O'Brien, David Wright
Entry updated 10 July 2023. Tagged: Author.
(1918-1944) US author whose first story was "Truth is a Plague!" (February 1940 Amazing). A nephew of Farnsworth Wright, he published almost entirely for the Ziff-Davis magazines Amazing Stories and Fantastic Adventures from early 1940; there were about forty stories and novels under his own name plus others under various pseudonyms, including John York Cabot (the Sergeant Shane series and about 20 further tales), Bruce Dennis, Duncan Farnsworth (19 stories), Richard Vardon and the House Names Alexander Blade and Clee Garson; nothing reached book form until the twenty-first century. He frequently collaborated with William P McGivern, with whom he shared a writing studio; most of the stories under the names John York Cabot and Duncan Farnsworth are collaborations. Some of O'Brien's work was Space Opera or other routine adventure, but many of his stories betray a strain of Humour, not unlike Henry Kuttner's at that time. O'Brien was a sharp and creative writer who liked stories of madcap invention as well as mere sf adventure. He served in the US Army Air Force and was shot down over Berlin. [JC/MA]
David Wright O'Brien
born 1918
died in action over Berlin: 11 December 1944
works
- The Devil's Planet (Medford, Oregon: Armchair Fiction, 2013) [dos: first appeared September 1943 Amazing: pb/]
- The Floating Robot (Medford, Oregon: Armchair Fiction, 2014) [dos: first appeared June 1941 Fantastic Adventures: pb/H W McCauley]
- Secret of the Lost Planet (Medford, Oregon: Armchair Fiction, 2015) [dos: first appeared May 1941 Amazing: pb/Robert Fuqua]
- Furlough from Eternity (Medford, Oregon: Armchair Fiction, 2018) [dos: first appeared April 1943 Fantastic Adventures: pb/]
- Return of Creegar (Medford, Oregon: Armchair Fiction, 2018) [dos: first appeared August 1942 Fantastic Adventures: pb/]
collections
- The David Wright O'Brien Megapack (Cabin John, Maryland: Wildside Press, 2019) [coll: pb/Julian S Krupa]
links
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