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RARA-AVIS: Sam Spade and the Wold Newton families
Many of you are probably familiar with Philip Jose Farmer, the SF
writer and pulp afficionado. I got his biographies of Doc Savage and
Tarzan out of the library today, and I think some parts of his history
of the Wold Newton group would be of interest here.
Farmer's theory is that a meteor struck in Wold Newton, England, in
the late 18th century. Two coaches were nearby, and the people inside
were hit with cosmic rays that caused genetic mutations. It's from
these people that most heroes and superheroes (like Tarzan, Phileas
Fogg, the Shadow, Doc Savage, Allan Quartermain, the Scarlet Pimpernel
and James Bond) are descended. Laugh you may, but it's most
entertaining.
Lew Archer, Travis McGee and perhaps Philip Marlowe get worked in, but
here's how he gives the ancestry for Sam Spade:
Ned Land (of Jules Verne fame) had a daughter, Edwina, who married a
John Spade. He was a Pinkerton, and son of a policeman, Samuel.
Samuel's father had served in British Naval Intelligence before
getting into some trouble (perhaps with Brigadier General Sir Harry
Flashman) and moving to Indiana. Samuel was born there, and later,
with his wife, moved to San Francisco where John Spade was born. John
married Edwina Land, and their son was Sam Spade.
"Sam followed in the footsteps of his fathers and became a detective.
He was well-known in San Francisco as an exceedingly capable and
occasionally flamboyant detective. But it was not until Dashiell
Hammett gave him some publicity (in _The Maltese Falcon_) that the
world became aware of him."
Bill
--
William Denton : Toronto, Canada : buff@vex.net : Caveat lector.
http://www.vex.net/~buff/ <-- Anything on io.org is toast.
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