VISITING PAT AND REMEMBERING ED

by Steven Steinbock

As I mentioned in last week’s column, my son and I were traveling through upstate New York looking at colleges. It’s not a good time of year to be travelling to upstate New York. But we managed safely and found the region beautiful. (It was my first time in western NY). We saw some beautiful campuses, Cornell and University of Rochester in particular. But the highlight of the trip for me was seeing Patricia Hoch.

I’ve written about Edward Hoch in my columns before. (In the days immediately following his death in January 2008 I wrote this and this). In case you missed, not only was Ed the consummate short story writer (with nearly 1,000 published tales), but he was a gentleman in every sense: a gentle man with a kind heart and a constant sparkle in his eye. He was also a dear friend.

I hadn’t seen Patricia since Ed’s passing almost three years ago. So this was a special reunion for us both. At their home, Pat took me and my son into Ed’s inner sancta. In his former office Pat had displayed some of Ed’s awards: several Anthonys, a pair of Edgars (including his Grand Master Award), an Arthur Ellis Award. Along with them was the framed 1955 acceptance letter for his first sale (“Village of the Dead,” the first Simon Ark story) as well as a quote from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass (containing the White Queen’s claim about “impossible things” which Ed used in many of his Nick Velvet stories – and may have been the very motto of Ed’s storytelling):

“There’s no use trying,” said Alice; “One can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

The opposite was covered with framed photos, magazine covers featuring Ed’s photo, articles about Ed, and various other awards and honors.

In the basement were two entire walls of shelves, thousands of feet of them, filled with copies of books, magazines, and short story collections containing Ed’s work. It was staggering. Books in Chinese, Japanese, Swedish, and French. Copies of MWA’s Best Detective Stories of the Year edited by Ed. A foreign copy of Jan Burke’s anthology Eighteen for which Ed had written the introduction. What surprised me most was how many science fiction magazines had stories by Ed.

Later that night Pat took us, along with several members of her family, out to dinner at the Crescent Beach Inn on Lake Ontario where we beheld the most beautifully gaudy display of Christmas lights and décor I’ve ever seen.