Having presented numerous (and counting!) images of Virgil Finlay’s art, most notably “Virgil Finlay – Dean of Science Fiction Artists”, by Sam Moskowitz, in Worlds of Tomorrow, November, 1965, it’s now time to present the artist’s words. Here, direct from the pixelated pages of the June, 1946 issue or Famous Fantastic Mysteries, is a letter he sent to the editors of that pulp magazine, from Okinawa, while serving in the Army in 1946.
His letter is accompanied by an illustration he completed for C.L. Moor’s story “Daemon”, which appeared in the magazine’s October issue. Note that Finlay signed the drawing “Cpl. Virgil Finlay, Oahu, Hawaii, 1946”. By the time of the story’s publication, he had been discharged from the Army and was “back home” in Rochester, New York.
OKINAWA SHIMA – JAN. 28 [1946]
Dear Editors:
I’m very happy to hear that F.F.M. is coming out oftener and hope I will be able to contribute to it regularly in the near future.
I am optimistically looking forward to being a civilian again in the latter part of March, and hope to get back to work sometime in April.
I was in engineer reconnaissance here until things quieted down and was then shifted to my present job as draftsman-illustrator for the Surgeon General.
I should be climbing up the side of a ship in the next two weeks or so and will get in touch with you in New York as soon as I can see my way clear to tear myself away from my wife and those wonderful Stateside things; such as food, etc.
I hope to resume many pleasant associations soon and certainly working with Popular will not be the least of them.
Just give me time to tell my wife about the battle of Okinawa, take a good long look at those nice big dirty buildings in New York, and I’ll be seeing you.
Best wishes,
VIRGIL FINLAY.