Lawrence (Larry) Eisenberg (born 1919) is a science fiction writer. He is best known for his short story "What Happened to Auguste Clarot?," published in Harlan Ellison's groundbreaking anthology Dangerous Visions. Eisenberg's stories have also been printed in a number of leading science fiction magazines, including The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Galaxy Science Fiction, and Asimov's Science Fiction. His stories have been reprinted in anthologies such as Great Science Fiction of the 20th Century, The 10th Annual of the Year’s Best S-F, and Great Science Fiction By the World's Great Scientists.
Born in New York City in 1919, Eisenberg was educated at City College of New York and the Polytechnic Institute, Brooklyn (where he received his Ph.D. in Electronics). After serving in the Air Force for two years, Eisenberg married Frances Brenner in 1950. They have one daughter and one son.
Eisenberg was for many years a biomedical engineer at Rockefeller University, where he and Dr. Robert Schoenfeld were co-heads of the Electronic Lab. He designed the first transistorized radio frequency coupled pacemaker in about 1960 in collaboration with Dr. Alexander Mauro. It is currently on display at Caspary Hall, Rockefeller University.
Eisenberg published his first short story, "Dr. Beltzov's Polyunsaturated Kasha Oil Diet," in Harper's Magazine in 1962. Shortly after that, he began publishing his stories in many of the leading science fiction magazines of the day, including The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Galaxy Science Fiction, and If. Many of these stories have a humorous style and feature his character Professor Emmet Duckworth, a research scientist and two-time winner of the Nobel Prize.
Eisenberg is best known for his short story What Happened to Auguste Clarot?, which was published in the anthology Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison. His stories have also been reprinted in anthologies such as Great Science Fiction of the 20th Century, The 10th Annual of the Year’s Best SF, and Great Science Fiction By the World's Great Scientists.
He has published two books of limericks (both with George Gordon), and one collection of short stories, Best Laid Schemes. More recently, he has gained a cult following for the limericks he posts in the comments sections of various New York Times articles.