Born July 3, 1902, Farina, Illinois
Died September 28, 1988, Phoenix, Arizona
Richard Presley "Dick" Tooker had a really interesting career as an author of pulp fiction. His output wasn't great, but he wrote and published steadily for thirty years. Science fiction and fantasy seem to have been his specialties, but he also wrote detective stories and Westerns. Tooker had three hardbound novels to his credit. He was also a prizewinning essayist and a writer of letters to magazines. He wrote an early zombie story as well, and an early essay on the Superior Man-type story. Because of his stories in Astounding Science-Fiction and other magazines of the 1930s and '40s, he can be considered an author of the Golden Age of Science Fiction.
Tooker came into the world on July 3, 1902, in Farina, Illinois. His parents were George Latimer Tooker and Laura Jane (Switzer) Tooker. As a boy, he lived in Illinois and North Dakota. In the 1920s, he served as a private in the U.S. Marine Corps. From the 1930s onward, Tooker lived in Phoenix. In the 1950s and '60s, he worked as a deputy county clerk in that city. One of his duties was to issue marriage licenses. After seven years in that business, he took out his own license and on June 11, 1964, married Jane Katherine Adams. They had a son and, at Richard Tooker's death, three grandchildren.
Tooker was near retirement age when he married. The last writing credit I have found for him was an article entitled "What Do You Really Know About Sex?", published in the men's magazine Cad in March 1969. I know nothing more on his life and career after that except the date and place of his death, September 28, 1988, in Phoenix. A Marine veteran, Richard Presley Tooker was buried at National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona in Phoenix.
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From 1923 to 1953, Richard Presley Tooker had dozens of stories and a few letters and essays in:
Science fiction and fantasy magazines: Amazing Stories, Astounding Stories and Astounding Science-Fiction, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, Science-Fiction Plus, Strange Tales, Thrilling Mystery, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Unusual Stories, Weird Tales, and Wonder Stories.
Mystery, crime, and detective magazines: Hardboiled, Popular Detective, and Real Detective Tales and Mystery Stories.
Western magazines: Street & Smith's Western Story Magazine and 10 Story Western Magazine.
He wrote three stories for his series character Zenith Rand, Planet Vigilante, in Mystery Adventure Magazine. His first published works in the pulps were a letter to "The Eyrie" (Sept. 1923) and the short story "Planet Paradise" in Weird Tales (Feb. 1924). He had written "Planet Paradise" at age fifteen and revised it for publication. The online Encyclopedia of Science Fiction calls it "an unsophisticated Planetary Romance." I sense the influence of Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Some other interesting points on Tooker's career:
According to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, "He wrote one of the prize-winning essays in the contest launched by Hugo Gernsback, 'What Science Fiction Means To Me' (June 1929 Wonder Stories)."
As Harry E. Lemke, he wrote "Last of the Swarm," published in Wonder Stories in October 1933.
Tooker greatly admired John Martin Leahy's novel Draconda, serialized in Weird Tales from November 1923 to May/June/July 1924. Tooker wrote his own story called "Darcondra" for Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1937.
Tooker wrote an early zombie story, "Zombies Never Die," published in Thrilling Mystery in November 1937.
He also wrote an early essay on what I presume to be the topic of the Superior Man in science fiction, "Toward the Superman," published in Astounding Science-Fiction in March 1939. I would like to read his essay. It might help me understand more about the science-fictional Superior Man.
Tooker wrote three novels published in hardbound editions:
- The Day of the Brown Horde (New York: Payson & Clarke, 1929)
- The Dawn Boy (Philadelphia: Penn Publishing, 1932)
- Inland Deep (Philadelphia: Penn Publishing, 1936)
Inland Deep is a Lost Worlds-type story.
Tooker also had six letters in Weird Tales from 1923 to 1943. As a boy he lived in North Dakota. In 1923, he was in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We can imagine a young man, an aspiring author, fascinated by stories of science and fantasy but living in the middle of America, discovering a new kind of magazine, a unique magazine, seemingly specially made for his interests. He wrote two letters published in "The Eyrie" in the first half-year or so that Weird Tales was in print. He wrote again and again over the next two decades. It must have been a great thrill for him for Weird Tales to publish his first story, "Planet Paradise," in February 1924. He must have been in heaven.
By the way, H.P. Lovecraft also had his first letter in Weird Tales in September 1923.
Richard Presley Tooker's Letters & Story in Weird Tales- Letter to "The Eyrie" (Sept. 1923)
- Letter to "The Eyrie" (Oct. 1923)
- "Planet Paradise" (Feb. 1924)
- Letter to "The Eyrie" (Feb. 1924)
- Letter to "The Eyrie" (Aug. 1932)
- Letter to "The Eyrie"--"A Magazine for Skeptics?" (Aug. 1934)
- Letter to "The Eyrie"--"Don't Be Funny" (July 1943)
Further Reading
"Tooker, Richard" in the online Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, here.
Also, from the Internet Book Database of Fiction, presumably from an earlier source, possibly "Meet the Author" in Amazing Stories, November 1938:
Author Biography: Richard Presley Tooker, the author of The Day of the Brown Horde was born in Farina, Illinois, in 1902 and is of English and Pennsylvania-Dutch parentage. He inherited a flair for adventure from his father's people, who were sea captains, soldiers and adventurers; while from his mother came a literary bent from her relationship to Maurice Thompson, author of Alice of Old Vincennes. His first story was published in magazine form when he was 15 years old. After leaving preparatory school he held several editorial positions with various Western publications. He served for two years with the United States Marine Corps, and for one of his years has had an unusually broad experience, including being an editor, a reporter, soldier, musician, cowboy, railroad clerk, bank cashier, dairyman and farmer, but always has been a believer in his own literary ability. He is a profound admirer of Jack London and oddly enough his own life largely parallels, from a psychological and philosophical angle, Mr. London's Martin Edin. He is at the moment engaged in writing his second novel, tentatively called The Atavist.
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| Richard Presley Tooker with his soon-to-be wife, Jane Katherine Adams, from the Phoenix Gazette, 1964. |
Original text copyright 2022, 2023 Terence E. Hanley
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