Tag Archives: A. Merritt

Abraham Merritt, First of Three

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Abraham Merritt (1884-1943) was born today, January 20. His birthday is the first  of three giants of the fantasy field who birthdays fall every other day. The next two are Robert E. Howard and C. L. Moore. Posts on their birthdays to follow over the next couple of days.

There’s been something of a theme running through this year’s posts, and that is authors who have either never really received the recognition they deserve and are still writing, or they were once major figures who have been forgotten or nearly so. Continue reading →

A. Merritt – Ruminations on His Birthday

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Well, this is a bit embarrassing.  I’ve been swamped lately and up to my ears in writing projects, travel, and preparing for classes and labs to start. So when I logged on a few minutes ago to do this post about A. Merritt, I was surprised to see the birthday post on Tolkien (what birthday post on Tolkien, you ask), was still in draft and hadn’t been posted.

Must have failed to hit the PUBLISH button. I also didn’t realize it had been nearly three weeks since I had posted.  There wasn’t much to it, more filler than anything of substance,  so I deleted it.

So getting on to today’s post. I’ve written about Merritt before. He’s sadly fallen out of favor in recent years.

But that is changing. Centipede Press just published Burn Witch, Burn! and my copy arrived the other day. I haven’t even had a chance to break the shrink wrap on it.

As you may know, Centipede Press titles aren’t cheap. This was $50. On the other pseudopod, though, Centipede Press books are some of the highest quality publications around.

I haven’t read this particular title yet. I’m going to try to work in as soon as possible. Both Robert Bloch and Karl Edward Wagner held it in high regard. With endorsements like that, I’m going to make the book a priority.

Now to make sure I hit the PUBLISH button.

A Brief Shoutout to Abraham Merritt

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Abraham Merritt (1884-1943) was born on this date, January 20. This is just going to be a brief post. I’m working on a tight deadline for an anthology submission, so I’ve not had a chance to read anything by him (or anyone else, for that matter.)

He was once one of the most revered names in fantasy. His influence was such that he was, to the best of my knowledge, the first genre writer to have a fiction magazine named after him. There’s an example of one of the issues on the right. I’d like to get my hands on a copy. That cover looks great.

Hopefully we’ll see a resurgence of interest in the man and his work. He could spin a yarn. I want to reread Dwellers in the Mirage later this year.

I’ve missed a couple of birthday’s lately, such as Brackett and Clark Ashton Smith. Once my writing commitments lighten up, I’ll post something about them.

 

Musing on Merritt

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Abraham Merritt (1884-1943) was born on this date, January 20.

Writing under the byline of just his first initial and surname, A. Merritt was at one time one of the most respected and influential fantasy authors in the country, if not the world. Sadly he has lapsed into obscurity.

Part of the reason for that, I think, is that his output was small, something that makes his reputation even more impressive. Merritt was an editor at The American Weekly, first as an assistant (1912-1937) and then editor until his death.

I’ve read some of his short stories and one novel, Dwellers in the Mirage, which I need to reread and do a post about it. I really liked it and am looking forward to fitting more of his work into my reading.

If you’ve not read Merritt, give him a shot.

Who Are the Giants?

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So yesterday’s post on Edgar Rice Burroughs and Harold Lamb and the recent post on the canon, coupled with today is the anniversary of the passing of J. R. R. Tolkien and the seventh anniversary of the death of Frederik Pohl, got me to thinking. I referred to Burroughs and Lamb as giants. In the canon post I quoted Newton talking about his achievements being due to his standing on the shoulders of giants.

So who exactly are the giants in the field? Continue reading →

A. Merritt and “The Pool of the Stone God”

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Abraham Merritt (1884-1943), who as A. Merritt, was born on this day, January 20.

Merritt’s influence on the field was vastly disproportionate to his output. He worked as a full-time editor, so time for writing was not exactly plentiful. He only completed eight novels and about as many short stories.

In spite of this small output, his work was highly regarded and for a number of years there was a fantasy magazine named after him. Merritt influenced a number of writers in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.

In honor of his birthday, I’m going to look at “The Pool of the Stone God”. SPOILERS TO FOLLOW Continue reading →

Burroughs and Lamb

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Today (September 1) is the birthday of two literary giants, Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) and Harold Lamb (1892-1962). Continue reading →

Merritt and Fritch

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Two birthdays I want to draw attention to today (January 20).

Abraham Merritt

The first is A. Merritt (b. 1884).  His name should be familiar to most anyone who swings by this blog.  Merritt was one of the most influential fantasy authors of the first half of the 20th Century.  At one point there was even a fantasy magazine named after him.  Merritt was first assistant editor and then editor at The American Weekly.  Writing was only a side job for him.

I’m going to read some of his work this year.  I”ll probably start by rereading The Dwellers in the Mirage. Merritt wrote very little short fiction, but I’m going to read some of that as well.

William F. Nolan (l.) and Charles E. Fritch (r.) at Expo 67

The other author only wrote short stories in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror fields.  A member of the  so-called California School, Charles E. Fritch (b. 1927) wrote short stories on a fairly consistent basis until the early 1970s, after which his output slowed to a trickle until his death in 2012.  Several of his later works appeared in Whispers.  In the early to mid 1960s he was editor of the magazine Gamma.  He was also editor of Mike Shayne’s Mystery Magazine from1979 until 1985.

I may have read one or two of his stories when I was a teenager, but if so, I don’t recall them.  I do know his name pops up in the tables of contents of horror and dark fantasy anthologies from the seventies and eighties.  His work is also showing up in some of these anthologies that sell on Amazon for a buck or two.  I have a few of those and will read the stories in the ones I have.

If anyone has read any of his work, please let me know.

Reading A. Merritt on the Occasion of His Birthday

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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. Continue reading →

New BAF Post on The Young Magicians

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Young MagiciansI’ve got a new BAF post up at Black Gate.

This one is on The Young Magicians, the second anthology of the series that Lin Carter edited.  It’s a companion to Dragons, Elves, and Heroes.  This one starts at William Morris and continues up to what was then the present day (1969).  Included are selections by Lovecraft, Smith, Howard, Kuttner, Merritt. and de Camp, as well as Lin Carter himself.