Tom Reamy was born in 1935. During the mid to late-1960s he was active in the science fiction fanzine and convention culture. He was publisher of the fanzine Trumpet and was head of MidAmeriCon's publication division, exerting a strong editorial influence, and also head of the Film Program department of that organization.
Reamy's only novel, Blind Voices has earned critical comparisons with the works of both Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury, and Harlan Ellison. While not as polished as those authors' works, critics have regarded it as an exceptional first novel, causing fans and critics to ponder how important a figure he could have become. Ellison wrote a foreward memorializing Reamy in the original version of the book.
Blind Voices deals with the arrival of a strange and wonderful "freak show" at a rural town in Kansas during the 1920s and its effects on the lives of the residents.
Reamy died of a heart attack in 1977 while working on stories for Fantasy & Science Fiction at his typewriter.
At the time of his death, Reamy and George Barr were working on a "graphic novel" version of Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword. The project languished after his untimely death.
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