One of the wrongly forgoten masters of the strange,H.H.Ewers was a german writer,writing from the turn of the century to ca. the 1920's.His fiction includes the weird novels of the Frank Braun trilogy,the most celebrated and notes in SHiL as well are

"Alraune" and "The sorceror's aprentice".

His short fiction is similar to W.C. Morrow,except having a distinct flavour-where Morrow explores cruelty of either humans or fate,Ewers aditionaly explores bloodlust, perversion and obsesion.

"Tomato Sauce" is quite a good example of this-so is his "Box of counters", which as I have read it at the same time as W.C.Morrow's "The ape,the idiot and other people",seemed like a tale Morrow WOULD have written-

while his "From the diary of an orange Tree" feels very Oliver Onions-like - it mostly reminded me of "Benlial" from O.Onions' "Widdershins".

Other stories are very horrible as well-The Dead Jew,which could also be called a mixture of Ewers and Onions, in that it features a coach ride with a corpse the drunken passangers all swear to have heard talking to them, as they ride it o to the morgue.It is actualy even beter then it sounds, because one isnt exactely sure.

"The end of John Hamilton Llewelyn" is my favourite tale of Ewers so far-it is,borrowing some words of HPL's "so infinitely like and so ininitely unlike" Fitz James O'Brian's "The diamond lense",only with a litle implied necrophilia (though never going beyond simple carresing and kissing).

I whole heartily advise anyone to try Ewers out-his "The Spider" is on gutenberg and elsewhere to view.

Ah, Ewers, everybody's favorite Nazi writer of weird tales! (He also wrote a biography of Horst Wessel, the Brownshirt "martyr" who lent his name to the party anthem.) This might be the reason why he isn't better known. HPL really liked "The Spider," as do I.
He is also a character in Kim Newman's novel The Bloody Red Baron, where he is a vampire and is supposed to "edit" an "autobiography" by Baron von RIchthofen that is actually "ghostwritten" by an Undead Edgar Poe! (Newman's "Anni Draculae" series is well worth reading: an alternate history where Van Helsing &Co fail to destroy the Count and vamps end up coming "out of the coffin," with both Elders and Newborn assuming prominent, but not necessarily dominant, positions in western society [except for the US].)

Scott

well,he was a nationalist,but wasnt an antisemite,he advocated the jews position,had all but one book of his (I presume said Nazi biography) banned and died forgotten in the first half of the 1940's I believe.Would have been interesting to know what atitude the new governments would take on him- especialy concerning how they kept sabotaging him writing Vampir and police continously destroyed the manuscripts.

I mean,it was a NOVEL,WHY was this needed?

Also Scott-you realy should read the other tales I mentioned-youll never get a good taste of Ewers unless you do.

Also-a full recomendation on "The asorceror's aprentice"-it has a few "fanfic" ish parts,but not as many as Hodgson's "House on the borderland", which I also like and is overall wery enthraling and the climax is well worth it.I read it in only four days too,reading over 120 pages in one day.

I would very much like to read Ewers, but I don't believe there are any English translations currently in print. I can read German, provided I have a good dictionary nearby, but it takes me a long time, and I find that I really can't "do" fiction in any language but English (I miss the finer nuances), so I limit my Lesen auf Deutsch to histories. If you can recommend a source for Ewers, I will definitely follow it up.
While it is true that Ewers was an unperson in the Reich by the time he died (the latter tended to follow the former with monotonous predictability), I am pretty sure he was a party member before the Assumption of Power on January 30, 1933. That he fell out of favor isn't surprising: as Ernst Roehm remarked (right before he was murdered during the Night of the Long Knives), "all revolutions eat their children," and besides, Goebbels was a fickle SOB. So the mere fact that he ended up on the outside looking in doesn't mean that he wouldn't very much have liked to have been on the inside. By the same token, I can separate an author's work from his politics--otherwise I'd have to throw out all of my Herbert von Karajan CDs!

Scott

Runa Raven published all of the available English translations, with a couple of new ones, about 8 years ago. You may recall, Scott, that my review of appeared on the alt.books.ghost-fiction group (before it wound up on Jessica's Weird Review). If you find a used copy, the second printing is the one to buy - the first is riddled with orthographical errors.

John Pelan was doing a collection of Ewers for Sidereal Press (whose Molesworth collection was rather nicely done), but I have no idea when that will apppear, as Sidereal has not produced any updates on that project for quite a while.

The novel ALRAUNE was reprinted by Arno/Books for Libraries, but I agree that its sequel SORCERER'S APPRENTICE is even finer. The third Braun novel, VAMPIRE, is supposed to be a mess, as published, and I have not yet read it.

There was an HHEwers discussion group for a few years (which is where I first met Doug Anderson), but that seems to have gone from dormant to dead over the past year.

Jim

Hi Jim:
Yes, after I posted that last, I remembered that you had reviewed that Runa Raven Press collection on Jessica's site. I just found their website and they list the book as still in print. I would imagine that the publisher has copies of the second printing, so I specified that in my order. But Yog-Sothoth Neblod Zin! I could not believe the prices they're asking for Ewers' novels.
Runa Raven Press [www.runaraven.com].
Any idea whether John's collection would include novels or short stories? Someone (maybe even me?) should do a copyright search on the John Day editions and reprint them in facsimile if they're in the public domain.

Scott

> There was an HHEwers discussion group for a few
> years (which is where I first met Doug Anderson),
> but that seems to have gone from dormant to dead
> over the past year.
>
> Jim

The group still exists- but it seems to have become a spam site now. I keep getting "Horny Singles" ads sent to me from the Ewers site.

Ive talked to someone from Sidereal Press I think-didnt reply to my second message yet,but we talked about the volume their preparing.

Also,I would say The Sorceror's Aprentice ISA good,but there is one moment of fan-fiction-nesqueness in there, when Braun talks about the "worms who ate up all the holy water"- in context,that is a tad bit weird.

Also,a bit offtopic,but anyone know a working way to contribute something to the Weird Review?The specified email "doesnt exist" acording to my email and her personal email wasnt a good idea,id say.

Hi Everyone!
I love Hanns Heinz Ewers so much that I am translating him! Here is a link to my web page where you can find several short stories and three novels in progress. The short stories I have translated so far are:

Edgar Allan Poe
The Lost Monkey
How Eleven Chinese Devoured Their Bride
The Eleven Thousand Virgins and the Four Holy Three Kings
Anthropoovaropartus
My Burial
My Mother the Witch
The Crucified Minstral

There will be more coming!

In addition:
Alraune Chapters one and two (chapter three will be done tomorrow)
Vampire Chapter one
Fundvogel Chapter one and most of chapter two

The link is:
[anarchistworld.com]

What I'm doing is putting partial chapters on blogs first. When the chapters are done they go on my webpage. Here are links to the blogs:

Alraune [ewersalraune.wordpress.com]

Vampire [anarchistbanjo.wordpress.com]

Fundvogel [anarchisticknights.com]

Hanns Heinz Ewers [hannsheinzewers.wordpress.com]

I am always interested in comments and feedback!

bright blessings-anarchistbanjo

In response to some of the other posts, Kessinger Publications does have a reprint out of Sorcerer's Apprentice.

I talked to John Smith at Sideral Press and he is planning to have an expensive 300 copy printing made hopefully by around Christmas but 30 Pounds seems a bit steep. Shrug.

I got tired of not having any English translations available and decided to just start doing them.

The English translation of Alraune by Guy Endors is not a very good one in my opinion and was censored. I'm not sure how much but I do know Chapter two of my translation is nothing like chapter two of his. There are enough differences to justify my own translation in my opinion.

Vampire is a curious book. Fritz Salinger was very good and smooth in his English translation, at least as much as I have read. (Only the first chapter of his translation) But he seems to round things off to the lowest and crudest denominator, to coin a phrase. My translation of chapter one in contrast seems to round things up into the spiritual and philosophical level giving it a totally different flavor. Again I think it is significant enough to warrant a new translation.

Fundvgel of course has never been translated. Chapter two is simply amazing, at least to me! It is probably my favorite so far. Chapter two is only available on my blog right now since I haven't finished it.

Prior to the short stories I have translated the available ones have been cherry picked to select the most horrible and strange. I haven't read the stories before I translate them so I never know what I am going to get. My selection is therefore more across the board.

Edgar Allan Poe is simply one of the most beautiful masterpieces I've ever read and I am very blessed to have been able to translate it!

Enjoy!

-anarchistbanjo

Well,the Poe essay is on gutenberg with some original ilustration.

If we are talking about the same thing, the Gutenburg essay is in German. It's the one I used to translate from.

As far as I know the English translation by Adele Lewison is not available online but is available as a reprint from kessinger books as well.

I read her translation after I had made my own and do prefer mine but that might be personal preference. Chuckle.

Adele Lewison of course is the one that made the English translation of The Sorcerer's Apprentice. She is also the one that Hanns Heinz Ewers dedicated his novel Vampire to. Apparently it is about their relationship.

bright blessings
-anarchistbanjo

Oops! I need to make a correction. There are two Lewisohns. Adele translated the Poe Essay and is the one HHE dedicated Vampire to. Ludwig Lewisohn translated The Sorcerer's Apprentice. That does explain the differences in quality. I assumed Adele might have wrote under the name Ludwig, guess that's what happens when a person assumes! Blush!

Anyway I got Alraune chapter three up on the webpage now.

I am just a fan like everyone else and continue to be amazed at the new stories. I am always eager to learn more about this interesting man and his life!

-joe

Merry Christmas!

What better gift than to present a new Hanns Heinz Ewers story!

Here then is both the link to Fundvogel chapter 2 and the short story taken from this chapter. They are the same except chapter two has one section at the front of the chapter. The original book Fundvogel did not include the section on the Cat Organ so I've taken new material from the short story and added it to the main book chapter.

[anarchistworld.com]

[anarchistworld.com]

This is one of my favorite things that I've translated so far! I love this book!

-joe

Here is the link to Vampire Chapter 2

[anarchistworld.com]

It's not surprising that Ewers got in trouble with the authorities! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that even in this chapter he was getting in trouble with politically sensitive issues! Talk about putting a sign on your back that says "kick me!"

In chapter two he mentions political events in World War I before America got involved. We have German Americans buying tickets on neutral ships to go back to the Homeland and help fight the war. But these ships are not so neutral, they bring German Americans by the thousands to concentration camps in France and England! The German Americans were robbed of their money. Funny, I never read about that in my history books! He also talks about the German Workers Organization and attempting to get German American workers to go on strike!

Is it any wonder that they wanted to know what was in the rest of the book! Just my thoughts on this!

-joe