Avram Davidson | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1923-04-23)April 23, 1923 |
| Died | May 8, 1993(1993-05-08) (aged 70) |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Genre | Science fiction,crime fiction |
| Notable awards | Edgar Award Hugo Award World Fantasy Award |
| Spouse | Grania Davis |
| Website | |
| avramdavidson | |
 Literature portal | |
Avram Davidson (April 23, 1923 – May 8, 1993) was an American writer offantasy fiction, science fiction, andcrime fiction, as well as the author of many stories that do not fit into a genre niche. He won aHugo Award and threeWorld Fantasy Awards in the science fiction and fantasy genre, a World Fantasy Life Achievement award,[1] and anEllery Queen's Mystery Magazine short story award and anEdgar Award in the mystery genre. Davidson editedThe Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction from 1962 to 1964. His last novelThe Boss in the Wall: A Treatise on the House Devil was completed byGrania Davis and was aNebula Award finalist in 1998. His posthumous collectionThe Avram Davidson Treasury won theLocus Award for Best Collection in 1999.[2]The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction says "he is perhaps sf's most explicitly literary author".
Davidson was born in 1923 inYonkers, New York, toJewish parents.[3] He served as a Navyhospital corpsman (medic) with theMarine Corps in thePacific duringWorld War II, and began his writing career as aTalmudic scholar around 1950. As reported at the time in the February 20, 1962, Yonkers daily, theHerald Statesman, Rabbi Arnold Weinberger officiated at his wedding to Miss Grania Kaiman, which took place at the home ofDamon Knight.[4]
This made his conversion toTenrikyo in the 1970s unexpected. Although he had a reputation for being quick to anger, Davidson was known among his friends for his generosity. His peripatetic life and career may have been due to a disinclination to finish what he began. His reputation among science fiction and fantasy readers peaked in the 1960s, after which he had a coterie of fans who (as withR. A. Lafferty) kept his reputation alive, especially after his death.
He was a member of theSwordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA), a loose-knit group ofHeroic Fantasy authors founded in the 1960s, some of whose works were anthologized inLin Carter'sFlashing Swords! anthologies.
While editingThe Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction he lived inMexico, and later inBritish Honduras (now renamedBelize). He lived in a rural district ofNovato, in northernMarin County, California, in 1970, but later moved closer to San Francisco. He lived in a small house inSausalito, at the southern end of Marin County next to San Francisco in 1971 and 1972, and it was there fans and friends were welcomed. He worked for a short time in the late 1970s as a creative writing instructor at theUniversity of Texas at El Paso. In his later years, he lived inWashington state, including a brief stay in the Veterans' Home inBremerton. He died in his tiny apartment in Bremerton on May 8, 1993, aged 70. A memorial service was held in Gasworks Park in Seattle.
He was survived by his son Ethan and his ex-wifeGrania Davis, who continued to edit and release his unpublished works until her own death.
Davidson wrote many stories for fiction magazines beginning in the 1950s, after publishing his first fiction inCommentary and other Jewish intellectual magazines.
Davidson was active in science fiction fandom from his teens. Two of his novels were nominated for a Nebula Award:Rogue Dragon (1965) andVirgil in Averno (1987).[5] The latter followsThe Phoenix and the Mirror (1969), a sequence about Vergil Magus, the magician that medieval legend made out of the Roman poetVirgil. Otherspeculative fiction includes the Peregrine novels, comic views of Europe shortly after the fall of Rome; the Jack Limekiller stories, about a Canadian living in an imaginary Central American country modelled afterBelize during the 1960s; and the stories ofDr. Eszterhazy, an eruditeSherlock Holmesian figure living in the mythical Scythia-Pannonia-Transbalkania, the waning fourth-largest empire in Europe.
Lesser known and uncollected during his lifetime are his mystery stories, which were assembled after his death asThe Investigations of Avram Davidson. These mystery stories frequently have a historical setting, and are intricately plotted. In addition, Davidson ghosted two Ellery Queen mysteries,And on the Eighth Day andThe Fourth Side of the Triangle, and a true crime collection,Crimes and Chaos.
Other noteworthy works are his collaborations. InJoyleg, A Folly, written in collaboration withWard Moore, a veteran of theAmerican Revolutionary War (and of theWhiskey Rebellion) is found alive and very well in theTennessee backwoods, having survived over the centuries by daily soaks in whisky of his own making to hilariously face the world of the 1960s. InMarco Polo and the Sleeping Beauty, co-written with Grania Davis, the background of Marco Polo's travels in the Mongol Empire is borrowed for an original story. After Davidson's death, Grania Davis also finishedThe Boss in the Wall, a claustrophobic horror novel that bears little resemblance to the work of any other writer.
Davidson also wrote dozens of short stories that defy classification, and theAdventures in Unhistory essays, which delve into puzzles such as the identity ofPrester John and suggest solutions to them. His earlier historical essays were scrupulously researched, even when published by magazines just as happy to offer fiction as fact. Later essays were handicapped by a lack of resources in the libraries of the small towns where Davidson lived in the pre-Internet era, but are enlivened by the style and bold speculation.
Davidson's work is marked by a strong interest in history, with his plots often turning on what at first might seem like minor events. His characterization is also unusually in-depth for fantasy, and is often enriched by his ear for unusual accents.
Davidson's most obvious characteristics are his plotting and style. Very little mayhappen in a Davidson story, but he described it in detail. Hidden among the detail are facts or omissions that later become important to the outcome of the story. Especially in his later works, Davidson included elements that beginning writers are told to avoid, such as page-long sentences with half a dozen colons and semi-colons, or an apparently irrelevant digression in the opening pages of a story. He expects much from his readers, but delivers much to them.
