Knygatin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> The recent Penguin edition of Ancient Sorceries &
> Others, edited by S. T. Joshi, is excellent.
>
> The first edition of the Centipede Press is an
> extensive collection of short stories, but not
> complete in any way.

I seem to remember the Penguin edition having too many overlaps with the Best Ghost Stories of AB for my liking (which I own), although I could be wrong... I do fancy a fat-arsed hardback though, so I might just wait for the new Centipede press edition to surface in December (if I have the money)... I have a copy of Tales of Terror and Darkness in storage I can dig out in the meantime, although I've heard (maybe on this forum?) that it isn't the strongest collection...

The English Assassin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have a copy of Tales of Terror and
> Darkness in storage I can dig out in the meantime,
> although I've heard (maybe on this forum?) that it
> isn't the strongest collection...

793 pages. Not bad!

There is also Incredible Adventures, perhaps his most highly regarded collection of stories. Available from Hippocampus Press.

Probably not one of the greats, but I've just heard that Basil Copper died a month ago. I very much enjoyed The Great White Space and some of his short fiction is pretty good.

[www.guardian.co.uk]

The English Assassin Wrote:
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> Probably not one of the greats, but I've just
> heard that Basil Copper died a month ago. I very
> much enjoyed The Great White Space and some of his
> short fiction is pretty good.
>
> [www.guardian.co.uk]-
> copper


I'd have to agree that he isn't "one of the greats" but, as with Joseph Payne Brennan, he was capable of some fine stories, and deserves to be remembered....

The English Assassin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Knygatin Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > The recent Penguin edition of Ancient Sorceries & Others, edited by S. T. Joshi, is excellent.
> >
> > The first edition of the Centipede Press is an extensive collection of short stories, but not
> > complete in any way.
>
> I seem to remember the Penguin edition having too many overlaps with the Best Ghost Stories of AB
> for my liking (which I own), although I could be wrong... I do fancy a fat-arsed hardback though,
> so I might just wait for the new Centipede press edition to surface in December (if I have the
> money)... I have a copy of Tales of Terror and Darkness in storage I can dig out in the meantime,
> although I've heard (maybe on this forum?) that it isn't the strongest collection...

You are in luck. There is another Blackwood collection (nearly 900 pages) in the works from Centipede (nearly 900 pages and I believe it will bear a less luxurious price than their Masters of Horror volume devoted to that author), edited by S. T. Joshi, which contains most of THE LISTENER AND OTHER STORIES, all three of the novelettes from INCREDIBLE ADVENTURES, and a sampling of longer and shorter works from the other collections. Anyone worried about making room for so many of the longer works need not worry, because "Ancient Sorceries", "The Glamour of the Snow", "The Listener", "The Wendigo", "The Willows", and "The Man Whom the Trees Loved", are all here, along with plenty of other stories, and the first five of these are the only overlap the collection offers with Bleiler's familiar, but all too brief 1973 (Happy 40th!) selection for Dover.

The new book also shares only eight of the works selected by Blackwood himself for the 1929 STRANGE STORIES ("The Man Whom the Trees Loved", "Sea Fit"' "The Occupant of the Room", "The Wings of Horns", "A Descent Into Egypt", "The Glamour of the Snow", "The Willows", and "Ancient Sorceries"), and three of those will already be familiar from the readily accessible Bleiler collection.

Perhaps no single volume can do full justice to Blackwood's work, but despite the inevitable wish any selection prompts in the individual reader to trade story X for story Y, I believe this collection will offer a more representative overview of Blackwood's achievement at less than novel length than we have seen in the past.

Of the longer works included ("The Man Whom the Trees Loved", "Sand", "The Regeneration of Lord Ernie", "The Damned", and "A Descent into Egypt"), "The Man Whom the Trees Loved", "Sand", and "A Descent into Egypt" still seem to me to sprawl somewhat in the middle, but there are wonderfully evocative passages throughout all three works, and the climaxes to "Trees" and "Egypt" are magnificent.

Re: the Blackwood novelettes, I see that I may have unintentionally given the impression that "The Regeneration of Lord Ernie" and "The Damned" are less successful than these other three, when, except for the polemic tone that creeps into the conclusion of "The Damned", I found both of these compelling throughout. It is difficult for me not to imagine the orgiastic climax on the ridge in "Lord Ernie" set to music by Stravinsky and choreographed by Nijinsky a la Sacre du Printemps.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11 Jul 13 | 07:31PM by jimrockhill2001.

By the way, Stravinsky's "Le Sacre du Printemps" was performed by the Ballets Russes at the Théâtre des Champs-élysées on May 29th, 100 years ago.

Another fan of Algernon Blackwood here.

I agree with what others have said about The Centaur. It's not without it's faults, but is a truly remarkable book, in my opinion, with so many beautifuly written passages.

Having previously read the 'Best Ghost Stories' compilation, I'm now working my way through Blackwoods original story collections and novels, which don't seem to be that widely known or available. Where possible, I'm getting the original editions.. even if they are old and battered, the sense of transience is hightened in an old book anyway. Usually available for a reasonable price, but some seem quite expensive, so I've settled with the POD.

So far I've read Pan's Garden and The Lost Valley, both extremely stong collections. Everyone knows The Willows and The Wendigo, but how many get to read the beautiful and poignant Man Who Played Upon The Leaf?

With Blackwood, I find the nature mystic element more important than the horror element, although both are obviously there. Of the novella lengths from Pan's Garden, I actually slightly preferred The Temptation of the Clay to Sand and The Man Who The Tress Loved, although all three are highly evocative pieces.

Next up: Incredible Adventures!

jimrockhill2001 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The English Assassin Wrote:
>
> You are in luck. There is another Blackwood
> collection (nearly 900 pages) in the works from
> Centipede (nearly 900 pages and I believe it will
> bear a less luxurious price than their Masters of
> Horror volume devoted to that author), edited by
> S. T. Joshi, which contains most of THE LISTENER
> AND OTHER STORIES, all three of the novelettes
> from INCREDIBLE ADVENTURES, and a sampling of
> longer and shorter works from the other
> collections. Anyone worried about making room for
> so many of the longer works need not worry,
> because "Ancient Sorceries", "The Glamour of the
> Snow", "The Listener", "The Wendigo", "The
> Willows", and "The Man Whom the Trees Loved", are
> all here, along with plenty of other stories, and
> the first five of these are the only overlap the
> collection offers with Bleiler's familiar, but all
> too brief 1973 (Happy 40th!) selection for Dover.

Thanks for the detailed information about this collection. The Centipede Press site doesn't give many details as to what it contained (which seems strange considering their prices). Anyway, should I have the money nearer the time I shall probably treat myself to this.

I recently read the first volume of Centipede's Karl Edward Wagner's horror collection, which I very much enjoyed.

I've just finished reading a relatively little known collection of supernatural fiction by Ulric Daubeny called The Elemental published by Ash-tree a few years ago. I got it at a reasonable, if not cheap, price on eBay before Christmas and I must say it's a fun read with some novel and well crafted takes on the supernatural tale. He possibly is guilty of over explaining, so I can't describe many of these tales as truly weird, but certainly most equal to many of the staples found in the Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories and other such anthologies. Worth checking out if you can get it at the right price.

I see Centipede Press are bringing out a few collections of interest, however this review gives me with some trepidation: [www.amazon.com] it obviously doesn't refer to the, as yet, unpublished collection of William Hope Hodgson that is pictured with (which hopefully will fix these errors), but to the exorbitantly expensive Masters of the Weird Tale edition that came out a few years ago, but, if true, such shoddy proofreading for what was a premium priced edition is hardly acceptable. Indeed, I'd be demanding a full refund. There's so few reviews of CP's stuff out there that it's very hard to judge their output, which is what puts me off... Will CP fix the errors in the new edition? Are these errors typical of their products? I must admit that I've not noticed any howlers in the Karl Edward Wagner collection I've read, nor in the Ligotti book either, so maybe this is a one off or maybe this review isn't accurate? I sure CAS' Eldritch Dark receives better treatment.

I thought I'd also pass on the news for those who don't know that Stephan Grabinski's Motion Demon has an affordable paperback release here: [www.amazon.com] It's PoD, but seems sound enough. Also, I've read that Lipinski is working on a collection for Centipede Press... Better start saving!!

Sad to say, proofreading problems seem common at Centipede Press. I have three books they published, one of which (Nosferatu) had clearly just been skimmed through rather than properly checked. Also, the pictures were pixellated DVD captures. A great pity that.

The Ninth Configuration also had unacceptably poor proofreading, a great shame for such an interesting book in what is in all other ways an attractive edition (the cover looks great).

Right now I am in the middle of the great collection The Autopsy and Other Tales, by the divine Michael Shea. This is a splendid looking book, worthy of this underrated author. So far I have spotted only a few typos (one of them does seem to be in the title of a story, though, which is frankly insane).

Based on this small sampling, I won't actively disrecommend CP's books, but would advise you to take a good look before shelling out the big bucks.

Proofreading's a dying art. OUP's recent edition of the collected M.R. James was riddled with errors, too. It all started to go wrong when manual typesetting disappeared as a profession, if you ask me. I have quite a few books from the end of the nineteenth century that have complicated yet flawless typesetting. And nowadays many publishers simply no longer spend the money on more than a cursory check. Sad.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 3 Feb 14 | 07:46AM by Avoosl Wuthoqquan.

Avoosl Wuthoqquan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So far I
> have spotted only a few typos (one of them does
> seem to be in the title of a story, though, which
> is frankly insane).

On occasions such as this I like to mention that I own a Ballantine Books edition from the 1970s of THE GODS OF MARS where the author is identified as "Edgar Rice Burrows" on the title page. I imagine a scenario involving a last-minute phone call to the printers . . .

The thing is, it is slightly more excusable with a cheaply produced, cheaply priced paperback edition. For sure I've spotted some typos in old Penguin editions of Ballard, etc... but I'd imagine that a luxury edition costing several hundred dollars would be proofread to within an inch of its life. I think we can all excuse the odd mistake slipping through, especially with small press publishers, but when you have significant mistakes that reduce the readability of the text, that seems less understandable. I'm gonna buy CAS' Eldritch Dark come what may, because I love CAS too much not to, but I hope his art isn't pixelated too!

Good weird tales which are not as known as they would deserve (in my humble subjective opinion)

Gertrude Atherton - The Foghorn (1933) (short story)
Algernon Blackwood - The Listener (1907) (short story)
O. M. Cabral - Unhallowed Hollyday (1939) (short story)
Erle Cox - Out Of Silence (1916) (novel)
Ulrich Daubeny - Sumach (1919) (short story)
Allison W. Harding - The Unfriendly World (1942) (short story)
William Hope Hodgson - The Terror Of The Watter-Tank (1907) (short story)
Malcom Jameson - Vengeance In Her Bones (1942) (short story)
Ronal Kayser - In The Dark (1936) (short story)
Lord Mindret - The Naked Lady (1934) (short story)
Guy De Maupassant - The Letter From A Madman (?) (short story)
Thorp McCluskey - The Thing On The Floor (1938) (short story)
John Metcalfe - The Grey House (1928) (short story)
Silas Weir Mitchell - The House Beyond Prettymarsh (1910) (short story)
W. C. Morrow - The Monster-Maker (1897) (short story)
William Mudford - The Iron Shroud (1830) (short story)
Franz Nabl - The Long Arm (1937) (short story)
Earl Pierce, jr. - The Homicidal Diary (1937) (short story)
Frank L. Pollock - Finis (1906) (short story)
Sax Rohmer - The Master Of The Hollow Grange (1920) (short story)
Georgie Sylvester Vierick - The House Of The Vampire (1907) (short story)
Samuel Warren - The Spectre-Smitten (1831) (short story)
Arthur B. Waltemire - The Door Of Death (1936) (short story)
Edith Wharton - The Bolted Door (1909) (short story)
John Wyndham - Vengeance By Proxy (1940) (short story)
Madeline Yale Wynne - The Little Room (1895) (short story)

While we're on the subject of proof-reading, what is a watter-tank?