Fred M. (Fred Merrick) White

Born in West Bromwich in 1859, Fred Merrick White wrote under the name Fred M. White and built a remarkably productive career in popular fiction. Reliable reference sources describe him as a British novelist and short-story writer whose work ranged across mystery, adventure, and speculative fiction.

He is best known today for the six "Doom of London" stories, a series of catastrophe tales set in London that helped give his fiction a lasting place in early science-fiction history. His writing was widely published and enormously varied, which helps explain why readers still encounter his name in crime fiction, thrillers, and imaginative tales alike.

White died in 1935. Although a suitable verified portrait image could not be confirmed from the page images available here, his work remains well represented through library, public-domain, and reference collections.