| Samuel Kimball Merwin, Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 28, 1910 Plainfield, New Jersey |
| Died | January 13, 1996 (aged 85) Los Angeles, California |
| Pen name | Elizabeth Deare Bennett, Matt Lee, Jacques Jean Ferrat, Carter Sprague |
| Occupation | writer, editor |
| Nationality | United States |
| Genres | science fiction, mystery |
| Spouse(s) | Lee Anna Vance |
Samuel Kimball Merwin, Jr. (April 28, 1910 - January 13, 1996) was an American mystery fiction writer, editor and science fiction author, who published fiction mostly as Sam Merwin, Jr. His pseudonyms included Elizabeth Deare Bennett, Matt Lee, Jacques Jean Ferrat and Carter Sprague.
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He was born on April 28, 1910 in Plainfield, New Jersey to Samuel Merwin, Sr..[1] In 1934 he married Lee Anna Vance.[2]
Merwin began publishing fiction in 1940 with the mystery novel, Murder in Miniatures, but he became prominent within the science fiction genre as the editor of Startling Stories and Thrilling Wonder Stories between 1945 and 1951. At first he was billed as Sergeant Saturn, a pseudonym inherited from Oscar J. Friend, the magazines' previous editor, and then simply as "Editor". His identity remained unknown to most readers for six years, which helped make his magazines' letters department one of the liveliest and best regarded in the field. He also edited Fantastic Story Quarterly in 1950-51.
Merwin quit his editing job in 1951 to become a freelance writer, but his mysteries and science fiction books were only moderately successful, either commercially or critically. During the science fiction boom of 1953 he briefly edited Fantastic Universe, and he was an associate editor of Galaxy Science Fiction in 1952 -1953.
He wrote a few comic book stories for DC's Strange Adventures and Mystery In Space that were published from 1952 to 1953.
He also edited the Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine in 1956, returning to edit it from 1977 to 1979. He wrote many of the Michael Shayne stories that appeared in the magazine
He died on January 13, 1996, Los Angeles, California.
Merwin is probably best remembered today for the alternate worlds novel The House of Many Worlds (1951) and its sequel, Three Faces of Time (1955). Boucher and McComas, although faulting its ending, characterized The House of Many Worlds as "admirably handled. . . . the writing is the best that Merwin has yet published.".[3]P. Schuyler Miller praised the novel as "roundly entertaining [and] firmly plotted [and] fully packed with all sorts of neat little bits of color and detail.[4] Groff Conklin, however, reviewed House as "rather disappointing," citing its "hasty writing and unfortunate characterizations."[5]