Category Archives: birthday

Jane Rice’s “The Idol of the Flies”

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Today’s (April 30) birthday post looks at story by someone who should not exist. Jane Rice(1913-2003) wrote fantasy and horror for the pulps, primarily Unknown.  As all right-thinking people know, women weren’t allowed to write for the pulps.  They were kept out by chauvinistic such as John W. Campbell, Jr., the editor of Astounding and, well, Unknown. Just goes to show what  some right-thinking people don’t know.

“The Idol of the Flies” is probably Jane Rice’s best known story.  I had not read it until a few minutes ago.

There’s a subgenre about evil children, Jterome Bixby’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” being a prime example. This story falls firmly into that category.

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Two Wrote Adventure

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Rafael Sabatini

Today, April 29, marks the birth of two of the most prolific and popular writers of adventure stories in the early 20th Century.  Rafael Sabatini (1875-1950) and H. Bedford-Jones (1887-1949).  I haven’t had time to read anything by either man today.  It’s also Jack Williamson’s birthday, and I did manage to read one of his stories.

Both Sabatini and Bedford-Jones published in Adventure magazine, one of the top fiction publications of the day, and one of the highest-paying.

Fortunately the works of both men are in print.  Sabatini is best remembered for his pirate novels, such as Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk.

H. Bedford-Jones

I’ve read a bit more Sabatini than I have Bedford-Jones, so I don’t know where to tell you to start. Altus Press has been reprinting his work for a while now, and there are plenty of titles to choose from.

I’ve been reading some stragiht historical adventure lately and want to read more.  These are two authors I to move higher in the queue.

 

Two Shorts by Frank Belknap Long

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Frank Belknap Long

Frank Belknap Long (1901-1994) was born on this date, April 27.  A correspondent of Lovecraft, Long was a prolific author in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. He wrote science fiction as well as weird fantasy and horror.  His quality varied quite a bit, which is to to be expected when an author is that prolific.When he was good, he was very good.  Case in point, “The Hounds of Tindalos” is, in my opinion, one of the best Mythos stories ever written.  You may not agree, but that’s okay. It’s a free country. You can be wrong if you want to.

Let’s look at two of his shorter works.  Time has been tight today, or I would have reviewed a longer piece, such as “The Horror From the Hills.”  Maybe some other time.

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H. L. Gold’s “Trouble With Water”

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H. L. Gold

Okay, I’m going to violate one of my unwritten rules and post two items today.  In addition to being A. E. van Vogt’s birthday, it’s also Horace L. Gold’s birthday.  Born on April 26 in 1914, Gold passed away in 1996.

Although best remembered as the editor of Galaxy during the 1950s, Gold was also a successful writer of fiction in the 1930s and 40s.  While not one to the top tier, Gold’s fiction tended to the humorous.

“Trouble With Water” is probably his best known story.  I started to post this on Futures Past and Present because Gold was a science fiction editor.  But this is a fantasy story  (even if it was reprinted in Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 1: 1939, where I first read it). Continue reading →

Retro Hugos: “Far Centaurus” by A. E. van Vogt

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A. E. van Vogt (1912-2000) was born on this date, April 26.  He was one of the most prolific and popular science fiction writers of the 1940s.  In addition to a sizeable body of shorter works, he wrote the popular novels The Voyage of the Space Beagle, Slan, and The Weapons Shops of Isher.  These were either serialized in Astounding or put together from individual stories.

Just as a side note, I haven’t given up on the Retro Hugo posts.  The semester is about over, and I I’ve been swamped.  I’ve also been reading Foundation. The two Asimov stories on the Retro Hugo ballot are the last two sections of the book.  I decided to read the whole thing (something I was thinking about doing anyway) to give them some context.

I was going to look at all the novelettes before moving on to the short stories, but van Vogt doesn’t have an entry in that category.

“Far Centaurus” is one of van Vogt’s most reprinted stories. If I’ve counted correctly, I’ve got copies of it in about ten different publications.  I first read it in middle school, and the last two paragraphs have stuck with me all these years.  Continue reading →

Talbot Mundy’s “For the Salt He Had Eaten”

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Talbot Mundy was born on this date, April 23, in 1879. He passed away in 1940.  Mundy was one of the premier writers of adventure fiction of the early 20th Century.  While not as well-remembered today as Haggard or Kipling, Mundy was prolific and left a substantial body of work that is held in high regard by connoisseurs of adventure tales set in far-off, exotic lands. I’ve read a few of his short stories and liked them,  but this is the first longer work of Mundy’s I’ve read. I quite enjoyed.

“For the Salt He Had Eaten” first appeared in the March 1913 issue of Adventure.   I read it in The Talbot Mundy Megapack, which you can grab for just ninety-nine cents. Continue reading →

“Slight of Hand” with Peter S. Beagle

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Peter S. Beagle

Okay, I’m making another exception to may practice of only doing birthday posts on authors, artists, and editors who have passed on.  Peter S. Beagle (b. April 20, 1939) is one of those few authors who I will buy in trade hardcover.  (David Drake, Jack McDevitt, Larry Niven, and Patricia McKillip are among the few exceptions.)  Limited hardcover editions are a different matter. But I digress.

I’ve had the privilege of meeting Peter several times over the years.  The most recent was when he was in town for a showing of The Last Unicorn.

Today’s story is “Sleight of Hand”.   It was first published in Eclipse 3.  I read it in Sleight of Hand.  The book is only available in trade paperback. Unfortunately the price is $29.95, which is a bit steep for a nine year old paperback that’s only 287 pages long, even if it is Beagle. Sadly, there is no electronic edition. Eclipse 3 is available in print for $14.95 and ebook for $9.99.

“Sleight of Hand” is a moving meditation on grief and life and the choices we make. There were times I thought I was reading Ray Bradbury.  That’s both a compliment and a good thing. Continue reading →

Wearing The Mask of Circe

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The Mask of Circe
Henry Kuttner
ebook $7.99
Originally published in Startling Stories, May 1948

Henry Kuttner (1915-1958) was one of the most prolific authors of the fantastic in the 1940’s.  Or rather I should say he was half of one of the most prolific writing duos, the other half being his wife, C. L. Moore.  Kuttner was born on this date, April 7.

(As an aside, I asked on Twitter if anyone had any suggestions as to what I should read for today, and the only response I got was “C. L. Moore”. And while pretty much everything they wrote after their marriage was a collaboration, for this birthday post, I’m focusing on things published under Kuttner’s byline.  I will be doing a post of Moore’s Judgment Night in the near future.)

Today we’re going to look at an example of Kuttner’s science fantasy.  The Mask of Circe was published in what was supposed to be a science fiction magazine, so there is some hand waving to keep it from being pure fantasy. Continue reading →

Robert Bloch’s “The Miracle of Ronald Weems”

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The great Robert Bloch (1917-1994) was born on this date, April 5.  He was a master of fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery.  Fated to always be known as “The Man Who Wrote Psycho“, he wasn’t just a master of thrills and chills. He was a master of comedy.

I’m going to have to apologize up front for this post.  I normally try to review something that is either in print or easy to come by in case anyone is interested in reading the story or book I’m reviewing.

I wanted to read something a bit longer than a short story, and I wanted to read something lighter in tone.  There’s enough horror on the news right now, and my wife won’t turn it off.

“The Miracle of Ronald Weems” was just the thing I needed. It was funny, with several types of humor including wordplay, puns, and slapstick. Bloch’s sense of humor aligns very well with my own, and I chuckled more than once.  There are few writers who can get me to do that.

Unfortunately this story, which was originally published in Imaginative Tales in the May 1955 issue, has only been reprinted once. That was in The Lost Bloch Volume Two:  Hell on Earth, a limited edition book that was published in 2000. A quick search of ABE showed only one copy available.  So if you don’t want to read the rest of this post, I understand. Continue reading →

Happy Birthday, Novalyne

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Robert E. Howard’s girlfriend, Novalyne Price Ellis, was born on this date, March 9 in 1908.  She passed away on March 30, 1999.

Her memoir, One Who Walked Alone, detailing her relationship with Howard, is one of the major sources of information about Bob’s life. Howard fans and scholars owe her a debt of gratitude for writing it.

If’ you’ve never read the book, I suggest you get your hands on a copy. It’s well worth your time.

One Who Walked Alone was the basis of the film The Whole Wide World, which starred Vincent D’Onofrio and an unknown-at-the-time actress named Renee Zellweger.  (It was released a few months before Jerry McGuire.) It’s a fairly faithful adaptation and worth watching.

There have been two editions of One Who Walked Alone, the second published to coincide with the film and having a picture of Zellweger on the cover.  The first edition is the one shown to the left. Both editions were published by Donald M. Grant.