WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.779 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are, 00:00:02.799 --> 00:00:05.480 uh, we're opening a file that honestly I really 00:00:05.480 --> 00:00:07.400 didn't see coming. Oh, it's a surprising one 00:00:07.400 --> 00:00:09.900 for sure. Yeah. You know how we usually talk 00:00:09.900 --> 00:00:12.720 about the absolute titans of the genre? We look 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:14.759 at the people whose names are printed in giant 00:00:14.759 --> 00:00:16.760 gold foil on the front of the paperback. Right, 00:00:16.839 --> 00:00:19.019 right. The household names. Stephen King's, the 00:00:19.019 --> 00:00:21.679 Asimov's, Lovecraft's, the folks everyone knows. 00:00:21.940 --> 00:00:24.260 Naturally. Because that is where the spotlight 00:00:24.260 --> 00:00:27.780 usually shines, right? We are all so drawn to 00:00:27.780 --> 00:00:30.949 the, um... the great man or great woman theory 00:00:30.949 --> 00:00:33.329 of history. Oh, definitely. Where we just assume 00:00:33.329 --> 00:00:36.270 these singular geniuses appear out of the ether, 00:00:36.390 --> 00:00:39.009 fully formed, and change the world. Exactly. 00:00:39.250 --> 00:00:41.670 We see the mountain peaks, but we completely 00:00:41.670 --> 00:00:44.130 ignore the tectonic plates that actually push 00:00:44.130 --> 00:00:45.670 them up there in the first place. That's a great 00:00:45.670 --> 00:00:48.710 analogy. But today, we are looking at the guy 00:00:48.710 --> 00:00:51.950 who built the bridge those titans walked across. 00:00:52.640 --> 00:00:55.679 We're looking at the geology, so to speak. It 00:00:55.679 --> 00:00:58.579 really is a fascinating case study in what I 00:00:58.579 --> 00:01:00.979 like to call literary connective tissue. Connective 00:01:00.979 --> 00:01:03.460 tissue, yeah. We are looking at the life and 00:01:03.460 --> 00:01:06.659 the long, long career of Robert A .W. Lowndes. 00:01:06.680 --> 00:01:09.040 Who is often just known to his friends and colleagues 00:01:09.040 --> 00:01:13.950 as Doc. Doc Lounds. Yes. And when you say connective 00:01:13.950 --> 00:01:16.650 tissue, you really aren't kidding. I was I was 00:01:16.650 --> 00:01:18.250 looking through the source material we pulled 00:01:18.250 --> 00:01:21.049 for this. And the timeline here is just staggering. 00:01:21.450 --> 00:01:23.790 Staggering. That's the word. We are talking about 00:01:23.790 --> 00:01:26.609 a single human being who connects the pulp era 00:01:26.609 --> 00:01:31.150 of the 1930s directly to the modern era of. horror 00:01:31.150 --> 00:01:34.109 superstars. He spans the entire gap. He does. 00:01:34.250 --> 00:01:36.849 And it is a wide gap. Huge. If you think about 00:01:36.849 --> 00:01:40.329 the style of writing in 1935 versus, say, 1975, 00:01:40.870 --> 00:01:43.250 they are almost different languages. Yeah, completely 00:01:43.250 --> 00:01:45.209 different pacing, different tropes. But Lowndes 00:01:45.209 --> 00:01:47.750 was fluent in both. On one end of his career, 00:01:47.829 --> 00:01:50.129 he is a young fan corresponding directly with 00:01:50.129 --> 00:01:52.370 H .P. Lovecraft. Which is mind blowing on its 00:01:52.370 --> 00:01:54.430 own. We're going to get into the details of those 00:01:54.430 --> 00:01:57.030 letters shortly because that alone is a story. 00:01:57.170 --> 00:01:59.659 Right. And then on the other end. Decades later, 00:01:59.900 --> 00:02:02.500 he is the editor who pulls a manuscript out of 00:02:02.500 --> 00:02:05.900 the flesh pile and publishes the very first professional 00:02:05.900 --> 00:02:08.699 stories of Stephen King. OK, let's just pause 00:02:08.699 --> 00:02:10.719 and unpack that for a second. The exact same 00:02:10.719 --> 00:02:13.860 guy who got letters from Lovecraft gave Stephen 00:02:13.860 --> 00:02:16.900 King his first break. The very same guy. That 00:02:16.900 --> 00:02:19.879 is wild. It is. And that is why this deep dive 00:02:19.879 --> 00:02:22.319 is so important for anyone who cares about genre 00:02:22.319 --> 00:02:25.080 history. Our mission today is to really explore 00:02:25.080 --> 00:02:28.500 the life of a man who wore literally every hat 00:02:28.500 --> 00:02:30.819 in the industry. Every single hat. He wasn't 00:02:30.819 --> 00:02:32.939 just an observer sitting on the sidelines. He 00:02:32.939 --> 00:02:36.939 was a fan, a poet, a novelist, a historian, and 00:02:36.939 --> 00:02:39.139 perhaps most importantly, an incredibly influential. 00:02:39.719 --> 00:02:42.780 editor it really makes you wonder how many other 00:02:42.780 --> 00:02:45.819 dock lounge figures are out there quietly shaping 00:02:45.819 --> 00:02:47.979 the culture we consume doesn't it oh absolutely 00:02:47.979 --> 00:02:50.280 like we all know the stars but who are the architects 00:02:50.969 --> 00:02:53.590 That is the question. And usually the architects 00:02:53.590 --> 00:02:55.430 are completely invisible. They operate behind 00:02:55.430 --> 00:02:58.569 the scenes. But Lowndes left a paper trail. A 00:02:58.569 --> 00:03:01.030 massive paper trail. Yeah. So let's rewind the 00:03:01.030 --> 00:03:03.090 tape. Let's go back to the very beginning. Who 00:03:03.090 --> 00:03:05.650 was Robert Lowndes before he became doc? What 00:03:05.650 --> 00:03:07.689 was the world that created him? Well, he was 00:03:07.689 --> 00:03:10.710 born in 1916 and he passed away in 1998. A full 00:03:10.710 --> 00:03:14.680 20th century life. Exactly. But to truly understand 00:03:14.680 --> 00:03:16.860 him, we really have to look at the company he 00:03:16.860 --> 00:03:19.060 kept in those early days. The source material 00:03:19.060 --> 00:03:21.460 highlights his role as a principal member of 00:03:21.460 --> 00:03:24.439 a group called the Futurians. The Futurians. 00:03:24.460 --> 00:03:26.639 That sounds like, I don't know, secret society 00:03:26.639 --> 00:03:29.960 from a comic book or maybe a synth pop band from 00:03:29.960 --> 00:03:32.620 the 80s. In the world of science fiction history, 00:03:33.020 --> 00:03:35.829 they essentially were a secret society. Just 00:03:35.829 --> 00:03:38.330 much louder. Louder. Very loud. They were based 00:03:38.330 --> 00:03:40.710 in New York City. And you have to understand 00:03:40.710 --> 00:03:44.069 the context of fandom in that specific era. This 00:03:44.069 --> 00:03:47.310 is the late 30s and early 40s. There wasn't a 00:03:47.310 --> 00:03:50.990 clear, rigid line between being a fan and being 00:03:50.990 --> 00:03:53.750 a pro, what there is today. Right. Today, if 00:03:53.750 --> 00:03:55.729 I read a book, I'm a fan. If I write a book and 00:03:55.729 --> 00:03:58.689 sell it, I'm a pro. And there is a giant wall. 00:03:59.289 --> 00:04:01.530 of agents and publishers standing between those 00:04:01.530 --> 00:04:03.530 two states. Exactly. Back then, it was a much 00:04:03.530 --> 00:04:05.909 more fluid ecosystem. It was a permeable membrane. 00:04:06.229 --> 00:04:09.289 You usually started out as a fan writing letters 00:04:09.289 --> 00:04:11.229 to the magazines. They literally called them 00:04:11.229 --> 00:04:13.590 letter hacks. Letter hacks. I love that. Then 00:04:13.590 --> 00:04:16.689 you would join clubs like the Futurians. You 00:04:16.689 --> 00:04:20.129 published fanzines on clunky mimeograph machines 00:04:20.129 --> 00:04:22.850 in someone's basement. And the next thing you 00:04:22.850 --> 00:04:25.930 know, the editor of a professional magazine realizes 00:04:25.930 --> 00:04:28.930 he needs a story to fill five blank pages before 00:04:28.930 --> 00:04:31.699 going to print. He eats filler. Right. So he 00:04:31.699 --> 00:04:34.220 asks you if you have anything lying around. You 00:04:34.220 --> 00:04:37.180 hand over a draft and suddenly, boom, you're 00:04:37.180 --> 00:04:39.379 a professional writer. Sounds incredibly organic. 00:04:39.779 --> 00:04:42.399 It was very organic. And the Futurians were essentially 00:04:42.399 --> 00:04:45.040 the radical wing of this whole process. Radical 00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:48.079 in what way? Well, they included people who would 00:04:48.079 --> 00:04:51.939 go on to be massive, massive figures. Isaac Asimov, 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:56.029 Frederick Pohl. Donald Wohlheim. Heavy hitters. 00:04:56.149 --> 00:04:59.529 The heaviest. These were young, incredibly smart, 00:04:59.689 --> 00:05:02.569 incredibly opinionated people who truly believed 00:05:02.569 --> 00:05:04.449 science fiction was the most important thing 00:05:04.449 --> 00:05:06.589 in the world. They argued about it constantly. 00:05:06.870 --> 00:05:08.430 And Lowndes was right in the center of that energy. 00:05:08.589 --> 00:05:11.399 A principal member. And that specific environment 00:05:11.399 --> 00:05:14.060 is crucial for understanding him because it taught 00:05:14.060 --> 00:05:16.420 him early on that literature is a conversation, 00:05:16.680 --> 00:05:19.439 not a monologue. You write, you critique, you 00:05:19.439 --> 00:05:21.939 argue, you publish. Exactly. It's a dialogue. 00:05:22.019 --> 00:05:24.639 The source mentions his relationship with Donald 00:05:24.639 --> 00:05:27.209 A. Volheim specifically. They were fellow Futurians, 00:05:27.310 --> 00:05:30.209 right? Yes. And Donald Woolheim is another absolute 00:05:30.209 --> 00:05:33.649 titan. He eventually founded Dia Double Books. 00:05:33.810 --> 00:05:36.970 The yellow spine paperback. The very ones. Everyone 00:05:36.970 --> 00:05:39.730 who reads sci -fi or fantasy knows those yellow 00:05:39.730 --> 00:05:42.829 spines. But back then, he and Lowndes were just 00:05:42.829 --> 00:05:44.910 a couple of aspiring writers trying to break 00:05:44.910 --> 00:05:47.649 into the magazines. And that relationship led 00:05:47.649 --> 00:05:50.290 directly to Lowndes' very first fiction credit. 00:05:50.589 --> 00:05:52.870 Or, well, uncredited credit, if we want to be 00:05:52.870 --> 00:05:54.709 technical about it. Exactly. I love these little 00:05:54.709 --> 00:05:56.649 details in the story. material because they show 00:05:56.649 --> 00:05:58.730 the unvarnished reality of the business back 00:05:58.730 --> 00:06:00.910 then. What actually happened with that story? 00:06:01.089 --> 00:06:04.149 So his first story was called The Outpost at 00:06:04.149 --> 00:06:06.750 Altark. The Outpost at Altark. Great pulp title. 00:06:06.930 --> 00:06:09.209 Classic. It was published in Super Science in 00:06:09.209 --> 00:06:13.129 1940. Now, officially, or at least in terms of 00:06:13.129 --> 00:06:15.670 how the actual physical work was done, it was 00:06:15.670 --> 00:06:17.990 a collaboration between Lowndes and Donald Woolheim. 00:06:18.129 --> 00:06:20.769 They wrote it together. Yeah. But his name wasn't 00:06:20.769 --> 00:06:23.480 on it. Uncredited. It was likely published under 00:06:23.480 --> 00:06:25.620 a house name or perhaps it's Woolheim's name. 00:06:25.860 --> 00:06:28.379 And that speaks volumes about how these guys 00:06:28.379 --> 00:06:30.639 operated in the trenches. They were just churning 00:06:30.639 --> 00:06:33.480 out content. Turning it out. Helping each other, 00:06:33.579 --> 00:06:36.019 ghostwriting, collaborating, polishing each other's 00:06:36.019 --> 00:06:39.720 drafts. It was a creative factory. It really 00:06:39.720 --> 00:06:41.699 wasn't about ego at that point, was it? It was 00:06:41.699 --> 00:06:45.110 about survival. Getting into print. It was strictly 00:06:45.110 --> 00:06:47.449 about getting the words on the page and getting 00:06:47.449 --> 00:06:49.889 the check in the mail to pay rent. But even if 00:06:49.889 --> 00:06:52.189 his name wasn't on the cover, that story, the 00:06:52.189 --> 00:06:55.189 outpost at Altark, marks a huge transition for 00:06:55.189 --> 00:06:57.490 him. The moment he crosses the threshold. Exactly. 00:06:57.750 --> 00:07:00.790 From enthusiast to creator. And somewhere in 00:07:00.790 --> 00:07:03.639 there. Amidst all the scraping for bylines and 00:07:03.639 --> 00:07:06.100 the intense club meetings, he picks up the nickname 00:07:06.100 --> 00:07:09.279 Doc. Doc Clowns, yes. It became his permanent 00:07:09.279 --> 00:07:11.720 moniker for the rest of his life. Does the source 00:07:11.720 --> 00:07:14.379 say where it came from? It doesn't specify the 00:07:14.379 --> 00:07:16.819 exact origin story, unfortunately. Like, we don't 00:07:16.819 --> 00:07:19.500 know if he performed first aid at a raucous sci 00:07:19.500 --> 00:07:21.819 -fi convention or something like that, but whatever 00:07:21.819 --> 00:07:24.579 the reason, it's Doc. It really fits the vibe, 00:07:24.639 --> 00:07:27.800 though. Calling someone Doc implies a certain 00:07:27.800 --> 00:07:31.410 level of authority. Respect. It does. It suggests 00:07:31.410 --> 00:07:34.389 a sort of fix -it -kiss ability. In the fast 00:07:34.389 --> 00:07:37.329 -paced pulp world, you really needed a doc. You 00:07:37.329 --> 00:07:39.649 needed a surgeon for your story. Precisely. You 00:07:39.649 --> 00:07:42.189 needed someone who could look at a broken, messy 00:07:42.189 --> 00:07:44.689 narrative and instantly diagnose the problem. 00:07:44.910 --> 00:07:47.310 They could say, the pacing is completely anemic 00:07:47.310 --> 00:07:50.329 right here, or the dialogue is completely fractured 00:07:50.329 --> 00:07:52.310 in this scene. And Lowndes became that person. 00:07:52.509 --> 00:07:54.430 He became that person for the entire industry. 00:07:54.430 --> 00:07:56.470 It definitely fits the image of a guy who knows 00:07:56.470 --> 00:07:59.370 where all the bodies are buried, literarily speaking. 00:07:59.629 --> 00:08:01.829 But let's go back a little bit further in the 00:08:01.829 --> 00:08:04.529 timeline, because before he was publishing uncredited 00:08:04.529 --> 00:08:07.269 stories with Woolheim, he was doing something 00:08:07.269 --> 00:08:09.509 else. He was communicating directly with the 00:08:09.509 --> 00:08:12.290 master himself, H .P. Lovecraft. This is one 00:08:12.290 --> 00:08:14.410 of the most significant touchstones in his entire 00:08:14.410 --> 00:08:16.470 life. We really have to remember the timeline 00:08:16.470 --> 00:08:19.870 here to grasp the impact. Lovecraft died in March 00:08:19.870 --> 00:08:22.290 of 1937. OK, I want everyone to keep that exact 00:08:22.290 --> 00:08:26.129 date in mind. Yeah. March 1937. Right. And Lowndes 00:08:26.129 --> 00:08:28.149 received two letters of encouragement from H 00:08:28.149 --> 00:08:32.159 .P. Lovecraft. Wow. So right at the absolute 00:08:32.159 --> 00:08:48.799 finish line of Lovecraft's life. And he actually 00:08:48.799 --> 00:08:51.639 writes back. He writes back. And not just a brief, 00:08:51.759 --> 00:08:54.419 thanks for writing, kid, keep it up. No. No, 00:08:54.500 --> 00:08:58.019 these were letters of deep encouragement, real 00:08:58.019 --> 00:09:01.080 validation from the master. And then mere weeks 00:09:01.080 --> 00:09:03.779 or a couple of months later, that idol passes 00:09:03.779 --> 00:09:06.480 away. That has to fundamentally change a person. 00:09:06.860 --> 00:09:09.460 It creates a profound sense of obligation, doesn't 00:09:09.460 --> 00:09:11.820 it? Like he's thinking he passed the torch to 00:09:11.820 --> 00:09:14.399 me. Now I have to carry it. It completely validates 00:09:14.399 --> 00:09:16.399 their path in a profound way. And we know this 00:09:16.399 --> 00:09:18.539 happened and we know exactly how much it mattered 00:09:18.539 --> 00:09:20.960 because those letters were meticulously preserved. 00:09:21.220 --> 00:09:23.000 They weren't just tossed in a drawer. Not at 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:25.480 all. They were eventually reprinted much later 00:09:25.480 --> 00:09:28.519 in Crypt of Cthulhu, which is a major journal 00:09:28.519 --> 00:09:30.580 dedicated entirely to Lovecraft's scholarship. 00:09:31.210 --> 00:09:33.269 And Lowndes didn't just frame the letters and 00:09:33.269 --> 00:09:35.649 walk away. He really leaned into that influence, 00:09:35.889 --> 00:09:38.529 didn't he? He took up the mantle. He became a 00:09:38.529 --> 00:09:41.049 true disciple, in a way. He transitioned that 00:09:41.049 --> 00:09:43.649 inspiration directly into his own dark fantasy 00:09:43.649 --> 00:09:47.549 writing. The source details a few key works that 00:09:47.549 --> 00:09:49.970 clearly show this lineage. There were some of 00:09:49.970 --> 00:09:52.309 the key ones. First off, there was a story called 00:09:52.309 --> 00:09:57.669 The Abyss in 1941. The Abyss. Good, solid, ominous 00:09:57.669 --> 00:09:59.250 title. You know what you're getting with that. 00:09:59.559 --> 00:10:02.679 A classic weird tale title. And then there was 00:10:02.679 --> 00:10:06.379 The Leapers in 1942. Now, The Leapers is super 00:10:06.379 --> 00:10:09.100 interesting because it shows us the complicated 00:10:09.100 --> 00:10:11.679 game these writers played with pseudonyms. Oh, 00:10:11.759 --> 00:10:13.940 the pseudonym game. I swear, I feel like every 00:10:13.940 --> 00:10:16.169 single writer from this era. had at least five 00:10:16.169 --> 00:10:18.029 different names they published under. Why did 00:10:18.029 --> 00:10:19.549 they do that so often? Well, there are multiple 00:10:19.549 --> 00:10:22.210 reasons. Sometimes an editor simply wouldn't 00:10:22.210 --> 00:10:24.389 want the exact same name on the table of contents 00:10:24.389 --> 00:10:27.649 twice in one issue. So if you were prolific and 00:10:27.649 --> 00:10:29.870 sold two stories to the same magazine that month, 00:10:30.009 --> 00:10:32.330 one of them had to be under a fake name. Makes 00:10:32.330 --> 00:10:34.029 sense. It makes the magazine look like it has 00:10:34.029 --> 00:10:37.009 a bigger stable of writers. Exactly. Other times 00:10:37.009 --> 00:10:39.350 they wanted to sound more exotic or distinguished, 00:10:39.389 --> 00:10:42.029 or sometimes they just really wanted to separate 00:10:42.029 --> 00:10:44.809 their dark horror work from their lighter sci 00:10:44.809 --> 00:10:47.870 -fi work. Brand management, essentially. So what 00:10:47.870 --> 00:10:49.450 happened with The Leapers? Which name did he 00:10:49.450 --> 00:10:52.049 use? The Leapers first appeared in Future Fantasy 00:10:52.049 --> 00:10:55.269 and Science Fiction in December 1942, but it 00:10:55.269 --> 00:10:57.929 wasn't attributed to Robert Lowndes. It was credited 00:10:57.929 --> 00:11:00.690 to Carol Gray. Carol Gray. That is a bit of a 00:11:00.690 --> 00:11:03.559 departure from Doc Lowndes. Isn't it? It creates 00:11:03.559 --> 00:11:06.399 this fascinating bibliographic puzzle for historians 00:11:06.399 --> 00:11:08.620 later on. They look at the table of contents 00:11:08.620 --> 00:11:11.259 and think, who is this Carol Gray person? When 00:11:11.259 --> 00:11:14.480 it's just Bob. Exactly, it's just Bob. But the 00:11:14.480 --> 00:11:16.960 story of the Leapers didn't even stop there. 00:11:17.340 --> 00:11:19.440 Lowndes kept coming back to it over the years. 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:21.759 Was he not happy with it? Or he just felt he 00:11:21.759 --> 00:11:24.320 could do it better. He revised The Leapers years 00:11:24.320 --> 00:11:27.220 later for the magazine of horror. And then much, 00:11:27.340 --> 00:11:29.460 much later, there was a third distinct version 00:11:29.460 --> 00:11:33.059 created specifically for that Crypt of Cthulhu 00:11:33.059 --> 00:11:35.519 tribute issue. So he was tinkering with this 00:11:35.519 --> 00:11:38.620 one single story for decades. He was constantly 00:11:38.620 --> 00:11:41.460 refining it. The final version even featured 00:11:41.460 --> 00:11:44.779 a new introduction written by him where he meticulously 00:11:44.779 --> 00:11:47.700 explained the entire publication history. That 00:11:47.700 --> 00:11:49.779 shows a lot of care. It really shows a writer 00:11:49.779 --> 00:11:52.679 who cares deeply about the actual work, not just 00:11:52.679 --> 00:11:55.480 the quick paycheck. He was refining his personal 00:11:55.480 --> 00:11:58.000 contribution to the Lovecraftian tradition. He 00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:00.120 wanted to get it absolutely right. And there 00:12:00.120 --> 00:12:01.600 was another one mentioned in the notes, right? 00:12:01.860 --> 00:12:04.799 Settler's Wall? Yes. Or, as it was known when 00:12:04.799 --> 00:12:06.879 he originally wrote it under yet another pseudonym, 00:12:07.100 --> 00:12:09.820 Wilfred Owen Morley. The story was called The 00:12:09.820 --> 00:12:13.620 Long Wall. Wilfred Owen Morley. That sounds very 00:12:13.620 --> 00:12:16.840 distinguished, like a British poet who tragically 00:12:16.840 --> 00:12:19.120 died in World War I. It really does sound like 00:12:19.120 --> 00:12:21.519 that, doesn't it? Very stately, very serious. 00:12:21.759 --> 00:12:24.080 That one ran in Stirring Science Stories in March 00:12:24.080 --> 00:12:27.159 1942, and again he revised it twice over his 00:12:27.159 --> 00:12:29.480 career. It seems like Lowndes was rarely satisfied 00:12:29.480 --> 00:12:32.139 with the first draft. Or perhaps he just constantly 00:12:32.139 --> 00:12:34.299 saw new opportunities to improve the stories 00:12:34.299 --> 00:12:37.480 as the market and his own skills evolved. That's 00:12:37.480 --> 00:12:40.220 thought on. Usually with pulp writers, the stereotype 00:12:40.220 --> 00:12:43.379 is write it fast, sell it instantly, forget about 00:12:43.379 --> 00:12:45.120 it completely, and move on to the next one. Right, 00:12:45.200 --> 00:12:48.220 the penny a word grind. Exactly. But Lowndes 00:12:48.220 --> 00:12:50.879 treated these specific stories, especially the 00:12:50.879 --> 00:12:54.360 Lovecraftian ones, with a real level of reverence. 00:12:54.379 --> 00:12:56.100 They weren't just commercial product for him. 00:12:56.139 --> 00:12:59.080 They were art. Speaking of art, he didn't just 00:12:59.080 --> 00:13:02.039 write short stories. The source material mentions 00:13:02.039 --> 00:13:05.559 he wrote poetry too, which feels a bit rare for 00:13:05.559 --> 00:13:08.429 the pulps. This is where the absolute depth of 00:13:08.429 --> 00:13:11.230 his fandom really shines through. He wrote a 00:13:11.230 --> 00:13:13.409 series of poems called The Annals of Archaea. 00:13:13.509 --> 00:13:16.470 The Annals of Archaea sounds very mystic. And 00:13:16.470 --> 00:13:18.590 these weren't just random standalone poems. They 00:13:18.590 --> 00:13:22.350 were explicitly directly inspired by Lovecraft's 00:13:22.350 --> 00:13:24.509 Fungi from Yugoth's Sonnet Cycle. Okay, that 00:13:24.509 --> 00:13:26.740 is a seriously deep cut. For listeners who might 00:13:26.740 --> 00:13:29.080 not be deep into Lovecraft lore, what exactly 00:13:29.080 --> 00:13:32.240 is Fungi from Yugoth? It is this legendary sequence 00:13:32.240 --> 00:13:35.159 of sonnets written by Lovecraft. It essentially 00:13:35.159 --> 00:13:38.379 tells a very vague, nightmarish, cosmic story 00:13:38.379 --> 00:13:40.639 entirely through verse. Which sounds incredibly 00:13:40.639 --> 00:13:43.200 difficult. It's incredibly difficult to pull 00:13:43.200 --> 00:13:45.840 off well because you are combining the very strict 00:13:45.840 --> 00:13:49.279 structural rules of a traditional sonnet, the 00:13:49.279 --> 00:13:52.299 precise rhythm, the strict rhyme scheme, the 00:13:52.299 --> 00:13:55.379 meter. Right. With the chaotic, sanity -shattering 00:13:55.379 --> 00:13:58.360 cosmic horror of the Cthulhu mythos. So you basically 00:13:58.360 --> 00:14:01.419 have to make unspeakable nightmares rhyme. Basically, 00:14:01.440 --> 00:14:04.700 yes. And for Lowndes to sit down and write a 00:14:04.700 --> 00:14:07.559 full 12 sonnet sequence as a tribute to that, 00:14:07.639 --> 00:14:10.360 that takes intense dedication. Just writing one 00:14:10.360 --> 00:14:12.879 good sonnet is hard enough. Writing 12 of them 00:14:12.879 --> 00:14:15.840 all thematically linked to a specific fictional 00:14:15.840 --> 00:14:19.139 mythos. That is a true labor of love. Did anyone 00:14:19.139 --> 00:14:21.220 actually read them at the time? Or was this just 00:14:21.220 --> 00:14:23.000 something he did for his own? personal amusement 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:25.480 oh they were published donald wolheim remember 00:14:25.480 --> 00:14:27.919 him from the futurians yeah the diido books guy 00:14:27.919 --> 00:14:30.340 he issued them as a standalone booklet through 00:14:30.340 --> 00:14:33.360 his own imprint the fantagraph press wolheim 00:14:33.360 --> 00:14:36.190 again Those Futurian guys really looked out for 00:14:36.190 --> 00:14:38.429 each other, didn't they? They absolutely did. 00:14:38.509 --> 00:14:41.230 And later on, those sonnets were reprinted in 00:14:41.230 --> 00:14:44.049 Crypt of Cthulhu. It shows that his peers, the 00:14:44.049 --> 00:14:47.490 people deep in the genre, truly recognized the 00:14:47.490 --> 00:14:49.750 literary quality of his tribute. It wasn't just 00:14:49.750 --> 00:14:52.350 amateur fan fiction. Not at all. It was considered 00:14:52.350 --> 00:14:55.149 a respectful, worthy addition to the broader 00:14:55.149 --> 00:14:58.149 canon. Okay, so we have established that he was 00:14:58.149 --> 00:15:01.690 a super fan, a dedicated poet, and a very talented 00:15:01.690 --> 00:15:04.809 writer in the Lovecraft vein. But that is not 00:15:04.809 --> 00:15:06.429 really what put his name in the history books, 00:15:06.570 --> 00:15:08.970 is it? It was the editing. That's where he leaves 00:15:08.970 --> 00:15:11.350 his biggest footprint. Correct. The editor's 00:15:11.350 --> 00:15:13.809 desk is where Doc Lowndes truly left his massive 00:15:13.809 --> 00:15:16.570 mark on the industry. Specifically, we need to 00:15:16.570 --> 00:15:19.909 dive into the Columbia Publications era. Columbia 00:15:19.909 --> 00:15:21.889 Publications. This is where he really starts 00:15:21.889 --> 00:15:24.500 running the show. What was the publishing landscape 00:15:24.500 --> 00:15:26.559 like at that point? So we're moving into the 00:15:26.559 --> 00:15:30.039 late 40s and the 1950s. We're shifting away from 00:15:30.039 --> 00:15:32.519 the large format, ragged edged pulp magazines 00:15:32.519 --> 00:15:34.799 to the smaller digest magazine. They're just 00:15:34.799 --> 00:15:38.139 format. Think Reader's Digest size. Exactly that 00:15:38.139 --> 00:15:42.940 size. Smaller, thicker, easier to carry. Lowndes 00:15:42.940 --> 00:15:45.519 was helming some absolute heavy hitters for Columbia. 00:15:46.180 --> 00:15:48.220 Future Science Fiction, Science Fiction, and 00:15:48.220 --> 00:15:50.500 Science Fiction Quarterly. Science Fiction Quarterly. 00:15:50.500 --> 00:15:53.279 I really love how completely literal the titles 00:15:53.279 --> 00:15:55.919 were back then. No ambiguity whatsoever. You 00:15:55.919 --> 00:15:58.179 get what it says on the tin. Exactly. You knew 00:15:58.179 --> 00:16:00.220 exactly what you were paying your 15 cents for. 00:16:00.940 --> 00:16:03.899 But dealing with a whole slate of digest magazines, 00:16:04.059 --> 00:16:06.659 that is a tremendous grind. Why is it such a 00:16:06.659 --> 00:16:08.940 grind compared to the older pulps? Because you 00:16:08.940 --> 00:16:11.799 have incredibly strict deadlines, razor -thin 00:16:11.799 --> 00:16:15.139 budgets, and an insatiable nonstop need for content. 00:16:15.379 --> 00:16:17.620 You have to fill all those pages every single 00:16:17.620 --> 00:16:21.300 month or every single quarter without fail. They 00:16:21.300 --> 00:16:23.820 don't. If a promised story falls through at the 00:16:23.820 --> 00:16:25.919 last minute, you have to write one yourself under 00:16:25.919 --> 00:16:28.779 a fake name or find a usable one literally overnight. 00:16:29.080 --> 00:16:30.720 And he wasn't just sitting there reading robot 00:16:30.720 --> 00:16:32.940 stories and rocket ship adventures all day, was 00:16:32.940 --> 00:16:35.220 he? No, and this is what impresses me most about 00:16:35.220 --> 00:16:38.519 that classic pulp work ethic. The source specifically 00:16:38.519 --> 00:16:41.480 points out his genre versatility. He wasn't just 00:16:41.480 --> 00:16:44.299 editing sci -fi titles. What else was he doing? 00:16:44.460 --> 00:16:47.360 He was editing crime fiction magazines. He was 00:16:47.360 --> 00:16:50.460 editing Westerns. He was editing sports fiction. 00:16:50.620 --> 00:16:53.139 Sports fiction. Sports fiction. Yeah. That feels 00:16:53.139 --> 00:16:54.860 like a whole different universe from cryptic. 00:16:54.860 --> 00:16:58.299 I mean, going from the ancient ones are awakening 00:16:58.299 --> 00:17:00.779 from their cosmic slumber to bottom of the ninth 00:17:00.779 --> 00:17:03.379 bases loaded. It is completely different. But 00:17:03.379 --> 00:17:06.019 that is the exact mark of a true professional 00:17:06.019 --> 00:17:09.140 pulp editor. You had to implicitly understand 00:17:09.140 --> 00:17:12.619 core story structure, narrative pacing and audience. 00:17:12.839 --> 00:17:15.579 expectations regardless of the genre addressing 00:17:15.579 --> 00:17:18.799 mechanics of the story Exactly. Whether it is 00:17:18.799 --> 00:17:21.299 a cowboy facing a deadly shootout at high noon 00:17:21.299 --> 00:17:24.819 or a starship captain facing a supernova, the 00:17:24.819 --> 00:17:27.859 underlying editorial skills are completely transferable. 00:17:28.019 --> 00:17:29.859 It's all just tension and resolution at the end 00:17:29.859 --> 00:17:32.259 of the day. Precisely. And Lanz mastered them 00:17:32.259 --> 00:17:34.160 all. He could look at a Western draft and say, 00:17:34.279 --> 00:17:37.640 this dialogue feels way too modern for 1880, 00:17:37.799 --> 00:17:39.839 and then immediately look at a murder mystery 00:17:39.839 --> 00:17:42.480 and say, the clues aren't laid out fairly for 00:17:42.480 --> 00:17:44.640 the reader here. And doing all of that simultaneously 00:17:44.640 --> 00:17:47.839 across multiple titles. That is an insane juggling 00:17:47.839 --> 00:17:50.740 act. It required an immense, almost superhuman 00:17:50.740 --> 00:17:53.900 work ethic, but also gave him a highly unique 00:17:53.900 --> 00:17:57.319 vantage point in the industry. He saw raw talent 00:17:57.319 --> 00:18:00.099 across the entire board. He wasn't siloed into 00:18:00.099 --> 00:18:03.160 just one genre, which brings us perfectly to 00:18:03.160 --> 00:18:05.420 his role as a talent scout. Right. The source 00:18:05.420 --> 00:18:08.259 brings up a name here, Edward D. Hoach. Edward 00:18:08.259 --> 00:18:11.619 D. Hooch is an absolute legend in the mystery 00:18:11.619 --> 00:18:14.900 field. He is often referred to as the king of 00:18:14.900 --> 00:18:17.680 the short story. Why is that? Because he wrote 00:18:17.680 --> 00:18:20.980 something staggering like 900 short stories over 00:18:20.980 --> 00:18:23.640 his career, and it was Doc Lowndes who discovered 00:18:23.640 --> 00:18:26.059 him and gave him his start. That is a pretty 00:18:26.059 --> 00:18:27.799 big feather in the cap right there, finding a 00:18:27.799 --> 00:18:30.500 guy who writes 900 stories. But what's even more 00:18:30.500 --> 00:18:32.759 telling about Lowndes as a person is the loyalty. 00:18:33.160 --> 00:18:35.819 The source explicitly states that Hohut continued 00:18:35.819 --> 00:18:37.900 to contribute his stories to Lowndes' fiction 00:18:37.900 --> 00:18:40.500 magazines for as long as Lowndes was editing 00:18:40.500 --> 00:18:42.920 them. Wow. That is actually really rare, isn't 00:18:42.920 --> 00:18:45.160 it? Usually a writer gets a big break, builds 00:18:45.160 --> 00:18:47.039 a name, and then moves on to the highest bidder. 00:18:47.079 --> 00:18:49.819 Like, thanks for the start, Doc, but Playboy 00:18:49.819 --> 00:18:52.910 or Esquire pays 10 times as much now. Exactly. 00:18:53.069 --> 00:18:55.930 That is the normal trajectory. For a superstar 00:18:55.930 --> 00:18:58.490 like Hush to stick with Lowndes for years suggests 00:18:58.490 --> 00:19:00.809 that Lowndes was a genuine pleasure to work with. 00:19:00.890 --> 00:19:02.730 He must have been an incredible editor. Someone 00:19:02.730 --> 00:19:05.089 who respected the writers, gave constructive 00:19:05.089 --> 00:19:07.910 feedback, didn't butcher their prose, or just 00:19:07.910 --> 00:19:10.410 ran a ship that writers actively wanted to be 00:19:10.410 --> 00:19:12.829 a part of. That kind of long -term professional 00:19:12.829 --> 00:19:15.470 loyalty does not happen by accident in publishing. 00:19:15.650 --> 00:19:17.710 No, it definitely doesn't. So he's grinding away 00:19:17.710 --> 00:19:19.569 at Columbia Publications, doing everything from 00:19:19.569 --> 00:19:23.359 cowboys to aliens. hit the 1960s in the timeline. 00:19:23.880 --> 00:19:26.160 And this, to me, is the most exciting part of 00:19:26.160 --> 00:19:29.779 his entire career. The 1960s revival? Yes. This 00:19:29.779 --> 00:19:32.759 is the Health Knowledge Inc. era. Health Knowledge 00:19:32.759 --> 00:19:34.660 Inc. Honestly, it sounds like they should be 00:19:34.660 --> 00:19:37.579 selling mail -order vitamins or medical encyclopedias, 00:19:37.599 --> 00:19:40.279 not horror stories. It really does sound very 00:19:40.279 --> 00:19:43.319 clinical and sterile. But in 1963, under that 00:19:43.319 --> 00:19:46.299 bizarre corporate umbrella, Lowndes initiates 00:19:46.299 --> 00:19:49.759 the magazine of horror. 1963. So you're officially 00:19:49.759 --> 00:19:51.819 moving out of the golden age of Polk and into 00:19:51.819 --> 00:19:54.400 something entirely new. The whole counterculture 00:19:54.400 --> 00:19:56.859 is just starting to bubble up in America. And 00:19:56.859 --> 00:20:00.319 Lowndes had a very specific, very clever editorial 00:20:00.319 --> 00:20:03.440 strategy for this new magazine. He didn't just 00:20:03.440 --> 00:20:06.680 want to publish purely new stuff. He intentionally 00:20:06.680 --> 00:20:09.859 mixed reprints of classic stories with a brand 00:20:09.859 --> 00:20:12.359 new material. Why do that, though? Why not just 00:20:12.359 --> 00:20:15.359 feature all new cutting edge stuff? Was it just 00:20:15.359 --> 00:20:17.539 a cheap way to save money on author payments? 00:20:17.799 --> 00:20:20.579 Well, there were two reasons. First, yes, economics 00:20:20.579 --> 00:20:23.079 played a part. Reprints are generally much cheaper 00:20:23.079 --> 00:20:25.980 or even completely free if the original author 00:20:26.059 --> 00:20:28.099 copyright lapsed and it fell into the public 00:20:28.099 --> 00:20:30.420 domain. That obviously helped stretch a tight 00:20:30.420 --> 00:20:32.359 magazine budget. Sure, practical business. But 00:20:32.359 --> 00:20:34.779 second, and far more importantly for the health 00:20:34.779 --> 00:20:37.319 of the genre itself, it was deeply educational. 00:20:37.900 --> 00:20:39.339 Educational, what do you mean? Think about the 00:20:39.339 --> 00:20:42.700 demographics. In 1963, you had a whole new generation 00:20:42.700 --> 00:20:45.759 of eager readers coming of age. Kids born during 00:20:45.759 --> 00:20:48.220 or just after the Second World War who completely 00:20:48.220 --> 00:20:51.460 missed the golden era of the pulps in the 30s 00:20:51.460 --> 00:20:53.420 and 40s. Right, they never saw those original 00:20:53.420 --> 00:20:58.359 fragile issues of weird tales. Exactly. By carefully 00:20:58.359 --> 00:21:01.059 selecting and reprinting the absolute classics, 00:21:01.619 --> 00:21:04.299 Lanz was actively teaching this new audience. 00:21:04.480 --> 00:21:06.779 He was saying, here is where we came from. Here 00:21:06.779 --> 00:21:08.640 is the foundation. He was essentially building 00:21:08.640 --> 00:21:11.319 and curating a canon for them. Exactly. He's 00:21:11.319 --> 00:21:13.940 building a syllabus. And then, right next to 00:21:13.940 --> 00:21:16.240 those legendary classics, he deliberately places 00:21:16.240 --> 00:21:19.619 a brand new story by a young, unknown writer. 00:21:19.880 --> 00:21:22.500 Oh, I see. That's powerful. He was contextualizing 00:21:22.500 --> 00:21:24.420 the new voices within the long history of... 00:21:24.490 --> 00:21:26.829 field, he was subtly telling the reader, this 00:21:26.829 --> 00:21:29.789 new kid, he belongs on the exact same shelf as 00:21:29.789 --> 00:21:32.369 Edgar Allan Poe and H .P. Lovecraft. Take him 00:21:32.369 --> 00:21:34.650 seriously. That is brilliant editorial sequencing. 00:21:34.890 --> 00:21:37.369 It's like a perfectly curated playlist. If you 00:21:37.369 --> 00:21:39.750 like that classic track from the 30s, check out 00:21:39.750 --> 00:21:41.670 this brand new artist we found. Precisely. And 00:21:41.670 --> 00:21:43.730 the formula absolutely worked. The magazine of 00:21:43.730 --> 00:21:45.990 horror was popular enough and profitable enough 00:21:45.990 --> 00:21:48.910 to spawn a whole family of companion magazines 00:21:48.910 --> 00:21:51.130 under health knowledge. He built a franchise. 00:21:51.490 --> 00:21:54.410 He really did. Startling mystery story. in 1966 00:21:54.410 --> 00:21:58.490 famous science fiction also in 1966 weird terror 00:21:58.490 --> 00:22:02.269 tales in 1969 bizarre fantasy fiction in 1970 00:22:03.079 --> 00:22:06.140 He was building an absolute empire. A very successful 00:22:06.140 --> 00:22:08.920 mini -empire, certainly. And on top of all that 00:22:08.920 --> 00:22:11.619 fiction, he even edited the non -fantastic titles 00:22:11.619 --> 00:22:14.099 for the parent company, like Thrilling Western 00:22:14.099 --> 00:22:17.240 Magazine and Worldwide Adventure. The man simply 00:22:17.240 --> 00:22:20.819 did not stop editing. He was a machine. A dedicated 00:22:20.819 --> 00:22:23.740 machine. Okay, but we absolutely have to talk 00:22:23.740 --> 00:22:27.079 about startling mystery stories, because buried 00:22:27.079 --> 00:22:30.200 in that stack of obscure digest magazines is 00:22:30.200 --> 00:22:34.250 a bomb. A good bomb, but a massive historical 00:22:34.250 --> 00:22:37.289 bomb. A true literary nuclear weapon, yes. Startling 00:22:37.289 --> 00:22:39.349 mystery stories. Who did he publish that makes 00:22:39.349 --> 00:22:41.630 this so important? That magazine is highly notable 00:22:41.630 --> 00:22:43.809 for carrying the very first professional stories 00:22:43.809 --> 00:22:46.650 of Stephen King. The Stephen King. The Shining. 00:22:46.829 --> 00:22:50.759 It. The Stand, Salem's Lot, Stephen King. The 00:22:50.759 --> 00:22:53.660 very same. The Undisputed Master of Modern Horror. 00:22:53.859 --> 00:22:57.140 The story was called The Glass Floor. Wow. Just 00:22:57.140 --> 00:22:59.640 think about that. So long before Cary, long before 00:22:59.640 --> 00:23:01.599 he was a household name with movies and miniseries, 00:23:01.660 --> 00:23:04.000 Stephen King was just another guy desperately 00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:05.579 trying to get a short story published somewhere. 00:23:05.799 --> 00:23:08.519 Just a young, struggling man up in Maine, typing 00:23:08.519 --> 00:23:11.299 away on a heavy typewriter, collecting a massive 00:23:11.299 --> 00:23:14.779 spike full of rejection slips. And Robert Doc 00:23:14.779 --> 00:23:16.980 Lowndes was the editor sitting at a desk in New 00:23:16.980 --> 00:23:20.079 York who pulled that brown envelope out of the 00:23:20.079 --> 00:23:24.279 slush pile, read it, and said, yes, I will buy 00:23:24.279 --> 00:23:26.539 this one. That is just, I mean, imagine the alternate 00:23:26.539 --> 00:23:28.940 reality where Lowndes is having a bad day and 00:23:28.940 --> 00:23:31.500 just stamps no on that envelope. It is a genuinely 00:23:31.500 --> 00:23:33.980 chilling thought for any horror fan, isn't it? 00:23:34.299 --> 00:23:36.640 Rejection is incredibly discouraging for a young 00:23:36.640 --> 00:23:39.460 writer. If King hadn't found that early platform 00:23:39.460 --> 00:23:41.819 and that crucial validation in startling mystery 00:23:41.819 --> 00:23:44.750 stories, Does he keep going with the same fire? 00:23:45.029 --> 00:23:47.130 Does he pivot to something else? Does he find 00:23:47.130 --> 00:23:50.250 another outlet? Probably. Raw talent like that 00:23:50.250 --> 00:23:52.789 usually breaks through eventually. But Lowndes 00:23:52.789 --> 00:23:56.130 provided that vital, crucial first step. He swung 00:23:56.130 --> 00:23:58.490 the door open. It totally validates Lowndes' 00:23:58.549 --> 00:24:01.049 incredible eye for talent, doesn't it? It proves 00:24:01.049 --> 00:24:02.789 it wasn't just a fluke with Edward Hutch back 00:24:02.789 --> 00:24:05.230 in the day. He spotted Stephen King when King 00:24:05.230 --> 00:24:07.269 was an absolute nobody. And it wasn't just King, 00:24:07.369 --> 00:24:10.359 either. There's more. Oh, yes. The source notes 00:24:10.359 --> 00:24:12.680 that he also published the first professional 00:24:12.680 --> 00:24:15.859 stories of F. Paul Wilson. Another huge, huge 00:24:15.859 --> 00:24:19.559 name in the genre. Exactly. F. Paul Wilson, famous 00:24:19.559 --> 00:24:22.180 for the massive Repairman Jack series and the 00:24:22.180 --> 00:24:25.799 classic novel The Keep. Wow. So in this one specific 00:24:25.799 --> 00:24:28.960 magazine run, under this weird health knowledge 00:24:28.960 --> 00:24:32.359 banner, Doc Lanz discovers and launches two of 00:24:32.359 --> 00:24:35.420 the foundational masters of modern horror and 00:24:35.420 --> 00:24:37.980 thriller fiction. That cements his legacy forever. 00:24:38.460 --> 00:24:40.559 Right there. You could delete the entire rest 00:24:40.559 --> 00:24:42.819 of his career, delete the Lovecraft letters, 00:24:42.920 --> 00:24:45.599 delete the poetry, delete all the Westerns and 00:24:45.599 --> 00:24:48.319 sports stories. And he is still historically 00:24:48.319 --> 00:24:51.380 essential as the guy who found Stephen King and 00:24:51.380 --> 00:24:54.690 F. Paul Wilson. Arguably, yes. That alone earns 00:24:54.690 --> 00:24:56.710 him a chapter in the history books. He is the 00:24:56.710 --> 00:24:59.269 ultimate bridge. He literally took the torch 00:24:59.269 --> 00:25:02.210 from Lovecraft's generation and physically handed 00:25:02.210 --> 00:25:04.509 it to King's generation. It's a simplified view 00:25:04.509 --> 00:25:06.329 of his life, but it's really not inaccurate. 00:25:06.710 --> 00:25:09.109 It's the most impactful way to frame his contribution. 00:25:09.470 --> 00:25:11.809 But unfortunately, the platform itself, those 00:25:11.809 --> 00:25:14.069 magazines, they weren't as durable as the legendary 00:25:14.069 --> 00:25:16.920 writers they launched. No, sadly they weren't. 00:25:17.119 --> 00:25:20.160 The final collapse of Health Knowledge Inc. in 00:25:20.160 --> 00:25:23.819 1971 abruptly ended the run of all these digest 00:25:23.819 --> 00:25:27.539 magazines. Ouch. What actually happened? Why 00:25:27.539 --> 00:25:29.500 did they fold if they had such great talent? 00:25:29.930 --> 00:25:32.089 The entire market shifted beneath their feet. 00:25:32.230 --> 00:25:34.930 It was a mix of brutal distribution issues and 00:25:34.930 --> 00:25:37.529 rapidly changing consumer tastes. People weren't 00:25:37.529 --> 00:25:39.890 buying magazines anymore. The classic digest 00:25:39.890 --> 00:25:42.849 magazine format was dying out, being rapidly 00:25:42.849 --> 00:25:45.630 replaced by paperback original anthologies and 00:25:45.630 --> 00:25:48.589 full -length novels. People wanted to buy a paperback 00:25:48.589 --> 00:25:51.450 book, not a flimsy digest. It really marked the 00:25:51.450 --> 00:25:54.769 definitive end of an era. Magazine of horror, 00:25:55.029 --> 00:25:58.150 startling mystery stories, all of them just gone. 00:25:59.240 --> 00:26:01.420 just pack up his desk and retire, did he? He 00:26:01.420 --> 00:26:02.880 seems like the kind of guy who would just dust 00:26:02.880 --> 00:26:04.759 himself off and find another desk somewhere else. 00:26:04.880 --> 00:26:07.359 Oh, no. Lowndes was the ultimate survivor. After 00:26:07.359 --> 00:26:09.099 the fiction magazines all folded, he went right 00:26:09.099 --> 00:26:11.759 back to work. He got a job with Gernsback Publications, 00:26:11.759 --> 00:26:14.559 but crucially, not working on science fiction. 00:26:14.700 --> 00:26:16.819 No. What was he doing? He was hired to work on 00:26:16.819 --> 00:26:19.599 their non -fiction magazine, Sexology. Sexology. 00:26:19.759 --> 00:26:22.079 Did I hear that right? Sexology. You heard that 00:26:22.079 --> 00:26:24.599 correctly. Talk about a massive career pivot 00:26:24.599 --> 00:26:28.630 going from editing Lovecraftian cosmic horror 00:26:28.630 --> 00:26:32.349 and Stephen King thrillers to editing sexology. 00:26:32.470 --> 00:26:35.089 It really is quite a leap, but it speaks heavily 00:26:35.089 --> 00:26:37.690 to his core professionalism as a working editor. 00:26:38.170 --> 00:26:41.250 To him, words are words, deadlines are deadlines, 00:26:41.569 --> 00:26:44.049 page layouts are page layouts. They needed to 00:26:44.049 --> 00:26:46.410 play the bills. He needed to work, and he possessed 00:26:46.410 --> 00:26:48.910 the highly technical skills to manage a publication 00:26:48.910 --> 00:26:51.210 from start to finish, completely regardless of 00:26:51.210 --> 00:26:53.230 what the actual subject matter was. I guess if 00:26:53.230 --> 00:26:56.029 you can successfully edit a convoluted story 00:26:56.029 --> 00:26:59.230 about a tentacled monster from a non -Euclidean 00:26:59.230 --> 00:27:01.950 dimension, you can figure out how to edit. well, 00:27:02.009 --> 00:27:04.089 pretty much anything. You really have to respect 00:27:04.089 --> 00:27:06.670 the hustle. He was a dedicated, working, blue 00:27:06.670 --> 00:27:08.930 -collar writer and editor right up until the 00:27:08.930 --> 00:27:11.190 end. Now, we have talked extensively about his 00:27:11.190 --> 00:27:13.369 short stories and his massive editorial runs, 00:27:13.529 --> 00:27:15.970 but the source material also lists several novels. 00:27:16.509 --> 00:27:18.450 He wasn't strictly a short -form guy his whole 00:27:18.450 --> 00:27:20.970 life. No, he produced several longer works as 00:27:20.970 --> 00:27:23.950 well, and they are quite varied in tone and audience. 00:27:24.210 --> 00:27:26.190 For example, there was Mystery of the Third Mind, 00:27:26.430 --> 00:27:28.569 which was a juvenile fiction novel published 00:27:28.569 --> 00:27:31.829 back in 1953. Juvenile fiction, so basically 00:27:31.829 --> 00:27:34.190 what we would call YA or young adult fiction 00:27:34.190 --> 00:27:36.950 today. Essentially, yes. Sci -fi adventure stories 00:27:36.950 --> 00:27:40.170 aimed specifically at younger readers. It was 00:27:40.170 --> 00:27:43.650 a very big, lucrative market in the 50s. Right, 00:27:43.730 --> 00:27:46.109 getting kids into sci -fi early. Think of the 00:27:46.109 --> 00:27:48.990 famous Winston science fiction set, that kind 00:27:48.990 --> 00:27:51.210 of gateway literature. Then there was a book 00:27:51.210 --> 00:27:53.710 called The Duplicated Man. Oh, that's a notable 00:27:53.710 --> 00:27:55.750 one. It sounds kind of trippy. What's the story 00:27:55.750 --> 00:27:58.210 behind it? Well, it was a major collaboration 00:27:58.210 --> 00:28:00.630 with James Blish. It was officially published 00:28:00.630 --> 00:28:03.690 as a book in 1959, but the text had actually 00:28:03.690 --> 00:28:05.829 appeared in magazine form a few years earlier. 00:28:06.430 --> 00:28:08.450 James Blish is another really heavy hitter in 00:28:08.450 --> 00:28:11.130 classic sci -fi, right? Very heavy. He wrote 00:28:11.130 --> 00:28:14.269 the famous Cities and Flight series, and he is 00:28:14.269 --> 00:28:16.410 very well known for writing the original Star 00:28:16.410 --> 00:28:19.130 Trek novelizations. So seeing Doc Lowndes team 00:28:19.130 --> 00:28:22.640 up with him is significant. It is. It firmly 00:28:22.640 --> 00:28:25.319 puts Lowndes in the higher intellectual circle 00:28:25.319 --> 00:28:28.420 of the genre at that time. Blish was known for 00:28:28.420 --> 00:28:31.740 being a very rigorous, very critical, very smart 00:28:31.740 --> 00:28:34.859 guy. He wouldn't suffer fools. Exactly. He wouldn't 00:28:34.859 --> 00:28:36.880 collaborate with just any hack off the street. 00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:39.900 He clearly respected Lowndes' chops. And what 00:28:39.900 --> 00:28:41.839 about Believer's World? That's another novel 00:28:41.839 --> 00:28:44.440 mentioned in our notes. That one has a very interesting 00:28:44.440 --> 00:28:47.119 history. It was published as a standalone novel 00:28:47.119 --> 00:28:50.779 by Avalon Books in 1961. But it was actually 00:28:50.779 --> 00:28:53.839 expanded from an older serialized story called 00:28:53.839 --> 00:28:56.319 A Matter of Faith that first appeared back in 00:28:56.319 --> 00:28:59.880 1952. Oh, rewriting old material again. And get 00:28:59.880 --> 00:29:01.920 this, when he originally published the serialized 00:29:01.920 --> 00:29:04.220 version, he wrote it under the pseudonym Michael 00:29:04.220 --> 00:29:06.539 Sherman. Michael Sherman. Yet another name to 00:29:06.539 --> 00:29:09.279 add to the massive list. Carol Gray, Wilfred 00:29:09.279 --> 00:29:12.150 Owen Morley. Michael Sherman. He really, really 00:29:12.150 --> 00:29:14.450 collected them over the years. He also published 00:29:14.450 --> 00:29:18.329 The Puzzle Planet in 1961. So think about the 00:29:18.329 --> 00:29:20.630 timeline here. While he was exhaustively editing 00:29:20.630 --> 00:29:23.150 all these various magazines, managing the westerns, 00:29:23.150 --> 00:29:25.470 the sports pulps, the mystery titles, he was 00:29:25.470 --> 00:29:27.450 still somehow finding the time and energy to 00:29:27.450 --> 00:29:30.069 write full length novels. The man must have literally 00:29:30.069 --> 00:29:33.130 never slept. I genuinely suspect he didn't sleep 00:29:33.130 --> 00:29:35.890 much or more likely he just drafted very, very 00:29:35.890 --> 00:29:38.670 fast. But we also have to touch on his work as 00:29:38.670 --> 00:29:41.740 a historian. Because Laub's wasn't just creating 00:29:41.740 --> 00:29:44.380 the history of the genre in real time, he was 00:29:44.380 --> 00:29:47.740 actively documenting it later in life. He seemed 00:29:47.740 --> 00:29:49.599 to have a deep sense of self -awareness about 00:29:49.599 --> 00:29:51.880 the historical movement he was a part of. Right, 00:29:51.980 --> 00:29:56.099 that transition from creator to chronicler. The 00:29:56.099 --> 00:29:58.420 source material mentions a specific book called 00:29:58.420 --> 00:30:00.640 Three Faces of Science Fiction. Published in 00:30:00.640 --> 00:30:04.660 1973. Yes. And the subtitle of that book is absolutely 00:30:04.660 --> 00:30:08.599 fascinating. It is SF as Instruction, Propaganda, 00:30:08.619 --> 00:30:11.200 and Delight. Instruction, propaganda, and delight. 00:30:11.720 --> 00:30:14.400 That is a pretty sophisticated academic framework 00:30:14.400 --> 00:30:17.240 to view pulp fiction through. It really is. It's 00:30:17.240 --> 00:30:20.059 not just basic fan gushing about cool spaceships. 00:30:20.079 --> 00:30:22.539 The book collects his various literary columns 00:30:22.539 --> 00:30:24.720 that he originally wrote for famous science fiction. 00:30:24.920 --> 00:30:27.220 It shows that he was thinking very critically, 00:30:27.359 --> 00:30:29.619 very analytically about what the genre actually 00:30:29.619 --> 00:30:31.680 does to the reader. Let's break that framework 00:30:31.680 --> 00:30:33.960 down a bit. Instruction, propaganda, delight. 00:30:35.200 --> 00:30:38.299 What did he mean by that? Well, instruction clearly 00:30:38.299 --> 00:30:41.240 covers the classic Gernsbackian idea that science 00:30:41.240 --> 00:30:43.940 fiction should actively teach the reader real 00:30:43.940 --> 00:30:46.619 science. Like explaining orbital mechanics in 00:30:46.619 --> 00:30:48.839 the middle of a space battle. Exactly. Then you 00:30:48.839 --> 00:30:51.079 have propaganda, which might refer to stories 00:30:51.079 --> 00:30:53.859 that deliberately push a specific social or political 00:30:53.859 --> 00:30:56.319 viewpoint. Like cautionary tales warning us about 00:30:56.319 --> 00:30:59.039 nuclear war or overpopulation. Right, the heavy 00:30:59.039 --> 00:31:02.319 thematic stuff. And finally, delight is simply 00:31:02.319 --> 00:31:04.859 the pure entertainment value, the core sense 00:31:04.859 --> 00:31:08.539 of wonder and escapism. Lowndes astutely argued 00:31:08.539 --> 00:31:11.079 that the best of the genre was always a complex 00:31:11.079 --> 00:31:13.259 mix of all three of those elements. That is a 00:31:13.259 --> 00:31:15.720 really nuanced, modern take for a guy writing 00:31:15.720 --> 00:31:18.440 in 1973. It shows how sharp his analytical mind 00:31:18.440 --> 00:31:21.160 was. And then there is his other major historical 00:31:21.160 --> 00:31:23.940 work, The Gernsback Days. Now that sounds like 00:31:23.940 --> 00:31:26.240 a definitive, weighty history book. It is a major, 00:31:26.319 --> 00:31:28.940 major piece of scholarship, co -authored with 00:31:28.940 --> 00:31:31.519 the renowned anthology Mike Ashley. The full 00:31:31.519 --> 00:31:34.740 title is The Gernsback Days, a study of the evolution 00:31:34.740 --> 00:31:37.420 of modern science fiction from 1911 to 1936. 00:31:37.779 --> 00:31:40.839 1911 to 1936. That is the absolute primordial 00:31:40.839 --> 00:31:44.700 soup of sci -fi. Exactly. The era before the 00:31:44.700 --> 00:31:47.259 Golden Age. And who better to possibly write 00:31:47.259 --> 00:31:50.119 it? Lounds literally lived through the tail end 00:31:50.119 --> 00:31:52.880 of that specific era and personally knew many 00:31:52.880 --> 00:31:55.160 of the key people involved. Right. And for listeners 00:31:55.160 --> 00:31:57.460 who don't know, Hugo Gernsback is basically the 00:31:57.460 --> 00:32:00.240 father of the modern genre magazine. He launched 00:32:00.240 --> 00:32:02.940 amazing stories. Yes, the Hugo Awards are named 00:32:02.940 --> 00:32:05.779 after him. For Lowndes to co -author that definitive 00:32:05.779 --> 00:32:08.680 history puts him in the highly unique position 00:32:08.680 --> 00:32:11.799 of being a primary source historian. It's basically 00:32:11.799 --> 00:32:14.779 like having a decorated general write the definitive 00:32:14.779 --> 00:32:17.250 history of the war he actually fought in. That 00:32:17.250 --> 00:32:19.509 is a perfect analogy. He had the ground truth. 00:32:19.730 --> 00:32:21.650 He wasn't just sitting in a dusty university 00:32:21.650 --> 00:32:25.369 library reading old crumbling magazines. He vividly 00:32:25.369 --> 00:32:27.630 remembered buying those exact issues fresh at 00:32:27.630 --> 00:32:29.809 the corner newsstand. He lived it. He remembered 00:32:29.809 --> 00:32:32.210 arguing passionately with Donald Woolheim about 00:32:32.210 --> 00:32:34.190 those stories in a cramped New York apartment. 00:32:34.450 --> 00:32:37.230 He brought personal context to the history. So 00:32:37.230 --> 00:32:39.759 if we look back at the big picture. We have covered 00:32:39.759 --> 00:32:43.299 the eager fan, the dedicated poet, the prolific 00:32:43.299 --> 00:32:46.220 writer, the tireless editor, the brilliant talent 00:32:46.220 --> 00:32:49.960 scout, and finally the rigorous historian. It 00:32:49.960 --> 00:32:52.880 is an awful lot for one single life. It is an 00:32:52.880 --> 00:32:55.880 incredible unmatched resume in the field. And 00:32:55.880 --> 00:32:58.460 importantly, it was ultimately recognized by 00:32:58.460 --> 00:33:01.700 his peers while he was still alive. In 1991, 00:33:02.000 --> 00:33:04.940 he received the First Fandom Hall of Fame Award. 00:33:05.220 --> 00:33:07.200 Which honestly feels very, very deserved after 00:33:07.200 --> 00:33:09.279 hearing all this. Absolutely deserved. First 00:33:09.279 --> 00:33:12.119 Fandom is a specific organization that specifically 00:33:12.119 --> 00:33:14.119 honors the people who were there at the very 00:33:14.119 --> 00:33:16.460 start of the community and worked to keep the 00:33:16.460 --> 00:33:19.059 flame alive. Linz fits that exact description 00:33:19.059 --> 00:33:21.220 perfectly. He was there when the foundational 00:33:21.220 --> 00:33:24.019 concrete was poured, and he was still there working 00:33:24.019 --> 00:33:26.599 when the massive skyscraper was fully built. 00:33:26.740 --> 00:33:29.089 Beautifully put. So, as we start to wrap this 00:33:29.089 --> 00:33:30.849 deep dive up, what does this all mean for us 00:33:30.849 --> 00:33:32.869 today? We started off the show by calling him 00:33:32.869 --> 00:33:36.000 the Literary Bridge. And I think that title absolutely 00:33:36.000 --> 00:33:38.480 holds up to scrutiny. Just look at the physical 00:33:38.480 --> 00:33:41.119 span of time. He starts his journey in the late 00:33:41.119 --> 00:33:44.700 1930s, completely saturated in the direct influence 00:33:44.700 --> 00:33:47.380 of H .P. Lovecraft. The era of the old weird 00:33:47.380 --> 00:33:50.220 tale, cosmic horror. Right. And he takes that 00:33:50.220 --> 00:33:52.859 specific torch and carries it safely through 00:33:52.859 --> 00:33:55.680 the massive pulp explosion of the 40s and 50s. 00:33:55.680 --> 00:33:58.380 He keeps the Digest magazines alive through sheer 00:33:58.380 --> 00:34:01.420 willpower, finding and nurturing new prolific 00:34:01.420 --> 00:34:04.019 writers like Edward Hawk along the way. Then, 00:34:04.180 --> 00:34:07.400 in the 60s and 70s, he successfully hands that 00:34:07.400 --> 00:34:10.760 same torch off to Stephen King and F. Paul Wilson. 00:34:11.130 --> 00:34:13.610 He is the relay runner who ran the longest, hardest 00:34:13.610 --> 00:34:15.969 leg of the entire race. Exactly. Without him, 00:34:16.010 --> 00:34:18.570 without his specific eye for talent and his tireless 00:34:18.570 --> 00:34:21.010 work ethic, the baton very well might have been 00:34:21.010 --> 00:34:22.250 dropped. Or at the very least, it would have 00:34:22.250 --> 00:34:24.349 been picked up by someone else entirely. And 00:34:24.349 --> 00:34:26.329 the final destination of the genre might have 00:34:26.329 --> 00:34:28.829 been drastically different. The tone of modern 00:34:28.829 --> 00:34:31.010 horror might look nothing like it does today. 00:34:31.250 --> 00:34:33.309 It really makes you stop and think about the 00:34:33.309 --> 00:34:36.610 hidden ecosystem of creativity. As readers, we 00:34:36.610 --> 00:34:39.449 focus so intensely on the author with a capital 00:34:39.449 --> 00:34:42.739 A. We do. We mythologize them. We worship Lovecraft. 00:34:42.960 --> 00:34:46.719 We obsess over King. But we so rarely spend time 00:34:46.719 --> 00:34:49.380 talking about the editor, the person sitting 00:34:49.380 --> 00:34:52.420 behind a desk making the calls. That is the crucial 00:34:52.420 --> 00:34:56.480 lingering question here. The vital role of the 00:34:56.480 --> 00:34:59.599 gatekeeper in art. We so often think of the word 00:34:59.599 --> 00:35:02.420 gatekeeper as a purely negative term today. Right. 00:35:02.480 --> 00:35:05.179 We picture people who snobbishly keep others 00:35:05.179 --> 00:35:08.019 out. Yeah. The person aggressively saying. No, 00:35:08.059 --> 00:35:10.820 you don't belong here. Exactly. But Doc Lance 00:35:10.820 --> 00:35:14.280 was a gatekeeper who explicitly existed to open 00:35:14.280 --> 00:35:17.199 the gate. He actively facilitated the difficult 00:35:17.199 --> 00:35:19.519 transition from one older generation of masters 00:35:19.519 --> 00:35:22.280 to the next new generation. He essentially said, 00:35:22.380 --> 00:35:24.599 come in, look closely at what we've done before 00:35:24.599 --> 00:35:27.320 you, and now show us what you can do next. Without 00:35:27.320 --> 00:35:29.800 a Doc Lance sitting at that desk, does the torch 00:35:29.800 --> 00:35:32.239 actually get passed? Maybe. I mean, you said 00:35:32.239 --> 00:35:35.030 talent finds a way. It usually does. but it almost 00:35:35.030 --> 00:35:36.889 certainly might not have burned nearly as brightly, 00:35:37.070 --> 00:35:39.110 and the direct connective tissue between the 00:35:39.110 --> 00:35:41.269 generations might have been permanently severed. 00:35:41.309 --> 00:35:44.369 We might have had a clean, jarring break between 00:35:44.369 --> 00:35:47.429 the old pulps and the modern bestsellers, rather 00:35:47.429 --> 00:35:51.269 than a continuous evolving lineage. And that 00:35:51.269 --> 00:35:53.949 is a really profound thought worth mulling over. 00:35:54.630 --> 00:35:57.289 Next time you pick up a thick Stephen King paperback 00:35:57.289 --> 00:35:59.780 at the bookstore, or even watch a modern horror 00:35:59.780 --> 00:36:02.460 movie heavily inspired by those tropes, maybe 00:36:02.460 --> 00:36:04.539 just give a little mental nod to Doc Lowndes. 00:36:04.619 --> 00:36:07.139 The invisible architect. The man who said yes 00:36:07.139 --> 00:36:09.760 when it mattered the most. Indeed. Thanks for 00:36:09.760 --> 00:36:11.900 joining us on this deep dive. It has been an 00:36:11.900 --> 00:36:14.039 absolute journey through time. Thank you. It 00:36:14.039 --> 00:36:15.639 was a pleasure to talk about him. See you all 00:36:15.639 --> 00:36:18.039 next time. Keep reading and keep looking for 00:36:18.039 --> 00:36:18.980 the people behind the pages.