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Post by dem bones on Dec 1, 2011 6:40:47 GMT
December 1st. That can only mean one thing. Beginning today in your universally loved and admired, fright-filled VAULT ..... Uh huh, following the shock success of last year's inaugural effort, the sordid sequel! No point tampering with the formula. To start with, i'll upload a vintage pulp classic a day, until none of our contemporary authors can bear it any longer and volunteer a story of their own! To get us under-way, live from the lunatic asylum, the strange and terrible story of mad artist Hal Pemberton, as told by Anthony M. Rud in the April 1923 issue of Weird Tales. Rud is guaranteed a place in horror history on account of his slimy novella Ooze, (March, 1923), granted cover story status in the first ever issue of "the unique magazine." He was also the 'R. Anthony' whose The Witch-Baiter and The Parasitic Hand would soon be revived by Christine Campbell Thomson for her Not At Night series, which ought to provide fair warning that what you're about to read is beyond ... human comprehension! Attachments:
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Post by andydecker on Dec 1, 2011 10:34:39 GMT
Thank you for your effdorts, dem! Great story, btw. At first jaded me snickered because of what I perceived as an early precursor of a lot of serial-killer-stories I have seen or read, but the progression which has become a cliche still was fascinating for a 90+ plus years old story. And still I never did see the ending comig
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Post by dem bones on Dec 2, 2011 7:45:14 GMT
Glad you enjoyed it, andy. John Pelan once mentioned that, not so long before his death, Peter Haining approached him with a view to editing a Rud collection for Midnight House, but ""I opted to pass ... for reasons which ought to be apparent to anyone that has read Rud" ..... To the best of my knowledge, today's offering - which has more than a touch of the early James Herbert's about it - has languished in obscurity since 1928 1931, the year Christine Campbell Thomson included it in At Dead Of Night. Michael Annesley is one of several Not At Night mystery men. Famously, C.C.T. garnered 101 of the stories from Weird Tales, but Annesley never once graced their pages and i've yet to find another of his horrors published anywhere else. Many thanks to the bride for providing the illustrations! Attachments:
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Post by noose on Dec 2, 2011 7:55:29 GMT
He is Frederick Annesley Michael Webster, (1886 - 1950s?) served in the King's Rifles, wrote several spy novels, SPY ISLAND, SUICIDE SPIES, THE BLACK SHADOW, some detective novels and other books include THE HOUND OF CULLAN and THE LAND OF FORGOTTEN WOMEN... There IS a collection called THE CURSE OF THE LION that features stories on ghosts, native curses and astral projection - costs a pretty penny though.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 2, 2011 11:22:08 GMT
ah, thank you for that golden snippet of info. If that's the case, he's surely the F. A. M. Webster who contributes The Owl to the same volume, At Dead Of Night. CCT was forever reviving stories from Weird Tales, but on this occasion it seems Farnsworth Wright repaid the compliment as The Owl resurfaced in the August 1933 issue of his seminal publication.
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Post by jamesdoig on Dec 2, 2011 19:25:31 GMT
Yep, a pleasingly cruel tale, and Rats isn't bad either. Thank you for your effdorts, dem! Great story, btw. At first jaded me snickered because of what I perceived as an early precursor of a lot of serial-killer-stories I have seen or read, but the progression which has become a cliche still was fascinating for a 90+ plus years old story. And still I never did see the ending comig
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Post by dem bones on Dec 3, 2011 9:11:41 GMT
Will be picking on the Not At Night's again soon enough, but now it's the turn of the Creeps, and here's a nice Christmas y one to get us in the mood. Vera A. Gadd contributed two stories to the series, The Road and Hillmount, both of them appearing in Tales Of Fear (Philip Allen, 1935), by which time the following advertisement was appearing at back of each volume. TO THE READER
If you have enjoyed the stories in this popular series - why not write one? It is very probable that other volumes will be added: and the publishers are always ready to consider the work of new, as well as established, authors.
Send MSS. to
Messrs. PHILIP ALLAN & CO., Ltd. 69, Great Russell Street, London, W.C.1
Mark envelopes 'Creeps'
I found it all but impossible to choose between Vera's cruel tales but eventually opted for the embittered blue rinse brigade versus over exuberant flapper girl shocker which opens the collection ..... Attachments:
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Post by dem bones on Dec 4, 2011 8:33:49 GMT
The identity of our next author was all but confirmed by Hugh Lamb in The Man Wolf & Other Stories where he writes, "I have heard on good authority that ' Philip Murray' was the pseudonym of Philip Allen himself." As Creeps editor Charles Birkin was a regular contributor to Mr. Lamb's anthologies, we've grounds to suspect just who this "good authority" may have been. Murray contributed six stories to the series, all of them unutterably grim. Ideally, i'd have saved time and typing by opting for either of the short-shorts The Charnel House and The Trunk, both deeply unpleasant, but Hugh already revived them so here instead, one of Murray's longer efforts. As with A Square Of Canvas, The Road and Rats, to the best of my knowledge it's not appeared anywhere else on-line (yet). Be warned: it's no bundle of laughs so best give it a miss if you're low. Attachments:
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Post by dem bones on Dec 5, 2011 7:50:27 GMT
it was only after i typed our next story that i remembered it was among the Creeps Richard Dalby revived in his debut anthology, The Sorceress In Stained Glass, (Tom Stacey, 1971), but that book being something of a scarce title in itself, i don't suppose it will hurt to resurrect the properly horrible The Interrupted Honeymoon on an obscure pulp forum. Again, i can't tell you anything worth knowing about about George Benwood save that his Dark Seance was among the few stories from Horrors that Van Thal didn't swipe for The Third Pan Book Of Horror Stories. He may also be the George Benwood responsible for something called A White Man Finds His God (The Covenant Publishing Co., London, 1933). Attachments:
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Post by andydecker on Dec 5, 2011 8:54:34 GMT
Nice story. Guess it would go really well in a modern anthology
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Dec 5, 2011 14:04:39 GMT
it was only after i typed our next story that i remembered it was among the Creeps Richard Dalby revived in his debut anthology, The Sorceress In Stained Glass, (Tom Stacey, 1971), but that book being something of a scarce title in itself, i don't suppose it will hurt to resurrect the properly horrible The Interrupted Honeymoon on an obscure pulp forum. Again, i can't tell you anything worth knowing about about George Benwood save that his Dark Seance was among the few stories from Horrors that Van Thal didn't swipe for The Third Pan Book Of Horror Stories. He may also be the George Benwood responsible for something called A White Man Finds His God (The Covenant Publishing Co., London, 1933). Was about to say that The Interrupted Honeymoon was only worth looking at for the leer on the honeymooner's face in the illustration but the last third drew it up to definitively acceptable Vault standards.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Dec 5, 2011 14:22:49 GMT
The identity of our next author was all but confirmed by Hugh Lamb in The Man Wolf & Other Stories where he writes, "I have heard on good authority that ' Philip Murray' was the pseudonym of Philip Allen himself." As Creeps editor Charles Birkin was a regular contributor to Mr. Lamb's anthologies, we've grounds to suspect just who this "good authority" may have been. Murray contributed six stories to the series, all of them unutterably grim. Ideally, i'd have saved time and typing by opting for either of the short-shorts The Charnel House and The Trunk, both deeply unpleasant, but Hugh already revived them so here instead, one of Murray's longer efforts. As with A Square Of Canvas, The Road and Rats, to the best of my knowledge it's not appeared anywhere else on-line (yet). Be warned: it's no bundle of laughs so best give it a miss if you're low. You couldn't really say that you liked this story - unrelenting grim was spot on. Like the bit about what sounded like a length of rubber pipe hitting the door - gave that tactile queasy feeling
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Dec 5, 2011 14:31:40 GMT
AM Rud A Square Of Canvas.
Simply a superb story.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 5, 2011 20:48:56 GMT
Was about to say that The Interrupted Honeymoon was only worth looking at for the leer on the honeymooner's face in the illustration but the last third drew it up to definitively acceptable Vault standards. personally, i love The Interrupted Honeymoon up to and including the line "He raised the bottle to his lips ....." It would've been so much nastier if he'd ended it there. Glad you liked the illustration. Chrissie customised an ad for a Health Knowledge booklet, Sexual And Marital Knowledge ("Keep it, use it"). The guy sure looks like he means business. Nice story. Guess it would go really well in a modern anthology yeah, a lot of the horror fiction from that era is problematic. Wordsworth surgically removed some of the more offensive moments from their Bulldog Drummond omnibus, and RAWL used to do that with Jules de Grandin stories now i think of it. it's a dilemma, but am still of a mind that it's better to reproduce the text as published or not at all, until somebody persuades me otherwise? You couldn't really say that you liked this story - unrelenting grim was spot on. Like the bit about what sounded like a length of rubber pipe hitting the door - gave that tactile queasy feeling right up to the last moment i was still undecided about including Hangman's Cottage for reasons that are probably obvious. then i figured that the fact it was worrying me so much was the best reason to share it. 'Philip Murray', whoever he was, sure knew what constitutes a disturbing story.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Dec 5, 2011 22:50:50 GMT
yeah, a lot of the horror fiction from that era is problematic. Wordsworth surgically removed some of the more offensive moments from their Bulldog Drummond omnibus, and RAWL used to do that with Jules de Grandin stories now i think of it. it's a dilemma, but am still of a mind that it's better to reproduce the text as published or not at all, until somebody persuades me otherwise?
In both cases i think you were right to go for it Dem
The problem with the internet now is twofold. Events are no longer parochial - they are immediately worldwide and everyone with a computer has access to them. Yet the world has got sort of one dimensional in the sense that every statement, story, idea on it is immediately examinable and remains so in perpetuity. There is no longer a limited context. What was written in the newspaper, in the academic journal or just spouted off the top of your head in a chat forum is now open to the scrutiny of millions whereas certain opinions were only voiced among a few people and quickly faded into oblivion. You simply have to stand by your instincts, your principles and perhaps more importantly your intent. As a horror forum the Vault deals with imagined horror therefore it is inherently controversial.
As to the pc censorship the thought of a revisionist dilution of past works makes me sick. You can't really judge the modes of expression of past generations except in their context. There'll be nothing left if we keep chopping bits out. We'd have to remove Samuel Johnson for his consistent attacks on us poor wee Scotsmen and as he kicked off the English Dictionary that would probably have to go next.
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