Sunday, May 1, 2011

Birthday Greetings for the Wolfe

As some of you may be aware, Saturday 7 May will be the esteemed Mr. Gene Wolfe's 8oth birthday. This blog has been created for friends, fans and admirers to express their good wishes to him and will be presented for his perusal before the end of his birthday. Please feel free to forward this to anyone that you think might be interested. And if you don't know who Gene Wolfe is, it's well past time you found out!

130 comments:

  1. Dear Mr. Wolfe,

    I hope you have a very happy 80th birthday indeed! Thank you for all the joy you have brought, to me and so many others, through your wonderful books and stories. You have a special place on my bookshelf, with probably more representation than any other author. I look forward to new works and many future re-readings.

    Best wishes,
    Matthew Knight

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  2. Dear Gene,

    Happy birthday! Thanks for the many hours of pleasure your novels and stories have given me. I was just looking at my old paperback copy of "The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories." It cost me $3.95 in 1980, and never have I gotten so much enjoyment for so little money.

    Your faithful reader,
    Jack Smith

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  3. Dear Gene,

    Your body of work has honestly been life-changing for me as a person, thinker, and artist. You share that very special place in my life with just a few other authors (Chesterton, Lewis, and Lafferty) - a place of influence and blessing beyond the literary or aesthetic and into the moral and spiritual. Thank you. 80 years well-lived, sir! Congratulations and Happy Birthday.

    Sincerely,
    Daniel Otto Jack Petersen

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  4. Dear Gene (AKA Don Q),

    It's not like I'll write this in LIEU of sending a card, but knowing me, any card of mine will come a few days (or weeks) late.

    You're the sort of wizard mentor that appears in legend at just the right time, whether or not the apprentice is ready for him. I know where the archetype comes from now, because of you.

    Really, let's face it: you taught me most of everything I know about writing. For the rest of my life, I'll work my fingers to bone shards to be worthy of that. Thank you.

    With love and love and love,

    C.S.E. Cooney

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  5. After I read The Book of the New Sun for the first time, I had to tip my ear over a jello mold and let my brain drip into it. Once I set it in the refrigerator and shoved it back up my nose and into my skull, I reread the tertology with similar results. It is a work of staggering genius and I would be a lesser person without having read it. Thank you. Three times I thank you.

    Awestruck

    Adam Callaway

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  6. Hello Mr. Wolfe...

    Wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday and to thank you for all the wonder your stories have brought into my life. I look forward to your work no matter what it is. Hope for your continued health and happiness.

    Greg

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  7. Happy Birthday to the leader of the pack. Among the finest treasures life has given me, are your writing and your friendship. "Thank you" hardly seems adequate, but I don't know a finer way to say it, so there it is. May your day bring you many unexpected joys, and may you have many more such special days still to come! Keep writing, and I'll keep reading.

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  8. Dear Gene

    We've known each other since I was a baby journalist in 1983. You've written so many wonderful things, you've been the finest of friends, and knowing you and Rosemary has brought so much joy into my life.

    If I ever get to be a fraction as good a writer as you are, I'll be happy.

    Happy 80th birthday.

    Neil

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  9. Dear Mr. Wolfe,

    May your 80th birthday be a memorably happy and joyful occasion surrounded by friends and loved ones. I've had the pleasure to meet you only three times at various conventions, but I treasure your writings and the experiences I've had reading them. Thank you and cheers!

    Sincerely,
    Ed

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  10. Namaste and happy birthday, Mr. Wolfe!

    I've been looking forward to reading your work, anyway, but seeing the wisdom and knowledge you've brought to Claire Cooney's life and writing just increases that tenfold. May your eightieth birthday bring you the joys and delights you deserve, along with many, many happy returns of the day.

    With love and lotuses,

    Shveta Thakrar

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  11. Dear Mr. Wolfe,

    I picked up Shadow and Claw about ten years ago and instantly became lost in the best way possible. As someone who'd just graduated from a Christian University, and trying to process it, your stories were like water from a rock. I've read and listened to it a couple times now, and have been alright wandering ever since (again: in the best way possible).

    Thank you so much for *all* the stories, and have a very Happy Birthday!

    Dave Thompson

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  12. Dear Mr. Wolfe,

    Happy 80th. You're one of the few writers who can make me put down a book and just bask in the glory of one of your patented revelations.

    Thank you for all you've done for your readers.

    E.E. Knight
    Oak Park, IL

    P.S. You gave best and briefest advice I ever received on the subject of characterization at a Wiscon panel a few years back. Excelsior!

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  13. Dear Mr Wolfe
    Wishing you the very best on your Birthday! your writing has given me so much over the years, and thanks for answering my letter from Singapore!
    Many more happy and healthy years to you and your Family
    your bass plaiyng fan

    Stuart Hamm

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  14. Dear Mr. Wolfe,
    My singular birthday wish for you is a rather selfish one...that you remain on this earth for years to come, and continue to enrich the world with your works.
    I have a six year old son, and one of the things I am most looking forward to in life is introducing him to Book of the New Sun. In fact, I plan on keeping it on the top shelf and forbidding him to read it, as clearly this will be the best way to get him to devour it like I have.
    There aren't thanks enough for the joy, challenge and wonder you've given to me and countless others. But, thanks anyway.

    And happy birthday!

    -Jordon Flato

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  15. A very happy birthday to you, Mr. Wolfe!

    We met many years ago at Fourth Street, where I tried hard to attend any panel you were on. You taught me an immeasurable amount, both in those discussions and through the rich density of your fiction with its sly hidden humor and ironic twists.

    Many happy returns of the day.

    Pamela Dean

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  16. My best wishes for an extraordinary birthday. I've been receiving your books as gifts since years (in French translation) and I loved every word of them. So, in this special day, you deserve the best! And I hope you'll get it.
    Jean-Claude Dunyach

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  17. Mr. Wolfe,

    When you read this, you will be looking back at a lifetime, two careers, in the second of which you created some of the best fiction of two centuries. You have earned whatever pride you feel. Personally, I thank you for challenging and inspiring me with your words. Your birthday happens to coincide with my graduation with a Master's degree in English literature. I wrote my thesis on your fiction, and I cannot imagine having chosen a more challenging or entertaining subject. Continue writing, and I will continue learning from you.

    Regards,

    Nicholas L. Goodman

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  18. You once wrote 'There was a time when I could put the palm of my hand flat on the front of a tattered paperback called The Dying Earth and feel the magic seeping through the cardboard.' I know what you mean because I can do the same thing with certain of your books.

    Thank you so much for making the world a more interesting place, and have a great birthday.

    Tony Ellis

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  19. Dear Mr. Wolfe,

    Best wishes for a glorious day, and many happy returns! I first heard of you through Neil Gaiman (who, I see, has commented here already). He said you were brilliant and clever, and that anything you'd written required at least a couple of readings to uncover the various layers. I was intrigued, so I picked up There Are Doors, which I then read three times in rapid succession. Since then, I've enjoyed many of your other works, and encountered all manner of writers and readers extolling your virtues.

    Claire Cooney has said that you taught her everything she knows about writing. If this is so, we owe you a great deal, because Claire is fantastic, and getting better by the minute. Thank you for being the sort of writer who is willing to share wisdom and expertise with other writers. And thank you for writing things which make us think.

    Best,
    Julia Rios

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  20. I'm celebrating a birthday too: my second year as a Roman Catholic.

    Had it not been for the awe with which I read BOTNS and the realization that there was a lot more here than in most fantasy stories ...

    Had I not read in an interview with you somewhere that you were a Catholic and that your faith seeps into your work whether consciously or otherwise ...

    And had I not picked up GKC's 'Everlasting Man' and was affected by it as you claimed to be ...

    Then I'd be celebrating my 42nd birthday as an atheist instead!

    For these profound reasons and also just many pleasant evenings lost in your tales I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

    Have a happy birthday Gene.

    Mark Lewin

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  21. Happy Birthday from the staff of Locus Magazine!

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  22. Happy birthday, Mr. Wolfe!

    I only started reading your work a couple years ago and have been kicking myself for not doing it sooner; the experience has been challenging, joyful, and enriching. Your writing exemplifies the best of what science fiction can be. Thank you so much.

    - Nev

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  23. Many happy returns, Gene! I hope you have a wonderful 80th birthday.

    The landscapes of your imagination haunt the vistas of my dreams and silently overlay my every vision of the mundane world, making the familiar infinitely strange and the bizarre subtly familiar.

    Thank you for all your words and for all your many kindnesses. All being well, Teri should have my gift to pass on to you.

    As ever,

    Nigel

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  24. Dear Mr. Wolfe,

    I've enjoyed your work for many years and hope to enjoy it for many more. Have a wonderful birthday, and may it be filled with a fraction of the joy your works have brought me over the years. I say a fraction because that's probably as much as one person could handle in a single day.

    Best,

    Keith West

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  25. Happy Birthday Mr. Wolfe!

    Your work has been sometimes frustrating, sometimes confusing, sometimes intriguing, sometimes exciting, but always, always a time well spent.

    Best Wishes,

    John Ottinger III
    Grasping for the Wind.com

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  26. Happy Birthday, Gene! The Book of the New Sun still remains some of the best literature I've ever read.

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  27. Happy Birthday Dark Dark Gene Wolfe

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  28. Hello, and happy birthday! The Book of the New Sun changed my life. Thank you for writing it.

    I could go on, but there are many other wishes here besides mine, and I don't wish to get maudlin. I hope my meaning and genuine feeling shines through these simple words.

    ~ A.R. Nakama

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  29. Your work is edifying, Gene. Throughout my life I've been through St. Augustine, Borges, Espinoza, Thomas Mann, Thomas Aquinas, Llull, Eco, Plato, Carl Banks... They wrote well and had interesting ideas. But you write edifyingly. Maybe not everyone will be a better person by reading you, but many will. It's not entertainment, it's service. Let all the good you do in and to this world of God really be rewarding. I take the opportunity provided by this special occasion to THANK YOU.

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  30. Thank you for letting me walk along with Severian and Latro, and for exploring many variations on "Doctor," "Death," and "Island," and letting me see the "Eyeflash Miracles" and the asteroid tombs of "Memorare" and the multi-layered world of Able and so much else. I hope you have gotten as much pleasure out of the writing as we have out of the reading. Happy Birthday!

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  31. Happy Birthday, Mr. Wolfe! You are an artist and a genius of the finest calibre. The Book of the New Sun will always remain one of my favorite and most life-changing books.

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  32. Dear Gene -- A very happy 80th birthday to you, with long strings of virtual ticker-tape and tiny flecks of digital confetti!

    Eileen

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  33. Happy birthday! In a very real sense, celebrating you is one of the reasons Readercon exists, and I'm very pleased and proud to be part of putting that celebration together. I hope to see you at this year's Readercon and many more.

    Best wishes,
    Rose Fox

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  34. Dear Mr. Wolfe -

    I've not read nearly enough of your work. Nevertheless, I will heartily wish you a blessed and happy 80th birthday!

    Suzy Jacobson

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  35. Happy birthday! I've no presumption that you might remember me, but I was fortunate enough to take a writing class from you about 15 years ago. I learned so much from you. But even then, I don't think I ever got a chance to tell you how much the Book of the New Sun meant to me. It shaped and defined the way I saw (and still see) both fantasy and science fiction. Thank you for sharing your creativity and talent.

    Monte Cook

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  36. I am a "new" fan, as in I read The Wizard Knight before any of your other books.

    It is a magnificent piece of work. Greater than any other fantasy book I've ever read. I don't think I really understood the idea of building another world - although I had enjoyed it previously - before that. At least not as a work of art.

    Wizard Knight is a beautiful, primal thing, and I love it. Thank you so much for creating it and, I suppose, for continuing to create after such prodigious success creating over the years.

    So Happy Birthday, and I wish you many more years in which to create, write, and simply enjoy life.

    -Alex Clements

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  37. Happy birthday, Mr. Wolfe!

    You are the finest prose stylist writing in English today, regardless of genre. I admire your work more than I can express. Thank you for enriching my life and sparking my imagination. Cheers!

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  38. Happy Birthday! Your incredible writing has filled my life with joy and wonder. Thank you for inspiring me! Here's wishing you many more years filled with health, creativity, and love.

    -- Lois Buhalis

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  39. Thank you for the beautiful gifts of your imagination. You and your books are an inspiration and a joy.

    I hope that on your birthday, you are surrounded by people who bring you happiness, and I hope that you know just how amazing you are and how much your writing has sent out ripples into the world: inspiring, entertaining, and challenging.

    Happy 80th Birthday to one of our finest writers and best storytellers.

    Much love,
    Valya Dudycz Lupescu

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  40. ¡ʎɐpʎɹǝʌǝ ssǝuıddɐɥ ʎɐpɥʇɹıq

    ¡sǝıɹoʇs lnɟɹǝpuoʍ ǝɥʇ ɹoɟ xuɐɥʇ

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  41. Dear Mr. Wolfe:

    Congratulations upon the occasion of your completion of 80 orbits around The Near Sun. My own orbits around this star have been enormously enriched by your sharing of beautiful stories of fellow travelers of suns new and old and long and short.

    With warm regards,
    Chris

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  42. I picked up the SHADOW & CLAW quartet about five years ago and became an instant fan. Just started LATRO IN THE MIST. You're a great writer, Mr. Wolfe.

    Hope you enjoy your 80th birthday!

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  43. Happy birthday, Mr. Wolfe! We've never met, but your writing has very much affected me. Here's hoping your 80th is as wonderful as the other 79. :-)

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  44. Happy Birthday, Gene! I'm the one who read the Long Sun series and couldn't get the question WWSD (What Would Silk Do?) out of my head as I went about my daily duties as a minister! Keep writing!

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  45. Happy birthday, Mr. Wolfe! For me it began with "Fifth Head of Cerberus", and now I own and have read all your novels and as many short stories as I can find! To say I am a fan is an understatement. I would like to pay you a compliment: you have improved my vocabulary. I thank you. I look forward to many more stories and many more worlds.

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  46. Dear Mr. Wolfe,

    I hope you have the very best 80th birthday a man could ever dream of. I don't have any particularly poignant stories to share, but I am one of the many people who have been deeply affected by your work. Sometimes I have been amused, often times challenged, and always entertained; your stories have enriched my life in ways that I could only express if I had your own gift for words.

    I'll raise a glass on your birthday to your good health and many, many more years of exceptional storytelling and happiness.

    -- Jason Ramboz

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  47. Mr Wolfe,
    You've opened my eyes to new things. Happy Birthday.
    -dustin gilbert

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  48. Happy birthday, Mr. Wolfe! I read Book of the New Sun two years ago and I must say that it changed how I see fantasy now. It's with great joy that I see how much of your work I still have yet to read. Eight years of excellence! I hope that you have a lovely day, sir.

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  49. An article in the Review of Science Fiction was the introduction. The best martial art was Gracie jujitsu and the best book was the Book of the New Sun. I am still wrestling with both of them. Happy Birthday, Wolfe sensei!

    -William Small
    Ibaraki, Japan

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  50. As it happens, I just finished re-reading Book of the New Sun and am almost through re-reading Litany of the Long Sun. I could re-read just about all your books and I do. I confess there are some I haven't read yet, mainly because once I do I will have run out of anything like them to look forward to!

    Happy Birthday, Mr. Wolfe!

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  51. Happy Birthday, Mr. Wolfe

    I invoke your work constantly, especially that wonderful essay in Castle of Days where you describe the geography of the 'world' of F and SF.

    You yourself have a realm of your own there, to be sure.

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  52. Happy Birthday Mr. Wolfe!

    Thanks you for your amazing gift to us readers. And thanks for making other writers having to work really hard even come close to your craft. I am convinced you have made many a writer better b y trying to aspire to your level. And I am sure you have made many a writer quit when they realized they would never be able to come even close.

    Happy Birthday!

    Your faithful reader
    Joerg

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  53. Dear Mr Wolfe,

    Happy birthday to you and best wishes to you and your family.

    Thank you for the hours of pleasure your novels and stories have given me. I go back to them again and again -- especially The Book of the New Sun. Your works have expanded my idea of what fiction is capable of.

    --Z
    (favorite short stories: Forlesen, Westwind, and The Eyeflash Miracles)

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  54. Mister Wolfe:

    It is a fantastic pleasure to read your work, & I want to say thank you for it. The way that J.R.R. Tolkien's work consumed my teenage years is nicely mirrored in my adult obsession with your work. I will toast to your health again & again, sir!

    Mordicai.

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  55. Happy birthday, Gene.

    So when am I going to see a new story from you?

    ---Gordon V.G.

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  56. Very Happy Birthday

    .......and thanks for all the fish.

    Paul

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  57. I consider you the greatest living writer in English, and I'm not sure I can express in words how I feel as I read your books (although you, no doubt, could).

    Happy birthday!

    Michael

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  58. Happy Birthday, Mr. Wolfe.

    I've always thought of you as my "desert island" writer since you've written so many great books that have made me think, laugh, gasp, and reach for the dictionary more than those of any other writer.

    Thank you so much!

    Neal

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  59. Happy 80th Birthday Gene!

    Thank you for putting your thoughts and stories on paper for all of us to enjoy! And also, thank you for attending Madcon last year! It was a real pleasure meeting and have coffee with you and your wife. I'll always be an enormous fan!

    -Ryan Buller

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  60. Happy Birthday. Thank you for all your stories.

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  61. Dear Gene, the clean version of this birthday card is, you are a star in the literary heavens and all that good stuff, but you're also a good guy. No ifs ands buts or moderations.

    Less clean snail in transit.

    Love & smoochies,
    Jennifer Stevenson

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  62. Happy Birthday, you Raggedy Man, you. Thank you not only for your stories and your advice and your friendship, but also for just being that wonderful, special you, dreamer of dreams, sailor of the far, far oceans. Happy Birthday!

    Hugs and love,
    Judi & Byron & Li'l Pirate

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  63. Happy birthday, Mr. Wolfe. We haven't corresponded in a few months, but I'll always treasure the signed copy of Strange Birds you sent me. You'll be getting my card in a few days. Give my best to your family.

    From Aaron Singleton and family

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  64. Dear Mr. Wolfe,

    Happy 80th birthday!

    Thank you for all of your fantastic stories, many of which I am sure I will never finish re-reading and unpacking. I particularly love The Book of the Long Sun, which I had the pleasure of researching for my honours thesis last year. I will forever be a great fan of your work.

    Best,

    Zachary Kendal

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  65. Hi there,

    We met at C.S.E. Cooney's Jack of the Hills' release party at Top Shelf Books. I loved your reading and greatly appreciate the time you've given to creating epic and gorgeous, fantastic worlds.

    Happy Birthday!

    Patty Templeton

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  66. Happy birthday Mr. Raggedy man!! Miss you and love ya. Have the best birthday ever!
    Tell rosemary i said hello.

    -lil pirate

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  67. Many happy returns of the day!

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  68. Dear Mr. Gene Wolfe,

    I hope you have a fantastic 80th birthday. I read "Soldier of the Mist" in 6th grade. It is one of my favorite books. I find your work engaging and inspirational. Thanks for sharing your talent with the world.

    Best wishes,

    A. Jarrell Hayes

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  69. For as long as I have lived I have never wished anyone felicitations for a joyous natal day yet once I saw the exiguous layout of this dithyramb page I knew I must participate. Or did I? Was it me at all? Was this nothing more than a half remembered command from the grinning megatherium at the old gallery. Nothing is clear to me but I hope your natal day is undisturbed by his horrid hypsodont teeth.

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  70. Dear Mr. Wolfe,

    Happy birthday, and thank you for many puzzling hours.

    Andrew DeWeese

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  71. Dear Mr Wolfe, have a happy and glorious birthday.

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  72. Happy Birthday Mr. Wolfe, and thanks for introducing me to Severian and his world. Best wishes from the UK,

    Adam Whitehead

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  73. Dear Mr. Wolfe,

    may your words flow clearly and beautifully for many years still.

    Much love from Norway,

    Mats Sypriansen

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  74. Happy freaking birthday, sir. Here's to ten billion more!

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  75. Dear Mr. Wolfe,

    Happy Birthday and thanks for all of your wonderful and beautiful stories. How well I remember my first read of The Book of the New Sun. I started reading The Shadow of the Torturer on a Friday evening while home from college; I don't think I did anything else that weekend but read your brilliant novel. Certainly I resented any distractions to the best reading experience I had had since I first opened Tolkien's books.

    In the years since I read The Book of the New Sun, you've become my favorite author and I had the honor and the pleasure to meet you and Rosemary at Readercon 2009. I remain very grateful for your kindness to a nervous and fawning fan. It meant a great deal to me.

    Again, Thank You and Happy Birthday!

    Sincerely,

    -Matt Keeley

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  76. The Wolfeman is 80
    His opus is weighty
    The candles won't fit on the cake
    Read him once for the pleasure
    Twice for the treasure
    That's one appetite you won't slake

    Patrick O'Leary

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  77. Hey Gene,

    Thanks for so many wonderful and intricately constructed books. I hope your birthday is awesome!

    --George

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  78. Dear Mr. Wolfe,

    You have been and continue to be an exceptional inspiration. The depth and sophistication of your voice, the poetry of your craft, and the beauty of your works have all been tremendous influences on me, my work, and my studio. I can only hope to someday repay the kindness of your imagination to some future generation.

    Thank you, Sir!

    Happy Birthday.

    Christopher Merwin,
    Publisher,
    BlackStar Studios

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  79. Dear Mr. Wolfe,

    Thank you. For leading me to Chesterton, for writing the Book of Gold, and for reminding me that the most important thing in fiction is hope: thank you.

    Happy 80th!

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  80. Happy birthday!
    Russell Impagliazzo

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  81. Dear Mr. Wolfe,

    Happy 80th Birthday! I'd like to thank you for your many wonderful works. They were a godsend and treasured gift to me in tough years: reading The Books of the New Sun, Long Sun, and Short Sun during high school gave me much inspiration and hope. They are mysterious and labyrinthine Books of Gold that encourage writing and imaginative transformation. I look forward to re-reading them throughout my life.

    Much happiness to you, your wife, and family,

    Daryn

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  82. Happy Birthday Mr. Wolfe!

    I'm a curious case here because so far I haven't ever completed The Book of the New Sun. I tried several times. The funny thing is it's not because there's sth wrong with the books. Quite the opposite - they are so engrossing, so perfectly-woven, so demanding - that my mundane earthly life gets in the way every time and forces me to break the spell before reaching the end.

    Last time I went all the way to The Citadel of the Autarch :>.

    From the first time I read The Shadow of the Torturer on the pages of the main Polish SF magazine in the early 90'ties when I was an awe-stricken teenage boy till now I hold you as one of the greatest writers works of I ever had chances to know.

    All the best to you,

    Sincerely,
    Piotr

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  83. Happy Birthday Wolfe Gene,
    From the planet of Green,
    Where the skeeters are vicious,
    But the nightlife's a scream!

    Second verse is a chore,
    It can feel like a bore,
    I would rather read your book,
    Or three, or four.

    Hark, here's a bridge
    With a pattern that is new
    Just when you thought
    That the thing was finally through!

    For this Happy Birthday,
    I would just like to say,
    That my present's not ready,
    But it will be ... someday!

    So we come to verse four,
    Swirling spirits and more,
    If the end is confusing,
    There's a world to explore!

    --Michael Andre-Driussi

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  84. Esteemed sir:

    About six years ago I began teaching physics at a high school in Virginia. In my first week on the job, I discovered among the contents of my classroom's expansive storage closet a paperback collection of short works of science fiction, which included "The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories." It was wise and powerful and deeply true, and I read and re-read it something like once a week for the rest of that year. The following summer I found and devoured "The Book of the New Sun," which dazzled me and puzzled me and got into my dreams. Ever since then I've been reading everything of yours on which I could lay hands. Thank you for letting the rest of us into some of the worlds inside your head. I wish you a very happy birthday, sir. May the richest blessings of the Increate be upon you and your family.

    With much respect,
    --Tim

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  85. A very happy birthday to you, Mr. Wolfe!

    Over the years since I first picked up a copy of The Shadow of the Torturer (I think it was in 1985), your works have instilled me with a rare sense of wonder and an appreciation for things which occur where the eye does not see.

    At times they gave me a creeping sense of dread, or inspired profound contemplation. In many cases they told me something that dearly didn't want to hear.

    Joy also, and befuddlement too... and confusion frequently... and whatever you call that jiggly twitch that you get in one eyeball every so often for no apparent reason.

    I thank you for all of them!

    Many happy returns!
    Lars Madsen

    P.S. I think you also gave me something that is now living in a shoebox under my bed, but based on the noises coming from it, that could have been Neil's. I can't be sure, so I won't thank you for that on the off chance the it belongs to Mr. Gaiman instead; he might send another one to keep it company and I barely sleep through the night as it is.

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  86. Mr. Wolfe,

    I have not been an assiduous rereader in my life -- too many new books! -- but one book I have read several times, learning more every time, is THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS. What a complete wonder that is! And so too are so many more of your novels, to say nothing of the stories -- your many many novellas are by far the greatest collection of work at that length I know of from any writer in any field.

    Many happy returns on your 80th birthday, and I hope there will be many more to come -- if for nothing else in the selfish hope that I will be able to continue to reprint your stories in my anthologies!

    --
    Rich Horton

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  87. Your work continues to delight and surprise me, read after re-read. Thank you for instilling in me the love of words and the desire to tell stories. I wish you a happy 80th, and many years to come!

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  88. Dear Mr Wolfe
    Any attempt to put into words how much your books have meant to me would be inadequate - only someone with your ability would be capable of vocalizing these thoughts. What I will say is that you are simply the best. Thank you so much for everything, and especially for Severian.
    Happy birthday
    S

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  89. Happy Birthday Mr. Wolfe
    May the Furies lose the thread of your life so we can have you for another 80 years.

    Thanks for everything :)

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  90. Happy Birthday Mr.Wolfe. To many more years!

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  91. Dear Mr. Wolfe,

    You are not 'only' the US National Treasure but also the World Literary Treasure.
    You may smile, or laugh, and say that this statement is too bombastic or pompous, but the fact is that your books are read, appreciated, and loved everywhere.

    I do hope you are in good health. So, Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday!

    Czech translator of The Shadow of the Torturer (Mučitelúv stín, Baronet 1995),

    Václav Kříž

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  92. Happy birthday, Mr Wolfe, all the very best. Meanwhile, the unnamed other who haunts this text wishes you a haunted ambiguity. Or does he?

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  93. Mr. Wolfe, Seeing how much love you and your wife share with each other left a big impression on me. I hope that each of you are able to share many more happy birthdays.

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  94. Dear Mr. Wolfe,

    You blow my mind.
    Therefore, I love you.

    Kat Hooper
    www.fantasyliterature.com

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  95. Happy Birthday, Mr. Wolfe. Your works have been some of the greatest literary pleasures in my life.

    Stefan
    www.fantasyliterature.com

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  96. Mr Wolfe,
    Thank you for the hours I've loved so much, being in your strange and wonderful world, following Severian and Dorcas... This is one of the most beautiful memory of reading I have.

    I wish you a very happy birthday.

    Cecile.

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  97. A happy 80th Birthday to you, Mr. Wolfe. The Book of the New Sun was a work to parry with the Lord of The Ring.

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  98. Happy Birthday Mr. Wolfe! Count me as another who fell in love with your work reading The Wizard Knight, which remains my favorite, though I'm also quite fond of Latro, the Long Sun, and the Short Sun. I fully intend to continue reading and re-reading your work for the rest of my life, and I cannot thank you enough for the joy you have brought me.

    Good fishing! Good fishing! Good fishing!

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  99. Happy Birthday!

    I am glad that of all the times you could have existed, in all the ages that man has toiled on this earth, you were in my time (let's phrase that properly - that I was in YOUR time).

    We moved often when I was a child, and as a natural introvert my books were sometimes my only friends, so I feel like you have always been there in one way or another, speaking to me in the voiceless silence.

    Once in the seventh grade on a school information sheet, it asked students to write our favorite book. I thought for a second and put something I hadn't read in a few years, The Shadow of the Torturer, mostly for shock value of the title, then I vowed to go home and re-read it that day. And lo, I was more right than even I knew, and it was even more amazing than I remembered. It wasn't a lie, but it seems time fully justifies our truths, too.

    No one could ever replace you, and I hope you enjoy your birthday! You are a great man and the greatest of artists! Thank you for all the inexpressibly profound joy you have given me over the years.

    Your friend,
    Marc Aramini

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  100. Happy Birthday, Mr. Wolfe! I'll raise a glass—or at least a mug of tea—in your honor on Saturday. You have given me many fine hours of entertainment (and more than a few hours of puzzled wonder!) for which I am hugely grateful. Happy days: and, of course, many more!
    Cheers,
    Gavin

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  101. Dear Mr Wolfe,

    Happy 80th Birthday. Your works have given me so much over the years. Thanks for the Book of Gold, and the many subtle and significant ways your books have integrated themselves into who I am - or at the very least, the way they have changed how I see the world.

    Very Best Wishes and many thanks,
    Dan Creighton

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  102. Happy 80th, Gene. Thanks for your books and the great library within them. I'm looking forward the wings you will add to it.

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  103. That erstwhile Houstonian, Gene,
    Reached an age of some five times sixteen.
    Binarily numbered,
    1010 times 100.
    Fantastic! (if somewhat obscene.)

    Gene, dear, dear man, may you have cake in abundance, and candles to turn galaxies green. The blessings of the generous upon you and your dear Rosemary forever.
    Rory Cooney

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  104. 80 years is a long time, Gene. And this feels strange. I've known your fiction for more than 20 years so far, and that's a majority of my lifetime still.

    So, happy birthday, and deep thanks for all the years, all the magical moments, and the wonderful phrases.

    Thankyou.

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  105. Dear Mr. Wolfe--

    Once upon a time (it was the late 1990s) I was a software engineer at a company that was then known as Earth's Biggest Bookstore. In the first years, the job was a fine one, but the company grew substantially and soon became much more (and somehow much less) than a purveyor of books, so I left that job to become a bookseller at a small independent brick-and-mortar shop, a much more rewarding (if less remunerative) position.

    A customer there engaged me in a conversation one day about what was new in the realm of SF and fantasy, and my description of one particular title (I believe it was China Mieville's Perdido Street Station) prompted him to say that it reminded him of something called The Book of the New Sun. His endorsement was enough for me to take a chance and order a copy of the first volume.

    Within a couple of days, I'd ordered the second volume, closely followed by The Fifth Head of Cerberus, Latro in the Mist, and I don't know how many other works. I was completely swept away by the quality of your writing, never before having read anything that was simultaneously so imaginative, original, and pleasingly complex. You rejuvenated my interest in SF and fantasy at the same time you showed how meaningless it can be to draw a distinction between Genre and Literature.

    Ever since, I have been delighted to buy, read, and sell each of your new works as you've published them. I can't count the times I've quoted Michael Swanwick's praise of you as "the greatest writer in the English language" and Ursula Le Guin's characterization of you as "our Melville."

    I hope it's not inappropriate on this occasion to reach all the way back to the opening of your career, but I must say that I have a particular fondness for your novel Peace. I always try to find a place for it on our staff picks shelf, fronted by a tiny handwritten tag promising great things to anyone who opens its unprepossessing cover: "Read this and suffer a sea change into something rich and strange." I take great pride each time this deep and wonderful book crosses the counter and finds a home in the hands of a new reader.

    I still have connections at my old place of business, so I was able to confirm that my little store sold more copies in a year than that internet behemoth did. I know it's not much, but it seemed to me the best kind of gift a bookseller could offer to a favorite writer.

    Best wishes to you, and many happy returns of the day.

    Cordially yours,
    James Crossley

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  106. Happy birthday Mr. Wolfe, and thanks for all the amazing books.

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  107. Happy Birthday. Thanks for so many enjoyable books and taking the time to share with me the few times we've met at conventions.

    Its been a pleasure to run the Lupine Nuncio blog, though its fallen into neglect a bit, which is my fault.

    Congratulations on your 80th and best wishes to you and your family.

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  108. Dear Gene,

    A very merry un-unbirthday to you!
    Remember, you're not getting older... you're getting curioser!

    Much love to you and Rosemary,
    Jordan

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  109. Happy 80th Mr. Wolfe,

    Picturing a thousand layer cake and all your characters assembled to cheer your day. There's Cyby to light the first candle with his torch and there's Emery Bainbridge with his new wife. He's looking younger than ever. What is it that makes him so creepy? I think that's Suzanne Delage settling an argument between Thag and Nadan's girlfriend...I love all of them. Thank you.

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  110. My small apartment is overflowing with books, but yours always reside in a place of honor.

    I wish you the happiest of days, with many more to come. Cheers!

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  111. Meilleurs voeux pour un heureux anniversaire and many happy returns! Many thanks for long hours spent in many strange worlds which have stayed with me through the persistence of fiction vision.

    ...and looking forward to the 4th Soldier book (last year I translated SOLDIER OF SIDON into French).

    -- Patrick MARCEL

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  112. Have a wonderful magical birthday Gene

    How I have loved your books, you have showed me amazing worlds and people and I thank you.

    Happy Birthday,
    Steven Sokolies

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  113. Dear Mr. Wolfe,

    paljon onnea from Finland!

    yours sincerely, Johanna Vainikainen-Uusitalo

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  114. Paljon onnea! Very happy birthday, Mr. Wolfe!
    Yours, Hannu Blommmila, Finland

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  115. Happy birthday, Gene. Thanks for all the words, and here's to many more of the same.
    ~ Marta Randall

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  116. Nobody reads this far in a comment thread, but nevertheless: Felix natalis habeas, Magister Lupe! Sic latramus nos omnes.

    James Enge

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  117. Dear Gene,

    Thank you for the many years of encouragement, challenge and kindness. I am very glad you were born!

    Love,
    Ellen

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  118. Happy Birthday!

    --Luke McGuff

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  119. Happy Birthday, Mr. Wolfe, from a longtime reader and admirer. You may or may not not be a fan of Paul Krugman, but based on the title of a blog post today, he is a fan of yours! A sly birthday tribute?

    --Paul Witcover

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  120. Dear Gene,

    A wee note to thank you for the contribution your writings have made to my life since I was 14 (now 37). I celebrated your birthday by thrusting a copy of "Shadow of the Torturer" at a poor unsuspecting friend, and then received, a few days later, a ransom note, demanding the sequel in exchange for the safe return of the first book.

    Jonathan Laidlow

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  121. Dear Gene,

    I have enjoyed knowing you over the years. You are loved by my whole family and we all love your stories. Happy 80th Hope you have a great one.

    Jack Bushong-Taylor

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  122. Gene, thank you for all your work has given to me.
    Have a great birthday and year!

    - Bob Colby

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  123. Gene, I knew your birthday was today (as mine is tomorrow) but I had no idea you were hitting such a wonderfully round number! Congratulations and all the best to you and Rosemary.

    And, oh yes, you've written the Books of Gold for me (but I think you knew that already).

    - Eric Van

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  124. Dear Mr. Wolfe,

    Happy 80th birthday! I hope it has been an enjoyable one. Thank you for sharing your breathtaking stories with us. My small NYC apartment has two "Wolfe" shelves just for your books. They are hoarded and saved for when I need a tale that will reach into heart and head and gut, shuffle things a bit, and make the world look a shade different. Every one is a treat.

    Best wishes,
    Dawn Antoline

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  125. Dear Mr. Wolfe,
    Happy Birthday! Thank you for all the hours of enjoyment that your books have provided.

    Brian London

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  126. Dear Mr Wolfe,

    A very happy belated 80th birthday to you! I hope you are still partying.

    "Things act of themselves or not at all" - and when I read those words again after a gap of some years they were as familiar to me and as tangible as an old coin, engraved on my memory as clearly as if in metal. It must be true.

    Many happy returns, sir, and my profoundest thanks. One day I *will* work out what happens in "Suzanne Delage".

    Peter Westlake.

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  127. Dear Mr. Wolfe,

    I have been devouring your books as if they were the first I'd ever read. In a way they are, singular and unique, each one a treat in their own way. I hope this finds you well, if not? I may just have to write you a fan letter in thanks.

    Sincerely,

    David Childs

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