|
Post by dem bones on May 3, 2009 9:18:11 GMT
More Philip Allan: The non-anthology 'Creeps'Apart from the famous anthologies, there were a number of novels and single author collections in the Creeps series. From Tales Of Fear (I've added the year of publication, when known) THE FAMOUS "CREEPS" SERIES To be successful, the gruesome story must not be too long. The most hardened of us can only take this kind of thing in small doses with a breathing space between each.
The sales of these volumes have gone into many thousands. Some have gone quite out of print; but new ones are being constantly added. Each volume has about a dozen stories of sheer, stark horror - and noone, whatever their nerve strength, should read them at night. Nervous people should not read them at all.THE THREE FREAKS - TODD ROBBINS 1934THE MASTER OF MURDER - TODD ROBBINS 1933THE BUTTERFLY MURDER - CHARLTON ANDREW ?DEVIL'S DRUMS - VIVIAN MEIK 1933VEILS OF FEAR - VIVIAN MEIK 1934THE STRANGE PAPERS OF DR. BLAYRE - CHRISTOPHER BLAYRE 1932THE AIR DEVIL - BARRINGTON BEVERLEY 1934MYSTERIES OF ASIA - SHEIK ABDULLAH 1934TALES OF THE GROTESQUE - L. A. LEWIS 1934VAMPIRES OVERHEAD - ALAN HYDER 1935THE DEVIL OF THE DEPTHS - JACK McLAREN 1935TO THE READER If you have enjoyed the stories in this popular series - why not write one? It is very probable that other volumes will be added: and the publishers are always ready to consider the work of new, as well as established, authors. Send MSS. to
Messrs. PHILIP ALLAN & CO., Ltd. 69, Great Russell Street, London, W.C.1
Mark envelopes 'Creeps' Three more books, also published by Philip Allan, which appeared too early to be considered legit Creeps were Mrs. Everett's The Death Mask & Other Ghost Stories (1920), Tod Robbins' Who Wants A Green Bottle? (1926) and H. R. Wakefield's They Return At Evening (1928). Come 1936 and the publisher seems to have veered off into a SF direction with Edmond Hamilton's The Horror Of The Asteroid & Other Planetary Horrors and Barrington Beverley's The Space Raiders, although that same year saw publication of Charle's Birkin's Devil Spawn, which collected all his contributions to the anthologies and is unquestionably a Creep!.
|
|
|
Post by pulphack on Feb 3, 2014 6:24:52 GMT
In the Any Amount Of Books basement sale (everything a quid, get down there quick, Dem) last Friday I picked up some nice bits - a humour anthology edited by Lady Cynthia Asquith that has some rare stories by the likes of Beachcomber, a Howard Baker Sexton Blake h/b by Stephen Christie that I've wanted for ages and never even spotted when out, and a Francis Durbridge (always a pleasure as they're ridiculously scarce, if not 'rare' as such). And in amongst that I also picked up a Barry Pain novel. He's well outside Vault territory being a funny writer remembered if at all for his 'Eliza' stories, which were reissued as recently as the turn of the 2000's by Prion, with an intro by fan Terry Jones.
Anway, to get to the point, it was published by Philip Allan, and although originally from 1919, this undated edition must be mid-thirties, and has a list of other Allan titles in the back. They obviously had a yen for comic writers, as they also reissued JB Morton's The Barber Of Putney, although this is a serious novel despite being by a man who was at the height of his Beachcomber fame.
It has listings by category, and has a "Creeps" (complete with inverted commas) section. There's nothing there that Dem hasn't already listed, but what I find interesting is that both the Tod Robbins titles, also 'The Air Devil' and 'The Butterfly Murders' are all listed at this point under Crime, and not included as Creeps titles by the publisher, although the Vivian Meik and Christopher Blayre titles are... 'The Air Devil' is asterisked as 'forthcoming', which I would guess makes this edition 1934, but that depends when the print run was made. It could be a year later, as I have seen some books (Corgi did this a lot in the sixties and early seventies with JT Edson at least) still list titles are forthcoming when you have editions that are dated before that particular listing. Does that make sense (note to self, do not write entries before 6.30am)?
As Dem has listed the Crime titles as Creeps, I wondered if there was a point where the publishers decided to change their categorisation and pitch for some titles, perhaps because the sales of Creeps titles were so strong?
|
|
|
Post by pulphack on Feb 3, 2014 8:22:20 GMT
A quick bit of googling on Barry Pain reveals that he also had a reputation for ghost and horror stories, one of which was supposed to be influential on Lovecraft. Not heard that before, as had him fixed as a humour writer because of Eliza and old anthologies I've got. Had a look on here but can't find any mentions of his horror work - have I missed a thread? This rather suggests to me that he's an EF Benson figure in some ways - anyone who has read the horror stuff care to discuss?
|
|
gloomy sundae
Crab On The Rampage
dem in disguise; looking for something to suck
Posts: 25
|
Post by gloomy sundae on Feb 3, 2014 8:37:18 GMT
Those catalogues at back of book qualify as bonus material of the most welcome kind. I've double checked Tales Of Fear, and the Creeps listing is exactly as above. The supplement runs to ten pages; "To The Reader," "The Famous 'Creeps' series", "Mystery Stories", "Western Stories", "Racing Novels" and "Philip Allen's New Series of Popular Novels" account for one each, but a generous four are devoted to "Love Stories & Comedy," suggesting they were the biggest sellers. It goes on to list LOVE STORIES AND COMEDY—contd.
CRIMSON AZALEAS - H. DE VERE STACPOOLE VULTURE'S PREY - H. DE VERE STACPOOLE PATSY- H. DE VERE STACPOOLE GOLDEN RAIN - OWEN RUTTER SUNSHINE SETTLERS - CROSBIE GARSTIN ANN'S AN IDIOT - PAMELA WYNNE WARNING - PAMELA WYNNE THE DREAM MAN - PAMELA WYNNE ASHES OF DESIRE - PAMELA WYNNE PENELOPE FINDS OUT - PAMELA WYNNE CONCEALED TURNINGS - PAMELA WYNNE A PASSIONATE REBEL - PAMELA WYNNE MADEMOISELLE DAHLIA - PAMELA WYNNE UNDER THE MOSQUITO CURTAIN - PAMELA WYNNE RAINBOW IN THE SPRAY - PAMELA WYNNE AT THE END OF THE AVENUE - PAMELA WYNNE A LITTLE FLAT IN THE TEMPLE - PAMELA WYNNE EAST IS ALWAYS EAST -PAMELA WYNNE THE LAST DAYS OF SEPTEMBER - PAMELA WYNNE LOVE IN A MIST - PAMELA WYNNE THE SEALED DOOR OF LOVE - PAMELA WYNNE THE ONE BEFORE - BARRY PAIN THE FIRST OFFENCE - J. STORER CLOUSTON THE LADY NOGGS, PEERESS - EDGAR JEPSON UNCERTAIN GLORY - MARIGOLD WATNEY MUNDY'S CHILD - ALICE LINDLEY THE BRIDGE OF DISTANCES - ELLA SCRYMSOUR 'NEATH BURMESE BELLS - ELLA SCRYMSOUR MORNING GLORY - RUTH ALEXANDER THERE AND BACK AGAIN - MARY CROSBIE DAZZLE - CLARE THORNTON PASTURES OF HEAVEN - JOHN STEINBECK SECOND CHOICE - E. ALEXANDER SIXTEEN TO FORTY - "MARNA " THE BARBER OF PUTNEY- J. B. MORTON ("Beachcomber" of the Daily Express) ORDEAL -. DALE COLLINS THE MONKEY GOD - GORDON CASSERLY THE ELEPHANT GOD - GORDON CASSERLY THE JUNGLE GIRL - GORDON CASSERLY TIGER GIRL - GORDON CASSERLY THE RED MARSHAL - GORDON CASSERLY DESIRABLE YOUNG MEN - PATRICK CARLETON THE HAWK AND THE TREE - PATRICK CARLETON SANCTUARY - BLANCHE HARDY DYNASTY - BLANCHE HARDY Incidentally, any change in the Lovejoys situation? Last time I passed, they were still officially 'closed for refurbishments,' but that ominous 'sex licence applied for' hung from the lamppost suggested they might have run into difficulties. A quick bit of googling on Barry Pain reveals that he also had a reputation for ghost and horror stories, one of which was supposed to be influential on Lovecraft. Not heard that before, as had him fixed as a humour writer because of Eliza and old anthologies I've got. Had a look on here but can't find any mentions of his horror work - have I missed a thread? This rather suggests to me that he's an EF Benson figure in some ways - anyone who has read the horror stuff care to discuss? Hugh Lamb ran a number of Barry Pain's ghost & horror stories over a series of anthologies and also edited Stories In The Dark: Tales Of Terror, a three way split between Pain, Robert Barr & Jerome K. Jerome (right up your street, I'd have thought). I need a refresher, so perhaps later in the week .... - dem
|
|
|
Post by pulphack on Feb 3, 2014 9:42:09 GMT
I do love a catalogue in the back of a book. The one in the back of the Barry Pain is only three pages, but again the proportion given to love stories,etc suggests that it was their staple. Interested to note on the page you scanned a couple of Rat books - I think these were novelisations of the Ivor Novello silents - there may be a third, as there were three films in all. I saw them a while back at the NFT in stifling conditions while suffering a cold, and they were STILL good. The Rat was a romantic anti-hero and Parisian burglar who went from riches to prison to ruin to riches again and then death. As you do. Denise Robins gets in there at the start of a career that saw her still a big name in romance in the 1970's! But what happened to the prolific Pamela Wynne and the wonderfully named Vina Delmar?
That three-hander does sound my sort of thing and worth tracking down. I shall also look out for the anthologised Pains (??!!).
Lovejoys is well and truly gone. I almost walked past the end of Old Compton Street as it's now a green painted Harmony sex shop with lots of suitably tacky lingerie in the window and not a hint of a Sexton Blake anthology or a Three Stooges dvd in the window... Very sad. The landmark 'Lovejoys' sign that guided you into Soho even when three parts pissed after coming out of the Montague Pryke by the front is much missed.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Feb 3, 2014 11:13:36 GMT
That three-hander does sound my sort of thing and worth tracking down. I shall also look out for the anthologised Pains (??!!). Ah, here we are. I thought it might come in handy one day. Hugh Lamb UK Anthos A-Z by authorsSo, Hugh only used two of BP's stories in his anthologies, and as both are exhumed for Stories In The Dark, that remains your best bet. His macabre work has served some of our finest anthologists very well down the decades. Michel Parry revived The Gray Cat for a fiendish felines selection, and The Undying Thing - Pain's most famous horror story by some distance - kicks off John Pelan's The Century's Best Horror Fiction. The End Of A Show has turned up in collections edited by Peter Haining, Michael O'Shaugnessy and Dorothy L. Sayers: and Robert Aickman included Not on The Passenger List in 4th Fontana Book of Great StoriesLovejoys is well and truly gone. I almost walked past the end of Old Compton Street as it's now a green painted Harmony sex shop with lots of suitably tacky lingerie in the window and not a hint of a Sexton Blake anthology or a Three Stooges dvd in the window... Very sad. The landmark 'Lovejoys' sign that guided you into Soho even when three parts pissed after coming out of the Montague Pryke by the front is much missed. oh no, our worst fears confirmed. Lovejoys will pass into legend as one of the great vault (London chapter) hang-outs along with Fantasy Centre, TYPE and the basement of the Victoria Plaza Hotel. Every visit was an adventure.
|
|