Gripande författaröde - Arthur Porges

[jophan]

John O'Neill, redaktör på Black Gate, skriver så här i en dödsruna på SFF.net:

"For the last several years I received regular submissions in the Black Gate slush pile from Arthur Porges. They were unusual because they were crammed into tiny envelopes, typed on an old-fashioned typewriter (something I rarely see). I found his prose and plots a bit old-fashioned as well, and always returned them with a polite note.

Eventually I received a postcard from Arthur, complaining because I'd had one of his stories for three months. He explained that he was 90 years old, living in a home, and didn't know how much longer he had to live... could I maybe speed it up a little?

I did. I kept the postcard. I get a lot of strange notes as an editor, but that was a new one.

Arthur seemed very encouraged by my rejection notes, because he started sending me batches of stories. I would sigh when I saw them. He didn't seem to realize we were a fantasy magazine, and his shots were sometimes widely off the mark. But I read them anyway, and kept up the stream of friendly rejections.

Late last year I tore open an envelope of poems, all written on tiny square sheets, carefully clipped to save paper. Buried near the bottom were two I found marvelous. I read them to my wife, a little stunned to realize that I was going to send Arthur a check.

He wrote me back to say thanks for finally buying something from him, sounding very excited. When I sent him a follow-up note, it was returned to me with by his sister-in-law, with a brief letter saying that he had passed away.

I sat for a minute when I got the letter. I'm sad I won't be opening any more hand-addressed letters from Arthur Porges. But I'm proud that we'll be publishing his poems next year."

[Martin Andersson]

Ja, det var verkligen en sorglig historia. Av någon outgrundlig anledning påminns jag om Bradburys novell (glömt titeln!) om uppfinnaren som skapat en tidsmaskin och sedan tar på sig uppgiften att resa runt i tiden, besöka författare på dödsbädden och visa dem att deras böcker finns kvar långt efter det att de själva är borta.