Representing the best of a 50-year writing career, these 19 short stories have been collected from the wide-ranging oeuvre of William F. Nolan. Zany tales are included, such as "Toe to Tip, Tip to Toe, Pip-Pop as You Go," in which everyone is kept in perpetual drugged states and the social deviates are those who are straight. More serious stories are also told such as "The Small World of Lewis Stillman," in which the last surviving resident of Los Angeles must conceal himself in storm sewers in order to avoid a new wave of smaller city dwellers who, although primitive, are dangerous in their numbers. Interspersed are narratives that address the emotional attachments of robots to humans, mix science fiction with the classic Wild West, and allow alien rock stars and human groupies to intermingle.
With 85 books to his credit, plus hundreds of scripts, articles and short stories embracing a dozen genres, William F. Nolan is an official Living Legend (voted that honor by the International Horror Guild).
As a noted pulp historian, he is a recognized authority on Black Mask, Dashiell Hammett, and "Max Brand" (Frederick Faust). Nolan has edited six collections of Faust tales, has written Max Brand: Western Giant, and is the author of the forthcoming biography King of the Pulps: The Man Who Was Max Brand. Nolan's historical anthology, The Black Mask Boys, is the key work on the legendary magazine - and he's written three books on Dashiell Hammett, plus several pieces on the early pulp fiction of his longtime pal, Ray Bradbury.
Nolan states: "I began my fiction career [13 novels and 185 stories] too late for the pulps, but I did have letters printed in Planet Stories and Famous Fantastic Mysteries - and I grew up reading Argosy and Weird Tales."
Recently voted a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to Dark Fantasy, Nolan is currently at work on ten new books. His most famous creations, Logan's Run, is now out in comic-book format from Bluewater Productions - and a new mega-budget film version is due from Warner Bros. in 2012.
Nolan lives in Vancouver, Washington, with an apartment full of books, pulp magazines, and stuffed animals.
