Francis Stevens (1884-1948) is proof that sometimes writers get a second chance. Her work appeared largely in the weeklies like Argosy and All-Story. There is no reason why she should not have been forgotten after those first appearances. Fantasy was not a stellar genre for sales, next to Westerns and Romance tales. She was not overly prolific, nor did she shock anyone or start any urban legends (like Arthur Machen and the Angels of Mons). She wrote brilliantly but since her works were not reprinted in hard cover there was no real reason to hope for a legacy.
What she did have going for her was a similarity. Her tales were reminiscent of the best of A. Merritt’s work, and Merritt was the big guy in Fantasy publishing. She was perfect for Mary Gnaedinger to reprint in her A. Merritt inspired magazines such as A. Merritt’s Fantasy Magazine and later Famous Fantastic Mysteries. Some people even thought she was A. Merritt writing under a pseudonym. Her name was a nom de plum, but she wasn’t Abraham Merritt, but Gertrude Barrows Bennett.
GBB wrote for money. She had a small baby and an ailing mother to support. Her husband was an explorer who had died on expedition. She put pen to paper and created 13 works, 6 novels and 7 short stories, between 1917 and 1923. She stopped almost as suddenly as she began, finding more lucrative work as a secretary. Her gain but our loss. She came and went and had no idea just how special she was. Not until C. L. Moore began publishing in the 1930s was another woman so talented at creating fantastic stories for her readers.
The reprints in Famous Fantastic Mysteries and other magazines gave us another wonderful opportunity. The pairing of Francis Stevens’ words and images with the artwork of Virgil Finlay. Finlay produced some of his best and most iconic work for the A. Merritt and Francis Stevens stories.
“The Curious Experience of Thomas Dunbar” (Argosy, March 1904) as G. M. Barrows, was an early experiment at twenty, but her real career began with “The Nightmare”(All-Story Weekly, April 14, 1917) Thirty-three years old, looking for cash, returned to the Munsey magazines for publication.
Labyrinth (All-Story Weekly, July 27-August 10, 1918)
“Friend Island”(All-Story Weekly, September 7, 1918) (Reprinted in Fantastic Novels, September 1950) is an intriguing piece of Science Fiction. Not for its living island, which is not particularly new in 1918, but for the society from which the heroine comes from, a world where women are the dominate sex. This may have been Stevens contemplating her role as bread-winner but that aside it is one of the first pieces of feminist SF.
The Citadel of Fear (Argosy, September 14-October 26, 1918) (Reprinted in Famous Fantastic Mysteries, February 1942) is her masterpiece. Set in the South American jungle then in America, it pairs an ancient evil with ordinary life. The terrible gods of Tlapallan can transform humans into animals while a dark shadow hangs over those who are touched by the darkness from the jungle. Findlay focuses mostly on the Tlapallan Ape but there are also white dogs that are quite scary too as seen on the cover.
“Behind the Curtain”(All-Story Weekly, September 21, 1918) (Reprinted in Famous Fantastic Mysteries, January 1940)
“Unseen–Unfeared” (The People’s Magazine, February 10, 1919)
“Elf Trap”(Argosy, July 5, 1919) (Reprinted in Fantastic Novels, November 1949)
The Heads of Cerebus (The Thrill Book, August 15-October 15, 1919)”Unseen — Unfeared”( People’s Favorite Magazine, February 10, 1919)
Avalon (Argosy, August 16 -September 6, 1919)
“Claimed” (Argosy, March 6-20, 1920) (Reprinted in Famous Fantastic Mysteries, April 1941 and again in Super Science Stories, October 1944). This last cover is swiped art from Famous Fantastic Mysteries, December 1943, for the Caveman story “Three Go Back” by J. Leslie Mitchell and doesn’t really have anything to do with this story.
Serapion (aka “Possessed”) (Argosy, June 19-July 10, 1920) (Reprinted in Famous Fantastic Mysteries, July 1942)
Sunfire (Weird Tales, July-August –September 1923) was Stevens final original publication at thirty-nine years old.
Francis Stevens just made it into Edwin Baird’s Weird Tales before giving up writing. It is too bad because I am sure she would have been welcomed there as Greye la Spina (who also appeared in The Thrill Book) was. The fantastic novels we could have read….
