McCloy, Helen
Entry updated 5 May 2025. Tagged: Author.
(1904-1994) US author, mostly of detective novels; she also wrote as Helen Clarkson. Through a Glass, Darkly (1950) is supernatural horror involving Doppelgangers. The Last Day: A Novel of the Day After Tomorrow (April 1958 Satellite Science Fiction; much exp 1959) as by Clarkson is a Near Future sf novel set on an Island off the New England coast, during and after a nuclear World War Three instigated through the toxic inflexibility of Cold War politics. In the end, the acute, contemplative protagonist faces death through radiation poisoning, alone in her retreat, all her companions having already died one by one; the End of the World approaches. The tale is unusual for its sustained, unsubverted pacifist take on War. [JC]
Helen Worrell Clarkson McCloy
born New York: 6 June 1904
died Boston, Massachusetts: 1 December 1994
works (selected)
- Through a Glass, Darkly (New York: Random House, 1950) [hb/]
- The Last Day: A Novel of the Day After Tomorrow (New York: Torquil Books, 1959) as by Helen Clarkson [hb/Charles B Vukovich]
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