Category Archives: birthday

Davis vs. Del Rey

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Today is August 12, the birthday of Chan Davis (1926-1922). Davis only wrote a handful fo science fiction stories from the forties up through the fifties with a few appearing later. I first read his story “Letter to Ellen” in Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 9 (1947). I thought that would be a good story to feature. I remeber I read the story. I remember I liked it.

I didn’t remember a thing about it.

In the introduction to the story, Maratin H. Greenberg mentions that he thought Lester Del Rey’s “Helen O’Loy”, which thematically has some similarities to “Letter to Ellen” had kept Davis’s story from gettng the recognition it deserved.

So I decided to compare the two. Continue reading →

“Derelict” by Alan E. Nourse

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Today, August 11, is the birthday of Alan E. Nourse (1928-1992). Nourse wrote science fiction to help pay his way through medical school. He received his medical degree in the mid-fifties and continued to write science fiction for roughly a quarter century, from 1951 to the mid-seventies. He also wrote a number of nonfiction books on scienetific and medical topics. Most of these were written in the seventites, eighties, and nineties.

Nourse is pretty much forgotten these days, but he was well-respected when he was writing science fiction. Robert Heinlein dedicated his novel Farnham’s Freehold to Nourse. Heinlein also included Nourse’s wife Ann in his deication to Friday. Continue reading →

Ward Moore and “Lot”

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August 10 is the birthday of Ward Moore (1903-1978). Moore isn’t well remebered today. He only wroote or co-wrote four novels, two of them collaborations. One, Bring the Jubilee, is highly regarded as one of the first, and some say one of the best, alternate history novels in which the South won the Civil War.  I have no opinion on it since I haven’t read it.

He never had a collection, which is a shame, because he was one of those writers who, while not being a top-tier author, could write a solid story. The ISFDB lists twenty-eight piecies of short fiction by him, the most recent in 2024 in Last Dangerous Visions. A collection of all his short fiction sounds like a project for NESFA.

But I digress.

Aside from Bring the Jubilee, Ward Moore is best known as the author of “Lot” and its less well-known sequel, “Lot’s Daughter”.

“Lot” was published in the May 1953 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I’m not sure this story could be published today, as you’ll see below.

It’s a post-apocalypic riff on the Biblical story of Lot. Continue reading →

John Varley

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August 9, today as I write this, is the birhtday of John Varley (1947-2025). We lost him last December.

Varley was never really prolific, but over the course of about half a century, he wrote quite a bit of groundbreaking science fiction. His series about the Eight Worlds and about Anna-Louise Bach are favorites. (BTW, Varley has gone ofn record saying the two series are separate, although they have a lot of similarities.)

I first became aware of Varley when someone left a copy of the January 1979 issue of Analog in my homeroom class. The teacher let me have  it. It contained the first installment of the serialized version of Titan.It was more than a few years before I got my hands on the complete novel.

In the author profile, Varley said his two favorite science fiction writers were Robert Heinlein and Frank Herbert. That made an impression on seventh grade me. I looked for books by those two authors.

If I can fit it, I’ll try to read one of the Anna-Louise bach stories later tonight.

Reflecting on Simak

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Today is August 3, the birthday of Clifford D.Simak (1904-1988). Simak primarily wrote science fiction, but he also wrote a few fantasy novels.

Simak was called the patoralist of science fiction. His books and stories were often set in a rural or small town setting, frequently in his native Wisconsin. His favorite themes involved robots and time travel.  While Simak could do dark when he wanted to, the majority of his stories were positive and optimistic. His characters tended to be common sense salt of the Earth people.

It’s been a few years since the last time I read any Simak. That’s partly because I’ve read more mysteries and thrillers in the last few years than science fiction or fantasy. I should try to read more Simak. His optimnism and likeable characters are a nice, refreshing change from some of the antiheroes and dark endings in so much of today’s fiction.

Palmer, Cartier, and Gemmell

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Today is the first day of August. It is the birthday of Ray Palmer (1910-1977), Edd Cartier (1914-2008),an d David Gemmell (1948-2006). Here’s a brief look at each.

First, Ray Palmer. Palmer saw a meteor fall. It was a piece of a white dwarf star. Palmer was able to use the material to change his size and his mass. He donned a suit to tights, called himself the Atom, Joined the Justice League, and, oh, wait. That’s the wrong Ray Palmer. Continue reading →

Dunsany and Jorkens

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Today is July 24, the birthday of Lord Dunsany (1878-1957).

Dunsany isn’t as well remembered today as he once was. He wrote The King of Elfland’s Daughter, which is still in print and his his most higly regarded work. I’ve read it, and it’s a book I want to reread at some point. Most of his other work isn’t in print, at least that I’m aware of.

Dunsany wrote mostly short fiction, much of it only a page or two in length.

Early in the two thousands, Night Sahde published a set of Dunsany’s work regarding a man name Joseph Jorkens, a member of a ficitious club in London. Jorkens will tell a story if someone will buy him a drink.

This is an example of a club story, in which someone in a club or bar tells a tall tale. L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt, Arthur C Clarke, and P. G. Wodehouse have all written this type of story. these days, the only practitioner of club stories is Larry Niven, who will occasionally write a Draco’s Tavern story.

I’ve only read one or two of the Jorkens tales, and that was long ago. I’d like to read some of them, but these days I don’t have a lot of time for reading.They aren’t available in audiobook that I can find. I spend more time listening to audiobooks than I have time to read.

Have any of you read some of the Jorkens stories, and if so, what did you think?

Cook and Koontz

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Today is July 9. I don’t normally do birthday posts for living writers.

But it’s my blog, and I can do what I want. And I want to acknowledge the birthdays of two of my favoirte writers.

Glen Cook (b. 1944) and Dean Koontz (b. 1945).

Glenn Cook

Glen Cook is the author of the Black Company sereis, the Dread Empire series, The Instrumentalities of the Night series, adn the Garrett, PI series. Along with a number of other novels. If you haven’t read him yet, what are you waiting for?

Dean Koontz needs no introduction. He was been writing for at elast fifty years. I’ve only started reading his work in the last few years, and I regret watiing so long. He’s a writer my writing mentors encourage other writers to study.

So, Mr. Cook and Mr. Koontz, happy birthday!