I read on Jayme Lee Blaschke's blog that Jack Williamson has died. Williamson was truly one of the greats, a giant in the SF field, and I regret his passing. He published stories in nine different decades, beginning in 1928, and I can't even start to tell you all the ones I've read and enjoyed. Let me just name a few things that really hit me: The Legion of Space, Darker than You Think, With Folded Hands. All quite different, all top shelf. I was lucky enough to meet Williamson at an AggieCon about 25 years ago and tell him how much I'd enjoyed his work. The world is a poorer place without him in it.
3 comments:
I met Williamson at one of the Fantasy Fairs, a short-lived Dallas convention. He was quite a gentleman. I haven't read everything he wrote (he wrote a lot), but I remember vividly where I was when I read both THE LEGION OF SPACE and GOLDEN BLOOD. Great books. Great man.
Jack Williamson certainly did it all in the course of his long career. You hit what is for me the high point, Darker Than You Think. About ten years ago I stumbled across one of the novelettes he wrote as kind of a warm up for Darker. A fine fine piece of work (wish I could remember the title), the werewolf scenes played out against a snowstorm in the mountains. He also wrote an excellent adventure story Golden Blood that holds up well on rereading. He did this early in his Twenties. What a career.
Ed Gorman
An example to us all, in most ways, I think. Not least in how he never stopped trying to learn more, about writing among other things.
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