Sam Hall

[Wilson Gray]

But wasn't Edd Cartier earlier The Man, preceding both Freas and van
Dongen? There was also another oft-used guy. For some reason, about
all that I can recall of him was that he illustrated a story in the
November, 1948, issue. Rogers! That was his name.

-Wilson

On Sat, Oct 31, 2009 at 7:05 PM, Robin Hamilton
<robin.hamilton2 at btinternet.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton2 at BTINTERNET.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Sam Hall
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>> FWIW, some sixty years ago, I read a science-fiction story entitled,
>> "Sam Hall," in the old pulp mag, Astounding Science-Fiiction, in which
>> it was the cover story, IIRC. Some verses of a "folksong," The Ballad
>> of Sam Hall, "inspired by the life of the title character," were
>> included:
>
> I think this would be from the mid to late fifties at least, from memory.
> Mack Reynolds was the writer, or if not him, one of John W. Campbell's main
> stable of writers at the old _Astounding_.
>
>> Oh, my name it is Sam Hall
>> And I hate you one and all
>
> The chorus mutates something considerable, in the wake of Ross -- that's one
> of the more polite versions.
>
>> It's taken till now for me to discover that the author didn't simply
>> make up the story out of whole cloth.
>
> The original historical figure was John Hall, hanged in 1707 (not 1701, a
> common mistake stemming from Cecil Sharp).  He becomes progressively more
> fictionalised as his story works its way through the trial transcripts, the
> Newgate Ordinary's account, Smith's _Lives of the Highwaymen_, and onwards
> through the various editions of _The Newgate Calendar_.  And that's even
> before (or beside) the song.
>
>> However, again, IIRC, the "Sam
>> Hall" of the ASF story was a union organizer or one whose story was
>> used as inspiration by people who were union organizers, the story
>> being loosely based on the (science-fictionalized) history of the IWW.
>
> It was certainly political, but I doubt if it was pro-Wobbly (though my
> memory, like Wilson's, is from a time ago).  Campbell was pretty right-wing,
> and the writers he published -- notably Robert Heinlein -- lent the same
> way.
>
>> I have no idea why this
>> hardly-at-all-interesting-to-me-at-the-time-or-even-now story has
>> remained lodged in the back of my thinking cap for over half a
>> century. But, "there it is," as we used to say, during the Viet-Nam
>> Era.
>
> The Devil has all the best tunes.
>
>> I'm absolutely (yeah, right) certain that I correctly recall the mag,
>> the title of the story, the couplet, and, perhaps, even the cover
>> artist: Van Dongen(??). The rest is only slightly better than a WAG.
>
> It might have been Kelly Freas, who was Campbell's main illustrator for
> Astounding.  I don't recall the cover myself.
>
> Ah -- just googled this -- it was Poul Anderson, not Mack Reynolds.
>
>        Sam Hall   Poul Anderson   Astounding, Aug '53
>
> Robin
>
> (You can Peek Inside the story courtesy of Amazon:
>
>        http://www.amazon.com/Going-Infinity-Poul-Anderson/dp/0765305976#reader_0765305976
>
> R.)
>
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--
-Wilson
–––
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.
–Mark Twain

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