tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163165929158089008.post3737976010479472734..comments2024-03-06T08:05:29.800-05:00Comments on Casual Debris: Mary E McEwan, Suspense Stories (1963)Casual Debrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08098608670682517783noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163165929158089008.post-51983819074362338152022-10-30T23:12:02.755-04:002022-10-30T23:12:02.755-04:00Thanks for this Todd, your knowledge of these publ...Thanks for this Todd, your knowledge of these publications is always welcome. I attended a dingy public school here in Canada, and we used older, out-of-date beat up anthologies in our English classes, along with photocopies of random stories the teachers provided. (Luckily I had great English teachers.) So I was reading mainly genre writers from the 1950s & 1960s (I recall stories by Asimov, Edward D. Hoch, Dahl, Barry Malzberg and of course Poe.) This is also when I began reading the Hitchcock anthologies as my school library had most of the young adult titles in their collection, also quite beat up. I can still picture the small shelf tucked inconspicuously away from the main shelves that i discovered thanks to a friend.Casual Debrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08098608670682517783noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163165929158089008.post-41198611265533944252022-10-28T10:51:26.808-04:002022-10-28T10:51:26.808-04:00Also, it helps to spell Berbrich's name correc...Also, it helps to spell Berbrich's name correctly. I've reminded myself that Kelley went on to write primarily western fiction in the later part of his career, and died at age 74 in 2002, and Berbrich, having also published a crime-fiction anthology in that "Patterns of Literary Art" textbook series for McGraw-Hill, is now best remembered for her mildly antic grammar-is-fun instructional texts...Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163165929158089008.post-970112508423741552022-10-28T10:37:45.020-04:002022-10-28T10:37:45.020-04:00Kelley was a mildly up and coming fantastica write...Kelley was a mildly up and coming fantastica writer in the latter '60s and '70s, and editing textbooks wasn't the worst way to expand a resume...I should Go Look to see what happened to him. (Or Berbich, for that matter.)Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163165929158089008.post-45466274166874837102022-10-28T10:35:57.164-04:002022-10-28T10:35:57.164-04:00Well, it seems I have only reviewed Kelley's h...Well, it seems I have only reviewed Kelley's horror and fantasy volumes, not yet his sf volume, while also reviewing Joan Berbich's similar volume from the same publisher's series, HEAVEN AND HELL...all aimed at high school students at least as much as young college students, but there's always some overlap (and professors have more say over their textbooks than HS teachers do, usually, I believe).<br /><br />https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2018/01/ffb-supernatural-in-fiction-edited-by.html<br />https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2018/01/ffbm-fantasy-literature-of-marvelous.html<br />https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2018/01/ffb-heaven-and-hell-edited-by-joan-d.htmlTodd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163165929158089008.post-865299431344380842022-10-28T10:23:49.914-04:002022-10-28T10:23:49.914-04:00I stumbled across them via some sort of online cit...I stumbled across them via some sort of online citation, in ISFDB or elsewhere, and picked up Kelley's three volumes for the series and one or two others, and gave them quick reviews on my blog in recent years. I have a certain fascination with literature textbooks, having found some interesting reading in them, including ones I never had assigned to me in classes, from childhood onward...interesting stories in themselves, and also interesting in what editorial and educational choices were being made, and how they were presented and packaged...the '70s was particularly a kind of adventurous age in "reading textbooks", but the previous decade or so also produced some attempts at expanding the form.Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163165929158089008.post-14653088928718747442022-10-27T13:36:06.277-04:002022-10-27T13:36:06.277-04:00Why do you ask? I'm assuming you're famili...Why do you ask? I'm assuming you're familiar with the book.Casual Debrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08098608670682517783noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163165929158089008.post-42537168252086646792022-10-27T13:34:30.135-04:002022-10-27T13:34:30.135-04:00Hi Todd. What I recall is that my older brother st...Hi Todd. What I recall is that my older brother started university & suddenly had access to all these great books! By default, I had access. I would check out different anthologies mostly to read specific stories or authors I couldn't otherwise locate. I don't recall which story I wanted from the anthology, but I read through its entirety & it introduced me to some fine authors.<br /><br />These days I'm finding most things online. My children will not know the kind of research we used to do to locate a good read!Casual Debrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08098608670682517783noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163165929158089008.post-48987613373159535342022-10-27T12:19:48.796-04:002022-10-27T12:19:48.796-04:00Hey, what led you to pick up the Leo Kelley fantas...Hey, what led you to pick up the Leo Kelley fantasy anthology ca. 1990, as I failed to ask on first commenting on your earlier write-up?Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8163165929158089008.post-26862776271803410662022-10-27T12:15:35.819-04:002022-10-27T12:15:35.819-04:00I did a Far less granular review of this book some...I did a Far less granular review of this book some years back...surprised I didn't stumble across it in my prime years of reading Scholastic paperbacks, but it didn't get the kind of sustained support some of their other similar anthologies did. Very glad to see you keeping on/keeping at!Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.com