Irvin Mattick (1891-1969)

Author, Businessman, Public Speaker/Lecturer

Born October 22, 1891, St. Louis, Missouri

Died September 20, 1969, St. Louis, Missouri

Irvin Mattick was born on October 22, 1891, in St. Louis, Missouri, and was orphaned in his youth. He lived for a time with his aunt and with his widowed mother. Mattick married Lenore Weissenborn, daughter of a German immigrant who was president of a coal company. The couple had two children. By turns Mattick worked as a linoleum salesman, a clerk, and in public relations for Southwest Bell Telephone Company. He also wrote on the side for pulp magazines. The credits I have found for him are few enough to list here in their entirety:

• "The Mystery at Eagle Lodge" in Detective Tales (novel, Feb. 1923)
• "Red and Black" in Weird Tales (short story, Jan. 1925)
• "The Headless Spokesman" in Weird Tales (short story, Nov. 1925)
• "Jade" in Breezy Stories (short story, Feb. #1, 1926)
• "The Gold of Feather Canyon" in The Popular Magazine (short story, Aug. 20, 1926)

I believe Mattick was also a member of the Burns Club of St. Louis and the Oklahoma Historical Society.

Irvin Mattick died on September 20, 1969, at a convalescent home in St. Louis.

Irvin Mattick's Stories in Weird Tales

"Red and Black" in Weird Tales (Jan. 1925)

"The Headless Spokesman" in Weird Tales (Nov. 1925)

Further Reading

I don't know of any further reading on Irvin Mattick.

Detective Tales, J.C. Henneberger and J.M. Lansinger's companion to Weird Tales. This is the February 1923 issue, Volume 2, Number 1, dated the month before the first issue of Weird Tales. Inside: a novel by then thirty-one-year-old Irvin Mattick. 

Four years later, Mattick had a story called "Jade" printed in this issue of Breezy Stories. 

Irvin Mattick (1891-1969), in a photograph from 1949.

Updated on March 31, 2023.

Text and captions copyright 2012, 2023 Terence E. Hanley