was born Leonard Knapp in Saratoga, Minnesota in 1915. He published his first short story (under the name 'Lester Del Rey') in Astounding in 1938, "The Faithful", at the dawn of the Golden Age of Science Fiction. This was the beginning of Del Rey's career as one of the genre's most influential figures. His early career as a writer was marked by a number of short stories published in many of the pulps of the era, and Del Rey launched his novelist's career with the 1952 publication of Rocket Jockey.

Del Rey's influence as an editor and publisher was even greater than his literary legacy. This phase of his career started in 1946 when he became a reader and the office manager at the Scott Meredith Literary Agency. At various points in his career, he was an editor at Space Science Fiction, Science Fiction Adventures, Rocket Stories, and Worlds of Fantasy (as well as a book reviewer for Analog Science Fiction). From 1975-1988 Del Rey was the Fantasy editor at Ballantine Books and was vice-president of Ballantine from 1988-1993. In 1977 Del Rey and his wife Judy-Lynn Del Rey established Del Rey Books as an imprint of Ballantine, specializing in science fiction and fantasy; the imprint was the publisher for authors such as Terry Brooks, Anne McCaffrey, Alan Dean Foster, Arthur C. Clarke, Harry Turtledove, Robert Heinlein, Elizabeth Moon, and many others.

Del Rey received a number of award nominations during his life. He won the 1972 Skylark Award (Edward E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction), as well as the 1985 Balrog Special Award. He was made a Grand Master of Science Fiction by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1991.

Lester Del Rey died on May 10, 1993.