author
Best known for the eerie short story The Diary of Philip Westerly, this little-documented writer left behind a compact but memorable piece of classic pulp horror. The story’s unsettling mirror obsession and creeping dread have helped it stay in circulation long after its first magazine appearance.
Very little biographical information about Paul Compton appears to be reliably documented online. What can be confirmed is that he is associated with The Diary of Philip Westerly, a horror story published in Weird Tales in the August/September 1936 issue and later preserved by public-domain archives.
That story is a brief, atmospheric work built around vanity, fear, and a deeply disturbing reflection in a mirror. Its survival through projects like Wikisource and Project Gutenberg suggests that, even if the author himself remains obscure, his fiction has continued to find readers among fans of vintage weird and supernatural tales.
Because dependable sources on Compton's life are scarce, it is safest to remember him through the work rather than through uncertain personal details. For listeners drawn to early twentieth-century horror, his surviving story offers a small but vivid glimpse into the strange, moody world of pulp-era fiction.