David Wright O'Brien

Born in 1918, David Wright O'Brien was an American pulp writer best remembered for science fiction and fantasy short stories that appeared in magazines such as Amazing Stories and Fantastic Adventures. He wrote during the high-output pulp era and also published under several pen names, including John York Cabot, Duncan Farnsworth, Clee Garson, and Richard Vardon.

Reliable sources available here agree that his career was brief but unusually productive. Some accounts also note collaborations with writer William P. McGivern and describe O'Brien as a relative of Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright, a connection that fits neatly with his place in classic magazine science fiction.

During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army Air Forces and continued writing while in uniform. He died in 1944, at only twenty-six, during a bombing raid over Berlin, leaving behind the kind of compact, high-energy body of work that still appeals to readers of vintage speculative fiction.