Lawrence Block - Generally Speaking

For almost three years, novelist and short-story writer Lawrence Blocks monthly column, Generally Speaking, was one of the most popular features in Linns Stamp News. A general collector of pre-1940 issues, Block had the entire world of stamps as his subject, and he turned in 33 columns before he decided it was time to stop.

But Keller, the authors fictional character, never lost his enthusiasm for philately. A wistful and introspective killer for hire, Keller rekindled a boyhood passion for stamps at the end of Hit Man, the first of a series of books about him. Like Block, Keller collects the whole world through philatelys first century. (Hows that for coincidence?) And the nature of his profession gives Keller more discretionary income than Blockand a lot more money to spend on stamps.

Published here for the first time is the full run of columns from Linns, along with six selections from the Keller saga chosen for their philatelic perspective.

***

More by Lawrence Block

NON-FICTION

NOVELS

THE MATTHEW SCUDDER NOVELS

THE BERNIE RHODENBARR MYSTERIES

KELLERS GREATEST HITS

THE ADVENTURES OF EVAN TANNER

THE AFFAIRS OF CHIP HARRISON

COLLECTED SHORT STORIES

BOOKS FOR WRITERS

WRITTEN FOR PERFORMANCE

ANTHOLOGIES EDITED

***

Generally Speaking

All 33 columns, plus a few philatelic words from Keller

Lawrence Block

Copyright 2019 Lawrence Block

All Rights Reserved

Cover & Interior by QA Productions

A Lawrence Block Production

***

Foreword

It was in the late summer of 2009ten years and a few months ago as I write these linesthat I wrote a brief essay about my own return to philately. By then Id been collecting again for more than a dozen years, and Id had occasion to write about stamps ever since Keller, my fictional assassin-for-hire, had himself returned to the hobby in the final chapter of Hit Man.

Hed been looking for something to keep him busy in his planned retirement, but if youre a collector yourself you can probably guess what became of his retirement fund. Keller went on workingthrough Hit List, Hit Parade, Hit & Run, and Hit Meand his philatelic adventures have played an increasing role in his life, and in the books.

I think it was Michael Laurence, then editor of Linns Stamp News, who first took official notice of Keller. Other writers and other publications followed, with mentions and reviews. Randy Neal serialized several Keller stories in American Stamp Dealer & Collector. Charlie Peterson, sadly gone now, helped spread the word about Keller in the philatelic community, invited me to address the Tiffany Dinner at the American Philatelic Society convention in Hartford and, with Robert Odenweller, sponsored me for membership in the Collectors Club.

By the time Hit & Run was published, Keller had enough of a philatelic following to sustain a special philatelic edition of the book, signed, numbered and limited, with a custom made postage stamp tied to the title page with a special cancellation.

So that was all background to the aforementioned essay, A Dream of Lost Stamps. I sent it off to Michael Baadke, and before either of us quite knew what had happened, I had agreed to write and he to publish a monthly column consisting of the ruminations of a general collector. I called it Generally Speaking, and it would go on to appear in monthly installments for almost three years.

This was not my first experience with a regular magazine column. For fourteen years, from 1976 to 1990, I wrote a monthly instructional column on fiction writing for Writers Digest. That column yielded four books (Telling Lies for Fun & Profit, Spider Spin Me a Web, The Liars Bible, and The Liars Companion) and led indirectly to two others (Writing the Novel from Plot to Print and Write for Your Life), but that was by no means all it did for me. One way or another, it informed both my reading and my writing. Ive often thought it made me a better writer.

After Id been writing Generally Speaking for a few months, I realized how much Id missed having a monthly slot to fill. But it wasnt until I was well into the columns second year that I brought over the kidsArnold and Rachel and Edna and the gangwhod served me so well in the Writers Digest days. If you havent met them yet, I can only hope youll enjoy making their acquaintance.

By the time Generally Speaking was two years old, Id discovered eBook self-publishing. The eBook of Generally Speaking: A Philatelic Patchwork made its appearance, and I figured there would eventually be a sequel, or at least an expanded edition, because I was confident Id be writing the column for years.

But that wasnt to be the case.

Im not sure what happened, but something shiftedand not in the audience or the magazine but in my own self. I was late with my 33rd column, so much so that it was delayed a full month. And, while it was a perfectly decent column, and one I liked no less than its fellows, shortly after I turned it in I realized I was done.