Edgar D. Kramer

Edgar Daniel Kramer (1887-1966)
Poet, Author, and Teacher
Born October 9, 1887, Baltimore, Maryland
Died July 1966, Baltimore County, Maryland

Edgar Daniel Kramer was a prolific author of short stories and poems, publishing dozens of pieces in magazines and newspapers, everything from Breezy Stories to the New York Times. Born on October 9, 1887, in Baltimore, Maryland, he was the oldest of Henry and Margaret Kramer's dozen children. He spent a good deal of his life teaching and caring for children.

As a young man, Kramer taught at the Stone School in Cornwall Heights, New York (now known as the Storm King School). After the death of his parents, he returned to Baltimore, where he assumed the role of head of the household of eight of his siblings, some adult, some still minors. Through it all, he wrote, beginning as early as 1919 with a poem, "Ulysses of Ithaca," in Munsey's magazine, then with increasing frequency in every manner of pulp magazine from the 1920s onward. Girl Stories and Man Stories, Pep Stories and Two-Gun Western Stories, Top Notch and Ace-High Magazine--Kramer's work knew no bounds. He wrote just one story for Weird Tales. Entitled "Murder Mask," it appeared in the June 1937 issue. Between the January 1935 and June/July 1939 issues of "The Unique Magazine," he also published seventeen poems, from "Wharf Watchman" to "Circe." He is also the first author I have discussed so far to have work published in The Magic Carpet Magazine, a short-lived companion to Weird Tales. Finally, his poem, "The Dying Tramp," was published in the magazine Unknown in June 1940.

Kramer continued seeing his work in print even late in life. His "Hell's Acre Hurler" appeared in Ten-Story Sports (January 1957) as the pulps were fading. The New York Times published his verse occasionally from 1924 until 1959. Edgar Daniel Kramer died in July 1966 in Baltimore County, Maryland.

--tellersofweirdtales.blogspot.com/2011/05