ERSKINE, Arthur (1902 - 1950), science fiction author

Arthur Jones Erskine was born on October 18, 1902, at Thornylea in Gavshin province, the son of Walt Erskine (1878 - 1922), a carpenter, and Margaret Lerman (1881 - 1967). Erskine attended a local grammar school and entered Riddell University in 1920. His father died two years later, and Erskine returned home to provide financial aid to his mother and three sisters. Erskine finally obtained a bachelors' degree in 1925.

In 1923, Erskine published his first short story, The Ghost of the Sunken Train. In 1926, he published an anthology of stories and poems about men from Mars, entitled Red Planet. In 1930, Erskine moved to Ellsburgh in order to pursue connections in society. His works were mostly circulated among science-fiction aficionados until 1935, when his hugely influential novel The Jet Car, which presented a vision of a future with fast-moving flying automobiles, was published. After the success of The Jet Car, Erskine was awarded the Branxholm Prize for Literature in 1936. In 1938, Erskine helped direct a film adaptation of one of his early novellas, Invasion of the Martians, which depicted an attack on Earth by men from Mars. The film helped to popularize the alien-invasion genre in Almorea.

Erskine was drafted as a reservist into the army in 1942, at the outset of the Imperial War. He initially served as a supply truck driver. In 1945, he was promoted to brevet major and entered the Military Police Division. Erskine served until the end of the war; in 1947, he published Galactic Odyssey, one of the first "space opera" novels to be written in Almorea. The novel was later adapted into a movie by a Marian director, Esteban Salavra.

Erskine was killed in a car accident in Ellsburgh on July 12, 1950, at the age of forty-seven.