“He That Hath Wings”
The Best of Edmond Hamilton
edited by Leigh Brackett
paperback $14.99
ebook $6.99
Original appearance Weird Tales July 1938

Edmond Hamilton was born on this date, October 21, in 1904.  He passed away in 1977. Last year for his birthday, I looked at “Monster-God of Mamurth“.  This year I want to look at “He That Hath Wings”.

“He That Hath Wings” is one of Hamilton’s best works, so I was surprised to find that it hasn’t been reprinted very often.  Fortunately, The Best of Edmond Hamilton is in print, although the cover illustration of the current edition (see below) isn’t nearly as good.

Just so you know, I’m going to discuss this story in detail, so expect spoilers.

The story concerns a boy, David Rand, whose parents were caught in what is only described as an electrical explosion, but they were exposed to some unidentified form of radiation.  David’s father dies before his is born, and his mother dies a few hours after his birth.  The boy has some odd growths on his back.  The doctor who did the delivery has them x-rayed and discovers they are wings that haven’t yet broken the skin.

Trying to keep David from becoming a freak to be exploited by the media, he retires to an island with David, a nurse/housekeeper, and a caretaker. David’s wings unfurl, and when he is twelve he begins to fly. He wants to leave the island, but the doctor doesn’t want him to until he is older. He is restricted to flying above the island, although his heart is with the migratory birds.  The doctor dies unexpectedly when David is in his late teens.

David takes to the skies and begins to follow migratory birds. His life passes pleasantly, and he is happy.  He sleeps in trees, and during the night, he raids orchards. Sometimes he flies above cities and wonders how people can live so closed in and crammed together.

One night, as David is approaching an orchard, he hears a loud noise and feels a searing pain in his head. He loses consciousness. When he awakens, he finds himself in a hospital bed, a doctor and a beautiful young woman standing over him.

Her name is Ruth, and she tells him that he was shot by one of their servants who was hunting a hawk that had been catching their chickens. He mistook David for the hawk in the dark. Part of the shotgun blast got David on the side of the head. He is expected to make a full recovery.

You can probably guess how this one is going to turn out. While he is recovering, David falls in love with Ruth. He asks her to marry him. She says she won’t because she doesn’t want her husband to be a freak. She wants him to be like all the other women’s husbands. David finally agrees to have his wings amputated.

At first he doesn’t miss his wings. He and Ruth are happy in the small house her father built for them, and he works in his father-in-law’s factory. Then the weather changes, and David hears the call of geese migrating one night. For the next few years he tells himself eh doesn’t miss his wings.

Then they start to grow back. David rationalizes not having them re-amputated until they’ve fully grown out. Meanwhile Ruth tells him she’s pregnant. Shortly after his son is born, without any wings, David still hasn’t told Ruth about the wings. The new ones are small and weak, nothing like his original pair. He slips out one night to have them amputated.

The wind is blowing, and on impulse David takes off his shirt to flap his wings. He doesn’t think they will lift him off the ground. But they do. David takes to the air, and as he soars, he realizes that this is the life he really wants. To soar free above the ground. He flies away with some migratory birds, feeling like he has awoken from a dream. As the birds fly, they cross over the ocean. David continues to fly with them, even though his wings are weak and tiring. He goes to his death in the waves feeling satisfied with how his life is ending because he is doing what he was born to do.

I read this story for the first time in the SFBC edition of The Best of Edmond Hamilton. I would have bet money that in her introduction, Leigh Brackett had told a story about when Ed was young his mother would say about the bride upon the occasion of a young man with a wild reputation getting married that “she’ll clip his wings”. Her point being that this saying was Ed’s inspiration for “He That Hath Wings”.

Edmond Hamilton

It’s not there. Not in the ebook, the paperback version, or the bookclub edition.I certainly haven’t been able to find it if it is.  I have no idea where I read that, but I know I have somewhere and more than once. I bought a paper copy of The Best of Edmond Hamilton shortly after I got out of graduate school and reread a number of stories, including this one. I was certain I’d read that quote then, as well.

If anyone knows where the quote from Ed’s mother can be found, please let me know.

Regardless of where the quote is and who said it, it is spot on. Ruth cares more for herself than she does David. Her first thought isn’t for his happiness and what makes him special and unique. It’s for what other people, especially other women, will think. She even refers to him as a freak. Ruth is the one who suggests David have his wings removed, and she plays the “if you really loved me” card to get him to do it.

I can’t help but see Ruth’s goading David to have his wings amputated as a metaphor for emasculation. In the end he sees his mistake, but it has tragic consequences.

In spite of the bleak ending, “He That Hath Wings” is a powerful and moving story. I would argue that it’s as powerful as “What’s It Like Out There?“.  Both stories have stayed with me since I was fourteen or fifteen. There are places where Hamilton’s prose flows and is poetic.  This story and the previous one I reviewed, “The Man Who Evolved” remind me of how much I enjoy Edmond Hamilton and need to read (and reread) more of his work.  If you haven’t checked him out, you should.