Birch, A G
Entry updated 10 November 2025. Tagged: Author.
(1883-1972) US author whose sole known work of genre interest was the novella "The Moon Terror", serialized in Weird Tales for May and June 1923. As the title story it filled most of the early sf Anthology The Moon Terror (anth 1927) edited anonymously, presumably by the Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright. This has led to some bibliographic confusion since the front cover board carries the text "The Moon Terror by A.G. Birch", although the spine reads "The Moon Terror and other stories". The tale itself is an unsophisticated Yellow Peril thriller in which an ancient and fanatical Chinese secret society (see Secret Masters), through its advanced understanding of the Earth's period of resonance, triggers a series of earthquakes that cause much flooding and devastation worldwide. It is demanded that all other nations disarm and surrender, or the quakes will escalate towards the "destruction of the globe" and the splitting-off of a second Moon. The threat is eventually nullified by a US naval counterattack under the command of a distinguished Scientist. [DRL]
Albert George Birch
born 15 July 1883
died 11 May 1972
further reading
- Farnsworth Wright, presumed anonymous editor. The Moon Terror (Indianapolis, Indiana: Popular Fiction Publishing Co, 1927) [anth: stories from Weird Tales: hb/]
links
previous versions of this entry