author
Harold Ward
1879–1950
A prolific pulp storyteller from Illinois, he wrote eerie adventure and horror fiction for early twentieth-century magazines and is best remembered today for the sinister Doctor Death tales.
1 Audiobook
The life-eater
by Harold Ward
About the author
Born in Coleta, Illinois, in 1879, Harold Ward was an American short story writer whose work appeared in popular pulp magazines. Sources on his life consistently place his career in and around Sterling, Illinois, where he was also active in local public service and journalism.
Ward wrote for magazines including Weird Tales and became especially associated with Doctor Death, the short-lived 1935 pulp built around his villainous title character. His fiction mixed horror, adventure, and sensational fantasy in the fast-moving style that helped define pulp entertainment.
He died in 1950. While he is not as widely known now as some of his contemporaries, his stories still circulate through public-domain archives and audiobook collections, keeping his strange, energetic pulp world alive for new listeners.