Educated at Los Angeles Junior College, Walton held a number of odd jobs before he entered military service during World War II. As a combat correspondent, he was awarded a special citation for his coverage of the action on Iwo Jima. Following the war he returned to school, studying for two years at California State University while teaching short story writing at Ann Ellwood College. It was at this time that he began his own writing career with the publication of The Ultimate World for Planet Stories magazine in 1945. In 1952 he published his first novel, Sons of the Ocean Deeps. Walton was a prolific writer, producing over a thousand short stories under his own name and a number of pseudonyms. His work covered several genres including crime and SF and he was an active contributor to magazines until his work began to decline after 1960. Walton also produced a number of scripts for TV, primarily for the Alfred Hitchcock Presents series. His best known works include Strange Alliance (1947), The Long Night (1952), The Passion of Orpheus (1954), The Man on the Island (1958, Final Exam (1964), Cave of Danger (1967), Harpoon Gunner (1968), Hurricane Reef (1970) and The Fire Trail (1974). |
