Reading A. Merritt on the Occasion of His Birthday

Well, sort of.  Merritt’s birthday was actually yesterday, but classes started the day before yesterday.  I was kinda busy.

Abraham Merritt was born on January 20, in Beverly, New Jersey.  He died in 1943.  Merritt was arguably the most highly regarded fantasy author of his day, with a fantasy magazine named for him after his death.  He was an assistant editor and later editor of The American Weekly, a position which apparently left him little time to pursue his own writing.  Even so, his work cast a long shadow over the field and his influence is still felt today, although most readers are probably unaware of that influence.

Merritt’s writing tended towards lost civilizations, monsters, and other pulp trappings popular in the early Twentieth Century.  He only wrote a handful of short stories, which were collected in The Fox Woman, along with several fragments.

We’ll look at two of them.  The first is probably his best known short story, “The People of the Pit.”  It concerns two explorers who are looking for a mountain in the Yukon from which gold is said to be found in great quantities.  They are within sight of it when they see a strange set of lights above the peaks.  Shortly afterwards a man crawls into their camp, barely alive.  When he recovers, he tells a strange story of a deep pit.  He followed a set of stairs down to the bottom, something that took several days, where he finds a strange city in a middle of a strange forest where the trees have branches that resemble snakes.  Once there he’s captured by invisible beings and chained to an altar in a temple.  The beings have globes of lights on their heads which are visible, and during the rituals in the temple, the beings themselves become visible.  They look like giant slugs.

Obviously the man manages to escape.  The story is very Lovecraftian in tone and execution, and I enjoyed it very much.  I’ve seen references to Merritt’s purple prose, but in the case of “The People of the Pit”, I really didn’t find that an apt description of his writing.  Merritt’s work is clearly from an earlier time, one where the style was richer and more descriptive.

“When Old Gods Wake” is a fragment.  A man has financed an expedition to excavate a Mayan city in order to spend time with the archaeologist’s beautiful redheaded sister.  A redheaded sister who likes him but isn’t interested in anything further.  They’re in a temple looking at a painting of Kulkukan, which seems to be exerting an influence on the woman.  She and the man have a spat over their relationship, and…that’s it.  Merritt didn’t write anymore on this story.  That’s unfortunate because he seemed to be setting up a situation in which the hero would have to rescue his love from an evil god.

I had a brief conversation online with Deuce Richardson a few months ago about Merritt.  The gist of the exchange was that Merritt was a writer who was worth reading.

Other than a few short pieces, including the round-robin story he wrote with Howard, Lovecraft, C. L. Moore, and Frank Belknap Long, the only Merritt I’d read had been The Black Wheel, and I hadn’t finished it.  I was in college, and I think I tried to read it just before the spring semester started and got sick a few chapters in.  By the time I’d recovered, other things were demanding my time.

The Black Wheel was unfinished at the time of Merritt’s death, and his friend Hans Bok completed it.  I enjoyed what I’d read of it.  I’ll probably give it another go.

Merritt was one of the most influential writers of his generation.  He is an important enough figure in the field that I want to read more of his work.  He was an influence on Lovecraft, Howard, Kuttner, Edmond Hamilton, Moore, Brackett, the list goes on.  Fortunately after my brief online conversation, I found an omnibus of his novels and short stories on sale at Amazon for 99 cents.  It contains eight novels and eight short stories, although The Black Wheel and “When Old Gods Waken” aren’t included.

 

19 thoughts on “Reading A. Merritt on the Occasion of His Birthday

  1. deuce

    Hey Keith! Glad to see you’re giving props to ol’ Abe. I will say that AM could get fairly “purple” at times, but he could write pretty damned lean when he wanted to. I just finished his SEVEN FOOTPRINTS TO SATAN and it reads closer to Lester Dent than Poe. He adapted his prose to the story he wanted to write.

    Merritt’s influence was vast. Robert E. Howard, Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Edmond Hamilton, CL Moore, Jack Williamson, Hugo Gernsback, E.E. “Doc” Smith, A.E. van Vogt, Leigh Brackett, Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Andre Norton, Donald A. Wollheim, Gardner F. Fox, Henry Kuttner — all admired him. The same can be said for newer authors like Moorcock, Lin Carter, Robert Silverberg, Karl Edward Wagner, Fred Chappell, Brian Lumley, Robert Weinberg, Gary Gygax, Keith Taylor, Stephen Hickman, SM Stirling, Tim Powers, John C. Wright, Charles R. Rutledge, Adrian Cole and William Meikle.

    Now, imagine if none of those authors ever wrote fantasy or sci-fi. At the least, imagine if some of the wild imagination and wonder was taken from their works. Weird/speculative fiction would be completely different without Merritt. Also, don’t forget that Bloch and Wagner admired him for his horror writing.

    Merritt’s imagination was, in my opinion, mind-boggling. He essentially wrote “Lovecraftian” fiction before Lovecraft, starting with The People of the Pit. He could also write great straight-ahead fantasy adventure in novels like The Ship of Ishtar, Seven Footprints to Satan, The Face in the Abyss and The Dwellers in the Mirage — all of which influenced REH in my opinion (and others agree).

    Reply
    1. Keith West Post author

      I don’t want to imagine something like that.

      I can see I need to move Merritt up in my list of people to read next. I’ve heard about him ever since I started reading science fiction and fantasy. Of course most of the writers you name, especially the ones from the 30s, 40s, and 50s, were writers I first encountered through their short fiction, the Del Rey Best of series in particular. If he had written more short stories, I probably would have read him sooner. I’m definitely going to read more of his work this year.

      Thanks for commenting.

      Reply
  2. deuce

    I’m glad to spread the word. To be honest, I came pretty late to a full realization of AM’s greatness and influence. I read THE SHIP OF ISHTAR when I was 13. I reread it numerous times over the years, but never read another word of Merritt. Then, about 15yrs ago, I read THE FACE IN THE ABYSS. I would pick up another novel every year or so until I finally realized around 2009 that”Hey, Merritt generally kicks ass and even his poorer efforts are absolutely busting with imagination.”

    Merritt invented so many tropes that are still used, like the “portal fantasy” and “one man, two souls, in conflict” that were then used by CL Moore, Brackett, Andre Norton and CJ Cherryh. BTW, notice how many of the women who laid the bedrock of sff were Merritt fans? Yet, the New Gatekeepers would have us believe he was a raving misogynist. Those proud, strong women apparently didn’t get the memo.

    Reply
    1. Keith West Post author

      You make a good point about these women being Merritt fans. At the risk of pissing people off (because it’s been that kind of day, I’m not really in the mood to care), I’ve noticed proud, strong women tend not to get memos in general. I mean, Kris Rusch, who I would call a strong woman, says many of the ones she’s encountered (all decades younger than her, natch) aren’t even aware of the existence of Brackett, Moore, Norton, Cherryh, etc. and automatically assume that anything written by a man before they started reading was written by a misogynist, racist, etc. And while the prose style of writers from a century ago may be a bit overwritten by today’s standards, there’s a lot of good stuff that’s being ignored and forgotten. The writers focused more on the story and less on the message or the flowery language.

      BTW, have you read any Margaret St. Clair?

      Reply
  3. deuce

    I’ve been reading stuff about St. Clair that is making me curious.

    BTW, the “From the Couch to the Moon” website (run by women) recently noted that Brackett wrote one good novel and everything else was “childish”. Then, in a strong, empowered move, the remarks were deleted. Grrrl Power!

    Reply
    1. Keith West Post author

      Why does this not surprise me? I’m afraid to wonder what they would consider “mature”. And I’m guessing the novel was THE LONG TOMORROW.

      Reply
      1. deuce

        Yeah, it was TLT. Brackett is the victim of an ideological purity spiral in certain quarters. Thank God CJ Cherryh is still out there. Recently, upon receiving an award, she noted that she never considered herself a “woman’s writer”, simply a writer. A writer who gives props to Merritt and REH just as much as she does Moore and Brackett.

        Reply
        1. Keith West Post author

          It’s been a long while since I read Cherryh. I need to put her back in the mix.

          And I don’t get what some people have against Brackett. I guess she didn’t have the right politics. Even as a high school freshman, I could pick up on some of the political undercurrents in a couple of places in one of the Skaith books, and they were pretty conservative in tone.

          Reply
          1. deuce

            Cherryh’s “Morgaine” books are simply classics AND very much in the “science-fantasy” mode of Merritt. I enjoy most of her other work as well, some of it a great deal. She’s a rural Oklahoma girl who knows her history. I find her recurring theme of “honor” to be quite refreshing these days.

            Personally, I’ve always thought that the fairly common opinion that the Skaith books are “just OK” came — at least patially — from what you’re alluding to. Leigh was no huge fan of Joanna Russ, for instance.

          2. Keith West Post author

            I’ve read a lot of Cherryh’s early science fiction, but I’ve not read much of her fantasy. I’ll have to give the Morgaine books a try. I’m not aware of any friction between Brackett and Russ. Any suggestions on where to learn more?

  4. deuce

    Cherryh’s Morgaine stuff is scifi, but it reads like fantasy. Hard-driving and gritty. Her RIDER AT THE GATE is scifi-Western very much in a Brackett/Norton vein.

    Here’s the Brackett interview:

    http://www.tangentonline.com/interviews-columnsmenu-166/1270-classic-leigh-brackett-a-edmond-hamilton-interview

    You can argue, but I don’t think Leigh is cheerleading Russ in that brief mention. At all. Just because she doesn’t go off in a shrieking tirade means nothing. Leigh had more class than that.

    BTW, James Blish did an effective — if wrong-headed and vicious — hatchet-job on Merritt in the late ’50s. Mike Resnick cubstomps him here:

    https://books.google.com/books?id=cP6-Zg9FP1cC&pg=PA57&lpg=PA57&dq=%22mike+resnick%22+merritt+-bookstore&source=bl&ots=vynt1WLaPP&sig=bG3lyIfqbeyDOlWON5DI49GNIbI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwihlez3m9nRAhUO0GMKHUwrCHEQ6AEIJzAC#v=onepage&q=%22mike%20resnick%22%20merritt%20-bookstore&f=false

    Reply
    1. Keith West Post author

      Thanks. I’ll try to look at these later today after things slow down (and I get the C. L. Moore post up).

      Reply
  5. deuce

    As an addendum, I’m posting my updated list:

    Like ERB, Merritt’s influence was vast. Robert E. Howard, Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Edmond Hamilton, CL Moore, Jack Williamson, RH Barlow, Hugo Gernsback, E.E. “Doc” Smith, A.E. van Vogt, Leigh Brackett, Robert Bloch, Poul Anderson, Ray Bradbury, Andre Norton, Donald A. Wollheim, Gardner F. Fox, Henry Kuttner, Sam Moskowitz, Julius Schwartz, A. Bertram Chandler, James Gunn, Frederik Pohl, Algis Budrys — all admired him.

    The same can be said for newer authors like Moorcock, Mike Resnick, Barry N. Malzberg, Lin Carter, Robert Silverberg, Ray Capella, Brian Stableford, Anne McCaffrey, Karl Edward Wagner, Fred Chappell, CJ Cherryh, Brian Lumley, Robert Weinberg, Gary Gygax, Ben P. Indick, Keith Taylor, Robin McKinley, Marvin Kaye, Gardner Dozois, Eileen Kernaghan, Piers Anthony, Stephen Hickman, Ed Gorman, SM Stirling, Tim Powers, Raymond E. Feist, Elizabeth Hand, Douglas Preston, John C. Wright, Charles R. Rutledge, Adrian Cole, John Tibbetts, Steve Rasnic Tem and William Meikle.

    As you can see, I found a few more female Merritt fans (aka, traitors to their sex). McCaffrey, McKinley, Hand and Kernaghan were all writers I liked anyway. Good to know we’re all fellow Merrittites.

    Make Merritt Great Again!

    Reply
    1. Keith West Post author

      Thanks for the updated list, Deuce. There are a few names on there I’ve not heard of (Kernaghan, Indick, Barlow), so I’ve got some reading to do. (When don’t I?)

      Reply
      1. deuce

        Kernaghan is known mostly for her Celtic fiction (she’s also an REH fan). Barlow is very interesting as a person. Just google. Indick was more of a genre critic/scholar, but he wrote some good stuff. He was buddies with my bud, Don Herron.

        Did you notice Preston’s name on there? I think James Rollins was probably a Merritt fan as well, but I’ve found nothing. Merritt was a “thriller” writer in some senses.

        Reply
        1. Keith West Post author

          Thanks for the link in the next comment. I did see Preston’s name in there, but I’ve not read him. And yes, your comment on Indick was clear.

          Reply

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