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Post by cw67q on Mar 27, 2010 21:33:38 GMT
Warning Whispers is a joy of a collection. I thought the recurring tragedy more hard hitting than benson's the Outcast, particularly in the context of Burrage as the embittered ex-private X pointing the finger at the officer class (though i do I like Besonson's more straightforward horror tale).
The two best tales in the collection for me were the Aquital, and the title tale. Although there are other good tales, such as Crookback. A good solid introduction to Burrage, but I think the best single collection is Someone in the Room.
- Chris
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Post by jamesdoig on Mar 27, 2010 22:15:57 GMT
Here's Chris Masters' biography of Benson. Not much on the ghost stories, unfortunately - he thinks Benson didn't rate them too highly. Masters makes the point that many of them, like "Caterpillars", are "uncomfortable and powerful" and so different from the lightly humorous Lucia books that they could be written by different people. He could have gone on to discuss the psychological implications of this, but leaves it there.
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Post by jamesdoig on Mar 29, 2010 2:39:47 GMT
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Post by cw67q on Mar 29, 2010 8:07:42 GMT
Thanks for the link to the Burrage article James - Chris
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Post by billdemo2 on May 18, 2010 8:34:24 GMT
Ash Tree (and their policy of printing books that sell out before they are officially released) have apparently ensured that most of us will never be able to get our hands on most of his stories. Sigh.
And it seems there are quite a few Burrage stories that have yet to be collected...
From Ash Tree Press's site:
"We told Jack that we were interested in a series of A. M. Burrage's supernatural fiction and, of course, knew that he had gathered together a number of previously uncollected stories for the Equation paperback Warning Whispers some years earlier. Did he have any more uncollected stories? we asked. Well, of course, he did. Fortunately, Burrage was an exceptionally prolific writer, and Jack felt that there was more than enough for THREE volumes. The result was that a four-book series was projected, beginning with Intruders. (Further Burrage discoveries have resulted in this series being extended to five volumes: though quite when Jack will call it a day and turn in the manuscript for the fifth, remains to be seen!)"
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Post by monker on May 24, 2010 16:04:01 GMT
How does it all work? Are Ash-Tree's rights exclusive? I have three of the current four but my completist obsession will not stretch as far as the price that they go for these days. My problem with the Ash-Tree situation is not so much that the books get snapped up early as much as that they never seem to reprint.
It's a collectors market more so than it is a reader's one. It's a pity that many of us who would appreciate these books take our natural time in actually discovering that they are available. When all is said and done, I don't really give a stuff about the spiffy binding and dust-jack I just want to read the flippin' stories!
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Post by cw67q on May 25, 2010 8:47:12 GMT
Which one are you missing Monker? I think the first volume "Intruders" is probably the rarest, but i think it is also the weekest. Burrage is always readbale, but most of that collection highlights his more sentimental style IIRC.
By far the best two volumes are "Someone in the Room" and "Whispers in the Dark". And in the first of these volumes the ebst stories are concentrated in the second section of the book which reprints the original SitR, the first hald being notable weeker (I'm delighted to have those stories, but I'd advise any new reader tos tart with the second half of the book).
Similarly "Occult Files of Francis Chard" is at its strongest when it reaches the reprint of "Some Ghost Stories", although I think that isn't as strong as SitR. The Occult Detective tales in the first half of OFoFC are ok, but the format does not appear to have inspired Burrage's most imaginative work (although I may be baised as with few exceptions I believe that to be true in general of Occult Detective fiction).
I'd love to see a Best of Burrage pb collection. But it would have to be a real doorstop as there must be going on for thirty tales that I'd see as "must be included" and many more worth while stories. I'd be extremely disapointed if a slimer volume were brought out effectively scuppering the possibility of a more extensive selection.
Burrage is my favourite of the "entertainers" amongst supernatural fiction writers , a group which to my mind includes the likes of Benson, Wakefield, pretty much all the Jamesians (including MRJ himself) and the pulpy types such as Lovecraft (I don't buy into the idea that the percieved philisophical depths of HPL outweigh his entertainment value).
- Chris
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Post by monker on May 26, 2010 3:18:42 GMT
It's the second volume (Francis Chard) that I am missing, Chris. I took the sting with "Intruders" but I really don't plan to do that very often. If they ever released the fifth volume, by that time, I'd hoped they'd reprint the others - half my luck! The true collectors would still have their first editions.
By the way, James is still my favourite of the authors you mentioned, although I can't really split my favourites up in those terms because, for me, it is not that clear cut. I suppose different authors do appeal on different levels, however subtly. Lovecraft has always struck me as being a better critic and horror 'visionary' than he was a writer but I certainly wouldn't consider him an intellectual, exactly.
With Burrage, sometimes some of his better ideas are buried within a romantic framework and he's certainly not the only author to come across all cloying in those situations. One story that got the mix right, I thought, was The Forth Wall - not exactly one of the author's nastier stories but haunting rather than sentimental.
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Post by justincase on Jan 18, 2012 18:46:38 GMT
Ash Tree (and their policy of printing books that sell out before they are officially released) have apparently ensured that most of us will never be able to get our hands on most of his stories. Sigh. And it seems there are quite a few Burrage stories that have yet to be collected... From Ash Tree Press's site: "We told Jack that we were interested in a series of A. M. Burrage's supernatural fiction and, of course, knew that he had gathered together a number of previously uncollected stories for the Equation paperback Warning Whispers some years earlier. Did he have any more uncollected stories? we asked. Well, of course, he did. Fortunately, Burrage was an exceptionally prolific writer, and Jack felt that there was more than enough for THREE volumes. The result was that a four-book series was projected, beginning with Intruders. (Further Burrage discoveries have resulted in this series being extended to five volumes: though quite when Jack will call it a day and turn in the manuscript for the fifth, remains to be seen!)" Recently, in the Ghost Story Society forum "All Hallows" dated 12/30/11, Chris Roden wrote about the "fifth" Burrage book and how it may just come to fruition sooner then later: "If it's any consolation, I can tell you that a final volume of A. M. Burrage stories will certainly be published as a hardback volume. No date yet, but certain problems seem to have been overcome, so plans are beginning to look more certain. More news on this as it becomes available.
Christopher"
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Post by jamesdoig on Jan 19, 2012 3:06:52 GMT
If it's any consolation, I can tell you that a final volume of A. M. Burrage stories will certainly be published as a hardback volume. No date yet, but certain problems seem to have been overcome, so plans are beginning to look more certain. More news on this as it becomes available.Christopher" [/i][/quote] I think quite a few of these stories are in some of the rarest British magazines of the time, like The Premier. Just for something different Burrage wrote three series of humourous fantasies for the Red Magazine, called something like "Sir Archibald and the Nights of the Round Table."
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Post by pulphack on Jan 19, 2012 10:59:48 GMT
Reading this just jogged my memory - a couple of months back mrs PH found Crusoe Annual for 1928 in a charity shop and naturally thought of me. A bit of research revealed that it ran as a monthly for 18 months before folding.
A Newnes magazine - they being the main competitors to Fleetway/Amalgamated at that time - it had a lot of names who worked for both companies and in the middle of it are a series of stories about 'Poor Esme' by AM Burrage, which would have run in the monthly issues. Adventures with a touch of humour they concern a pauperous lad trying to make his way in then world. Nothing special, but they are quite charming.
The daft thing is that I thought 'That's a familiar name!' when I saw it, but have only jut put 2+2 together!
Newnes and Pearsons were big Victorian/ early C20 periodical publishers (the latter being replaced by Fleetway/Amalgamated), and Newnes also ran Hodder close for some time in terms of popular fiction in cheap hardback - in fact, they published Dornford Yates' comic novels and refused his thrillers on the grounds that 'writers should stick to their own', so he pissed off to Hodder and didn't write another word for Newnes for many years until hey came begging as his back catalogue was still shifting,and the Hodder thrillers were also big business. (Edgar Wallace also wrote for both, unsurprisingly - he switched to Hodder when they offered him the 'book per month' deal that made him so huge)
The reason I mention that is because I gleaned that from Jack Adrian's notes to a Yates anthology he put together as part of the Dent classic thrillers series in the late eighties, and it just reinforces the opinions expressed earlier about his talent as a researcher and anthologist.
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Post by cw67q on Jan 19, 2012 20:43:09 GMT
Ash-Tree have just released two of their Burrage collections as ebooks. I'm a massive Burrage fan, but I think the two as yet un e-realeased books are much stronger than the two thus far available. So if you are new to Burrage hang on a couple of weeks to hopefullt snaffle either:
Someone in the Room : read the second half of the book first, it contains most of AMB's very best tales, the first half consists of previously uncollected tales which tend towards ANB's more sentimental side
or
Warning Whispers: an expanded edition of the old equation chiller, again collecting stories for the first time. I think this is probably the most consistently good of the ATPO editions, but it doesn't quite hit the hieghts of Someone in the Room (thye collection, not the titulat story)
Of the two thus far released:
Intruders is all "new" tales and is noit the best introduction to AMB but a massive boon for the commited Burrage fan. The more memorable tales are found in a small tightly bunched group near the middle iof this book
& Occult Files of Francis Chard/Some Ghost Stories: The first part collects AMB's various occult detectrive stories. These are ok, I'm not the biggest fan of Occ 'tecs in general, but these did niot strike me as particularly memorable. The reprint of Between the Minute and the hour is much better. whilst patchier than Someone in the Room it conatins many fine stories.
Sorry if this is a bit disjointed. IU've been wanting to post about Burrage, and other ATP, ebook releases for a while now. Butr I have much less internet access than previously and only have a few mins to spare right now. Cheers - Chris
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Post by jamesdoig on Jan 19, 2012 22:00:54 GMT
A Newnes magazine - they being the main competitors to Fleetway/Amalgamated at that time. There's a handy checklist of British publishers' magazines of that period here: www.philsp.com/homeville/fmi/blindex.htm I've been waiting for the index to appear for years - quite a massive piece of work. Agreed about Jack Adrian - I'd say he's the most thorough, accurate and painstaking researcher/editor going around.
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Post by cw67q on Jan 20, 2012 8:57:54 GMT
I love Jack Adrian's meandering book introductions, particularly in the ATP annual macabres that I manged to pick up (you sometimes can find these volumes relatively cheap on ebay etc and they are well worth picking up). I'd love to see a volume of essays/introductions by Jack Adrian and once half-floated the idea on All Hallows newsgroup
- chris
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Post by jamesdoig on Jan 20, 2012 21:33:37 GMT
Burrage seems to have written quite a few things for the publisher Gerald Swan, including his magazines like this one, apparently published in 1960. There were three issues in the Weird and Occult series - small, digest sized zine. ContentsNorman C. Pallant, The Incredible Awakening Frank C. Brooke, Black-Man's Magic S.G.J. Ousely, Labyrinth of Zekor Henry Rawle, Silvester's Oasis A.S. Quilter Palmer, The Hill of Worms Ian Mercer, As White as Snow Ernest L. McKeag, A Guest of Vanderdecken A.E. Crawley, The Last Word John Body, The Yellow Mask A.M. Burrage, The Corner Cottage Anon., A Lot of Gammon
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