BREUER, Miles J(ohn)

(1889-1947)

   US writer and physician who began publishing sf with "The Man with the Strange Head" for AMZ in 1927. He published a number of notable stories until about 1942. His solo work has not been collected in book form, which makes it difficult now to find such stories as "The Appendix and the Spectacles" (1928), "The Gostak and the Doshes" (1930), both in AMZ and both since anthologized, and "Paradise and Iron" (1930 AMZ Quarterly), a novel which strikes an early (for US GENRE SF) warning note about the perils of the UTOPIAN technological fix. His only works to have reached book form are The Girl from Mars (1929 chap) with Jack WILLIAMSON and The Birth of a New Republic (1930 AMZ Quarterly; 1981 chap, but at 2000 words per page), also with Williamson, on whom MJB had a formative influence; the latter tale is a political melodrama in which the working residents of the Moon rebel against Earth. An intelligent though somewhat crude writer, MJB was particularly strong in his articulation of fresh ideas.

   JC

   See also: AMAZING STORIES; AUTOMATION; COLONIZATION OF OTHER WORLDS; COMPUTERS; DIMENSIONS; DYSTOPIAS; HISTORY IN SF; LEISURE; MATHEMATICS; MEDICINE; MOON; POLITICS; WAR.