Howard Lachtman

Last updated
Howard Lachtman
Born
Howard Lawrence Lachtman

(1941-07-08) July 8, 1941 (age 84)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
EducationM.A., Ph.D. [1]
Occupation(s)Critic, editor, author
Notable workSherlock Slept Here [2]

Howard Lawrence Lachtman [3] (born July 8, 1941) is an American academic, literary critic, editor and author, who has written extensively on the life and works of Jack London, Arthur Conan Doyle, [1] [4] and on crime fiction as a whole. [5]

Contents

Early life and career

Born in San Francisco on July 8, 1941, Lachtman is the second-born child of Florence (née Jacoby) and George Lachtman. [6] [7] [8] He attended Winfield Scott Elementary School, [9] Lowell High School, UC Berkeley and UC Hastings Law, [10] and obtained his M.A and Ph.D. from University of the Pacific. [1]

Assessing Lachtman's contribution to a 1979 collection of London's own essays entitled Jack London: No Mentor But Myself, Los Angeles Times critic Sal Noto states:

This collection also contains a broad and perceptive foreword by Howard Lachtman, who has three books in the making on London. Lachtman shows the unfamiliar side of the London persona; he pares away much of the myth surrounding the man and offers a candid look at a writer who has all too often been dismissed or overlooked by critics of American literature. [11]

Reviewing Lachtman's 1982 anthology, Sporting Blood: Jack London's Greatest Sports Writing, the El Paso Herald-Post's David Innes notes that the book "could serve as a pattern for what a good theme anthology should be," adding that "Lachtman's introductory essay is a fine one, as are his short, scene-setting paragraphs." [12] Regarding the 1984 collection, Young Wolf: The Early Adventure Stories of Jack London, El Paso Times critic Dale L. Walker writes:

Lachtman's fine collection of London's early career adventure stories adds an important link to an astonishingly long chain of London stories published in the past two decades. [It] includes some of London's best early work. Here are 16 stories that ought to be read in high school and college classrooms today in lieu of the shopworn "To Build a Fire". [13]

Writing two years later in the same paper, Walker calls Lachtman's Sherlock Slept Here a "superb and authoritative little study [of] Arthur Conan Doyle's debt to the United States," commending in particular Lachtman's "thoroughly fascinating analysis of that most American of Holmes stories, 'The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor'." [2]

Lachtman also reviewed books—primarily mysteries—for the Los Angeles Times between 1976 and 1981, and, from 1977 to 1986, for the San Francisco Examiner . [14] [15] [16] [17]

A decidedly unimposing fictional character named Howard Lachtman, [a] who happens to be at least the nominal leader of a small group of Sherlock Holmes devotees, figures prominently in Chapter II of Stuart Kaminsky's 1983 detective novel He Done Her Wrong. [18]

Personal life

Since 1962, Lachtman has been married to the former Mendelle Corren, [10] a union which produced at least one child, their daughter, Tiffany. [19]

Works

Books

Essays

Poetry

Notes

  1. ↑ So unimposing, in fact, that the novel's narrator/protagonist promptly likens him to the aptly named, famously unimposing Hollywood character actor Donald Meek.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Hastings, Jack (November 20, 1981). "Reading Room". Asbury Park Press. p. 40.
  2. 1 2 Walker, Dale L. (January 5, 1986). "Author Describes Conan Doyle's Love for U.S.". El Paso Times. p. 58.
  3. ↑ Giehmann, Barbara Stefanie (2011). Writing the Northland: Jack London's and Robert W. Service's Imaginary Geography . Wurzburg: Königshausen & Neumann. p. 12. ISBN   978-3-8260-4459-5
  4. ↑ Monsky, Susan (July 8, 1984). "Short Takes". The Boston Globe.
  5. ↑ "Writers talk about craft". Sacramento City College Express. March 12, 1984. p. 5.
  6. ↑ "Births". The Richmond Banner. August 1, 1941. p. 4. Retrieved November 19, 2025.
  7. ↑ "Births". The Richmond Banner. July 23, 1937. p. 4. Retrieved November 19, 2025.
  8. ↑ "Social Brevities". The Richmond Banner. July 8, 1932. p. 5. Retrieved November 19, 2025.
  9. ↑ "Doll Show at S. F. School Honors U. N. – Display of 34 National Costumes". San Francisco Chronicle. October 27, 1952. p. 21. Retrieved November 19, 2025.
  10. 1 2 "They're Engaging: Lachtman-Corren". The San Francisco Examiner. January 12, 1964. Sec. Reviews, pg. 12.
  11. ↑ Noto, Sal (June 24, 1979). "Jack London's Star on the Rise". Los Angeles Times Book Review p. 11. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  12. ↑ Innes, David (March 12, 1982). "Bookshelf". El Paso Herald-Post. p. 54. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  13. ↑ Walker, Dale L. (July 29, 1984). "Rekindled Interest Increases Jack London Collections". Los Angeles Times Book Review p. 58. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  14. ↑ Lachtman, Howard (November 7, 1976). "Fantasy Fiction by Jack London". Los Angeles Times. p. 225.
  15. ↑ Lachtman, Howard (November 29, 1981). "West View". Los Angeles Times. p. 206.
  16. ↑ Lachtman, Howard (May 29, 1977). "Street Smart and Courtroom Wise". The San Francisco Examiner. p. 249.
  17. ↑ Lachtman, Howard (January 26, 1986). "The New Mysteries: Murder Among the Animals and Music". The San Francisco Examiner. p. 291.
  18. ↑ Kaminsky, Stuart (1983). He Done Her Wrong . New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 22–37 ISBN   9780312364915.
  19. ↑ "Death Notices". San Francisco Chronicle. June 17, 1998. p. C4. Retrieved November 19, 2025.
  20. ↑ Lachtman, Howard (Winter 1970). Western Humanities Review. p. 30.
  21. ↑ Lachtman, Howard (Winter 1972). Poet Lore. pp. 344–345.
  22. ↑ Miner, Virginia Scott (February 6, 1972). "Kansas City's 10-Year Poetry Explosion". The Kansas City Star. p. 154, 157.
  23. ↑ SoundingsMag. November 15, 2021.
  24. ↑ SoundingsMag. December 2, 2021.
  25. ↑ SoundingsMag. April 13, 2023.

Further reading

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