(1896-1982) US novelist and traditionalist poet who wrote polemics in defence of his rather bad verse, beginning with his MA thesis, published as The Poetic Revival in America (1917). He began his career proper in the early 1920s with book reviews for New York papers; a volume of poems, The Thinker and Other Poems (coll 1923); and the first of several argumentative anthologies, Modern American Lyrics (anth 1924). In all, he published at least 60 volumes of poetry and nonfiction, much of it controversial. He began publishing sf with The Sunken World: A Romance of Atlantis (Summer 1928 Amazing Stories Quarterly; 1948), a Utopia set in a glass-domed Atlantis, in which satirical points are made against both the egalitarian Atlanteans and contemporary America, though the obtuse narrator (of the sort found in most utopias) tends to blur some of these issues. Coblentz was never a smooth stylist, nor an imaginative plotter, as all his five novels for Amazing Stories Quarterly tend to show: the others are After 12,000 Years (Spring 1929 Amazing Stories Quarterly; 1950), The Lost Comet (Spring 1930 Amazing Stories Quarterly as "Reclaimers of the Ice"; cut vt 1964), The Blue Barbarians (Summer 1931 Amazing Stories Quarterly; 1958) and "The Man from Tomorrow" (Spring 1933 Amazing Stories Quarterly). At the same time he had a strong gift for the description of ingeniously conceived Alien environments, and was often regarded as one of the writers best capable of conveying the Sense of Wonder so rightly valued by the readers of US Pulp-magazine sf between the two world wars.

Other novels from the same general period, like The Wonder Stick (1929), which is Prehistoric SF; When the Birds Fly South (1945), a Lost Race tale set in Afghanistan, featuring a migratory race which, turning into giant birds, flies south for the winter; and Hidden World (March-May 1935 Wonder Stories as "In Caverns Below"; 1957; vt In Caverns Below 1975) – another Satire, set in an Underground venue, with fascinating descriptions but cardboard characters – share similar virtues and faults. Later novels, like Under the Triple Suns (1955), failed to show much stylistic development, and were not successful. His last novels were weak. [JC/DRL]

see also: Asteroids; Fantastic Voyages; Lost Worlds; Outer Planets; Politics; Sociology; Under the Sea; Venus.

Stanton Arthur Coblentz

born San Francisco, California: 24 August 1896

died Monterey, California: 6 September 1982

works

series

Outlander

• The Moon People (New York: Avalon Books, 1964) [Outlander: hb/Ed Emshwiller]
• The Crimson Capsule (New York: Avalon Books, 1967) [Outlander: hb/Michael M Peters]
  • The Animal People (New York: Belmont Books, 1970) [rev vt of the above: Outlander: pb/O'Brien]
• The Island People (New York: Belmont Books, 1971) [Outlander: pb/]

individual titles

• The Wonder Stick (New York: Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, 1929) [hb/S Glenckott]
• Youth Madness (London: Utopian Publications, 1945) [story: chap: in the American Fiction series: first appeared October 1932 Wonder Stories as "The Planet of Youth": properly an anthology, as an unidentified story by Robert Bloch is included: pb/uncredited]
• When the Birds Fly South (Mill Valley, California: The Wings Press, 1945) [hb/nonpictorial]
• The Planet of Youth (Los Angeles, California: Fantasy Publishing Company, 1952) [story: chap: vt of the above: hb/Walter]
• The Sunken World: A Romance of Atlantis (Los Angeles, California: Fantasy Publishing Co, 1948) [first appeared Summer 1928 Amazing Stories Quarterly: hb/Roy Hunt]
• After 12,000 Years (Los Angeles, California: Fantasy Publishing Co, 1950) [first appeared Spring 1929 Amazing Stories Quarterly: hb/Jack Gaughan]
• Into Plutonian Depths (New York: Avon Books, 1950) [first appeared Spring 1931 Wonder Stories Quarterly: pb/]
• Under the Triple Suns (Reading, Pennsylvania: Fantasy Press, 1955) [hb/Hannes Bok]
• Hidden World (New York: Avalon Books, 1957) [first appeared March-May 1935 Wonder Stories as "In Caverns Below": hb/Ric Binkley]
  • In Caverns Below (New York: Garland Publishing, 1975) [vt of the above: hb/]
• The Blue Barbarians (New York: Avalon Books, 1958) [first appeared Summer 1931 Amazing Stories Quarterly: hb/Ric Binkley]
• Next Door to the Sun (New York: Avalon Books, 1960) [hb/Ed Emshwiller]
• The Runaway World (New York: Avalon Books, 1961) [hb/Ed Emshwiller]
• The Last of the Great Race (New York: Arcadia House, 1964) [severely house-edited: hb/Tom Eaglin]
• The Lizard Lords (New York: Avalon Books, 1964) [hb/Gray Morrow]
• The Lost Comet (New York: Arcadia House, 1964) [first appeared Spring 1930 Amazing Stories Quarterly as "Reclaimers of the Ice": severely house-edited: hb/]
• Lord of Tranerica (New York: Avalon Books, 1966) [first appeared February 1939 Dynamic Science Stories: hb/Gray Morrow]
• The Day the World Stopped (New York: Avalon Books, 1968) [hb/Michael M Peters]
• Flight Through Tomorrow (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2009) [story: ebook: first appeared July 1947 Fantasy Book: na/]
• The Cosmic Deflector (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2010) [story: ebook: first appeared January 1943 Amazing: na/]

nonfiction (highly selected)

• The Thinker and Other Poems (New York: James T White, 1923) [poetry: coll: hb/]
• The Decline of Man (New York: Minton Balch, 1925) [nonfiction: hb/]
• Adventures of a Freelancer: The Literary Exploits and Autobiography of Stanton A. Coblentz (San Bernardino, California: The Borgo Press, 1993) with Dr Jeffrey M Elliot [nonfiction: autobiography: hb/]

about the author

• Virgil {UTTER} and Gordon Benson Jr. Stanton Arthur Coblentz: Poet and Science Fictioneer: A Working Bibliography (Leeds, West Yorkshire: Galactic Central Publications, 1999) by [bibliography: chap: pb/nonpictorial]

links

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