Allison V Harding

[cauldronbrewer]

Still more from Masters of Horror, Vol. 1: Allison V. Harding, the Forgotten Queen of Horror:

The City of Lost People
Shy office drone Edgar Chadbourne begins experiencing strange spells where everyone else in the city disappears. Could this have something to do with his fall down the stairs last month? Or perhaps the mysterious psychiatrist who treated him and then loaned him books with titles such as Occult Factors in Psychology?

This one has a strong Twilight Zone feel to it. Give or take the half-baked explanation for the story's events, it's one of the stronger tales in the collection so far.

As for The Damp Man, I recently reread it and I liked it as much on the second go-around as the first. The villain would fit well in a Silver Age comic book, and the "stalker with superpowers" plot reminds me of how Buffy combined supernatural horrors with mundane ones.

Dec 4, 2013 7:20:59 GMT dem said:

Other than that she wrote several exceptional horror stories, the little I know about Allison V. Harding is the information provided in this typically splendid article by Terence E. Hanley at Teller of Weird Tales. it was my friend Cauldron Brewer who first recommended The Underbody, and I am very grateful that he did! How the mysterious mistress of the macabre has yet to see her work collected is one of life's great unfathomables.

I was nervous about whether The Underbody would hold up to a second read, but I shouldn't have worried. Here, Harding's plain prose and simple storytelling style serve as strengths: the tale of the seemingly friendly yet seemingly dead Mr. Mole is all the more effective for how its disturbing undertones and bleak ending sneak up on the reader (you can read it here as part of the 2013 Vault Advent Calendar!). I'm still surprised that no anthologist has ever resurrected it, and I'm grateful to the folks at Armchair Fiction for brining it back into print.

While I'm at it, here's an essay from a few years ago that reviews a number of Harding's stories, including all of the above.

[cauldronbrewer]

Dec 28, 2013 16:40:08 GMT Jojo Lapin X said:

As a start, consider "Night of Impossible Shadows" (Weird Tales, September 1945). Young newlyweds go visit the husband's weird old friend who has holed up in a remote country house to pursue his occult studies. It turns out he has developed a risible theory of how human shadows are really independent, malevolent beings. It turn out this theory is true. Boredom ensues. Nothing like "The Underbody."

I don't have much to add here. Almost half the story is taken up by the newlyweds' drive to the remote country house.

Ride the El to Doom
Foundry worker Jack Larue feels sad that the city is pulling down the tracks on his el route, while the engineer for the route's train insists he'll never take another job. After the line is closed and the bridge torn down, Larue finds himself on a fateful last ride with the engineer--who doesn't seems entirely human.

Another so-so tale, though some enterprising young literary scholar could probably write an essay on mid-20th century technology in Harding's short fiction. "The Frightened Engineer," "The Murderous Steam Shovel," "Take the Z Train," and "Ride the El to Doom" would offer plenty of material, as would the following:

Tunnel Terror
City reporter Tom Mead tries to help his old high school buddy deal with trouble on the job. Whenever Big Bill Van Hooten drives his produce truck through the tunnel beneath the river, strange things happen: salt water soaks his oranges, or seaweed ruins his lettuce. Van Hooten suspects this has something to do with a curse bestowed on his seafaring Dutch ancestor.

This one's modest and predictable, but I still enjoyed it--partly for the supernatural elements, partly for Harding's depiction of the friendship between the main characters.

[Jojo Lapin X]

I have crafted a catchy slogan that summarizes my feelings about Ms Harding's work and could easily be taught to schoolchildren: "If it ain't 'The Underbody,' it ain't no good."

[cauldronbrewer]

Oct 19, 2020 20:04:01 GMT Jojo Lapin X said:

I have crafted a catchy slogan that summarizes my feelings about Ms Harding's work and could easily be taught to schoolchildren: "If it ain't 'The Underbody,' it ain't no good."

That slogan certainly applies to the next entry in Masters of Horror, Vol. 1: Allison V. Harding, the Forgotten Queen of Horror:

Isle of Women
A boat ferrying an expedition to the Galapagos wrecks during a storm, stranding the survivors on an unexplored island. Our castaways include the former paratrooper/football player narrator, the kindly lead scientist, his sardonic assistant, an athletic young woman, the trusty skipper, and the first mate. The mate has heard terrifying legends about the island, ones proven all too true when muscular, face-painted "she devils" capture the castaways and start tossing the more expendable characters into a viper-filled pit.

The low point of the collection so far: the story doesn't include any supernatural elements and has aged as poorly as the villain who drank from the wrong grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

[cauldronbrewer]

The last five stories in Masters of Horror, Vol. 1: Allison V. Harding, the Forgotten Queen of Horror range from silly to spooky.

The Machine is an uninspired tale about a scientist who invents a device to read souls like an EEG or EKG; unfortunately, the machine drains souls in the process and has a mind of its own.

The Revolt of the Trees, which involves a clash between a hard-drinking reporter and a classic evil forest, is too goofy to take seriously.

The House of Hate features a pair of sinister next-door neighbors and a gruesome resolution. Despite the hard-to-swallow plot twist at the end, it's one of the more interesting stories in the collection.

Death Went That Way has a nifty title and a standard-issue haunted car. It's OK.

Fog Country makes for a strong closing tale, with its moody atmosphere and folklorish style. The evil Hobell clan lords over the town of Elbow Creek from their house on a hill, but a more powerful evil rolls in with the fog from the Sound.

Highlights of the collection: "The Damp Man," "Fog Country," and, of course, "The Underbody."

Lowlight: "Isle of Women"

Welcome bonus: reproductions of the original heading illustrations from Weird Tales, including some beautiful ones by Boris Dolgov.

Harding may not have been the most visionary writer, but I still enjoyed reading this collection. I hope that Armchair Fiction publishes a second volume of her stories.

[Jojo Lapin X]

Would you agree that "The Underbody" is so different, in every aspect, from the rest of her stuff that it is difficult to fathom that it was written by the same person?

[cauldronbrewer]

Interesting question, given that there's speculation about whether "Harding" was actually Jean Milligan, her husband Lamont Buchanan, or both. Whoever she or he or they, were, however, my hunch is that Harding simply caught lightning in a bottle with "The Underbody." The story has the same simple, almost flat style, as most of the author's other work, but that simplicity pairs well with the dark premise and a plot that swiftly goes from odd to grim. Harding's work often features unhappy endings, though in other cases they don't deliver a payoff as powerful as the one in "The Underbody." 

[Jojo Lapin X]

Oct 22, 2020 14:03:18 GMT cauldronbrewer said:

Interesting question, given that there's speculation about whether "Harding" was actually Jean Milligan, her husband Lamont Buchanan, or both. Whoever she or he or they, were, however, my hunch is that Harding simply caught lightning in a bottle with "The Underbody." The story has the same simple, almost flat style, as most of the author's other work, but that simplicity pairs well with the dark premise and a plot that swiftly goes from odd to grim. Harding's work often features unhappy endings, though in other cases they don't deliver a payoff as powerful as the one in "The Underbody." 

Ah! I think my confusion arises from the fact that I thought it was established years ago, on this board, that Allison V Harding was an actual person.

[andydecker]

Just for clarification: is Allison V. Harding a pseudonym for Jean Milligan or not?

[cauldronbrewer]

According to Sam Moskowitz, the checks for Harding's stories were made out to Jean Milligan (who was married to Lamont Buchanan, an associate editor at Weird Tales). As far as I know, that's the one piece of hard evidence, and anything else is speculation, so unless new evidence turns up I'm assuming she's Milligan.

[Jojo Lapin X]

Oct 23, 2020 15:02:17 GMT andydecker said:

Just for clarification: is Allison V. Harding a pseudonym for Jean Milligan or not?

I like the J D Salinger theory. It makes so much sense.

[cauldronbrewer]

Oct 23, 2020 15:24:40 GMT Jojo Lapin X said:

I like the J D Salinger theory. It makes so much sense.

The giveaway in "The Underbody" was when Mr. Mole told the children that all the surface-dwelling adults were "phonies."

[andydecker]

Ah, thank you!