Francis Pollock

Francis Lillie Pollock (February 4, 1876 – 1957) was an early twentieth-century Canadian science fiction writer. He was born in Huron County, Ontario, Canada in 1876.[1] He wrote 'commercial fiction' under the pseudonym Frank L Pollock and literary fiction under his own name. Some of Pollock's early commercial fiction can be found in The Youth's Companion. He also regularly published short stories and poetry in Munsey's Magazine, The Smart Set, The Atlantic, The Bookman (New York) and The Blue Jay (renamed in 1905 as Canadian Woman Magazine).[2]

The sale of a serialised novel, The Treasure Trail, enabled him to leave his job at the Toronto Mail and Empire in 1907 to pursue a full-time writing career. Pollock's writing career was pursued in tandem with a life of beekeeping. Many of his fictions are influenced by bees. Pollock kept an apiary in Shedden, Ontario and farmed commercially. He and his second wife, Zella Taylor retired to Georgetown, Ontario.

Pollock is the author of the short story "Finis", published in the June 1906 issue of The Argosy magazine, and his work has been anthologized several times. Briefly, "Finis" is the story of a new star that is discovered which turns out to be a new, hotter sun. It is a short hard hitting story which shows a man and woman, who stay up the night to watch the expected new star arise. Though written in 1906, it is set in the future of the mid 20th century. Pollock also wrote several science fiction stories for The Black Cat magazine [3] as well as sea stories for magazines such as Adventure.[4]

In 1930, he was living in Shedden, Ontario, Canada.[5]

Bibliography
  • The Treasure Trail (1906)
  • The Frozen Fortune (1910)
  • Northern Diamonds (1917) Originally serialised in The Youth's Companion magazine.
  • Wilderness Honey (1917)
  • The Woods-Rider (1922)
  • The Timber Treasure (1923)
  • The Glacier Gate (1926)
  • Rainbow Landing (1926)
  • Honey of Danger (1927)
  • Mirador Treasure (1927)
  • Bitter Honey (1935)
  • Jupiter Eight (1936)

Notes

The Locus database spells his name "Pollock". The latest anthology (1999) uses "Pollack" although this appears a departure from original publication information.

References
  • Clara Thomas, Canadian novelists, 1920-1945, (Toronto: Longmans, Green & Company, 1946), 100.
  1. Clara Thomas, Canadian Novelists, 1920-1945. Toronto, Longmans, Green & Company, 1946. (p. 100)
  2. "The Literary Market". The Editor: The Journal of Information for Literary Workers, Volume 22, number 1. July 1905. p. 234. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
  3. Mike Ashley The Time Machines:The Story of the Science-Fiction Pulp Magazines from the beginning to 1950. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 0-85323-865-0. (pp. 22-24).
  4. Doug Ellis, The Best of Adventure, Volume One : 1910-1912. Normal, IL, Black Dog Books, 2010 ISBN 1-928619-97-5, (p. 5)
  5. T. G. Cockcroft (2005), The Reader Speaks: Reaction to Clark Ashton Smith in the Pulps
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