Sci-fi author Philip Jose Farmer dies

PEORIA -- Philip Jose Farmer, one of the most celebrated science fiction writers of the 1960s and '70s, has died. He was 91.

Farmer died Wednesday in his sleep, according to a message on his official Web site.

The longtime Peoria resident wrote more than 75 novels, including the Riverworld and World of Tiers series. He won the Hugo Award three times and the Grand Master Award for Science Fiction in 2001.

Farmer's first published story, "The Lovers," caught the attention of the science fiction world in 1952 with one of the genre's first serious treatments of sexuality. The story inspired some of the greatest science fiction writers, including Robert Heinlein, whose classic "Stranger in a Strange Land" was dedicated to Farmer.

Farmer's last novel, "The City Beyond Play," was published in 2007.