Arthur Sellings was the pseudonym of Robert Arthur Gordon Ley, (31 May 1911, Tunbridge Wells

Royal Tunbridge Wells

Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in west Kent, England, about south-east of central London by road, by rail. The town is close to the border of the county of East Sussex...

, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 – 24 September 1968, Worthing

Worthing

Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...

, Sussex

Sussex

Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

) an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 scientist, book and art dealer, and science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 author. In addition to Sellings he also wrote under the pen names Ray Luther and Martin Luther. He is best known for his well-crafted portraits of adaptability under stress, in stories noted for their humor, suspense and attention to plot and character. His posthumous novel Junk Day is considered his best work.

Life and career

Ley was born on 31 May 1911 in Tunbridge Wells

Royal Tunbridge Wells

Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in west Kent, England, about south-east of central London by road, by rail. The town is close to the border of the county of East Sussex...

, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, the son of Kent and Stella Grace (Sellings) Ley. He lived for most of his life in his native town. He married, on 18 August 1945, Gladys Pamela Judge. In addition to his writing, Ley was a book and art dealer and antiquarian and, from 1955–1968, a scientific researcher for the British government. His research work inspired some of his science fiction. His work appeared in Fantastic

Fantastic (magazine)

Fantastic was an American digest-size fantasy and science fiction magazine, published from 1952 to 1980. It was founded by Ziff-Davis as a fantasy companion to Amazing Stories. Early sales were good, and Ziff-Davis quickly decided to switch Amazing from pulp format to digest, and to cease...

, Galaxy Science Fiction

Galaxy Science Fiction

Galaxy Science Fiction was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by an Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break in to the American market. World Editions hired as editor H. L...

, Imagination

Imagination (magazine)

Imagination was an American fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in October 1950 by Raymond Palmer's Clark Publishing Company. The magazine was sold almost immediately to Greenleaf Publishing Company, owned by William Hamling, who published and edited it from the third issue,...

, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a digest-size American fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House and then by Fantasy House. Both were subsidiaries of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Publications, which took over as publisher in 1958. Spilogale, Inc...

, Nebula Science Fiction

Nebula Science Fiction

Nebula Science Fiction was the first Scottish science fiction magazine. It was published from 1952 to 1959, and was edited by Peter Hamilton, a young Scot who was able to take advantage of spare capacity at his parents' printing company, Crownpoint, to launch the magazine...

, New Worlds

New Worlds (magazine)

New Worlds was a British science fiction magazine which was first published professionally in 1946. For 25 years it was widely considered the leading science fiction magazine in Britain, publishing 201 issues up to 1971...

, New Writings in SF

New Writings in SF

New Writings in SF was a series of thirty British science fiction anthologies published from 1964 to 1977 under the successive editorships of John Carnell from 1964 to 1972 and Kenneth Bulmer from 1973 to 1977. There were in addition four special volumes compiling material from the regular volumes...

, and Worlds of Tomorrow

Worlds of Tomorrow (magazine)

Worlds of Tomorrow was an American science fiction magazine published from 1963 to 1967, after it was merged into If. It briefly resumed publication in 1970 and 1971. The magazine was edited by Frederik Pohl in its first period of publication, and by Ejler Jakobsson in the second. It has published...

, among other periodicals.
Ley died of a heart attack on September 24, 1968 in Worthing

Worthing

Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...

, Sussex

Sussex

Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

Novels

• Telepath (1962)
• The Uncensored Man (1964)
• The Quy Effect (1966)
• Intermind (as by Ray Luther) (1967)
• The Power of X (1968)
• Junk Day (1970)

Collections

• Time Transfer and Other Stories (1956)
• The Long Eureka: a Collection of Short Stories (1968)

Short stories

• "The Haunting" (1953)
• "The Boys from Vespis" (Feb. 1954)
• "The Departed" (Aug. 1954)
• "A Start in Life" (1954)
• "The Cautious Invaders" (Oct. 1954)
• "The Age of Kindness" (1954)
• "The Mission" (1955)
• "The Figment" (1955)
• "Escape Mechanism" (1955)
• "The Proxies" (1955)
• "Jukebox" (1955)
• "Cry Wolf" (Jul. 1956)
• "Armistice" (Nov. 1956)
• "Birthright" (1956)
• "The Warriors" (Aug. 1956)
• "The Masters" (1956)
• "Categorical Imperative" (1956)
• "Control Room" (1956)
• "Time Transfer" (1956)
• "From Up There" (1956)
• "The Wordless Ones" (1956)
• "The Transfer" (1956)
• "Pentagram" (1956)
• "Soliloquy" (1956)
• "The Awakening" (1956)
• "The Category Inventors" (1956)
• "One Across" (1956)
• "Verbal Agreement" (1956)
• "Fresh Start" (Jul. 1957)
• "Brink of Madness" (1957)
• "Limits" (1958)
• "Blank Form" (1958)
• "The Shadow People" (1958)
• "Flatiron" (1958)
• "The Long Eureka" (1959)
• "For the Colour of His Hair" (1959)
• "The Tycoons" (1959)
• "The Scene Shifter" (1959)
• "The Outstretched Hand" (1959)
• "Starting Course" (1961)
• "The Well-Trained Heroes" (Jun. 1964)
• "The Power of Y" (1965)
• "The Tinplate Teleologist" (1965)
• "Gifts of the Gods" (1966)
• "That Evening Sun Go Down" (1966)
• "The Key of the Door" (1967)
• "The Last Time Around" (1968)
• "Trade-In" (1968)
• "Homecoming" (1968)
• "Crack In the Shield" (Jan. 1968)
• "The Trial" (1969)
• "The Legend and the Chemistry" (Jan. 1969)
• "The Dodgers" (Apr. 1969)

External links

• Fantastic Fiction entry