A. Merritt and Plausible Science Fiction
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Last column, I wrote about Jack Williamson, and in doing so, I came across another name frequently: A. Merritt. Merritt was an pulp author in the early days of science fiction, and was highly influential to a number of other authors. His career as a journalist and his numerous short stories helped to reinforce some of the character of science fiction: he helped to establish speculative fiction as a genre, not through his imagination, but through his presentation of his characters and scenarios. This is a distinction that I feel is important: it's a characteristic that most science fiction stories hold to.
Plus, I love that cover up above. It's wonderful.
Read A. Merritt and Plausible Science Fiction over on Kirkus Reviews.
Sources:
- Time Machines: The Story of the Science-Fiction Pulp Magazines from the Beginning to 1950, Mike Ashley. Ashley has some good contextual information here, and Merritt shows up a couple of times.
- Partners in Wonder: Women and the Birth of Science Fiction, 1926-1965, Eric Leif Davin. Merritt shows up a couple of times here, as he was influenced heavily by Francis Stevens.
- A. Merritt: Reflections in the Moon Pool, Sam Moskowitz. This is a longer biography of Merritt's life, authored by genre historian Sam Moskowitz. There's historiographic issues with Moskowitz's writing (he rarely cites sources and relies on ancedotes), but there seems to be some decent information here, as well as some good commentary.
- Merritt, A. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction has some good information here about Merritt's life and career.