Allison V Harding

[Jojo Lapin X]

Allison V Harding's "The Underbody" is an eerie masterpiece, but what are her other stories like? (I am assuming here that she was an actual individual, and not a house name.) Join me in finding out! And by this I mean I want to encourage others to report on their Harding readings in this thread.

As a start, consider "Night of Impossible Shadows" (Weird Tales, September 1945). Young newlyweds go visit the husband's weird old friend who has holed up in a remote country house to pursue his occult studies. It turns out he has developed a risible theory of how human shadows are really independent, malevolent beings. It turn out this theory is true. Boredom ensues. Nothing like "The Underbody."

[cauldronbrewer]

Dec 28, 2013 16:40:08 GMT Jojo Lapin X said:

Join me in finding out! And by this I mean I want to encourage others to report on their Harding readings in this thread.

This is excellent. I'll try to contribute soon.

[cauldronbrewer]

My first report to the Vault of Evil's Allison V. Harding Challenge focuses on "The Place with Many Windows" (Weird Tales, May 1947). Sadly, the story is no lost gem. Instead, it's a piece of light weird menace featuring a purported gypsy curse and a factory with many windows. This factory is actually the headquarters of a counterfeiting ring; the story does not explain why they chose a location with so many windows. Indeed, the windows don't end up playing much role in the story. Corpses pile up, and an unconvincing romance unfolds. The climax takes place in the windowless basement. There is a groan-inducing revelation at the end.

I'm beginning to wonder whether Ms. Harding simply got lucky with "The Underbody." It appears to have been the third-to-last story she ever wrote, however, so perhaps she quit just when she was starting to get good. "Take the Z-Train" is her next-to-last story. "Scope" is her final story, though it does not look promising.

[Jojo Lapin X]

Right you are; there are two ls in her name. Sorry about that!

[Jojo Lapin X]

"The Inn by Doomsday Falls" (Weird Tales, November 1947). A newlywed (I think) couple vacation at the titular resort, which is haunted by a ghostly Indian. Except it is all a plot by one of the two co-owners, who wants to buy out the other at a suitably low price after the guests have been scared away. Was this not in fact the uncredited source for an episode of SCOOBY DOO? Except here the real ghost eventually saves the day. This is not a spoiler, as you should not read this story anyway. What were these things doing in Weird Tales?

[dem bones]

Am bravely dodging the challenge for time being and settling for the stuff that made it into anthologies. The downbeat Take The Z Train is perhaps AVH's best known Weird Tale. Henry Abernathy's subway journey home after another meaningless day in a soul-destroying office takes a turn for the interesting when, in place of the usual A or B train, he realises he's boarded the mysterious Z. Looking around the carriage Henry notes that his fellow passengers are either variations on himself at different stages of his life, or clones of the paunchy bosses he's toiled for throughout his miserable existence. Oh look, there's a body on the track.

If it ended here, Take The Z Train would perhaps make for a more effective story, but there's a moral, or at least, a point to it all; treasure that sacred moment in childhood as it is all downhill fast hereafter. Decent enough, but not a patch on The Underbody.

Guard In The Dark: A straightforward supernatural horror story. All that stands between eleven-year old Ronald Frost and the terrible shadowy entity in his room are the heroic tin soldiers he posts as sentries. But the battle is taking its toll. Each night they suffer huge casualties until now there are only a handful to protect him from the it. Of course, neither his parents nor his smarmy tutor, Mr. Wilburts, will listen to such fanciful nonsense.

[dem bones]

A. R. Tilburne

Allison V.Harding - The Marmot: (Weird Tales, March 1944). Edward Allis, professional bad hat, finally receives his comeuppance in Serbia when he breaks into the home of a wealthy old man and announces he will divest him of both valuables and beautiful young trophy wife (in fairness, milady is already sweet on him). The unflappable Eurasian replies that all the scoundrel will be leaving with is his curse, and so it proves! Thereafter Allis spends his days and nights in excruciating agony, complaining that there is something mean and hungry living inside his leg. Reminiscent of John Metcalfe's The Smoking Leg (which surely inspired it?). Not quite The Underbody, but good fun.

[bobby]

    I think what's she most famous for is her "Damp Man" trilogy. The first story, "The Damp Man" (Weird Tales, July 1947), was reprinted in Marvin Kaye's Weird Tales anthology, but I don't think "The Damp Man Returns" (Weird Tales. September 1947) and "The Damp Man Again" (Weird Tales, May 1949) have ever been reprinted.

[cauldronbrewer]

Dec 28, 2013 16:40:08 GMT Jojo Lapin X said:

Allison V Harding's "The Underbody" is an eerie masterpiece, but what are her other stories like? (I am assuming here that she was an actual individual, and not a house name.) Join me in finding out! And by this I mean I want to encourage others to report on their Harding readings in this thread.

As a start, consider "Night of Impossible Shadows" (Weird Tales, September 1945). Young newlyweds go visit the husband's weird old friend who has holed up in a remote country house to pursue his occult studies. It turns out he has developed a risible theory of how human shadows are really independent, malevolent beings. It turn out this theory is true. Boredom ensues. Nothing like "The Underbody."

Here’s a piece of good news for Allison V. Harding fans: someone has finally published a collection of her Weird Tales stories!

Masters of Horror, Vol. 1: Allison V. Harding, the Forgotten Queen of Horror (Armchair Fiction, 2020)

The Frightened Engineer (January 1948)
The Coming of M. Alkerhaus (March 1948)
The Murderous Steam Shovel (November 1945)
The City of Lost People (May 1948)
The Underbody (November 1949)
Scope (January 1951)
The Damp Man (July 1947)
Ride the El to Doom (November 1944)
Night of Impossible Shadows (September 1945)
Isle of Women (July 1948)
Tunnel of Terror (March 1946)
The Machine (September 1946)
Revolt of the Trees (January 1945)
The House of Hate (January 1944)
Death Went That Way (November 1943)
Fog Country (July 1945)

The cover, borrowed from the magazine’s November 1949 issue, is by Matt Fox and illustrates Harding’s never-before-reprinted masterpiece, “The Underbody.”

As the book's title suggests, editor Gregory J. Luce subscribes to the theory that Allison V. Harding was the pen name for Jean Milligan.

As far as I know, only two stories in the collection have been reprinted previously: “The Damp Man” (Harding’s most famous tale) and “Death Went That Way.”

Luce could probably assemble a sequel from the Harding stories not included in this collection.

I’ve already ordered myself a copy.

[Jojo Lapin X]

Oct 8, 2020 14:32:01 GMT cauldronbrewer said:

Dec 28, 2013 16:40:08 GMT Jojo Lapin X said:

Allison V Harding's "The Underbody" is an eerie masterpiece, but what are her other stories like? (I am assuming here that she was an actual individual, and not a house name.) Join me in finding out! And by this I mean I want to encourage others to report on their Harding readings in this thread.

As a start, consider "Night of Impossible Shadows" (Weird Tales, September 1945). Young newlyweds go visit the husband's weird old friend who has holed up in a remote country house to pursue his occult studies. It turns out he has developed a risible theory of how human shadows are really independent, malevolent beings. It turn out this theory is true. Boredom ensues. Nothing like "The Underbody."

Here’s a piece of good news for Allison V. Harding fans: someone has finally published a collection of her Weird Tales stories!

Masters of Horror, Vol. 1: Allison V. Harding, the Forgotten Queen of Horror (Armchair Fiction, 2020)

The Frightened Engineer (January 1948)
The Coming of M. Alkerhaus (March 1948)
The Murderous Steam Shovel (November 1945)
The City of Lost People (May 1948)
The Underbody (November 1949)
Scope (January 1951)
The Damp Man (July 1947)
Ride the El to Doom (November 1944)
Night of Impossible Shadows (September 1945)
Isle of Women (July 1948)
Tunnel of Terror (March 1946)
The Machine (September 1946)
Revolt of the Trees (January 1945)
The House of Hate (January 1944)
Death Went That Way (November 1943)
Fog Country (July 1945)

The cover, borrowed from the magazine’s November 1949 issue, is by Matt Fox and illustrates Harding’s never-before-reprinted masterpiece, “The Underbody.”

As the book's title suggests, editor Gregory J. Luce subscribes to the theory that Allison V. Harding was the pen name for Jean Milligan.

As far as I know, only two stories in the collection have been reprinted previously: “The Damp Man” (Harding’s most famous tale) and “Death Went That Way.”

Luce could probably assemble a sequel from the Harding stories not included in this collection.

I’ve already ordered myself a copy.

Alas! it seems to be available only in the unwieldy "print" format.

Edit: Coming to my senses, I realize that out of the several Harding stories I have read I enjoyed exactly one, so maybe I can live without this collection. That one story is utterly brilliant, however.

[cauldronbrewer]

Oct 8, 2020 14:32:01 GMT cauldronbrewer said:

As far as I know, only two stories in the collection have been reprinted previously: “The Damp Man” (Harding’s most famous tale) and “Death Went That Way.”

I was mistaken: the lead story in Masters of Horror, Vol. 1: Allison V. Harding, the Forgotten Queen of Horror was recently reprinted in Volume 12 of the Horror Gems series, also published by Armchair Fiction. I realized this partway through rereading it.

The Frightened Engineer
A road construction crew comes across a hill that reforms every time they try to level it with steam shovels, water, or even dynamite. Then a steam shovel goes missing, followed by a worker. The construction company calls in a brilliant engineer, who speculates darkly about hollow earth theories and subterranean secrets. This being Weird Tales, he's all too right. 

There's a workable concept here, but Harding's flat and clunky storytelling renders it forgettable (which I suppose helps explain why she's the forgotten Queen of Horror).

Judging by this story, the plot of "The Underbody," and title of "The Murderous Steam Shovel," Harding had a thing for underground horrors and construction equipment.

[cauldronbrewer]

Continuing with Masters of Horror, Vol. 1: Allison V. Harding, the Forgotten Queen of Horror...

The Coming of M. Alkerhaus
A mysterious director shows up at a studio and immediately lands a job on the basis of the "startling new techniques" in his film sample. He proceeds to make surrealist movies that come true in disturbing ways. For his final act, he delivers an unreleasable film about the world ending in an atomic war.

This is an odd one that blends the film-as-horror genre with Cold War anxieties and a heavy dose of fatalism. Perhaps the most startling bit, however, is the presence of a studio executive referred to as "President Trump"--in a story about a prophetic director, no less!

The Murderous Steam Shovel
Brutish construction worker Ed Meglund covets the shiny new steam shovel his company has assigned to college boy Ronsford. Ed's wife Vilma keeps her suspicions to herself when Ronsford goes missing and her husband gets his chance at the controls--at least until the night the steam shovel shows up at the Meglund cottage to wreak vengeance. The shovel unearths a corpse in the process; no prizes for guessing who it is. Vilma finds herself in a sanitarium, dreading the appearance of possessed construction equipment.

Exactly what you'd expect based on the title and author, though the amoral Vilma is a somewhat interesting protagonist.

[Dr Strange]

Oct 16, 2020 12:46:54 GMT cauldronbrewer said:

Continuing with Masters of Horror, Vol. 1: Allison V. Harding, the Forgotten Queen of Horror...

The Murderous Steam Shovel

Exactly what you'd expect based on the title and author, though the amoral Vilma is a somewhat interesting protagonist.

I didn't really know what a "steam shovel" was until I googled it.

[cauldronbrewer]

Oct 16, 2020 15:46:48 GMT Dr Strange said:

I didn't really know what a "steam shovel" was until I googled it.

Interesting that you mention this. I remembered the phrase from my childhood but hadn't run across it in a long time until reading "The Frightened Engineer" and "The Murderous Steam Shovel." I think it's an Americanism that's gradually fading from common use.

[cauldronbrewer]

Still searching for another Allison V. Harding story on the level of "The Underbody" or even "The Damp Man." No luck so far.

Scope
A trio of astronomers working at a New England observatory use a new telescope lens to study the edge of the universe. What they see drives one to suicide, another to mental breakdown, and the third to horrified panic.

A reasonably effective buildup, but the story's cosmic revelation fails spectacularly. The astronomy is also suspect, even by Weird Tales standards. This was the final story Harding published in the magazine, or anywhere else for that matter.