Forgotten Authors: R. R. Winterbotham
Russell R. Winterbotham was born on August 1, 1904 in Salina, Kansas to Gertrude (nee Bond) and Dr. Jonathan Winterbotham. He married Nadine Shick and they had one daughter, who they named Ann.
His sf career had two phases, the first running from 1935, when he published “The Star That Would Not Behave” in the August Astounding Stories, to 1943. Most of his science fiction was bylined with his initials: R.R. Winterbotham. Winterbotham claimed that he “was the only writer to have stories in the one and only issue of Flash Gordon Magazine. I wrote both of the stories in that issue, one under the name of R. B. [sic] Botham. Don’t read them.” In fact, the only issue, which appeared in December, 1936 included Winterbotham’s “The Sage of the Smokepot” and “Botham”’s “The Last War,” but also James Edison Northford (or Northfield)’s The Master of Mars and R.C. Vance (or Vane) and F.K. Young’s “The Man Without a Brain.”
The early forties saw him publish three novels about Maximo the Amazing Superman. He also continued to publish short fiction until 1943 when “Oridin’s Formula” appeared in Planet Stories, but after its appearance, Winterbotham focused on his newspaper career and writing numerous books for Big Little Books and Little Blue Books.
