John Russell Fearn (5 June 1908 — 18 September 1960) was a British writer, one of the first to appear in American pulp science fiction magazines. A prolific author, he published his novels also as Vargo Statten and with various pseudonyms including Thornton Ayre, Polton Cross, Geoffrey Armstrong, John Cotton, Dennis Clive, Ephriam Winiki, Astron Del Martia.

Career

Fearn was a prolific writer who wrote Westerns and crime fiction as well as science fiction. His writing appeared under numerous pseudonyms. He wrote series such as Adam Quirke, Clayton Drew, Golden Amazon, and Herbert. At times these drew on the pulp traditions of Edgar Rice Burroughs. His work received praise for its vividness, but criticism, being deemed "unpolished", with Arthur C. Clarke commenting in 1939 that "we must admire the magnificent, if undisciplined, fertility of his mind".

Personal life

Child of a cotton salesman and a secretary, Fearn worked initially for his father's firm, followed by work as a solicitor's clerk, fairground assistant, at a munitions factory, and as a cinema projectionist. He married writer Camilla Fegan in 1957. As well as writing he was involved in writing/acting in local plays and active in writers' groups. In 1938, he told Amazing Stories that he "likes broiling sunlight and heated rooms [and] smokes incessantly while he writes". During the Second World War, Fearn was chief projectionist at the Empire Cinema in Blackpool.

As himself

Golden Amazon

Mars Quartet (Clayton Drew)

Works written under pseudonyms

Work written under the name Vargo Statten

Writing about Fearn