Arthur O. (Arthur Olney) Friel

Born in Detroit on May 31, 1885, he graduated from Yale in 1909 and later worked as South American editor for the Associated Press. That reporting background helped shape the setting and texture of the fiction he became known for: fast-moving adventure stories rooted in the landscapes and tensions of northern South America.

In 1922, he took a six-month journey along Venezuela's Orinoco and Ventuari rivers, turning that experience into the travel book The River of Seven Stars in 1924. His fiction often returned to the same region, and he became one of the best-known writers in the adventure pulps, especially in Adventure, with additional work appearing in Short Stories.

He remained associated with exploration as well as fiction, including membership in the American Geographical Society. He died in Concord, New Hampshire, on January 27, 1959.