Editing Donald A. Wollheim (section)

===Work as author===
Wollheim's first story, "The Man from Ariel", was published in the January 1934 issue of ''[[Wonder Stories]]''<ref name=isfdb/><ref>{{cite web|last=Silver|first=Steven H|author-link=Steven H Silver|title=Debut Science Fiction|url=http://www.stevenhsilver.com/debut.html#W:|access-date=September 21, 2007}}</ref> when he was nineteen. 
[[File:Don Wollheim & daughter Betsy.jpg|thumb|left|Don Wollheim and his daughter Elizabeth (1954).]] 
He was not paid for the story, and when he learned that other authors had not been paid either, he said so in the ''Bulletin'' of the Terrestrial Fantascience Guild.<ref name="speer">{{cite book|last=Speer|first=Jack|author-link=Jack Speer|title=Up to Now|publisher=Full-Length Articles|year=1939}}</ref> Publisher [[Hugo Gernsback]] eventually settled with Wollheim and the other authors out of court for $75. However, when Wollheim submitted another story ("The Space Lens") under the pseudonym Millard Verne Gordon,<ref name=isfdb/> he was once again cheated by Gernsback who published it in the September 1935 issue.<ref name="davin">{{cite book|last=Davin|first=Eric Leif|author-link=Eric Leif Davin|title=Pioneers of Wonder|publisher=Prometheus Books|year=1999|location=New York|isbn=1-57392-702-3|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/pioneersofwonder00davi}}</ref> His third known story was published in ''Fanciful Tales of Time and Space'', Fall 1936, a fanzine that he edited himself.<!-- published by Shepherd & Wollheim; perhaps only one issue http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/seriesgrid.cgi?33890 --><ref name=isfdb/> That year he also published and edited another short-lived fanzine, ''Phantagraph''.<ref name=isfdb/>

Wollheim's stories were published regularly from 1940; at the same time he was becoming an important editor. In the 1950s and 60s he wrote chiefly novels. He usually used pseudonyms for works aimed at grownups, and wrote children's novels under his own name. Notable and popular were the eight "Mike Mars" books for children, which explored different facets of the [[NASA]] space program.<ref name="ency"/> Also well-received were the "Secret" books for young readers: ''The Secret of Saturn's Rings'' (1954), ''Secret of the Martian Moons'' (1955), and ''The Secret of the Ninth Planet'' (1959). As Martin Pearson he published the "Ajax Calkins" series, which became the basis for his novel ''Destiny's Orbit'' (1962).<ref name="ency"/> A sequel, ''Destination: Saturn'' was published in 1967 in collaboration with [[Lin Carter]]. ''The Universe Makers'' (1971) is a discussion of themes and philosophy in science fiction.

One of Wollheim's short stories, "Mimic", was made into the [[Mimic (film)|film of the same name]] by director and co-writer [[Guillermo del Toro]], released in 1997.<ref>{{IMDb name|938586}}.</ref>

His daughter [[Betsy Wollheim|Betsy]] declared: "In true editorial fashion, he was honest about the quality of his own writing. He felt it was fair to middling at best. He always knew that his great talent was as an editor."<ref name="betsy">Personal interview with Elizabeth Wollheim. April 27, 2009.</ref>