Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Sidney Leland?
Tony Rowe wrote:
Sidney Leland?? This is J. Eric Holmes (not a doctor yet!) at the time of his first story, "Beachhead on the Moon," being published in the Feb. 1951 issue of Blue Book: Magazine for Adventurous Reading. I didn't realize that Holmes' father was a successful war story author (as Alec Hudson) AND a war hero whose clever ruse helped the American Navy turn the tide against the Japanese forces at Midway!
Zenopus note: see the J. Eric Holmes Photo Gallery for the photo originally included in this post.
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(Noto is not living up to its name when it comes to the Math sets. Yet.)
ReplyDeleteI put a reference to this story in the Holmes Bibliography as a possibility a few years back. Later I asked Chris about it & he confirmed it was written by his father and also told me about his grandfather Jasper Holmes who wrote fiction as Alec Hudson. Robert Weber and I discussed the elder Holmes a bit on DF once.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1392507#p1392507
ReplyDeleteIt's ironic that Holmes first story was published in "BLUE BOOK", later to be the nickname of the Holmes D&D rulebook.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that BLUE BOOK reference just jumped off the page at me!
ReplyDelete"A Tale of Two Subs" by Jonathan J. McCullough is the story of two submarines during WWII, and the book also has important historical bits concerning Jasper Holmes, J. Eric's father, and, after reading it, I discerned that J. Eric himself was also featured in the book, via his reaction as a young boy on the attack on Pearl Harbor. http://www.amazon.com/Tale-Two-Subs-Extraordinary-Heroism/dp/0446178403/189-4389570-2339601?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0
ReplyDeleteYes - at the start, Eric goes into his parents bedroom to tell them about the bombing at Pearl Harbor! It was a Sunday morning, they were sleeping in while he made breakfast for the family.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to mention they were living on Oahu at the time of the attack.
ReplyDeleteThat's very interesting - Edgar Rice Burroughs was also on Oahu when Pearl Harbor was bombed...
ReplyDeleteHolmes met Burroughs during that time; see the interview with John Martin posted here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.erblist.com/erbmania/edgardemain/bridge-holmes.html
I can't remember if Iv'e seen that picture, must ask the family. Dad thought it would be cool to have a pen name since his dad used one. He couldn't remember why he chose Sydney Leyland.
ReplyDeleteDo you have any idea whose dog he is holding in the picture?
ReplyDeleteTony you have found out more about dad's childhood than I remember. Yes grandpa worked with the code breakers and was also a good pulp writer.
ReplyDelete