author
Jack Bradley
d. 1960
A largely forgotten American writer of detective fiction, he still left a small mark on early science fiction with a 1930 tale of futuristic terror and high-stakes invention. His work offers a glimpse of the pulpy, fast-moving storytelling that shaped genre magazines in the early 20th century.
1 Audiobook
The Rhizoid Kill
by Jack Bradley
About the author
Little seems to be firmly documented about this American author beyond the basics: he is generally listed as having lived from about 1903 to 1960, and he wrote mostly detective fiction.
He is of particular interest to science-fiction readers because of The Torch of Ra (1930), a short novel or chapbook associated with Hugo Gernsback's early science-fiction publishing. The story imagines a near-future threat to New York involving a destructive ray, which places it squarely in the energetic, speculative tradition of early pulp SF.
Although he is not a widely known name today, his surviving work reflects an era when genre boundaries were loose and writers often moved between mystery, adventure, and science fiction. That makes him a small but intriguing figure for listeners interested in the roots of modern speculative storytelling.