The Strangest Northerns: Walter Kateley Style

Walter Kateley was an early Science Fiction writer who got his start with Hugo Gernsback’s Amazing Stories, then moved onto his Wonder Stories while still selling to Amazing and T. O’Conor Sloane. As he was an engineer with a job with the Patent office, he wrote for fun and not money. He is largely forgotten today, which is too bad. He has some strange stories of the North Pole to tell…

In the Arctic

Of his seventeen tales, four were set in the Arctic.

“The Arctic Rescue” (Air Wonder Stories, May 1930) has a submarine trapped in the ice while hunting for whale specimens. Most of the crew choose to walk out but the hero, along with the captain, stay. Eventually they get the idea to skin the whale they have tied alongside and use it as a balloon to free them. Not very good Science Fiction but submarines were a big part of SF in 1930.

“Under Arctic Ice” (Wonder Stories, June 1932) has a pilot flying books to the Arctic. Ice on his wings forces him to jump. He lands in an ice well that houses a green landscape. This is the home of the Tovarts, turtle-like aliens who warm the ice with nuclear power. Once the narrator learns their language he discovers they are aliens who came to Earth before their world exploded.

Trouble begins when the Tovarts translate the books that the pilot brought with him, including the Bible. This gets him in hot water with the local priesthood that dominates Tovartian life. The pilot is to be executed but with the help of his friend, Barbon, he fixes his plane and makes gasoline. He causes an explosion and flies away.

The tale reminds me of Edmond Hamilton, though his Tovarts are not menacing enough for a Hamilton story. Kateley aliens tend to be peaceful appearing at first but later take on menace.

The Aliens Take Over

“Room For the Super Race” (Amazing Stories, August 1932) has two Arctic bird researchers, Tower and Watson, discover a five-mile long zeppelin from the Asteroid Belt hovering over them. The ship lands. They are met by robots that take them aboard. The aliens are human-like with a strong Social Darwinist point-of-view. Their leader is named Dr. Cook. They intend to take over the world because they are superior beings, a super race. First, North America will be emptied with the humans going to Asia. Humans have treated their own technologically weaker people this way. Why shouldn’t the Super Race? Tower is recruited to be the representative for the aliens. He knows they have a deadly heat ray and wants to prevents unnecessary deaths.

The reaction is predictable. The armies and navies of America go up against the heat ray and are obliterated. Robot armies kill many men as well. Tower and Watson are taken to the beautiful palaces of the Super Race. The emptying of America is scheduled for the next day but Watson has planted a bomb in the control room of the super blimp. With this attack, the Earthmen are able to rally and win back their planet.

E. F. Bleiler says of the story: “Easily Kateley’s best story, and one that is worth reading. The psychology of Tower is particularly interesting, as are the discussions of ethics and racial superiority. The contemporary reference is obvious.”

Not On This Planet

“Subjugating the Earth” (Amazing Stories, June 1934) begins with two men stuck in the Arctic for winter. Hunting bird samples for the Audubon Society, Cornwallis and the narrator are stranded in the North when “Corn” strains his ankle badly. While chopping the ice at the water hole, the narrator sees something impossible, a weird insect-like monster. Fortunately Corn also sees it, though fleetingly. The two men try to think of a logical explanation for it, such as an Arctic breed of insect, but have to wait to see what develops.

This proves to be a ship that beams the two men aboard. They are not ill-treated by the aliens, the Cudors, though not warmly embraced either. They feel like pets or specimens. The Cudors intend to take over the Earth and enslave the people. The narrator is elected to be the mouth piece of the conquerors, while Corn enchants them with his musical ability. Like Watson in “Room For the Super Race”, Corn sets a bomb and ruins the ship. The Cudors are dealt with severely.

I personally find Kateley’s style wonderful. So many Gernsback writers were earnest SF fans but poor writers. Not with Kateley. He usually uses a first person narrator that makes the tale less stuffy. The Arctic adventure stuff is as entertaining (and factual) as the SF portions. Kateley worked in patents and not in the North, so I assume he gained his knowledge of the Arctic from reading. I never even would have found him except for that Leo Morey cover for Amazing Stories, June 1934. Very Northern!