Gertrude Barrows Bennett (September 18, 1884February 2, 1948), known by the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

Francis Stevens, was a pioneering author of

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

and

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

.''Partners in Wonder: Women and the Birth of Science Fiction, 1926-1965'' by Eric Leif Davin, Lexington Books, 2005, pages 409-10. Bennett wrote a number of fantasies between 1917 and 1923. and has been called "the woman who invented

dark fantasy Dark fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy literary, artistic, and cinematic works that incorporate disturbing and frightening themes of fantasy. It often combines fantasy with elements of horror or has a gloomy dark tone or a sense of horror and dr ...

"."The Woman Who Invented Dark Fantasy" by Gary C. Hoppenstand from ''Nightmare and Other Tales of Dark Fantasy'' by Francis Stevens,

University of Nebraska Press The University of Nebraska Press, also known as UNP, was founded in 1941 and is an academic publisher of scholarly and general-interest books. The press is under the auspices of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the main campus of the Univer ...

, 2004, page x. Her most famous books include ''Claimed'' (which Augustus T. Swift, in a letter to '' The Argosy'' called "One of the strangest and most compelling science fantasy novels you will ever read") and the

lost world The lost world is a subgenre of the fantasy or science fiction genres that involves the discovery of an unknown Earth civilization. It began as a subgenre of the late- Victorian adventure romance and remains popular into the 21st century. The ...

novel ''The Citadel of Fear''. Bennett also wrote an early

dystopian novel Utopian and dystopian fiction are genres of speculative fiction that explore social and political structures. Utopian fiction portrays a setting that agrees with the author's ethos, having various attributes of another reality intended to appeal to ...

, ''

The Heads of Cerberus ''The Heads of Cerberus'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Francis Stevens. The novel was originally serialized in the pulp magazine '' The Thrill Book'' in 1919, and it was first published in book form in 1952 by Polaris Press in ...

'' (1919).''The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction'' by Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn, Cambridge University Press, 2003, page 30.

Life

Gertrude Mabel Barrows was born in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

in 1884, to Charles and Caroline Barrows (''née'' Hatch). Her father, a Civil War veteran from Illinois, died in 1892. Gertrude completed school through the eighth grade, then attended night school in hopes of becoming an illustrator (a goal she never achieved). Instead, she began working as a stenographer, a job she held on and off for the rest of her life."The Woman Who Invented Dark Fantasy" by Gary C. Hoppenstand from ''Nightmare and Other Tales of Dark Fantasy'' by Francis Stevens,

, 2004, p. xvi. In 1909 Barrows married Stewart Bennett, a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

, and moved to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. A year later her husband died during a tropical storm while on a treasure hunting expedition.The Influential Pulp Career of Francis Stevens
/ref> With a new-born daughter to raise, Bennett continued working as a stenographer. When her father died toward the end of World War I, Bennett assumed care for her invalid mother. Virtually all of Bennett's work dates from 1917 to 1920, when she began to write short stories and novels to support the household. She stopped writing when her mother died in 1920; one later work published in 1923 appears to have been written during the late 'teens, and submitted to ''

Weird Tales ''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, prin ...

'' when that magazine was just starting up. In the mid-1920s, Bennett placed her daughter in the care of friends and moved to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Because she was estranged from her daughter, for a number of years researchers believed Bennett died in 1939 – a 1939 letter from her daughter was returned as undeliverable, and her daughter did not hear from Bennett after this date. However, new research, including her death certificate, shows that she died in 1948.

Writing career

Gertrude Mabel Barrows (as she then was) wrote her first short story at age 17, a

story titled "The Curious Experience of Thomas Dunbar". She mailed the story to '' Argosy'', then one of the top pulp magazines. The story was accepted and published in the March 1904 issue, under the byline "G. M. Barrows". Although the initials disguised her gender, this appears to be the first instance of an American female author publishing science fiction, and using her real name. That same month, ''

Youth's Companion ''The Youth's Companion'' (1827–1929), known in later years as simply ''The Companion—For All the Family'', was an American children's magazine that existed for over one hundred years until it finally merged with ''The American Boy'' in 1929. ...

'' published her poetry. Once Bennett began to take care of her mother, she decided to return to fiction writing as a means of supporting her family. The first story she completed after her return to writing was the

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...

"The Nightmare", which appeared in ''All-Story Weekly'' in 1917. The story is set on an island separated from the rest of the world, on which

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

has taken a different course. "The Nightmare" resembles

Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American author, best known for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best-known for creating the characters Tarzan and John Carter, he ...

' '' The Land That Time Forgot'', itself published a year later. While Bennett had submitted "The Nightmare" under her own name, she had asked to use a pseudonym if it was published. The magazine's editor chose not to use the pseudonym Bennett suggested (Jean Vail) and instead credited the story to Francis Stevens. When readers responded positively to the story, Bennett chose to continue writing under the name. Over the next few years, Bennett wrote a number of short stories and novellas. Her short story "Friend Island" (''All-Story Weekly'', 1918), for example, is set in a 22nd-century ruled by women. Another story is the novella "Serapion" ('' Argosy'', 1920), about a man

possessed Possessed may refer to: Possession * Possession (disambiguation), having some degree of control over something else ** Spirit possession, whereby gods, demons, animas, or other disincarnate entities may temporarily take control of a human body *** ...

by a supernatural creature. This story has been released in an electronic book entitled ''Possessed: A Tale of the Demon Serapion'', with three other stories by her. Many of her short stories have been collected in ''The Nightmare and Other Tales of Dark Fantasy'' (University of Nebraska Press, 2004). In 1918 she published her first, and perhaps best, novel ''The Citadel of Fear'' (''Argosy'', 1918). This

story focuses on a forgotten

Aztec The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those g ...

city, which is "rediscovered" during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

.''Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature'' by Frank Northen Magill, Salem Press, 1983, p. 287. It was the introduction to a 1952 reprint edition of the novel which revealed that "Francis Stevens" was Bennett's pen-name. A year later she published her only science fiction novel, ''The Heads of Cerberus'' (''

The Thrill Book ''The Thrill Book'' was a U.S. pulp magazine published by Street & Smith in 1919. It was intended to carry "different" stories: this meant stories that were unusual or unclassifiable, which in practice often meant the stories were Fantasy genre ...

'', 1919). One of the first

dystopian A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...

novels, the book features a "grey dust from a silver phial" which transports anyone who inhales it to a totalitarian

of 2118 AD. One of Bennett's most famous novels was ''Claimed!'' (Argosy, 1920; reprinted 1966, 2004, 2018), in which a supernatural artifact summons an ancient and powerful god to early 20th century

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. Augustus T. Swift called the novel "One of the strangest and most compelling science fantasy novels you will ever read". Apparently ''The Thrill Book'' had accepted more of her stories when it was cancelled in October 1919, only seven months after the first issue. These were never published and became lost. It has been hypothesized that "Sunfire", which appeared in ''Weird Tales'' in 1923, was one of these stories that had originally been accepted by ''Thrill Book''; it was the only 'new' story published by Bennett after 1920, although it was almost certainly written in 1919 or earlier.

Influence

Bennett has been credited as having "the best claim at creating the new genre of

". It has been said that Bennett's writings influenced both H. P. Lovecraft and

A. Merritt Abraham Grace Merritt (January 20, 1884 – August 21, 1943) – known by his byline, A. Merritt – was an American Sunday magazine editor and a writer of fantastic fiction. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inducted him in 1999, ...

, both of whom "emulated Bennett's earlier style and themes". Lovecraft was even said to have praised Bennett's work. However, there is controversy about whether or not this actually happened and the praise appears to have resulted from letters wrongly attributed to Lovecraft. As for Merritt, for several decades critics and readers believed "Francis Stevens" was a pseudonym of his. This rumor only ended with the 1952 reprinting of ''Citadel of Fear'', which featured a biographical introduction of Bennett by

Lloyd Arthur Eshbach Lloyd Arthur Eshbach (June 20, 1910 – October 29, 2003) was an American science fiction fan, publisher and writer, secular and religious publisher, and minister. Biography Born in Palm, Pennsylvania, Eshbach grew up in Reading in the sa ...

. Critic

Sam Moskowitz Sam Moskowitz (June 30, 1920 – April 15, 1997) was an American writer, critic, and historian of science fiction. Biography As a child, Moskowitz greatly enjoyed reading science fiction pulp magazines. As a teenager, he organized a branch of ...

said she was the "greatest woman writer of science fiction in the period between

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an early example of science fiction. She also e ...

and C.L. Moore". Because Bennett was the first American woman to have her fantasy and science fiction widely published, she qualifies as a pioneering female fantasy author.

Bibliography

Novels

*
The Citadel of Fear
' (1918; reprinted in ''Famous Fantastic Mysteries'', February 1942, and in paperback form in 1970, Y: Paperback Library 1984 Y: Carroll & Graf 2015 rmchair Fiction * ''The Labyrinth'' (serialized in ''All-Story Weekly'', July 27, August 3, and August 10, 1918; later reprinted as a paperback novel) * ''

'' 1st book edition. 1952, Cloth, also leather backed, Reading, PA.

Polaris Press Fantasy Press was an American publishing house specialising in fantasy and science fiction titles. Established in 1946 by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach in Reading, Pennsylvania, it was most notable for publishing the works of authors such as Robert A. H ...

(Subsidiary of Fantasy Fress, Inc.) ill. Ric Binkley. Intro by

(Thrill Book, August 15, 1919; reprinted as a paperback novel in 1952 and 1984; Dover 2014; Modern Library 2019) * ''Avalon'' (serialized in ''Argosy'', August 16 to September 6, 1919; reprinted in ''Claimed! and Avalon'', Black Dog Books, 2018) * ''

Claimed "Claimed" is the eleventh episode of the The Walking Dead (season 4), fourth season of the Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic Horror fiction, horror television series ''The Walking Dead (TV series), The Walking Dead'', wh ...

'' (1920; reprinted in April 1941, 1985, 1996, 2004, 2018) 192pp, cloth and paper, Sense of Wonder Press, James A. Rock & Co., Publishers in trade paperback and hard cover.

Short stories and novellas

*
The Curious Experience of Thomas Dunbar
(''Argosy'', March 1904; as by G. M. Barrows) * "The Nightmare," (''

All-Story Weekly ''Argosy'', later titled ''The Argosy'', ''Argosy All-Story Weekly'' and ''The New Golden Argosy'', was an American pulp magazine from 1882 through 1978, published by Frank Munsey until its sale to Popular Publications in 1942. It is the first ...

'', April 14, 1917) *
Friend Island
(''All-Story Weekly'', September 7, 1918; reprinted in ''Fantastic Novels'', September 1950; reprinted in
Under the Moons of Mars
', edited by Sam Moskowitz, 1970) * "

Behind the Curtain ''Behind the Curtain'' is the second book in the Echo Falls mystery series by best-selling crime novelist Peter Abrahams. Plot summary Ingrid lives in a small community called Echo Falls. She's in the school soccer team and is in the drama clu ...

" (''All-Story Weekly'', September 21, 1918; reprinted in ''Famous Fantastic Mysteries,'' January 1940) * " Unseen—Unfeared" (''People's Favorite Magazine'' February 10, 1919; reprinted in ''Horrors Unknown'', edited by Sam Moskowitz, 1971) * " The Elf-Trap" (''Argosy'', July 5, 1919; reprinted in ''Fantastic Novels Magazine'', November 1949) * "Serapion" (serialized in ''Argosy Weekly'', June 19, June 26, July 3, and July 10, 1920; reprinted in ''Famous Fantastic Mysteries'', July 1942) * "Sunfire" (1923; original printed in two parts in ''Weird Tales'', July–August 1923, and ''Weird Tales'', September 1923; also reprinted as trade paperback in 1996 by Apex International)

Collections

* ''Possessed: A Tale of the Demon Serapion'' (2002; contains the novella "Serapion", retitled, and the short stories "Behind the Curtain", "Elf-Trap" and "Unseen-Unfeared") * ''Nightmare: And Other Tales of Dark Fantasy'' (

, 2004; contains all Stevens' known short fiction except "The Curious Experience of Thomas Dunbar", i.e. "The Nightmare", "The Labyrinth", "Friend Island", "Behind the Curtain", ""Unseen-Unfeared", "The Elf-Trap", "Serapion" and "Sunfire")

Notes

References

External links

* *
Francis Stevens
a
Manybooks.net

* *

at Luminist Archives *Serialized issues with
The Labyrinth
' at Luminist Archives {{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Gertrude Barrows 1884 births 1948 deaths Writers from Minneapolis American women short story writers American science fiction writers American fantasy writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American women writers Women science fiction and fantasy writers American women novelists 20th-century American short story writers Novelists from Minnesota Weird fiction writers