I was just wondering if any of you weird fiction connoisseurs out there are familiar with H. R. Wakefield's ghost stories. I understand that he is sadly oft-overlooked, but represents a major player in the tradition of the classic ghost story. I have also read that he is comparable to M. R. James.

Anyway, I have just had the good fortune to snag his best of volume (edited by Richard Dalby, 1978 ed.) for dirt cheap, and I'm very curious about what I'm in for (alas, I must wait for it to come in the mail!). I am reasonably familiar with Le Fanu, James, Blackwood, and Benson--how does Wakefield stack up against them? I have the story "Old Man's Beard" in an anthology, and will probably read it tonight for a taste of what's coming. What do you all think of him?

And since this is a CAS forum, did Smith ever read Wakefield, and if so, what did he think of him? I know he read James, and thought highly of his work.

In a letter of January 1934 to H. P. Lovecraft, CAS wrote: "...I hasten to thank you for the Wakefield loan and the gift...of the book on Beddoes. I have read one of the Wakefield stories last night--'He Cometh and He Passeth By,'--and found it excellent, especially in the suggestion of the diabolic Shadow."

I don't know if Derleth made a habit of sending CAS new Arkham House titles as they were publish'd, but I think it likely that CAS read the superb 1946 volume, THE CLOCK STRIKES TWELVE. I have both it and STRAYERS FROM SHEOL and find these spectral tales extremely good--and the latter title has a rather remarkable Introduction by ye author.

"I'm a little girl."
--H. P. Lovecraft, Esq.

I have the Wakefield volume that you mention, K_A_. It contains some excellent stories--my favorite is "Look Up There" (I am a little surprised that Lovecraft did not make more of a fuss over this tale, as it is a masterpiece of subtle, ambiguous, inferential horror)--but Wakefield, in my view, is not in the LeFanu/M.R. James class.

Wakefield is a superbly elegant stylist, and has a marvelous macabre imagination, but his tales sometimes seem a little rushed, and they tend to lack in atmosphere or development. A fine writer, and well worth reading, but hardly a "major player".

In the CAS letter that mentions Wakefield, CAS goes on mostly to discuss Aleister Crowley and his possible inspiration for the character of Clinton.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 21 Aug 11 | 04:51PM by Absquatch.

Thank you both for the info! If CAS enjoyed Wakefield, I am sure he is plenty good enough for me. As for him not being in the James/Le Fanu ranking, I had heard as much. Still--this does not bother me in the least. I don't think Benson is rated so highly, and I enjoy his ghost stories immensely. His story "And No Bird Sings" is particularly memorable!

I am especially excited to read "Look Up There." I had the idea to write a story about a sinister apparition in the clouds long ago (never actually wrote it), so am curious to see how it is handled by Wakefield.

Being that I have already read James and Le Fanu, I am excited to delve into a new author!

Does anyone know any other lesser known ghost story writers that are especially worthy of investigation? I have heard that Edith Wharton's ghost stories are worthy of a read. These writers are, after all, the forerunners of modern weird fiction (and by modern, I mean CAS and HPL's heyday).

Quote:

If CAS enjoyed Wakefield, I am sure he is plenty good enough for me.

Well, we know that he enjoyed that one story....


Here's a favorite non-fictional quotation of mine from Wakefield. CAS would have endorsed it wholeheartedly, I think.

Quote:

We have to remember and face the fact that we have not, and cannot have, any acquaintance with, let us say, more than a millionth part of what is loosely called 'reality', or the final truth about the universe, which may be, indeed, from our point of view, fundamentally irrational. Remember that we can see only one octave of all the myriad wavelengths. We are almost totally blind. It is said that bees can see infra-red rays. If so, they are a little less blind than we are, and they see an entirely different world from ours. We can see only what we are capable of seeing, and our minds have nothing more than their sensory data to work with. Therefore we can understand so much and not more, for our whole apparatus of cognition is utterly inadequate to grasp the whole. We see perhaps only one octave of the rays of reality....

Very interesting quote, Absquatch. I wonder--where did you find it? I definitely agree with Wakefield, and all the other people who have realized the same thing. I think the best we can do for now is simply to realize how blind we really are. Beyond that--it is fun to speculate. Such is the playground for weird fiction. Truly, it is somewhat egotistical to think that because we only have five senses, there are only five sorts of things to sense. Still, if there were many more things to sense out there, wouldn't careful observation of other lifeforms with senses beyond our own have yielded a clue? But then, I suppose we cannot expect their senses to cover the full range either... Theoretically, I suppose there may be thousands of senses--we simply cannot know. One could argue, I suppose--and I'm sure many have--that the barkings of dogs seemingly at nothing is evidence of them sensing something wholly outside our range; and who knows what bizarre hidden truths might be yeilded by a careful observation of bees? I smell a weird story coming along...or do I sense it through some other inexplicable mechanism?

Wakefield can be a bit uneven ("Used Cars" with its anti-Semitism and laughable American gangster slang is pretty awful), but he can also be quite good. Dalby's selection contains several classics, as well as a few odditiies:

"The Red Lodge" - excellent. The same house reappears in "Blind Man's Buff", also included in this collection as well as the excellent "Frontier Guards", the very good "The Alley", and the rather kooky but intermittently chilling "Ghost Hunt".

"'He Cometh and He Passeth By' " - excellent take on MRJ's "Casting the Runes"

"Professor Pownall's Oversight" - perhaps a better as a character study than a ghost story, but still quite good

"The Seventeenth Hole at Duncaster" - interesting in concept, but it does not hold up to rereading for me.

" 'Look Up There' " - excellent
"Blind Man's Buff" - excellent - in both of these stories, Wakefield excels at revealing just enough details to make our flesh crawl.

"Day-Dream in Macedon" - excellent
"Damp Sheets" - conventional but good
"A Black Solitude" - seems a bit stale to me, though the characterization is good.
"The Triumph of Death" - quite good
"A Kink in Space-Time" - OK
"The Gorge of the Churels" - the dynamics between the characters are well-handled
" 'Immortal Bird' " - one of his late, quite bitter stories
"Death of a Bumble-Bee" - interesting, but like the quite odd "Animals in the Case", this seems to be more an attempt to handle personal issues through metaphor than a bona fide supernatural story.

A few more favorites of mine, which are absent from this collection include (not already noted above):

"The First Sheaf" - what does it take to produce a successful harvest?
"Mr. Ash's Studio" - one of his most atmospheric tales - a haunted artist's studio with moths forming images on an incomplete canvas
"Old Man's Beard" - a young woman victimized by the spirit of a lecherous old man. Some of the descriptions of auditory phenomena in this story are superb.
"Death of a Poacher" - rather nasty conflation of elements from Le Fanu's "Green Tea" and "Squire Toby's Will".
"Lucky's Grove" - what is wrong with the Christmas tree?

There are more (the late posthumous collection from Ash-Tree contains a few gems), but I will leave it at that.

Jim

Jim, thanks very much! Very thorough. From what you say about "Death of a Poacher," I think I should really like to read that one if ever I acquire a volume containing it (Wakefield's stuff, as I'm sure you know, is difficult to acquire these days. I myself went the Amazon route...snagged an 'acceptable' copy for $4 n' change...as long as it's readable, I'm happy.)

You are welcome, Mr. Opperman:

One of the easier ways to encounter much of Wakefield's better work is through the two best-of collections he gathered himself - GHOST STORIES (Jonathan Cape, 1932; reprinted by Arno/Books for Libraries as part of their Short Story Reprint series) and IN GHOSTLY COMPANY (Jonathan Cape, 1932 - unfortunately not reprinted).

Contents are as follows:

GHOST STORIES (only a few duds in this one) -
"Messrs. Turkes and Talbot", "A Peg on Which to Hang", "Used Car", "Damp Sheets", "The Cairn", "Blind Man's Buff", "Look Up There", "The Frontier Guards", "Mr. Ash's Studio", "Nurse's Tale", "A Coincidence at Hunton", "The Red Hand", "An Echo", "Day-Dream in Macedon", "Knock! Knock! Who's There?", "Epilogue by Roger Bantock", "The Last to Leave", "The Central Figure", "Old Man's Beard", "Present at the End", "A Jolly Surprise for Henri".

IN GHOSTLY COMPANY (a much more mixed bag than the earlier volume, unless you do not already have the contents of THEY RETURN AT EVENING) -
"And He Shall Sing", "Death of a Poacher", "He Cometh and He Passeth By", "A Fishing Story", "The Seventeenth Hole at Duncaster", "Or Persons Unknown", "The Inevitable Flaw", "That Dieth Not", "The Red Lodge", "Professor Pownall's Oversight", "The Third Coach", "Corporal Humpit of the 4th Musketeers".

The Ash-Trees are all excellent (the last volume is not duplicated anywhere at present), but some of them have become even more expensive than the first editions by now.

Jim

P.S. I cannot remember if John Metcalfe had been mentioned on this group or not. His THE SMOKING LEG was also reprinted by Arno/Books for Libraries, and I heartily recommend it. JUDAS AND OTHER STORIES and a smattering of uncollected stories are also well worth your while, though the ones Derleth picked up for AH anthologies are less consistent in quality. Ash-Tree's collection, NIGHTMARE JACK, is missing just a few stories, but is one of my favorites among their many fine collections. Rumor has it that Mr. Joshi is compiling a large collection of Metcalfe's work for someone (Centipede?), but I do not know any details about that proejct.

Helpful as always, Jim! And I wonder--how did you know I was a mister? How do you know my name is not, say, Kristin, or Katherine, or Karen? Ha ha, just a bit of sport! Yes, I'm a mister alright.

But enough of that! I find your info very helpful, Jim, and someone else out there may appreciate it as well. It can be a frustrating task, trying to figure out the best route for collecting the most of an author's stories. You have done the internet, and Mr. Wakefield, a great service. Unfortunately, I don't expect to get my hands on either of those volumes any time soon. They are rare, and monetary resources almost equally so. But someday...

In case anyone here is interested, I know of one--and only one--Wakefield story which can be read for free on the net--"The Frontier Guards." It can be read here:

[thenostalgialeague.com]

A few others, such as "Old Man's Beard," are occasionally encountered in anthologies. Other than that, rare tomes must be sought out--for much of his work, as I understand it, remains under copyright.

And Jim, I am for the nonce unfamiliar with Metcalfe's work--I will try to seek him out. Thanks much for the lead.

And now I have some poetry to be typing up...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 22 Aug 11 | 01:43AM by K_A_Opperman.

Thanks - a shot in the dark loosely based on the conteext of some earlier messages, not that this is all that accurate a method of determining gender. Thought this might be less awkward than K_A.

Ha ha, yes, I suppose it is a bit awkward to address someone with two letters and nothing else! (When I send in a fiction/poetry submission to some places, they are often forced to address me that way![in the rejection letter:( ]) The underscores make 'K_A_' look especially ridiculous--I only wrote it that way because I had recently joined another forum which wouldn't let me use periods for some reason, forcing me to resort to the underscore. I stupidly assumed this forum would be the same--I'm no genius when it comes to computers and the internet. I would have changed it, but it wouldn't let me--oh well. I use K. A. Opperman as my pen-name--I guess it's supposed to have a sort of 'dignity' to it, in the H. P. Lovecraft sort of way. I make it a point to conceal my first name so internet searches on my real name don't lead to my writings--I don't want potential employers, etc., seeing the bizarre stuff I write! As long as I keep my first name secret, I can deny everything! Just a sort of thin veil to hide behind. Mr. Opperman is a fine way to address me, Jim. But it certainly is interesting how we make gender assumptions based on text alone.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 22 Aug 11 | 06:56PM by K_A_Opperman.

Quote:

But it certainly is interesting how we make gender assumptions based on text alone.

It's actually also the result of pretty sound probabilistic reasoning. I can think of a total of two women whom I've ever seen posting here over the years, both long since departed from the forum. Of course, others could be lurking, or not identifiable via their posts, but, sad to say, this seems to be very much a male-dominated forum.

Yes, I had gotten that impression...

One of our girls is busy finishing up her degree at Johns Hopkins - I am sure she still checks on the postings - very bright and talented kid - we have exchanged many emails. Besides, it is easy to tell gender as a rule, even in classical piano the most brilliant women are easily distinguished in playing the same work from a man - not better or worse - just a difference in modality and touch -