- WEINBAUM, Stanley G(rauman)
- (1902-1935)US writer whose interest in sf dated from his youth (he published "The Lost Battle", depicting the end of WWI in 1921, in a school magazine, The Mercury, in 1917) but who did not begin to publish sf professionally until the 1930s, after selling a romance novel - "The Lady Dances" (1934) as by Marge Stanley - to a newspaper syndicate, and after afirst sf novel, The Mad Brain, had been rejected. Although he did not graduate from the University of Wisconsin, he turned his two years spent there studying chemical engineering to good stead from the beginning of his sf career with "A Martian Odyssey" in WONDER STORIES in 1934; this broke new ground in attempting to envisage LIFE ON OTHER WORLDS in terms of strange and complex ecosystems with weird ALIEN lifeforms. Told in SGW's fluent style, it became immediately and permanently popular, rankingbehind only Isaac ASIMOV's "Nightfall" (1941) as the favourite example of early GENRE-SF short fiction. Other SGW stories in this vein include "The Lotus Eaters" (1935), which features an interesting attempt to imagine theworldview of an intelligent plant, "The Mad Moon" (1935), "Flight on Titan" (1935) and "Parasite Planet" (1935). In a series of comediesfeaturing the eccentric scientist Van Manderpootz - including the ALTERNATE-WORLD story "The Worlds of If" (1935), "The Ideal" (1935) and"The Point of View" (1936)-he flippantly devised absurdly miraculous MACHINES. His "Brink of Infinity" (1936) is a rewrite of George Allan ENGLAND's mathematical puzzle story "The Tenth Question" (1916).SGW imported some of the methods and values of his early romantic fiction into sf in "Dawn of Flame", but could not sell it. It was first published as the title story of Dawn of Flame and Other Stories (coll 1936), a memorial volume put together by The Milwaukee Fictioneers (SMALL PRESSES AND LIMITED EDITIONS) - a FAN group which included, among others, RobertBLOCH, Ralph Milne FARLEY and Raymond A. PALMER - to express a sense that SGW's short innovative career had been of great significance in the growth of US sf. Nor could he sell a version with gaudier superscientific embellishments, "The Black Flame", which also appeared posthumously (1939 Startling Stories); both tales were combined in The Black Flame (fixup1948). He continued to produce pulp-sf stories prolifically, including an early story of GENETIC ENGINEERING, "Proteus Island" (1936), and the superman story "The Adaptive Ultimate" (1935 as by John Jessel); he also collaborated on 2 minor stories with Farley. His premature death from lung cancer robbed pulp sf of its most promising writer, although the full measure of his ability became apparent only when his posthumous works appeared. The New Adam (1939) is a painstaking account of the career of a potential SUPERMAN who grows up as a kind of "feral child" in human society; it stands at the head of a tradition of stories which drastically altered the role allotted to superhumans in pulp sf. Another posthumously published sf novel was the psychological horror story The Dark Other (1950), an early exploration of the Jekyll-and-Hyde theme. All 22 of SGW'sshort sf stories are assembled in A Martian Odyssey and Other Science Fiction Tales (coll 1975) ed Sam MOSKOWITZ, which combines the contents of2 earlier collections, A Martian Odyssey, and Others (coll 1949) and The Red Peri (coll 1952) and adds 1 previously uncollected piece; Moskowitz had previously ed a smaller collection, A Martian Odyssey and Other Classics of Science Fiction (coll 1962). The Best of Stanley G. Weinbaum(coll 1974) contains 12 stories. The King's Watch (1994 chap) is a previously unprinted hardboiled detective tale. SGW, like his contemporary John TAINE, was occasionally slapdash in his work-which he produced at avery considerable rate - but the swift and smooth clarity of his style was strongly influential on the next generation of sf and fantasy writers. He was a central precursor of the GOLDEN AGE OF SF.BS/JC
Science Fiction and Fantasy Encyclopedia. Academic. 2011.
