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Post by dem bones on Mar 14, 2008 17:08:16 GMT
August Derleth (ed.) - The Night Side (4-Square 1966; originally Rinehart, 1947) Josh Kirby August Derleth - Foreword
H. P. Lovecraft - The Colour Out Of Space H. R. Wakefield - The First Sheaf MacKinlay Kantor - The Moon-Caller Stephen Grendon (August Derleth) - The Extra Passenger John Metcalfe - The Smoking Leg R. Creighton-Buck - Joshua Robert Bloch - Enoch A. E. Coppard - Cheese Margery Lawrence - Mr. Minchin's Midsummer Henry Kuttner - Mimsy Were The Borogoves Howard Wandrei - The Eerie Mr. Murphy Ray Bradbury - The Smiling People Denys Val Baker - The Face In The Mirror Alan Nelson - Professor Pfaff's Last Recital Nelson Bond - The Mask Of Medusa John D. Swain - One Head Well Done Henry A. Norton - Sammy Calls A Noobus H. F. Arnold - The Night Wire Mary E. Counselman - The Three Marked Pennies In the interests of completism but also because I happen to rate this as one of Derleth's very best - I can't believe it's not on here but it doesn't seem to be around. According to Derleth, Arnold's The Night Wire was the most popular story even published in Weird Tales ( The Three Marked Pennies was second). Howard Wandrei's The Eerie Mr. Murphy made the cut in John Pelan's list of the centuries 100 best horror stories and Nelson Bond's The Mask Of Medusa not only spawned a fetching cover illustration it's also a decent Gorgon story. Yet another one goes on top of the leaning tower of 'to re-read' pile. I've also dug out a hardcover of Derleth's Sleep No More (Farrar & Rinehart, 1944) illustrated by Lee Coye which I'll put up sometime. I'm not sure if there was ever a UK edition? Howard Wandrei - The Eerie Mr. Murphey: The unimposing Timothy Murphey is afflicted with several unasked for gifts; machinery shuts down in his presence never to restart. Clocks stop, cars stall, passenger aeroplanes fall from the sky ..... After an airline disaster Mr. Murphey hands himself in at the police station and confesses his crimes to Sheriff Steinbecker who understandably reckons he's barking until he and his men are treated to a series of impromptu demonstrations. When Murphey announces that it was pointless giving himself up as no cell can hold him, Steinbecker has the boys lift him into a storage box and nail down the lid. "I'm going now" announces the forlorn Mr. Murphey by way of goodbye. Mary Elizabeth Counselman - The Three Marked Pennies: “On the seventh day after this announcement the possessor of each marked penny will receive a gift.
To the first: $100, 000 in cash. To The second: A trip around the world To The third: Death.”[/i] Naturally, no-one knows which of the pennies entitles the bearer to which prize, so they change hands several times during the week, the superstitious not wishing to handle any of them, although the popular opinion is that the whole thing is a hoax. The seventh day arrives .... H. F. Arnold - The Night Wire: ( Weird Tales, Sept. 1926). As narrator Jim and John Morgan man the typewriters, news comes in over the wire of a mysterious fog shrouding the town of Xebico. It seems to emanate from the local churchyard. Soon the swirling, vaguely human shapes are cannibalising the population. But where the Hell is this Xebico? Stephen Grendon (August Derleth) - The Extra Passenger: Mr. Arodias murders his eccentric uncle Thaddeus unaware that he is a powerful Warlock. Fleeing the scene of the crime on the night train, he is irked to discover a dark and silent character sharing his compartment ... Ray Bradbury - The Smiling People: It has now been a fortnight since Mr. Greppin gave his grim relatives their smiles, but he’s still not sure they won’t spoil it for him when he brings his imaginary fiance home, so Aunt Rose, Uncle Dimity and the kids Lila and Lester will have to move out. Via the furnace if needs be. Not that they’ll notice …
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Post by cauldronbrewer on May 24, 2012 23:35:33 GMT
Having poked fun at Derleth in another thread for his fondness of a certain motif, I enjoyed this line from his introduction to The Night Side: As one critic of my own fiction has pointed out, I have a strong leaning toward the theme of poetic justice or supernatural revenge. Maybe he wasn't the most original horror writer, but Derleth wins points with me for being self-aware and self-deprecating.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 25, 2014 11:06:02 GMT
Having poked fun at Derleth in another thread for his fondness of a certain motif, I enjoyed this line from his introduction to The Night Side: As one critic of my own fiction has pointed out, I have a strong leaning toward the theme of poetic justice or supernatural revenge. Maybe he wasn't the most original horror writer, but Derleth wins points with me for being self-aware and self-deprecating. Hackneyed they may be, but I mostly love his short horror/ supernatural tales, and the anthologies are first rate, The Night Side and The Sleeping And the Dead being personal favourites. Nelson Bond - The Mask Of Medusa: On the run from the police, Milo Shaner ducks inside a dingy building which reveals itself as a waxworks museum, the 'Glypothek: Gallery of Classic Marvels.' The proprietor, 'T. Cavendish, Cerologist,' insists on giving him the guided tour. The twenty-four wax figures are uncannily convincing replica's of infamous modern day murderers, so at least Shaner is among his own; his pockets are bulging with ransom money collected from a desperate couple even though he already disposed of their nuisance child. Shaner soon tires of Mr. Cavendish's increasingly mad commentary; the old fool evidently sees himself as some kind of vigilante and claims to possess an authentic gorgons head. Henry A. Norton - Sammy Calls A Noobus: Professor Widdercombe is a brilliant Egyptologist who brings his work home. The attic contains a genuine mummy and a library of ancient black sorcery parchments. So when Mrs Faros pays a visit with her tearaway son, Sammy, it would be best he keep this den of doom locked up tight. Instead, his son Cyrus invites young Faros to study the bandaged dead body and try out some spells. Between them, they inadvertently summon the Jackal-headed God. Hitler's armies are in the ascent and Anubis need only oust Sammy from his body to visit Hell upon earth. Mankind doubly fortunate that the kid is both naturally recalcitrant and has a loose tooth. John Metcalfe - The Smoking Leg: In a moment of drunken madness Dr. Geoghan inserts a magic jewel into the kneecap of lascar Abdullah Jan with a holy amulet to keep it's powers in check. Things get very out of hand when, back home in England, the patient insists that both gem and amulet are removed ... H. R. Wakefield - The First Sheaf: Essentially The Wicker Man in miniature. When the Reverend Porteous takes over spiritual duties at the remote Essex village of Reedley End, he inherits a community steeped in the old religion. They are as indifferent to his presence as they are to soap - just so long as he steers clear of a field known as 'the Good Place.' Three years of drought have brought successive crop failure and a high mortality rate among the cattle. Now the Gods must be appeased. A little girl goes missing.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 27, 2014 6:32:15 GMT
Alan Nelson - Professor Pfaff's Last Recital: A ghoulish just deserts fantasy worthy of the E.C. comics. Professor Pfaff is the greatest musician you never heard, and for that blame Edmund Shrike, brutal and vindictive manager of the Seven Wonders Odditorium which he treats as his personal fiefdom. Mute maestro Pfaff's genius is for instant composition. Sit him at the piano, give him a poem, newspaper, shopping list, telephone directory or the complete works of Shakespeare and he'll keep playing beautifully until he either collapses or is helped from his stool. Shrike treats him with the same contempt he does the rest until one night the docile Carney freaks are driven to revolt.
One for Pan fans:
Margery Lawrence - Mr. Minchin's Midsummer: Since the recent arrival of the Rev. Thomas Minchen, Little Ingleton has been a byword for misery. Almost overnight, the killjoy has banned beer-drinking, dancing on the village green, and brightly coloured clothing on young women and the annual festival.
It is Midsummer's eve and, to his great fury, the Sunday School class is deserted. Searching for the young Miss Perkins, for he believes she has shepherded the infants out in the fields to tell them fairy stories, Minchen finds himself on an unfamiliar path. There, sitting by the roadside is a ragged young stranger drinking wine. The handsome vagabond, who seems to know everybody, is no fan of the church, or, indeed, the Reverend Thomas Minchen. "Kill joy and youth and laughter in them to implant your wizened, mean little creed instead! Because of your own dour miserable narrowness, you're trying to bully them into living life your way - you, with your bigotry and prudishness that sees sin and temptation in a flower in a hat, the gay colour of a pretty gown ... "
Pan - for it is he - does Mr. Minchin a good turn by delivering the day's sermon to a packed congregation of villagers and .... others, opening his eyes to beauty and ultimately saving his sour, spiteful soul. Just like one of Miss Perkins' fairy tales, they all live happily ever after.
Denys Val Baker - The Face In The Mirror: Leered at in the barbers chair, watched in Woolworths, chased through the ladies lingerie department of the town's poshest store - wherever there's a mirror the man with the bald head, protruding teeth and sunken eyes is there to fix him that hateful glare. Inevitably victim and stalker meet in a winner takes all final confrontation.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 28, 2014 11:05:59 GMT
A. E. Coppard - Cheese: Eddy Errick, travelling cheese salesman, obtains the elusive recipe for 'Romany chi' and wins a seat on the board of directors for his trouble. The gypsy who confided the secret now demands a very modest sum of money in return which, Errick being a businessman, flatly refuses to pay. The Romany's are masters of black sorcery and ingrate Eddy is lured into a king-size mousetrap with a hungry tiger prowling beyond the bars. Somehow the big cheese escapes - but only to be transported back in time to the reign of George IV, where his wild ravings are a source of amusement. He ends his days in Bedlam.
R. Creighton-Buck - Joshua: Professor Arthur Quincy Mackee procures an impressive antique Hebrew clock from the local branch of Temptations Ltd. - proprietor: Isaac Laquedem who may or may not be the Wandering Jew - and finds himself in control of the seasons. Detesting the cold, he adjusts the brass hands to turn winter to summer. There is, of course, a very high price to pay. A lightening bolt does for the Professor, and yet again, the clock returns to its owner.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 1, 2014 7:53:51 GMT
John D. Swain - One Head Well Done: The unlikely friendship between pious Reverend Peter Vedder and H'lo, the Bornean wild man he recruited as his servant after supposedly "converting" him while on missionary duties out East. H'lo is small in build but incredibly strong, and spends much of his time swinging Tarzan-like through the trees, never once missing a branch. The Reverend knows nothing of what H'lo got up to before Christianity entered his life.
Vedder's successful clampdown on vice and corruption in his home town of Kemper does not sit well with gangland boss Gory Hammond. It has come to something when an honest bent businessman can't make a decent living! Gory instructs 'The Croaker,' his #1 hit-man, to terminate the Bible-thumping nuisance. H'lo, the solitary witness to the subsequent cowardly assassination attempt, reverts to his old head-hunting ways to even the score.
MacKinlay Kantor - The Moon-Caller: Juneberry Hills, Missouri. Eighty-year-old Mr. Dalheart Dane was once Juliper Hills' most enthusiastic and prolific woodland huntsman, but later life has seen an astonishing change of heart and he now venerates and fiercely protects all creatures great and small. Dal leads the local children on nature rambles, keeping them entertained with tales of an elusive and entirely mythical denizen of the forest, 'the Moon-Caller.'
Mr. Phelps Lackey sees no reason why he should fall in with Dal's newly acquired beliefs and continues to decimate the area's wildlife population. Dal, furious, acquires a mail-order sheriff's badge and declares himself the law. Mr. Phelps Lackey, unimpressed, continues his war on raccoon.
Now the Moon-Caller summons Dal to a cave where the ghosts of every creature he ever killed lie in wait. The Moon-Caller advises that the only way he can make amends is to fetch Lackey before them all to face judgement.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 2, 2014 3:58:18 GMT
Virgil Finlay ( The Colour Out Of Space, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, Oct. 1941) H. P. Lovecraft - The Colour Out Of Space: Cosmic pessimism at its miserable best. Lovecraft, in reporter mode, travels to Arkham to interview old-timer Ammi Pierce in relation to recent events known locally as "the strange times." Two years earlier, a meteor landed next door to the Gardner's farmhouse, releasing a vampire gas which slowly drained the essence from every living thing in its immediate vicinity. The soil yields a harvest of monster vegetable and strange fruit, huge, colourful and unfit for human consumption. Mrs Gardner is the first of the family to go insane. Rather than have his wife committed to an asylum, Nathan elects to lock her away in the attic. It soon becomes very crowded up there as his sons too are stricken by madness. As the blight takes hold, the vegetation turns grey, luminous and brittle, as do the Gardner clan who crumple to a fine dust. Several details are so terrifying in their implications that Lovecraft refuses to commit them to print! Suffice to say the contagion is spreading and the doom of mankind inevitable.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Sept 27, 2021 12:19:47 GMT
This edition of The Night Side is currently unattainable anywhere online. I'm lucky that I got a near mint copy for less than £5.00 about ten years ago. My copy is in better condition than this, the best image I can find online. I'm just showing off.
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