Donald A. Wollheim was bitten early by the science-fiction bug. As a boy, he filled many thick notebooks and scrapbooks with clippings, pictures, and facts about the planets, and astronomy in general.

He grew up in New York, graduating from New York University, and at once began a successful career as a free-lance writer of science fiction. Since 1946 he has been editor of a publishing house specializing in paperback books. A number of anthologies of the fantastic are the result of his editing.

Aware of the wide-spread interest in this subject, Mr. Wollheim decided to inaugurate science fiction conventions, and founded the Fantasy Amateur Press Association as well. He considers himself a true science fiction pioneer.

Among his hobbies are model soldiers. He is considered an authority on them and has a fabulous collection.

Other Winston Science Fiction Novels by the Author

The Secret of the Ninth Planet

On the day that the theft of the solar system's light begins. Burl Denning is with an archaeological expedition in the Andes, only a few miles from the source of the "disturbance." Within hours the United States Air Force has ordered the expedition to investigate the strange phenomenon that is causing a dimness and a drop in temperature throughout the world.

This is the start of a fantastic adventure that eventually takes Burl, a high-school senior, on the first circumnavigation of the solar system. On planet after planet, he and the crew of the Magellan, a gleaming, powerful, and virtually untested spaceship, discover the weird trappings of a brilliantly-designed Sun-tap station. Each planetfall brings unexpected hazards, as the ship draws closer and closer to solving the mystery of the theft.

The author has based his story on science fact. Researchers are actually at work on the possibilities of just such a circumnavigation, and on another surprising theory brought out in this book.