Frederick Stuart Greene - The Grim 13

[dem bones]

Frederick Stuart Greene (ed.) - The Grim 13: Short Stories By Thirteen Authors Of Standing (Dodd, Mead & Company, 1917: Blackmask 2007):

Introduction - Edward J. O'Brien

Vance Thompson - The Day of Daheimus
Dana Burnet - Rain
Stacy Aumonier - Old Fags
Conrad Richter - The Head of His House
Vincent O'Sullivan - The Abigail Sheriff Memorial
Ethel Watts Mumford - Easy
Wadsworth Camp - The Draw-Keeper
Richard Matthews Hallet - The Razor of Pedro Dutel
Robert Alexander Wason - Knute Ericson’s Celebration
Mrs. Belloc Lowndes - The Parcel
Will Levington Comfort and H. A. Sturtzel - Back O’ The Yards
William Ashley Anderson - The End of the Game
Frederick Stuart Greene - The Black Pool

Very welcome pre-Not At Night and Creeps free download. Apparently, the stories all have one thing in common: they were rejected by every publisher they'd been offered to and usually on account of their unhappy endings. You can download the entire collection as a html page from the excellent Munseys and there's a hardcover reissue from Black Mask.

[Dr Terror]

I was reading about this yesterday, and was going to ask if you had it, Dem.
Would that be synchronicity, Craig?

[Craig Herbertson]

He he...

I'm working on another one in my head at the moment - its even horrifying me which takes a lot. Not a grain of humour in it, only HELP!!!

[dem bones]

May 5, 2008 11:28:29 GMT Dr Terror said:

I was reading about this yesterday, and was going to ask if you had it, Dem.

Downloaded it some time ago Charles, but have yet to get stuck in - it's a "reading from a screen" thing.

Regardless of quality, Grim 13 is certainly a find - even E. F. Bleiler overlooks it in Guide To Supernatural Fiction. One of several reasons why I admire him so is that he's shrewd enough never to claim his bibliographies are "comprehensive" or, God help us, "the ultimate". As soon as you use the 'c' and 'u' words it's almost certain that something will make a nuisance of itself by clawing its way from obscurity just to spite you! I love books like that!

[dem bones]

To recap. In his introduction, editor Fredrerick Stuart Greene explains. "In the selection of these thirteen stories, the first condition which each story had to meet was that of repeated rejection by American magazines. The thirteen stories which you are about to read have been tabooed by American editors, because they believe that you do not like realism, or unhappy romance."

How deliciously gloomy! but can they possibly live up to such a lofty billing? In the cases of the three i've managed to date, the answer is "well, they make a decent fist of it", notably Dana Burnet's decidedly reach-for-the-razor-blades contribution. In the case of Stacy Aumonier's Old Fags, blood and guts fiends might be disappointed that the unpleasant stuff occurs off camera, but it's still a belter of a horror story.

Dana Burnet - Rain: "Git back into that kitchen, and be thankful you ain’t walkin’ the streets in the rain--” . This one is well gloomy. Allie's loveless marriage to Jim Baird has taken eighteen years of her life, and what has she to show for it? The birth of her child, the death of her child and a stay in hospital for a minor operation are the three major highlights. Jim hammers the whiskey, moans constantly and blames everyone but himself for his ruination. The relentless rain has made them prisoners in their home and Allie is desperate for an end to her loneliness - even if Jim could be bothered to beat her it would be better than this living death. She thinks back on the man she loved, Hartley Taylor, who perished in the wreck of The Swallow, and what he'd promised before he left on what was to be his last voyage: “I’ll come…one way or another!" Now, looking out to sea, Allie can see a schooner approaching through the mist. It's Hartley! She just knows it. Taking a knife from the drawer she heads upstairs where her husband is sprawled in a comatose drunk ...

Stacy Aumonier - Old Fags: A gin-sodden, tramp-like occupant of a room in Bolingbroke Buildings, West London, low on personal hygiene, often to be seen scavenging half-smoked cigs off the pavement. Reviled by his neighbours, most notably Minnie Birdie next door who'd complained to the council about his wretched habits, " 'Old Fags' was frankly and ostentatiously a social derelict." Despite these admirable qualities he always seemed to have a ready supply of money.

Scandal. Minnie falls pregnant by Mr. Mends, the randy dog-walker, and loses her respectable position as a consequence. With no money coming in and an invalid mother to care for, Minnie is only saved from starvation by the generosity of Old Fags who keeps the pair in bowls of his revolting stew and even pays their rent arrears. But the bottom is falling out of the cigarette-end trade, and now even he is struggling for funds. During a drunken carouse with the Birdies, he's goaded into promising them the best home made stew they ever tasted. It's merely a question of getting the wretched Mends to atone financially for abandoning the girl while he still lives the life of Riley with his cushy little number, exercising Mrs. Bastien-Melland's £1 thousand worth of pedigree dogs. Old Fags locates Mends to his local pub and gets him drunk, but it's clear Mends, who is already providing for two of his previous sexual conquests, isn't keen to cough up for a third. So, regrettably, Old Fags will have to resort to plan B ..

Frederick Stuart Greene - The Black Pool: The Van Norden twins, Schuyler and Allan, are as difficult to keep apart as they are to tell apart. No two brothers were ever so loving and supportive of one another - until they both fall for beautiful Marion, "liked on sight by every man, and, better, by every girl she met." Although eventually she agrees to marry Allan, he is resentful that she still has feelings toward Schuyler, and determines that his now detested twin will have to go. A swimming race around the Black Pool provides Allan the opportunity he needs to destroy his brother, but the daughter Marion dies giving birth to shortly afterward is not his and he knows it. Allan can't bear to look upon the infant for it seems to realise what he did to her father. Allan returns to the Black Pool to check that Schuyler's still down there ...

The plot is older than dirt, but Greene gives very good gloom throughout before bringing things to a suitably miserable conclusion. John Pelan thought enough of The Black Pool to select it for his The Century's Best Horror Fiction.

[dem bones]

"A collection of thirteen gloomy little stories, the editor of the volume pluming himself on the fact that they all end badly. Mrs. Belloc Lowndes's contribution concerning a village in Champagne is almost too terrible for the average reader to be able to bear." — THE SPECTATOR (18 Jan. 1919)

William Ashley Anderson - The End of the Game: "It was .... the expression of an utterly spent man. I did not notice it particularly at first, or, if I did, it was with the thought that probably he was one of those unfortunate men who have studied and meditated to such ill purpose that all things seem trivial and life itself hopeless."

What can have so utterly destroyed a bold young adventurer and gifted poet like R. Franklin Stanley that he should so thoroughly set his mind on self destruction? Tiring of alcoholism and incapable of suicide, he opts for the next best thing by enlisting in the French Foreign Legion? If you've not already guessed the cause of his despair, it's a safe bet you'll catch on long before the narrator has. Bleak story, but maybe not quite grim enough for this particular theme anthology as pay off suggests redemption at the last.

Mrs. Belloc Lowndes - The Parcel: A conte cruel set in a small French village during the early days of the Great War. Douvenay is under German occupation, and the General has taken rooms at the Mayor's residence. Each day the jolly Military postman and charming Madame Bissonet share a joke that one day, among all the letters and parcels he delivers, there will be something for her. It's not long before her wish is granted. As singled out by the day's Spectator for special consideration.

Vance Thompson - The Day of Daheimus: East River, New York. A six year old boy delivering his father's dinner to the brewery engine room is crippled for life when his leg is caught and mangled in a steel belt. Denied compensation, the boy's insane gypsy mother curses Daheimus the brewery owner, no matter that he is entirely unaware of the incident. A convoluted tale of murder, miracle elixir and throat cancers all round. Found it difficult to follow at times, but then I'm not the brightest.

Thanks to Mike Gray of the Carr Dickson blog for alerting us to the Spectator review (and for linking to above).

[dem bones]

Ethel Watts Mumford - Easy: After a night on the booze with a shipmate he's not seen in a decade, Glaive jacks his steady factory job, runs off to sea. He leaves behind an impoverished wife and five children - one seriously ill. Having considered her options, Ellen Glaive tucks up the kids in bed, borrows a quarter from the neighbour to feed the gas meter, plugs up every crevice and air vent with rags .... Social commentary/ really miserable misery porn.

[dem bones]

Conrad Richter - The Head of His House: Mr. Tim's adoption of church orphan 'Shirk' ends in tragedy when, in early adulthood, the troubled young man lives down to his name and, worse, refuses to accept the old man's authority. Author's The Toad Man Specter featured in Ghost Stories for June 1931.

Richard Matthews Hallet - The Razor of Pedro Dutel: Warned that Amberg is psychotically possessive of his woman, bushmen King Dick and Frank Hyde head out to his farm on the pretext of using his whetstone to sharpen a razor. On their arrival Amberg is comatose drunk, and the girl, a former Melbourne barmaid, implores; "You have a boat. Take me. Take me away. O, dear God, take me to the town." Hyde, a barber, instead gives her his blade to hone, with inevitable grisly consequences.

Will Levington Comfort & H. A. Sturtzel - Back O’ The Yards: Kid Ladeu, a pro bare-knuckle fighter nursing a wrist injury, takes a shine to Anne, the fiery Slovakian wife of slaughterhouse hard nut, Jan Karlukson, "the Hammerman of Annulka Street." All ends in a Saturday night bloodbath at town's worst bar. Which combatant has Anne's support?