Bethancourt, T Ernesto
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
Working name of US singer-songwriter and author Tomàs Ernesto Bethancourt Passailaigue (1932- ), who from adulthood has usually given his name as the anglicized Thomas E Paisley and has performed as Tom Paisley. Much of his early life is presented in his first novel, the autobiographical New York City, Too Far From Tampa Blues (1975); an sf series, the Yesterday sequence, begins with the Young Adult Tune in Yesterday (1978), which dramatizes some of the same New York scene in a tale whose protagonists visit the music scene in 1942 by Time Travel; in the second instalment, The Tomorrow Connection (1984), the two young musicians find themselves trapped in 1906 San Francisco (see California) just as the earthquake is due.
Most of Bethancourt's other work has been for Young Adult readers, including the nonfantastic Doris Fein series beginning with Dr Doom, Superstar (1978) [not listed below], and several "adaptations" of famous novels, some of them fantastic, for relatively young readers [again not listed below]. He is of further sf interest for the Instruments sequence beginning with The Mortal Instruments (1977), which treats of sympathetically presented young Heroes manqués whose Superpowers fail to give them sovereignty over the world. The Dog Days of Arthur Cane (1976; vt Wouldn't Wish It on a Dog 1977; with original title 1978 as by Tom Paisley) is a fantasy of metamorphosis; Nightmare Town (1979), a fantasy, contains some elements of Horror in SF. [JC]
Tomàs Ernesto Bethancourt Passailaigue
born New York: 2 October 1932
works (highly selected)
series
Instruments
- The Mortal Instruments (New York: Holiday House, 1977) [Instruments: hb/]
- Instruments of Darkness (New York: Holiday House, 1979) [Instruments: hb/Andrew Rhodes]
Yesterday
- Tune in Yesterday (New York: Holiday House, 1978) [Yesterday: hb/]
- The Tomorrow Connection (New York: Holiday House, 1984) [Yesterday: hb/Ken Mitchell]
individual titles
- New York City, Too Far From Tampa Blues (New York: Holiday House, 1975) [hb/]
- The Dog Days of Arthur Cane (New York: Holiday House, 1976) [hb/Bernard Colonna]
- Wouldn't Wish It on a Dog (New York: Bantam Books, 1977) [vt of the above: pb/]
- The Dog Days of Arthur Cane (London: Macmillan, 1978) as by Tom Paisley [title restored with alternative byline: hb/]
- Wouldn't Wish It on a Dog (New York: Bantam Books, 1977) [vt of the above: pb/]
- Nightmare Town (New York: Holiday House, 1979) [hb/]
links
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