Thoughts Occasioned by Publication of The Avram Davidson
Treasury
By Henry Wessells
It would be somewhat improper for me to review this book,
for reasons that are to be found in the table of contents (I am
somewhat involved, or at the very least complicit, in
other ways that I will spell out below). And yet. Having been
accused of being a "one man conspiracy" and "the world's greatest
authority on Avram Davidson" (or was it "expert"?), I am
reluctant to let this moment pass doing what I have been doing on
and off for the past five years. Namely, to say, to anyone who
will listen, Hey, have you ever read anything by Avram Davidson?
You really should read this book. . . .
Hence these paragraphs which, if not exactly a review, might
still offer something of interest.
In the dark, out-of-print years just after Davidson's death in
1993, there were any number of reasons to keep the flame alive:
the Vergil Magus and Peregrine books, the Limekiller stories,
"The Affair at Lahore Cantonment, "The Slovo Stove," and
"Naples." Now, with this book in front of me, there's all the
more cause for celebrating the work of an American original.
The Avram Davidson Treasury is a compendium of most (but
by no means all) of Davidson's best short fictions, arranged
chronologically, with story introductions by host of eminent
science fiction authors (and one other, yours truly). The
Treasury is a book that should be on the shelf of every
reader of science fiction. Some of these 38 stories ("Or All the
Seas With Oysters" or "The Golem") are ubiquitous; two have been
published as chapbooks; and one of the most distinctive, "The
Affair at Lahore Cantonment," is reprinted for the first time
since its original appearance in 1961, for which Davidson won the
Edgar Award.[1]
Yes, Avram Davidson was the man who won the Hugo, Edgar, and
World Fantasy Awards (and the last of the Ellery Queen Awards),
and spent his later years living in what was undeniably
poverty.[2] Davidson in the 1970s created the very distinct
worlds of Jack Limekiller (in British Hidalgo, a 20th-century
Central American country that is so richly drawn that it
must be somewhere on the map) and Dr. Englebert Eszterhazy
(in the 19th-century Balkan empire of
Scythia-Pannonia-Transbalkania), and wrote two of the most
brilliantly understated tales ever, "Naples" and "And Don't
Forget the One Red Rose."
But at one point during the middle 1970s (he would have been over
50 by then), he wrote that he lacked the money to mail a
manuscript. The worst hells are always of our own making, but it
still appalls me to think of what happened to him (and I never
met the man).
For all his reputed cantankerousness, Davidson was a great
writer, and in his work and in his person he touched a whole lot
of writers (some of whom don't even talk to each other). No one
buys a book merely for the introductions, but the introductions
in the Treasury give some sense of the diversity of
Avram's odyllic forces. Some are perfunctory nods, others
bittersweet recollections of Davidson's wit and erudition, and a
few are substantial essays or memoirs. The most noteworthy are,
in no particular order: Gregory Benford's reflections on
evolution for "Now Let Us Sleep"; William Gibson's note on "the
instant of my missing Avram"; Robert Silverberg's introduction;
Harlan Ellison's afterword to "Polly Charms" and his thoughts on
learning of Avram's death, which form an afterword to the
Treasury ; Guy Davenport's remarks on "Or All the Seas
with
Oysters," which he calls "so sinister a fable of man and his
losing battle with the machine" ; John M. Ford's introduction to
"Take Wooden Indians"; and Gregory Feeley's assessment of "The
Sources of the Nile."
There are a few, very few omissions: "The Dragon Skin Drum" is
the one important early story I miss most "They Loved Me in
Utica" is hilarious but admittedly minor; both are worth digging
up. One of the Adventures in Unhistory (perhaps "Postscript on
Prester John") might have served to introduce new readers to
Davidson's nonfiction. These and others might also form part of
a volume of Uncollected Writings.
When I opened this book and came to the story "Polly Charms, the
Sleeping Woman," I distinctly recalled that this was the first
story by Davidson that I ever read, when I found a copy of the
paperback Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy in the autumn of
1992, and first became interested by Davidson's digressive and
often fragmentary prose. I soon bought the Owlswick
Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy, which I passed on to my
brother in due course. In a desultory manner, I began looking
for other stuff by Davidson to read. I did not have much luck at
that point. What I did read seemed somehow to unlock something
for me -- the notion of incorporating odd knowledge into fiction
-- although I cannot say that "The Polynesian History of the
Kergulen Islands" took the world by storm when it appeared in
Exquisite Corpse, and "The Institute of Antarctic
Archaeology" remains unpublished. In May 1993, I called up
George Scithers to enquire if the Adventures in Unhistory
book had ever appeared, and learned that Avram had just passed
away (he did in fact see the book before his death). Over the
next several months, I began to correspond with various people
who were also interested in Davidson; I started to compile titles
of stories and books to look out for. As I found these scattered
stories and out-of-print books, this eventually grew into my
"Preliminary Annotated Checklist of the Writings of Avram
Davidson." In September 1995, when I asked a colleague how to
make a list into a database, instead, the first version of the
Avram Davidson Website was born. The rest, is of course, history
(and a labor of love). As I wrote at the beginning of this
letter, I am involved and complicit in the production of this
book, having contributed a few thoughts on "The Lineaments of
Gratified Desire" (another obliquely understated tale that makes
me shiver just to recall it). In a few instances I provided
Grania Davis with a clean copy of a story; and once suggested
that an author be given a particular story to introduce.
With the recent publication by Tachyon of The Boss in the
Wall, A Treatise on the House Devil by Avram Davidson and
Grania Davis, the appearance of the Treasury, and The
Investigations of Avram Davidson forthcoming from St.
Martin's, it seems that there is actually a Davidson renaissance
under way. What a pity it didn't happen during his lifetime.
1. "The Affair at Lahore Cantonment" was in fact reprinted once
in Ellery Queen's to Be Read Before Midnight (Random
House, 1962).
2. Avram Davidson won the 12th annual Ellery Queen Award in
1957, for "The Necessity of His Condition." The award was
discontinued after the 13th year; the original series of
award-winning stories was reprinted in Ellery Queen's The
Golden 13 (1970); more recently, I think during the early
1980s, the award was revived. By the early 1980s, Avram's
poverty was very concrete and his period of residency in a VA
Hospital effectively enjoined him from publishing, for any
earnings would have been translated into a reduction of his
benefits.
Originally published (without footnotes) in The New York
Review of Science Fiction, November 1998.
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