Henry Wessells, Editor.
Cooper Wessells, Honorary Secretary.
All correspondence to:
TEMPORARY CULTURE
Post Office Box 43072, Upper Montclair, NJ 07043-0072
Electronym: wessells@aol.com
Use this electronym for requests to be added to or dropped from the
mailing list. Back issues are archived at the Avram Davidson Website,
URL : http://www.avramdavidson.org
PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THE ORIGINATING ADDRESS
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Press Clippings : 'active as popcorn in a skillet'
Guy Davenport opens his column in the April 2002 Harper's Magazine with
praise for Avram Davidson's writings, particularly The Other Nineteenth
Century and Adventures in Unhistory : Davidson's bouncy style is an
explosive mixture of Sterne, Robert Burton, Rabelais, and Plutarch. Davidson's
mind was as active as popcorn in a skillet [. . .] these Adventures have the
weight of about a hundred doctoral theses in anthropology or folklore, none of
which would be salted with Davidson's wicked and wholly subversive sense of
humor." Davenport, a frequent correspondent of Davidson's in later years, tells
a splendid anecdote about genius and Tolstoy and Davidson. "Ranking geniuses
is still an inexact science." Calling "El Vilvoy de las Islas" the "masterpiece" in
The Other Nineteenth Century, the Sage of Lexington notes : "The
rediscovery of Avram Davidson is a true resurrection. I have on my desk the
unpublished proofs of his autobiography. [. . .] His letters will be a publishing
event" (p. 71). The column is nicely illustrated with the principal motifs of "Or
All the Sea with Oysters."
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A MODEST PROPOSAL : UNCOLLECTED DAVIDSON
On the ninth anniversary of Avram Davidson's death, some reflection upon the
steady return to print of the author's work seems apt. Successive issues of the
District Mail have chronicled this phenomenon. Much of Davidson's best short
fiction is readily available, and the Wildside Press initiative to reprint his early
novels is well under way. What is surprising is how much first-rate material
remains uncollected or not yet reprinted, even after the Treasury, the
Investigations, Everybody Has Somebody in Heaven, and the most recent
volume, The Other Nineteenth Century. Accordingly, there follows a
possible "table of contents" for a volume of Uncollected Davidson that might
prompt a few readers to seek out some "new" stories. A few generally
eccentric thematic headings are briefly catalogued to suggest the range of these
pieces : Antiquarian Pursuits, Fabulous Beasts, Classical Themes, Retirement
Life & Pensions, Crime & Detection, Fantasy, and Short Shorts.
Antiquarian Pursuits, Fabulous Beasts, Classical Themes & Fantasy :
"Something Rich and Strange" (with Randall Garrett), Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, June 1961
"Rite of Spring," Orbit 8, ed. Damon Knight, 1970
"The Traditions of His Family," Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, April 1962
"The Roads, The Roads, the Beautiful Roads," Orbit 5, ed. Damon Knight, 1969
"Big Sam," Alchemy and Academe, ed. Anne McCaffrey, 1970
"They Loved Me in Utica," New Worlds of Fantasy 2, ed. Terry Carr, 1970
"If You Can't Beat Them," Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, August 1975
"The New Zombies" (with Grania Davis), Interfaces, eds. Ursula K. Le Guin and Virginia Kidd, 1980
"Body Man," Asimov's, June 1986
"Landscape with Giant Bison," Asimov's, September 1986
"Mountaineers Are Always Free," Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, November 1987
"Events Which Took Place A Day Before Other Events," Asimov's, September 1989
"The Day They All Came Back," Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, June 1991
"Blunt," Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October-November 1998,
Retirement Life & Pensions :
"Death of a Damned Good Man," Asimov's, January 1991
"Leg," Asimov's, July 1991
"Room For One More," Whispers, 1997
"The He of Them, The She of Them, and the Funny Old Man Downstairs" (unpublished fiction)
Crime & Detection :
"The Holy Man," Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March 1957
"The Creator of Preludes," Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, June 1958
"No Fire Burns," Playboy, July 1959
"Dealer in Fear," Saint Mystery Magazine, August 1959
"Prince's Mixture," Saint Mystery Magazine, September 1961
"Amphora," Men and Malice, ed. Dean Dickensheet, 1973
Fragmentary Works :
"The Diligence of the Beggar Boustremovich," (Eszterhazy fragment)
"Peregrine : Tertius"
Your editor has purposely not chosen from the Limekiller stories or the many
excellent shorter Vergil Magus tales : these could each form a separate volume,
as indeed could the uncollected mystery stories. A further, slender volume
might collect the two Corydon tales.
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE AVRAM DAVIDSON SOCIETY
The Last Wizard with A Letter of Explanation.
Publications of the Avram Davidson Society, number one.
Size: 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches, xii pages. Second printing, May 1999.
Single copies, $10.00 (postpaid).
El Vilvoy de las Islas.
Publications of the Avram Davidson Society, number two.
Size: 6 x 9 inches, viii + 32 pages. June 2000.
Issue of 100 copies in paper wrappers : single copies, $13.00 (postpaid).
The Beasts of the Elysian Fields by Conrad Amber.
Publications of the Avram Davidson Society, number three.
Size: 6 x 9 inches, iv + 12 pages. June 2001.
Issue of 80 copies in paper wrappers : single copies, $26.00 (postpaid).
This is the last time thsi publicaiton will be offered for sale.
To order, send a cheque in U.S. funds, payable to Henry Wessells, to :
P.O. Box 43072, Upper Montclair, NJ 07043-0072, USA
Orders by e-mail to wessells@aol.com will be held until payment is
received.
Trade discount available.
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Next Issue Date : July 2002
The editor welcomes correspondence and contributions on any topic pertaining
to the life and writings of Avram Davidson.
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