Links to assorted local theater & book venues

E. Hoffman Price (1898-1988), fantasy and science fiction author who published in various pulp magazines from the 1920s into the 1950s, in conversation with Probabiliaties hosts Richard Wolinsky, Richard A. Lupoff and Lawrence Davidson, recorded in early 1979 at Price’s home in Redwood City, California.

E. Hoffman Price, who was born 1898 and died shortly before his 90th birthday in 1988, wrote fantasy and science fiction stories for the pulp magazines of the first half of the twentieth century, along with some non-fiction. Mostly forgotten today, though several of his stories are available in small press editions, his claim to fame is a single collaboration with the great horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, titled “Through the Gates of the Silver Key,” a sequel to Lovecraft’s story, “The Silver Key.” A contributor to Weird Tales, he was also friends with two other writers from the magazine, Seabury Quinn and Clark Ashton Smith, as well as with the longtime editor of Weird Tales, Farnsworth Wright. He also knew Otis Adelbert Kline, famous in his day for writing imitations of Edgar Rice Burroughs.

In the interview, Price talks about his writing career, his friendships with H.P. Lovecraft, horror writer Seabury Quinn, adventure writer Otis Adelbert Kline, and horror master Clark Ashton Smith.

The Probabilities radio show first went on the air on KPFA in 1977. Within a year, my co-host Lawrence Davidson was on the trail for old pulp writers and editors, egged on by science fiction and fantasy author Richard A. Lupoff, who officially joined the show a couple of years later. This interview, following on the heels of interviews with pulp science fiction author Stanton A. Coblentz and editor Charles Hornig, was conducted at Price’s house in Redwood City, California, most likely in the spring of 1979. Accompanying Dick, Lawrence and myself were Dick’s wife Pat Lupoff and science fiction fanzine editor Jim Purviance. Over two hours were recorded on multiple tapes, and parts of the transcription can be found in the book Space Ships Ray Guns Martian Octopods: Interviews with Science Fiction Legends. The interview was digitized and then remastered using AI technology first, and then edited for clarity and coherence. Some outtakes exist which I can forward by email via [email protected].

The unpublished memoir Price discusses in the interview, Book of the Dead: Friends of Yesteryear, Fictioneers and Others was eventually published posthumously, in 2001. The interview opens with a question by Richard A. Lupoff.

Several collections of stories by E. Hoffman Price were published in 2017 by Wildside Press, and are available both digitally and in print. The interview was digitized, remastered and edited in March 2026. This interview was first heard in a very truncated version in 1979 and has not been aired until now. The complete 68-minute interview can be heard here.

Rob Nillson is a Bay Area based maverick filmmaker. The winner of the Camera d’Or at Cannes in 1979 for Northern Lights and the Grand Prize at Sundance for Heat and Sunlight in 1988, he continues to make independently distributed films. A documentary about the life and work of Rob Nillson, titled The Way Things Seem to Be, introduced by Rob Nillson and the documentary’s director, Zahn Petrov, gets its world premiere at the Christopher Smith San Rafael Film Center this coming sunday, March 29th at 12 noon, and for more information you can go to cafilm.org. This interview was part of a larger interview about the life and work of filmmaker David Schickele.

Review of “Assassins” at Oakland Theatre Project through April 5, 2026.e

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The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – March 26, 2026: Pulp Magazine Author E. Hoffman Price (1898-1988) appeared first on KPFA.