Arthur F. Hillman

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Arthur F. Hillman was a UK fan from Newport in Wales active from the 1940s to at least the 1960s. He attended the Eastercon in 1944 and several other conventions including Festivention in 1951, Loncon I in 1957 and Loncon II in 1965. He was also a member of the British Fantasy Society (BFS), serving on its advisory board and editing the second and third issue of BFS Beyond. He had a particular interest in weird fiction and contributed to The Acolyte.

He joined the BFS around November 1943 and the BFS bulletin #16 in May 1944 reported that he had become the director of the 'Weird Section' that was

... flourishing ... and now has eleven members, Messrs S. G. J. Ouseley,  Syd Bounds, and Ron Holmes having joined, since Terry Overton was forced to relinquish control due to his calling-up – a fate which has also deprived the Section of Peter Hawkins. A Chain-parcel is circulating containing several interesting items such as a copy (Spring '43) of the American weird fan-mag Acolyte, two Lovecraft stories, and No. 1 of an information sheet called 'Did You Know That?' devised by the Director himself.

Mr Hillman is typing out some of the shorter Lovecraft epics from the Arkham House collection The Outsider (an unfortunate title from an English point of view in my opinion!), to circulate with the chain, and has also extracted a number of Clark Ashton Smith's stories from Out of Space and Time for the same purpose. (For two pins I'd join this Section myself!)

It is very apparent from all this that the enthusiast for non-scientific fantasy will find much to interest them in the Weird Section chains, and welcome is extended to all who wish to join.

Hillman contributed eight poems to The Acolyte in 1945–6 and reviews and essays on various weird fiction topics for Fantasy Review and Camber. He produced two issues of BFS Beyond in 1944–5.

On October 26, 1945, he wrote to August Derleth about his intent to form a company 'to publish a series of small anthologies of weird tales in England.' It's not known if this ever came to anything.


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