Christine Campbell Thomson - More Not At Night

[David A. Riley]

And I find these gimmicks rather tiresome:

Hardcover in dust jacket, slipcased, traycased, wrapped in velvet and laid inside a wooden box deep inside a Sherman tank to protect it.

I did see one small press publisher recently advertise a very special edition of a book for £125.00.

Presumably at that price it would not be read by anyone buying it but placed somewhere very, very safe and handled only with white cotton gloves, so the purchaser would have to buy a second, much cheaper copy to read.

I hate books that aren't meant to be handled and read.

Crazy.

David

[Craig Herbertson]

[Craig Herbertson]

I have to confess, my brother is one of those awful collectors who we have condemned to the pit. In his defense he has always, no matter the value, read the books he likes. He Just takes the dust wrapper off. He also drinks beer, supports Hearts and is a general all round good guy and a big sf and nasty fan. Likes Lovecraft and Smith I think, but naturally won't talk to me about Pan Horror.

[eddempster]

Yeah, sorry, but I have to agree with Mr Riley on this matter. If you want to buy something ridiculously overpriced and then keep it in a box for evermore, then why not start collecting those gopping Royal Dalton figurines instead? A box is the best place for them, after all.

[Craig Herbertson]

I realise I may have misrepresented the extent of and nature of my brother's collecting. He would never buy anything in a funny slip case, overpriced for market, or anything that you couldn't see in a box or beneath volumes of plastic. He only collects five genres - fantasy, sf, horror, crime and modern 'literature' all of which he avidly reads. He just tends to have an eye for a bargain and invests his money in books.

In my own defence I like to get as near to the original of something as I can and I have the usual train spotting desire to see a set of books in a neat line. I also like garish and luirid covers.

There is something intrinsically pleasing about seeing the thing as it first came out. Its like a time machine. I can also put my hand on my heart and say that regardless of the value of any book I have bought I have more or less immediately read it.

[dem]

a tiny More Not At Night snippet but i enjoyed it!

Greg Morrow, The Faceless God

flicking through the It Is Written .... letters column in Magazine Of Horror and found this in #12 (Winter 1965-1966)

Writing to express appreciation of the kind words so many of you have had for the two stories of his we have reprinted, Seabury Quinn says in part: "Cloth of Madness . . . was conceived during the hard winter of 1918-19, when I was stationed at the Port of Embarkation, Hoboken. You may have heard that men in uniform were not permitted to be served drinks during W.W.I, at least not stateside, but most of us had civvies in our quarters, and one night some other officers and I de­cided to go 'buffing'(out of uniform) to New York. The cocktail lounge (as we'd call it today) of the Prince George Hotel in East 28th Street was papered at that time with a red paper striped with wavy lines of black, and during the course of our innocent merriment one of my companions said, 'Quinn, if I had to look at that paper any length of time I'd go stark, staring mad.' Thus the plot germ was implanted in what I am pleased to call my brain." Mr. Quinn also gave us a little background on the first Jules de Grandin story, The Horror on the Links: 'It had its basis in a statue which used to adorn the Museum of Natural History — a gorilla abducting a most attractive nude lady. Incidentally, that story has been published in several foreign anthologies, including Selwyn & Blount's famous Not at Night series."

[kuranes]

I own Lovecraft's copy of this book. Not a first edition. So I bought a dustjacketed copy to switch the jacket over - to the copy signed by the Old One himself. But then I thought "There might be some difference between the DJ's between editions and so I'd best leave them separate.

[stricik]

"Ruth Gertrude Brockstead was found dead in a field off Watersplash Road in Sunbury-on-Thames on 27 April 1927.

Her body was found by a woman that had been walking her dog and had been attracted to a hedge by her growling dog. She said that when she went to look she found Ruth Brockstead's body beneath a tree in a field.

Ruth Brockstead was found holding an empty bottle of oxalic acid in her hand and clutching a handkerchief to her mouth with the other hand. A book of weird stories was also found by her side. It was titled, 'More Not a Night', a collection of uncanny stories..."




www.unsolved-murders.co.uk/murder-content.php?key=8266&termRef=Ruth%20Gertrude%20Brockstead

[dem]

Oct 3, 2023 15:56:06 GMT stricik said:

"Ruth Gertrude Brockstead was found dead in a field off Watersplash Road in Sunbury-on-Thames on 27 April 1927.

Her body was found by a woman that had been walking her dog and had been attracted to a hedge by her growling dog. She said that when she went to look she found Ruth Brockstead's body beneath a tree in a field.

Ruth Brockstead was found holding an empty bottle of oxalic acid in her hand and clutching a handkerchief to her mouth with the other hand. A book of weird stories was also found by her side. It was titled, 'More Not a Night', a collection of uncanny stories..."




www.unsolved-murders.co.uk/murder-content.php?key=8266&termRef=Ruth%20Gertrude%20Brockstead

Thank you so much for this! From the contemporary reports, seems more like a suicide than an "unsolved murder?"

DEAD GIRL FOUND BY A DOG.
INQUEST ADJOURNED FOR POISON ANALYSIS.
NO LOVE TROUBLE.

The mystery of the young typist who was found dead in a field at Sunbury-on- Thames was only partially solved at an inquest. The dead girl was Ruth Gertrude Brockstead (18), and beside her was a book with the title, "More Not at Night," a collection of uncanny stories. The girl's mother said they lived together in Guilford-street, Russell-square.
Her daughter had not been very well, but witness knew of no financial trouble or love affair.
The Coroner: Was she likely to commit suicide? — She was very strong-minded. Mrs. Brockstead added that the girl had no relations in Sunbury, and that there was nothing to take her there.

A DOG'S GROWL.

Lillian Waite, of Waterspiash-road, Sunbury, said she was walking with a dog when she was attracted by the animal growling in the hedge. Looking through the hedge she saw a girl lying in the field.
P.C. Carr said he identified the body as that of a young woman who spoke to him in Sunbary on Tuesday evening and asked him to direct her to the towing-path. He told her there was no towing-path on the Middlesex side, and that she would have to be ferried over the river.
The Coroner: Did you notice anything particular about her?— I noticed she walked very badly, as if walking was difficult, but she did not appear to be in any distress.
Station-Sergeant Deacon, who was called to the field, said in the girl's right hand was a small bottle and her left hand held two small handkerchiefs to her mouth. There was a book entitled, "More Not at Night" near by.
Dr. John Murray Scott said there was evidence of her having swallowed some corrosive poison. He had sent the contents of the stomach to the public analyst. The Coroner said the analyst's report had not yet arrived, and therefore he would adjourn the inquest until Saturday next.

— Reynolds Illustrated News, 1 May 1927.

***

MISSING TYPIST FOUND DEAD.
Coincidence in Dress and in Taste for Uncanny Stories.

The 18-years-old London typist, Miss Ruth Brockstead, who disappeared from her home in Forest Road, Dalston, on Monday, has been found dead in a field at Sunbury-on-Thames.
Clasped in her right hand was a bottle. Parts of the body have been sent to the county analyst for examination.
When found the girl was dressed in a brown coat with fur collar and cuffs, and in her handbag was a book of weird short stories.
These two discoveries led to be belief that the body was that of Miss Elsie Aultrace, 38, a London milliner, who has been missing from her home in Grosvenor Road, S.W., since April 19th. When last seen, Miss Aultrace was wearing a brown coat and fur collar and cuffs, and she is said to be a voracious reader of uncanny stories.

— South Gloucestershire Gazette, 30 April 1927.