Russell, Eric Frank (1905-1978)

Prolific science-fiction writer, who based some of his stories on the ideas and data of Charles Fort ; British representative of the Fortean Society. Russell was born on January 6, 1905, at Sandhurst, Surrey, England. He spent his early years at military bases abroad before returning to England, where he had a scientific and technical education. In the 1930s he published science-fiction stories, later serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II. He was active in promoting Fortean ideas at a time when Fort's books were little known in Britain and difficult to obtain.

His first major novel Sinister Barrier (1943), published serially in 1939, was built around the Fortean theme "I think we're property," suggesting that the inhabitants of Earth may be controlled by alien entities. His story Three to Conquer (1956) is a science-fiction treatment of the theme of psi powers.

Other Russell books include: Dreadful Sanctuary (1953), Sentinels From Space (1954), Deep Space (1956), Men, Martians & Machines (1956), Wasp (1958), The Space Willies (U.K. title Next of Kin ) (1959), Far Stars (1961), The Great Explosion (1962), With a Strange Device (1964), and Somewhere a Voice (1965).

With the decline of the Fortean Society, his enthusiasm waned and during the 1960s he also stopped writing.

Although never officially dissolved, the work of the Fortean Society was later taken over by the International Fortean Organization in North America and the Fortean Times in Great Britain. Russell died February 28, 1978.

Sources:

Russell, Rick Frank. The Best of Eric Frank Russell. Edited by Alan Dean Foster. New York: Del Rey, 1978.

——. Sinister Barrier. Reading, Pa.: Fantasy Press, 1948.