Sir H. Rider Haggard
Today, June 22, marks the birth of Sir Henry Rider Haggard (1856-1925). Haggard was one of the premier adventure writers of the 19th Century. Best known for his character Allan Quatermain, H. Rider Haggard wrote many other novels.
His work has has a major influence on many writers, from his friend and contemporary Rudyard Kipling to such fantasy giants as Robert E. Howard.
These days he’s fallen out of favor because he wasn’t woke enough. I don’t care. I’m smart enough to not judge people from previous centuries by today’s shifting standards.
Haggard didn’t write a lot of short fiction. The story I want to look at tonight is an Allan Quatermain tale, “Magepa the Buck”. Magepa is a friend of Qautermain’s who is known as the Buck because he is the fastest man around. War is coming, and Magepa, who is out of favor with the king who is about to attack the English, asks Quatermain to escort his widowed daughter and her son to safety. Things go wrong before Allan can honor his promise. And yes, Mageba’s ability to run will come into play.
I’ll not commit spoilers. The story is short and straight-forward. Haggard’s complete works are available in at least two ebook collections for a buck. No pun intended.
One of Haggard’s novels, The People of the Mist, was part of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. I’m going to move it up behind the CAS volumes and try to post a review of it sometime in the next few months.
There are two other birthdays of note today. Julian Hawthorne, son of Nathaniel, wrote Gothic tales and ghost stories. Ash-Tree Press published a collection of his work in The Rose of Death and Other Stories.
Leo Margulies (1900-1975) edited several pulp magazines. I first discovered his editorial work when I was searching any used book store I could find for old anthologies with stories by Brackett, Kuttner, Eric Frank Russell, and other pulp writers who were out of print.
Margulies edited a series of anthologies for Pyarmid Books in the early 60s that drew heavily on Weird Tales (especially the ones that had “Weird Tales” in the title.) They are worth tracking down if you can find them.
By coincidence, I started reading Haggard’s Nada the Lily earlier today (before I knew it was his birthday).
He had one other BAF volume — The World’s Desire, a sequel of sorts to The Odyssey, cowritten with Andrew Lang.
You’re right. I had forgotten about The World’s Desire.
People of the Mist is a classic adventure story.
He also had two Viking novels that were also part of the Ballatine Adult Fantasy series, Eric Brighteyes and The Wanderer’s Necklace. Eric Brighteyes contain a few supernatural elements.
I’ve read Eric Brighteyes and it was great; need to get to Wanderer’s Necklace as well. I don’t think those were ever part of the BAF, though — weren’t they some of the ones Zebra was publishing? And/or did Ballantine do reprints post-BAF, like they did with When the World Shook and the She novels?
You’re correct. Those weren’t part of the BAF series. The ISFDB shows Zebra as the publisher.
Thanks for honoring HRH’s birthday, Keith! I had connectivity and work-related difficulties, else I would’ve had a post up as well.
I should add that the talented David J. West shares a b-day with HRH.
I will need to keep that in mind for next year.
You’re welcome. That’s why we have a community. So is Real Life gets in the way of making a post, there is someone else there who can.
“These days he’s fallen out of favor because he wasn’t woke enough. I don’t care. I’m smart enough to not judge people from previous centuries by today’s shifting standards.”
Well said. Thanks for putting a spotlight on one of the most influential authors in the English language. I look forward to reading what you think of “The People of the Mist” and anything you have to say about CAS for that matter. Nobody scares me like Clark Ashton Smith.
Thank you very much. I start teaching a summer class online next week, so it may be a while before I get to some of the things I would really like to be reading. There will probably be more CAS in the next few weeks. I’m not sure about Haggard.