STILSON, Charles B(illings)

(1880-1932)

   US journalist and editor, active in the early decades of the century with serialized novels and some stories for the Frank A. MUNSEY magazines. His Edgar Rice BURROUGHS-inspired sf/fantasy trilogy, Polaris of the Snows (1915-16 All-Story; 1965), Minos of Sardanes (1916 All-Story; 1966) and Polaris and the Immortals (1917 All-Story as "Polaris and theGoddess Glorian"; 1968), features the improbably durable Tarzan-like Polaris Janess, who spends his Antarctic childhood killing polar bears [sic] by hand and as an adult enjoys adventures in a LOST-WORLD colony of Greeks and with technologically advanced survivors of ATLANTIS. "The Sky Woman" (1920 All-Story) concludes with the tragic death of a Martian woman borne to Earth in a meteorite. The more sophisticated "Dr Martone's Microscope" (1920 All-Story) is a homage to Fitz-James O'BRIEN's "TheDiamond Lens" (1858) and Ray CUMMINGS's "The Girl in the Golden Atom" (1919), both of which are mentioned by name. At the same time it invokes a surreptitious sexuality: the doctor's microscope has been used for voyeuristic purposes. At his best CBS was a writer who transcended PULP-MAGAZINE formulae.

RB/JC

   Other works: The Island God Forgot (1922); The Ace of Blades (1924); A Cavalier of Navarre (1925); Sword Play (1926); The Seven Blue Diamonds (1927).

   See also: ESCHATOLOGY.