Jack Spicer, Hugo nominee

POD 1941: 16 year old Jack Spicer picks up an issue of Astounding and is moved to compose and write a short story, which is promptly accepted by John Campbell.

Spicer had what can fairly be called a science fictional imagination. And while he's remembered today primarily as a poet, he was a more than competent prose stylist. So I don't think this is completely daft. The most likely outcome would be him selling a few stories and then moving on. But hey -- checks in the mail are a powerful incentive. If he stays with SF...

...actually, I don't think this ends up being a happy TL for Spicer. "Brilliant alienated gay guy" plus "mid 20th century SF publishing and fandom" doesn't say Win to me. And we may have derailed the Beat movement, which is probably not a good thing.

On the other hand, hey, Jack Spicer's SF stories. His alcoholism would probably be much the same, so he probably wouldn't produce much after the early 1960s. But I could see him being very influential -- sort of like Philip K. Dick, just a decade or fifteen years earlier. Is it wrong of me to imagine a very funny, somewhat creepy correspondence between Spicer and teenage fan Harlan Ellison?

Anyway. Thoughts?


Doug M.
 
No more daft than a Hugo for Cyril Kornbluth

I like how you think. It's the same old story- you and I could probably come up with a dozen deserving winners (or strong nominees) for everyone who got their day in the sun.
The key is getting it in front of the right people at the right time. JW Campbell loved a solidly-done gotcha yarn as much as anyone that took the expected tropes and gave them a twist. Serling took that idea and dined out on it for a good while with Twilight Zone. Whether Spicer could've hit the right pitch to Serling or Joe DiStefano with Outer Limits is a tough call.

IMO if Spicer could've lasted until the 1960's he could easily have found an audience in the UK and been part of the New Wave. YMMV. Imagine what Jack Spicer and JG Ballard could get up to, or Spicer having Micheal Moorcock for an editor? :eek::eek::eek:
 
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