Who First Mentioned “Aliens From Outer Space”?

The First Real Extrasolar Alien in Scientifiction

You ever sit around and think up a mystery to solve?  The first extra-solar planet was proposed about 1963, and proven in the 1990s.  But way back, in the early days of science-fiction, who thought up aliens from way our yonder? Who had that kind of amazing imagination when astronomers themselves stared wondering into their telescopes, more focused on Martians than aliens from outer space.

Of course, you might say H. G. Wells, Burroughs, or any number of folks.  But wait!  These were Martians, Venusians, Moon Men, Asteroid dwellers, or people from Jupiter and Saturn.  Even Lovecraft speculated about those from Yuggoth, the 9th planet - when we only knew there were 8.  Well, I guess we’re back to eight planets again, but that is beyond our discussion here.

No, these won’t do to solve our puzzle.  We need a planet around a star not our own, and we need sentient life that can travel or at least communicate with us.

After a great deal of searching, I have narrowed the choices to two. And there may be a connection.

The first is obvious. H. P. Lovecraft in the Call of Cthulhu.  ”They had, indeed, come themselves from the stars, and brought Their images with Them.” We know that Lovecraft began to write his story sometime in the Summer of 1926.

The next is The Thing from —  “Outside” by George Allen England written about 1923, and as published in Amazing Stories #1 in 1926.  Almost as the story begins (page 69) he paraphrases H. G. Wells famous line, “…intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us …”, as, “Pale, cold stars watched down from spaces infinitely far beyond man’s trivial world.”

England had sold the story to Gernsback for his forerunner, Science and Adventure renamed in 1920 from its predecessor the Electrical Experimenter . England’s story appeared in Vol. 10, No. 2 of 1923, and was then reprinted in the first issue of Amazing Stories along with reprint stories by Wells, Verne, and Poe and a few others.

England also fictionalized aliens of the fourth dimension “beyond the galactic rim” in a 1914 All Story serialization called Empire of the Air. This is remarkable as Shapley was still piecing together theories about what the galaxy was and how big it was.

Another connection is that S. T. Joshi has noted that in 1914, a youthful 23 year old H. P. Lovecraft praised England’s story telling ability in the 15 August 1914 All-Story Cavalier Weekly.

England has been pegged by historians as almost as popular in the pulp magazines as Burroughs. Lovecraft was known to have followed All Story, and may have followed England into Science and Invention.

The two stories have uncanny coincidences mentioning a creature from another star system that has influenced by happenstance until only madness and mayhem resulted. While Cthulhu is usually seen as an upgraded Dagon, it had to be upgraded from some literary substance percolating in Lovecraft’s mind.

No less a scholar than Robert Price has reclassified this as part of the Ithaqua Cycle of Lovecraftian fiction. Prior to this, August Derleth was so enamored of the story he used it in his 1948 Strange Ports of Call anthology.

Lovecraft is well known, of course, but England’s story is so similar to the modern UFO alien abduction scenario, it could read as if extracted from a Ray Fowler case book.

“Things. Things that reckon with us no more than we do with ants. Less, perhaps.”

“It’ll do any infernal thing it takes a fancy to, yes! If it happens to want us—”

“But what could Things like that want of us? Why should They come here, at all?”

“Oh, for various reasons. For inanimate objects, at times, and then again for living beings. They’ve come here lots of times, I tell you…”

“Superior beings use inferior, for their own ends. To assume that man is the supreme product of evolution is gross self-conceit. Might not some superior Thing want to experiment with human beings?”

“It was observing us while we slept”

“…everywhere they felt that It was watching…”

“there are forms of life as superior to us as we are to ants. We can’t see ‘em. No ant ever saw a man. And did any ant ever form the least conception of a man? These Things have left thousands of traces, all over the world. “

And at last, we see England’s source: “Charles Fort, the greatest authority in the world on unexplained phenomena,” persisted Jandron, “gives innumerable cases of happenings that science can’t explain, in his ‘Book of the Damned…”.

We need to use caution. Fort in 1919 did not necessarily consider aliens and alien ships as coming from other star systems. They may have simply been from the ether, or from some theosophanic dimension. We need to be careful to give England the credit for making this leap of faith that they are creatures from another star system. This seems very much England’s origination, and considering his 1914 story, he predates even Fort’s publication.

If you have opinions or thoughts about this, or wish to offer your own opinion who first wrote about “aliens from outer space” drop Miskatonic Books an email: miskatonicbooks@me.com

 

Esoterica and the Crisis in Ufology

Here at Miskatonic Books, we love a good story, especially if it has horrific elements.  From Little Red Riding Hood to The Horror at Red Hook and beyond, we like it.

We also follow the emerging field of esoterica.  In the old days this would be divided into paranormal, metaphysics, para-religious ideas, exotic philosophy, magick, alchemy, astrology, spiritualism, ghosts, and in modern times, the “flying saucer”.  The latter subject burst on the scene as a series of “flying discs” that skipped along like a saucer on the water, or so said Kenneth Arnold in June 1947.  In a short window that included both Arnold’s sighting and the Roswell incident, the U. S. media was flooded with hundreds of reports of odd flying phenomenon, most of them disc shaped.  The excitement went to the Pentagon and to Truman’s office, before the hammer came down and generals sent to tell everyone to calm down.  But they didn’t – not at first.

If you read the media reports, and study the history of the phenomenon, the disc reports began to slowly subside though outbreaks popped up from time to time.  Interested parties began to publicize in books two branches:  a religio-spitualism where the observers received prophetic advice, and “nuts and bolts” saucer people who believed the objects were coming from mars or another planet.  Remember, in the years between 1947 and 1950, no other planet had been discovered or was suspected outside of our own solar system.  Only in the mid-1950′s did scientifiction ideas of extra-solar worlds become mainstream.  The movie, Forbidden Planet, was the most notable leap in that direction, and highly influential.

While many civilian and military people researched the sightings deep into the late 1960′s, many books were sold but little understanding was reached other than the media becoming more cynical and flippant with those who reported the flying saucers.   Then a game changer.  A nice New England couple named Betty and Barney Hill revealed that through hypnotic regression, they had come to believe they had been kidnapped by aliens.  A best selling book by John Fuller was snapped up by millions of Americans, but civilian UFO agencies who had all but eradicated the paranormal from their “nuts and bolts” investigations were overwhelmed by those coming froward with similar kidnapping stories, and finally with the rise of Bud Hopkins and others, the UFO phenomenon became plagued with tens of thousands of dream-like reports.

The resurrection of the Roswell story by Stanton Friedman brought back the “nuts and bolts” investigations, but instead of dreams and hypnosis sessions being used as “proof” of aliens, they presented “oral histories” as proof of a crashed saucer.  This is not to nit-pick whether any of this is true, or even to discuss what “true” means, because these were rip-roaring good stories, and many of them hair-raising and horrific.

A twin attack in the mid-1990s came.  Neurologists showed that hypnotic regression was not reliable, and that recalled memories were faulty.  At the same time, the Air Force put out a controversial series of reports trying to rip the Roswell story to shreds.    In both cases, the assault had mixed effects, and believers kept believing.

However, the rise of the internet and reality television has exposed the history of the UFO phenomenon to millions if not billions, and now that all those eyes are watching, and books have become less important than instantaneous viral visual media, the same “classic cases” that used to be exciting are now torn to pieces by the media and eager participants at the site Above Top Secret.  In fact, while there are still many believers, cynicism seems to prevail more often than not.

Arguably starting with the work of Jacques Vallee, the idea of an extraterrestrial visit to Earth is becoming less of interest than a paranormal-based extra-dimmensional series of creatures or events.  This has opened the door for a crisis in ufology.

On one side, there are true believers who believe that we have been visited millions of times and as far back as man began to walk upright.  That there are innumerable species from aliens a few centuries smarter than us to Q-like god-beings, the latter many times resembling the gods that Lovecraft and Derleth created.  On the other hand, UFO books and conferences are not drawing crowds, and those who do go are decidedly baby-boomers.  There is buzz whether or not only septuagenarians will attend UFO conferences by the end of this decade.  Young esotericans such as Tim Binnall are openly scornful of ufology, though Coast to Coast AM still has fondness and treats the subject with dignity.

That being said, there seems to be momentum to begin to classify ufology into a broader field now being referred to as esotericism.  This begins to lump everything from folklore to Fortean, from saucers to sorcery, and maybe paranormal to parasailing.   It is a rapid growth market, and may be what has pudhed the CE-5 phenomenon to the forefront.

In the CE-5 technique, through meditation and special techniques, one can come into the presence and even the consciousnesses of the pan-multiverse alien sentience.  In many cases flying saucers and other esoteric conveyances can be called at will to Earth.  Telepathic communication is typical, and multiple possibilities include lucent dreaming, skin-walking, teleportation, out of body experiences, paranormal events, and prophetic messaging.

We could almost say to the past, welcome to the future.  The more we at Miskatonic Books study esoteric trajectories, and more and more we are reminded of the 19th century experiences we read of in the history books.

Ufology may be in crisis, but esotericism seems here to stay for quite some time.

This Week’s New and Interesting Arrivals

We’ve had some very cool new items arrive this week.

All of these items are rare and we likely have only one in stock. Books will be sold on a first come first serve basis. Click on the image to get more information and to secure your copy.

AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS by H. P. Lovecraft (Signed Limited Edition Hardcover)

1/1000 copies signed by the illustrator Fernando Duval. Oversize, oblong format [13.5" x 9.5"] hardcover with silver gilt pictorial design lettering against a black “leather” background, 95 pages, with dozens of color illustrations plus pictorial endpapers.

Copy is in near fine condition. Beautiful copy of this title with many illustrations.

 

SESQUA VALLEY AND OTHER HAUNTS by W. H. Pugmire (RARE! Advance Readers Copy)

A very rare Advance Readers Copy of Sesqua Valley and Other Haunts by W. H. Pugmire 2003. Also included is the original letter sent to reviewers signed by the publisher. This is likely one of the rarest Wilum Pugmire titles in existence. Book is spiral bound in near fine condition with accompanying signed letter from the publisher.

Contents: O, Christmas Tree The Ones Who Bow Before Me Born In Strange Shadow Another Flesh Immortal Remains Selene The Darkest Star The Songs of Sesqua Valley The Heritage of Hunger The Imp of Aether The Million-Shadow One The Child of Dark Mania The Hands That Reek and Smoke The Host of Haunted Air The Woven Offspring The Place of Old Insanity The Zanies of Sorrow Beneath An Autumn Moon

 

ANCIENT EYES by David Niall Wilson (Signed Lettered Hardcover)

There is an ancient evil lurking in the mountains of California. One peak over from Friendly, California, there is another, darker place. In that place there are two churches. Displaced from a time and place far distance, an ancient carving watches from an alcove above the door of a broken down, nearly forgotten church. When the evil it embodies reaches out and snags the soul of Silas Greene, roots creep down into the mountain and out into everything they touch. There is another church on the mountain. It is made of stone, carved into the stone of the mountain, and also all but forgotten.

A message goes out to Abraham Carlson. “He’s Back. Come home, boy.” When young Abraham returns to the mountain, and to that stone church, a battle is rejoined that should have ended decades in the past. When the cleansing began – and was never completed. The only question is, does Abraham have the strength…or will he, and everyone he loves, fall into the depths of those evil, ancient eyes…

Book is in new unread condition

One of only 26 leather bound hardcover copies, with custom endpapers, illustrated signature sheet, custom traycase, Handmade resin sculpture, Silk Ribbon marker. Very unique production. Click image tab for more pictures.

 

THE CHECKLIST OF FANTASTIC LITERATURE edited by Everett F. Bleiler (Hardcover) 1948

The Checklist of Fantastic Literature is a bibliography of English language science fiction, fantasy and weird books compiled and edited by Everett F. Bleiler with a preface by Melvin Korshak and a cover by Hannes Bok.

This was the first title from Shasta Publishers. The bibliography is nearly complete and lists over 5,000 titles published prior to 1949. The books are listed by author and indexed by title. Willy Ley described it as “indispensable to librarians, book dealers, and especially antiquarians.

Book is in very good condition, with some toning due to age, small chipping and shelfwear. A very tough to find book and a must have for the fantastic literature antiquarian. Second printing.

 

THE TRAIL OF CTHULHU by August Derleth (1st UK Hardcover Edition)

The Trail of Cthulhu is a series of interconnected short stories written by August Derleth as part of the Cthulhu Mythos genre of horror fiction. The stories chronicle the struggles of Laban Shrewsbury and his companions against the Great Old Ones, particularly Cthulhu.

The stories, with their date of first publication, are:

“The House on Curwen Street” (“The Trail of Cthulhu”) (March 1944)
“The Watcher from the Sky” (July 1945)
“The Gorge Beyond Salapunco” (“The Testament of Claiborne Boyd”) (March 1949)
“The Keeper of the Key” (May 1951)
“The Black Island” (January 1952)
“A Note on the Cthulhu Mythos”

This is a first British hardcover edition. Book is in near fine condition with a price clipped dust jacket else fine.

Just Arrived and Shipping

Just click on the cover art to get more information about reserving your copy of any of the books below.

We recently received the new two volume set of CENTURY’S BEST HORROR FICTION edited by John Pelan and published by Cemetery Dance Publications. This has been over a decade in the making and is one of the most anticipated books of the year. If you haven’t reserved your copy do so quickly as we don’t expect these to last long.

About the Books:
Cemetery Dance Publications commissioned a spectacular two-volume anthology project under the editorship of noted author and historian of the horror genre, John Pelan.

John selected one story published during each year of the 20th Century (1901-2000) as the most notable story of that year — all 100 stories were then collected in this amazing two volume set to be published as The Century’s Best Horror Fiction.

The ground rules were simple: Only one selection per author. Only one selection per year.

Two huge volumes, one hundred authors, one hundred classic stories, more than 700,000 words of fiction — history in the making!

Trade Edition hardcovers bound in full-cloth and Smyth sewn with a full color dust jacket — two deluxe volumes

Table of Contents
1901: Barry Pain — The Undying Thing
1902: W.W. Jacobs — The Monkey’s Paw
1903: H.G.Wells — The Valley of the Spiders
1904: Arthur Machen — The White People
1905: R. Murray Gilchrist — The Lover’s Ordeal
1906: Edward Lucas White — House of the Nightmare
1907: Algernon Blackwood — The Willows
1908: Perceval Landon — Thurnley Abbey
1909: Violet Hunt — The Coach
1910: Wm Hope Hodgson — The Whistling Room
1911: M.R. James — Casting the Runes
1912: E.F. Benson — Caterpillars
1913: Aleister Crowley — The Testament of Magdelan Blair
1914: M. P. Shiel — The Place of Pain
1915: Hanns Heinz Ewers — The Spider
1916: Lord Dunsany — Thirteen at Table
1917: Frederick Stuart Greene — The Black Pool
1918: H. De Vere Stacpoole — The Middle Bedroom
1919: Ulric Daubeny — The Sumach
1920: Maurice Level — In the Light of the Red Lamp
1921: Vincent O’Sullivan — Master of Fallen Years
1922: Walter de la Mare — Seaton’s Aunt
1923: George Allen England — The Thing From—”Outside”
1924: C.M. Eddy, Jr. — The Loved Dead
1925: John Metcalfe — The Smoking Leg
1926: H.P. Lovecraft — The Outsider
1927: Donald Wandrei — The Red Brain
1928: H.R. Wakefield — The Red Lodge
1929: Eleanor Scott — Celui-La
1930: Rosalie Muspratt — Spirit of Stonhenge
1931: Henry S. Whitehead — Cassius
1932: David H. Keller — The Thing in the Cellar
1933: C.L. Moore — Shambleau
1934: L.A. Lewis — The Tower of Moab
1935: Clark Ashton Smith — The Dark Eidolon
1936: Thorp McCluskey — The Crawling Horror
1937: Howard Wandrei — The Eerie Mr Murphy
1938: Robert E. Howard — Pigeons from Hell
1939: Robert Barbour Johnson — Far Below
1940: John Collier — Evening Primrose
1941: C.M. Kornbluth — The Words of Guru
1942: Jane Rice — The Idol of the Flies
1943: Anthony Boucher — They Bite
1944: Ray Bradbury — The Jar
1945: August Derleth — Carousel
1946: Manly Wade Wellman — Shonokin Town
1947: Theodore Sturgeon — Bianca’s Hands
1948: Shirley Jackson — The Lottery
1949: Nigel Kneale — The Pond
1950: Richard Matheson — Born of Man & Woman
1951: Russell Kirk — Uncle Isiah
1952: Eric Frank Russell — I Am Nothing
1953: Robert Sheckley — The Altar
1954: Everil Worrell — Call Not Their Names
1955: Robert Aickman — Ringing the Changes
1956: Richard Wilson — Lonely Road
1957: Clifford Simak — Founding Father
1958: Robert Bloch — That Hell-Bound Train
1959: Charles Beaumont — The Howling Man
1960: Fredric Brown — The House
1961: Ray Russell — Sardonicus
1962: Carl Jacobi — The Aquarium
1963: Robert Arthur — The Mirror of Cagliostro
1964: Charles Birkin — A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts
1965: Jean Ray — The Shadowy Street
1966: Arthur Porges — The Mirror
1967: Norman Spinrad — Carcinoma Angels
1968: Anna Hunger — Come
1969: Steffan Aletti — The Last Work of Pietro Apono
1970: David A. Riley — The Lurkers in the Abyss
1971: Dorothy K. Haynes — The Derelict Track
1972: Gary Brandner — The Price of a Demon
1973: Eddy C. Bertin — Like Two White Spiders
1974: Karl Edward Wagner — Sticks
1975: David Drake — The Barrow Troll
1976: Dennis Etchison — It Only Comes Out at Night
1977: Barry N. Malzberg — The Man Who Loved the Midnight Lady
1978: Michael Bishop — Within the Walls of Tyre
1979: Ramsey Campbell — Mackintosh Willy
1980: Michael Shea — The Autopsy
1981: Stephen King — The Reach
1982: Fritz Leiber — Horrible Imagings
1983: David Schow — One for the Horrors
1984: Bob Leman — The Unhappy Pilgrimage of Clifford M.
1985: Michael Reaves — The Night People
1986: Tim Powers — Night Moves
1987: Ian Watson — Evil Water
1988: Joe R. Lansdale — The Night They Missed the Horror Show
1989: Joel Lane — The Earth Wire
1990: Elizabeth Massie — Stephen
1991: Thomas Ligotti — The Glamour
1992: Poppy Z. Brite — Calcutta Lord of Nerves
1993: Lucy Taylor — The Family Underwater
1994: Jack Ketchum — The Box
1995: Terry Lamsley — The Toddler
1996: Caitlín R. Kiernan — Tears Seven Times Salt
1997: Stephen Laws — The Crawl
1998: Brian Hodge — As Above, So Below
1999: Glen Hirshberg — Mr. Dark’s Carnival
2000: Tim Lebbon — Reconstructing Amy

We’ve also just receive some very collectable editions for your genre library.

a beautiful copy of SESQUA VALLEY AND OTHERS by W. H. Pugmire signed limited edition hardcover.

A very rare signed limited edition of Sesqua Valley and Other Haunts by W. H. Pugmire

This is one of only 250 signed and numbered hardcover limited editions.  Book is in fine condition in a fine dust jacket

Contents:

• O, Christmas Tree
• The Ones Who Bow Before Me
• Born In Strange Shadow
• Another Flesh
• Immortal Remains
• Selene
• The Darkest Star
• The Songs of Sesqua Valley
• The Heritage of Hunger
• The Imp of Aether
• The Million-Shadow One
• The Child of Dark Mania
• The Hands That Reek and Smoke
• The Host of Haunted Air
• The Woven Offspring
• The Place of Old Insanity
• The Zanies of Sorrow
• Beneath An Autumn Moon

THE INHABITANT OF THE LAKE & LESS WELCOME TENANTS by Ramsey Campbell (First Edition Hardcover)

The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants is a collection of fantasy and horror short stories by British author J. Ramsey Campbell, who dropped the initial from his name in subsequent publications. It was released in 1964 by Arkham House in an edition of 2,009 copies and was the author’s first book. The stories are part of the Cthulhu Mythos. Campbell had originally written his introduction to be included in the book The Dark Brotherhood and Other Pieces under the title “Cthulhu in Britain”. However, Arkham’s editor, August Derleth, decided to use it here.

The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants contains the following tales:

•     “A Word From the Author”
•     “The Room in the Castle”
•     “The Horror from the Bridge”
•     “The Insects from Shaggai”
•     “The Render of the Veils”
•     “The Inhabitant of the Lake”
•     “The Plain of Sound”
•     “The Return of the Witch”
•     “The Mine on Yuggoth”
•     “The Will of Stanley Brooke”
•     “The Moon-Lens”

References in popular culture

The band Iron Maiden’s song Still Life ( from the classic 1983 album Piece of Mind ) was inspired by the story The Inhabitant of the Lake. The lyrics deal with a man who sees spirits or beings in the lake and becomes obsessed with them. After many nightmares and visions of the images in the water, he eventually becomes insane and ultimately jumps into the pool with his female companion. The lyrics end with the ominous verse ” Oh,we’ll drown together. It, will be forever. Nightmares…forever calling me. Nightmares…now we rest in peace”, so the listener can safely assume the person has killed himself, as well the female.

FEAR ITSELF:THE HORROR FICTION OF STEPHEN KING with Stephen King, Peter Straub and more (Signed)!

A fascinating examination of King’s early novels (Carrie, Salem’s Lot, The Shining, The Stand, Firestarter, Cujo and The Dark Tower) and short stories. Contributors include Peter Straub, Burton Hatlan (King’s former English professor), Fritz Leiber, Alan Ryan, Deborah Notkin, Don Herron, and others.

This copy is inscribed, signed and dated to the owner of the book by both Stephen King and Chuck Miller  Date signed is 10/30/82

5000 copies of the first edition were printed and very few were inscribed by Stephen King. A true rarity!

This copy is in near fine condition in a near fine dust jacket.

Rhombic Horror: Horror Writing and Esoteric Reality

Robert Bloch was struggling.  Yes, that is hard to believe, but he was known as a pretty good speech writer and had placed innumerable short stories in magazines and pulps.  However, the times they was changing.  Books.  He had to make the transition to books, and August Derleth came to his rescue and published a book length product for Bloch.  Then, Bloch waited.  How to move to the next level? One day, he took up his newspaper and read about the most heinous crime, of a serial killer, which was somewhat of an oddity in those days.  Serial killers were not rare in the 1950′s, it was society’s understanding of their creepiness that was rare.  With his powerful story telling ability, his wry sense of humor, and his keen imagination he created a sensation:  Psycho.  A figurative “lightning in a bottle” this was to be his definitive work – for better or worse.

If we study this, what made it powerful?  Bloch had created numerous imaginative and attractive characters in his time, Lefty Freep being one you should get to know.  But what was it about Norman Bates?  It was reality.  Through Bloch’s genius, he captured an abstraction of a real killer who lived just around the corner, or at the next roadside inn.

This also explains why J. S. LeFanu’s stories, somewhat taken from pub stories he heard, still command attention.  It is why Lovecraft’s Dagon was so captivating.   That story incorporated classic folklore elements where an F.O.A.F. (friend of a friend) relates a story that sounds real even if it isn’t.  Poe shocked his audience but not because they were squeamish.  The 1840′s saw plenty of death, disease, crushed bodies, and other horrid things, and far more of them than do we.   No, he brought it home to them. He put his finger on the pulse that scared Victorian-American society – being buried alive, going mad and losing control, or facing a murdering criminal who could elude the best police society had.

This brings us to “new horror”.  Every generation looks for its new horror stories.  Right now it is zombies because all our governments and Fortune 500 corporations are run by psychopathic personalities, or at least so say recent university studies.  We are being financially extirpated.  We are, in a sense, zombies.  For Russians in the 1940′s, it was werewolves.  For Cold War Americans it was invading mind-sucking aliens (Day of the Triffids, Manchurian Candidate, Invasion of the Pod People, Little Shop of Horrors).  For late 17th century New England it was witches.  But what about us?

We are so cynical.  Monsters no longer frighten us.  Gore is barely PG.  Cursing, since George Carlin, is boring.  Sword and Sorcery Magic is ho-hum.   Cannibalism?  It’s so Jeffrey Dahmer and Hanibal Lecter.  Alien creatures are fodder for fun – we drive around drinking with them.  We are even starting to understand the brain phenomena that create serial killers, not that we want to be chopped up by one.  We’re Westerners, nothing scares us anymore.

Well, there was an old movie called Forbidden Planet, a rip-off of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.  In that, we discover a jaded technological society that had pure power to think and allow it to happen.  They were Krell.  Their evil was their id, their inner cynical selves.  In a moment they were destroyed.  Are we the Krell?  Perhaps.

The first decade of the 21st century is behind us. It is now 2012 and we can get a retrospective. What defined that decade?

In the West, we freely gave up a basket full of liberties for perceived and ephemeral ‘safety’. Fly an airplane lately? Were you strip searched, harassed, had your junk groped, your little girl’s diaper pulled down, your colostomy bag removed, your cup cake stamped “terroristic”, a flight attendant go ape on you, or your wife scanned naked by an advanced radiation machine? Did you see that one coming?

Remember seeing New York bombed, Detroit financially emasculated, Las Vegas casinos empty, and New Orleans drowned? America lost a major city every year under Bush and Obama.

Did you have your home repossessed by an uncaring faceless bankster? In Indiana you now can be home-invaded by police without a warrant. You may have a GPS device on your car right now and not know it. Governments are installing Internet kill-switches because the fear Facebook. In many southern states you must carry your papers and show them upon demand.

Feeling a little like a stunned German exiting the Weimar republic and starting to see visions of brown shirts in the streets?

Every parent’s nightmare is losing their child or their child’s innocence. It is the one capital punishment crime inside prison walls – to be accused of molesting a child. You will not survive. It is the golden moral standard that is inviolable, and almost the only tabu subject by editors who receive horror manuscripts. Perhaps only Alice Sebolt (who was herself a rape victim) could get away with it in Lovely Bones (which you should read).

Finally it is our dreams that truly scare us. They always have. Like the Krell, we no longer know when we are dreaming or not. Like some psychological Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, we can’t discern reality from lucid dreams.

Is religion an evil psychosis and does it need to be stamped out? Is belief in a deity a pandemic of brain illness? Or can we allow religious civil rights? Ask Bill Maher.

Statistics show that most Americans believe we have been invaded by aliens, that there is a deity, and ghosts are real. They also have abandoned organized religion of any kind, and 49% no longer believe in marriage. What does that really mean? Why is Ghost Hunters is a perennial ratings hit on SyFy. Or Ancient ALiens.

Innumerable people have “seen the light” when they die for a few minutes. Scientists say balderdash, it’s misfiring electrons on neurons.

Up to 10 million people believe they have been kidnapped or visited by aliens (yes, you know someone who has), and believe they have had their bodies medically raped by extra-dimensioanl beings. Best selling author Whitley Strieber is among them.

FOIA (freedom of information act) releases show that all governments, and at their highest levels, are very nervous about UFO reports and have been as far back as the 1930′s. They convene councils, commission reports, solicit wealthy people to fund covert analysis, and classify them all top secret or above. Pure paranoia? On which side? Which group needs to be the inmates – the black government types or the abductees?

There is plenty of horror, but it is not all in the imagination of horror writers. They are the interpreters of our deepest fears. No, real horror is in the esoterica of our daily but nightmarish stories. Miskatonic Books believes it is time to expand horizons and include the horror genre outside of the fantasy fiction realm. Watch the Miskatonic bookstore, and keep reading this blog column for “horrors” you may never have known before.

H. P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast #94 Sponsored by Miskatonic Books!

We are very please to sponsor this outstanding episode of the H. P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast. In this episode Chris Lackey and Chad Fifer will be discussing THE HORROR IN THE MUSEUM.

Click the graphic below to listen to this awesome episode and get your 10% off coupon code for anything at Miskatonic books.

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

Pleasant Dreams – Nightmares!

First noticed and befriended by H. P. Lovecraft as a teenager, Robert Bloch quickly became a prolific writer. In those early days, fantasy novels were important but usually low volume sellers. Magazine articles were usually the bread and butter of supporting oneself as a writer, and Bloch proceeded to publish horror, scientifiction, crime fiction, and any other number of fantasy stories. Horror fiction tended to rank one of the lower forms of revenue for writers, but it was Bloch’s passion. Subtle humor was also Bloch’s trade mark frequently putting in odd punch lines, and over-the-top slap-stick in otherwise grim of serious fiction. A trademark character – Lefty Freep - was a frequent venting of this silly streak.

Bloch put quite a bit of time into radio work, and by 1943, “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper” had been published, and was subsequently adapted for radio twice giving him a wider recognition. This was enough to get him noticed for a collection. In 1945, Bloch published his first two collections of short stories: “Sea Kissed,” a slim collection of tales with Henry Kuttner saw print only in Great Britain. It was Derleth who came through for Bloch with “The Opener of the Way,” published by Arkham House in the U.S. No doubt there was not much money made by anyone on this, but it circulated and gave some needed promotion for Bloch.

1947 saw the publication of Bloch’s first novel, “The Scarf,” an examination of the mind of a psychopath with a penchant for murdering women. The progressive plot caused the fictional protagonist to select models and then become compelled to murder them with a scarf.

Bloch continued to churn out copious stories for various publications, and for a number of media – radio and Hollywood. Then in 1959, he hit upon an enhanced crime drama about a real life event, “Psycho”. Thats story is likely well known by most readers. However, Hitchcock’s obsession with creating a masterpiece nearly crushed the man who wrote it, and Bloch became quite embittered in the fall out as his novel nearly vanished to be trumped by the movie.

However, Derleth reached out and together a new assemblage of critically acclaimed stories were printed in “Pleasant Dreams – Nightmares” (1960). [Pleasant Dreams: Nightmares, 1960, Octavo, $4.00 cover, by Arkham House - but seen later discounted to $3.59 (* Forgotten Fantasy: Issue #4, April 1971, Douglas Menville, Robert Reginald) Black cloth binding, gold lettering, with dust cover]. Note that the book could not have been published any earlier as it contained his “Hellbound Train” after its first publication in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September 1958. It was much later picked up by London: Whiting & Wheaton, 1967 as Pleasant Dreams and Nightmares. More on the Jove edition, below.

Almost immediately, Belmont Books took Derleth’s conglomerate and spun it into two cheap paperbacks, the first arriving in mass production in 1961 as “Nightmares”. The next year, the other half of the anthology was released by Belmont as More Nightmares. Hopefully Bloch couped revenue from the mass seller paperbacks, and got revenge as he rode the coattails of Hitchcock’s movie despite the director’s intents.

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich created their Jove paperbacks, and republished Pleasant Dreams with alterations in the early 1970′s.

The contents of the Arkham House edition of “Pleasant Dreams – Nightmares” are different from the contents of the Jove/HBJ edition.

Arkham House edition:
Sweets to the Sweet
The Dream-Makers
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
I Kiss Your Shadow
(A) Mr. Steinway
The Proper Spirit
(A) Catnip
The Cheaters
Hungarian Rhapsody
The Light-House
Sleeping Beauty (originally The Sleeping Redheads)
Sweet Sixteen (originally Spawn of the Dark One)
(A) That Hell-Bound Train
(A) Enoch
(A) The Hungry HouseJove/HBJ edition:
Sweets to the Sweet
The Dream-Makers
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
I Kiss Your Shadow
[Mr Steinway omitted]
The Proper Spirit
[Catnip omitted]
The Cheaters
Hungarian Rhapsody
The Light-House
(added for Jove) The Hungry House
Sleeping Beauty
Sweet Sixteen
[That Hellbound Train omitted]
[Enoch omitted]
[The Hungry House omitted]
(added for Jove) The Mandarin’s Canaries
(added for Jove)Return to the Sabbath
(added for Jove) One Way to Mars

Four Rare Arkham House Titles Just Arrived

Four tough to find Arkham House titles particularly in this condition just arrived in the store. For more information on each title just click on the cover art.

SOMEONE IN THE DARK by August Derleth

Someone in the Dark is a collection of fantasy and horror short stories by author August Derleth. It was released in 1941 and was the second book published by Arkham House. 1,115 copies were printed.

Someone in the Dark contains the following tales:

1. “When the Night and House “
2. “Glory Hand”
3. “Compliments of Spectro”
4. “A Gift for Uncle Herman”
5. “McGovern’s Obsession”
6. “Three Gentlemen in Black”
7. “Muggridge’s Aunt”
8. “Bramwell’s Guardian”
9. “Joliper’s Gift”
10. “Altimer’s Amulet”
11. “The Shuttered House”
12. “The Sheraton Mirror”
13. “The Wind from the River”
14. “The Telephone in the Library”
15. “The Panelled Room”
16. “The Return of Hastur”
17. “The Sandwin Compact”

THE DARK BROTHERHOOD AND OTHER PIECES by H. P. Lovecraft

The Dark Brotherhood and Other Pieces is a collection of stories, poems and essays by American author H. P. Lovecraft and others, edited by August Derleth.

The Dark Brotherhood and Other Pieces contains the following pieces:

1. “Introduction”, by August Derleth
2. “The Dark Brotherhood” by H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth
3. “Suggestions for a Reading Guide”, by H. P. Lovecraft
4. “Alfredo”, by H. P. Lovecraft
5. “Amateur Journalism: Its Possible Needs and Betterment”, by H. P. Lovecraft
6. “What Belongs in Verse”, by H. P. Lovecraft
7. Six Poems, by H. P. Lovecraft
* “Bells”
* “Oceanus”
* “Clouds”
* “Mother Earth”
* “Cindy”
* “On a Battlefield in France”
8. Three Stories by C. M. Eddy, Jr.
* “The Loved Dead”
* “Deaf, Dumb, and Blind”
* “The Ghost-Eater”
9. “The Lovecraft “Books”: Some Addenda and Corrigenda”, by William Scott Home
10. “To Arkham and the Stars”, by Fritz Leiber
11. “Through Hyperspace With Brown Jenkin”, by Fritz Leiber
12. “Lovecraft and the New England Megaliths”, by Andrew E. Rothovius
13. “Howard Phillips Lovecraft: A Bibliography”, by Jack L. Chalker
14. “Walks With H. P. Lovecraft”, by C. M. Eddy, Jr.
15. “The Cancer of Superstition”, by C. M. Eddy, Jr.
16. “The Making of a Hoax”, by August Derleth
17. “Lovecraft’s Illustrators”, by John E. Vetter
18. “Final Notes”, by August Derleth

OTHER DIMENSIONS by Clark Ashton Smith

Other Dimensions is a collection of stories by author Clark Ashton Smith. It was released in 1970 and was the author’s sixth collection of stories published by Arkham House.

Other Dimensions contains the following tales:

1. “Marooned in Andromeda”
2. “The Amazing Planet”
3. “An Adventure in Futurity”
4. “The Immeasurable Horror”
5. “The Invisible City”
6. “The Dimension of Chance”
7. “The Metamorphosis of Earth”
8. “Phoenix”
9. “The Necromantic Tale”
10. “The Venus of Azombeii”
11. “The Resurrection of the Rattlesnake”
12. “The Supernumerary Corpse”
13. “The Mandrakes”
14. “Thirteen Phantasms”
15. “An Offering to the Moon”
16. “Monsters in the Night”
17. “The Malay Krise”
18. “The Ghost of Mohammed Din”
19. “The Mahout/ The Raja and the Tiger”
20. “Something New”
21. “The Justice of the Elephant”
22. “The Kiss of Zoraida”
23. “A Tale of Sir John Maundeville”
24. “The Ghoul”
25. “Told in the Desert”

THE QUICK AND THE DEAD by Vincent Starrett

The Quick and the Dead is a collection of stories by author Vincent Starrett. It was released in 1965 and was the author’s only collection of stories published by Arkham House.

The Quick and the Dead contains the following tales:

1. “The Fugitive”
2. “The Man in the Cask”
3. “The Quick and the Dead”
4. “The Sinless Village”
5. “The Head of Cromwell”
6. “Penelope”
7. “The Elixir of Death”
8. “Coffins for Two”
9. “The Tattooed Man”
10. “Footsteps of Fear”

August Derleth: Savior of Clark Ashton Smith?

August Derleth: Savior of Clark Ashton Smith?

Well, maybe.

There seems to be plenty of debate about whether Derleth saved Lovecraft from the ash can of history, but here we have more fuel to the flames. John D. Haelfele in the Fall 2010 Weird Fiction Review (Vol 1 No 1) exposits on the energy that Derleth expended to not only print Smith’s works in several volumes, but also to promote his sculpture at a time when Smith needed cash.

In 1941, Smith was in a bad spot, and asked for money from Derleth. Derleth promptly responded with a check. He expedited a plea to readers of Arkham House if they wanted to see Smith in print. Haefele documents that Donald Wolheim, Roy Squires and even William Baring-Gould responded with an affirmative. By November a press release was out, and in 1942 he was making arrangements to put ink to paper.

Smith obtained copies of his books from Derleth, and resold them from his house for extra cash.

Haefele goes on the explain the complexities of working with Smith into the late 1950′s when Smith’s new wife, Carol, began to have greater visions than Smith himself had – or at least she expected to execute grand ideas. Into the early 1960′s, “pocketbooks” (i.e. paperbacks) were suggested, detailed art or dust jackets of books that materialized slowly, and for briefer or longer periods, Ray Bradbury, Jack Chalker, Roy Squires, Donald Fryer, Glenn Lord, and Donlad Grant all began to be involved in Smith’s affairs until, and beyond his death in 1961.

The debate over Derleth’s impact on Lovecraft is unsettled, but now we must also determine how much Derleth assisted Smith’s legacy.