SENARENS, Luis Philip

(1863-1939)

   US writer, editor and publishing aide. Under at least 27 pseudonyms he wrote perhaps 2000 stories, mostly boys' fiction, beginning in his teens. In later life, when that market declined, he served as managing editor for the Tousey publications, edited the weekly Motion Picture Stories and wrote motion-picture scenarios. He remains best knownfor his early work. In 1882, under the house pseudonym " NONAME", he took over the Frank Reade, Jr. series of dime novels (DIME-NOVEL SF; FRANK READE LIBRARY), later claiming to have written "most" of the 179 storiesabout Frank Reade, Jr. and "all" the comparable Jack Wright yarns; these claims may be overstated. LPS exemplified the worst in the dime-novel tradition: very bad writing, sadism, ethnic rancour, factual ignorance and an exploitational mentality. On the positive side, he led the dime novel away from eccentric inventions into a developmental stream that culminated in modern CHILDREN'S SF.

   EFB/JE

   About the author: "The American Jules Verne" (anon) in Science and Invention, Oct 1920; "Lu Senarens, Writer of a Thousand Thrillers" by E. Alden in American Magazine, Apr 1921; "Ghosts of Prophecies Past" by Sam MOSKOWITZ in Explorers of the Infinite (coll 1963); intro by E.F. BLEILER to The Frank Reade Library (omni, 10 vols1979-86), which reprinted the complete FRANK READE LIBRARY.