This post begins: It’s not often you get to see how a writer begins his or her career. The exception is in wonderful books like The Early Del Rey (1975), where the author lays it all out for you. In Lester’s case he began in protest. This is not an unusual thing. H. Rider Haggard wrote King Solomon’s Mines (1885) because he thought Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (1882) was not as great as everybody thought. Haggard was challenged by his brother to do better. Whether he did or not is a matter of opinion but King Solomon’s Mines has taken its proud place beside Stevenson in the Adventure Classics section.
If you’d like to read the rest, please check out Monster: From the Pages of Dark Worlds Quarterly.