Posted by J. Gary fox on July 26, 1998 at 19:05:18:
In Reply to: Re: Henry Kuttner posted by Suan Yong on March 06, 1998 at 11:19:50:
I was searching for possible Kuttner websites and came across the comments of a few months ago. I felt the need to defend him.
Henry Kuttner was considered one of the best SF writers of tne 1940- to mid 1950's. His work is still being published in anthologies.
As with most SF writers of his time, he was a "pulp" writer. To earn a meger living at a few cents a word, you had to publish a lot of material. Much of it was good, some great, and a lot of crap.
He and his wife, C.L. Moore, published a great deal under about 30 various pen names - Lewis Padgett, Lawrence O'Donnell as examples.
I enjoyed a great number of his stories and novels - Fury, Mutant, but I thought she was a better writer.
He died in 1958 at the age of forty-four. You have to wonder what he could have accomplished in the sixties when SF writers were beginning to get some financial and literary recognition.
I think he was one of the better ones of the "Golden Age", but not of the caliber of say - Asimov, Heinlein, Sturgeon, or Bradbury.
On being "dated". Every existing writer will be "dated" in a few decades. You have to read them knowing the time period and culture they wrote in. If they are good writers, they still have something to tell you or a story to move you.