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Post by marksamuels on May 23, 2009 11:06:04 GMT
Woke up this morning (remember it's 2009 year of the Poe Bicentennial) on a Poe jag.
Gollancz Macabre 1980
Contents:
Introduction: "The Pioneer of Mystery" by Peter Haining
The Dead Alive Anonymous
The Man in the Bell William Maginn
The Dead Daughter Henry Glassford Bell
A Dream Edgar Allan Poe
The Journal of Julius Rodman Edgar Allan Poe
Who is the Murderer? Edgar Allan Poe
The Fire-Fiend Charles D. Gardette
The Lighthouse Edgar Allan Poe & Robert Bloch
The Mad Trist Edgar Allan Poe & Peter HainingPoe's favourite horror tales from Blackwood's Magazine. Poe murders Christ in a fevered prose poem! Poe's longest work: A proto-Western pulp! Collaborations from Beyond the Grave! Poe's equivalent of The Necronomicon! It's all here! All hail Poe! Mere time and the grave cannot sever us from his genius! |
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Post by dem on May 28, 2009 9:45:56 GMT
I could be wrong, but it doesn't seem as though Gollancz published this or Haining's Gaston LeRoux Bedside Companion in any great numbers as there seem an awful lot of people after them, alleviated in LeRoux case as the book's been reprinted, but i'm not so sure this has? Haining also edited an Edgar Allan Poe Scrapbook for NEL in 1977, not sen a copy meself.
Anyway, happy birthday Mr. S! I was gonna recommend a quite evening's laudanum binge by way of celebration, but judging by the state of your scary new avitar, maybe not such a great idea ....
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Post by marksamuels on May 28, 2009 10:59:54 GMT
I could be wrong, but it doesn't seem as though Gollancz published this or Haining's Gaston LeRoux Bedside Companion in any great numbers as there seem an awful lot of people after them, alleviated in LeRoux case as the book's been reprinted, but i'm not so sure this has? Haining also edited an Edgar Allan Poe Scrapbook for NEL in 1977, not sen a copy meself. Anyway, happy birthday Mr. S! I was gonna recommend a quite evening's laudanum binge by way of celebration, but judging by the state of your scary new avitar, maybe not such a great idea .... You know, this is one of those "books you've lost and now regret it" moments. I had that Poe scrapbook thing years ago. From what I recall it was a large format fully-illustrated softcover. Thanks for the birthday wishes, Dem! The new avatar is Tom Baker in The Mutations (1974 I think) Mark S. |
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Post by dem on May 28, 2009 11:54:11 GMT
You know, this is one of those "books you've lost and now regret it" moments. I had that Poe scrapbook thing years ago. From what I recall it was a large format fully-illustrated softcover. Mark S. That sounds like the fellow. I think there's a H. G. Wells equivalent, too. Haining's The Dracula Scrapbook seems to have started him on that route, and if the Poe is anything like it, i'll bet it's gorgeous. He varies the format slightly for 1978's The Frankenstein File - more article inclined, less of a scrapbook approach - and i'm slightly less fond of it as a result. They're a great idea though. It's a format that would be ideal for a 'Best of Paperback Fanatic' or an appreciation of pre-internet fanzine culture. Relief to learn its only Tom Baker. My first thought was of an old acquaintance often to be found haunting the N10 branch of GroTescos ....  |
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Post by marksamuels on May 28, 2009 19:51:23 GMT
You know, this is one of those "books you've lost and now regret it" moments. I had that Poe scrapbook thing years ago. From what I recall it was a large format fully-illustrated softcover. Mark S. That sounds like the fellow. I think there's a H. G. Wells equivalent, too. Haining's The Dracula Scrapbook seems to have started him on that route, and if the Poe is anything like it, i'll bet it's gorgeous. He varies the format slightly for 1978's The Frankenstein File - more article inclined, less of a scrapbook approach - and i'm slightly less fond of it as a result. They're a great idea though. It's a format that would be ideal for a 'Best of Paperback Fanatic' or an appreciation of pre-internet fanzine culture. Relief to learn its only Tom Baker. My first thought was of an old acquaintance often to be found haunting the N10 branch of GroTescos .... Dem Mrs S KEEPS running into him at that place! Lovely chap but he does have funny red eyes... Mark S. |
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Post by dem on Sept 19, 2014 5:52:10 GMT
Peter Haining (ed.) – The Edgar Allan Poe Bedside Companion: Morgue & Mystery Tales (Gollancz, 1980) Peter Haining – Introduction
Anonymous – The Dead Alive
William Maginn – The Man in the Bell
Henry Glassford Bell – The Dead Daughter
Edgar Allan Poe – A Dream
Edgar Allan Poe – The Journal of Julius Rodman
Edgar Allan Poe – Who is the Murderer ?
Charles D. Gardette – The Fire-Fiend
Edgar Allan Poe and Robert Bloch – The Lighthouse
Edgar Allan Poe and Robert Haining – The Mad Trist Blurb Here are treasures! This is no ordinary anthology of Poe items but a unique collection of tales that in most cases have not appeared in print for well over a century and that will be completely new to all but a few Poe specialists.
At the heart of the collection are two novella-length works. One of these, The Journal of Julius Rodman, is a superb pastiche of the travelogue, a record of high adventure in the then unexplored Wild West. The other, Who is the Murderer?, is a meticulous and baffling crime story, and reinforces Poe's claim to be the Father of Detective Fiction. And, in striking contrast, A Dream is Poe at his most apocalyptic, describing a strange vision of the Crucifixion.
Then there's a group of tales that Poe acknowledged reading, and that clearly influenced him: tales of premature burial, of a man trapped beneath a great clanging bell, of a doomed girl reborn and doomed again.
Finally, Poe's own influence is very strongly at work in The Fire-Fiend, a poem so like 'The Raven' in style that it was widely assumed to have been by Poe too; and The Lighthouse, a tale begun by Poe himself and finished by another master of the macabre, Robert Bloch; and The Mad Trist, newly written for this collection but having its origin in 'The Fall of the House of Usher'.
To describe this book as a 'must' for all admirers of Edgar Allan Poe is surely unnecessary: it's so self-evident.Poe. This reader rarely ventures beyond the greatest horror hits, so it's the early Gothic tales and posthumous "collaborations" among these "morgue and mystery tales" hold most appeal, even if The Man In The Bell and The Lighthouse were already much anthologised when ...Bedside Companion was published. Anon - The Dead Alive: ( Blackwoods, as 'The Buried Alive', October 1821). Narrator suffers a cataleptic attack, and endures a dry run for death. Ghastly undertakers, laughing the while, manhandle him into the coffin. Grasping relatives and hangers-on shed crocodile tears over his corpse, and then - buried! Just as he reconciles himself to death, the sound of spade hacking into the soil. Here come the body-snatchers! W. E. Aytoun - The Man In The Bell: ( Blackwoods, , November 1821). Shades of Poe's The Pit And The Pendulum as Jack climbs into the Cathedral belfry to unmuffle a clapper while his friend keeps watch below. Unfortunately, said friend is easily distracted and wanders away in pursuit of a pretty passer by. The bell-ringers arrive and, unaware of Jack's current activities, begin their work. Henry Glassford Bell – The Dead Daughter: ( Edinburgh Literary Journal, Jan. 1st 1831). A precursor of Poe's Morella. Philippa Walstein, wife of Adolphus, the local misanthrope, has borne several children but all have died in infancy. Paulina bucks the trend, but her health is cause for concern. Rake thin, her jet black eyes and hair highlight the paleness of her veiny skin. She is stricken with cancer and dies at thirteen. Nine months after her death, a second daughter is born, Paulina II, a girl so similar to in every aspect to Paulina I that she terrifies her father who will have nothing to do with her. On the eve of Paulina II's thirteenth birthday, Adolphus opens the dead daughter's grave to inspect her mouldering bones ....
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Post by dem on Oct 13, 2014 19:59:55 GMT
Edgar Allan Poe & Robert Bloch - The Lighthouse: The-man-who-wrote-Psycho's posthumous "collaboration" with Poe is a minor gem. Told in diary form, it details the decline of an unnamed misanthrope into madness and despair after he wills a beautiful woman from the ocean floor to be his companion.
Robert Haining - The Mad Trist: Dying author William Canning believes that, far from being an invention of Poe, "Sir Lancelot Canning"'s The Mad Trist, as quoted in The Fall Of The House Of Usher, is the work of his ancestor, William Canynges. A notorious Black Magician in his day, Canynges eventually tired of the Dark Arts and joined a Monastery - but not before committing his memoirs to print. It is Canning's belief that exposure to this terrible document set Poe on the road to self-destruction and later drove Thomas Chatterton to suicide. The narrator - an authority on Poe - cautiously admits that there may be some truth in Canning's claims, which is all the encouragement he needs to go totally gaga and attempt a necromantic ritual in the muniment room at St. Mary Redcliffe church, Bristol.
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