PHILLIPS, Rog

   Working name of US writer Roger Phillips Graham (1909-1965), a prolific contributor to the sf magazines of the late 1940s and 1950s. His first story was "Let Freedom Ring" in 1945 for AMAZING STORIES, which, along with its companion magazine FANTASTIC ADVENTURES, remained his most regular market. He wrote a series of stories featuring the character Lefty Baker: "Squeeze Play" (1947), "The Immortal Menace" (1949), "The InsaneRobot" (1949) and "But Who Knows Huer or Huen?" (1969). His best known story is "The Yellow Pill" (1958), an ingenious exercise in paradoxes of PERCEPTION (see also CONCEPTUAL BREAKTHROUGH; PSYCHOLOGY). Some of hisshort work appeared as by Clinton Ames, Franklin Bahl, Craig Browning, Gregg Conrad, Inez McGowan, Melva Rogers, Chester Ruppert, William CarterSawtelle and John Wiley; he also wrote under the house names Robert ARNETTE, Alexander BLADE, P.F. COSTELLO, A.R. STEBER, Gerald VANCE and Peter WORTH. Under the aegis of AMZ editor Raymond A. PALMER, RP conducted an influential FANZINE-review column, The Club House (Mar 1948-Mar 1953), later reviving it in other magazines ed Palmer: UNIVERSE SCIENCE FICTION and OTHER WORLDS. RP wrote 4 novels, none negligible, though less successful than some of his shorter work: Time Trap (1949), Worlds Within (1950), World of If (1951) and The Involuntary Immortals (1949 FantasticAdventures; rev 1959), the last being an example of a kind of tale intrinsic to GENRE SF (a recent example being Nancy KRESS's Beggars in Spain (1991)): a group of young paranormals (SUPERMAN) must band together to protect themselves from the vengeance of ungifted normal humans.

   MJE/JC

   See also: FANTASTIC VOYAGES; POLITICS; ZIFF-DAVIS.