Category Archives: birthday

Mundy and Davidson

Just a quick birthday announcement of two great writers of the previous century who were born on this date (April 23).

Talbot Mundy

First, Talbot Mundy (1879-1940). Mundy wrote adventure stories for the pulps. Mundy worked in India and Africa after graduating from university, and these experiences informed much of his later fiction. Some of his work contains fantastic elements, but much was real world adventure fiction. He was an influence on a number of science fiction and fantasy writers.

Much of his fiction is available in both print and electronic formats.

Avram Davidson

Second, Avram Davidson (1923-1993). Davidson wrote his best work at short lengths, although he wrote a number of novels as well. Davidson had a unique voice, and I once attended a panel where the moderator asked the panelists what writers they thought people would be reading in a hundred years. Neil Gaimen was on the panel, and if memory serves, named Davidson.

Davidson isn’t light bedtime reading, but his work rewards the effort. (It doesn’t require a great deal of effort, you slackers.) His collection of essays, Adventures in Unhistory, is worth seeking out.

Beagle and Wandrei

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About four years ago, there was a showing of The Last Unicorn at the local Alamo Drafthouse. The is of course based on the novel by Peter S. Beagle. I had seen it in the theater years ago upon its release. I took my son, who at the time was about the same age I had been when I saw it. He got to meet Peter, whom I had met on several previous occasions. My son and I both had a great evening. If you’re interested, you can read about that here.

Today (April 20, 2019) marks Peter’s 80th birthday. I’d like to wish him a very happy birthday. Beagle is a true gentleman and one of the best stylists working in the field. His work is filled with warmth and humor, and I highly recommend it.

The other birthday I want to acknowledge is that of Donald Wandrei, who was born in 1908. In addition to writing for the pulps, including Weird Tales and Black Mask, Wandrei co-founded Arkham House with August Derleth. There are no electronic collections of Wandrei’s fiction, but Fedogan and Bremer have brought out several nice hardcover collections of his short fiction. I’ve read a little of his work, and I intend to read more. Anyone who can hit both Weird Tales and Black Mask is a writer I want to read.

Kuttner at Longer Lengths

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Henry Kuttner was on born on this date, April 7, in 1915. Anyone who has spent any time around this blog knows that Kuttner is one of my favorite authors. It’s been one of those weeks where I haven’t had much time to read, so I don’t have a review of anything he wrote ready to go. (I did manage to make it to the Jack Williamson lectureship again, so there will be a report on that within a few days.)

Much of Kuttner’s work in the middle to late 1940s was at what was considered novel length at the time, but most of these stories would be considered novellas today. Thrilling Wonder and Startling Stories were the two most common magazines for Kuttner’s longer works. And most of them have never been reprinted. There are some exceptions. I’ve read most of Kuttner’s short stories that I can get my hands on. The longer works are next on my agenda. Continue reading →

Novalyne’s Birthday

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Novalyne Price Ellis was born on this day (March 9) in 1908. She passed away in 1999 on March 30. Novalyne was the author of One Who Walked Alone, a memoir of her relationship with Robert E. Howard during the last two years of his life. It was based on her diary.

Novalyne Price moved to Cross Plains to teach English in 1934, She soon met Robert E. Howard, and a tempestuous relationship started. They had broken up by the summer of 1936, and Novalyne had left Cross Plains to attend graduate school in Louisiana. She was there when she got the news of Robert’s death.

She wrote One Who Walked Alone as a rebuttal to L. Sprague de Camp’s biography of Howard, Dark Valley Destiny. If you’ve not read her book, you should. It’s one of the main sources of information we have about Bob.

The book was filmed in the mid-1990s and starred Vincent D’Onofrio as Robert and Renee Zellweger as Novalyne.

William F. Nolan at 91

Henry S. Whitehead

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Today (March 5) marks the birth of Henry S. Whitehead. He was born in 1882 and passed away in November of 1932. Whitehead was a contributor of Weird Tales and a correspondent of H.P. Lovecraft. The year before Whitehead died, Lovecraft visited him at his Florida home and quite liked him. Had he not died so young, Whitehead would have been a major author of the weird and fantastic. I consider him to be so, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that.

Whitehead served for a time as the Archdeacon for the Episcopal Church in the Virgin Islands. This posting would become a major influence on his fiction, as most of it dealt with voodoo and other fantastic aspects of Caribbean life.

Whitehead wrote no novels, but his short fiction is worth seeking out. I reviewed “Seven Turns in a Hangman’s Rope” a few years ago. Fortunately, his work is available in electronic format. If I get a chance, I’ll try to read something else by him.

Richard Matheson’s Birthday

Frank Frazetta’s Birthday

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Today, February 9, marks the 91st anniversary of Frank Frazetta’s birth. Frazetta was born in 1928 and needs no introduction here. Rather than write a detailed tribute, I’m going to post some of his covers and let the artist’s work speak for itself. I’d post the reproductions of the paintings themselves, but I don’t know if fair use would cover that. I don’t want to violate copyright. In the comments, let us know what some of your favorite Frazetta works are. Continue reading →

Blogging Northwest Smith: Yvala

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Catherine Lucille Moore was born on January 24, 1911, in Indianapolis, Indiana. I’ve written multiple birthday tributes to her. As I said for Robert E. Howard’s birthday two days, ago, I’m eulogized out. So today in honor of her birthday, I’ll be revising a series I let go dormant, that of the Northwest Smith stories. There will be spoilers below the fold. Continue reading →

Musings on Robert E. Howard

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Robert E. Howard was born on January 22, 1906. I’ve been reading through the Conan stories for the series at Black Gate. (The latest post is here.)

I realize a lot of people have favorite Howard characters other than Conan. Conan was the first Howard I read. Call it imprinting, but Conan is still my mental template for what a sword and sorcery character is like. I see more and more things each time I reread one of those stories.

I’m also not into the pastiches very much. I’m open to reading some, especially some of the ones that will be published this year in the new comics, but to my mind they will never be canonical. No offense intended to anyone writing them. I feel the same way about the James Bond books. Continue reading →

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