Howard Lawrence Lachtman (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 John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

, and on crime fiction as a whole.

Early life and career

Born in San Francisco on July 8, 1941, to George Lachtman and Florence Katz, Howard attended Lowell High School,

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

and UC Hastings Law, and obtained his M.A and Ph.D. from University of the Pacific. Assessing Lachtman's contribution to a 1979 collection of London's own essays entitled ''Jack London: No Mentor But Myself'', ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' critic Sal Noto states:

Reviewing Lachtman's 1982 anthology, ''Sporting Blood: Jack London's Greatest Sports Writing'', the ''

El Paso Herald-Post The ''El Paso Herald-Post'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in El Paso, Texas, USA. It was the successor to the El Paso Herald, first published in 1881, and the El Paso Post, founded by the E. W. Scripps Company in 1922. The papers merged in 19 ...

'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." Regarding the 1984 collection, ''Young Wolf: The Early Adventure Stories of Jack London'', ''

El Paso Times The ''El Paso Times'' is the newspaper for the US city of El Paso, Texas. The newspaper has an approximate daily circulation of 65,000 and 125,000 on Sundays. The paper is the only English-language daily in El Paso (when the '' El Paso Herald-Po ...

'' critic

Dale L. Walker Dale L. Walker (August 3, 1935 - December 7, 2015) was an American writer. He was born in Decatur, Illinois, but spent most of his life in El Paso, Texas. The author of twenty-three books, he also served as a television reporter, editor, news ...

writes:

Writing two years later in the same paper, Walker calls Lachtman's ''Sherlock Slept Here'' a "superb and authoritative little study fArthur 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 "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor", one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the tenth of the twelve stories collected in ''The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes''. The story was first published in ''The ...

'." Lachtman also reviewed books—primarily mysteries—for the ''

'' between 1976 and 1981, and, from 1977 to 1986, for the ''

San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...

''. A decidedly unimposing fictional character named Howard Lachtman, 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 Stuart M. Kaminsky (September 29, 1934 – October 9, 2009) was an American mystery writer and film professor. He is known for three long-running series of mystery novels featuring the protagonists Toby Peters, a private detective in 1940s Holly ...

's 1983 detective novel ''He Done Her Wrong''.

Works

Books

*
Sporting Blood: Selections from Jack London's greatest sports writing
'. Novato, CA : Presidio Press. 1981 . *
Young Wolf: The Early Adventure Stories of Jack London
'. Santa Barbara, CA : Capra Press. 1984. . *
Sherlock Slept Here ; being a brief history of the singular adventures of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in America, with some observations upon the exploits of Mr. Sherlock Holmes
'. Santa Barbara, CA : Capra Press. 1985. .

Essays

"Man and Superwoman in Jack London's 'The Kanaka Surf'"].] ''Western American Literature''. Summer 1972. Vol. VII, No. 2, pp. 101–1

"All That Glitters: Jack London's Gold". ''Jack London Newsletter''. September–December, 1972. pp.&nbs
172–175196–178
* "Doyle in Dreamland: The education of an eminent Victorian". ''The Los Angeles Times''. October 30, 1977. Sec. Reviews, pp.&nbs
320

"The Nine Lives of Jack London"
''The San Francisco Examiner''. November 6, 1977.
"Oscar in California: A Wilde West Show"
''The Los Angeles Times''. September 24, 1978. * "Willard Wright's Philo Vance: A Dandy in Acid". ''Los Angeles Times''. June 3, 1979. Sec. Reviews, pp.&nbs
325

"Mysterious Case of the Gardner-Chandler Friendship"
''The Los Angeles Times''. January 4, 1981.
"When Jack London Answered the Call of the Orange Blossoms"
''The Los Angeles Times''. March 30, 1981. Sec. Reviews, pg. 3.

Poetry

*
Losses for Review
(1970)
"Three Poems: Fat City, The River Merchant to His Wife: A Letter, News from Thermopylae"
(1972) *
Elegy for William Claude Dunkenfield (W. C. Fields)
(1972) *
Handiwork
(2021) *
Sentry
(2021)''SoundingsMag''. December 2, 2021.

Notes

References

External links

Howard Lachtman
at

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the OCL ...

Howard Lachtman
at SoundingsMag.net {{DEFAULTSORT:Lachtman, Howard 1941 births American writers American literary critics Living people Los Angeles Times people San Francisco Examiner people University of California, Hastings College of the Law alumni University of the Pacific (United States) alumni University of the Pacific (United States) faculty Writers from San Francisco