Frederick C. Davis
(1902-1977) US author of pulp fiction, sometimes under pseudonyms, from 1922 or earlier. He published detective fiction in book form from the mid-1930s until the end of his active career in the late 1960s. His most interesting early work of sf intere
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(1902-1977) US author of pulp fiction, sometimes under pseudonyms, from 1922 or earlier. He published detective fiction in book form from the mid-1930s until the end of his active career in the late 1960s. His most interesting early work of sf interest – mainly through explanations of the one-way Moon-shaped glass helmet worn as a disguise by the crimebusting hero – was the Moon Man sequence, 39 novellas published from 1933 to 1937 in Ten Detective Aces. After the publication, decades later, of The Moon Man (coll 1974 chap) and The Mole Men Want Your Eyes (April/May 1938 Horror Stories; 1976 chap), the sequence began to be released in book form with The Night Nemesis: The Complete Adventures of the Moon Man, Volume One (coll 1985) edited by Gary Hoppenstand and Garyn G Roberts; however, no further volumes appeared. Under the House Name Curtis Steele, Davis was responsible for the lead novels in the magazine Operator #5 from April 1934 to November 1935. Thirteen of these appeared in book form in three separate paperback series, the first beginning with Legions of the Death Master (1966), the second with The Masked Invasion (April 1934 Operator #5; 1974), and the third with Cavern of the Damned (1980). The series was continued by Emile C Tepperman. Much of Davis's later work, as by Stephen Ransome, was non-fantastic. [JC/PN]
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