author
Edwin Balmer
1883–1959
Best remembered for the early disaster classic When Worlds Collide, this Chicago-born writer moved easily between science fiction, mystery, and magazine work. He also spent years shaping popular fiction from the editor’s desk, helping bring new stories to a wide audience.
8 Audiobooks
The mating impulse
by Edwin Balmer
Ruth of the U. S. A.
by Edwin Balmer
Decidedly Odd
by Edwin Balmer, William MacHarg
The Blind Man's Eyes
by William MacHarg, Edwin Balmer
The Man Higher Up
by Edwin Balmer, William MacHarg
The Indian Drum
by William MacHarg, Edwin Balmer
Keeban
by Edwin Balmer
The achievements of Luther Trant
by Edwin Balmer, William MacHarg
About the author
Born in Chicago in 1883, Edwin Balmer began his career in journalism at the Chicago Tribune before turning to fiction and magazine editing. He studied at Northwestern University and Harvard, and over time built a reputation as both a storyteller and a working editor in American popular publishing.
He wrote mysteries, adventure stories, and science fiction, and is especially associated with the novel When Worlds Collide, written with Philip Wylie. That book became one of his most lasting titles, remembered for its large-scale apocalyptic imagination and its place in early modern science fiction.
Balmer also served as editor of Redbook, giving him influence not just as a writer but as a figure in the magazine world of the early 20th century. He died in 1959, leaving behind a career that linked newspaper work, commercial fiction, and the growth of genre storytelling.