Avram Davidson

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Avram Davidson (April 23, 1923 – May 8, 1993) was an American writer of fantasy fiction, science fiction, and crime fiction, as well as the author of many unclassifiable but unforgettable stories that do not fit into a genre niche. He won a Hugo Award and was three time winner of the World Fantasy Award in the science fiction and fantasy genre, and a Queen's Award and an Edgar Award in the mystery genre. Davidson edited The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction from 1962 to 1964. His last novel The Boss in the Wall: A Treatise on the House Devil was completed by Grania Davis and was a Nebula Award finalist in 1998.

Contents

[edit] Fiction and articles

Davidson wrote many stories for fiction magazines beginning in the 1950s, after publishing his first fiction in Commentary and other Jewish intellectual magazines.

He was active in science fiction fandom from his teens. His best-known works are his novels about Vergil Magus, the magician that medieval legend made out of the Roman poet Virgil; the Peregrine novels, a comic view of Europe shortly after the fall of Rome; the Jack Limekiller stories about a Canadian living in an imaginary South American country modelled after Belize during the 1960s, and, perhaps most notable of all, the stories of Dr. Esterhazy, a sort of even-more-erudite Sherlock Holmesian figure living in the mythical Scythia-Pannonia-Transbalkania, the waning fourth-largest empire in Europe.

In "Joyleg, A Folly", written in collaboration with Ward Moore, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War (and of the Whiskey Rebellion) is found alive and very well in the Tennessee backwoods, having survived over the centuries by daily soaks in whisky of his own making to hilariously face the world of 1960s.

Davidson also wrote dozens of short stories that defy classification, and the Adventures in Unhistory essays, which delve into puzzles such as the identity of Prester John and suggest solutions to them. His earlier historical essays were scrupulously researched, even when published by magazines just as happy to offer fiction as fact.

Much of Davidson's work was characterised by a great deal of erudite embellishment and asides. Very little may actually happen in a Davidson story, but he enjoyed describing it in enormous detail. Davidson succeeded with this technique because of a good ear for the way that people talk, an encyclopedic store of obscure and fascinating knowledge, and an irresistibly comic view of the world that sees virtually everyone as eccentric.

Stylistically, his stories were often as playful as their plots, including many elements that beginning writers are told to avoid, such as page-long sentences with half a dozen colons and semi-colons, or an irrelevant digression in the opening pages of a story. That Davidson was able to get away with such elements is a tribute in equal measure to his chutzpah and his skill with words and narrative structure.

The idea in his story "Or All the Seas with Oysters" (1958), is reputed to have become part of an 'urban legend' in the street culture of some children; namely, that bicycles arise from a life cycle that involves paper clips as pupae and coat hangers as larvae.

[edit] Biography

Davidson served as a US Marine Corps medic in the Pacific during World War II, and began his writing career as a Talmudic scholar around 1950. This made his study of and conversion to Tenrikyo in the 1970s rather surprising. Although he had a reputation for being quick to anger when anyone tampered with his work or misunderstood it, Davidson was also greatly in demand as a storyteller, and well-known among his friends for his extreme generosity.

Davidson was Jewish and a scholar of the Talmud, but also had a great deal of respect for other religions, and in the 1970s became involved with Tenrikyo. He was also a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA), a loose-knit group of Heroic Fantasy authors founded in the 1960s, some of whose works were anthologized in Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! anthologies.

While editing The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction he lived in Mexico, later in Belize. During 1971 and 1972, he lived in a small house in Sausalito, California, just outside San Francisco, where fans and friends were affectionately welcomed. In his later years, he lived in Washington state, including a brief stay in the Veterans' Home in Bremerton. He died in his tiny apartment in Bremerton on May 8, 1993, aged 70.

He was survived by his son Ethan, and his ex-wife Grania Davis, who continues to edit and release his unpublished works.

[edit] Books

Doctor Eszterhazy series
The Adventures of Doctor Eszterhazy, Owlswick Press, 1990; includes all of the published Doctor Eszterhazy stories.
Limekiller series
Limekiller, Old Earth Books, 2003; includes all of the published Limekiller stories
Virgil Magus series
The Phoenix and the Mirror, Doubleday, 1969; the first Vergil Magus novel
Vergil in Averno, Doubleday, 1987; the second Vergil Magus novel
The Scarlet Fig; or Slowly through a Land of Stone; Rose Press, 2005, the third Vergil Magus novel
The Other Magus, in Edges, edited by Ursula K. LeGuin and Virginia Kidd, Pocket Books; Berkley paperback, 1980
Vergil and the Caged Bird, Amazing, January 1987
Vergil and the Dukos: Hic Inclusus Vitam Perdit, or The Imitations of the King, Asimov's, September 1997, pp.102-113
Vergil Magus: King without Country, with Michael Swanwick, Asimov's, July 1998,
Peregrene series
Peregrine: Primus, Walker, 1969
Peregrine: Secundus, Berkley paperback, 1981
Novels
Clash of Star-Kings, Ace double, 1966
The Enemy of My Enemy, Berkley paperback, 1966
The Island Under the Earth, Ace paperback, 1969
The Kar-Chee Reign, Ace double, 1966
Masters of the Maze, Pyramid paperback, 1965
Mutiny in Space, Pyramid Books, 1964
Rogue Dragon, Ace paperback, 1966
Rork!, Berkley Medallion paperback, 1965
Ursus of Ultima Thule, Avon paperback, 1973
As Ellery Queen
And on the Eighth Day, Random House, 1964
The Fourth Side of the Triangle, Random House, 1965
With Ward Moore
Joyleg, A Folly, Pyramid paperback, 1962
With Grania Davis
The Boss in the Wall, A Treatise on the House Devil, Tachyon Publications, 1998
Marco Polo and the Sleeping Beauty, Baen Books paperback, 1987

[edit] Quotations

  • "Davidson was a fine, fine writer." -- Gene Wolfe

[edit] External links

[edit] Further reading

  • Avram Davidson Treasury: a tribute collection, with an introduction by Guy Davenport. (1998)
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