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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.
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