Shirk, Adam Hull
Entry updated 1 September 2026. Tagged: Author, Theatre.
(1881-1931) US author and playwright who began to publish work of genre interest with "Osiris" in Weird Tales for June 1923, a routine Horror tale of a man who unwisely violates an Ancient Egyptian tomb. Shirk had four more stories in the same magazine; of somewhat greater sf interest are "Into the Fourth" (February 1925 Weird Tales), featuring a portal into the titular Dimension and one intruder's temporary return in a mirror-reversed condition; and "The Bearded Men" (August 1925 Weird Tales), in which Hypnosis is used to frame men for crimes or seeming crimes (see Crime and Punishment). His Cinema credits include scripting the jungle fantasy Ingagi (1930) directed by William Campbell, an early Found Footage production featuring a large gorilla who kidnaps a woman. Shirk's play The Ape (date of first performance not known) was adapted reasonably faithfully for Cinema as House of Mystery (1934) and "suggested" the later and very different film The Ape (1940) directed by William Nigh, co-scripted by Curt Siodmak and starring Boris Karloff. [DRL]
Adam Hull Shirk
born Missouri: 7 August 1881 [often wrongly given as 1887]
died La Crescenta, California: 27 July 1931
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