Often, as I came up through the ranks of SF professionals, I had the instructive experience of meeting the SF equivalent of Norma Desmond–once-idolized writers no longer productive but still haunting SF conventions for the sake of the recognition to be wrung from those who could remember reading their books. The late Alfred Bester was the most minatory example.

minatory (adj) : threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments [syn: baleful, forbidding, menacing, minacious, ominous, sinister, threatening, ugly] – source: The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of, p. 4