(1892-1943) UK-born architect, illustrator and author, in South Africa from 1912. The Ship that Sailed to Mars: a Fantasy (graph 1923), his only fiction, is more fantasy than sf, though it does describe in glowing detail the fitting up of a Spaceship and its trip to Mars, where extravagant Monsters are encountered. But Timlin's astonishingly evocative illustrations to the text – for which the original quarto edition of the book is now heavily collected – strongly underline the surreal nature of the tale. A unpublished second tale, <The Building of a Fairy City>, which contains a portrait of {utopia}, was left uncomplete at Timlin's death. [JC]
William Mitcheson Timlin
born Ashington, Northumberland: 11 April 1892
died Kimberley, Cape Province, South Africa: 7 June 1943
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