Harold Kerton Wells was born in September 1899 in Little Hocking and lived in Belpre and Athens, Ohio, before seeking greener pastures on the West Coast. Wells enlisted in the Ohio National Guard in May 1917, a little more than a month after the United States declared war on Germany. He was discharged fourteen months later with a Surgeon's Certificate of Disability. Wells was classified as 50% disabled, but I don't know the nature of his wound, injury, or illness. Two years later he was enumerated in the federal census in Athens where he worked as a salesman in a dry goods store. His father was employed as a carpenter at the state hospital, a place now reputed to be haunted.

By 1930, Wells was living in Los Angeles and calling himself a writer of magazine fiction. The earliest credits I have found for him are from about that time period: articles for Motion Picture Magazine in 1927-1928 and stories in Weird Tales in 1929-1932. His stories for "The Unique Magazine" were three in number, the last of which has a very intriguing title: "The Brass Key" (Feb. 1929), "The Daughter of Isis" (Feb. 1930), and "The Ordeal of Wooden-Face" (Jan. 1932). Wells also wrote a letter to the magazine, printed in the February issue, 1935. Incidentally, Wells was enumerated with Richard W. Faubion in Los Angeles in 1930. Faubion may or may not have been the same man who later served in the air force as a psychologist.

Hal K. Wells wrote several more stories for fantasy and science fiction magazines from 1931 to 1954. His credits include tales for Astounding Stories, Fantastic Universe, Mystery Tales, Startling Stories, Super Science Stories, and Thrilling Wonder Stories. He was also the author of a story upon which the film A Moony Mariner (1927) was based.

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