Triffids Beard 2 - The Bearded Triffid

autobiography and several smaller autobiographical squibs in other books such as the delightful Asimov
Laughs Again which is a collection of jokes interspersed with incidents from his life (sometimes it is
hard to tell them apart) and also the linking material in the anthology series Before the Golden Age.
But he is not alone. Though Heinlein never produced an autobiography as such, there are many personal
anecdotes in Expanded Universe and the posthumously published books Grumbles from the Grave
(a collection of letters), Tramp Royale (a travel book) and Take Back Your Government (a political
tract), contain much that is of biographical interest; so the field is obviously far from barren.
I began musing on these lines when I learned that L. Sprague de Camp had just written an
autobiography. It is called Time and Chance, and I currently have it on order. I'm very interested in the
book for several reasons. The most obvious, of course, is that L. Sprague de Camp has had an
enormous influence on the field. Both alone and in collaboration with Fletcher Pratt, he reinvented the
modern fantasy and produced literate, intelligent tales in the genre while his contemporaries were still
mired deep in the barbarian swordsman cliché. Mind you -- de Camp produced his fair share of those as
well!
But the major reason for my interest in the book is that de Camp cut his biographical teeth on the
definitive Lovecraft -- A Biography and also Dark Valley Destiny -- The Life of Robert E.
Howard. These, together with several smaller biographical essays on various fantasy writers (collected
together in Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerors) make up a respectable and influential literary and
biographical heritage and I am curious to see how he has applied the lessons he learned writing those
books to the much more complex task of putting his own life down on paper.
Elsewhere de Camp has remarked that, proud though he is of his rather unusual name, he has
sometimes wished that he had been called something ordinary. One of the major disadvantages of being
called L. Sprague de Camp, is that he never knows where post offices etc are going to file his mail and
whenever he checks in at a post restante address he always has the clerk check under 'S', 'D' and 'C',
just in case. Mind you I think that is very wise. Even ordinarily named people often have their mail misfiled
in post restante collection points, which are invariably staffed by illiterates who only speak Middle-High
Cretin.
It occurs to me that maybe this is the reason for the success of the oddly named writers. Perhaps L.
Sprague de Camp sells three times as many books as he otherwise would since all libraries and private
collectors invariably buy three copies of everything -- one to file under 'S', one to file under 'D' and one to
file under 'C'. That way librarians guarantee never to embarrass themselves by searching the index
under the wrong letter since there is no wrong letter. All possible cases are covered and the writer is
three times richer. That has to be a good deal for everybody.
Of course it wouldn't work for A. E. van Vogt since only two copies would have to be bought, and both
would necessarily be filed under V, which makes multiple buying pointless. Obviously we must look
elsewhere for the secret of his success, and what better place to look than his autobiography? It is a
slim volume entitled Reflections of A. E. van Vogt and it was published in 1975 by Fictioneer Books,
whoever they might be. From it we learn that van Vogt deliberately structured his writing into 800 word
scenes -- every 800 words something new must happen; a birth, a death, a marriage, an alien invasion,
the end of the universe. Whatever. Perhaps this accounts for the frenetic and somewhat breathless
pace of some of his stories. But they sold, and they sold well. There was a time when Van Vogt's name
was mentioned in the same breath as Asimov, Heinlein and Clarke. He fell silent, distracted into Dianetics,
and when he returned to the field in later years it had passed him by and he no longer seemed able to
make the same impact as once he had. But oh! The thrill of first reading Slan, the frightening evil of
granny, the strong will of Jommy Cross, the power of ten-point steel and the mystery of the tendrilless
slans. I was a young teenager when I first read that book and I think I must have read the whole thing
with my jaw hanging open. Later in life I discovered sex, but it was nowhere near as intense an
experience.
I can still quote from memory the opening sentence of Voyage of the Space Beagle and the closing
sentence of The Weapon Makers, though it must be thirty years since last I read them. Boy, could
van Vogt write a memorable sentence when he wanted to. That was his special magic.