WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.899 Welcome to the Deep Dive. We've got a really 00:00:02.899 --> 00:00:05.320 fascinating mission today. We really do. Yeah, 00:00:05.339 --> 00:00:07.120 we're pulling from a single source for this one. 00:00:07.219 --> 00:00:09.779 It's the Wikipedia biography of an author named 00:00:09.779 --> 00:00:11.960 Robert Lester Stallman. And, you know, depending 00:00:11.960 --> 00:00:15.960 on how deep your knowledge of early 1980s speculative 00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:18.519 fiction goes, that name might actually ring a 00:00:18.519 --> 00:00:20.899 bell. Right, but even if you've literally never 00:00:20.899 --> 00:00:22.660 heard of him, you are going to want to stick 00:00:22.660 --> 00:00:24.760 around for this. Oh, absolutely. Because we are 00:00:24.760 --> 00:00:27.480 looking at a story about the intersection of 00:00:27.480 --> 00:00:31.390 just, um... Very ordinary life and absolutely 00:00:31.390 --> 00:00:33.909 extraordinary imagination. Yeah. To the outside 00:00:33.909 --> 00:00:36.170 world, like to his colleagues and his students, 00:00:36.369 --> 00:00:39.590 Stallman was just a quiet, dedicated English 00:00:39.590 --> 00:00:42.070 professor. Teaching poetry in Michigan. Exactly. 00:00:42.329 --> 00:00:45.810 A completely standard by the book academic. But 00:00:45.810 --> 00:00:48.909 in his spare time, he was secretly crafting this 00:00:48.909 --> 00:00:52.649 massive genre bending science fiction and horror 00:00:52.649 --> 00:00:55.369 epic. It is the ultimate double life. I mean, 00:00:55.390 --> 00:00:57.329 it's the kind of story that makes you wonder 00:00:57.329 --> 00:00:59.399 about the hidden depths of. well, everyone you 00:00:59.399 --> 00:01:01.719 pass on the street. You have this very rigorous, 00:01:01.759 --> 00:01:05.859 structured scholar by day, and by night, he's 00:01:05.859 --> 00:01:08.500 a world builder just wrestling with monsters 00:01:08.500 --> 00:01:11.060 and sci -fi tropes. Okay, let's unpack this, 00:01:11.120 --> 00:01:13.140 because to really appreciate the sheer scale 00:01:13.140 --> 00:01:16.040 of the secret epic he eventually unleashed, we 00:01:16.040 --> 00:01:18.519 have to start with a very ordinary, grounded 00:01:18.519 --> 00:01:21.000 life he was living out in the open. The blueprint 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:23.340 of a scholar. Right, let's look at that blueprint. 00:01:24.030 --> 00:01:28.030 He was born on January 6, 1930. Up in Kankakee, 00:01:28.030 --> 00:01:30.349 Illinois. Yeah, and his roots were deeply working 00:01:30.349 --> 00:01:34.049 class, very Midwestern. His father, Otto, worked 00:01:34.049 --> 00:01:36.640 as a grainer in a bed factory. So no silver spoons 00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:40.019 here. No, no inherited literary legacy at all. 00:01:40.079 --> 00:01:43.219 Far from it. That mid -century blue collar Midwestern 00:01:43.219 --> 00:01:45.980 upbringing is a it's such a specific crucible. 00:01:46.040 --> 00:01:48.299 You don't just drift into an Ivy League tenure 00:01:48.299 --> 00:01:50.200 track from a background like that. You really 00:01:50.200 --> 00:01:52.400 have to work for it. You do. And his trajectory 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:54.939 shows an incredible amount of discipline. I mean, 00:01:54.939 --> 00:01:56.459 after high school, he didn't head straight to 00:01:56.459 --> 00:01:58.599 a university campus. No, he served in the U .S. 00:01:58.620 --> 00:02:02.329 Army for two years. Right. From 1952 to 1954. 00:02:02.790 --> 00:02:04.969 So he was in his early 20s doing his military 00:02:04.969 --> 00:02:08.129 service. And only after that chapter closed did 00:02:08.129 --> 00:02:12.280 he begin what turned into... A relentless decade 00:02:12.280 --> 00:02:15.060 long march through higher education. Relentless 00:02:15.060 --> 00:02:17.280 is the perfect word for it. He starts at the 00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:19.099 University of Chicago getting his Bachelor of 00:02:19.099 --> 00:02:22.780 Arts in 1957. Then he packs up and moves down 00:02:22.780 --> 00:02:24.979 to the University of New Mexico to get his Master 00:02:24.979 --> 00:02:27.620 of Science in 1961. And this is where the clues 00:02:27.620 --> 00:02:29.879 start dropping for us. Yeah. For his master's 00:02:29.879 --> 00:02:32.879 thesis, he didn't pick something dry or purely 00:02:32.879 --> 00:02:35.479 structural. Right. He chose to focus on D .H. 00:02:35.479 --> 00:02:38.000 Lawrence. Which is incredibly telling. You know, 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:39.800 when you think of D .H. Lawrence, you are talking 00:02:39.800 --> 00:02:42.319 about an author. author who really pushed the 00:02:42.319 --> 00:02:45.560 boundaries of exploring visceral, intense human 00:02:45.560 --> 00:02:47.860 psychology. Absolutely. Lawrence was obsessed 00:02:47.860 --> 00:02:51.300 with instinct, with raw emotion and those primal 00:02:51.300 --> 00:02:54.680 urges that polite society tries to repress. Studying 00:02:54.680 --> 00:02:57.379 him requires a deep dive into the messy, complicated 00:02:57.379 --> 00:03:00.180 realities of human nature. And then Stallman 00:03:00.180 --> 00:03:01.680 pivots again. He heads over to the University 00:03:01.680 --> 00:03:03.879 of Oregon to get his Ph .D., finishing that up 00:03:03.879 --> 00:03:06.580 in 1966. Right. His dissertation there is titled 00:03:06.580 --> 00:03:10.479 The Quest of William Morris. And this wasn't 00:03:10.479 --> 00:03:12.560 just some paper that gathered dust on the library 00:03:12.560 --> 00:03:14.599 shelf somewhere. No, it was highly regarded. 00:03:14.900 --> 00:03:16.599 Yeah, and eventually became a published book, 00:03:16.699 --> 00:03:19.620 cementing him as an authority on Morris and landing 00:03:19.620 --> 00:03:21.800 him a job as an assistant professor of English 00:03:21.800 --> 00:03:24.240 at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. 00:03:24.560 --> 00:03:27.000 If we connect this to the bigger picture, the 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:29.780 foundation for his secret life is now completely 00:03:29.780 --> 00:03:34.780 poured. How so? Well. On one side, you have his 00:03:34.780 --> 00:03:37.520 master's work on D .H. Lawrence, the master of 00:03:37.520 --> 00:03:40.699 primal repressed human emotion. And on the other 00:03:40.699 --> 00:03:43.719 side, you have his doctoral work on William Morris, 00:03:43.900 --> 00:03:46.259 the Victorian poet and artist famous for his 00:03:46.259 --> 00:03:48.520 romantic mythic quests and foundational fantasy 00:03:48.520 --> 00:03:51.139 world building. Oh, wow. So you take the raw 00:03:51.139 --> 00:03:53.680 psychological intensity of Lawrence and you marry 00:03:53.680 --> 00:03:56.639 it to the epic mythological scale of Morris. 00:03:57.360 --> 00:03:59.840 Stallman was essentially spending his days reverse 00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:02.469 engineering the mechanics of myth. Fantasy and 00:04:02.469 --> 00:04:05.069 human emotion. Which is the perfect toolkit for 00:04:05.069 --> 00:04:07.289 writing speculative fiction. Yeah. But the source 00:04:07.289 --> 00:04:10.629 material highlights his amazing detail about 00:04:10.629 --> 00:04:14.289 how strictly he compartmentalized his life. He 00:04:14.289 --> 00:04:16.810 literally built a wall between the professor 00:04:16.810 --> 00:04:20.189 and the storyteller. Right. The names. Yes. In 00:04:20.189 --> 00:04:22.269 his academic career, he published everything 00:04:22.269 --> 00:04:25.990 under the name Robert L. Stallman. Keeping that 00:04:25.990 --> 00:04:28.589 middle initial for Lester was almost like wearing 00:04:28.589 --> 00:04:31.560 a tie to the office. it signaled his scholarly 00:04:31.560 --> 00:04:35.180 identity exactly that initial l was his academic 00:04:35.180 --> 00:04:38.480 armor Under that name, he was writing deeply 00:04:38.480 --> 00:04:41.579 analytical papers. He was dissecting Victorian 00:04:41.579 --> 00:04:44.939 poetry, analyzing texts with a microscope. And 00:04:44.939 --> 00:04:46.600 some of those paper titles are just fantastic. 00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:49.500 Oh, they are. Like Poetry Without Fear or Rapunzel 00:04:49.500 --> 00:04:51.699 Unraveled. He was writing about the experience 00:04:51.699 --> 00:04:54.620 of teaching poetry, analyzing our Syrian legends, 00:04:54.899 --> 00:04:57.220 pulling apart the threads of classic literature. 00:04:57.560 --> 00:05:00.360 That was Robert L. Stallman. A respected, meticulous 00:05:00.360 --> 00:05:02.600 academic in Kalamazoo. But then, you know, the 00:05:02.600 --> 00:05:04.600 grading would finish, the syllabus for the next 00:05:04.600 --> 00:05:07.319 semester would be finalized, the academic armor 00:05:07.319 --> 00:05:09.699 would come off, and he would drop the L from 00:05:09.699 --> 00:05:12.379 his name. And the passion project begins. Operating 00:05:12.379 --> 00:05:15.680 simply as Robert Stallman. Right. He spent his 00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:17.920 precious spare time pouring his energy into this 00:05:17.920 --> 00:05:20.279 massive science fiction novel called The Book 00:05:20.279 --> 00:05:22.779 of the Beast. It's hard to overstate the sheer 00:05:22.779 --> 00:05:25.639 stamina required to pull this off. I mean, writing 00:05:25.639 --> 00:05:28.259 a novel is grueling enough. Oh, for sure. But 00:05:28.259 --> 00:05:32.250 writing a sprawling... Complex epic while maintaining 00:05:32.250 --> 00:05:35.310 a full time career as an educator and a published 00:05:35.310 --> 00:05:37.870 critic. And remember, this is before the era 00:05:37.870 --> 00:05:41.069 of word processors and easy digital editing. 00:05:41.310 --> 00:05:44.290 Typewriters and whiteout. Exactly. It's a monumental 00:05:44.290 --> 00:05:47.250 feat of willpower. This wasn't just a casual 00:05:47.250 --> 00:05:50.029 hobby. This was a second full time job conducted 00:05:50.029 --> 00:05:53.269 entirely in the shadows. And it paid off. Fast 00:05:53.269 --> 00:05:57.180 forward to 1980. Stallman is 50 years old. Half 00:05:57.180 --> 00:05:59.319 a century of living, learning, and secretly writing. 00:05:59.459 --> 00:06:01.899 Yeah. And he finally secures a major deal with 00:06:01.899 --> 00:06:03.600 the science fiction division of Pocketbooks. 00:06:03.759 --> 00:06:06.199 But there's a catch. A big one. The manuscript 00:06:06.199 --> 00:06:08.240 for the Book of the Beast is so incredibly vast 00:06:08.240 --> 00:06:10.759 that Pocketbooks looks at it and says, we can't 00:06:10.759 --> 00:06:13.240 publish this as one book. Right. The deal requires 00:06:13.240 --> 00:06:15.980 splitting his massive epic into a trilogy. Just 00:06:15.980 --> 00:06:18.379 imagine being in his shoes at that moment. You've 00:06:18.379 --> 00:06:21.779 spent years, maybe decades, weaving this singular, 00:06:21.939 --> 00:06:24.930 massive tapestry. And the publisher says, we 00:06:24.930 --> 00:06:27.329 love it, but we need you to cut it into three 00:06:27.329 --> 00:06:29.829 separate pieces. Yeah. From an editorial standpoint, 00:06:30.129 --> 00:06:32.230 that is a terrifying undertaking. How does an 00:06:32.230 --> 00:06:34.529 author even begin to do that? I mean, you can't 00:06:34.529 --> 00:06:37.009 just find a convenient chapter break and put 00:06:37.009 --> 00:06:39.819 a hard stop on it. Exactly the opposite. A novel 00:06:39.819 --> 00:06:42.759 relies on a very specific architecture. You have 00:06:42.759 --> 00:06:45.379 a rising action, a climax, a falling action, 00:06:45.420 --> 00:06:48.160 and a resolution. Right. If you take a thousand 00:06:48.160 --> 00:06:50.639 -page manuscript and just chop it at page 333 00:06:50.639 --> 00:06:53.540 and page 666, you don't have three books. You 00:06:53.540 --> 00:06:55.680 have a mess. Yeah, nothing resolves. Exactly. 00:06:56.060 --> 00:06:58.600 To make it work, Stallman would have had to go 00:06:58.600 --> 00:07:00.879 in and fundamentally restructure the narrative. 00:07:01.060 --> 00:07:03.399 He had to ensure that the newly formed first 00:07:03.399 --> 00:07:06.720 book had its own satisfying arc. And build new 00:07:06.720 --> 00:07:08.519 tension into the story. the second book. Right. 00:07:08.620 --> 00:07:11.540 It requires heavy, sweeping revisions to the 00:07:11.540 --> 00:07:14.399 pacing and the plot. For a debut novelist to 00:07:14.399 --> 00:07:16.720 undertake that kind of structural surgery on 00:07:16.720 --> 00:07:19.240 their latest work is staggering. And it resulted 00:07:19.240 --> 00:07:21.740 in the planned release of three books, The Orphan 00:07:21.740 --> 00:07:24.959 in 1980, The Captive in 1981, and The Beast in 00:07:24.959 --> 00:07:28.720 1982. Yes. Here's where it gets really interesting, 00:07:28.800 --> 00:07:31.759 because the actual thematic core of this trilogy 00:07:31.759 --> 00:07:35.259 is wild. Critic Peter Nichols described the series 00:07:35.259 --> 00:07:38.519 as complex, sensitively written, fabulations. 00:07:38.899 --> 00:07:41.879 Let's pause on that word, fabulations. In literary 00:07:41.879 --> 00:07:44.540 criticism, a fabulation is a story that intentionally 00:07:44.540 --> 00:07:47.779 breaks away from strict realism to lean into 00:07:47.779 --> 00:07:50.879 myth, fable, or magic. But it does so with a 00:07:50.879 --> 00:07:54.019 very structured, often allegorical purpose. So 00:07:54.019 --> 00:07:56.240 it's not just random fantasy. No, it's a deliberate 00:07:56.240 --> 00:07:59.339 twisting of reality to make a point. Which perfectly 00:07:59.339 --> 00:08:01.399 describes what Stallman did, because he took 00:08:01.399 --> 00:08:03.579 one of the oldest, most primal myths in human 00:08:03.579 --> 00:08:06.680 history, the werewolf. Yeah. And he updated it 00:08:06.680 --> 00:08:09.139 using a science fiction premise. He placed this 00:08:09.139 --> 00:08:12.040 ancient folklore right on the bleeding edge between 00:08:12.040 --> 00:08:14.459 sci -fi and horror. Think back to his academic 00:08:14.459 --> 00:08:17.420 background. He is taking the primal animalistic 00:08:17.420 --> 00:08:19.819 urges that D .H. Lawrence wrote about and wrapping 00:08:19.819 --> 00:08:22.220 them in the mythological epic scale that William 00:08:22.220 --> 00:08:24.620 Morris championed. He didn't just write a story 00:08:24.620 --> 00:08:27.000 about a wolfman howling at the moon. He applied 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:29.879 rigorous academic and psychological depth to 00:08:29.879 --> 00:08:32.659 the concept of a beast living hidden among humanity. 00:08:32.919 --> 00:08:34.960 It's the ultimate payoff for all those years 00:08:34.960 --> 00:08:38.000 of study. You can just picture the triumph of 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:40.820 this moment for him. He's 50. The secret is out. 00:08:41.320 --> 00:08:43.419 Pocketbooks is backing him. His whole life's 00:08:43.419 --> 00:08:46.179 work is validated. Yes. The Orphan is set to 00:08:46.179 --> 00:08:48.580 launch. He is standing on the precipice of an 00:08:48.580 --> 00:08:51.899 entirely new life, a celebrated second act as 00:08:51.899 --> 00:08:54.279 a powerhouse speculative fiction author. Which 00:08:54.279 --> 00:08:56.460 is what makes the reality of what happened next 00:08:56.460 --> 00:09:00.139 so incredibly bitter. It really does. In August 00:09:00.139 --> 00:09:03.059 of 1980, just as this monumental deal was coming 00:09:03.059 --> 00:09:05.340 together to launch his new career, Robert Lester 00:09:05.340 --> 00:09:08.169 Stallman passed away. He was only 50. Yeah. The 00:09:08.169 --> 00:09:10.049 timing is just devastating. And when you look 00:09:10.049 --> 00:09:11.769 at how his life is recorded in the Wikipedia 00:09:11.769 --> 00:09:14.350 source material, there is this small haunting 00:09:14.350 --> 00:09:17.590 quirk in the data. Right. The dates. Yeah. The 00:09:17.590 --> 00:09:19.750 main introductory text of the article lists his 00:09:19.750 --> 00:09:23.929 date of death as August 1st, 1980. But the summary 00:09:23.929 --> 00:09:26.830 box on the sidebar lists it as August 6th. A 00:09:26.830 --> 00:09:29.269 five -day discrepancy. It seems like such a minor 00:09:29.269 --> 00:09:32.029 editorial glitch. It does. But philosophically, 00:09:32.110 --> 00:09:34.389 it highlights something profound about the nature 00:09:34.389 --> 00:09:37.840 of history and legacy. How so? Well, here is 00:09:37.840 --> 00:09:40.740 a man who spent his life obsessed with the meticulous 00:09:40.740 --> 00:09:44.019 details of literature, a man who built an entire 00:09:44.019 --> 00:09:47.840 universe in his mind. Yet the physical, mundane 00:09:47.840 --> 00:09:51.059 details of his own exit from the world are already 00:09:51.059 --> 00:09:53.299 blurred in the historical record. That's a great 00:09:53.299 --> 00:09:55.940 point. It serves as a reminder to you of how 00:09:55.940 --> 00:09:58.159 quickly the physical facts of a life can get 00:09:58.159 --> 00:10:01.039 muddy, leaving only the art behind to speak for 00:10:01.039 --> 00:10:03.039 the person. And the art had to speak for him, 00:10:03.100 --> 00:10:05.259 because the entire Book of the Beast trilogy 00:10:05.450 --> 00:10:07.809 had to be released posthumously. He never got 00:10:07.809 --> 00:10:10.389 to hold the complete finished trilogy in his 00:10:10.389 --> 00:10:12.950 hands. Never got to read the reviews or sit on 00:10:12.950 --> 00:10:15.750 a panel at a sci -fi convention. No. And that 00:10:15.750 --> 00:10:18.750 premature death also severely impacted the final 00:10:18.750 --> 00:10:20.529 shape of the books themselves. Right, because 00:10:20.529 --> 00:10:23.210 of the edits. Exactly. We talked earlier about 00:10:23.210 --> 00:10:25.690 the monumental task of splitting one manuscript 00:10:25.690 --> 00:10:28.950 into three. Because he died in 1980, he wasn't 00:10:28.950 --> 00:10:31.110 able to guide that process all the way to the 00:10:31.110 --> 00:10:34.200 end. And the critics definitely noticed. They 00:10:34.200 --> 00:10:37.360 called it out directly. Peter Nichols, the same 00:10:37.360 --> 00:10:39.779 critic who praised the writing as engrossing 00:10:39.779 --> 00:10:42.399 and sensitive, noted that the final volume, The 00:10:42.399 --> 00:10:46.500 Beast, was awkwardly structured. Yeah. Nichols 00:10:46.500 --> 00:10:48.720 argued that the third book desperately needed 00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:51.870 an octorial revision. A slightly pretentious 00:10:51.870 --> 00:10:55.090 academic term, auctorial revision, meaning simply 00:10:55.090 --> 00:10:57.789 a revision done by the original author. Dieckels 00:10:57.789 --> 00:11:00.029 recognized that editors can only do so much. 00:11:00.129 --> 00:11:02.889 They can fix grammar. They can suggest cuts. 00:11:03.149 --> 00:11:05.590 But only the original architect of the story 00:11:05.590 --> 00:11:08.190 can fix fundamental structural flaws without 00:11:08.190 --> 00:11:10.809 losing the soul of the narrative. And since Stallman 00:11:10.809 --> 00:11:14.210 was gone, that final crucial pass never happened. 00:11:14.370 --> 00:11:16.809 It couldn't happen. Dave Nail, reviewing the 00:11:16.809 --> 00:11:19.529 series in Abyss magazine, echoed that exact sentiment. 00:11:19.980 --> 00:11:23.200 He bluntly stated that the final book just doesn't 00:11:23.200 --> 00:11:25.600 stand well on its own. The structural surgery 00:11:25.600 --> 00:11:28.100 required to amputate the ending of a massive 00:11:28.100 --> 00:11:31.039 manuscript and turn it into a satisfying standalone 00:11:31.039 --> 00:11:33.419 novel was just too much to accomplish without 00:11:33.419 --> 00:11:35.539 the author in the room. But I think it's important 00:11:35.539 --> 00:11:38.019 to note that that structural criticism makes 00:11:38.019 --> 00:11:39.960 the overwhelming praise for the rest of the work 00:11:39.960 --> 00:11:43.000 even more impressive. Absolutely. Despite the 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:45.500 flawed architecture of the final volume, the 00:11:45.500 --> 00:11:48.259 literary community embraced the trilogy. Embraced 00:11:48.259 --> 00:11:50.179 is almost an understatement. They were completely 00:11:50.179 --> 00:11:53.220 blown away by the depth of what he wrote. Dave 00:11:53.220 --> 00:11:55.639 now, despite his critique of the third book's 00:11:55.639 --> 00:11:58.080 structure, called the series overall phenomenal. 00:11:58.480 --> 00:12:01.159 Yeah. And the specific thing he praised tells 00:12:01.159 --> 00:12:03.639 you exactly why Stallman's academic background 00:12:03.639 --> 00:12:07.690 mattered. Now praise the emotional depth of the 00:12:07.690 --> 00:12:10.289 personas that the beast creates as it lives among 00:12:10.289 --> 00:12:12.850 human beings. What's fascinating here is now 00:12:12.850 --> 00:12:15.429 specific wording. He points out that even the 00:12:15.429 --> 00:12:17.629 background characters are amazingly well drawn. 00:12:17.789 --> 00:12:20.990 He says the beast's personality is complex, almost 00:12:20.990 --> 00:12:23.309 beyond assimilation. That's quite a compliment. 00:12:23.509 --> 00:12:25.570 It is. And this is the D .H. Lawrence influence 00:12:25.570 --> 00:12:28.370 shining through. Stallman wasn't relying on jump 00:12:28.370 --> 00:12:30.669 scares or cheap monster movie tropes. He was 00:12:30.669 --> 00:12:33.429 exploring the psychology of isolation, the complexity 00:12:33.429 --> 00:12:36.350 of a predator wearing. a human mask the terrifying 00:12:36.350 --> 00:12:39.009 emotional reality of the beast now summed it 00:12:39.009 --> 00:12:41.990 up beautifully by saying it is a joy to read 00:12:41.990 --> 00:12:44.500 about these people because they are real To hear 00:12:44.500 --> 00:12:47.340 critics say they are real about characters in 00:12:47.340 --> 00:12:50.159 a sci -fi werewolf novel is the ultimate testament 00:12:50.159 --> 00:12:52.899 to his skill. And it wasn't just a few niche 00:12:52.899 --> 00:12:55.879 critics who felt that way. The major award bodies 00:12:55.879 --> 00:12:58.440 in speculative fiction immediately recognized 00:12:58.440 --> 00:13:00.820 the weight of what he had accomplished. The list 00:13:00.820 --> 00:13:04.240 of accolades for a debut posthumous author is 00:13:04.240 --> 00:13:07.720 truly staggering. You rarely see this kind of 00:13:07.720 --> 00:13:09.840 consensus for a first -time novelist breaking 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:12.039 into the genre. Let's look at the run he had 00:13:12.039 --> 00:13:15.289 in 1981. the year after he died. He placed fifth 00:13:15.289 --> 00:13:17.909 for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. 00:13:18.029 --> 00:13:20.809 Wow. The first book in the trilogy, The Orphan, 00:13:20.909 --> 00:13:23.629 secured a nomination for the Nebula Award. It 00:13:23.629 --> 00:13:25.570 was nominated for the Balrog Award. Incredible. 00:13:25.570 --> 00:13:27.649 In the Locust Poll, it placed second for Best 00:13:27.649 --> 00:13:30.629 First Novel and 17th for Best Fantasy Novel overall. 00:13:30.850 --> 00:13:33.470 Yeah. And the momentum didn't stop there. The 00:13:33.470 --> 00:13:36.149 following year, in 1982, the second book, The 00:13:36.149 --> 00:13:38.470 Captive, placed fifth in the Locust Poll for 00:13:38.470 --> 00:13:40.740 Best Fantasy Novel. competing against the titans 00:13:40.740 --> 00:13:42.940 of the industry at that time. He was up against 00:13:42.940 --> 00:13:44.720 authors who had been publishing in the genre 00:13:44.720 --> 00:13:47.080 for decades, and he did it with a manuscript 00:13:47.080 --> 00:13:49.899 he wrote quietly between grading papers. So what 00:13:49.899 --> 00:13:51.840 does this all mean? When you take a step back 00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:54.220 and look at the whole picture, the magnitude 00:13:54.220 --> 00:13:57.000 of the achievement is genuinely inspiring. It 00:13:57.000 --> 00:13:59.480 really is. We are talking about a man who lived 00:13:59.480 --> 00:14:02.659 his entire life in the structured, predictable 00:14:02.659 --> 00:14:06.049 halls of academia. He spent his days exploring 00:14:06.049 --> 00:14:08.169 the theories of poetry and the history of myth, 00:14:08.330 --> 00:14:10.769 but instead of just teaching it, he decided to 00:14:10.769 --> 00:14:13.750 build it himself. And right at the finish line 00:14:13.750 --> 00:14:16.190 of his life, he delivered a masterwork that shook 00:14:16.190 --> 00:14:19.019 the sci -fi and horror communities. He took a 00:14:19.019 --> 00:14:21.919 classic folklore monster, injected it with deep 00:14:21.919 --> 00:14:24.519 psychological realism, and created something 00:14:24.519 --> 00:14:27.279 entirely new. It represents the perfect synthesis 00:14:27.279 --> 00:14:30.340 of his dual identities. Exactly. You have the 00:14:30.340 --> 00:14:33.100 rigorous academic mind, the scholar who understands 00:14:33.100 --> 00:14:35.700 exactly how stories work on a mechanical and 00:14:35.700 --> 00:14:38.039 historical level, and you have the boundless, 00:14:38.120 --> 00:14:40.899 passionate imagination of a novelist who understands 00:14:40.899 --> 00:14:43.100 how to make a reader feel something profound. 00:14:43.539 --> 00:14:45.840 He managed to fuse those two halves together 00:14:45.840 --> 00:14:48.899 perfectly in the dark of his study. It is a tragedy 00:14:48.899 --> 00:14:51.360 that he didn't live to experience the celebration 00:14:51.360 --> 00:14:54.379 of his work, but the legacy he left with the 00:14:54.379 --> 00:14:57.759 Book of the Beast is permanent. That a creative 00:14:57.759 --> 00:15:00.299 spark doesn't just fade away because you are 00:15:00.299 --> 00:15:03.460 busy with a standard career. It can endure, it 00:15:03.460 --> 00:15:05.860 can grow, and it can eventually take on a life 00:15:05.860 --> 00:15:08.620 of its own. It is a phenomenal legacy. And as 00:15:08.620 --> 00:15:11.460 we conclude this exploration, it leaves you with 00:15:11.460 --> 00:15:14.120 a deeply provocative thought to carry with you. 00:15:14.279 --> 00:15:17.419 Yeah. If a quiet, unassuming English professor 00:15:17.419 --> 00:15:20.240 from Michigan managed to craft a critically acclaimed, 00:15:20.279 --> 00:15:23.480 genre -bending epic entirely in his spare time, 00:15:23.720 --> 00:15:26.000 only to have it discovered and celebrated at 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:28.419 the very end, end of his life, how many other 00:15:28.419 --> 00:15:31.100 unrecognized masterpieces are out there right 00:15:31.100 --> 00:15:33.240 now? Oh, wow. Think about the ordinary people 00:15:33.240 --> 00:15:35.419 you pass on the street or sit next to on the 00:15:35.419 --> 00:15:37.919 subway or work with in your office. How many 00:15:37.919 --> 00:15:40.159 of them are harboring secret universes in their 00:15:40.159 --> 00:15:42.419 desk drawers and on their hard drives, just waiting 00:15:42.419 --> 00:15:44.039 for the moment to share them with the world? 00:15:44.200 --> 00:15:46.440 That is an incredible thought to leave off on. 00:15:46.620 --> 00:15:48.559 The person next to you might just be writing 00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:51.360 the next great epic. Thank you for joining us 00:15:51.360 --> 00:15:53.700 on this deep dive into the hidden genius of Robert 00:15:53.700 --> 00:15:56.960 Lester Stallman. We hope examining his dual life 00:15:56.960 --> 00:15:59.019 inspires you to look a little closer at the world 00:15:59.019 --> 00:16:01.419 around you and maybe even dust off your own passion 00:16:01.419 --> 00:16:03.919 projects. Until next time, keep exploring.