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Golding, Louis

(1895-1958) UK author much of whose work reflected his Jewish descent; Three Ancient Lands: Being a Journey to Palestine (1928) contains an early photographic record of kibbutzim life, and several novels are on Jewish themes, including Magnolia Street (1932). Some of his shorter fiction – like "Pompeii in Massachusetts" (original magazine publication if any not established) from The Doomington Wanderer: A Book of Tales (coll 1934; vt This Wanderer 1935; cut 2vols vt The Call of the Hand and Other Stories 1944 chap UK and The Vicar of Dunkerly Briggs 1944 chap) – is sf, though most of his non-mimetic work, much of it assembled in this volume and its variant titles, is fantasy; the dark city of Doomington, found here and elsewhere, is in fact Golding's native Manchester. Longer fantasies include The Miracle Boy (1927), on religious themes; The Pursuer (1936), which sets a psychological parable of a man obsessed by his Conradian "shadow" in a Parallel-World very similar to our own; Honey for the Ghost (1949), which tells a similar tale of possession as a ghost story; and The Frightening Talent (1973), which is likely to have been ghosted, perhaps by Emanuel Litvinoff (1915-2011). Hitler Through the Ages (1939), which is nonfiction, portrays an array of antisemites through the ages, each of whom is given the name Hitler. [JC]

Louis Golding

born Manchester, England: 19 November 1895

died London: 9 August 1958

works (selected)

• The Miracle Boy (London: Alfred A Knopf, 1927) [illus/Herbert Gurschner: hb/]
• The Pursuer (London: Victor Gollancz, 1936) [hb/nonpictorial]
• Honey for the Ghost (New York: London: Hutchinson and Co, 1949) [hb/]
• The Frightening Talent (London: W H Allen, 1973) [hb/]

collections

• The Doomington Wanderer: A Book of Tales (London: Victor Gollancz, 1934) [coll: hb/nonpictorial]
  • This Wanderer (New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1935) [coll: vt of the above: hb/Allan McNab]
  • The Call of the Hand and Other Stories (Wineham, Sussex: Poynings Press, 1944) [coll: chap: cut vt of the above: comprising half its contents: pb/]
  • The Vicar of Dunkerly Briggs (Wineham, Sussex: Poynings Press, 1944) [coll: chap: cut vt of the above: comprising half its contents: pb/]
• Pale Blue Nightgown: A Book of Tales (London: Hutchinson and Co, 1944) [coll: hb/]
• Bareknuckle Lover and Other Stories (London: Polybooks, 1947) [coll: chap: pb/Reina Sington]

nonfiction

• Hitler Through the Ages (London: Sovereign Books, 1939) [nonfiction: pb/nonpictorial]

links

• Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Picture Gallery

Entry from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2011-current) edited by John Clute and David Langford.
Accessed 13:09 pm on 24 April 2024.
<https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/golding_louis>