Jones & Paget: Dark Voices 1

[dem]

Stephen Jones & Clarence Padget (eds.) - Dark Voices: The Best From The Pan Book Of Horror Stories (Pan, 1990)

Cover: Dave McKean

Introductory Note - Herbert Van Thal
Foreword: Dark Voices - The Editors

Alan Ryan - Baby's Blood (from #25) chosen by Stephen Gallagher
Stephen King - The Mangler(from #21) chosen by James Herbert
Stanley Ellin - The Speciality Of The House(from #2) Clive Barker
Basil Copper - Camera Obscura (from #6) chosen by Charles L. Grant
John Lennon - No Flies On Frank (from #6) chosen by F. Paul Wilson
Harry Harrison - The Streets Of Ashkelon (from #7) chosen by Brian W. Aldiss
Robert Bloch - Lucy Comes To Stay (from #4) chosen by Graham Masterton
George Langelaan - The Fly (from #2) chosen by David Cronenberg
Ray Bradbury - The Emissary (from #4) chosen by Dennis Etchison
Ian McEwen - Pornography (from #22) chosen by Shaun Hutson
Robert Aickman - Ringing The Changes (from #4) chosen by Peter Straub
Robert Holdstock - The Quiet Girl (from #19) chosen by Robert R. McCammon
David Case - The Hunter (from #12) chosen by Ramsey Campbell

Afterword: Bringing The Horror Back Home - Stephen Jones
The Pan Book Of Horror Stories: Index to Vol.1 - 30.

That was then .....

An incredibly safe collection, but other than F. Paul Wilson's bizarre selection as his pick from the series, there's nothing remotely bad in here. Bar Gallagher, Campbell, McCammon and Hutson, the rest have opted for stories that give you no idea what the series is like. Chances are, if you own three or four "Classic Horror" style collections, you'll already have half of these. The book is dedicated to the late Rosemary Timperley, but not one woman gets a look in. Elizabeth Walter, Dorothy K. Haynes and Timperley were regular contributors of fine stories and had far more to do with the series than, say, Stephen King, whose contributions had already been published extensively long before Pan picked them up.

... this is now.

It's undoubtedly churlish of me to carry on moaning about a book which contains such a strong selection of stories, a handy index and some useful and informative introductory notes, but Dark Voices: The Best From The Pan Book Of Horror Stories still grates. In the introduction, Jones & Paget admit that, it isn't really a 'Best Of ..' as such a book couldn't be accomplished in 400 or so pages which is a fair point, and "and we are sorry that old favourites, such as William Sanson, Martin Waddell, Rosemary Timperley, Rene Morris, John D. Keefauver, Dulce Grey, Alex White, Norman P. Kaufman, Harry Turner and Alan Temperley, to name but a few, are not included here". Well, after you'd found jobs for the boys it's hardly surprising there was no room for those who's work, love it or loath it, provided the backbone for the series! Surely there were still enough of them alive in 1990 to approach for a contribution to a book which is supposedly celebrating the Pan Book Of Horror Stories? It may even have been a little more representative.

Of those who get to nominate a story only Campbell, Hutson, Gallagher, Barker and Masterton show any familiarity with and affection for the series and fair play to them. Straub is at least on nodding terms, but Herbert just rattles on about how great Stephen King is for a change and did you know The Rats and Carrie came out the same year? He doesn't see fit to mention the books at all. Likewise Dennis Etchison (press release for Bradbury's The Emissary), Aldiss ("My SF reminiscences": good fun but wrong territory), Wilson ("Look! I can ape John Lennon's 'style'!"), and all the rest of the crew. You could be forgiven for thinking they'd not read a Pan Horror book between them in their lives.

Which, come to think of it ....

[David A. Riley]

I totally agree with you. Although it contains some really excellent stories (The Streets of Ashkelon, Ringing the Changes and Camera Obscura, to mention but three) and although they were genuinely published in the Pan series, collectively they don't have a feel of the series as a whole. There should definitely have been a Martin Waddell or a Norman P. Kaufman - and some of the other writers you mention.

I really don't understand why the editors chose to have the stories picked by other writers who, though they may be well known in the own right, had never had anything to do with the Pan series. That struck me as an affectation - and a poor excuse to get their names on the book's cover, of course.

And I'm afraid the John Lennon has always struck me as one of the worst pieces ever published in the Pan Horrors - which says a lot!

David

[dem]

Well, trying to take a charitable view, perhaps it was a case of Pan being disinterested in publishing it without the day's big names, but how disappointing that there's such an absence of real PH material in there! It would be a fine anthology if the title had just been left as Dark Voices. It's the added The Best From ... that annoys me.

A 'Worst Pan Horror Story' thread might be fun although when I re-read them the stories I'd decided were the pits never seem quite as dreadful as I remember them. Funny enough, I even revisited No Flies On Frank recently to see if I still hated it so much! It was more a case of ... indifference. I must be losing my touch.

[allthingshorror]

The 'problem' with this book is due to Pan buying nearly every story from Van Thal/London Management directly - and after Van Thal's death, one presumes that his address book died with him. Compounded by the fact that what they did have was thrown out in the skip around this time - and they just went for stories that copyright was fairly easy to get a hold of either utilising Stephen's contact book- apart from the John Lennon story which a music producer in some back water town in the US had - or tales which had went out of copyright.


The book in itself isn't that bad - but yes, no way by any means a 'best of' book - and John Lennon's story is the shittiest, most repugnant thing ever put down on paper. An abomination. Give Peace a Chance, my arse.

I have been in touch with Pan a few times over the last year - BEGGING them to let me have a stab at releasing a 'best of' Pan Horror book - but silence is their response. I've told them everyone I'm in touch with (numbers - not names - not THAT daft...)- and that most of the authors/ estates concerned would be happy for the stories to be reprinted - and still no answer.

Which is a shame, cos there would definately be milage in a book of this ilk. But hey - we have Charlies Black Book 5 - which will have all new stories by PBoH authors - and two stories by non-PBoH authors. Be excited. Oh yes. There are some instant classics - and some will even surpass the stuff they did for the Pan Horrors...

[dem]

Jan 24, 2009 12:35:44 GMT @allthingshorror said:

The 'problem' with this book is due to Pan buying nearly every story from Van Thal/London Management directly - and after Van Thal's death, one presumes that his address book died with him. Compounded by the fact that what they did have was thrown out in the skip around this time - and they just went for stories that copyright was fairly easy to get a hold of ....

Yes, that explains plenty. Not being at all familiar with copyright law, perhaps someone could answer this? In the early Van Thals, Fontana Horrors & countless Haining anthologies there's usually a disclaimer to the effect that "every effort has been made to contact the copyright holder of such-and-such a story" etc. Can a publisher get away with that these days if there's at least been an attempt to find out who owns the titles in question?

[allthingshorror]

From www.copyrightservice.co.uk

For literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works

70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the last remaining author of the work dies.

If the author is unknown, copyright will last for 70 years from end of the calendar year in which the work was created, although if it is made available to the public during that time, (by publication, authorised performance, broadcast, exhibition, etc.), then the duration will be 70 years from the end of the year that the work was first made available.

But I think - if you go to the CLA (Copy Licencing Authority) and they cannot find any copyright to a particular story - you can then put 'every effort has been made to find the copyright holder...and amendments if needed will be printed in future publications...' into said book.

And if someone does query - you pay them a token reprint payment - or take story out.

I think...

[dem]

Yep, that seems to make an awful lot of sense - both the law itself and your understanding of the "every attempt ..." disclaimer. We should maybe have a separate thread relating to this where our friends from Wordsworth might see it as i'm sure the problem arises a lot in their field of publication.

[oatcakeredux]

I first came across "Baby's Blood" in this collection, and I must admit that I loved it. The quiet insistence of the salesman on his product's name, and the reveal of how he gets his supply...what he does is, in its own subtle way, much worse than just killing kids. He's a pragmatist, he needs to keep his supply going...

The way that the unwitting barman gradually gets more and more of a taste for the stuff as he drinks the sample. That doting mother cooing about how good the salesman is with children - "my little one's always so relaxed and sleepy afterwards"....brrrrr.

Did Ryan write any other horror stories?

[dem]

i can think of some to be getting on with, and i'm sure there are more:

The Halloween House in Halloween Horrors
Following The Way in Penguin Book Of Vampire Stories
Pieta in Charles L. Grant's Shadows 5
I Shall Not Leave England Now in Charles L. Grant's Shadows 7 (couldn't find a thread for that one)
Baby's Blood, Tell Mommy What Happened and Onawa (all 25th Pan Book Of Horror Stories)
Memory and Desire in Charles L. Grant's Greystone Bay

[oatcakeredux]

Cheers, Demonik - excellent stuff! I'll have to see if I can find any of those.

[jamesdoig]

"The Bones Wizard" was pretty good in this:



I bought a few Ryan novels on the basis of the interview with him in Douglas Winter's Faces of Fear, but I thought only Cast a Cold Eye was any good.




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