If the birthdays and the day job both slow down at the same time, I’ve got a review of a Joseph Payne Brennan collection to run.  Until then, let’s look at four birthdays that fall on this date (August 1).

M. R. James

We’ll start with M. R. (Montague Rhodes) James (1862-1936).  He’s the master of the classic English ghost story.  His only potential rivals to that title might be H. R. Wakefield or E. F. Benson.  (What is it with these English ghost story writers and initials, anyway? Must have been something in the water.)  Many of James’s s stories dealt with antiquarians who stuck their noses in places they shouldn’t and disturbed things best left alone.  Full of atmosphere, the ghost stories of M. R. James are worth reading.  Most anthologies of classic ghost stories will have one of his tales, and there are a number of electronic and print editions available.

David Gemmell

David Gemmell (1948-2006) is no stranger to these parts.  The now defunct David Gemmell Awards were established in his honor.  Gemmell’s first novel, Legend, is now a classic in the field of heroic fantasy.  Gemmell is someone I’ve only read bits and pieces of, coming to his work only in the last couple of decades.  I had the pleasure of meeting him at the 2000 World Fantasy Convention in Corpus Christi.  I got to listen in on him and Jane Lindskold discuss Louis L’Amour and his influence on their own writing.

Richard Shaver (r.) with Ray Palmer

Our editor for today is somewhat problematic.  As the discerning blog reader will discern from the title of this post, I’m talking about Raymond A. Palmer (1910-1977).  (No, he was named after the DC Comics superhero, The Atom. It was the other way around.) Palmer was the editor of Amazing Stories, founded the short-lived Other Worlds Science Fiction (which published Eric Frank Russell’s classic “Dear Devil”), and later became the editor of Fate a publication which specialized in UFO’s and other pseudo-scientific phenomena.

Palmer receiver a piece of fiction from Richard Shaver in which Shaver claimed to have knowledge of an ancient and malevolent civilization hiding in caverns deep under the surface of the Earth.  Palmer published it, and many other stories soon followed.  Sales skyrocketed. The thing is, Shaver actually believed this tripe, and apparently so did many of the readers.  I’m not sure if Palmer ever completely bought into what came to be called The Shaver Mystery or if he was cynically doing whatever he needed to in order to boost sales.  Doesn’t really matter at this late date.  Palmer and Shaver did a lot of damage to the science fiction and fantasy fields with their insistence that all of this was real.

Finally, we come to one of my favorite artists, Edd Cartier (1914-2008).  Cartier’s work graced the pages of Astounding and Unknown during John Campbell’s tenure as editor.  He had a distinctive and whimsical style that was really unique and fun.  Here’s some of his work.