Today is August 12, the birthday of Chan Davis (1926-1922). Davis only wrote a handful fo science fiction stories from the forties up through the fifties with a few appearing later. I first read his story “Letter to Ellen” in Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 9 (1947). I thought that would be a good story to feature. I remeber I read the story. I remember I liked it.

I didn’t remember a thing about it.

In the introduction to the story, Maratin H. Greenberg mentions that he thought Lester Del Rey’s “Helen O’Loy”, which thematically has some similarities to “Letter to Ellen” had kept Davis’s story from gettng the recognition it deserved.

So I decided to compare the two. Continue reading →