Charles L. Grant - Nightmares

[andydecker]

Charles L. Grant – Nightmares (Playboy Press, 1979, 256 pages)

Cover: Alfred Pisano, Marc Cohen

Contents:

Charles L. Grant - Introduction
Stephen King - Suffer the Little Children (1972)
Bill Pronzini - Peekaboo
Dennis Etchison - Daughter of the Golden West (variant of A Feast for Cathy 1973)
Steven E. McDonald - The Duppy Tree
Avram Davidson - Naples (1978)
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro - Seat Partner
Jack Dann - Camps (1979)
Beverly Evans - The Anchoress
Barry N. Malzberg - Transfer (1975)
Richard Christian Matheson - Unknown Drives
J. C. Green and Geo. W. Proctor - The Night of the Piasa
Ray Russell - The Runaway Lovers (1967)
Peter D. Pautz - Fisherman's Log
Ann Mackenzie - I Can't Help Saying Goodbye (1978)
Ramsey Campbell - Midnight Hobo
Jack C. Haldeman, II - Snakes and Snails
Arthur L. Samuels - Mass Without Voices
William F. Nolan - He Kilt It with a Stick (1968)
R. Chetwynd-Hayes - The Ghouls (1975)

This is the second of Grant's anthologies. It is a mixture of the old and the new, but some well-known writers are gathered here. Playboy Press may seem to be an odd place for such a thing, but at the time they did a few first time genre publications which became a success. Novels like Niven & Pournelle's Lucifer's Hammer or John Farris' The Fury. Not so strange if one considers how strong and diverse the fiction content of Playboy Magazine was.

This anthology got a few reprints and later a new edition at Berkley Books. It is trivia of course, but all editions used this first cover. If the missing text on the back-cover was an oversight or a concept is anyone's guess. Of course it tempted potential buyers to take it off the rack and browse, and as an editor once said to me: if a customer takes a book into his hands in the shop, changes are high he will buy it.

[pbsplatter]

This is a strong collection, from an interesting period in the genre (aren't they all!).The stories in here that I've encountered at least have a bit of an edge to them, but nothing too upsetting. 


The King story is grimmer than usual for him, even at this early stage of his career; the Etchison story got reprinted in the first Hot Blood and I enjoyed it although it drags a little. I've run into the Russell story a few times before; it's pleasantly sleazy and sadistic without being truly nasty or sordid, sort of like the AIP Masque of the Red Death.  

I think "I Can't Help Saying Goodbye" got made into a Tales from the Darkside episode (either that, or the 1980s Twilight Zone reboot), although I can't imagine it was as ambiguous or effective as this story is. 

Ramsey's story is strong as always, and Richard Christian Matheson does a fun riff on his dad's masterpiece "Duel".

I've heard of, but never read, the Dann and Nolan stories; shall have to rectify this. 

The good news--this is all available online! 


s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/luminist/EB/G/Grant_ed%20-%20Nightmares.pdf