FANTHORPE, R(obert) L(ionel)

(1935-)

   UK writer who became a schoolteacher and preacher. From 1954 to 1965 RLF was an sf writer of remarkable productivity, towards the end of that period producing novels on a weekly schedule for BADGER BOOKS and associated imprints, for which he was paid ps25 a volume, dictating his tales into a battery of tape-recorders for transcription by members of his family or by friends. The rushed endings of many of his novels were a result of this practice, as he often did not know how close he was to his allotted word-length until batches of typing had been completed; if a tale had reached its length while still in mid-plot, it would be truncated forthwith. It has been claimed of RLF that he was the world's most prolific writer in the genre. His first story, written at the age of 16, was "Worlds without End" as by Lionel Roberts for FUTURISTIC SCIENCE STORIES in 1952. His first novel, Menace from Mercury (1954), was published under the house name Victor LA SALLE; other house names under which he would work were John E. MULLER and Karl ZEIGFREID. Within a few years he was responsible for the vast majority of Badger's sf and supernatural output, both novels and collections of stories, some of the former and all of the latter being included in the numbered series Supernatural Stories. (RLF's practice with stories was generally to provide all the contents of a particular issue, using several pseudonyms in addition to his own name, creating in effect a series of collections. It is as collections that these titles are listed in this entry, under the title and name story listed on the cover, though in fact this title might not actually appear within, and pseudonymous work by other authors occasionally appears in collections otherwise by RLF; we have here violated our normal practice of designating such books as anthologies.) After Badger Books folded, RLF fell silent, though he made a brief comeback as a fiction writer with The Black Lion (1979), written in collaboration with his wife, Patricia Fanthorpe (1938-); it is a not-unsuccessful fantasy, the first of a projected (but still incomplete) trilogy.One series of some interest, published under the Bron Fane pseudonym, chronicles the adventures of the Bulldog Drummond-like Val Stearman and the immortal La Noire: "The Seance" (1958), "The Secret Room" (1958), "Valley of the Vampire" (1958), "The Silent Stranger" (1959), "The Other Line" (1959), "The Green Cloud" (1959), "Pursuit" (1959), "Jungle of Death" (1959), "The Crawling Fiend" (1960), "Curtain Up" (1960), "The Secret of the Lake" (1960), "The Loch Ness Terror" (1961), "The Deathless Wings" (1961), "The Green Sarcophagus" (1961), "Black Abyss" (1961), "Forbidden City" (1961), "The Secret of the Pyramid" (1961), "Something at the Door" (1961), "Forbidden Island" (1962), "Storm God's Fury" (1962), "Vengeance of the Poltergeist" (1962), "The Persian Cavern" (1962), "The Chasm of Time" (1962), "The Voice in the Wall" (1962), "Cry in the Night" (1962), "The Nine Green Men" (1963), "The Man who Never Smiled" (1963), "Return Ticket" (1963), "The Room that Never Was" (1963), "The Walker" (1963), Softly By Moonlight (1963), "The Thing from Sheol" (1963), "The Man who Knew" (1963), Unknown Destiny (1964), "The Warlock" (1964), The Macabre Ones (1964), "The Troll" (1964), "The Walking Shadow" (1964), "The Lake Thing" (as Pel Torro, 1964), "The Accursed" (1965), "The Prodigy" (1965), U.F.O. 517 (1965), "Girdle of Fear" (1965), "Repeat Programme" (1966) and "The Resurrected Enemy" (1966).Apart from those listed below in connection with book titles, RLF's pseudonyms included Neil Balfort, Othello Baron, Oben Lerteth, Elton T. Neef, Peter O'Flinn, Rene Rolant, Robin Tate and Deutero Spartacus. All but the last are partial anagrams of his name.

   MJE

   Other works: As R.L. Fanthorpe: Resurgam (coll 1957); Secret of the Snows (coll 1957); The Flight of the Valkyries (coll 1958); The Waiting World (1958); Watchers of the Forest (coll 1958); Call of the Werewolf (coll 1958); The Death Note (coll 1958); Mermaid Reef (coll 1959); Alien from the Stars (1959); Fiends (1959); Space-Borne (1959); The Ghost Rider (coll 1959); Hyperspace (1959); Doomed World (1960); The Man who Couldn't Die (coll 1960); Out of the Darkness (1960); Satellite (1960); Asteroid Man (1960); Werewolf at Large (coll 1960); Hand of Doom (1960); Whirlwind of Death (coll 1960); Flame Mass (1961); Fingers of Darkness (coll 1961); Face in the Dark (coll 1961); Devil from the Depths (coll 1961); Centurion's Vengeance (coll 1961); The Golden Chalice (1961); The Grip of Fear (coll 1961); Chariot of Apollo (coll 1962); Hell has Wings (coll 1962); Graveyard of the Damned (coll 1962); The Darker Drink (coll 1962); Curse of the Totem (coll 1962); Space Fury (1962); Goddess of the Night (coll 1963); Moon Wolf (coll 1963); Avenging Goddess (coll 1964); Death has Two Faces (coll 1964); The Shrouded Abbot (coll 1964); Bitter Reflection (coll 1965); Neuron World (1965); The Triple Man (1965); Call of the Wild (coll 1965); Vision of the Damned (coll 1965); The Sealed Sarcophagus (coll 1965); The Unconfined (1966); Stranger in the Shadow (coll 1966); Curse of the Khan (coll 1966); Watching World (1966); The Story of St Francis of Assisi (1989), nonfiction; Three of the Earliest SF Stories by Lionel Fanthorpe (coll 1991 chap); Collection of Documents Referring to Lionel Fanthorpe's Early Writings (coll 1991 chap).As Erle Barton: The Planet Seekers (1964).As Lee Barton: The Unseen (1963); The Shadow Man (1966).As Thornton Bell: Space Trap (1964); Chaos (1964).As Leo Brett: The Drud (coll 1959); The Return (coll 1959); Exit Humanity (1960); The Microscopic Ones (1960); The Faceless Planet (1960); March of the Robots (1961); Black Infinity (1961); Mind Force (1961); Nightmare (1962); Face in the Night (1962); The Immortals (1962); The Frozen Tomb (coll 1962); They Never Come Back (1963); The Forbidden (1963); From Realms Beyond (1963); Phantom Crusader (coll 1963); The Alien Ones (1963); Power Sphere (1963).As Bron Fane: The Crawling Fiend (coll 1960); Juggernaut (1960; vt Blue Juggernaut 1965 US); Last Man on Earth (1960); Rodent Mutation (1961); Storm God's Fury (coll 1962); The Intruders (1963); Somewhere Out There (1963); The Thing from Sheol (coll 1963); Nemesis (1964); Suspension (1964); The Walking Shadow (coll 1964).As L.P. Kenton: Destination Moon (1959).As Victor La Salle (house name): Victor LA SALLE.As John E. Muller (house name): A 1000 Years On (1961); The Mind Makers (1961); The Ultimate Man (1961); Forbidden Planet (1961); The Uninvited (1961); Crimson Planet (1961); The Venus Venture (1961; 1965 US as by Marston Johns); The Return of Zeus (1962); Perilous Galaxy (1962); The Eye of Karnak (1962); Infinity Machine (1962); Uranium 235 (1962); The Man who Conquered Time (1962); Orbit One (1962; 1966 US as by Mel Jay); Micro Infinity (1962); Beyond Time (1962; 1966 US as by Marston Johns); Vengeance of Siva (1962); The Day the World Died (1962); The X-Machine (1962); Reactor XK9 (1963); Special Mission (1963); Dark Continuum (1964); Mark of the Beast (1964); The Exorcists (1965); The Negative Ones (1965); The Man from Beyond (1965); Spectre of Darkness (1965); Beyond the Void (1965); Out of the Night (1965); Phenomena X (1966) and Survival Project (1966).As Phil Nobel: The Hand from Gehenna (coll 1964).As Lionel Roberts: The Incredulist (coll 1954); Guardians of the Tomb (coll 1958); The Golden Warrior (coll 1958); Dawn of the Mutants (1959); Time Echo (1959; 1964 US as by Robert Lionel); Cyclops in the Sky (1960); The In-World (1960); The Face of X (1960; 1965 US as by Robert Lionel); The Last Valkyrie (1961); The Synthetic Ones (1961); Flame Goddess (1961).As Neil Thanet: Beyond the Veil (1964); The Man who Came Back (1964).As Trebor Thorpe: The Haunted Pool (coll 1958); Five Faces of Fear (1960); Lightning World (1960); Voodoo Hell Drums (coll 1961).As Pel Torro: Frozen Planet (1960); World of the Gods (1960); The Phantom Ones (1961); Legion of the Lost (1962); The Strange Ones (1963); Galaxy 666 (1963); Formula 29X (1963; vt Beyond the Barrier of Space 1969 US); The Timeless Ones (1963); Through the Barrier (1963); The Last Astronaut (1963); The Face of Fear (1963); The Return (1964; vt Exiled in Space 1969 US); Space No Barrier (1964; vt Man of Metal 1969 US); Force 97X (1965).As Olaf Trent: Roman Twilight (coll 1963).As Karl Zeigfreid (house name): Gods of Darkness (1962); Walk through Tomorrow (1963); Android (1962); Atomic Nemesis (1962); Zero Minus X (1962); Escape to Infinity (1963); Radar Alert (1963); World of Tomorrow (1963; vt World of the Future 1964 US); The World that Never Was (1963); Projection Infinity (1964); No Way Back (1964); Barrier 346 (1965); The Girl from Tomorrow (1965).