MacISAAC, Fred(erick John)

(1886-1940)

   US writer who appeared frequently in Argosy after WWI with stories in which his sober prophetic intelligence wrestles with his PULP-MAGAZINE instincts, and usually loses. His work remains of interest,however. The Vanishing Professor (1926 Argosy; 1927) complicatedly engages a venal scientist, inventor of an INVISIBILITY machine, with crime czars and detectives. "The Great Commander" (1926 Argosy All-Story) adumbrates Richard CONDON's Emperor of America (1990). "World Brigands" (1928 ArgosyAll-Story) suggests that the USA will develop an atomic bomb around 1940 in response to threats of war. The Mental Marvel (1930) deals with a boxer whose skills represent an evolutionary leap. The Hothouse World (1931 Argosy; 1965) awakes its protagonist from SUSPENDED ANIMATION into theinsanely restrictive post-catastrophe world of AD2051 - its inhabitants pent in a single tower - which he liberates once it is demonstrated that the air outside can again be breathed.

   JC

   See also: CITIES; ECONOMICS; POLITICS.