Ramsey Campbell - The Inhabitant of the Lake

[andydecker]

Ramsey Campbell – The Inhabitant of the Lake & Other Unwelcome Tenants (PS Publishing, 2011, this edition tpb 2018, 295 pages)

Cover Randy Broecker

Contents:

A Word from the Author (1964)
The Room in the Castle (1964)
The Horror from the Bridge (1964)
The Insects from Shaggai (1964)
The Render of the Veils (1964)
The Inhabitant of the Lake (1964)
The Plain of Sound (1964)
The Return of the Witch (1964)
The Mine on Yuggoth (1964)
The Will of Stanley Brooke (1964)
The Moon-Lens (1964)
A Note on the First Drafts - essay by Ramsey Campbell
The Box in the Priory
The Tomb-Herd (1986)
The Face in the Desert (1965)
The Horror from the Bridge (first draft, 1964)
The Tower from Yuggoth (1986)
The Insects from Shaggai (first draft, 1964)
The Church in High Street (1962)
Afterword (2010)
Letter to Ramsey Campbell, August 19, 1961 by August Derleth
Letter to Ramsey Campbell, October 6, 1961 by August Derleth
Letter to Ramsey Campbell, October 18, 1961 by August Derleth
Letter to Ramsey Campbell, February 7, 1962 by August Derleth
Letter to Ramsey Campbell, July 25, 1963 by August Derleth

This is the first of Ramsey Campbell's Mythos collections by PS Publishing. Basically this is kind of a reprint of the original Arkham House collection from 1964, published when Ramsey was 18 years old. As this was nearly 50 years ago at the time of publishing it gets a lot of extras and context. Included are first drafts and some introspection from the writer on the content of the stories.

'Far worse than any of the prose, however', writes Ramsey in his afterword 'is the way these tales (in their published versions as much as the first drafts) reinforce the claim falsely attributed to Lovecraft [the 'Black Magic' quote]. Even at that age I should have seen how much of his fiction can't be forced into that framework. There's no evidence that he ever said this, and it's dispiriting to find it attributed to him all over the Internet, not to mention in at least one recently published book'.

I think he is much too critical on himself in this. When I discovered HPL in the late 70s this concept, which was the fundament of the pastiches factory at the time, was seen as fact, and from the (casual) readers point of view there was no reason to doubt this. Only much later writers like Dirk Mosig and Joshi put it right.

There is interior artwork included, and the letters from August Derleth are a nice idea.

Of course all the tales were included in the OoP collection Cold Print in 1985, so the main appeal here are the DVD extras so to speak. Nonetheless this book and its companion volume Visions from Brichester are the definite edition of this part of Ramsey Campbell's work.

[ramseycampbell]

To be honest, I thought there was something amiss with that quote the first time I read it. I didn't understand how it could cover the likes of Herbert West or "In the Vault" or "The Picture in the House" or quite a few more.