Tag Archives: H. Bedford-Jones

A Trio of Birthdays

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As I write this, there are still a few hours left in April 29, at least in this time zone. Final exams start a week from today, and between trying to get my classes ready and dealing with emails from students who are suddenly concerned about bad lab grades they received months ago (and mostly didn’t bother to read the lab syllabus), I’ve not had time to read anything by these gentlemen. So no close look at any work by these guys. Just a shout-out to bring them some recognition. So in order of their births, here are: Continue reading →

Two Wrote Adventure

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Rafael Sabatini

Today, April 29, marks the birth of two of the most prolific and popular writers of adventure stories in the early 20th Century.  Rafael Sabatini (1875-1950) and H. Bedford-Jones (1887-1949).  I haven’t had time to read anything by either man today.  It’s also Jack Williamson’s birthday, and I did manage to read one of his stories.

Both Sabatini and Bedford-Jones published in Adventure magazine, one of the top fiction publications of the day, and one of the highest-paying.

Fortunately the works of both men are in print.  Sabatini is best remembered for his pirate novels, such as Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk.

H. Bedford-Jones

I’ve read a bit more Sabatini than I have Bedford-Jones, so I don’t know where to tell you to start. Altus Press has been reprinting his work for a while now, and there are plenty of titles to choose from.

I’ve been reading some stragiht historical adventure lately and want to read more.  These are two authors I to move higher in the queue.

 

Jack Williamson’s Eleventy-First Birthday

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Jack Williamson

There are a number of birthdays today that I could write about, but I want to focus on three, in no other order than their importance to me.

Legendary science fiction and fantasy author Jack Williamson was born 111 years ago today.  That would be April 29, 1908.  He passed away in 2006.

Williamson got his start in the pulps in the late 1920s with his first story, “The Metal Man”, being published in Amazing Stories.  His final novel, The Stonehenge Gate, was published in 2005.

My project to read and compare the magazine and book versions of Darker Than You Think got sidetracked last year.  I’ll try to get it restarted in the summer.

I’ve written about Williamson’s impact on me several times before, so I’ll keep my comments short.  I came across a stripped copy of The Best of Jack Williamson for a quarter at the flea market in Wichita Falls, Texas, when I was in the seventh grade.  (Stripped means the cover had been stripped off and the book had been reported to the publisher as having been pulped.  It was stolen, IOW, although I didn’t know that then.)  My favorite story in the collection at the time, and still a favorite today, is “With Folded Hands”.  It’s a chilling story about robots who protect us from ourselves, whether we want them to or not.  If you haven’t read it, it’s worth tracking down a copy. Continue reading →