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.

Winterbotham returned to science fiction in 1951, with the creation of the comic strip Chris Welkin, Planeteer, which he scripted through 1964. The following year, he returned to prose science fiction,  publishing the short story “The Winning of Wooha” in Future Science Fiction. He published additional novels during this time, including The Space Egg, The Red Planet¸and The Puppet Planet.

Winterbotham used the pseudonym J. Harvey Bond for his mystery novels, including Murder Isn’t Funny, Kill Me with Kindness, and If Wishes Were Hearses, as well as his 1963 science fiction novel The Other World. In 1964, he published the sf novel Planet Big Zero as by Franklin Hadley.

Died on June 9, 1971 in Lakewood, Ohio. Buried in Lakewood Park Cemetery in Rocky River, Ohio.

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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.