WALDROP, Howard

(1946-)

   US writer, an important member of the Texas-based school of sf writers, much of whose work is set in the South. His first sf story was "Lunch Box" (1972) for ASF. His first novel, The Texas-Israeli War: 1999(1974) with Jake SAUNDERS, makes little capital of its transpositions of genres and nationalities. In 1976, however, he began to produce more characteristic work, including a wildly elaborate collaboration with Steven UTLEY, "Custer's Last Jump" (1976) - an ALTERNATE-WORLD story inwhich powered flight has reached the USA in time for the Civil War and the Indian Wars - and "Mary Margaret Road-Grader" (1976), an accomplishedpost- HOLOCAUST story in which Native American trials of strength are conducted with ageing bulldozers. There were several more collaborations with Utley, and these along with HW's solo work have been regularly anthologized.HW is one of the few contemporary sf writers whose work is mostly short fiction. He has never been especially prolific, and his stories mine the same rich vein of alternate history almost too repeatedly, but his combination of deadpan humour and genuine scholarship (in both academic history and popular culture) has won him a loyalreadership. Although his yoking together of disparate material sometimes appears crazed, with hindsight it is often strangely logical. Only HW would have written - it was his first solo novel - an alternate history (featuring 4 alternate worlds) with time travel from a dystopic future,Amerindian Mound Builders, Aztec Invaders, ancient Greek merchants in power-driven boats and much more, in Them Bones (1984); it is both astonishing and moving. His only other novel (really a novella) is A Dozen Tough Jobs (1989), a tall tale retelling the labours of Hercules in a late1920s Mississippi setting; it says a little about ancient Greece and a lot about Black workers and rednecks.The strain of putting the pieces together sometimes shows, but at his (moderately regular) best HW has been one of the unforgettable sf voices of the 1970s and 1980s. Among his memorable pieces - somewhere between FABULATIONS and GENRE SF - are "Save a Place in the Lifeboat for Me" (1976), "The Ugly Chickens" (1980), about how the dodo became extinct in the Deep South, which won a NEBULA, "Ike at the Mike" (1982), "Flying Saucer Rock \& Roll" (1985), "Night of the Cooters"(1987) - describing what the Martians which had landed in Texas were doing while their counterparts, as featured in WAR OF THE WORLDS, were ravaging England - "Do Ya, Do Ya Wanna, Wanna Dance?" (1988) (MUSIC) and "Fin deCycle" (1991). It took a surprisingly long time for any collections to appear. The first 2 were Howard Who? (coll 1986) and All About Strange Monsters of the Recent Past (coll 1987), assembled as Strange Things inClose-Up: The Nearly Complete Howard Waldrop (omni 1989 UK); the 2nd collection was reissued with A Dozen Tough Jobs included as Strange Monsters of the Recent Past (omni 1991). His 3rd collection was NIGHT OFTHE COOTERS: MORE NEAT STORIES (coll 1990), republished with A Dozen Tough Jobs as Night of the Cooters: More Neat Stuff (omni 1991 UK).

   PN

   See also: GOTHIC SF; HOLLOW EARTH; HUMOUR; LOST WORLDS; OMNI; TIME TRAVEL.