Fredric Brown - Nightmares and Geezenstacks

[dem bones]

Fredric Brown - Nightmares and Geezenstacks (Bantam, July 1961)

Nasty
Abominable
Rebound
Nightmare in Gray
Nightmare in Green
Nightmare in White
Nightmare in Blue
Nightmare in Yellow
Nightmare in Red
Unfortunately
Granny's Birthday
Cat Burglar
The House
Second Chance
Great Lost Discoveries I - Invisibility
Great Lost Discoveries II - Invulnerability
Great Lost Discoveries III - Immortality
Dead Letter
Recessional
Hobbyist
Vengeance Fleet
Rope Trick
Fatal Error
The Short Happy Lives of Eustace Weaver I
The Short Happy Lives of Eustace Weaver II
The Short Happy Lives of Eustace Weaver III
Expedition
Bright Beard
Jaycee
Contact
Horse Race
Death on the Mountain
The Ring of Hans Carvel
Bear Possibility
Not Yet the End
Fish Story
Three Little Owls (A Fable)
Runaround
Murder in Ten Easy Lessons
Dark Interlude [with Mack Reynolds]
Entity Trap
The Little Lamb
Me and Flapjack and the Martians [with Mack Reynolds]
The Joke
Cartoonist [with Mack Reynolds]
The Geezenstacks
The End

Blurb
DO YOU KNOW A GEEZENSTACK?

If you don't, you probably think it's a joke. If you do you're shuddering compulsively. Geezenstacks are the kind of "things" Fred Brown writes about. They can take you out of yourself, you might say.
BUT- BEWARE GETTING SO FAR OUT YOU CAN'T GET BACK

NIGHTMARES AND GEEZENSTACKS is a collection of stories, revolving about some of the gaudiest ghouls and craziest nightmares ever unleashed in our space, our time,
and our galaxy. (Forget any others.). It proves once again Fredric Brown's unchallengeable position as the first master of fantasy.

Predominantly a collection of genre-hopping short-shorts.

Nasty: (Playboy, April 1959). Walter Beauregard, ageing lecher, trades his soul in return for an item that will make him irresistible to the opposite sex ...

Abominable: (Dude, March 1960). Sir Chauney Atherton, mountaineer and adventurer, scales the Himalayas in search of beautiful film starlet, Lola Gabraldi, missing presumed abducted by Yeti. What happens to them both is ....

Rebound: (Galaxy, April 1960). Larry Snell, small-time villain, is suddenly invested with the Power. All he need do is ask and his will be done. Now nothing can stand in the way of his becoming the most powerful dictator in history!

Unfortunately: (MF&SF, Oct. 1958). An astronaut running low on provisions, lands on Arcturus IV where the deaf, dumb inhabitants are known to be friendly and eager to please. The Articurans indicate that all he need do is write down what he requires and he'll have it. Such a shame that their spelling isn't up to scratch.

Nightmare In Yellow: Provided he leaves before morning, the bank won't discover his embezzlement until he's far beyond their reach and living a life of luxury on some tropical idyll. But before departure there's a vanity project to attend. Today is his 40th birthday, and by way of celebration, he's going to kill his wife for the sheer enjoyment of doing so.

Nightmare In Red: The world is revealed as a giant pinball machine.

Nightmare In Green: Six years into his marriage, he's had enough of being outshone by his wife in every department. Today he will demand a divorce so he can begin a new life with lovely Laura ...

Dead Letter: Laverty murdered congressman Quinn just last night. So how can the dead man be stood here on his doorstep? Vengeance from beyond the grave.

The Ring Of Hans Carvel: Brown had a fondness for mildly racy deal-with-the-devil stories, and here's another. Suspecting his beautiful young wife of having an affair, Carvel trades his soul for something, anything, that will guarantee she remain faithful to him ....

Bright Beard: Married off by her father, the reluctant bride is terrified of the man she must now think of as husband, especially as he has already buried four wives. And she's curious, deadly curious, about what he keeps locked away in the closet she's been told never to enter ....

[dem bones]

Rope Trick: (Adam, May 1959). What the flute-playing hindu fakir can achieve with a snake will surely have the same effect on her husband's limp member? Elsie Darnell hopes so, otherwise their second honeymoon will have been a complete non-event.

Expedition: (MF&SF, Feb. 1957). The first manned flight to Mars, and the thirty-strong colonisation party are chosen by drawing lots. Which is how Captain 'Mighty' Maxon wound up sharing the red planet with twenty-nine women. And also how he earned his nickname.

Second Chance: Four hundred years after the fall of man, a huge crowd gather to watch a replay of the 1959 World Series play-off between the Chicago White Sox and L. A. Dodgers. The robots do their best to keep primitive traditions alive.

The Geezenstacks: (Weird Tales, Sept. 1943). One of the longer, and better stories. A gift-wrapped box containing four kewpie dolls falls from the sky. His door to door inquiries having failed to reveal an owner, Richard gifts them to his niece, Aubrey Walters. Trouble is, the toys are seemingly magically enhanced, and what little Aubrey imagines for them in her fantasy world has a habit of coming true in the real one. Her father finally flips when he catches her playing out a dolls funeral ....

Fredric Brown & Mack Reynolds - Cartoonist : (Planet Stories, May 1951). Undervalued on earth, Bill Garrington finds an appreciative audience for his work in the mirth-loving B.E.M.'s of planet Snook.

[gooseflesh]

I loved this book when i was around 12. The short -shorts with different colored Nightmare titles were my favorites.