| In This Issue: |
April 7, 2015 |
• Henry Kuttner 100th Birthday
• New!! Early Kuttner, Vol. Two
• LTD ED of Early Kuttner, Vol. One |
• Status Update on Preorders
• 1975 Jack Williamson Interview
• Fredric Brown Update
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1915 • HENRY KUTTNER CENTENNIAL • 2015
 ONE HUNDRED YEARS ago today (April 7, 1915) Henry Kuttner was born in Los Angeles, the youngest of thee sons of Henry Kuttner, Sr. and Annie Levy. Kuttner was five years old when his father died and he relocated to San Francisco.
A reader of the early fantasy magazines, he had letters published in issues of AIR WONDER STORIES and WEIRD TALES. Prior to completing high school, he returned to Los Angeles and eventually worked as a reader for the literary agency of his uncle Laurence D’Orsay.
During his correspondence with H.P.Lovecraft, he sold his first story, “The Graveyard Rats”, to WEIRD TALES in early 1936 (preceded in print by the poem “Ballad of the Gods” in WT, Feb. ’36). Kuttner continued to sell prolifically to the pulp magazines, appearing in THRILLING MYSTERY, WEIRD TALES, MARVEL SCIENCE STORIES, STRANGE STORIES and more under a plethora of pseudonyms. Before moving to New York in 1939, he mentored two future giants: Leigh Brackett and Ray Bradbury.
Following brief visits—and a lengthy correspondence—with Indianapolis-based Catherine L. Moore, the two were married in New York on June 7, 1940. Singly, and in collaboration with Moore, this marks the beginning of Kuttner’s longest sustained output of high-quality work with: “The Twonky,” “Mimsy Were the Borogoves,” “Nothing But Gingerbread Left,” “Housing Problem,” “Call Him Demon,”; the “Gallagher series,” the “Baldy” series, the “Hogbens” series, and novel-length works such as FURY, EARTH’S LAST CITADEL and THE DARK WORLD,
When World War II saw Robert A. Heinlein depart for Philadelphia, the Kuttners rented the Heinlein’s Hollywood home. In 1942, Kuttner entered the Army Medical Corp (serving at Fort Monmouth, NJ until 1945) and Catherine lived in nearby Red Bank, NJ. After Kuttner’s discharge, they lived in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY until moving to Laguna Beach, CA in 1948.
Feeling burned-out with their prolific fiction output for the pulps, they branched out into novels starting with THE BRASS RING (Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1946). In 1950, Kuttner & Moore curtailed their fiction writing to focus on their new academic efforts at the University of Southern California. Kuttner earned his bachelor’s degree in 3½ years and Moore completed hers in 1956 (she earned her master’s in 1963). Kuttner was working on his master’s thesis on the works of H. Rider Haggard at the time of his death from heart failure on February 4, 1958.
It was while working on their degrees that Kuttner & Moore added teaching at USC to their resumés, as well as their first screenplay work at Warner Bros. on “Rappaccini’s Daughter.” Following Kuttner’ death, Moore took over Kuttner’s teaching duties, as well as handling screenwriting jobs for “Maverick,” “Sugarfoot,” and “77 Sunset Strip.” Some of this under the eye of former AMAZING STORIES editor, Howard Browne.
Haffner Press is very pleased and proud to be able to collect and re-present the work of Henry Kuttner (DETOUR TO OTHERNESS, TERROR IN THE HOUSE, THUNDER IN THE VOID) and we hope to have you with us we continue to publish the work of this excellent writer: THE MICHAEL GRAY MYSTERIES, HOLLYWOOD ON THE MOON/MAN ABOUT TIME and . . .
THE WATCHER AT THE DOOR:
THE EARLY KUTTNER, VOLUME TWO
 Coming later this year is the long-awaited follow-up to TERROR IN THE HOUSE: THE EARLY KUTTNER, VOLUME ONE is the second volume of early Kuttner: THE WATCHER AT THE DOOR.
Legendary fan Robert A. Madle handles the foreword to this 700-page collection of 30 (count ’em!) Kuttner Koncoctions from the pages of WEIRD TALES, THRILLING MYSTERY, STRANGE STORIES, FANTASTIC ADVENTURES, SCIENCE FICTION, STARTLING STORIES, and more.
We are taking preorders now for this title. Even better for those of you that missed on getting a copy of Volume One: for a limited time, we are offering the out-of-print TERROR IN THE HOUSE as a combo with preorders of THE WATCHER AT THE DOOR. It won’t be cheap, but it will be easy. See the homepage for the combo offer at www.haffnerpress.com.
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SLIPCASED EDITION OF
TERROR IN THE HOUSE: THE EARLY KUTTNER, VOLUME ONE
 The 100-copy slipcased edition of TERROR IN THE HOUSE (signed by introducer Garyn G. & Roberts, PhD & editor Stephen Haffner) is closer to completion and features an exclusive chapbook THE GRAB BAG that we hope will spur you to consider adding this item to your shelf.The contents of THE GRAB BAG:
• Two collaborations between Henry Kuttner & Robert Bloch:
“The Black Kiss” from Weird Tales, June 1937
“The Grab Bag” from Weird Tales, Spring 1991
• The extant letters of H.P. Lovecraft to Kuttner—newly edited by S.T. Joshi and David E. Schultz.
• The nine known poems by Henry Kuttner
• A Gallery of the interior artwork from the original pulps for the 40+ stories that appear in TERROR IN THE HOUSE.
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UPDATE ON PREORDER OFFERS
JACK WILLIAMSON 1975 SPEECH REPRINTED
 Following the publication of his SCIENCE FICTION COMES TO COLLEGE: A PRELIMINARY SURVEY OF COURSE OFFERED in 1971, Dr. Jack Williamson often gave lectures/speeches at various functions (graduation ceremonies, SF conventions, community clubs, etc.) spreading the history and the possible future of Science Fiction.
One of his presentations was delivered on March 21, 1975 at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, South Dakota, as part of a series of lectures sponsored by the S&H Foundation on the topic of “Rx for Facing the Future.”
This speech was transcribed and printed in the fanzine Proteus: A Personal Journal of Popular Culture, #2, May 1975. This fanzine proved elusive for years until recently. A copy of the text was forwarded to the editor of the Portales News-Tribune in Dr. Williamson’s home town and this excerpt was reprinted, 40 years to the day later, on March 21, 2015
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 MURDER DRAWS A CROWD
by Fredric Brown
In our last update we declared that this book would be ready to make a debut at the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention on April 17th. Well, we were wrong. The book is in production but it will NOT be ready for the convention. As of this newsletter, we now expect finished copies to start shipping in mid-May. Keep hanging with us on this one folks—it’s worth the wait.
Meanwhile check out the ordering page for MURDER DRAWS A CROWD for a sneak-peek at some of the interior illustrations and the decorated endpapers.
Please be aware that the price on publication will be $45, so you can save $5 by preordering at $40. |
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