(1890-1967) US electrical engineer, editor and author of more than 70 crime-and-detection thrillers whose bizarre complexity – the "webwork novel", in his own phrase – irrelevant stories-within-stories and reliance on staggering coincidence led to his being cherished by fans for other than literary reasons, rather as R Lionel Fanthorpe is enjoyed for his unashamed padding. Keeler's situations often verge on the science-fictional, with semi-plausible Inventions like the titular glasses of The Spectacles of Mr Cagliostro (1926; vt The Blue Spectacles 1931): these allow the reading of a "secret" message that is blazoned across the country on billboards. The Face of the Man from Saturn (1933; vt The Crilly Court Mystery 1933) is not itself sf but centres on a piece of sf artwork concealing another hidden message, and includes the inset sf story "How Socialism Finally Arrived in the World" – socialism being one of Keeler's enthusiasms. His best known (though poorly written) contribution to sf is the short "John Jones's Dollar" (August 1915 Black Cat), a story of runaway compound interest in which the dollar invested in trust for John Jones's distant descendants grows to a sum of Money exceeding the total wealth of the Far-Future solar system. From 1919 to 1940 Keeler edited the minor Pulp magazine 10-Story Book. [DRL]
see also: Food Pills.
Harry Stephen Keeler
born Chicago, Illinois: 3 November 1890
died Chicago, Illinois: 22 January 1967
works (highly selected)
about the author
- Bill Pronzini. "The Amazing Adventures of the Kracked King of Keelerland" in Son of Gun in Cheek
(New York: The Mysterious Press, 1987) [nonfiction: pp65-83: hb/Pamela Noftsinger]
links
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