Leo P. Kelley

Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 1928, Leo P. Kelley was an American novelist and short-story writer who published under the legal name Leo Patrick Kelley. Reliable reference sources agree that he began publishing science fiction in the 1950s and later became especially prolific as a western writer.

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction notes that he worked for a time as an advertising copywriter and published his first science-fiction story, "Dreamtown, U.S.A.," in If in 1955. The same source describes his fiction as driven by sharp, clear ideas, and several of his science-fiction novels, including The Coins of Murph, Time Locker, and The Sword of Feelings, are still remembered by genre readers.

From about 1980 onward, Kelley concentrated mainly on westerns, building a much larger body of work in that field. He died in Long Beach, New York, on November 17, 2002.