2013-07-18

Sciencfikcio en Esperanto (14): Jacques-Louis Mahé

Jacques-Louis Mahé (1912-1992) was a professional photographer and prominent Esperantist. See also entry, photos and reviews in Originala literaturo Esperanta (OLE). Mahé wrote much popular fiction under the pseudonym "Lorjak."

Mahé also ventured into making films in Esperanto: Antaŭen (= Forward, 1936), a propaganda film about Esperanto, and Angoroj (= Agonies, 1964), the first feature-length film entirely in Esperanto. Angoroj was a crime story, and featured prominent Esperantist Raymond Schwartz among others. Note that it antedates the now-infamous Incubus (1966). See also the article in Esperanto in Vikipedio: Angoroj.  There is also an entry on Angoroj in the Internet Movie Database. You can watch the first 7 minutes of the film (plus one minute advert), narrated by eminent Esperantist Gaston Waringhien, on YouTube. The entire film, once thought lost forever, can now be downloaded (assuming the links are up-to-date).

Esperantists interested in this subject matter can easily obtain this information now. But here is a virtually unknown piece of information, learned via English, and not yet found in Esperanto. As documented in my post Sciencfikcio en Esperanto (13): International Science Fiction (4), a story supposedly from the Netherlands but actually translated from Esperanto is included in the first of two issues of International Science Fiction (no. 1, November 1967):

Netherlands: "They Still Jump" by J. L. Mahe, translated by Clarkson Crane (pp. 91-100).

I will soon make a web page out of the front cover, inside front cover, and table of contents, and later probably scan this story as well. There remains one mystery to be solved: what and where is the Esperanto original of this story?

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