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Martians and Misplaced Clues: The Life and Work of Frederic Brown
"In my dream I was reaching right through the glass of the window of a hock shop. It was the hock shop on North Clark Street, the west side of the street, half a block north of Grand Avenue. I was reaching out a hand through the glass to touch a silver trombone..." So begins The Fabulous Clipjoint, winner of the 1948 Edgar Award for best first mystery novel. In that and more than 20 other novels, Fredric Brown spun a web of intrigue and imagination that has made him one of the most popular and respected authors of mystery and science fiction of the middle decades of the twentieth century.
In Martians and Misplaced Clues, the first full-length book devoted to the work and life of Fredric Brown, Jack Seabrook discusses The Fabulous Clipjoint in depth, as well as Martians, Go Home, The Screaming Mimi and all of the other classic Brown novels. He also provides careful analysis of the author's many short stories and poems, tracking his work from the early days as a writer for trade magazines, through the years of the pulp magazines and science fiction digests, up to and including the final years of increasingly respectable slick magazines.
Along with the discussion of the work are details of the author's unusual life, from his early years in Cincinnati through the Depression years in Milwaukee, then to a bohemian life living in various towns in the Southwest.
Brown's career as a writer was colorful and varied, and Martians and Misplaced Clues places him squarely in the middle of the most irresistible and consistently enjoyable writers of his time.
In Martians and Misplaced Clues, the first full-length book devoted to the work and life of Fredric Brown, Jack Seabrook discusses The Fabulous Clipjoint in depth, as well as Martians, Go Home, The Screaming Mimi and all of the other classic Brown novels. He also provides careful analysis of the author's many short stories and poems, tracking his work from the early days as a writer for trade magazines, through the years of the pulp magazines and science fiction digests, up to and including the final years of increasingly respectable slick magazines.
Along with the discussion of the work are details of the author's unusual life, from his early years in Cincinnati through the Depression years in Milwaukee, then to a bohemian life living in various towns in the Southwest.
Brown's career as a writer was colorful and varied, and Martians and Misplaced Clues places him squarely in the middle of the most irresistible and consistently enjoyable writers of his time.
312 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1993
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September 5, 2017A well-done fan appreciation.
Fredric Brown is warmly thought of by science fiction and mystery fans. He was a productive author from the 1930s to the 1960s, when bad health and drinking finally forced him to stop writing. His stuff is, of course, uneven--impossible to avoid with as much stuff as he put out--but his best sets the standard for pulp fiction, often subtle, playful, and subversive of the hardening genre tropes.
The book starts with a brief biography, that makes the most of the available evidence, before concentrating on Brown's various writing ventures, dividing them thematically, chronologically, and formally. Seabrook is a poet, and so he takes the time to even note Brown's poetry, which might otherwise be overlooked, as the most of it is inside of his stories, and there is not much otherwise. But he does a good job of showing how much Brown was aware of various poetic traditions.
Indeed, Brown, as with many pulp fictioneers, was well read, not only in the genre(s) he wrote, but more broadly, and Seabrook shows this. As a poet, he is very attuned to Brown's language, and words were important to Brown as more than a conveyance of story. He enjoyed word play and puns and was careful in what he wrote--well, as careful as he could be turning out stories at the rate he did, and drinking as much as he did. (He drank a lot.) Seabrook especially has affection for Brown's mysteries, which he thinks are overshadowed by his science fiction.
The bulk of the book, the literary analysis, does sometimes become repetitive. And Seabrook could have probably pushed a little harder on his analyses--they are occasionally superficial. But, he has read seemingly everything Brown ever wrote, often more than once, and carefully, in addition to other reviews, analyses, and criticisms. If nothing else, the book serves as an excellent introduction and guide to Brown's voluminous writing.
Fredric Brown is warmly thought of by science fiction and mystery fans. He was a productive author from the 1930s to the 1960s, when bad health and drinking finally forced him to stop writing. His stuff is, of course, uneven--impossible to avoid with as much stuff as he put out--but his best sets the standard for pulp fiction, often subtle, playful, and subversive of the hardening genre tropes.
The book starts with a brief biography, that makes the most of the available evidence, before concentrating on Brown's various writing ventures, dividing them thematically, chronologically, and formally. Seabrook is a poet, and so he takes the time to even note Brown's poetry, which might otherwise be overlooked, as the most of it is inside of his stories, and there is not much otherwise. But he does a good job of showing how much Brown was aware of various poetic traditions.
Indeed, Brown, as with many pulp fictioneers, was well read, not only in the genre(s) he wrote, but more broadly, and Seabrook shows this. As a poet, he is very attuned to Brown's language, and words were important to Brown as more than a conveyance of story. He enjoyed word play and puns and was careful in what he wrote--well, as careful as he could be turning out stories at the rate he did, and drinking as much as he did. (He drank a lot.) Seabrook especially has affection for Brown's mysteries, which he thinks are overshadowed by his science fiction.
The bulk of the book, the literary analysis, does sometimes become repetitive. And Seabrook could have probably pushed a little harder on his analyses--they are occasionally superficial. But, he has read seemingly everything Brown ever wrote, often more than once, and carefully, in addition to other reviews, analyses, and criticisms. If nothing else, the book serves as an excellent introduction and guide to Brown's voluminous writing.
June 19, 2017
Thanks to the author's excellent research, I feel like I understand Brown and his work a lot better!
July 31, 2018
Great review of underappreciated writer's works with brief biography.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews