Tuesday, January 17, 2012

OVERLOOKED WRITER?

Thanks to ISFDB, I learned that today is the 100th birthday of Ralph L. Finn -- someone I (and probably you) have never heard of. 

     Finn, born in London, authored three apparently completely forgettable SF novels:

  • Time Marches Sideways, published by Hutchinson in 1950.
  • Freaks Against Supermen, published by Gaywood Press (who?*), also in 1950.  This one evidently has to do with a plague, supermen, and undermen.
  • Captive on the Flying Saucers, also published by Gaywood Press, this time in 1951.  The flying saucers are evidently from Venus.
     So, happy birthday to guy I have never heard of, have never met, and will never read!

     If any has ever read any of these books, I'd l,ove to hear from them.    


* Gaywood Press (this also from ISFDB) published only five books between 1950-2:  Freaks Against Supermen (December, 1950); Captive on the Flying Saucers (January, 1951); Space Pirates by Astron del Martia (February, 1951); Dawn of Darkness by Astron del Martia (no month given, 1951); and Interstellar Empire by Astron del Martia (no month given, 1952).  Most likely Gaywood had planned to issue monthly digest-sized sf books, but sales and distribution killed them.  (And, of course, "Astron del Martia" was just one of twenty-three gazillion pen names for John Russell Fearn.)

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