Master Storyteller: An Illustrated Tour of the Fiction of L. Ron Hubbard

By William J. Widder

"Master Storyteller" is a richly informative and colorful tour of L. Ron Hubbard's extraordinary career as a popular fiction author. This comprehensive chronology of his work is replete with factual... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1592120547
• ISBN13: 9781592120543
• Release Date: August 2003
• Publisher: Galaxy Press (CA)
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 2.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 9.3" x 12.2"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful Book!

This book is a tribute to a literary giant.It appropriately treats the subject with the same love and respect any fan does, whether the subject is Roddenberry, Asimov, Poe or Hawthorn.It has nothing to do with the man's religious beliefs or accomplishments. Why any reviewer would throw that curve into it is beyond me.As a tribute, the book is tremendous. A real gem.It took me back to my youth reading the sci-fi pulps that carried me on journeys to distant worlds where I met wonderful characters and stretch the limits of my imagination. What more could any reader want?

Lots of fun

If you grew up on Star Trek or Star Wars, if you stayed up late to catch yet another showing of "War of the Worlds," or if you rushed to the bookstore for the next installment of the Ringworld series, maybe once in a while you also wondered where the heck all of this began. Bill Widder's new book "Master Storyteller: An Illustrated Tour of the Fiction of L. Ron Hubbard," shows you. ... Turns out that L. Ron Hubbard may have done more to invent modern science fiction and fantasy than most any other writer of the 1930s - something many have forgotten. Then too, not everyone agrees with Hubbard's later creation of Scientology so perhaps like me you've decided to know as little about the man's work as possible. Widder's book showed me I've been missing a heck of a good time. The author has an encyclopedic knowledge of everything Hubbard wrote and begins by setting the scene with an explanation of pulp fiction's origins. Best of all, the terrific and colorful artwork of this book lets you see exactly how the stories of Hubbard and friends first appeared while Widder tells his tale. On page four for example, you get to see the February 1934 cover of Thrilling Adventures - the issue that published Hubbard's first story, "The Green God." Check out the increasing visual fireworks by Gerry Grace, Frank Frazetta, and others in the second half of the work. Therein lies a possible problem I have with all this. It's so much fun you'll want to cut it up and frame various parts of it around the apartment. Another danger is that if you put it on the coffee table, your guests will no longer have time for you. Widder's prose is also good enough to give you a sense of Hubbard's literary peers during his lengthy career. Read what Stephen King has to say about Hubbard's "Fear" for example, on page 84. See Heinlein's letter to Hubbard about "Battlefield Earth" on page 104. As I remember, there's even a fan letter from a young guy named Isaac Asimov. It's great fun, this book. It'll give you a sense of how we all got where we are and why busloads of people still line up for hours to take a peek at a planet called Mars when it gets a little nearer. Hubbard - no matter what you think of him - worked for decades to put such stuff in our souls. After finishing the work at about 2 a.m., I decided that while there is much about Hubbard I'll never understand, there is one thing about him that -thanks to Mr. Widder - I now know and admire. Hubbard could write. He could write very, very well.