79 replies to this topic

[deuce]

I thought I'd start this thread to discuss all of the works and influence of A. (Abraham) Merritt. I got into Merritt because I read about him in reference to REH. My town library was selling a copy of The Ship of Ishtar and I snapped it up. It blew my mind. Say whatever else you want to about the man, ol' Abe had an imagination. Nowadays, I'd say Merritt's style reads like a cross between Haggard and Clark Ashton Smith, with goodly amounts of ERB, Howard and Lovecraft thrown in. At the age of thirteen, I didn't know that Merritt moved units in his time like Stephen King or Grisham do now. I just knew that I'd never read anything like "Ishtar". I think that REH would've thought the same thing when he (probably) read it in 1924.

Howard is known to have called Merritt "good". He's also known to have sent the issues of Argosy magazine which contained the serial which would become part of the novel, The Face in the Abyss, to Lovecraft. Julius Schwartz (later famous at DC) organized a "round-robin" story for his fanzine, The Fantasy Magazine. Called "The Challenge From Beyond", the story contained chapters from both REH and Merritt. Howard had this to say about it (in a letter to HPL, 1935):

"I was highly honored to be asked to contribute to "The Challenge From Beyond" yarn, along with you, Miss (C.L.) Moore, Merritt and (Frank Belknap) Long. I hope my share didn't weaken the strength of the story too much. The rest of you did fine work, as you all always do. Appearing in such company will probably remain my chief claim to fame."

Here's some stuff to get any of y'all who are interested, started:

http://en.wikipedia....Abraham_Merritt

http://www.fantastic...uk/m/a-merritt/

http://www.warr.org/Merritt.shtml

http://www.digital-e...p_of_Ishtar.htm

[Hawkbrother]

Let me recommend Dwellers in the Mirage to anyone who loves Howard and Lovecraft. I don't know how many people are familiar with Merritt,but he is quite the writer, and a contemporary of Howard. Howard may well have read him.
Dwellers in the Mirage is from 1932 and while blurbed as a "science fiction classic" is closer to Howard or Lovecraft. It could even be considered part of the Cthulhu cycle- there is an octopoid monster called Khalkru.
And Merritt's hero's Leif Langdon is in the league of any of Howard's.
I will not give away the story plot, except that it is set in the Arctic region,perhaps the Yukon/Alaska area, and in Mongolia( Howard territory,El Borak,etc).
I don't know how much Merritt is in print. My copy is an old Paperback Library edition from 1965 which sold for the sum of 50 cents, but I am sure his books can be found at used bookstores.
I cannot recommend this one too highly-and after it I am going to dig into the other Merritt in my collection. Everyone knows how that is-too many books,not enough time.

[Almuric]

I don't think any Merritt is in print now, which is a shame.

[deuce]

Au contraire, mon freres (thankfully). Hippocampus still has The Metal Monster for sale and Bison Books recently released The Moon Pool.

[John Maddox Roberts]

Find "The Ship Of Ishtar" if you possibly can. I think it was Merritt's best.

[Kortoso]

His The Metal Monster and The Moon Pool are on Project Gutenberg.

[sat]

Find "The Ship Of Ishtar" if you possibly can. I think it was Merritt's best.

FYI, there's a very nice group of Virgil Finlay "The Ship of Ishtar" illustrations at

http://www.nocloo.co...g2_enterAlbum=1

and you can read Merritt's actual story at

http://gutenberg.net...s06/0601941.txt

and find more Merritt and others at

http://gutenberg.net.au/sfproject.html

Are my Google powers awesome, or what?

[Ironhand]

I read Ship of Ishtar when I was quite young, and it stretched my sense of wonder all out of shape.

[Nick Morbius]

I love "Dwellers in the Mirage", made me feel like a kid again whilst reading it. The magical little people are described so well. the Merritt paperbacks published in the seventies by futura are well worth seeking out, if only for the luridly psychedelic cover paintings.

[Nick Morbius]

aswell as the REH and lovecraft paralels, the Dwellers is also reminiscent of Conan Doyles Professor Challenger adventures. great stuff

[Rusty Burke]

I don't know how many people are familiar with Merritt,but he is quite the writer, and a contemporary of Howard. Howard may well have read him.

Howard most certainly read him. He wrote Lovecraft that he thought he (HPL) had Merritt "beat seven ways from the ace," but he did think Merritt "good." He sent HPL a copy of Merritt's "The Snake Mother" from Argosy All-Story. (In the REH Bookshelf I show it as Argosy, October 1930, but that's incomplete -- it was a five-part serial that began in the October 25th issue and ran through November 29th. Don't know if Howard sent Lovecraft all five issues -- he said he was sending the story "under separate cover" -- or if he sent tear-sheets.)

He doesn't mention other Merritt titles specifically but I'd be willing to bet he'd read all that had appeared in Argosy and/or All-Story.

Rusty

[Rusty Burke]

He's also known to have sent the issues of Argosy magazine which contained the serial which would become The Face in the Abyss to Lovecraft.

Well, "The Face in the Abyss" was the original short story, while "The Snake Mother" (the serial Howard sent to HPL) appeared some years later and then the two were combined into the novel.

Rusty

[deuce]

He's also known to have sent the issues of Argosy magazine which contained the serial which would become The Face in the Abyss to Lovecraft.

Well, "The Face in the Abyss" was the original short story, while "The Snake Mother" (the serial Howard sent to HPL) appeared some years later and then the two were combined into the novel.

Rusty

Thanks Rusty. I've studied a lot of Merritt bibliographical stuff over the last couple of years, after I picked up three of his novels for $1.50 and really got back into reading him. Merritt also combined two novelettes to form his seminal novel, The Moon Pool. It was late and I was trying to keep things simple for any Merritt "newbies" that might be reading the post. BTW, normally when I bold-face something like that, it means that the work referred to is a novel. I'll edit my post.

[Mikey_C]

I've got three books by Merritt on the shelf, including The Face in the Abyss, but must admit I haven't read one yet. They have very nice 70s-style psychedelic covers!

[deuce]

I've got three books by Merritt on the shelf, including The Face in the Abyss, but must admit I haven't read one yet. They have very nice 70s-style psychedelic covers!

Hey Mikey! If you have The Ship of Ishtar, read THAT. It's still my favorite (barely) and it is the novel I'll be going into first. The Face in the Abyss contains elements that (I feel) REH incorporated into yarns like "Xuthal", Red Nails and The Garden of Fear.

Note: "digital-eel" (the best, IMO) and others have just about ALL of Merritt's works on-line.

[Axerules]

Since it seems he's too modest to mention it, I will do it for him: our very own Deuce made a pertinent (and humorous) review of A. Merritt's The Ship of Ishtar on David Drage's Dial P For Pulp! podcast (Show n?9 and Show n?10). Link: http://www.dialpforpulp.com/

[deuce]

Here's a link to author Jim Reasoner's blog about Dwellers in the Mirage:

http://jamesreasoner...-in-mirage.html

Jim's written loads of books and is a fan of just about everything cool. Check it out.

[deuce]

Since it seems he's too modest to mention it, I will do it for him: our very own Deuce made a pertinent (and humorous) review of A. Merritt's The Ship of Ishtar on David Drage's Dial P For Pulp! podcast (Show n?9 and Show n?10). Link: http://www.dialpforpulp.com/

Thank you very much for the shout-out, Axe. I and my buds put a lot of work into those segments. Mr Drage should have the new "Dial P!" episode up any time now, which will (allegedly) include the third and final segment of my "Ishtar" 'cast. Even those who don't care to hear me wax rhapsodic about The Ship of Ishtar should check out David's excellent productions, IMO. Drage covers a WIDE range of pulp-related topics. Everything from steampunk to cool new gaming models. Plus, there's often some cool tunes included.

On a related note, here's a link to the Paizo Books edition of The Ship of Ishtar coming out in May: http://paizo.com/pla...s/v5748btpy85jx

This edition will have a foreword by award-winning author (and BIG pulp fan), Tim Powers. I have it on good authority that the cover is just a mock-up. I've been quite pleased with recent Paizo covers. Y'all feel free to pre-order it. I did, and I own three different editions of "Ishtar". Speaking of different editions, this one will be based on Merritt's longest version of the novel, a version that hasn't been seen in 50+yrs.

[Almuric]

I'll have to get the new editions. Merritt is really hard to find nowadays.

[deuce]

I'll have to get the new editions. Merritt is really hard to find nowadays.

Hey Almuric! Actually, things are better now than they have been for almost 20yrs (since the Colliers editions). There are THREE editions of The Moon Pool out right now. The Metal Monster is still in print over at Hippocampus and, of course, there's the stuff coming from Paizo. Publisher Erik Mona plans to publish everything by AM except The Moon Pool. Also, everything by ol' Abe is available online. Plenty of old editions for sale on Amazon™. That's where I picked up my pristine edition of Seven Footprints to Satan.