THE NUTMEG POINT DISTRICT MAIL

the Avram Davidson electronic newsletter

Vol. I No. 3
September 1996
ISSN 1089-764X

Henry Wessells, Editor.
Cooper Wessells, Honorary Secretary.

Published every two months, more or less.
Contents copyright 1996 The Nutmeg Point District Mail and assigned to individual contributors. All rights reserved.

TEMPORARY CULTURE
P.O. Box 43072
Upper Montclair, NJ 07043-0072

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UNREPORTED DAVIDSON STORY UNCOVERED !

"THE BEASTS OF THE ELYSIAN FIELDS" BY CONRAD AMBER

Your editor has turned up the manuscript of this previously unrecorded tale in the Special Collections of the Library of the
California State University, Fullerton. While it is a minor story, it is notable for being the first mention of a "Jack Limekiller," though this one bears no resemblance to the later vintage ("Bloody Man," etc). It is unquestionably an Avram Davidson story; the sole indication of its original publication a short note in Avram's hand on the first page of typescript: "Pubd in Knight, or Cad or Adam.  Caribbean background Authentic. AD."

Richard Grant, formerly Avram's agent, notes that Avram wrote many pseudonymous stories for men's magazines such as those mentioned--of the second (or third) rank--and that in later years Avram himself did not recall or choose to acknowledge all his pseudonyms.

Anyone who might have access to files of such magazines or knowledge of other pseudonyms is urged to write the editor.

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FAMOUS HISTORICAL FIGURES IN AVRAM'S WORK

H.P. LOVECRAFT

second in an occasional series

Yes, well, HPL is not precisely a "famous" historical figure, but his name will be known to many readers of the Nutmeg Point District Mail.
Avram Davidson wrote a hilarious review of THE SURVIVOR AND OTHERS, a posthumous 'collaboration' between HPL and August Derleth. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January, 1963, the review is quoted at length in L. Sprague de Camp's LOVECRAFT: A BIOGRAPHY:

 
". . . In short, Howard was a twitch, boys and girls, and that's all there is to it.
"Of course, August Derleth feels different. August Derleth is an incredibly active, incredibly prolific writer who lives in Wisconsin and has written somethings like 811 books under his own name; the pseudonyms, who cares? In a way, August Derleth may be said to have invented H.P. Lovecraft, having rescued him from well-deserved obscurity in the Weird Tales files.
". . . We all have our time-bound longings. Horace Gold [former editor of Galaxy magazine] would love to have made love to Nefertiti. I would give lots and lots to have poured tea for Dr. Johnson. And August Derleth, I feel it in my bones, would have sold his soul to an Eldritch Horror to have collaborated with H.P. Lovecraft. And now he has.
". . . As I say, Derleth tries hard, but he doesn't quite turn the trick, because he is as sane as they come and
Lovecraft is as nutty as a five-dollar fruit-cake."
Avram did however make numerous allusions to H.P. Lovecraft in such stories as "Something Rich and Strange" (where computer programming assistance from Miskatonic University helps track down the elusive mermaid) or "Death of A Damned Good Man" (where his narrator muses about the authorship of the famed Lovecrafty couplet "That is not dead which can eternal lie / And after strange eons, even Death may die").

In "The Redward Edward Papers," we find:

"Roy Keith King" is the collective nom de plume (and perhaps the collective unconscious) of the so-called Bloor Brothers.
[. . .] "Rugose, squamous, amorphous; Lovecraft must have known them personally."
In "Adventure in AutoBiography: Kindly Hold Out Your Right Index Finger," an unpublished manuscript dated February 1993, Avram's revision of portions of Dragons in the Trees on the ethnography, language and history of the Black Caribs involves an American anthropologist from "Miskatonic University" seeking blood samples to prove some strange theory.

In a letter to Reno Odlin dated Sept 5 1991:

"LSdeC had a wonderful title: "Eldritch Yankee Gentleman" [title of essay on HPL in Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers]. Doubleday, claiming that "customers would not know the word 'eldritch'," changed it to "Lovecraft/A Biography." Catchy title, eh? Can you imagine anyone wanting to read it who didn't know what eldritch means? . . . Love the Nyarlathotep letterhead!"
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SHAMELESS PLUG DEPARTMENT

Your editor has written an essay entitled "'A place that you can put your arms around': Avram Davidson's Jack Limekiller stories."

This essay looks at the series of Limekiller novelettes as a whole, and provides a first look at the unpublished manuscript of Dragons in the Trees (Avram's account of his first trip to British Honduras in 1965-1966). The essay details the relation between this early work and the Limekiller fantasies, and discusses "The Beast of the Elysian Fields" as by Conrad Amber (see above).

It will be published in the Spring 1997 issue of Foundation : The Review of Science Fiction.

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WHERE? WHICH? A short quiz (published works only)

The prize is one grumpkin (redeemable in the New York, New Jersey, or Philadelphia area in vino or in coffee).

How many series of stories or novels did Avram begin?

List stories in which the medical practice features.

Extra credit given for answers in essay form.

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ANSWERS TO WHERE? WHICH? from the second issue

Roland Thurn was (once again) the first reader to respond with correct answers.

three birds:

three taverns: three outdated scientific disciplines:


The date of the second issue of The Nutmeg Point District Mail was the date of Avram's story about the imprisonment of the Marquis de Sade, "Events Which Took Place A Day Before Other Events."

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MISCELLANY

AARON BURR continued:

Your editor does not as a rule look at television. One recipient of the District Mail has kindly reported the prominent appearance of Aaron Burr in an advertisement for milk. The piece featured a skinny, white, scholarly-looking fellow, surrounded by memorabilia pertaining to the Burr-Hamilton duel--including "The Bullet"--who was unable to answer a telephone call from a game-show in coherent fashion because he has just started eating a peanut butter sandwich: "Aawon Buww."

O tempora! O mores! Oh Brave New World, indeed, that has such people in it!

Beer is also a suitable beverage to accompany peanut butter sandwiches, particularly when onions are substituted for jelly.
Not suitable for school lunches.

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Bibliographic updates:

Joyleg. Milano: Mondadori, 1994. Italian translation by G.L. Staffilano and Riccardo Valla.

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Coming next issue (November):

FOOD IN THE WRITINGS OF AVRAM DAVIDSON

Send your literary gastronomic favorites . . .

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