Hal K. Wells

Harold Kerton Wells, better known as Hal K. Wells, was an American author born in Little Hocking, Ohio, in September 1899. He later became known for science-fiction and weird-fiction stories published in pulp magazines, building a reputation for energetic, colorful adventure writing.

He began publishing genre work with "The Brass Key" in Weird Tales in 1929. Much of his science fiction appeared in pulp magazines such as Astounding, where stories like Zehru of Xollar showed his taste for bold, lurid space opera and fast action.

Although he is not as widely remembered as some of his contemporaries, his work remains part of pulp science-fiction history, and later collections helped keep it available to new readers. Reliable sources consulted here identify him as born in 1899, not 1900; he died in Torrance, California, on December 12, 1979.