Early L. Ron Hubbard anyone?

[AE35Unit]

Ok forget the dianetics tripe-not here to discuss that-but I joined a free e-book site that allows you one free pdf d'load a month and I've noticed a few golden age era Hubbard's books there; today I found this one-
The Dangerous Dimension:
Dr. Henry Mudge undergoes a striking personality change when he discovers a mathematical formula—“Equation C”—that defines a mysterious negative dimension. He is instantly transported to any location in the solar system by merely thinking of it—even when he doesn’t want to.This story first appeared in the July 1938 issue of Astounding Science Fiction Magazine.
Anyone read his early stuff?

 

[chrispenycate]

I used to have the double volume with "Fear" and "Typewriter in the sky", but it is long gone, leaving me with almost no memory of anything in it.

I suspect he was better at developing religions than stories (or more successful, at least).

 

[j d worthington]

As I recall, "Fear" was actually quite good (though it has been decades since I last read it, and I, too, no longer have a copy). However, the two sources I have at hand seem to regard his earlier work rather more highly than his later work (or certainly his... well, you know). Here's what they have to say about those early pieces:

Now the man behind thenotorious Scientology sect, and one-time science-fiction and adventure writer, many believe that Lafaytte Ronald Hubbard was at his best when writing his fantasies for Unknown. His work for that magazine consisted of eight lead novels and six shorter pieces, most of which are out of print. Two of the earliest, The Ultimate Adventure (1939) and Slaves of Sleep (1939) are set in a parallel world of Arabian legend; Death's Deputy (1940) relates the fate of an accident-prone; The Indigestible Triton (1940; book Triton, 1949) is set in the god Neptune's domain; Fear (1940) is a psychological chiller about a man reconstructing four missing hours; Typewriter in the Sky (1940) is a rollicking farce of a man written into another's story; and The Case of the Friendly Corpse (1941) is set in the University of Unholy Names, which offers courses in the magical arts. Perhaps if Hubbard's name was not so blackened in Britain the public might get a chance to enjoy these and others of his imaginative gems.

-- Who's Who in Horror and Fantasy Fiction, by Mike Ashley, p. 98​

Hubbard wrote for a wide variety of pulp fiction markets but achieved his greatest renown with contributions to Astounding Science Fiction and its fantasy companion, Unknown. Many of his stories are built around a recurring character type, the ordinary man repressed by limitations of personal circumstances and environment who, when faced with an extraordinary challenge, taps latent powers that transform him unexpectedly into a very capable hero. In Hubbard's comic fantasies for Unknown, the extraordinary challenge is transport to a fantasy world: the land of the Arabian Nights in "The Ultimate Adventure" (April, 1939), the world of the jinn in Slaves of Sleep (July 1939; Shasta, 1948), the undersea kingdom of Neptune in The Indigestible Triton (April 1940; written uner the pseudonym Rene Lafayette; as Triton [FPCI, 1949]), the world of a hack's badly imagined pulp adventure tale in Typewriter in the Sky (November-December 1940), and a school for apprentice sorcerers in "The Case of the Friendly Corpse" (August 1941). In Fear (Unknown, July 1940; Gnome Press, 1951 [with Typewriter in the Sky]), he produced a memorable work of horror by turning the structure of his comic fantasies inside out. The protagonist, a college professor, experiences a series of terrifying encounters of seemingly supernatural origin, all of which prove to be related to a ghastly crime he has committed but whose memory he has repressed. Awareness of his crime gives him mastery over the events but drives him mad. Hubbard combined supernatural and psychological horror similarly in "He Didn't Like Cats" (Unknown, February 1942).

-- Supernatural Literature of the World: An Encyclopedia, ed. by S. T. Joshi and Stefan Dziemianowicz, pp. 577-78 (the entry on Hubbard is by the latter)​

That may not be any help, but it's all I have. I've not read the tale you are asking about in particular, but what I did read of Hubbard's early work, as I recall, was entertaining....