Murray Leinster

A high school dropout, he nevertheless began a career as a freelance writer before World War I.

He was two months short of his 20th birthday when his first story, "The Foreigner", appeared in the May 1916 issue of H. L. Mencken's literary magazine The Smart Set.

[1] During World War I, Leinster served with the Committee of Public Information and the United States Army (1917–1918).

Leinster's 1945 novella "First Contact" is also credited as one of the first (if not the first) instances of a universal translator in science fiction.

[3] In 2000, Leinster's heirs sued Paramount Pictures over the film Star Trek: First Contact, claiming that it infringed their trademark in the term.

Leinster was also an inventor under his real name of William F. Jenkins, best known for the front projection process used in special effects.

[7] He appeared in September 1953 on an episode of the educational series American Inventory, in which he discussed the possibility of space travel.

Leinster's "Juju" was the cover story of The Thrill Book in October 1919.
Leinster's "The Fifth-Dimensional Catapult" was the cover story in the January 1931 Astounding Stories .
Leinster as depicted in Amazing Stories in 1953
Leinster's "Planet of Sand" was cover-featured on the February 1948 issue of Famous Fantastic Mysteries .
Leinster's "The Strange Invasion" was the cover story on the April 1958 issue of Satellite Science Fiction . It was issued in book form later that year as War with the Gizmos .
Talents Incorporated book cover
Reprint of "The Red Dust", May 1949