Howard Lachtman
Howard Lachtman | |
---|---|
Born | Howard Lawrence Lachtman |
Education | M.A., Ph.D.[1] |
Occupation(s) | Critic, editor, author |
Notable work | Sherlock Slept Here[2] |
Howard Lawrence Lachtman is an American academic, literary critic, editor and author, who has written extensively on the life and works of Jack London, Arthur Conan Doyle,[1][3] and on crime fiction as a whole.[4]
Early life and career
Howard attended Lowell High School, UC Berkeley and UC Hastings Law,[5] and obtained his M.A and Ph.D. from University of the Pacific.[1]
Assessing Lachtman's contribution to a 1979 collection of London's own essays entitled Jack London: No Mentor But Myself, Los Angeles Times critic Sal Noto states:
This collection also contains a broad and perceptive foreword by Howard Lachtman, who has three books in the making on London. Lachtman shows the unfamiliar side of the London persona; he pares away much of the myth surrounding the man and offers a candid look at a writer who has all too often been dismissed or overlooked by critics of American literature.[6]
Reviewing Lachtman's 1982 anthology, Sporting Blood: Jack London's Greatest Sports Writing, the El Paso Herald-Post's David Innes notes that the book "could serve as a pattern for what a good theme anthology should be," adding that "Lachtman's introductory essay is a fine one, as are his short, scene-setting paragraphs."[7] Regarding the 1984 collection, Young Wolf: The Early Adventure Stories of Jack London, El Paso Times critic Dale L. Walker writes:
Lachtman's fine collection of London's early career adventure stories adds an important link to an astonishingly long chain of London stories published in the past two decades. [It] includes some of London's best early work. Here are 16 stories that ought to be read in high school and college classrooms today in lieu of the shopworn "To Build a Fire".[8]
Writing two years later in the same paper, Walker calls Lachtman's Sherlock Slept Here a "superb and authoritative little study [of] Arthur Conan Doyle's debt to the United States," commending in particular Lachtman's "thoroughly fascinating analysis of that most American of Holmes stories, 'The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor'."[2]
Lachtman also reviewed books—primarily mysteries—for the Los Angeles Times between 1976 and 1981, and, from 1977 to 1986, for the San Francisco Examiner.[9][10][11][12]
A decidedly unimposing fictional character named Howard Lachtman,[a] who happens to be at least the nominal leader of a small group of Sherlock Holmes devotees, figures prominently in Chapter II of Stuart Kaminsky's 1983 detective novel He Done Her Wrong.[13]
Works
Books
- Sporting Blood: Selections from Jack London's greatest sports writing. Novato, CA : Presidio Press. 1981 OCLC 1151317362.
- Young Wolf: The Early Adventure Stories of Jack London. Santa Barbara, CA : Capra Press. 1984. ISBN 9780884962106.
- Sherlock Slept Here ; being a brief history of the singular adventures of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in America, with some observations upon the exploits of Mr. Sherlock Holmes. Santa Barbara, CA : Capra Press. 1985. ISBN 088496227X.
Essays
- [1] "Man and Superwoman in Jack London's 'The Kanaka Surf'"].] Western American Literature. Summer 1972. Vol. VII, No. 2, pp. 101–110[2]
- "All That Glitters: Jack London's Gold". Jack London Newsletter. September–December, 1972. pp. 172–175, 196–178.
- "Doyle in Dreamland: The education of an eminent Victorian". The Los Angeles Times. October 30, 1977. Sec. Reviews, pp. 3, 20.
- "The Nine Lives of Jack London". The San Francisco Examiner. November 6, 1977.
- "Oscar in California: A Wilde West Show". The Los Angeles Times. September 24, 1978.
- "Willard Wright's Philo Vance: A Dandy in Acid". Los Angeles Times. June 3, 1979. Sec. Reviews, pp. 3, 25.
- "Mysterious Case of the Gardner-Chandler Friendship". The Los Angeles Times. January 4, 1981.
- "When Jack London Answered the Call of the Orange Blossoms". The Los Angeles Times. March 30, 1981. Sec. Reviews, pg. 3.
Poetry
- "Losses for Review" (1970)[14]
- "Three Poems: Fat City, The River Merchant to His Wife: A Letter, News from Thermopylae" (1972)[15]
- "Elegy for William Claude Dunkenfield (W. C. Fields)" (1972)[16]
- "Handiwork" (2021)[17]
- "Sentry" (2021)[18]
- "One of the Lucky Ones" (2023)[19]
Notes
- ^ So unimposing, in fact, that the novel's narrator/protagonist promptly likens him to the aptly named, famously unimposing Hollywood character actor Donald Meek.
References
- ^ a b c Hastings, Jack (November 20, 1981). "Reading Room". Asbury Park Press. p. 40.
- ^ a b Walker, Dale L. (January 5, 1986). "Author Describes Conan Doyle's Love for U.S.". El Paso Times. p. 58.
- ^ Monsky, Susan (July 8, 1984). "Short Takes". The Boston Globe.
- ^ "Writers talk about craft". Sacramento City College Express. March 12, 1984. p. 5.
- ^ "They're Engaging: Lachtman-Corren". The San Francisco Examiner. January 12, 1964. Sec. Reviews, pg. 12.
- ^ Noto, Sal (June 24, 1979). "Jack London's Star on the Rise". Los Angeles Times Book Review p. 11. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
- ^ Innes, David (March 12, 1982). "Bookshelf". El Paso Herald-Post. p. 54. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
- ^ Walker, Dale L. (July 29, 1984). "Rekindled Interest Increases Jack London Collections". Los Angeles Times Book Review p. 58. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
- ^ Lachtman, Howard (November 7, 1976). "Fantasy Fiction by Jack London". Los Angeles Times. p. 225.
- ^ Lachtman, Howard (November 29, 1981). "West View". Los Angeles Times. p. 206.
- ^ Lachtman, Howard (May 29, 1977). "Street Smart and Courtroom Wise". The San Francisco Examiner. p. 249.
- ^ Lachtman, Howard (January 26, 1986). "The New Mysteries: Murder Among the Animals and Music". The San Francisco Examiner. p. 291.
- ^ Kaminsky, Stuart (1983). He Done Her Wrong. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 22–37 ISBN 9780312364915.
- ^ Lachtman, Howard (Winter 1970). Western Humanities Review. p. 30.
- ^ Lachtman, Howard (Winter 1972). Poet Lore. pp. 344–345.
- ^ Miner, Virginia Scott (February 6, 1972). "Kansas City's 10-Year Poetry Explosion". The Kansas City Star. p. 154, 157.
- ^ SoundingsMag. November 15, 2021.
- ^ SoundingsMag. December 2, 2021.
- ^ SoundingsMag. April 13, 2023.
Further reading
- "Prize-Winning Poets". Concord Transcript. April 25, 1968.
- Lachtman, Howard (January 7, 2011). "Poet Laureate". The Record.
- Gilbert, Lori (January 11, 2019). "Photographer's new magazine tells stories of the Delta". The Stockton Record.
External links
- Howard Lachtman at WorldCat
- Howard Lachtman at SoundingsMag.net