Full Details
Virgil Finlay
| Full Name: | Virgil Warden Finlay |
| Born: | July 23, 1914 Rochester, New York, USA |
| Died: | January 18, 1971 |
| Occupation: | Artist, Illustrator |
| Nationality: | American |
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Biography
Virgil Finlay was an American pulp fantasy, science fiction and horror illustrator. He was born and raised in Rochester, New York; his father, woodworker Warden Hugh Finlay, died at age 40 in the midst of the Great Depression, leaving his family (widow Ruth and two children, Jean and Virgil) in straitened circumstances.
By his high school years, Finlay was exercising his passions for art and poetry and discovered his lifelong subject matter in the pulp magazines of the era -- science fiction in Amazing Stories, fantasy and horror in Weird Tales -- and by the age of 16, Finlay began to exhibit his work. By age 21, he was confident enough in his art to send six pieces, unsolicited, to editor Farnsworth Wright at Weird Tales.
While he worked in a range of media, from gouache to oils, Finlay specialized in, and became famous for, detailed pen-and-ink drawings accomplished with abundant stippling, cross-hatching, and scratchboard techniques. Despite the very labor-intensive and time-consuming nature of his specialty, Finlay created more than 2600 works of graphic art in his 35-year career.
Finlay served in the US Army during World War II, and saw extensive combat in the South West Pacific theater, notably on Okinawa, and did posters and illustrations for the Morale Services during his three years of military service. He resumed his artistic career after demobilization, doing a considerable amount of work for science fiction magazines and books. As the pulp magazine market narrowed through the 1950s, Finlay turned to astrology magazines as a new venue for his art.
Finlay had to undergo major surgery for cancer in early 1969. He recovered enough to go back to work for a time, but the cancer returned, and Finlay died of the disease early in 1971, aged 56. Finlay was survived by his wife, Beverly, who died in 1979, and their daughter Lail.
Finlay has been called "part of the pulp magazine history... one of the foremost contributors of original and imaginative art work for the most memorable science fiction and fantasy publications of our time." Finlay won one of the first Hugos in 1953 for Best Interior Illustrator, and earned a further 8 Hugo nominations, plus 2 Retro Hugo wins and an additional two nominations. He was named a member of First Fandom by the World Science Fiction Society in 1970, and he was inducted into The Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2012.
Works in the WWEnd Database
Non Series Works |
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