E. A. Grosser is another invisible author. Unlike last time, when I wrote about Alexander Blade, a house name with no real substance, Grosser was an actual person. Beyond that, and the thirteen stories he published, I can’t really tell you anything. ISFDB has no birth-dates or death-dates. The Science Fiction Encyclopedia doesn’t list him. Bleiler doesn’t mention him. He is truly invisible. He came, wrote for John W. Campbell, then lesser people, then went. I don’t even know what the E. A. stands for. He might have been a woman. Since he left no major novels, the item that usually gets you remembered, there was no reason to recall him after 1942.
Here are the thirteen stories of E. A. Grosser. Make what you will of him.
“The Psychomorph” (Unknown, February 1940)
“The Living Ghost” (Unknown, March 1940) This title would show up again as a famous Frank Belknap Long comic strip.
“Children of Zeus” (Astonishing Stories, June 1940)
“Mister Island” (Astonishing Stories, October 1940)
“The Brain of Many Bodies” (Science Fiction, October 1940)
“Blue Boy” (Super Science Stories, January 1941)
“Habits Via Radio” (Science Fiction, January 1941)
“The Opportunists” (Astounding Science-Fiction, January 1941)
“The Radiant Avenger” (Future Fiction, April 1941)
“Willie Wins a War” (Super Science Novels, August 1941)
“Out of Nowhere” (Future Combined with Science Fiction, October 1941)
“Finity” (Astounding Science-Fiction, November 1941)
“Time Exposure” (Future Combined with Science Fiction, August 1942)
Where did E. A Grosser go after August 1942? Did he fight in the war and die? Turn to writing under another name? (He did not become a detective or Western writer as EAG.) We will probably never know. This invisible man has left no footprints in the snow to follow.
