Today is September 25, but this post is for birthdays on September 24. It’s a day late.

My schedule this fall is psot office in t he morning and university afternoons and evenings. I’ve got a lecture every afternoon. On Mondays and Tuesdays, I’ve got two labs back to back as soon as I get out of class. Mondays, i get out at eight. Tuesdays, at nine. Then an hour and fifteen minuted drive home. So as far as any writing in the afternoon or evening goes: It. Ain’t. Gonna. Happen.

But there were enought birthdays yesterday, that I wanted to address them anyway.

Charles Birkin

Charles Birkin (1907-1985) is the name that is probably the least familiar on this list. Birkin was an English writer who got his start in the thirties editing horror collections in the Creeps series. He soon began writing his own short stories. He never wrote any novels that I am aware of. Eigiht collections of his work were published in his lifetime.

Birkin was a master of what is called the conte cruel. These are stories that tend to have cruel twist at the end. They tend not to focus on supernatural elements. This subgenre isn’t for the faint of heart.

John Pelan’s Midnight House published two collections of Birkin’s stories in the early two thousands, which is where I became familair with his work. More recently, Valancourt Books has reprinted two of his collections, which are available in electronic editions.

Howard Wandrei

Howard Wandrei (1909-1956)) was the brother of Donald Wandrei. Wandrei wrote short fiction, both fantasy and mystery in the thirites and forties. Fedogan and Bremer published two collections of his fantasy stories and one of his mysteries. “Macklin’s Little Friend” is one of my favorite stories.

The original volumes of Wandrei’s work were hardcover, but Fedogan and Bremer has begun to reprint them in trade paperback format.

John Brunner

Now we come to the first of the names that should be familiar to most readers of this blog. John Brunner (1934-1995). Brunner wrote a number of adventure-oriented sceince fiction, but his fame rests primarily on two novels with ecological themes, Stand on Zanzibar and The Sheep Look Up. I’ve not read either of them yet. The copies I have small print that my aging eyes don’t really want to read.

I’ve read a few of his novels from time to time, starting back when I was in high school. Polymath (Castaways’ World), Players at the Game of People, and a couple of years ago, The Tides of Time.

Brunner is starting to fade into obscurity, but copies of much of his work are still available at reasonable prices.

David Drake

Last, and certainly not least, is David Drake (1945-2023). Of the writers born on this day, Drake is the one whose work I’ve read the most of.

And I’ve not read nearly enough. He took his experience in viet Nam and used it to create one of the most influential series in modern military science fiction, Hammer’s Slammers.

Military science fiction wasn’t  his only interest. He wrote fantasy, from short, dark stories to fat fantasies such as the Lord of the Isles series. And the Lt. Leary space opera books.

Drake was one of the founders of Carcosa Press. He was also a Robert E. Howard fan. This past year at Howard Days, someone who I won’t name (waves at JB) said the Board had considered inviting Drake as a guest.

Now it’s too late. I weep for the epic weekend that would have been.

So, here are four writers who were born on this day. Raise a glass to their memory.