Margaret St. Clair (1911-1995) was born on this date, February 17. She only wrote eight novels, most of them published the the 1960s. She did, however, write a number of shorter works, starting with “The Perfectionist” in 1946. In the 1950s, she published a number of stories under the byline of Idris Seabright. Most of the Seabirght stories were published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. She was still publishing as St. Clair at the same time. The fifities were her most prolific time.
“The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles” (1951), which was originally F&SF under her Seabright pseudonym, was the first story fo hers I read. I think it was in an Alfred Hitchcock anthology in the school library, but I’m not sure which one. It’s been too long. I do know that it was reprinted under her real name.
She continued to write into the 1960s, but her output dropped off by the middle of the decade. She only published four stories in the seventies, and two in the eighties.
St. Clair was once one of the leading women writers in the field, especially when writing as Idris Seabright. These days she’s not very well-known. That’s a shame, since she had an impact on the field.
But that seems to be the way of literature and publishing. Crtically-acclaimed today, forgotten tomorrow. But that’s another post for another day. Maybe.
