Ghosts & Scholars 14

[dem bones]

Rosemary Pardoe (ed.) - Ghosts & Scholars 14 (Haunted Library, 1992)

Allen Koszowski (Fritz Leiber's Our Lady Of Darkness)

Fiction:

Alan W. Lear - "A Little, Little Grave"
Muriel Smith - The Weaker Twin
Rick Kennett - The Outsider

Articles:

David Rowlands - A Warning to the Curious: Part 7
Richard Dalby - Christopher Woodforde
Rosemary Pardoe, David Rowlands & John Alfred Taylor - "The Story Of A Disappearance And An Appearance."

Reviews:

Mike Ashley - Richard Dalby (ed.), Mammoth Book Of Ghost Stories 2 (Robinson, 1991).
Rosemary Pardoe - Richard Dalby (ed.), Tales Of Witchcraft (O'Mara, 1991); Richard Dalby (ed.), Virago Book Of Ghost Stories: Vol 2 (1991).
Jon L. Lellenberg - Inge Dupont & Hopo Mayo (eds.) Morgan Library Ghost Stories (Fordham University Press, 1990).
Rosemary Pardoe - E. F. Benson, Desirable Residence & Other Stories; Selected byJack Adrian (OUP, 1991).
Robert Aday - S. T. Joshi, John Dickson Carr: A Critical Study (Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1990).
Jan Arter - Jonathan Aycliffe, Naomi's Room (HarperCollins, 1991)

Artwork:

Allen Koszowski, Dallas Goffin, Nick Maloret, Jim Pitts, Alan Hunter, Simon Rowson.

Sad news. "This is the final Warning To The Curious for a while, but David Rowlands will return with the column at a later date." Not having seen any copies past number 18, (1994; Ghosts & Scholars became a bi-annual publication from issue 15) I can neither confirm nor deny whether this was the case, but much to my delight, Mr. Rowland penned at least one related and very surprising piece, Seabury Quinn: A controversial Entry In The 'James Gang.', for #18. The column was a big favourite of mine to the point where, once I've deciphered my spidery notes, I'm planning to give it a thread to itself. For the record, part seven is devoted to the Jamesian stories of Walter de la Mare, Nugent Barker, and Vernon Lee.

To make a start on the fiction:

Alan W. Lear - "A Little, Little Grave": Tompion College undergraduate, the Honourable Sebastian Bannister, gets what's coming to him when, for want of an impressive cigar box, he makes away with a small black marble coffin from Hastingholm Manor. Had he only been forewarned that 'Damnation' Aylmer (1707- 1781), the ninth Baron Hastingholm, was an alchemist and all round bad egg whose greatest achievement was the creation of a living homunculus, he may have thought twice about his actions, so well done everybody for not telling tales. A neat, blackly comic story even if the studied mannerisms grate at times (have said it before but seems to me there is such a thing as being too Jamesian). And what a great pity that Bannister refused to elaborate on the - doubtless nefarious - doings of "our esteemed college chaplain, Dr. Probert." (!)