Forgotten Authors: Hal K. Wells
Harold Kerton Wells, who wrote as Hal K. Wells, was born on September 2, 1899 in Little Hocking, Ohio and grew up there and in the nearby town of Belpre, both along the Ohio River border with West Virginia.
He enlisted in the Ohio National Guard of May 18, 1917 and served in the infantry and field artillery during World War I, eventually being discharged on July 27, 1918 with a certificate of disability. He returned to Ohio and settled in Athens, about 35 miles away from where he grew up, and took a job working as a clerk for a dry goods store.
By 1930, he had left Ohio to move to Los Angeles and was publishing articles in Motion Picture Magazine, beginning in 1927. He also wrote the film A Moony Mariner, which was made in 1927 starring Billy Dooley, Vera Steadman, and Billy Engle. The film is the story of a sailor who is sent to the moon, but instead his rocket lands in a nearby Turkish bath, which he takes to be the moon.
His first published story of genre interest was “The Brass Key,” published in the February, 1929 issue of Weird Tales. He also had stories appear in Astounding, Amazing, Horror Stories, Thrilling Mystery, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Mystery Tales, Super Science Stories, The Phantom Detective, and Fantastic Universe. His longest story, Blood on the Sun, billed as a complete novel was published in the May 1942 issue of Starling Stories. He published 25 science fiction and fantasy stories between 1929 and 1954, with the majority of his work appearing in the 1930s.
Wells died in Torrance, California on December 12, 1979.
Steven H Silver is a twenty-two-time Hugo Award nominee and was the publisher of the Hugo-nominated fanzine Argentus as well as the editor and publisher of ISFiC Press for eight years. He has also edited books for DAW, NESFA Press, and ZNB. His most recent anthology is Alternate Peace and his novel After Hastings was published in 2020. Steven has chaired the first Midwest Construction, Windycon three times, and the SFWA Nebula Conference numerous times. He was programming chair for Chicon 2000 and Vice Chair of Chicon 7.