Judy Lynn and Lester Del Rey at Minicon 8 (1974)

Today, June 2, is the birthday of Lester del Rey (1915-1993). He and his wife Judy-Lynn founded the Del Rey imprint at Ballantine. I never had the privilege of meeting Lester, and I wish I had.

Del Rey wrote both science fiction and fantasy (my science fiction birthday post is here), but I think fantasy was more his first love. I was at a convention years ago when I heard someone (I didn’t know the man, and I have no idea who he was at this late date) say he’d seen a list of things that would result in a successful fantasy line. The gentleman said these things would lead to a successful fantasy line, and that he disagreed with everyone one of them.  If anyone knows what this list is and where I can find it, I would appreciate your letting me know.

For tonight’s story, we’re going to look at an early tale, “The Pipes of Pan”. It was originally published in the May 1940 issue of Unknown. This tale deals with what happens when a god’s worshipers are all gone. In this story the god either dies or gets a job. Pan decides he wants to try to work. I’m not going to give the ending away. It’s logical and not necessarily what you would think of at first.

Lester del Rey was a solid writer. His years as an editor kept him away from writing for many years. He died shortly after he retired. All of his work that was published in mass market paperback is out of print.

NESFA put together a two volume collection of Del Rey’s short fiction about a decade ago.  “The Pipes of Pan” is available in the second volume, Robots and Magic. This set is the only thorough collection of del Rey’s currently available. The megapacks (there are two) put out by Wildside don’t have his best stories in them. An inexpensive paper or electronic collection needs to be published.