Today is August 12, the birthday of Chan Davis (1926-1922). Davis only wrote a handful fo science fiction stories from the forties up through the fifties with a few appearing later. I first read his story “Letter to Ellen” in Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 9 (1947). I thought that would be a good story to feature. I remeber I read the story. I remember I liked it.

I didn’t remember a thing about it.

In the introduction to the story, Maratin H. Greenberg mentions that he thought Lester Del Rey’s “Helen O’Loy”, which thematically has some similarities to “Letter to Ellen” had kept Davis’s story from gettng the recognition it deserved.

So I decided to compare the two.

“Letter to Ellen” was first published in the June 1947 issue of Astounding. It’s in the form of a letter a man has written to his girlfriend, telling her some information he feels she needs to know before he can ask her to marry him.

The letter writer and his best friend, who met in an orphanage when they were young. They were separated for a time, met in college, and are now biochemists working in a lab that is trying to create life. What exactly they are working on isn’t clear, and their boss won’t tell them what chordate they are trying to reproduce. The friend figures it out, and it disturbs him. They are trying to create an artificial human, what hte friend calls a robot.

This isn’t a robot made of gears, cogs, or electronics. I would say the term android would be more applicable, but that word hadn’t been invented yet. At least I don’t think so. Then the firend is told he’s an artificial human, created by the scientist he’s working for.

The news is too much for him, and he commits suicide.

You can probably figure out the twist.

“Helen O’Loy” is one of Lester Del Rey’s best known stories. It was first published in the December 1938 issue of Astounding and has been reprinted many times.

It’s along a similar line. Two firends, one a doctor, the other a robot repairman, decide to improve on their robot maid. When that doesn’t work, they buy the best robot they can and convert it to a biological-mechanical hybrid. They name her Helen.

The narrator of the story, the doctor, is called away on a case and doesn’t come back for a couple of weeks. When he returns, he finds Helen madly in love with the repairman.

The feelings are not reciprocated.

At least not at first.

The ending of this one is happier than the ending of “Letter to Ellen”. I’ve seen “Helen O’Loy” called sentimental. There is some justification to that.

I think I prefer “Letter to Ellen” over “Helen O’Loy”, although I like them both. The implications of the ending to Davis’s story gives it more power than Del Rey does.

Has anyone read either of these stories? If so, what did you thin of them. Drop a line in the comments if you have.