Today, August 1, marks another birthday for two great authors and one great artist.
The first author is Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936). M. R. James was arguably the greatest author of what has become to be known as the British ghost stories. His stories often focuses on antiquarians making discoveries they later come to regret. Atmosphere is one of the hallmarks of an M. R. James story. James had many imitators. It’s been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If that’s true, then he was widely admired by his fellow authors.
His work is easy to find, and if you like classic ghost stories, you should definitely check him out if you haven’t.
The second great author having a birthday today is David Gemmell (1948-2006). Today would have been his 70th birthday. I’m sure most readers of this blog are quite familiar with David Gemmell. His novel Legend is, well, legendary. For epic, heroic fantasy, Gemmell is your man. He wrote very little short fiction. Most of his work was at novel length and usually part of a series.
The David Gemmell awards are named after him. They’re one of the few awards I pay any attention to any more. Even though David Gemmell left us over a decade ago, his work and his legacy still lives on. Not many authors can say the same.
The artist with a birthday today is Edd Cartier (1948-2008). He’s one of my favorite artists. Cartier is best remembered today for his illustrations from Unknown and Astounding Science Fiction in the 1940s. He also illustrated a number of issues of The Shadow. Here’s a sampling of his work.
Great persons, all! Love M. R. James, I always enjoy reading his stories in October and December, and looking for the annual BBC productions of his ghost stories at Christmas-time on youtube. What a great tradition. Also, Cartier illustrated many of the Doc Savages of the ’40’s.
I didn’t realize Cartier had illustrated Doc. And I’ll have to look for those BBC productions of James’s ghost stories.
Many of them are fantastic. I especially like the one they did in the mid-60’s, of “Whistle And I’ll Come For You” with Michael Hordern.
I’ll look for that one.
Cartier not only did Doc, but he did The Shadow too! From this I surmise that he worked in whatever magazine the Street and Smith Art Department assigned to him. The idea of a Cartier western seems strange but not more so than Doc or The Shadow. I don’t know that there actually are any such, but I should not want to bet against it.
Good point.