Sometimes you just forget how great a writer was. Once a writer dies and his work stops appearing, his work may go into a little lock box in your mind, the one labeled, "I enjoyed this," and end up in a pile of other lock boxes, eventually gathering dust and being pushed toward the rear to make room for other, newer lock boxes. Mention the author's name and you might respond, "Yeah, he was great," but a part of you forgets just how great.
Case in point: Theodore Sturgeon (1918-1985). It's been a while since I read any of his stories. Silly, stupid me.
Killdozer! gives us fifteen stories that Sturgeon wrote between 1941 and 1946, beginning with "Blabbermouth" and ending with "Mewhu's Jet." There has never been another writer quite like Sturgeon; his optimism. his humanity, his open love, his power with words and emotions, all put him in a separate class. I am thankful that the late Paul Williams started the ball rolling in providing a permanent home for all of Sturgeon's stories. Included in the fifteen stories in this book are three previously unpublished stories (Williams mistakenly said four, correcting that mistake in the next volume), the original ending of "Killdozer," an unpublished alternate ending of "Mewhu's Jet." and several stories that took years to appear in print. The stories covered in Killdozer! mark the end of Sturgeon's early career and the beginning of his more mature phase. Here are stories that I had read and loved in Without Sorcery, Caviar, Beyond, A Way Home, and other Sturgeon collections. Here are some stories that remind you just how great a writer Sturgeon was.
The line-up:
- Blabbermouth (Amazing Stories, February 1947)
- Medusa (Astounding Science Fiction, February 1942)
- Ghost of a Chance (as "The Green-Eyed Girl," Unknown Worlds, June 1943)
- The Bones (with James H. Beard, Unknown Worlds, August 1943)
- The Hag Saleen (with James H. Beard, Unknown Worlds, December 1942)
- Killdozer! (Astounding Science Fiction, November 1944; this version has the slightly updated ending the author wrote for the story's inclusion in 1959's Aliens 4; the original magazine ending is included in the Story Notes)
- Abreaction (Weird Tales, July 1948)
- Poor Yorick! (previously unpublished)
- Crossfire (previously unpublished)
- Noon Gun (Playboy, September 1963)
- Bulldozer Is a Noun (previously unpublished)
- August Sixth, 1945 (Paul Williams mistakenly thought this was an unpublished story and included it in this volume. It was actually a letter in the Brass Tacks column in Astounding Science Fiction, December 1945. The error was acknowledged in Volume IV of the series, Thunder and Roses.)
- The Chromiun Helmet (Astounding Science Fiction, June 1946)
- Memorial (Astounding Science Fiction, April 1946)
- Mewhu's Jet (Astounding Science Fiction, November 1946; including in the Story Notes is a previously unpublished ending to the story)
In addition, there's a Foreword by Robert Silverberg, and Afterward by Robert A. Heinlein, and copious story note by Paul Williams.
It was great to spend time with some old friends, which is what many of these stories are.
A fine book. Highly recommended.
You're right, an absolutely terrific writer who is unjustly forgotten, or at least seldom read these days. I'll never forget reading More Than Human the first time. Wow. The short stories are a little uneven, I think, but the good ones are very good indeed.
ReplyDeleteEven in his lesser stories, Richard, there is gold to be panned. I certainly can see why some of his stories were unpublished, but while reading them there would be a line, a phrase, an idea that would make me go, "Wow!"
DeleteI was lucky enough to meet him at one of the first conventions I attended. "Killdozer" was probably the first story of his I read. He was one of the greats, for sure.
ReplyDeleteThe first story of his that I read, Bill, was "It." Knocked by teen-age socks off. Then I read MORE THAN HUMAN and SOME OF YOUR BLOOD. It's amazing how easily one can become addicted to Sturgeon.
DeleteWas "Memorial" originally published under another name? I read an excellent sci-fi short story years ago with that title, but the author wasn't Sturgeon (and the story was old enough to be this one).
ReplyDelete"Memorial" has always been published under the Sturgeon name, Graham. A check under titles listed in ISFDb shows only two other stories by that name, and those were published in 2008 and 2012. ISFDb lists a number of stories with "memorial" in the title; perhaps you were thinking of one of these. I certainly hope that's the case, rather than you having a faulty memory or a Swiss cheese brain as I have. On the other hand, the sky is very pretty in my world...
DeleteSince I bought the anthology (of reprints) it was in almost 20 years ago, I'm guessing it's neither of the recent ones. Guess I'll have to dig it out. It's the only story I ever read where the climax was the aliens electing delegates to a constitutional convention.
DeleteAnd, if anything, Jerry, as good as Sturgeon was in the '40s, he was even better in the '50s (even if most of his best horror fiction was in the earlier decade, very much including "Bianca's Hands" and the delayed-publication "A Way of Thinking"). And thanks for helping spur me to finally do the Blochs.
ReplyDeleteTodd, I am firmly convinced that if one were to read those two Bloch collections when thirteen, give or take, a life-long reader would be created. Well, it may not work in every case, but certainly in a good many. :-)
DeleteWell, that worked for me, but I'd already been reading him since I was 8yo...just not in quite so concentrated a dose...
DeleteThose Bloch collections have some stuff that would have scared the wee out of me when I was 10 or 12. Geez, Fred Brown's "The Father Thing" did that, and I've never forgotten that one.
ReplyDelete