Sam Merwin Jr.

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Samuel Kimball Merwin Jr. (born on 28. April 1910 in Plainfield , New Jersey , died on 13. January 1996 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American mystery - and science fiction - Author and publisher of pulp magazines .

Life

Merwin was the son of the writer Samuel Merwin . After attending Phillips Academy in Andover , Massachusetts , he studied at Princeton University , where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1931 , and at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston . After graduating, he was a reporter for the Boston Evening American from 1932 to 1933 , then from 1936 to 1937 head of the New York office of the Philadelphia Inquirer , from 1936 to 1937 he was deputy editor at Dell Publishing and 1938/1939 editor at Country Home in New York. In 1941 he became the editor in the fields of sports, mystery and science fiction at Standard Magazines and held this position until 1951. During this time he published the following magazines:

  • 1945–1951: Startling Stories
  • 1945–1951: Thrilling Wonder Stories
  • 1949–1950: Thrilling Wonder Stories (UK)
  • 1950–1951: Fantastic Story Quarterly
  • 1950–1951: Wonder Story Annual
  • 1951: Fantastic Story Magazine

In particular, his editing of Startling Stories and Thrilling Wonder Stories , where he succeeded Oscar J. Friend , is believed to have had an impact on the development of science fiction as a whole by moving away from booklets for teenagers towards reading for Adults shifted and the quality generally increased. After Astounding , the two magazines were considered leaders in SF magazines in their day.

After leaving Standard Magazines in 1951, Merwin worked as a freelance writer for a while, published the first editions of Fantastic Universe for King Size Publications in 1953 and became associate editor at Galaxy that same year , where he wrote the paperback series of Galaxy Science Fiction Supervised novels and edited the magazine Beyond Fantasy Fiction . In 1956 he edited the first two issues of Satellite Science Fiction together with Leo Margulies . In 1956, and then again from 1977 to 1979, he was editor of Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine , for which he also wrote stories. Merwin also wrote screenplays for the horror radio series Lights Out ( The Man with the Watch , 1951) and the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents ( The Big Score , 1962), as well as some comic scripts for DC and Dell.

The author Merwin was quite productive in the genres of science fiction and mystery, but less important than the editor. He published his first SF story with The Scourge Below in 1939 in Thrilling Wonder Stories . His SF is rated as conventional, the best novel is The House of Many Worlds (1951), which is about a time travel police, whose activities also extend to parallel worlds . It was continued in 1955 with Three Faces of Time . As an SF author, he shows himself to be connected to the conventions of mystery, insofar as his stories often seem like detective stories and are mostly set in the present. The novel series about the detective Amy Brewster violates these mystery conventions in that the female protagonist is neither femme fatale nor Damsel in distress , but an overweight, cigar-smoking lawyer who solves criminal cases for her friends. In his later years he worked in Hollywood as the editor of an erotic paperback series, for which he also wrote several books under his old pseudonym Carter Sprague.

Merwin married Lee Anna Vance in 1934. After her death, he married Marjory Kendal Davenport in 1959. The marriage ended in divorce. He was in his third marriage since 1972 with Amanda Varela, with whom he had two children.

bibliography

Amy Brewster (Detective Stories)
  • Knife in My Back (1947)
  • Message from a Corpse (1947)
  • A Matter of Policy (1952)
The House of Many Worlds (novel series)
  • 1 The House of Many Worlds (1951)
    • English: On a secret mission on earth II. Moewig (Terra Nova # 40), 1969.
  • 2 Three Faces of Time (1955, also as Mission to Misenum , 2005)
    • German: The time agents. Moewig (Terra special volume # 65), 1963.
  • Journey to Misenum (1953, short story)
  • The House of Many Worlds (1983, Collection of 1 and 2)
Lynn Fenlay (series of short stories, as Jacques Jean Ferrat)
  • Nightmare Tower (1953)
  • The White Rain Came (1955)
  • Snowstorm on Mars (1956)
Novels
  • Murder in Miniatures (1940)
  • Death in the Sunday Supplement (1942)
  • The Big Frame (1943)
  • The Flags Were Three (1950, with Leo Margulies)
    • English: Three flags - three women. Swiss printing and publishing house, Zurich 1947.
  • The House of Many Worlds (1951)
  • The Creeping Shadow (1952)
  • Killer to Come (1953)
  • The White Widows (1953, also revised as The Sex War , 1960)
  • Three Faces of Time (1955)
  • Planet for Plunder (1957, with Hal Clement )
  • The Passer (1962)
  • The Time Shifters (1971)
  • Tunnel of Darkness (1974, as Angela Davidson)
  • The Forbidden Mansion (1981, as Angela Davidson)
  • Chauvinisto (1976)
Collections
  • The 31st Golden Age of Science Fiction Megapack (2016)
  • From the Golden Age of Science Fiction Six Stories by Sam Merwin (2016)
Short stories
  • The Scourge Below (1939)
  • Physician, Heal Thyself (1940)
  • Exiled from Earth (1940)
  • No Greater Worlds (1945)
  • The Jimson Island Giant (1946)
  • The Admiral's Walk (1947)
  • Climate - Disordered (1948, as Carter Sprague)
  • A Problem in Astrogation (1948, as Matt Lee)
  • The Carriers (1949)
  • Forgotten Envoy (1949)
  • Journey for One (1949, as Carter Sprague)
  • Appointment in New Utrecht (1950, as Matt Lee)
  • The Borghese Transparency (1950, as Carter Sprague)
  • The Star Slaver (1950, as Carter Sprague)
  • Exit Line (1950, as Matt Lee)
  • The Long Flight (1950, as Carter Sprague)
  • The Tenth Degree (1950)
  • Judas Ram (1950)
  • Time Track (1951, as Carter Sprague)
  • Final Haven (1951, as Matt Lee)
  • Short Order (1951)
  • Block (1951, as Carter Sprague)
  • Deception (1951, as Matt Lee)
  • Milords Methuselah (1951, as Carter Sprague)
  • Letters of Fire (1951, as Matt Lee)
  • I Psi (1951, as Carter Sprague)
  • I Do Not Like Thee ... (1951, as Matt Lee)
  • The Ultimate Engine (1951, as Carter Sprague)
  • Grease in the Pan (1951)
  • The Iron Deer (1951)
  • Star Tracks (1952)
  • Third Alternative (1952)
  • Factor, Unknown (1952)
  • Lambikin (1952)
  • One Guitar (1952)
  • Centaurus (1953)
  • Distortion Pattern (1953)
  • The Dark Side of the Moon (1953)
    • German: pirates in space. Pabel (Utopia Kriminal # 17), 1957.
  • There's Always Amanda (1953)
  • Arbiter (1953)
  • The Sane Men of Satan (1953, as Jacques Jean Ferrat)
  • A Nice Thing to Know (1954)
  • The Final Figure (1954)
  • The Ambassador (1954)
  • Wampum (1954)
  • The Winds Shine at Night (1954)
  • A World Apart (1954)
  • Reel Life Films (1954, as Jacques Jean Ferrat)
  • Process Shot (1954)
  • The Intimate Invasion (1954)
  • Poison Planet (1954)
  • Summer Heat (1954)
  • It's Not the Heat (1954)
  • Reunion (1955, as Carter Sprague, III)
  • Sizzlestick (1955)
  • The Sixth Season (1955, as Jacques Jean Ferrat)
  • Pink Grass Planet (1955)
  • The Eye in the Window (1955)
  • The Man from the Flying Saucer (1955)
  • Beyond the Door (1955)
  • Day After Fear (1955)
  • Star-Flight (1955)
  • Final Exam (1955)
  • Passage to Anywhere (1956)
  • Testing (1956, as Jacques Jean Ferrat)
  • The Vacationer (1956)
  • It's All Yours (1956)
  • Service Elevator (1956)
  • The Stretch (1956)

literature

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Merwin, Sam, Jr.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Merwin, Samuel Kimball Jr. (Full name); Bennett, Elizabeth Deare (pseudonym); Davidson, Angela (pseudonym); Ferrat, Jacques Jean (pseudonym); Flam, Vincent (pseudonym); Lee, Matt (pen name); Mervin, Sam (alternative spelling); Sprague, Carter (pseudonym); Sprague, Carter III (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American mystery and science fiction writer
DATE OF BIRTH April 28, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Plainfield , New Jersey
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 1996
Place of death Los Angeles , California