WEST, Wallace (George)

(1900-1980)

   US lawyer, writer, public-relations man and pollution-control expert who began publishing short stories with "Loup-Garou" for Weird Tales in 1927 and sf with "The Last Man" for AMZ in 1929, thereafterappearing fairly regularly in the magazines until the late 1960s. His stories, though unpretentiously told, exhibit a level-headed cognitive vigour that keeps even his early work from dating. Some of his tales-like "Dust" (1935) - made significant early attempts to put POLLUTION and otherside-effects of progress on the sf agenda. 2 magazine series collected in book form were The Bird of Time (fixup 1959), a PLANETARY ROMANCE set on MARS, and Lords of Atlantis (coll of linked stories 1960), which featuresthe rulers and scientists of ATLANTIS who, after the island sinks, live on as the gods of the Greek pantheon. Most of WW's novels were revisions of pre-WWII material, though The Memory Bank (1951 Startling Stories as "The Dark Tower"; 1961) demonstrates his marginally more awkward later form. Hewas never a remarkable writer, nor did he ever devote himself full-time to fiction; but he was never dull.

   JC

   Other works: Betty Boop in Snow-White * (1934) and Alice in Wonderland * (1934), both film ties; Outposts in Space (1931 Weird Tales; exp 1962); River of Time (1963); The Time-Lockers (fixup 1964); The Everlasting Exiles (fixup 1967).

   See also: OUTER PLANETS; POLITICS.