LORRAINE, Lilith

   One of at least 5 pseudonyms of Mary Maude Wright (nee Dunn) (1894-1967), US writer, poet, editor and radio lecturer, who regularly published sf in the 1930s PULP MAGAZINES. The Brain of the Planet (1929 chap), from Hugo GERNSBACK's Science Fiction series, is a FEMINIST socialist UTOPIA, as isher "Into the 28th Century" (1930 Science Wonder Quarterly). Her favourite themes included classless societies, revised gender roles and ESP. Between 1937 and 1967 she also edited poetry magazines and wrote much verse,including Banners of Victory (coll 1937 chap), Beyond Bewilderment (coll 1942 chap), They (1943 chap), The Day before Judgement (coll 1944 chap)and Trailing Clouds of Glory (coll 1947 chap), Call on the Rocks 1944-47 (coll 1947 chap); Let the Patterns Break (omni 1947) assembles theprevious volumes. The later Wine of Wonder (coll 1951 chap) was advertised as being the first volume of POETRY devoted to sf. It is hard to say that LL had an individual voice, though she did at times effectively translatecommon poetic idioms into sf terms. In 1940 she founded Avalon, a poetry association.

   JD/JC

   About the author: "Empress of the Stars" by Steve Sneyd in Fantasy Commentator \#43, 1992.