Stanley Mullen

Born in Colorado Springs on June 20, 1911, Stanley Mullen was an American artist, novelist, short-story writer, publisher, and museum curator. He studied writing at the University of Colorado at Boulder and drawing, painting, and lithography at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. His paintings of Indian ceremonial dances became part of the Denver Art Museum’s permanent collection, and he worked as assistant curator of the Colorado State Historical Museum during the 1940s.

Mullen wrote more than 200 stories and articles, many in science fiction and fantasy. His best-known books include The Sphinx Child (1948), Moonfoam and Sorceries (1948), and Kinsmen of the Dragon (1951). He also founded Gorgon Press in 1948, publishing his own collection and a fanzine called The Gorgon.

Writing under his own name and the pen names John Peter Drummond, Stanley Beecher, and Lee Beecher, Mullen was active in the pulp and small-press worlds of the 1940s and 1950s. His story “Space to Swing a Cat” was nominated for the 1959 Hugo Award for Best Short Story. He died in Grandview, Washington, in 1974.