Sam Merwin, Jr.

Samuel Kimball Merwin Jr. (April 28, 1910 - January 13, 1996) was an American mystery fiction writer, editor and science fiction author. His pseudonyms included Elizabeth Deare Bennett, Matt Lee, Jacques Jean Ferrat and Carter Sprague.

Biography He was born on April 28, 1910, in Plainfield, New Jersey, to Samuel Merwin Sr. He received a BA from Princeton in 1931 and studied at the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts. He began his career in mainstream journalism - as a reporter for the Boston Evening America (1932–1933) then as the New York City Bureau chief for The Philadelphia Inquirer. His career continued as an editor (Dell publishing Co. 1937–1938, Standard Magazines Group 1941–1951, King Size Publications (1952), Renown Publications (1955–1956, 1977–1979) and Brandon House (1966–1967) and as a magazine writer.

In 1934 he married Lee Anna Vance.

Merwin began publishing fiction in 1940 with the mystery novel, Murder in Miniatures, and wrote mysteries, romance (under female pseudonyms), sports fiction, and science fiction. Overall, he produced more mystery writing than science fiction writing and his science fiction is said to show the influence of the mystery genre. However he was most influential in the science fiction genre, as the editor of Startling Stories (1945–1951) Fantastic Story Quarterly (1950–1951), Wonder Stories Annual (1950–1951), Thrilling Wonder Stories (1945–1951) and Fantastic Universe (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.

Legacy 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.". 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. Groff Conklin, however, reviewed House as "rather disappointing," citing its "hasty writing and unfortunate characterizations".

Works

The House of Many Worlds The House of Many Worlds in Startling Stories, September 1951 Expanded: The House of Many Worlds, Doubleday, 1951 Reprint: Galaxy novel No. 12, 1952 "Journey to Misenum", Startling Stories, August 1953 Expanded as: Three Faces of Time, Ace Double D-121, 1955 Both novels collected as The House of Many Worlds, Ace, 1983

Amy Brewster detective novels Knife in My Back, New York, Mystery House, 1945 Reprint: Kingston, New York, Handi Book, 1945 Reprint: London, Quality Press Ltd, 1947 Reprint: New York/Toronto, Harlequin Books, 1950 Message from a Corpse, 1945 A Matter of Policy, 1947

Standalone novels Murder in Miniatures, Doubleday Doran, "Crime Club", 1940 Reprint: Crestwood Pub., "A Black Cat Detective Story", 1945 Reprint: New York/Toronto, Harlequin Books, 1950 Reprint: Sydney, Original Novels Foundation, "Phantom Books No. 645", 1955, 132p. The Creeping Shadow, Connecticut, Fawcett Gold Medal Books (227), 1952 Killer to Come, Abelard Press, 1953 Reprint: Galaxy novels No. 22, 1954 The White Widows, Doubleday, 1953 (expansion of "The White Widows" in Startling Stories, October 1953) Slightly edited reprint: The Sex War, Beacon, Galaxy novel No. 42, 1960 The Passer, New York, Midwood Tower, 1962 The Time Shifters, New York, Lancer, 1971 Chauvinisto, Canoga Park, CA, Major Books, 1976, , 176p.