Henry Kuttner was on born on this date, April 7, in 1915. Anyone who has spent any time around this blog knows that Kuttner is one of my favorite authors. It’s been one of those weeks where I haven’t had much time to read, so I don’t have a review of anything he wrote ready to go. (I did manage to make it to the Jack Williamson lectureship again, so there will be a report on that within a few days.)
Much of Kuttner’s work in the middle to late 1940s was at what was considered novel length at the time, but most of these stories would be considered novellas today. Thrilling Wonder and Startling Stories were the two most common magazines for Kuttner’s longer works. And most of them have never been reprinted. There are some exceptions. I’ve read most of Kuttner’s short stories that I can get my hands on. The longer works are next on my agenda.
For instance, Lands of the Earthquake has recently been reissued by DMR in a double format. This one was first published in the May 1947 issue of Startling Stories.
Exactly a year later the same pulp published The Mask of Circe. Ace books reprinted it in the early 1970s. It is currently available in an electronic edition.
Then we have the omnibus The Startling Worlds of Henry Kuttner. This mass market paperback from the late 1980s contains three short novels, The Portal in the Picture, Valley of the Flame, and The Dark World. As you might guess, these were all published in Startling Stories also.
Most of Kuttner’s novelette and novella length stories that were published in Thrilling Wonder have not been reprinted. Some were published under pseudonyms. I managed to get my claws on most of them some years back. Because they are old and crumbling, I’ve not read many of them as I want to make sure I can read one without having to set it down and deal with something else.
Things are about to either get really hectic or slow down considerably. I’m hoping they get hectic, and I will announce what is going on if they do. If they don’t, an opportunity I’ve pursued will have fallen through. Even if things do get hectic, I’m going to have some free time opening up, so I should be able to get more reading, blogging, and writing done.
Much of that reading will be works by Kuttner. I’ll post an announcement when I read Lands of the Earthquake and The Mask of Circe so anyone who wants to read along can do so.
I do wish Stephen Haffner would take it upon himself to collect the longer as well as shorter pulp Kuttner. I’ve tracked down a lot of old paperbacks myself but the unreprinted stuff out there makes me mildly grumpy that I’ll most likely never read it
I agree with you. Haffner could do a complete Kuttner if he were so inclined, and he would make it look nice. I suspect there’s a market. His two volumes of the early Kuttner sold out very quickly IIRC. I’ve heard rumors he is planning a couple of more volumes, but I can’t quote a source off the top of my head.
More than you think might be available, though. Have you checked out archive.org? Here are the links for Thrilling Wonder https://archive.org/search.php?query=thrilling%20wonder%20stories
and Startling Stories https://archive.org/search.php?query=startling%20stories
Not only can you find a lot of unreprinted Kuttner, there’s Brackett, Vance, Eric Frank Russell, and even John D. MacDonald. Much of MacDonald’s early SF has never been reprinted.
I think he named 4 volumes- and certainly at least 3 – in the title pages of those early Kuttner volumes. I’ve been waiting to preorder them ever since!
As to reading online- it’s not quite the same and if there is a chance I can read the stories properly sometime I’ll try to wait for a real book.
All the volumes he named in the early Kuttner volumes have been published except the Hollywood on the Moon stories. I may be thinking about two more Fredric Brown collections.
I understand where you’re coming from about reading online. It’s why I haven’t read some of the longer pieces.
I just checked the front of Watcher at the Door and there is a Vol 3 planned, “Designs for Dreaming”. That’s something!
Hey, y’all.
Haffner Press’s Kuttner list for 2019 includes the two long-gestating volumes: THE MICHAEL GRAY MYSTERIES and HOLLYWOOD ON THE MOON / MAN ABOUT TIME: THE PETE MANX ADVENTURES.
We have new deals for titles in 2020, and I might as well say it here first, one of those titles is DESIGNS FOR DREAMING.
Tell all your friends!
And there we have it from the man himself. Thanks, Stephen, for breaking the news here. I’ll post a notice as soon as I get your email newsletter saying when DESIGNS FOR DREAMING goes live. “As soon as” being defined as right after I place my order.
I’d like to get a three-part e-newsletter out this week (good news, bad news, and GREAT news . . .), but getting ready for Windy City (and this awesome weather) is cutting in my composing time. 😉
I’m gun-shy about launching preorder pages for 2020 titles at this point.
We’ll see.
I understand about not wanting to launch the preorder pages for 2020 yet. I’ll help you promote it here, no matter when the preorder goes up.
Yeah – I pre-order all the Haffner stuff as soon as possible too. Its just perfect for my reading taste.
I have fond memories of many of the Kuttner ‘novels’ in <i.Startling and TWS, but I can’t resist pointing out that the Kuttners were so prolific that they had long form stories in everything from Argosy to Astounding. Indeed, Fury was the first Kuttner novel that I read — not counting the various ‘fix-up’ short story collections.
That’s what makes collecting Kuttner/Moore stories so fun/frustrating, trying to track down all the various pseudonyms. Thankfully we have the ISFDB.
Cool post, Keith!
Virtually all of the novels/novellas you listed could either be called homages to Merritt or, at the least, “Merrittesque.” THE MASK OF CIRCE is essentially THE SHIP OF ISHTAR in Greek trappings and THE DARK WORLD, as has been pointed out numerous times, bears some striking similarities to DWELLERS IN THE MIRAGE.
Don’t get me wrong. Kuttner/Moore work their own magic with the Merritesque themes, but the themes are there, nonetheless.
Thanks. I’ve heard similar things about some of these works. My ultimate plan is to read them all and compare.