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Post by Steve on Mar 19, 2010 19:23:40 GMT
I wouldn't have any problem with the page count of a collection e.g. Cram, particularly not at Wordsworth prices. Neither would I, Chris, don't get me wrong. I just get the impression that Wordsworth, quite understandably, want to be seen as representing really good value for money, not just to the committed enthusiast but also the more casual browser - look at their recent 1000+ page Varney for £2.99 or the Castle of Otranto/Vathek/Nightmare Abbey 3-for-1 at the same price which Dem looked at recently. The likes of us would be more than happy to stump up three quid for long out of print collections such as those we're talking about here but I'd imagine, ideally, Wordsworth are looking to cast their nets a bit wider. And while we're on the subject of "Wordsworth prices", I happened to wander into our local Waterstones the other day and was more than a little disappointed to see what was going on in there. Not only have all the proper horror books been stuffed into a corner to make way for a ghastly new 'Dark Fantasy' section but the few Wordsworth Mystery & Supernaturals they had in stock were being sold for £4.99 a time. Maybe increasing their profit on each copy will encourage Waterstones to stock more Wordsworth titles rather than the more expensive Penguin Classics or whatever they seem to favour at the moment. Or maybe it'll mean less sales in shops (as potential customers go elsewhere such as Amazon) and even less of a presence for Wordsworth on the High Street. Fair play to the discount book chain over the road who'd presumably picked up on the fact that there might be some interest in Solomon Kane with this new film and were knocking out copies of The Right Hand of Doom for two quid and some change. Waterstones haven't even bothered to stock it.
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Post by Steve on Mar 18, 2010 21:58:56 GMT
Crams is surely in with a great chance with Wordsworth as he fits all the criteria. The only thing I can think of which would count against him is that, as far as I'm aware, he didn't actually write that many supernatural stories. Wordsworth might struggle to put together a decent sized volume unless they put him on a double bill with someone else.
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Post by Steve on Mar 18, 2010 20:27:29 GMT
How about the ghost stories of Ralph Adams Cram? Just been having a look at his Black Spirits and White collection online and quite fancy giving it a go once I've fulfilled my current reading obligations. Thing is, I'm sure I've read 'Sister Maddelena' and 'No. 252 Rue M. Le Prince' at some point but for the life of me can't remember anything about either of them.
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Post by Steve on Mar 18, 2010 13:33:30 GMT
Duel: Horror Stories of the Road ed. William Pattrick [Peter Haining], Star 1987 Haining's Railway and Sea story anthos have both had a look in so far this year but I couldn't see a thread for this, his Haynes manual of horror - or at least one version of it. Duel and other horror stories of the road had previously had an outing in hardback as Mysterious Motoring Stories (W.H. Allen 1987). Introduction The Car with the Green Lights - William Le Queux The Dust-Cloud - E. F. Benson How It Happened - Arthur Conan Doyle The Last Trip - Archie Binns The Demon Lover - Elizabeth Bowen Jay Walkers - H. Russell Wakefield The Ghost of the Model T - Betsy Emmons The Ghost Car - Ken Batten New Corner - L. T. C. Rolt 'Just Like Wild Bob' - William F. Nolan Auto Suggestion - Charles Beaumont Duel - Richard Matheson Second Chance - Jack Finney Trucks - Stephen King The Hitch-Hiker - Roald Dahl The title story will doubtless be familiar to anyone who had a television in their house when they were growing up as it was made into a TV movie by a fledgling Steven Spielberg, shown about once a week by the BBC in the 70s if my memory's anything to go by. Some choice stuff too from L. T. C. Rolt, H. Russell Wakefield, Elizabeth Bowen and Charles Beaumont, along with a couple of interesting lesser known pieces from Weird Tales. I'll be trying to flesh out these bare bones with a few thoughts over the next couple of days but, in the meantime, feel free to jump in with comments on individual stories if you feel so inclined. Haining subsequently rolled out Mysterious Motoring Stories yet again, in a revised and much expanded edition as; Death on Wheels (Souvenir 1999) Introduction - Peter Haining 1. Auto Mania: The Machinery of Death Trucks - Stephen King The Dust-Cloud - E. F. Benson Second Chance - Jack Finney Used Car - H. Russell Wakefield Duel - Richard Matheson Who’s Been Sitting in My Car? - Antonia Fraser Not from Detroit - Joe R. Lansdale 2. Motorway Madness: Murder in the Fast Lane Never Stop on the Motorway - Jeffrey Archer The Death Car - Peter Haining Night Court - Mary Elizabeth Counselman Accident Zone - Ramsey Campbell The Last Run - Alan Dean Foster The Hitch-Hiker - Roald Dahl Crash - J. G. Ballard 3. Chrome Killers: The Future Autogeddon The Racer - Ib Melchior Along the Scenic Route - Harlan Ellison Auto-da-Fé - Roger Zelazny Violation - William F. Nolan Thy Blood Like Milk - Ian Watson Is this Jeffrey Archer's first appearance on Vault?
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Post by Steve on Mar 12, 2010 18:17:29 GMT
I've always liked this cover best. John Atkinson Grimshaw, isn't it? For some reason it always reminds me of "The Mezzotint". Not able to check just now but I'm fairly sure you're right about it being Atkinson Grimshaw and I believe the painting is called "Moonlight Walk". I think I had the Coleridge quote in my head because I seem to remember James quoting it in one of his stories but can't remember now which one. "Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance" possibly? Can't find any fault with this, more recent effort either... what a lovely jumper! And very fitting too (I mean fitting as in 'apt', not in 'snug'). One of the things I've always liked best about M. R. James is how he can make the hairs stand up on the back of your cardigan.
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Post by Steve on Mar 11, 2010 22:26:27 GMT
It's true that M. R. James hasn't exactly been blessed over the years when it comes to book covers. I quite like those painted covers on the Pan paperback editions of Ghost Stories of an Antiquary and More Ghost Stories from the early 50s (the four-poster bed complete with flimsy spook and the really knackered bloke looking in the mirror). They may not scream "M. R. James!" at you but they are at least nice looking old paperbacks. With the advent of ebooks and print on demand I can't help thinking that publishers have rather given up trying... Mind you, unlike Dodo Press (below), at least the publishers of the above book managed to spell the title correctly.
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Post by Steve on Mar 10, 2010 20:27:34 GMT
While I'm at it, here's the old Wordsworth Classics cover for In a Glass Darkly. Not entirely sold on this one (the cover, I mean) - though having said that, I did buy it at the time - but it's better than the owls surely? Incidentally, there's an artist called Jonathan Barry who's done a lot of illustrations based on various works of fantastic literature, including some Dracula and Gothic-type stuff Curiously enough, I've just noticed that the cover for the Wordsworth Mystery & the Supernatural edition of Le Fanu's The House By The Churchyard is a Jonathan Barry painting - for "Carmilla"! Why didn't Wordsworth use that for In a Glass Darkly I wonder?
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Post by Steve on Mar 10, 2010 19:19:36 GMT
Derek at Wordsworth asked if "any haunters of The Vault had seen the revised cover of our M.R. James collection, featuring a painting by Jonathan Barry, and if so, what you thought of it?" I'm not keen, for what it's worth. Looks like a not entirely convincing Photoshop job to me. Nice enough looking pub and I'd probably drink there quite happily but wouldn't particularly want it on the front of an M. R. James collection. The other cover Wordsworth had, the "Like one who, on a lonely road, doth walk in fear and dread" one - this one in fact; - works a lot better for my money. Incidentally, there's an artist called Jonathan Barry who's done a lot of illustrations based on various works of fantastic literature, including some Dracula and Gothic-type stuff (may or may not be the same bloke Derek from Wordsworth is talking about). I only mention it because he painted this 'Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad' picture below. Mind you, I'm not sure even this would work as a Wordsworth Mystery & the Supernatural cover but you can't say it's not Jamesian. Or could you? Is it perhaps a bit too graphic for James, the master of leaving things to the imagination?
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Post by Steve on Mar 8, 2010 6:36:59 GMT
I remember seeing something in a magazine, possibly Film International, showing a publicity still of a scantily-clad lady vampire and a caption to the effect that Hammer's latest Dracula film was in production with the provisional title "Dracula is Dead and Well and Living in London," but I am not sure if that film became AD1972 or Satanic Rites. 'Dracula is Dead and Well and Living in London' was the working title for Satanic Rites. There's an interview with Christopher Lee where he talks about attending a press conference when the film was still at the script stage and basically saying, "Don't bother with this, it doesn't know if it wants to be a comedy or what it's supposed to be - it's going to be rubbish and I'm only doing it under duress". I'm paraphrasing but you know the sort of thing. I can understand Mr Lee's misgivings on this occasion but I've always rather enjoyed SROD.
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Post by Steve on Mar 4, 2010 11:00:34 GMT
One thing that struck me though, was Cushing a virtual chain smoker in real life? Surely even in the early 70s his scripts wouldnt have called for him to get through about forty fags over the two films as he seems to do? I seem to remember reading/hearing somewhere that Cushing was indeed fond of his fags and that he used to wear gloves when he smoked to avoid getting heavily nicotine stained hands. Let's face it, the man was sheer class. Coincidentally, Colin, I did something very similar to yourself last year. That is, undertook to watch/rewatch every Hammer film I could get my hands on*. Time well spent is all I can say. *And I do mean every Hammer film I could find - Love Thy Neighbour spin-off anyone?
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Post by Steve on Jan 26, 2010 18:18:55 GMT
I've recently bought a paperback copy of Hugh Walpole's All Souls Night, published in English by the German publishers Tauchnitz in 1933. While I believe they published the more literary end of things - does any one have more information on any ghost/horror stuff they did? And did they end during WW2? Can't seem to find anything about them after then. According to the British Library, who hold a large collection of Tauchnitz editions, the business ended in 1943. You can search the British Library's catalogue online. Haven't had chance to look through all 6700 Tauchnitz titles in their collection but a quick search turned up stuff such as F. Marion Crawford's The Witch of Prague, a collection of Poe Tales, some William Harrison Ainsworth, some Wilkie Collins, that kind of thing but, as you say, they really seem to have been more at the literary end.
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Post by Steve on Jan 24, 2010 21:39:36 GMT
For some unearthly reason I've got it in my head to post something about the mysterious 'B' - he of 'The Stone Coffin' and what have you - but I really need to go back to bed for a bit before I even think about attempting anything of more than a few sentences. Right, yeah, about this 'B' business. I've not been in bed for the last 2 weeks by the way. Something came up. you're not, by any chance reading the Ghosts & Scholars anthology, are you? rather than get stuck into the Wordsworth collection, i dug out G&S for Christmas Reunion, then carried on last night with the Rolt and Spence stories... The Stone Coffin was up next as it's relatively brief I'd not been at the Ghosts & Scholars anthology, dem, no. I had been perusing the Ghosts & Scholars website when I made that post though and it's entirely thanks to G&S that I developed a passing interest in the mysterious 'B'. For anyone who doesn't know, 7 stories - signed simply 'B' - were published in the Magdalene College Magazine between 1911 and 1914. The identity of 'B' remains a mystery, although it has been suggested that A. C. Benson may have been the man behind the initial. I don't know, I'm certainly no expert, but I'm just not convinced somehow. There are some similarities - both make use of the archaic past tense 'sate' instead of 'sat', for example, but maybe that was just fashionable around Magdalene at the time. All I can really say is that I read all the 'B' stories recently, followed by Benson's "The Slype House" and it just didn't strike me as the work of the same person at all. I'm not particularly a fan of A. C. Benson but he was a capable writer. 'B', while I actually much prefer reading his stuff, has a far less assured style. His stories all seem underdeveloped and appear, to me at least (and for all their charm), to be the work of a reasonably talented amateur. Yet "The Slype House" predates the 'B' stuff by about 10 years. Anyway, 'B'. Most of his stories are fairly similar and fairly standard - generally involving a spot of restoration or renovation which either disturbs some unquiet spirit or is instrumental in helping lay one to rest. You know the sort of thing. "The Stone Coffin", while probably his best known story thanks to its inclusion in the aforementioned Ghosts & Scholars anthology, is a particularly slight example and not really representative of his best work in my humble. Much better written is "The Strange Fate of Mr Peach". It's not a great story mind, but there's some very effective writing in there. What I really like about 'B' though - along with the rather cosy and closeted academic world he evokes, in which unpleasant nocturnal disturbances are often attributed, quite wrongly as it turns out, to a heavy supper - is the way he uses animals as vengeful or familiar spirits in his stories. The hare in the story of the same name, the wicked little ape glimpsed briefly in "When the Door is Shut", and best of all the great hairy, foul smelling bear in that same story and also "Quia Nominor". In the latter, the bear at least gets some build up, some sort of back-story, but in "When the Door is Shut" he just comes out of nowhere. Quite bizarre, very elemental and really rather charming in a vaguely disturbing sort of way you can't put your finger on but can only agree that; "It's an ill thing," said the Dean, in his slow and husky voice, "when a man gets to brood upon bears...
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Post by Steve on Jan 24, 2010 15:46:08 GMT
"The Tomb of Sarah" by F.G. Loring? "The Tomb of Sarah" certainly seems to meet all the relevant criteria; tomb disturbed by church restoration, occupant takes to wandering the countryside of an evening, subsequent nocturnal vigil... it's even got the ring of garlic and what have you. I think the Doctor's got it but if you'd like to check the story out for yourself you can read it online here - www.litgothic.com/Texts/loring_tomb_of_sarah.pdf - amongst other places.
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Post by Steve on Jan 9, 2010 9:05:53 GMT
following steve's post, i took a tentative dip into Not Exactly Ghosts. Not feeling particularly daring, i stuck with the tried and trusted Christmas Reunion, which famously takes it's cue from one of MRJ's suggested plot-lines in Stories I Have Tried To Write but reads more like L. P. Hartley... That was the first one I read as well (what are the odds?) and, yeah pretty much my thoughts exactly. Oh, Caldecott can be fun alright. For a bit of a change of pace and scenery you might try 'Grey Brothers' in Fires Burn Blue. Seconded on our man McGachey too. For my money, the likes of 'The Mound' are as good an example of the Jamesian tradition as you'll find today. For some unearthly reason I've got it in my head to post something about the mysterious 'B' - he of 'The Stone Coffin' and what have you - but I really need to go back to bed for a bit before I even think about attempting anything of more than a few sentences. I only got up to go for a piss.
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Post by Steve on Jan 7, 2010 19:14:24 GMT
The Caldecott is making its way up the dreaded to be read pile. i like the few of his i've encountered in the past... but i bought Not Exactly Ghosts by mistake. if anyone cares to get us started, please do. Not Exactly Ghosts is one of the Wordsworths I picked up last year. Really should have another look at it before attempting any kind of proper review but I remember it as being enjoyable, i.e. not bad at all but not thrilling, if you know what I mean. Caldecott, when he's remembered at all, always seems to have this 'Jamesian' tag attached to his work. I'm sure he'd be very happy as he was obviously a big fan (there are several direct references to MRJ and his work in these stories). That said, I rarely found myself being reminded of James while reading this. Yeah, we're largely on the quieter, gentler side of things here but while M.R. James was always distinctive and quite capable, in his own way, of dragging you to the edge of your seat, Caldecott's stuff is just generally pleasant, sometimes fun, but not all that dissimilar to a lot of other stuff you'd find in magazines and short story collections of the time. Watch now while I go back to this and decide that these stories are in fact unjustly neglected classics...
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