Charles Willard Diffin was born on March 25, 1884 in Meadville, Pennsylvania to Charles A. Diffin and Julia (nee Benedict). He attended the University of Buffalo, where he graduated with a degree in analytical chemistry.

In 1903, Diffin married Pearl Burnside. Their daughter, Beatrice, was born in 1905. Son Charles followed in 1910 and Douglas in 1915. Charles predeceased his parents, dying in 1938 and Pearl died in 1951.

He began publishing science fiction in the February 1930 issue of Astounding with “Spawn of the Stars,” which was reprinted in Conklin’s The Best of Science Fiction in 1946. His “The Power and the Glory” in the July 1039 issue of Astounding explored the use of nuclear power, questioning whether it would be used to benefit or harm mankind.

From 1931 to 1932, he published four stories in his Harkness Bullard series. The series includes an initial trilogy beginning with “Dark Moon,” continuing with “Brood of the Dark Moon,” (serialized over four issues) and concluding with “The Finding of Haldgren,” all published in Astounding. He followed them with the serialized novel Two Thousand Miles Below, which was set in the same universe, although several years earlier.

Diffin’s other serialized novels included The Pirate Planet in 1930. Land of the Lost in 1933/4 and Blue Magic in 1935. All of them appeared Astounding. Although many of his stories did appear in Astounding, Diffin also published stories in Strange Tales, Top-Notch, and various western pulps.

Damon Knight credits Diffin, along with E.E. “Doc” Smith with introducing “the jodhpured and booted [Anglo-Saxon] hero,” in In Search of Wonder, but surely those staples of the pulps predated the creation of science fiction with the adventure stories of the Victorians.

By the mid-thirties, Diffin turned his back on writing for the pulps to focus on his primary occupation was working as an engineer and building contractor. At times, he also worked as an airplane salesman. In addition to his genre writing, he also wrote several volumes in the San Diego City Schools Project on the history of transportation.

Diffin died on May 15, 1966 in Bonita, California and is buried in Greenwood Memorial Park in San Diego.

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Steven H Silver is a twenty-two-time Hugo Award nominee and was the publisher of the Hugo-nominated fanzine Argentus as well as the editor and publisher of ISFiC Press for eight years. He has also edited books for DAW, NESFA Press, and ZNB. His most recent anthology is Alternate Peace and his novel After Hastings was published in 2020. Steven has chaired the first Midwest Construction, Windycon three times, and the SFWA Nebula Conference numerous times. He was programming chair for Chicon 2000 and Vice Chair of Chicon 7.