Pat Calhoun

double header for the thread: ordered a 'Fast One' and a 'Fickle Finger': I appreciate the inspiration...

here's a couple of Graphics that really 'Popp'

'Shannach' is one of the best SF novellas of the 1950s, and there are a number of humdingers from that glorious decade. Happy birthday to Leigh Brackett!

1966

Up into the 1960s at least, the pulp collecting focus was on text rather than art: the acquisition of rare, even legendary, stories that were not available in any other form. The small-press reprint houses, led by August Derleth's Arkham, and publications like Famous Fantastic Mysteries and Avon Fantasy Reader, worked against the fear of classic tales crumbling into dust. Simak's 'The Creator' loomed high on the 'ungettable' list, but armed with the 21stC SFDB I saw that there was a 1961 reprint which I promptly ordered and read and was happy when the story lived up to its status as an elusive superstar.

a thank you into the beyond to Ufi: great gallery and I downloaded couple of faves. the 1910 Cavalier as frozentundraguy and I have been admiring 'sailing ship' covers as a worthy 'subset' for a while now. and the Star Weekly as I'm a Fearn fan, and I love the thought that the housewives and farm fraus of rural Canada spent their time off scooting into space with the Golden Amazon.

that Dell #5 is pretty sweet: I do have the comic book pb version...

from 'Songs and Sonnets Atlantean'

here's another nicely packaged DH Lawrence collection

Frances didn't publish much SF, but he did produce this 1949 John Russell Fearn novel, one of the first 'mushroom jungle' SFs.

Frances is author and publisher

the first: my favorite Thompson novel and a sweet Lion PBO package, the second: while the Lions are roaring, and the third: classique...

The Avati is wonderful, but I think of the 'Road Show' cover and it makes me imagine the Griffith Foxley ladies of 'Madball'...

This recent buy was somewhat expensive, but it really is an extravagant PB. Beyond delicious iconic cover and illustrated with many full-pagers and many partials. I'm guessing the William Gropper interiors came with the hardback first edition.

that Mystic is nice, huh waaagh...

I confess; I am my father's son as pictured. Here's a later photo. Michener used to talk about the 'Calhoun mind' as I think he was favorably comparing the Admiral to his great-grandpa, John C Calhoun. Hopefully the tradition has continued. Pic shows my wife Gina and I, standing in for Ambrose Bierce at the Bierce family plot as Ambrose never made it.

and, speak of the devil, here's a recent acquisition that I like a lot, especially as I collect Elisabeth Sanxay Holding...

after the admiral died in '63 Pat needed a lifeline, and Golden Age was it

cool: you've got the one about my Dad in there. here we are... from Forbes 2008: The lessons learned in the Solomons were soon applied in the Central Pacific, where Calhoun and his staff developed a revolutionary concept: the floating base. Atolls like Majuro in the Marshall Islands had little land to offer, but they enclosed capacious lagoons, which Calhoun could stuff full of tenders, cargo ships, ammunition carriers, salvage tugs, minesweepers, oil tankers, repair ships, floating dry-docks, hospital ships and assorted barges. In March 1945, Calhoun finally exchanged his bureaucrat's office at Pearl Harbor for a fighting admiral's command. He was named to fill Halsey's old slot as South Pacific commander. Alas for Calhoun, by this point the South Pacific was a backwater region; the fighting had shifted northwest to the Philippines and Okinawa. So Calhoun remained in a support role for the duration of the war, and then disappeared into the historical obscurity that is a supply officer's lot. His death in 1963 generated no worshipful obituaries like those lavished on Spruance and Halsey. But posterity threw Calhoun at least one lifeline. Among his wartime subordinates was one James A. Michener, a lieutenant commander with literary ambitions. After the war, Michener fictionalized his experiences in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Tales of the South Pacific. Calhoun presumably was a model for Millard Kester, Michener's fictional admiral, who--unlike Calhoun--finally gets to command an invasion force and win a battle. Michener's book inspired the classic musical "South Pacific," now back on Broadway in a critically acclaimed revival, which currently is the hottest ticket in town. Featured prominently in the plot is a group of Seabees--naval construction workers--whose job falls under the heading of logistics rather than combat. So the continued success of "South Pacific" provides a bit of reflected glory for Michener's old boss, William Calhoun, the logistics expert who contributed so much to America's victory over Japan.

good question on how short in page numbers a digest can be. perhaps the 64-page-or-less formats should be called booklets as they do seem for the most part to bill themselves as a partial offering compared to full size. here's a couple of UK 64-pagers: Tit-Bits 1954 and Sexton Blake 1961. (stapled but squarebound with full printed spines)