Hans Otto Storm (1895–1941) was a

German-American German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

and

radio engineer Broadcast engineering is the field of electrical engineering, and now to some extent computer engineering and information technology, which deals with radio and television broadcasting. Audio engineering and RF engineering are also essential ...

.Hans Otto Storm
at

The Neglected Books Page ''The Neglected Books Page'' is a book review website. The site features reviews of books that have been, according to the site, "neglected, overlooked, forgotten, or stranded by changing tides in critical or popular taste." The site was founded i ...

, May 29th, 2010 His literary reputation quickly faded into obscurity after his early death, but in the 1940s received some positive praise from literary critic

Edmund Wilson Edmund Wilson Jr. (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer and literary critic who explored Freudian and Marxist themes. He influenced many American authors, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose unfinished work he edited for publi ...

. He is one of many people who has been speculatively suggested to be 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 ...

ous writer

B. Traven B. Traven (; Bruno Traven in some accounts) was the pen name of a novelist, presumed to be German, whose real name, nationality, date and place of birth and details of biography are all subject to dispute. One certainty about Traven's life is ...

Life

Storm was born in Bloomington, California to German parents who may have been refugees fleeing anti-socialist fervor following the failed

Revolutions of 1848 The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europea ...

. He studied engineering at Stanford University and entered the emerging field of

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

. He traveled in South and

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

, including long spells in

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

and

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

. He served two years with a

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

hospital 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 ...

. Storm died of accidental

electrocution Electrocution is death or severe injury caused by electric shock from electric current passing through the body. The word is derived from "electro" and "execution", but it is also used for accidental death. The term "electrocution" was coine ...

on December 11, 1941, a few days after the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...

, while rushing to complete a large radio

transformer A transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces a varying magnetic flux in the transformer' ...

for the

Army Signal Corps The United States Army Signal Corps (USASC) is a branch of the United States Army that creates and manages communications and information systems for the command and control of combined arms forces. It was established in 1860, the brainchild of Ma ...

in a laboratory in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. His literary papers are archived at Bancroft Library at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

Novels

Storm's first novel, ''Full Measure'' (1929), is about industrial expansion and is strongest on the subject of radio engineering and equipment. It "received mildly positive reviews but sold little over a thousand copies." His next novel, ''Pity the Tyrant'' (1937), is about an American engineer who becomes involved in a Peruvian revolution who is "sorely perplexed between his job, his proletarian political sympathies and his love affair with a South American lady." Edmund Wilson considered it Storm's best work. The tyrant of the title is based on Augusto Leguía,

President of Peru The president of Peru ( es, link=no, presidente del Perú), officially called the president of the Republic of Peru ( es, link=no, presidente de la República del Perú), is the head of state and head of government of Peru. The president is th ...

from 1919 to 1930, "whose rule was marked by rebellion, suppression of his opponents, and widespread corruption." His next novel, ''Made in the USA'' (1939) is a "social fable" about a

tramp steamer A boat or ship engaged in the tramp trade is one which does not have a fixed schedule, itinerary nor published ports of call, and trades on the spot market as opposed to freight liners. A steamship engaged in the tramp trade is sometimes called ...

full of passengers that becomes stuck on a sandbar in the South Pacific. Civilized behavior deteriorates and the passengers break into two warring camps. His last novel, ''Count Ten'' (1940) is his longest and most heavily marketed; it follows thirty years of the life of its protagonist, Eric Marsden. In Edmund Wilson’s estimation, the novel is "very much inferior on the whole to the ones that had gone before." Wilson also thought that it showed "what seemed internal evidence of having been written earlier," giving off the air of "one of those

autobiographical novel An autobiographical novel is a form of novel using autofiction techniques, or the merging of autobiographical and fictive elements. The literary technique is distinguished from an autobiography or memoir by the stipulation of being fiction. Bec ...

s that young men begin in college and carry around for years in old trunks."

Notes

External links

The Hans Otto Storm Papers
at the Bancroft Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Storm, Hans Otto 20th-century American novelists American male novelists Writers from California American electrical engineers 1895 births 1941 deaths Accidental deaths by electrocution Accidental deaths in California 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American engineers United States Army personnel of World War I United States Army personnel of World War II