Show notes
A young police officer finally gets the dangerous assignment he has been craving, only to discover that catching a killer may not solve the crime. In the 32nd century, the law can hold someone responsible who never pulled a trigger. Public Enemy by Kendell Foster Crossen. That’s next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.
Kendell Foster Crossen was born in 1910, in Albany, Ohio, the only child of farmers Sam and Clo Crossen. He attended Rio Grande College in Ohio on a football scholarship, was an amateur boxer, and before becoming a professional writer held a variety of jobs, including carnival barker and working as an insurance investigator.
And today Kendell Foster Crossen makes his debut on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.
Crossen knew crime fiction from the inside. He moved to New York in 1935 and became editor of Detective Fiction Weekly in 1936. He later created the Green Lama and, writing as M. E. Chaber, created insurance investigator and occasional intelligence operative Milo March. Crossen was also one of the founders of the Mystery Writers of America.
Interestingly, Crossen was already an established professional writer before he ever tried science fiction. His first two published science fiction stories appeared in February 1951, one in Amazing Stories and the other in Thrilling Wonder Stories. He soon became a familiar name in Thrilling Wonder Stories and Startling Stories.
Crossen later said that he started writing science fiction because it gave him the opportunity to write satire and a certain kind of humor that was difficult to sell elsewhere. He described his science fiction career as relatively short, but said, “it was all fun.”
Today’s story appeared in the December 1952 issue of Dynamic Science Fiction on page 105, Public Enemy by Kendell Foster Crossen…
Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, A brilliant inventor finally discovers that the future may be worth far more than anyone imagined. But turning tomorrow into financial security requires finding someone willing to make a very bad investment today. Security Plan by Joseph Farrell.
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