Henry Kuttner (1915-1958) was born today, May 5. He’s been my favorite science fcition and fantasy writer ever since I read “Mimsy were the Borogoves” in The Best of Henry Kuttner the summer before I started high high school.

I was going to read and review Lands of the Earthquake (thanks for sending me a copy, Deuce), but I’ve been on the road with one of the dayjobs most of the past week. It took me all week to read “The Brood of Bubastis” for the Robert Bloch post, and I was falling asleep over the keyboard as I wrote it. So, obviously, I didn’t get to it. I’ll try to read it and post something in the next few months.

So for today’s post, I’m going to talk a little about why I like Kuttner.

As I said, I first became aware of him the summer before I started high school (or maybe it was after my first year of high school; I don’t recall exactly). I discovered him like I did so many writers through the Science Fiction Book Club. This was during the period when the Del Rey Best of series was just wrapping up. I hadn’t seen Kuttner’s volume in paperback at this time, at least if my memory is correct. But it was offered by the book club, and I grabbed it.

I remember where I was when I read it. I was filling in at a daycare for some friends while they were on vacataion, and I would read while the kids took their naps in the afternoon. It’s been said (I’m paraphrasing) that the ages from twelve to fourteen are the ideal ages to read sciencde fiction and fantasy because you’re old enough to understand more abstract concepts but not so jaded that you’ve lost your sense of wonder. That was me when I read that story.

I began looking for any book that had a Kuttner story in it. When I learned that much of the work published under his byline or one of his pen names was actually a collaboration with h is wife C. L. Moore, I started looking for her stuff, too.

Kuttner started out writing for Weird Tales. His first published story there was “The Graveyard Rats”.  Reviewed here. He honed his craft with Lovecraft, if you’ll pardon the poor wordplay. He soon branched out into other forms of fantasy, such as the Elak of Atlanits and Prince Raynor sword and sorcery tales, and into science fiction, mystery, and adventure.

Kuttner was prolific, and he was constantly striving to improve as a writer. He wasn’t afraid to take chances. If you read some of his early work in chronological order of when it was published (which nmight not be when it was written, given the inherent delays in publication), you can see the improvement.

Kuttner’s stories often had a touch of humor. If that humor was a bit sardonic, well, that was fine with me. He wasn’t afraid to try differetn genres and different approaches. His experiments in writing were always completely successful, but any project that inproves a writer’s craft can’t ber viewed as a complete failure, even if the attempt doesn’t succeed in what the writer is trying to accomplish. For an example of an experimental story that completely succeeded, track down a copy of “Happy Ending”. It’s available from Gutenberg.

With Moore, mostly under the pen names of Lewis Padgett and Lawrence O’Donnell, he wrote some of the best regarded stories for Campbell’s Astounding during the World War Two years. After the war, the Kuttners were published more often in Startling Stories and Thrilling Wonder Stories. They still appeared in Astounding, although not as frequently.

Why they switched, I don’t know. Maybe they wanted to write things that weren’t quite so scientifically rigorous as Campbell would require. Maybe because they could write longer stories and short novels. Lands of the Earthquake was published in Startling Stories (May 1947).

Kuttner eventually slowed his pace. My understanding is that he was burned out, but I don’t recall where I saw that. At any rate, the Kuttners didn’t produce as much fiction in the 1950s as they did int he 40s. I do  know that Kuttner went to college in the fifties. He was teaching a writing class at UCLA when he died of a heart attack in 1958. Moore took over the teaching duties.

So, there in a nutshell is why I admire Kuttner as a writer.  He wasn’t afraid to take chances to improve and stretch himself as a writer. And he could tell a good story.

Just as an afterthought, another reason I admire Kuttner isn’t because of his writing, but because of Ray Bradbury’s. Kuttner, along with Leigh Brackett, mentored the young Bradbury. Bradbury writes about this in the introduction to The Best of Henry Kuttner. Kuttner not only suggested writers Bradbury should be reading, but he helped him hone his craft. Bradbury mentions that he wrote  himself into a corner on an early story, “The Candle”. Kuttner supplied the ending. I spent years looking for a copy of that story before I finally found it.

I had begun reading Bradbury in elementary school. When I learned that he had studied (informally) under Kuttner, that was another reason to read Kuttner.

There’s still a lot ofo Kuttner I’ve not read yet. Plus, it’s been so many years since I’ve read some of his stories, that they are fresh and new when I reread them. One of the few advantages to getting older, I guess. Kuttner is one of the writers I’m going to try to read more of throughout the year.

If you’ve read much Kuttner, what’s your favorite Kuttner story?