Rogers Terrill (September 21, 1900
[Anonymous (1948), p. 60.] - March 1, 1963
) was a pulp magazine editor, author, and literary agent.
He attended Columbia University and then worked as an actuary. He began selling fiction to the pulp magazines in his early twenties, and in about 1926 he was hired by
Fiction House
Fiction House was an American publisher of pulp magazines and comic books that existed from the 1920s to the 1950s. It was founded by John B. "Jack" Kelly and John W. Glenister.Saunders, David"JACK BYRNE (1902-1972),"Field Guide to Wild American P ...
.
He was the editor of ''
Wings
A wing is a type of fin that produces both lift and drag while moving through air. Wings are defined by two shape characteristics, an airfoil section and a planform. Wing efficiency is expressed as lift-to-drag ratio, which compares the bene ...
'', ''
Action Stories
''Action Stories'' was a multi-genre pulp magazine published between September 1921 and Fall 1950, with a brief hiatus at the end of 1932.Cottrill, Tim. ''Bookery's Guide to Pulps and Related Magazines, 1888-1969''. Bookery Press, Fairborn, OH, 2 ...
'', and ''
Fight Stories'', among other titles, and moved to
Popular Publications
Popular Publications was one of the largest publishers of pulp magazines during its existence, at one point publishing 42 different titles per month. Company titles included detective, adventure, romance, and Western fiction. They were also k ...
in 1931 when Fiction House temporarily ceased operations.
He remained with Popular until the end of the 1940s, and then became a literary agent. Pulp magazine historian Robert Kenneth Jones describes him as a very successful editor, comparing him to
Leo Margulies
Leo Margulies (June 22, 1900 – December 26, 1975) was an American editor and publisher of science fiction and fantasy pulp magazines and paperback books.
Biography
Margulies was born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, but was raised in ...
, a competitor of Popular's at
Thrilling Publications
Thrilling Publications, also known as Beacon Magazines (1936–37), Better Publications (1937–43) and Standard Magazines (1943–55), was a pulp magazine publisher run by Ned Pines, publishing such titles as ''Startling Stories'' ...
, and pulp author
Wyatt Blassingame described him as one of the best pulp editors.
[Jones (1975), pp. 17-18.]
He was reputed to particularly hate plagiarism, and Jones relates that an author who submitted to Terrill, as his own work, a story that Terrill himself had written fifteen years earlier, was invited to the publisher's office. According to Jones, "he left Terrill's office practically on his hands and knees".
References
Sources
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American magazine editors
{{DEFAULTSORT:Terrill, Rogers