Otis Adelbert Kline (1891 - 1946) was an American songwriter and author of fantasy and science fiction whose stories have been published in various magazines such as Argosy, Weird Tales, Amazing Stories, Strange Stories, and many others. Born in Chicago, Illinois, he is most well known for his planetary romance novels in the style of Edgar Rice Burroughs. He also acted as Robert E. Howard's literary agent and co-authored a number of stories with E. Hoffmann Price.
Kline holds the rather unusual distinction of being the only person mentioned by his real name in "The Battle that Ended the Century", a comedic story written by H. P. Lovecraft and R. H. Barlow which features several of the authors' colleagues and acquaintances under humorous nicknames or pseudonyms. The story was mailed anonymously to the authors' friends. Lovecraft playfully denied having anything to do with it, and acknowledged the discrepancy of Kline's name being unaltered.
| “ | Oddly, the only name given without a comic twist is that of Otis Adelbert Kline. I don't know why they left him as he was--it would have been easy to think up something like Oatmeal Addlepate Crime. | „ | |
| ~ H. P. Lovecraft |
Since Barlow's typewritten draft mentions several other people by their real names, and it was Lovecraft who came up with the nicknames for them, it is possible that he might have simply forgotten to alter Kline's name and left it unaltered by mistake in the final version.
External Links[]
- Otis Adelbert Kline at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database