Frank V. (Frank Victor) Martinek

Frank V. Martinek, listed by Project Gutenberg as Frank Victor Martinek (1895– ), is the author of Don Winslow of the Navy, an action-filled adventure novel centered on naval intelligence and sabotage. He is most closely associated with Don Winslow of the Navy, the long-running comic-strip and story franchise built around the same hero.

Reliable accounts of his career describe him as much more than a novelist. The U.S. Naval Institute says he had worked as a crime reporter, served as a naval intelligence officer during World War I, and later worked as an FBI agent. That background helps explain the investigative detail and military flavor in his fiction.

Martinek’s best-known creation, Don Winslow, became a popular patriotic adventure property in comics, books, radio, and film serials during the 1930s and 1940s. Some biographical details are inconsistent across public records, but sources agree that he was born in the 1890s and that his writing was shaped by real experience in reporting, intelligence work, and public service.