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Post by monker on Feb 22, 2012 20:53:01 GMT
In the introduction to Someone in the Dark, Derleth writes: "Perhaps it is not to my credit that I have never taken the time to write a really first-rate ghost story; indeed, out of some two hundred, less than a score stand up under a second reading. I have no intention, however, of making excuses; I wrote those ghost stories in the hope that they might entertain others as much as the writing of them entertained me." I'm really going to have to buy that Pelan collection one of these days. I own "Who shall I say is Calling" the best of August Derleth. It was the only one of the 4 volumes that I could afford. And as far as the Pelan "Century's Best" goes, I swore to myself NO MORE HARDBACKS!! No Room! No money! It's a terrible addiction! "Hi! My name is Doug and I'm a bookaholic!" I know how you feel. Did you get that collection straight from their website because I'm kind of paranoid about any book that you can't get through Amazon. Just ask James Doig (I PM'd him once over one of his anthologies).
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Post by doug on Feb 23, 2012 5:38:03 GMT
I own "Who shall I say is Calling" the best of August Derleth. It was the only one of the 4 volumes that I could afford. And as far as the Pelan "Century's Best" goes, I swore to myself NO MORE HARDBACKS!! No Room! No money! It's a terrible addiction! "Hi! My name is Doug and I'm a bookaholic!" I know how you feel. Did you get that collection straight from their website because I'm kind of paranoid about any book that you can't get through Amazon. Just ask James Doig (I PM'd him once over one of his anthologies). Hi! Yes, I ordered straight from the Derleth Society. They even tossed in 4 post cards with the old "Weird Tales" cover art that they used. www.derleth.org/books.htmltake care. Doug
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Post by dem bones on Feb 23, 2012 20:00:30 GMT
Another nice pair from Not Long For This World.
After You, Mr. Henderson: Indomitable cousin Laetitia is all that has stood between the three brothers Henderston stooping to some serious stock market malpractice, but now she's dead - hoorah! Time to put their fool-proof scheme into operation and make a killing on the shareholders' investments. But even though she's laid out on a mortuary slab, Laetitia isn't prepared to let the avaricious trio tarnish the proud name of Henderson, Henderson & Henderson.
Feigman's Beard: Bullying slob Eb Feigman sells the prize hogs belonging to his half-sister, Martha, without seeking her consent. When she demands her share of the money, he slaps her around some. Martha turns to the local witch, the Widow Klopp, for help, thinking to get back at Eb through his pride and joy, the bushy red beard he's always a fussin' over. This is one service the widow is happy to perform for free: she's been waiting for an opportunity to strike back at Eb ever since he took advantage of Mr. Klopp's death to steal half her land. She tells Martha to bring her Eb's looking-glass so she can summon the Devil to sit on it. I don't know anything about magic myself, but at this point i'm guessing Mrs. Klopp has a whole lot worse in mind for Eb than a bald chin. So it proves.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 19, 2012 13:06:28 GMT
A Derleth lucky dip! Vincent Napoli The Slayers And The Slain: ( Weird Tales, Sept. 1949). "What if everything behind the printed page could make itself felt?" A variation on The Lonesome Place. I think Derleth was maybe attempting something in the style of Robert Bloch this time. As students, the narrator and his friend Ken Hurley fretted that every murderer and every victim recorded in print walked the lonely lower floors of the Wisconsin Historical Society Library after closing time. Hurley even claims to have witnessed Burke and Hare going about their nefarious business down there. Twenty years later, and the narrator is now employed as a librarian. He thinks back to these self-manufactured ghosts of his youth and insists that the students give the newspaper archive a wide berth of an evening. But Darwin Vesper - subject: abnormal psychology - will not be told. He has a paper on mass murderers to complete and he'll remain all night if needs be! Reprinted in Derleth's Lonesome Places (Arkham House, 1962), me read it via Peter Haining's The Nightmare Reader. Compliments Of Spectro: ( Weird Tales, November-December, 1941). Bertin Aswell is the prolific author of a best-selling but critically panned series of novels featuring Spectro, the gentleman avenger, whose "impish signature [is] as widely known as the swastika." When Aswell receives a manuscript from aspiring author Gabriel Weedle, he assures the pimple faced youngster it is unpublishable, promptly rewrites it as the latest Spectro money spinner. Weedle, however, tries elsewhere and when his story goes to print, Aswell screams "plagiarism!" and the public agree. The injured party throws himself from Westminster Bridge. Well! Spectro being such a stickler for fair play (Derleth describes him as an amalgam of Simon Templar, Fu Manchu and The Four Just Men), we are not sure that he will care for his creator's lamentable behaviour one bit! I loved this one. Derleth included it in his first collection, Someone in the Dark (Arkham House, 1941: Jove, 1978) but i had to settle for the reprint in Kurt Singer's Tales Of The Macabre (Nel, Dec 1969). Derleth has drawn the pompous, self-aggrandising author with a grossly inflated sense of his his or her own literary merit just so. A Thin Gentleman With Gloves: ( Weird Tales, Nov 1943; as by 'Simon West'): "His business was drawn largely from Whitechapel, Limehouse, Soho and Wapping along the Thames. More unsavoury areas of London could hardly be imagined." Ha! Derleth's been at his trusty 'The London Map of Solar Pons' again. Corbin Bellaman, bent lawyer, attempts to cheat the old flame of his late client, Alonzo Potter, Black Magician, of her £50, 000 inheritance and blow the lot on the horses. Simeon Brown, the dead man's equally deceased familiar, digs himself out of a grave in Upper Leshaway cemetery to dispense justice.
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Post by dem bones on Jul 25, 2012 20:54:58 GMT
More Derleth, one stage, one film. Boris Dolgov Lady Macbeth Of Pimley Square: ( Weird Tales, July 1944). Mrs Abernethy Jenks of the Pimley Square Community Players fancies herself the next Sarah Bernhardt and after a stint playing Lady Macbeth, begins to identify with her role to the extent that her husband gets nervous and hires psychiatrist Dr. Wightman to cure the diva of her delusions. Wightman decides it would be financially advantageous to pronounce her schizophrenic and tells Jenks that the best solution would be to have her perform and bribe the critics to give her terrible reviews, that will shake her out of this nonsense. Unfortunately, Mrs. Jenks gives such a convincing performance that these same hacks go away raving about her. She's now got it into her head that she must kill brother-in-law, Repley, so Abernerthy can take over the family business. Mr. Abrams, a spiritualist, realises that she's not only possessed, but her astral self is capable of murder and volunteers his services. Wightman won't have some mumbo jumbo merchant muscling in on his cash cow and keeps him at arms length, leaving Lady Macbeth free to strike down her victim. Headline For Tod Shayne ( Fantastic Adventures, July 1942): Much better. Hollywood heart-throb Shayne is an incorrigible publicity seeker and, to promote his latest blockbuster, Spawn Of Love, he agrees to investigate the reputedly haunted Botil House in Park Lane where 'Slasher' Lewes carved up his victims. Soon a copycat killer is at large in Soho, but not to worry. Hunky Shayne gets the front pages all to himself!
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Post by mcannon on Jul 29, 2012 10:00:38 GMT
Hullo folks- long-time lurker, first-time poster (to coin a phrase):
Like Doug, I also purchased the 4-volume set of Derleth's short stories from the AD Society a few months back - although unlike him, I wasn't lucky enough to also receive postcards! However, the person I dealt with responded quickly and was very helpful, and the set found it's way from Wisconsin to Australia in less than a fortnight. While I already had a fair proportion of the contents in other Derleth collection, or anthologies, I've been greatly enjoying working my way though the volumes, a couple of stories at a time.
One aspect I'd never really noticed before was just _how_ many of the stories Derleth set in England - I assume because he was so fond of writing pastiches of the classic English ghost story. It seems to be stating the bleeding obvious, but would I be correct in assuming that Derleth never actually visited Britain? I've never seen any reference to him traveling much at all; the fact that he spent his Guggenheim Fellowship money on binding his comic-strip collection certainly seems to indicate ghat he wasn't much interested in travel!
Mark
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Post by doug on Jul 29, 2012 12:31:50 GMT
Hullo folks- long-time lurker, first-time poster (to coin a phrase): Like Doug, I also purchased the 4-volume set of Derleth's short stories from the AD Society a few months back - although unlike him, I wasn't lucky enough to also receive postcards! However, the person I dealt with responded quickly and was very helpful, and the set found it's way from Wisconsin to Australia in less than a fortnight. While I already had a fair proportion of the contents in other Derleth collection, or anthologies, I've been greatly enjoying working my way though the volumes, a couple of stories at a time. One aspect I'd never really noticed before was just _how_ many of the stories Derleth set in England - I assume because he was so fond of writing pastiches of the classic English ghost story. It seems to be stating the bleeding obvious, but would I be correct in assuming that Derleth never actually visited Britain? I've never seen any reference to him traveling much at all; the fact that he spent his Guggenheim Fellowship money on binding his comic-strip collection certainly seems to indicate ghat he wasn't much interested in travel! Mark What's so funny about his placing some of his stories in England is that you would swear he just went back and removed "Wisconsin" and replaced it with "England". His story "Three Gentlemen in Black" is a perfect example of this. I still love him though! Take care. Doug
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Post by ramseycampbell on Jul 29, 2012 21:06:55 GMT
No indeed, I don't think he ever visited Britain. He occasionally asked me for British details.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Feb 27, 2013 13:03:11 GMT
His work as an anthologist and publisher comes in for a great deal of praise, but as yet we've had little comment about August Derleth's own supernatural fiction on here. While it's true his work is scandalously derivative, i find the clichéd, horror comic likes of the very early Bats Belfry, The Pacer and The Tenant far more entertaining than they've probably any right to be, and every once in a while he'd come up with an absolute stormer ( CarouselI just read this for the first time in Peter Haining's The Freak Show, and it instantly landed in my top ten--maybe top five--Derleth stories. I think the EC comparison is spot on: the story combines a social justice theme with a satisfyingly gory ending.
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Post by doug on Feb 27, 2013 14:26:38 GMT
Hey all, I can't believe that I've gotten this lazy, but I'm going to quote myself from another thread where this same subject came up...... As far as his other tales are concerned, at his worst they were entertaining if some what pedestrian. Other stories though are simply brilliant as far as I'm concerned. Take a look at "The Lonesome Place" and "The Drifitng Snow". These are two stories that I've been continuously returning to for over 40 years now. Read more: vaultofevil.proboards.com/thread/2855/page/3/seabury-quinn-adventures-jules-grandin#scrollTo=36897#ixzz2M6q5DaimIt could be that I'm just not all that demanding at times, but I consider myself a (non-Mythos)Derleth admirer. Take care. Doug
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Post by dem bones on Jun 18, 2013 17:52:53 GMT
August Derleth & Mark Schorer - The Incredible Dr Markesan: (Weird Tales Jun 1934). Frederick Bancroft, 27, takes a job as caretaker to misanthropic recluse, self-styled 'Colonel' Markesan, a former Harvard Professor drummed ouit of the college after proclaiming his power to raise the dead. The dismissal still rankles. Markesan insists the new employee remain locked in his room at night, but Bancroft soon learns to manipulate the latch. Creeping downstairs, he finds Markesan tormenting half a dozen unwilling guests, one of whom he recognises as the late Dr. Merlin Grant, former Harvard physicist. He follows Markesan to Mount Auburn Cemetery where, sure enough, the mad genius calls forth yet another corpse from its grave. Bancroft approaches Prof. Hans Hohlden, who is initially sceptical. How could Dr Markesan be committing such mischief when he died three years ago? But to be on the safe side, it wouldn't hurt to visit his grave, dig up the coffin and decapitate him.
I don't think there's been a paperback edition of Derleth & Schorer's Colonel Markesan & Less Pleasant People (Arkham House, 1966), which is a bit of a swizz as those i've read are very entertaining.
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Post by helrunar on May 30, 2016 16:09:59 GMT
Does anyone recall the title of a Derleth story with an ancient Egyptian theme, but set in modern day (1960s?) . A museum curator receives a visit from a disturbingly engimatic gentleman (seemed inspired by Karloff's performance as Ardath Bey in the 1932 film The Mummy which happens to be one of my favorite films of all time). The visitor inquires about some painted bones retrieved from a recent excavation. Unwholesome references to the predynastic cult of Osiris enter into the conversation. A seemingly routine event in a museum official's day leads to an epiphany of mind-cudgelling horror...
Would love to read again but can't recall the title. It was anthologized in one of my mid 1970s horror paperbacks, most likely edited by AD.
H.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on May 30, 2016 16:44:43 GMT
Does anyone recall the title of a Derleth story with an ancient Egyptian theme, but set in modern day (1960s?) . A museum curator receives a visit from a disturbingly engimatic gentleman (seemed inspired by Karloff's performance as Ardath Bey in the 1932 film The Mummy which happens to be one of my favorite films of all time). The visitor inquires about some painted bones retrieved from a recent excavation. Unwholesome references to the predynastic cult of Osiris enter into the conversation. A seemingly routine event in a museum official's day leads to an epiphany of mind-cudgelling horror... Would love to read again but can't recall the title. It was anthologized in one of my mid 1970s horror paperbacks, most likely edited by AD. H. Are you not, perhaps, thinking of Frank Belknap Long's "A Visitor From Egypt"?
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Post by helrunar on May 30, 2016 17:29:19 GMT
Oh wow! I bet you're right. I must have read it in a collection EDITED by Derleth, and I forgot that the tale was actually the work of Belknapius! Must investigate!
Thank you so much!
cheers, Helrunar
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on May 30, 2016 17:42:21 GMT
Whether "A Visitor From Egypt" was ever anthologized I do not know, but it appeared in the Arkham House collection THE HOUNDS OF TINDALOS, and later in THE EARLY LONG. Technically, I own the Sphere reprint of THE HOUNDS OF TINDALOS, but I have not seen it for many years and have no idea where it is. I had such fond memories of the story that I recently bought THE EARLY LONG just to read it again.
Edit: It has been anthologized, and not just once, as a search of this board has now revealed.
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