Born William F Jenkins on June 16, 1896 in Virginia, the man who would be known to generations of science fiction fans as Murray Leinster came into a world without mass media (except newspapers). Pulp magazines, which were more or less born along with baby William, would give him a start as a writer but by his death on June 8, 1975 his career would make important contributions to radio, television and film.

Although Jenkins did not finish high school, his first story was published in 1916. His career took a pause while he served during World War I but early work included mysteries and romances, sometimes under the name Louisa Carter Lee. A chance sighting of a clock running backwards inspired his first science fiction, a time travel yarn called The Runaway Skyscraper (Argosy, Feb 1919). It also inspired a new pseudonym after it was suggested some magazines may not publish William Jenkins if he became too widely associated with science fiction adventures. Almost twenty-three years after William Jenkins, Murray Leinster was born. The next year his story The Purple Hieroglyph (published under his real name in Snappy Stories) was adapted into the silent film The Purple Cipher. Unfortunately, the film appears to be lost. In 1927 his story The Owner of the Aztec was adapted into the silent western Good as Gold starring Buck Jones. 1930 saw a second adaptation of The Purple Cipher, Murder Will Out starring Jack Mulhall, Noah Berry and Hedda Hopper. It, too, is lost. In 1932 a second western based on his work, Border Devils starring Harry Carey and Gabby Hayes, was released. In 1939  a third version of The Purple Cipher was released as part of the popular Torchy Blane series (Torchy Blane in Chinatown 1939 starring Glenda Farrell). Although this was his last Hollywood adaptation for a while it was not Murray Leinster’s last brush with the movies.

The explosion of pulps led to more science fiction from Leinster and an association with Astounding Stories (during its long run, which continues to this day, it has also been known as Astounding Stories of Super Science, Astounding Science Fiction, Astounding Stories and, eventually, Analog the name it keeps to this day). It was here he published Sideways in Time (June 1934), First Contact (May 1945), A Logic Named Joe (March 1946) and Exploration Team (March 1956) which won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette.

World War II saw Willam Jenkins returning to service, this time as a researcher for the War Department. In later years he was known to occasionally mention doing some technical work for the Navy as well, but it is unclear exactly what this was. However, it is known Jenkins, despite his lack of formal education, was an inventor. According to his daughter Billee Stallings, Jenkins built a collapsible glider in 1909. He definitely made contributions to the special effect technique known as rear projection. This allowed film to be shown behind the on screen talent to create the illusion of movement (for example, a film of traffic shown with a static automobile interior set) or large landscapes and required synchronization of the film being projected and the cameras in operation to avoid flickering. 

When radio began to produce science fiction anthologies such as Dimension X (NBC, 1950-1951) and X Minus One (NBC, 1955-1958) several Murray Leinster stories were adapted into 30 minute radio plays. Radio is, perhaps, where Murray Leinster cemented his place among science fiction luminaries. His story First Contact (Astounding Science Fiction, May 1945) tells of the first meeting between man and an unknown civilization in the far reaches of space. It introduced the now-staple science fiction idea of the ‘universal translator’ and was produced by Dimension X (September 8, 1951), X Minus One (October 6, 1955) and again by Mutual’s Exploring Tomorrow radio series (January 15, 1958). First Contact was awarded a Retro Hugo for Best Novelette in 1996. Years later Leinster’s heirs sued Paramount because of First Contact. It was Star Trek’s use of the universal translator, as is sometimes reported, which spurred the legal action but the use of the title First Contact. The suit was dismissed.

A Logic Named Joe (Astounding Science Fiction March 1946 under his real name) was also adapted by both Dimension X (July 1, 1950) and later by X Minus One (December 28, 1955). This is an important story essentially about computers (called “logics), the Internet and the threat of a spontaneous, sentient AI springing from the complex network of logics. Although somewhat tongue in cheek, it is undeniably prophetic in many ways and even touches on the concerns about children and the Internet!

The science fiction boom of the 1960s finally brought Murray Leinster’s science fiction to the big screen. First was The Navy VS The Night Monsters (Standard Club/Realarts,1966) based on the Monsters From Earth’s End (1959). Reputedly produced (but not credited to) Roger Corman and starring Mamie van Doren and Anthony Eisley, this film pitted a small Air Force refueling station against monsters unearthed by an Antarctic expedition. The next year British studio Amicus, famous for horror movies such as Scream and Scream Again (1970) and the Peter Cushing led Doctor Who films, adapted the 1960 novel The Wailing Asteroid as The Terrornauts (1967).

Even though Murray Leinster’s stories inspired both film and radio adaptations there have been very few television versions of his stories. The Lights Out anthology series (NBC, 1949-1952), based on the radio show of the same name, presented The Strange Case of John Kingman (March 6, 1950 and restaged it in July) and mystery anthology series The Web (CBS, 1950-1954) adapted one of his non-science fiction tales. The short lived CBS science fiction anthology series Out There also presented an episode credited to Leinster, titled Seven Temporary Moons, in December of 1951.

Still, Leinster was definitely known to television producers. He wrote the novelization of Men Into Space (CBS, 1959-1960, novel of same name published by Berkeley Medallion, 1960) the first “serious” or “adult oriented” non-anthology science fiction series on US television. Later he wrote two novelizations of the Irwin Allen TV series Time Tunnel (ABC, 1966-1967) titled Time Tunnel (Pyramid Books, 1967) and Timeslip: Time Tunnel Adventure #2 (Pyramid books, 1968). Although he published a 1964 novel also titled Time Tunnel his work was not the basis of the ABC show. Later he wrote three novelizations for the Land of the Giants (ABC, 1968-1970), another Irwin Allen series.  A 1968 adaptation of the pilot simply titled Land of the Giants was followed in 1969 by The Hot Spot and Unknown Danger, all from Pyramid Books. Ironically, his novel Operation Outer Space (Fantasy Press, 1954) told the (somewhat tongue in cheek) story of a public relations agency financing Man’s first interstellar space voyage to turn it into a television show!

William F. Jenkins passed away in 1975. Unfortunately, many of today’s fans are not familiar with the man who first suggested children should not spend too much time with computers, gave us the universal translator and suggested some day mental health professionals would treat patients by working marketing firms to rehabilitate their public personas. Luckily, many of his works are still widely available and easily found on any home logic unit.