Duncan has a short bio of Kersh up his Kersh web site (or is
it Harlan Ellison's Kersh web site?): http://harlanellison.com/kersh/biog.htm
There's also a Yahoo "Gerald Kersh" group for those who like
to look at book covers (among other things).
I just ordered a copy of FOWLER'S END from a British ebay
auction--if only it weren't so difficult to get his books in
the US! His short stories are also excellent, although many
tend more toward horror than the material covered by this
group. It would be very nice to see a collected stories or
some other reprints.
Max
(Current reading: Ross Thomas/Oliver Bleek's THE BRASS GO
BETWEEN.)
> Ah, Gerald Kersh! Kersh was one of the writers a
used book store
> clerk (and later store owner) steered my teenage
self to more than
> forty years ago. I owe everything to that fellow who
helped me out
> of rural Georgia and a terrible school
system.
> Subdividing "everything" I would rank Kersh
reasonably up there on
> the individual author hit parade.
>
> I wish Paul Duncan was still on this list. Duncan,
author of NOIR
> FICTION, DARK HIGHWAYS (Pocket Essentials 2000)
among other works,
> is the premier Kersh expert and I can't wait to read
the biography
> upon which he has labored for some years. As an
aside, I emailed
> Duncan a few months ago about Kersh. One of my
passions is boxing
> and I had picked up an old boxing magazine from the
1950s with an
> article about "the old Mongoose" Archie Moore, who
was light
> heavyweight champion circa 1952-1962. The article
had a picture
that
> showed Archie on the top of steps leading from his
home in San
Diego,
> California to the beach. Each step was named and
labeled for
> sportswriters who had helped him along the way. One
of the steps
was
> labeled "Gerald Kersh" and when I wrote Duncan he
was glad to
explain
> that Kersh had written an Esquire article about
Moore.
>
> NIGHT AND THE CITY is an excellent novel and I my
recommendation to
> that of Max. Let me quote from Paul Duncan on the
book: "NIGHT
AND
> THE CITY (1938) is a novel of disgust. Of all
Kersh's novels, it
is
> the one where you most feel the fetid stink of the
city, and the
> worthless lives of the people in it. As one reviwer
put it, 'this
> novel of the London underworld has something of the
realism of a
> Hogarth picture and the satire of a Swift. Pimps,
prostitutes,
> panderers, petty crooks and odd characters move
about in low joints
> and night clubs, fleecing and being fleeced by each
other.'"
>
> I agree and don't believe either of the film
versions (Richard
> Widmark or Robert Duvall) did it complete
justice.
>
> PRELUDE TO A CERTAIN MIDNIGHT (1947) is a very fine
novel but
> provokes a strong reaction among those who expect
good to always
> triumph.
>
> Back to NIGHT AND THE CITY for a moment: Kersh
brought back Harry
> Fabian in the novel THE SONG OF THE FLEA (Doubleday
1948). It has
> been too many decades for me to give a reasoned
review of this
> novel. I only remember that I did not care for it
and especially
> thought the use of Harry Fabian was
ill-advised.
>
> Under the same caution of years-passed, I recall
fondly the long
> (22,000 words) story by Kersh "Clock Without Hands"
as one of
likely
> interest to Rara list members. You can find the
story in one of
the
> most common Kersh U.S. collections MEN WITHOUT BONES
(Paperback
> Library 1962). I don't have a bibliography handy but
am not
> confident that this long story was in the U.K.
collection also
called
> MEN WITHOUT BONES. The story is also in the rather
common British
> collection THE BEST OF GERALD KERSH (Heinemann
1960). While I
can't
> check this at present, I believe that Kersh's use of
the
title "Clock
> Without Hands" predates its use by my fellow
Georgian Carson
> McCullers.
>
> Richard Moore
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