Bertrand R. Brinley

Bertrand R. Brinley (b. 19 June 1917, Hudson, New York — d. 20 October 1994, Luray, Virginia) was an American writer of short stories and children's tales. He was best known for his "Mad Scientists' Club" stories.

The stories in "The Mad Scientists' Club" originally appeared over several years in "Boys' Life" magazine, starting in 1961, and were later collected into book form. "The Mad Scientists' Club", "The New Adventures of The Mad Scientists' Club" and "The Big Kerplop!" were first published by the now-defunct MacRae Smith Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Much of the character of Mammoth Falls, the fictional town where the Mad Scientists' adventures take place, was based on the town of West Newbury, Massachusetts, where Brinley lived during part of his youth and where he graduated from high school in 1935. West Newbury contributed a good many place names and several of the characters to the Mad Scientists' Club stories.

They have since been republished by Purple House Press in Cynthiana, Kentucky. Brinley's final work, "The Big Chunk of Ice", was published posthumously in 2005 through Purple House Press by his son, Sheridan Brinley.

Writings of Bertrand R. Brinley

*"Rocket Manual for Amateurs" (1960, nonfiction)
*"The Mad Scientists' Club" (1965, juvenile)
*"The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists' Club" (1968, juvenile)
*"The Big Kerplop!" (1974, juvenile)
*"The Big Chunk of Ice" (2005, juvenile)

See also

Charles Geer (illustrator)

External links

* [http://www.madscientistsclub.com/ Mad Scientists' Club: The Official Website]
* [http://www.purplehousepress.com/msc.htm Purple House Press Mad Scientists' Club page]