FRIEND, Oscar J(erome)

(1897-1963)

   US writer and editor who worked for the Standard Magazine chain on CAPTAIN FUTURE, STARTLING STORIES and THRILLING WONDER STORIES during 1941-4, a period when these magazines were most specifically aimed at adolescents. The editorial director at the time was Leo MARGULIES, with whom OJF later edited 3 anthologies (see below). After the death of Otis Adelbert KLINE in 1946, OJF became head of Kline's literary agency. He wasintermittently active as a writer from before 1920, concentrating on horror, Western and detective tales, sometimes as Owen Fox Jerome, his first sf story proper being "Of Jovian Build" for Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1938. His first novel, The Hand of Horror (1927) as by Jerome, was a horror tale involving hynotism. His sf books - The Kid from Mars (1940 Startling Stories; 1949), Roar of the Rocket (1940 TWS; 1950 chapAustralia) and The Star Men (1963) - are unremarkable but entertaining.

   MJE/JC

   Other works: From Off this World (anth 1949), My Best Science Fiction Story (anth 1949) and The Giant Anthology of Science Fiction (anth 1954; cut vt Race to the Stars 1958), all with Leo Margulies.

   See also: ALIENS.