He was born on July 4th, 1876 in a log cabin that he built with his own hands.   His parents were in the iron and steel business.   (His mother ironed and his father stole.)   He became a chicken farmer at an early age and won his first Pullet Surprise in 1888.   He died from the shock but was resurrected on November 20th, 1923 by a certain Herbert West.   Weird Tales was born that same year and published at least one story of West's experiments some time later.

Later still they published one of Len's stories but by that time the pulps were dying and he discovered that he could make a better living by writing non-fiction.   However, when he was a technical writer for paper boxes he was accused (more than once) of writing science fiction.   He also has been known to commit poetry but has yet to be tired and convicted.