Frederick Cowles - The Night Wind Howls

[ropardoe]

Jun 23, 2019 5:08:24 GMT mrhappy said:

Dec 11, 2018 17:18:59 GMT elricc said:

I agree, I've been waiting patiently for the Flora Mayor for years, it's become a bit of a joke in our house. A metaphor for something that may never happen!

This from the Sundial Press website:

"Although one might assume the works of Flora Mayor are in the public domain, as we had, a literary agency is claiming copyright representation for their client which we are disputing. Until this issue has been satisfactorily resolved we have no option but to defer publication."

Finally the reasons for the delays are starting to become clearer. This is unfortunate as these things can drag on for years.

Mr. Happy

How can this be?  Unless they're planning on including some previously or posthumously published stories, that is.  All the works published in her lifetime in this country are way out of copyright.  She's been out of copyright for even longer than M.R. James!  Personally, I'd be telling the literary agency that they know what they can do with their claim!

(Edited to add). I see one of her books was indeed posthumous, but only just, and it's easily out of copyright.

[ropardoe]

Jun 23, 2019 8:47:22 GMT ropardoe said:

Jun 23, 2019 5:08:24 GMT mrhappy said:

This from the Sundial Press website:

"Although one might assume the works of Flora Mayor are in the public domain, as we had, a literary agency is claiming copyright representation for their client which we are disputing. Until this issue has been satisfactorily resolved we have no option but to defer publication."

Finally the reasons for the delays are starting to become clearer. This is unfortunate as these things can drag on for years.

Mr. Happy

How can this be?  Unless they're planning on including some previously or posthumously published stories, that is.  All the works published in her lifetime in this country are way out of copyright.  She's been out of copyright for even longer than M.R. James!  Personally, I'd be telling the literary agency that they know what they can do with their claim!

(Edited to add). I see one of her books was indeed posthumous, but only just, and it's easily out of copyright.

Ah, hang on - I see the 1935 collection was published by Longmans.  That means it was published in the States and, assuming they renewed the copyright at the appropriate time, it probably would still be in the copyright.  The same most probably applies to M.R. James's '20s and '30s collections published by Longmans.  They may well still be in copyright in the States.

[Jojo Lapin X]

There is a lot of money in this stuff, obviously.

[helrunar]

It's nice to see in this thread that the Cowles collection is available as an e-book. It would be nice if there were a proper reprint but who knows if it will ever happen.

I wonder if there was ever any resolution to the Flora Mayor case.

cheers, H.

[andydecker]

Dec 10, 2018 17:43:11 GMT ripper said:

Overall, the collection is very easy to dip into. Many of the tales are quite short, particularly the earlier ones, so they rarely, if ever, outstay their welcome.

I agree 100%. I got the Black Heath Ebbok edition and even if I am not very knowledgable about all things James, the first story I read was The Horror of Abott's Grange and I thought how much Cowles borrowed from Count Magnus here. Not the best start. Still it was a fun story.

I only read a few so far, but they are like sweets, always time for another short one. While a few lacked sorely the work of an editor, especially in terms of construction, I still have to read a story which is not entertaining. I particlary liked Room for One and Terrible Mrs. Greene. Especially the last one was hilarious. I am curious if the rest of the stories are so delightful mean spirited in terms of characterisation.

[helrunar]

I very much enjoyed the Cowles tales I read. I don't think I read all of them because it was a library book, and I wound up having to return it.

Have still not seen anything about the Flora Mayor project. She really seems quite obscure.  One of her books is available here--I just spotted this:

www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/32438

It's had all of five downloads. Whoever brought that suit out for some claim on the literary rights is really gonna make pots of cash off her work... innit???

LOL

H.

[ripper]

I got the Ash tree edition around 1999/2000, so it includes Fear Walks The Night, as well as the other two collections. There's an interesting introduction and also interesting to see how the stories progressed. Yes, some are 'inspired' by MRJ...check out The Bell...what does it remind you of? I don't mind, though, as his stories are entertaining and with many just a few pages long, quick and easy to polish off. There's one called The Mandarin's Chair, only a couple of pages long, which I liked particularly.

[andydecker]

Cowles is shaping up to be a little revelation. Every second story seem to have concepts or scenes which seem familiar and later were used by others. The ghostly ball of the dead in The Castle in the Forest reminds of Polanski's  Dance of the Vampire,  The Pink Columbine seem to be a prototyp for a lot of French Revolution horror stories. The list seems endless. Can he really have inspired so many later writers?

He is without a doubt derivative. The Bell seems again like a version of James, but The House of the Dancer - which at the moment is one of my favorites - surprises with its bloody ending and the frankness. He is surprisingly open when it comes to sex.

 

Cowles is kind of addictive. Even if he writes for the umpteenth time about the ghost who suddenly appears beside the narrator and you know how it will end, he is still entertaining. The stories are never too long and can surprise the reader.

[ripper]

Hugh Lamb gives some interesting information about Cowles in his introduction to the Ash-Tree edition of The Night Wind Howls. He was librarian for many years at Swinton library and edited a library newsletter in which a number of his ghost stories were first published--perhaps that explains why some of his stories are so short? One of his relatives, a grandmother I believe, was a gypsy, and it will be noted that gypsies feature in a number of his tales, plus he wrote several gypsy-themed travel books. Apart from his duties as a librarian, Cowles also gave talks on a wide range of subjects, from classical composers to folklore and haunted houses. Indeed, he would seek out haunted houses for investigation. Some of his stories feature various Catholic priests and he was great friends with one at Cambridge. Dennis Wheatley stayed at Cowles' house while giving a lecture on black magic, and he and Cowles stayed up late discussing the subject. During WW2 Cowles was unfit for military service, but spent a lot of time entertaining troops by lectures and talks. Lamb states that it was the punishing schedule he set himself that worsened his already poor health, and led to Cowles' early death in 1948.

The manuscript for Cowles' final book, Fear Walks The Night, had been sitting in a desk draw for many years after being rejected several times for publication after his death. Lamb only found out about it after casually asking Doris Cowles--Cowles' widow--if Cowles had any stories that had not been published. If Lamb had not asked then it is quite possible that manuscript would have never seen the light of day.

[mrhappy]

Dec 11, 2018 17:18:59 GMT elricc said:

I agree, I've been waiting patiently for the Flora Mayor for years, it's become a bit of a joke in our house. A metaphor for something that may never happen!

It looks like it is finally going to happen. Only 150 copies though.

Mr Happy

[helrunar]

Thanks, Mr Happy!

Link:

www.sundialpress.co.uk/FLORA%20MAYOR.html

Priced at 30 pounds UK, and set for publication next month. They are taking pre-orders and at a total run of 150 copies, even with such an obscure author I doubt those who fail to pre-order will have much chance of getting the book.

H.

[elricc]

and I have ordered one, it better be worth the wait

[mrhappy]

Dec 7, 2021 20:43:57 GMT helrunar said:

Thanks, Mr Happy!

Link:

www.sundialpress.co.uk/FLORA%20MAYOR.html

Priced at 30 pounds UK, and set for publication next month. They are taking pre-orders and at a total run of 150 copies, even with such an obscure author I doubt those who fail to pre-order will have much chance of getting the book.

H.

Agreed. In fact, I have a feeling this one may be gone within a few days.

Now if we can just convince someone to reprint Joseph Cecil Maby's By Stygian Waters.

Mr Happy (plugging holes in my James Gang list)

[David A. Riley]

Dec 7, 2021 20:43:57 GMT helrunar said:

Thanks, Mr Happy!

Link:

www.sundialpress.co.uk/FLORA%20MAYOR.html

Priced at 30 pounds UK, and set for publication next month. They are taking pre-orders and at a total run of 150 copies, even with such an obscure author I doubt those who fail to pre-order will have much chance of getting the book.

H.

Sounds an unmissable book, which I have just pre-ordered. Something to look forward to in the dull days after the Christmas festivitives.

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

Dec 8, 2021 10:36:26 GMT David A. Riley said:

Dec 7, 2021 20:43:57 GMT helrunar said:

Thanks, Mr Happy!

Link:

www.sundialpress.co.uk/FLORA%20MAYOR.html

Priced at 30 pounds UK, and set for publication next month. They are taking pre-orders and at a total run of 150 copies, even with such an obscure author I doubt those who fail to pre-order will have much chance of getting the book.

H.

Sounds an unmissable book, which I have just pre-ordered. Something to look forward to in the dull days after the Christmas festivatives.

Dull days after Christmas indeed! Why this Christmas you are going to be visited by the ghost of your old partner Jacob Marley, followed by three more ghosts, and afterwards you will buy the biggest turkey in the butcher's window and spread joy all the rest of your days! For it was said of David A. Riley after Christmas 2021 that

He became as good a friend,
as good a master, and as good a man as the good old City knew, or any other good
old city, town, or borough in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the
alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise
enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which
some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and, knowing that such
as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle
up their eyes in grins as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart
laughed: and that was quite enough for him.

He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total-
Abstinence Principle ever afterwards; and it was always said of him that he knew
how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that
be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us,
Every One!