Jack Vance Saved My Life, Possibly: A Personal Reminiscence

As today is Jack Vance’s 90th birthday, I, Pulsifer, thought I should share with you the memory of our one and only meeting. It was many decades ago; I was a young teenager and Vance was a guest of honor at an SF convention. At this point I had read not a single word of his work. But I had seen it stated somewhere that he admitted to being influenced by Clark Ashton Smith. (This influence, which to me is obvious, today is often down-played or not mentioned at all, and Vance himself now seems not to remember having been influenced by any other authors at all.)

Since I was very enthusiastic about Smith, but normally had nobody to talk to about it, I seized the opportunity. I followed him around for several days, babbling about Smith, to the extent that few other people ever had a chance to speak with him. I followed him into the bathroom, babbling about Smith. But I believe that, horrible little pest that I undoubtedly was, Vance was nevertheless actually happy not to have to talk about his own writing.

At one point, we were inadvertently locked inside the broom closet or something that I had followed him into (I will admit that by now he may have been desperate to escape me). But Vance forced the door open with a pocket-knife. Thanks, Jack (if I may), and Happy Birthday! We could easily have ended up starving to death in there.