Some thoughts on the newsletter.
Having but recently returned to the G&S fold, was curious how one of the fiction-free issues would hold together. On the evidence of #32, the answer is admirably. Am guessing most Haunted Librarians would agree that the headline act is the revival of
The Ghost Story: Folk Lore & The Literary Tale, an interview with M. R. James from the
Morning Post for Oct. 9 1923 (very well done to Brian Showers for locating it). Tantalisingly brief, the item reads like a teaser for 1929's
Some Remarks On The Ghost Story. Dr. James' reply to the inevitable "do you believe in ghosts?" is again along standard I-will-when-I-see-one lines; as we know, he'd climb right down off the fence toward the end of his life. Of especial interest - to this reader, at least - his verdict on what does and what does not constitute "a good example" of a ghost story.
The Toll House and
The Monkey's Paw by W. W. Jacobs, oddly overlooked in
Some Remarks ..., pass with distinction, as do various works of J. S. le Fanu and Erckmann-Chatrian. Bulwer-Lytton's
The Haunters And The Haunted fails miserably, while all things E. A. Poe need not even apply for consideration. Sadly, the interview falls too early for further MRJ pearls of wisdom regarding those "nauseating"
Not At Night's.
Peter Bell's
The Stele is the type of authentic ghost story I go for; slow burning, high on atmosphere, leaving the most dramatic reveal until the end. I gather Mr. Bell's
Ragnarok (
G&SMRJN #28) applied a fictional makeover to a similar true life experience. Would love to see the results were he to repeat the process with this beauty.
The Sir C. Lee controversy, as touched upon elsewhere on this thread, features yet another welcome cameo appearance from
G&S's pet pantomime villain, Peter Haining's
M. R. James Book Of The Supernatural.
The reviews are uniformly excellent. Am sure Paul Finch & contributors will be delighted by David Harris's enthused commentary on
Terror Tales Of Cornwall, far the finest review of a
TT volume I've read to date. Very pleased to see
Scarred For Life receive a thumbs up. Ro's endorsement of Fritz Leiber's
A Bit Of The Dark World sent
Night Monsters scurrying up the to-be-read tower of doom like one of the author's beloved monster arachnids.
Some news. Deadlines for submissions to next year's proposed
Ghosts & Scholars Book of Folk Horror now extended to January 31 2018. First half of the volume is already accounted for with ten or eleven reprints from the magazine, roughly the same space available for originals. The, we hope, temporary cancellation of the annual Ghost Story Award spares me the trauma of choosing between
Ting-A-Ling-A-Ling and the decidedly non-Jamesian
The Mercy Seat by Mike Chinn. Deadlines for submissions to next year's proposed
Ghosts & Scholars Book of Folk Horror now extended to January 31 2018. First half of the volume is already accounted for by ten or eleven reprints from the magazine, roughly the same space available for originals.