|
Post by allthingshorror on Mar 2, 2010 16:16:08 GMT
William Sansom (1912 - 1976) is sadly all but forgotten today, but readers of the Pan Book of Horror Stories will certainly know him for The Vertical Ladder, Various Temptations and The Man with the Moon in Him, amongst others. A volume entitled Various Temptations was published by Tartarus in 2002, but this book has now become quite hard to get a hold of. It really does say something when you can get a hold of 3 signed Sansom collections (like I did at the weekend) cheaper than you can buy this collection. By no means complete and will put up story listings as I read and get hold of the books, but if anyone can get in there first - please do! Fireman Flower and Other Stories - Hogarth Press (1944) and Vanguard Press (1945) Three - Hogarth Press (1946) Something Terrible, Something Lovely - Hogarth Press (1948) and Harcourt Brace (1954?) A Contest of Ladies - Hogarth Press (1956) Among the Dahlias - Hogarth (1957) The Stories of William Sansom - Hogarth Press (1963) and Little, Brown (1963) Vertical Ladder and Other Short Stories - Chatto Windus (1969) and of course, no Sansom collection would be complete without Get Well Quick...
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Mar 2, 2010 17:19:43 GMT
Johnathan posted the contents of Various Temptations - that's a start. There's also a collection, A Touch of the Sun (Hogarth , 1952)
|
|
|
Post by allthingshorror on Mar 2, 2010 17:53:38 GMT
Had a quick look at abebooks - describes one of the stories in Touch of the Sun as ' a razor fight in a barber's shop' and another as 'about someone who falls in love with a mad man' Rather elegant cover and doesn't give away the apparent gruesomeness within!
|
|
|
Post by allthingshorror on Mar 3, 2010 16:38:00 GMT
Hogarth Press (1948)CONTENTS:
Something Terrible, Something Lovely The Cliff Displaced Persons The Vertical Ladder The Little Fears The Kiss Various Temptations A Small World Crabforth In the Morning A Saving Grace How Claeys Died The Little Room The Windows The Boiler Room Building Alive One Sunny Afternoon My Tree Journey Into the Smoke The Eye Man From the Water Junction
|
|
|
Post by Johnlprobert on Sept 24, 2010 18:10:14 GMT
Among the Dahlias (Penguin)
No date for this one as that page has been torn out but presumably this edition is also late 1950s. It's a little hardcover book that I picked up for £1 today while Lady P & I were on our way to tea. Traditional orange and white stripes on the cover with a pencil drawing of a lion and (presumably) some dahlias
Contents:
Among the Dahlias A Visit to the Dentist To the Rescue! A Man of Parts Outburst The Dangerous Age Cat Up a Tree What Might Not Have Been Measures of Security Kindly The Last Ride Eventide The Man with the Moon in Him The Equilibriad
I've been meaning to read some Sansom for a while so perhaps this will find its way among all the other books I have on the go at the moment.
|
|
|
Post by Johnlprobert on Sept 28, 2010 13:01:49 GMT
Among the Dahlias - Chap walking through the zoo comes across a lion standing on the path in front of him. There's a face off and the story builds nicely as to what might happen, which isn't quite what you'd expect, as the lion eventually turns away from him in a way he views as disdainful. Because of this he spends the rest of his life feeling worthless. An interesting little story that's really all about how we determine how we feel about ourselves.
A Visit to the Dentist - Chap has all his front teeth pulled and replaced with bridgework (according to my mum this happened a lot in the 1950s), then he goes to a coffee shop where he upsets an old lady, gets into a fight with a ginger man with a huge beard and has his new teeth broken.
|
|
|
Post by Dr Strange on Sept 28, 2010 13:22:49 GMT
A Visit to the Dentist - Chap has all his front teeth pulled and replaced with bridgework (according to my mum this happened a lot in the 1950s), then he goes to a coffee shop where he upsets an old lady, gets into a fight with a ginger man with a huge beard and has his new teeth broken. Think I might need to visit the optician - first twice I read that I thought it said he went to a coffee shop and got into a fight with a gingerbread man...
|
|
|
Post by Craig Herbertson on Sept 28, 2010 14:19:15 GMT
I'll be in the queue beside you as I thought the same thing. These little men are getting everywhere nowadays
|
|
|
Post by Dr Strange on Sept 28, 2010 16:00:45 GMT
I'll be in the queue beside you as I thought the same thing. These little men are getting everywhere nowadays Carbs on the rampage?
|
|
|
Post by Johnlprobert on Oct 2, 2010 7:20:51 GMT
To the Rescue! - Mr Tressiter the accountant visits old Mrs Albee by the sea to discuss a 'few boring old bonds'. While he's there he takes a walk along the beach and sees a boy drowning. He tries to save him but gets scared and leaves the boy to his fate, at which point some old bloke leaps in and saves the boy anyway. Afterwards Tressiter retreats into the immaturity that has been threatening throughout the story, feeling he should have been congratulated for trying even though he turned back, and seeks escape at Mrs Albee's house.
A Man of Parts - Mr Blayne drinks cocktails called ulcer-pulsers, has a poodle caled Mr Poo, and plays constant 'practical jokes' on his wife to make her think he's having an affair when he's not. She tires of his crying wolf so many times that when she arrives home unexpectedly to find a naked lady in the bedroom...
Outburst - Mr Lightfoot works in a clothing store that specialises in kitting out boys with school uniforms, but it's driving him mad and he's just about to say so.
The Dangerous Age - The story or Mr Orde and his hilarious attempts to deal with his mid-life crisis by trying to have an affair, which he eventually does, with a lady with a neck 'alive with angry little pustules'
Cat Up a Tree - The fire brigade get called. You can guess the rest.
Some of these stories really are laugh out loud funny while at their heart displaying a very bitter attitude indeed towards the childishness and selfishness that can exist within the human spirit that reminds me a little of Robert Bloch.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Oct 2, 2010 8:27:38 GMT
Cat Up a Tree - The fire brigade get called. You can guess the rest. Not if you're as thick as me you can't. does the tree get stuck up the cat? had a chance to pick this up off a bloke who specialises in old Penguins (green & white cover variety) at Spitalfields Market not so long back but passed on it in favour of some terrible old bit of tat and wished i hadn't now as you have made A Man Of Parts, The Dangerous Age and To The Rescue sound particularly unmissable. on the face of it, he's an odd one for Van Thal to use so regularly in the early Pan Horrors but then i suspect that away from the editor's chair HVT favoured strange stories above all else.
|
|
|
Post by Johnlprobert on Oct 2, 2010 21:23:10 GMT
Cat Up a Tree - The fire brigade get called. You can guess the rest. Not if you're as thick as me you can't. does the tree get stuck up the cat? Sorry Mr D! That has to be the most useless review I've posted here, but the story didn't make that great an impression on me - it's the story of Mr 'Pudding' Rice, a fireman who can't wait to get to the fire his engine is on its way to, only for it to turn out to be...
|
|
|
Post by Johnlprobert on Oct 6, 2010 8:08:26 GMT
What Might Not Have Been - Llewellyn stands at his bedroom window and as he listens to the sounds of the trains he remembers the Spanish girl he fell in love with, the bull fights, and the train that nearly ran him over. Bittersweet but with a surprisingly heartwarming ending
Measures of Security - "One could not say that Hansen beat his wife regularly every Saturday night. He sometimes missed a Saturday night". A tale of the hard life of a Danish fisherman and the woman who loves him despite, well, you know.
Kindly - Mrs Maude Patterson is having a bath one day only to discover that the chauffeur has drilled a little hole in the mirror and has been - gasp! - observing her for many weeks! What's to be done? Other than dismissing him, of course.
The Last Ride - More excellent black humour. Nennie - the 'weird' daughter of the family ('she wore a big black boot on her shorter leg') attends the funeral of Uncle Jack. She's seen him looking dead before and she's trying to remember what the doctor said it was - cat--something? Anyway it's no good as she keeps being distracted by that knocking coming from somewhere...
Eventide - Weird kind of Monty Python conversation in a pub, eg : "You don't know my biggest boy. He's grown a beard!"
The Man with the Moon in Him - Les Baynes likes to scrawl obscenities on railway station posters. But he quite fancies the idea of following girls, too. Not that it ends how he's expecting...
The Equilibriad. Weird, weird story. Paul wakes to find he's joined the Ministry of Funny Walks but it might actually because he's got Myasthenia Gravis (the story isn't really clear). His cousin / mistress is about to run off with another man and thinks he's drunk as he ponders the meaning of life in relation to mathematics and other things I got a bit lost on.
|
|
|
Post by Jojo Lapin X on Dec 4, 2010 19:42:39 GMT
A volume entitled Various Temptations was published by Tartarus in 2002, but this book has now become quite hard to get a hold of. It depends on what you mean by "hard"---I just bought one from Amazon.
|
|
|
Post by noose on Mar 15, 2011 8:33:20 GMT
Uncovered this photograph of Sansom, taken a year or so before his death. Have also uncovered a previously uncollected short story - has its nasty elements and has a happy ending(!) - and it's very lovely indeed to have re-discovered it! The reason for all of this Sansom interest is that I'll be attempting to write his biography over the next few years.
|
|