Today is July 23. There are five birthdays I want to make note of. I’ll cover the authors and editors in chronological order and save the artist for last.They are Raymond Chandler, Alden H. Norton, C. M. Kornbluth, Gardner Dozois, and Virgil Finlay.

Raymond Chandler

First up is Raymond Chandler (1888-1959). Creator of what is arguably one of the most iconic private detectives in all of fiction, Phillip Marlowe, Chandler was British. He worked in the oil industry before turning to writing. He wrote for the pulps, specifically Black Mask. Chandler went on to write screenplays. Chandler was the first of the classic detective novelists I read, although I started with his shorter fiction. I quickly moved on to the novels. Marlowe has been played by a number of actors in the movies, but none rise to the level of Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep. In case you didn’t know, the screennplay for that movie was written by Leiegh Brackett and William Faulkner. (Yes, that William Faulkner.)

Alden H. Norton (1903-1987) edited some of the minor pulps, such as Astonishing Stories and Super Science Stories. I’m  more familiar with his book editing. In the sicities and seventies he edited a small number of anthologies, some co-edited with Sam Moskowitz. There’s an example of one to the right.

The thing I liked about these anthologies is that they reprinted stores that at the time weren’t easily availble anywhere else. Some of the authors were well-known, but the stories Norton inculded weren’t. Others were more obscure.

That’s nto to say the contents were subpar. On the whole, they weren’t, even if the name authors weren’t represented by their best. And the stories were quite horrific. “A Piece of Linoleum” by David H. Keller, or “His Unconquerable Enemy” by W. C. Morrow have stayed with me for years.

C. M. Kornbluth

C. M. Kornbluth (1923-1958). Cyril Kornbluth was primarily a short fiction writer. Most of his novels were collaborations, usually with Fred Pohl or Judith Merrill. He also collaborated on a number of short stories with Pohl.

Kornbluth was a member of the Futurians. He suffered heart damage in the Battle of the Bulge. This would eventually kill him.

Kornbluth had a sardonic view of life. His best-known story is “The Little Black Bag”, a tale of a doctor’s medical bag that gets sent back in  time and is found by an alocohlic doctor in what was the present when the story was written. It is a perfect blend of science fiction and horror. It was filmed three times, including Rod Serling’s Night Gallery.

Kornbluth had been told by his doctor to cut out alcohol and salt for his health. This was a few weeks before his death. He was on his way to interview for the job of editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. My understanding, and I am not sure where I read this, is that the job was essentially his. the interview was merely a formality. Kornbluth shoveled snow in order to get to the train station to take him into New York. He had a fatal heart attack on the platform.

NESFA Press hsa collected all fo Kornbluth’s short fiction (except the collaborations, which have been collected elsewhere) in one massive volume. Kornbluth is one of my favorite writers. It’s been a few years since I read his work. I need to give it a visit sometime soon.

Gardner Dozois

Gardner Dozois (1947-2018) began his career as a short story writer. I’ve enjoyed the few I’ve read. Today, though, Gardner is remembered as one of  the most important editors in the field. He edited Asimov’s for decades. During his tenure, it became the leading magazine in the field.  Gardner, along iwth Jack Dann,  also edited a series of theme anthologies for Ace Books. This was called the Exclamatory series because each title ended in an exclamation mark. Additionally, he edited or co-edited other anthologies.

I want to stress his other editing, namely The Year’s Best Science Fiction. This series ran to thirty-five volumes. They were doorstoppers, and they became the gold standard for Best of anthologies. The reason they were so thick was that Dozois included a number of novellas in each iinstallment. I miss lookiing for those books. They always came out about this time of year. The similar volumes published these days just aren’t the same.

Finally, we come to Virgil Finlay (1914-1971). Finlay did covers and interior illustrations for the pulps as well as paperbacks after the pulps went by the wayside. I’ll let his art speak for itself.