Thorpe, Fred
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
Pseudonym of Frank Albert Stearns (1854-1899), US dime novelist and author under his own name of two popular children's books based on the Arabian Nights, Chris and the Wonderful Lamp (1895) and Sindbad, Smith and Co (1896); he was the father of Edgar Franklin Stearns, who wrote as Edgar Franklin. As Thorpe he wrote many kinds of dime novel (see Dime-Novel SF), but was best known for marvel stories written on an almost Absurdist level. His most popular was The Silent City (9 July-20 September 1892 Golden Hours) [for vts see Checklist below], about adventures in the ancient and mysterious inhabited City of Varsovik in the Bering Sea. The Boy in Black (6 October-8 December 1894 Golden Hours; 1907) describes a weird, irrational supercivilization inside a Western mountain. Through the Earth; Or, Jack Nelson's Invention (5 June-7 August 1897 Golden Hours as "In the World Below; Or, Three Boys in the Center of the Earth"; 1909) anticipates Edgar Rice Burroughs's Pellucidar with adventures in a Hollow Earth after an earth-borer goes out of control. This may be the earliest appearance in sf of a passenger-carrying drilling machine as a means of Underground Transportation. [EFB/JC]
Frank Albert Stearns
born 30 June 1854
died Boston, Massachusetts: 3 January 1899
works (almost certainly incomplete)
- Chris and the Wonderful Lamp (New York: Century Company, 1895) as Albert Stearns [hb/]
- Sindbad, Smith and Co (New York: Century Company, 1896) as Albert Stearns [hb/]
- The Boy in Black; Or, Strange Adventures in the Land of Mystery (New York: Street and Smith, 1903) [first appeared 6 October-8 December 1894 Golden Hours: pb/]
- Walt, the Wonder Worker; Or, a Secret of the Sea: How Two Boys Proved Truth to Be Stranger than Fiction (New York: Street and Smith, 1903) [pb/]
- The Mystic Isle: Or, in Peril of his Life (New York: Street and Smith, 1905) [first appeared 1890-1891 Golden Hours: pb/]
- The Silent City; Or, Strange Adventures in an Unknown Country (New York: Street and Smith, 1907) [first appeared 9 July-20 September 1892 Golden Hours as "The Silent City; Or, the Strange Voyage of the Fata Morgana": in the publisher's Bound-to-Win Library series: pb/]
- The Silent City; Or, the Picture in the Sky (New York: Street and Smith, 192?) [in the publisher's New Medal Library series: pb/uncredited]
- The Silent City; Or, Queer Adventures among Queer People (New York: Street and Smith, 1925) [vt of the above: in the publisher's Round the World Library series: pb/uncredited]
- Through the Earth; Or, Jack Nelson's Invention (New York: Street and Smith, 1909) [first appeared 5 June-7 August 1897 Golden Hourse as "In the World Below; Or, Three Boys in the Center of the Earth": pb/]
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