The Man Who Limped E-Book

Otis Adelbert Kline

• Herausgeber: Wildside Press
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Seitenzahl: 37

Beschreibung

The strange and disagreeable adventure of Hamed the Attar, and how he overcame his perverse hatred of women. A pulp classic by fantasy and science fiction author Otis Adelbert Kline.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

INTRODUCTION

THE MAN WHO LIMPED

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

Copyright © 2021 by Wildside Press LLC.

First published Oriental Stories, October/November 1930.

Published by Wildside Press LLC.

wildsidepress.com | bcmystery.com

INTRODUCTION

Otis Adelbert Kline (1891– 1946) holds a place of honor in the fantasy field. He was ssistant editor at Weird Tales from its inception. He contributed numerous stories to that magazine and even edited it for a single issue—the May-July 1924 issue (which contained his short story “The Malignant Entity”). Beyond that, he was a prolific fantasy author who specialized, much like Edgar Rice Burroughs, in “sword-and-planet” science-fantasy adventures.

In science fiction fandom, stories of a feud between Kline and Burroughs circulated for years. Kline supposedly irked Burroughs by producing close imitations of Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars novels (with his The Planet of Peril and two sequels, all set on Venus, the first of which appeared in 1929.) Burroughs, the story goes, then retaliated by writing his own Venus novels, whereupon Kline retaliated by setting two novels on Mars.

Kline’s publication of a series of jungle adventure stories, similar in many ways to Burroughs's Tarzan tales, has also been cited as evidence of the conflict. The feud theory was originally set forth in a fan press article, “The Kline-Burroughs War,” by Donald A. Wollheim (Science Fiction News, November, 1936), and afterward given wider circulation by Sam Moskowitz in his book Explorers of the Infinite (1963). Author Richard A. Lupoff debunked the case in his book Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure (1965). Among the evidence cited by Lupoff discounting the feud: (1) no comment from either writer acknowledging the feud is documented, and (2) family members of the two authors have no recollection of ever hearing them mention it. In response to Lupoff's investigations Moskowitz identified his original source as Wollheim's article, while Wollheim stated, when questioned on the source of his own information: "I made it up!"

Kline was an amateur orientalist and a student of Arabic, like his friend and sometime collaborator, E. Hoffmann Price, who was also no stranger to Weird Tales. That background shows in many of his stories, incuding “The Man Who Limped,” which first appeared in the pulp magazine Oriental Stories in 1930.

—John Betancourt

Cabin John, Maryland

THE MAN WHO LIMPED

OTIS ADELBERT KLINE

You wonder why I limp, effendi? You are too considerate to ask, of course, but I, whom Allah, in his infinite goodness and mercy, has already permitted two years beyond man’s allotted three score and ten, have learned to read the thoughts of people by their expressions. Serving as a dragoman sharpens the wits.

You will hear the story? So be it. Here is the coffee-shop of Silat where we can rest in comfort, and the tale will serve to while away the time. This cushioned diwan is better than the sidewalk stools, and more quiet.

Ho, Silat! Pipes and coffee for two.

You know me, effendi, as Hamed bin Ayyub, the Dragoman, for thus it is that I have been known for many a year—subsisting on the baksheesh of worthy travelers like yourself, and showing them the sights of the Holy City.

None remain who remember me as Hamed the Attar, for full fifty years have passed since I was a druggist and perfumer with a prosperous shop of my own.

Looking on this gray beard, this wrinkled countenance, and this withered frame, you will scarce be able to picture Hamed the Attar, for in those days I was a handsome youth with a skin as smooth as peach-bloom, a beard as black as night, and a tall, straight body that was the envy of many of my less favored acquaintances.

Most of my customers, effendi, were women, and I was patronized not only by the wives and daughters of the middle class, but by many of the great ladies and kohl-eyed beauties of the harems, as well. Aihee! What a business I did in scents, cosmetics and unguents, in henna, depilatories and aphrodisiacs, so that each day added to my profits, and I was in a fair way to become a man of great wealth.

Each day, also, added to my knowledge of the ways of women, for being prosperous I attracted flirtations from those of little wealth who desired husbands, and being also good to look upon, I received signs, hints, and even plain proposals from those who had wealthy lords but desired handsome lovers.