Wilm Carver was a Science Fiction drifter. They weren’t uncommon in the Pulp era. Not every story was a future Robot classic by Asimov or a beloved gem by Heinlein. Those Pulps needed stories and they got them where ever they could. Wilm Carver penned only four stories, none of them a classic or a gem, nor did he transition from the low-paying SF Pulps to Westerns or detective stories. He drifted in, wrote a few stories, then drifted on.
We know a little about him because he got a bio included with his first tale. (At first I thought he might be a house name, but no…) He describes his life as one of drifting from job to job, a stint in the Navy during World War II that ended with a medical discharge, to finally settle in Florida long enough to write. Not often over a period of four years, he produced four stories all for the same magazine though for two different editors, Oscar J. Friend and Sam Merwin Jr.
“Time to Regret” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, October 1942) was an “Amateur Contest Prize-Winner”. This must be how Carver found entry into the world of the Pulps. The story concerns a man’s children’s children visiting from the future. You know things aren’t going to go well.
“World of Living Dead” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1943) has a dying man desperate for money engaged in an experiment with eternity. This tale has a nice bitter-sweetness that speaks of Carver’s potential as a writer.
“You’ll See a Pink House” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, Winter 1945) is a strange tale of a pink house that draws the characters to it. Again, not so typical and full of potential. Carver has a little fun at the end by including Thrilling Wonder in the story, as the only place that would publish the narrator’s amazing true story.
“Jones’ Physique” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, Spring 1946) has a man named Jones’ shrunk by a scientific ray. This comes in handy when a killer tries to shoot him. This tale is sadly predictable and very dated with references to ration books.
Four Pulp tales with time travel and shrinking rays. And then Wilm drifted on… Appearing beside giants like Edmond Hamilton, Fredric Brown, Frank Belknap Long, and Manly Wade Wellman, Science Fiction forgot him quickly. His work was never reprinted, not in later cheesy reprint magazines, nor in more prestigious anthologies. Not everyone gets Hugo awards, alas. Like D. L. James, G. Peyton Wertenbaker, Hal K. Wells or Abner J Gelula, Wilm Carver contributed to the legacy of SF, if only in a small way.
