Today is March 6, and it is the birthday of William F. Nolan (1928 – 2021). Nolan is probably best remembered by most readers as the coauthor (with George Clayton Johnnson) of Logan’s Run and several sequels.

Those are books worth rediscovering.

But Nolan did most of his work at short lengths. He was a mamber of what became known as the California School (among other names), a loose and informal group of fantasy writers who included (at various times) Ray Bradbury, Charles Beaumont, Richard Matheson, Jerry Sohl, Rod Serling, George Clayton Johnson, Charles E. Fritch, Ray Russell, Harlan Ellison, Robert Bloch, and Chad Oliver. (Chad was doing gradfuate work in California, but he soon moved to Texas but stayed in contact with the group.)

Some of those writers (too many) have faded into obscurity,  That’s a shame, because the ideas and impacts they had on each other, writers who came after them, the fields of science fiction fantasy, and horror, and the world at large are far-reaching.

Not all of these writers will be to everyone’s taste. Not all of them had collections of their storeis published.

I dare say, if you want to study how to write short fantasy, especially with a dark tone, you could do a lot worse than to study these guys.

I’ve alwasy liked Nolan’s work. I first came across it with Logan’s Run and sequels.

Shadows 3

Some of you old-timers (I’m including myself in that category) might remember a short-lived tlevision anthology show that ran for one season in 10981-1982. It was called Darkroom, and James Coburn was the host.  There are some impressive names on the writing credits and some major names had their work adapted. Nolan’s “The Partnership” was one of the sotries adapted.

I recognized his name in the credits. It took me a while as a teenager in a small to medium sized town in those pre-internet days to track down a print copy, but I did. It was in Shadows 3, edited by Charles L. Grant.

I’ve been a fan ever since.

I’ve tried to pick up his collections when a new one comes out, which won’t be very often anymore now that he’s gone.

But Nolan was part of a group of short fiction writers who were consistently better than average and knew how to tell a story.

Perhaps a post on the group would be in order at some point.