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FMS Digest, v. 1, issues 1-5, February - July 1941
v.1:no.1: Page 4
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Page 4 F M Z DIGEST WITCH WINE ON THE WORLD By Lou Goldstone Condensed from FANTASIA January, 1941 I think it may be ventures, without dogmatism, that one of the less happy conditions of fantasy-fiction in general arises from the all too widespread acquaintance with the works of prose, poetry and drama contribution to the annals of imagination by those rare men of burning genius. Not many of the men of whom I speak ever saw a science-fiction or fantasy magazine much less wrote for one. Most of them wrote fantasy only incidentally, but that which they did write possessed a charm and vitality that is enduring. Some few, on the other hand, lived and dreamed in the world of the imagination, justifying their existence as few men can, by leaving, in black and white, treasures whose worth may not be assayed by any standard of material measurement, but only subjectively in the senses of the inheritors of their beauty. Of these literary giants, none was more tragic, more profound, more generously endowed with the fire of true genius than George Sterling. At the same time, it is doubtful if any received less recognition and acclaim than Sterling was accorded. Only recently has Sterling's existence been publicized to the fan-world at large, and but by indirection and on a comparatively niggardly scale at that. I refer to the series of illustrations, by Virgil Finlay, which pictures random verses from "A Wine of Wizardry" not so long ago in Weird Tales. This is a most laughable situation, because Sterling was a true genius in the highest order, who lived and breathed in - and wrote of - a realm of unceasing and kaleidoscopic wonder. Nothing that he wrote was poor. The majority was surprisingly beautiful. Ambrose Bierce, who probably influenced Sterling more than any other man, referred to "A Wine of Wizardry" as one of the greatest poems ever produced in America, and worthy to be placed beside the best work of Coleridge, Keats & Poe. (Sterling) was born in Long Island, N.Y., in 1869, but moved west to Oakland, Calif. in 1890. There he met Joaquin Miller, Jack London and Bierce. In 1896 he married, separating from his wife in 1904. In 1918, his wife committed suicide; this was an event which evidently exercised a ponderous influence on Sterling, and was strangely portentous. Sterling's first volume of poetry was "The Testimony of Suns," published in 1903...He did not achieve any degree of prominence until the publication of "A Wine of Wizardry" in 1907...After this, Sterling began to turn out volumes of poetry with almost annual regularity. George Sterling died by his own hand on November 17, 1926, in his room at the Bohemian Club, where he had lived for some years. Some of his papers he had burned, while others were found arranged in neat files. His life was not too different, in its tragedy, from that of Poe. But his own philosophy - as expressed in the epic dramatic poem "Lilith" - was, as Theodore Dreiser said: "...the eternal balance between good and evil, pleasure and pain.". [illustration] Illustration on this and opposite page from STELLAR TALES
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Page 4 F M Z DIGEST WITCH WINE ON THE WORLD By Lou Goldstone Condensed from FANTASIA January, 1941 I think it may be ventures, without dogmatism, that one of the less happy conditions of fantasy-fiction in general arises from the all too widespread acquaintance with the works of prose, poetry and drama contribution to the annals of imagination by those rare men of burning genius. Not many of the men of whom I speak ever saw a science-fiction or fantasy magazine much less wrote for one. Most of them wrote fantasy only incidentally, but that which they did write possessed a charm and vitality that is enduring. Some few, on the other hand, lived and dreamed in the world of the imagination, justifying their existence as few men can, by leaving, in black and white, treasures whose worth may not be assayed by any standard of material measurement, but only subjectively in the senses of the inheritors of their beauty. Of these literary giants, none was more tragic, more profound, more generously endowed with the fire of true genius than George Sterling. At the same time, it is doubtful if any received less recognition and acclaim than Sterling was accorded. Only recently has Sterling's existence been publicized to the fan-world at large, and but by indirection and on a comparatively niggardly scale at that. I refer to the series of illustrations, by Virgil Finlay, which pictures random verses from "A Wine of Wizardry" not so long ago in Weird Tales. This is a most laughable situation, because Sterling was a true genius in the highest order, who lived and breathed in - and wrote of - a realm of unceasing and kaleidoscopic wonder. Nothing that he wrote was poor. The majority was surprisingly beautiful. Ambrose Bierce, who probably influenced Sterling more than any other man, referred to "A Wine of Wizardry" as one of the greatest poems ever produced in America, and worthy to be placed beside the best work of Coleridge, Keats & Poe. (Sterling) was born in Long Island, N.Y., in 1869, but moved west to Oakland, Calif. in 1890. There he met Joaquin Miller, Jack London and Bierce. In 1896 he married, separating from his wife in 1904. In 1918, his wife committed suicide; this was an event which evidently exercised a ponderous influence on Sterling, and was strangely portentous. Sterling's first volume of poetry was "The Testimony of Suns," published in 1903...He did not achieve any degree of prominence until the publication of "A Wine of Wizardry" in 1907...After this, Sterling began to turn out volumes of poetry with almost annual regularity. George Sterling died by his own hand on November 17, 1926, in his room at the Bohemian Club, where he had lived for some years. Some of his papers he had burned, while others were found arranged in neat files. His life was not too different, in its tragedy, from that of Poe. But his own philosophy - as expressed in the epic dramatic poem "Lilith" - was, as Theodore Dreiser said: "...the eternal balance between good and evil, pleasure and pain.". [illustration] Illustration on this and opposite page from STELLAR TALES
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