Name: CUMMINGS, Raymond King Aged: 69
Born: August 30, 1887 Where: New York, NY
Died: January 23, 1957 Where: Mount Vernon, NY
Interred: _ _ _
Married: Janet Matheson (div) When: _ _ _
Married 2: Gabrielle Wilson When: _ _ _
Awarded: _ _ _

The only SF writer to work as an assistant to Thomas Alva Edison, 1914 to 1919.

Contemporary Authors states that Cummings was "Contributor of over seven hundred and fifty short stories under various pseudonyms to numerous periodicals." Certainly, Ray was one of the founding fathers of the Science Fiction pulp genre. The Cummings novel of 1922, The Girl in the Golden Atom, is an accepted era classic. His work inspired many of the writers who created SF's Golden Era, in which Ray continued to write and publish.

But as a writer, Cummings failed to grow. His stories are the same regardless of the decade from which they are chosen. Ray's major concept was chemically induced human shrinkage. While other pulp writers matured with the times, Cummings remained a pulp writer of space operas. The SF writers of the pulp era were able to scale the high fence by climbing on Ray's shoulders..and he maintained that position to the last, never reaching the other side. All acknowledged his role, his inspiration, and his creation of a sense of wonder. Others did the same...the few, and the very few.

[Cummings sketch provided by George W. Gilbert]

PEN NAME: Ray King

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mine here. (A little short of 750 works.)

OBITUARY: The New York Times, Jan 24, 1957 , p29

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