Category Archives: birthday

Lansdale and Williams

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Today, October 28, is the birthday of Joe  Lansdale (b. 1951) and Walter Jon Williams. These birthday posts are usually reserved for people who are no longer with us. Relax. Both of these men are still with us and still writing.

I’m making an exception because I’ve met both Lansdale and Williams multiple times. Lansdale at science fiction conventions in Texas and Oklahoma. Williams in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico.

I enjoy the wriing of both, although I’ve not been the target audience for everything Joe has written. They are both open and friendly. They are always appproachable at their public appearances. The times I’ve seen both of them, whether on panels, in the dealer’s room, or sitting around talking in a hotel lobby or con suite, have always been enjoyable.

I wish them both a very Happy Birthday.

Mark Clifton’s “Clerical Error”

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Today is October 24, the birthday of Mark Clifton (1906-1963). Clifton was a well-regarded science fiction writer in fifties and early sixties. He has fallen into obscurity today. He is best remembered as the author of They’d Rather Be Right, the most obscure Hugo Award winner.

But he also wrote some short fiction that was included in several year’s best anthologies. For this post, I read “Clerical Error”. It was first pusblished in the February 1956 issue of Astounding Science Fiction.

It was reprinted in Isaac Aximov Presents the Great SF Stories 18, which covered 1956. That was where I first read this story years ago.

I didn’t remember anything about it.

The story concerns a psyschiatrist, Dr. Kinstong, working on a government base in what was then the near future. Thsi was written duriing the Cold War, and the future is a , well, not really a police state, but there are loyalty boards that make sure everyone is loyal to the government.

There is no fancy technology in this story, unlike most of the stories John W. Campbell published.

KIingston doesn’t want to approval a lobotomy on a scientist who is in the high security ward. Kingston dowsn’t have clearance to see the patient himself due to not having his security clearance yet. He’s new on the job.

So in order to find out what is really wrong with the patient, he makes a clerical error and gets himself committed and put in the same cell as the patient.

In his introduction to the story, Asimov said the ending was weak. I have to agree. I think this story was included because of some of the arguments about psychiatry and the government at the time.

This wasn’t an excitiing story. I’ve read several of Clifton’s other short stories in this Great SF series. That was long ago. I don’t recall them. I’ll probably reread them at some point. Clifton is hhighly regarded among historians of the field.

Schmitz, Tubb, Puzo, and Hunter

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Today is October 15. It is the birthday of James H. Schmitz (1911-1981), E. C. Tubb (1919-2010), Mario Puzo (1920-1999), and Evan Hunter (1926-2005). Here’s a brief bit about each.

James H. Schmitz wrote other kinds of science fiction, but mostly he wrote space opera. The bulk of his stories were set in The Hub, what human space is called. The main character was Telzy Amberdon, and the second most used character was Trigger Argee. There were other recurring characters, and they tended to show up in each other’s stories. That’s the Frak Kelly Freas cover of The Lion Game, minus the wording.

The Hub stories are a lot of fun. About twenty-five years ago, Baen (finally!) collected nearly all of Schmitz’s fiction. Isaid finally, becaue I had been trying to find copies of some of the earlier collections for years. Copies should be available online for reasonable prices. If you haven’t read Schnmitz, check him out.

E. C. Tubb wrote other things, but he will always be remembered as t he creator of Dumarest of Terra. The premise is fairly stragiht forward. Dumarest is searching for the planet of his birth, a place called Earth, which is now a legend. The series ran for thirty-one volumes. In each book, Dumarest gets a little more information.

Of course, there is an organization opposing him. I read the first one years ago, liked it, and have collected all but one or two. I want to fill in the gaps and then start the series, reading straight through.

Mario Puzo wrote about the intersection of Italian life and the Mafia. He burst onto the scene with The Godfather. Although he wasn’t prolific, he left his mark on literary crime novels.

Evan Hunter is better known as Ed McBain. Neither of those was his real name. That would be Salvatore Albert Lombino. It was under the Hunter byline that he wrote The Blackboard Jungle, based on his experience teaching in a New York vocatioinal high school. That book was the basis of a highly controversial film in 1954. Hunter also wrote a little science fiction under that name. He is best known, however, under the Ed McBain name as the author of the 87th Precint police procedurals. They have a central cast, but the protagonist rotates from one book to another. While there are changes in the characters’ lives, the plot are mostly stand-alone and can be read in any order.

Piserchia, Edmondson, and the Stellar Anthologies

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Today is October 11. It is the birthday of Doris Piserchia (1928-2021) and G. C. Edmondson (1922-1995). We’ll also take a look at the Stellar series of anthologies, with a focus on a story by Edmondson. Continue reading →

More Than Just Dune

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Today is October 8. It is the birthday of Frank Herbert (1920-1986). He was only sixty-five years. We lost him way too soon.

He will always be remembered as the author of Dune and its sequels.  Dune, if not the sequels, is one of the must-reads of science fiction. I’ve read it twice and plan to listen to the audiobook later this year or early next year.

But Herbert wrote much more than just the Dune books.

Those works are in danger of fading into obscurity.

There is the Pandora Sequence which starts with Destination Void. (Herbert rewrote this one to update the science.)

There’s Under Pressure. And Whipping Star.  The Dosadi Experiment. The Santaroga Barrier.

These are all solid science fiction works. There is also a massive collection of Herbert’s short fiction.

If your only experience with Frank Herbert has been Dune, you’ve missed some good sicence fiction.

What non-Dune works by Herbert have you read?

 

St. John and Wollheim

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Just a quick post to acknowledge two birthdays today (October 1). J. Allen St. John (1872-1957) and Donal A. Wollheim (1914-1990).

I’ll start with Wollheim. A member of the famed Futurians, Wollheim had his greatest impact as an editor, first at Ace Books and later under his own imprint, DAW. Those yellow spined paperbacks were a sure sign of pulpy goodness. Wollheim also edited the Avon Fantasy Reader, which kept the works of many fo the pulp fantasy authors in front of readers, not the least of which was Robert E. Howard.

J. Allen St. John was an artist who didi many of the classic covers for Weird Tales that weren’t done by Margaret Brundage. Some of his more noted covers illustrated tales from Otis Adelbert Kline and Jack Williamson. Here are some samples of his work.

Hiding with Wilmar H. Shiras

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See related image detail. Wilmar Shiras (September 23, 1908 — December 23, 1990), American writer ...Today, September 23, is the birthday of Wilmar H. Shiras (1908-1990). She wasn’t prolific, but what she lacked in quantity, she made up for in quality.

Her first published story was “In Hiding” in the November 1948 issue of Astounding. It concerned a mutant child who was much more intelligent that other children who was trying to hide his abilities.

Two sequels followed. All three stories were incorporated into the novel Children of the Atom. That’s the Science Fiction Book Club edition on the left.

This was the, for lack of a better term, golden age of nuclear mutation stories. The late forties and early fifties saw a number of stories about the harmful effects of nuclear radiation on humanity. Rumor, never confirmed, was that this book was, at least partially, the inspiration for the X-Men.

I read this in high school and could identify with the isolation the main character in “In Hiding” felt. I’m not sure how I would relate to it now. The book’s reputation has faded in the decades since it was written. It was still well known back in the year [REDACTED] when I read it. The world has moved on. Mutatns aren’t one of the things we fear as a culture. At at least they aren’t high on the list.

Have any of you read it?

 

H. G. Wells

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Today is September 25. It is the birthday of Herbert George Wells (1866-1946).

Wells should need no introduction to anyone reading this blog. War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, and The Invisible Man are familiar to almsot everyone, even if they haven’t actually read those books.

Wells wrote a lot more than that, though. He wrote a number of short stories.  His two best-kmown short stories are probably “The Country of the Blind” and “The Red Room”.

His influence on t he field fo science fiction cannot be overstated.

But does anyone really red him anymore? Or is he one of those authors, like some of the ones taught in English classes, that people are familiar with but don’t really read unless they are forced to.

Personally, Wells is someone I would like to read more of. (Too manyt books, too little timem.)

 

Howard Waldrop

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Today is September 15, the birthday of Howard Waldrop (1946-2024). I hadn’t seen him for at least half a decade before he passed away. I miss him.

Howard only wrote a couple of novels, but he wrote some great short stories. One of my favorites is “The Ugly Chickens”, in which dodos survive almost into modern times. I had the privilege to sit at the same table with Howard and Geroge R. R. Martin at a dinner during the Conestoga convention one year. One of the things they discussed was making a film from this story.

Howard was always easy to talk to. I usually saw him at Armadillocon. He always seemed glad to see me.

Howard had a very distictive voice. Armadillocon always ended with Howard reading a shsort story. I can still hear his voice in my head when I read his work. If any recordings of Howard reading a story exist, I’d apprecizte someone letting me know where I can find them.