Arthur Olney Friel (1887–1959) was one of the most popular writers for the adventure pulps. He began appearing in Adventure magazine in 1919 with stories set in the Amazon jungle featuring the characters Pedro and Lourenço, two rubber-industry workers who undergo harrowing experiences in the impenetrable jungle surrounding the Javary River, an Amazon tributary which forms part of the border between Brazil and Peru. Friel, a 1909 Yale University graduate, had been South American editor for the Associated Press which led him into his subject matter. In 1922, he became a real-life explorer when he took a six-month trip down Venezuela's Orinoco River and its tributary, the Ventuari River. His travel account was published in 1924 as The River of Seven Stars[1].
In late 1922, Friel began writing longer works, which were serialized in Adventure. The first ones, featuring a trio of adventurers called McKay, Ryan and Knowlton, and other characters, were The Pathless Trail, Tiger River, The King of No-Man's Land and Mountains of Mystery. A later story in the sequence "In the Year 2000" (Adventure, 1928) was not published in book form; it is a science-fiction novel with racist overtones[2].
After returning from the Venezuela trip, many of Friel's stories were set in that environment. He remained a popular writer in Adventure throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Most of his longer works were republished in hardback. In the '30s, he started appearing more regularly in the adventure pulp Short Stories with stories set in Venezuela.
He was a member of the American Geographical Society[3].
He died in New Hampshire in 1959, the state where he had grown up.
The Pathless Trail, and Tiger River were republished by Centaur Press in November 1969 and May 1971, respectively.
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