OSCAR COOK - HIS BEAUTIFUL HANDS ed. Mains

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

I hope you get better soon.

[johnnymains]

Potentially have an exciting discovery on my hands, Oscar Cook's last written story, and hidden behind a pseudonym. I've sent the story off to Mike Ashley with my reasoning who has replied "all your evidence is pretty sound" and "I think you've nailed it". I'm just waiting to hear back from someone else before I put it in the book. If they also agree with my reasoning, I will be publishing all of my findings alongside the story. I have to admit, the evidence is very compelling.

[helrunar]

That's quite exciting, Johnny! I hope you do include the story with something about how you found it and what made you decide it's likely his authorship. I love this kind of literary detective work.

Wishing you a full recovery!

cheers, Hel.

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

I'm curious about how you identified it. I suppose we shall have to wait and see. I'm assuming a forensic linguistic approach was in order, using a combination of descriptive and quantitative analysis, including lexical richness. I'm joking, I have no idea what I just said, it all sounds very interesting (your research I mean, not what I just said). I don't know about his later life, I don't see any stories written after the mid-1930s, did you find a literary executor? I see he had a son. I wonder if he left any papers, I notice his ex-wife reprinted his stories in the 1960s. I look forward to finding out what you have discovered.

[mrhappy]

Definitely will be making a purchase when it is available!

Mr Happy

[johnnymains]

Anna, you're closer to the truth than you realise.

I was researching a certain area of Oscar's life and I came across a story by someone who didn't have any hits on Google, ISFDB, Philsp, etc. While reading the story several alarm bells started ringing - this read exactly like an Oscar Cook work. And please note that I didn't immediately think it was. I read it four or five more times, looking for differences from Cook's work, not similarities. But I then came to the conclusion there were more similarities than differences.

I cross referenced it with his other stories, using keywords. Two words from the tale come up a total of 37 times in his autobiography, another word is used four times in Cook stories and a key phrase that the pseudonym uses to describe his role is used in one other Cook story I found! So a possible Cook story written under a pseudonym.

There are also several other weird coincidences and this, in turn, possibly calls into question the authorship of one of the stories Christine Campbell Thomson used in an anthology.

Mike Ashely and Douglas A. Anderson both agree with my findings that it could be him. So yeah. Rock and roll!

[johnnymains]

Final contents - now at 26 stories, and one extra in the Appendix. I don't think there will ever be a bigger collection, The Novel stories are M.I.A. unless someone has a secret collection of them that they're not telling anyone about.

CONTENTS:

'The Knack of Imparting Plausibility': A Biography of Oscar Cook

‘Dead Souls’
‘The Day of Blossoming’
‘The Brass Spear’
‘Jade’
‘The Creature of Man’
‘After Six Months’
‘The Great White Fear’
‘Golden Lilies’

‘The Sign’

'Bridle Paths'
'Concerning An Appointment'
'Four Walls'
'Jungle Fruit'
'Marriage Gold'
'Murder By Proxy'
'Second Thoughts'
'So This Is Love'
'The Silent Witness'

The Warwick stories

‘Piece-Meal’
‘Boomerang’
‘His Beautiful Hands’

The District Officer Peter Dennis stories

‘Si Urag of the Tail’
‘Tembuku’
‘When Glister Walked’
‘Corn-Gold Hair’
‘The Crimson Head-Dress’

APPENDIX

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

The possible story sounds interesting. Any clues in the pseudonym itself? Can I ask what year it was published? When you mention his ex-wife, you seem to be suggesting the possibility she published at least one of his works under a pseudonym in an anthology she edited. Maybe I'm misreading that. Did she ever collaborate on stories with Cook?

[johnnymains]

Jan 13, 2023 12:39:42 GMT 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr said:

The possible story sounds interesting. Any clues in the pseudonym itself? Can I ask what year it was published? When you mention his ex-wife, you seem to be suggesting the possibility she published at least one of his works under a pseudonym in an anthology she edited. Maybe I'm misreading that. Did she ever collaborate on stories with Cook?

MASSIVE clue in the pseudonym. It near enough signposts you to his front door. And yeah, I think CCT published a story written by Cook and published under a different name in the anthology. Exciting stuff! No collaboration, however, I'm sure they read and commented on each other's stories as they were finished.

[johnnymains]

The back cover needs a bit of tweaking (too wordy) - but here we go, will try and get book out for 23rd of February, 71st anniversary of Oscar's death. Removed the word 'macabre' from title, as there may be one or two romantic stories in there, but still told in that Cookish way.

[andydecker]

Jan 25, 2023 8:35:59 GMT johnnymains said:

The back cover needs a bit of tweaking (too wordy) - but here we go, will try and get book out for 23rd of February, 71st anniversary of Oscar's death.

Looking good, Johnny! Congrats.

But you are right about the back cover. It really could lose a few sentences of - in this place - needless informations and repetitions.

[helrunar]

Congratulations! I wish you all the best with the publication launch.

Hel.

[Johnlprobert]

I've been fortunate enough to be allowed a glimpse at this and it really is an impressive piece of work - over 400 pages featuring stacks of Oscar stories I had no idea existed, plus his 'Warwick' stories very satisfyingly grouped together. Add in an exhaustive bibliography and that exceedingly rare pseudonymous tale at the end and this is going to be one of this year's pulp fan must-haves. I can't wait to get my hands on the hard copy, so it can sit alongside my Pan Horror Collection and Johnny's own tribute to everyone's favourite long-running horror anthology. Fantastic stuff. 

[johnnymains]

Jan 25, 2023 22:54:17 GMT Johnlprobert said:

I've been fortunate enough to be allowed a glimpse at this and it really is an impressive piece of work - over 400 pages featuring stacks of Oscar stories I had no idea existed, plus his 'Warwick' stories very satisfyingly grouped together. Add in an exhaustive bibliography and that exceedingly rare pseudonymous tale at the end and this is going to be one of this year's pulp fan must-haves. I can't wait to get my hands on the hard copy, so it can sit alongside my Pan Horror Collection and Johnny's own tribute to everyone's favourite long-running horror anthology. Fantastic stuff. 

Ah, cheers John. Even if you and I are the only people who end up reading this book - I don't care. It's been the best experience ever!

[jerald]

Ran across Hutchinson's Magazine, August 1926, on Ebay today.  Thought you might be interested in an original copy of Corn-Gold Hair if you don't have it already.

Ebay - Hutchinson's Magazine, August 1926