Fred Saberhagen (1930-2007)

[mabfan]

It has been reported that writer Fred Saberhagen passed away last week.

Although he will be most remembered for his Beserker stories, I most remember him for a powerful little story called "Birthdays" that packed a lot in its few words. He chose it for his collection "Saberhagen: My Best," and the story has stayed with me since I read it in the early 1980s. I wish I could point people to a copy of the story somewhere, but the collection is out of print, and the story isn't available on the Internet. And it is one of those stories that I truly feel would suffer if I told you anything about it before you had a chance to read it yourself.

But I did have a chance to meet Saberhagen once, at a Philcon I believe. (I think he was Guest of Honor or Principal Speaker.) I told him how "Birthdays" was one of my favorite stories, and he was very glad to hear it. He thought highly of it as well, but very few people ever came up to him to thank him for it. I'm glad I did.

Comments

[vampry.livejournal.com]

Bummer.

I met Mr. Saberhagen once many years ago. For me, my favorite was always the Dracula tapes.

[laurion]

Sad to hear. Almost time to reread the swords books again...and to dig out a copy of Birthdays.

[tammy212.livejournal.com]

I never got to meet him, but his Dracula books had a profound effect on my life. They got me to rethink my conception of vampires completely. In the end, I got some really powerful radio plays that aired in New York and L.A. from that process. Those books also led me to my fascination with the non-fiction original for Dracula and my lifelong interest in the Ottoman Turks, so I owe Saberhagen a lot.

It'd be good to know that when you go, people will remember you for the way you changed how they think.

[alleypat.livejournal.com]

I've never met him, but enjoyed his books. I'm sad to hear the news, thanks for posting.