No,  I’m not posting two essays today. I wrote the Howard Days post the other night and was so tired I neglected to hit PUBLISH. Logged on tonight and realized the mistake.

Today (June 30) is a simple birthday post for Sam Moskowitz (1920-1997) and Dave Duncan (1933-2018).

Moskowitz was primarily an anthology editor, although he did edit the brief revival of Weird Tales in 1973 and 1974. Moskowitz’s main claim to fame was as an anthology editor in the fifties and sixties. These weren’t anthology series like I discussed a few months ago. Rather, these were arranged loosely around a theme, if they had a theme at all. Some of these anthologies were co-edited by Roger Elwood or Alden H. Norton.

The thing that made these anthologies special to me was that they reprinted many stories from the thirties, forties, and fifties that were out of print and otherwise unavailable at the time. Some of these anthologies, especially the ones focused on horror, reprinted stories from the late 1800s and early 1900s. They made me aware of a number of writers I would otherwise I have missed.

Every now and then, one of these anthologies pops up in a second-hand store. If you come across one, pick it up.

Dave Duncan was a prolific fantasy author. I’ve only read one of his books, The Gilded Chain. Duncan was a guest at the World Fantasy Convention in 2006. I bought some of his books to get them signed. The Gilded Chain was the only one I managed to read before the convention. I liked it. I’ve been meaning to read some of his other books, but I haven’t been able to work them in.

I didn’t spend much time with Duncan at the convention. There were way too many people there I wanted to meet. I only spoke with hinm briefly during the autograph party. He was a pleasant person, but there were people in line behind me, so I didn’t take up much of his time.

Sadly, I think he’s another author who was once prominent but has faded into obscurity.

If you have one of Duncan’s books to reccomend, please drop a note in the comments. Also, if you’ve read any of Sam Moskowitz’s anthologies, what did you think of it??