When you look at the history of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror there are certain cities that stand tall as centers of activity. New York City is the obvious hub of publishing but Chicago was almost equally important as was Los Angeles. The early days of Science Fiction clubs in NYC and areas are part of the history best learned about in books like Sam Moskowitz’s The Immortal Storm: A History of Science Fiction Fandom (1951). Chicago was home to both the original Weird Tales and Ray A. Palmer’s Amazing Stories and Bill Hamling’s Imagination. The “California Group” was actually two groups, first with Kuttner, C. L. Moore, Leigh Brackett and later with Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont and Rod Serling.
But there was another place that produced a number of interesting and important writers: Milwaukee! Yes, a city best remembered for beer. Several writing groups existed there over the decades and I won’t go into all the variations. (John D. Haefele does so here.) The two most important names were the Milwaukee Fictioneers and Allied Authors. What’s more important than club names was the talent that came out of this sleepier center of fantastic writing. The members included dozens of professional and semi-pro writers of Westerns, mysteries (like Jack Ritchie), Romance and other Pulps. I am not going to look at those writers but focus on the fantastic ones.
Ralph Milne Farley (Roger Sherman Hoar) (1887-1963) was a Harvard-educated mathematician who wrote Space opera for Argosy and other weeklies. His series known about The Radio Planet made him an early favorite along with writers like Murray Leinster and Otis Adelbert Kline. For the Pulps he wrote for Weird Tales and Amazing Stories.
Ray A. Palmer (1910-1977) began as a writer but became an important editor in Chicago. His Amazing Stories, Fantastic Adventures and later magazines published many of the writers listed here. He was instrumental in the advancement of robot SF, in the weirdness of the Shaver Mystery and eventually went into Ufology. Julius Schwartz would name a superhero after him.
Arthur Tofte (1902-1980) wrote for fun in the Pulp days but only began writing SF novels after a career in advertising. Several of his novels appeared in the Laser Books line.
Stanley G. Weinbaum (1902-1935) was the tragic prince of Science Fiction. Dying of cancer in 1935, the few stories he published became instant classics including “A Martian Odyssey”. His legacy was as a “Campbell writer before Campbell”, inspiring newcomers like Isaac Asimov.
Fredric Brown (1906-1972) is famous both as a writer of SF and Mystery novels. His fiction has a nice sardonic quality to it that stood him well in his anti-SF fan novel, What Mad Universe (1949). He gave up life in Milwaukee (and his first family) to live a gypsy existence that lead to New York and finally Taos, New Mexico.
Robert Bloch (1917-1994) will always be remembered as the author of Psycho (1959) but he also began as a protege of H. P. Lovecraft. He moved from Wisconsin to Hollywood where he became part the California Group, writing a witty and economical brand of horror for television and movies.
Jim Kjelgaard (1910-1959) is famous as the author of Big Red and other dog books for children. He started off as a Pulpster writing mostly Westerns and adventure fiction. This includes a short stint at Weird Tales. he collaborated with Robert Bloch on “The Man Who Told the Truth”.
Raymond Z. Gallun (1911-1994) is an under-appreciated Science Fiction innovator who wrote a mature brand of Sf early on. His on-again-off-again lifestyle didn’t help. His “Old Faithful” was a classic Golden Age story that helped move SF away from “killer monster” fiction.
August Derleth (1909-1971) may not be considered an official member of the Milwaukee crowd but he certainly was a peripheral one. Living in Sauk City (100 miles away), he had occasional dealings with the members. As a publisher he created Arkham House Press (along with Donald Wandrei) and became the center of post-Lovecraft publishing. He collected Robert Bloch’s first book, The Opener of the Way in 1945.
William Campbell Gault (1910-1995) was another Mystery writer who also wrote SF. A winner of the Edgar Award, he also produced plenty of SF for Ray Palmer under his own name as well as pseudonyms.
Larry Sternig (1908-1999) wrote a few stories for the Pulps but later became the agent for SF great Andre Norton.
Gene DeWeese (1934-2012) was a later member of the Milwaukee writers’ groups. He was a prolific writer of SF. Like Arthur Tofte he wrote a few Laser Books. He wrote television tie-ins for Man From U. N. C. L. E. and Star Trek.
Some Milwaukee authors that I don’t know if they had any contact include Clifford D. Simak, who lived in Milville (890 miles away). Cordwainer Smith (Paul Linebarger) was born in Milwaukee but was a professor at John Hopkins in Maryland when he wrote. E. E. “Doc” Smith was also born there but grew up in Seattle.
