Virgil Finlay
Born July 23rd, 1914, passed January 18th 1971
Education self taught

Virgil Warden Finlay was born and raised in Rochester, New York; his father, woodworker Warden Hugh Finlay, died at age 40 in the midst of the Great Depression, leaving his family in straitened circumstances. By his high school years, Virgil Finlay was exercising his passions for art and poetry, and discovered his lifelong subject matter in the pulp magazines of the era—science fiction in Amazing Stories (1927), fantasy and horror in Weird Tales (1928)—and began to exhibit at the age of 16. By age 21 he was confident enough in his art to send six pieces, unsolicited, to editor Farnsworth Wright at Weird Tales, who determined that such detailed work would transfer successfully to relatively rough paper the magazine used. Wright began buying Finlay\'s work, which debuted with illustrations of three different stories in the December 1935 issue and appeared in 62 issues including the last in September 1954.

Finlay quickly branched out to other publications after his 1935 debut; he was an immediate hit. In 1938 he went to work for A. Merritt at The American Weekly, moving from Rochester to New York City.

Finlay served in the US Army during World War II, and saw extensive combat in the South West Pacific theater, notably on Okinawa, and did posters and illustrations for the Morale Services during his three years of military service. He resumed his artistic career after demobilization, doing a considerable amount of work for science fiction magazines and books. As the pulp magazine market narrowed through the 1950s, Finlay turned to astrology magazines as a new venue for his art.

While he worked in a range of media, from gouache to oils, Finlay specialized in, and became famous for, detailed pen-and-ink drawings accomplished with abundant stippling, cross-hatching, and scratchboard techniques. Despite the very labor-intensive and time-consuming nature of his specialty, Finlay created more than 2600 works of graphic art in his 35-year career.

Awards
Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame 2015
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame inducted Finlay in 2012
Retro Hugo awarded in 1996
Hugo Award for Best Interior Illustrator, 1953
Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist, 1945

artist gallery: http://www.artnet.com/artists/virgil-finlay/

Virgil Finlay History of American Illustration