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Howard Lachtman

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Howard Lachtman
Born
Howard Lawrence Lachtman

(1941-07-08) July 8, 1941 (age 83)
San Francisco, California[1]
EducationM.A., Ph.D.[2]
Occupation(s)Critic, editor, author
Notable workSherlock Slept Here[3]

Howard Lawrence Lachtman (born July 8, 1941) is an American academic, literary critic, editor and author, who has written extensively on the life and works of Jack London, Arthur Conan Doyle,[2][4] and on crime fiction as a whole.[5]

Early life and career

Born in San Francisco on July 8, 1941, to George Lachtman and Florence Katz,[1][6] Howard attended Lowell High School, UC Berkeley and UC Hastings Law,[7] and obtained his M.A and Ph.D. from University of the Pacific.[2]

Assessing Lachtman's contribution to a 1979 collection of London's own essays entitled Jack London: No Mentor But Myself, Los Angeles Times critic Sal Noto states:

This collection also contains a broad and perceptive foreword by Howard Lachtman, who has three books in the making on London. Lachtman shows the unfamiliar side of the London persona; he pares away much of the myth surrounding the man and offers a candid look at a writer who has all too often been dismissed or overlooked by critics of American literature.[8]

Reviewing Lachtman's 1982 anthology, Sporting Blood: Jack London's Greatest Sports Writing, the El Paso Herald-Post's David Innes notes that the book "could serve as a pattern for what a good theme anthology should be," adding that "Lachtman's introductory essay is a fine one, as are his short, scene-setting paragraphs."[9] Regarding the 1984 collection, Young Wolf: The Early Adventure Stories of Jack London, El Paso Times critic Dale L. Walker writes:

Lachtman's fine collection of London's early career adventure stories adds an important link to an astonishingly long chain of London stories published in the past two decades. [It] includes some of London's best early work. Here are 16 stories that ought to be read in high school and college classrooms today in lieu of the shopworn "To Build a Fire".[10]

Writing two years later in the same paper, Walker calls Lachtman's Sherlock Slept Here a "superb and authoritative little study [of] Arthur Conan Doyle's debt to the United States," commending in particular Lachtman's "thoroughly fascinating analysis of that most American of Holmes stories, 'The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor'."[3]

Lachtman also reviewed books—primarily mysteries—for the Los Angeles Times between 1976 and 1981, and, from 1977 to 1986, for the San Francisco Examiner.[11][12][13][14]

A decidedly unimposing fictional character named Howard Lachtman,[a] who happens to be at least the nominal leader of a small group of Sherlock Holmes devotees, figures prominently in Chapter II of Stuart Kaminsky's 1983 detective novel He Done Her Wrong.[15]

Works

Books

  • Sporting Blood: Selections from Jack London's greatest sports writing. Novato, CA : Presidio Press. 1981 OCLC 1151317362.
  • Young Wolf: The Early Adventure Stories of Jack London. Santa Barbara, CA : Capra Press. 1984. ISBN 9780884962106.
  • Sherlock Slept Here ; being a brief history of the singular adventures of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in America, with some observations upon the exploits of Mr. Sherlock Holmes. Santa Barbara, CA : Capra Press. 1985. ISBN 088496227X.

Essays

Poetry

Notes

  1. ^ So unimposing, in fact, that the novel's narrator/protagonist promptly likens him to the aptly named, famously unimposing Hollywood character actor Donald Meek.

References

  1. ^ a b "California Birth Index, 1905-1995," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V2WN-2WG : 27 November 2014), Howard Lawrence Lachtman, 08 Jul 1941; citing San Francisco, California, United States, Department of Health Services, Vital Statistics Department, Sacramento.
  2. ^ a b c Hastings, Jack (November 20, 1981). "Reading Room". Asbury Park Press. p. 40.
  3. ^ a b Walker, Dale L. (January 5, 1986). "Author Describes Conan Doyle's Love for U.S.". El Paso Times. p. 58.
  4. ^ Monsky, Susan (July 8, 1984). "Short Takes". The Boston Globe.
  5. ^ "Writers talk about craft". Sacramento City College Express. March 12, 1984. p. 5.
  6. ^ "California, San Francisco County Records, 1824-1997," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QL4P-N5TR : 22 July 2021), George Lachtman and Florence Katz, 20 Aug 1932; citing Marriage, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States, San Francisco Public Library, California; FamilySearch digital folder 004268690.
  7. ^ "They're Engaging: Lachtman-Corren". The San Francisco Examiner. January 12, 1964. Sec. Reviews, pg. 12.
  8. ^ Noto, Sal (June 24, 1979). "Jack London's Star on the Rise". Los Angeles Times Book Review p. 11. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  9. ^ Innes, David (March 12, 1982). "Bookshelf". El Paso Herald-Post. p. 54. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  10. ^ Walker, Dale L. (July 29, 1984). "Rekindled Interest Increases Jack London Collections". Los Angeles Times Book Review p. 58. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  11. ^ Lachtman, Howard (November 7, 1976). "Fantasy Fiction by Jack London". Los Angeles Times. p. 225.
  12. ^ Lachtman, Howard (November 29, 1981). "West View". Los Angeles Times. p. 206.
  13. ^ Lachtman, Howard (May 29, 1977). "Street Smart and Courtroom Wise". The San Francisco Examiner. p. 249.
  14. ^ Lachtman, Howard (January 26, 1986). "The New Mysteries: Murder Among the Animals and Music". The San Francisco Examiner. p. 291.
  15. ^ Kaminsky, Stuart (1983). He Done Her Wrong. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 22–37 ISBN 9780312364915.
  16. ^ Lachtman, Howard (Winter 1970). Western Humanities Review. p. 30.
  17. ^ Lachtman, Howard (Winter 1972). Poet Lore. pp. 344–345.
  18. ^ Miner, Virginia Scott (February 6, 1972). "Kansas City's 10-Year Poetry Explosion". The Kansas City Star. p. 154, 157.
  19. ^ SoundingsMag. November 15, 2021.
  20. ^ SoundingsMag. December 2, 2021.

Further reading

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