SP Meek

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Sterner St. Paul Meek (born April 8, 1894 in Chicago , Illinois ; died June 10, 1972 in Palm Beach , Florida ) was an American writer and Army officer.

Life

Meek's parents were John Washington Meek and Ella, nee Sterner. He first studied at the University of Chicago , where he obtained an associate degree in 1914 , then at the University of Alabama , where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1915 . He then studied further at the University of Wisconsin in Madison (1916) and from 1921 to 1923 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge . After graduating in 1916, he worked briefly as a college football coach, then in 1916 as a chemist at Western Electric in Hawthorne , Illinois, and in 1917 at Deuvitt Laboratories in Chicago. In 1917 he joined the US Army as a chemist and ammunition expert , where he conducted research on ammunition for small arms from 1923 to 1926. From 1941 to 1945 he was head of the artillery publications department. In 1947 he retired with the rank of colonel .

Meek had begun to publish short stories in the pulp magazines of the era from the late 1920s, some adventure stories, but mostly science fiction, beginning with the short story The Murgatroyd Experiment , which appeared in Amazing Stories Quarterly in 1929 . Among the series written by Meek are above all Doctor Bird and Operative Carnes with 14 stories that appeared between 1930 and 1932. The protagonists Dr. Bird from the National Bureau of Standards , the forerunner of the NIST , and his assistant Operative Cames from the Secret Service have to deal with threats that are often communist. In 2010 the anthology The Astounding Adventures of Dr. Bird . Other publications in book form were also made late, during his productive time in the 1930s only The Monkeys Have No Tails in Zamboanga , a collection of his humorous stories. The two lost world novels The Drums of Tapajos (1930) and Troyana (1932) were published in book form only in 1961. He usually published his stories with the respective military rank and his abbreviated name, for example “Capt. SP Meek "or" Col. SP Meek ”.

After 1940 Meek wrote practically no science fiction any more, instead he wrote a series of 20 children's books, mainly stories of dogs and horses, some of which he used his military experience (see e.g. Jerry: The Adventures of an Army Dog ).

Meek married Edna Brundage Noble in 1927, with whom he had a son. Meek died in 1972 at the age of 78.

bibliography

The Red Peril (short story series)
  • 1 The Red Peril (1929)
  • 2 The Last War (1930)
Doctor Bird and Operative Carnes (short story series)
  • The Cave of Horror (1930)
  • The Radio Robbery (1930)
  • The Thief of Time (1930)
  • Cold Light (1930)
  • The Ray of Madness (1930)
  • Stolen Brains (1930)
  • The Sea Terror (1930)
  • The Black Lamp (1931)
  • When Caverns Yawned (1931)
  • The Port of Missing Planes (1931)
  • The Solar Magnet (1931)
  • Poisoned Air (1932)
  • The Great Drought (1932)
  • Vanishing Gold (1932)
  • The Astounding Adventures of Dr. Bird (2010, collection)
Drums of Tapajos (series of novels)
  • 1 The Drums of Tapajos (1930)
  • 2 Troyana (1932)
Jim Carpenter (short story series)
  • Beyond the Heaviside Layer (1930)
  • The Attack From Space (1930)
Submicroscopic (short story series)
  • 1 Submicroscopic (1931)
  • 2 Awlo of Ulm (1931)
Novels
  • Island Born (1937)
Collections
  • The Monkeys Have No Tails in Zamboanga (1935)
  • Arctic Bride (1944)
  • Anthology of Sci-Fi V22: The Pulp Writers: Capt. SP Meek (2013)
Short stories
  • The Murgatroyd Experiment (1929)
  • Futility (1929)
  • The Osmotic Theorem (1929)
  • The Perfect Counterfeit (1930)
  • Into Space (1930, as Sterner St. Paul)
  • The Gland Murders (1930)
  • Trapped in the Depths (1930)
  • The Tragedy of Spider Island (1930)
  • The Earth's Cancer (1931)
  • Nasturtia (1931)
  • The Black Mass (1931)
  • Giants on the Earth (1931)
  • BC 30,000 (1932)
  • The Synthetic Entity (1933)
  • That Fellow, Nankivell (1934)
  • The Curse of the Valedi (1935)
  • The Mentality Machine (1939)
  • Arctic Bride (1944)
Children's books
  • Jerry: The Adventures of an Army Dog (1932)
  • Frog, The Horse That Knew No Master (1933)
  • Gypsy Lad: The Story of a Champion Setter (1934)
  • Franz, A Dog of the Police (1935)
  • Dignity, A Springer Spaniel (1937)
  • Rusty, A Cocker Spaniel (1938)
  • Gustav, A Son of Franz (1940)
  • Pat: The Story of a Seeing Eye Dog (1947)
  • Boots: The Story of a Working Sheep Dog (1948)
  • Midnight, A Cow Pony (1949)
  • Ranger, A Dog of the Forest Service (1949)
  • Hans, A Dog of the Border Patrol (1950)
  • Surfman: The Adventures of a Coast Guard Dog (1950)
  • Paga, A Border Patrol Horse (1951)
  • Red, A Trailing Bloodhound (1951)
  • Boy, An Ozark Coon Hound (1952)
  • Rip, A Game Protector (1952)
  • Omar, A State Police Dog (1953)
  • Bellfarm Star: The Story of a Pace (1955)
  • Pierre of the Big Top: The Story of a Circus Poodle (1956)
Non-fiction
  • Inspection of ordnance matériel (1944)
  • So You'Re Going to Get a Puppy: A Dog-lover's Handbook (1947)

literature

Web links

Wikisource: SP Meek  - Sources and full texts (English)
personal data
SURNAME Meek, SP
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meek, Sterner St. Paul (full name); St. Paul, Sterner (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer and army officer
DATE OF BIRTH April 8, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH June 10, 1972
Place of death Palm Beach , Florida