W. J. (William J.) Matthews

W. J. Matthews is an obscure science fiction author best known for three works now listed by Project Gutenberg: The Derelict, Space-Trap at Banya Tor, and The Death From Orion. Those stories first appeared in the late 1940s, including pieces published from Planet Stories.

Reliable biographical details about Matthews are very scarce, and major reference pages surfaced here provide little beyond his name and bibliography. Based on the works that can be confirmed, he seems to have been part of the lively mid-century pulp science fiction scene, writing action-driven adventures set in a future of spaceships, criminals, and treacherous frontier worlds.

Because so little personal information is readily documented, the work itself is the clearest introduction: compact, energetic tales from the magazine era of science fiction, now rediscovered by modern digital archives.