Avram Davidson

[Extollager]

Toby Frost cited Avram Davidson (1923-1993) as a Jewish author who contributed to our genres.

Jewish Contributions to SF, Fantasy, and Comics

He edited F&SF 1962-1964. Books by him or co-written with him are listed here:

Avram Davidson - Wikipedia

I have, but haven't read yet, The Phoenix and the Mirror and The Island Under the Earth, releases in the Ace Science Fiction Specials series with cool covers by the Dillons:

New to me was Masters of the Maze, with this vintage cover art:

I see that Algis Budrys and Judith Merril praised it.


I have heard of Joyleg -- in fact I think I used to have one of the Ziff-David magazines with it, or more likely part of it:

 

[Danny McG]

Masters of the Maze was, to me at the time (teens when I read it), groundbreaking with the evil insectoid Na wanting to expand and colonise throughout the network of 'gates'.
Good stuff!

By coincidence this was a question I asked over in stack exchange about ten days ago when I was trying to identify the book....

"Anger of a Sire" sci fi portal web novel

 

[hitmouse]

I have that edition of The Phoenix and the Mirror. Haven't read it yet but will do soon. Oddly enough I unboxed it this morning after about 20 years in the attic (new bookshelves.)

 

[Sargeant_Fox]

I first read about Avram Davidson in Michael Dirda's recent review of two books. I was curious to know who was this author being reviewed alongside my beloved Manly Wade Wellman:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2024/03/15/fantasy-manly-wellman-avram-davidson-books/

So I ended up ordering The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy. A new occult sleuth, yay!

 

[BAYLOR]

I first read about Avram Davidson in Michael Dirda's recent review of two books. I was curious to know who was this author being reviewed alongside my beloved Manly Wade Wellman:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2024/03/15/fantasy-manly-wellman-avram-davidson-books/

So I ended up ordering The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy. A new occult sleuth, yay!

There is no one quite like him .

 

[Randy M.]

I've only read some of his short stories. The original Eszterhazy collection, The Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy in my late teens or early twenties perplexed me. But I kept the book, so there must have been something there for me. Meantime, I've attempted the The Avram Davidson Treasury and The Best of... a couple times apiece and never finished. I should probably take another run at one of them, although The Other Nineteenth Century may be even more appealing.

I've used two of his stories to refute anyone who says s.f. and horror don't mix: "The House the Blakeneys Built" (introduced by Le Guin in Treasury and used in her anthology, The Norton Book of Science Fiction) and "Now Let Us Sleep." And I really enjoy a couple of his early stories, "The Golem" and "Help! I am Doctor Morris Goldpepper" as instances of humor in s.f. His collection, The Investigations of Avram Davidson is a collection of his crime/mystery stories, which are often clever and intriguing.

For his fantasy/s.f., I suspect most readers either like or dislike them; he had a distinctive imagination that might be, mostly, polarizing.