Sam Merwin Jr (1910-1996) was an American author of science fiction who wrote three mystery novels in the 1940s featuring cigar-smoking Boston Brahmin Amy Brewster. Merwin was born in Plainfield, New Jersey and died in LA. He was married three times, to Lee Anna Vance, Marjory Kendal Davenport and Amanda Varela. He received his BA degree from Princeton University in 1931 and was an editor of Startling Stories, 1945-51; Fantastic Story Quarterly, 1950-51; and Thrilling Wonder Stories, 1945-51. After working as a reporter, journalist, and editor. He became more of a writer than editor in the 1950s and wrote both mysteries and science fiction, with sf never becoming his majority field. Notable novels were The Time Shifters, The House of Many Worlds, and The White Widows. Sam's personal favorite of his short works was "The Carriers."
Sam Merwin is still one of my favorite editors. He bounced a lot of my early stories when I sent them to MSMM, but he never sent me a printed rejection slip. Instead, he would scrawl a personal note on any scrap of paper he could find or tear off of something else and tell me why he was rejecting the story. I learned a lot from Sam about keeping my stories believable and not letting the plots get away from me. -- James Reasoner
Amy Brewster has her own website and all three Brewster books are available electronically from Renaissance eBooks.
The short, fat body beneath this remarkable head also had a Michelin look which was in no way disguised by the shapeless old stained tweed topcoat and sacklike russet jersey dress that adorned it. The "this" of which she spoke was the cellophane wrapping of a thick Havana cigar which, without further direction, she hurled accurately into the fireplace.
Detective Bibliography
Murder in Miniatures (1940)
Death in the Sunday Supplement (1942)
Knife in My Back (1945)
Message From a Corpse (1945)
A Matter of Policy (1946)
The Creeping Shadow (1952)
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