WILLIAMS, Robert Moore

(1907-1977)

   US writer, active in the sf field under his own name and various pseudonyms, including John S. Browning, H.H. Harmon, Russell Storm and the house name E.K. JARVIS. He began publishing sf as Robert Moore with "Zero as a Limit" for ASF in 1937, and by the 1960s had published over 150 stories. Though most are unremarkable, he was an important supplier of competent genre fiction during these decades. Typically adequate is the Jongor series: Jongor of Lost Land (1940 Fantastic Adventures; 1970), The Return of Jongor (1944 Fantastic Adventures; 1970)and Jongor Fights Back (1951 Fantastic Adventures; 1970). He did not begin publishing books until The Chaos Fighters (1955), but thereafter released many novels of the same general calibre as his short fiction. Notable were Doomsday Eve (1957 dos), a post- HOLOCAUST drama in which the world servesas an arena for struggling SUPERMEN, and the Zanthar series: Zanthar of the Many Worlds (1967), Zanthar at the Edge of Never (1968), Zanthar at Moon's Madness (1968) and Zanthar at Trip's End (1969). Zanthar is aprofessor with the gifts of a HERO. RMW wrote few original words, but rarely a dull one.

   JC

   Other works: Conquest of the Space Sea (1955 dos); The Blue Atom (1958 dos); The Void Beyond and Other Stories (coll 1958 dos); To the End of Time and Other Stories (coll 1960 dos); World of the Masterminds (1960 dos); The Day They H-Bombed Los Angeles (1961), whichincludes a RECURSIVE reference to Doomsday Eve; The Darkness Before Tomorrow (1962 dos); King of the Fourth Planet (1962 dos); Walk Up the Sky(1962); The Star Wasps (1963 dos); Flight from Yesterday (1963 dos); The Lunar Eye (1964 dos); The Second Atlantis (1965); Vigilante-21st Century (1967); The Bell from Infinity (1968); When Two Worlds Meet: Stories of Men on Mars (coll of linked stories 1970); Beachhead Planet (1970); Now Comes Tomorrow (1971); Seven Tickets to Hell (1972). Nonfiction: Love is Forever - We Are for Tonight (1970), autobiography.

   See also: ROBOTS.