Will F. Jenkins, known to science fiction fans by his penname Murray Leinster, was among the most prolific American writers of the 20th century. “The Dean of Science Fiction,” as he was sometimes known, published more than 1,500 short stories and 100 books in a career spanning more than fifty years. This biography, written by his two youngest daughters, chronicles Murray Leinster’s private and literary life from his first writings for The Smart Set and early pulp magazines such as Argosy, Amazing Stories and Astounding Stories, through the golden age of science fiction in the 1930s through the 1950s, to his death in 1975. Included as appendices are his famous 1946 story “A Logic Named Joe” and 1954 essay “To Build a Robot Brain.”

Billee J. Stallings lives in Moorestown, New Jersey, where she is active in historical preservation.
Jo-an J. Evans has written previously about fashion and design. She lives in London.

Billee J. Stallings and Jo-an J. Evans
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 227
Bibliographic Info: 42 photos, appendices, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2011
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6504-0
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8715-8
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      v

Foreword: The Dean Revisited by James Gunn      1

Preface      3

1. The Beginning: 1909      5

2. A Southern Family      13

3. The Early Days: 1910–1919      22

4. Entering Science Fiction: 1919–1921      33

5. Marriage: The 1920s      38

6. The 1930s      61

7. The New York Years: The 1940s      86

8. The 1950s      117

9. The 1960s      132

10. After Mary’s Death      152

11. On Writing      164

Appendix A. “A Logic Named Joe”      175

Appendix B. “To Build a Robot Brain”      187

Bibliography      195

Index      215

“chock full of intimate family history…an entertaining and informative overview of a popular genre writer who perhaps deserves greater scholarly attention”—Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts.