Today, February 17, a tip of the hat to two ladies in honor of their birthdays, Margaret St. Clair and Andre Norton. Continue reading
St. Clair and Norton
4 Replies
Tag Archives: birthday
Ed Emshwiller
Today, February 16, is the birthday of Ed Emswiller (1925-1990). Emshwiller was a prolific cover and interior artist in the nineteen fifties and sixties. He was married to author Carol Emshiwiller.
Galaxy February 1955, Cover by Emsh
He signed his work as Emsh. Much of it was for digests in the fifties, such as F&SF and Galaxy. His covers for Galaxy tended to be fun and somewhat zany, especially his Christmas covers, which featured a four-armed Santa Claus.
His covers for publiscations such as F&SF, Infinity, and other magazines of the time tended to be darker in theme and tone. I’m not sure how much of this was due to editorial policies, Emsh’s preferences, or the nature of the fiction he was illustrating. Galaxy, after all, published more satire than any other publication of the day. Many of those covers feature beautiful women.
In the sixties, he did a number of covers for paperbacks. His work has a definite style and feel to it.
Belowo are some samples of his work. Continue reading
Remembering Frazetta
Today, February 9, is the birthday of Frank Frazetta (1928-2010). It’s hard to believe it’s been over fifteen years since we lost him.
His influence is still felt today and will be for years to come. His iconic covers for the Lancer edition of Robert E. Howard’s Conan collections alone will ensure that.
He is arguably the greatest fantasy artist of the last century.
There’s not much I can say about Frazetta that hasn’t been said before, and better, by toher people. I’m not going to write a long post.
I just wanted to acknowledge his birthday.
“Heir Apparent” by C. L. Moore
Today is January 24, as I write this, and it’s the birthday of C. L. Moore (1911-1987). She’s a favorite around here.
Being cooped up in the house most of the day due tot eh weather, I was able read one of her stories. I chose “Heit Apparent” from the collection Judg,ment Night. That’s the cover of the original Gnome Press edition there on the left with a great cover by Kelly Freas.
It’s one of two stories in this volume that the ISFDB calls the Threshholders. The other is “Promised Land”.
Judgment Night was published in 1952.It contains five novellas that Moore was the primary author on. Her husband Henry Kuttner didn’t collaborate much if at all on these stories. They were all published under the pen name of Lawrence O’Donnell.
I read this book in the DCell paperback edition when I was in high school. I remember very little about it, which is why I chose a story from it for this post I wanted to look at some of her work that doesn’t get a lot of attention. There’s a slight C. L. Moore reviavl going on at the moment. At least it looks like it to me. While Northwest Smith and Jirel of Joiry are her best known works and my favorites of her stories, there’s more to the work of C. L. Moore than jsut those two characters. Continue reading
Robert E. Howard at 120
So today, January 6. is the one hundred and twentieth birthday of Robert E. Howard. The day is nearly over as write this. I’ve been occupied by work and winterizing before the temperatures drop into the single digits.
But I didn’t want the day to get away without some sort of post.
I doubt there’s much I could say that I either haven’t said before or that someone else has said better.
But when have I ever let that stop me? Continue reading
Ruminations on Merritt
Today, January 20, is the birthday of Abraham Merritt (1884-1943). At one time, Merritt was arguably the priemere writer of fantastic fiction in the United States, if not the world. For a while there was a fantasy magazine named after him. Sadly, outside of a small number of aficianados of fantasy, he pretty much forgtotten today.
Not entirely, though. Centipede Press as reprinted some of his novels in nice hardcover editions. Paperback copies of his works are available on the secondary market. Continue reading
An Appreciation of Clark Ashton Smith
As I mentioned in my previous post, today (January 13) is the birthday of Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961).
I’m not sure what I can say about Smith that hasn’t been said, and said better, by someone else. This isn’t the first post I’ve made about Smith.
I havne’t read anything by him in a while, so I’m not going to try and review any of his stories. But I do want to acknowledge his birthday
So here goes. Continue reading
Ron Goulart and Roger Elwood
Today, January 13, is the birthday of both Ron Goulart (1933-2022) and Roger Elwood (1943-2007). It’s also Clark Ashton Smith’s birthday, but I’ll devote a separate post to him. Continue reading
Northern Shadows
Today is January 3. It’s the birthday of J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973). His shadow over the field of fantasy is arguably the longest of any author. Many writers have written in imitation of him (think early Terry Brooks) or in reguttal to him. (Michael Moorcock and George R. R. Martin).
Tolkien drew on northern European mythology in crafting his worlds. That topic alone is worth multiple dissertations, and I’m not going to try to dwell on it in any great scholoarly depth.
Instead, I want make some general observations. Continue reading
Crafting the Short Story: Reflections on Charles Beaumont
This is the second birthday post for today. It’s on Charles Beaumont (1929-1967), if you couldn’t tell from the title. The first birthday post was on Isaac Asimov.
Beaumont couldn’t have been more different than Asimov. Where Asimov focused on science, often at the expense of the humanity of his characters (it’s been said), Beuamont was a master at crafting believable, individual characters. But then Asimov wrote science fiction, whereas Beaumont primarily wrote fantasy.
Beaumont was a protege of Ray Bradbury, something I’ve commented on before. That’s not to say Beaumont was inferior to Bradbury. He wasn’t, although he was to soem extent a different kind of writer. For a compasrison of two stories written by Beaumont and Bradbury from the same prompt, see this post.
What I want to focus on today is Beaumont as short fiction writer. Continue reading