SWAIN, Dwight V(reeland)

(1915-1992)

   US writer, very variously employed in jobs ranging from migrant labourer to university lecturer to scriptwriter. His first sf story, "Henry Horn's Super Solvent" for Fantastic Adventures in 1941, initiated the Henry Horn series of tales about a bumblingly incompetent would-be SCIENTIST; the others are "Henry Horn's Blitz Bomb" (1942), "Henry Horn's Racing Ray" (1942) and "Henry Horn's X-Ray Eye Glasses"(1942). He also wrote 3 stories in 1942 as Clark South. DVS published several sf novels up to the end of the 1950s which did not reach book form, the exception being The Transposed Man (1955 chap dos; with 1 story added, as coll 1957 UK), in which a human rebel wins through to the stars. In his later career, during which he concentrated on his work ineducational film-making - also publishing several nonfiction books on the art of successful writing, including Creating Characters: How to Build Story People (1990) - DVS returned occasionally to adventure tales of thesort he clearly preferred, writing 1 Nick CARTER novel, The Pemex Chart * (1979), and 2 further tales, The Planet Murderer (1984) as John CLEVE (incollaboration with Andrew J. OFFUTT), and Monster (1991).In 1991, the Oklahoma Professional Writers' Hall of Fame named him a "grand master",along with C.J. CHERRYH.

   JC