Previous SFF Author: Sherwood Smith
James Thorne Smith Jr. (1892-1934), was an American writer of humorous supernaturnal fantasy fiction. Best known today for his creation of Topper, Smith’s comic fantasy fiction (most of it involving sex, lots of drinking, and supernatural transformations, and aided by racy illustrations) sold millions of copies in the early 1930s. Smith drank as steadily as his characters; his appearance in James Thurber’s The Years With Ross involves an unexplained week-long disappearance. Smith was born in Annapolis, Maryland the son of a Navy commodore, attended Dartmouth College, and after hungry years in Greenwich Village working part-time as an advertising agent, Smith achieved meteoric success with the publication of Topper in 1926. His other works include: The Stray Lamb (1929), Turnabout (1931), The Night Life of the Gods (1931), Topper Takes a Trip (1932), The Bishop’s Jaegers (1932), Rain in the Doorway (1933), Skin and Bones (1933) and The Glorious Pool (1934). In 1932 he died of a heart attack at the age of 42.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE STORIES BY THORNE SMITH.
Turnabout by Thorne Smith
It has been a good number of years since I last read Thorne Smith’s ribald fantasy classic entitled The Night Life of the Gods (1931), but I can still recall how thoroughly enjoyable and hilarious the book was for me. In this wonderful romp, a NYC-based scientist, Hunter Hawk, invents a device that can turn people to stone. He soon meets Megaera, one of the Little People, who has the converse ability to turn statues into living people,
Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Thorne Smith | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Skin and Bones by Thorne Smith
Up until recent years, I could have counted on the fingers of one hand the books that have made this reader laugh out loud … and I still would have had a couple of fingers left over. Those three books – all of which make me chuckle today, just thinking about them – are, chronologically, Harry Harrison’s undeniably funny Bill, The Galactic Hero (1955), Eric Frank Russell’s hilarious sci-fi adventure The Great Explosion (1962),
Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Thorne Smith | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Previous SFF Author: Sherwood Smith
1. The Olympian Affair, Cinder Spires Book 2, Jim Butcher. 8 year hiatus between books 1 and 2 but worth…
Not entering! I actually read an SF book in November--System Collapse by Martha Wells, the latest Murderbot book. Excellent, as…
I'm continuing with the Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock. The third book in the series, "The Weird of the White…
Alan Garner's Treacle Walker was best of November for me, a short novel that was also surprisingly readable, given how…
I enjoyed a couple of good MG/YA fantasy books. The first is apparently some kind of Dutch classic--"The Cat Who…