AUBREY, Frank

   The first and main pseudonym of UK writer Francis Henry Atkins (1840-1927). A contributor to the pre-sf PULP MAGAZINESS, he wrote three LOST-WORLD novels. The first and most successful was Devil-Tree of El Dorado: A Romance of British Guiana (1896), which capitalized on the contemporary interest in the Roraima Plateau. Weird themes continued in FA's writings but sf elements became more prominent: A Queen of Atlantis: A Romance of the Caribbean (1898) related the discovery of a telepathic race living in the Sargasso Sea; and King of the Dead: A Weird Romance (1903) showed remnants of Earth's oldest civilization employing advanced science to resurrect the dead of untold generations in a bid to regain their lost empire. The first two of these loosely connected novels are linked by the appearance in both of Monella, a Wandering-Jew character. Little is known about FA. There is evidence that he was involved in a scandal at the turn of the century; following a three-year hiatus, he began to write again, now as Fenton Ash. Publisher's files indicate that his son, Frank Howard Atkins Jr (1883-1921) - who wrote many popular nature stories as F. St Mars - also used this name, perhaps in collaboration. Stylistic analysis indicates that a later story as by FA, Caught by a Comet (1910), may have been written exclusively by Frank Atkins Jr. Many sf stories as by Fenton Ash, all characterized by vividly imaginative but less than fully realized ideas, appeared in the BOYS' PAPERS. The majority are lost-world adventures; e.g., The Sunken Island (1904), The Sacred Mountain (1904), The Radium Seekers, or The Wonderful Black Nugget (1905), The Temple of Fire, or The Mysterious Island (1905; cut 1917) as Fred Ashley, The Hermit of the Mountains (1906-7), By Airship to Ophir (1910), The Black Opal: A Romance of Thrilling Adventure (1906 The Big Budget; 1915), In Polar Seas (1915-16) and The Island of Gold (1915 The Marvel; 1918). In two further works, A Son of the Stars (1907-08 Young England) and A Trip to Mars (1907 The Sunday Circle as A King of Mars; 1909), the lost-world setting shifted to a war-torn Mars, preceding Edgar Rice BURROUGHS's use of the same idea by some years. In his chosen market FA was extremely successful and influential. Although contributing little to the sophistication of sf, he played an important role in the HISTORY OF SF.