Wardon Allan Curtis

Born in New Mexico in 1867, Wardon Allan Curtis was an American author whose known work centers on speculative and adventure fiction. Reference sources consistently identify him as the author of The Strange Adventures of Mr. Middleton (1903), and later readers have especially kept his name alive through the short story “The Monster of Lake LaMetrie,” first published in 1899.

Although he does not appear to have left behind a large, widely documented bibliography, Curtis has remained of interest to historians of early science fiction and weird fiction. His reputation today rests less on fame in his own lifetime than on the staying power of a few unusual stories that continued to be noticed by genre encyclopedias, library records, and digital archives.

Curtis died in 1940. Reliable biographical details beyond the basics are limited in the sources readily available online, so much of his life remains only lightly documented.