William F. Temple (1914-1989)

Author, Science Fiction Fan, Fanzine Editor, Clerk, Soldier
Born March 9, 1914, Woolwich, Royal Borough of Greenwich, England
Died July 15, 1989, Folkestone, Kent, England

William F.J. Temple was of or close to the same generation as British science fiction authors and fans Stafford Aylmer (1907-1965), A. Bertram Chandler (1912-1984), H.S.W. Chibbett (1900-1978), Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008), Rex Dolphin (1915-1990), Leslie J. Johnson (1914-?), Eric A. Leyland (1911-2001), Eric Frank Russell (1905-1978), E.C. Tubb (1919-2010), and John Wyndham (1903-1969). All but Arthur C. Clarke were also in Weird Tales, and almost all had their stories published in that magazine after World War II. I sense a pattern.

William Frederick Joseph Temple, called "Bill," was born on March 9, 1914, in Woolwich, England. He became a clerk on the London Stock Exchange at age sixteen. During the 1930s, he was involved with science fiction fandom in his native country as a member of the Science Fiction Association (SFA) and the British Interplanetary Society. He served as chair of the Writer's Circle for SFA and on the editorial staff of its publication Novae Terrae. He was also editor of the Bulletin of the British Interplanetary Society. Living in London, Temple shared an apartment (or flat) with fellow fans Arthur C. Clarke and Maurice K. Hanson (1918-1981). He wrote about his experience in Bachelor Flat, which was finally published in 2000 as 88 Gray's Inn Road: A Living-Space Odyssey, and Other Stories.

Temple's first professional story was "The Kosso," published in the book Thrills: A Collection of Uneasy Tales (1935). He had dozens more stories and letters in science fiction magazines and fanzines from 1937 to 1978, though his output dropped off considerably after about 1959. Temple is probably most well known for his novel Four-Sided Triangle (1949), originally the short story "The 4-Sided Triangle" in Amazing Stories, November 1949, and adapted to a British film in 1953. Temple's lone story for Weird Tales was the somewhat similarly titled "The Triangle of Terror" from May 1950 and reprinted in the Winter issue, 1985. By the way, Four-Sided Triangle had a twisted road to publication. Temple worked on the novel version of his story while serving in the British army during World War II. His manuscript was lost or destroyed not once but twice in battle, the first time at Takrouna, Tunisia, the second at the Battle of Anzio. Temple finished his novel in the Alps after the war and submitted it to four different publishers before it was finally accepted.

Temple married Joan Gertrude Nellie Streeton (1917-?) in September 1939. They had three children, Peter Temple, who died as a child, Anne Katherine Temple Patrizio (1940-2019), and Cliff Temple (1947-1994), who died by suicide after being unjustifiably smeared. William F.J. Temple died on July 15, 1989, in Folkestone, England, at age seventy-five.

William F. Temple's Story in Weird Tales
"The Triangle of Terror" (May 1950; reprinted Winter 1985)

Further Reading
There are entries on William F. Temple in:

• The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
• The FictionMags Index
• The Internet Movie Database
• The Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Wikipedia

"The 4-Sided Triangle" was originally in Amazing Stories in November 1939. The theme of the illustration is the ever-popular Woman-in-a-Test-Tube. The artist was H.W. McCauley.

Temple's story/novel has been reprinted again and again, as in this Italian edition with cover art by C. Caesar. Richard Shaver might have had something to say about the tero in the title.

I like to show foreign-language editions of works originally in English. Here is a Spanish edition of The Three Suns of Amara by William F. Temple, originally from 1962. I don't know the name of the artist.

Text copyright 2022 Terence E. Hanley