Edgar Rice Burroughs – Richard Levesque

Tarzan and the City of Gold: My Gateway Book

I must have been about eight years old. Our neighbor, a grandmotherly type whose children had all grown up, was cleaning out her garage and brought over a box of books, mostly Whitman Classics hardcovers. I could have them if I wanted them, she told me. I wasn’t a big reader at eight, but it…
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richardlevesqueauthor June 21, 2014 0

Passion and Obsession, or Second-Guessing the Market: How a Writer Ought to Choose a Project

Last week, I had the good fortune to stumble onto Emma Donoghue being interviewed on Michael Silverblatt’s “Book Worms” show on KCRW. I’m generally not a reader of historical novels, but I’d seen a review of Donoghue’s latest book Frog Music: A Novel in a magazine a couple weeks back, and so I got sucked…
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richardlevesqueauthor May 7, 2014 2

Into the Dark: The Science Fiction/Noir Connection

The running man darts past a streetlight, casting a long shadow across the wet pavement. He glances back and then ducks into an alley, pressing himself into the darkness as he catches his breath and listens. He thinks he’s safe, but from the other end of the alley a new shadow moves. There’s a moment’s…
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richardlevesqueauthor July 29, 2013 0

My Favorite Bookstores

Given the choice between a neat bookstore with all the shelves perfectly arranged and a disordered bookstore where the books are stacked 2 deep on the shelves, I’ll take the messy store any day. Of course, I’m talking about used bookstores here. Any new bookstore that’s a complete mess wouldn’t be worth my time. But…
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richardlevesqueauthor July 9, 2013 7

Another Lost Science Fiction Classic

Okay, maybe not lost. But not on everyone’s minds either. The April 1931 issue of Hugo Gernsback’s Wonder Stories contained two rather remarkable stories–the cover story, Edmond Hamilton’s “The Man Who Evolved” and another, “The Conquest of Gola” by Leslie F. Stone. Hamilton is better remembered these days, but Stone’s story is, I think, more…
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richardlevesqueauthor December 18, 2012 1