Years ago, during my research leading up to the writing of Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America, I went through a period of fascination with science-fiction/fantasy writer Margaret St. Clair (1911-1995), seeking her books on the SF shelves of used bookstores in various cities.
She and her husband, Eric, were perhaps the first Gardnerian Witches on the West Coast, having flown East to be initiated by Ray and Rosemary Buckland in the early 1960s.
This blog’s first incarnation was a column in various Pagan magazines, and one of those columns was called “Chasing Margaret”, being my attempt to restore her memory and literary reputation in SF.
Blogger Tim Mayer has kept up the chase for her forgotten works and blogged about several of them at Z-7’s Headquarters. Here is a partial list:
Three Worlds of Futurity (1964).
Message from the Eocene (1964).
The Dancers of Noyo (1973) This novel is not only prescient, but it still gets under my skin, although the geography did not become real until I visited the Mendocino coast.
Change the Sky and Other Stories (1974).
The best of the lost has to be “The Goddess on the Street Corner”. It’s a sad tale which would have fitted into The Twilight Zone. The story concerns an alcoholic pensioner who finds an ancient Greek goddess on a city street. He takes her home and feeds her bourbon, hoping to restore the deity’s powers. The story has a bitter sweet ending, which was not entirely expected.
I would like to find that one.
Goddess on the Street Corner
I have that one… David Hartwell collected it in “Masterpieces of Fantasy and Enchantment” (Nelson Doubleday, 1986). It’s a pretty readily available anthology – you can get it used on Amazon staring at $0.19.
Just goes to show that we do not, at the time, always know of or note all the sources of influence on our spiritual or magical education. St. Clair’s Sign of the Labrys was probably one of the first places that I became aware of some Wiccan/Craft notions and some feminist/lesbian ones. Science fiction and its fandom played a big role in my youthful and developing sense of living as counterculturally Pagan as opposed to one of the Establishment.
Biographical information on Margaret St. Clair is scarce. The essay you published years ago is still the only reliable source. I have yet to even find a photograph of her or any writings by her husband. Which is strange for an author who published over 100 short stories in a 15 year time span.I guess she just hasn’t attracted the right sort of academic notice.
THE SHADOW PEOPLE gets under my skin. Although it hits the wall at the 2/3 mark, it’s still a creepy novel. I can see how it influenced the development of RPG’s.
And thanks again for mentioning my reading log.