BASIL WELLS
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This website is dedicated to Basil Eugene Wells (1912-2003), a short-story author who specialised in writing off-beat science fiction and fantasy tales. Wells was born on June 11th, 1912 in Springboro, Pennsylvania. His first professional sale, a short story called "Rebirth of Man", appeared in the pulp magazine Super Science Stories in 1940. Wells went on to contribute dozens of short stories, poems and articles to a wide variety of periodicals over a period of several decades. His work continued to be published well into the 1990s. His unusual and sometimes bizarre short stories appeared in such magazines as Planet Stories, Worlds of If Science Fiction, Weirdbook, Crack Detective Stories and Fantastic Universe. Wells wrote predominantly in the fields of science fiction and fantasy, although he also published some western and detective stories. Some of Wells' finest stories include "Prosthete" (1970), "The Soft Shells" (1968) and "Monster No More" (1953). Much of his short fiction was assembled in the four superb book collections Planets of Adventure (1949), Doorways to Space (1951), Little Monsters (1976) and Silverskin and Other Little Monsters (1976). All four of these collections include some great examples of Basil Wells' entertaining and quirky short fiction. A further anthology of his imaginative tales, Final Voyage and Other Science Fiction Stories, was posthumously published in 2016.
Wells was an imaginative writer who endeavoured to write fast-paced science fiction tales that were imbued with what might best be described as a "sense of wonder". His enthusiasm for exciting, adventure-style science fiction is clearly evident in his stories and also in the various articles he wrote for fanzines such as The Pulp Era and Other Worlds. Several of his stories show the influence of Edgar Rice Burroughs, whom he greatly admired. Indeed, Wells wrote for the Burroughs Bulletin, a fanzine edited by Vern Coriell in the 1940s. Wells was active in sf fandom and as well as being a member of The Western Pennsylvania Science Fictioneers, he also joined the science fiction fan organisation The Little Monsters of America (TLMA), founded by Lynn A. Hickman (1926-1996) in 1950. Wells' work was regularly published in the TLMA fanzine and Hickman was extremely active in promoting and publishing the writings of Wells for a number of years. In 1952 Hickman privately published Wells' only known novel, a 60,000 word science fiction epic entitled Sons of Thrane, an extremely rare and elusive book.
Wells is an author whose writings have unfortunately been neglected for a long time. Many of his stories remain uncollected and have therefore fallen into obscurity. Sadly, Wells passed away in December of 2003 at the age of 91. As a fan of his work I have created this (unofficial) website principally as a tribute in honour of a great writer. I also want to share the knowledge I have of this author with others and hopefully inspire readers to search out his wonderful stories.
I sincerely hope both fans and scholars of this little-known author find this website an enjoyable and useful resource. More information about Basil Wells will be added to this website in the future as I continue to learn more about him and his work. I would welcome any comments, contributions, corrections, or suggestions from other fans of Basil Wells who visit this tribute website. Please send me an e-mail if you have any information to share.
Email: marks3789@gmail.com