Bert Campbell

(November 18, 1925 – September 1983)

Bert Campbell (1950s).
Photo by Jim Linwood,
courtesy of Rob Hansen.

Herbert James Campbell, known professional as H. J. Campbell and fannishly as Bert Campbell, was a UK fan, pro, and editor during the 1950s. At Philcon II in 1953 he 'caused quite a sensation, one awed American fan commenting that his beard was the most fantastic thing in all science fiction'.

Professionally, he was technical editor of the UK prozine Authentic Science Fiction, becoming full editor from #23 (July 1952) and continuing until #65 (January 1956) after which the title was edited by E. C. Tubb. Much of his own fiction was published under the name Roy Sheldon.

He attended most UK conventions from 1951 to 1955 as well as Philcon II, the 1953 Worldcon in Philadelphia. At the latter he made the likely impulsive and perhaps not entirely serious London in '54 bid for the 1954 Worldcon. It didn't win but still garnered a respectable 61 votes.

At the White Horse on the night before the Coroncon, Campbell earned a certain notoriety. Seeing visiting American editor Bea Mahaffey talking to a group of fans mostly from Liverpool and Manchester, he was overheard saying '...get her away from the Bloody Provincials'.

Campbell was a research chemist by profession, a Fellow of the Chemical Society, and resigned from Authentic in 1956 to concentrate on that career. He was also an artist, selling line drawings to magazines. He did however attend Loncon, the 1957 Worldcon.

Bob Tucker wrote a reminiscence of Campbell in Spirits of Things Past 3 (p. 10):

He was a young man (late 20s) who wore an immaculate British beard in a year when that habit had not yet taken hold in the States — not even Rusty Hevelin wore a beard in 1953. Uncouth people called them 'beavers' and sometimes made rude remarks.

Links

• Entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
• Bert Campbell in Internet Speculative Fiction Database

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Person

1925—1983

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