“The Little Red Owl”
first published in Weird Tales, July 1951
currently available in The Hole in the Moon
Dover Books
Paperback $14.95

Margaret St. Clair was born on this date, February 17, in 1911.  She passed away in 1995.

St. Clair wrote primarily short stories, with most published in the 1940s and 1950s. She also published eight novels between 1956 to 1973. In addition to writing under her own name, she published under the name of Idris Seabright. These stories appeared primarily F&SF in the 50s.

Today’s selection is a brief little horror story about two children who are terrorized and mentally abused by their uncle. The children’s mother is away for an extended period of time, although the exact reason for her absence is never explained. No mention is made of the children’s father.

The uncle tells them stories about The Little Red Owl, who is the hero, and his struggles against the villain, The Vulture Man. The stories are dreadful, with the Little Red Owl trying to protect two children from The Vulture Man. The owl isn’t doing too well.

The uncle is clearly a sick individual intent on harming his niece and nephew. Their only protector is the housekeeper. Or so they think.

As the uncles tricks and stories increase in cruelty, the housekeeper is unable to prevent him from traumatizing the children.

You can probably guess how this one turns out. The impact of this story isn’t so much in a sudden twist at the end, but its portrayal of child abuse. The mental and emotional abuse the children suffer would probably be disturbing to many contemporary readers.  Fortunately the children are made of stern stuff, and the ending is upbeat.

Although St. Clair tells most of the story from the viewpoint of the uncle, she doesn’t present him as a sympathetic figure. Rather she shows his decaying mental state.

Margaret St. Clair

Margaret St. Clair is one of those women who isn’t supposed to exist. After all, everyone knows that women didn’t write or read science fiction and fantasy before [insert arbitrary date of a recent year here].  And certainly there were no women editors to buy their stories if they did.

*Waves to ghost of Dorothy McIlwraith*

Pardon the snark. I’ve dealt with this type of nonsense before. In her day, Margaret St. Clair was a highly respected writer of science fiction and science fantasy. I’ve not read much of her work, but I have read one or two stories.  I’m willing to give more of her work a try.

And the next time you hear that women were kept out of the field in the 40s and 50s, like certain people on Twitter have done recently, Margaret St. Clair is one more name you can mention to prove them wrong.