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Post by cauldronbrewer on Feb 1, 2014 15:57:33 GMT
Mr. Cline sounds "a bit of a character" and am looking forward to your thoughts on Dark Chamber. And yes, the cover painting for the PL edition is indeed a beauty. The blurb is none too shabby either! Sadly, the blurb is far better than the book itself, which is a pretentious, quasi-poetical bore about ancestral memory. I remember complaining about the parts of Dororthy Macardle's (otherwise solid) The Uninvited where the narrator goes on about the play he's writing, but they're nothing compared to the parts of this one where the narrator goes on about the opera he's writing.
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Post by dem bones on Jun 17, 2020 12:05:34 GMT
Muriel E. Eddy – True Ghost Experiences: The Beheaded Bride: ( Ghost Stories, Sept. 1926). The cottage in Thurman's Lane, Whitman, Mass., is haunted by the gory ghost of Mrs. Gentry, only three weeks wed to the village butcher before he suffered one of his turns and hacked off her head with a cleaver. Bill Gentry, who'd never fully recovered from being gassed during the Great War, saw out his days in an Insane Asylum. W. Adolphe Roberts (as told by Hugh Docre Purcell) – Marked with the Curse of Obi: ( Ghost Stories, Dec. 1926). Woe to him who gives offence to the great god Obi! Hugh Purcell lived to regret the day he censured a West Indian maid. New York. Mr. Purcell is hexed by a maid he sacks for thieving a silver spoon and a $1 note. Cora takes her grievance to Tom Cudjo, the Obeah man of 156th Street, who afflicts the white man with an unsightly ringworm-related skin complaint.
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Post by dem bones on Jun 18, 2020 17:45:54 GMT
C. B. Bigelow – The Ghost Light: ( Ghost Stories, Sept. 1927). "There were three of us, students of the horrible, multiform and intricate workings of the disordered mind." Charlesville, New England. The wooden mansion on the hill has stood empty since 1680 when its owner, a Sorcerer who claimed the ability to create living creatures from chemicals, was burnt at the stake. Despite this, a light burns nightly in the upper window - has done for coming up two-hundred and fifty years. No one has dared approach the house since - until now three scientists - Dr. Jamison, Van Kesner and Ivan Stowskey - have taken over the ruin to pursue their research in peace. Lucky for us, Jamison records a blow by blow account of their downfall as they are stalked by a razor-wielding disembodied hand and/ or a hairy, grossly misshapen head balanced atop disproportionately thin arms and legs. Alternatively, Jamison may have gone insane, murdered his colleagues and taken his own life. There are more things in your philosophy, Horatio, etc. Narrated by Mr. MacNarland, who discovers their mouldering corpses. Ethel Watts Mumford – The Specter in Red: ( Ghost Stories, June 1927). "Handcuffed to his bed for safety - and I to blame for his condition? These were the ravings of a maniac." The folly of dabbling in hypnotism laid bare. Post-seance, Tom Kincaid regresses through the centuries until his body is transformed into that of a gorilla. Blaming Dr. Langton, he visits the surgery with murder uppermost in his fragile mind. As with many of these eyewitness testimonies, it is sometimes difficult to shrug off suspicion that they are possibly very made up.
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Post by dem bones on Jun 20, 2020 10:33:51 GMT
I was inspired by this thread and a post by Douglas A. Anderson on Wormwoodiana to buy both volumes of Ghost Stories: The Magazine and Its Makers (I just started reading the second volume; details to follow). Editor Locke has done an excellent job on the set, including extensive research on the magazine's history. The authors are a fascinating bunch: the ones from the first volume include a man convicted of manslaughter (Cline), a friend of H. P. Lovecraft (Eddy), a muckraker apparently murdered by mobsters (Liggett), the Italian-born poet laureate of Arkansas (Marinoni), and the bizarre (and bizarrely named) Nictzin Dyalhis of Weird Tales fame. Locke has also made the laudable decision to avoid selecting any stories included in Phantom Perfumes, Mike Ashley's previous anthology drawn from the magazine. As for the stories themselves, they range from mediocre to solid. The highlights for me were Collins's Talking Glass, which makes good use of its vaudeville setting, and Cline's Sweetheart of the Snows, which features a snow elemental and is reminiscent of Algernon Blackwood's "The Glamour of the Snow." Alan Forsyth [Leonard Cline] – Sweetheart of the Snows: ( Ghost Stories, Aug. 1928). Baldur was in love with a phantom. His wife and friend battled for him, but - Newly-weds Balder and Agatha Blake move from the city to a woodland cabin in snowbound New England. Their happy marriage fast falls apart as Balder is bewitched by an elemental in the form of a beautiful, naked woman bent on enticing him out into the blizzard. Can narrator Alan - Agatha's former fiancé - save his lifelong friend from "the ghost of frozen death?" Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni – The Green Monkey: ( Ghost Stories, Oct. 1928). When Sylvia leaves town, Zanzara the ancient fortune teller gifts her a knitted green monkey. Years later the little fellow sees off a violent intruder at Sylvia's home. I'm with you all the way that Sweetheart of the Snows is one of the more effective stories, CB. And John Locke's The History of Ghost Stories and potted biographies of editors and authors are excellent.
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Post by Swampirella on Jun 20, 2020 11:34:00 GMT
I just downloaded a dozen+ from Luminist to start reading soon. (Download at your own risk but my scan just now was clean)
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Post by Shrink Proof on Jun 21, 2020 17:29:44 GMT
I just downloaded a dozen+ from Luminist to start reading soon. (Download at your own risk but my scan just now was clean)
To be fair, I've only come across one thing that has ever shown up a possible virus alert at Luminist. I flagged it up here as it was one of the first things I'd looked at there and I assumed (probably wrongly, it now turns out) that that did not bode well. However subsequently all has been fine. The perils of making judgements based on very small samples...
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Post by dem bones on Jun 24, 2020 16:37:04 GMT
"His ghostly hands were offensive, hideous as they loosed the clothing around her throat. He was like an unearthly vulture about to feed upon a human corpse." Harvey S. Cottrell (as told by Will Winship Arnold) – Sardonic Laughter: ( Ghost Stories, Nov. 1927). "Will Arnold and his wife ventured into the haunted cellars of the madman's house – and before they left the place, they wished that they had never been born." Hamilton, Connecticut. The derelict Guthrie mansion, awaiting demolition, is haunted by the spectre of the hermit who built it. In death as in life, Guthrie worships to an evil spirit, Sardis. His freedom can only be obtained through human sacrifice. Plucky young ghost hunter Vivian Arnold falls under his spell .... By Ghost Stories standards this one is almost racy. Constance Bross Eckley – A Ferryman of Souls: ( Ghost Stories, May 1928). "'Crazy Tom' brought drowned folks to shore. in his cabin they walked and talked, and – ." John Rochester, drowning off the Washington coast, is saved when a ragged stranger guides him toward a life-line that wasn't there a minute ago. 'Crazy Tom' invites Rochester inside a cabin on the rocks, cheerfully informs him he's arrived just in time for supper! It's a meal the rescued man will never forget. For Tom dines nightly with the skeletons of his family and the ghosts of those whose corpses washed up in Dead Man's Hollow. Lilith Shell (as told by Owen Bennett) – Who Am I? : ( Ghost Stories, June 1927). "Owen Bennett faced the horror of knowing his personalty was changing, of knowing that he was losing his very soul." France, early days of the Great War. Two British soldiers, Ross Lyons and childhood friend Owen Bennett, are sent over the top and duly gunned down by enemy fire. Ross, the dominant personality, is killed, but his soul enters the wounded Bennett's body. On returning to England, Owen and fiancee, Annie Griffin, call off their engagement as they no longer feel any liking for one another. Ross has effectively vanquished Bennett from his own flesh.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Jun 25, 2020 12:21:51 GMT
I'm enjoying the mini-reviews of Ghost Stories entries. I keep hoping somebody publishes another anthology of material from the magazine (along with more of the staged photographs).
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Post by Swampirella on Jun 25, 2020 13:41:39 GMT
I'm enjoying the mini-reviews of Ghost Stories entries. I keep hoping somebody publishes another anthology of material from the magazine (along with more of the staged photographs). I'm enjoying the mini-reviews more than the stories! They're not my taste so I'm just browsing & enjoying the staged photos. Also their style of having stories that start on page X continued 60pgs later doesn't work for me, with an ereader.
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Post by dem bones on Jun 25, 2020 20:11:51 GMT
I'm enjoying the mini-reviews of Ghost Stories entries. I keep hoping somebody publishes another anthology of material from the magazine (along with more of the staged photographs). I'm enjoying the mini-reviews more than the stories! They're not my taste so I'm just browsing & enjoying the staged photos. Also their style of having stories that start on page X continued 60pgs later doesn't work for me, with an ereader. The publishers really should have stuck with the photo's for the magazine's duration, as they so often upstage the pedestrian stories. That said, I can't help but like Muriel Eddy's gory contribution. A Ferryman of Souls, The Ghost Light and The Specter in Red would have been at home in an Edwin Baird issue of Weird Tales. CB, I can't remember if you have a copy of Mike Ashley's Phantom Perfumes and Other Shades? If so, how does it rate against John Locke's compilations?
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Jun 25, 2020 20:47:29 GMT
CB, I can't remember if you have a copy of Mike Ashley's Phantom Perfumes and Other Shades? If so, how does it rate against John Locke's compilations? I do, and on average the stories in Ashley's anthology are stronger. However, Locke assembled his two-volume set after Ashley had first pick--and Locke wisely avoided repeating the earlier selections.
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Post by dem bones on Jun 26, 2020 18:25:51 GMT
"His hand went up to his heart, and without a word Ashley pitched backwards ..." Ghost Stories anticipate Art of Coarse Acting magic by forty years. Fred Collins - (As told by John Miller Gregory) – Talking Glass: ( Ghost Stories, Apr. 1927). Ashley, the vaudeville hypnotist and crystal gazer, used his showmanship to a sacred end. But no one, not even his closest friend, could forsee the frightful result of his experiment, 'Zedo, the Indian Mystic,' and his sinister Spanish sidekick, Boto, tour the theatres with an all-conquering crystal gazing act. 'Zedo' is Herbert Ashley, scientist, hypnotist and genuine clairvoyant, desperate to reach his late Aunt Ellen on the other side. Mystery man Boto, is quite likely the murderer of Yanhiti, the famous English medium. Both men have designs on their comely new assistant, Nadia. Mark my words, it will all end in tears. Guy Fowler – A Ghost from the Flying Circus: ( Ghost Stories, Jan. 1928). "I never saw a man so set on dying who failed to do it." Baron Ludwig Von Essel, German flying ace, has tuberculosis. If he has to die, he'd prefer to do so in a dog-fight with the enemy, hence the suicidal recklessness which has seen him down sixty allied planes. American pilot Jimmy Kenyon is sworn to kill the Baron. After the war, Jimmy flies for the US air mail. One foggy night over the Alleghenies, he watches in disbelief as a familiar Fokker descends from the clouds ....
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Post by dem bones on Jun 30, 2020 17:56:54 GMT
Nictzin Dyalhis (as told by Eric Marston) – He Refused to Stay Dead: ( Ghost Stories, May 1927). Excavation of a barrow in the grounds of Falconwold Castle releases the 'vampyr' ghost of Thoruf, the tenth century Viking sea chief. Back in the day, Thoruf killed the Saxon Thane, Eric the Falcon, and stole his betrothed, Edwina. Now Eric Marson must defeat the giant in armed combat or forfeit his wife. Reincarnation, rape and pillage, a powerful talisman, the seal of Sulieman, etc. George Malherbe – Dead Man’s Vengeance: ( Ghost Stories, March 1928). Dead or alive, the old man of Liverpool Street, jealously guards the whereabouts of the treasure map until no prying cabin-boy, ship's captain or blabber-mouthed parrot is safe. The murders are pretty good in this one.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Jun 30, 2020 18:42:11 GMT
Nictzin Dyalhis (as told by Eric Marston) – He Refused to Stay Dead: ( Ghost Stories, May 1927). Excavation of a barrow in the grounds of Falconwold Castle releases the 'vampyr' ghost of Thoruf, the tenth century Viking sea chief. Back in the day, Thoruf killed the Saxon Thane, Eric the Falcon, and stole his betrothed, Edwina. Now Eric Marson must defeat the giant in armed combat or forfeit his wife. Reincarnation, rape and pillage, a powerful talisman, the seal of Sulieman, etc. Original title, according to John Locke: "My Encounter with Osric, the Troll."
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Post by dem bones on Jul 2, 2020 20:32:55 GMT
I deliberately held back from this next, the atypically static staged photo convincing me it was unquestionably the dullest thing ever written. Today it was a resigned "let's get it over with." Of course, you will have guessed that it turns out to be one of Mr. Locke's livelier selections.
Walter W. Liggett – The White Seal of Avalak : (Ghost Stories, July 1926). When Morrison, a gormless newcomer to an Arctic trading post, shoots dead a rare white seal, Na-Kut-Tah, the witch-doctor, is not slow to exploit the situation for his own ends. Morrison has offended the Gods. The Eskimo's will boycott his goods until he has made good the wrong by placating their earthly receptacle - Na-Kut-Tah - with valuables. These must including the skin of the murdered seal. On the advice of our narrator, a Mountie, Morrison gracelessly complies. The crafty Na-Kut-Tah has even less liking for Morrison's rival trader, 'Broken Nose' Frazier, who is sharing body fluids with Oh-It-OK, the prettiest girl in the tribe. The shaman plays the whites against one another while he readies a 'miracle,' namely the slain seal's return from the dead, it's shiny skin all back in place. Meanwhile Frazier, who has learned all from Oh-It-OK, prepares to expose the magic man for the fake he is. Robert W. Sneddon – Painted Upside Down : (Ghost Stories, Sept. 1928). Mark Shadow, the great ghost hunter, investigates suspected poltergeist activity and all manner of strange phenomena at a "whispering house" in New York. The three-story building was once home to Amos Hawthorne, brutal slave-trader. whose great-grand-daughter, Margaret recently bought the property cheap. It has been unable to shake an evil reputation ever since Amos hung himself in suspicious circumstances.
Margaret is a celebrated artist, Since buying the property, she has involuntarily taken to painting scenes depicting voodoo ceremonies involving the worship of a monstrous God. She is also haunted by a ceaseless whispering. Shadow offers his services in exchange for his choice of her canvases. He and Maurice the valet temporarily move in with Margaret and her best pal, Janet Dunlop, a sensitive. Their presence soon lures multiple phantoms, including a hooded woman with no face, a skeletal hand, and a walking dead black with a knife through his throat. And they've yet to explore the cellar. It's going to be quite a night!
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