Yerxa, Leroy
Entry updated 18 November 2024. Tagged: Author.
(1915-1946) US author for the Pulp magazines, particularly the Ziff-Davis productions Amazing and Fantastic Adventures. He published under his own name and under some pseudonyms, the main one being Elroy Arno; others included Lee Francis which evolved into a House Name after his death (see also Frances Yerxa below as possible author under this name), Morris J Steele and (possibly) Henry Gade and Frank Patton. House Names included Richard Casey and Alexander Blade. He began to publish work of genre interest with "Death Rides at Night" in Amazing for August 1942 as Yerxa, and contributing prolifically to that magazine until his death; his only book-length story was "Double for Destiny" (December 1946 Amazing Stories). The Freddie Funk series in Fantastic Adventures, beginning with "Freddie Funk's Madcap Mermaid" (January 1943 Fantastic Adventures), was completed after his death by his wife, Frances Yerxa (1917-2019), with "Freddie Funk's Flippant Fairies" (September 1948 Fantastic Adventures). She also wrote some stories solo, beginning with "Negative Problem" (August 1947 Amazing), and married William L Hamling after Yerxa's death. As Frances Hamling she was managing editor of Imagination 1953-1958, as well as Imaginative Tales and the Slick magazine Rogue. [JC]
Leroy Arnold Yerxa
born Old Town, Penobscot, Maine: 11 August 1915
died Lansing, Michigan: 28 February 1946
works
- Queen of the Flaming Diamond (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2010) [story: ebook: first appeared January 1943 Amazing: na/]
- One-Way Ticket to Nowhere (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2010) [story: ebook: first appeared December 1942 Amazing: na/]
- Phantom of the Forest (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2010) [story: ebook: first appeared November 1948 Amazing as by Lee Francis: na/]
- Witch of Blackfen Moors (Medford, Oregon: Armchair Fiction, 2022) [dos: first appeared December 1943 Fantastic Adventures as by Lee Francis: pb/]
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