Gertrude Barrows Bennett | |
|---|---|
| Born | Gertrude Mabel Barrows September 18, 1884[1] Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| Died | February 2, 1948(1948-02-02) (aged 63) San Francisco, California[2] |
| Pen name | Francis Stevens |
| Occupation | Writer, stenographer |
| Nationality | American |
| Period | 1917–23 (fiction writer) |
| Genre | Science fiction,fantasy |
| Notable works |
|
| Spouse | Stewart Bennett Carl Franklin Gaster |
Gertrude Barrows Bennett (September 18, 1884 – February 2, 1948), known by thepseudonymFrancis Stevens, was a pioneering American author offantasy andscience fiction.[3] Bennett wrote a number of fantasies between 1917 and 1923[4] and has been called "the woman who inventeddark fantasy".[5]
Her most famous books includeClaimed (which Augustus T. Swift, in a letter toThe Argosy called "One of the strangest and most compelling science fantasy novels you will ever read")[a] and thelost world novelThe Citadel of Fear.
Bennett also wrote an earlydystopian novel,The Heads of Cerberus (1919).[7]
Gertrude Mabel Barrows was born inMinneapolis in 1884, to Charles and Caroline Barrows (née Hatch). Her father, a Civil War veteran from Illinois, died in 1892.[8][dubious –discuss] Gertrude completed school through the eighth grade,[3] then attended night school in hopes of becoming an illustrator (a goal she never achieved). Instead, she began working as astenographer, a job she held on and off for the rest of her life.[9]
In 1909 Barrows married Stewart Bennett, aBritishjournalist andexplorer, and moved toPhiladelphia.[3] A year later her husband died during a tropical storm while on a treasure hunting expedition.[10] With a new-born daughter to raise, Bennett continued working as a stenographer. When her father died toward the end of World War I, Bennett assumed care for her invalid mother.[3]
Virtually all of Bennett's work dates from 1917 to 1920, when she began to write short stories and novels to support the household. She stopped writing when her mother died in 1920; one later work published in 1923 appears to have been written during the late 'teens, and submitted toWeird Tales when that magazine was just starting up.[9]
In the mid-1920s, Bennett placed her daughter in the care of friends and moved toCalifornia. Because she was estranged from her daughter, for a number of years researchers believed Bennett died in 1939 – a 1939 letter from her daughter was returned as undeliverable, and her daughter did not hear from Bennett after this date. However, new research, including her death certificate, shows that she died in 1948.[9]
Gertrude Mabel Barrows wrote her first short story at age 17, ascience fiction story titled "The Curious Experience of Thomas Dunbar". She mailed the story toArgosy, then one of the top pulp magazines. The story was accepted and published in the March 1904 issue, under the byline "G. M. Barrows".[3] Although the initials disguised her gender, this appears to be the first instance of an American female author publishing science fiction, and using her real name. That same month,Youth's Companion published her poetry.[3]
Once Bennett began to take care of her mother, she decided to return to fiction writing as a means of supporting her family.[3] The first story she completed after her return to writing was thenovella "The Nightmare", which appeared inAll-Story Weekly in 1917. The story is set on an island separated from the rest of the world, on whichevolution has taken a different course. "The Nightmare" resemblesEdgar Rice Burroughs'The Land That Time Forgot, itself published a year later.[3] While Bennett had submitted "The Nightmare" under her own name, she had asked to use a pseudonym if it was published. The magazine's editor chose not to use the pseudonym Bennett suggested (Jean Vail) and instead credited the story to Francis Stevens.[3] When readers responded positively to the story, Bennett chose to continue writing under the name.[3]
Over the next few years, Bennett wrote a number of short stories and novellas. Her short story "Friend Island" (All-Story Weekly, 1918), for example, is set in a 22nd-century ruled by women. Another story is the novella "Serapion" (Argosy, 1920), about a manpossessed by a supernatural creature. This story has been released in an electronic book entitledPossessed: A Tale of the Demon Serapion, with three other stories by her. Many of her short stories have been collected inThe Nightmare and Other Tales of Dark Fantasy (University of Nebraska Press, 2004).[11]
In 1918 she published her first, and perhaps best,[12] novelThe Citadel of Fear (Argosy, 1918). Thislost world story focuses on a forgottenAztec city, which is "rediscovered" duringWorld War I.[13][14] It was the introduction to a 1952 reprint edition of the novel which revealed that "Francis Stevens" was Bennett's pen-name.
A year later she published her only science fiction novel,The Heads of Cerberus (The Thrill Book, 1919). One of the firstdystopian novels, the book features a "grey dust from a silver phial" which transports anyone who inhales it to a totalitarianPhiladelphia of 2118 AD.[4]
One of Bennett's most famous novels wasClaimed! (Argosy, 1920; reprinted 1966, 2004, 2018), in which a supernatural artifact summons an ancient and powerful god to early 20th centuryNew Jersey.[13][15] Augustus T. Swift called the novel "One of the strangest and most compelling science fantasy novels you will ever read".[a]
ApparentlyThe Thrill Book had accepted more of her stories when it was cancelled in October 1919, only seven months after the first issue. These were never published and became lost.[10] It has been hypothesized that "Sunfire", which appeared inWeird Tales in 1923, was one of these stories that had originally been accepted byThrill Book; it was the only 'new' story published by Bennett after 1920, although it was almost certainly written in 1919 or earlier.
Bennett has been credited as having "the best claim at creating the new genre ofdark fantasy".[5] It has been said that Bennett's writings influenced bothH. P. Lovecraft andA. Merritt,[3] both of whom "emulated Bennett's earlier style and themes".[3][9] Lovecraft was even said to have praised Bennett's work. However, there is controversy about whether or not this actually happened and the praise appears to have resulted from letters wrongly attributed to Lovecraft.[16][17]
As for Merritt, for several decades critics and readers believed "Francis Stevens" was a pseudonym of his. This rumor only ended with the 1952 reprinting ofCitadel of Fear, which featured a biographical introduction of Bennett byLloyd Arthur Eshbach.[18][19]
CriticSam Moskowitz said she was the "greatest woman writer of science fiction in the period betweenMary Wollstonecraft Shelley andC.L. Moore".[3]
Because Bennett was the first American woman to have her fantasy and science fiction widely published, she qualifies as a pioneering female fantasy author.[15]
