Friday, July 30, 2004

Donald A. Wollheim

Once upon a time, long, long ago, I actually met Donald A. Wollheim. It was at the World Fantasy Convention in 1979, the first fan convention I ever attended, and to my way of thinking one of the best. It was probably the last convention a lot of the great writers I loved when I was a kid ever attended, but there were plenty of others as well. Manley Wade Wellman was there. Frank Belknap Long. Evangeline Walton. Fritz Leiber, who gave the banquet speech (and that's another story). Lin Carter. Harlan Ellsion. Stephen King (this was just before he became so popular that he couldn't attend conventions without being mobbed; he was just another writer). Joe Lansdale was there, though I didn't actually meet him.

And of course Wollheim. He was a big influence on my life because he edited the Ace Double line, but I didn't know that when I was reading the Ace Doubles. The science fiction doubles were my favorites, and Wollheim published some interesting stuff. A lot of it was space opera, which I loved, but sometimes you'd turn the book over and there on the other side would be a novel by Philip K. Dick. Or, later on, Samuel R. Delaney or Ursula K. LeGuin. Wollheim gave them all their starts in long fiction.

I did a by-mail interview with Wollheim for Billy Lee's great little zine, PAPERBACK QUARTERLY, but I never thought to ask him how he came to be the publisher of such great works as DR. BLOODMONEY or THE EINSTEIN INTERSECTION (I know, it's not part of a double), but he was friendly and happy to respond to a request for an interview for a magazine with a circulation of maybe 200 copies.

And if you're wondering why I was thinking of Wollheim, it's because I've now read MR. JUSTICE by Doris Piserchia. (See the post on her below.) When I get a chance, I'll tell you some more about my reactions to the book.

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