OPPENHEIM, E(dward) Phillips

(1866-1946)

   UK writer, publishing from 1887 at least 160 novels, most of them espionage thrillers or society detective mysteries, the best known being The Great Impersonation (1920). His sf novels of interest - most of the titles listed below are romantic-fantasy potboilers - include The Wrath to Come (1924 US), in which the USA is threatened by a 1940sGerman-Russian-Japanese axis, Gabriel Samara, Peacemaker (1925 US; vt Gabriel Samara 1925 UK; vt Exit a Dictator 1939 US), in which the Russian government is overthrown, and The Dumb Gods Speak (1937), a novel set in the future and involving high intrigue and a secret weapon. EPO was a careless, clumsy, snobbish, quite enjoyable writer of escapist fiction.

   JC

   Other works: The Mysterious Mr Sabin (1898); A Daughter of Astrea (1898); The Traitors (1902); The Great Awakening (1902; vt A Sleeping Memory 1902 US); The Secret (1907); Havoc (1911); The Falling Star (1911 US); The Double Life of Mr Alfred Burton (1913 US); The Black Box (1915 US); The Great Prince Shan (1922 US); The Golden Beast (1926 US); Matorni's Vineyard (1928 US); The Adventures of Mr Joseph P. Cray (1929); Up the Ladder of Gold (1931 US); The Spy Paramount (1935); Mr Mirakel (1943 US).