Russell took up writing full-time in the late 1940s. record to show that he was anything more than a wireless mechanic and radio operator'. Ingham states however that 'there is nothing, absolutely nothing, in his R.A.F. Chalker states that Russell was too old for active service, and instead worked for Military Intelligence in London, where he 'spent the war dreaming up nasty tricks to play against the Germans and Japanese', including Operation Mincemeat. However, in the introduction to the 1986 Del Rey Books edition of Russell's novel Wasp, Jack L. The official, well-documented version is that he served with the Royal Air Force, with whom he saw active service in Europe as a member of a Mobile Signals Unit. There are two incompatible accounts of Russell's military service during World War II. His second novel, Dreadful Sanctuary (serialized in Astounding during 1948) is an early example of conspiracy fiction, in which a paranoid delusion of global proportions is perpetuated by a small but powerful secret society. There is no real evidence for this, despite a statement to that effect in the first volume of Isaac Asimov's autobiography, In Memory Yet Green. An often-repeated legend has it that Campbell, on receiving the manuscript for Sinister Barrier, created Unknown primarily as a vehicle for the short novel (pp. 9–94). It is explicitly a Fortean tale, based on Charles Fort's famous speculation 'I think we're property', Russell explains in the foreword. Russell's first novel was Sinister Barrier, cover story for the inaugural, May 1939 issue of Unknown - Astounding 's sister magazine devoted to fantasy. Both Russell and Johnson became members of the British Interplanetary Society. Orlin Tremaine in the July 1937 number of Astounding Stories. Together, the two men wrote a novella, 'Seeker of Tomorrow', that was published by F. Russell met with Johnson, who encouraged him to embark on a writing career.

Johnson, another reader from the same area. Russell became a fan of science fiction and in 1934, while living near Liverpool, he saw a letter in Amazing Stories from Leslie J.

Russell was born in 1905 near Sandhurst in Berkshire, where his father was an instructor at the Royal Military College. Up to 1955 several of his stories were published under pseudonyms, at least Duncan H. Russell also wrote horror fiction for Weird Tales and non-fiction articles on Fortean topics. Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction and other pulp magazines. Much of his work was first published in the United States, in John W. 1 (1939-03)Įric Frank Russell (Janu– February 28, 1978) was a British writer best known for his science fiction novels and short stories. Russell's classic ' Sinister Barrier' was the cover story for Unknown No.

Balsas tyruose by Eric Frank Russell