Sunday, February 14, 2016

The Gods Hate Kansas, 1964



There's no real reason for this to be a blog post, other than the title and illustration tickled me. (My sympathies to any Jayhawkers out there.) The cover art is by Jack Thurston, who was born in St. Catharines, Ontario, served in the U.S. Navy and ultimately took out U.S. citizenship.  He is best remembered for his poster painting for the film One Million Years B.C.  Ah, Raquel!

As for the author, Joseph Millard, this was his only sci-fi novel.  It was made into a 1977 movie, They Came from Beyond Space.  By all accounts, it was terrible (it gets a pathetic 4.5 on IMDB).  He did write some nonfiction, including an autobiography of the American mystic Edgar Cayce, and a 1954 biography of Ben Hogan entitled The Wickedest Man: The Extraordinary Story of the "Gentleman from Hell". According to the book's review on Amazon:

This is the saga of one of the most fabulous characters that ever lived: Ben Hogan, better known as the Gentleman from Hell, who was living proof that fact is stranger than fiction. There have been outstandingly wicked vice lords, gamblers, robbers, and murderers. Hogan was all these and more. During his incredible life, he was a pirate, blockade runner, spy, bounty jumper, pimp, bartender, confidence man, and showman. He boasted of having sent over two hundred beautiful women to Hell to await his return. He was also the strongest man in the world, the uncrowned heavyweight bare-knuckle boxing champion, candidate for Congress, and finally, a fighting evangelist. At the climax of his life, he dominated one of the wildest and bawdiest periods of American history.

Top that, Donald Trump! 

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