W. Elwyn (Waldo Elwyn) Backus

W. Elwyn Backus, also listed as Waldo Elwyn Backus, was born in 1892 and died in 1979. Publicly available records and later reprints connect him with The Waning of a World, a novel that has helped keep his name alive among readers interested in obscure speculative fiction.

Project Gutenberg lists him under the fuller name Waldo Elwyn Backus and currently attributes The Waning of a World to him. Modern booksellers and genre readers tend to describe the novel as an early science-fantasy or planetary adventure, which suggests the kind of imaginative fiction he is remembered for today.

Very little verified biographical detail appears to be widely available online, so much of his life remains hard to trace. Even so, Backus has earned a modest afterlife through the survival of this unusual novel and the curiosity of readers who enjoy forgotten writers from the pulp and pre-paperback eras.