Samuel Kimball Merwin Jr. (April 28, 1910 - January 13, 1996) was an American

mystery fiction Mystery is a genre fiction, fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains wiktionary:mysterious, mysterious until the end of the story. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually prov ...

writer, editor and

science fiction author This is a list of noted science-fiction authors (in alphabetical order): A *Dafydd ab Hugh (born 1960) *Alexander Abasheli (1884–1954) *Edwin Abbott Abbott (1838–1926) *Kōbō Abe (1924–1993) * Robert Abernathy (1924–1990) *Dan Abn ...

. His pseudonyms included Elizabeth Deare Bennett, Matt Lee, Jacques Jean Ferrat and Carter Sprague.

Biography

He was born on April 28, 1910 in

Plainfield, New Jersey Plainfield is a city in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, known by its nickname as "The Queen City."

, to Samuel Merwin Sr. He received a BA from Princeton in 1931 and studied at the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts. He began his career in mainstream journalism - as a reporter for the ''Boston Evening America'' (1932–1933) then as the New York City Bureau chief for ''The Philadelphia Inquirer''. His career continued as an editor (Dell publishing Co. 1937–1938, Standard Magazines Group 1941–1951, King Size Publications (1952), Renown Publications (1955–1956, 1977–1979) and Brandon House (1966–1967) and as a magazine writer. In 1934 he married Lee Anna Vance. Merwin began publishing fiction in 1940 with the mystery novel, ''Murder in Miniatures'', and wrote mysteries, romance (under female pseudonyms) and science fiction. Overall, he produced more mystery writing than science fiction writing and his science fiction is said to show the influence of the mystery genre. However he was most influential in the science fiction genre, as the editor of ''

Startling Stories ''Startling Stories'' was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published from 1939 to 1955 by publisher Ned Pines' Standard Magazines. It was initially edited by Mort Weisinger, who was also the editor of ''Thrilling Wonder Stories'', S ...

'' (1945–1951) ''

Fantastic Story Quarterly ''Fantastic Story Quarterly ''was a pulp science fiction magazine, published from 1950 to 1955 by Best Books, a subsidiary imprint of Standard Magazines, based in Kokomo, Indiana. The name was changed with the Summer 1951 issue to ''Fantastic St ...

'' (1950–1951), ''Wonder Stories Annual'' (1950–1951), ''

Thrilling Wonder Stories ''Wonder Stories'' was an early American science fiction magazine which was published under several titles from 1929 to 1955. It was founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1929 after he had lost control of his first science fiction magazine, ''Amazing Stor ...

'' (1945-1951) and ''Fantastic Universe'' (1953). At first he was billed as Sergeant Saturn, a pseudonym inherited from Oscar J. Friend, the magazines' previous editor, and then simply as "Editor". His identity remained unknown to most readers for six years, which helped make his magazines' letters department one of the liveliest and best regarded in the field. He has been credited with raising the standard of published science fiction and of moving it more towards an adult readership. Merwin quit his editing job in 1951 to become a freelance writer, but his mysteries and science fiction books were only moderately successful, either commercially or critically. During the science fiction boom of 1953 he briefly edited ''

Fantastic Universe ''Fantastic Universe'' was a U.S. science fiction magazine which began publishing in the 1950s. It ran for 69 issues, from June 1953 to March 1960, under two different publishers. It was part of the explosion of science fiction magazine publishin ...

'', and he was an associate editor of ''

Galaxy Science Fiction ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published in Boston from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by a French-Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break into the American market. World Editi ...

'' in 1952-1953. Three of his detective stories had as an investigator Amy Brewster "a cigar-smoking, 300-pound lawyer-financier...Upper class but unfeminine" who solved mysteries for her friends. This character has been said to be "defined ''against'' the genre's stereotypes, particularly the femme fatale: they are not attractive, not home-bound, and not submissive, either conversationally or professionally". He wrote a few comic book stories for DC's

Strange Adventures ''Strange Adventures'' is a series of American comic books published by DC Comics, the first of which was August–September 1950, according to the cover date, and published continuously until November 1973. Original series ''Strange Adventures ...

and

Mystery in Space ''Mystery in Space'' is the name of two science fiction American comic book series published by DC Comics, and of a standalone Vertigo anthology released in 2012. The first series ran for 110 issues from 1951 to 1966, with a further seven issues c ...

that were published from 1952 to 1953. He also edited the Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine in 1956, returning to edit it from 1977 to 1979. He wrote many of the Michael Shayne stories that appeared in the magazine He died on January 13, 1996,

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Legacy

Merwin is probably best remembered today for the

alternate worlds Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * ''The Alternative'' (film), a 1978 Australian television film * ''The Alternative ...

novel ''The House of Many Worlds'' (1951) and its sequel, ''Three Faces of Time'' (1955). Boucher and McComas, although faulting its ending, characterized ''The House of Many Worlds'' as "admirably handled. . . . the writing is the best that Merwin has yet published.".

P. Schuyler Miller Peter Schuyler Miller (February 21, 1912 – October 13, 1974) was an American science fiction writer and critic. Life Miller was raised in New York's Mohawk Valley, which led to a lifelong interest in the Iroquois Indians. He pursued this as ...

praised the novel as "roundly entertaining ndfirmly plotted ndfully packed with all sorts of neat little bits of color and detail.

Groff Conklin Edward Groff Conklin (September 6, 1904 – July 19, 1968) was an American science fiction anthologist. He edited 40 anthologies of science fiction, one of mystery stories (co-edited with physician Noah Fabricant), wrote books on home improvemen ...

, however, reviewed ''House'' as "rather disappointing," citing its "hasty writing and unfortunate characterizations"."Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf,"

, January 1952, p.116-117.

Works

The House of Many Worlds

# ''The House of Many Worlds'' in ''

'', September 1951 #*Expanded: ''The House of Many Worlds'', Doubleday, 1951 #*Reprint: ''

Galaxy novel ''Galaxy novels'', sometimes titled ''Galaxy Science Fiction Novels'', were a series of mostly reprint American science fiction novels published between 1950 and 1961. The series was started by H.L. Gold, the editor of ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' ...

'' No. 12, 1952 # "Journey to Misenum", ''Startling Stories'', August 1953 #*Expanded as: ''Three Faces of Time'', Ace Double D-121, 1955 # Both novels collected as ''The House of Many Worlds'', Ace, 1983

Amy Brewster detective novels

* ''Knife in My Back'', New York, Mystery House, 1945 **Reprint: Kingston, New York, Handi Book, 1945 **Reprint: London, Quality Press Ltd, 1947 **Reprint: New York/Toronto, Harlequin Books, 1950 *Message from a Corpse, 1945 *A Matter of Policy, 1947

Standalone novels

* ''Murder in Miniatures'', Doubleday Doran, "Crime Club", 1940 ** Reprint: Crestwood Pub., "A Black Cat Detective Story", 1945 ** Reprint: New York/Toronto, Harlequin Books, 1950 ** Reprint: Sydney, Original Novels Foundation, "Phantom Books No. 645", 1955, 132p. * ''The Creeping Shadow'', Connecticut, Fawcett Gold Medal Books (227), 1952 * ''Killer to Come'', Abelard Press, 1953 **Reprint: ''

Galaxy novels ''Galaxy novels'', sometimes titled ''Galaxy Science Fiction Novels'', were a series of mostly reprint American science fiction novels published between 1950 and 1961. The series was started by H.L. Gold, the editor of ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' ...

'' No. 22, 1954 * ''The White Widows'', Doubleday, 1953 (expansion of "The White Widows" in ''

'', October 1953) **Slightly edited reprint: ''The Sex War'', Beacon, ''

'' No. 42, 1960 * ''The Passer'', New York, Midwood Tower, 1962 * ''The Time Shifters'', New York, Lancer, 1971 * ''Chauvinisto'', Canoga Park, CA, Major Books, 1976, , 176p.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Merwin, Sam Jr. 1910 births 1996 deaths 20th-century American novelists American male novelists American mystery writers American science fiction writers Science fiction editors Startling Stories American male short story writers 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American male writers