Jr. Sam Merwin

Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, in 1910, Sam Merwin Jr. was an American writer and editor who worked across science fiction, mystery, and adventure fiction. He published mainly under his own name, though he also used several pseudonyms, and he came from a literary family: his father was the writer Samuel Merwin.

Merwin is especially remembered for his role in magazine science fiction during the 1940s and 1950s. He edited Startling Stories and Thrilling Wonder Stories, and readers and historians often credit that period with helping push those magazines toward stronger, more ambitious fiction. As a writer, he produced novels and stories such as The House of Many Worlds and contributed to the fast-moving, imaginative style that made pulp-era science fiction so enduring.

He died in Los Angeles in 1996. Today, he is remembered both for the stories he wrote and for the editorial eye that helped spotlight other important science fiction voices of his era.