Alice Drayton Farnham (1906-1974)

Author
Born October 17, 1906, Pennsylvania
Died April 20, 1974, Dade County, Florida

Alice Drayton Farnham was born on October 17, 1906, in Pennsylvania. She married a man named John Walter Russell in the 1920s. They had three children before being divorced in the 1930s. Alice moved her children from place to place over the years. In her most trying times, she placed them in an orphanage for two years. Even when they were with her, she was forced to leave them at home during the week and returned to them on weekends. Their experiences brought the children closer and helped make them independent. I wish I had more to tell about Alice and her family. Together, they and the people of their generations built a world and helped keep a world from being destroyed.

Alice Farnham Drayton was an author of short stories, but I have found just three published credits for her:

• "Helpmeet" in Bluebook (Feb. 1952)
• "Morne Perdu" in Weird Tales (Mar. 1952)
• "Black As the Night" in Weird Tales (Nov. 1952)

Alice F. Russell died on April 20, 1974, in Dade County, Florida. She was sixty-seven years old.

Alice Drayton Farnham's Stories in Weird Tales

"Morne Perdu" (Mar. 1952)

"Black As the Night" (Nov. 1952)

Further Reading

Some of the information I have here is from an obituary of Alice Drayton Farnham's son, David John Russell, on the website of the Friends Journal, May 2012.

Alice Drayton Farnham had her story "Helpmeet" published in this issue of Bluebook (Feb. 1952) under the name Drayton Farnham. The cover was by Bill Fleming.

Weird Tales, March 1952. According to Jaffery and Cook, "Morne Perdu" by Alice Farnham was the cover story. I haven't read the story, so I can't say whether this is an illustration for it, or simply a generic haunted house/scary scene so common in Weird Tales at the time. Joseph R. Eberle was the artist.

Alice Drayton Farnham's byline showed up again on the cover of the November 1952 issue of Weird Tales. Jaffery and Cook call this a generic cover and not illustrative of any particular story. The artist was Anthony Di Giannurio.

Text and captions copyright 2013, 2023 Terence E. Hanley