Fredric Brown

Fredric Brown is one of my favorite authors. He was active mainly in the pulps, and mainly in the genres of mystery and science-fiction. His work is always full of imagination and rich characterization, and often with a large dose of whimsy; at its best, it's sublime.

Sadly, he has fallen largely into obscurity and out of print. He is perhaps best remembered for the original Star Trek episode "Arena", based on his story of the same name. NESFA has thankfully gotten all of his SF back into print, but numerous attempts by other publishers to do likewise for his mysteries have foundered.

I recently read one such attempt, _Hunter and Hunted_. It was intended as the first volume of a series, but no second volume seems to have appeared in the years since it was issued. It's an omnibus collecting the first four "Ed and Am Hunter" novels, the only series that Brown ever did. The first of these, _The Fabulous Clipjoint_, was Brown's first novel, but already one of his best, and has been a favorite of mine for years. While structurally a murder mystery, it's really more of a coming-of-age story, and a meditation on responsibility versus aspirations.

The other three novels in the omnibus were, sadly, of lesser quality, though still quite enjoyable. Reading a bunch of them in a row makes visible certain tropes that Brown returns to again and again. A core mystery that turns out to be pretty simple, obscured by everything else that happens in the telling. The 'murder' that turns out not to be, exactly, a murder. A sympathetic understanding of all the characters, even those who start out in a bad light or turn out to be the murderer; it's very very rare for Brown to write a truly evil character. And a perennial fascination with how things work. You can't read a Brown book without learning new and interesting things about the world.

Being on a Brown kick, I went to Amazon to see what else was available. I ordered pretty much everything that could be had for less than $20 a volume, on the theory that these books tend to get more expensive over time, often drastically. To some extent this has already happened. Many of his books have used listings on Amazon starting at $75, $100, $250 -- in one case someone is asking $1000 for a paperback! Further reviews may result from this buying spree, once I get around to reading them.

In closing, let me give my highest recommendation to my two favorite (so far) Brown books: _The Fabulous Clipjoint_, and _Night of the Jabberwock_. Each is a marvelous piece of writing, and well worth any reader's time.

[ETA: After I wrote the above, but before I posted, kestrell turned up a link to another recent appreciation of Brown, by Bud Webster in Helix. It emphasizes different virtues than I did in this piece, so makes an interesting comparison.]

Fredric Brown

Fredric Brown is one of my favorite authors. He was active mainly in the pulps, and mainly in the genres of mystery and science-fiction. His work is always full of imagination and rich characterization, and often with a large dose of whimsy; at its best, it's sublime.

Sadly, he has fallen largely into obscurity and out of print. He is perhaps best remembered for the original Star Trek episode "Arena", based on his story of the same name. NESFA has thankfully gotten all of his SF back into print, but numerous attempts by other publishers to do likewise for his mysteries have foundered.

I recently read one such attempt, _Hunter and Hunted_. It was intended as the first volume of a series, but no second volume seems to have appeared in the years since it was issued. It's an omnibus collecting the first four "Ed and Am Hunter" novels, the only series that Brown ever did. The first of these, _The Fabulous Clipjoint_, was Brown's first novel, but already one of his best, and has been a favorite of mine for years. While structurally a murder mystery, it's really more of a coming-of-age story, and a meditation on responsibility versus aspirations.

The other three novels in the omnibus were, sadly, of lesser quality, though still quite enjoyable. Reading a bunch of them in a row makes visible certain tropes that Brown returns to again and again. A core mystery that turns out to be pretty simple, obscured by everything else that happens in the telling. The 'murder' that turns out not to be, exactly, a murder. A sympathetic understanding of all the characters, even those who start out in a bad light or turn out to be the murderer; it's very very rare for Brown to write a truly evil character. And a perennial fascination with how things work. You can't read a Brown book without learning new and interesting things about the world.

Being on a Brown kick, I went to Amazon to see what else was available. I ordered pretty much everything that could be had for less than $20 a volume, on the theory that these books tend to get more expensive over time, often drastically. To some extent this has already happened. Many of his books have used listings on Amazon starting at $75, $100, $250 -- in one case someone is asking $1000 for a paperback! Further reviews may result from this buying spree, once I get around to reading them.

In closing, let me give my highest recommendation to my two favorite (so far) Brown books: _The Fabulous Clipjoint_, and _Night of the Jabberwock_. Each is a marvelous piece of writing, and well worth any reader's time.

[ETA: After I wrote the above, but before I posted, kestrell turned up a link to another recent appreciation of Brown, by Bud Webster in Helix. It emphasizes different virtues than I did in this piece, so makes an interesting comparison.]