author
Leslie F. (Leslie Francis) Stone
1905–1991
A pioneering voice from the early pulp era, this American science fiction writer helped open the genre to women and brought bold, imaginative ideas to magazines long before that was common. Her stories still stand out for their energy, strange worlds, and willingness to push beyond the usual limits of early sci-fi.
1 Audiobook
When the Sun went out
by Leslie F. (Leslie Francis) Stone
About the author
Born in Philadelphia in 1905, Leslie F. Stone wrote under a pen name that masked her gender at a time when science fiction magazines were dominated by men. She became one of the first women to make a visible mark in the pulp science fiction field, publishing stories in magazines such as Amazing Stories, Wonder Stories, and Weird Tales.
Her best-known work includes stories like Out of the Void and The Conquest of Gola, and she published more than twenty science fiction stories between the late 1920s and 1940. Readers and critics have continued to value her for the imagination of her worldbuilding and for the way her fiction opened space for women in early genre history.
Stone died in 1991, but her reputation has grown with renewed interest in overlooked pioneers of science fiction. Today she is often remembered not just as an early pulp writer, but as an important trailblazer whose work helped widen the possibilities of the genre.