As Halloween breaks I get word that Scott Connors — Young Scott — has died. Don’t know if he died on Halloween itself or just before. The Scott of yesteryear would have appreciated going out on such an eldritch and darkly hallowed day.
Scott at the end, maybe not so much, with other things to worry about.
I knew Scott longer than most people still alive or in my somewhat active circles. Met him when he was on the cusp of breaking out of his teen years, in St. Paul in 1975 or 76 during a meeting of the local Lovecraft fans. As I told him, he was one of the most irritating people I ever met, but for no good reason I always liked him.
You can find a scattering of Scott moments on the blog if you want to surf around.
In weird fiction scholarly circles Scott is famous for leaving the field — total GAFIAtion — for about 10 years — or was it 20? Army service. Nursing school training. When he came back he determined he was going to write a full biography of the fantasy master Clark Ashton Smith, but a never-ending battery of bright shiny projects kept diverting him.
I know he did some writing on the bio, but you’ll find him writing essays on all kinds of subjects (he contributed to my The Barbaric Triumph on Robert E. Howard, for one). Starting a Clark Ashton Smith scholarly journal. Plugging away at stuff he probably would have been doing those years he took off.
We’re waiting word on where the CAS bio stands — if he did lots more, if what he did survives the breakup of his apartment.
At least, he got some major projects done. The hefty book in full color of the artwork of CAS. With Ron Hilger, editing a complete set of Smith stories with the texts collated from the various published and unpublished drafts.
And, while you’ll find me poking Scott in various zines over angles he missed in his essays, overall he was one of the best critics and researchers in this arena.
Another long-time pal, gone.
