Bio:Harry Turner

Harry E. Turner was an outstanding pupil at school and he had a talent for writing as well as painting. He developed lifelong interests in space travel and science fiction during the era of American "pulps" like Astounding Stories and Wonder Stories; he admired in particular the artwork of Elliott Dold and Frank R. Paul. After leaving school, he continued to develop his drawing skills in evening classes.

As a teenager, Harry was a member of the Manchester Interplanetary Society and the editor of its journal, The Astronaut. He met his wife-to-be, Marion Eadie, through the Junior Astronomical Association, of which she was president in 1938.

Harry was active in British science fiction fandom in the late 1930s/early 1940s as both an illustrator and publisher, and he met science fiction fans from the groups based in Liverpool (including the author Eric Frank Russell), Leeds (including Vic Gillard, Doug Mayer, Harry Warnes and Doug Airey) and London (including Maurice Hanson, Walter Gillings, Arthur Clarke and Ted Carnell).

He produced his own fanzine, Zenith, first as an OMPA-zine and then as an independent fanzine. His call up in the summer of 1942 put an end to his employment at a local chemical works, his evening classes in drawing and most of his activities as a science fiction fan, and very nearly scuppered his wedding plans. After initial training, he was posted to the radio school at RAF Yatesbury in 1943, where he met again an old friend; Cpl. Arthur C. Clarke, the science fiction author and fan of loud music.

No "originals" of fanzine artwork survive from this period as Harry's designs for magazines such as Novae Terrae/New Worlds, Forrest J. Ackerman's Voice of the Imagination, Futurian War Digest, The Fantast, Satellite and Zenith were drawn directly on to wax stencils, which were discarded after the print run. Thus the artwork exists only on printed copies of the fanzines, some of it in multiple colours by judicious application of ink under the stencil.

After training as a radar technician, Harry led a semi-nomadic existence, servicing the country's chain of satellite radar stations along the south and east coasts of England. At the end of the war in Europe, he was posted to India for over a year. His paintings and sketches from his Indian period; drawings, watercolours, ink on scraperboard drawings and oil paintings; have been collected in book form as Harry Turner: An Artist In India (Farrago & Farrago, 2009).

Back in civilian life, Harry entered the world of advertising as a manager, designer and graphic artist, and his family grew to three sons. He also returned to science fiction art in both the commercial and fandom sectors. He sold artwork to Nebula, Science Fantasy and New Worlds, he produced his own fanzine, Now & Then, with fellow Manchester SF fan Eric Needham, the creator of the much imitated "Widower's Wonderful" range of products, and he also provided artwork for other fanzines, e.g. Space Times.

Again, there are no surviving "originals" of fanzine artwork from this period as the designs were drawn either onto wax stencils or offset lithography plates. A few examples of Harry's commercial art remain, however, as he provided ink on scraperboard drawings, and editors occasionally returned originals to the artist.

Harry Turner drifted out of science fiction fandom at the end of the 1950s, and he made a transition from painting in oils to using acrylic paints. He was drawn back to SF in the 1970s and re-established his reputation as one of the top artists in the field, particularly with his work for Lisa Conesa's award-winning magazine Zimri. He also became a valuable source of memories for Rob Hansen, author of the part-work THEN, and others involved in recording the early history of science fiction fandom.

In addition to artwork, Harry began to contribute memoirs to various fanzines about the early days of British science fiction fandom, his art and episodes of his life such as his time in India with the RAF and an ocean voyage to witness the 1973 total eclipse of the Sun. His experiments in the field of abstract art led to his development of "Triad" impossible objects, some of which found homes in contemporary SF fanzines and small press publications, e.g. Ludds Mill, Tash, Krax, Thingumybob, Yhos and especially Banana Wings and the output of Steve Sneyd's Hilltop Press.

Harry Turner is the author of Triad Optical Illusions and how to design them (Dover Publications of New York, 1978), which was reissued in 2006 as a colouring book. At the end of the 1970s, he suffered severe vision loss until cataract removal operations were performed in the early 1980s. This period marks an end to creating larger works with acrylic paints and a switch to drawing only.

His sight restored, Harry provided art and design work to the journals of the British Society of Russian Philately and the Wyndham Lewis Society in the 1980s and 1990s. In the latter decade, personal computers and laser and ink-jet printers became affordable and he was able to switch from creating designs with typed text and Letraset headings to the conveniences of desktop publishing.

Writing courses in the 1990s helped him to polish his earlier memoirs from the 1970s, create new ones and, with the aid of scanner/PC/printer to create recycled versions of his fanzines. A stroke in his 85th year wiped out most of Harry's memories of his "fannish" years, and brought an effective end to his career as an artist.

The "Grand Old Man of British Science Fiction Fandom" has left behind a wealth of material, visual and written, to illuminate both his own life and those of the people he encountered; particularly the fellow enthusiasts, who created of science fiction fandom in the 1930s and 1940s.