This may be another standard Newbie style of question, but might I ask the assembled CAS readers for any recomendations on short stories and/or books dealing with ghouls?

I've read Lovecraft's stories featuring them and from there I moved onto the handful of CAS tales dealing with them (the ones that were in Emperor of Dreams, anyway) as well as Brian McNaughtons fantastic (IMO) novella and assorted tales Throne of Bones. "Throne of Bones" really blew me away, by the way. I yern for another collection of Fantasy tales from him.

I've also recieved the following recomendations already from a guy who's well-versed in the genre:

Robert Barbour Johnson's "Far Below"
Edward Lucas White's "Amina"
THE LAST CONTINENT: NEW TALES OF ZOTHIQUE

I'm evenrually goign to get around to ordering books with te first two stories. And while I am not very far into the series, I understand Fafhhrd & the Gray Mouser will eventually meet up with some manner of ghouls.

But aside from the texts and stories mentioned, they seem under-represented in fantasy & horror--at least from what I've been able to dig up thus far.

Anyway, any recomendations would be appreciated. Sorry Im not bringing the board anything but queries at the moment--but if I must make a recomendation, again, "Throne of Bones" is quite good.

- RL

Robert Bloch's Weird Tales story "The Grinning Ghoul" comes to mind.

Ah, yes, Edward Lucas White. Probably the most underappreciated
master of horror fiction. What all did he write, anyway?

Henry Kuttner´s story, "The Graveyard Rats", comes to mind - but only indirectly. Also, the late Karl Edward Wagner´s Kane novel, Darkness Weaves, mentions ghouls (Kane takes one of their deserted (?) caverns for a temporary abode ...).

There is a German book series, DORIAN HUNTER, that puts a reincarnated demon hunter against a mafia-like organisation of supernatural creatures like vampires, werewolfs, and, yes, ghouls. But even there the gelatinous necrophages do not appear too often.

I'm writing the entry on ghouls for the forthcoming ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SUPERNATURAL LITERATURE from Greenwood, edited by Joshi and Dziemianowicz. Ghouls definitely take the bronze when it comes to monsters, since they're sort of hard to identify with. After all, vampires are so very "cool," everyone wants to identify with them. Werewolves, on the other hands, well, teenagers can definitely identify with loosing control hormonely, after all. But ghouls!--unless you're from Plainfield, WI, and like jokes about digging up a date for the prom, they're definitely the Rodney Dangerfield of the Undead. Seriously, they're sort of confined to stories that deal with middle eastern mythology and folklore of some sort, since they derive mostly from the Arabian Nights and enter English literature via that and Beckford's VATHEK. CAS pretty well followed Beckford in his handling.
Bill Prozini edited a collection called GHOUL! that contains a number of fine stories in the genre.
Best,
Scott Connors

Here are a few more:

Some of the tales from the ARABIAN NIGHTS, including "The Story of Sidi Nonman",
The contents of Bill Pronzini's anthology THE GHOUL (also part of THE ARBOR HOUSE NECROPOLIS),
Hugh Clifford's "The Ghoul"
Robert E. Howard's "The Jewels of Gwaluhr", ("Shadows in Zamboula", originally entitled "The Man-Eaters of Zamboula" might fit in here too),
Several of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser tales feature a race of ghouls,
Bob Leman's "The Tehama"
Frank Belknap Long's "Grab Bags Are Dangerous" and "It Will Come to You"
Guy de Maupassant's "The Unknown" (aka "The Stranger" or "The Woman of the Streets")
Vivian Meik "The Two Old Women" (or are they more vampiric?)
Arthur Porges' "Mop-up"
Several tales by Seabury Quinn, including "Children of Ubasti"
E. C. Tubb "Fresh Guy"
Does Wellman's "The Undead Soldier" count?
Henry S. Whitehead's "The Chadbourne Episode" (closely linked to Edward Lucas White's "Amina")

Jim

Concerning Edward Lucas White: he was best known in his time as a writer of historical novels. Two collections published during his lifetime contain horror stories, THE SONG OF THE SIREN (1919) and LUKUNDOO AND OTHER STORIES (1927). The title tale of the first is the only supernatural tale in the book, though two others--"Disvola" and "The Flambeaux Bracket"--are also horrific tales based on White's vivid nightmares. The second collection is entirely devoted to weird stories.

Midnight House in Seattle has published two books of White's stories, collecting the man's complete weird fiction. THE HOUSE OF THE NIGHTMARE includes all of the tales from LUKUNDOO, except for the collaboratory tale "Floki's Blade", plus "The Song of the Sirens". This volume was edited by the publisher, John Pelan. The second volume, SESTA & OTHER STRANGE STORIES, edited by White authority Lee Weinstein, contains the remaining tale from LUKUNDOO, the two horrific (though non-supernatural) dream tales from THE SONGS OF THE SIREN, two poems and three tales never reprinted since their magazine appearance, and nine tales never before published anywhere. John's introduction to the first volume is interesting, but Weinstein's introduction and story notes to the second volume are indispensable. If you have any interest in White, you owe it to yourself to pick up both of these books.

Jim

Mention, above, of Kuttner's Graveyard Rats story - as I see Wildside Press has just released a collection of Robert E. Howard's detective stories, entitled, Graveyard Rats, I am guessing there is some connection, perhaps. Or maybe it was just a re-used title? I seem to recall a naughty comic I saw ages ago, based on one of these pieces, which featured corpses and rats down in the ground, rotting yuckiness abounding. I think I got that from Bob Weinberg way back when. Does anybody know what I am talking about?