Ansible 463 Supplement Ansible 463 SupplementCharles Platt remembers James Sallis
Charles Platt and James Sallis, 1969
I met James Sallis when he moved to London in the 1960s and acquired an influential role in New Worlds magazine, writing stories and coediting some issues. He rented an apartment that was opposite mine on Portobello Road. Then he moved back to New York City, where he lived with Christine Resnais in a tiny studio apartment in the East Village. When I visited the US in 1969, I slept on the floor at Jim’s place and we ate dinner at the Automat which used to exist on West 14th Street.
The photograph was taken in 1969 when I arrived at JFK and Jim was there to meet me. He immediately told me that he had no money, and asked me to pay for a taxi back to Manhattan. “No need,” I said. “The airline issued free bus tickets, and I got an extra one for you.”
“Oh,” he said, looking unhappy about it.
That pretty much set the pattern for Jim and myself. He was a fine writer but really was a bit of a grifter, in those days. When he could no longer pay the rent on his tiny East Village apartment, he moved in to the Algonquin Hotel, using a Bank of America credit card that he had received unexpectedly in the mail (which was not uncommon back then). When his credit ran out, he moved to a house in Milford, where he confided to me that Damon Knight was helping him to survive. “This may sound a bit self-congratulatory,” he said, “But Damon thinks I am a kind of literary genius.”
He sold his first novel as a portion and outline to Mark Haefele, the editor at Doubleday. Then he somehow managed to sell Mark a second novel, as portion and outline, before he had written the first – a feat that impressed me greatly.
Jim did indeed write with unusual talent, although personally I didn’t understand most of his stories. Despite my involvement in the “New Wave”, I was really a fan of Analog under the editorship of John W. Campbell Jr. Jim regarded my simple literary tastes with amused tolerance.
After 1970, I lost contact with him, but I was forever indebted to him for having introduced me to Christine. She gave me the courage I needed to leave the UK. I was very fond of her. She, alas, died of a freak prescription drug interaction many years ago.
Charles Platt
1 February 2026