(1928-2011) UK writer, chemist and astronomer, Fellow of the Royal Society of Astronomy, author of popularizing texts in that field, including Boundaries of the Universe (1971), and of a large number of stories and novels in various genres for pulp publishers of the 1950s and 1960s. He published something like 250 volumes during this period, some of them not yet identified, many of them not sf or fantasy. Like R L Fanthorpe – alongside whom he supplied Badger Books with most of their sf and fantasy titles – and Denis Hughes, he severely curtailed his production when market conditions changed in the early 1960s, publishing only one sf book between 1970 – Project Jove (1971), which was the first novel to appear under his own name – and the late 1980s, when The Plains of Nightmare (coll 1989) inaugurated his late career, during which he published further stories and some longer fiction, as well as Seetee Sun (2007) and The Crimson Peril (2007), two additions (> Sequels by Other Hands) to John Russell Fearn's Golden Amazon sequence.
Like his colleagues, Glasby wrote normally under a range of pseudonyms and House Names, beginning with Satellite B.C. (1952), Time and Space (1952) and Zero Point (1952), all these titles being collaborations with Arthur Roberts, sharing the House Name Rand Le Page which belonged to Curtis Warren, as did Berl Cameron and Paul Lorraine (see Checklist). Further House Names used were associated with John Spencer and Co and Badger Books: Victor La Salle, John E Muller and Karl Zeigfreid. Glasby's most frequently used personal pseudonym was A J Merak. He also wrote short fiction for the various John Spencer/Badger Books anthology-magazines – Supernatural Stories (> R L Fanthorpe) and several sister publications – as Max Chartair, Randall Conway, Ray Cosmic, John Crawford*, Michael Hamilton, J J Hansby, Peter Laynham, H K Lennard*, John Morton* and Alan Thorndyke* (starred names seem to have been used for one story only). Though much of his output, either solo or in collaboration, was hasty and unremarkable, he was always capable of more memorable work, especially perhaps in some early stories which showed the influence of A E van Vogt, and also in work published in his later years, no longer written within the draconian constraints of 1950s markets. [JC/DRL]
John Stephen Glasby
born East Retford, Nottinghamshire: 23 September 1928
died England: 5 June 2011
works
series
Golden Amazon
Citations are restricted to Glasby's continuations of John Russell Fearn's Golden Amazon sequence #1-27: see Sequels by Other Hands.
individual works
Except for works as by A J Merak and John E Muller, all titles are listed consecutively under Other Titles, regardless of pseudonym or House Name. Serial numbers in the Badger Books science fiction (SF) and supernatural (SN) series are noted in the comment fields.
as by A J Merak
- Dark Andromeda
(London: John Spencer and Co, 1954) as by A J Merak [pb/John Richards] - Dark Conflict (London: John Spencer and Co/Badger Books, 1959) as by A J Merak [pb/Ray {THEOBALD}]
- The Dark Millennium (London: John Spencer and Co/Badger Books, 1959) as by A J Merak [SF 19: pb/uncredited]
- No Dawn and No Horizon (London: John Spencer and Co/Badger Books, 1959) as by A J Merak [SF 16: pb/Ed Blandford]
- The Frozen Planet (New York: Belmont Books, 1969) as by A J Merak [vt of the above: pb/]
- Barrier Unknown (London: John Spencer and Co/Badger Books, 1960) as by A J Merak [SF 30: pb/Carl Jacono]
- Hydrosphere (London: John Spencer and Co/Badger Books, 1960) as by A J Merak [SF 36: pb/Cha' Bril]
as by John E Muller
John E Muller was a House Name of John Spencer and Co.
other titles
novels
- Satellite B.C. (London: Curtis Warren, 1952) with Arthur Roberts writing together as Rand Le Page [pb/Gordon C Davies]
- Time and Space (London: Curtis Warren, 1952) with Arthur Roberts writing together as Rand Le Page [pb/Gordon C Davies]
- Zero Point (London: Curtis Warren, 1952) with Arthur Roberts writing together as Rand Le Page [pb/Gordon C Davies]
- Cosmic Echelon (London: Curtis Warren, 1952) with Arthur Roberts writing together as Berl Cameron [pb/Gordon C Davies]
- Sphero Nova (London: Curtis Warren, 1952) with Arthur Roberts writing together as Berl Cameron [pb/Ray Theobald]
- Zenith-D (London: Curtis Warren, 1952) with Arthur Roberts writing together as Paul Lorraine [pb/Gordon C Davies]
- Dawn of the Half-Gods (London: John Spencer and Co, 1953) as by Victor La Salle [pb/Ray Theobald]
- Space Void (London: John Spencer and Co/Badger Books, 1960) as by John E Muller [vt of the above: SF 34: pb/Ed Emshwiller]
- Space Void (New York: Arcadia House, 1965) as by Marston Johns [note changed pseudonym: hb/]
- The Uranium Seekers (London: John Spencer and Co, 1953) as by Karl Zeigfried (> Karl Zeigfreid) [pb/Ray Theobald]
- Dark Centauri (London: John Spencer and Co, 1954) as by Karl Zeigfried (> Karl Zeigfreid) [pb/Ray Theobald]
- This Second Earth (London: John Spencer and Co/Cobra, 1957) as by R L Bowers [pb/S Nicholson]
- The World Makers (London: John Spencer and Co/Badger Books, 1958) as by John C Maxwell [SF 3: one of two Badger series books so numbered: pb/S Nicholson]
- The Time Kings (London: John Spencer and Co/Badger Books, 1958) as by J B Dexter [SF 6: pb/uncredited]
- When the Gods Came (London: John Spencer and Co/Badger Books, 1960) as by John Adams [SF 31: pb/M D'Antona]
- Black Abyss (London: John Spencer and Co/Badger Books, 1960) as by J L Powers [SF 32: pb/uncredited]
- Project Jove (New York: Ace Books, 1971) [pb/Kelly Freas]
collections
- Twilight Zone (London: John Spencer and Co, 1954) as by Victor La Salle [coll: pb/Ray Theobald]
- The Plains of Nightmare (West Warwick, Rhode Island: Necronomicon Press/Crypt of Cthulhu, 1989) [coll: a single-author issue of the journal Crypt of Cthulhu: mag/]
- The Substance of a Shade (Mountain Ash, Wales: Sarob Press, 2003) [coll: hb/nonpictorial]
- The Dark Destroyer (Mountain Ash, Wales: Sarob Press, 2005) [coll: hb/nonpictorial]
nonfiction (selected)
links
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