"There are few such glorious romps in all the world's literature, and surely none that surpass [Silverlock]. A galloping narrative, endlessly inventive; people you must love or hate but can never be indifferent to; humor that ranges from the cat-subtle to the uproarious; discoveries, achievements, battles, feasts, drinking bouts, lovemaking, unabashed joy, celebration of life—what more do you want?" — Poul Anderson, 1979

Today marks the one hundred and fifteenth birthday of John Myers Myers. To honor the occasion, I'm going to take a look at his most famous novel, Silverlock.

Regarding Myers himself, I sketched out his biography in a previous blog post. I might add, having read further accounts of his life--including one by his daughter, Celia--that he was a passionate, talented man of sharp wit who loved the written word and fine whiskey. On with the review...

Silverlock begins by introducing the reader to the protagonist, a man named Clarence Shandon. Shandon is an unhappy and fairly unlikable man who, despite being unhappy, is convinced that his degree in Business Administration constitutes everything he needs to know about the world and life in general.

The ship Shandon is on--the Naglfar--suddenly sinks and Shandon finds himself sharing a piece of storm-tossed flotsam with a man who calls himself Golias. The two men soon reach an island where they narrowly escape the gastronomic attentions of cannibals.

Golias and Shandon--whom Golias has dubbed "Silverlock" due to a white streak in Shandon's hair--make landfall on another island where Silverlock runs afoul of a touchy sorceress. The two men are rescued by some Vikings, reach a vast island named "the Commonwealth" and soon end up at the Battle of Clontarf...

Yep. Clontarf. For you see, Silverlock has reached the Commonwealth of Letters, which might also be called the "Land of Story". Within the Commonwealth live characters from tales throughout history, from Beowulf to Hiawatha. Silverlock, who has never read anything more literary than a newspaper--and proud of it--is utterly clueless when encountering such mythic and legendary figures.

Silverlock's picaresque adventures slowly work a change in his outlook. He finds satisfaction in facing dangers more deadly than making a bad stock trade and he learns that some things are more precious than a fat bank account.

That is the bare-bones, fairly non-spoilerish synopsis. What it doesn't include is the fact that Myers' novel is crammed with literary allusions. Many, many allusions. When I tried reading Silverlock at the age of twenty, I 'got' about a third of the references...and I considered myself well-read. Rereading it about five years ago, I got maybe three-quarters of the allusions.

One could say, "Just ignore the literary references and enjoy the story!" However, those allusions are a big part of the story. JMM basically said as much in 1980:

"I'd been thinking about recounting an adventure in the world of literature comprehensively considered, and this materialized in 1949 as Silverlock. This was to be my big book, my contribution to the ages, and it flopped all over the place."

The problem with having heavy hitters like Beowulf or Circe step onstage is that they can very easily upstage the protagonist. This happens fairly often, though Golias--almost a co-protagonist--does ameliorate some of that.

The conceit of the "Commonwealth of Letters" does lend itself to cool juxtapositions. Do you want to see Don Quixote go on a quest in search of that dreaded beast, Babe the Blue Ox? Myers has you covered.

The narrative does "gallop" along, as Poul Anderson claimed. It is, indeed, an "odyssey of the spirit", as Poul also pointed out. Not only does it recall The Odyssey, but also Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.* Silverlock has to unlearn the myopic pragmatism he imbibed in business school and find the "stuff of wonder"--another Anderson quote--in order to make his life worth living.

That is possibly the strongest point of Silverlock: John Myers Myers' enthusiasm for the great adventure fiction and "romances" that mankind has inherited. JMM's love--and deep knowledge--of all of those "bad old" tales is unabashed and up-front. Reading Silverlock made me want to reread some of those old stories and to seek out some of those I'd never read.

In my opinion, Silverlock is a minor classic, though a classic with definite flaws. Online reviews of it tend to be either five stars or two-three stars, with the five-star reviews generally prevailing. Silverlock has been a cult classic for seventy years and I doubt that will change anytime soon. One Amazon reviewer had this suggestion:

“The first time, just read it. Ignore the temptation to stop and look up the references. If you recognize one, hooray! Enjoy seeing the story or character again from this new angle. But don't stop, keep going to the end. Then put it down for a couple months. After that, go ahead and read it with a reference at hand.”

However, some formidable authors like Poul Anderson, Jerry Pournelle, Larry Niven, Gordon R. Dickson and Anthony Boucher were all wildly enthusiastic about it. Pournelle called it a “masterpiece” in his preface to the 1979 edition. You can read a good chunk of what Poul wrote in his preface at the beginning of this blog entry.

Niven said of Myers’ Silverlock:

“His picture of the universe is lifelike, but bigger than life…and I went through it like a tourist through Paradise.”

Gordy Dickson actually wrote music to go along with some of the songs in Silverlock. Did I mention there were several songs in it? As Niven put it: “They’re great drinking songs.” Considering that JMM was no mean poet and an acolyte of John Barleycorn, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise.

From whence did all of this almost fanatical devotion come from? I mean, Silverlock is good, but, by all accounts, these people went wild over it. I don’t generally approve of posthumous psychoanalysis, but I do have a theory:

Silverlock came out in 1949 and quickly disappeared. According to his own account, Poul was the first one in his circle—which included Boucher, Dickson etc.—to discover it. He strongly promoted the novel to his friends and many became just as big of fans as he. As I’ve noted before, the 1950s were a barren wasteland when it came to fantasy fiction. Science fiction was in fashion and fantasy was often derided. Poul and all of his friends were ‘closet’ fantasy fans to one degree or another. Here was a well-written fantasy novel with some depth that had only come out a few years before. It was mana in the wilderness to them. Plus, the ‘50s were a time when many—including SF authors like Poul—had few hopes of avoiding a nuclear conflagration. Silverlock is a hopeful book that celebrates the best of literature throughout history. That had to have struck a chord. Silverlock became their talisman.

It’s quite possible that the—sincere—hype bestowed on Silverlock by Anderson, Pournelle et al had a somewhat negative effect down the road. It would be hard for any novel to live up to the praise. It’s not surprising that some readers felt let down. That said, Silverlock has had about ten reprintings since 1979. Many authors would give their eyeteeth for that level of ‘failure’. While Silverlock may not be for everybody, there is certainly an audience for it out there. As I said, it is a minor cult classic.

Speaking of those reprintings… For those who want to give Silverlock a try, the numerous Ace editions can be found out on the secondary market fairly cheap. For those, like me, who always like to have the whole shebang, I recommend the NESFA edition. It’s a hardcover that contains everything from the Ace editions plus much more. One of the extras is a fascinating new preface from Karen Anderson—Poul’s wife—on the history of Poul discovering Silverlock and how his love for it spread outward in the Anderson circle. Also included are several bios of Myers—including one from his daighter, Celia, and one from the man himself. There is also a worthless essay by Darrell Schweitzer…but you can’t win ‘em all. I obtained my copy of the NESFA edition at a very reasonable price. There is also a Kindle edition.

Anderson and Dickson both went on to write tales of sword-and-sorcery, Here in the twenty-first century, it turns out that Andrzej Sapkowski, the author of the Witcher books, is a big fan of Silverlock. It wouldn’t amaze me if there aren’t one or two Silverlock fans in the newest cohort of S&S authors. We’ll see.

So, raise a glass in honor of John Myers Myers. He’d approve.

*Pilgrim’s Progress is much-admired by Michael Moorcock, by the way.