Sophie Wenzel Ellis


Sophie Wenzel Ellis was an American writer. She was an early female author of "pulp" science fiction stories.

Early life

Sophie Louise Wenzel was born in Memphis, Tennessee and lived in Little Rock, Arkansas as an adult.

Career

Ellis's stories appeared mostly in "pulp" magazines, and included "The Unseen Seventh", "The Lily Garden", "The White Wizard", "The Spirit in the Garden", "Does Death Guard This Viking Hoard?", "Creatures of the Light", "Slaves of the Dust", "The Shadow World", "White Lady", and "The Dwellers in the House".
Her stories, especially "Creatures of the Light", have been anthologized several times, including in recent years as an example of early science fiction by women. Ellis modeled Emil Mundson, the mad scientist character in "Creatures of Light", on engineer and professor Charles Proteus Steinmetz. Ellis's "Slaves of the Dust" is set in Brazil, and again involves an unethical scientist with an isolated laboratory, breeding chimeras.

Personal life

Sophie Wenzel married George W. Ellis, sometime after 1918 and before 1924. She died in 1984, a few weeks before her 91st birthday.