His love of science fiction began at the age of 12 when he was living at a boys' home, Kappa Sigma Pi, where he says a Black janitor introduced him to the genre.

In 1939, he attended the first World Science Fiction Convention in New York City where met the greats of First Fandom and became life-long friends with the likes of Forrest J. Ackerman, Ray Bradbury, Charles Hornig and many others.

"[2] Despite his numerous appearances and solid writing, Rocklynne never quite achieved the fame of his contemporaries Robert A. Heinlein, L. Sprague de Camp, and Isaac Asimov.

Perhaps his most famous story from that era was 1941's "Time Wants a Skeleton", which has been reprinted in several anthologies, including Asimov's Mammoth Book of Golden Age Science Fiction.

One of Rocklynne's stories from Galaxy Magazine, "Jaywalker," was adapted as a half-hour radio drama for the NBC science fiction series X-Minus One.

Rocklynne partially retired from writing in 1954 around the time he began dabbling in Dianetics, but the main reason he stopped was because he developed an extremely painful affliction of the face and jaw.