Introduction to
IN RE GLOVER

Along with such great unsolved mysteries of the universe as a) Who was Kaspar Hauser? b) What significance did the Easter Island statues originally have? c) Did Pancho Villa really shoot Ambrose Bierce d) What was Jack the Ripper's real identity? and e) How did Erich Segal ever become a popular writer? two things have long puzzled me:

1. Why, though there are numerous sf writers who are Jewish, has there been so little Hebraically-based sf or fantasy? The background is certainly rich enough.

2. Why, though it is certainly ripe for being poked fun at, has there been so little memorable humorous sf and fantasy? God knows much of what's written is laughable without intentionally being meant to evoke laughter.

With the exceptions of a few Avram Davidson stories, an extraordinary new novel from Ballantine by Isidore Haiblum titled The Tsaddik of the Seven Wonders, an occasional dybbuk or golem, a marvelous Carol Carr short in Orbit 5 titled "Look, You Think You've Got Troubles," some of the early Fredric Brown cavorts, Harry Harrison's Bill, the Galactic Hero, some Sheckley, some Goulart and most of Larry Eisenberg's stuff (remember "What Happened to Auguste Clarot?" in DV?), there's neither very much yiddishe sf or very much funny sf. If it weren't for Isaac Bashevis Singer, where would we be?

Though these two conundrums will never be satisfactorily solved, every once in a while we get some lunatic in our midst—like Lafferty—who does that dandy little rigadoon and we naively believe the balance will at last be corrected. But it's only one story, by one writer, and when it has faded into the past, we wonder again.

Wonder no more.

Both questions are answered, at least temporarily, with Leonard Tushnet.

The mad M.D. from Maplewood, New Jersey—who piously refuses to impart any personal information on himself—here whips off an hilarious vision that includes among its many dangers, the possibility of having one's heart attack oneself, from laughter. With the Vonnegut and the Wilson and the McCullough and the Blish stories, it helps bring things more into balance, proving that we of the sf world are not such humorless bastards as we may seem to the outside world.

(On the other hand, any genre that can contain Asimov, without blushing, can hardly he said to be humorless.)

(Dr. A. indeed!)

And while we have no further specs for the private life of Dr. Tushnet, here are publication vitae that may tell you almost more than you wanted to know about where more Tushnet can be located.

Nonetheless, there is no questioning that the Tushnet terpsichore is a mitzvah.

Short Stories (* indicates science fiction)

Balll State Forum, A Goodly Apple, Bobby Booby

The Christian, Cards

Cimarron Review, Dangerous Books

De Kalb Literary Arts Quarterly, Poire Helene

Diagnostics, The Dance of Justice. The Barred Hut

Discourse, Thanks

Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine, In the Calendar of Saints*, The Chelmlins*, Gifts from the Universe**, The Worm Shamir*, Lord of Sensation*, Matchmaker, Matchmaker*, Aunt Jennie's Tonic*

Forum, A Little Fatherly Advice, The Rod of Aesculapius

Four Quarters, The Nearest Field, Obituary, Bandiera Rossa

Jewish Currents, The Ban, The Gastric Jews,The Yellow Passport

Jewish Frontier, The Sewing Machine***, The Culture Vulture, The View Depends on Where You Sit, Benefit of Clergy, A Jewish Heart

Journal of the A.M.A., The Weight of Evidence

Maelstrom, Lotte

Medical Opinion & Review, A Cynical Fable

Midwestern University Quarterly, Summer Job

Modern Age, New York Is Full of Lonely People

Mosaic, Adoshem*

National Jewish Monthly, The Non-Resister

New Dimensions, A Plague of Cars

New Frontiers, Supper on the Table

New Mexico Quarterly, The Logic of Magic

Nimrod, Balaam

Penman, The Integration of DeWitt Manor

Per Se, The Discount Store

Prairie Schooner, A Pious Old Man with a Beard, A Week with Lilith, Raisins in the Cabbage The Klausners****, The Village Priest

Reconstructionist, Experiment in Paradise*, A Joyful Noise

Reign of the Sacred Heart, A Minor Miracle

Roanoke Review, Some Pounds of Flesh

Today Magazine, For Which the First

Twigs, The Red Dress

University Review, Mother of the Gracchi, I'm Not a Snob, A Short Flight into the Invisible

Wind, When Fond Recollection

Books (non-fiction)

To Die With Honor (Citadel Press, 1965),

The Medicine Men (St. Martin's Press, 1971),

The Uses of Adversity (Thomas Yoseloff, 1966),

Articles

Chicago Jewish Forum, King Chaim Rumkowski

Eucharist, A Priest at the Bedside

Jewish Currents, The Little Doctor*

Journal of History of Medicine, The Ghetto of Lodz, Murder by Disease