Category Archives: birthday

The Universe of Terry Carr

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Today, February 19, is the birthday of Terry Carr (1937-1987). While Carr wrote a decent amoung of short fiction and a smattering of novels, he is best remembered as an editor.

He edited The Best Science Fiction of the Year for Ballantine and later Tor from the early seventies to the mid-eighties along with two companion valumes, The Best Science Fiction Novellas of the Year. (I wish someone would pout out such a volume these days.) Before  that there was the World’s Best Science Fiction with Don Wolheim from 1965 to 1971. There as also teh five volume fantasy reprint series, Fantasy Annual (1978-1982).

Those were all reprint anthologies. Carr edited three volumes of New Worlds of Fantasy (1967,1970, 1971). But his greatest achievement in original anthologies was the Universe series, which ran to seventeen volumes from 1971 to 1987, with a new volume every year except 1974, which saw the publication of volumes 4 and 5. Continue reading →

Ed Emshwiller

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Today, February 16, is the birthday of Ed Emswiller (1925-1990). Emshwiller was a prolific cover and interior artist in the nineteen fifties and sixties. He was married to author Carol Emshiwiller.

Galaxy February 1955, Cover by Emsh

He signed his work as Emsh. Much of it was for digests in the fifties, such as F&SF and Galaxy. His covers for Galaxy  tended to be fun and somewhat zany, especially his Christmas covers, which featured a four-armed Santa Claus.

His covers for publiscations such as F&SF, Infinity, and other magazines of the time tended to be darker in theme and tone. I’m not sure how much of this was due to editorial policies, Emsh’s preferences, or the nature of the fiction he was illustrating. Galaxy, after all, published more satire than any other publication of the day. Many of those covers feature beautiful women.

In the sixties, he did a number of covers for paperbacks. His work has a definite style and feel to it.

Belowo are some samples of his work. Continue reading →

Remembering Frazetta

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Today, February 9, is the birthday of Frank Frazetta (1928-2010). It’s hard to believe it’s been over fifteen years since we lost him.

His influence is still felt today and will be for years to come. His iconic covers for the Lancer edition of Robert E. Howard’s Conan collections alone will ensure that.

He is arguably the greatest fantasy artist of the last century.

There’s not much I can say about Frazetta that hasn’t been said before, and better, by toher people. I’m not going to write a long post.

I just wanted to acknowledge his birthday.

“Heir Apparent” by C. L. Moore

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Today is January 24, as I write this, and it’s the birthday of C. L. Moore (1911-1987). She’s a favorite around here.

Being cooped up in the house most of the day due tot eh weather, I was able read one of her stories. I chose “Heit Apparent” from the collection Judg,ment Night. That’s the cover of the original Gnome Press edition there on the left with a great cover by Kelly Freas.

It’s one of two stories in this volume that the ISFDB calls the Threshholders. The other is “Promised Land”.

Judgment Night was published in 1952.It contains five novellas that Moore was  the primary author on. Her husband Henry Kuttner didn’t collaborate much if at all on these stories. They were all published under the pen name of Lawrence O’Donnell.

I read this book in the DCell paperback edition when I was in high school. I remember very little about it, which is why I chose a story from it for this post I wanted to look at some of her work that doesn’t get a lot of attention. There’s a slight C. L. Moore reviavl going on at the moment. At least it looks like it to me. While Northwest Smith and Jirel of Joiry are her best known works and my favorites of her stories, there’s more to the work of C. L. Moore than jsut those two characters. Continue reading →

Robert E. Howard at 120

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So today, January 6. is the one hundred and twentieth birthday of Robert E. Howard. The day is nearly over as write this. I’ve been occupied by work and winterizing before the temperatures drop into the single digits.

But I didn’t want the day to get away without some sort of post.

I doubt there’s much I could say that I either haven’t said before or that someone else has said better.

But when have I ever let that stop me? Continue reading →

Ruminations on Merritt

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Today, January 20, is the birthday of Abraham Merritt (1884-1943). At one time, Merritt was arguably the priemere writer of fantastic fiction in the United States, if not the world. For a while there was a fantasy magazine named after him. Sadly, outside of a small number of aficianados of fantasy, he pretty much forgtotten today.

Not entirely, though. Centipede Press as reprinted some of his novels in nice hardcover editions. Paperback copies of his works are available on the secondary market. Continue reading →

An Appreciation of Clark Ashton Smith

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As I mentioned in my previous post, today (January 13) is the birthday of Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961).

I’m not sure what I can say about Smith that hasn’t been said, and said better, by someone else. This isn’t the first post I’ve made about Smith.

I havne’t read anything by him in a while, so I’m not going to try and review any of his stories. But I do want to acknowledge his birthday

So here goes. Continue reading →

Northern Shadows

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Today is January 3. It’s the birthday of J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973). His shadow over the field of fantasy is arguably the longest of any author. Many writers have written in imitation of him (think early Terry Brooks) or in reguttal to him. (Michael Moorcock and George R. R. Martin).

Tolkien drew on northern European mythology in crafting his worlds. That topic alone is worth multiple dissertations, and I’m not going to try to dwell on it in any great scholoarly depth.

Instead, I want make some general observations. Continue reading →