Weird Tales-inspired poetry from a 73-year-old retired civil servant

Tavie writes,

Fred Phillips is a Fan. A lifelong lover of gothic horror and weird verse, his favorite author is H.P. Lovecraft. He grew up in the Bronx with parents who were suspicious of his Fandom, his obsessive book-collecting, his poetry. They frequently disposed of his comic books and told him he was wasting his life.
He didn't waste his life. He took up with science fiction Fans, and joined up with the Society for Creative Anachronisms. To most of the world he was an oddball, kind of a loser. He talked too much. He probably had Asperger's. A Lehman College dropout, he worked at a bookstore. In 1968 he met Dorothea Nissen, and they married and eventually had twin daughters.
He got a low-level civil service job clerking at the NY Dept of Labor. It was drudgery, but he had his poetry and he had his girls and he fancied himself happy. He clerked for 30 years. He wasn't what you would call successful, and but he worked hard for his family and lived largely in his head. His Fandom kept him sane.
And then he retired, and he still wrote his poetry and discovered e-mail and then something marvelous happened. He met a man called Derrick who ran a publishing house specializing in scholarly criticism of HP Lovecraft, and Derrick really liked Fred. So at the age of 73 Fred Phillips' poetry was published.
And his daughter Tavie is very, very proud of him.

From the Cauldron by Fred Phillips (Thanks, Tavie!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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arri

i love this. i’m feeling inspired to revisit a genre that i haven’t indulged in in ages. congratulations mr phillips!
Anonymous

I skimmed the article, saw “Asperger’s” and then mis-re-read the title as referring to a “…73-year-old retired civil savant”

Heh.

Congratulations, Mr. Phillips.
tad604

Awesome, I take exception to the “not successful” bit. If he fancied himself happy, I would call him successful.
Tavie

His other daughter is very proud of him too :) She’s just not a complete geek who lives online…
Tavie

P.S. Thanks for posting this, Cory. This is way better a Christmas present than the books I got him. (Like he has room for more books.)
Daemon

“He wasn’t what you would call successful”

Actually, he sounds like he was probably enjoying life, rather than being a slave to it. That’s pretty much the only reasonable definition of success.
cameronh1403

‘He wasn’t what you would call successful’

He is successful in the ways that matter and that makes this a great story!

Thanks Cory!
Leigh Blackmore

Fred is one of our major weird poets. I also have had the pleasure of reading his poetry through the EOD. Anyone who enjoys weird and fantastic verse, and indeed, poetry of an old-fashioned formalist and well-craft quality, should read Fred’s collection.

Leigh Blackmore
Preident, Australian Horror Writer’s Association
stalkingcat

Great story!

I’m intrigued, but I want to see a little of his work. Perhaps we could get a sample of one of his poems?
Anonymous

These responses are really warming my heart. Of course, Dad doesn’t know how to click a link so I’ll probably have to print them out and show them to him… hehehe. Old people.

@Stalking cat, he doesn’t have much published online, but this bit of verse from a 60s fanzine is actually not a bad representation of his style: http://fanac.org/fanzines/Monster/Monster14-20.html

The work in “From the Cauldron” isn’t as light or self-referential and deals more with arcane, gothic subject matter. But this is all I could find online. :)
razen cain

Ya Tavie, ask your dad to post something sinister here for us to peruse!
Anonymous

I have had the pleasure and the privilege of reading Fred’s poetry in his amateur journal for the Esoteric Order of Dagon Amateur Press Association. This book is something I have been looking forward to for some time.

Martin A
ibbers

that is truly an awesome story.

the world can be fantastic sometimes :)
pinehead

What ibbers said.
peterbruells

But what about his other daughter? The suspense is killing me!
pKp

Awesome. Truly.
hassan-i-sabbah

In the cold Scottish morning,this warmed the old assassins heart.
Tavie

Dad sez,

ERATO

O, sister, whence art thou unto us come?
Our road with peril fraught and none to guide
Hath stretched since youth until our strength were done
And shelter there was none wherein to hide.
From Bekra, long timeworn when Khem were old,
Thy mystic lyre bore thou as our Sign,
Thou, whose ancient tales as yet untold
Whose Singers served as Luna-masters’ kine.
Upon our hearts thine ancient Seal was set
That binds us to some covert Being still
For aeons till our Destiny were met
Our ancient geas we may at last fulfill,
And when their tattered banners they unfurl,
They will once more reoccupy the world.

-Fred Phillips
Roosevelt Island, N.Y.
April 10, 2010