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Post by monker on Mar 23, 2010 14:48:31 GMT
Thanks Chris, most of the old favourites covered there. I wish some of these authors had as much of a cult following as the likes of Lovecraft, Howard and some modern authors have. So far I've resisted mail groups because I find them a bit unwieldy but that's me more than anything else. By the way, what exactly was the go with alt.books.ghost-fiction, exactly? Can you elaborate without implicating anyone or taking sides? Anyway, as Vyv from The Young Ones would say - It would make a great play!
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Post by cw67q on Mar 23, 2010 15:11:55 GMT
You are welcome Monker, although I thought I rather skirted the issue as to whether you "should" know about these groups I don't get mail delivered from any on-line forum I always log on to yahoo, here or where ever to read messages, so I nevre get bogged down with stuff. abgf was the group that really got me interested again in supernatural fiction beyond HPL and the odd, usually mythos, anthology. I came to it rather late in its life span probablya round the time it started to fall to pieces (which i like to think of as mere coincidence). Disagreements between regulars became rather entrenched with time and rather than debate the issues of the day, certain posters prefered to attach other posters, or at least got sucked into responding to such attacks. This took over to the extent that almost every thread got hijacked into a flame war. Whilst i don't believe that blame lay 100% on one side, I did eventually and reluctantly conclude that one side took the major proportion of responsibility for the situation. There were certainly occasions when the fans were falmed by over-reaction or retaliation by other group members, but ultimately the root problem was IMHO the inability of one person to let past arguements lie and move on. Finally the group had to move on and most people emigrated to various other discussion groups. I don't wish to name names or point fingers so I'll leave it there. All of the above is only my own opinion, which is not guaranteed to acurately reflect the multiple realities of abgf-members past :-) - chris
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Post by monker on Mar 23, 2010 16:14:12 GMT
Wasn't there some arguement regarding the suggestion of hints of repression in some of M.R. James' fiction?
Someone took umbrage and then it escalated? Was that the start of it? I'll let it rest after that.
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Post by cw67q on Mar 23, 2010 16:22:10 GMT
Wasn't there some arguement regarding the suggestion of hints of repression in some of M.R. James' fiction? Someone took umbrage and then it escalated? Was that the start of it? I'll let it rest after that. This was one specific arguement, I'm not sure that it was the first serious disagreement. However, a disagreement on any one topic, no matter how strongly expressed wouldn't have killed a discussion group. But the problem was that every arguement became personalised and generalised e.g. someone posts about a book and another responds along the lines of: "just what you'd expect from this $%^&(*&^%%, why if the past they %^%^&^&^" etc etc. - chris
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Post by Dr Strange on Mar 23, 2010 18:25:29 GMT
I've very much been put off of the other two Benson brothers because of the didacticism.... Am I missing much? I'd say probably not. I've read the Wordsworth collection and can't really remember any of their stories. I think (maybe) those Bensons were more conventionally "religious"... and unfortunately it can come through in their writing.
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Post by Steve on Mar 23, 2010 19:54:45 GMT
I was never really that fussed about A.C. Benson until I reread a couple of things by him recently. While not especially memorable or original, stories such as 'The Slype House' are well-written and manage to drum up a decent bit of atmosphere, while 'Out of the Sea' with its "goatlike thing" I found particularly enjoyable.
Still can't get excited about R.H. though.
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Post by carandini on Sept 21, 2010 10:54:22 GMT
For my 2 cents (or should that be pence?) I'd really like to echo the call for Guy Endore's Werewolf of Paris. It'd be so nice to have a respectable looking copy of that novel isntead of the silly 'teeth' edition on my shelf right now.
I'm also very sad not to see Henry S. Whitehead mentioned. He was one of the most talented authors writing for Weird Tales back in the magazine's heyday. Sadly, Whitehead died in 1932, so he falls under the 70 year rule. Whitehead had been a minister in the Virgin Islands before turning his pen to horror stories. And what stories! He has a very M. R. James feel to his fiction - with the notable difference that most of his stories involve obeah and voodoo and are set in the Carribean. His first collection of stories was published by Arkham House in 1944 as Jumbee and Other Stories. The last reprinting was, I believe, in the 1970's when the collection was broken up into two paperbacks published by Mayflower as Jumbee and Other Voodoo Tales and The Black Beast and Other Voodoo Tales. These stories are more than a natural for the Mystery and Supernatural collection, and, given the mania for zombies just now, would give a cracking excuse to release a book that could 'tie-in' to this pop-culture craze.
Some others I'd mention:
The Blood of the Vampire by Florence Marryat, and published in 1897, the same year as a certain Transylvanian count. Mrs. Marryat died in 1899, so this novel is comfortably within PD.
The Wolf-Leader, one of Alexandre Dumas's forays into the supernatural, and one I'd personally really like to read if somebody would kindly reprint it.
A collection of terror tales by Emile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrain, especially their story 'The Man-Wolf', would be a nice outing, I think. Get some Continetal Gothic represented.
Hanns Heinz Ewers would be a positive godsend! His stuff is incredibly hard to ferret out these days due to his support of the Nazis early on. He died in 1943, so he's just at the cusp of being a potential recruit. He's probably best known for the three Frank Braun novels, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Alraune, and Vampyr.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 21, 2010 15:12:55 GMT
Carandini, the good news is, Henry S. Whitehead is very much in Wordsworths thoughts. He was the outright winner of the Which Authors Would You Most Like To See Published In The Wordsworth Mystery & Supernatural Series? poll they ran on here last year. i'm sure Derek and the team will keep us informed when they've drawn up 2011 proposed list of ten. Meanwhile, our friend Joe E. 'Anarchist Banjo' Bandel has translated and (re)published several of Hans Heinz Ewers's works. Check out his site for more details here
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Post by carandini on Sept 22, 2010 9:58:10 GMT
Thanks immensely for the tip about Ewers... and the exciting prospect of a Whitehead collection!
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Sept 24, 2010 15:18:11 GMT
I just had a brilliant idea. Wordsworth should do Richard Burton's translation of the ARABIAN NIGHTS, all 16 volumes of it. No acceptable edition is currently in print.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Sept 25, 2010 0:58:43 GMT
I just had a brilliant idea. Wordsworth should do Richard Burton's translation of the ARABIAN NIGHTS, all 16 volumes of it. No acceptable edition is currently in print. That would be good. I've read it but I have a very old Bombay edition now with several volumes missing - found it in a Hotel in New Orleans. Struggled with my conscience for a bit and then asked the guy what he wanted for it. When he said 'nothing' I expect members of the Vault will realise how smug I was for about a year. I'd love a paper back for reading in the bath. Burton is about the best you get.
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Post by lemming13 on May 13, 2011 12:50:42 GMT
Seriously, I'd recommend a reprint of C W Leadbeater's Perfume of Egypt; allegedly true ghost stories told by a leading Theosophist, including a couple originally told him by Madame Blavatsky, and decidedly out of copyright. They are pretty well told and include some real corkers, like An Astral Murder and Jagannath. Very readable.
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Post by Knygathin on Jun 24, 2012 11:40:44 GMT
Has anyone on the forum actually read all 16 volumes of Richard Burton's Arabian Nights? It is massive. It should take at least a year of hard study, even for a moderately fast reader.
I believe a Wordsworth edition would be waste of paper. Some will buy it for collective purposes, the first couple of volumes, perhaps at most, being read, and the remaining volumes just collecting dust.
Print on demand (POD) is more sensible, to meet the actual need for the texts. Cosimo.com (POD?) is offering the complete set as individual volumes, both in paperback and hardback.
I have the first 10 volumes (not the Supplemental Nights) in a single fat volume. It's about a foot thick, with double row pages side by side on each page. It's bigger than the biggest bible you ever saw. In the 90's I simply wanted all the texts, and xeroxed the pages from a library set. Later I bound the pile in leather, with scarlet pastedowns and endpapers, and it actually became quite attractive.
I have read the first few chapters, which were enjoyable.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 24, 2012 17:05:27 GMT
I am that sad man. I've read it twice and have also gone through Whitman MATHERS, and E. Powys MARDRUS version a couple of times. Burton is a magnificent character and his books amaze and astound. I'm resisting the temptation to get ultra boring here as I think I may have done so extensively somewhere else in the vault but you really should read it and his other work if you get the chance.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Jun 24, 2012 17:29:01 GMT
I am that sad man. I've read it twice and have also gone through Whitman MATHERS, and E. Powys MARDRUS version a couple of times. Burton is a magnificent character and his books amaze and astound. I'm resisting the temptation to get ultra boring here as I think I may have done so extensively somewhere else in the vault but you really should read it and his other work if you get the chance. Have you seen the new Penguin translation? Unlike Burton, it is in English. I am having lots of fun with it.
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