Arthur J. Burks

Burks's novelette "The Invading Horde" was the cover story in the November 1927 Weird Tales. Burks's "The Place of the Pythons" was the cover story in the debut issue of Strange Tales in 1931. Burks's novella "The Far Detour" was cover-featured on the Winter 1942 issue of Science Fiction Quarterly.

Arthur J. Burks (1898–1974) was an American Marine officer and author. He wrote a large quantity of fiction for American pulp magazines. He published a number of books under his own name and ghostwrote books and magazine articles for others. He co-founded the American Fiction Guild in 1932 and served three terms as president.

Life Burks was born to a farming family in Waterville, Washington. He married Blanche Fidelia Lane on March 23, 1918, in Sacramento, California, and was the father of four children: Phillip Charles, Wasle Carmen, Arline Mary, and Gladys Lura. He served with the United States Marine Corps in World War I, and began writing in 1920. After being stationed in the Dominican Republic and inspired by the native voodoo rituals he'd learned about from Haitian prisoners in a military jail, Burks began to write stories of the supernatural that he sold to the magazine Weird Tales in 1924.

In late 1927, he resigned from the Marine Corps and began writing full-time. He was known for being able to use any household object that someone would suggest to generate the plot of a story. His byline was commonplace on magazine covers. He wrote primarily in the genres of aviation, detective, adventure, science fiction, sports (primarily boxing), and weird menace.

In 1932, Burks and author George Bruce established the American Fiction Guild, a quasi-union for pulp writers. Burks served as president for three of the first four terms (1932–33, 1933–34, 1935–36). his first ghosted book was Old Buddha by Princess Der Ling (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1928).