author
P. F. Costello
A byline from the golden age of pulp science fiction, this name appeared on dozens of magazine stories in the 1940s and 1950s. It was most often used for lively, fast-moving tales of horror, fantasy, and speculative adventure.
1 Audiobook
The devil downstairs
by P. F. Costello
About the author
P. F. Costello was not a single widely known standalone literary identity, but a pen name used in mid-20th-century pulp publishing. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction describes it as one of the many Ziff-Davis house names, appearing on more than 40 magazine stories between 1941 and 1958, and notes that it was used especially for work by William P. McGivern in its earlier years.
The name is also linked to Rog Phillips, whose Wikipedia entry lists P. F. Costello among his many pseudonyms. That helps explain why stories under this byline can feel varied in style and tone: in pulp magazines, house names were often shared, practical labels rather than a single author's lifelong public identity.
Today, P. F. Costello is remembered mainly by readers of vintage science fiction and horror pulps, with stories and reprints that preserve the era's brisk pacing, eerie concepts, and magazine-serial energy. For audiobook listeners, the name offers a doorway into the strange, imaginative world of classic pulp storytelling.