LOWNDES, Robert A(ugustine) W(ard)

(1916-)

   US writer and editor, often referred to as "Doc" Lowndes, a member of the FUTURIANS fan group and collaborator on several stories with other members of the group under the names Arthur COOKE, S.D. GOTTESMAN, Paul Dennis Lavond and Lawrence WOODS. His first story, "The Outpost atAltark" for Super Science in 1940, was written in collaboration with fellow-Futurian Donald A. WOLLHEIM, uncredited. For his solo work in the early 1940s RAWL used the names Carol Grey, Mallory Kent, Wilfred Owen Morley and Richard Morrison; later he added Carl Groener, Robert Morrison,Michael Sherman and Peter Michael Sherman, and once collaborated with James BLISH as John MACDOUGAL.RAWL edited FUTURE FICTION and SCIENCE FICTION QUARTERLY for Columbia Publications from early 1941 until their demise in 1943, and again throughout their shoestring revival in the early 1950s under various titles. He also edited DYNAMIC SCIENCE FICTION(1952-4) and Science Fiction Stories (1954-5) for Columbia Publications, continuing to edit the latter under its new name, The ORIGINAL SCIENCE FICTION STORIES , from 1955 until the chain folded in 1960, when he beganediting for Health Knowledge Inc. He gradually added a number of fantasy magazines to the latter publisher's line, including The MAGAZINE OF HORROR in 1963, Startling Mystery Stories in 1966, FAMOUS SCIENCE FICTION in 1966, Weird Terror Tales in 1969 and Bizarre Fantasy Tales in 1970, butall became defunct in 1970. He was also the editor of the Avalon Books sf line 1955-67.RAWL wrote a hectic action-adventure novel in collaboration with Blish, The Duplicated Man (1953 Dynamic Science Fiction as by Blish and Michael Sherman; 1959), and later edited the posthumous THE BEST OF JAMES BLISH (coll 1979). He also produced three solo novels: The Mysteryof the Third Mine (1953), which is a juvenile, The Puzzle Planet (1961) and Believers' World (1952 Space as "A Matter of Faith" as by Michael Sherman; exp 1959); in the third and most interesting of these,inhabitants of three lost colonies have developed an eccentric RELIGION. His best short stories are H.P. LOVECRAFT-like items such as "The Abyss"(1941) and "The Leapers" (1942 as Carol Grey; rev vt "Leapers" 1968). His literary columns from Famous Science Fiction were assembled as Three Faces of Science Fiction (coll 1973 chap).

   BS/PN/JC