The Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Comedians

by Bradley Denton, Howard Waldrop

Be prepared! These stories are sure to set the mind afire, spanning time and space, written by one of the most inventive authors of his generation. Stories include "Skidmore, " "The Sin-Eater of the Kaw, " "The Hero of the Night, " "The Territory, " and the title piece.

Genres: Fiction, Fantasy

212 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1993

About the author

Bradley Clayton Denton (born 1958) is an American science fiction author. He has also written other types of fiction, such as the black comedy of his novel Blackburn, about a sympathetic serial killer.
He was born in Towanda, Kansas, and attended the University of Kansas at Lawrence and graduated with degrees in astronomy (B.A.) and English (M.A.). His first published work was the short story "The Music of the Spheres," published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in March 1984. His collection The Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Comedians and A Conflagration Artist won the 1995 World Fantasy Award for Best Collection.

Reviews

[Theo Logos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Odd and erudite, this collection of unusual speculative tales is as deep as it is different. These are stories for thinkers. Each one is embedded with a solid core of of philosophical musing. Each carries a distinctive point of view.

The title story, The Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Comedians, is the gem of the collection. It describes a purgatory for comedians, where a dire, humorless Mrs. Grundy type angel attempts to purge all profane, outrageous fire, all the spirit and independence from deceased comedians to make them fit for a perfectly dull, Presbyterian heaven. Her principal target in this story is Lenny Bruce, but there are special guest appearances from John Belushi and Richard Pryor. If this were the only story of value in the collection it would still be worth your while to read it just for this one tale.

But it isn’t the only story of value here. Each one of these five tales shine. Skidmore is the tale of an unassuming meek man, obsessed with thoughts of revenge, who spends a year literally living with a grim ghost of vengeance in preparation for what he hopes to do. The Sin Eater of the Kaw introduces us to an unhappy, unfulfilled young women whose life is transformed from her encounter with a derelict tramp with an unusual power. The Hero of the Night, (a phrase taken from John Adams’s defense of the British soldiers tried for the Boston Massacre) imagines the spirit of Crispus Attucks condemned to be reborn endlessly into those about to die through doomed protest. And The Territory is an alternative history of Quantrill’s Raid on Lawrence, Kansas, as seen through the eyes of a young Samuel Clemens, who in this variant of history was waylaid in his initial attempt to flee the Civil War by heading out for the territories. Each of these stories assumes the intelligence of the reader, and each gives that reader something to think about.

Bradley Denton is a brilliant writer who deserves to be far less obscure than he is. He has an intelligent imagination, and is armed with a powerful capacity with words. Do yourself a favor by hunting up this book and discovering for yourself why I’m raving about him.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title story alone, about Lenny Bruce being sent to rehab in the afterlife to clean up his foul mouth so he can get into heaven, is worth the purchase. But the rest of the stories in this collection, about a sin-eater in Kansas, the reincarnated spirit of the first man killed in The Boston Massacre; doomed to inhabit the bodies of those murdered fighting for their rights over and over again for all eternity, how Mark Twain got his name and more are every bit as good.

It kills me to know how good Bradley Denton is, and yet for him to remain somewhat unknown. I've read no author more relevant to my generation and cultural background. He gets the modern world in a profound and wonderful way that I want to grab people on the street and shout about.

[Willard Brickey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book on the strength of its title. I don't remember where I heard of it, but it wasn't a book review, because its title was all I knew about it. Four of the five stories have a supernatural element, and that's not the sort of thing I usually read, but they were so clever and well-written that I kept going.
The title story is a sweet tribute to Lenny Bruce as weird and intriguing as its title suggests. Another story is about Crispus Attucks reincarnated, and a third is a story about Mark Twain when he was a Confederate soldier. The illustrations by Doug Potter are excellent. I expect to read more of this author.

[Tracy reads too much. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I came across the author in a anthology book, really enjoyed the short and then searched out a full book.
The short story hooked me and I thoroughly enjoyed it, in a short amount of time I feel I got to know and was invested in the character.
I did not feel that here, in a month I probs won't be able to tell you what this was even about.
Ordered, read and promptly sold it to a used book store.

[Vanyo666 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the title story, I kept seeing Lenny's facial expression when not allowed to swear