Edgar Pangborn

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Edgar Pangborn (born February 25, 1909 in New York City , † February 1, 1976 in Bearsville , New York ) was an American author who wrote mystery , science fiction and historical novels .

Life

Pangborn came from a literary family: his mother, Georgia Wood Pangborn, was the author of ghost stories that appeared in magazines such as Scribner’s , Harper's Magazine and The Woman's Home Companion . His father, Harry Levi Pangborn, was a contributor to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary . Edgar was homeschooled with his older sister Mary until 1919 and then attended the Quaker Brooklyn Friends School . In 1924 he began studying music at Harvard University , but left without a degree in 1926. He then studied at the New England Conservatory of Music , also without a degree. When he left, he publicly announced his departure from music and switched to writing.

During the next twenty years he wrote stories for detective and mystery books, always under a pseudonym. From 1939–1942 he was a farmer in the state of Maine, and during the Second World War , he did his military service in the medical service in the Pacific theater from 1942–1945. In the 1960s, Pangborn also began semi-professional painting, creating oil paintings (portraits, nudes, landscapes) which he presented at local and regional art exhibitions. He continued to write in all genres until his death.

plant

During the first 20 years of his writing career, which he began at the age of 21, Pangborn wrote what he called bread work for penny books. His first novel, A-100: A Mystery Story , published in 1930 under the pseudonym "Bruce Harrison", was neither a promising nor a particularly successful debut and did not display any of the emotional or stylistic characteristics that would become the hallmarks of his later work .

His serious work began in 1951 with the publication of his first SF story Angel's Egg in Galaxy magazine , which is rated a classic, translated into six languages ​​and reprinted more than 20 times. In the 1950s, Edgar Pangborn published a series of stories under his own name in Galaxy , The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Ellery Queen ’s Mystery Magazine . His works contributed to the emergence of a new “humanistic” school of science fiction and inspired a subsequent generation of authors, including Peter S. Beagle and Ursula K. Le Guin . The latter said that Edgar Pangborn and Theodore Sturgeon had convinced them that it was possible to write valuable, human-emotional stories within SF and Fantasy. From 1954 Pangborn was established, and for his second SF novel A Mirror for Observers he received the International Fantasy Award . This book is written from the point of view of a “Salvayan” (Martian) observer on earth who is fighting with another Martian over the fate of a young man. From then on, Pangborn wrote other SF works as well as novels in other genres, such as B. the historical novel Wilderness of Spring and the contemporary judicial drama The Trial of Callista Blake .

In 1964 Pangborn's best-known book was published, Hugo- nominated Davy - a picaresque and educational novel set in a repressive, post-apocalyptic future that would eventually become the backdrop for most of Pangborn's stories, including his Hugo-nominated Longtooth , his Mount Charity ( Nebula finalist ) and his latest novel The Company of Glory . Pangborn's works are known to be humane and poignant, though there is also room for dark subjects and slippery humor.

Due to his upbringing and early interest, Pangborn's works often also deal with musical themes: music plays a major role in both Davy and A Mirror For Observers . In 2003, a pile of handwritten notes was discovered in the attic of the Bearsville house where Pangborn died. These manuscripts included string quartets, sonatas, nocturns, and other orchestral works composed by Pangborn during his time at the Conservatory. It is intended to convert the notes into digital MIDI format so that they can be heard for the first time.

Rediscovery of Pangborn

Edgar Pangborn maintained extensive correspondence with other authors throughout his life, and a particularly close relationship developed with the American fantasy writer Peter S. Beagle . After Pangborn's death, that relationship was maintained by Pangborn's only heir, his older sister Mary. In Mary's final years, Peter S. Beagle became a confidante, and when Mary died in February 2003, she bequeathed him the entire Pangborn estate, including all of Edgar's literary works. Over 50 boxes of manuscripts were transported to California to be sorted, filed, digitized and compared with documents from the permanent Edgar Pangborn collection of Boston University . The end result is to be a series of definitive bound editions, which will publish all of Pangborn's works in the printed form intended by him and also make some unpublished manuscripts accessible for the first time.

In 2001, Old Earth Books brought an authorized republication of Pangborns first SF novel West of the Sun out. In 2004 the novels Davy and A Mirror for Observers followed , which were not authorized because the publisher had forgotten that the contract had now expired. This deficiency has now been corrected. When the existing book inventory is sold, those books will no longer be reprinted.

In 2003 he posthumously received the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award for forgotten or no longer adequately recognized science fiction authors.

bibliography

If only the title and year are given as sources for short stories, the complete information can be found under the relevant collection.

Tales of a Darkening World / Davy
  • The Golden Horn (1962, short story)
  • A War of No Consequence (1962, short story)
  • Davy (1964, novel)
  • The Judgment of Eve (1966, novel)
    • English: The Trial: A Classic Science Fiction Novel About A Human Question. Translated by René Mahlow. Heyne SF&F # 3637, 1979, ISBN 3-453-30549-3 .
  • Tiger Boy (1972, short story)
    • German: Tiger Boy. In: Tiger Boy. 1986.
  • The World Is a Sphere (1973, short story)
  • My Brother Leopold (1973, short story)
    • German: My brother Leopold. In: Tiger Boy. 1986.
  • The Freshman Angle (1973, short story)
  • The Company of Glory (1974, novel)
    • English: a glorious bunch. Translated by René Mahlow. Heyne SF&F # 4166, 1985, ISBN 3-453-31124-8 .
  • The Children's Crusade (1974, short story)
    • German: The Children's Crusade. In: Tiger Boy. 1986.
  • The Legend of Hombas (1974, short story)
    • English: The Legend of Hombas. In: Tiger Boy. 1986.
  • The Night Wind (1974, short story)
    • German: The night wind. In: Tiger Boy. 1986.
  • The Witches of Nupal (1974, short story)
    • English: The Witcher of Nupal. In: Tiger Boy. 1986.
  • Harper Conan and Singer David (1975, short story)
    • English: Harper Conan and Singer David. In: Tiger Boy. 1986.
  • Mam Sola's House (1975, short story)
  • Still I Persist in Wondering (1978, collection)
Single novels
  • A-100: A Mystery Story (1930, as Bruce Harrison)
  • West of the Sun (1953)
  • A Mirror for Observers (1954)
  • Wilderness of Spring (1958)
  • The Trial of Callista Blake (1961)
Collections
  • Good Neighbors and Other Strangers (1972)
    • German: Good neighbors and other strangers. Translated by Jürgen Saupe. Goldmann's Space Pocket Books # 0161, 1972, ISBN 3-442-23161-2 .
  • The Edgar Pangborn Megapack (2016)
Short stories
  • Angel's Egg (1951)
  • Darius (1953)
  • Pick-Up for Olympus (1953)
  • Mrrar! (1953)
  • The Music Master of Babylon (1954, also as A Master of Babylon , 1966)
  • The Ponsonby Case (1959)
    • English: The Ponsonby case. In: Michael Görden (Ed.): The future is spinning. Goldmann (Goldmann Science Fiction # 23499), 1987, ISBN 3-442-23499-9 .
  • The Red Hills of Summer (1959)
    • German: Scouts on Demeter. In: Walter Ernsting (Ed.): In the jungle of primeval times. Heyne SF&F # 3064, 1966.
  • The Wrens in Grampa's Whiskers (1960)
  • The Good Neighbors (1960)
  • Maxwell's Monkey (1964)
    • German: Maxwell's monkey. In: Walter Ernsting, Thomas Schlück (Eds.): Galaxy 14. Heyne SF&F # 3175, 1970.
  • Wogglebeast (1965)
  • A Better Mousehole (1965)
    • German: a better mouse hole. In: Science-Fiction-Stories 62. Ullstein (Ullstein 2000 # 119 (3265)), 1976, ISBN 3-548-03265-6 .
  • Longtooth (1970)
    • German: Langzahn. Translated by Lore Straßl. In: Terry Carr (Ed.): The Werewolf. Pabel (Terra Fantasy # 69), 1980. Also called: Long Tooth. Translated by Jürgen Saupe. In: Terry Carr, Martin Harry Greenberg (eds.): Dream realm of magic: highlights of modern fantasy. Heyne SF&F # 4254, 1985, ISBN 3-453-31262-7 . Also called: long tooth. Translated by Stefan Troßbach. In: Edward L. Ferman , Anne Jordan (eds.): The best horror stories. Droemer Knaur (Knaur Horror # 1835), 1989, ISBN 3-426-01835-7 .
  • Mount Charity (1971)
    • German: Mount Charity. In: Lloyd Biggle, Jr. (Ed.): Good news from the Vatican and other "Nebula" prize stories 1. Moewig (Playboy Science Fiction # 6721), 1981, ISBN 3-8118-6721-0 .
  • The Life and the Clay (unreleased)

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Pangborn, Edgar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Harrison, Bruce (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American author
DATE OF BIRTH February 25, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH new York
DATE OF DEATH February 1, 1976
Place of death Bearsville , NY