Hannes Bok
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Hannes Bok, pseudonym for Wayne Woodard (July 2, 1914 – April 11, 1964), was an American illustrator and writer of fantasy fiction. His illustrations mainly appeared on the covers of science fiction novels and in such magazines as If, Weird Tales, Other Worlds, Fantasy Fiction, Imagination, Castle of Frankenstein, Planet Stories, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Wayne Woodard (the name is sometimes mistakenly rendered as "Woodward") was born in Kansas City, Missouri, his first stop in a peripatetic youth. His parents divorced when he was five; his father and stepmother, strict disciplinarians, discouraged his early artistic efforts. Once he graduated high school, in Duluth, Minnesota, he cut off contact with his father and moved to Seattle to live with his mother. There he became active in SF fandom, including the publication and illustration of fanzines. It was in connection with these activities that he originated his pseudonym, first "Hans", then "Hannes", Bok. The pseudonym derives from Johann Sebastian Bach (whose name can be rendered both as "Johann S. Bach" and "Johannes Bach"). In 1938 he moved to Los Angeles, where he painted murals for the WPA and met Ray Bradbury. Bok corresponded with and met Maxfield Parrish (ca. 1939?), and the influence of Parrish's art on Bok's is evident in his choice of subject matter, use of color and application of glazes.
Like his contemporary Virgil Finlay, Hannes Bok broke into commercial art and achieved initial career success as a Weird Tales artist--though he did so through one of the stranger events in the history of science fiction and fantasy. In the summer of 1939, Ray Bradbury carried samples of Bok's art eastward to introduce his friend's work to magazine editors at the 1st World Science Fiction Convention. This was a bold move, since Bradbury was a neophyte with no connections to commercial art or the magazine industry. Bradbury was, at the time, a 19-year-old newspaper seller, and he borrowed funds for the trip from science fiction fan Forrest Ackerman. Oddly enough, Bradbury succeeded; Farnsworth Wright, editor of Weird Tales, accepted Bok's art, which debuted in the December 1939 issue of Weird Tales. More than 50 issues of the magazine featured Bok's pen-and-ink work until March 1954. Bok also executed six color covers for Weird Tales between March 1940 and March 1942. Weird Tales also published five of Bok's stories and two of his poems between 1942 and 1951--giving him a unique distinction in the annals of "the Unique Magazine:" he was the only Weird Tales artist who was also a Weird Tales writer (and vice versa). Once he broke through into professional publications, Bok moved to New York City and lived there the rest of his life.
As an author, Bok is best known for his novels Sorcerer's Ship, originally published in the Dec. 1942 issue of John W.Campell's legendary fantasy magazine Unknown; and The Blue Flamingo/Beyond the Golden Stair. The Blue Flamingo first appeared in the Jan. 1948 issue of Startling Stories. Bok later peformed an extensive revision and expansion of this work, which was published posthumously as Beyond the Golden Stair (1970). Both novels have been repeatedly re-issued, as in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. Bok also was allowed to complete two novellas left unfinished by A. Merritt at his death in 1943. These were published as The Blue Pagoda (1946) and The Black Wheel (1947). (Bok's commitment to fantasy and science fiction had occurred in 1927 in connection with Merritt's The Moon Pool, in Amazing Stories--one of those conversion experiences common among young SF fans.) Also published posthumously was a collection of Bok's poetry, Spinner of Silver and Thistle (1972).
Bok was and is better known for his art than for his fiction. His style could alternate between, or combine, lush romanticism and humorous grotesquery. His use of time-consuming glazing techniques for his paintings impacted his productivity and limited his output, and therefore his commercial success. He also spent time carving figures in wood and making masks in papier mache. In the 1950s he was able to do more book-jacket illustrations, which he found less irksome than magazine work; though he could never have abandoned the latter. His striking wraparound cover for the November 1963 issue of F&SF, illustrating Roger Zelazny's "A Rose for Ecclesiastes", was published in the last months of his life.
A member of the Futurians, Bok won the debut Hugo Award for Best Cover/Professional Artist in 1953. Throughout his life, Bok was deeply interested in astrology, as well as in the music of the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, with whom Bok had an early correspondence. As the years passed, Bok became prone to disagreements with editors over money and artistic issues; he grew reclusive and mystical, preoccupied with the occult. He died, apparently of a heart attack, at the age of 49.
The science fiction and fantasy author Emil Petaja was lifelong friend of Bok and collector of his art. Throughout the 1960's and 1970's, Petaja did as much as anyone to keep Bok's artwork before the public eye. Three years after the artist's death, Petaja founded the Bokanalia Foundation. Petaja authored a commemorative volume, And Flights of Angels: The Life and Legend of Hannes Bok (Bokanalia Memorial Foundation, 1968) and edited The Hannes Bok Memorial Showcase of Fantasy Art (SISU, 1974). Under his own imprint, Petaja published the volume of Bok's poetry, Spinner of Silver and Thistle (SISU, 1972). Between 1967 and 1970, Petaja also published three portfolios of Bok artwork. Bok's work was later collected in A Hannes Bok Treasury (1993) and A Hannes Bok Showcase (1995).
