May 24, 2025 and eighty-one years ago on this day in 1944, Edgar Rice Burroughs finished writing the short story, “Uncle Bill.” The 1787-word horror story remained unpublished until 2001 when it was included in “Forgotten Tales of Love and Murder,” published by Adkins and Guidry. There is conflicting information about the day the story was completed, with some sources saying it was completed on May 20, 1944.
You can read the entire story and a review at: http://erbzine.com/mag67/6726.html
The drabble for today, “Poor Bill is Dead,” was written by ERB historian, Irwin Porges.
“Despite some successful touches of realism, the story becomes merely a horror incident, the ending anticipated as soon as Bob and Mary discuss the attic. The viewpoint adopted by Burroughs, with Mary, the narrator, merely summarizing events, destroys the necessary suspense and of course weakens the characterization. Aunt Phoebe does not receive the individual development needed to explain her actions, and since the relationship between her and Uncle Bill is never established, the reader can conceive of no reason for the murder. Sent to the Saturday Evening Post, Liberty, and Cosmopolitan in 1944, "Uncle Bill" was rejected by all three.”
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