Stenographer, Soldier, Author
Born August 5, 1891, Syracuse, New York
Died August 16, 1968, Orange County, California
Robert Henry Leitfred was born on August 5, 1891, in Syracuse, New York, to Henry and Jennie (Bennett) Leitfred. The surname is unusual. Nonetheless, it's not easy to find information on Robert H. Leitfred in newspapers, public records, or the Internet. As a young man, he worked as a stenographer. On October 26 (or 27 or 28), 1914, Leitfred married another stenographer, Mildred Snyder, in Syracuse.
In 1918, Leitfred enlisted in the U.S. Army. He served in a motorcycle unit and was in France from 1918 to 1919 before returning to his civilian job as a stenographer. According to The FictionMags Index, his first published story was in Detective Tales in December 1923/January 1924. Detective Tales was a companion magazine to Weird Tales. (The first issue was actually published in October 1922, five months before Weird Tales.) We might take that as Leitfred's introduction to Rural Publishing Company and its magazine titles, but his first story in Weird Tales was not published until 1935. In the intervening years he had dozens of stories in war, aviation, Western, and other types of pulp magazines. From his start in 1923 to his finish in 1951, these included Aces, Airplane Stories, Black Book Detective Magazine, Breezy Stories, Detective Story Magazine, Over the Top, Short Stories, Sky Birds, Three Star Magazine and Three Star Stories, War Stories, Western Trails, Wings, and other titles. Leitfred's credits in the genres of fantasy, science fiction, and weird fiction include the following:
- "The Vanishing Ray" in Detective Tales (Dec. 1923/Jan. 1924)
- "Where Gravity Ends" in Air Wonder Stories #3 (Sept. 1929)
- "Prisoners of the Electron" in Astounding Stories of Super Science (Oct. 1930)
- "Prisms of Space" in Astounding Stories (Nov. 1933)
- "Yellow Doom" in Weird Tales (May 1935)
- "Seven Seconds of Eternity" in Weird Tales (Sept. 1940)
- "Core of the Purple Flame" in Weird Tales (Nov. 1941)
- "Thunder Over the Channel" in Battle Birds (Feb. 1942)
- "Just About Eels" in Fantastic Adventures (Aug. 1942)
Leitfred also wrote short stories published in newspapers during the early 1950s, three hardbound crime-detective novels in the 1930s, and a paperback novel in the 1950s:
Text and captions copyright 2018, 2023 Terence E. Hanley
- The Corpse That Spoke (1936)
- The Man Who Was Murdered Twice (1937)
- Death Cancels the Evidence (1938)
- Murder Is My Racket (1952)
In about 1930, Leitfred moved to Laguna Beach, California, to be among the growing colony of writers there. He went to Laguna Beach with Robert C. Du Soe (1920-1964), formerly of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, then and later an author of adventure stories and children's books. I have names of other writers who lived and worked in Laguna Beach during the 1930s, but those will have to wait for another day and another entry.
Robert H. Leitfred died on August 16, 1968, in Orange County, California, less than two weeks after his seventy-seventh birthday.
Robert H. Leitfred's Stories & Letter in Weird Tales
Robert H. Leitfred died on August 16, 1968, in Orange County, California, less than two weeks after his seventy-seventh birthday.
Robert H. Leitfred's Stories & Letter in Weird Tales
"Yellow Doom" (May 1935)
"Seven Seconds of Eternity" (Sept. 1940)
Letter to "The Eyrie" (Sept. 1940)
"Core of the Purple Flame" (Nov. 1941)
Further Reading
See "Robert H. Leitfred-Author" on the website PulpFlakes, July 15, 2017, here. For more on Robert C. Du Soe, see Clear Heart Blog by Joe Cottonwood, in an entry of September 6, 2012, here.
"Seven Seconds of Eternity" (Sept. 1940)
Letter to "The Eyrie" (Sept. 1940)
"Core of the Purple Flame" (Nov. 1941)
Further Reading
See "Robert H. Leitfred-Author" on the website PulpFlakes, July 15, 2017, here. For more on Robert C. Du Soe, see Clear Heart Blog by Joe Cottonwood, in an entry of September 6, 2012, here.
Leitfred had another cover story in Weird Tales in September 1940. It's called "Seven Seconds of Eternity," and the cover art, by Ray Quigley (1909-1998), is strange beyond belief. |
Text and captions copyright 2018, 2023 Terence E. Hanley
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