Category Archives: birthday

Manly Wade Wellman’s “The Finger of Halugra”

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It’s been a while since I posted anything, and so I was going to do an update.  The I realized it was Manly Wade Wellman’s birthday (b. May 21, 1903) and instead could write about something that would be of interest to people.

“The Finger of Halugra” is vintage Wellman, but it may not be familiar to many of you.  It was originally written in the early 70s for a small press publication that folded before the story could see print.  The story languished in Wellman’s files and wasn’t rediscovered until some years after the author’s death, when Karl Edward Wagner came across it.  The story first saw print in another small press publication, Deathrealm, in the spring 1995 issue.  It was reprinted in The Best New Horror Volume 7 (AKA The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror Volume 7).  Sin’s Doorway is the only collection of Wellman’s in which “The Finger of Halugra” has appeared.  And that collection is out of print and never had an electronic edition, although copies can be had on the secondary market. Continue reading →

Jack Williamson’s Eleventy-First Birthday

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Jack Williamson

There are a number of birthdays today that I could write about, but I want to focus on three, in no other order than their importance to me.

Legendary science fiction and fantasy author Jack Williamson was born 111 years ago today.  That would be April 29, 1908.  He passed away in 2006.

Williamson got his start in the pulps in the late 1920s with his first story, “The Metal Man”, being published in Amazing Stories.  His final novel, The Stonehenge Gate, was published in 2005.

My project to read and compare the magazine and book versions of Darker Than You Think got sidetracked last year.  I’ll try to get it restarted in the summer.

I’ve written about Williamson’s impact on me several times before, so I’ll keep my comments short.  I came across a stripped copy of The Best of Jack Williamson for a quarter at the flea market in Wichita Falls, Texas, when I was in the seventh grade.  (Stripped means the cover had been stripped off and the book had been reported to the publisher as having been pulped.  It was stolen, IOW, although I didn’t know that then.)  My favorite story in the collection at the time, and still a favorite today, is “With Folded Hands”.  It’s a chilling story about robots who protect us from ourselves, whether we want them to or not.  If you haven’t read it, it’s worth tracking down a copy. Continue reading →

“Humpty Dumpty Had a Great Fall” by Frank Belknap Long

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Frank Belknap Long was born on this date, April 27, in 1901.  Long was friends with H. P. Lovecraft, and he’s best remembered today as a member of the Lovecraft circle.  Long contributed a number of  stories to the Mythos over the years, my personal favorite being “The Hounds of Tindalos”.

But Long wrote in multiple genres, including Gothics mostly under his wife’s name.  Today I want to look briefly at one of his science fiction stories.  “Humpty Dumpty Had a Great Fall” was first published in the November 1948 issue of Startling Stories.   Continue reading →

Mundy and Davidson

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Just a quick birthday announcement of two great writers of the previous century who were born on this date (April 23).

Talbot Mundy

First, Talbot Mundy (1879-1940).  Mundy wrote adventure stories for the pulps.  Mundy worked in India and Africa after graduating from university, and these experiences informed much of his later fiction.  Some of his work  contains fantastic elements, but much was real world adventure fiction.  He was an influence on a number of science fiction and fantasy writers.

Much of his fiction is available in both print and electronic formats.

Avram Davidson

Second, Avram Davidson (1923-1993).  Davidson wrote his best work at short lengths, although he wrote a number of novels as well.  Davidson had a unique voice, and I once attended a panel where the moderator asked the panelists what writers they thought people would be reading in a hundred years.  Neil Gaimen was on the panel, and if memory serves, named Davidson.

Davidson isn’t light bedtime reading, but his work rewards the effort.   (It doesn’t require a great deal of effort, you slackers.)  His collection of essays, Adventures in Unhistory, is worth seeking out.

Beagle and Wandrei

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About four years ago, there was a showing of The Last Unicorn at the local Alamo Drafthouse.  The is of course based on the novel by Peter S. Beagle.  I had seen it in the theater years ago upon its release.  I took my son, who at the time was about the same age I had been when I saw it.  He got to meet Peter, whom I had met on several previous occasions.  My son and I both had a great evening.  If you’re interested, you can read about that here.

Today (April 20, 2019) marks Peter’s 80th birthday.  I’d like to wish him a very happy birthday.  Beagle is a true gentleman and one of the best stylists working in the field.  His work is filled with warmth and humor, and I highly recommend it.

The other birthday I want to acknowledge is that of Donald Wandrei, who was born in 1908.  In addition to writing for the pulps, including Weird Tales and Black Mask, Wandrei co-founded Arkham House with August Derleth.  There are no electronic collections of Wandrei’s fiction, but Fedogan and Bremer have brought out several nice hardcover collections of his short fiction.  I’ve read a little of his work, and I intend to read more.  Anyone who can hit both Weird Tales and Black Mask is a writer I want to read.

Kuttner at Longer Lengths

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Henry Kuttner was on born on this date, April 7, in 1915.  Anyone who has spent any time around this blog knows that Kuttner is one of my favorite authors.  It’s been one of those weeks where I haven’t had much time to read, so I don’t have a review of anything he wrote ready to go.  (I did manage to make it to the Jack Williamson lectureship again, so there will be a report on that within a few days.)

Much of Kuttner’s work in the middle to late 1940s was at what was considered novel length at the time, but most of these stories would be considered novellas today.  Thrilling Wonder and Startling Stories were the two most common magazines for Kuttner’s longer works.  And most of them have never been reprinted.  There are some exceptions.  I’ve read most of Kuttner’s short stories that I can get my hands on.  The longer works are next on my agenda. Continue reading →

Novalyne’s Birthday

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Novalyne Price Ellis was born on this day (March 9) in 1908.  She passed away in 1999 on March 30.  Novalyne was the author of One Who Walked Alone, a memoir of her relationship with Robert E. Howard during the last two years of his life.  It was based on her diary.

Novalyne Price moved to Cross Plains to teach English in 1934,  She soon met Robert E. Howard, and a tempestuous relationship started.  They had broken up by the summer of 1936, and Novalyne had left Cross Plains to attend graduate school in Louisiana.  She was there when she got the news of Robert’s death.

She wrote One Who Walked Alone as a rebuttal to L. Sprague de Camp’s biography of Howard, Dark Valley Destiny.  If you’ve not read her book, you should.  It’s one of the main sources of information we have about Bob.

The book was filmed in the mid-1990s and starred Vincent D’Onofrio as Robert and Renee Zellweger as Novalyne.

William F. Nolan at 91

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William F. Nolan

William F. Nolan was born this day (March 6) in 1928.  Best known as the coauthor of Logan’s Run, Nolan is, AFAIK, the last living member of what became known as the California School or California Group.  Other members included but were not limited to Ray Bradbury, Charles Beaumont, Charles E. Fritch, Richard Matheson, and Nolan’s collaborator on Logan’s Run, George Clayton Johnson.

I enjoyed Logan’s Run when I was a kid, and I’ve got the two sequels Nolan wrote somewhere around the house.  I’ve not read Johnson’s sequel.

But what i enjoy most about Nolan’s work are his short stories.  They tend to have a bite to them.  It’s been a while since I read any.  I’m going to try to work one in some time today if I can.  Just as soon as I finish the Henry S. Whitehead story I started yesterday.

Henry S. Whitehead

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Today (March 5) marks the birth of Henry S. Whitehead.  He was born in 1882 and passed away in November of 1932.  Whitehead was a contributor of Weird Tales and a correspondent of H.P. Lovecraft.  The year before Whitehead died, Lovecraft visited him at his Florida home and quite liked him.  Had he not died so young, Whitehead would have been a major author of the weird and fantastic.  I consider him to be so, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that.

Whitehead served for a time as the Archdeacon for the Episcopal Church in the Virgin Islands.  This posting would become a major influence on his fiction, as most of it dealt with voodoo and other fantastic aspects of Caribbean life.

Whitehead wrote no novels, but his short fiction is worth seeking out.  I reviewed “Seven Turns in a Hangman’s Rope” a few years ago.  Fortunately, his work is available in electronic format.  If I get a chance, I’ll try to read something else by him.