Tag Archives: Fantasy & Science Fiction

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 →

Three by Wellman

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Manly Wade Wellman

Today, May 21, marks the birth of Manly Wade Wellman (1903-1986). Wellman is best remembered for his stories of the John the Balladeer, set in the Appalachian mountains. But he wrote a lot of other things, as well.

I first discovered Wellman’s short stories in the pages of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.  He had a number of  stories published there in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Someone who had had a subscription had sold an almost complete run to the local second hand bookstore when I was in high school. Wellman’s stories were among the first I read when I picked up an issue with his name on the cover.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, Wellman is a favorite around these here parts, so in honor of his birth, in addition to raising a glass in his honor later this evening, I’m going to look at three of his stories that feature the same  character, Sergeant Jaeger. Continue reading →