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Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 7, Summer 1945
Page 140
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140 FANTASY COMMENTATOR Williams, Frank Purdy (1848-19) Hallie Marshall: a True Daughter of the South New York: The Abbey Press, 1900, 183pp. 20 cm. $1. Further information: Though dated 1900, this novel did not appear until 1901; no foreign editions of it have appeared. Synoptic review: A fantasy collector could not be expected to be attracted to any book bearing a title such as this, nor would he be helped by sight of a cover decorated by a cotton branch laden with flowers. Nevertheless, Williams' novel is an important one, for it is probably the first to use the "Worlds of If" theme involving parallel time. It is not at all badly done. The hero finds himself in a South which has won the Civil War with the help of the British Navy, its slaves who rise in patriotic fervour, and its crusading sense of Right and Justice. By 1900, the South is flourishing: it has become a land of spacious cities, food, work and wealth in plenty, and gracious and enlightened people. The negroes, while still nominally slaves, are happy and live "freely," work cheerfully under an elected leader of their own race, and are only sold---when at all---in entire families. Meanwhile the North, under a narrow, grasping industrialism, lives meanly atop a wretched army of unemployed. It requires a deal of convincing to show the hero that Gettysburg was the scene of the decisive rout of the North and that his hosts are not rebels or madmen, but he is helped by finding himself ten years younger than in his other life, and no longer married to his former wife but engaged to the radiant Miss Hallie Marshall. The final piece of evidence is the arrival of a miserable refugee from the widespread unemployment in the North. Williams sets for the "Worlds of If" idea very clearly: "Was it a dream? As I look back over these pages and read what I have written; as I look into my heart and see how deeply loving memories of Hallie and the fair Southland are graven there---I find it hard, very hard, to believe that I am examining only the traces of a dream. Surely they were born of something more substantial than that. What I saw, I saw with real eyes; what I experienced was actual. "It would be an idle and foolish quest to go searching through the known Southland of today expecting to see the flag of the Confederacy flying in triumph, as I saw it---hoping to see Hallie as she appeared to me; I know that, well. But I also know that somewhere the land of the Confederate patriots' hope exists---sunny and fair and plenteous; and wherever that somewhere is, there I have been. I know, too, that somewhere Hallie lives---in all her Southern beauty, kindliness and pride; and I know that with that dear girl I have spoken face to face. "The conceptions of noble minds---the aspirations of heroic hearts---never die. Somewhere on the planes of existence---somewhere among the spheres---they become real manifestations; and there, from time to time, they are easily seen by favored mortal eyes." F. P. Williams' only other published work appears to be a somewhat anti-capitalistic pamphlet The Discovery of a Missing Link: an Attack upon the Enemy of Labor (1885), but though this has been long forgotten, he will still hold a minor niche in fantasy's Hall of Fame for the theme utilized in his only novel, Hallie Marshall. ---R. George Medhurst
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140 FANTASY COMMENTATOR Williams, Frank Purdy (1848-19) Hallie Marshall: a True Daughter of the South New York: The Abbey Press, 1900, 183pp. 20 cm. $1. Further information: Though dated 1900, this novel did not appear until 1901; no foreign editions of it have appeared. Synoptic review: A fantasy collector could not be expected to be attracted to any book bearing a title such as this, nor would he be helped by sight of a cover decorated by a cotton branch laden with flowers. Nevertheless, Williams' novel is an important one, for it is probably the first to use the "Worlds of If" theme involving parallel time. It is not at all badly done. The hero finds himself in a South which has won the Civil War with the help of the British Navy, its slaves who rise in patriotic fervour, and its crusading sense of Right and Justice. By 1900, the South is flourishing: it has become a land of spacious cities, food, work and wealth in plenty, and gracious and enlightened people. The negroes, while still nominally slaves, are happy and live "freely," work cheerfully under an elected leader of their own race, and are only sold---when at all---in entire families. Meanwhile the North, under a narrow, grasping industrialism, lives meanly atop a wretched army of unemployed. It requires a deal of convincing to show the hero that Gettysburg was the scene of the decisive rout of the North and that his hosts are not rebels or madmen, but he is helped by finding himself ten years younger than in his other life, and no longer married to his former wife but engaged to the radiant Miss Hallie Marshall. The final piece of evidence is the arrival of a miserable refugee from the widespread unemployment in the North. Williams sets for the "Worlds of If" idea very clearly: "Was it a dream? As I look back over these pages and read what I have written; as I look into my heart and see how deeply loving memories of Hallie and the fair Southland are graven there---I find it hard, very hard, to believe that I am examining only the traces of a dream. Surely they were born of something more substantial than that. What I saw, I saw with real eyes; what I experienced was actual. "It would be an idle and foolish quest to go searching through the known Southland of today expecting to see the flag of the Confederacy flying in triumph, as I saw it---hoping to see Hallie as she appeared to me; I know that, well. But I also know that somewhere the land of the Confederate patriots' hope exists---sunny and fair and plenteous; and wherever that somewhere is, there I have been. I know, too, that somewhere Hallie lives---in all her Southern beauty, kindliness and pride; and I know that with that dear girl I have spoken face to face. "The conceptions of noble minds---the aspirations of heroic hearts---never die. Somewhere on the planes of existence---somewhere among the spheres---they become real manifestations; and there, from time to time, they are easily seen by favored mortal eyes." F. P. Williams' only other published work appears to be a somewhat anti-capitalistic pamphlet The Discovery of a Missing Link: an Attack upon the Enemy of Labor (1885), but though this has been long forgotten, he will still hold a minor niche in fantasy's Hall of Fame for the theme utilized in his only novel, Hallie Marshall. ---R. George Medhurst
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