Arthur Harold Landis (1917 - January 1986) was an American fantasy, fiction and non-fiction author.Guide to the Papers of Arthur H. Landis 1915 -1944, 1965-1985ALBA 066 Processed by Wendy Scheir, June 2004
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Biography

Born at

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

to a family of

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

performers, Landis later travelled throughout the American West working at a variety of jobs. In 1937 he enlisted in the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion of the

International Brigade The International Brigades ( es, Brigadas Internacionales) were military units set up by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The organization existe ...

in Spain during the

civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, serving as a scout and artillery spotter. He served in the battles of Aragon and

Teruel Teruel () is a city in Aragon, located in eastern Spain, and is also the capital of Teruel Province. It has a population of 35,675 in 2014 making it the least populated provincial capital in the country. It is noted for its harsh climate, with ...

. Before departing Spain, he was able to load his unit's archives onto a ship that left the country. Landis' fantasy novel ''A World Called Camelot'' was published in 1965. He founded in 1969, the horror- and fantasy-fiction magazine '' Coven 13'' which serialized the novel as ''Let There Be Magick!'' under the name James R. Keaveny, along with publishing the work of a number of other writers. The novel was reprinted in book form in 1976, under the "Camelot" title and his own name. He later published the

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

s ''Camelot in Orbit'' (1978) and ''The Magick of Camelot'' (1981) as well as the thematically similar ''Home to Avalon'' (1982). Landis and Mandy Harriman, also a veteran of the International Brigade, founded Camelot Publishing, whose publications included the magazine ''Coven 13'', which printed a variety of fantasy and witchcraft stories, including the two-part story ''Let There Be Magick'' under the pen name of James R. Keaveny. He also published ''Dealer's Voice'', a motorcycle magazine. A non-fiction book by Landis ''The Abraham Lincoln Brigade'' was published in 1967, the result of many years of research and interviews with survivors of the Brigade. In 1972 he published ''Spain the Unfinished Revolution''''Spain the Unfinished Revolution''
/ref> through Camelot Publishing. He was awarded the

Order of Friendship of Peoples The Order of Friendship of Peoples (russian: oрден Дружбы народов, translit=orden Druzhby narodov) was an order of the Soviet Union, and was awarded to persons (including non-citizens), organizations, enterprises, military unit ...

by the Soviet Union. Landis died of

bone cancer A bone tumor is an abnormal growth of tissue in bone, traditionally classified as noncancerous (benign) or cancerous (malignant). Cancerous bone tumors usually originate from a cancer in another part of the body such as from lung, breast, thy ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

in 1986. Two years after his death, ''Death in the Olive Groves: American Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939'', a re-edited and shorter version of his ''The Abraham Lincoln Brigade'', was published.

References

External links

*
Fantastic Fiction BibliographyArthur H. Landis Papers
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University {{DEFAULTSORT:Landis, Arthur H. 1917 births 1986 deaths 20th-century American novelists Abraham Lincoln Brigade members American communists American fantasy writers American male novelists American military historians Historians of the United States Writers from Birmingham, Alabama Deaths from bone cancer 20th-century American historians Novelists from Alabama American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers