Maurice G. Hugi

(1904 – 1947)

Maurice Gaspard Hugi was a UK pro and fan from Folkestone and later London active in the 1930s and 1940s. He was a member of the Science Fiction Association (SFA) and attended the Third British Convention.

Early stories appeared in British prozines Scoops and Tales of Wonder. 'The Mechanical Mice' was published in Astounding (January 1941) and while credited to Hugi the SFE says it 'may have been written entirely by Eric Frank Russell'.

As well as the Third British Convention in 1939, he attended the first known post-war fan meeting in August, a gathering of 'near-conference proportions' according to Rob Hansen in Then. He also attended a meeting at The Shamrock pub in London in 1946, the precursor to the celebrated White Horse meetings.

His death was reported in Fantasy Review #2. He was described as 'Of French descent, unmarried, and a popular member of Britain’s fantasy circle'. His death was not unexpected as 'To a close friend he revealed, some time ago, that his doctor had warned him he had only a year to live.' The previous year he had published a story in the first issue of New Worlds and another was to follow posthumously in its third.

Eric Frank Russell was to write about his friend in Hyphen #24 in March 1960:

Hugi was the only child of elderly parents who were foreigners (Swiss) and were wholly dependent on him. Both parents were semi-invalids. Hugi kept house for them, cooked, shopped, even did the washing when necessary. He never married, never took a girl out on a date because he couldn't afford to, though in appearance and by nature he was the typical family-man. During the war he locked after home and the old folks daytimes was an air-raid warden night-times ... Hugi himself was under sentence of death. He was a chronic diabetic, kept alive by frequent doses of insulin. His days were numbered and he knew it. But still he wrote stories, as best he could. Within the serious limitations laid upon him.

Towards the end of the war Hugi's mother died. He carried on, taking care of his father. Three years later Hugi himself died, leaving his old man feeble and alone. Bill Temple and some of the London crowd rallied around, searched through Hugi's letters and carbons, traced money owing to him all over the shop, dunned various publishers some of whom were the shyster type, collected the cash and gave it to the old man and saw him fixed up.

• Entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
• Maurice G. Hugi in Internet Speculative Fiction Database

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Person

1904—1947

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