Cleo Eldon “Don” Wilcox (1905-2000) was born on August 29, 1905, and raised in Lucas, Kansas.  He was the second of the four children of Horace and Docia Wilcox. His passion for writing first developed while working for the Lucas newspaper as a typesetter while going to Lucas High School and later, at 19, he taught for two years in the Junior High School in Bird City, Kansas.

        He graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree in sociology and a minor in social sciences and taught school in Lucas, Harlan and elsewhere. He ended up with Ziff-Davis Publications and Amazing Stories Magazine; he felt he could give science fiction a try.  

        Don developed a bi-lingual magazine, Caminos, for Spanish pupils a year after his trip to Guatemala in 1958, and it was used by many Spanish classes in the United States. He continued on to teach English to Spanish-speaking high school students in Guatemala City until he became the editor for Opportunity News in 1965 in Woodburn, Oregon.

        After his retirement in 1975, Don and his family first settled in Sarasota, Florid,a and then, in 1998, he moved back to Kansas to live with his daughter.

        He married Helen Miles Shelton and together they raised one daughter, Carolyn.  Don passed away shortly after moving back to Kansas, in March of 2000. He was 94-years-old.   Helen passed away in 2004.  Both are buried in the Lucas Cemetery.

• Visit The Yo-Yo Falls (“Astro Adventures”, 1989)
• Joe Sunpool (Little Brown Co., 1956)
• The Robot Peril (Fantastic Adventures, 1940)
  
• The Gift of Magic (Fantastic Adventures, 1940) [as Miles Shelton]
  
• Let War Gods Clash! (Fantastic Adventures, 1940)
  
• The Whispering Gorilla (Fantastic Adventures, 1940)
  
• Lester Allison Series: Slave Raiders from Mercury (Amazing Stories, 1940)
  
• Mirrors of Madness (Amazing Stories, 1940)
  
• Mystery of the Mind Machine (Amazing Stories, 1940)
  
• Ebbtide Jones Series: The Girl in the Whirlpool (Fantastic Adventures, 1940) [as Miles Shelton]
• The Pit of Death (Amazing Stories, 1939)
  
• Ray Lattimer Series: Wives in Duplicate (Amazing Stories, 1939)
  
• Ray Lattimer Series: When the Moon Died (Amazing Stories, 1939)
  
• Ebbtide Jones Series: Whirlpool in Space (Amazing Stories, 1939) [as Miles Shelton]
  
• Dictator of Peace (Amazing Stories, 1939)
  
• Ben Gleed Series: Ben Gleed, King of Speed (Amazing Stories, 1939)
  
  

Don Wilcox's full list of published works, provided by Von Rothenberger.

Excerpt from The Voyage That Lasted 600 Years

        They gave us a gala send-off, the kind that keeps your heart bobbing up at your tonsils.
         "It's a long, long way to the Milky Way!" the voices sang out. The band thundered the chorus over and over. The golden trumpaphones blasted our eardrums wide open. Thousands of people clapped their hands in time.
         There were thirty-three of us--that is, there was supposed ot be. As it turned out, there were thirty-five.
         We were a dazzling parade of red, white, and blue uniforms. We marched up the gangplank by couples, every couple a man and wife, every couple young and strong, for the selection had been rigid.
        Captain Sperry and his wift and I--I being the odd man--brought up the rear. Reporters and cameramen swarmed at our heels. The microphones stopped us. The band and the crowd hushed.
        "This is Captain Sperry telling you good-by" the amplified voice boomed. "in behalf of the thirty-three, I thank you for your grand farewell. We'll remember this hour as our last contact with our beloved Earth."
        The crowd held its breath. The mighty import of our mission struck through every heart.
        "We go forth into space to live--and to die," the captain said gravely. "But our children's children, born in space and reared in the light of our vision, will carry on our great purpose. And in centuries to come, your children's children may set forth for the Robinello planets, knowing that you will find an American colony already planted there."

The Voyage That Lasted 600 Years
The Whispering Gorilla

• ISFDB Bibliography