News reader:

[Wilson Gray]

Quite so, Mark. I'd forgotten that science-fiction authors are no
longer merely random oddballs earning a penny a word from editors
who'd just as soon rip off something out of copyright by a
better-known author. Not because they were out to screw their regular
contributors, but because they wanted to offer us readers more than a
hundred pages.

My favorite example of that is "Down The Hatch," by John Collier,
reprinted in F&SF (I was a charter subscriber, ca.$2.00/yr, IIRC) many
years ago, a great story that I've never found anywhere else. Hm. It's
also been many years since I've looked for it, since before the
computer. Maybe I should google it. :-)

And, of course, Poul Anderson was famous in the field long before
1978. Back in the day, s-f authors were of such little note that
getting into touch with them was no problem. In 1957, I looked up A.E.
van Vogt in the L.A. telephone book and gave him a ring. Not only was
he willing to chat, but he also seemed actually flattered.

-Wilson

On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 10:37 AM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: News reader:
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>> > On Fri, May 23, 2008 at 11:00 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >> I asked you not to tell me that! Besides, Poul Anderson, the author of
>> >> one of my favorite stories, "The Un-Man," was a science-fiction
>> >> writer, not a literary giant whose style affected the usage of others.
>
> I replied
>
>> > False dichotomy! He was both.
>
> Wilson asked:
>> In what sense?
>
> I don't think you believe that "sf writer" and "literary giant" are by
> definition mutually exclusive, so I won't go into that. He wasn't in
> the league of Shakespeare or Milton, but who is? The sf community has
> recognized his stature for, oh hell, all my reading life? ... and
> officially for... let's say thirty years at least:
>
>    * Gandalf Grand Master (1978)
>    * Hugo Award (seven times)
>    * John W. Campbell Memorial Award (2000)
>    * Nebula Award (three times)
>    * Pegasus Award (best adaptation, with Anne Passovoy) (1998)
>    * Prometheus Award (four times, including Special Prometheus Award
> for Lifetime Achievement in 2001)
>    * SFWA Grand Master Award (1997)
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poul_anderson#Awards)
>
> That implies a lot of influence on others.
>
> "Hoofs" isn't part of this. That was in one line of one poem,* which I
> know well because I wrote a setting for it; I don't know if he used
> that plural elsewhere, but I noticed it there because I use "hooves"
> when I need it.
>
> * The Ballade of Losers' Night, by François Villon, by Poul Anderson.
> This is a ballade composed and recited in the course of the story
> Losers' Night by the medieval poet François Villon.
>
> m a m
>
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
 -Sam'l Clemens

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