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Post by helrunar on May 6, 2017 22:27:10 GMT
As noted in the adjacent Eugene Ascher thread, I became intrigued by Violet van der Elst while perusing a website to which I was helpfully directed by another Vault denizen. I checked for Death of the Vampire Baroness, one of van der Elst's titles reprinted with a delightfully lurid cover around 1945, and I found this descriptive notice on AbeBooks:
Collects seven stories, four reprinted from THE TORTURE CHAMBER (1937), "The Haunted House," "Don't Be Silly, George!," "The Immortal Soul," and "The Christian Martyrs," the remaining three, "Death of the Vampire Baroness," "A House for Sale" and "My Voyage to the Planets," original to this collection. According to Locke (see below), stories "of abysmally low literary quality," a view common among those familiar with her work. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 216. Reginald 14476. Tuck (1978), p. 429. Hubin (1994), p. 818. Not in Bleiler (1948; 1978)
The book was priced at around $225.
Another AbeBooks listing, this one for The Torture Chamber (which appears to have included tales included to promote her campaign against the death penalty--she certainly cannot be faulted for her humanitarian zeal) includes this useful quote:
"Risibly bad weird fiction, self-published by a notorious British eccentric. Most of these stories were subsequently reissued in several post-World War II paperback collections (also self-published). One of the leading British collectors of the period, R. George Medhurst, found her work to be 'crudely written, [with] a peculiarly adolescent flavor.' That about covers it." - Robert Knowlton.
Another listing offers this remarks and a roster of the tales included in The Torture Chamber (published by the Doge Press which appears to have been her personal publishing outfit):
It'd be true to say she's no M R James but they aren't as terrible as others seem to think. The stories are: The Torture Chamber; The Christian Martyrs; The Coming of Death; The Immortal Soul; The Penalty of Pride; The Man of the Mountain; Was Joe Burnham a Criminal?; Don't be Silly, George!; Memories of My Travels; The Haunted House; How a Secret Power Saved my Life; How Young Lives are Ruined in Mayfair's Gambling Hells; and Snow!
It would seem that the stories had a really heavy moral subtext, and the few authorities who have read her work treat it as best a curio (and at worst, unreadably bad). Still, fascinating to discover yet another of the obscure authors of our genre from the past.
H.
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Post by jamesdoig on May 7, 2017 7:26:27 GMT
Collects seven stories, four reprinted from THE TORTURE CHAMBER (1937), "The Haunted House," "Don't Be Silly, George!," "The Immortal Soul," and "The Christian Martyrs," the remaining three, "Death of the Vampire Baroness," "A House for Sale" and "My Voyage to the Planets," original to this collection. According to Locke (see below), stories "of abysmally low literary quality," a view common among those familiar with her work. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 216. Reginald 14476. Tuck (1978), p. 429. Hubin (1994), p. 818. Not in Bleiler (1948; 1978)The book was priced at around $225. I think that's the copy Lloyd Currey is selling - he picked it up at a big auction of weird/supernatural last year. It was part of a lot of rare vampire pulp digests including Fangs of the Vampire, and Australian 1950s pulp. I find the prices staggering - there must be a few cashed up collectors about. |
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Post by helrunar on May 7, 2017 12:28:05 GMT
Yes, the word Currey or Curry was in a URL that showed up so I think it's him. He writes very scholarly listings, quite like the old days. I think there are some people around with a lot of lolly to throw around for esoterica--in the occult scene, a phenomenon that really took off in the new millennium has been all these "boutique presses" where they sell books that are often exquisitely produced (drawings/illustrations are always unusual and eye-catching--the texts are something of a toss-up with these things). They print usually 200 copies at most, priced high, and when they're gone, they're gone. Instant collector's item. I've seen some hauntology stuff done this way as well. It's fun to look at the web pages for all of this kind of thing but I don't have the cash to participate.
I wonder if a lot of the scans that were posted on that page you sent me came from that auction last year. I remember some really obscure Australian pulp titles that caught my eye.
H.
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