Pseudonym of Kenneth H. MacNichol
Author, Playwright, Journalist, Teacher, Lecturer
Born November 3, 1887, Canton, Ohio
Died June 29, 1955, Santa Cruz, California
Author, Playwright, Journalist, Teacher, Lecturer
Born November 3, 1887, Canton, Ohio
Died June 29, 1955, Santa Cruz, California
On the occasion of Veteran's Day, formerly known as Armistice Day, I would like to write about a veteran of World War I. His name was Kenneth Hartley MacNichol and he wrote under his own name and under the pseudonym O.M. Cabral. I don't know the origin of MacNichol's pseudonym. I'm not sure that anyone does or ever will. In fact there is much about MacNichol's life that will forever remain hidden. Even if it were in the open, it might prove inexplicable.
MacNichol was born on November 3, 1887 (some sources say 1886, others 1888) in Canton, Ohio. MacNichol began calling himself an author before the onset of the Great War in 1914. His first writing credits seem to have come from 1909. According to a later passport application, he served in France from July 1917 to June 1919. (The beginning date at least is questionable.) A blog called From an Oblique Angle says that MacNichol was a stretcher bearer before being transferred to the staff of Stars and Stripes. That blog, written by a man named Joshua Blu Buhs, actually includes a multi-part article on Kenneth MacNichol. I'll try not to go over the same ground as Mr. Buhs.
Kenneth H. MacNichol suffered from shell shock, what was later called combat fatigue and now PTSD. Separated from his wife and subjected to the strains and horrors of war, MacNichol not very surprisingly fell into the arms of another woman, Leonie Winckel. In December 1919, presumably after he had returned to the United States, she bore him a child. MacNichol's wife, Hetta Louise Eckel, for reasons we can only guess at now, took the child (and apparently the mother) into her own home. However, the arrangement did not work out, and both returned to Miss Winckel's home country of France. The result of all this was that Kenneth MacNichol became "temporarily deranged" and was placed under the guardianship of his wife. On his passport application of April 19, 1921, MacNichol's was called by a government clerk "the case of the irresponsible husband." The clerk wrote to his associate: "I would . . . address both passports to Mrs. MacNichols [sic] as he may destroy hers & skip alone to France." Evidently, both passports went to Mrs. MacNichol, for the couple traveled to Europe in the spring of 1921.
There was instability in the life of Kenneth MacNichol before that and for many years afterward. In his youth he lived in Ohio, New Mexico, Arizona, and probably California. The first of his several marriages (there were at least three) took place in Yavapai County, Arizona in 1913. His new wife was the same H. Louise Eckel who later became his guardian and later still his ex-wife. MacNichol married again as late as 1953 in California. There was at least one and possibly three marriages between those two. During and after World War I, MacNichol lived in Barnstable and Boston, Massachusetts; Newark, New Jersey; Belle Mead, New Jersey (in a sanitarium during his breakdown); New York; London; San Francisco; and possibly other places. In that time, he worked as a newspaperman, lecturer, and teacher of writing. He also started his own businesses related to writing and books. According to Joshua Blu Buhs, MacNichol founded the San Francisco chapter of the Fortean Society. He also wrote plays, novels, non-fiction, and short stories. Wikisource lists his books and plays:
His genre stories and pulp fiction included the following, some published under the name O.M. Cabral:
MacNichol also wrote for The All-Story, The Blue Book Magazine, Argosy, Blackwood's, and other magazines between 1909 and 1940. His writing credits seem to have dried up after 1941. In 1942 he was employed by the Newspaper Institute of America.
On June 26, 1955, MacNichol was riding in a bus in Santa Cruz, California, with his third or fourth or fifth wife Marie when it was struck by a train. MacNichol died from his injuries later that week, on June 29, 1955. His wife, though injured, survived him.
O.M. Cabral's Stories in Weird Tales
"Mirage" (Jan. 1941)
"Unhallowed Holiday" (Sept. 1941)
Further Reading
You can read much more on Kenneth Hartley MacNichol in multi-part series of postings on the blog From an Oblique Angle by Joshua Blu Buhs.
Text and captions copyright 2013 Terence E. Hanley
There was instability in the life of Kenneth MacNichol before that and for many years afterward. In his youth he lived in Ohio, New Mexico, Arizona, and probably California. The first of his several marriages (there were at least three) took place in Yavapai County, Arizona in 1913. His new wife was the same H. Louise Eckel who later became his guardian and later still his ex-wife. MacNichol married again as late as 1953 in California. There was at least one and possibly three marriages between those two. During and after World War I, MacNichol lived in Barnstable and Boston, Massachusetts; Newark, New Jersey; Belle Mead, New Jersey (in a sanitarium during his breakdown); New York; London; San Francisco; and possibly other places. In that time, he worked as a newspaperman, lecturer, and teacher of writing. He also started his own businesses related to writing and books. According to Joshua Blu Buhs, MacNichol founded the San Francisco chapter of the Fortean Society. He also wrote plays, novels, non-fiction, and short stories. Wikisource lists his books and plays:
- The King’s Idol (1909)
- The Petaluma Product (1909)
- Pan (play, 1917, presumed lost)
- The Faerie Fool (play, 1918)
- Enough Is Plenty (1918)
- Home for Breakfast (1919)
- That Kind of a Man (1920)
- The Twenty-Seventh Story (1921)
- He Missed the Train (1922)
- The Affair Mouchard (1923)
- The Devil’s Assistant (1923)
- The Nose of Papa Hilaire (1923)
- Freight (1923)
- Between the Days (1925)
- The Piper of Kerimor (1927)
- Twelve Lectures on the Technique of Fiction Writing (non-fiction, 1929)
- A Gamble in Gold Bricks (1931)
- Murder Delayed (1935)
- The Devil’s Well (1940)
- Drums of the Dead (1940)
His genre stories and pulp fiction included the following, some published under the name O.M. Cabral:
- "Murder Delayed" in Popular Detective (Mar. 1935)
- "The Dead and the Damned" in Thrilling Mystery (Jan. 1936)
- "Horror Has Blind Eyes" in Thrilling Mystery (Jan. 1936)
- "Murder in Vaudeville" in Detective Fiction Weekly (June 6, 1936)
- "Hell Flares on Howling River" in Thrilling Mystery (July 1936)
- "The man without a Face" in Doc Savage (Sept. 1938)
- "Drowned Men Never Rest" in Thrilling Mystery (Sept. 1938)
- "Drums of the Dead" in Doc Savage (June 1940)
- "Tiger! Tiger!" in Strange Stories (June 1940)
- "Mirage" in Weird Tales (Jan. 1941)
- "Unhallowed Holiday" in Weird Tales (Sept. 1941)
MacNichol also wrote for The All-Story, The Blue Book Magazine, Argosy, Blackwood's, and other magazines between 1909 and 1940. His writing credits seem to have dried up after 1941. In 1942 he was employed by the Newspaper Institute of America.
On June 26, 1955, MacNichol was riding in a bus in Santa Cruz, California, with his third or fourth or fifth wife Marie when it was struck by a train. MacNichol died from his injuries later that week, on June 29, 1955. His wife, though injured, survived him.
O.M. Cabral's Stories in Weird Tales
"Mirage" (Jan. 1941)
"Unhallowed Holiday" (Sept. 1941)
Further Reading
You can read much more on Kenneth Hartley MacNichol in multi-part series of postings on the blog From an Oblique Angle by Joshua Blu Buhs.
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| Detective Fiction Weekly, June 6, 1936, with Kenneth MacNichol's byline on the cover. MacNichol also used the name O.M. Cabral, but I don't know the source of that information. If O.M. Cabral was a MacNichol pseudonym, where did it come from? He lived in the American Southwest when he was young. Could Cabral have been a real person who affected him in some way? In any case, there is much that is unknown about MacNichol and much that will remain that way. |