The Avram Davidson Treasury A Tribute Collection

by Davidson, Avram; Silverberg, Robert; Davis, Grania; Bradbury, Ray; Ellison, Harlan

• ISBN13: 9780312867317
• ISBN10: 031286731X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-09-11
• Publisher: Tor Books

Summary

Avram Davidson was one of the great original American writers of this century. He was erudite, cranky, Jewish, wildly creative, and sold most of his wonderful stories to pulp magazines. They are wonderful. Now his estate and his friends have brought together a definitive collection of his finest work, each story introduced by an SF luminary: writers like Ursula K. Le Guin, William Gibson, Poul Anderson, Gene Wolfe, Guy Davenport, Peter S. Beagle, Gregory Benford, Thomas M. Disch, and dozens of others. This is a volume every lover of fantasy will need to own. Avram Davidsonwas born in Yonkers, New York, in 1923. After spending some time at New York University, he served in the Marines from 1942 till 1946--and again saw action during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. For two years in the early 1960s, Davidson editedFantasy & Science Fictionmagazine. He earned awards and accolades throughout his life for his SF writing. Davidson died in 1993. Avram Davidson was one of the great American writershowever unjustly obscureof the twentieth century. He was erudite, cranky, Jewish, wildly creative, and "New York" to the core. He was also a genius at SF storytelling. Beginning in the mid-1950s, Davidson sold most of his short stories to pulp magazines; he also published a few novels. Today, his stories are seen as wholly original if underrated masterpieces, all of them uniformly wonderful and breathtaking tales. For this important volume, Davidson's estate and many of his friends have brought together a definitive collection of his finest work in the short-story format. Moreover, each story is introduced by a different SF luminary. Hence we find not only a generous gathering of Davidson's best short fiction but also introductory insights into his life and work by Ursula K. Le Guin, William Gibson, Poul Anderson, Guy Davenport, Peter S. Beagle, Gregory Benford, Thomas M. Disch, Spider Robinson, Alan Dean Foster, and dozens of others. As theToronto Starnoted,The Avram Davidson Treasurygives us "the best by a giant in the field." "A great and truly wondrous collection . . . The book contains the cream of Davidson's short stories, which means it is an anthology no serious student of short fantasy can afford to miss. This is how to do it if you're interested in horror, science fiction, Faerie, or diving into forms untried and altogether new. This is how it's done."Gahan Wilson "Avram Davidson (1923-1993) was one of the most original and charming writers of our time. So, it almost goes without saying, he was generally neglected and undervalued during much of his career . . . Grasping fruitlessly for comparisons, his admirers have likened Davidson to Saki, Chesterton, John Collier, Lafcadio Hearn, Kipling, and even I. B. Singer and S. J. Perelman. And you can see what they mean. I would add that he frequently reminds me of theNew Yorkerwriter Joseph Mitchell: two similarly brilliant stylists with a compassionate interest in bohemians, losers, immigrant culture, New York, oddities, con artists, crackpot inventors, and the passing of humane, small-scale neighborhood life . . . [This book is] not merely a treasury, it's a genuine treasure. Some of its pages will carry you away to strange seas and shores, others will show you the marvelous within the seemingly ordinary, and just about all of them will take your breath away. But that's what magicians do."Michael Dirda,The Washington Post Book World "Davidson had one of the most original imaginations in the history of American SF and fantasy . . . He deserves to be enjoyed by generations."Booklist "[This is] a king's ransom of short fiction from one of America's least-known masters of the form . . . These stories are as important and vital as those by Updike and Cheever."&

Author Biography

Avram Davidson was born in Yonkers, New York, in 1923. After spending some time at New York University, he served in the Marines from 1942 till 1946--and again saw action during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. For two years in the early 1960s, Davidson edited Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine. He earned awards and accolades throughout his life for his SF writing, including the Hugo Award, the Edgar Award, the Ellery Queen Award, and three World Fantasy Awards. Davidson died in 1993.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Robert Silverman
Foreword by Grania Davis

The Fifties
My Boy Friend's Name Is Jello
The Golem
The Necessity of His Condition
Help! I Am Dr. Morris Goldpepper
Now Let Us Sleep
Or the Grasses Grow
Or All the Seas with Oysters
Take Wooden Indians
Author, Author
Dagon
Ogre in the Vly
The Woman Who Thought She Could Read

The Sixties
Where Do You Live, Queen Esther?
The Sources of the Nile
The Affair at Lahore Cantonment
Revolver
The Tail-Tied Kings
The Price of a Charm; or, the Lineaments of Gratified Desire
Sacheverell
The House the Blakeneys Built
The Goobers
The Power of Every Root

The Seventies
Selectra Six-Ten
Goslin Day
Polly Charms, the Sleeping Woman
And Don't Forget the One Red Rose
Crazy Old Lady
"Hark! Was That the Squeal of an Angry Thoat?"
Manatee Gal, Won't You Come Out Tonight
Naples

The Eighties and Nineties
Full Chicken Richness
The Hills Behind Hollywood High
The Slovo Stove
Revenge of the Cat-Lady and The Last Wizard
While You're Up
The Spook-Box of Theobald Delafont De Brooks
Yellow Rome; or, Vergil and the Vestal Virgin

Afterword by Ray Bradbury
Afterword by Harlan Ellison