Philip Francis Nowlan’s name may not be remembered by many, but he may be the most influential science author I’ll discuss in this series. Born on November 13, 1888 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Nowlan earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania in 1910. At college, he was a member of The Mask and Wig Club, a college musical comedy troupe, and he wrote and performed in their shows. He married Teresa Marie Junker in 1918 and they had ten children, four daughters and six sons, one of whom, Michael Joseph Nowlan, died earlier this year at the age of 99. His son, Philip F. Nowlan, Jr., was enough of a science fiction fan that it was mentioned prominently in his obituary.

Although he worked for various newspapers, including the Public Ledger, the North American, and Retail Ledger, his most notable work was his debut science fiction story.

In the August 1928 issue of Amazing Stories, Nowlan published the story “Armageddon 2419 A.D.,” which introduced Anthony “Buck” Rogers to the world. The story appeared in the same issue that featured the first of E.E. “Doc” Smith’s Skylark of Space stories. The following year, Nowlan and Dick Calkins created a comic strip based on Buck Rogers, which would run until 1967, although Nowlan’s participation ended in 1939. The property was also a radio serial that ran from 1932 through 1947, a movie serial in 1939, a television serial in 1950, and another television series from 1979-1981.

While Nowlan’s focus was on the comic strip, and several stories were adapted for Big Little Books, he also wrote a handful of other stories, including “The Onslaught of Venus” under the name Frank Phillips, “The Time Jumpers,” and “The Prince of Mars.” One of the Big Little adaptations,  Martians Invade Jupiter, was a finalist for the Retro Hugo Award for Best Graphic Stories in 2019, losing to Wonder Woman #5 “Battle for Womanhood.” Nowlan was inducted into the First Fandom Hall of Fame in 2003.

Nowlan suffered a fatal stroke on February 1, 1940 at his home in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. His stories “Space Guards” and the mystery novel The Girl from Nowhere were published posthumously.

 

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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.