James Edwin Gunn (July 12, 1923 – December 23, 2020) was an American science fiction writer, editor, scholar, and anthologist.

His work as an editor of anthologies includes the six-volume Road to Science Fiction series.

[2] Gunn was a professor emeritus of English and the founding director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction, both at the University of Kansas.

With several months of Japanese language training and a few hours spent learning to fly an airplane, he was sent to Truk Island, now known as Chuuk Lagoon, to be adjutant to the commanding officer.

[1] Gunn's master's thesis, a critical analysis of the genre, was also published in a professional magazine.

[10] His novels were first published by Gnome Press in 1955, Star Bridge, written by Gunn and Jack Williamson, and This Fortress World.

[3] Carl Sagan called it "one of the very best fictional portrayals of contact with extraterrestrial intelligence ever written.

[9] Gunn died in Lawrence, Kansas, on the morning of December 23, 2020, at age 97[17] of natural causes after a brief hospitalization.