CROSSEN, Kendell Foster

(1910-1981)

   US writer and editor, active under various names in various PULP-MAGAZINE markets, perhaps most notably as an author of detective stories, his best work being published under his own name and as M.E. Chaber. Though the Green Lama series of early 1940s thrillers, published in Double Detective as by Richard Foster, and Murder Out of Mind (1945) as by Ken Crossen, slip close to the fantastic, he only began publishing sf proper with two stories in Feb 1951: "The Boy who Cried Wolf 359" in AMZ and "Restricted Clientele" in TWS. Towards the end of their existences he published a large amount of material with Startling Stories and TWS; much of this material is intendedly comic, in particular the Manning Draco series about an interstellar salesman and his amusing experiences with ALIENS: Once Upon a Star (1951-2 TWS, fixup 1953) plus 4 additional stories, "Assignment to Aldebaran" (1953), "Whistle Stop in Space" (1953), "Mission to Mizar" (1953) and "The Agile Algolian" (1954). Year of Consent (1952), about a COMPUTER that controls the West, expressively conveys the PARANOIA of much US fiction of the period. The Rest Must Die (1959), as by Foster, follows the story of those who have survived a nuclear attack on New York by happening to be underground in subways or cellars: conflicts ensue. KFC's ANTHOLOGIES - Adventures in Tomorrow (anth 1951; UK edn omits 2 stories) and Future Tense (anth 1952; UK edn omits 7 stories) - include some original stories, are competently selected, and were influential in their time.

   JC