Edwin Balmer

Born in Chicago in 1883, Edwin Balmer built a career as an American writer and editor whose work ranged from mystery to science fiction. He wrote for popular magazines and newspapers, and his fiction was shaped by a clear, energetic style that made even far-reaching ideas feel vivid and immediate.

Balmer is especially remembered for the science fiction novel When Worlds Collide, written with Philip Wylie, along with its sequel After Worlds Collide. These stories of global catastrophe and survival became some of his best-known work and helped secure his place in early American speculative fiction.

He continued writing through the first half of the 20th century and died in 1959. Today he is often appreciated for combining fast-moving storytelling with the large-scale imagination that defined classic pulp-era fiction.