Art by Frank R. Paul
Art by Frank R. Paul

D. D. Sharp: One Hit-Wonder?

Art by Frank R. Paul
Art by Frank R. Paul

Drury Dubose Sharp (1886-1960) is remembered for one story “The Eternal Man”, his second he sold. It appeared in Science Wonder Stories, August 1929. He wrote a poor sequel for Gernsback, who put it in Wonder Stories Quarterly, Summer 1930. No one remembers the second story. “The Eternal Man” has been reprinted in magazines like Startling Stories (January 1939) and Famous Science Fiction (Fall 1968), then in anthologies like Groff Conklin’s A Treasury of Science Fiction (1948) and Mike Ashley’s The History of the Science Fiction Magazine Part 1 1926-1935 (1974). “The Eternal Man” and “The Eternal Man Revives” were combined in a reprint in Wonder Story Annual, May 1950. Like the rock’n’roller who gets stuck singing the same song over and over for his whole career, Sharp wrote twenty-one other pieces, some even worthy of attention. Did anyone care?

Art by Hugh Rankin signed as DOAK
Art by Hugh Rankin signed as DOAK

“The Goddess of the Painted Priests” (Weird Tales, April 1929)

Art by Frank R. Paul
Art by Frank R. Paul

“The Eternal Man” (Science Wonder Stories, August 1929)

Art by Hugh Rankin signed as DOAK
Art by Hugh Rankin signed as DOAK

“In the Toils of the Black Kiva” (Weird Tales, October 1929)

Art by Rosumoff
Art by Rosumoff

“Thirty Miles Down” (Science Fiction Series #14, 1930)

Art by Butterfield
Art by Butterfield
Art by Leo Morey
Art by Leo Morey

“The Day of the Beast” (Science Wonder Stories, May 1930) (Reprinted in Startling Stories, Fall 1944) The giant spider is a classic theme in Pulp fiction.

Art by Volga
Art by Volga

“The Eternal Man Revives” (Wonder Stories Quarterly, Summer 1930) Sharp was one of the authors who created a robot scenario for Hugo Gernback’s Pulps.

Art by M. Marchioni
Art by M. Marchioni

 

“Three Worlds to Conquer” (Wonder Stories Quarterly, Winter 1931)

Art by M. Marchioni
Art by M. Marchioni

“The Satellite of Doom” (Wonder Stories, January 1931)

Art by Frank R. Paul
Art by Frank R. Paul

“The Messenger From Space” (Wonder Stories, January 1933)

Art by Frank R. Paul
Art by Frank R. Paul

“At Bay in the Void” (Wonder Stories, February 1933)

Art by Frank R. Paul
Art by Frank R. Paul

“The Captive in the Crater” (Wonder Stories, June 1933)

Art by Frank R. Paul
Art by Frank R. Paul

“Higher Jurisdiction” (Wonder Stories, December 1934)

Art by M. Marchioni
Art by M. Marchioni

“Doomed by the Planetoid” (Astounding Stories, May 1936)

Art by Elliott Dold Jr.
Art by Elliott Dold Jr.

“The Indesinent Stykal” (Astounding Stories, June 1937)

Art by H. W. Wesso
Art by H. W. Wesso

“Faster Than Light” (Marvel Science Stories, February 1939)

Art by Eron
Art by Eron

“The Lodestone Core” (Astonishing Stories, August 1940)

Art by J. W. Scott
Art by J. W. Scott
Artist Unknown
Artist Unknown

“Substitute For War” (Marvel Stories, November 1940)

Artist Unknown
Artist Unknown

“The Girl From Venus” (Marvel Stories, April 1941)

Artist Unknown
Artist Unknown

“Death on the Siderite” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, February 1942)

Art by Wallace Saaty
Art by Wallace Saaty

“Pillage of the Space-Marine” (Captain Future, Spring 1943) I thought this might be the first use of the word “space-marine” but that was Bob Olson eleven years earlier with “Captain Brink of the Space Marines”.

Art by M. Marchioni
Art by M. Marchioni

“Children of the Gods” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1943)

Art by George Gross
Art by George Gross

“Juju Trail” (Jungle Stories, Winter 1944)

Artist Unknown
Artist Unknown

“The Eternal Man” and “The Eternal Man Revives” were combined in a reprint in Wonder Story Annual, May 1950.

In the end Sharp wrote for most of the classic editors (not T. O’Conor Sloane or John W. Campbell) including Farnsworth Wright, Hugo Gernsback, F. Orlin Tremaine, Robert O. Erisman, Fredrick Pohl and W. Scott Peacock.

It is obvious D. D. Sharp never made a living at writing. After 1933, he basically wrote a story a year. He is not unusual in this, as most early SF writers either had day jobs or wrote Westerns or detective stories to pay the bills. Even giants like Asimov were biochemists or non-fiction writers. That D. D. Sharp is remembered at all is a feat. Who recalls F. E. Hardart, William L. Bade, Frank Brueckel Jr, J. Schlossal, Francis M. Deegan, D. S. Halacy, Milton Kaltesky and a whole host of other writers who produced SF but never a hit? Their fate is even worse than Sharp’s. The oblivion of flaking brown Pulp…

 

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