Ray Cummings

Ray Cummings was an American author and inventor born in 1887 and died in 1957. He became one of the recognizable names of early science fiction, publishing widely in pulp magazines and writing novels and short stories that mixed romance, danger, and far-reaching scientific speculation.

He is closely associated with classic magazine-era science fiction and is often remembered for The Girl in the Golden Atom and its sequel, along with many other tales of miniature worlds, lost civilizations, and journeys across time. His work appeared often enough that a large body of it remains available today through public-domain collections, which has helped keep his stories in circulation for new readers.

Before and alongside his writing career, he was also known as an inventor, a background that fits neatly with the gadget-filled, idea-driven feel of his fiction. For listeners who enjoy adventurous, old-school speculative stories from the formative years of the genre, his work offers a lively window into science fiction's early imagination.