author
Jack Bradley
d. 1960
A pulp-era American writer remembered mainly for fast-moving detective stories, he also left a small mark on early science fiction. His best-known speculative work, The Torch of Ra (1930), imagines a terrifying ray weapon aimed at New York.
1 Audiobook
The Rhizoid Kill
by Jack Bradley
About the author
Very little solid biographical information seems to survive, but reliable reference sources identify him as an American author, probably born in Oklahoma around 1903 and dead in New York on August 31, 1960. He wrote mostly detective fiction, though his name still turns up in science-fiction reference works because of his rare ventures into the genre.
His best-known science-fiction work is The Torch of Ra (1930), a short novel about a destructive ray weapon and a plot to devastate New York. He also published shorter fiction in pulp magazines, including work in Weird Tales, and was associated with magazines such as Planet Stories.
That mix of crime fiction and sensational pulp science fiction gives his work a distinctly early-20th-century feel: brisk, dramatic, and built around bold high-concept threats. Even though he is now a fairly obscure figure, he remains of interest to readers exploring the fringes of classic pulp and early genre history.