West, D
Entry updated 30 October 2023. Tagged: Artist, Author, Critic, Fan.
Working name of UK author, artist and critic Donald West (1945-2015), active in Fandom from the early 1970s, his first publication being Illustrations to J.R.R. Tolkien (graph 1971 chap); his fanzine DAISNAID (Do As I Say Not As I Do) appeared irregularly from 1976 to 1997. He began to publish fiction of genre interest with the sf tale "The Pit" in The Gollancz/Sunday Times Best SF Stories (anth 1975; vt Let's Go to Golgotha 1979) edited anonymously (see Conceptual Breakthrough). Thereafter, however, he focused almost exclusively on writing and drawing for Fanzines. His critical work – mostly about fanzines but including a number of sf reviews in Foundation: The Review of Science Fiction and elsewhere – was notable for its unsparing, often acerbic, analysis and willingness to treat "ephemeral" subject matter at considerable length, as shown in several of the essays assembled in Fanzines in Theory and in Practice: Collected Articles 1975-1982 (coll 1984) and Deliverance (coll 1995). The former collection includes the remarkable tour-de-force Performance (November 1982 Tappen; 1987 chap), a multi-stranded essay and memoir of life and fandom that was adapted by Geoff Ryman as a dramatic monologue staged at Conventions, including the 1987 Worldcon.
West's painstakingly drawn Illustrations and cartoons, usually in black ink but later often coloured, appeared in numerous fanzines and won him multiple FAAn Awards and Nova Awards; he declined the 2011 Rotsler Award for life achievement in this area. His wry Humour and gift for artistic Parody were widely admired. [DRL]
Donald West
born Stafford, Staffordshire: 8 July 1945
died Embsay, North Yorkshire: 25 September 2015
works
nonfiction
- Illustrations to J.R.R. Tolkien (Bingley, West Yorkshire: privately printed, 1971) [chap: graph: pb/]
- Fanzines in Theory and in Practice: Collected Articles 1975-1982 (Bingley, West Yorkshire: privately printed, 1984) [nonfiction: coll: pb/nonpictorial]
- Performance (Keighley, West Yorkshire: privately printed, 1987) [nonfiction: chap: essay first appeared November 1982 Tappen: pb/D West]
- Deliverance (Keighley, West Yorkshire: privately printed, 1995) [nonfiction: coll: illus/D West: pb/nonpictorial]
links
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