Emil Petaja

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Emil Petaja, 1998

Emil Theodore Petaja (born April 12, 1915 in Milltown , Montana , † August 17, 2000 in San Francisco ) was an American science fiction and fantasy author whose career spanned seven decades.

overview

He wrote 13 novels, nearly 150 short stories, numerous poems and other books and articles. Although he wrote science fiction, fantasy, horror, detective stories and poetry, Petaja saw his work as part of an older tradition of "weird fiction". Petaja also worked as a press publisher on a small scale. In 1995 he was named the very first author emeritus of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America .

Petaja was of Finnish descent and his best known work is a cycle of science fiction novels based on the Finnish national epic Kalevala . Petaja's books brought him readers all over the world, with his mythological approach being discussed intensely. About his work as a whole, Petaja said: “My writing is mainly intended to entertain. [...] My novels on the Finnish Kalevala epic are rooted in my lifelong interest in this great poetry. "

Early life and work

Emil Petaja was born on April 12, 1915 in Milltown, Montana, a small logging town in the western part of the state. He was the youngest of 10 children of the married couple John and Hanna Petaja. Emil attended schools in Bonn and Missoula , Montana.

According to an autobiographical report, Petaja first came into contact with fantastic literature in 1931 when he got his hands on a copy of Weird Tales magazine . Reading this magazine changed his life, and he became a lifelong fan of fantasy and science fiction. He began collecting science fiction pulp magazines , sought contact with other fans, also in clubs and associations, and corresponded with authors such as HP Lovecraft , Clark Ashton Smith , Robert E. Howard and August Derleth and was one of them the first fandom who eventually became authors.

In 1935, Petaja's first short story, Two Doors, appeared in the semi-professional magazine Unusual Stories . A short story written with Duane W. Rimel, Weird Music , appeared in The Phantagraph in 1936 . Other short stories and verses were published in The Californian (for which Lovecraft also wrote), Futuria Fantasia , The Acolyte, and in other small newspapers and local papers.

Much of Petaja's early work was poetry - according to the author, he won a few smaller regional poetry competitions. In 1936 Petaja published a book Letter Candle of his poems, which he printed himself on a duplicating machine at Montana State University , where he attended a course on creative writing as a student. Letter Candle contained illustrations by Petaja's friend Hannes Bok, whom he had met that year. This book was the very first book publication for both authors. According to Petaja, around 40 to 50 copies were printed, many of which were distributed to friends and patrons. Some of these early poems were republished in As Dream and Shadow in 1972 . Other poems by Petajas have remained unpublished to this day.

In 1937 Petaja moved to Los Angeles . It was here that he became part of the local science fiction scene and became a friend of Ray Bradbury (then a teenager), Henry Kuttner , Henry Hasse , Forrest J. Ackerman and others. In 1937 and 1938, Petaja and Bok shared an apartment and together they went to conventions , spent their time in second-hand bookshops and cinemas, and helped each other with poetry and writing. In an autobiographical report, Petaja shares, “Perhaps… my greatest contribution to fame will be the fact that it was me who got Hannes Bok to LA and that I - reluctantly - brought him to the Los Angeles Science Fiction Society meetings 'tugged. Where we met Ray Bradbury. "" It was in Clifton's cafeteria on Broadway. We couldn't usually afford to eat there, but we did have the free lime sorbet. In that legendary back room ... Hannes met Forrie Ackerman, Henry Kuttner and others for the first time. "

In the 1940s, Petaja wrote dozens of stories for Pulp magazines . The prolific author's science fiction, fantasy and weird fiction stories have appeared in Fantastic Adventures , Worlds of Tomorrow , Weird Tales , Fantasy and Science Fiction , Future Science Fiction Stories, and other well-known magazines of the era. A Dinosaur Goes Hollywood story , which appeared in Amazing Stories in 1944 , is about a dinosaur who breaks out while shooting a movie.

Petaja also published under the pseudonym "Theodore Pine". Theodore his second first name and means Petaja of Finland "pine" ( English pine ). As Pine, he sold stories to detective and western magazines such as Crack Detective , Ten Detective Aces , Ten Story Detective , Mammoth Western , Western Action and Western Trails . Many of these stories have meaningful titles such as The corpse wants society , The perfumed danger, etc. In the 1940s Petaja tried unsuccessfully to publish a detective novel. One of his last detective stories, Stirred Ashes , appeared in Saint magazine in 1967 . Petaja was also a member of the Mystery Writers of America Association .

Later life and work

In the late 1940s, Petaja moved to San Francisco , where he turned his interest in photography into a profession. He toured California as a school photographer and at times ran photo studios in Sausalito and San Francisco, became the in-house photographer for local theater groups, and wrote articles for magazines such as Popular Photography.

Although he had largely stopped writing in the early 1950s, he resumed his literary work in the early 1960s. His first published novels were Alpha Yes, Terra No! (1965) and The Caves of Mars (1965), which, like later other novels by Petajas, appeared in a paperback series of the Ace publishing house, together with emerging authors like Samuel R. Delany , Michael Moorcock , Brian Stableford and Dean Koontz .

One of Petaja's best-known works is an Otava novel cycle based on the Finnish national epic Kalevala . In each of the four novels an earthly man and descendant of the four main heroes of the Kalevala is reborn in an avatar role to go on adventures on Otava, the original planet of the Kalevala. With this series, Petaja won readers from all over the world. A fifth novel in this cycle called Return to Otava remained unpublished. Another novel that has nothing to do with the series but is linked to the Kalevala is The Time Twister (Dell, 1968).

The Green Planet books - Lord of the Green Planet (Ace Books, 1967) and Doom of the Green Planet (Ace Books, 1968) - reproduce similar adventures by their Irish protagonist.

Other novels from the late 1960s and early 1970s include The Prism (Ace Books, 1968), The Nets of Space (Berkley, 1969), The Path Beyond the Stars (Dell, 1969), and Seed of the Dreamers (Ace Books, 1970 ). Four other novels remained unpublished: Glory Stone (1970), Little Gods (1972), Spin the Star Wheel (1975) and Zodiac World (1980). This last work is about a planet whose inhabitants are ruled by astrological ideas.

As chairman of the Golden Gate Futurians - an informal club for writers and fans - Petaja organized meetings for friends and colleagues at his home in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco. Regular guests included local authors such as Fritz Leiber , Avram Davidson, and E. Hoffmann Price . Writers and publishers from outside such as Donald A. Wollheim or Harlan Ellison also took part and had the opportunity to meet local personalities such as the satanist Anton LeVay or the filmmaker Kenneth Anger . Petaja enjoyed the company of other writers and artists from the greater San Francisco area such as Warren Hinkle, Anthony Boucher , Frank M. Robinson , Poul Anderson , Philip K. Dick, and Robert A. Heinlein .

Petaja's works have been translated many times and have appeared in England, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Sweden, France, Finland and Germany. In 1995, in recognition of his significant life achievements, Petaja was named "Author Emeritus" of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America . This honor was created “to recognize and appreciate writers in the genres of science fiction and fantasy who have made significant contributions to our field but who are no longer active or whose excellent work is no longer as well known as it was.” As an author Emeritus , Petaja was invited to speak at the annual Nebula Awards banquet.

Petaja died of heart failure on August 17, 2000. Complications had developed after treatment for a clot of blood. After his death, obituaries appeared in newspapers and magazines around the world.

Petaja and Hannes Bok

As a lifelong friend and collector of Hannes Bok's works, Petaja founded the “Bokanalia” foundation in 1967, three years after Bok's death. According to a published statement, the foundation was “established with the help and support of Harold Taves from Seattle and Ray Bradbury from Los Angeles and the Golden Gate Futurians from San Francisco […] Bokanalia's goal is to present the great, imaginative art of Hannes Bok to preserve oblivion and to make new prints (better than pulp quality) available to his many admirers around the world ”.

Between 1967 and 1970 Petaja published three anthologies of Bok's art. These volumes include Variations on Bok Theme (1967), The Famous Power Series (1969), and A Memorial Portfolio (1970). Petaja also acted as the author of a memorial book And Flights of Angels: The Life and Legend of Hannes Bok (Bokanalia Memorial Foundation, 1968). In addition to brief contributions by Wollheim, Roger Zelazny , Jack Gaughan and others, And Flights of Angels included Petaja's long biographical treatise on the artist, a list of Bok's published works of art and essays, and reproductions of a number of drawings, prints, and illustrations. Petaja later published an illustrated volume of Bok's poems Spinner of Silver and Thistle (1972) under the SISU label (and on behalf of the Bokanalia Foundation) and he edited The Hannes Bok Memorial Showcase of Fantasy Art (1974).

Petaja and the movie

Petaja was a film fan and collector of film memorabilia all his life. He owned a large library of film literature, hundreds of 16mm films and videotapes, and was fond of telling stories about films and film actors. Today he is known to film enthusiasts as the author of the Photoplay Edition (SISU, 1975). This illustrated guide was the first book on "photoplay editions", a kind of book that accompanies films from the silent and early talkies era. Petaja created this book on the basis of his personal collection, which at the time of publication comprised over 800 photoplay editions . As the author of the Photoplay Edition , Petaja was a guest of honor at the Silent Film Festival in San Francisco in 1998 and 1999.

While he lived in Los Angeles, Petaja worked in the Technicolor labs and wrote a handful of stories that take place in and near the film metropolis. His interest in films and filmmaking continued for many years. Petaja made two dramatic short films, Dread Return (1949) and The Call (1950). These 8mm films were shot in San Francisco with local actors involved.

bibliography

The Kalevala / Otava cycle
  • 1 Saga of Lost Earths (1966)
  • 2 The Star Mill (1966)
  • 3 The Stolen Sun (1967)
  • 4 Tramontane (1967)
  • Saga of Lost Earths and The Star Mill (1979, collective edition of 1 and 2)
  • The Stolen Sun and Tramontane (1979, collective edition of 3 and 4)
The Green Planet
  • 1 Lord of the Green Planet (1967)
  • 2 Doom of the Green Planet (1968)
Novels
  • Alpha Yes, Terra No! (1965)
  • The Caves of Mars (1965)
  • The Prism (1968)
  • The Time Twister (1968)
    • German: Between yesterday and never. Goldmann's Space Paperback # 0130, 1971, ISBN 3-442-23130-2 .
  • The Path Beyond the Stars (1969)
  • The Nets of Space (1969)
  • Seed of the Dreamers (1970)
Collections
  • Stardrift and Other Fantastic Flotsam (1971)
  • The Golden Age of Weird Fiction Megapack: Volume 3 (2015)
Short stories
  • The Two Doors (1935, as Theodore Pine)
  • The Mist (1937)
  • The Intruder (1940)
  • Time Will Tell (1942)
  • Old Lena Tuppit (1942)
  • Dinosaur Goes Hollywood (1942)
  • Me the People (1943)
  • Peacemonger (1944)
  • Midas Morgan's Golden Touch (1944)
  • Monsieur Bluebeard (1944)
  • The Man Who Hated War (1944)
  • Cyanide And Old Lace (1945)
  • The Music-Box from Hell (1945)
  • Votaress (1945)
  • The Jonah (1946)
  • The Ancestral Thread (1947)
  • Stardrift (1949)
  • Skydrift (1949)
  • Hunger (1950)
  • We Must Go and Tell the King (1950)
  • The Hungry Ghost (1950)
  • Don't come to Mars! (1950, with Henry Hasse)
  • The Insistent Ghost (1950)
  • The Dark Balcony (1951)
  • Variant: Dark Balcony (1951)
  • The Answer (1951)
  • Not Quite Human (1952)
  • The Secret of Satellite Seven (1952, with Henry Hasse, as Theodore Pine)
  • "This World Is Ours!" (1952)
  • Live Evil (1952)
  • Moon Fever (1965)
  • Million-Mile Hunt (1965)
  • World of the Spectrum (1965)
  • Dark Hollow (1966)
  • Heavenly Host (1966)
  • Where Is Thy Sting (1967)
  • Only Gone Before (1968)
  • Dodecagon Garden (1970)
  • Cube in a Dodecagon Gardon (1970)
  • A Dog's Best Friend (1971)
  • Be a Wingdinger, Earn Big Money (1971)
  • Found Objects (1971)
  • Pattern for Plunder (1971)
  • The Storm-King (1971)
  • Tomorrow's Mask (1971)
  • Gola's Hell (1972)
  • Terrible Quick Sword (1972)
  • Othuum, Chapter Three: The White Magician (1974)
Poems
  • Brief Candle (1936)
  • As Dream and Shadow (1972)
Non-fiction
  • and flights of angels: The Life and Legend of Hannes Bok (1968, with Hannes Bok)
  • The Hannes Bok Memorial Showcase of Fantasy Art (1974)
  • Photoplay Edition (1975)

literature

Web links

Commons : Emil Petaja  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ David Steinberg: Sci-fi writer's fame reached to Siberia. In: San Francisco Examiner , December 20, 1997.
  2. ↑ Kaarina Kailo: Spanning the Iron and Space Ages: Emil Petaja's Kalevala-based fantasy tales. Kanadan Suomalainen, Toronto 1985.
  3. ↑ My writing endeavors have mainly been to entertain, […] My novels about the Finnish legendary epic "Kalevala: The Land of Heroes" spring from a lifelong interest in this fine poetic work. In: Gene Phillips: Petaja, Emil (Theodore) . In: Noelle Watson, Paul E. Schellinger: Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers. St. James Press, Chicago 1991, p. 619.
  4. ↑ Emil Petaja. In: Missoulian , Missoula, Montana, August 20, 2000.
  5. ^ Quill Club Started at the University. In: Helena Independent , November 27, 1936.
  6. ↑ Allan Yu: Emil Theodore Petaja, 85, science fiction writer, artist. In: San Jose Mercury News, Aug. 18, 2000.
  7. ↑ Emil Petaja. In: Classic Images , Muscatone, Iowa, October 2000.
  8. ^ Sausalito Gallery to Show Experimental Movie. In: San Rafael Independent Journal , September 22, 1949.
  9. ^ Emil Petaja: Filming a Movie Story. In: Home Movies , May / June 1950.
personal data
SURNAME Petaja, Emil
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Petaja, Emil Theodore (full name); Pine, Theodore (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American science fiction and fantasy writer
DATE OF BIRTH April 12, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Milltown , Montana
DATE OF DEATH August 17, 2000
Place of death San Francisco