Festus Pragnell (1905-1977) was a retired English policeman from South Hampton who wrote when unemployment gave him time to ponder ideas. What we would call a “pantser” today, Pragnell found when he forced stories the results were too confusing for the reader. Instead, he liked to allow an idea find its own way. He called this “growing them like plants”. Like John Wyndham, who wrote as John B. Harris at this time, Pragnell found a ready market for this work with Hugo Gernsback and T. O’Conor Sloane in America.
“The Venus Germ” (Wonder Stories, November 1932) with R. F. Starzl was Pragnell’s second attempt at writing SF. After two rewrites he gave up and allowed the editor to pass the idea on to SF pro, Starzl. In an interview in The British Scientifiction Fantasy Review, April 1937, he says:
Starzl made a lively yarn out of my plot, the only part of the story that was mine, apart from two paragraphs…These described how a harmless germ from Venus, liberated on earth by the dropping of a test-tube, became virulent and started a plague, for which the Venusians offer a cure — on conditions. This, the idea on which the whole story depended, was mine; the rest was Starlz’s.
“Men of the Dark Comet” (Wonder Stories, June 1933)
“The Isotope Men” (Wonder Stories, August 1933) Reprinted in Startling Stories, November 1948
“The Essense of Life” (Amazing Stories, August-September 1933) was actually Pragnell’s first story. It appears later because T. O’Conor Sloane lost it for over a year and a half.
“Letter” (Wonder Stories, December 1933) confesses to being a Hugo Gernsback reader back to 1919 and Electrical Experimenter. He says an SF story should be plausible, but makes the point that long, unwieldy explanations can ruin a good story. (I don’t think Hugo took his advice on that one.)
“Letter” (Amazing Stories, March 1934) has Pragnell applaud the style of the magazine as one that is “international” in a way that Gangster Stories and Wild West Stories aren’t. This may have been accidental on Gernsback’s part since Amazing Stories reprinted many Wells and Verne pieces at the start. In this way, Amazing may have had a more European feel than stories of rum runners and cowboys.
“A Visit to Venus” (Wonder Stories, August 1934) Reprinted in Fantastic Story Quarterly, Spring 1950
“Letter” (Wonder Stories, June 1935) shows Pragnell reacting to his fellow authors in Wonder Stories. He speaks of a character named Festus in a story by Eando Binder and wonders if he was named after him. Hugo says it was not, only coincidence. Pragnell lectures Leslie F. Stone on giantism, which could be “man-splaining” except Pragnell is unaware that Leslie is a “Miss” not a “Mr.”.
“The Green Man of Graypec” (Wonder Stories, July August September 1935) was Pragnell’s big novel and the final sale to Hugo Gernsback. It was renamed The Green Man of Kilsona in hardcover.
“Letter: Editors Are Killing Science Fiction” (Fantasy Magazine, September 1936) Pragnell complains about the restrictive practices of magazines requiring authors to conform. Such mediocre policies would drive him away from American markets. He was also not fond of F. Orlin Tremaine’s “Thought Variant” stories, which Pragnell felt promoted bad Science.
“Man of the Future” (Tales of Wonder #1, 1937)
Thus ends the years of Wonder Tales and Hugo Gernsback and the old Amazing Stories. 1938 saw Pragnell discover a new editor, Ray A. Palmer who changed Amazing into a different kind of publication, one filled with adventure and color. For Palmer, Festus wrote the Don Hargreaves saga, a set of eight novellas set on Mars and other planets. It would be his final and largest contribution to Science Fiction. After 1943, he would turn to writing adventure fiction. A few scraps would end up in fanzines and minor publications afterwards. The entire run was illustrated by Robert Fuqua.
“Ghost of Mars” (Amazing Stories, December 1938)
“Warlord of Mars” (Amazing Stories, June 1940)
“War of the Human Cats” (Fantastic Adventures, August 1940)
“Introducing the Author” (Fantastic Adventures, August 1940) is filled with intriguing details like how to pronounce “Pragnell”. The classism of Britain is evident in his short history of why he didn’t go into the Civil Service. He finishes with a wish to go to America and work in a Science field.
“Kidnaped in Mars” (Amazing Stories, October 1941)
“Outlaw of Mars” (Amazing Stories, January 1942)
“Devil Birds of Deimos” (Amazing Stories, April 1942)
“Into the Caves of Mars” (Amazing Stories, August 1942)
“Twisted Giant of Mars” (Amazing Stories, May 1943)
“Conspirators of Phobos” (Amazing Stories, June 1943)
“Collision in Space” (Amazing Stories, July 1943)
“Madcap of Mars” (Amazing Stories, September 1943) was his final active US sale.
The Terror From Timorkal (1946)
“The Machine God Laughs” (Fantasy Book #2, February 1948)
“Monsters of the Moon” (Spaceway, September-October 1969)
“Thieves of the Air” (unknown) with Herbert Benson
Conclusion
Festus Pragnell’s SF career mirrors other British writers like John Wyndham. Both had an initial phase where they embraced Hugo Gernsback, then moved onto better paying markets. Eventually both found themselves back in the UK and ignoring the American magazines. With Wyndham this phase led to book publication. Pragnell’s The Terror From Timorkal (1946) attempts this with a lost world and a metal that will be exploited by ruthless politicians. It marks his last major piece. This novel signaled the end, with a few fanzines pieces then retirement from writing.
Like the works of John Christopher, Arthur C. Clarke, John Wyndham and other English writers, Festus Pragnell offered American-style Science Fiction with a slightly different view. British SF as a whole is more ideas-based and less flashy, being directly descendant from H. G. Wells. British SF would mature to give us such classics as The Day of Triffids, No Blade of Grass, Childhood’s End and Orbitsville among many others. Pragnell was one of the pioneers in the UK and deserves to be read.
