Background

Laurence Edward Manning was born on July 20, 1899, in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. He was a son of Dr. James W. Manning and Helen G.A. Manning (maiden name Hanington).

Laurence had two elder brothers, Frederick Charles and James Harold, and one sister, Helen Marjorie.

Craven Langstroth Betts, well known Canadian poet, was his great uncle.

Education

Laurence Manning studied at King's College (currently the University of King's College) during the First World War. Following his two elder brothers, Manning subscribed to participate in the War but his request was rejected because he was too young at the time.

Manning pursued his studies and received his Bachelor of Civil Law degree in 1919.

Career

Laurence Manning started his career as a reporter in a local newspaper in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. In the 1920s, Manning left his home country and relocated to the United States where he first lived in Manhattan with his great uncle, Craven Langstroth Betts, a famous Canadian poet. From 1923 to 1932, he served as a manager at Kelsey Nursery Service. In 1928, he moved to Staten Island, and began to send his short stories to various pulp science-fiction publications.

Once, contacting Wonder Stories magazine, Manning got acquainted with a writer David Lasser who later introduced him to another American author of science-fiction, Fletcher Pratt. The meeting resulted in science fiction work penned by Pratt and Manning. ‘City of the Living Dead’ published in the 1930 May issue of Wonder Stories became for Manning the debut story in the genre.

During five subsequent years, Laurence Manning authored many other short stories and novels which also appeared in Wonder Stories and Wonder Stories Quarterly. Some of them remained uncollected, including ‘The Living Galaxy’, ‘The Call of the Mech-Men’, ‘Voice of Atlantis’, ‘Caverns of Horror’, ‘The Moth Message’, ‘Seeds from Space’, and others.

In 1933, Manning headed Kelsey Nursery Service, and two years later, he almost abandoned writing. He concentrated instead on this Kelsey mail order nursery business, and became its owner in 1952 serving in that capacity till 1966. However, several short stories dated to this period, as well as his bestseller book on gardening, 1951 ‘The How and Why of Better Gardening’, were published.

Achievements

• Laurence Manning was an accomplished author whose short stories provided Wonder Stories and Wonder Stories Quarterly with an important part of content during the 1930s.
  
  Manning’s ‘The How and Why of Better Gardening’, originally published in 1951, has been reprinted numerous times. The Garden Clubs of America used the volume as a textbook for more than four decades.
  
  Laurence Manning was named an early rocketry pioneer by the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum for his participation in the activity of the American Interplanetary Society. It was under Manning’s presidency that the organization changed its name to the American Rocket Society. Almost twenty years after retiring from the Society, in 1960, he became its fellow.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Voyage of the Asteroid & Revolt of the Outworlds

    (The Armchair Fiction classic science fiction edition cont...)

    1932
  • The How and Why of Better Gardening

    (An instructional book about gardening practices and techn...)

    1951
  • World of the Mist & The Invaders

    (The volume contains 'World of the Mist' by Laurence Manni...)

    1935
  • City of the Living Dead

    (The book written by Laurence Manning and Fletcher Pratt.)

    1930
  • The Man Who Awoke 1933

Membership

Laurence Manning was a fellow of the American Rocket Society. He was also among the co-founders of the American Interplanetary Society, both presiding it and editing its publication, Astronautics.

Personality

According to one of Laurence Manning’s daughters, Dorothy, he was as skilled in writing as in composing piano pieces. However, the only one of his own compositions he made as Music Director of his church, Peter Pan, saw the publication.

Another Manning’s passion was smoking a pipe.

Quotes from others about the person

• "Manning’s fiction, much of which seems quite dated now, was advanced for its time. [...] His concerns for conservation and human dignity elevated his fiction above that of most of his peers." Don D’Ammassa, author and reviewer of science fiction and horror

Connections

Laurence Manning formed a family with Edith Mary Finette Burrows in 1928. They had two daughters, Helen Louise, Dorothy, and a son named James Edward.

Father:

James W. Manning

Mother:

Helen G. A. Manning

Spouse:

Edith Mary Finette Burrows

Laurence Manning with his wife Edith Mary Finette Burrows and their daughter Helen Louise.

Brother:

Frederick Charles Manning

He died of wounds he received at the battle of Vimy Ridge during World War I, France on April 9, 1917.

Brother:

James Harold Manning

He died fulfilling his duties of an engineer for the Standard Oil Company in Maturin, Venezuela in October, 1924 at age 27.

Great uncle:

Craven Langstroth Betts

Friend:

David Lasser

colleague:

Fletcher Pratt