Published bimonthly by whim and fancy for the Avram Davidson Society.
Contents copyright 2001 The Nutmeg Point District Mail and assigned
to
individual contributors. All rights reserved.
Henry Wessells, Editor.
Cooper Wessells, Honorary Secretary.
All correspondence to:
TEMPORARY CULTURE
Post Office Box 43072, Upper Montclair, NJ 07043-0072
Electronym: wessells@aol.com
Use this electronym for requests to be added to or dropped from the
mailing list. Back issues are archived at the Avram Davidson Website,
URL : http://www.avramdavidson.org/
PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THE ORIGINATING ADDRESS
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THE OTHER NINETEENTH CENTURY
A new collection of stories by Avram Davidson will be published by Tor
Books
in the fall of this year. The Other Nineteenth Century,
edited by Grania Davis
and Henry Wessells, will contain alternate histories and stories that
shed new
light on some well-known episodes of our own history. A full
list of the book's
contents will be released in an upcoming issue of the District Mail.
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AVRAM DAVIDSON SOCIETY MEETING
A quorum of directors of the Avram Davidson Society met on the occasion
of Avram's 78th birthday, on Monday 23 April 2001 in New York City.
The
sun was shining, the conversation was scintillating, and a proof
of the
next publication of the Avram Davidson Society was shown to those in
attendance (see next item). Your presence is requested at the
next meeting.
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THE BEASTS OF THE ELYSIAN FIELDS
The third publication of the Avram Davidson Society will be issued in
late June.
The Beasts of the Elysian Fields by Conrad Amber reprints one
of Davidson's
pseudonymously published tales from the mid 1960s (from the typescript
in the Special Collections of the Library of the California State University,
Fullerton ). The story is notable as being the first appearance of
"Jack Limekiller"
in print. The setting, "the 'forgotten colony' of British Caribbea,"
bears a strong
resemblance to British Honduras, which Davidson had visited for the
first time
in December 1965 and January 1966, and to British Hidalgo, the setting
of the later, canonical Limekiller stories.
The Beasts of the Elysian Fields by Conrad Amber will be printed
in an
edition of approximately 75 copies ( 6 x 9 inches, iv + 12 pp., paper
wrappers,
$26.00 postpaid). Orders can be made by e-mail to wessells@aol.com
and will
be held pending arrival of a cheque payable to Henry Wessells, P.O.
Box 43072,
Upper Montclair, New Jersey, 07043-0072). Trade discount available.
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AND ONE MORE FORTHCOMING . . .
"No Fire Burns" by Avram Davidson (Playboy, July 1959), a science
fiction tale of applied psychology, will be reprinted on the SciFiction
website
in early June. << www.scifi.com/scifiction/
>>
The same site has already reprinted "The House the Blakeneys Built"
<< http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/davidson/
>>
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A VERY OLD CUSTOM
Richard A. Friedman provides the source for the following quotation
that
serves as one of the titles for the story Avram Davidson sold to the
Last
Dangerous Visions anthology, "The stone which the builders rejected,
the same is become the head of the corner."
"It is from the 118th Psalm. Observant Jews say it at the beginning
of
each Jewish month and on Passover, Sukkos (Tabernacles), and
Shavuous
(Pentecost)."
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FROM THE FILES (An Occasional Series)
"Death of a Damned Good Man" is a curious tale concerning the relations
among neighbors in a Pacific coastal town, the accumulations of travellers,
and the dangers of curiosity. Davidson catches the rhythms of
ordinary
speech and evokes the depth of friendship in the series of incidents
that make
up the story. Bits of travel and historical lore appear in conversation
salted
with rural Western hostility to the East Coast political establishment;
a rich
catalogue of smells and strange objects; and a sudden, violent climax.
The
famous reptilian couplet from H. P. Lovecraft's "The Nameless City"
appears
with a coy musing on its source: was it from an English translation
of Pliny?
And there are other clues to the nature of the horror that lurks underneath
Lawson's house. "Steuart had a poor memory for names, Lawson
collected
bugs and lizards and things. Hughes couldn't jump. There you have it
all."
The narrator, himself an old man describing the fate of three of his
contemporaries, goes into shock at the sight of the gore, but retains
a
detached clarity of observation and recalls his own experience as a
medic in a combat zone. Everything about this story rings true.
("Death of a Damned Good Man" appeared in Asimov's in January
1991.)
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE AVRAM DAVIDSON SOCIETY
The Last Wizard with A Letter of Explanation.
Publications of the Avram Davidson Society, number one.
Size: 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches, xii pages. Second printing, May 1999.
Single copies, $10.00 (postpaid).
El Vilvoy de las Islas.
Publications of the Avram Davidson Society, number two.
Size: 6 x 9 inches, viii + 32 pages. June 2000.
Trade issue of twenty-five copies hand bound in quarter green linen
with
paper-covered boards, numbered 1-25. SOLD OUT
Issue of 100 copies in paper wrappers : single copies, $13.00
(postpaid).
To order, send a cheque in U.S. funds, payable to Henry Wessells, to
:
P.O. Box 43072, Upper Montclair, NJ 07043-0072, USA
Orders by e-mail to wessells@aol.com will be held until payment is
received.
Trade discount available.
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Next Issue Date : July 2001
The editor of The Nutmeg Point District Mail invites contributions on
any topic pertaining to the life and work of Avram Davidson.
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