Elwood F. Pierce (1886-1940)

Newspaperman, Author

Born December 25, 1886, Elkton, Maryland

Died June 1, 1940, Los Angeles, California

Elwood Franklin Pierce was born on Christmas Day, 1886, in Elkton, Maryland. By the time he was twenty-two and living in Chester, Pennsylvania, he was working as a newspaper editor and supporting his parents. In fact he spent much of his life supporting his family and seems not to have married or had children. Pierce worked for a newspaper in Philadelphia at the time of the First World War. By 1930 he was living in Los Angeles. Between 1924 and 1930 he authored tales for Battle Stories, Breezy Stories, and Everybody's Magazine. Also during that period, Weird Tales published the only story he would write for "The Unique Magazine." It was called "The Dream of Death," and it appeared in the July 1925 issue. In 1928 Duffield and Company published Pierce's novel of adventure for boys, Give a Boy Luck. At his death he was working as wire editor for the International News Service. Pierce died at home on June 1, 1940, in Los Angeles. He was just fifty-three years old. Newspapers for which he worked included the Chester Times, The Morning Republican, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, all in Pennsylvania, as well as the Los Angeles Examiner. Pierce also wrote a series called "I Go to War," published in the Chester Times in 1918.

Elwood F. Pierce's Story in Weird Tales

"The Dream of Death" (July 1925)

Further Reading

"The Dream of Death" in 100 Wild Little Weird Tales, edited by Robert Weinberg, et al. (Barnes and Noble, 1994)

Updated on March 21, 2023.

Text and captions copyright 2011, 2023 Terence E. Hanley