author
Francis Stevens
1883–1948
A pioneering voice in early American fantasy and science fiction, this writer helped shape dark fantasy long before the genre had a name. Writing as Francis Stevens, she produced eerie, imaginative stories that later readers and critics have seen as strikingly ahead of their time.
1 Audiobook
Friend Island
by Francis Stevens
About the author
Born Gertrude Barrows Bennett, she is best known by the pen name Francis Stevens. Reliable reference sources describe her as a pioneering American author of fantasy and science fiction, and many note her importance as one of the first major women writing in those genres in the United States.
Her best-known work includes The Heads of Cerberus, first published in 1919, along with other fantastic tales that appeared in pulp magazines during the late 1910s and early 1920s. Her fiction blends wonder, menace, and bold imaginative ideas, which is why she is often associated with the early development of dark fantasy.
Although she was not as widely remembered for many years as some of her contemporaries, her reputation has grown steadily. Today she is appreciated as an influential early voice whose work helped open space for later fantasy and science fiction writers.