Today, January 2, is the birthday of Charles Beaumont (1929-1967). Beaumont was one of the writers of the original Twilight Zone. The reason Rod Serling asked Beaumont to write for him can be easily seen in Beaumont’s work.
One of Beaumont’s mentors was Ray Bradbury. Bradbury wrote in the introduction to Best of Beaumont (1982) that he and Beaumont lived in the same part of Los Angeles and used to pass a cemetery that had a sign advertising FREE DIRT. Continue reading
Today, December 7, is the birthday of Leigh Brackett (1915-1978). I’ve read a couple of her stories, but I’m not up for a post tonight. I’ve spent the evening finishing grading final exams and responding to student inquiries as to why their lab grade isn’t an A. (“You have multiple zeroes. Try attending all the labs next time. “)
I’ll post something of substance sometime in the next few days. But I didn’t want this day to pass without mentioning it.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. One of the things I’m thankful for today is Poul Anderson (1926-2001). It being his birthday (November 25), and all.
For today’s post, a few days ago I had decided to review Anderson’s “Son of the Sword”. It’s a straight historical adventure set in Egypt. Anderson did from time to time write historical adventure without any fantastic elements. This is one of those stories.
I didn’t do my due diligence on this one. “Son of the Sword” was originally published in 1951 in Adventure Magazine. The only reprinting was in A Light in the Void, back in 1991. It was this book where I read it. The copyright page in the book didn’t give any further detail than what I stated above, and the ISFDB on lists A Light in the Void under the story’s publication history. If I had realized that, I would have found a different story to feature today. Continue reading
Abraham Stoker (1847-1912), better known as Bram, was born on this date, November 8. Of course, you’ve all heard of him. He wrote this little book about a vampire. No, not Varney. Dracula.
Anyway, even if he had never written anything else, (he did write other stuff, you know) he would be remembered for that one novel.
So happy birthday, Bram.
I’m up to my armpits in dayjobbery, so this post almost didn’t get done. But I wanted to point out two birthdays that fall on this date, September 1.
First is Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950). Do I really have to tell you what all he wrote? Tarzan. John Carter. Pellucidar.
Then there’s Harold Lamb (1892-1962). Lamb was a master of historical adventure, arguably the greatest author of that genre ever. He was a major influence on Robert E. Howard.
I doubt we shall see their equals any time soon.
So what are your favorite works by Burroughs and Lamb. Let us know in the comments.
Today, August 28 is the birthday of four creators of the fantastic. Today has been pretty full. Well, the whole week has, actually. I’ve not had a chance to read anything by any of these folks, so this will just be an informational post, similar to the one I did last year. Continue reading
In addition to looking at Bradbury’s short stories “The Illustrated Woman” and “The Illustrated Man” in the previous post, I wanted to look at a pair of stories that might not be familiar to many of you. Those stories are “The Pendulum” and “Pendulum”. The former was written by Bradbury alone; the latter in collaboration with Henry Hasse. These could be a bit of a challenge to track down, although “Pendulum” is currently in print in The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury. Continue reading
Yes, the title of this post says “woman”, not “man.” No, that’s not a typo. Most people who read this blog are familiar with The Illustrated Man, a short story collection in which the framing device is a tattooed man whose tattoos show the stories. That’s not what this post is about. Bradbury also wrote a short story titled “The Illustrated Man” which probably served as the inspiration for the framing device in the collection of the same name.
Patience, please. We’ll get there. Just not yet. Continue reading
Yeah, I know. Lovecraft’s birthday (August 20) was yesterday. For reasons that are not entirely clear, I missed it.
I’ve not read much Lovecraft in recent years. I’m not sure I’ll be able to work any in this evening, but I’ll give it a try. I’m not sure if I want to reread something or try a story I haven’t read yet.
Regardless of what you think about him as a person, there’s no getting around Lovecraft’s influence on the genre. He’ll always have a spot on my reading list.
I’m up to my armpits in other projects today, so I probably won’t get around to reading anything by today’s featured authors, but I did want to give a shout-out to two of the greatest and one artist who deserves better recognition. So in order of their birth, here are… Continue reading