A mathematician by trade, Arthur Porges (20 August 1915 – 12 May 2006) constructed stories much like his profession, with plots a hurricane couldn't blow a hole through, and not a word out of place; near perfectly built until the hidden house of cards would eventually collapse, revealing the sinister or mysterious end.
Porges wrote over 200 stories, mostly in the genres of mystery, science-fiction and horror. Among his favorite authors were Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jack London, O. Henry, Isaac Asimov and Rudyard Kipling, one of his personal favorites. All were master story-tellers and it's easy to see Porges' inspirations in his tight plots and concise writing. The story below, from THE MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY (October, 1966), is a perfect example of this.
With a career that lasted over half a century, Porges wrote for dozens of periodicals such as ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE, ELLERY QUENN'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE, AMAZING STORIES, THE NEW YORK POST, and men's magazines CAVALIER, MAN TO MAN and ESCAPADE. A collection of his weird fiction, THE MIRROR AND OTHER STRANGE REFLECTIONS, was published by Ash Tree Press in 2002.
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