Writer of the Fantastic: John Kneubuhl

[Revised 2 July 2012]
Born on 2 July 1920, John Kneubuhl was raised in Samoa, attended school in Honolulu, and as an undergraduate at Yale had the amazing privilege of studying under the amazing Thornton Wilder. His mother was descended from Samoan royalty, his father a U. S. Navy surveyor from Iowa with Swiss ancestry.

In an afterward of a book of Kneubuhl’s plays, Kneubuhl was immediately recognized as special including having a supernatural experience. Many present after his birth say they saw his grandmother’s ghost lean over and kiss him in his cradle, then her shadow vanished. And there was magic. As the custom, the umbilical cord was placed in the rafters of the Christian church. If it remained a week, God would bless – but if it disappeared the rats would have dragged it to Satan. Kneubuhl’s cord was gone in 30 minutes!

Kneubuhl’s bilingualism and many childhood illnesses troubled him, but the fact he was reading The Merchant of Venice before perhaps 10, and his early attempts at poetry, indicated his high intelligence. He met his future wife at 13, and came in contact with wealthy patrons. He impressed everyone with his skill at the piano , which got him to Yale. His maestro rejected his first opera, and sent him to the creative writing workshops where he met Thornton Wilder. Wilder forced Kneubuhl to write a one act play every single day, but only get back two comments: “Write freely”, and “Discipline!”. In that cauldron, he wrote two well accepted plays, and came up with the concept of loneliness as the critical emotion in humanity – a theme that is frequent in his later teleplays.

In 1942 he joined Naval Intelligence as a Japanese language specialist. After the war he went back to Honolulu, and created new plays that were critically acclaimed. In 1950 he wrote and directed a film, Damien (1950) which was based in Hawaii of 1866. It was Kneubuhl’s chance to develop characters who showed the conflict of being American and Native and how they experienced the angst of loneliness within that turmoil. Having nothing to do with the later “Damien” of the Exorcist, this featured the character of Father Joseph Damien de Veuster’s who is distressed because several of his ailing and leprous parishioners are to be exiled to Molokai because of an arbitrary U.S. decree of isolating lepers. The film was a critical hit.

Kneubuhl spent four more years resting on those accolades, and with mere pennies in his pocket went calling on Hollywood.

In a recent magazine interview, his grand-niece reminisced:

“…he was married and had three children, and my grandfather didn’t want to bankroll him forever …so he left Hawai‘i for Hollywood. For twenty-something years, he wrote for every major TV network series: Rawhide, The Fugitive, Dr. Kildare. He was our big star.” Then one day he gave it all up, packed in the big house in Brentwood and returned to Samoa, where he became a respected advocate of bilingual education.”

So, John Kneubuhl was off to Hollywood, and then with at least 19 TV writing credits under his belt (1953-1958), he wrote and produced a true horror cinema cult classic, Screaming Skull.

It was based on Francis Marion Crawford’s story of the same title, first published around 1906. Crawford had heard of the legend if the so-called “screaming skull” that was kept on display at Bettiscomb Manor in Dorset, England. The low budget movie has weak acting and Floyd Crosby – a Roger Corman veteran – shot as if it were a Corman movie: Very Spooky camera angles. The music was done by Ernest Gold two years away from an Oscar.

Kneubuhl had over 50 more teleplays when he was hired to do The Wild Wild West show – one of many 1960′s James Bond parodies and take-offs. His second script for TWWW under the supervision of legendary Fred Freiberger and Gene L. Coon (later of Star Trek fame) was a masterstroke.

Cinefantastique writer, Craig Reid, relates the legendary creation of Miguelito Loveless thus:

Kneubuhl was flicking through an issue of TIME magazine … saw a picture of singer Michael Dunn and had a brainstorm. He told producer Fred Freiberger that he had this great idea to make Dunn West’s next opponent. … Dunn {was in} a nightclub where he was performing with his singing partner, Phoebe Dorin. Dorin signed on as Antoinette, Loveless’ singing sidekick, where each time they appeared on a show, they would perform a duet. Freiberger remembers, “When John came to me with this idea, I thought it would have been neat to have an opposite, in other words a giant, so we came up with Voltaire. But as usual, I had big problems from the network about having a dwarf being the lead villain, but I was truly fascinated with the idea of a dwarf owning half of California and then demanding it back. Plus, he truly hated everybody but the real target of his anger was God for making him such a monstrosity.”

Now, we finally come to the reason for this essay. Re-watching the old TWWW episodes, I was amazed at the gothic supernatural episode The Night of the Man-Eating House. It clearly had Poe influences, particularly Fall of the House of Usher, and allusions to the Cask of Amontillado. It touched on Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Grey, vampirism, and Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s The House and the Brain. Kneubuhl could not even resist poking a dig at Bulwer-Lytton by using a classic “dark and stormy night” scene.

(Bulwer-Lytton coined the phrase at the beginning of his 1830 novel Paul Clifford, and from almost the moment it was penned, became the primal scream of all critics of gothic fiction. Even in 1830, it was trite. That did not stop W.W. Jacob’s from parodying it in his 1902 The Monkey’s Paw. Nor did it stop a vast many 20th century film and TV writers from frequently conjuring up the image varying from homage to ridicule.)

In “Man Eating House”, Artimus (Ross Martin) falls asleep and has a gothic dream of a house that has been absorbed by the grieving mother of the prisoner they have recaptured and returning to prison. The house fights mightily, and James West (Robert Conrad) is perplexed and amazed as he comes to realize that there is truly a supernatural basis for what happens – a force he is powerless to affect. For good measure and fun, Hamilton Burger’s real-life alter ego (William Talman) plays the sheriff. (For even more details click here.)

As a Lovecraft aficionado, I could not miss one small aspect of the story. In a dungeon scene, West states that there are “rats in the walls”, thousands. They of course are invoked to potentially eat Artie and Jim. The twist ending can be read of one of two ways – but you have to watch to see what you think.

Deconstructing this story, it seems possible that it may have originally been conceived for a different venue. TWWW was not necessarily known for its supernatural element, but in early 1966 many new story lines were experimented with including science fiction. It is set up as a dream sequence which also indicates that the original teleplay or story idea might have been more for an anthology series such as when he wrote for Thriller in the very early 1960′s.

Kneubuhl had a long and illustrious career, but one more classic should be included. John Kneubuhl (2 July 1920 – 20 February 1992; age 71) wrote the story for the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “Bread and Circuses”, although he did not receive screen credit in the finished episode. It brought together again Gene Coon and John Kneubuhl.

In the episode Plato’s Stepchildren, which was a different episode, Michael Dunn presented a terrific acting job holding his own against – as always – scene stealing Shatner. The episode may best be remembered for the mid-60′s social dynamic of Captain Kirk kissing Lt. Uhuru, the first television interracial kiss. NBC executives were catatonic calling Roddenberry on the carpet for threatening their ratings in the Southern (then-segregated) states. He held his own, and no doubt with a lot of support by Lucy and Sheldon Leonard at Desilu. Legend has it he said something akin to, “He’s a red-blooded American, and she’s drop dead gorgeous – why wouldn’t he kiss her”.

Kneubuhl had hundreds of writing credits with amazing achievements in writing. He should be more celebrated for his fantastic fiction, and we at Misky hope we have done him justice in this small review.

Kneubuhl died 20 February 1992.

Note:
Sharp eyed Mike posted up on our error which we tried to fix, above. Thank you, Mike! Indeed, ST:TOS “Bread and Circuses” (which this writer watched on MeTV on Saturday, 30 June 2012!) involved a parallel Rome. Michael Dunn was in an entirely different episode as now amended, above. Many apologies, but thanks to everyone for reading the Misky blog. We’re glad you care about antiquarian horror and esoterica, and care enough to post comments. And today, 2 July 2012, would have been Mr. Kneubuhl’s birthday!

Tombstones of the Dead Appear on San Francisco Beach

Recent visitors to Ocean Beach in San Francisco were treated to the dramatic sight of tombstones!

The tombstones were placed there more than 70 years ago to help stop erosion.  In the 1940′s when the city shut down cemeteries and relocated remains, some tombstones became “unclaimed property”.  Families couldn’t afford to have the markers moved, and city was stuck with them.

About 1943, there were big storms. The Great Highway was eroding and among the debris were all these headstones that they dumped to stop the surging tide.

Pieces of the grave markers have now reappeared and the markers will remain on the beach until the tide once again covers them.

“The mark of a civilization is in how they treat their dead.”

 

Are We Killing Less?

The old saying that the brilliance of the human race is how efficient we are at killing each other. In a mere tick of the cosmic clock we have we went from bashing each other with rocks circa 10,000 BCE to blowing each other up with atomic weapons. Can we make it another 100 years?

The 19th century was the bloodiest century in mankind’s memory:  Napoleon, the Civil War, and dozens of other terrific conflicts. That is until we entered the 20th century. It made those old guys look squeamish. We mastered not only mass technological weaponry, but took it to the air and under the sea – even into space. In 1800 we didn’t know what a germ was, but by mid-20th-century we were annihilating people with biological weapons. And of course atomic weapons, and suicide bombing, and high-tech torture.

Now that we are 12 years into the 21st century, how will we make it onward?

There are two schools of thought. One is: We’re toast. We will either cook our own goose by global warming leading to the worst wars imaginable. The other is more optimistic. Based on actual trend counts, the massive warfare we engaged in since 1990 has attributed to minuscule deaths and dismemberment.   (Of course, even one is too many.)  As global population has soared, the proportional deaths have dropped.  In Western cities, crime rates have plummeted even during this horrible depression we’re in.

There are no solid anthropological reasons for this. Maybe it is the lull before the super-storm, or maybe, just maybe, we have matured as a race. At least by a very microscopic amount.

So will we go the Roddenberry route and achieve peace and make a Federation, or is the worst to come?

New and Interesting

Virgil Finlay 1914 – 1971 (Limited Edition Portfolio)

Virgil Finlay . . . A Portfolio Of His Unpublished Illustrations

This copy comes with a signed typed letter from the publisher to the former owner. A very personal letter about family, August Derleth, Arkham House, and Pets.

Published by Gerry de la Ree, 1971.
[Limited to 450 copies.]

The wrapper contains the following art.

Cover – Virgil Finlay by Charlie McGill.
Inside front cover – self portrait, 1933.
Inside back cover – a typical group of Finlay monsters.
Back cover – Illustration for the “Challenge”, 1932.

The portfolio contains 20 unnumbered plates with 21 black and white drawings in total.

A self portrait, full face, 1933.
Portrait of a friend, Bob Abson, 1933.
Drying Hair, Dec. 26, 1933.
Lady Godiva, Dec. 27, 1933.
Knight and Lady, Dec. 27, 1933
Design for A Dream’s Desertion, 1934.
Design for Awakening, 1934.
Interpretation of a Theme (long-haired girl), 1944.
Girl with Bow, 1934.
Ghost and Tom, 1934.
Nude girl, 1934.
Pencil sketch of a bearded man.
“The Last Martian” – incomplete drawing for Stanley G. Weinbaum’s poem, 1935.
Girl’s head and tree – unfinished, 1935.
Design on Daughters of the Lioness, Sept. 9, 1935.
Scull Face, 1935.
Romeo and Juliet – Juliet prepares to take poison, 1937.
Romeo and Juliet – duelling scene, 1937.
Sketches for April, 1937 WEIRD TALES cover, Jan. 2, 1937
The Hobbit – Bilbo born aloft, page 118 of book, 1964.

The plate with two drawings is ‘Sketches for April, 1937 WEIRD TALES cover’.

The drawing of ‘The Hobbit’ is the only drawing that Virgil Finlay made for an envisaged illustrated edition of that book. The portfolio is the first appearance of the drawing in a publication. For more information of this drawing refer to The History of Virgil Finlay’s drawing for J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’.

The drawing ‘Scull Face’ was used as cover of the softcover version of the booklet Golgotha: A Phantasm, by Charles D. Gardette.

This copy is in fine condition with only very light shelfwear

BOOKS OF BLOOD by Clive Barker (Inscribed 1st Edition Hardcover)

“Clive Barker has long wanted to realize all six volumes in a single edition. This, the first and only complete edition, includes a new preface by Peter Atkins and–for the first time in North America in any edition, the final story of ‘The Books of Blood’–”On Jerusalem Street.”

This is an inscribed first edition hardcover. Inscription reads, “To Mike, very best wishes Clive Barker”

Book is in fine unread condition.

 

RUNES OF AHRH-EIH-ECHE by Robert E. Howard edited by Jonathan Bacon

Jonathan Bacon., Lamoni, IA:, 1976. 1st edition. Chapbook in stapled wrappers. 1st Printing. Contains a selection of letters by Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, R.H. Barlow, August Derleth, Clark Ashton Smith and others plus an illustrated Howard Alphabet.

This book is limited to only 1000 signed copies. Copies is signed by by the editor. Book is in fine condition.

CLARK ASHTON SMITH – ARTIST by Gerry de la Ree (Limited Edition Paperback)

The contents of this book are from the personal collection of Gerry de la Ree, but are printed with the permission of Clark Asthon Smith’s widow, the late Carol Jones Smith.

This is number 49 and is published for the Hyperborian League.

Book is in near fine condition. Looks to have never been read.

 

 

 

 

 

THE BUFFALO HUNTER by Peter Straub (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover)

Hardcover Limited Edition of 450 signed and numbered copies bound in full-cloth and Smyth sewn

Book is expected to ship in late Fall 2012

About the Book
The Buffalo Hunter chronicles the fixations of a 35-year-old man who numbs his fear of women in some very unusual ways. This Peter Straub novella was inspired by an art opening that stuck with the author longer than expected, leading him to purchase an unusual number of baby bottles and discover the haunting story of Bobby Bunting in the process…

About the Inspiration:
“(The Buffalo Hunter) was inspired by a show — an art opening. Her work is often primal, and this show included several beds with baby bottles lashed to them. The next morning, as soon as I woke up, I wondered what that kind of thing would look like if it were made without any artistic impulse. And what kind of person would make it? That morning, I went out and bought a bunch of baby bottles. Bobby Bunting came into view very early on. I knew I wanted to write a novella, and I had so much fun that it turned out to be a little longer than I had expected it to be.”
— Peter Straub

 

Demonic? FL Teacher Arrested After Bizarre Burning & Cutting Ritual to Rid Teens of Evil Spirits

By Dan Sullivan for The Miami Herald

ST. PETERSBURG — Danielle Harkins told the kids they needed to rid their bodies of demons as the group gathered before dusk Saturday around a small fire near the St. Petersburg Pier. They should cut their skin to let the evil spirits out, police said she told the children. Then, they needed to burn the wounds to ensure that those spirits would not return.

Some kids got cut, police said. Some kids got burned. Harkins got arrested.

Harkins, 35, a literacy teacher at Lealman and Asian Neighborhood Family Center, was booked in jail Tuesday morning on child abuse charges in connection with the bizarre ritual. She was held in jail Tuesday night on $55,000 bail.

Police said the ritual was attended by seven teenagers, all of Asian ethnic background, whom Harkins had taught a few years ago in her job at the center. At least two were injured, police said.

“Obviously, it’s very strange,” said St. Petersburg police spokesman Mike Puetz. “The motivations for the ritual are very unknown to us.”

None of the teens told their parents about the incident. Police investigated after one of the teens, a 16-year-old boy, sent a text message about the incident to a friend. The friend told the boy’s parents, who notified police.

In interviews with detectives, the teens were reluctant to talk about the ritual beyond the basic facts of what happened. They did reveal a few things.

When Harkins held a lighter to one teen’s hand, wind blew the flame out, police said. That prompted her to douse his hand in perfume before setting it on fire. The boy suffered second-degree burns, police said.

Another teen was cut on the neck with a broken bottle, police said. Harkins used a flame to heat a small key, which she then used to cauterize the wound.

Steven Chanthalima, 17, one of the teens who attended the gathering, declined Tuesday evening to discuss what happened.

“I’m okay,” he said. “I’m fine. All I know is she’s in custody.”

Harkins was suspended without pay from her job at the family center, where she has worked for about 41/2 years, said Carolyn Chance, the center’s administrator.

“We had no suspicion of any of this,” Chance said. “We do everything we can to know our employees.”

 

None of the teens was currently taking part in any of the center’s programs, Chance said. As a literacy specialist, Harkins taught reading and writing skills to the center’s clients.

Though the motives behind the ritual remain unclear, court records and those who know Harkins offer a few clues.

Harkins recently divorced her husband, George. They had two children, a 4-year-old daughter and a 3-year-old son.

Records show that Harkins was the defendant in a sexual violence injunction that was dismissed in January. In August, she filed a domestic violence injunction against her husband, which was also dismissed.

The divorce was finalized June 1. About a month before, Harkins began acting strangely.

Lisa Cope, Harkins’ next-door neighbor for the past four years, said the last time she saw her, Harkins had taken an interest in extreme religious beliefs.

“She was my friend,” Cope said. “She cried on my shoulder when she and her husband were getting a divorce.”

Cope didn’t know what to make of her neighbor’s newfound religious interest.

“She told me I was okay,” Cope said. “She said I didn’t have any demons.”

In the past few days, Harkins disappeared. Cope picked up her mail. She phoned George Harkins and learned that the couple’s children were fine. On Tuesday, she saw the story on the news.

“I don’t know where she got the whole demon idea,” she said. “Who knows what makes people think those things?”

Read more here

Two New Titles Announced By Centipede Press

NIGHT AND THE CITY by Gerald Kersh (Limited Edition Hardcover)

Night and the City: One of the greatest noir novels ever published, Gerald Kersh’s stark and unrelenting Night and the City is as bleak an experience as you will ever encounter. The protagonist of the novel is the morally empty Harry Fabian, who is determined to become the top wrestling promoter in London. During the course of the novel Fabian is embroiled in various unscrupulous money-making ventures. All those around him are treated as a means to an end without exception. However, while his acts of pimping, blackmail and deception are successful, the proceeds of crime soon slip from his hands. The novel has a printed cloth front board with a design by Frank Chigas, an interior photograph by Jeff Hersch, and a lengthy biographical introduction by renowned editor Paul Duncan.

Limited to 200 copies.
Introduction by Paul Duncan.
Old hardcover editions and movie posters of Night and the City reprinted in color.
Ribbon marker, head and tail bands and printed cloth panel.

Edition specifics: These titles are limited to 200 copies for sale, but they are not signed or numbered. The books are bound in full cloth, with head and tail bands and ribbon markers.

 

LONDON STORIES by Gerald Kersh (Limited Edition Hardcover)

With twenty-five stories, this collection of noir fiction and slice-of-life stories presents a side of Kersh rarely seen. Included is one of Kersh’s finest tales, The Extraordinarily Horrible Dummy and a fine science fiction tale, This Stuff is Like Cigarette Ash. Also included is the rare Blast, a story never before reprinted in book format. This book has a printed cloth front panel with a design by Frank Chigas, an interior photograph by Jeff Hersch, and a brief introduction by Paul Duncan. Most of the stories in here have been out of print for decades.

Edition specifics: These titles are limited to 200 copies for sale, but they are not signed or numbered. The books are bound in full cloth, with head and tail bands and ribbon markers.

The Day the World Changed: 1947

When Harry Truman decided in his no nonsense Missouri manner to drop the A-bomb on Japan to end the war, he calculated correctly. In a short time, the long Pacific war ended (VJ-day, 14 August 1945). Little was said that captured scientists from Nazi Germany had been squirreled away and were assisting (under Operation Paperclip) with rocket vehicles and upgrading to Hydrogen weapons. Much of the weapons delivery system resided at the then-secret, now-famous Roswell Army Air Force base. (There was no separate branch of the air force yet).

In the early weeks of 1947, the cold war was very much on America’s mind. Odd vehicles were seen in the air, some by weather balloon experts concerned these objects could interfere with their top-secret experiments. Reports were quietly filed and only recently have come to light. However, when Kenneth Arnold was flying his plane near the Cascade Mountains and saw glittering objects that looked like “saucers skipping across the water”, the term Flying Saucers was coined. Newspapers were fascinated, and all the rumors that up until then were held quietly culminated in page one articles.

The military could not answer whether these were experimental crafts (they were doing great research in odd aerodynamics) or that the Soviets were invading the U.S. air space. Just as the Arnold sighting of 24 June was winding down its new cycle, a new and explosive headline hit from the obscure town of Roswell, New Mexico. It did not take long for the media to realize how very close this was to the hinted top secret Hydrogen bomb project, and the first Army report that a flying disc had been found gripped the news. Cooler heads prevailed and essentially killed the story so well it barely made the folklore circuit through the late 1940′s. Only an accidental discovery in the 1970′s by lecturer Stanton Friedman brought it back to life. Freedom of Information Act releases indicate that the FBI collected a number of stories that were the Roswell crash reworked to other locations, but these did not come to public attention. The 4th of July flying saucer story was put to bed after a very short news cycle.

Other reports began to surface as 1947 crept toward winter, and the media balanced readership ratings against many visits by authorities to editors making requests to downplay these stories. In the dark halls of the clandestine government panic was descending. They were as clueless as the public, and if the Russians had better technology, they were violating U>S. air space with impunity. If it was not the Russians, then who? Or what? Multiple levels of security were developed, and numerous groups began to investigate with reports trickling upwards to some hidden intelligence supervisors. Despite spurious documents about a Majestic 12, both Truman and later Eisenhower were no more enlightened than the man in the street.

Hollywood certainly noticed, and they began to merge 1930′s science fiction stories of ray guns and bug-eyed monsters with these new flying saucer stories. One of the earliest and best was The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951, filmed after February 1951, opened 18 September 1951).

Was George Adamski paying attention? Very Likely. Having moved to California, he began an occult organization known as the Royal Order of Tibet, and then formed an early commune near Mount Palomar. The choice could not have been a coincidence, as the new telescope was beginning to be installed. The mirror arrived in November, months after Arnold’s sighting. The workers even put up gag signs about flying saucers being attracted by the telescope.

At first Adamski’s group farmed, then started a restaurant. By either late 1946, or more likely 1947, Adamski claimed he photographed flying saucers.

Anecdotal evidence locates Adamski and his cohorts watching a meteor shower on 9 October 1946 and spotting a “mother ship”.

No specific dated document could be found by this writer of the date, so circumstantial evidence seems to indicate Adamski did not become interested in flying saucers until after Arnold’s news story. This did not mean he had not thought about aliens, or other planets. He clearly had. But this gave a new angle, and within a few years he had attracted publicity about meeting aliens, and riding in their ships. So much so, the FBI paid visits beginning in 1950 wondering about his many expansive statements about peace, and numerous accusations about the U.S. Government. As the Red Scare mounted, this was not a great position to find oneself, but Adamski spun these visits in a way that he claimed supported his views and lectures. This prompted more visits by authorities which seems only to have elevated Adamski’s notoriety and spread his message of the Space Brothers peace movement.

He soon received competition from George Van Tassel, a man attending Adamski’s California meetings. Both men claimed intimate contact with space craft, alien beings, and receiving specialized information vital to the salvation of humanity.

It is not known how much the interplay of these wild stories, Hollywood’s interest in new “Space Age” film making, ratings and readership drives by newspapers, and the radio show of Long John Nevell influenced the man in the street. But these folklore undercurrents coupled with the growing paranoia in Washington created a wide spread reporting of flying saucers and contacts with alien beings. 1953 would see one of the biggest block buster A-movies ever with a science fiction theme, War of the Worlds by acclaimed George Pal.

If 1947 began a new era, 1953 was the line in the sand of no return. Radio, television, and movies blended seamlessly with science-fiction magazines, early comic books, and the Cold War mania. Journalists scrambled to keep up with one incredible story after another coming from every small town in America, and from crack-pots to reticent professionals such as policemen.

In a recent show of Coast to Coast AM, Kenneth Arnold’s daughter revealed that he had been deeply interested in paranormal and esoteric spiritual explorations in his lifetime. It is not quite certain if these interests occurred only after the stress of his constant post-1947 collision with the press, or if he had interests before his flying saucer sighting. Ongoing research is connecting more and more legendary UFO stories and their participants with unusual esoteric interests, and often before sightings and contacts.

Metal Disk Offers Mystery
Source: The Cincinnati [Ohio] Times-Star
Tuesday, July 8, 1947 – Page 4
Workers in the Ludlow yards of the Southern Railroad found what some believed to be a flying saucer Tuesday – an aluminum disk approximately two inches thick and three to four feet in diameter. An official of the railroad, who declined to be named, said, however, that he believed the disk more likely had fallen from a passing freight car.

 

Vampire Skeleton Found In Bulgaria

Dateline: Sokopol, Bulgaria, 7 June 2012

Archaeologists excavated two suspected “vampire” graves in the Black Sea town last Sunday, and each 700-year-old skeleton had an iron rod pinned into its chest.

In recent years, remains of individuals treated as vampires have been discovered in many places, among them in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Tennessee, and in the ancient Roman era. In the latter case, stones were shoved into the skeleton’s mouth.

 

R.I.P Ray Bradbury (1920 – 2012)

Miskatonic Books would like to give our condolences to the family and friends of one of the most amazing authors of our time, Ray Bradbury.

Bradbury with 27 novels and over 600 short stories was a prolific writer and is most widely known for his dystopian classic “Fahrenheit 451,” released in 1953, but he also wrote the widely read “The Martian Chronicles” and “Something Wicked This Way Comes.”

President Obama gave a statement on Bradbury:

“For many Americans, the news of Ray Bradbury’s death immediately brought to mind images from his work, imprinted in our minds, often from a young age.  His gift for storytelling reshaped our culture and expanded our world.  But Ray also understood that our imaginations could be used as a tool for better understanding, a vehicle for change, and an expression of our most cherished values.  There is no doubt that Ray will continue to inspire many more generations with his writing, and our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.”

Today we have lost a hero of fantastic fiction, but thankfully, he has left us a vast library of his profound work to ponder and enjoy for many generations to come.

The world will miss you Mr. Bradbury.

 

New, Notable and in Short Supply

Just in and shipping!

THE RHYME MAIDENS 1-1-11 by Neil Gaiman (signed limited broadside)

The Ryhme Maidens 1-1-11

These hand-printed broadsheets were made in celebration of the wedding of Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer. The poem was written by Neil Gaiman about the night before their wedding. Fifty unique folios contain two versions of the same broadsheet.  The typefaces used are Granjon, Dyer, Willow and You Murderer. The embossing was done from polymer plates that were mounted type high and then squeezed through the press by hand. The paper is acid free 250 gm archival Rising Stonehenge. The wood engravings are incised on end grain maple and were made by George A.Walker who also designed and hand-printed the whole project on his Vandercook SP15 proof press in the winter of 2012.

Hand made broadside 12.5″ x 16″

Folio Edition limited to 50 copies.
Bound and slip cased in black fiscagoma, includes two versions of the poem signed by both Neil Gaiman
Blind stamped front and back, heavily embossed.

If you are interested in the signed regular edition of this broadside click the image below.

TALES OF LOVE AND DEATH by Robert Aickman (Limited Edition) Import

Robert Aickman (1914-1981) is considered by many to be one of the finest exponents of the modern ghost story. Aickman himself referred to his tales as ‘strange stories’, for they are often open to more complex interpretations. His writing is subtle and poetic, presenting us with psychological and more material terrors.Tales of Love and Death (first published in 1977) is a collection of seven mature tales by this craftsman of the uncanny.

“Along with Walter de la Mare, Elizabeth Bowen and a few others, Robert Aickman belongs to the Chekhov school of the weird tale. Such writers recognise that stories don’t require pat endings. They don’t need to close with the snap of an O. Henry trapdoor, or the ironic twist of a Maupassant. A short story can actually convey a more haunting depiction of the human predicament by avoiding any kind of artificial conclusiveness. Life is messy, not neat; most problems are never clearly resolved, but only lived with; people act unreasonably for no apparent reason.” Michael Dirda, from the Introduction to Tales of Love and Death.

Contents: ‘Growing Boys’, ‘Marriage’, ‘Le Miroir’, ‘Compulsory Games’, ‘Raising the Wind’, ‘Residents Only’ and ‘Wood’.

Tales of Love and Death is a sewn hardback of 243+ xiii pages, printed lithographically, with silk ribbon marker, head and tailbands, and d/w.

Publication 28th May 2012
Cover artwork by Stephen J Clark of The Singing Garden.
Limited to 350 copies.

Two rare and hard to find Delirium Books titles both are number “1″ and a lettered edition.

BODY COUNTING by David Whitman (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover) This is number “1″

This is one of only 92 signed and numbered hardcover copies. This being number “1″
Book is in perfect unread condition

David Whitman (co-author of Scary Rednecks And Other Inbred Horrors and author of Deadfellas) offers up his first short story collection.

Featuring a dozen short stories:

1. Out Of The Ashes
2. The Mind Of Hunter Castle
3. Killing Brando
4. Angel Lust
5. What Love Was
6. The Eyes Of God
7. The Death Of The Piano Man
8. Dust In The Wind
9. The Thursday Night Poker Players
10. Broken Souls
11. The Hitman Always Rings Twice
12. Body Counting

BACK FROM THE DEAD by J. F. Gonzalez (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover) This is number “1″

This is a signed limited edition hardcover of only 150 signed and numbered copies. This is number “1″ of 150

Tim Gaines was the town pariah. Mocked and teased continuously since he was in the sixth grade, he approaches his senior year of high school with a sense of cautious trepidation. Years before, when he was in the sixth grade, a group of boys led by Scott Bradfield—a popular, well-liked kid from well-to-do parents—spread a vicious rumor that he was a devil-worshipper. The rumor stuck, and is believed by most of the students and even a few of the teachers and administrators. It’s a rumor Tim can’t beat, and one he sometimes feels he’s brought on to himself due to his love of horror novels and movies.

Now Tim has become friends with a loose-knit group of kids who have also become social outcasts thanks to other rumors spread about them by the student elite. With their mutual support, Tim has begun to come out of his shell. He’s going out with them, being invited to parties, and even begins to have a romantic interest in a girl, something he never thought would happen to him in high school.

But all that will change when Scott Bradfield and his friends set their sights on Tim again. Only this time, they need his help. Like most of the student body of Spring Valley High School, they sincerely believe Tim Gaines is a devil-worshipper. And they believe he has a dark power. Now they want to use him and that power for their own sinister plight…

…To bring back the dead homeless man they’d kidnapped and brutally beaten to a pulp in the guesthouse that resides on the Bradfield residence.

They want him brought back not because they’re scared of getting caught for his murder, but so they can savagely beat and murder him again…

…and again…

CLICKERS II by Brian Keene and J. F. Gonzalez (Signed Leather Bound Edition)

This is a signed leather bound edition in a custom slipcase. This is letter RR of 52 copies published.

The first wave was only the beginning.

Since it’s publication in 1999, Clickers by J.F. Gonzalez and Mark Williams has become a geunine cult-classic, garnering a legion of fans and single-handedly revitalizing the “munch-out” sub-genre. Like Jaws did a decade before, Clickers gave readers another reason not to go in the water.

But now, it’s not even safe on land.

Delirium Books is proud to present Clickers II: The Next Wave. J.F. Gonzalez has teamed with best-selling novelist Brian Keene for a second assault — this time on a national scale.

The Clickers are back, wreaking havoc on a United States already demoralized and defenseless thanks to a category five hurricane and a president who rules through religious zealotry.

Now, as the death toll climbs into the thousands, two survivors from the original invasion find themselves teamed up with a marine biologist and a mob hitman, and on the run from the Clickers, the Dark Ones, and their own government. And as their enemies close in on all sides, only one thing is certain — if they fail, humanity loses.

Clickers II: The Next Wave. This time, the crabs eat you . . .