{"id":1628,"date":"2020-11-27T12:24:46","date_gmt":"2020-11-27T18:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/?p=1628"},"modified":"2020-11-27T12:24:46","modified_gmt":"2020-11-27T18:24:46","slug":"l-sprague-de-camp-seeks-employment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/l-sprague-de-camp-seeks-employment\/","title":{"rendered":"L. Sprague de Camp Seeks “Employment”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

L. Sprague and Catherine Crook de Camp<\/p><\/div>\n

Today, November 27, is the birthday of L. Sprague de Camp (1907-2000). I had the pleasure of meeting Sprague and his lovely wife Catherine on several occasions after they moved to Plano, Texas in the 1990s. They attended some of the local conventions.<\/p>\n

I am more than well aware that de Camp isn’t exactly popular in Robert E. Howard fandom because of how he portrayed Howard in his biography Dark Valley Destiny<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But this is my science fiction blog, not my fantasy blog. L. Sprague de Camp wrote plenty of science fiction, especially early in his career. I think he was a better short story writer than novelist, but that’s just me. I’m going to look at one of de Camp’s early science fiction stories today.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>That story is “Employment”, from the May 1939 issue of Astounding<\/em>. It was originally published under the byline of Lyman R. Lyon because de Camp had an essay under his own name in that issue.<\/p>\n

It’s a fun little story. I first read it in The Best of L. Sprague de Camp<\/em><\/a> in a paperback without a cover that I bought a a flea market for a quarter when I was in the 7th grade. I think that may have been the second volume of the Ballantine Best of<\/em> series I bought, the Jack Williamson volume being the first. That collection is available in electronic format; just click the above link.<\/p>\n

It’s written as a letter from a geologist asking for employment. He’s currently\u00a0 working for a man who has figured out how to revive animals from their fossils. It’s a slow process and not always successful. But it can bring back some interesting critters.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There are some folks who don’t like the idea, such as an organization of big game hunters. One of the things de Camp was noted for was having a dry sense of humor. It shows here. “Employment” was the feel at times of a screwball comedy, such as those Caryt Grant was starring in at the time this story was written.<\/p>\n

I hadn’t read “Employment” since I first read The Best of L. Sprague de Camp<\/em>. I had no memory of it, which added to the pleasure of the reread. I’m going to try to read more of de Camps science fiction if I can work it in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, November 27, is the birthday of L. Sprague de Camp (1907-2000). I had the pleasure of meeting Sprague and his lovely wife Catherine on several occasions after they moved to Plano, Texas in the 1990s. They attended some of the local conventions. I am more than well aware that de Camp isn’t exactly popular […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[296,267],"tags":[885,775,747],"class_list":["post-1628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birthday","category-l-sprague-de-camp","tag-ballantine-best-of-series","tag-birthday","tag-l-sprague-de-camp"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3P5pJ-qg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1628"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1632,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628\/revisions\/1632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}