A Basil Rathbone Horror

Themed horror is always fun. Editors usually pick stalwart stories that are widely available, and usually public domain.

However, the themed anthology interests the casual fan in the genre and to pursue horror as a hobby.

Basil Rathbone Selects Strange Tales was a Belmont (#B50-839, 1965) imprint capitalizing on Rathbone’s notoriety in portraying Sherlock Holmes during the WWII era. Rathbone sometimes is criticized for his portrayal, but for a few generations he WAS Sherlock Holmes and interested many, many youths to read mystery, adventure, and horror stories.

The copy on the paperback reads: Basil Rathbone, renowned actor and motion picture personality, selects for you the strangest stories ever written – masterpieces of the macabre that will chill the most hardened reader. We double dare you to read this book in a dimly lit room!

Contents:

•The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe
•Rappaccini’s Daughter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
•The House and the Brain by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
•The Trial for Murder by Charles Allton Collins & Charles Dickens
•Green Tea by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
•A Terribly Strange Bed by Wilkie Collins

Fun fact: Freeman Elliot usually known for pinup illustrations allegedly did the gruesome cover illustration.

Miss Lovecraft Teaches Sex Education

A dark lovecraft-esque comedy.  A must see.

In Pursuit of Giants

When he was very young, August Derleth had a notion worthy of a giant, and with gigantic industry he has pursued it…

          – Sinclair Lewis in 1937

At the time of this writing we were approaching the centennial birthday of August Derleth, who many would consider the father of 20^th century genre small press publishing.  He was born to William Julius and Rose Louise Derleth on February 24, 1909 in Sauk City, Wisconsin.  He passed on the 4^th of July, 1971 while resting on a branch under a favored tree located on his property in the city of his birth.  He is buried in St. Aloysius Cemetery Sauk City, Wisconsin.

The significance of his contribution and dedication to both writing and publishing “Weird Fiction” cannot be over emphasized and it’s my opinion that he is quite simply the most historic and influential publisher in the small press horror genre to date.

“Weird” and “horrific” fiction was a passion of Derleth’s very early in life and by the age of sixteen he sold his first short story to the legendary pulp magazine Weird Tales entitled “Bat’s Belfry”.  It was a vampire story that appeared in the May 1926 issue.  This story was the beginning of Derleth’s association with the magazine and by the time this important genre magazine closed its doors in 1954, Derleth had published over 120 stories within its pages and if one were to include those stories that he collaborated it jumps to 150.

Derleth was, for lack of a better word, a “workaholic” and during some extended periods of his writing career he would write forty pages a day or the equivalent of nearly a book a week.  However, it should be noted that this was likely not by choice but by necessity; if one wanted to make a living in letters during the 20’s and 30’s as a midlist writer it was necessary to have a heavy output.  Derleth stated that his early Judge Peck novels were written at the rate of 10,000 words a day.  As proof of this prolific boast, Derleth, by the time he was 30, had published sixteen novels and hundreds of short stories and poems.  However it wasn’t Derleth’s fiction that garners the accolades he now receives from the genre, it’s his cofounding of the legendary small press called Arkham House.

With the death of his writing mentor, close friend and avid corresponded H.P. Lovecraft in 1937, Derleth along with fellow Lovecraft devotee, Donald Wandrei collected what they believed to be Lovecraft’s best stories into a single volume in the hopes of getting the book published for a wider audience.  With manuscript in hand they approached both Charles Scribner and   Simon & Schuster but both publishers turned down the project, Due to the size of the book and sluggish sells of short story collections at the time. Derleth however was not deterred by the rejections and was convinced that Lovecraft’s work was profound and worthy of a wider audience and published in a quality hardcover edition.

With no other publisher’s willing to take on the project Derleth and Donald Wandrei decided to create their own imprint called Arkham House, named after the fictitious town in many of Lovecraft’s stories.  With very little funds they set upon getting the book printed and bound.  Wandrei scraped up about 20% of the funds needed and Derleth having recently received a construction loan for his own home,  he pilfered the remaining amount from the construction loan in order to pay the printing and binding bills.  Derleth, was quite literally “betting the ranch” on the success of his ability to keep writing at the same breakneck pace and sales of Arkham House’s first Lovecraft title.

In 1939 Derleth seen his dream become reality with the publication of The Outsider and Others by H.P. Lovecraft.  1,268 copies arrived of this large volume were printed and contained most of Lovecraft’s short stories that were then known to exist.  Derleth sold the title for $3.50 if preordered and $5.00 after publication which at the time was a huge sum for a hardcover book.

Preorders for this first book were very slow with a mere 150 copies sold.  It  was only with Derleth’s continued writing pace and Wandrei’s infusion of $400 that Derleth was able to repay the money that he took from his construction loan.

Derleth and Wandrei soon decided to expand Arkham House and began a regular publishing schedule after its second book, Someone in the Dark in 1941, a collection of some of Derleth’s own horror stories.  Someone in the Dark was a profitable venture and allowed Arkham House to work on future Lovecraft titles.  Unfortunately shortly after the second publications Donald Wandrei had to sever most of his ties with Arkham House due to his induction into the U.S. Army.  That same year Arkham House published Out of Space and Time by Clark Ashton Smith at $3.00 which sold well.

Although the press started off slow it began picking up momentum and in a short time Derleth starting signing up the best macabre writers in the world, Algernon Blackwood, L.P. Hartley, Lord Dunsany, Lady Cynthia Asquith, A.E. Coppard, Clark Ashton Smith, Ray Bradbury, Arthur Machen and others just to name a few. So when then genre began to pick up steam Derleth hit the ground running.   As many other publisher’s were just getting started publishing anthologies Derleth was already years ahead of him and with the publication of Sleep No More in 1944 and Who Knocks?  In 1946, Derleth handily proved that he could get and publish the best horror fiction in the world.   Derleth went further to prove his editing competence with anthologies edited specifically for the Arkham House imprint, such as Over the Edge 1964 and Travellers by Night 1967, which both contained original stories by new and established authors, and are still used by publisher’s as models for genre anthologies.

It cannot be underplayed the role that Derleth played in making available to a new and wider audience many fine works of horrific fiction that would have otherwise remained ignored and neglected.

Derleth was eventually able to repay his literary debt to Lovecraft, and to change the face of the horror and dark fantasy genre in ways that are still felt today.

Larry L. Roberts

William Castle, “The Tingler” and “Percepto”

William Castle (1914 – 1977) was the consummate huckster and creator of gimmick horror B-flicks.

In 1959 Castle put together the House on Haunted Hill (1959) that featured a skeleton flying through the theater at an oportune moment. For the Tingler he had a better idea. This time he hooked vibrators into the seat cushions of the theater chairs and set them off near the end of the movie as “the tingler” got loose. In many theaters, a plant would “faint” and be carried out by medics.

Castle (originally William Schloss, last name meaning castle) was in serious film including assisting Orson Wells. However, his Barnum spirit came out in his peak-career years and Columbia ate it up. Price typically played the bad scripts seriously, but could not help but ham it up and chew scenery from time to time as his comedic side became irrepressible.

Castle was notorious for NOT paying actors or spending any more money than he must. He even conned Darryl Hickman into doing a walk on part for nothing since his fiancée was being paid to do the movie.

Later in life, Castle produced Rosemary’s Baby, a thrilling success.

Castle made the best of a strapped studio system desperately trying to out do the free medium of television. While “percepto” might seem hokum today, was VistaVision, Busby Berkely musicals, Aquacades, or even today’s SurroundSound, IMAX, and real-3-D movies any less pandering? It is all entertainment, and when it comes to horror fantasy in the movies it seems anything goes.

Castle in an intro hyping up “percepto”.

A Golem Story (1929)

The research team at Miskatonic Press found this story in an old newspaper archive. In this day of “zombie” mania, it is interesting to compare a different tradition of automatons.

_____

The Canadian Jewish Chronicle
25 October 1929

Legends of the Golem
“The Golem as Fisherman”

Once before the New Year holy days, Rabbi Loew himself was compelled to make use of the Golem.

It was during a terrible storm when the rain was coming down in torrents.  It was therefore impossible for fishermen to go out in their boats, and in the whole city of Prague there was not a single fish to be had.

Rabbi Loew, however, did not wish to be without fish on Yom Tov, and decided to send the Golem fishing.  He knew that the Golem did not in the least mind bad weather.  In fact, he always enjoyed it.

As there was no suitable basket handy, the Golem was given an empty sack.  The Rabi instructed the him how to use the net, and how to out the fish that were caught into the sack.  The Rabbi also told the Golem that he was to come home soon.

The Golem went to the river, and started fishing; but he had no idea as to what soon meant.   In fact, he forgot all about going home.  He was, however, quite lucky, and caught several fish, which he put into his sack as his master had ordered him.

In the meantime, it happened that a man from a neighbouring village brought the Rabbi a very fine fish, so the Golem and his errand were entirely forgotten.

Towards evening, the Rabbi suddenly remembered that the Golem was still at the river.  He sent an old man to call him.

“Tell the Golem,” said the Rabbi, “he must come[1] home at once.   If he hasn’t caught any fish, it also doesn’t matter, because I already have fish for Yom Tov.”

The old man quickly went to the river, feeling glad that the Rabbi had entrusted him with the message.  He found the Golem just on the point of sinking the sack [2] again.

The old man called, “Stop!  The Rabbi wants you to come home at once.”  The Golem pulled out the sack [2] from the water.  But he then [3] pulled up the sack to show that it was not yet full.

The old man then said, “Never mind that.  The Rabbi already has fish.  You must come home now.”

On hearing that the Rabbi already had fish, the foolish Golem quickly emptied his sack in the river again.  He then went home with the old man.
When Rabbi Loew heard what the Golem had done, he laughed and said, “Now I see that the Golem is fit only for sacred purposes, and should not be employed to do other things.”  [4]

“The Golem is Given Work”

From this time on, Rabbi Loew used the Golem‘s services only in such cases as involved the clearing of some threatened accusation against the Jews.  Whenever he entrusted him with a mission which was likely to be dangerous, Rabbi Loew provided the Golem with an amulet which made him invisible.

In this condition the Golem went among the enemies of the Jewish people, and listened to their conversations.  If he learned of any evil designs he came quickly to the Rabbi, and so the peril that those [5] threatened could be averted in time.

Every Jewish child knows that according to the Laws of Moses a Jew is forbidden to take any form of blood with his food.  But the ignorant Christians at Prague did not understand this fact, and they spread the [6] rumour that, for the observance of Passover, the Jewish people needed the blood of a Christian child.  The Jews of those times had to struggle hard to destroy this false idea.

From year to year, in the time between Purim and Passover, when blood accusations against the Jews were frequently made, the Golem, dressed in the costume of a Christian porter, used to loiter about, night after night, in the streets of the Ghetto.

As soon as he saw any suspicious figure, the Golem would approach him, and try to find out who he was.  If he discovered that the man was trying to make mischief, and get the Jews into trouble, he would indicate that fact to the Rabbi, who would then take the matter in hand.

In this way the Golem became the terror of the enemies of all the Jews, and he did good work for the Jewish people.

[1]  The original writer, or typesetter has “home home”.
[2]  The writer has forgot that the Golem had a “sack” and uses “net” here.  It has been corrected for continuity.
[3] The original awkwardly reads, ” But he then he’d up the sack to show that it was not yet full.”  The “sack” now returns, showing that either the writer or the editor has made errors in modifying the text.  It is proposed that the manuscript was handwritten, and thus “he’d” was read for “pulled”. It has been corrected.
[4]  It seems implied that for trivial things, the Golem was a simpleton, but for sacred and Goldly things, it would be guided by a higher sense of purpose and be trusted to act sensibly and with intelligence.
[5] A word is omitted, so “those” is added here.
[6] The word “humour” is used as a misreading here.  It is rumour.

Rabbi Loew (1513-1609) was also known as Arye Levy or the Maharal an abbreviation of the Hebrew Moreinu ha-Rav Loew, “our teacher, Rabbi Loew“.  He was a significant Jewish leader in a time of persecution in Poland.

The masthead states:  The Canadian Jewish Chronicle: The first and foremost Anglo-Jewish weekly in Canada.  Thirty-second year of publication … Montreal, Canada.

Lovecraft’s SHUNNED HOUSE Is Up For Sale!

For just under a Million you can live in a piece of genre history.

The home at 135 Benefit Street in Providence Rhode Island was depicted in a Lovecraft story titled THE SHUNNED HOUSE.

In case you do happen to have a $925,000 laying around you can see more of the listing here  http://www.riliving.com/Buying/PropertyDetails.aspx?mls=988365

The THE SHUNNED HOUSE begins by telling us that “From even the greatest of horrors irony is seldom absent.” In the paragraph below Lovecraft describes how Poe’s frequent walks down Benefit Street would take him by the Shunned House.

“Now the irony is this: In this walk, so many times repeated, the world’s greatest master of the terrible and the bizarre was obliged to pass a particular house on the eastern side of the street; a dingy, antiquated structure perched on the abruptly rising side hill, with a great unkempt yard dating from a time when the region was partly open country. It does not appear that he ever wrote or spoke of it, nor is there any evidence that he even noticed it. And yet that house, to the two persons in possession of certain information, equals or outranks in horror the wildest phantasy of the genius who so often passed it unknowingly, and stands starkly leering as a symbol of all that is unutterably hideous.”

More history of the house can be found here. http://quahog.org/attractions/index.php?id=139

For more on this and other Lovecraft news check out http://www.thelovecraftsman.com/

Tales From the Bruneau Valley

It must be the curse of Yig. He had sent his monstrous children on All-Hallows’ Night, and they had taken Walker first.  From:  The Curse of Yig, Zealia Bishop and H. P. Lovecraft.

Some Lovecraft fans know that H. P. Lovecraft grew up with his grandfather, Whipple V Phillips, in Providence after his father, Winfield Lovecraft, became insane.  This irreversible collapse occurred in the Spring of 1893, exactly the time that Whipple was making plans to expand his enterprises in the Bruneau Valley in Owyhee County, Idaho.

From that wilderness, only a year after Winfield’s bout of insanity, comes the following tale of morphine, whisky, and rattlesnake madness.

Plasticized Bodies! Horror? Art? Shocking?

For many of us in the Western world a touring exhibit(s) of skinned and plasticized humans has been circulating.  The process is chemically fascinating, but what energizes the show is the artistic poses.  The shock and awe of this has caused an uproar.  Is it pornography?  Is it evil?  Is it art?  Is it educational?  Does it feed our prurient baser nature?  Should we do this?  Has P T Barnum come back from the grave?

Now an exhibit of animals is circulating.  The images are just jaw-dropping and eye-popping.

Plasticized humans featured in video below.

New Arrivals From Robert E. Howard, William Peter Blatty, Richard Matheson And More!

POWER OF DARKNESS by Robert Aickman (Limited Edition Import)

This is a preorder and is expect to ship in late may. Choose “bill me” at check out and you won’t be invoiced until the book is ready to ship.

Robert Aickman (1914-1981) is considered by many to be one of the finest exponents of the modern ghost story, and he is certainly versatile. In this collection the reader is offered the experience of visiting a disused lead-mine, the Houses of Parliament, a séance in a dreary suburb, and a sun-drenched Greek island. The dust jacket for the first edition of Powers of Darkness (first published in 1966) stated ‘. . . in every case his readers will experience that authentic chill which is the hallmark of the supernatural.’
Mark Valentine points out in his Introduction to this new Tartarus Press edition that Aickman was striving to achieve something approaching poetry in his writing, and ‘he often does this in the service of the strange and sinister.’

Contents:

• ‘Introduction’ by Mark Valentine
• ‘‘Your Tiny Hand is Frozen’
• ‘My Poor Friend’
• ‘The Visiting Star’
• ‘Larger Than Oneself’
• ‘A Roman Question’
• ‘The Wine-Dark Sea’.

Powers of Darkness is a sewn hardback of 226+ xii pages, printed lithographically, with silk ribbon marker, head and tailbands, and d/w and limited to only 350 hardcover editions

THE EXORCIST AND LEGION Special Edition by William Peter Blatty (Signed Limited Edition)

About this Special Edition:
Featuring two classic William Peter Blatty novels in one beautiful volume for the first-time ever, this oversized deluxe special edition will be a must-have for any collector of horror! This incredible collector’s edition also includes original B&W artwork by acclaimed artist Keith Minnion and a career spanning interview conducted by Cemetery Dance Managing Editor Brian Freeman, covering Blatty’s life and career from the 1950s to the present. Both the Limited Edition and the Lettered Edition are signed by William Peter Blatty and there are no plans at this time to publish a trade edition of this special volume.

A Note From the Author:
“I have for many years envisioned The Exorcist and Legion to be one continuous read, even though the former is a fact-based, clearly ‘religious thriller,’ while the story of Legion delivers more excitingly on the level of a pure ‘entertain-ment.’ Never-the-less, it is Legion and not The Exorcist that is by far the more ambitious work in that the demonic homicides that police Lt. Kinderman is investigating are of much lesser concern to him than solving that case of cosmic homicide that for eons, and for so many and for so long, has been the foremost stumbling block to belief in a benevolent Creator, namely the so-called  ‘Problem of Evil,’ to which Legion brazenly offers a solution.”

A WITCH SHALL BE BORN by Robert E. Howard

“By the side of the caravan road a heavy cross had been planted, and on this grim tree a man hung, nailed there by iron spikes through his hands and feet. Naked but for a loin-cloth, the man was almost a giant in stature, and his muscles stood out in thick corded ridges on limbs and body, which the sun had long ago burned brown…”

— Robert E. Howard, “A Witch Shall Be Born”

book is in near fine condition in a near fine dust jacket.

Published in 1975

RED NAILS by Robert E. Howard

Pursing the beautiful Valeria in the Black countries, Conan happens upon a strange, walled city in the midst of a desert. Conan and Valeria become enmeshed in a civil war, a war driven by ancient hate and blood-lust that threatens the few surviving inhabitants of Xuchotl.

One of only 3,500 copies published and lavishly illustrated by George Barr.

This copy is in near fine condition with a very light bump to the bottom front corner.  Dust Jacket is in near fine condition with some light fading due to age.

Published in 1975.

THE WEIRD TALE by S. T. Joshi (Trade Hardcover)

The leading critic of supernatural literature here examines the roots of the “weird tale” (as Lovecraft called it) through detailed examinations of five “founding fathers” of the genre: Arthur Machen, Lord Dunsany, Algernon Blackwood, M.R. James, and H.P. Lovecraft. The result is a thorough study of the art, craft, philosophy, and aesthetics of an enduring genre of fantastic literature.

SOMEWHERE IN TIME / WHAT DREAMS MY COME by Richard Matheson (Signed Limited Edition)

Two classics SOMEWHERE IN TIME and WHAT DREAMS MAY COME in one signed limited edition hardcover in custom slipcase.

Published by Dream Press, published 1991

One of only 350 signed and numbered copies in slipcase this is number 67 Book is in fine condition in fine dust jacket. Slipcase has some light rubbing else fine.

Guy Endore

Samuel Guy Endore (1900-1970) was born Samuel Goldstein.

His parents were Isidor and Malka Halpern Goldstein. His father was a knockabout doing odd jobs hoping that one of his exotic inventions might make money, but he always had trouble making ends meet. Malka, his mother, committed suicide when Endore was four. His father, Isidor, changed their name, and later he placed his children in a Methodist orphanage.

Endore went to Columbia, and fell into a supernatural niche. He worked on movies such as Mark of the Vampire and The Curse of the Werewolf which was based on his novel The Werewolf of Paris. The book has protagonist Bertrand Caillet who travels with his inner beast stumbling into the Franco-Prussian war. The book was as shocker of the time, and much later became a 1961 film.

Below, the research team at Miskatonic Books has uncovered this little 1934 gem from Endore.

1961 trailer.