Black Gate

Grossman argues that the general reading public is reacting against the “plotless” works of Modernism that presumably have come to dominate our reading selections. The problem with this is that many of the works cited as “plotless” Modernist, such as The Great Gatsby, weren’t all that popular  at the time of their publication. Indeed, it wasn’t until after World War II when the academy declared these works as part of the literary canon, coupled with the post-war rise in college attendance, that people came to hear of them.   …

Read More Read More

Eric Knight scooped me by breaking the news below, but I thought this was worth making a little noise about.

BG Managing Editor Howard Andrew Jones has been quoted extensively in today’s edition of the The Wall Street Journal, in reporter John J. Millar’s lengthy article on the Harold Lamb revival, “Shepherding a Lamb’s Lost Legacy” (available in its entirity here.) 

The article follows the completion of Howard’s eight-volume reprint series of Lamb’s work, now available from Bison Press and Amazon.com

Here’s the opening paragraphs:

“Imagine rummaging through an old stack of pulp magazines and coming across a lost story called ‘The Three Musketeers’ by Alexander Dumas,” says Howard Jones. “If nobody had heard of it, you’d feel compelled to tell people what they were ­missing.”

That’s how Mr. Jones, a writing teacher at the University of Southern Indiana, likens his discovery of Harold Lamb’s historical-adventure fiction. For years, he has tracked down dozens of obscure tales and ­novellas by Lamb. This literary search-and-rescue mission has led to a small boom in the ­author’s popularity. Lamb won’t ever achieve the rank of Dumas, but he may yet win some well-deserved ­posthumous recognition. 

And Mr. Miller closes with:

Lamb’s obituaries in 1962 barely mentioned his fiction. By then, the cheap magazines that had published his yarns were long forgotten except by a few passionate collectors. Like a burial mound’s hidden hoard of treasure, they lay undisturbed, awaiting their rediscovery by Mr. Jones—and now a growing band of admirers.

Once again Howard beats me to one of my life-long ambitions, getting quoted as an expert in the WSJ, and manages to make it look easy.  Fitting with my long and warm friendship with Howard, my immediate reaction was “Rat Bastard!  He’ll pay!”

But until that day – congratulations Howard!

On this date, August 27th*, nearly 2500 years ago, the straits of Artemisium came alive with the creak of oar-locks and the bellow of horns. Countless voices raised the paean, the battle-hymn of Athena, to the heavens. As the song reached its crescendo bronze-sheathed rams found their marks, splintering hulls and snapping oars. And so began the Greeks’ three-day clash against the numerically superior armada of Great King Xerxes of Persia, for control of the waters off the northern shore of Euboea—and ultimately, for control of Hellas, itself.

…

Read More Read More