author
R. W. Major
Best known for the science-fiction story Monument, this little-documented writer also appears to be connected with mid-century illustrated books in Canada. The surviving record is slim, which gives the work an extra air of mystery.
1 Audiobook
Monument
by R. W. Major
About the author
Project Gutenberg credits R. W. Major as the author of Monument, a science-fiction story first published in Worlds of If Science Fiction in March 1960. On Project Gutenberg's author page, only that work is firmly listed under the name, which suggests a very small surviving bibliography in widely accessible online sources.
Some sources also connect the name R. W. Major with Gay Adventurers, a 1947 Canadian school reader. A British Columbia artists reference identifies Richard Walter Major (1899–1984) as a Canadian illustrator who worked for Grip, served in World War I, later illustrated books for J. M. Dent & Sons, and helped found the Federation of Canadian Artists in 1941. Because the online record is sparse, it is not possible to confirm with confidence from the sources reviewed here whether the science-fiction writer and the Canadian illustrator were definitely the same person.
That uncertainty is part of what makes R. W. Major interesting today: the name survives most clearly through a single offbeat pulp-era story and a few scattered catalog traces, leaving a small but intriguing footprint for curious readers to rediscover.