Marvin Kaye | |
|---|---|
 Marvin Kaye | |
| Born | Marvin Nathan Kaye (1938-03-10)March 10, 1938 Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | May 13, 2021(2021-05-13) (aged 83) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation | Novelist, editor, actor, magician |
| Education | Pennsylvania State University (BA,MA) |
| Genre | Mystery,fantasy,Science fiction,horror,theatre,humor |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Terry Ellen Kaye |
Marvin Nathan Kaye (March 10, 1938 – May 13, 2021)[1] was an Americanmystery,fantasy,science fiction,horror author, anthologist, and editor. He was also amagician and theateractor. Kaye was aWorld Fantasy Award winner and served as co-publisher and editor ofWeird Tales Magazine.
Kaye was born in Philadelphia, the son of Morris and Theresa (Baroski) Kaye. He received a Bachelor of Arts in liberal arts atPenn State in 1960, and a Master of Arts in English literature and theater in 1962.[2][3]
Kaye served as a reporter for Grit Publishing Company from 1963 to 1965, an assistant managing editor forBusiness Travel Magazine in 1965, and a senior editor forHarcourt Brace Jovanovich from 1966 to 1970. In 1970, he went to work as a freelance writer. He was a lecturer atThe New School for Social Research in New York City in 1975,[2] taught atNYU as an adjunct professor ofCreative Writing for many years beginning in 1976,[3] and taught as an adjunct professor atMercy College from 2001 to 2006.
As a magician and mentalist, Kaye often performed under the stage name Count Emkay the Miraculous. His book,The Stein and Day Handbook of Magic is considered an essential part of any magician's library. He also wroteThe Handbook of Mental Magic. In 1976, he was the magic instructor for the performing arts summer campFrench Woods Festival of the Performing Arts, which he used as research for his bookCatalog of Magic.
As an actor, Kaye appeared on Broadway withDame Edna, off-Broadway withKeir Dullea in the critically acclaimedStrings, and in many shows with The Open Book, including a cappella musicalThe Hoboken Chicken Emergency, which he adapted for the stage. He was animprovisational comedian, appearing periodically atStandup New York. He also performed regularly at theJekyll & Hyde Club.[2][4] He can be heard portraying several characters in The Open Book audiobookTake My Planet, Please! (Metamorphic Press/JestMaster Audio, 2021).
In 1975, Kaye co-founded "The Open Book," New York City's first and longest-livedreaders theatre company, along with his wife, Saralee, and other noted theatre professionals. Kaye also established The Open Book's educational outreach division and curriculum, as well as an annual national playwriting competition co-sponsored byDoubleday's Stage & Screen Book Club. Kaye wrote two books aboutreaders theatre:Readers Theatre: What It Is, How to Stage It, published in 1995 byWildside Press; andFrom Page to Stage: Selecting and Adapting Literature for Readers Theatre, published in 1996 by Fireside Theatre. He also editedFrantic Comedy: 8 Plays of Knockabout Fun, published in 1993 by Fireside Theatre. Several of the plays were presented by The Open Book under Kaye's direction.
The Open Book performed Kaye's adaptation of his own novel,The Last Christmas of Ebenezer Scrooge, annually for several years.[5] Kaye's final stage performances were in the revival ofThe Last Christmas of Ebenezer Scrooge in a short run of the play, also directed by Kaye, in December 2019 at the Pushkin Hall Theater in NYC.
Kaye authored nineteen novels including the science fiction cult classics,The Incredible Umbrella and (co-authored with Parke Godwin)The Masters of Solitude, and the critically acclaimed mysteriesBullets for Macbeth andMy Son, the Druggist. Kaye's last book, published in 2020 by Metamorphic Press, wasQuest for the Pastried Peach,[1] his own whimsical retelling of the famous "Siberian Peach Pie" shaggy joke, which he wrote in a different literary style for each chapter. A collection of Kaye's poetry is planned for posthumous publication by Metamorphic Press.
Kaye edited numerous genre anthologies such asFiends and Creatures andThe Game is Afoot, as well as magazines such asH. P. Lovecraft's Magazine of Horror,Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, andBlack Cat Mystery Magazine. As a charter member ofThe Wolfe Pack, a literary society devoted toNero Wolfe (the detective created byRex Stout), Kaye compiled selected essays and stories from the group's journal,The Gazette, into two books in 2005,The Nero Wolfe Files andThe Archie Goodwin Files. One of his anthologies,The Fair Folk, won aWorld Fantasy Award in 2006.[6]In the summer of 2011, Kaye purchased America's oldest supernatural periodical (dating back to 1923),Weird Tales Magazine, with John Harlacher.[7] Kaye was editor and co-publisher (with Harlacher). In addition to other artistic changes, Kaye instituted themed issues.
In August 2012, Kaye announced thatWeird Tales was going to publish an excerpt fromVictoria Foyt's controversial novelSave the Pearls, which many critics accused of featuring raciststereotyping.[8] Kaye wrote an essay titled "A Thoroughly NONRACIST Novel" defending his decision to publish the excerpt.[9] The essay and Kaye's decision to publish the excerpt were criticized, particularly byN. K. Jemisin[10] andJim C. Hines,[11] and the publisher subsequently announced thatWeird Tales no longer had plans to run the excerpt.[12]
Kaye was also a regular columnist, writing "Marvin Kaye's Nth Dimension" forSpace and Time, a science fiction magazine.[13]
Kaye was a member of theAuthors Guild, theDramatists Guild of America, theActors' Equity Association,The Broadway League, andThe Sons of the Desert (of which he served as president from 1974 to 1976). He was also an honorary member of the Mark Twain Society.[2]
Kaye married Saralee Bransdorf on August 4, 1963, inWilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; they had one child, Terry Ellen Kaye.[2] Saralee Kaye died July 12, 2006, of complications from endometrial cancer in New York City. The couple resided in New York.[3] Marvin Kaye died of natural causes on May 13, 2021, in New York.[14] He is buried in the Sanctuary of Abraham & Sarah Mausoleum inParamus, New Jersey.
The novelA Cold Blue Light is sometimes listed as a third volume of the trilogy, but it is unrelated. The third volume,Singer Among the Nightingales was not published before the death ofParke Godwin.
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