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Post by mcannon on Dec 4, 2015 22:22:42 GMT
Right. Morbidity for the masses. No turning back, etc. Your starter for 24 is: "Include 'pure but proud' heroines, have as many villainesses as you please, work in heroes that dash unperturbed, with their courage unshaken, from disaster to disaster and anchor the whole firmly to the happiest possible ending if you would compose a true thriller." This was the advice given to Marian Hobson of the Sarasota Herald Tribune (August 19, 1934), by the remarkable Major George Fielding Eliot (1894-1971), advice he was happy to disregard when writing for Weird Tales. Major Eliot's military career was no bed of roses. He joined the Australian army in 1914 as a second lieutenant and saw action in several of World War I's bloodiest conflicts, including Gallipoli and Passchendaele, so small wonder his brief pulp career culminated in the widely reprinted The Copper Bowl (December 1928), a story described by critic Reginald Smith as "undoubtedly the most effectively gruesome and sickening horror tale to appear during the entire history of Weird Tales, or anywhere else for that matter." On the evidence of the slick and nasty The Justice Of The Czar ( Weird Tales, August 1928), and His Brother's Keeper, it's clear that Captain Eliot had a worrying fondness for torture tales. I'm only just starting on this year's fun, due to a busy last few days, but the line-up so far looks great; thanks to Dem and all contributors. I never knew Elliot was Australian - that's an interesting little tit-bit. It's nice to speculate that writing horror may have helped him cope with his wartime memories. One of my great-grandfathers - whom I never met, even though he didn't die until I was 10 - had similar WW1 experiences to Elliot. He was apparently never the same afterwards (his service records state that late in the war he was diagnosed with "neurasthenia", which was probably shell-shock or Post-Traumatic Stress), and eventually just wandered off; the family heard nothing more of him for several decades, until they learned of his death. Just one of umpteen thousand who were so affected, of course, but it's something I always think of whenever I read period fiction featuring Bulldog Drummond-types who "miss the excitement of the War". Mark
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vaultadventcalendar
Black Crow King
Horror chav at the controls/ weird cheerleader #arts&culture
Posts: 143
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Post by vaultadventcalendar on Dec 5, 2015 8:20:11 GMT
We've James Doig to thank for today's story, too, an absolute belter from Rosa Praed, as rescued from obscurity for Australian Hauntings, the dem personal top vintage anthology read of 2015. Will leave the editor himself to introduce Miss Crossman's Familiar. Rosa Campbell Praed (1851-1935) was born in a slab hut on a remote station in south-east Queensland. In 1872 she married Campbell Praed, the younger son of a notable English family, who had been sent to Australia to make his fortune. The marriage was a disaster – they had no interests in common, and from the start, Rosa found sex repugnant, in stark contrast to her husband (she locked him out of the bedroom when his demands became too much). Rosa spent a miserable couple of years on Curtis Island, where her husband had bought a station, but things looked up when they moved to England in 1876. Rosa had long dreamed of going to England to pursue her literary ambitions, and her dreams were realised when her first novel, An Australian Heroine, became an overnight sensation when it was published in 1880. A string of best-sellers followed and she found herself fêted by celebrities such as Oscar Wilde and the Prince of Wales. Always interested in spirituality and reincarnation, she became heavily involved in occultism, especially theosophy, and blended these interests into her novels and stories. Rosa’s life was marred by personal tragedy. Not only was she tied to a loveless marriage, but her daughter, deaf from birth, went insane and was committed to an asylum, and her three sons predeceased her, one by suicide. Her one consolation was her partner of many years, Nancy Harward, a medium whom Rosa believed to be the reincarnation of a Roman slave girl. Rosa died on 10 April 1935 in Torquay. “Miss Crosson’s Familiar” was published in Stubble Before the Wind (1908) a collection of connected stories, three of which are supernatural. The story references “The Ill-Omened House,” which I reprinted in Australian Nightmares.
- James Doig
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vaultadventcalendar
Black Crow King
Horror chav at the controls/ weird cheerleader #arts&culture
Posts: 143
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Post by vaultadventcalendar on Dec 5, 2015 9:49:10 GMT
I never knew Elliot was Australian - that's an interesting little tit-bit. It's nice to speculate that writing horror may have helped him cope with his wartime memories. One of my great-grandfathers - whom I never met, even though he didn't die until I was 10 - had similar WW1 experiences to Elliot. He was apparently never the same afterwards (his service records state that late in the war he was diagnosed with "neurasthenia", which was probably shell-shock or Post-Traumatic Stress), and eventually just wandered off; the family heard nothing more of him for several decades, until they learned of his death. Just one of umpteen thousand who were so affected, of course, but it's something I always think of whenever I read period fiction featuring Bulldog Drummond-types who "miss the excitement of the War". Mark Very true. You read so many accounts of brave men who served on either side who could never bring themselves to speak of their experiences. Has anyone read A. M. Burrage's War Is War, as by 'Ex-Private X'?
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Post by Mike Brough on Dec 5, 2015 10:33:01 GMT
Good atmosphere, straightforward anecdotal story. Keep fighting the good fight, dem.
Who the hell is Beatrix Bray and what was her obsession? Anyone know?
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Post by ohthehorror on Dec 5, 2015 13:06:46 GMT
Well after sobering up I've finally read yesterday's story. I liked it. Was indeed a little slow to get going but worth it for the ending. Ironically, today's Facebook generation would no doubt have no trouble at all in reading the strange accent style dialog like that in the final paragraph. I've seen much the same style of dialog on there quite regularly.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 5, 2015 13:33:33 GMT
Good atmosphere, straightforward anecdotal story. Keep fighting the good fight, dem. Who the hell is Beatrix Bray and what was her obsession? Anyone know? It's been very much a Doig-dem production to date! At a guess, Beatrix Bray was the woman who lived in 'The House of Ill Omen,' the subject of an earlier interconnected story in the same book, but maybe James will confirm later? I'm sure her obsession was a corker. Mrs. Praed's The Bunyip - an Australian equivalent of the Wendigo an be found in the Wordsworth collection, Australian Ghost Stories, a snip at £2.99 [or less].
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Post by jamesdoig on Dec 5, 2015 21:27:37 GMT
At a guess, Beatrix Bray was the woman who lived in 'The House of Ill Omen,' the subject of an earlier interconnected story in the same book, but maybe James will confirm later? I'm sure her obsession was a corker. That's right - she comes to a nasty end in "The House of ill Omen." I'll pass it on, but I can't find a Word version at the moment.
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vaultadventcalendar
Black Crow King
Horror chav at the controls/ weird cheerleader #arts&culture
Posts: 143
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Post by vaultadventcalendar on Dec 6, 2015 9:24:00 GMT
Today's master of morbidity is Horacio Quiroga (1878-1937), Uruguay's answer to Edgar Allen Poe, possibly best known in horror circles for vampire bedroom caper, The Feather Pillow, as revived by Richard Dalby in Dracula's Brood. Quiroga led a life every bit as tragic as his most nightmarish creations. He was not yet three months old when his father accidentally shot himself dead. Twenty-three years later, Quiroga killed his friend and fellow author, Federico Ferrandoby, in similar circumstances as Ferrandoby prepared for a duel with a Montevideo journalist who'd given him a bad review. Both the stepfather he adored and Ana María, his wife, took their own lives. Eventually, he joined them, swallowing cyanide on learning he had inoperable prostate cancer. All of this by way of way of warning that the following story, told in a detached, journalistic style, is no bed of roses. As with so many a cruel tale, you know exactly where we're heading from very early in the story, but knowing it, and stopping it are two different matters ...
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Dec 6, 2015 9:39:22 GMT
Yikes.
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Post by mcannon on Dec 6, 2015 10:43:33 GMT
Dem: - ,
I haven't read it, but I recently found an ebook version; until then, I hadn't known of the book. I must shift it up the "to read" pile.
Mark
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Post by Mike Brough on Dec 6, 2015 11:44:24 GMT
Excellent. Can't say I don't have some sympathy with the idiots :-)
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vaultadventcalendar
Black Crow King
Horror chav at the controls/ weird cheerleader #arts&culture
Posts: 143
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Post by vaultadventcalendar on Dec 7, 2015 7:31:31 GMT
Chrissie Demant Would not be surprised if most, if not all of you are familiar with today's rave from the grave, but simply couldn't resist including a spiteful, supernatural shocker from Gabrielle Margaret Vere Campbell Long (1886 - 1952) - 'Marjorie Bowen' to us - and, for this reader at least, Kecksies is the ghastliest of the ghastly. If you've not yet done so, you might like to pick up the budget Wordsworth Edition The Bishop Of Hell & Other Stories while you still can. Attachments:Kecksies.pdf (224.22 KB)
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Post by dem bones on Dec 7, 2015 7:49:57 GMT
Dem: - I haven't read it, but I recently found an ebook version; until then, I hadn't known of the book. I must shift it up the "to read" pile. Mark Hope you'll let us know how you get on with it, Mark. The few comments I read suggest War Is War is no celebration of the glories of life on the front-line.
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Post by ripper on Dec 7, 2015 10:48:44 GMT
It's been years since I read Kecksies and I am looking forward to reading it tonight.
I have never come across a copy of 'War is War' but have heard good things about it. An ebook edition sounds interesting.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Dec 7, 2015 11:45:40 GMT
It is pornography plain and simple! It revels in sadism.
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