Fletcher PrattMurray Fletcher Pratt (25 April 1897 – 10 June 1956) was a history, science fiction, and fantasy writer from the United States. He is well recognized for his writings on naval history and the American Civil War, as well as his collaboration with L. Srague de Camp on fiction. Pratt was born near Tonawanda, New York, according to de Camp. He attended public schools in Buffalo before graduating from high school in 1915 at the Griffith Institute in Springville, New York, where his father had a trucking transportation operation between Springville and Buffalo. Following high school, he spent a year at Hobart College in Geneva, New York. The Associated Press reported in February 1916 that he had been jailed in Geneva for theft following a string of nocturnal cash drawer robberies that supposedly paid him less than $25. He was said to have informed police that his father did not provide him with enough money to live in Hobart. "Pratt's father came on from Springville yesterday, and it was practically decided to send the youth to the State Hospital for the Insane at Willard, pending an investigation of his case by the grand jury," the Buffalo Enquirer reported on February 23. He is suspected of being mentally ill. Read More Read Less