McHugh, Vincent

Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.

(1904-1983) US poet, journalist and author whose comic saga Caleb Catlum's America (1936) [for subtitle see Checklist] is about a family of immortals (see Immortality) who amusingly represent the high points of US history in the flesh (the family includes Abe Lincoln and Davy Crockett); elements of a Secret History of the World are undercut by Tall Tale elements [for Fantasies of History and Tall Tale see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]; the frame story in particular, featuring Caleb himself – who leads others through a mountain portal to safety and eventually returns to save America – influenced Robert A Heinlein, one of whose pseudonyms was Caleb Saunders. I Am Thinking of My Darling: An Adventure Story (1943), in which an inhibition-releasing epidemic hits New York, cuts surprisingly deep in its superficially comic (but in fact argued) examination of the consequences, in particular a seeping away of hatred between the sexes (see Sex); panicked, the government soon intervenes. This novel was filmed as What's So Bad about Feeling Good? (1968). [JC]

see also: Psychology.

Vincent McHugh

born Providence, Rhode Island: 23 December 1904

died Sacramento, California: 23 January 1983

works

Caleb Catlum's America: The Enlivening Wonders of his Adventures, Voyages, Discoveries, Loves, Hoaxes, Bombast and Rigmaroles in All Parts of America, from his Birth in 1798 Almost to the Present Year, Told by Himself; Together with a Surprising Account of his Family, from Eric the Red Catlum's Discovery of America to their Vanishment in the Country of the Great Cave, Including the Tale of the Man Sawed up for Firewood, the Rape of the Temperate Zone, and a Thousand Tricks of Lovemaking (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Sons, 1936) [hb/George T Hartmann]
I Am Thinking of My Darling: An Adventure Story (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1943) [hb/uncredited]

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