August Derleth - When Evil Wakes

[dem bones]

August Derleth (ed.) - When Evil Wakes: An Anthology Of The Macabre (Corgi 1963, 1965, 1971)

August Derleth - Introduction: A Cautionary Word

Donald Wandrei - The Eye And The Finger
John Metcalfe - The Feasting Dead
Frank Belknap Long - Death Waters
George Hitchcock - An Invitation To The Hunt
Stephen Grendon (August Derleth) - The Tsanta In The Parlour
Virginia Layefsky - Moonlight-Starlight
Carl Jacobi - The Kite
Robert Bloch - Sweets To The Sweet
Simon West (August Derleth) - A Thin Gentleman With Gloves
H.P Lovecraft - The Horror At Red Hook
H. Russell Wakefield - The Triumph Of Death
Henry S. Whitehead - The Lips
David H. Keller - A Piece Of Linoleum
Clark Ashton Smith - The Seed From The Sepulchre
Joseph Payne Brennan - Canavan's Back Yard
H.P Lovecraft & August Derleth - The Shuttered Room

Biographical Notes

Back cover blurb from the 1971 edition:

WHEN EVIL WAKES: AN ANTHOLOGY OF THE MACABRE

John Metcalfe's masterpiece of demoniac possession:.
H. Russell Wakefield's ghost story in the best traditions of Le Fanu and M. R. James:
H. P. Lovecraft's disturbing tale of hideous ancient worship.
Virginia Layefsky's story of two grisly visitors at a child's birthday party,

These are but four stories of horror — other offerings and apparitions are by Robert Bloch (of Psycho fame), Clark Ashton Smith, Donald Wandrei, David Keller, Joseph Payne Brennan, George Hitchcock, Carl Jacobi and others.

Corgi have been justly praised in the Rivals of NEL section for the almost uniform excellence of the strange and wonderful artwork that adorns their paperback covers throughout the 'sixties and 'seventies, but i'm not so sure this effort from '71 is quite up there with the best. Derleth's selection, however, may well be his finest of all.

Includes:

George Hitchcock - An Invitation To The Hunt: Fred Perkins is aghast to receive the printed invitation to the local knobs’ biggest social event of the year and can’t fathom why he’s been acknowledged. Wife Emily is delighted and, when he tells her he’s not going, she reminds him of his duty to the children, his perpetual moaning that he has no contacts and the fact that the neighbours are seething jealous. She even buys him a smart huntsman’s uniform so he won’t feel left out. Come the eve of the big day, Fred is too nervous to sleep. And, as it transpires, not without good reason.

Virginia Layefsky - Moonlight-Starlight: The major disappointment of Anne Carey's youth was the cancellation of her long-awaited Halloween party due to the death by drowning of her two cousins. Years later she finds the gypsy costume she never got to wear among her late mother's lumber and decides to treat her own children to an old fashioned Halloween celebration that will be the talk of the neighbourhood for years to come. She's right, too. It is.

H. Russell Wakefield - The Triumph Of Death: Mrs Redvale the rector’s wife is concerned about Amelia, the young maid of all work at Carthwaite Place. The young woman is showing the strain of skivvying for the seriously embittered Miss Prunella Pendleham, the last of a notorious line who, disappointed in love has waged a war versus her own sex ever since. It doesn’t help that Carthwaite Place is haunted, quite possibly by Amelia’s immediate predecessors who were driven to their deaths (her ladyship delights in having Amelia read to her from the career of Gilles de Rais with the occasional M. R. James ghost story thrown in by way of light relief). Can Mrs Redvale persuade her spineless husband to stand up to Miss Pendleham and prevent another tragedy?

I’ve seen Wakefield’s post-1940’s work dismissed as rather misogynistic variations on well worn revenge themes, but this one certainly has a spirited nastiness about it.

Frank Belknap Long - Death Waters: " ... the mass of seething corruption rolled down the hill until it reached the level rocky lake shore, and then it oozed obnoxiously towards us."

Honduras. Byrne, a New York businessman, bullies and cajoles a huge black boatman into sampling a mouthful of the filthy lake water. The native retaliates by galvanizing a teeming mass of assorted snakes against him.

David H. Keller - A Piece Of Linoleum: Why would John Harker commit suicide when he had such a loving wife? Read this and discover why "The coroner absolutely refused to consider any other verdict."

Stephen Grendon (August Derleth) - The Tsanta In The Parlor: Ernest Ambler, the bane of his uncle Theophilis’s life has been missing, hopefully dead, in Ecuador these past seven years, when he writes to the old boy announcing his return to the States. By way of a peace offering he encloses a macabre gift: the shrunken head of a Jivaro Indian. As he awaits Ernest’s impending arrival the old man’s patience is tested to the full by inexplicable gibbering from the parlour at night and the presence of a headless figure which shadows him on the stairs …

Thanks to Andy the Nightreader for providing the (much better) cover scan of the 1965 edition.

[dem bones]

Hugh Rankin, The Lips

Henry S. Whitehead - The Lips: (Weird Tales, Sept. 1929). A powerful story of a slave-ship in the West Indies and a savage hurt inflicted by African witchcraft. Luke Martin, brutal master of the slave ship Saul Taverner, lashes a black woman as she is breastfeeding her baby. She responds by sinking her teeth into his neck, just above the shoulder, and cursing him. The resultant wound is so spectacularly grotesque as to terrify the crew and drive Martin to suicide. A horribly inspired variation on Edward Lucas White's masterpiece, Lukundoo.

Donald Wandrei - The Eye And The Finger: (Esquire, Dec. 1936). Dr. Behn, psychiatrist, is furious to be dragged from his bed by a nuisance patient who insists he's haunted by disembodied body parts. Seeing for himself that the poor fellow is telling the truth, Behr abandons him to his fate. His business is not with things physically impossible.

Carl Jacobi - The Kite: (Thrilling Mystery, June 1937). Borneo. Edward Corlin, a former Conservator - he was asked to resign his post by the British when his cruelty toward the Dyaks provoked an incident - steals a cloth from the temple of the fire god to add to his collection of macabre curios. A Tibetan priest vows vengeance on Corlin's entire family.