Amelia Reynolds Long (1904–1978) was an American author who helped pioneer women’s participation in early science fiction while also becoming a prolific mystery novelist.
Early life and education
Born: November 25, 1904, Columbia, Pennsylvania
Moved with her family to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, at about age six, where she lived for the remainder of her life.
Earned a B.A. (1931) and M.A. (1932) from the University of Pennsylvania.
Writing career
Long began publishing during the late 1920s and became one of the relatively few women writing for the major American science fiction pulp magazines of the 1930s. Her work appeared in publications including:
Weird Tales
Astounding Stories
Amazing Stories
Thrilling Wonder Stories
She frequently signed stories as A. R. Long. One of her best-known stories, “The Thought-Monster” (1930), became the basis for the 1958 British horror film Fiend Without a Face. The film rights were negotiated by science fiction agent and editor Forrest J Ackerman.
During the late 1930s and 1940s she shifted almost entirely to detective fiction, influenced by Agatha Christie. Between 1939 and 1952 she published more than thirty mystery novels, many featuring traditional “fair-play” puzzle plots rather than hard-boiled detectives.
Beginning in 1951 she worked as:
textbook editor for Stackpole Books
curator for the William Penn Memorial Museum (approximately fifteen years)
poet and editor within the Pennsylvania Poetry Society, editing the anthology Pennsylvania Poems (1977).
Long never married and had no children. She died in Harrisburg on March 26, 1978, aged 73.
Books by Amelia Reynolds Long:
Mystery novels
Death’s Door (1939)
Invitation to Death (1940)
Death Wears a Scarab (1943)
Murder by Scripture (1942)
Death Looks Down (1944)
If I Should Murder (1945)
Murder by Magic (1947)
It’s Death, My Darling! (1948)
A Brief Case of Murder (1949)
The Leprechaun Murders (1950)
Lady Is Dead (1951)
Lady Saw Red (1951)
Novel written under pseudonym
Behind the Evidence (1936), written with William L. Crawford under the joint pseudonym Peter Reynolds.
Science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction
“The Thought-Monster” (1930)
“A Leak in the Fountain of Youth”
“Scandal in the Fourth Dimension”
“The Blue Temple”
“The Man from Time”
“When the Fire Creatures Came”
“The World’s Last Chess Game”
“The Thought Translator”
“The Infinite Trolley”
“The Spectre Bride”
“The Flame Breathers”
“The Calm Man”
Poetry
Editor, Pennsylvania Poems (1977)
Numerous poems published through the Pennsylvania Poetry Society.