Lloyd Arthur Eshbach died Oct. 29 at 3:50 a.m. in the Evangelical Congregational Church Retirement Village in Myerstown, PA where he had resided since March 2001. Born  June 20, 1910 in Palm, Pennsylvania, Eshbach, grew up in Reading. He discovered science fiction at age 15 and began writing letters to the magazines, then his own stories. In 1929, the third story he wrote sold to Science Wonder Stories. Continuing to write stories and articles, Lloyd briefly published two magazines in the early 1930s, Marvel Tales and The Galleon. In 1946 he founded Fantasy Press a small press which published the work of authors such as E. E. Smith, Jack Williamson, Robert Heinlein and John W. Campbell Jr.

Cover from Over My Shoulder: Reflections on a Science Fiction Era

Between 1946 and 1950, Fantasy Press published 32 books. They included the first hardcover editions of many of the works, had small press runs and in total only about 120,000 copies were printed. In 1952 he formed Polaris Press to publish 2 more books.

Lloyd went on to write several novels, mostly late in his career. The last one, The Scroll of Lucifer, was published in 1990. His memoirs, Over My Shoulder: Reflections on a Science Fiction Era, were published in 1982.

Eshbach was a church publisher from 1958 to 1962. From 1962 until his retirement in 1975 he was a salesman for the Moody Bible Institute, Chicago.

Upon his retirement, he became a pastor in the Evangelical Congregational denomination and was assigned to the Mount Culmen Evangelical Congregational Church near Bowmansville, Lancaster County. The following year he served as associate pastor of First Evangelical Congregational, Reading, and in 1977 served a one-year term at Trinity EC Church, Womelsdorf.

An active member of First Fandom, Eshbach was Guest of Honor at the World Science Fiction Convention in 1949 and the World Fantasy Convention 1995.

He is survived by a son, Daniel R., Womelsdorf; five grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

Services were held Saturday at Lamm & Witman Funeral Home Inc. in Wernersville, PA with burial in Forest Hills Memorial Park in Reiffton.

Posted November 2, 2003