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Post by dem bones on Nov 20, 2007 15:50:10 GMT
As has already been mentioned by Des, David and Sean on the 'incomplete biography' thread, Mike Ashley broke this desperately sad news earlier today on Horrabin Hall: "Bad news, I fear. I've just heard from Peter Berresford Ellis who told me 'Peter Haining died suddenly last night (November 19, at 6 p.m.). Sat down in a chair and keeled over. Heart attack - although there will be an autopsy.'
What a shock, and how sad. He was no age -- 67 I think." A separate thread for us to pay tribute to Peter Haining and pass on our condolences to his family and friends seems the very least we can and should do in the circumstances.
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Post by David A. Riley on Nov 20, 2007 16:32:28 GMT
It's very sad news to me that Peter Haining has died at only 67. He was one of the greatest anthologists in our genre and certainly played a great part in my early reading in it back in the 60s and 70s in particular. There were two big names then you could always rely on to provide the goods: August Derleth and Peter Haining. Both have now gone. I never met him, nor did he ever publish anything of mine, but I will miss him. His is a name that has been familiar to me for over forty years. David
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Post by weirdmonger on Nov 20, 2007 16:33:02 GMT
Indeed, very sad to hear this news. As early as the late Sixties and early Seventies I was consuming Horror Fiction, and Peter Haining's first few anthologies were important to the beginining of my interest in this field. I read stories aloud from them to a friend in those early days as well as taking pride in collecting the books thereafter wherever I could find them. May he Rest in Peace. des
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Post by justin on Nov 20, 2007 17:32:25 GMT
Absolutely gutted.
I was lucky enough to have met Peter twice- initially to interview him and later (accompanied by Mark Berry, Pulp Mania's erstwhile MIA designer) for a photo-shoot. Peter was more than happy to ham it up for the photo-shoot, making great use of the cob-webs hanging from his annexes at his property, but was also careful to get a more considered portrait next to his many awards for use as publicity material. Those NEL habits of watching the pennies never faded.
My fondest memory is of sitting with Peter and his wife in their garden on a beautiful summer's day (when I should have been in a tele-conference with my boss, but don't tell him that) snacking on their home-grown strawberries and listening to outrageous stories about the behaviour of the NEL authors. Most of which came from Mrs Haining!
Peter still seemed slightly bemused that people such as myself were beating a path to his door to talk about the NEL days. I think he slightly regretted not keeping more records of his NEL days, and not appreciating the significance and impact of what they were doing at the time. Only a few weeks ago I had an e-mail from him enquiring as to my health, and thanking me for the copies of The Killers I had sent him. He didn't have many of Laurence's books he said, and wanted to start collecting them.
I'm sorry that Peter never saw his interview published in Pulp Mania, but at least it had been laid out and I was able to share the beautiful pages. It'll appear in the sixth issue of The Paperback Fanatic, and I hope it will be a worthy tribute.
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Post by killercrab on Nov 20, 2007 19:19:40 GMT
I feel both shocked and a little older today. Peter Haining symbolised the anthology format to me - and thanks to VOE - I know a little more about his life's work. Back when I was a kid - I didn't really collect anthologies - though Pater's name was one that frequently stared up at me from the shelves. I did get the Dracula Scrapbook and know he penned one the earliest books on Dr Who . My modest book collection does now hold a selection of anthologies edited by Peter Haining I'm glad to say - thanks to the enthusiasm of this forum. I think it's places like this , where fans can gather , that pays testement to the importance of his work.
ade
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Nov 20, 2007 19:28:48 GMT
This really is sad news. Mr Haining was responsible for so many books on many of my favourite characters, be it Doctor Who, Sherlock Holmes or Dracula. I only recently got his delightful "M.R. James Book of the Supernatural" and it was like rediscovering the joy of those previous volumes. And, of course, there were his charming collaborations with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee on a few anthologies.
R.I. P. Peter Haining.
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Post by Steve on Nov 20, 2007 20:00:21 GMT
Lost for words really. Probably the best tributes to Peter Haining are the many and seemingly endless lists here and elsewhere of titles he was responsible for, and the fact that these hardly begin to tell the story of his inestimable contribution to the British horror anthology, which forms the heart of The Vault, and so much more which makes up the body of this board. Like many of us I'm sure, I probably wouldn't be here now writing this if it wasn't for Peter Haining. Very best wishes and thoughts to his wife, family and friends at this time.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Nov 20, 2007 20:29:21 GMT
Can't add much more than the sentiments already expressed. It might be a cliche, but 67 was no age. I always imagined him as an elderly scholarly type, but footage I'd seen of him circa 1990 made him seem cherubic and irrepressibly enthusiastic. A fascinating man - not least because his services to anthologies in general, and his time at NEL.
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Post by Calenture on Nov 20, 2007 21:10:16 GMT
I don't think there's much I can add here that others haven't said as well or better. It's sad to lose one of our number, one who contributed so much. I don't think he'll be easily forgotten: in the past two weeks I've learned three more of his editorial identities. Something I like about his anthologies was that he was able to cross genres; and more than that, he did it well.
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Post by Dr Terror on Nov 20, 2007 22:53:18 GMT
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Post by pulphack on Nov 22, 2007 11:14:37 GMT
nothing more to add to the condolences, just a couple of thoughts.
for all his dodgy tendencies to change titles, extract bits of novels and present them as new stories, and 'scholarship' that was a little too dependent on other writers like himself, he did open so many eyes to horror and crime writers that you may never have heard of... Edgwa Rampo and Basil Copper are two i recall fondly as never having heard of before a Haining anthology. the key to his success with his audience is the enthusiasm which he brought to the task of editing. for that alone, he'll be missed.
mind, imagine pulp hack heaven, with LJ going 'what do you mean you never had many of MY bloody books, peter!'...
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Post by sean on Nov 27, 2007 17:56:08 GMT
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Post by dem bones on Nov 27, 2007 18:29:52 GMT
Thanks so much for posting this, Sean. A touching tribute from a friend and that 1995 interview concerning how Peter came to be the editor of NEL is priceless.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 29, 2007 14:12:30 GMT
The Independent 28 November 2007
Obituaries | Anthologist of "strange, horrid tales"
Peter Haining was probably the only writer ever to make a living out of editing anthologies, a means of employment that is, even today, notoriously ill-recompensed. He did this by dint of sheer hard graft and the simple expedient of always having four or five volumes of stories on the boil for everyone about to be issued. He wasn"t precious about publishers, either, and was just as happy turning out paperback originals for Sphere Books or Orbit as he was for the rather more upmarket hardback houses like Gollancz, Hodders or Sidgwick & Jackson.
A gamekeeper who turned poacher, he began his career in local newspapers, moved to metropolitan trade journals, moved again to book publishing - where he talent-spotted Philip Pullman, and issued his first (now enormously rare) fantasy, The Haunted Storm (1972) - then exchanged an editorial director"s safe seat for the perils of the freelance life, a move he never regretted.
He was one of the first modern anthologists to realise that the 50-year copyright rule (as it then was) was not the mighty barrier to producing interesting, intriguing, exciting and (perhaps especially) chilling compilations of stories that most publishers believed it to be. Many forgotten, but actually rather good, yarn-spinners had been dying in the latter third of the 19th century and the first third of the 20th, and 50 years later all their material was suddenly out of copyright and up for grabs. Haining grabbed.
Genre fiction enthusiasts - especially fans of detective fiction, horror, fantasy and science fiction - love short stories and will read (and often re-read, then read yet again) any amount of them. Haining aimed directly at this end of the market and gave a substantial minority of readers scores upon scores of anthologies, "scrapbooks", "files" and "companions" to feed their habit.
He explored, and plundered, sub-genre after sub-genre. Gothic Tales of Terror (1972), in two hefty volumes, reprinted a treasure-chest of forgotten stories from roughly the Regency period to the Victorians. The era of the "Penny Blood" (the 1840s to the 1880s) brought forth The Penny Dreadful, or Strange, Horrid and Sensational Tales (1975), with quite a few strange, horrid and sensational titles such as The Last Batch of Pies (a tale of Sweeney Todd) and The Arena of Blood.
Haining ran through all the most obvious supernatural sub-genres: ghosts, ghouls, poltergeists, witches, warlocks, necromancers, werewolves, vampires, the walking dead. He could also be more creative: Tune In For Fear (1985) was a tribute to the best in horror on the radio, from both Britain and America; The Hollywood Nightmare (1970), a compilation of horrid movie stories; Greasepaint and Ghosts (1982), humorous ghost stories by the likes of H.G. Wells, Jerome K. Jerome and James Thurber; while The Nightmare Reader (1973) collected stories inspired by dreams.
Seasons of the year were an obvious target: Christmas Spirits (1983) featured seasonal tales by Bret Harte, Jerome, Dickens and M.R. James; while Hallowe"en Hauntings (1984) had stories by Ray Bradbury (a favourite Haining author), Edith Wharton, Robert Bloch and the gruesome Tod Robbins.
As well as pure anthologies, Haining enjoyed cobbling together fact and fiction compilations with plenty of illustrations from the vast collection of pre-war pulps and fiction periodicals he built up over nearly 50 years. The Frankenstein Omnibus (1994) was a 650-odd page tome containing not just stories and articles but full-length film scenarios (including that of the original 1931 Frankenstein movie) tracing the development of the Frankenstein theme in literature.
Two fascinating genre compilations were Terror! (1976), an illustrated (with period adverts and rare stills) history of the horror movies, and Mystery! (1977), an entertaining run through the history of crime fiction.
The somewhat clunkingly titled M.R. James Book of the Supernatural (1979) featured uncollected stories by the great ghost-story writer, as well as forgotten articles by and about him, and tales that may have influenced his writings, together with a foreword by John Betjeman and a tribute by Christopher Lee. Haining had collaborated with Lee back in 1974 for Christopher Lee"s New Chamber of Horrors.
He was always alert to changing conditions in the market-place. When the "dungeons and dragons" gaming craze was at its height, out came Tales of Dungeons and Dragons (1986). When someone pointed out that there were a lot of horror films and series on television, it took very little time for him to assemble The Television Late Night Horror Omnibus (1993).
Haining was born in Enfield, Middlesex, in 1940 and educated at Buckhurst Grammar School in Essex. He left school at 17 and went straight into reporting on the local newspaper before getting a job in trade-paper publishing, becoming deputy editor of National Newsagent. In the early 1960s he fell in with a bunch of hard-drinking journos who were all later to become highly productive pulp-fictioneers: Angus Wells, Peter Ellis, the astonishingly prolific Ken Bulmer and Terry Harknett, Fred Nolan and Laurence James. All at one time or another were editors for various paperback houses, commissioning each other to pound out series upon series in what can only be described as a Golden Age of British pulp-fiction publishing.
Haining found a berth at New English Library. Here he commissioned Terry Harknett to write westerns following the gritty Sergio Leone movies, thus spawning not only the ultra-brutal "Edge" series but an entire sub-genre. He also launched the NEL Young Writer of the Year awards, of which the first winner was Philip Pullman.
By the time he left NEL to go freelance, he had already had published nearly 20 anthologies, starting with The Hell of Mirrors (1965). At a conservative estimate Peter Haining produced well over 150 books - anthologies for the most part, but also books on the occult and supernatural, as well as ancient mysteries. Much of the research he carried out himself, although he could call on a small army of researchers who coolied for him in various libraries and institutions. He even found time to be a parish councillor.
In recent years he concentrated on "strange mysteries" of the Second World War. He was working (with the novelist Peter McAlan) on The Creeper"s Secret War - the true story of the British secret agent who was fitted up for murder by the police in 1945 and had to be rescued by the SIS - when he died.
Jack Adrian
Peter Alexander Haining, writer, editor and anthologist: born Enfield, Middlesex 2 April 1940; married 1965 Philippa Miller (two sons, one daughter); died Boxford, Suffolk 19 November 2007.
(c) 2007 Independent & Media PLC
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Post by pulphack on Dec 23, 2007 23:55:10 GMT
a couple more obits, both from the bookseller:
Bob Tanner writes -
Peter Haining, author, anthologist, editor and journalist, died on 19th November 2007 at the age of 67 after a long career in publishing.
When I joined New English Library, which had lost money for fifteen years, of all the people there I was most impressed with a young man called Peter Haining. In the late 1960s and early '70s, paperbacks were the most dynamic element of the publishing world. There was little choice on TV and no iPods, but there was spare cash to spend on a few paperbacks.
Peter was the ideal paperback editor. He was able to produce books that the public would read, irrespective of genre, be it westerns, pop, or horror. He did not believe in spending huge sums of money to acquire, and would rather create from ideas. He had his finger on the pulse and was always full of enthusiasm and it was for these qualities that I made him editorial director.
Unfortunately, just as NEL was embarking on hardback publishing, Peter had a choice between furthering his career, and loyalty to his family (helping his wife Phillippa care for Sean, their autistic son). He choose the latter. But he left NEL with a contract for four untitled books and for the past 30 years has written non-fiction books and compiled anthologies which have been read and translated around the world. In 2001 he won the British Fantasy Awards Karl Edward Wagner Award.
Peter wrote on all subjects, some of which could be called quirky. But then what would you expect of a man who, aged 67, was still playing football in his Arsenal shirt?
Ernest Hecht adds:
When Peter Haining told me during an Arsenal match some thirty years ago that he was stepping down from New English Library, neither of us could have imagined that the British Library would eventually list more than 350 publications in his name. Souvenir Press has published 65 of them, as well as Orion, Constable, Hodder & Stoughton, HarperCollins, Random House, Weidenfeld, Robson, and Allen & Unwin.
Peter had a great instinct for tilling the nooks and crannies of writing and bringing forth many gems for book publication - for us he included work by Phillip Pulman and Terry Pratchett, for example, and his subject expertise ranged widely through science fiction, fantasy, crime and mind/body areas, as well as graphic art.
His reputation as a pre-eminent anthologist was worldwide. His books were published not only in the US but in translation, an unusual event for anthologies but a testimony to his skills in marrying authors to subjects. Foreign publishers more than once asked me incredulously 'But you know Mr Peter Haining?'
Peter took his work seriously but happily not himself. His cheerful personality and professionalism will be missed by many in the book world and at Arsenal stadium, but above all by his close-knit family of Phillippa, Gemma, Richard and Sean who were such a support to him.
* Tanner, as we all know, was head of NEL during the glory years. Ernest Hecht has run Souvenir Press in an idiosyncratic and unique manner since the last forties, and it's one of the few real independants left standing. I hadn't realised that it was rare for anthologies to be sold into translation, and the fact the Hanining achieved this regularly is, I think, yet another example of his unique talent in this field.
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