When I was in grad school in 1987, one of my professors surprised the heck out of me by mentioning his friend Harry Whittington during class. It turned out that my professor, Christopher Geist, has written his doctoral dissertation on Mandingo-like novels and had gotten to know Whittington because he had written so much in that vein. I really thought I was about the only person on Earth who knew Whittington by name. A year or two later, Dr. Geist was mentioned by Whittington in the introduction to a Black Lizard reissue of a Whittington novel so I bought a copy and gave it to him.
That's a great story, and one I didn't know. I'm also mentioned in the intros to the Black Lizard reissues, so Dr. Geist and I have something in common.
I will tell you one more thing you have in common--Chris Geist's classes and your novels were two of the things that kept me from snapping while I was working on my Ph.D. I read a lot of westerns back then and bought almost any Zebra horror novel I saw so you, Ed Gorman, and Robert Randisi were probably the three writers I read the most with Loren Estleman and Max Allan Collins coming a bit behind.
10 comments:
I always fear that these books can't live up to the copy on the back cover...
Whittington often does. Well, for me, anyway.
I'm almost shocked that SYKM does not include him.
But Wikipedia has a sketchy entry, including his 16 nom de plume that they know of:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Whittington_(author)
In which I learn that I share my birth date (Feb. 4) with him.
Here's a good essay.
Thanks. That was a nice read, and very informative.
When I was in grad school in 1987, one of my professors surprised the heck out of me by mentioning his friend Harry Whittington during class. It turned out that my professor, Christopher Geist, has written his doctoral dissertation on Mandingo-like novels and had gotten to know Whittington because he had written so much in that vein. I really thought I was about the only person on Earth who knew Whittington by name. A year or two later, Dr. Geist was mentioned by Whittington in the introduction to a Black Lizard reissue of a Whittington novel so I bought a copy and gave it to him.
That's a great story, and one I didn't know. I'm also mentioned in the intros to the Black Lizard reissues, so Dr. Geist and I have something in common.
I will tell you one more thing you have in common--Chris Geist's classes and your novels were two of the things that kept me from snapping while I was working on my Ph.D. I read a lot of westerns back then and bought almost any Zebra horror novel I saw so you, Ed Gorman, and Robert Randisi were probably the three writers I read the most with Loren Estleman and Max Allan Collins coming a bit behind.
Thanks, Randy. That's about the best compliment I've ever had.
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