Everett Franklin Bleiler

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Everett Franklin Bleiler (born April 30, 1920 in Massachusetts ; died June 13, 2010 in Interlaken , New York ) was an editor, bibliographer, critic, and literary scholar in the genres of science fiction , fantasy , horror, and detective stories .

Life

Bleiler first studied at Harvard , where he graduated in anthropology in 1942 . After World War II, he graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in cultural history .

During this time there was a contact with TE Dikty who had planned with some others in the early 1940s to bring out a comprehensive bibliography of science fiction literature. The project had been interrupted by the war and had not materialized, but Bleiler showed an interest in taking on the task and began the work, the result of which was the Checklist of Fantastic Literature published in 1948 in that by TE Dikty, Erle Melvin Korshak and Shasta Publishers , founded by Mark Reinsberg . A second edition followed in 1972 and a third, updated in 1978, now under the title The Checklist of Science-Fiction and Supernatural Fiction . For many years the checklist was the bibliographical standard work of science fiction, whereby Bleiler did not set any narrow genre boundaries, but instead included fantasy , weird fiction and supernatural horror . It was only through more recent work by Donald H. Tuck and Robert Reginald that the importance of the checklist was finally put into perspective.

In the following years Bleiler published together with Dikty anthology series of best-of- yearbooks, namely Best SF Stories (6 vols., 1949–1954) with short stories and Year's Best SF Novels (3 vols., 1952–1954) somewhat longer stories and short novels, both of which were published by Frederick Fell Publishers in New York.

In 1955 Bleiler began working for Dover Publications , first as a copywriter, but soon as editor and translator - Bleiler was gifted with languages ​​and mastered a number of languages, including German and Japanese, for each of which he wrote a grammar that was published by Dover. In 1967 he became deputy managing director and exerted a noticeable influence on the publishing program , especially in the field of fantasy . He worked as the editor of anthologies of Victorian ghost and detective stories , but also of dime novels , such as the complete edition of the Frank Reade series in 10 volumes, of classics of the Gothic novel such as Walpole's The Castle of Otranto or William Beckford's Vathek , collections of classic Storytellers of the fantastic like Arthurmachen , Lord Dunsany , Gustav Meyrink and Paul Busson .

Bleiler left Dover in 1977, then worked for Charles Scribner's Sons for 10 years and retired, at least as far as a job was concerned. In fact, in 1983 he presented the Guide to Supernatural Fiction , a work that in its scope and depth went far beyond the checklist , which, apart from brief bibliographical information on each title, roughly classified the content using letter codes. Bleiler now gave 729 pages of almost 1800 works published between 1750 and 1960, in addition to a short biography of the author, an approx. 250 to 500 word long summary.

Although Supernatural Fiction overlaps with science fiction and fantasy, the guide was of course neither a successor nor a supplement to the checklist . Something like that followed in 1991 and 1998 in the form of two large, weighty volumes that Bleiler wrote together with his son Richard Bleiler . The first volume Science Fiction: The Early Years deals with the period up to 1930, the second, Science Fiction: The Gernsback Years deals specifically with texts published in the pulp magazines from 1926 to 1936. The structure of both volumes corresponds to that of the guide , i.e. they are arranged alphabetically by author, with the author's short biography in chronological order and numbered followed by the entries for his texts, each with bibliographical data, table of contents and a more or less explicit, brief evaluation. The Early Years contains entries for 2,475 titles, The Gernsback Years has 1,835 entries. Both volumes were enthusiastically received by critics. For example, RD Mullen wrote of The Early Years :

“This is the book I've been waiting for most of my life. Written by our excellent connoisseur of popular literature, it is the most valuable bibliographical work on the subject, which will hardly change, because who but Everett F. Bleiler could cope with the necessary reading workload? "

And David Pringle called the Gernsback Years a "monumental achievement". Both volumes were nominated for the Hugo Awards , the first was awarded the Locus Award in 1992 .

In addition to his books and anthologies, Bleiler wrote over 100 articles, essays and introductory texts as well as over 6,000 reviews. A few years before his death, Bleiler published two novels that he had written in the 1970s, namely Firegang , a fantasy tale about the world ash Yggdrasil , and Magistrate Mai and the Invisible Murderer , a detective story from ancient China.

Bleiler died in 2010 at the age of 90. His estate is in the Cushing Library at Texas A&M University .

Awards

bibliography

Non-fiction

  • Essential German Grammar (1961, with Guy Stern )
  • Essential Japanese Grammar (1963)
  • The Checklist of Fantastic Literature: A Bibliography of Fantasy, Weird and Science Fiction Books Published in the English Language (1948, 2nd ed. 1972, 3rd ed .: The Checklist of Science-Fiction and Supernatural Fiction , 1978)
  • The Guide to Supernatural Fiction: A Full Description of 1,775 Books from 1750 to 1960, Including Ghost Stories, Weird Fiction, Stories of Supernatural Horror, Fantasy, Gothic Novels, Occult Fiction, and Similar Literature, with Author, Title and Motif Indexes (1983 )
  • Science Fiction: The Early Years: A Full Description of More Than 3,000 Science-Fiction Stories from Earliest Times to the Appearance of the Genre Magazines in 1930 with Author, Title, and Motif Indexes (1991, with Richard Bleiler)
  • Science-Fiction: The Gernsback Years: A Complete Coverage of the Genre Magazines Amazing, Astounding, Wonder, and Others from 1926 Through 1936 (1998, with Richard Bleiler)
as editor
  • Science Fiction Writers: Critical Studies of the Major Authors from the Early Nineteenth Century to the Present Day (1982)
  • Supernatural Fiction Writers: Fantasy and Horror (1985)
    • extended edition as: Supernatural Fiction Writers: Contemporary Fantasy and Horror (2 vols., 2003, edited by Richard Bleiler)

Anthologies

  • Science Fiction Omnibus (1952, with TE Dikty)
  • Imagination Unlimited (1952, with TE Dikty, also as Men of Space and Time , 1953)
  • Frontiers in Space: Selections From The Best Science Fiction Stories (1955, with TE Dikty)
  • The Castle of Otranto, Vathek, and the Vampyre (1966, also as Three Gothic Novels , 1966)
  • Five Victorian Ghost Novels (1971)
  • Eight Dime Novels (1974)
  • Classic Ghost Stories by Charles Dickens and Others (1975, anonymous)
  • Three Supernatural Novels of the Victorian Period (1975)
  • The Golem and The Man Who Was Born Again (1976)
  • Three Victorian Detective Novels (1978)
  • A Treasury of Victorian Detective Stories (1979)
  • A Treasury of Great Victorian Ghost Stories (1981)
Anthologies on individual authors
Best SF Stories (with TE Dikty)
  • 1 The Best Science Fiction Stories: 1949 (1949)
  • 2 The Best Science-Fiction Stories: 1950 (1950)
  • 3 The Best Science-Fiction Stories: 1951 (1951)
  • 4 The Best Science-Fiction Stories: 1952 (1952)
  • 5 The Best Science-Fiction Stories: 1953 (1953)
  • 6 The Best Science-Fiction Stories: 1954 (1954)
Year's Best SF Novels (with TE Dikty)
  • 1 Year's Best Science Fiction Novels: 1952 (1952)
  • 2 Year's Best Science Fiction Novels: 1953 (1953)
  • 3 Year's Best Science Fiction Novels: 1954 (1954)

Fiction

  • Firegang: A Mythic Fantasy (2006)
  • Magistrate Mai and the Invisible Murderer (2006)

Translations

  • Johann Georg Schwandner: Calligraphia Latina (1958)
  • Bertil Malmberg : Phonetics: Physiological Phonetics, Experimental Phonetic, Evolutionary Phonetics, Phonemics (1963)
  • Gustav Meyrink , Paul Busson : The Golem and The Man Who Was Born Again (1976, revised abridged translations)
  • Emanuel Sweerts : Early Floral Engravings: All 110 Plates From the 1612 “Florilegium.” (1976)
  • Prophecies and Enigmas of Nostradamus (1979, as Liberte E. LeVert)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ This is the book for which I have been waiting most of my life. Written by our preeminent authority on popular fiction, it is the most valuable bibliographical work yet published on its subject, and is not likely to be superseded, for who other than Everett F. Bleiler would do the reading necessary? RD Mullen: Science, Fictive Science, and Science Fiction: Bleiler's Massive Bibliography. In: Science Fiction Studies , Vol. 18, No. 2 (July 1991), pp. 267-271, JSTOR 4240064 .
  2. ↑ David Pringle: A Monumental Achievement. In: Science Fiction Studies , Vol. 27, No. 2 (July 2000), pp. 310-312, JSTOR 4240884 .
  3. ↑ Anagram by Everett Bleiler
personal data
SURNAME Bleiler, Everett Franklin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bleiler, Everett F. (alternative spelling); Bleiler, EF (alternative spelling); LeVert, Liberte E. (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American editor, bibliographer, critic and literary scholar
DATE OF BIRTH April 30, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH June 13, 2010
Place of death Interlaken , New York