S P A C E L I G H T
INDEX
Name: PAUL, Frank R.
Aged: 79
Born: April 18, 1884
Where: Vienna, AUSTRIA
Died: June 29, 1963
Where: Teaneck, New Jersey
Interred: _ _ _
Married: Rudolpha C. Rigelsen
When: _ _ _
Awarded: _ _ _
Frank R. Paul
The first dominant pulp illustrator known as "The Great Paul" for both his artwork and a sense of the future. Prophetically, Paul drew a cover in 1929 showing an orbiting ship with tethered astronauts on an EVA mission, using hand propellants to move in space.
Paul was discovered in this country by publisher Hugo Gernsback and thereafter illustrated almost all of Gernsback's various publications and formats. The SF pulp magazines among them included Amazing Stories (from 1926 to 1929 when Gernsback lost control of it), Science Wonder Stories, Air Wonder Stories (later Wonder Stories, and Science Fiction Plus. Working in color and b&w, Paul drew well over 1,000 SF related works. Outside of Gernsback's magazines, Paul illustrated for Science Fiction, Amazing Stories (after Ziff Davis acquired it), and its companion magazine Fantastic Adventures.
A singular honor was bestowed upon him by first fandom when he was chosen the Guest of Honor at the first World's Science Fiction Convention held in 1939 in New York City. During WW II, Paul worked as a draftsman in shipyards in Florida and California.
The night before he died, Paul had just completed another illustration for Gernsback Publications.
BIOGRAPHY:
COVER: Wonder Stories - Sept 1935.
GALLERY: Frank R. Paul Gallery. (Loads slowly.)
OBITUARY: New York Times, June 30, 1963, p56
