Category Archives: birthday

Robert E. Howard, Second of Three

Born Januarry 22, 1906, Robert E. Howard is the second of three birthdays that fall every other day here in late Janaury. The first is A. Merritt, whom I wrote about two days ago.

I’ve been writing about Howard and doing birthday posts for him for years, so I’m not sure what else I could say. I’d better think of something, though, because I have a REHUPA article due by the end of the month, and it needs to be four pages.

I’ve got time. (Famous Last Words.)

So, today I want to talk about Howard’s work ethic as a writer. Writing practices have been on my mind lately, so I thought I would examine a few of Howard’s. Continue reading

Abraham Merritt, First of Three

Abraham Merritt (1884-1943) was born today, January 20. His birthday is the first  of three giants of the fantasy field who birthdays fall every other day. The next two are Robert E. Howard and C. L. Moore. Posts on their birthdays to follow over the next couple of days.

There’s been something of a theme running through this year’s posts, and that is authors who have either never really received the recognition they deserve and are still writing, or they were once major figures who have been forgotten or nearly so. Continue reading

Coming to Poe by Way of Bradbury

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was born on this date, January 19. He was one of the greatest writers of the strange and macabre. Depending on how you split hairs when defining your terms, he has been credited with creating the detective story and science fiction. And while some might say that’s a stretch, there’s no denying that he was an early practitioner of those genres as well as a writer of some truly gothic tales. H. P. Lovecraft, himself no slouch in the weird fiction department, was greatly influenced by him.

I don’t recall when I first became aware of Poe. I have vague memories of someone talking about “The Pit and the Pendulum” when I was very young, like about five or so.

I was certainly aware of him and his work when I first read The Martian Chronicles. This would have been in fifth grade, I believe. You might be wondering what The Martian Chronicles has to do with Poe. So let me explain. Continue reading

Kenneth Bulmer (AKA Alan Burt Akers)

Kenneth Bulmer (1921-2005) was born on this day, January 14. A prolific science fiction adventure author, you probably know him better as Alan Burt Akers, author of the long-running Dray Prescott series of sword and planet adventures.

These are basically Burroughs pastiches in which the hero, Dray Prescott, is tranported to a planet orbiting the star Antares in the constellation Scorpio, where he falls in love with a princess, gets separated from her, and tries to return to her. There are fifty-two novels in the series, which is divided up into cycles. Continue reading

Clark Ashton Smith and the Ballantines

Today, as I’m writing this, it’s January 13. Or to put it another way, it’s the birthday of Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961). I’ve been on the road since  I got off work  this morning, and only got home about forty-five minutes ago, which is why I’m posting this so late. Most of you probably won’t see it until tomorrow.

I say all that to say that I’ve not had a chance to read anything by Smith today, so I’m going to do something different. I’m going to take a brief look at the four CAS collections Lin Carter put together for the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. That’s the Ballantine I reference in the title of the post. I’m not going to put “Adult Fantasy” in the title.

As an aside, do you have any idea what comes up if youtype “Ballantine Adult Fantasy” into a search engine? Hint: Don’t try this at work.

Continue reading

Jack London

Today, January 12, is Jack London’s birthday. London (1876-1916) was one of Robert E. Howard’s favorite authors.

I confess, I haven’t read much London. I’m slightly familiar with White Fang and The Call of the Wild because they are so well known.

Of course, decades years ago, I read “To Build a Fire” in one of my high school English classes. I don’t recall which one, nor do I remember much about the story. From what I’ve seen, it’s the obligatory Jack London story to include in high school literature books.

I have read a couple of other Londond stories.

“A Relic of the Pliocene” concerns an encounter with a mammoth. It’s a good adventure story. It’s been quite a while since I read it. I’ll have to give it a reread.

The other story, which I read as a kid and have reread at least once, is “Moon Face”. The details of this one have stuck with me better, maybe because I read it while I was young and the story imprinted itself on my  memory.

One man hates another man. The hated man loves to fish using dynamite. So the man who hates him gets a dog, trains the dog to fetch sticks, then gives the dog to the man he hates. You can probably figure out the rest.

London isn’t a writer you hear a lot about these days. I think that’s a shame, but then I can say the same about a number of writers who have passed from the scene.

I can certainly see how Jack London’s works would have resonated with Robert E. Howard. London’s themes, as I understand them, deal  with man’s survival in a wilderness environment. I have been wantiing to read London, more than the little I have.

So, those of you out there who have read London, what do you reccommend? Where should I start? I’m open to suggestions of short stories or novels.

 

Jerome Bixby

Image bhy FantArt

Jerome Bixby was born on January 11, 1923. He passed away on April 28, 1998.

Bixby was a short story writer who did most of his work in the 1950s and 1960s. He is best remembered for his short story “It’s a Good Life”, which was filmed as an episode on the original Twilight Zone and starred Billy Mumy.

If Bixby wrote any novels, the ISFDB doesn’t list them.

Four collections of Bixby’s work were published, two in his lifetime, one in 2011, and the final one in 2014. A number of his stories haven’t been collected.

Bixby went on to become a screenwriter and wrote four episodes of the original Star Trek: “Mirror, Mirror”, “The Day of the Dove”,  “Requim for Methusaleh”, and “By Any Other Name”. He also wrote westerns.

In addition to being a writer, Bixby also edited a few pulps before they died. He was editor of Planet Stories (1950=1951)  and Jungle Stories (1949-1951).

Getting Back to Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien was born on this date, January 3, way back in 1892. I’ve done a number of birthday posts on him, so I’ll not rehash those.

Today, I want to ruminate a bit, if you’ll allow a bit of self-indulgence. Tolkien has been on my mind some lately. I’m not really sure why. It may have something to do with having heard a Led Zeppelin song on the radio the other day, but I don’t think that was it. He was on my mind before that. Continue reading

Happy Birthday, Fritz Leiber, Jr.

Fritz Leiber, Jr. was born on this day, December 24, in 1910. He was one of the giants of not only sword and sorcery, but science fiction, as well.

His science fiction isn’t as well remembered today as it once was, but his tales of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are still in print and being read today.

In a way, I think that’s a shame. He was such a versatile writer that I would love to see a collected short fiction series of books, much like the Del Rey Rober E. Howard books. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are now iconic characters, and that’s how it should be. But they shouldn’t overshadow Leiber’s other work. He wrote a number of dark fantasy and horror stories that are first rate.

I’ve not had a chance to read something for his birthday, but I’ll try to work something in over the next few weeks.

Still, later tonight, after everyone else has gone to bed and I’ve finished stuffing stockings, I’ll raise a glass in his memory.

Back, and in Time for Leigh Brackett’s Birthday

No, I’m not dead, and I’ll post an update within the next few days. It’s been a hectic few months that have involved a lot more travel than I was expecting. Hopefully, I’ll post more regularly. Things are starting to get into a routine.

Leigh Brackett

But today, I want to mention Leigh Brackett (1915-1978). I’ve not read anything by her for this post, but I didn’t want to let her birthday pass.

As I’ve stated in numerous other posts, Brackett is one of my favorite writers. Her space opera is some of the best around. She often managed to blend it with a hardboiled tone.  It’s worth seeking out if you can find it. I’ve noticed that other than the Skaith trilogy, which I started rereading earlier this year, she’s pretty hard to find in paper.

So, I’ll raise a glass to her memory before I go to bed and hope I dream of a solar system like the one she created.