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Introduction to
MOURNING SONG by Jerry Sohl
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Those of us who knew Charles Beaumont well called him Chuck, when talking to him directly or referring to him with others, but looking back, the name doesn't fit. It doesn't fit because it makes him an ordinary guy, and Chuck was anything but ordinary. It's hard to remember him as anything but the finished product, the hypnotic weaver of dreams, fright, awe, hungers and dreads, the man possessed of talents we all wished we had, in the telling, in the plotting, in the air of distinction and completeness that he brought to every piece he wrote. It is difficult to think that Charles Beaumont actually worked hard for many years to achieve his style, his effect, his discipline, yet we all know it wasn't easy and that he struggled to become the master story-teller he was. That he fought against terrible odds can be seen in almost all his works, for he understood how it was for the dreamers, those who hunger after things or ideas or experiences or people because he had been there. He was able to bring to each tale a prismatic view of the world, a facet we are privileged to see and which we might never have seen if he hadn't written it. "Mourning Song" is one of those stories that Beaumont was so good at, a tale of simple people simply told, about those who believe and one who does not. The blind singer of the "Mourning Song," is Solomon, and to have him sing the mourning song for you means you're going to die. Solomon was whispered about and feared like the plague, but he was respected. That is, until Lonnie Younger doesn't believe it when the song is sung for him and he tries to fight the inevitable, and we see how Beaumont has gently ledus where he has, to show us how Lonnie's disbelief only helps make Solomon's song come true in a startling, ironic twist that is Beaumont's hallmark.
Charles Beaumont: Selected Stories Page 28