Smith, Junius B
Entry updated 15 June 2026. Tagged: Author.
(1883-1945) US attorney, builder, farmer, stenographer and author, often writing in collaboration with J U Giesy. He began to publish sf with the Utopian tale "In 2112" in The Cavalier for 10 August 1912, with Giesy, which unusually was presented in both English and Esperanto. His first solo work of genre interest was "A Study in Somnolism" (2 November 2012 Cavalier). With Giesy he also wrote the lengthy Semi Dual sequence about the titular Occult Detective [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below], also known as Prince Abdul of Persia, which began with the three-part serial "The Occult Detector" (17 February-2 March 1912 Cavalier) and ran in this magazine and others of the Frank A Munsey stable until 1934. Less interestingly than Sax Rohmer's eccentric psychic Moris Klaw in The Dream Detective (coll of linked stories 1920) or devices such as the Electric Pentacle used by William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki the Ghost-Finder (coll 1913; exp 1947), Semi Dual divines his solutions through astrology. One of his cases, The House of Invisible Bondage (18 September-9 October 1926 Argosy All-Story Weekly; 2019), posits a Drug which when unknowingly smoked with tobacco induces homicidal frenzy followed by Amnesia about the resulting act of violence; anticlimactically though not untypically for the period, this fearful toxin is identified as marihuana.
The standalone "Ebenezer's Casket" (April-May/June/July 1924 Weird Tales) with Giesy is a premonition-of-death story in which, for a change, all ends cheerily when a horoscope's inescapable prediction (see Precognition) somehow proves mistaken. [DRL]
Junius Bailey Smith
born Salt Lake City, Utah Territory: 29 September 1883
died Mapleton, Utah: 3 April 1945
works
series
Semi Dual
- The Complete Cabalistic Cases of Semi Dual, the Occult Detector, Volume 1: 1912 (Boston, Massachusetts: Altus Press, 2013) with J U Giesy [coll: stories first appeared 17 February and 1 June 1912 Cavalier: Semi Dual: pb/P J Monahan]
- The Complete Cabalistic Cases of Semi Dual, the Occult Detector, Volume 2: 1912-1913 (Boston, Massachusetts: Altus Press, 2016) with J U Giesy [coll: stories first appeared 5 October 1912, 25 January and 5 July 1913 Cavalier: Semi Dual: pb/]
- The Opposing Venus (Boston, Massachusetts: Altus Press, 2018) with J U Giesy [first appeared 13 October-3 November Argosy All-Story Weekly: Semi Dual: pb/P J Monahan]
- The House of Invisible Bondage (place not given: Steeger Books, 2019) with J U Giesy [first appeared 18 September-9 October 1926 Argosy All-Story Weekly: in the publisher's The Argosy Library series: pb/D'Armeris]
- The Ledger of Life (place not given: Steeger Books, 2020) with J U Giesy [first appeared 30 June-21 July 1934 Argosy: pb/Robert A Graef]
- The House of the Ego: The Complete Cabalistic Cases of Semi Dual, Volume 3 (place not known: Popular Publications, 2021) with J U Giesy [coll: stories first appeared 20 September and 20 December 1913 Cavalier: in the publisher's The Argosy Library series: Semi Dual: pb/W B King]
- The Web of Destiny: The Complete Cabalistic Cases of Semi Dual, Volume 4 (place not known: Popular Publications, 2024) with J U Giesy [coll: stories first appeared 28 November 1914 and 20 March 1915 Cavalier: in the publisher's The Argosy Library series: Semi Dual: pb/]
- Box 991: The Complete Cabalistic Cases of Semi Dual, Volume 5 (place not known: Popular Publications, 2024) with J U Giesy [coll: stories first appeared 11 December 1915 and 3 June 1916 Argosy All-Story Weekly: in the publisher's The Argosy Library series: Semi Dual: pb/]
- The House of the Hundred Lights (Normal, Illinois: Black Dog Books, 2026) with J U Giesy [first appeared 22 May-12 June 1920 Argosy All-Story Weekly: Semi Dual: pb/Paul Stahr]
links
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