DUNCAN, David

(1913-)

   US writer of popular fiction in several genres, perhaps as well known for his few sf novels as for any other work, though his first novel with an sf content, The Shade of Time (1946), which deals with "atomic displacement", was (as he records) accepted for publication only after Hiroshima. His books of the 1950s, more widely distributed within the sf markets, have been better remembered, though he also scripted several films, including The TIME MACHINE (1960), and wrote a screenplay for The OUTER LIMITS . Dark Dominion (1954) is a well told melodrama concerning a new element, magellanium, which varies in weight according to the position of the star Sirius, and which is finally used to power a spaceship. Beyond Eden (1955; vt Another Tree in Eden 1956 UK) contrasts different routes towards fulfilment - materially, through a vast water-making project, and spiritually, via crystals that expand humankind's nature in the direction of gestalt empathy. Occam's Razor (1957) explores, within the context of a threatening nuclear war, the impact of the arrival of two humans - though one is horned-from a PARALLEL WORLD. DD has since fallen silent.

   JC

   Other work: The Madrone Tree (1949), a fantasy.See also: DIMENSIONS; MATHEMATICS.