The guide to supernatural fiction

lrIID® @llilDcQl® t1@ ~ illl ~ ® If IID [ill It llilIr [ill II If fi ~lt fi @ IID A full description of 1,775 books from 1750 to 1960, including ghost stories, weird fiction, stories of supernatural horror, fantasy, Gothic novels, occult fiction, and similar literature. With author, title, and motif indexes

by Everett F. Bleiler

THE KENT STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Copyright © 1983 by Everett F. Bleiler All rights reserved Published by The Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio 44242 Manufactured in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Bleiler, Everett Franklin, 1920The guide to supernatural fiction. Bibliography: p. Includes indexes. 1. Supernatural in literature. 2. English fiction-Stories, plots, etc. 3. American fiction--Stories, plots, etc. I. Title. PN56.S8B57 1983 809.3'937 82-25477 ISBN 087338-228-9

Preface

vii

Book and story descriptions

1

The phenomenology of contranatural fiction Index of motifs and story types Index of authors

613

Index of titles

673

Bibliography

723

559

553

The present volume is a survey of a single subject matter, the supernatural, but a subject matter that traditionally has been used in many different ways and for many different purposes. It has been used in a primary way as a source of thrills or for the inherent interest of supernatural motifs taken literally. It has also been used in a secondary way as a vehicle for something else: satire, analysis of social relations, probing of guilt and conscience, a search for justice, and on a tertiary level, as a symbolization of something otherwise perhaps on the edge of ineffability. It is the story of a monstrosity, as in H. P. Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror," that gobbles up those who evoke it, and as in Bulwer Lytton's A Strange Story it is a similar monster that consciously symbolizes the evil portion of our psyches. It is a takedown of managerial politics and bureaucracy, as in Neil Gunn's The Green Isle of the Great Deep and a sentimental heaven of unexceptional piety in Mrs. Oliphant's Little Pilgrim stories. It is an excuse for a pageant of medieval life, as in Ann Radcliffe's Gaston de Blondeville, and it is an expressionist document showing how the supernatural past (Napoleonic in this case) has relevance to the present, as in Paul Busson's The Fire-Spirits. It is a dualistic interpretation of God and matter (like the Saivasiddhanta) in the guise of strange beings and stranger lands, as in David Lindsay's A Voyage to Arcturus, and it is a stubborn and wicked Egyptian mummy that refuses to lie down and behave itself. As Eternal Woman H. Rider Haggard's She may pop in and out of her showerbath in the Flame of Life, and as modern woman feminists, allied with the spirits of the dead may set up a utopia twenty years in the future from 1855, as in Lucy Boston. In F. Anstey's Vice Versa, when a pompous businessman of the City is transformed into a boy and sent to a hellish boarding school, it is a story of maturation, while in Henry Kuttner's "A Gnome There Was" another transformation is simply black humor. E. M. Forster's "The Celestial Omnibus" is an attack, in a snobbish way, on philistinism, but Amelia B. Edwards's "The Death Coach" fictionalizes, on a literal level, an element of Northern British folklore. What do all these various motifs have in common? Beneath their diversity, under their mani-

festations lies a common concept. This is traditionally called the "supernatural," a term that was perhaps fitting 150 years ago, but today would be better termed the "contranatural," since it is a consistent, often studied reversal of a mechanistic universe. This concept is developed in more detail in the chapter "The Phenomenology of the Contranatural," in a later portion of this volume. It is probably generally acceptable that thrill-stories about vampires and hostile ghosts and werewolves, for example, fit together in a common grouping, but it may not be so obvious that stories with secondary or tertiary levels of meaning should be grouped with single-level stories. Satires, symbolic works, expositional works, individuation stories are, of course, different from simple adventure stories. But they may be built out of the same motifs. On the level of story or narrative they may share much. Traditionally, Henry James's "The Turn of the Screw" is considered a ghost story, no matter how one interprets it, along with the simple, scholarly stories of Montague Rhodes James. In addition to the questions of story and motifs, the boundaries between second-level stories and literal stories are by no means permanent or impassable. One century's allegory may be another century's thriller. Indeed, as Jacob Grimm demonstrated in 1835 such change or evolution is by no means a matter of chance, but often a matter of law. As narrative and theme take separate paths in history, stories may change in meaning and level. Although the words of a story may not alter, their point may be lost. Interpretations may drop away, and what was once pointed may now be read as a simple story. When social context is no longer familiar, satire may lose its focus, and when cultural milieu changes, symbolism may be completely lost. It may take much close study to retrieve the original statement. A good example of such skeletonization is to be found in Swift's Gulliver's Travels, which started life as an attack on church and state, or religious groups and political parties. By the early middle 19th century it had changed to an adult adventure story, and was reprinted in series along with the works of Charles Lever, Captain Marryat, and Dumas pere. Today, it is

vii

PREFACE

viii

primarily a children's book, and is generally included in collections of children's classics, often unexpurgated. Topical allusions are ignored. In supernatural fiction, a similar example is to be found in Bulwer Lytton's Zanoni. In the l840s this was a fictionalization of an occult message, with a roman clef element that personified qualities of mind. It was even printed with a table in the rear of the book explaining the characters. Today, it is an occult thriller and romance, and if anyone seeks out the conscious allegory, he will find it difficult even to understand the psychology behind it. Yet in both the l840s and the 1980s Zanoni is lexically the same, and is assembled out of the same super~ natural motifs. The main territory of contranatural fiction is obvious enough, but the exact boundaries are not always definite. There are borderline books that must be judged and deceptive books that must be unmasked. It would seem that the supernatural is the supernatural, but there are times when it is not. Many is the detective story, for example, that sets up a mood of the uncanny, establishes a crime that is seemingly beyond rational analysis, provides chills along the route, and then explains everything away as a matter of tricks and time tables, lies and lunacy, mirrors and phosphorescent balloons. Is such a story, that in word count is perhaps 95% supernatural, really to be included here? Or, what should one do about the 19th century stories that spoiled everything by revealing at the end of the story that it was all a dream? Or about stories of hoaxes and criminal frauds, faked supernaturalism? My decision, in general, has been not to include detective stories in which everything is rationalized; to treat frauds as individual cases; and to include dream stories. The intention of the author has often been the deciding factor. A rationalized detective story was intended to be primarily a detective story. A dream story, on the other hand, was intended to be supernatural, but (as a rule) the author was too timid to leave matters with the ghosts, or begged off for other reasons. When I began the final reading and carding for this volume, another problem arose: time limits. Where should the book begin, chronologically, and where should it end? Eventually, I settled on two terminal dates, 1800 and 1960. Material before 1800 was sparse and sometimes alien, and 1960 is a watershed year in publishing. During the 1960s there occurred a flood of mass market paperbacks, best sellers, would-be best sellers, television and motion picture spin offs, all using the motifs of supernatural horror, usually on a literal level. This phenomenon deserved study in itself, not just appendageship to the older material. Similarly, in fantastic fiction in general, a new generation of authors began to replace the older men and women from the circumbellum years. Their work, too, deserves a separate study. But, exceptions had to be made to the dates

a

PREFACE 1800 and 1960. Important writers like Horace Walpole, William Beckford, Ann Radcliffe, and M. G. Lewis could not be omitted, while 1960 was not without problems. One such problem was the time gap between periodical publication and book publication, for much supernatural fiction and science-fiction has not been gathered into book form until decades after its first appearance in periodicals. To omit fiction written before 1960 but not printed in book form until the 1970s would have distorted the coverage. Therefore, 1960 has been qualified to include stories that were first published in any form before 1961, no matter what the date of book publication. Similarly, anthologies published after 1960 have been included if they contain significant material that is earlier and is not described elsewhere. But this leeway created a new problem, for such anthologies sometimes also contain stories written after 1960, and it would have been absurd to ignore such stories. Fortunately, this last case is not common. ii In describing books I have used the technique of offering fairly detailed plot summaries. In other words, stress has been placed on narrative or story. I am aware that this is not the method that is generally used in modern reference works, where general comments are usually considered adequate-- although this practice makes faking very easy and sometimes causes a reader to wonder whether the book in question has really been read thoroughly. But I feel that a good case can be made for returning to the older method of SUlM,lary, supplemented by information about form, purpose, and quality. A student of literature or a librarian often needs concrete information that (in the absence of the text itself) can be provided only by a precise, detailed description of a story. Why, for example, was the monkey's paw in W. W. Jacobs's story "The Monkey's Paw" activated? The point is important, since it lifts the story out of horror to an examination of life. Or, did anyone but the governess, perhaps Mrs. Grose, in "The Turn of the Screw" see the ghosts? Does the governess have anything to say about this? Story texts may not be handy, and there should be a place to which an inquirer may resort. Most of the books in this study, too, are not books commonly met. Many of them are very rare. Despite their possible literary interest or historical importance, there is probably no library (public or private) in the world that contains every book that is described here. I would speculate that one could count on one's fingers the special collections that contain even a sizeable portion of them. These books were seldom reviewed when they appeared, since the journals used to frown on non-realistic literature, and the sole written record for many of them is a bare listing of publication in one of the yearly compilations, like Whitaker's or the English Catalogue.

PREFACE The books themselves are often endangered, for libraries, cramped for space, often are forced to discard older fiction. And it is probable that most of the books covered in this volume will never be reprinted. Without a survey of this sort, many of these books are likely to be, for all practical purposes, lost. In presenting the book descriptions, I have arranged them alphabetically by author (and chronologically within the author), even though my haunting preference would have been a cultural-historical framework. But I was forced to recognize that popular literature does not always parallel the time divisions of mainstream culture, and that time groupings would have been artificial and inconvenient. In popular fiction there are surprising innovations and conservatisms. Authors of genre fiction are sometimes long-lived, and may retain writing modes that they picked up in their apprentice days, even though such older styles have elsewhere gone out of fashion. A classification by date would have distorted matters more than "it would have clarified them. This distortion would be especially powerful in anthologies, which are plentiful, and sometimes amount to historical catch-alls. Dorothy Sayers, in the 1930s, could reprint in her excellent omnibus volumes, stories that had been written by R. H. Barham in the l840s, along with recent work. Complete alphabetization by author thus seems the most suitable approach. It is the easiest system for the reference reader, the fairest system for individual authors (whose work might otherwise be broken up unnecessarily), and the system least mined with interpretative traps. A word must be added about personal opinions that I have expressed in the copy. I recognize that some editors hold that such expressions are improper, while other editors make their living from them. My feeling is that although a book may be many things-- a gloat-object for a collector, a source of social information for a historian, an example of form for a theorist, a hidden autobiography for a psychohistorian, a statement of values for an axiologist, etc.-- it is still, ultimately, inescapably, paramountly, an object -for pleasure. A reader has reactions to it, and should be allowed to express these reactions. Or, to make the point stronger, a reader or critic must answer the question, no matter how

ix subjectively, that everyone has asked since the days of the Greeks: "Is it worth reading?" I have not hesitated to make critical judgments, and I have tried to be consistent. On the one hand, I have tried to be sympathetic to the special purposes of different sorts of fiction. If I have damned an occasional adventure story or horror story or allegory, it is not because it is an adventure story or horror story or allegory, but because it is a poor specimen of its sort. On the other hand, I have tried to bear in mind mainstream technical desiderata like symmetry, population, detail, and style. I hope that readers agree with me. Let me close this preface by saying that in the 7,200 or so stories considered here, I have not made use of other persons' plot summaries or "talk-arounds," but have read each of the books described. This has been done over a period of about 25 years, with a recent rereading of many books that required more attention or closer study. Sometimes this was a chore, but more often it was a pleasure. iii

I must express gratitude to the many libraries whose facilities I have used in preparing this project. These include The British Museum (The British Library), the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the Elmer H. Bobst Library of New York University, Harvard College Library, The Columbia University Libraries, and Yale University Libraries. The following private libraries have also been most useful: The Mechanics Library of New York, the Society Library of New York, and especially The Mercantile Library of New York. I must also thank several local libraries: the Glen Rock Public Library, the Fair Lawn Public Library, the Teaneck Public Library, the Englewood Public Library, the Hackensack Public Library, and especially the Ridgewood Public Library, whose staff and trustees have been most helpful. Special gratitude is also due to Neil Barron, for many acts of kindness and many most helpful suggestions. I must also thank my wife and family, particularly my son Richard, who spent much time tracking down odd books for me at various conventions, and helped with the processing of some 40,000 filing cards. His knowledge of the recent literature caught several of my errors. Everett F. Bleiler

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Information book and story descriptions Authors are arranged alphabetically. Within each author's production, books are arranged chronologically. Collaborations are placed directly after the work of the s~nior author. I.e., a book by August Derleth and Mark Schorer Hill inunediately follow the books by Derleth alone. Anonymous Horks and anthologies of anonymous editorship are usually placed alphabetically by title within the main listing. This principle has not bee.n followed rigorously in the cllse of well-known works by famous autl:!.ors. It has seemed better to be a little inconsistent than to carry the works of Sir Walter Scott as anonymous books simply because the first editions were not published under his name.

are no changes between editions, later printings have been used. In perhaps a score of genre bocks, where first: editions l~ere not obtainable, later editions were used; this fact hilS always been indicated in the descriptions. To avoid duplicating entries, each story if) described only or:ce, usually in the place·of first publi.cation. SOIT'.€ exceptionR have been made for storit2.s in seri,=s, where context is important; such stori.es have been described together. These exceptions have been indicated in the copy. The connnents "described elsewhere" and "described elsewhere for context" indicate that you should check the Author Index for locus of description.

The remaining bibliographic procedure also follows, by and large, the method used by the British Museum Catalogue, which method seems to me the most convenient for the general reader. The essence of this method is that publishers are given in short entry, and that books are carried under the name the author used in publication. Thus, Mark Twain is to be found as Mark Twain, not as Samuel L. Clemens.

Please note the important term "including." It is used only in collections of mixed fiction. It indicates that there are other stories in the book that are not supernatural and thus are not described. To list or describe such non-supernatural stories would have cluttered the present volume enormously and would have served no uS,eful purpose. But the reader need not worry that supernatural stories have been omitted. In all cases, every supernatural story ;n every volume has been described.

The editions cited are, as far as can be determined, first editions. In almost all cases these were the editions that were read. In perhaps a half dozen instances, in mainstream authors like Robert Louis Stevenson, where there

Abbreviations: alt., alternate. EQMM, ELLERY QUEEN'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE. MFSF, MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION. UNK, UNKNOWN or UNKNOWN WORlDS magazine. WT, WEIRD TALES magazine.

ABDULLAH, ACHMED (ACHMED ABDULLAH NADIR KIIAN ALDU.~NI AL-IDRISSIYEH; Moslem name of Ro~anowski, Alexander) (1881-1945) Soldier, intelligence operative in India, playwright, fiction writer, translater. Son of Russian nobleman and Afghan princess. Born Yalta, resident in U.S.A. for most of writing period. Frequent contributor to Amarican periodicals with sentimental and adventure fiction, mostly negligible except for occasional ethnographic fiction like ALIEN SOULS (1922) Most important work LUTE ANO SCIMITAR (1928), translation of Central Asiatic poetry •. Good autobiography, THE CAT HAD NINE LIVES (1933). 1. WINGS TALES OF THE PSYCHIC James A. McCann; New York 1920 Connercial periodical fiction including [a] WINGS. Told as a mystery story. The rajah suddenly dies in England, and Thorneycroft follows the sound of invisible wings. In India he learns that the rajah, unwilling to lose caste by leaving India, had travelled to England by astral body, but died because he overstayed his time. As a result his co~ponents are separated, perhaps for eternity. [b) DISAPPOINTMENT. Prince N~rodkine in Paris behaves strangely. It is revealed that the basis for his actions is a morbid fear of death. But his corpse, shortly after his death says, "Is that all?" [c) TO BE ACCOUNTED FOR. World War I. A French remittance man, expelled from his regiment for cheating at cards, makes restitution by rushing to the front in astral body, where he assumes command at a time of cr~s~s. He is killed, though his physical body is in New York. [d) RENUNCIATION. The woman that he loved married another man for money. When his transport is ready to leave for France, she comes to him. It is her ghost. [e) THAT HAUNTING THING. Diana Manning, nasty golddigger who has wrecked several lives, is suddenly haunted by a horrible thing that laughs at the wrong times. It is the projection of her evil. When she kills it, she, too, dies, but seems redeemed. [f) FEAR. Africa. McGregor and Hutchison raid the Bakoto juju shrine, but are captured. One must die. They deal cards. McGregor cheats and lives, but years later an African drum with Hutchison's skin on it comes into his possession. In it is a poisonous snake. [g) LIGHT. He sees his own

deathbed. After-death experiences. * While [e) is vivid, the remainder of the book is trivial and in no way comparable to Abdullah's serious work. 2. THE THIEF OF BAGDAD BASED ON DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS' FANTASY OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS H. K. Fly; New York [1924] A scenario novel that closely follows the historically important silent motion picture. The original film script was prepared by Elton Thomas, and the short version, by Lotta Woods. Abdullah was probably assigned to provide a verisimilitude that the motion picture lacked. * Ah~ed el-Bagdadi, remarkable thief, while burglarizing the caliph's palace, sees and falls in love with Zobeid, the caliph's beautiful and nubile daughter. To win her he is willing to repent of his wicked past and undertake a long semiallegorica1 journey to conquer his evil potentialities. Rival princes from India, Persia, and China (the Mongols) sue for Zobeid's hand. Ahmed joins them in the role of Prince of the Isles and of the Seven Palaces. It is decided that whoever brings the most remarkable gift will get Zobeid. Props then include the flying carpet, the fruit of life and death, an allseeing idol's eye, the cloak of invisibility, a magic rope, and a magic casket of wishes. Ahmed returns from his journey in time to defeat the treacherous Mongols. * At the end of the book is a brief publicity statement by Arthur J. Zellner on the technical aspects of the motion picture. * The motion picture, while interminable, had good trick photography and Fairbanks's ebullient personality. The novel is a strange mixture of naive narrative and flashes of scholarly Orientalia. ADELER, MAX (pseud. of Clark, Charles Heber) (1847 - 1915) Philadelphia journalist, humorist, political lobbyist for high tariffs. Best-known work was OUT OF THE HURLY-BURLY (1874). Work might be briefly categorized as similar to that of Mark Twain, but with no great talent. 3. RANDOM SHOTS J. W. Lovell; New York [1878] Short stories, including [a] MR. SKINNER'S NIGHT IN THE UNDERWORLD. Mr. Bartholomew Skinner of Squan, N.J., while travelling in Germany decided to visit Tanhauser's underworld. If

ADELER, MAX Tanhauser could enter, reasons Skinner, why cannot 17 He is admitted by a ghost and taken to Aphrodite, but offends the spirits by carping and perpetually making commercial suggestions. When he starts to sing a hymn, he is ignominiously expelled. * An early version of the worldly, ugly American. Amusing. Many illustrations by A. B. Frost. 4. THE FORTUNATE ISLAND AND OTHER STORIES Lee and Shepard; Boston 1882 Short stories, including [a1 AN OLD FOGY. Ephraim Batterby, an elderly_man who is always praising the glories of the past, as against the present, suddenly finds himself back in the world of his childhood. He is mistaken for his own father, and when he is ridiculed for comments about daily newspapers, Chicago, and the telegraph, decides that the past may not have

been so wonderful as he thought. All a dream. * Also present is the excellent lost-race science-fiction story "The F9rtunate Island," which offers a foretaste of Mark Twain's A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT. A light-hearted, amusing tale. AINSWORTH, WILLIAM HARRISON (1802-1882) British novelist, editor, publisher. Often critized during his early career for his Newgate novels (ROOKWOOD, JACK SHEPPARD), which romanticized the'underworld and glamorized famous criminals of the past. His later work was mostly romantic historical fiction in the mode of later Scott. Although not a great novelist, he could visualize scenes vividly and convey excitement. As editor of BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY and other periodicals he was a central figure in the mid-Victorian literary world. In his fantastic fiction, the supernatural, which is usually folkloristic, tends to be secondary to other elements. For a good study, see WILLIAM HARRISON AINSWORTH AND HIS FRIENDS by S. M. Ellis. 5. ROOKWOOD A ROMANCE Richard Bentley; London 1834 3 vol. (published anonymously) ROOKWOOD, Ainsworth's first important work, established him as one of the most popular authors in Great Britain. According to the preface in the 1849 edition, it was consciously written to reestablish the older romances of Walpole, Lewis, Radcliffe, and Maturin. It is thus more Gothic than his later work. * The story consists of two main substructures: a Gothic alienation plot, in which Alan Rookwood, a dispossessed heir, plots a complicated but unsuccessful revenge, and secondly, the exploits of Dick Turpin, the famous highwayman. The Gothic plot is too complex to summarize; in any case, it is not particularly interesting, but the sections concerning Turpin took the public fancy and Ainsworth's songs in thieves' cant became extremely popular. It is in this novel that Turpin's famous (but probably imaginary) ride on the great mare, Black Bess, took place. The supernatural elements are to be found in the Gothic sections, and include a powerful ancestral curse that stipulates, in part, that all Rookwoods shall murder their wives; a lime tree that drops a gigantic limb

2

AINSWORTH, W. H. whenever a death in the family is near; and a ghost. * Turpin's ride is still worth reading. AN HISTORICAL ROMANCE 6. WINDSOR CASTLE Henry Colburn; London 1843 3 vol. Romantic historical novel, 1529-1536, ranging from just before Henry VIII's divorce from Katherine of Aragon to the execution of Anne Boleyn. Historical accuracy, of course, is not absolute, and the author deliberately strays away from history for characters, incidents, and conversations, although the major lines of history are recognized. The supernatural enters strongly in Herne the Hunter, who permeates the novel and is to be found behind many closed doors and under many trees, either tempting someone or performing some daring deed. Herne, according to the more believable legend related, had lived about one hundred and fifty years earlier, and had sold his soul to the Devil in order to win a wife. Herne then committed suicide and the Devil turned him into a wood spirit, immortal, invulnerable, and armed with certain supernatural powers. One of his functions is to assemble a band of living or recently dead men to ride with him through the wood at night. While his bands are periodically wiped out, Herne always remains. In WINDSOR CASTLE Herne tempts Surrey and Wyat, sets himself against Henry, causes the downfall of Anne Boleyn, and creates a great deal of activity. Captures, escapes, imprisonments, secret passages, disguises, discoveries, hidden caverns all abound. Herne, of course, is the great prototype of similar characters in the 19th century boys' thrillers (iibloods"). Today, however, he is interesting from a folkloristic point of view, both as a survival of pagan Germanic belief and as a parallel to the witch cult. * Although Ainsworth has a not undeservedly bad critical reputation, WINDSOR CASTLE is very readable and enjoyable. * The edition read was the superior Routledge 1889 edition, which contains both Cruikshank plates and many woodcuts by W. A. Delamotte showing the Tower of London, Windsor Castle, and their environs. 7. THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES [Printed for private circulation, London 18491. [First trade edition, Henry Colburn; London 1849 3 vol.1 A long historical romance based loosely on historical witch trials in Northern England during the reign of King James I. * A prelude introduces the situation. The last Abbot of Whalley has been trapped in an abortive revolt against Henry VIII. While he stands in peril, he is approached by Nicholas Demdike, a notorious witch, who offers the abbot safety if he will baptize Demdike's child. The abbot, who has already excommunicated the Demdikes, refuses, and is executed shortly thereafter. Before he dies, he places a curse on Demdike's infant daughter. * Approximately seventyfive years later, during the reign of King James I, witches hold sway over the large area known as Pendle Forest. Although they quarrel and intrigue among themselves, they recognize the Devil as their common master, attend co-

AINSWORTH, W. H. vens together, and retain power as long as each witch sacrifices one person a year to the Devil. The most powerful of the witches, prima inter pares, is Mistress Nutter, one of the local gentry. Just below her in power are Mother Demdike, whom the abbot cursed as a child, and Mother Chattox, both heads of witch families. The witches harry the lands, taking toll of all. * Several subplots run concurrently. There is a lawsuit between Mistress Nutter and Squire Nowell about boundaries, in which Nowell's attorney is a rascally Londoner, Thomas Potts. To gain her suit Mistress Nutter changes the entire landscape magically, altering the terrain and moving permanent landmarks. In a second subplot, Potts, to gain favor with the king, is determined to investigate and accuse the various witches of the area. He and Nowell proceed by force against Mistress Nutter. As a romantic subplot, young Richard Assheton, a member of thp gentry, falls in love with Alizon Device, who has been thought to be Mother Demdike's granddaughter, but is realty Mistress Nutter's daughter. Richard attempts to protect Alizon against the general accusations of witchcraft that are circulating. Alizon, despite her environment, is kind and virtuous. But once Alizon's true identity is revealed, Mother Demdike plans to sacrifice her to the Devil, partly to spite Mistress Nutter, and partly to gain her yearly renewal. Mistress Nutter, discovers that her witchery will not work against true religion, and also urged by maternal feelings, repents and tries to save her daughter. Eventually Demdike and Chattox forfeit their bonds; Mistress Nutter is hauled before the king; and the witch cult is wiped out. Alizon is killed by her foster-sister, the last of the witches, and Richard Assheton dies. * There is a considerable amount of supernaturalism in the story, but it is not primarily Gothic, but Romantic. Motifs include appearances of the Devil; familiars; covens; flight through the air on brooms; doppelgangers; a picture that comes to life; ghosts, notably the frequent appearance of the Abbot of Whalley, who comes to see his curse being fulfilled; doll magic; and animal magnetism. There is a fair amount of dialect, which tends to be bothersome. * Included in the body of the novel is the short piece [a] THE LEGEND OF MALKIN TOWER. In the days of King Henry VI the female anchorite Isole de Heton lives a riotous life and is carried off by her spouse, the Devil. * Despite period characteristics, one of the major English novels about witchcraft. 8. AURIOL FRAGMENT OF A ROMANCE [In AINSWORTH'S WORK, Vol. XII Chapman and Hall; London 1850 This is first book appearance of this item, although it has appeared separately several times since. It was first published in AINSWORTH'S MAGAZINE, 1844-5, but was never completed. * Historical novel derivative in idea from Maturin's MELMOTH THE WANDERER. * Dr. Lamb, in early 17th century England, has discovered the elixir of life, but dies too soon to use it. His grandson Auriol and his laboratory assistant

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ALARCON, PEDRO DE Flapdragon drink it with good result. Flapdragon survives as Old Parr, while Auriol retains eternal youth. The story shifts to 1830, where Auriol is under the domination of Rougemont, a Rosicrucian, who is in league with the Devil. Every ten years, Auriol, if he is to retain his extended life, must submit a woman for sacrifice. He has found several such women in the past, without problems of conscience, but he rebels when he learns that the next sacrifice is to be the woman he loves. He is outwitted and the woman is sacrificed. Auriol then reawakens back in the 17th century and learns that his experiences have been delirium from a wound. * Not one of Ainsworth's better works. A rather uneven first draft ALAN, A. J. (pseud of LAMBERT, LESLIE H.) (1883-1940) British civil servant, pioneer radio narrator. Said by Kenelm Ross to have originated the BBC accent, a "class-conscious mincing travesty of correct diction." 9. GOOD EVENING. EVERYONE! Hutchinson; London [1928 ] Radio monologues and narratives told by Mr. Alan. Including [a] MY ADVENTURE IN JERMYN STREET. Alan mysteriously receives a theatre ticket, then is taken to a deserted house by a beautiful woman. He never learns the reason for the incident, though there may be a supernatural explanation. [b] THE DREAM. A repeated dream with consistent symbolism: whoever is seen on the speaker's platform will soon die. [c] COINCIDENCE. Light and shadow cause the illusion of a body lying on the road. Prophetic. [d] THE HAIR. A brass box contains a quantity of human hair. The hair, if placed on photographs, either injures or kills its victims. A good material-horror story spoiled by a jaunty ending. [e] THE DIVER. Premonitions of death. [f] THE VOICE. A radio set tunes in on a phantom singer. Also possession. [g] THE PHOTOGRAPH. Spirit photography. [h] MY ADVENTURE IN NORFOLK. Alan sees a roadside motor accident and discovers a murder. But it all had happened years before. * It is possible that a skilled narrator might make these stories come to life, but as read, they are undeveloped, and the penchant for a trick ending is annoying. * A more accessible collection is THE BEST OF A. J. ALAN (Richards Press, London, 1954), edited by Kenelm Foss. ALARCON, PEDRO ANTONIO DE (1833-1891) Spanish poet, journalist, novelist, playwright. Much of his work is romantic and regionalistic, and presented in a rhetorical maneer. Bestknown in the English-speaking world for the short novel THE THREE CORNERED HAT (EL SOMBRERO DE TRES PICOS, 1874), subject of ballet by Manuel de Falla. 10. THE STRANGE FRIEND OF TITO GIL A. Lovell; New York [1890] Translated from Spanish by Mrs. Francis J. A. Darr. * A sentimentally developed version of two folkloristic motifs, Death's godson and the Spanish magician. * Early 18th century

ALARCON, PEDRO DE Spain. Tito Gil, illegitimate son of a Spanish grandee, falls on hard times when his father dies. He is cast out of the house by his stepmother and scorned by all his former acquaintances. He also loses the woman he loves. He is about to commit suicide when Death appears to him. Death tells Gil that he has taken a fancy to him and offers to aid him to fortune and marriage to Elena. Gil simply has to watch where and how Death comports himself in the sick chamber and he will be considered a matchless physician. Gil receives royal favor and marries Elena, as well as gaining his father's estate. Death then calls him away and takes him to the palace of ice at the North Pole. Death reveals that Tito's experiences have all been illusion. Tito really did commit suicide, and Elena died on the same day. But thanks to Elena's prayers in heaven, Tito was given a second chance. It is now the year 2316 and the end of the world is near. The world explodes and presumably Tito and Elena go to Paradise. * Sentimental and quaint. ALDEN, W[ILLIAM] L. (1837-1908) American educator, lawyer, journalist (NEW YORK TIMES), editor. Sometime resident in England. Now remembered mostly for his work in popularizing canoeing as a sport. 11. A LOST SOUL BEING THE CONFESSION AND DEFENCE OF CHARLES LINDSAY A ROMANCE Ghat to and Windus; London 1892 Early borderline science-fiction. * Italy, near Venice. The narrator, Dr. Lindsay, is currently in a madhouse. He has committed a murder and admits the fact, but his story is so strange that he is considered insane. * Independently wealthy, he has been educated as a physician, but is currently enthusiastic about geology. While observing a glacier in Northern Italy, he sees a body in the ice. He extracts a beautiful woman, and revives her by injections and artificial respiration. She is the Countess della Torre, born a Contarini, who has been frozen for over 300 years. She adjusts well enough to modern times, but there is always an unmoral aspect to her violent personality. The doctor falls in love with her and she becomes his mistress. But when she takes one of his friends as a lover, Lindsay becomes madly jealous. He decides that the countess has no soul. While her body was revived, her soul did not return to the body. He thereupon murders her. * Despite a somewhat cluttered beginning, economically told and not especially dated in narration. ALEXANDER, S[IGMUND] B. (fl. 1880-1915) American writer of fiction on occult topics, children's plays. 12 • TEN OF US ORIGINAL STORIES AND SKETCHES Laughton, Macdonald; Boston [1887] Short stories, including [a] THE MODERN MEPHISTOPHELES. An American buys Faust's old castle and finds Faust's chambers and paraphernalia intact. He invokes Mephistopheles, who is aged and feeble because of centuries of human disbelief in him. [b] A DUAL LIFE. Abnormal psychology with suggestion of imaginary personalities.

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ALLEN, GRANT The narrator has built a dream world of great substantiality. When he marries the wrong woman, he continually projects the dream personality on her and finally murders her. Borderline supernatural. [c] THE LIVING DEAD. An insufficient quantity of the elixir of life, drunk in the early 18th century, prolongs life but not youth or bodily function. [d] THE TALISMAN. Allegory in fairy tale terms. The talisman of great power is the U.S. silver dollar. [e] THE MYSTERY OF DEATH. Mesmeric contact permits sharing the experience of death. * Another story, "Out of the Sea," not supernatural, deals with the finding of the ruins of Atlantis on recently elevated land. * Short, undeveloped, amateurish. ALLEN, GRANT (full name ALLEN, CHARLES GRANT BLAIRFINDIE) (1848-1899). British author of Canadian birth, sometime resident in Jamaica as an educator. Important popularizer of science, social novelist. His scientific and historical works PHYSIOLOGICAL AESTHETICS (1877) and THE EVOLUTION OF THE IDEA OF GOD (1897) were highly regarded, although some considered the latter blasphemous. Also produced important work in early sciencefiction and the mystery story. Remembered today mostly for THE WOMAN WHO DID (1895), in which the protagonist decided that free love was less degrading than the bondage of marriage, and for THE BRITISH BARBARIANS (1895), in which British cultural patterns were provocatively dissected in terms of anthropology. His supernatural fiction is less important than the works here cited, being journalistic or over-rationalistic. Nothing is known of May Cotes. 13. STRANGE STORIES Ghatto and Windus; London 1884. Short stories, including three somewhat humorous supernatural tales. [a] NEW YEAR'S EVE AMON} THE MUMMIES. Egypt. The narrator stumbles on the secret underground vault in the Great Pyramid on the night, once every thousand years, when the mummies come to life. He and a princess are attracted to one another, and he is willing to be mummified in order to join her. He awakens, and is told that his experience has been delirium, but there are material proofs. Amusing intentional anachronisms. [b] THE MYSTERIOUS OCCURRENCE IN PICCADILLY. A young man caught in an embarrassing situation pretends to be a phantasm of the living. A take-off on British psychical research. [c] OUR SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATIONS ON A GHOST. A ghost appears to a pair of medical students and obligingly permits itself to be felt, weighed, and analyzed chemically and spectrographically. Vivisection is a problem, since the ghost consists of a head and clothing. Again topical references to contemporary psychical research. * Also present are the two well-known science-fiction stories "Pausodyne" and "A Child of the Phalanstery." Frontispiece by George du Maurier. * [b] and [c] have some small interest as cultural history and are amusing.

ALLEN, GRANT 14. THE DESIRE OF THE EYES Digby, Long; London [1895 J Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [aJ NEW YEAR'S EVE AMONG THE MUMMIES. [bj THE MYSTERIOUS OCCURRENCE IN PICCADILLY. 15. TWELVE TALES WITH A HEADPIECE, A TAILPIECE, AND AN INTERMEZZO BEING SELECT STORIES Grant Richards; London 1899. Allen's selection of his best stories, largely reprinted from earlier volumes. Including [aJ WOLVERDEN TOWER. When Maisie visits the Wests, the tower of Wolverden Church has just been rebuilt. According to an old hag, the tower must be "fastedH thrice to be secure. Later that evening, at the hall dance, Maisie becomes acquainted with two young women who induce her to enter the vault beneath the church. They are the ancient dead, the previous human sacrifices, and also present is the entire local realm of the dead. They persuade Maisie to become the third human sacrifice necessary to protect the tower. But she is saved. * Also present is "A Child of the Phalanstery." *. [aJ represents Allen's anthropological and folkloristic interests. With COTES, MAY: 16. KALEE'S SHRINE J.W. Arrowsmith, Bristol and Simpkin, Marshall, London 1886. Libration between Indian supernaturalism and modern psychopathology. * Olga Trevelyan, daughter of a British official in India, is devoted to the goddess Kali by her ayah and a priest of Thuggee. The priest makes two small cuts to paralyze her eye muscles. According to theory, Olga will be a normal Anglo-Indian girl during her waking state, but while asleep she will be possessed by the terrible Kali. Years later in England, the results of all this become apparent. Olga is seemingly possessed by the goddess and tries to strangle one of her friends with the traditional neckerchief of the Thug; it is also quite possible that in the past she murdered her little brother. But modern science is more than a match for Kali and the priest. A medical man declares that she is a hysterical somnambulist, mesmerizes Kali away, and restores function to Olga's eyelids by means of a simple operation. * The decision between supernaturalism and science is never completely resolved, but Allen and Cotes seem to favor science. * The ideas are interesting and sophisticated, but the treatment is cheaply sensational and not up to Allen's better work elsewhere. While the British edition is accredited to Allen and Cotes, American reprints often cite Allen as sole author. ANDERSON, POUL (1926 ) Important modern American science-fiction author. Much of his work is characterized by elitist attitude toward problems of culture and psychology, with strong yearning for early Scandinavian lifeways. Fantasies are often based on the same point of view, which is presented with narrative skill and tolerance. 17. THE BROKEN SWORD Abelard-Schuman; New York 1954. Fantastic adventure, with an attempt to create

ANDERSON, POUL

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the cultural background of the Icelandic sagas. England, mostly, with the lands of Faerie adjacent to and interpenetrating it, circa 900 A.D. In this world the Norse gods still hold sway, although the evil Jotuns withstand them. Christianity is assuming a magical power that will later destroy the lands of Faerie. There are several minor races of supernatural beings, including the humanoid Elves, who cannot touch iron, and their enemies, the evil Trolls, monstrous beings. There is more than a suspicion that all that is happening is a concealed conflict, one step removed, between gods and Jotuns, good and evil. * Into this world a son is born to the humans Orm and Aelfrida. The Elf earl Imric happens to be riding past when he hears the news from a witch, and he immediately performs the magical rites to acquire a changeling. The Elves like foster children, since humans can handle iron weapons. Imric makes off with the baby, leaving in its place an Elf-Troll changeling. The human baby in Elfheim is to be the heroic Skafloc, while the changeling in England is to be the demonic berserker Valgard. * During Skafloc's name-feast in Elfheim, a sinister note is sounded: a god rides in and casts down a broken iron sword as a gift for Skafloc, to be used in time of need. * Years pass. Two subplots now mature. The Elves learn that the Trolls are planning war, and the champion Skafloc leads a reconnaissance raid into Finland. Valgard has fallen under the sway of the witch, who has a feud against Orm's family, and through her working murders his brothers and father. Valgard has learned of his non-human or~g~n, and decides to throw his lot in with the Trolls in Finland. He takes along as presents to the lustful Troll king his two human foster-sisters. The forces of Skafloc and Valgard clash in Finland, and Skafloc rescues Freda, one of his blood sisters and takes her as his lover. Neither knows of their blood relationship. The war breaks out and the Trolls, with powerful allies, beat the Elves badly. Skafloc is the Elf champion, while Valgard is the troll champion. The two meet in combat, but always indecisively. Skafloc, advised by one of the gods, learns that the broken sword is Elfdom's only hope and seeks to have it reforged. By evoking the dead he learns how to do this, but also learns that Freda is his sister. This is the first weird against Skafloc, for Freda leaves him and he is wild with despair. He and a member of the Irish Sidhe travel to Jotunheim and trick a giant into reforging the sword, but Skafloc learns that the s·word is evil. While it is irresistible (the Sword of Victory of Norse legend?), it will eventually kill its wielder. In the final battle the Elves win, but both Skafloc and Valgard are killed by the sword. Evil has been defeated, but at high cost. * The first portion of this novel is perhaps the finest American heroic fantasy, with good characterizations, excellent surface detail, good plotting, and an admirable recreation of. the mood of the Old Norse literature. But the

*

ANDERSON, POUL story ends in a mad scramble and unconvincing slaughter. * The text read was not the first edition cited above, but the Ballantine (New York, 1971) edition, which is somewhat revised. 18. THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS Doubleday; Garden City, New York 1961. Fantastic adventure. A shorter version appeared previously in MFSF 1953. The scene is an alternate world where magic is potent and scientific law weak. This second world is linked to ours, perhaps by union of opposites, and spiritual crises in one are paralleled in the other. In our world the crisis is World War II; in the other world it is the threatened outburst of supernatural peoples, supporting chaos, against humans, who support the rule of law. The subject matter draws on medieval romances of chivalry, Norse mythology, and general folklore. * Holger Carlsen, young Danish-American, is hit by a bullet in World War II and awakens in the other world, which is more or less medieval. His quest first takes the form of wishing to be returned to our world, but it leads him through a series of fantastic adventures: a narrow escape from fairies, pursuit by a dragon, a riddling contest with a giant, detection of a werewolf, and other perils. In his quest he is accompanied by a dwarf and a swan-maiden, a human woman who can transform herself into a swan by means of a magic garment. After a time, however, Holger realizes that his presence in the other world is not accidental, and that very powerful forces are trying to prevent his accorr'plishing some unknown purpose. After episodes with Morgan Ie Fay (leader of his enemies) and a helpful wizard, he learns that he is to becorroe the Defender of humanity against the impending invasion by the wagical forces of Middleworld. He is Ogier the Dane, friend and paladin of Charlemagne, returned to save humanity. * Well sustained until the ending, at which time there are problems. ANDOl
ANDREZEL, PIERRE vant, Olympia, was a voodoo priestess, had certain supernatural powers, and had served under Penhallow fifty years earlier, when he was a voodoo priest. * A curious book that at times seems to offer a straight confrontation, in period settings, between virtue and evil, and at other times seems almost a parody. The gradual unmasking of Penhallow is well handled, but the novel as a whole seems lumpy and ill segmented, less successful than the fine short stories by Izak Dinesen. ANNESLEY, MAUDE (marriage name BROWNLOW) (fl. 1907 - 1923?) British author of popular fiction. 22. SHADOW-SHAPES John Lane; London 1911 Shopgirl romance dealing with a triangle. Hypnotism is considered as a supernatural force. * Cuthbert Brocklehurst has hypnotized his wife Grace so that she will die when he does. He is obviously aware that a potential lover is lurking around the bungalow. But when Brocklehurst lies on his deathbed and Grace is dying sympathetically, he relents and releases her from the hypnotic bond. * Little to recommend in it. ANSTEY, F. (pseud. of GUTHRIE, THOMAS ANSTEY) (1856 - 1934) British humorist, satirist, table-member of PUNCH. His pseudonym, sometimes mistakenly considered an alteration of the word "fantasy" was originally a printer's error for T. Anstey. Educated at Cambridge and called to the bar, Anstey adopted instead a literqry career and became one of the more popular authors of his day. VOCES POPULI, his column in PUNCH, consisted of transmuted conversation fragments heard about London and elsewhere, in which current events, personality types, and intellectual movements were ironically mirrored from a conservative point of view. They are still very amusing and socially significant. While Anstey wrote some mainstream fiction, this was not his forte, and his importance is as the preeminent 19th century writer of humorous fantasy. His work is usually fully Victorian in development, dramatic in construction (and indeed was often adapted to the stage), gently satirical on personality foibles, occult moveinents, C.ockneys, artists, stiff parents, and young lovers. His first important work, VICE VERSA, remains one of the great Victorian school stories. While his better novels are still worth reading, his shorter fiction as a rule is much less successful. With the exception of VICE VERSA, Anstey's work never became popular in the United States. Annotated editions of VOCES POPULI, however, were sometimes used on the Continent for teaching English. Anstey's autobiography, A LONG RETROSPECT (1936) is somewhat disappointing. 23. VICE VERSA; OR, A LESSON TO FATHERS Smith, Elder; London 1882 In the Dickensian tradition, apparently partly autobiographical in personalities and situations described. While it is partly a situation comedy, it also satirizes heavy fathers,

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ANSTEY, F. ineffectual teachers, and hot-tempered, flagellating schoolmasters. * The story is built around the Garuda stone, an Oriental souvenir which grants a single wish to each person who holds it. It is now in the possession of the Bultitude family, as a relic from an Anglo-Indian relative. Bultitude, Sr., a City man, uses an unfortunate figure of speech while touching the stone. Scolding his errant schoolboy son, Paul, he wishes he could be a schoolboy again. He is transformed, and Paul completes the exchange of roles by wishing himself an adult. The older Bultitude, in the form of a boy, is sent off to the temporary hell of ~ boarding school, while Paul, in adult form, mismanages his father's business and personal life. After many ingenious situations, the exchange is reversed, and several of the characters have learned their lessons: Bultitude,. Sr., will not be quite so heavy, and Paul will be less wild. There are several fine characterizations, such as Dr. Grimstone, the choleric schoolmaster; Cousin Paradine, a '''inning scoundrel; and a Cockney cook who mistakes her employer's fondness for doughtnuts for love. * Long, fully-developed, with, of course, a period flavor, this is one of the great fantasy classics. 24. THE BLACK POODLE AND OTHER TALES Longmans; London 1884 Short stories, presumably assembled to capitalize on the success of VICE VERSA. Including [a] THE WRAITH OF BARNJUM. (TEMPLE BAR, 1879). Bunting pushed Barnjum, a horrible bore, over a cliff in Wales, and is thereafter beset by Barnjum's ghost, which he vainly tries to commercialize. But then Barnjum is discovered to be alive, and there is an extra ghost. [b] THE SIREN. A sentimental story about a siren who falls in love with a sailor. She decides to release him from the bonds of her song, knowing that she must die in his stead. [c] THE CURSE OF THE CATAFALQUES. Just as [a] parodies the contemporary ghost story, this apes the heavy horror story of the day. The narrator, ta~ing the place of an acquaintance, gees to visit the Catafalque family. He believes that the purpose of his visit is to weo the beautiful daughter of the house, but actually he is supposed to lay the family monster. He may well lose his life in the attempt. The monster appears in the Grey Room on Christmas Eve, and checks the family accounts. The narrator is an amusing ccward. * [c] has some light-hearted moments, but the rest of the volume is immature work and largely negligible. 25. THE TINTED VENUS A FARCICAL ROMANCE J. W. Arrowsmith, Bristol; Simpkin, Marshall, London 1885 A take-off on ccntewporary society novels and an amusing picture of Cockney life and values. * Leander TWeddle, a young Londcn hairdresser, places a ring on the finger of a statue of Aphrodite in an entertainment park. The statue, which had ceen placed there among the props of the garden by thieves who stole it from an art collection, thereupon ccrr.es to life and pursues Leander amorously. She insists that

they set off to Cyprus together, and her magical powers are great and terrible enough that Leander is in great danger. Mcre complications arise when the art thieves and the police enter tne

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of Apnrodite, and tne violence of tne criminals, Leander has a difficult time. * Good period humor, imaginative, with gentle satire on the "lower orders," tho1..·.gh perhaps a little too long. 26. A FALLEN IDOL Smith, Elder; Londcn 1886 Irony on the life of a society artist in Londcn and a spoof on the Theosophists. 1, A prelude in India describes in tongue-in-cheek fashion the life and after-death supernatural powers of the Jain Chalanka. Worshipped as a living incarnation during life, he manifests awesome powers after death through his idol. He is far from being benevolent. * The scene then shifts to England, some years later, where Campion, a young portrait painter, has been given the idcl of Chalanka by his fiancee. From that time on, he lives in an unbroken concatenation of trouble. He sees his artwork spoiled and his romance broken. There is no controlling the malicious idol and no way of getting rid of it. It always comes back, even when he throws it into the Thames. On that occasion it transformed itself into a crying baby, and Campion was in real trouble for a time. Finally, a modern student of occultism, Nebelsen, with the aid of soreewhat nebulous Masters in the Himalayas, more or less accidentally drives Chalanka away. * Amusing, with many good. touches and types. 27. TOURMALIN'S TIME CHEOUES (A FARCICAL EXTRAVAGANCE) J. W. Arrowsmith; Bristol L1891] Reprinted as THE TIME BARGAIN. A short fantasy novel, one of the earliest to deal with disrupted time sequences. * Tourmalin, who is badly browbeaten by his domineering fiancee, invests in a time bank. That is to say, he receives a checkbook for time, slips from which may be cashed at any clock, just as checks may be cashed at a bank. Tourmalin cashes several of his checks, and most of them give him a respite from his fiancee, on a sea voyage. But there is one disadvantage: the checks are not in proper sequence, and Tourmalin is perpetually in a contretemps, trying to determine what has happened and what he is expected to do. He finds himself with two fiancees and several slandered fellow passengers, all of ,.hom want physical revenge. The low point comes when he discovers that his domineering fiancee has a similar checkbook and has been spying on him during the voyage. The only solution to the various problems is to reveal-- that it was all a dream. Too bad. * Amusing, but sentimental, more cliched in personalities and situations than most of Anstey's fantasies, and without the usual "small people." 28. THE TALKING HORSE AND OTHER TALES Smith, Elder; London 1892 Short stories, some of which are adult super~atural fiction, others of which are semijuvenile, moral, allegorical fables. Including La] THE TALKING HORSE. A talking horse with

a will of its own upsets its owner's romance and is in general a social nuisance. Irony on London uppercrust life, Gibson-girl milieu. All delirium. Lb] TOMMY'S HERO. Tommy is of£e:re.u a

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to nave the clown visit his home. It was a bad choice, as he discovers when he is tormented in situations that he thought funny on the stage. A rather cruel maturation theme. Lc] THE GOOD LITTLE GIRL. As a result of a fairy gift, a pious, priggish little girl drools jewels at each word of goodness and wisdom that she utters. But the jewels are not genuine, since her goodness is false. [d] MARJORY. Schoolboy feuds, puppy love, death, and the ghost of a girl. It saves the narrator. * The fables are mildly interesting for the unusual cynical note, but the volume as a whole is minor. 29. THE STATEMENT OF STELLA MABERLEY, WRITTEN BY HERSELF T. Fisher Unwin; London 1896 (published anonymously) A psychological novel, schizophrenia treated as a supernatural manifestation. The story is told by Stella, a young woman who has had severe mental problems since she was a little child. She is in love with Hugh Dallas, although she is too inhibited and self-tormented to show her love. She also mistakenly believes that her friend Evelyn Heseltine is in love with Hugh. She manipulates situations so that Evelyn, who has a weak heart, will take a fatal dose of chloral. But when she finds Evelyn dead, she is overcome by remorse and prays so movingly that Evelyn comes back to life. In a short time, however, Stella realizes that a different personality inhabits Evelyn's body. On one occasion Evelyn admits that she is an earthbound sprit who slipped into Evelyn's body while the true Evelyn was dead. Evelyn, now a cynical, soulless being, sets out to win Hugh, which she does easily enough. Stella, horrified at the thought of Hugh's marrying a demon, first tries to forbid the bans, but no heed is paid to her, since she is considered insane. After the wedding, when she realizes that Hugh is unhappy, she strangles the weakly Evelyn. The circumstances then reveal that not only was Stella mad, but that she misinterpreted much of the situation around her. * This is probably the best of a small flurry of novels dealing with abnormal psychology that were published around the turn of the century. While the book was published anonymously, the attribution to Anstey seems unquestioned. 30. THE BRASS BOTTLE Smith, Elder; London 1900 Wish-fulfillment, Gibson-girl types, and irony on British folkways and institutions. * Horace Ventimore, a struggling young architect, wishes to please crotchety, irascible Professor Futvoye, the father of the woman he loves, and attends an auction of Oriental artifacts. He buys a very ,old brass jug, which when opened emits a very grateful jinni. The jinni, named Fakrash-el-Aamash, though a very nasty individual, wishes to reward Ventimore, and tries to help him with architectural commissions. But a certain Oriental extravagance and unpro-

ANSTEY, F. gressiveness always spoils the jinni's efforts, and Ventimore is perpetually skidding close to disaster. The jinni plans a splendid marriage for Ventimore. When Ventimore does not agree, the jinni turns vicious and Ventimore is fortunate to escape. Eventually everything is returned to its condition before Ventimore found the bottle. * Amusing, with many good scenic episodes. THE BRASS BOTTLE was turned into a popular stage production, with magical effects by the Maskelynes, and is still occasionally revived. The motion picture THE BRASS BOTTLE, starring Burl Ives, is by no means as amusing as the book. 31. SALTED ALMONDS Smith, Elder; London 1906 Mostly humorous short stories, including [a] WHY I HAVE GIVEN UP WRITING NOVELS. The experiences of an author of third-rate sensation novels, whose characters literally come to life. Also a parody of the eccentric detective of fiction. [b] MRS. BRASSINGTON-CLAYPOTT's CHILDREN'S PARTY. A stupid and snobbish society matron inadvertently hires a supernatural magician for her children's party and gets her just deserts. [c] THE MAGIC H'S. A modern version of DER FREISCHUrZ. A young Briton, who is ostracized because he cannot pronounce the letter h in the proper Situations, makes a treaty with a demon for a supply of magical h's. But six of his h's will be wrong 'uns. His guardian fairy gives him a talisman that will help a little. [d] CAVEAT EMPTOR! A shop offers fantastic bargains to an antique and art collecting tourist. But it cannot be found a second time. Ie] AT A MOMENT'S NOTICE. A London society blade, after an accident, is temporarily incarnated as an organ-grinder's monkey. Delirium. If] THE GULL. A despairing lover who beli.eves that his love is reincarnated as a sea gull, is mistaken. A rather pathetic story. [g] A BOHEMIAN BAG. A travelling bag that likes to travel on its own. [h] THE ADVENTURE OF THE SNOWING GLOBE. A stodgy, cowardly solicitor enters the world of a snowing globe, where he finds himself cast as a dragonslayer. * This is Anstey's best collection of short stories. Most still stand up today. 32. IN BRIEF AUTHORITY Smith, Elder; London 1915. This 400-page novel is Anstey's last considerable work. of fantasy. Written just before the outbreak of World War I and slightly updated at the end to make it topical, it is an enormously overextended jeu d'esprit. * To Mrs. Wibberley-Stimpson, snobbish, crude, and socially ambitious London matron, comes an embassy from Marchenland, to take her back as hereditary ruler. The ambassador makes a mistake, however, for he identifies Mrs. Wibberley-Stimpson as queen by her wearing a certain pendant, which had been taken out of Marchenland by a prince in exile. He does not know that the pendant had just been bought by Mrs. Wibberley-Stimpson from Daphne Heritage, a young governess. The Wibberley-Stimpsons and Daphne are transported to Marchenland, which is a somewhat rationalized country inhabited by the descendants of characters from Grimm's fairy tales. While

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ARKWRIGHT, WILLIAM magic is illegal, the court astrologer makes magical devices and the Court Fairy Godmother, though ancient, can still work potent spells. The Wibberley'-Stimpsons, what with their vulgarity and greed, soon make a botch of things, and it is a relief when Daphne is recognized as the true queen. She marries the crown prince of the neighboring land of French fairytales. Unfortunately, the ending is reached by very complicated plotting and intricate development. There are also a young ogre, a dragon, and transformations. * A disaster which the young Anstey might have handled amusingly as a nouvelle. 33. HUMOUR AND FANTASY VICE VERSA THE TINTED VENUS A FALLEN IDOL THE TALKING HORSE SALTED ALMONDS THE BRASS BOTTLE John Murray; London [1931] A large (1174pp.) omnibus volume containing the material listed in the subtitle. SALTED ALMONJS refers to the whole book of that title, but THE TALKING HORSE is just the short story. * Including [a] VICE VERSA. [b] THE TINTED VENUS. [c] A FALLEN IDOL. [d] THE TALKING HORSE. [e] WHY I HAVE GIVEN UP WRITING NOVELS. If] MRS. BRASSINGTON-CLAYPOTT'S CHILDREN PARTY. [g] THE MAGIC H'S. [h] CAVEAT EMPTOR! Ii] AT A MOMENT'S NOTICE. [j] THE GULL. [k] A BOHEMIAN BAG. [1] THE ADVENTURE OF THE SNOWING GLOBE. [m] THE BRASS BOTTLE. [Anonymous] 34. ARCHIMAGO; OR, THE NEW ZEALANDER ON THE RUINS OF LONDON BRIDGE Ward, Lock; London; D. H. Wilson, Newcastle-on-Tyne [1864?] Social commentary and prophecy via a supernatural vehicle. * The book· is narrated by Jno. of the Tribe of Smeythies, from New Zealand, around the year 1964. Western civilization has been destroyed and London lies in ruins. Jno. reminisces about the period before the destruction. When he came to London, years before, it was the metropolis of the world, with horseless carriages, flying carriages, and similar marvels. But it was amazingly corrupt. Shortly after the death of a friend from drink and brain fever, Jno. noticed a peculiar sensation, which ended in the appearance of a spirit. This spirit in turn caused the appearance of Archimago, the lord of all spirits, who takes Jno. around London, where he reveals to him the depravities of civilization. Jno. sees the corruption of the press, business ethics, social scandal, gambling, and even Spiritualism. Civil war has apparently broken out, and while Jno. does not spell out the reason for the collapse of civilization, there are hints. * A curiosity, consciously in the tradition of LeSage. Halkett and Laing attribute this to Francis Carr, a lumber merchant. ARKWRIGHT, WILLIAM (1857-1925) British occasional writer, authority on hunting dogs. 35. UTINAM; A GLIMMERING OF GODDESSES John Lane; London 1917 Episodic novel, irony on women. * A dryad named Utinam (Latin for I wish • • .) is never

ARKWRIGHT, WILLIAM satisfied. She prays to the gods and becomes successively a peacock, a woman, and an owl. She is dissatisfied with each of her transformations. She is finally turned into a suffragette, but is rescued by Pan and turned back into a tree. * Colored illustrations by Glyn Philpot fit well into the feeble story. ARLEN, MICHAEL (name changed from Kouyoumdjian, Dikran) (1895-1956) Born in Bulgaria of Armenian ancestry, later resident in Hollywood, U.S.A., a popular British writer of the 1920's and 30's. Now remembered mostly for THE GREEN HAT (1924), a story of decadent high life. His supernatural fiction harks back to fin de siecle models, imitating the epigrams of Wilde and the jaunty, Baghdadian London of Stevenson. Arlen is not up to his models, but his stories are brashly amusing and the epigrams are often successful. Most of his earlier fiction is centered on a fashionable set who meet fairly traditional supernatural effects with an idiosyncratic, upper-crust aplomb. A good period piece. 36. THESE CHARMING PEOPLE. BEING A TAPESTRY OF THE FORTUNES. FOLLIES, ADVENTURES, GALLANTRIES AND GENERAL ACTIVITIES OF SHERLMERDENE (THAT LOVELY LADY), LORD TARLYON, MR. MICHAEL WAGSTAFFE, MR. RALPH WYNDHAM TREVOR AND SOME O'IEERS OF THEIR FRIENDS OF THE LIGHTER SORT [etc.j Collins; London [1923] Short stories, including [a] THE ANCIENT SIN. Lord Tarlyon and Wyndham Trevor are driving in the countryside when they are stopped by an old woman who asks for help. They follow her up a path, and come upon an old man who is beating his son. He informs them, when they interfere, that the son has committed the unpardonable sin. While their attention is diverted, the son strikes the old man with a shovel and kills him. Tarlyon and Trevor go to the police, but when they return, after difficulties in finding the spot, see only ruins. But the constable whom they brought along is curiously involved in the tragedy. [b] THE LOQUACIOUS LADY OF LANSDOWNE PASSAGE. Tarlyon refuses ever to enter the passage, because of an experience he had there. He had escorted a rather timid prostitute through the passage, and she told him of her murder-- then disappeared. * The contrast between the classical themes and the modernistic, heavily ironic setting is sometimes piquant. 37. MAY FAIR Collins; London [1925] Short stories built around the same clique as in 36. Including [a] THE BATTLE OF BERKELEY SQUARE. Tarlyon, incapacitated by a pain in his Side, is taken to hospital for observation. It is appendicitis, and Tarlyon dies on the operating table. His soul migrates to the body of his sister, who happens to be in labor. But it is all delirium from anaesthesia. [b] THE PRINCE OF THE JEWS. The Admiral makes an enemy of Julian Raphael, a vicious swell criminal, and as a result of their melees, Julian's mistress is accidentally killed by a knife Julian has thrown. Julian marks the Admiral for death, which is supernaturally accomplished at the mo-

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ARLEN, MICHAEL ment that Julian dies in Paris. Julian, the Admiral, and the woman go off together. [c] THE REVOLTING DOOM OF A GENTLEMAN WHO WOULD NOT DANCE WITH HIS WIFE. Vest has been told by a soothsayer in Piccadilly Circus that he will prosper until a certain moment: he will perish by the owl on the statue of Eros. It comes true. His wife announces that Lord Vest has committed a murder, but she is the victim. [d] THE GENTLEMAN FROM AMERICA. A bet, spending a night alone in a haunted house. Puce, the American, takes the bet, and while waiting reads a horrible intercalated tale about an animated corpse that tries to warn her sister of a homicidal maniac. When the haunt comes, Puce discovers that his bullets are of no use. Rationalized. Madness is the result. le] TO LAMOIR. A rather vague story about supernatural sympathies and a swarth. [f] FAREWELL, THESE CHARMING PEOPLE. A banquet, thirteen at the table, a Presence-- and Satan, who exchanges badinage with the guests. Rather pointless, except as an epilogue. * Good atmosphere of the Roaring Twenties. 38. GHOST STORIES Collins; London [1927] Short stories from previous volumes, including, described elsewhere, [a] THE PRINCE OF THE JEWS. [b] TO LAMOIR. [c] THE ANCIENT SIN. [d] THE LOQUACIOUS LADY OF LANSDOWNE PASSAGE. [e] THE GENTLEMAN FROM AMERICA. * One of the two remaining stories, "The Ghoul of Golder's Green," deals with a hoax of a sort, while the other, "The Sm~ll in the Library," is concerned with a tenuous falsified supernaturalism. 39. HELL~ SAID THE DUCHESS A BED-TIME STORY Heinemann; London [1934] Heavy social satire, burlesque of detective stories. * In London of the near future, when England has gone Fascist, the police seek Jane the Ripper, a female sex criminal whose penchant is decapitation and mutilation of her victimes. The beautiful and virtuous Mary, Duchess of Dove, is under suspicion, since she has been seen near the crimes and her raucous behavior has attracted attention. While Henry James Fancy, the detective in charge of the case, who delights in polysyllaby, would like to arrest Lady Dove, the Commissioner overrules him. It is conceivable that Lady Dove could have murdered these members of the lower classes, but that she could have had sexual congress with them is unthinkable. Other clues lead to Dr. Xanthis Axaloe, a convict stricken off the medical register. An amateur detective unmasks him. Axaloe has the ability to transform himself into a beautiful woman, and has committed the crimes in the guise of Lady Dove. His purpose is to stir up social revolution, what with the obvious police protection of Lady Dove as a member of the ruling class~ /\xaloe reveals hiTIl.self as an immortal demon, but dies whf!TI shot, dissolving into slime, and leaving a bad smell behind. * An amusing" parody, with nice period dialogue. There are, of course, reminiscences of Arthur Machen and G. K. Chesterton, but the story is most likely to appeal to mystery buffs"

ARMOUR, FRANCES J. ARMOUR, FRANCES J. British writer. 40. THE BROTHERHOOD OF WISDOM Brown, Langham and Co.; London 1908 Occult novel, with romance. * The Brotherhood of Wisdom is a secret organi~ation that not only preserves the hidden wisdom of the past, but has made great advances of its own. It is not evil, and it has no plans for disturbing the world, but it is single-minded and ruthless in its pursuit of knowledge. * Professor Jackson invents a device that liberates the astral body, and the invention interests the Brotherhood, since previously they could liberate astral bodies only by occult means. Hermion Vivian. a beautiful young woman, persuades Jackson to experiment with her, but her astral body is captured by the Brotherhood and taken to their secret temple, where it is used for purposes of divination. Her physical body lies in a trance in England. Enter Dane Mottram, soldier ot fortune. He, too, is sent out by Jackson; he sees Hermion's capture," and tries to rescue her; but the Brotherhood is too strong for him; and his astral body is fortunate to escape. Eventually an occultist marginally associated with the Brotherhood suggests that Miss Vivian may be released if her physical body is brought to her astral body. Under such conditions physical ties will operate, and she will merge. After much adventure and derringdo, this is done. Cumbersome in its mixture of romance and occultism, not entirely convincing in plot. ARMOUR, MARGARET (marriage name perhaps MAC1943) DOUGALL) (? British occasional writer, scholar, translator of work by Richard Wagner and Heinrich Heine. AS EDITOR: 41 THE EERIE BOOK J. Shiells; London 1898 An anthology, partly folklore, partly fiction. Including, described elsewhere, [a1 THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, E. A. Poe. lb1 SIR HULDBRAND'S WIFE, F. de la Motte Fouque. A fragment from UNDINE. lc1 THE IRON COFFIN, G. W. M. Reynolds. A fragment from FAUST. * Also [d 1 THE MOTHER AND THE DEAD CHILD, Hans Andersen. Translated from Danish. Sentimental fable. Death as the gardener who tends the plants of human lives. le1 THE DUTCH OFFICER'S STORY, Catherine Crowe. Low Lands around 1830. Associated with the 20th, friendly to the enlisted men, is the ghost of a Newfoundland dog. It warns sleeping sentries when danger approaches. An officer, despite warnings, shoots at the dog and great misfortune befalls him. lf1 EARL BEARDIE'S GAME AT CARDS, Anonymous •. Earl Beardie of Glamis plays cards with the Devil on Sunday. 191 THE GARDE CHASSE, Catherine Crowe. France. A greedy young man, who has the right to gather the dead wood in the seigneur's forest, rips up an old wooden cross. The man buried beneath the cross resents the outrage bitterly and follows the young man home. [h1 A DREAM OF DEATH, Anonymous. Translation from Danish. A death vision. Seemingly a fragment from a longer,

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ARMSTRONG, MARTIN unidentified work. li1 THE BLIND BEGGAR OF ODESSA, Catherine Crowe. A little girl who has been associated with the dead beggar reveals to the police the circumstances of the beggar's death. Does his spirit visit her, as she says, or is she clairvoyant? * Other material includes a 30-page abridgment of FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley; factual material from Hunt's POPULAR ROMANCES OF THE WEST OF ENGLAND, Savile's APPARITIONS, and Chambers's TRADITIONS OF EDINBURGH. * There are also 15 illustrations by W. B. Macdougall in the mode of Aubrey Beardsley. * The three stories by Mrs. Crowe, le1, 191, li1, come from her GHOSTS AND FAMILY LEGENDS (1858), which is almost impossible to find. ARMSTRONG, ANTHONY (pseud. of WILLIS, GEORGE A.) (1897 - 1976) British playwright, author of mysteries, humorous fiction, fantasy. Editor of TEE EMM during World War II. O.B.E., M.C. 42. THE STRANGE CASE OF MR. PELHAM Methuen; London 1957 Although this has been promoted and reviewed as a mystery story, it is really supernatural. * The story opens at Monte Carlo, where British tourists observe the great contrast between the appearance of Mr. Pelham, which is that of a conservative bookkeeper, and his reputation and activities over the past year or so. A recapitulation explains the situation. * Pelham, a small businessman, first notices something odd when friends say that they have seen and met him at places where he has not been. At first he is inclined to interpret this as mistaken identity, but he is gradually forced to recognize that someone who resembles him greatly is deliberately impersonating him. Pelham soon finds himself helpless, for his double knows his most secret plans, forges his changed signature perfectly, and even has his new house key. When the double intrudes in his apartment and his business, Pelham becomes desperate and finally succeeds in confronting the double. It turns out to be his undoing, for the double takes over his life completely, and Pelham is taken to the madhouse. The double, who is a fiend in human form, seduces Pelham's secretary, puts her fiance in jail, and embarks on a highly successful but shady business expansion. Vacationing at Monte Carlo he is also doing very well in causing the spiritual downfall of British tourists. * Entertaining, but episodic and disconnected in presentation. ARMSTRONG, MARTIN (1882 - 1974) British mainstream author, educated at Charterhouse and Cambridge. Well regarded during the 1930's for finely crafted traditional novels and short stories. Now undeservedly forgotten. 43. THE BAZAAR AND OTHER STORIES Jonathan Cape; London [19241 Short stories, including la1 MRS. BARBER'S CHRISTMAS. Old Mrs. Barber, who falls asleep in church, has a vision of Jesus and Heaven,

ARMSTRONG, MARTIN with very material marvels. But the vicar is not interested. Ib] HELM HALL. Richmond, seeking shelter for the night, takes refuge with an ancient madman who sees the ghosts of those who have died in the house. Perhaps the old man helped them to change their sphere of existence? [c) A DOG'S LIFE. Tweed takes a sip of a '68 port, praises it, and then discourses on the superiority of dogs to men. As the owner says, that wine will loosen any tongue. * [b) is a good chiller. 44. GENERAL BUNTOP' S MIRACLE AND OTHER STORIES Gollancz; London 1934 Short stories, including [a] PRESENCE OF MIND. Humor. Mr. Pellett, a solicitor, commits a trespass to reach his office a little earlier, and discovers that his ready lie to excuse his offence has created a fantasy world that threatens to engulf him. Is it possible that there is a Z. Q. Muggleton Spoffin or a Mr. Palimpsest of Calceolaria Groves? And what has this to do with a Presto gas-propelled lawn mower? [b) THE PIPE- SMOKER. Re"fuge from the rain with a mad clergyman who believes that he is a reflection that has assumed reality and taken over the body of the reflector. Possibly true; more likely madness. * Both excellent. Ia] may be the best humorous British fantasy of its decade. ARNOLD, EDWIN LESTER (1857-1935) Son of Sir Edwin Arnold, noted writer of bowdlerized Orientalia, but much less gifted. Unsuccessful farmer in Canada, India; naturalist; occasional author and journalist. Today considered historically important for offering the type-situation of time-travel via reincarnation, but otherwise of no great interest. 45. THE WONDERFUL ADVENTURES OF PHRA THE PHOENICIAN Chatto and Windus; London 1891 3 vol. Introduction by Sir Edwin Arnold. * A long, pretentious, sentimental adventure romance. Great Britain from the period of Julius Caesar on through Elizabethan times. * Phra, a Phoenician trader, buys Blodwen, a beautiful British witch-princess, from pirates, marries her, and settles down in Britain. He is disliked by the natives, however, and when the Romans invade Britain, Phra is accused of being a spy and is sacrificed by the Druids. He awakens four hundred years later, during the Saxon period, and discovers that Blodwen has tattooed him with a magical serpent that will (as is later shown) take him through time. He now lives through key periods of British history, in each period performing deeds of heroism, marrying women that are reminiscent of Blodwen, and relapsing into his trance again. He is present at the Norman Conquest, where his sympathies are with the Saxons; during the French Wars around 1400; and in late Tudor times. Blodwen occasionally appears to him, sometimes in ghostly form, sometimes by possessing his latest wife. In his last "incarnation," however, he commits suicide by poison and expects to join Blodwen away from life. * Phra, despite his Near Eastern origin, is essentially a midVictorian blusterer, whose adventures are chron-

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ARTHUR, ROBERT icled in a style reminiscent of Haggard's worst. A lower-level period piece, much inferior to the better historical novels of the day. It is sometimes reprinted (especially in America) under the short title PHRA THE PHOENICIAN. It is not clear whether the New York (Harper) 1890 edition or the British edition cited above, issued late in 1890, is the true first edition. 46. LEPlDUS THE CENTURION A ROMAN OF TO-DAY Cassell; London 1901 An odd combination of adventure, romance, society novel and psychological semi-allegory, told in a breezy fashion. * Louis Allanby, a frustrated young Englishman, comes upon an ancient Roman tomb that has been uncovered by an uprooted tree. In the tomb he finds the corpse of a Roman-- and to his surprise he sees that the corpse is still living. After initial shock and retreat, he revives the Roman, who is Lepidus, the nephew of the Emperor Vespasian. Lepidus, who speaks English, is in many ways a handsome, heightened, less inhibited version of Louis (despite Roman memories), and the two clash over a young woman. After an attempt at a duel, they decide to let the woman choose between them. When she chooses Louis, Lepidus commits suicide, according to an agreement that Louis apparently meant only half seriously. Allanby is now left with some of the heightened personality that was Lepidus. * A curiosity only, although the attempt to render dissociated personality fragments is unusual for the level and the period. 47. LIEUT. GULLIVAR JONES HIS VACATION S.C. Brown, Langham and Co.; London 1905 Semijuvenile episodic adventure, fairy tale-like science-fiction. * Lt. Jones, U.S.N., finds a magic carpet, which conveys him to Mars. On Mars are to be found humanoid insect people; a sage whose will power can repel javelins; a globe of destiny which reveals the future in moralistic terms; apemen; man-eating flowers; a comet which threatens to collide with Mars; and a beautiful princess. Jones finally wishes himself back on earth. * A minor oddity only. ARTHUR, ROBERT (pseud. of Feder, Robert Arthur) (1909-1969) American writer, editor, radio and television figure. Accredited with editing some of the anthologies published under the name of Alfred Hitchcock. AS EDITOR: 48. MONSTER MIX 13 THRILLING TALES Dell; New York [1968] paperbound Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] MRS. AMWORTH, E. F. Benson. [b) DANIEL WEBSTER AND THE SEA SERPENT, S. V. Benet. [c) THE MANNIKIN, Robert Bloch. [d) THE WENDIGO, Algernon Blackwood. [e) 0 UGLY BIRD~ Manly Wade Wellman. [f) THE HOARD OF THE GIBBELINS, Lord Dunsany. * Also [g) MIMIC, Donald Wollheim. (ASTONISHING STORIES 1942). Borderline science-fiction. Protective m~m~cry. The monstrous human turns out to be perhaps a superinsect. Interesting concept. [h) FOOTSTEPS INVISIBLE, Robert Arthur (new). The blind newsie

ARTHUR, ROBERT recognizes Sir Andrew, the famous explorer, who confides in him. An invisible demon from Egypt is following Sir Andrew, and the newsie should listen for its footsteps. ASBURY, HERBERT (1891-1963) American author, journalist, renowned for colorful, nicely researched studies of shady aspects of American life: THE GANGS OF NEW YORK (1928), THE BARBARY COAST (1933), THE FRENCH QUARTER (1936). 49. THE DEVIL OF PEl-LING Macy-Masius; New York 1927 British title, THE CRIMSON ROPE. * A detectivemystery situation, based on material supernatural horrors. A series of mysterious crimes is being investigated by the narrator (a medical man) and Detective Conroy. The crimes involve a supernatural rope-like manifestation that hangs its victims in mid air, gouts of blood everywhere, an awful stench, and toads as large as cats. Among other motifs are a young lady who is periodically possessed by the spirit of a dead magician, the Black Mass, a horrible Oriental cult involving human sacrifice, and a saintly stigmatic. After some rushing back and forth, it is revealed that the personality behind the evil is one Silvio, who had been executed for murder. Silvio, who was powerful enough magically to get up after he was hanged and vow vengeance "on his judges, has been murdering persons connected with his trial. Silvio is also a devotee of the Kuei of Pei-Ling, a brass idol, which he is able to animate and commit murders with. Material, rational defences are powerless against the dead Silvio, but the stigmatic is more than a match for him, the rope, and the idol. * Asbury was a very capable, sophisticated writer, and it is not probable that he was serious when he wrote this horror. AS EDITOR: 50. NOT AT NIGHT~ Macy-Masius; The Vanguard Press; New York 1928 A curious example of bringing coals to Ne'-1castle. The British NOT AT NIGHT series was considered successful enough to justify an American counterpart, 25 stories taken from early volumes. According to the publisher's note the stories carne from WEIRD TALES, a British magazine! * [a] BAT'S BELFRY, August Derleth. (WT 192b) Derleth's first story in WT. Journal fragments. Bats, bloodless corpse, vampirism. [b] THE SEATHING, Frank Belknap Long. (WT 1925) Sea monster. Described elsewhere, [c] THE HORROR AT RED HOOK, H. P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft's first book appearance in American commercial publishing. [d] THE TORTOISE-SHELL CAT, Greye La Spina. [e] THE PARASITIC HAND, R. Anthony. [f] DEATH-WATERS, Frank Belknap Long. [g] FOUR WOODEN STAKES, Victor Rowan. [h] THE DEVIL BED, Gerald Dean. [i] THE BEAST, Paul Benton. [j] THE LIFE SERUM, Paul S. Powers. [k] THE GIRDLE, Joseph McCord. * Other stories are primitive s-f or crude contes cruels. Asbury contributes a curiously imperceptive introduction.

*

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ASHTON, FRANCIS ASHBY, R[UBIE] C[ONSTANCE] (1899- 7) Educated at Oxford. British occasional author of detective stories, other fiction. 51. OUT WENT THE TAPER Hodder and Stoughton; London 1934 A mystery story with strong fantastic elements. * When Tal Winyatt, American Rhodes scholar, visits the Cory family at Cwrn Wyddfa in Wales, he becomes enmeshed in a tangled complex of crime and the supernatural. The ghost of a murdered salesman; a visionary experience in a long-sealed subterranean chamber of horrors; poltergeistic activity around the rectory are integrated with the doings of professional criminals. The supernaturalism is strong and much of it is not rationalized. A good mystery * Ashby's other weird-detective story, HE ARRIVED AT DUSK (1933), is completely rationalized. ASHTON, FRANCIS [LESLIE] (1904 - 7) British author. 52. THE BREAKING OF THE SEALS Andrew Dakers; London [1946] Prehistoric adventure based ultimately on the pseudo-psychoanalytical theory that archetypes in the mind of modern man are literally memories of past experiences of our ancestors. The story opens with the discovery of remains of a fairly high civilization from about 250,000 B.C., before the existence of Chellean man. Among the artifacts found is a sword. Harry agrees to permit Kurdt, a psychologist, to experiment in restoring the archaic memories that must have gone along with the sword. The body of the novel is Harry's memory of life in the lost land of Mahbahste. At this time (in which motif the author follows Hoerbiger's theory of multiple moons) the earth was circled by Bahste, an earlier moon which was approaching Roche's Limit and was about to break up. Much of the religion of Mahbahste is based on propitiating the moon by human sacrifices. The plot of the novel is concerned with intrigues, initiatory experiences, civil war, and invasion from neighboring sun-worshippers. Bahste reaches the critical limit, collapses, and rains of ash and mud overwhelm the land, along with seismic disturbances and flood. Almost all the human race is destroyed. * After a rather tedious opening, the story turns into a competent adventure novel, much like a superior work by E.R. Burroughs. The integration of ideas from crank science, psychology, occultism and ethnography is interesting. 53. ALAS, THAT GREAT CITY Andrew Dakers; London [1948] Sequel of a sort to 52, describing another of the lunar catastrophes postulated by the Hoerbiger-Bellamy theory. * Atlantis. Jonathan Grant, who rents out his yacht, is hired to sail out into the Atlantic with a young woman and catch the memories of lost Atlantis. According to the theory of his employer, these memories recur in cycles and may be picked up by properly sensitive persons at such times. Grant is completely sceptical, but during a storm, at the proper point in the memory cycle

ASHTON, FRANCIS he relives the life of Larentzal, a nobleman of wicked Atlantis, just before the destruction of the continent. Larentzal is a member of a revolutionary cabal against the corrupt government of Queen Nethali, but is seduced by the queen. Eventually he escapes from her with Cleoli, his true love, and is drowned in the submergence of Atlantis. Back in the present Grant accepts his previous life and decides to undo some of his evil karma by marrying the young woman who is with him. She turns out to be a reincarnation of Cleoli. * Sometimes melodramatic, but all in all a capable thriller if one overlooks the vapid romance. ASQUITH, LADY CYNTHIA (nee Charteris) (1887-1960) Daughter of Lord Elcho. British social figure, occasional writer of fiction, author of reminiscences, anthologist. Sometime secretary to J. M. Barrie, and his biographer and heiress. For our purposes a very important editor. While British publishing was disfigured by such crudities as the NOT AT NIGHT and CREEPS series, Lady Cynthia alone was editing new collections of superior new supernatural fiction. As a writer, however, she is less important, her work being derivative and sometimes a little clumsy in form. 54. THIS MDRTAL COIL Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1947 Several of these stories appeared previously elsewhere, notably in Asquith's anthologies, but are described here for context. Including [a] IN A NUTSHELL. Questionable as supernatural. Selfish, childish FeliCity Creswell \vas responsible for her husband's death. She broke his capsule of amyl nitrate too soon, and he died of a heart attack. It seems to have been accidental, but she has suffered from various psychological aftereffects. In a somnambulistic state she recapitulates her action with her son, who also has a heart condition. It is possible that her action was supernaturally motivated, by her husband's spirit. [b] THE WHITE MOTH. The narrator, who is a publisher's girl Friday, is aSSigned to cover Evelyn Dawn, the new poetic sensation. Dawn, however, is a cloddish oaf. The explanation for the poetry is to be found in a young woman who had died fifty years earlier and was the real poet. Her spirit has apparently dictated the verse to the unwilling girl. [c] THE CORNER SHOP. The narrator comes upon a pleasant antique shop, and on one occasion buys a very valuable piece of Chinese jade for a pittance from the elderly caretaker. But it is revealed that the caretaker was really the ghost of the former owner, who is expiating several sharp deals that he perpetrated during his lifetime. He will be redeemed when he finds three honest customers. [d] "GOD GRANTE THAT SHE LYE STILLE." When the young doctor becomes acquainted with Miss Margaret Clewer, he also notices the epitaph on the grave of another Miss Clewer: God grante that she lye stille. Margaret feels that she has no central core of personality, and is soon possessed by the spirit of the 16th century woman. Ie] THE PLAYFELLOW. Laura Halyard, husband,

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ASQUITH, CYNTHIA and child take over Lichen Hall on the death of Halyard's older brother. Some years before, the brother's only child had died in a fire. Laura's child Hyacinth soon associates with an imaginary playmate, who (it is obvious to the reader) is the ghost of the dead child, Daphne. Somewhat less expected is that Daphne, when another fire breaks out, assumes the form of the living child, to deceive rescuers, and ca~ses the death of Hyacinth. Now they can play together in eternity. If] THE NURSE NEVER TOLD. Premonitory dreams; based on Dunne's AN EXPERIMENT WITH TIME. The patient, a brilliant young Australian, has long had horror dreams; the surgeon, unexpectedly called in, also an Australian, has had comparable dreams. The result is idiocy for the patient and suicide for the surgeon. [g] THE FIRST NIGHT. The play is about to be performed. It had been written twenty years earlier, but the author (and leading part) had died of a lung hemorrhage before it could be put on. After a successful first night it is learned that the current leading man has been hospitalized, and that his part was presumably played by the dead author. [h] THE FOLLOWER. The woman in hospital tells the visiting specialist of a horror sight that she has had on several occasions. It is obviously Death personified. The doctor has a mask. * Literate, but somewhat overdone. The best touch is the ending of Ie]. AS EDITOR: 55. THE GHOST BOOK Hutchinson; London [1926] Short stories. [a] THE VILLA DESIREE, May Sinclair. Mildred, against the disapproval of her friends, plans to marry Louis Carson. She spends the night in the Villa Desiree, where Carson's previous wife had died of fright, and is visited by something horrible. It is presumably Carson's astral body, or true personality. [b] CHEMICAL, Algernon Blackwood. The new roomer sees the bearded stranger, watches him snooping about, and finds him unspeakably repellant. It is almost a chemical reaction. The ghost of the Warley Parricide, recapitulating his crime. [c] THE DUENNA, Mrs. Marie Belloc Lowndes. Laura, about to commit adultery, is almost caught by her husband-- despite the fact that her would-be lover has just died. She is saved by a ghost, perhaps that of an 18th century French dancer, perhaps that of a woman in her husband's past. [d] A VISITOR FROM DOWN UNDER, L. P. Hartley. The stranger comes for Mr. Rumboldt. Very fine atmosphere, verbal ambiguities add to the thematic horror. Ie] THE LOST TRAGEDY, Denis Mackail. The narrator tells of great interest in an auction lot of old books. In the lot is a hitherto unknown play, "The Tragedie of Alexander the Great," by William Shakespeare. But it is a very bad play, so bad that the ghosts of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson must suppress it. If] SPINSTER'S REST, Clemence Dane (pseud. of Winifred Ashton). Described elsewhere for context. [g] MRS. LUNT, Hugh Walpole. The narrator visits Lunt the novelist, in Cornwall, and sees a very nasty looking old woman. It gradually becomes clear that Lunt had murdered his wife. The ghost of the wife

ASQUITH, CYNTHIA reciprocates and murders Lunt. Or conscience? [h] MUNITIONS OF WAR, Arthur Machen. World War I. Noisy loading of munitions, accomplished in part by the ghosts of Nelson's sailors. [i] THE ROCKING HORSE WINNER, D. H. Lawrence. Paul, a little boy, can tell which horses will win the r"aces. Knowing the name of the winner, he mounts his hobby horse, and rides it to victory. He builds a small fortune by betting (with the help of his uncle and a friendly gardener) but the process destroys him. Really a moving story of human relationships. [j] "A RECLUSE," Walter de la Mare. Described elsewere for context. [k] THE CORNER SHOP, C. L. Ray (pseud. of Cynthia Asquith). Described elsewhere for context. [1] TWO TRIFLES, Oliver Onions. Two short stories as follows: [m] THE ETHER-HOGS. Humorous fantasy. In the world of the dead great disturbances are caused by radio broa.dcasts from earth. The ghost of a Scottish engineer is sent back to earth to stop the broadcasting, but the ghost discovers that he is unwilling to fulfill h~s mission. Work conscience is too strong. [n] THE MORTAL. Sir Egbert the Dauntless, to preserve his pride, decides on the perilous gesture of manifesting himself to a mortal. He faces the danger of exorcism and solidification. [0] TWELVE O'CLOCK, Charles Wbibley. Perhaps a fictional version of a "historical" incident. The wicked Lord Lyttelton has received a supernatural warning from a ghostly woman. He will die at a certain time. Setting the clocks ahead does not help. [p] THE AMOROUS GHOST, Enid Bagnold. Mr. Templeton is not surprised when the servants give notice. They found a woman's nightgowns on the floor, and he himself saw a female ghost. His wife is coming home soon. [q] MR. TALLENT'S GHOST, Mary Webb. Pseudo-supernatural humor. The narrator, a critic and editor, becomes acquainted with Mr. Tallent, a would-be novelist of remarkable energy and lack of talent. Tallent leaves him his money, on condition that the narrator publish Tallent's manuscripts. The author's heirs complain; Tallent's ghost appears and bores them; and the narrator, too, is haunted. There is an unexpected explanation. [r] PARGITON AND HARBY, Desmond MCCarthy. Harby's estranged friend Pargiton has a questionable episode in his past. He feels indirectly responsible for his brother's death. At the moment Pargiton is engaged in battling a doppelganger who may be his evil component or just conscience. * An excellent collection. 56. THE BLACK CAP NEW STORIES OF MURDER AND MYSTERY Hutchinson; London (1927) A collection of prestigious authors, most of whom contribute mystery or crime material. * Including [a] THE TARN, Hugh Walpole. Fenwick, a misanthropic failure, has come to dislike his friend Foster heartily. He pushes Foster into the local tarn. That night a revenant comes to Foster, tarn along with him. Effective. [b] AN UNRECORDED INSTANCE, Mrs. Marie Belloc Lowndes. Hetty Mingle, plain, rather stupid former spinster, almost becomes a victim of her new husband's penchant for bathtub

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ASQUITH, CYNTHIA murders. She is saved by the voice of her dead mother-- or unconscious processes? * Also present, but not supernatural, are "The Killing Bottle" by L. P. Bartley and "The Lovely Lady" by D. H. Lawrence. 57 • SHUDDERS A COLLECTION OF NEW NIGHTMARE TALES Hutchinson; London 11929) First book appearances, but described elsewhere for context in some caseg. * Including [a] THE PLAYFELLOW, Cynthia Asquith. [b] THE HANGING OF ALFRED WADHAM, E.F. Benson. [c] THE SNOW, Hugh Walpole. [d] CREWE, Walter de la Mare. [e] RATS, M.R~ James. [f] THE STRANGER, Algernon Blackwood~ [g] THOSE WHOM THE GODS LOVE, Hilda Hughes. Wales. Blodwyn, who is married to David, is jealous because David still loves the beautiful Deirdre. Overcome by hatred, she prays passIonately for Deirdre's death, and is successful-- but at a price. [h] THE CAT JUMPS, Elizabeth Bowen. POSSibly a haunted house. Atmosphere overpowers effete intellectuals in a house where a particularly brutal murder had taken place. ("He put her heart in her hat-box. He said it belonged there.") Perhaps momentary possession. Black humor. [i] DISPOSSESSION, C. H. B. Kitchin. A rather confused story, which may be possession, personality interchange, telepathy, or madness. [j] THE LORD-IN-WAITING, Shane Leslie. The early 19th century Lord Mbuntstable was an electrical genius, far ahead of his time. Following a medieval manuscript he attempted a personality exchange. His experimental activities were not successful, but his charged spirit is still about the house, trying to possess others. Borderline science-fiction. [k] THE END OF THE FLIGHT, W. Somerset Maugham. Indonesia. The Dutchman, pursued by the vengeful Achinese, is gradually cracking up. One morning the resident finds him dead, no wound, but a kriss laid across his throat. Supernaturalism is not spelled out, but within the terms of the story a ghost seems a reasonable assumption. * Of the described material [h] is excellent. 58 • WHEN CHURCHYARDS YAWN FIFTEEN NEW GHOST STORIES Hutchinson; London [1931] Short stories. [a] THE APPLE TREE, Elizabeth Bowen. Myra Wing, when at boarding school, saw her friend hang herself on an apple tree. She has been afflicted by the memory, which has assumed the status of a real haunting. Others have the sense of a tree and of apples falling. [b] A LITTLE GHOST, Hugh Walpole. The narrator, who has just lost a friend, is comforted by the ghost of a little girl, in an 18th century house, and in turn comforts the ghost. [c] THE COTILLON, L. P. Hartley. Described elsewhere for context. [d] A THREEFOLD CORD • • • Algernon Blackwood. Described elsewhere for context. [e] THE BUICK SALOON, Ann Bridge. China. Mrs. Bowlby, whose husband is stationed in Peking, buys a secondhand Buick. She hears supernatural voices in it, and, following leads, comes upon the memory of an affair she wishes she had not discovered. [f] OPENING THE DOOR, Arthur Machen. Described elsewhere for context. [g] THE BIRTHRIGHT,

ASQUITH, CYNTHIA Hilda Hughes. Martin Drake, as a child, had previsions of deaths, an ability which caused his father to hate him. When Drake, Sr. dies and leaves nothing to Martin, Martin forges a new will and "discovers" it through a dream. But his father's ghost appears and objects violently. [h) BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, C. H. B. Kitchin. A modernized version of the fairy tale. When Miriam Lentworth goes to the Riviera as a paid companion~ she manages to lose all her money gambling, arid offends her employer. But she is accosted by an elderly man who gives her a commission to perform. By following instructions she meets a very handsome young man, unfortunately mute, with whom she has an affair. When he leaves her for a time, she believes herself abandoned and marries a wealthy family friend. On her wedding night a tiger appears at her bedroom door and attacks her husband, who kills it. Miriam does not thrive after this, and after a time is found dead, mauled, beneath the tiger's skin. Theriomorphy, nicely handled with· a metaphoric touch. [i) AS IN A GLASS DIMLY, Shane Leslie. Two anecdotes about supernatural phenomena associated with photography. An Egyptian artifact with the Book of the Dead painted on it does not wish to be photographed and destroys negatives. The other, a stained glass window in a church, shows a figure which sticks out its tongue as if strangling. It was modelled on a photo of a criminal who had been hanged. [j) THE HORNS OF THE BULL, W.S. Morrison, M.P. Premodern Scotland. Folkloristic, narrated by an old native. A wizard father and two brothers who hate one another desperately. When the father lies dying, he puts geases on them not to fight and promises defeat for the aggressor. When Orm, the wickeder of the two, tries to bypass the wording of the geas, he is destroyed. His plan was to attack his brother's island by setting his own island adrift magically. Much folklore. [k) THE MAN WHO CAME BACK, William Gerhardi. The old French scholar, deeply devoted to his library, is seen by the narrator using books after his death. (1) THE UNBOLTED DOOR, Mrs. Marie Belloc Lowndes. An only son missing in World War I; the father's refusal to admit that the son is dead; estrangement between the parents. The son's ghost effects a reconciliation. [m) "JOHN GLADWYN SAYS • • ." Oliver Onions. Death, in the form of a golden car, comes for Gladwyn. On the first meeting Death misses and Gladwyn, in the side paths of his life, relives old memories of dead wife, dead sonS. On their second meeting Death does not miss. [n) OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS, Philip MacDonald. A young Cockney couple on a drive wander into a place secret and sacred to the birds. They die without knowing their fault. [01 "GOD GRANTE THAT SHE LYE STILLE," Cynthia Asquith. Described elsewhere for context. * A fine collection with much good material. Outstanding among described material are [a), [h), [j), [m). * This collection is rare, but the reader will find all its stories except [d) reprinted in A CENTURY OF CREEPY STORIES, which is by no means so difficult to acquire.

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ASQUITH, CYNTHIA 59. ~ GRIMMEST NIGHTMARE Allen and Unwin; London [1935] A collection of stories, mostly supernatural, originally broadcast over the B.B.C. (Daventry) as the program NIGHTMARES. It is not clear whether the stories were read in the present form or dramatized. * Including [a] THE FOLLOlvER, Cynthia Asquith. Described in 50 for context. [b) TO BE LET UNFURNISHED, Gabrielle Vallings. She is viewing a house and is being shown around by the agent's young man, when a chandelier falls. She barely escapes injury. Actually, it happened during World War I, as a result of an air raid, and she is dead, as is the young man. [c) THUNDERBOLT, Miranda Stuart. The narrator assures the seedy-looking man that the bridge is safe-- but it isn't. The accident happened back in 1905; a ghost. [d) BY WATER, Algernon Blackwood. The fortune teller told him that he would die by drowning. Was it possible on the Egyptian desert? [e] JUNGLE NIGHTS, R.A. Monson. Africa. A were-hyena. [f) IN THE JOTUNHEIM MOUNTAINS, J. B. Morton. Norway. Help is needed and gigantic figures provide a boat. Supernatural giants. [g] INCUBUS, Marjorie Bowen. In a dream she goes into an old church and sees a stone man on a funerary monument. The man is starting to awaken when she rushes out. She wakes up in bed and says, "It was all a dream." But the stone man, who is there, asks, "Whose?" [h] SERENADE FOR BABOONS, Noel Langley. Hoareb, a brutal South African, struck his wife and killed her. A Zulu witchdoctor sets t:.J1e baboons on him. [i] SIX MONTHS AGO, James Laver. The Italian woman prophecies that he \"ill die six months after he carries a corpse in his car. [j] SPLIT SECOND, Ann Knox. Vision of the futuLe. Borderline as fantasy. [k] THE BLACKMAILERS, Algernon Blackwood. A little man is being blackmailed, but the blackmailer is a sympathetic person, not a scoundrel. The ghost of the blackmailer helps out. [1] ROOM 2000 CALLING, Theodora Benson. A phone message from a man obviously murdered before the call. * Weaker than previous collections, perhaps because of the radio needs. [g) is worth reading. 60. THE SECOND GHOST BOOK J. Barrie; London 1952 American title, A BOOK OF MODERN GHOSTS. ~: Introduction by Elizabeth Bowen, making the point that most contemporary ghost stories are concerned with obsession. * Including [a] CAPTAIN DALGETY RETURNS, Laurence Whistler. After death experiences. The captain, a choleric, hard man, unable to achieve understanding with his child, goes for a walk and is smitten by a gigantic gray hand from the sky-- which is presumably not meant literally. He does not recognize his new state of existence. Sensitive, but somewhat overwritten. [b] CHRISTMAS MEETING, Rosemary Timperley. Very short but effective. A middle-aged woman, alone in a room on a Christmas visit, talks to a young man who enters the room but disappears when she is about to offer him coffee. She later reads an 1852 diary of a young man who had a

ASQUITH, CYNTHIA heart attack after a ghostly visitation. [c] DANSE MACABRE, L.A.G. Strong. Flanagan, at a Red Cross dance, sees a beautiful girl in a fine yellow dress. She acts peculiarly. He dances with her, and takes her home-- near the cemetery. An old theme, but nicely told. [d] THE MEMOIRS OF A GHOST, G.W. Stonier. After death experiences. The ghost must create his own world, from the store of his experiences. The result is entropy. This is not the same work as the novel of the same title by the same author. Ie] THE BEWILDERMENT OF SNAKE McKOY, Nancy Spain. An American author of hardboiled detective stories settles with family in England, in a Victorian house. He finds his writing changed to a gushy Victorian style, and coincidentally becomes acquainted with Miss Bellwood, an elderly lady who lives in the top floor. He does not recognize that she is a ghost until it is too late. If] A STORY OF DON JUAN, V. S. Pritchett. Don Juan visits a widower, Quintero, who becomes annoyed with the Don's boasting and puts him into the room haunted by the icy ghostly revenant of Quintero's dead wife. Quintero expects the Don to emerge next morning chastened and subdued, but learns to his dismay that the Don has brought heat to the dead. [g] THE GUARDIAN, Walter de la Mare. Borderline fantasy. Night visions of horror are the beginnings of love. [h] WHITEWASH, Rose Macaulay. At Capri a tourist, who is about to be eaten by a shark, is saved by the ghost of Tiberius. The dead are not so bad as they are said to be. Ii] THE CHELSEA CAT, C.H.-B. Kitchin. The earthenware cat is almost unique, certainly the finest specimen of its kind. Mellowbourne rejoices when he buys it at auction. But he soon learns that death and horror accompany it and his progress downhill is rapid. [j] W.S., L. P. Hartley. Author William Streeter created the character William Stainsforth, about whom he had nothing good to say. W.S. comes into existence, sends letters indicating that he is getting closer, and finally has his revenge. [k] THE AMETHYST CROSS, Mary Fitt. A haunted cottage, murder in the past, and ghosts that seem living. Spoiled by a weak ending. [1] BOMBERS' NIGHT, Evelyn Fabyan. World War II. The protagonist's wife is killed in an air raid and he marries another woman. Another bombing rips up the cemetery where his wife is buried, and she returns. Excellent for its pointlessness, apart from the varieties of love. [m] SPOONER, Eleanor Farjeon. When Miss Shearn takes over the cottage of her deceased cousin, a fanatical cricketer, she sees supernatural manifestations that are related to cricket. Perhaps there is a point that Americans are not likely to see? In] A RESTLESS REST-HOUSE, Jonathan Curling. Africa. A native burglar is shot and killed. His ghost returns. There are background adumbrations that this is a recurrent phenomenon, but the concept is not developed. [0] BACK TO THE BEGINNING, John Connell. He sold his soul to the Devil to be rid of persecution, and finds that Hell is ruled by a childhood school bully. [p] POSSESSION ON COMPLETION, Collin Brooks.

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ASQUITH, CYNTHIA Told by a murderer, who fantasizes that his wife is still present in the house. Borderline supernatural. [q] HAND IN GLOVE, Elizabeth Bowen. In the south of Ireland, an old AngloIndian aunt lives with Ethel and Elsie. The horror of family relations among nasty people is followed by the horror of an avenging ghost, in a pair of gloves. [r] THE LASS WITH THE DELICATE AIR, Eileen Bigland. Scotland. The protagonist, in Scotland for recuperation after an operation, hears a strange whistling and at every new moon sees a beautiful young woman's ghost. He learns her story, which involves sordid sexuality, and sets out to release her, bearing magical rowan berries. Is] ONE GRAVE TOO FEW, Cynthia Asquith. A crime in the past-- an unwed pregnant daughter was allowed to die-- and ghostly recapitulation in the present. * Well-mannered, craftsmanlike stories. Best are [b], [c], [f]. 61. THE THIRD GHOST BOOK J. Barrie; London 1955 Introduction by L. P. Hartley. * [a] THE TELEPHONE, Mary Treadgold. A deceased wife gets in the way of a new marriage, and the telephone is the means of communication. Guilt. [b] THE CLAIMANT, Elizabeth Bowen. The narrator and her husband buy a house from the estate of a man who died apparently without heirs or testament. A claimant turns up from Australia. He is killed on the way to England and then proceeds to haunt the place in the hope of driving out the living inhabitants'. The narrator's husband is desperate for a confrontation with the ghost, but can do it only at the cost of his life. [c] NAPOLEON'S HAT, Evelyn Fabyan. France. A German governess, obnoxious and disliked by the children, is killed by lightning. Her ghost is seen after her death. Possibly metaphoric? [d] THE BULL, Rachel Hartfield. A child from London hears the bellowing of a man-killing bull that had been shot generations earlier. When a storm destroys the possible source of the manifestations, murder is revealed. Ie] THE HOUSE THAT WOULDN'T KEEP STILL, L. A. G. Strong. A somewhat unclear story of mysterious events connected with a house that disappears whenever one wants to find it. It is not clear whether the story involves hyperbole or genuine supernaturalism. If] THE DOCTOR, Mary Fitt. MS. Hornwinder wants to rent a country cottage and accepts hospitality for an evening at Mrs. Zachariah's stately home. The house is ablaze with candles and kerosene lanterns, and MS. Hornwinder fears fire. There is a fire, but it was twenty years ago, and, as the vanishing doctor reveals, murder. [g] ON NO ACCOUNT, ~ LOVE, Elizabeth Jenkins. The narrator visits the home of her great-grandmother, a notedly strict schoolmistress. Automatic writing delivers an elliptic message. Subtle. [h] THE GHOST OF THE VALLEY, Lord Dunsany. The tall, grey ghost of the'valley does not like progress, but it can do nothing but drift with the winds. Metaphoric. [i] THE DAY OF THE FUNERAL, Margaret Lane. The little girl can

ASQUITH, CYNTHIA hear the voices that come when there is a death in the family. [j] TAKE YOUR PARTNERS, Ronald Blythe. Grandfather reminisces about a ball that he attended when he was a young man. He danced one waltz with a very beautiful girl, but his family was outraged with him for prancing around the floor alone. [k] SOMEONE IN THE LIFT, L. P. Hartley. A six-year old boy sees a shadowy passenger in the lift. It is a presage of death for the boy's father. [1] RINGING THE CHANGES, Robert Aickman. At the small sea resort of Holihaven, the bells are rung once a year, enough to wake the dead. A pair of hone~nooners, caught up in the ringing, react strongly. The husband fights the experience; the woman surrenders to it. A modern classic. [m] THE TOWER, Marghanita Laski. Italy. The tower is 470 steps high. It was not torn down during the many wars of the Renaissance, because there was something unnatural about it. Suggestions of black magic in the 16th century, but the present story is only borderline supernatural. Fear. [n] I BECAME BULWINKLE, Jonathan Curling. Bulwinkle, a sleazy little fraud, changes bodies with a friend by means of West African magic. When the two quarrel and one is killed, the one in the wrong body must suffer. [0] MRS. SMlFF, Collin Brooks. Rustic talk of witches, a woman without a shadow, a white body seen lying on a gravestone. [p'] SOMEBODY CALLS, James Laver. The ghost that Lady Caroline saw was easily explained away, but who rang the bell for a servant? [q] HARRY, Rosemary Timperley. A little adopted girl has an imaginary playmate, her dead brother Harry. When the girl is not happy, Harry takes her away. [r] THE SHADES OF SLEEPE, Ursula Codrington. Separated lovers, one in England, one in India. A death portent, and a second death. [s] THE WOMAN IN BLACK, Daniel George, A debased literary lecturer, who delivers Housman for the Housewife, perceives sinister aspects in his audience, including a woman in black. Written in the style of an overripe lecturer. [t] A LAUGH ON THE PROFESSOR, Shane Leslie. The Professor tipped three servants in the Irish castle, but there are only two •. The third was a footman who had been drowned quite a while before. [u] POOR GIRL, Elizabeth Taylor. A rather subtle story of personality alteration, with hints of future actions affecting ·the present, and possession. The governess, a quiet, refined chaste young woman, suddenly emerges sexually to the lecherous father of the house. But it is not really the governess, but an art de co flapper. Dissociated personality. [v] THE HOUSE IN THE GLEN, John Connell. Scotland. The traveller receives hospitality at a house which has been in ruins, everyone dead, for years. [w] THE KING OF SPADES, Nancy Spain. The young man has two girl friends, between whom he has difficulty choosing: Janice, athletic, and Doreen, a Janice is found dead, and the sad home body. young man marries Doreen-- who is soon possessed by Janice. Murder. [x] THE UNINVITED FACE, Michael Asquith. A young scientist is haunted supernaturally by an evil face. Was it his

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ASTOR, WILLIAM WALDORF father's "last and closest companion"? Hints of the Devil. [y] ANIMALS OR HUMAN, Angus Wilson. Did the German girl in Wales perceive nasty children as animals, or were they really rats that killed their mistress? Borderline fantasy. [z] REMEMBERING LEE, Eileen Bigland. Lee, a killer, died of starvation in the old keep. His spirit is still causing problems. faa] WHO IS SYLVIA, Cynthia Asquith. The wicked but demure Sylvia gains control of stupid Susan. Suicide. *. The best of the post-war collections' by Asquith. Outstanding stories are [b], [g], [j], [u], and especially [1]. It is regrettable that more of Aickman's fiction does not fall in the time span of this book. ASTOR, WILLIAM WALDORF (1848-1919) American bUSinessman, millionaire, publisher, occasional writer. Grandson of John Jacob Astor. Active in New York politics; ambassador to Italy. Moved to England. Publisher of London PALL MALL GAZETTE and OBSERVER. First Viscount Astor. 62. PHARAOH'S DAUGHTER AND OTHER STORIES Macmillan; London 1900 Short stories, including [a] PHARAOH'S DAUGHTER. Minor supernaturalism as an Egyptian princess, unhappy in love, finds some consolation in the infant Moses. [b] THE GHOSTS OF AUSTERLITZ. A CHRISTMAS STORY. 1890. Captain Blythe, in dream, visits the field of Austerlitz, where his value is at once appreciated by the Czar, who asks his advice. The captain, however, cannot make use of his knowledge and the battle goes as in history. The Czar in a rage orders Blythe executed, and Blythe awakens, to die of a heart attack. [c] MONSIEUR DE NERON. Italy and France. The memoirs of a French antiquary. He has become acquainted with a M. de Neron, who is a mine of knowledge about Classical Rome, but a ruthless scoundrel. Neron reveals that he is probably Nero reincarnated. [d] THE RED DWARF OF RABENSTEIN. Borderline supernatural. The dwarf, a modern caretaker, receives a hint where treasure is buried. Perhaps chance. Borderline supernatural. [e] BRABANTIO'S LOVE. After the departure and death of Othello and Desdemona, Brabantio is driven by the desire to bed with a mermaid. With the assistance of the alchemist-magician Almadoro, he captures a local Siren, but she escapes. [f] FORZA DEL DESTINO. A sequel to Shakespeare's THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. When Bassanio suddenly turns cold to Portia and takes up with the "page" Pipistrello, the magician Almadoro is involved. And a dagger. A little supernaturalism. [g] THE CONFESSION OF RUI, THE PRIEST. An Egyptian papyrus of 1725 B.C. He is the brother of Potiphar and sees the whole Joseph affair and takes a part in it. Perhaps his astral body strangles Potiphar's wife. * Also a couple of stories told in annoying pseudo-archaic English about Buckingham and the Somerset affair, with mention of a ghost. * OccaSionally interesting ideas, period detail, but routine development. [c] is best.

ATHERTON, GERTRUDE ATHERTON, GERTRUDE (nee Horn) (1857-1948) Prolific California novelist, biographer, folklorist, historian; well-regarded during her lifetime for mainstream novels based on Edwardian aesthetics, often with regional interest. Her most noted works were SENATOR NORTH (1900), THE CONQUEROR (1902), the last being based on the life of Alexander Hmnilton, whose letters she later edited. Her later reminiscences MY SAN FRANCISCO (1947) are of interest. Her supernatural fiction might be briefly characterized as in the manner of Henry James but more relaxed. 63. THE BELL IN THE FOG AND OrrlER STORIES Harper; New York and London 1905 Short stories. Including [a] THE BELL IN THE FO~. Immersion in the past, with strange results. Orth, a wealthy American author, buys a British stately home and becomes interested in its antiquities. He is fascinated by the portrait of a young girl, Blanche, who, he is told, died in childhood. He broods over it and writes a novel about her. He then -learns that his information was wrong. Blanche had committed suicide as a young woman, after a love affair with a tenant. Orth then meets, living nearby, a little girl, also called Blanche, who is the image of the portrait. He fastens upon her emotionally, falling in love with the projection of her as a future adult. She dies. No explanation is-given for the situation, and the ambiguity is on the same order as Henry James's, perhaps chance and psychopathology, perhaps reincarnation and fate. [b] THE STRIDING PLACE (1896). Is Gifford dead? The soul may linger in the body for some time after death, and the astral body may wander. Weigall pulls a corpse out of the Strid, a stream, and finds (although he knows that the corpse is Gifford) that it is faceless. Presumably astral wanderings. [c] THE DEAD AND THE COUNTESS. A French countess is buried alive. The local cure, who is very old, hears the spirits of the dead, who have been awakened by a train, and also the struggles of the countess in her coffin. Senile dementia? [d] DEATH AND THE WOMAN (1892). A wife, beside her dying husband, hears the iron footsteps of Death and flings herself into her husband's arms. She is taken away. * Excellent stories. [a] and [d] are best. 64. THE FOGHORN Houghton Mifflin; Boston and New York 1934 Short stories, including [a] THE ETERNAL NOW. Interest in the past, dissolution of time, and calculated ambiguities in the manner of Henry James. * Simon de Brienne, an American millionaire, is fascinated with 14th century France, particularly with the life of a collateral ancestor, another Simon de Brienne, who is said to have been boiled in oil. The present Brienne's estate is almost a replica of the 14th century Louvre. He organizes a very elaborate costume ball, in which the guests appear as historical personages of the year 1358. As the ball progresses, Simon feels himself sliding away from the present and soon finds himself completely in the past, caught up in the in-

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AUBREY, FRANK trigues around the Dauphin (the future Charles V) and his enemies. He is on the wrong side, though, is taken, and boiled in oil. As the story ends, he thinks of a future Simon de Brienne, in a 20th century milieu, and Mrs. Atherton leaves open the question whether his psyche returns to the present or dies. [b] THE STRIDING PLACE. Described in 63. * The time glissades are nicely handled in [a], although the story is somewhat lushly and emptily sentimental. ATKEY, BERTRAM (1880-1952) British writer, fairly frequent contributor to American pulp magazines. Well-known in the 1920's for the Smiler Bunn crime stories, lowbrow fiction centered on a somewhat shady Cockney. 65. THE ESCAPES OF MR. HONEY AN ENrERTAINMENT COMPRISING THE CURIOUS ADVENTURES OF AN ENGLISH AUTHOR IN THE GULF OF BYGONE Macdonald; London 1944 Linked stories published in part in BLUE BOOK magazine in the early 1930's. * Hobart Honey saved the life of a Tibetan lama. He receives as a reward a bottle of pills that enable him to experience previous lives. These include a harem eunuch, a drunken Saxon archer, a prehistoric man, Friar Tuck, an ancient Roman, etc. Adventure and humor. Lower level commercial fiction. On the same order is Atkey's HERCULES-- SPORTSMAN (1922), jauntily modernized versions of the traditional stories. [Anonymous anthology] 66. ATLANTIC TALES A COLLECTION OF STORIES FROM THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY Ticknor and Fields; Boston 1866 Short stories, including [a] THE DIAMOND LENS, Fitz-James O'Brien. First book appearance of this classic. The narrator, a fanatic microscopist who wishes to create the perfect microscope, receives instructions from Leeuwenhoek's spirit via a mediu~; murders a friend to obtain a diamond; prepares a lens from it; and discovers an incredible world, including the beautiful and wonderful Animula. [b] THE QUEEN OF THE RED CHESSMEN, Lucretia P. Hale. The red queen emerges from the board and takes part in human life, until beset by pieces from the other side, who also assume life. A pretty story, by the author of THE PETERKIN PAPERS. [c] THE DENSLOW PALACE, J. D. Whelpley. At a marvelous, incredibly lush ball in the palace of millionaire Denslow, in New York, the Duke of Rosecouleur, together with demonic valet, appears. He is obviously a more exalted supernatural personage. A dream. Told in a remarkable baroque manner, reminiscent of Poe at his most extreme. Certainly worth looking at as a curiosity. AUBREY, FRANK (pseud. of Atkins, Francis H.) (1840?- 1927) British author born in South Wales. Fairly prolific author of boys' books, contributor to Sexton Blake detective stories. Other known pseudonym Fenton Ash. Currently a fad author among collectors, but of little merit.

AUBREY, FRANK

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AUSTIN, WILLIAM

67. KING OF THE DEAD A WEIRD ROMANCE John Macqueen; London 1903 Lost race novel with some supernaturalism. An outgrowth, like the author's THE DEVIL TREE OF EL DORADO (1897), of contemporary boundary disputes between Venezuela and British Guiana. * The story begins in London where a mysterious charismatic person known as Don Lorenzo captivates society. He invites young Arnold Neville to accompany him back to Brazil and shows him many superscientific marvels. He also demonstrates great mesmeric power. Arnold refuses, whereupon Lorenzo kidnaps Beryl, Arnold's fiancee, and leaves instructions for Arnold to follow them to South America. * Arnold and his friend Leslie follow the trail and are soon in the jungle. They corne upon a strange white man and his daughter (Manzoni and Rhelma) and learn that not too far away is a lost City, the last surviving remnant of Myrvonia, a white empire with superscience which had once ruled South America. Manzoni also demonstrates the red ray, a device which increases vitality. Lorenzo, it is revealed, is really Lyostrah, the Chief Priest and de facto ruler of the city, while Manzoni, his kinsman, is the King, living in voluntary exile. The two men had quarreled years earlier. The travellers proceed to Myrvonia, where they are welcomed, but problems arise. Lyostrah is infatuated with the beautiful Chief Priestess Alloyah, who worships the Spirit of Evil (which exists as an entity), and they plan world conquest by reviving the mummified dead of the land. Alloyah already has such revived dead in her service. She kidnaps Beryl and Rhelma in order to sacrifice them to the Spirit of Evil. This opens Lyostrah's eyes and he and Manzoni perform a magical ceremony. They invoke an angel from another planet, who in turn intercedes with the supreme spirit for them. They are told that the evil can be destroyed with the red ray, but that the wielder must die. Lyostrah makes the sacrifice. * Weak imitation of H. Rider Haggard.

war. [d] THROUGH THE GATES OF HORN. While Jack is lying unconscious after an accident, he has visions of his life in ten year intervals up to 1972. Some inventions -- TV-- but basically psychological in interest. [e] THE WHITE DOG. The old gentlemen is persecuted by a secret society, one of whose emissaries is a white dog. Murders. Madness. [f] THE LOVERS. A crystal ball offers visions of many past incarnations, each of which ended tragically. Perhaps love can settle matters here and now. [g] SHE WHO CAME BACK. A runaway wife returns after years, and husband and wife are reconciled. But she has just died. [h] FROM THE DEPTHS. Ghosts of drowned persons summon and drag down the submarine captain responsible for their death during the War. [i] YELLOW MAGIC. Southeast Asia. The native magician shows Captain Strong scenes from the past: love, theft, death. * A couple of other stories are too questionable as fantasy to include. * Competent commercial work. 69. THIRTEEN Doubleday, Page; Garden City, N.Y. 1925 Adulatory introduction by Coulson Kernahan. Thirteen short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] THROUGH THE GATES OF HORN. [bJ SHE WHO CAME BACK. [c] A PROBLEM IN REPRISALS. * Also [d] UNDER THE LENS. A semiphilosophical discussion at the club about the ultimate motivation for actions. A story is told. Warburton, who has been trying to help a friend escape from the clutches of a crooked gambler, murders the gambler. The immediate cause: the gambler was whipping his wife. The ultimate cause: they were all descended from personalities around the Reign of Terror. When Warburton saw red, he also saw, without recognizing the implications, the image of a guillotine. The supernaturalism is not developed strongly. * It is possible that THIRTEEN is the same book as UNDER THE LENS (London, 1924), which has not been available for examination.

AUSTIN, F[REDERICK] BRITTEN (1885-1941) British author, playwright. Popular during period after World War I for propaganda stories, Frequent contributor to periodicals. 68. ON THE BORDERLAND Hurst and Blackett; London 1922 Short stories, mostly World War I in orientation. Including [a] BURIED TREASURE. Playing with parlor occultism aboard a yacht in the Caribbean, a message from the dead about buried pirate treasure, and a fiasco. Reincarnation and a vengeful ghost. [b] A PROBLEM IN REPRISALS. When the French medical officer in Occupied Germany discovers his household possessions in the house in which he is billeted, he hypnotizes the housewife into clairvoyance about them. A crime is revealed, but the larger question is what to do about it. [c] SECRET SERVICE. The ghost of the notorious German spy Karl Wertheimer snoops into Allied secrets on the astral plane and tells the Germans about them. When his astral body is shot, the medium projecting him dies, and the Allies can continue to win the

AUSTIN, WILLIAM (1788-1841) American lawyer, political figure, occasional writer in Boston area. Remembered mostly for "Peter Rugg, the Missing Man," which has often been anthologized. His best work is anticipatory of Nathaniel Hawthorne's in mingling abstraction, surface realism, moralization, and regionalism. "Peter Rugg, the Missing Man," however, is probably an outgrowth of the German Romantic tradition, particularly PETER SCHLEMIHL. 70. PETER RUGG, THE MISSING MAN F. P. Rice; Worcester, Mass. 1882 50 copy edition This is the first separate book publication of this famous story, which originally appeared in the NEW ENGLAND GALAXY in 1824 and was reprinted in THE LITERARY GEM for 1827. * A local version of the Flying Dutchman motif. * An old-fashioned chaise, containing a man and a little girl, are often seen about the roads of the East Coast, slightly ahead of a storm which seems to follow them. The man always asks how far it is to Boston, and (seemingly under

AUSTIN, WILLIAM some sort of glamour) will not recognize that he is usually going the wrong way and is far from Boston. His story is that in a fit of hybris, during a trip from Concord, he vowed to reach Boston that evening or never-- and it is never. In the second part, however, Rugg finally makes his way back to his old horne, just as it is being auctioned by the state. He recognizes the changes that have taken place, but is told by a mysterious voice from the crowd that while the tempest that he defied has subsided, he is now a being out of time, who will never have another horne. * There is a comic sequel by an unknown hand which is occasionally printed along with Austin's story. Hawthorne used the character Rugg in "A Virtuoso's Collection," where he is in the employ of the Wandering Jew. * The edition cited above has not been seen; the text in 71 has been read. 71. LITERARY PAPERS OF WILLIAM AUSTIN, WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH BY HIS SON JAMES W. AUSTIN Little, Brown; Boston 1890 250 copy edition A biographical sketch of Austin together with [a] PETER RUGG, THE MISSING MAN. [b] MARTHA GARDNER, OR MORAL REACTION (1837). This is mostly a story of a woman who is persecuted by a giant corporation, the Charles River Bridge Corporation, but it includes a supernatural episode. Missing deeds are found through a dream. [c] THE MAN WITH THE CLOAKS (1836). After the protagonist refuses warmth to a cold wanderer, he is punished by a supernatural feeling of cold. He must wear two hundred cloaks to keep warm. Each time he does a good deed he finds one cloak less necessary. * [b] is trivial, but [a] and [c] are worth reading. [c] could easily be taken for a minor work of Hawthorne's. * The above edition may be inaccessible because of rarity. The same stories are to be found in WILLIAM AUSTIN, THE CREATOR OF PETER RUGG, BEING A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF WILLIAM AUSTIN, TOGETHER WITH THE BEST OF HIS SHORT STORIES, by Walter Austin (Marshall Jones, Boston, 1925). [Anonymous anthology] 72. AVON GHOST READER Avon Book Co.; New York 1946 paperbound Introduction by H[erbert] W[illiarns], editor. * Not all supernatural fiction, despite the title. Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE DUNWICH HORROR, H. P. Lovecraft. Ib] THE PANELLED ROOM, August Derleth. [c] THE FIREPLACE, H. S. Whitehead. [d] THE HAUNTED DOLL'S HOUSE, M. R. James. Ie] THROUGH THE DRAGON GLASS, A. Merritt. If] NAKED LADY, Mindret Lord. [g] THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, F. Scott Fitzgerald. [h] THE [sic] BOTTLE PARTY, John Collier. * Also Ii] THE SALAMANDER, William Seabrook. Madness, told as supernaturalism. Arthur is desperate 'to see a Rosicrucian salamander, and finally sees a beautiful woman in the flames. The house is on fire.

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BABCOCK, WILLIAM HENRY

BABCOCK, GEORGE American occult writer. 73. YEZAD A ROMANCE OF THE UNKNOWN Co-operative Pub. Co.; Bridgeport, Conn. and New York [1922 or 1923] A long eccentric novel, didactic in aim, with a glossary of terms at the end of the book. The work begins by expounding the theories of Dr. Peter Klouse. These are that man is of divine origin; that reincarnation is a mechanism for spiritual evolution; that each of us is composed of two parts, one good and one evil; and that the stages of spiritual evolution are interplanetary. According to the story line, which is hidden amid both regional dialect and occult theory, Dr. Klouse's ghost returns to earth. John Bacon, an aviator, is killed in a crash. His good part flies to a planet near Vega, where reincarnation is administered for earth. There he is instructed in spiritual matters and learns the history of the human race from a sage named Marcomet. Man first came to the solar system from Alphacent, a planet revolving about Alpha Centauri, settling first on Mars, then on Luna, and finally on earth. Bacon had been a Martian in a previous incarnation and had had a romance with a woman who is presently incarnated. Many odd inventions exist on Mars and the Vegan planet. * No comment necessary. BABCOCK, WILLIAM HENRY (1849-1922) American occasional writer, folklorist, historian; fields of interest pre-Columbian Norse contacts with America, geographical folklore. Best known for LEGENDARY ISLANDS OF THE ATLANTIC (1922). 74. KENT FORT MANOR Henry T. Coates; Philadelphia 1902 Semi-historical novel set during the Civil War and post-bellum years. * The Claiborne family has Northern and Southern branches, with different but strongly felt political sympathies. The ancestral seat is at Kent Fort Manor in Tidewater Maryland. Captain Ithaca Claiborne of the Federal army comes into contact with Roderick Claiborne, the family head, and the other Southern Claibornes. The motive force behind the story is the disappearance of Ithaca's companion, Lieutenant Tompkins, who is generally believed to have been murdered by Roderick. A Spiritualist medium confirms this crime, but it is later revealed that Tompkins had simply deserted. Some time later during the war Ithaca is wounded in the head and suffers a personality change. He is now a driven man, with both hypermneSia of his own life and strong memories from the lives of his ancestors. He has an ancestral memory of burying something valuable on the Claiborne estate

BABCOCK, WILLIAM HENRY and returns to Kent Fort Manor to find it. He is taken to be a madman, which is not far from the truth, and is put under restraint. He dies, but after his death the other Claibornes find the treasure as he had remembered it. It now consists only of rotten documents. * Overlong, very badly told, confusing in presentation. There is no incentive to read CYPRESS BEACH, Babcock's other fantasy. BACHELLER, IRVING (1859-1950) New York journalist, novelist. Best-known for EBEN HOLDEN (1900), a regionalistic novel. 75. THE MASTER OF SILENCE A ROMANCE Cramer, Aikens and Cramer; Milwaukee 1891 Spiritual development, sensationalism, regionalism and a little Stevenson. * Young Kendric Lane, shopboy in Liverpool, follows an invitation and advice to visit his long lost uncle Revis Lane in Upstate New York. There he finds his uncle living in utter seclusion, attended by deaf mutes, surrounded by a wall within which stalk lions and crawl snakes. His uncle, it is revealed, is a metaphysician of a sort and has abandoned oral language to develop an "interior language for which speech is an imperfect medium." Revis has developed this interior language in his son Rayel, who is a Jesus-like figure with incredible paranormal powers of character analysis, thought reading, and great artistlc ability. The uncle soon dies, and Kendric and Rayel enter the world of everyday life. Rayel confounds and alienates society with his penetrating but inappropriate comments (since he knows only utter honesty and has no concept of tact), and there seems to be a plot to assassinate Kendric. Kendric finds a wife (who has a Dickensian flavor) and Rayel meets death. * All rather pointless and a bit puzzling for an author who later showed capability. BAKER, FRANK (1908 ) British mUSician, novelist, playwright. His supernatural fiction is usually fluent, light fantasy, often with mild semiallegorical elements, sometimes with a note of pain and sexual anguish in the baCkground. His technical ability is excellent. His later work, unfortunately, has not been published in the United States and is inexplicably difficult to find. Insights into his own work and reminiscences of other authors, notably Mary Butts, are to be found in his autobiography, I FOLLOW BUT MYSELF (1968). 76. THE BIRDS Peter Davies; London [1936] Metaphysical fantasy. Reminiscences of an old man in the future. * One day a flock of birds appeared near the Bank of England. An old woman started to feed them, but the birds turned on her, chased her into a tube entrance, and caused her death by shock. The birds then begin to appear elsewhere, bringing with them death and foulness. There seems to be no defence against them, for traps, guns, and gas are equally useless. The problem is soon worldwide, and as time passes the birds become larger, more aggressive, and varied in

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BAKER, FRANK color. It is finally realized that they are supernatural, and civilization collapses. The narrator, who lives in a tawdry apartment with his mother, who is a selfish and exploitative person, sees the birds drive others to death. He finally understands the situation. He must look his special bird in the face and recognize it as part of him. Then the birds ~vill have no more power over him. Few persons, however, are able to follow his example. * The birds obviously symbolize sins or the evil potential within each individual. There is also satirical matter on our culture and comment on social matters. Somewhat overlong, but still good. 77. MISS HARGREAVES A FANTASY Eyre and Spottiswoode; London [1940] Creative thought creates, worked into a humorous story about the personal adjustments of a young man. * Norman Huntley, son of the eccentric bookseller who plays a small part in SWEET CHARIOT, is unfortunate in a lark. While visiting in Ireland, he and a friend pull the leg of a sexton in an ugly modern church by pretending acquaintance with a Miss Hargreaves, an imaginary friend of one of the church celebrities. Miss Hargreaves hereupon assumes existence, and when Huntley returns to his native town, he meets her. She is an octagenarian poet, with all the pathetic eccentricities imagined by Huntley and his friend. She makes life difficult for Huntley and his family, for although amiable, she is demanding. Huntley finally dispels her by returning to Ireland and recapitulating the situation that first called her into existence, but on this occasion denying her. She disappears. * An excellent light fantasy, with the amusing characterizations that are among the author's strengths, and good nonsense verse written by Miss Hargreaves. A play version was successful on the London stage in 1953, with Margaret Rutherford as Miss Hargreaves. To my knowledge the dramatic version has never been published. This is probably Baker's best work. 78. SWEET CHARIOT A ROMANCE Eyre and Spot tiswoode; London 1942 Dissociation of personality supernaturally conceived, together with mild satire on personality types in Baker's usual small cathedral town. The setting is a small boarding school, in which George Spillett is a master. A whimsical literalist, an agnostic, a player with words, but a man with much repressed passion, he is in love with the matron of the school, but has done little about it. While hunting for remains of paleolithic man in Cornwall, he manages to trap Melchior, his guardian angel, and induces Melchior to exchange places with him for a month. The angel, although inherently good, is as spontaneous a simpleton as Spillett is an inhibited intellectual. Both fail in their new roles. Spillett, intoxicated with pride, soars higher and higher, and tries to storm heaven with his new power of flight. He is dashed to earth in moral collapse. Melchior is broken by earthly passions, and ends by setting fire to the school. The

BAKER, FRANK best that each can then do is to retreat to his original role. Melchior is allowed to return to Heaven, and Spillett, who is blamed for Melchior's actions, marries, but must leave the school. * A good, literate surface texture, but somewhat namby pamby and oddly proportioned. The pessimistic ending is unusual for an individuation story of this sort. 79. MR. ALLENBY LOSES THE WAY Coward-McCann; New York [1945] Symbolic fantasy. * Sergius Wilfred Allenby, a middle-aged stationer in London, believes in fairies. When an old man who claims to be a fairy approaches him and offers him five wishes, Allenby accepts the offer. He wants information about his parents (since he had been an orphan), a child for his wife, a meeting with his father, and the reexperiencing of a part of his past. All the wishes come true. But there is a catch. Berin, the supposed emissary of the fairies, is a disreputable, eccentric psychologist who takes sadistic pleasure in elaborate cruel jokes and plots, and it had been Berin himself who had seduced and abandoned Allenby's mother. * Smoothly written, with good minor characters, but the interpretation is not wholly clear. At one point Berin says that the fairies work through man without his knowing it, and it is possible that Berin is unaware of being controlled by the fairies (the driving power of justice). On the other hand, the power of faith may be so strong that it can break through the traps of fraud and achieve its desires. Possibly not intended to be supernatural. 80. BEFORE I GO HENCE FANTASIA ON A NOVEL Andrew Dakers; London [1946] Essentially a treatment of loneliness of various sorts, as experienced by persons of very different personality types, with a supernatural twist. * The story is centered around Allways, a house near a small village in the West Country. In the year 1930 it was inhabited by the Rev. Fenner Doble, a very old man, and his family: his daughter Ellen, who cares for him, and Arthur, a half-witted son. As the old man ponders life, human love, and loneliness, and speculates about future inhabitants of the house after his death, the long unhappy situation changes. Robert, a run-away son who is a homosexual, comes home and sets in motion events that lead to Arthur's death. The exact circumstances of Arthur's death are not clear for a time, and the old man wonders if he himself murdered Arthur. * In the year 1943, the author Maurice Hilliar and his wife, staying nearby, roam through the deserted Allways, and speculate about its now almost forgotten past inhabitants. The old house, its atmosphere, and its memories make a great impression on Maurice, who sees it as a center point for a novel. He gradually reconstructs a history not too far removed from that of the DobIes, but the experience is destructive to him and his wife. In some fashion the mind of the old Reverend Doble reaches into the future to influence Maurice, while Maurice, in turn, haunts

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BALDWIN, MRS. ALFRED the old man in the past. There are other, unexpected personal links with the events of 1930. No real resolution emerges to the problems that are revealed or evoked, except that Maurice finally realizes that the sordid past must be forgotten. BAKER, GEORGE A[UGUSTUS] (1849-1918) New York lawyer, poet, playwright, occasional novelist. Well regarded in his day for POINT LACE AND DIAMONDS (poetry) and THE BAD HABITS OF GOOD SOCIETY (social matters), both of which went through several editions. His comedy WEST POINT was also popular. Now all period pieces. 81. MRS. HEPHAESTUS AND OTHER SHORT STORIES TOGETHER WITH WEST POINT, A COMEDY IN THREE ACTS White, Stokes and Allen; New York 1887 Including [a] MRS. HEPHAESTUS. In a jeu d'esprit Graves, the narrator, invites a bronze statue of Venus to a ball. Shortly thereafter it is observed that the statue is missing, and a remarkably beautiful woman, Mrs. Hephaestus, strikes up an acquaintance with the Graves family. She interferes in Graves's sister's romance and finally seduces the stuffy Graves. After causing a supernatural vision, she leaves, and Graves is long in recovering from her memory. While there is a materialistic twist at the end of the story, the situation is ultimately supernatural. [b] THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. The narrator, a crotchety old householder in Manhattan, has decided to sell his property, which he has maintained in the manner of earlier years. The Dutch king of the fairies visits him and scolds him for betraying idealS, but the narrator can only comment on necessity and the Spirit of the Age. A compromise is reached: the property shall be sold, but the fairies shall remove to Central Park. Probably based on a local situation. [c] THE MERMAN. Norway. The fisherman harpoons a seal, which is revealed to be a seal man, who thereupon persecutes the fisherman and destroys his family. Perhaps based on Norwegian folklore, since it is essentially the same story as "The Fisherman and the Draug" by Jonas Lie. [d] THE INVASION OF KLEINDORF. Allegorical fairy tale. The great magician Surnmurnbonum goes to Kleindorf, which used to be a happy place, and removes the pleasure and charm from everything. The plant komoncence, conveyed by his granddaughter, restores things. * [a] is mildly amusing. BALDWIN, MRS. ALFRED (LOUISA) (1845-1925) British novelist, poet, anthologist. 82 • THE SHADOW ON THE BLIND AND OTHER GHOST STORIES Dent; London 1895 Fairly conventional, commercial Victorian ghost stories. * [a] THE SHADOW ON THE BLIND. When Stackpoole, who rents houses, furnishes them, and then compulsively moves away, takes over Harbledon Hall, he is warned that it is haunted, but pays no heed. The haunting breaks out during a costume ball, when an ancient murder is reenacted supernaturally. It is seen through the window. A pleasant touch

BALDWIN, MRS. ALFRED at the very end. [b] THE WEIRD OF THE WALFORDS. Squire Walford inherits a 300-year old bed in which his ancestors have been born and have died. He has it destroyed, since it arouses morbid feelings, but allows a carpenter to keep the carved panels. When he marries, his wife sees the ghost of the ancient bed in its room; when she has 8. child, the child is put unknowingly in a cradle made from the bed panels, and both wife and child die. [c] THE UNCANNY BAIRN (A STORY OF THE SECOND SIGHT). A Scottish child has the second sight and sees the death of various relatives, but outgrows the inconvenient ability. [d] MANY WATERS CANNOT QUENCH LOVE. When Horton rents quarters in the country, for a rest, he stumbles on death portents and leaves hurriedly. [e] HOW HE LEFT THE HOTEL. An elevator attendant tells of a ghost that left the hotel, just as did the living man in earlier days. [f] THE REAL AND THE COUNTERFEIT. A house with a dormant Cistercian ghost. For a lark Armitage masquerades as the ghost, meets the real ghost, and dies. [g] MY NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOUR. A Breton dying in hospital is visited by the ghost of his dead sweetheart, who tells him when he will die. [h] THE EMPTY PICTURE FRAME. A Van Dyke picture of Joceline Swinford, a beautiful young woman who died at an early age. In the present, Mi~s Katherine Swinford sends an invitation to her (hitherto unseen) cousin Joceline Swinford to visit for a time. An ancient carriage appears, and Miss Joceline and her maid emerge. It is soon observed that Miss Joceline has a familiarity with the house-- but as it had been over two hundred years earlier. It is also observed that the picture is missing from its frame. [i] SIR NIGEL OTTERBURNE'S CASE. Miss Otterburne has death premonitions. She sees the dead of the cemetery welcome the newly deceased with ghastly camaraderie. * Correct, conventional stories, except for [h], which has touches that lift it above the other stories. BALZAC, HONORE DE (1799-1850) Important French mainstream author, renowned for La Com~die humaine, an enormous fictional world of independent but sometimes interlocking stories depicting French life, mores, ideal movements, and personalities. In his youth Balzac wrote much sensational fiction, mostly untranslated, while in later years he maintained a strong interest in matters occult. The bibliography of his translated work is very complex and largely unstudied. The set cited is obviously not a first edition for individual items, but is a convenient work, accessible in most large libraries, in one publishing variant or another. 83. THE FIRST COMPLETE TRANSLATION INTO ENGLISH HONORE DE BALZAC IN TWENTY-FIVE VOLUMES P. F. Collier and Son; New York (c. 1905) VOLUME TWENTY-ONE. This consists of THE WILD ASS'S SKIN (La Peau de Chagrin, 1831, in a slightly different version). * Balzac's version of the bottle imp motif. Paris, c. 1830.

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BALZAC, HONORE DE Raphael, a young law student, has so planned his life that all his debts and obligations will fall due at the same time. He will then commit suicide and be free of everything, without previous worry. He loses his last few francs in a gambling salon, and while passing time before the appointed hour of his death, wanders into a remarkable antique shop. During conversation the owner tells him of the "peau de chagrin" (a pun on shagreen, onager skin, skin of sorrow), and offers it to him. It fulfills all wishes, but with each granted wish it shrinks. When it has shrunk to nothing, its owner dies. Raphael seizes the skin with eagerness and makes a series of wishes, each of which is promptly fulfilled, though by a natural order of events. But the skin shrinks. This puts him into a panic, and he sets up his household (for he is now fabulously wealthy) so that he has no need to wish for anything. He also tries various scientific means for stretching the skin. But the skin keeps shrinking, and before a few months have passed, it is tiny, and then gone. Raphael dies. * There is also a very long flashback explaining how Raphael reached his predicament, before acquiring the skin. This flashback is often omitted in reprint translations. * Filled with solid detail, in the manner of the later works in La Com~die humaine, this is one of Balzac's first mature works. While Raphael's narrative is overlong, the remainder of the work is fascinating, particularly the antique shop sequence, the orgy, and the journalistic conversations. * Alternate titles are LUCK AND LEATHER, THE MAGIC SKIN, THE FATAL SKIN. 84. VOLUME TWENTY-TWO. Short fiction including [a] CHRIST IN FLANDERS (Jesus-Christ en Flandre, 1831). An old Flemish legend is used as a 19th century anticipation of THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY. Various personality types are confronted with death during a violent storm at sea. Jesus, who is present in the boat in human disguise, walks away over the water, and those who have faith follow him. The savant, the miser, and others perish. This is followed by a numinous dream which the narrator has in a cathedral. The total work is a combination of earlier works. [b] MELMOTH RECONCILED. (Melmoth reconcilie, 1835). Based on MELMOTH JHE WANDERER by Charles R. Maturin. Maturin's demonic Melmoth had difficulty in finding others to take over his fate, but in France there are many men who are willing to assume a diabolic bond in exchange for worldly safety or worldly wealth. * M. Castanier, who holds a position of trust in a bank, turns embezzler and is about to run off with a fortune. He is approached by a mysterious Irishman, who seemingly can read his thoughts. This is Melmoth, who by supernatural means shows Castanier that his theft has been discovered and that his mistress has been unfaithful to him. Castanier makes little objection to taking over Melmoth's fate and is delighted to acquire his supernatural powers. But he becomes bored and passes the bond on. Eventually, worn thin, it vanishes when its holder

BALZAC, HONORE DE is in a drunken stupor. Perhaps a fanciful statement of obligation, financial or otherwise. [c) THE ELIXIR OF LIFE (L'E1ixir de longue vie, 1830). 16th century Spain. Don Juan Be1videro, a vicious and profligate young man, receives word that his father is dying. The old man asks Don Juan to rub his corpse with a certain vital oil, whereupon he will resume life. Don Juan tries a little of the oil, and seeing that it is effective in restoring life, lets his father die and keeps the oil for himself. He continues in his old ways, with the understanding that he will have a second chance and a second life in which to repent. When he is dying, he is cleverer than his father had been. He tells his son that the oil is simply an oil that has been blessed. The son anoints Don Juan's head and arm, which assume a life of their own. This is taken to be a miracle, and a special mass is celebrated for it. But at the mass, the Don's head, rejecting the concept of God, attacks and kills the officiating priest. * Interesting characterizations, as always with Balzac, but otherwise minor work. 85. VOLUME TWENTY-FIVE. Part of the "philosophical works," including [a) SERAPH ITA (Seraphita, 1835). A romance based on notions that Balzac attributes to Swedenborg. The story itself is thin, and about half the work is devoted to a rhapsodic exposition of an occult theology, theosophy, and philosophy. Set in an isolated part of Norway, the story vehicle is a restatement of the life of Jesus in terms of modern spiritualism, with a passion, temptation, crucifixion, and resurrection. Four persons, possibly to be taken semiallegorically, must come to terms with the being variously known as Seraphita or Seraphitus. These are a middle-aged man (Balzac?), a young woman, a rationalistic preacher who studies magic, and a faithful old servant. Seraph ita/ Seraphitus is perceived as a woman by men and as a man by women, thereby qualifying as the occult hermaphrodite. Physically, she/he is the child of an associate and follower of Swedenborg's, and was conceived in the holiest way, but she/he is obviously more than just a mortal. An imprisoned or incarnated spirit, perhaps an angel, she/he awaits death (or birth), which takes place during a theophany. After her passing, humans can resume life. * SERAPHITA has been variously regarded, some considering it a masterpiece of poetic prose, others regarding it as hastily-written rubbish, largely cribbed from Balzac's occult reading. To me it seems of some small interest as showing at its most extreme Balzac's "mystical" component, but otherwise, only a curious, very minor work by a great author. BANGS, J[OHN) K[ENDRICK) (1862-1922) New York author and editor. Educated at Columbia University, editor of various magazines-HARPER'S MONTHLY, LIFE, PUCK. A fairly prolific writer in many areas: humor, plays, poetry, children's books, miscellaneous fiction. His work seems to have been highly regarded in its

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BANGS, J. K. day, although one wonders whether this estimation may not have been backscratching due to his editorial positions. His work now seems very flimsy. Bangs's most noteworthy achievement was a contribution to literary typology: the so-called Bangsian story, in which important literary and historical personalities serve humorously as characters in a slender plot line. Bangs did not invent this subgenre, but his work gave it publicity and literary status. 86. ROGER CAMERDEN A STRANGE STORY George J. Coombes; New York 1887 (published anonymously) Nouvelle. At the banquet of the Saint George Society, which is devoted to slaying the dragon of ignorance, the story of Roger Camerden is told. According to the first narrator, an old college friend, Camerden's father had died under very mysterious circumstances. A man named Marvi11e seems to have been involved. Camerden tries to solve the mystery of his father's death, but fails. Instead, he falls in love with Marvi1le's daughter Hester. He goes to Marvi11e's residence, which happens to be a haunted house, to ask for Hester's hand, and is presumably assaulted and murdered by Marvi11e. Another member of the club has a different story; Marvil1e was completely innocent of all wrong doing. He had no daughter, and Camerden had been taken in by an adventuress. A third solution is offered by Camerden's doctor, who believes that Camerden was mad, and that the whole sequence of events was projection on Camerden's part. In any case, the Camerden incident finished the Saint George Society. * Possibly supernatural by imp licat ion. 87. TOPPLETON'S CLIENT, OR A SPIRIT IN EXILE Charles L. Webster; New York 1893 A supernatural novel, with an odd mixture of heavy-handed humor and horror motifs. * Hopkins Topp1eton, a rather foolish young member of a New York law firm, is sent to London as a remittance man, to prevent his doing too much damage to the business. There he happens to rent a haunted room with an invisible ghost that sighs and whistles. The spirit communicates with Topp1eton, and asks Topp1eton to act as its attorney. About thirty years earlier, Chatford, the ghost, had come to an arrangement with another ghost, whereby the other possessed Chatford's body at times and managed Chatford's career. The other ghost (Calderwood) eventually usurped the body completely and has now become Lord Barncast1e. Topp1eton undertakes to act for Chatford and visits Barncast1e. He soon learns that the ghost's story is true. He believes that he can manipulate Barncast1e into relinquishing Chatford's body, but he is outwitted. He awakens to find himself in Barncast1e's old body, while Calderwood goes happily off in a new, young physique. * Overlong and empty. 88. THE WATER GHOST AND OTHERS Harper; New York 1894 Short stories, including [a) THE WATER GHOST OF HARROWBY HALL. Semiparodic humor. Each

BANGS,

J. K.

Christmas eve a ghost appears to the head of the family, if a certain chamber is untenanted, and deluges him and his surroundings with water. It is a frightful nuisance, much worse than other hauntings. The present head of the family is ingenious: he takes the ghost out into the cold, where it freezes solid. He then has it carted off to an icehouse. [b] THE SPECTRE COOK OF BANGLETOP. Reminiscent in setting of Wilde's THE CANTERVILLE GHOST. The ghost of a cook haunts the castle and will not withdraw until her back wages (something like sixty million pounds, including compound interest) have been paid. The Yankee tenant appeals to her vengefulness and snobbery to be rid of her. [c] A MIDNIGHT VISITOR. The Devil, in the guise of a magician, visits and annoys a clubman. [d] A QUICKSILVER CASSANDRA. Jingleberry's mirror shows his rejection in a lovesuit, but he is convinced that mirrors reflect opposites. He is right. [e] A PSYCHICAL PRANK. Gibson-girl romance disappointed. The members of the Boston Theosophical Society save carfare by travelling invisibly in astral form on streetcars. [f] THE LITERARY REMAINS OF THOMAS BRAGDON. Two friends who make imaginary journeys together discover that the bond between them can survive death. Or is it the powerful wish of the survivor. Less superficial than Bangs's usual story, but unrealized. [g] THE GHOST CLUB; AN UNFORTUNATE EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF NO. 5010. A Bangsian club for the great dead, and fraudulent supernaturalism. No. 5010, in prison for stealing silver spoons, claims that he attended the Ghost Club, where they were given to him by the shade of King Ferdinand of Spain. * Another story, "The Speck on the Lens," is science-fiction of a sort. * Stories [a] and [e] are amusing; the other stories are just as well forgotten. Illustrations by A. B. Frost. 89. A HOUSE-BOAT ON THE STYX BEING SOME ACCOUNT OF THE DIVERS DOINGS OF THE ASSOCIATED SHADES Harper; New York 1895 90. THE PURSUIT OF THE HOUSE-BOAT BEING SOME FURTHER ACCOUNT OF THE DIVERS DOINGS OF THE ASSOCIATED SHADES, UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, ESQ. Harper; New York 1897 Two short ironic jeux d' esprit. '1< The ghosts of the world's great men own a house-boat on the Styx, and maintain a small, exclusive social club. Among the members are Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson, Sir Walter Raleigh, and many others. On one occasion the men all go off to watch a prize fight between Hercules and Samson, and the ladies, militant feminists who want to integrate the club, invade the boat. At just this time Captain Kidd pirates the boat away. The shades ask the help of Sherlock Holmes in tracking down the boat. By the time the boat is found, the shrewish women have turned the tables on Kidd. * These two books, which form one narrative, are probably the best examples of Bangs's work in this peculiar form. They were extremely popular in their day, but today they seem primitive and naive when compared to the work of Bangs's contemporaries in England. Illustrations by Peter

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BANGS, J. K. Newell in both volumes. 91. GHOSTS I HAVE MET AND SOME OTHERS Harper; New York 1898 Mostly humorous, told by a single narrator. Short stories, including [a] GHOSTS I HAVE MET. Christmas eve. The narrator tells of his encounters with the supernatural. One ghost was a snobbish English ghost, whom the narrator oULslurred; the other made off with the silverware. [b] THE MYSTERY OF GRANDMOTHER'S HAIR SOFA. Christmas eve. It turned white with shock. [c] THE MYSTERY OF BARNEY O'ROURKE. When the narrator's cigars are all missing, he asks Barney about them. Barney says that the ghosts smoked them-- and that is no foolisher a story than the one about the hair sofa that turned white. [d] THE EXORCISM THAT FAILED. In the crush at a public appearance of Queen Victoria, the narrator jostles and squashes a vengeful Cockney ghost, who follows him back to America and makes life miserable for him. The only exorcism that works is a giant electric fan. [e] THURLOW'S CHRISTMAS STORY. A trick story. The narrator is entrusted with the manuscript of a modern classic, but his doppelganger persuades him to steal it. [f] THE DAMPMERE MYSTERY. A haunted house, where hair stands up on end, even that in a mattress. [g] CARLETON BARKER, FIRST AND SECOND. Doppelgangers. When the doppelg~nger is hanged, the other potentiality dies. o{,' Slight and somewhat dated stories. Illustrations by Peter Newell, A. B. Frost, and R.T. Richards. 92. THE ENCHANTED TYPE-WRITER Harper; New York 1899 A sequel to THE PURSUIT OF THE HOUSE-BOAT. * The narrator finds an old typewriter, which he repairs-- to find that it types communications from Hades. Boswell, the editor of the STYGIAN GAZETTE, now has a direct line to him. He hears gossip about the various great men and women of the past who are in Hades; reads an account of Baron Munchausen's previous incarnations as Adam on up; converses with Xanthippe; and hears of a new adventure of Sherlock Holmes. Holmes is approached by a mysterious woman who wants to know the true identity of her husband. He is Lohengrin. The story ends with a game of golf. * Unremarkable. 93. OVER THE PLUM-PUDDING Harper; New York 1901 Christmas stories, including [a] BILLS, M.D. Borderline fantasy, inflation handled in slightly supernatural terms. A ghostly figure shows the narrator how to live beyond his means. [b] THE FLUNKING OF WATKINS'S GHOST. Parley, a student at Blue Haven is offered assistance in exams by a ghostly alumnus of a century before. The offer is better than the result, for education has progressed since the ghos t 's day. [c] THE AMALGAMATED BROTHERHOOD OF SPOOKS. A LETTER TO THE EDITOR. The author has to write a ghost story, but he has offended the ghosts' union and has no more material. His offence was lying to the walking delegate at the Uffizi. * The three following stories are concerned with one Hans Pumpernickel, in

BANGS, J.K. a cartoon-strip Germany. [d] HANS PUMPERNICKEL'S VIGIL. Hans must support an ancestral uncle, who is centuries old and still a baby. He cries continually, then suddenly shoots up into manhood. [e] THE AFFLICrrON OF BARON HUMPFELH]MMEL. A curse. Two generations cannot laugh, but the third must make up for all the times the others have missed. [f] HOW FRITz BECAME A WIZARD. The life history of a folkloristic wizard. Also a great diamond that emits light. [g] THE LOSS OF THE "GRETCHEN B." The ship has been sold and its name changed, when the ghost of a pirate appears to the new captain and demands the ship back. It had previously been a pirate ship. The ghost persuades an Irish carpenter to cut a hole in the bottom of the ship in order to reach treasure on the sea bottom. * Also present is "A Glance Ahead," a science-fiction story set in 3568 A.D., where poverty has been abolished by constitutional amendment and bodies are bought and sold like suits. * Apart from "A Glance Ahead," which is amusing, weak materi-

al. 94. OLYMPIAN NIGHTS Harper; New York 1902 Topical fantastic humor. * The narrator, while travelling in Greece, spends the night near Mount Olympus. He attracts the favorable notice of Jupiter-Jove-Zeus, who is wandering past, and receives a card of entry to Olympia from the god. The narrator is taken up to Olympus by Cupid, who runs a modern elevator, and wanders about, seeing various classical situations that have been recast in terms of modern institutions and commerce. Adonis and Narcissus are valets de chambre; Memnon runs a restaurant; Jupiter-Jove-Zeus dresses and acts like a Populist politician. Golf, especially on an interplanetary level, is a favorite sport. The narrator happens to examine the futuroscope, which reveals what is to come. His action enrages Jupiter, and he is forcibly expelled. * Possibly of some slight interest to the social historian, as a measure for current topics. BARCLAY, FLORENCE L. (1862-1921) British author of floridly sentimental shopgirl romances. Her best-known work, formerly very common on 10¢ stands in second-hand bookshops, is THE ROSARY (1909). 95. RETURNED EMPTY Putnam; London and New York 1920 Eternal love. * Luke Sparrow (whose names may have a Biblical connotation), also known as the Lonely Man, is wandering about on a walking trip, peering into windows, as he frankly admits is his habit, and observing people. By the shore he comes upon a beautiful estate, which he investigates. He is seen through the window, invited in, and informed by the lady of the house, Miriam Tintagel, that he is the reincarnation of her deceased husband, Sir Nigel, who was drowned thirty years earlier. Luke, despite pleas on the part of Miriam, can remember nothing of a previous incarnation and leaves hurriedly. While swimming, however, he suddenly regains the memories of Sir Nigel, and

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BARING-GOULD, S. rushes back to his wife. But she has had a heart attack and does not live through the day. He still has only partial memory of his previous life, but accepts his former identity and waits for the release of death. It comes to him in World War I, where he is killed. * Pretentious, inflated twaddle. BARING, MAURICE (1874-1945) O.B.E., F.R.S.L. British diplomat, foreign corr~spondent, writer, authority on Russian culture and history. Educated at Cambridge. A remarkable linguist. His work includes travel books, areal studies, translations, history, children's stories, plays, poetry, novels. Highly regarded in the 1920's and '30's for his fine mainstream novels C (1924) and CAT'S CRADLE (1925), but now undeservedly forgotten. His .supernatural fiction, unfortunately, is not quite on the same level. 96. HALF A MINUTE'S SILENCE AND OTHER STORIES Heinemann; London [1925] Short stories, including [a] A LUNCHEON PARTY. Mr. Nicholas L. Satan makes an offer to Mrs. Bergmann: he will make her party the envy of all her friends by supplying any guest she wishes. She names Shakespeare. [b] THE ISLAND. On the sea road to Teneriffe, a strange, deserted island, with Classical buildings. The protagonist lies down and has a vision of a veiled woman who offers his companion a cup of liquid. The next morning the companion acts as if possessed by a wild beast. Circe. [c] THE SHADOW OF A MIDNIGHT. Germany. The narrator, in a viSion, sees his friend Braun murdered by a band of Russian thieves. It comes true. [d] VENUS. John Fletcher, during moments of seeming abstraction, finds himself in a strange landscape, which is identified as the planet Venus. He apparently travels in his astral body. But a peril there keeps approaching nearer, and he finally succumbs. [e] DR. FAUST'S LAST DAY. Italy. Faust, now almost a rationalist, does not quite believe what had happened to him in the past. But his term is up. [f] THE IKON. Ferrol collects things: a Chinese god, an Egyptian idol, an old oil, and an ikon. He is finally blinded by a falling picture. The causation is not clear, although supernatural. * Also included are the fine "Habent Sua Fata Libelli," about the modern destruction of the great Library of Alexandria, and "The Alternative," a very clear statement of alternate worlds. BARING-GOULD, S[ABINE] (1834-1924) British clergyman, miscellaneous writer, educated at Cambridge. A very prolific and versatile author whose work ranged from constructive theology, geographical and folkloristic studies of the West Country and France, to fiction of various sorts. Author of the hymn "Onward, Christian Soldiers. 1t Most important works, in modern estimation, are A BOOK OF THE WEST and A BOOK OF DARTMOOR, local studies. Probably best-known in his lifetime for CURIOUS MYTHS OF THE MIDDLE AGES (1866-8), long the standard popular retelling of medieval legends

BARING-GOUlD, S. and folktales. His fiction is commercial, and far less important than his regional studies, which often deserve renewed attention. 97. A BOOK OF GHOSTS Methuen; London 1904 According to the author's preface some of the stories had previously appeared in periodicals ranging from 1853 to the near past. * [a] JEAN BOUGHON. France. The ghost of a stupid, dishonest waiter steals the tips. He can be released only by whitewashing his memory and erecting untruthful monuments. [b] POMPS AND VANITIES. Letice, reared by an over-strict aunt, dies young, bewailing the fact that she had had so little experience of life. Years later, when her sister Betty becomes engaged, Betty has fugues, and does not remember what has happened. She had been possessed by Letice, who was still avid for sensation. [c] McALLISTER. At Bayonne, the ghost of a Scot killed during the Napoleonic Wars complains that his body has been violated. Half has been sent to Scotland, the other half, by mistake, buried under the wrong name. The ghost is suitably truncated. [d] THE LEADEN RING. Julia is a heartless jilt; Hatters1ey shoots himself because of her. Julia is thereupon haunted by the sound of violent explosions whenever the topic of Hatters1ey comes up. [e] THE MOTHER OF PANSIES. Germany. Anna Voss, unwilling to bear children, goes to a witch who works magic to make her sterile. When her husband is accidentally killed, some time later, she has elaborate visions of the fates of the seven children she might have borne, had she not consulted the witch. [f] THE REDHAIRED GIRL. She is a servant.gir1, perpetually in the way, peering around corners, but a ghost. [g] A PROFESSIONAL SECRET. Leveridge, a budding author, puts the people around him into his literary work, including the girl he admires. When the book is published, they all complain of loss of ego, since he has used them up. To restore them, he must create a group of imaginary characters and blend them with the exhausted persons. [h] H. P. An English amateur archeologist, temporarily trapped in a grave with the skeleton of a neolithic man, finds that the skeleton regards him with great hostility. [i] GLAMR. Iceland. A fictional version of an episode from the GRETTIRSAGA. The appearance of the demon herdsman G1amr; the hauntings; and the conflict with Grettir. [j] COLONEL HALIFAX'S GHOST STORY. The ghost of a poacher, accidentally killed by the master of the hall, haunts the corridors. [k] THE MEREWIGS. First an Indian ghost story, secondly, an absurd tale about the Merewigs in London: beings who have failed to evolve in their first incarnation, and now haunt the British Museum and Library in search of cultural background that will permit them to rise to a higher level. [1] THE "BOLD VENTURE." Old Betty, who is close to her grand~chi1d, makes him a model sailing vessel, the "Bold Venture." But the boy's mother spitefully buys the boy a handsomer (but unsound) model boat. After the boy's death the "Bold Venture" assaults the commercial model and de-

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BARR, ROBERT stroys it. [m] MUSTAPHA. Mustapha, a young Egyptian, after lapsing from the faith of his fathers, returns to Islam, vowing to kill himself if he relapses. A crude Englishman lures Mustapha into sinning. Mustapha commits suicide and thereupon haunts the Englishman to death. [n] LITTLE JOE GANDER. The village halfwit, with a desperately pathetic life, sees his mother's ghost. [0] A DEAD FINGER. It appeared first as an embodied finger, then as an arm, finally a whole body, and it assaults the narrator vampirica11y. [p] BLACK RAM. The sins (from a rigid clerical sense) of the local populace are seen in the chapel at midnight. Black ram is the local term for a rock deposit that acts as a soil pollutant. [q] A HAPPY RELEASE. Woolfie1d's deceased wife was a Plymouth Sister. She haunts him, determined that he shall have no further pleasure from women. Another ghost releases him from the problem. [r] THE 9:30 UP-TRAIN. (1853). A haunted compartment and a supernatural event occurring along the roadway when the train stops. [s] ON THE LEADS. A rented manor house, a white figure that capers along the leads, and no material cause. A ghost. [t] AUNT JOANNA. When the Hockinses, neighbors of dead Aunt Joanna, make free with her effects, her ghost takes a hand and forces them to return what they have taken. [u] THE WHITE FLAG. Propaganda for the Boer War. Jacob, a nasty old Boer, makes a practice of pretending to be wounded. He waves a white flag and then shoots helpful British officers-seventeen in all. The mother of one of them, in Wales, works magic by means of a sacred well and causes Jacob's death. But she must also beg supernatural forgiveness, for her son would have turned out badly and committed suicide. * A rather dreary collection. Some stories present supernaturalism of a crude sort; others are too smugly clerical. BARNETT, ADA British writer. 98. THE JOYOUS ADVENTURER Allen and Unwin; London 1923 Long fantasy novel, reminiscent of Blackwood's LeVa110n stories, describing the reactions of a "natural man" to civilization and its ways. * "Copper Top," a foundling, is reared by an eccentric philosopher who allows him to run wild. As a result, Copper Top preserves a native intimacy with nature,a passionate spontaneity and verve that sweep everything before them. Almost everything, for when disappointed in love, Copper Top decides to return to his Home, a higher state of being from which he had been incarnated as a human. The concluding statement is that it was remarkable that he stayed on earth as long as he did. * Without Blackwood's charm or intellectual power. Some readers may find it merely silly. BARR, ROBERT (1850-1912) Author, editor of Scottish birth, resident variously in Canada, United States, Great Britain. Editor with Jerome K. Jerome of THE IDLER

BARR, ROBERT magazine. Often wrote under pseudonym Luke Sharp. Fairly prolific author of commercial, topical fiction in many categories. Much his best work is the series of detective stories, THE TRIUMPHS OF EUGENE VALMONT (1906), which are excellent. 99. IN A STEAMER CHAIR AND OTHER SHIPBOARD STORIES Chatto and Windus; London 1892 Short stories, mostly frothy society material connected in one way or another with social life for tourists aboard ship. * Including [a] SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE. Hard10ck murders his friend and conveys the body on board ship, planning to toss it into the sea. His dead friend, however, has other plans. [b] THE MAN WHO WAS NOT ON THE PASSENGER LIST. Mr. Keeling is accidentally killed aboard ship, through company negligence. But his ghost will not suffer the company to swindle his widow, and he appears on succeeding trips and goes through the same accident. * Competent commercial work. 100. FROM WHOSE BOURNE Chatto and Windus; London 1893. Written 1888. A short novel, essentially a routine sentimental detective story, to which the supernatural has been added to create variety. * William Brenton, prosperous resident of Cincinnati, awakens to find himself dead and his corpse rigid in a chair. He becomes acquainted with various persons in the spirit world who offer advice. While he cannot communicate with the living, he can move about, see, and listen. He learns that his wife is being charged with murdering him, since traces of morphine were found in his corpse. Enlisting the aid of the great ghost detective, Monsieur Lecocq of Paris, he is told that a stranger was responsible. Meanwhile, on the living plane, the crime reporter George Stratton investigates the case. He falls in love with Brenton's widow, and settles on a would-be beau of hers as the murderer. Eventually the true solution is discovered, and Mrs. Brenton goes free. * Undistinguished. 101. THE FACE AND THE MASK Hutchinson; London 1894 Brief short stories, including [a] THE WOMAN OF STONE. Paris. A sentimental crime story, told as an erotic situation. When the woman's lover is taken by the police as a dangerous anarchist, she sees the expression on the face of the statue change from a smile to an image of death. Whoever sees only the smiling side of life sees only part of life. [b} CRANDALL'S CHOICE. A slender modern version of the Judgment of Paris. In Crandall's vision two beautiful women ask him to choose between them. They are health and wealth. He makes the wrong choice. * These two stories are among Barr's weakest work, but the volume also includes "The Doom of London," a well-imagined sciencefiction story and liThe Great Pegram Mystery," a good parody of Sherlock Holmes. 102. REVENGE~ Chatto and Windus; London 1896 Short stories including [a] THE VENGEANCE OF THE DEAD. When old Squire Heaton dies, he leaves his estate to David Allen, since it is believed

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BATES, ARLO that the squire's estranged son, Bernard, is dead. When Bernard returns to England and tries to compromise with Allen, Allen, who is stupid, greedy, and vengeful, refuses. Tn court Allen is demolished, and he dies shortly thereafter. Bernard, in the meanwhile, has been experimenting with releasing his astral body. On the astral plane he comes upon Allen, who reiterates his hatred, but then reanimates Bernard's body before Bernard can return to it. A11en-in-Bernard then murders Bernard's lawyer. He plans to leave Bernard's body, so that Bernard-in-Bernard will have to stand trial and be executed. * There are also several crime stories. BARRY, WILLIAM FRANCIS (1849-1930) D.D. British.Roman Catholic writer on Church topfcs, particularly the medieval Papacyo· 103. THE PLACE OF DREAMS FOUR STORIES Catholic Truth Society; London 1893 Four supernatural stories with religious backgrounds. Ia} THE HOUSE OF SHADOWS. Ghosts. Indian material. A jealous husband has caused the death of his wife and child. [b} LOST ARTIE. A LEGEND OF CANDLEMASS. Artie, who has been abandoned by his mother, is taken on the "wings of praye:r" to God. [c} THE MYSTERY OF DREREWATER. Mallison, an Englishman, descends to the depths of Tantric and Ka1i worship in India. He returns to England to work his evil magic, but is defeated by an exorcism. [d} ST. ANTHONY'S FLASK. A FRESH READING IN HOFFMANN. A modernized, bowdlerized, sentimentalized, abridged version of THE DEVIL'S ELIXIRS by E. T. A. Hoffmann. * Undistinguished. BASHFORD, [SIR} H[ENRY} H. (1880-1961) British physician and surgeon, civil servant, occasional writer. M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. 104. THE HAPPY GHOST AND OTHER STORIES, Heinemann; London [1925} Short stories, including [a} THE HAPPY GHOST. It is suggested that life is the dream world and that death is the real world. [b] BEFORE DINNER. Paul has memories of another life as an Italian nobleman. Is it a lie? [c} GOD AND THE BUD OPENERS. Labor has standardized everything, including the forces of nature, and the bud openers go on strike. On hearing of this, God dissolves the whole universe into a tear. An anti-labor fable. * Undistinguished. BATES, ARLO (1850-1918) American novelist, poet, Professor of English Literature at M. I. T. Author of several standard textbooks on grammar and. 1 iterature. 105. THE INTOXICATED GHOST AND OTHER STORIES Houghton Mifflin; Boston and New York 1908 Short stories, some regionalistic, including [a} THE INTOXICATED GHOST. Amusing but slight. Major McHugh, around the time of the Revolutionary War, hid the family jewels and they have never been found. His ghost appears with perpetually refilled wine glass, but he wants to keep the jewels in order to retain his social prestige in the other world. A young woman tricks him out of the secret. [b} A PROBLEM IN

BATES, ARLO PORTRAITURE. An artist, painting the portrait of his rival in a love affair, discovers that he can affect the personality of the sitter by changing the painting. Or, that seems to be a possible explanation of matters. [c] A MEETING OF THE PSYCHICAL CLUB. A young society gentleman believes that the local society for psychical research is on the wrong track and gives the members a marvelous demonstration of occult phenomena: illusions, dimensional matters, magical growth and disintegration, levitation, te1eportation, and mind control. [d] MISS GAYLOR AND JENNY. The subliminal self, split personalities, with fantastic overtones. Borderline supernatural. * Capable. Also present is the powerful "The Knitters in the Sun," murder in a decadent New England village. BEAGLE, PETER S. (1939) Contemporary American novelist, film script writer. 106. A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE A NOVEL Viking Press; New York 1960 Fantastic life styles and ethnic humor. * In Yorkchester Cemetery in the Bronx, Jonathan Rebeck has taken up his abode in a tomb, mostly because he is disgusted with life in the outside world. He is served by a talking raven (a 1a Elisha) who not only converses with him, but brings him food, newspapers, and other living materials. Rebeck is able to see and converse with ghosts, and he strikes up an acquaintance with the ghosts of young Michael Morgan, who says that his wife murdered him, and Laura, a young woman. He also becomes very friendly with a personable widow, Mrs. Klapper, who eventually leads him out of the graveyard back into life. Before he leaves, however, he indulges in a little shady matchmaking. Michael, it is revealed, really committed suicide, and his body must be removed from consecrated ground. Rebeck, Mrs. Klapper and a friendly guard remove Laura's remains so that she can be with Michael during the short time that the spirits of the dead retain memory and desire for earthly things. * Lots of local folkways and patois, overwritten, but amusing at times, and imaginative. Beagle's later work is more disciplined. Beale, Charles Willing (1845-1932) American businessman, rancher, resort hotel owner and occasional writer. A very interesting personality. For biographical information, see FIVE VICTORIAN GHOST NOVELS, edited by E.F. Bleiler. 107. THE GHOST OF GUIR HOUSE The Editor Publishing Co.; Cincinnati 1897 Supernatural novel with strong elements from B1avatsky's Theosophy. * Paul Henley, in New York, receives a letter seemingly addressed to a different Paul Henley. It is an invitation to visit Guir House in Virginia. On an im~ pulse he decides to go and explain the situation. Guir House turns out to be an ancient mansion in the deserted backwoods, inhabited by Dorothy, a beautiful young woman, and Ah Ben, her ancient grandfather. Paul falls in

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BEAUCLERK, HELEN love with Dorothy and becomes engaged to her. Ah Ben then reveals that everything that Paul sees is illusion. He (Ah Ben) and Dorothy have long been dead; the house is a ruin disguised by glamour; and Paul has been deliberately summoned for Dorothy's sake. Ah Ben, who is an adept, has done it all by the power of his thought. He also shows Paul a wonderful utopia in the future. Paul still wishes to marry Dorothy, but she decides that she cannot drag Paul into her ow~ half-life. Paul awakens in a decaying ruin. * Nicely told with a certain antique charm. In story outline it is somewhat suggestive of DRACULA, but the mood is entirely different. BEAU CLERK, HELEN (1892-1969) British novelist, translator, long resident in France. Popular in the 1930's for skillfully handled rorr~ntic novels. 108. THE GREEN LACQUER PAVILION Collins; London [1926] Romantic fantasy. England, c. 1710, China, India, Oceania. * A party assembles in the house of Lord and Lady Taveridge. Included are Lord Bed10w, an ineffectua1,'stupid, pompous politician; Lady Taveridge, a 10vestarved young woman married to a cold, older man; Clare, a sentimental, romantic young gentleman; and Gi1vry, a would-be philosopher. Among the furnishings of the very pleasant house is a gold and green Chinese lacquer screen, which inexplicably assumes three-dimensiona1rea1ity and offers access to a green pavilion. This proves to be an entry point into levels of experience suited to the personalities of the individuals. In the other world Lord Bed10w and Lady Taveridge are captured by the pirate Scarcabomba, who eventually drops them off at Zapangore. Bed10w, through the action of a magical snuff, temporarily assumes the identity of a very effective vizier of the land, while Lady Taveridge is almost married to a handsome young Moslem nobleman, whom she loves deeply. Others carried off by Scarcabomba come to the island of Patakoko, where they are almost eaten by very polite cannibals, but are saved by Gi1vry's magic. Clare, however, enters Imperial China, where the young Empress Amarantha takes a fancy to him and he becomes her lover. He is spiritually untrue to her; she dies; and he is forced to escape. Adventures worked out, all find themselves back in the pavilion, and then back into reality. It has all been accomplished by directing the Will. * Very well handled period English (though to me it reads more like late 18th century English than that of Queen Anne's time), told with rococo delicacy and charm. 109. THE LOVE OF THE FOOLISH ANGEL Collins London 1929 Sentimental romance in the manner of Anatole France. * Tamae1 is an angel who was unjustly expelled from Heaven during Lucifer's revolt. He was not rebellious, but he loved Lucifer too well. He is unhappy in Hell, and Lucifer sends him to earth to mislead mankind. ae a-

BEAU CLERK, HELEN lights in early Christian Antioch, perhaps in the third century A.D. He falls in love with Basilea, a beautiful young Christian woman, but is conjured into obedience by Arnaphas, a magician, and ordered to seduce Basilea. He outwits the magician and saves the girl, after which he is released from his servitude by Cyriacus, a local saint. Tamael then proceeds eastward, to Ctesiphon, where he sees Shamyris, a Persian princess, performing an inept conjuration. Out of pity and courtesy he agrees to serve her. Basilea and Cyriacus enter the story again, and Tamael is transformed into a human being so that he can marry Basilea. * Skillfully handled in the manner of 18th century French Oriental tales, but perhaps a little precious. BEAUMONT, CHARLES (pseud. of Nutt, Charles) (1929-1967) American author of fantasies, thrillers, film scripts. 110. THE HUNGER AND OTHER STORIES Putnam; New York 1957 Short stories, including [a] THE VANISHING AMERICAN. (MFSF 1955). Mr. Monche11 awakens to find himself in the position of the fictional dead man whom no one can see or hear. It is a horrible experience. But he yields for a moment to the ecstasy of life and gets another chance. The assUmption is that he will now live with more zest. Or is it all imaginary? [b] FREE DIRT. (MFSF 1957) Mr. Aorta, petty thief, moocher beyond compare, steals dirt from a graveyard in order to establish a vegetable garden. He gets a supernatural comeuppance. [c] DARK MUSIC (PLAYBOY 1956). Miss Maple, repressed but beautiful spinster teacher, does much harm in her battle against sex education in the schools. But she is attracted to the dark music in the grove, yields to her impulses, and has an affair with Pan. She has to leave town when she discovers that she has a craving to eat grass. * Derivative from Bradbury to a large extent, but slick, psychologically oriented, and nicely done. * The other stories are hard-boiled modern sensationalism. Present is the good psychological horror story "Miss Gentilbe11e." 111. YONDER STORIES OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION· Bantam Books; New York paperbound Short stories, including [a] PLACE OF MEETING (ORBIT 1953). The last people on earth assemble, after global catastrophe. There are only a handful of them, and they are vampires. [b] THE JUNGLE (IF 1954). The city of Mbarara was set up in Kenya despite the wishes of the natives. It then became the scene of a battle between native magic and modern science. Magic wins. Austin's wife is dying and he is the victim of mind-confusing doll magic. [c] HAIR OF THE DOG (ORBIT 1954). Mr. Gissing makes a diabolic pact in the manner of a modern business deal. He will be immortal as long as he submits one hair from his head per month in payment. He is soon bald and accidentally submits an improper hair. [d] TRAUMERE I (INFINITY S F 1955). A solipsistic

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BECK, L. ADAMS universe. The present world is the dream, and when the dreamer awakens, it will disappear. With complications. * Most of the other stories are science-fiction. Stories, on the whole, inferior to those in THE HUNGER. 112. NIGHT RIDE AND OTHER JOURNEYS Bantam Books; New York 1960 paperbound Short stories, including [a] PERCHANCE TO DREAM (PLAYBOY 1958). A repetitive, continued dream of a mysterious smiling young woman, a Ferris wheel high in the air, and death. But there is another level of experience behind it. [b] THE HOWLING MAN (new). The young man has caught pneumonia and is recuperating in a monastery in Cermany. He hears a perpetual howling and eludes the brothers long enough to see a naked man in a cell. The abbot tells him that Schwartzhof used to be the center of the world's wickedness and that the man in the cell, who is not really a man, is Satan. The American releases him and hears of him later, around 1932. * [a] is good, but the crime stories here are superior to the fantasies. BECK, CALVIN (1930American editor, collector, fan. AS EDITOR: 113. THE FRANKENSTEIN READER Ballantine Books; New York 1962 paperbound. Anthology, components all described elsewhere. [a] THE MIDDLE TOE OF THE RIGHT FOOT, Ambrose Bierce. [b] THE FOUR-FIFTEEN EXPRESS, Amelia B. Edwards. [c] PASSEUR, Robert W. Chambers. [d] THE ISLE OF VOICES, R. L. Stevenson. [e] THE GHOST OF FEAR, H. G. Wells. [f] THE TRIAL FOR MURDER, Charles Dickens. [g] THE DEAD VALLEY, R.A. Cram. [h] THE THING IN THE HALL, E.F. Benson. [i] A PAIR OF HANDS, Arthur Quiller-Couch. [j] THE GHOST SHIP, Richard Middleton. [k] ON THE STAIRCASE, K. F. Gerould. * The title is fanCiful, for there is no connection with FRANKENSTEIN here. BECK, L[ILY] ADAMS (nee Moresby) (? - 1931) British writer, daughter of Admiral John Moresby, eponym of Port Moresby. Travelled and resident in the Orient, long domiciled in British Columbia. Secretive about biographical data, but apparently born around 1870. Author of popular costume romances under pseudonym E. Barrington and adventure stories under pseudonym Louis Moresby (which s~). Greatly interested in Buddhism and perhaps a convert. Author of popular works explaining Oriental thought. Occult fiction is based on a sanitized, Theosophized Mahayana Buddhism. A capable commercial writer at her best. Best known work THE DIVINE LADY (1924) as E. Barrington. 114 • THE NINTH VIBRATION AND OTHER STORIES Dodd; Mead; New York 1922 Occult orientalia. Short stories, plus two nouvelles, including [a] THE NINTH VIBRATION. India, near Simla. Ormond, lost at night in the forests, comes upon the Hall of Pleasure, a ruined pleasure house built centuries earlier by a Rajput ruler. He has an occult experience there, seeing the ruined building as re-

BECK, L. ADAMS stored. In a v~s~on he meets a young woman in the realm of the "ninth vibration." ·He later meets her physically. There is no question of love, however, He is to continue to the mountains to develop, and she, to the plains. Their paths will cross again. [b] THE INTERPRETER, A ROMANCE OF THE EAST. India, near Srinagar. Clifden, an artist who would like to empathize with the East, but cannot penetrate below the surface of phenomenality, meets Vanna Loring, who has the empathy that he lacks. He falls in love with her, but she will do no more than accompany him platonically for two months to open his spiritual eyes. She is obviously more advanced than he, can remember past incarnations, and can envision gods and spirits. During his association with her on a house-boat near Srinagar, Clifden evolves, but learns that she is not for him. She is the reincarnation of a dancing girl who tempted an abbot centuries earlier and must resolve her romance with the abbot. * [b] carries a conviction that none of Mrs. Beck's other works carries, perhaps because of the details of Indian life. 115. THE TREASURE OF HO A ROMANCE Collins; London [1923] Oriental romance and adventure, with supernatural incidents. China during the Boxer·Rebellion. * John Mallerdean, whose family has lived in China for generations, is trying to find a long lost treasure that had been entrusted to a collateral ancestor. He would also like to rescue a cousin, a court lady, the last descendant of the original treasure-holder. He is forced to match wits with the Dowager Empress, and in disguise to serve as a disciple to the Blind Man of Hupei, a famous clairvoyant. The treasure is found and Mallerdean and Sie, his cousin, escape. Supernaturalisms include scrying, clairvoyance, and visions of the past. * A detailed and convincing background, with much empathy for Chinese culture, keep this from being romantic tripe. 116. THE WAY OF STARS A ROMANCE OF REINCARNATION Dodd, Mead; New York 1925 Egyptological romance, black magic, the Communist peril, future war and Asiatic mysticism all worked in together. * After World War I Seton and Conway, following hints given in the notebook of a French soldier friend· killed in battle, find the tomb of Nefert, a predynastic queen of Egypt. According to the inscriptions she was of Atlantean origin and very evil; she had been entombed with supernatural safeguards to prevent her reemergence. A prophecy adds that when she reemerges, the world shall suffer for four years from a Northern power. Seton and Conway enter the tomb, thereby releasing her, and find a magical ring, which Seton takes. Political problems threaten to hamper the excavation and Seton comes down with "tomb fever," presumably of supernatural origin. * ~ A new sequence now begins. Seton becomes acquainted with two American women, with one of whom, Venetia, he falls in love. He also meets a mysterious Eurasian who goes under the name of Revel. Revel is in some way connected with

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BECK, L. ADAMS Nefert, since he owns a ring matching Seton's. He also wields certain magical powers. Using the power of the ring he controls Seton's will to gain possession of a papyrus from the tomb and he shows Seton visions. * The scene now shifts to a native state in India, where all the important actors assemble for their own reasons. Unrest is at hand, for an adventurer has seized power in Russia and obviously plans to invade India. Associated with him is a beautiful woman whom Seton recognizes as Nefert, hieroglyphic jewelry and all. Events move rapidly. Revel is revealed to be the Russian leader and the mysterious woman is his sister Shirin. Revel and Shirin seize the native state and eventually, with Russian soldiery, almost conquer all India. Resistance is organized and the tables are turned. Revel is killed and Shirin commits suicide. Seton plays a part in the secret service skulduggery which leads to the Russian debacle, but recognizing that the supersensual is more important than the material, goes into yogistic retreat. * The author is deliberately ambivalent about Revel and Shirin, whether they are opportunists who seized a strange situation or whether, in some odd way of the stars, they are reincarnations of ancient wicked ones from predynastic Egypt. * In summary this sounds like a ragbag, but the disparate elements are united capably and the suspense of the story is well maintained, although the ending is weak. 117. THE HOUSE OF FULFILLMENT THE ROMANCE OF A SOUL T. Fisher Unwin; London 1927 Mystical orientalia, romance, and self-fulfillment, a sequel to the story THE NINTH VIBRATION. * Cardonald, a British artist, has come to Northern India for scenic material. He stays with the Duncans, a wealthy Buddhist couple who maintain an establishment for research into the history of Buddhism. At the moment they are on the track of contemporary documents concerning the visit of the Chinese monk Hsien Tsang to India in the 7th century. They have hints that such documents may exist in the monastery of the Manis, farther north, in Ladakh. Cardonald, at first repelled by Eastern occultism, is gradually attracted to it, especially through Brynhild Ingmar, who is fairly advanced in spiritual development, and the monk Haridas. With their help he attains to a certain mystical apprehension of reality, enough that he knows that he needs more. Cardonald, Brynhild, the Duncans all travel to the monastery of the Manis, where each attains what he wishes. The Duncans find manuscripts, while Cardonald is accepted as a chela by a mysterious figure known as Illuminated Pearl, who has ~ny supernatural powers: prev.ision, mind-reading, levitation, etc. Cardonald, though, is tormented by conscience because of a crime he committed in England: adultery with the wife of a friend, and he must live this down before he can make any real progress. This friend turns out to be Ormond, and the situation is resolved. The story comes to a sensational end when Brynhild is captured by local tribesmen and held for ransom. Following the teachings of Illuminated

BECK, L. ADAMS Pearl, Cardonald goes to Brynhild in astral body and releases her. It is later revealed that Illuminated Pearl is not only a legendary teacher, Diamond Sceptre, but also Ananda, the favorite disciple of the Buddha. * The ancient wisdom of the East seems as open to every Western dilettante as the Grand Hotel. 118. THE OPENERS OF THE GATE STORIES OF THE OCCULT Cosmopolitan; New York 1930 Short stories either narrated by or concerning Dr. James Livingstone, a specialist in nervous disorders, who is very close to being an occult detective. The stories share a common background of occultism and spiritualism, in which the spirits of the dead are perceptible to the living and to a certain degree take part in life. There is also a glib, sentimentalized Oriental ism. * [a] THE OPENERS OF THE GATE. A neurotic cousin of the narrator's lives only for her dogs. When her dogs die, they return and show her after-death survival. [b) LORD KILLARY. A triangle. When Roper is asked to help his friend Lord Killary, whose mistress is pregnant, Roper angrily refuses. Killary thereupon commits suicide, but his ghost is close by and perceptible to the sensitive. [c) HOW FELICITY CAME HOME. Bereaved parents return from India to England and set up a domestic establishment such as their dead child would have wished. Their child comes to them and they all live together in a transcendence of life and death. [d] WASTE MANOR. Not pious sentimentality, like the previous stories, but a horror story. The descendants of the de Tracy who assisted in the murder of Thomas A Becket have a curse on them and shall never prosper. Wendover, wandering over the decayed estate and ruins of distant collaterals, finds himself caught up in an ancient evil that still survives. [e) THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY. Dr. Livingstone meets his most difficult case, Joyeuse, a highly intelligent but disturbed girl who projects her astral body and leads men to suicide. A drug is also involved. [f) MANY WATERS CANNOT QUENCH LOVE. Ceylon. Young Temple comes as assistant overseer to a most unpleasant· plantation. The manager is an ineffectual, surly drunkard, and the plantation is run very efficiently by the psychic power of the overseer's mistress, Lilavati. When Lilavati dies, her ghost returns and controls the overseer, effecting some improvement of character. [g] THE HOROSCOPE. Livingstone is consulted by Sir Francis Bethune, a county baronet 'and member of the hunt. Bethune has had the equivalent of a breakdown. He is suddenly obsessively antagonistic to fox hunting, blood sports, and meat eating. The new personality, which is uncontrollable, is spoiling his life. Influence from a previous incarnation as a Hindu ruler. Lean back and enjoy it. [h) THE THUG. When Hampton went to India, he was immediately accepted as the reincarnation of a Thug of great renown. The personality of the dead Thug possesses him at times, and together with other Thugs he goes onto the road and commits religious murders. Back in England, he does not know what to do,

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BECKFORD, WILLIAM He fears that if he returns to India, the Thug personality will control him again. Livingstone suggests a practical way out of the dilemma. [i] HELL. The narrator, presumably Livingstone, while walking along the Serpentine in London, meets a strange, dowdy woman, a spirit, who is living in her own purgatory: a horrible rooming house in Kensington. She will be trapped there until she evolves. [j) THE MAN WHO SAW. India. Armytage has the power to see the spiritual essence of things. He has also seen and conversed with Nourmahal as they wandered over the Taj Mahal together. * Smoothly told, but sometimes a little mawkish and with a tendency to belabor the spiritual side. [d), [f), [i] are best. BECKFORD, WILLIAM (1760-1844) English multimillionaire, dilettante, collector, writer; son of the Whig politician and Lord Mayor of London William Beckford. Noted during his lifetime for his wealth (the richest man in England), sensational extravagances (Fonthill Abbey, and sexual scandals. A gifted, very interesting, but most unpleasant personality, the subject of several good biographical studies. Apart from VATHEK his only significant work is the fine travel and psychological account, ITALY, WITH SKETCHES OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL (1834). FROM AN UNPUBLISHED MANU119. AN ARABIAN TALE SCRIPT WITH NOTES CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY J. Johnson; London 1786 (published anonymously) VATHEK has had a very curious history. It was written in French, translated into English, yet paradoxically, although William Beckford was its author, he did not write either the French or English versions that we know. Beckford originally composed his romance in French, presumably because of historical prototypes in French literature. He employed Samuel Henley, a broken-down scholar, to edit his works, and Henley translated Beckford's French manuscript into English. He then published it against Beckford's wishes, in a somewhat equivocal manner, as above. Beckford was furious at this breach of faith and determined to put the French text into print, but the manuscript had been lost or destroyed. Beckford then hired a French scholar to retranslate Henley's English back into French, and this-- with a later revision by Beckford in the early 19th century-has remained the basic text. All this was an unnecessary carousel, for Beckford was a fine English stylist. * The Caliph Vathe~, grandson of the great Haroun aI-Rashid, i~ the ruler of the Islamic world. But spoiled and enervated by a life of sensuality, prodded on by his witch-mother Carathis (a strange combination of ruthlessness, ambition, hedonism and maternal love), he yearns for the fabulous powers and treasures of the pre-Adite kings. When a supernatural being comes to his court in the guise of a mendicant from India, Vathek welcomes him and renounces Islam. He institutes a series of orgies and slaughters, finding a fitting partner in crime in the stupid, cor-

BECKFORD, vJILLIA."1 rupt, sensual Nouronihar. The pair m~ke final terms with the giaour and descend into Hell to receive Vathek's supernat\tra1 kingdom. They meet Ib1is, but soon realize that they have been trapped. Riches and power are theirs, but not for long. Vathek summons his mother to Hell, and her insolence brings punishment down on all three mortals: they are petrified in Hell, their hearts perpetually consumed by fire. * VATHEK is a many layered work. It is probably the finest of the Enlightenment Oriental tales derived from the Arabian Nights, and it is also a good Gothic statement of the color and richness of Islamic lore. It contains allegorical elements (though not obtrusively), and as Beckford's contemporaries recognized, it is a jesting statement of his own life situation. Beckford shared much with Vathek. Nouronihar was the wife of Beckford's cousin, whom Beckford had seduced; and Carathis pictured Beckford's mother. Written tongue in cheek in a light, ironic manner which contrasts nicely with the horrors described, endowed with a wealth of Islamic lore, well-paced, it is a fine novel. * There have been many editions of VATHEK, most of which have been titled VATHEK or THE HISTORY OF THE CALIPH VATHEK. A modern edition with biographical and critical material is to be found in THREE GOTHIC NOVELS. 120. THE EPISODES OF VATHEK Stephen Swift; London 1912 Translated from French by Sir Frank T. Marzia1s. Introduction by Lewis Melville. * Beckford planned to include four intercalated tales within VATHEK and wanted to defer publication of the whole work until the tales were finished. Samuel Henley, however, arranged for publication of VATHEK before the tales were ready, and Beckford seems to have lost interest in completing them. [c] was never finished; [a] and [b] were probably not in final form before the early 19th century; while the fourth tale was possibly never begun. Although it was generally known immediately after the publication of VATHEK that Beckford was working on the episodes, he was very secretive about them and after a time it came to be believed that they did not exist. Around the turn of the present century, however, the manuscripts (in French) were found in a document chest in the possession of the Duke of Hamilton, a collateral descendant of Beckford's. * The episodes are stories told by other damned princes whom Vathek meets in Hell. * [a] THE STORY OF PRINCE ALASI AND THE PRINCESS FIROUZKAH. The princess is a devil-worshipping Zoroastrian, and she misleads the weak Alasi away from the True Religion. He massacres the holy men and razes the mosques. After a rebellion breaks out A1asi and Firouzkah use magic to open the stairs to Hell and descend. They meet Ib1is and learn their fate. [b] THE STORY OF PRINCE BARKIAROKH. The prince, who is an even greater scoundrel than Vathek, has committed almost every crime possible, from incest to usurpation of a throne. He had been married to a good peri, Homaiouna (Conscience?), who tried to reform him, but he in turn attempted to mur-

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BELL, NEIL der her. He, too, ends up in Hell. There are interesting subepisodes. [c] THE STORY OF THE PRINCESS ZULKAIS AND THE PRINCE KALILAH. A semi-apostate ruler of Egypt wishes to regain the knowledge of the ancient pharaohs and spends most of his time trying to decipher the hieroglyphs, often with magical aids. He introduces his children to black magic. His daughter Zu1kais makes a bond with the jinni of the Great Pyramid, but he betrays her, and she and her brother Ka1i1ah are trapped in Hell. The episode is unfinished, but Clark Ashton Smith attempted a conclusion, which does not fit the original too well. * Read individually, the episodes, which display vices, are entertaining, but they lack the nice color, the tongue-in-cheek irony, the delightful displays of Orienta1ia, and much of the bizarreness of the basic novel. BEERBOHM, lSIR HENRY} MAXlIMILIAN} (1872-1956) Renowned English humorist, caricaturist, essayist, novelist. Educated at Oxford. Knighted 1939. Almost the "official" pictorial deflater of fin de siec1e London. His caricatures are still highly regarded, but his writing is held in less esteem than it used to be. Best-known work ZULElKA DOBSON (1911). 121. SEVEN MEN Heinemann; London 1919 Short stories, including [a] ENOCH SOAMES. A sleazy Devil purchases Soames's soul for a strange price: five hours in the reading room of the British Museum one hundred years in the future. Soames's trip, however, was not worth the price paid, for he discovers that he was a nobody. Heavily ironic. [b] HILARY MALTBY AND STEPHEN BRAXTON. Rival literary men. Maltby does Braxton a bad turn when he makes a remark that excludes Braxton from a literary weekend among the most influential people. But Braxton comes in astral body, invisible to all except Maltby, and turns the weekend into a clownish debacle. [c] A. V. LAIDER. Laider can read palms perfectly, but he has a character flaw. When he sees that all the persons in his train compartment have death blocks for the approximate present, he is too weak to pull the emergency cord. The worst happens. But it is rationalized. * Elegant, mannered, leisurely, amusing, occasionally sharp in their irony, but overdone. What Beerbohm takes five paragraphs to say, John Collier could have said in five lines. * Other works by Beerbohm that are sometimes listed in bibliographies are just over the borderline: THE HAPPY HYPOCRITE (1897) and ZULElKA DOBSON (1911). BELL, NEIL (pseud. of Critten, Stephen H.) (1887-1964) Prolific British popular writer, author of children's books, fantasies, mysteries. Artist and art teacher. Has also written under the pseudonyms Stephen Southwold, "Miles," S. H. Lambert, and Paul Martens. 122. PRECIOUS PORCELAIN Go11ancz; London 1931 The supernatural part of this novel is concerned with strange doings in the small cathed-

BELL, NEIL ra1 town of Welling. Not long after Dr. David Hart1ey-- a remarkable genius who had been successivly a great doctor, jurist, and a bishop in the Church of England-- settled there, strange things began to happen. An unknown man interrupted a sermon and disappeared mysteriously. An incredibly beautiful young woman appeared at a boarding house, proceeded to seduce all the men, then disappeared. The doctor's nephew, Roy Hartley, accepted a position as precentor at the cathedral, and then impregnated all too many girls and matrons. And a series of brutal sex crimes took place. After much fumbling by the police, a solution is reached. Dr. Hartley had discovered a means of isolating the various personality fragments within himself and projecting them as living beings. The murders were committed by his ape-man component, who eventually "kills Dr. Hartley and thereby himself perishes. * A disorganized collection of fragments of many forms, without any central point: naturalistic slum life in London; maturation experiences; regionalism; and a Stevensonian mystery thriller. BELLAMY, EDWARD (1850-1898) American journalist, novelist, social theorist. His mildly socialistic utopia LOOKING BACKWARD, 2000-1887 was extremely important in late 19th and early 20th century American social thought and practice. The idea10gica1 success of his discursive utopias has obscured the fact that he was a very competent writer. Studied in many critical articles. 123. MISS LUDINGTON'S SISTER A ROMANCE OF IMMORTALITY James R. Osgood; Boston 1884 A romantic novel based on Spiritualism, which was of great current interest. * Miss Ida Ludington has become disfigured as a result of severe illness and has withdrawn from life. She lives much in the past, and being extremely wealthy, she builds a replica of the small town in which she spent her youth. There she lives with her nephew Paul de Riemer. Among her effects is a portrait of herself before her illness. Young Paul falls in love with the picture and works out a metaphysical theory: each person is not a single soul, but a series of atomistic moments in a lifetime. Each of these moments must have its own soul. To put his theory to the test, he and Miss Ludington, on the advice of a recently discovered childhood friend of Miss Ludington's, consult a materializing medium. Seances are successful, and a beautiful young woman, the image of the portrait, materializes. After several seances, the medium dies during the materialization and the young woman remains on earth. Old Miss Ludington accepts the materialized girl, who is now called Ida, as her alter ego, and Paul falls violently in love with her. An engagement is announced, but then Ida disappears, leaving behind her a confession. It was all a fraud to gain the Ludington money. But she cannot carry the crooked scheme through. Miss Ludington and Paul find it easy to forgive her and reaccept her, since such guilt as she had was due to another person in her series of sou1s-- and thus they remain

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BENET, STEPHEN VINCENT consistent in their Zeno-1ike theories. * An amusing jeu d'esprit. 124. THE BLINDMAN'S WORLD AND OTHER STORIES Houghton Mifflin; Boston 1898 Introduction by William Dean Howells. Short stories, including [a] THE BLINDMAN'S WORLD. Professor Larrabee visits Mars in a dream. The Martials [sic] are much like us physically, but they have perfect prevision and no sense of the past. * Borderline science-fiction, the relativity of time experience. [b] AN ECHO OF ANTIETAM. When Phil King leaves his sweetheart Grace to go off to the Civil War, the parting is pathetic. Grace knows supernaturally when Philip is killed at Antietam. Long, sentimental, purple. [c] AT PINNEY'S RANCH. John Lansing, who is wrongly sought for trial as a murderer, is forced to abandon his wife and family and flee to the West. He is thought to be dead. About three years later he learns that his wife, for the sake of their children, is planning to remarry. By intense concentration he is able to compel her to refuse consent during the ceremony. Or is it just coincidence? The question is not decided. [d] TO WHOM THIS MAY COME. A traveller comes to an island in the Indian Ocean where descendants of the Magi from ancient Persia live. They are so skilled at mind reading that speech has died out. * Minor work on the whole, but [a] has an interesting concept. BENET, STEPHEN VINCENT (1898-1943) Prominent American poet, . journalist, writer of fiction. Educated at Yale. Pulitzer Prize, 1929, for poem JOHN BROWN'S BODY. Highly regarded during his lifetime as a writer of short stories based on American folklore and folkways. Now undeserved1y neglected due to changes in literary tastes. 125. THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER Farrar and Rinehart; New York [1937] Separate publication of a short story. * Jabez Stone sells his soul to the Devil for seven years of prosperity. When his bond is due, he calls on Daniel Webster for help, and Webster must outwit the Prince of Lawyers. After legal argument, Webster and the Devil agree on a jury trial, but the Devil packs the jury with the worst renegades and monsters in American history. Webster suddenly realizes that he must win his case, or he, too, will be lost. * The presence of good even in evil. * This excellent story has been turned into an opera, THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER by Douglas Moore (1939), and a motion picture, ALL THAT MONEY CAN BUY (1941). ~ 126. THIRTEEN O'CLOCK STORIES OF SEVERAL WORLDS Farrar and Rinehart; New York [1937] Short stories, including [a] THE KING OF THE CATS. An amusing fictionalization of an old folktale. Tommy is jealous of the great conductor M. Tibau1t, a feline and faSCinating figure who conducts his orchestra with his tail. The ultimate cause of Tommy's jealousy is the beautiful Princess Vivrakanarda from Siam. A friend suggests that Tommy tell the old folktale of the King of the Cats in Tibau1t's presence. The

BENET, STEPHEN VINCENT result is as anticipated, but the Princess, too, disappears. The names, of course, are a give-away, and place the story in the same category as Tieck's DER GESrIEFELTE KATER. * [b] THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER. Described in 125. [c] DANIEL WEBSTER AND THE SEA SERPENT. Since Webster is the greatest man of his day, it is only natural that Samanthy the sea serpent should fall in love with him. Webster uses the serpent to frighten the British into signing the Webster-Ashburton Treaty and commissions Samanthy as a 44-gun frigate in the U.S. Navy. Amusing. * Also present, though not supernatural, is "By the Waters of Babylon," perhaps the best single short story of future primitivism after the collapse of civilization. 127. JOHNNY PYE AND THE FOOL-KILLER The Countryman Press; Weston, Vt. [1938] 750 copy edition Folkloristic approach to a philosophy of life. * Johnny Pye has been treated harshly as a child by his foster parents. He is perpetually threatened with the fool-killer (Death) and accused of folly. He runs away from home and as a young man is associated with a quack patent medicine man, an inventor of perpetual motion, a merchant and other value sources. But whenever he encounters folly or hypocrisy, he hears the steps of the fool-killer and runs away. He marries, settles down, and raises a family. In later life Death comes to him and propounds a riddle, offering to spare Johnny if he can answer it. The riddle is: How can a man stop being a fool? Johnny's answer is, Only by being dead. Death accepts this as a solution, but Johnny refuses to live any longer without rejuvenation. * Nicely handled statement of values and of hopelessness of life, presented in the mixed fable, narrative, allegory that Benet handled so well. 128. TALES BEFORE MIDNIGHT Farrar and Rinehart; New'York [1939] Short stories, including [a] JOHNNY PYE AND THE FOOL-KILLER. Described as 127. [b] O'HALLORAN'S LUCK. 19th century. O'Halloran, an Irish immigrant working on the railroad in the Far West, meets a leprechaun who is in sore straits. O'Halloran, a kindly man, befriends the leprechaun, who in turn gives him luck and the advantage of foreknowledge. O'Halloran rises in the world, marries happiily, and the leprechaun also attains release from a geas that had been put upon him. [c] DOC MELlliORN AND THE PEARLY GATES. When the old doctor dies, he is welcomed in Heaven; but he is unhappy there because his patients, who have been calling for him, are elsewhere. He leaves Heaven and descends into Hell, where he treats the damned But he is subverting the morale and economy of Hell and is expelled. He is admitted into a very different Heaven. * Good stories. * This volume and THIRTEEN O'CLOCK have been combined under the title TWENTY-FIVE SHORT STORIES. 129. THE LAST CIRCLE STORIES AND POEMS Farrar and Strauss; New York 1946 A posthumous collection, including [a] THE

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BENNETT, ARNOLD MINISTER'S BOOKS. (1942). The wicked black magic books of Jacobus van Clootz reach out to corrupt Minister Hugh McRidden. The irony seems to be that evil of the past can affect those who are lacking in virtue. [b] THE ANGEL WAS A YANKEE (1940) Yankee folkways. p. T. Barnum and the angel that is being held captive by a farmer. The angel, who was once a Yankee sea captain, is on coast guard patrol and has no information to give Barnum. Nor will it remain to be an exhibit in Barnum's circus. [c] WILLIAM RILEY AND THE FATES (1941). Riley, a young newspaper cub, attends the outing of the United Sons and Daughters of Destiny in Snapper's Grove. He sees many strange sights and has a future awarded to him. When he writes his experiences for his newspaper, it is all taken as a joke. [d] THE DANGER OF SHADOWS (1941). Harbison is bothered by his shadow, which has developed an evil aspect. He is running away. [e] THE GOLD DRESS (1942). Louella Weedon, deceased, cannot rest until she has worn the gold dress that she bought in life but never wore. When she returns to the land of the dead, she takes the dress along with her. [f] THE LAND WHERE THERE IS NO DEATH (1942). Old John is looking for the land of no death and discovers that it can be reached only with living and dying. Mostly without the little humorous touches that are usually characteristic of Benet. BENNETT, [ENOCH] ARNOLD (1867-1931) Major English naturalistic writer; editor. Has been called the chronicler of the lower middleclass Midlands; especially concerned with the potteries of Staffordshire. Major works are THE OLD WOMAN'S TALE (1902), ANNA OF THE FIVE TOWNS (1902). 130. THE GHOST A FANTASIA ON MODERN TIMES Chatto and Windus; London 1907 In his earlier career Bennett wrote considerable sensational material, including the present work. This first appeared in periodical form as FOR LOVE AND LIFE, before 1900. Bennett considered it inferior work and tried to prevent its book publication, but was unsuccessful. * Mystery and romance, with supernatural trimmings. * Carl Foster, recent graduate in medicine from Edinburgh, gains entry to the world of opera through his cousin, an influential composer for the music halls. While at a performance of Lohengrin, which is being sung by Alresca and Rosa, he sees Alresca collapse on the stage, and attends him. This chance meeting leads to friendship and to Foster's becoming Alresca's personal, private physician. Foster also meets Rosetta Rosa, with whom he falls in love. Alresca recovers physically, but it is obvious that he is greatly troubled. As the story proceeds, it is revealed that he is in love with Rosetta, yet has been pursued by misfortune because of her. When Rosa unexpectedly visits him, Alresca suddenly dies. After the singer's death Foster is accepted as a friend by Rosetta, and even as potential lover, but he, too, finds that misfortunes are besetting him. He survives a train wreck, a shipwreck,

BENNETT, ARNOLD and an attempted murder. On each occasion he sees the same sinister man. After a time he and Rosa solve the mystery. Behind the persecution of A1resca and Foster and misdeeds not mentioned in this resume is the ghost of the late Lord C1arenceux, a passionate, selfish, possessive man who wants no other man to have Rosa. Foster confronts the ghost, but fails to dispel it. But Rosa appeals to the ghost's former love for her, and Lord C1arenceux recedes and disappears. * A synthetic hero, melodramatic moments, and a silly plot, but told with vivacity and verve. The opera lovers can decide whether the names conceal Jean de Reske and Rosa Raisa. 131. THE GLIMPSE AN ADVENTURE OF THE SOUL Chapman and Hall; London 1909 Character study; detailed analysis of levels of egotism in terms of after-death experiences. * Morrice Loring, noted music critic, while intelligent and amiable, is an extremely selfish person emotionally. He married Inez beCause of her beauty and 1ight-heartedness, but after a few years, their marriage has fallen apart. Morrice is tired of her superficiality, while she cannot tolerate his indifference to her and his devotion to his work. A crisis comes when Morrice overhears a conversation revealing that Inez is in love with his best friend. They quarrel bitterly, and Inez flaunts her unfaithfu1ness-- although it does not happen to be true. Morrice has a heart attack and dies. After death he undergoes a wide, closely described range of experiences that are reminiscent of the various Buddhist heavens and hells. He first remains in the spirit and sees his earth-soul emerge; then finds his senses remarkably sharpened, offering new ranges of knowledge, including the ability to see thoughts; then enters various wish-fulfillment states with the perfect woman and perfect library; relives his life several times; and ultimately, recognizing that his experiences have been Hell, approaches a union with the Divine. But he is called back into his body and reawakens. In the meanwhile Inez is overcome by remorse, thinking that she has killed Morrice, and commits suicide. Morrice, thanks to his own experience, knows what Inez is undergoing and has attained a broader tolerance and a less selfish way of looking at things. (But does it help Inez?) * The unsympathetic, possessive character is well drawn; Edwardian life is nicely shown; and the Hells are brilliantly described. BENNETT, KEM[YS] D. (1919 ) British writer, translator from French. 132. THE WINK Rupert Hart-Davis; London 1951 American title, THE FABULOUS WINK. Humorous fantasy based on French "types." * The Reverend William Anker, who is vacationing briefly at Mousseron in Normandy, is present when a miracle occurs: the statue of Saint Philibert in the church winks. This causes an uproar, some considering it a divine miracle, others, notably the local bishop, considering it the work of the Devil. The bishop decides

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BENSEN, D. R. to exorcise the church, but when the exorcist arrives, it is discovered that the statue has disappeared. Father Fougasse, the exorcist, is convinced that Anker is responsible for the whole situation and that he is possessed. He thereupon kidnaps Anker and proceeds to exorcise him very painfully. The situation is resolved when a Hindu, who is the guru of one of Anker's friends, reveals that he has been in communication with the saint in heaven and has removed the statue to another plane of existence. He proves his statements by performing the rope trick and restoring the lost image. * Forced flippancy and over-development of what should have been a short story. BENSEN, D[ONALD] R. (1927 ) American editor, publishing executive. Sponsor of many fantasy books. AS EDITOR: 133. THE UNKNOWN 11 STORIES BY THEODORE STURGEON [etc.] Pyramid Books; New York 1963 paperbound Foreword by Isaac Asimov. * A collection of stories from UNKNOWN (UNKNOWN WORLDS). [a] THE MISGUIDED HALO, Henry Kuttner. (1939). A juvenile work. An angel awards a halo, with all its implications, to an average man, who must live up to it. [b] PRESCIENCE, Nelson Bond. (1941). Dr. Barton's patient, Mrs. Williams, in her dreams has genuine foreknowledge of the future. The doctor, in a moment of pique, uses hypnotic suggestion that causes her death. [c] YESTERDAY WAS MONDAY, Theodore Sturgeon. (1941) The universe is a stage which is set day by day. Harry, a mechanic, finds himself trapped in the worlds of tomorrow, where the sets are being prepared, and yesterday, which is Limbo. A hard-hat philosophy of life is his salvation. [d] THE BLEAK SHORE, Fritz Leiber. Described elsewhere. [e] TROUBLE WITH WATER, H. L. Gold. Described elsewhere. [f] DOUBLED AND REDOUBLED, Malcolm Jameson. (1941) For Childers June 14th repeats itself with small variations. No matter what he does, the basic pattern is reenacted. He finds a supernatural way out of his dilemma. [g] WHEN IT WAS MOONLIGHT, Manly Wade Wellman. (1940). Edgar A. Poe, seeking story material, stumbles on a remarkable case of vampirism. Nicely handled. [h] MR. JINX, Robert Arthur (pseud. of Robert A. Feder). (1941). A supernatural magician tries co muscle in on the world of gambling and organized betting. His specialty is removing people to limbo. li] SNULBUG, Anthony Boucher. Described elsewhere. lj] ARMAGEDDON, Fredric Brown. Described elsewhere. * The eleventh story, "The Gnarly Man" by L. Sprague de Camp is science-fiction. * Outstanding stories are ld] and 19]. 134. THE UNKNOWN FIVE STORIES OF FANTASY BY ISAAC ASIMOV letc.] Pyramid Books; New York [1964] paperbound Stories selected from or associated with UNKNOWN (UNKNOWN WORLDS) magazine. [a] AUTHOR~ AUTHOR~, Isaac Asimov. Graham Dorn is an author, and his characters come to life. At the moment his suave, debonnaire hero,

*.

BENSEN, D.R. Reginald de Meister is present in the flesh and is making life miserable for him. Dorn must find a way to circumvent him. * This is first publication of this story, which had been accepted by UNKNOWN, but was not printed when the magazine suspended publication. Not up to Asimov's standard of later years. [b] THE BARGAIN, Cleve Cartmill (1942). Death is faced with a problem. The professor has discovered the secret of perpetual life. He was supposed to have died before he found it. Death must retrieve the situation. Unusual for the author who was one of the leading hard sciencefiction authors of the day. [c] THE HAG SELEEN, Theodore Sturgeon. (1942). The narrator, his wife, and their small daughter are staying in the bayou country. They trespass on the territory that Seleen, a wildly vicious old witch, considers her own. Seleen works magic against them, including doll magic and animating a floating tree stump that is like a gigantic spider-being. [d] HELL IS FOREVER, Alfred Bester. (1942). Short novel. A supernatural house party. Several people attend Lady Sutton's house party. A false demonic appearance that is a trick for murdering Lady Sutton is followed by a true manifestation, in which each of the guests is permitted to penetrate beyond the veil of phenomenality and to enter his/her own heaven. An artist creates his own universe, but discovers that it is foul because he himself is foul. An adulterous wife creates a world in which she can murder her husband, and so on. Eventually it is revealed that all is illusion. * Some fine touches, as always with Bester, but somewhat immature and with too much Cabell. [e] THE CREST OF THE WAVE, Jane Rice. (1941). Semihardboiled treatment of a gangster revenant. BENSON, A[RTHUR] C[HRISTOPHER] (1862-1925) English educator and writer. Older brother to E.F. Benson. Educated at Eton and Cambridge. House master at Eton and Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. A modernist in education and apparently very influential. Said by the D.N.B. to have been "perhaps the strongest cultural influence at Cambridge during the twenty years before his death." Prolific but rather weak author, popular writer of essays. 135. THE HILL OF TROUBLE AND OTHER STORIES- Isbister; London 1903 Rather syrupy short stories written for the boys at Eton during the 1890's. Most of the stories are vaguely medieval in setting, while the language has affinities on a lower level with that of the prose romances of William Morris. * Including [a] THE HILL OF TROUBLE. An ancient pre-Christian stone circle on a hilltop is shunned; it is haunted by the ghost of a pagan priest. Gilbert, a gentle scholar, ventures to the hilltop and is shown three visions of the future. He later breaks ~the curse by offering to pray for the ghost. [b] THE GRAY CAT. Roderick, a boy who wanders near a forbidden pool, is deluded by a demon which assumes the form of a cat. The cat comes home with him and Roderick is saved only by

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BENSON, A.C. priestly intervention and a heavenly woman (Mary?). At one stage his soul emerges as a bird. [c] THE RED CAMP. Walter searches for and finds gold in a mound which may be the remains of a Roman encampment. But he is haunted by the ghost who once owned the gold and is compelled to vow the treasure to the church to acquire peace. [d] THE LIGHT OF THE BODY. After a mishap the protagonist discovers that he can see character as a strange illumination. But along with this goes an indifference to sin or virtue. The gift disappears when the percipient sees a soul purified by suffering. [e] THE SNAKE, THE LEPER, AND THE GREY FROST. Ralph, who has inherited an estate, wants to find the treasure that is said to be in the tower. The wise man tells him that he must avoid the snake, the leper, and the frost. He wins through, but it was a horrible experience. [f] THE CLOSED WINDOW. At the Tower of Nort, a window looks out on a horrible landscape, with a sinister figure down below. Mark1s friend Roland ventures into the land and perishes. Mark sees the monster. [g] THE BROTHERS. One brother vows his life to God to save the other. [h] THE TEMPLE OF DEATH. Paull inus , an Early Christian, becomes acquainted with the priest of a temple reminiscent of Nemi. The pagan priest spares Paullinus, and Paullinus kills the Hound of Death. * There are also three vague, sentimental stories set in the Roman Empire, with incidental supernaturalism in each: [i] THE TOMB OF HEIRI, [j] CERDA, and [k] LINUS. * [e] and [f] are the best stories in the book, being less cloying and didactic than the others, as well as more vividly imagined. * THE HILL OF TROUBLE is a very scarce book, but all the stories in it have been reprinted in PAUL THE MINSTREL (1911), which is not uncommon. 136. BASIL NETHERBY Hutchinson; London [1926] Two short novels found among Benson's papers after his death. Edited by E. F. Benson, they are really hypertrophied short stories. [a] BASIL NETHERBY. Leonard, the narrator, receives a very peculiar invitation to visit his old friend Netherby, who is a musician. Leonard knows that Netherby must have undergone some change, since the music that he now writes is "filthy, evil stuff." He finds Netherby living in a house whose previous owner, now buried in a tomb on the estate, had been a student of black magic. Netherby has obviously been possessed by the spirit of the dead magician, not completely, but enough to warp his personality. The narrator sees visions of a dark cliff and of horrible spirits who chase Netherby and are responsible for his death. He later hears that the housekeeper has exorcised the spirit with love. [b ] THE UTTERMOST FARTHING. Hobden Hill in Sussex is a beautiful Georgian house, Hartley diSCovers, but there is a mysterious haunting associated with it. On a visit to his friend Bendyshe, he sees the ghosts and learns the story of the house. It had previously been inhabited by a retired soldier who practiced black magic in a serious and consistent way. Be.ndyshe and Hartley localize the evil and

BENSON, A.C.

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recognize that the haunting is tied in with a manuscript hidden in the lofts. The two men fight their way through"supernatural perils and gain the manuscript. At this point, the question arises what to do with it: should it be destroyed unread or should its hard-won hidden lore be kept. * Some interesting moments in [b], but otherwise unremarkable. BENSON, E[DWARD] F[REDERIC] (1867-1940) British writer. Son of (later) Archbishop of Canterbury. Educated at Cambridge. First interest archeology, spending three years (18921895) in Greece and Egypt. Entered literature after resounding commercial success of his first book, DODO (1893), which was partly reworked and edited by Henry James and Lucas Malet. Author of many light society novels, especially the popular "Lucia" series, which are said to have been partly ironic romans A clef. Later biographer for British royal family. Important Edwardian author of supernatural fiction, not quite first rank, but capable and skillful~ Most important work of supernatural fiction, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE (1923). 137. THE LUCK OF THE VAILS Heinemann; London 1901. Murder mystery with supernatural elements. The Luck of the Vail family brings misfortune to its owner by Hfire and frost and rain," but it also brings financial success. After having been lost for some time, the Luck, an ancient jewel-encrusted golden goblet; is found and the curse begins to work-- but with some human help. I shall not reveal the solution beyond saying that good prevails; the human evil, which had linked itself to the supernatural, is foiled; the Luck is destroyed. * A fairly good mystery, surprisingly modern in tone. The supernatural elements are not as strong as in some of Benson's later work. 138. THE IMAGE IN THE SAND Heinemann; London 1905 Occult novel in societal setting. * In Egypt Sir Henry Jervis and his daughter Ida make the acquaintance of Henderson. All parties are interested in the occult. Sir Henry uses Abdul, an Egyptian medium, to converse spiritualistically with his dead wife, while Henderson is edging over into black magic. One day Henderson buys an amulet in the bazaar and discovers that it is a token for restraining the evil ka of Set-nekht, an Ancient Egyptian. Henderson decides to break the amulet and release Set-nekht, thereby offering Sir Henry more efficient communication with the dead. A conjuration ceremony takes place in the desert at Set-nekht's tomb. Unfortunately, Ida wanders along at the wrong moment and is partly possessed by Set-nekht before the control can be broken. Sir Henry dies as an aftermath of the evocation, and Ida returns to England, where with Abdul she continues her communication with the dead. Henderson also returns and is lionized for his African experiences. He offers Ida stronger channels of communication and even materializations, since Set-nekht serves him.

BENSON, E.F. His moral position is that there is no black magic or white magic per se, but that all magic is legitimate if understood. He falls in love with Ida, and after attempts to control her with hypnosis fail, invokes Set-nekht to capture her. This almost succeeds, but Abdul, who is aware of Henderson's evil nature, kills him and the danger is over. * The supernatural plot is fairly strong and sensational, despite some concessions to stylish romance, but it is swamped by an enormously overdeveloped novel of manners. 139. THE ROOM IN THE TOWER AND OTHER STORIES Mills and Boon; London [1912] Short stories~ [a] THE ROOM IN THE TOWER. A dream house, visited over the years in sequential dreams, with horrors at the end of each. The narrator finally visits the house, is assigned a room in the tower, and is approached by a vampire, who tells him that it has been waiting. Material horror. [b] GAVON'S EVE. Scotland, with folkloristic magic. Catrine Gordon has disappeared, and on the night of the devil festival, the local witch sets out to call up Catrine's corpse. She does so, but the result is tragic for all. [c] THE DUST-CLOUD. A wild driver, a fatal aCCident, and a phantom automobile haunts the road, reenacting the tragedy. [d] THEOONFESSION OF CHARLES LINKWORTH. Linkworth, who murdered his mother, is executed, refusing to confess. His unquiet spirit communicates with the prison doctor. He needs"absolution. [e] AT ABDUL ALI'S GRAVE. Egyptian folk magic (scrying) frustrates a black magician who is raising the dead to locate lost money. [f] THE SHOOTINGS OF ACHNALEISH. A savage Scottish village, where one does not shoot hares. The inhabitants apparently transform themselves and wander about as hares. [g] HOW FEAR DEPARTED FROM THE LONG GALLERY. Two child ghosts, murdered in 1602, haunt the Long Gallery. Those who see them die a horrible death. But Madge meets them and her pity and love dissolve the curse. [h] CATERPILLARS. The psychic narrator, staying at a villa in Italy, sees hordes of giant caterpillars and recognizes the horror that they symbolize: cancer. For a time he is threatened, but the ghostly insects finally select another victim. [i] THE CAT. Al ingham, an artist, has had a psychic shock that has turned him into a painter of new perceptions and genius. He agrees to do the portrait of a former fiancee who had jilted him for a richer man, and is perpetually impressed with her cat-like nature. After several brushes with cats, he is found with his throat torn out by a cat. Theriomorphy. [j] THE BUS-CONDUCTOR. A prophetic vision of a hearse and "Room for one more inside, sir." The basis for the episode in the motion picture DEAD OF NIGHT. [k] THE MAN WHO WENT TOO FAR. Frank Halton has regained life and vitality by nature mysticism, finding bonds between himself and nature. He is drawing close to the ultimate experience, or Pan. But this comes as pain and death, for he had avoided the painful side of life. Later expanded and redirected

BENSON, E. F. into THE ANGEL OF PAIN. [1] BETWEEN THE LIGHTS. The narrator has a premonitory vision of horrible, ancient life, presumably Neolithic. On a hunting trip in Scotland he stumbles upon the scene of his dream, and there is a tiny troglodyte, with supernatural powers, stealing toward him. [m] OUTSIDE THE DOOR. An early 17th century murder still has supernatural echoes. Ghost. [n] THE OTHER BED. Twin beds at a Swiss hotel. One is haunted by the ghost of an alcoholic who had cut his throat. It persistently orders whiskey and eventually shows itself. [0] THE THING IN THE HALL. Louis Fielder plays about with the occult, trying to summon something; he makes a contact, an evil, slug-like elemental, which eventually kills him and the narrator. [p] THE HOUSE" WITH THE BRICK-KILN. Francis Adam, artist, murdered his wife and disposed of her body in the brick-kiln. He reenacts the crime as a ghost. Most annoying if one has rented the house. * Conventional stories, traditional horrors, leaner development, less social and psychological concern than the other collections of supernatural short stories. [a], [f], [g], [h] are best. * The edition read was the Knopf (New York, 1929) reprint. The Mills and Boon edition Cited, which has not been avatlable to me, contains an additional story, [q] THE TERROR BY NIGHT. 140. ACROSS THE STREAM John Murray; London 1919 A cautionary novel against Spiritualism and alcohol. * As a small boy, Archie Morris, son of Lord Davistow (later Tintagel) receives occa~ional communications from his dead brother Martin. These communications usually "come through automatic writing and are unquestionably supernatural. As Archie matures, the communications become less frequent and then stop. But when Archie falls in love with Helena, an attractive, but cold, selfish, and mercenary woman, Martin makes himself evident again, now mostly through dreams. Archie is perfectly willing to accept Martin as his dead brother, but Helena's more amiable sister Jessie finds the situation evil and tries to shunt Archie away from it. When Helena breaks her engagement with Archie and marries a richer man, Archie degenerates and displays the family disease, alcoholism. He is no longer a pleasant young man, and, indeed, even becomes a slacker in the war. A climax comes when Jessie sees Martin materialize and she recognizes the evil that Archie cannot see. She does battle with Martin psychically and dispels him. Martin, it is to be assumed, was a demon who took the form of Archie's brother, although the story is not wholly consistent. * The childhood environment is nicely handled, but the novel soon degenerates along with Archie. 141. THE COUNTESS OF LOWNDES SQUARE AND OTHER STORIES Cassell; London [1920] Stories placed in categories, after a brief preface attacking the American short story. * Including, [a] THE CASE OF FRANK HAMPDEN. Young Frank, under anesthesia while a broken limb is being set, is possessed by the spirit of a sadistic murderer. A medium and drugs banish

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BENSON, E. F. the evil spirit. [b] MRS. ANDREWS'S CONTROL. A sentimental couple dabble in various kinds of parlor-occultism, finally settling on automatic writing, at which Mrs. Andrews is proficient. Her control talks to her about the war, but it is all trivial and stupid, as is Mrs. Andrews. The pointlessness of it all. [c] THE APE. Hugh Marsham comes into possession of an ancient Egyptian talisman that gives him power over the ape kingdom. When he is treated shabbily by a coquette, he invokes the apes (really monkeys) and plans a revenge. But he is unable to go through with it. In the mode of Blackwood. [d] "THROUGH." A fraudulent medium becomes the "source for a genuine phenomenon. World War I. * [c] is excellent, but the other stories are on the trivial side. 142. VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE Hutchinson; London [1923]

Probably Benson's most famous collection. * Short stories, including [a] "AND THE DEAD SPOKE • • ." An invention reads the molecules of the brain and reveals its secrets. Psychological horror and borderline science-fiction. [b] THE OUTCAST. Bertha Acres is a pleasant enough woman, but no one can stand her presence. When she unexpectedly dies at sea, the sea rejects her corpse and casts it up on land, and the land heaves up her coffin. The explanation is to be found in a rather notorious figure who hanged himself about 1900 years earlier. Reincarnation. [c] MACHAON. Seemingly the only cure for"a cancer is surgery, but the spirit of Machaon, son of Asklepios, speaking through a medium not only describes life in ancient Athens, but suggests an alternative treatment. [d] NEGOTIUM PERAMBULANS • Cornwall. Carved on the screen is the figure of a priest with a cross confronting a horrible, sluglike monstrosity. The monster, an elemental like a giant leech, which drains its victims, attacks sinners. [e] AT THE FARMHOUSE. John Aylsford, who married the beautiful fishergirl from a witch family, was miserable for years when she took to drink. Murder comes easy, but witch people can take revenge. [f] INSCRUTABLE DECREES. Lady Rorke is a classical sadist; she delights in witnessing pain. She also happens to be a remarkable materializing medium. During a sitting she materializes a young woman who reveals that Lady Rorke sat and watched her drown. [g] THE GARDENER. Margaret Grainger works with the planchette and gets mysterious messages from the "gardener." He says that he cannot enter, yet that he is looking for someone. A ghostly figure is seen and heard. The gardener, years before, had murdered his wife. This seems to be his punishment. [h] MR. TILLY'S SEANCE. Tilly is run over by a steamroller and then proceeds to a seance which he had promised to attend. The medium announces his presence, and he watches her tricks and deceptions. She can perceive him, for she is not entirely fraudulent. He agrees to work with her. Ironic. [i] MRS. AMWORTH. Three hundred years ago there had been an outbreak of vampirism at Maxley, and a few years ago, there had been a similar outbreak in India, near where

BENSON, E. F. Mrs. Amworth was stationed with her husband. She is a traditional vampire and is removed in the traditional way. Crude material horror; not Benson's usual story. [j] IN THE TUBE. The narrator, in the tube (British for subway), sees a phantasm of the living: Sir Henry Payne, committing suicide. The event takes place some time later, but Sir Henry returns to ask"the narrator a favor. [k] RODERICK'S STORY. Roderick waits for Margaret's return from the dead. * A twelfth story, THE HORROR-HORN, is not supernatural, but deals with creatures like Abominable Snowmen, in the Alps. * Full Edwardian development, with good characterizations and "background detail. 143. COLIN A NOVEL Hutchinson; London [1923] 144. COLIN II Hutchinson; London [1925] Despite publication as two books, this is really a single long novel. It is psychological and metaphysical in bent. * The first Lord Stanier in the time of Queen Elizabeth I sold his soul to the Devil for worldly power. The bargain was an unusual one in that it included each succeeding male heir, except for individuals who renounced the pact. The family thrives through the ages, but is loveless and evil. In the present generation, Colin, one of the most despicable characters in modern literature, is the younger of twins in line for inheritance. In him the original situation with the Devil is recapitulated on a less literal level. The first volume, which has no direct supernaturalism beyond the narration of the legend, tells how Colin swindled and murdered his way into the family title. In the second volume he is under almost a compulsion to reenact the experiences of the first Lord Stanier and institutes a Black Mass at the family residence. It is unsuccessful because the acolyte dies of seeing, apparently, a divine vision. Colin wishes the bargain with the Devil to continue, but finds that his son is too wholesome to accept the pact. Temptation does not work. Instead, Colin, despite his evil nature, is momentarily captured by Love when he saves his son's life. In the final chapter Colin is confronted by a supernatural force that wrings from him an acknowledgment of his crimes, together with the admission that he has yielded to Love and forfeited his bond with the Devil. His accuser, however, is Love. * Overlong, not entirely convincing in characterizations, but often quite interesting in surface detail, especially the recounting of Colin's spiritual evil. It should be noted that evil here differs from the evil in Benson's short stories. Here it is a matter of conscious choice and may be presented symbolically. 145. SPOOK STORIES Hutchinson; London 11928] Ghost and horror stories. * [a] RECONCILIATION. Garth place is haunted by the ghost of Francis Garth from the early 18th century. He was presumably swindled out of the property. The haunting and the ghost's curse are broken when a direct descendant, who is perhaps a reincarnation of the original Garth moves in. A marriage completes the reconciliation. [b] THE FACE. Hester Ward has a repetitive horror dream

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BENSON, E. F. in which she sees an eroded sea coast, ruins, a grave about to be washed into the sea-- and a horrible face. She is told that it will come for her. It does, and she is seen no more. [c] SPINACH. Sylvia and Ludovic, who play with spiritualism, find a control named Spinach, who asks their help, In life he murdered his uncle, but was struck by lightning and now, in the spirit world, is haunted by his uncle's corpse. He does not remember where the corpse is and asks that the living find it and release him. They do, whereupon Spinach degenerates into a conveyor of platitudes. Humorous. [d] BAGNELL TERRACE. The narrator has a passion for acquiring one of the houses in his neighborhood, a house that is in some way connected with Egyptian magic. The result is a haunting and an attack by a cat-headed god or demon, who is represented on another level by a figurine which the narrator owns. Also suggestions of theriomorphy. Much is left unexplained. [e] A TALE OF AN EMPTY HOUSE. It is haunted by a lame ghost that tries to strangle trespassers. It is the relic of a crime committed by a halfwit years before. If] NABOTH'S VINEYARD. Hatchard is unscrupulous in obtaining a house that he wishes to own, but he does not enjoy it long. The ghost of the man whom he blackmailed into selling the house comes around. {g1 EXPIATION. Cornwall. Very mysterious circumstances around the rented house: a phantom rope and then a phantom suicide. It is repeated" each year. Perhaps emotion may make [h] HOME, SWEET a record, perhaps expiation. HOME. A murder and a ghost; nicely handled by indirection. [i] "AND NO BIRD SINGS." A wood is haunted by an evil presence; no animal will venture into it. Perhaps an elemental that takes the material form of a slug-like creature. [j] THE CORNER HOUSE, Strange happenings. Odd appearances and disappearances around the Corner House. A ghost and murder revealed. [k] CORSTOPHINE. Previsions of a deserted town cause a traveller to change his plans and save his life. A railroad accident, a tombstone with his name on it, and speculation what it all means and how it could have happened. [1] THE TEMPLE. Cornwall. The house has been built within a stone circle, with the stone of sacrifice incorporated in the basement. At certain times ancient evil is activated, and persons nearby cut their throats on the stone. * A competent, well-handled collection. 146. THE INHERITOR Hutchinson; London [1930] The spiritualization of a hereditary curse. * According to the family curse-- which is supported by a graveyard full of misshapen monsters-- the heir of the house of Gervase is born with horns and hoofs. Indeed, Steven Gervase, the current heir, remembers an uncle who was physically a faun. With the "apparent end of the direct family line and the normal physical appearance of Steven, it seems as if the curse is at an end. But it has only taken another, more inward form. Steven is spiritually a pan; he is soulless and cannot love. He cannot form any relationship with others, is alien,

BENSON, E. F. unmoral, and destructive to almost everyone who tries to love him. When the' curse is resumed physically, with a misshapen, prematurely born son, Steven decides to end the curse once and for all in the only way that it can be ended. * The vehicle is for the most part college life at Cambridge, with adumbrations of homosexuality. Handled with technical skill, but anemic. Hutchinson; London 147. MORE SPOOK STORIES [1934] Short stories. [a] THE STEP. Alexandria, Egypt. A horrible fate for the real estate speculator who dispossessed a widow. While dying, she cursed him. Invisible footsteps, and then • • • [b] THE BED BY THE WINDOW. Speculations with a philosophical friend about the nature of time. A vision of a murder in the past, disguised as burglary. [c] JAMES LAMP. When his wife seemed to have run off, the neighbors were sympathetic. But her murdered corpse comes out of the pond for him. Cd] THE DANCE. Like a spider, the crippled husband plots. He encourages his wife and secretary to fall in love, then fires the secretary. Afterdeath revenge. [e] THE HANGING OF ALFRED WADHAM. Wadham is about to be hanged for murder when Kennion confesses to the priest. Not out of a sense of guilt, but just to cause trouble. The priest cannot viola te confessional,. and Wadham is hanged. His ghost haunts. [f] THE WISHING-WELL. Cornish folkloristic magic. Judith, frustrated in love, puts a paper in the wishing-well, and the young man sickens. But his mother knows magic, too. [g] THE BATH-CHAIR. A symbol of death and punishment. Occult power. [h] PIRATES. Cornwall. Peter, wealthy, middleaged, but with a bad heart, has an urge to live again in his childhood home, the scene of happy memories. It is deserted, perhaps haunted. He buys it, restores it, moves in-and one evening hears his childhood friends calling him to a game of pirates. The next morning he is found dead. [i] MONKEYS. The pathologist operated cruelly on a crippled monkey, which died. On a later occasion, he violated the mummy of a monkey. He is found, torn to bits, as if by a giant ape, but there are no apes in London. [j] CHRISTOPHER CAME.BACK •. Christopher, who is editing a minor Renaissance poet, is dying. His wife, who is in love with the doctor, poisons Christopher. But he returns to edit proofs. [k] THE SANCTUARY. In the past, Black Masses and death through swarms of flies. The chapel is now haunted. [1] THURSDAY EVENINGS. Mrs. Wallace, conservative Victorian lady, haunts her former residence and new inhabitants are subjected to ladies' novels and "The Lost Chord." She becomes an effective poltergeist. en] THE PSYCHICAL MALLARDS. Before marriage, Tim was gifted with all sorts of paranormal abilities, and Miriam was a fine medium. But their gifts cancel each other out. Their child, however, inherits everything. * The best stories are [e], [f], and [h]. [k] has a nice range of effects, but is undeveloped.

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BENSON, R. H. BENSON, R[OBERT] H[UGH] (1871-1914) Younger brother of E.F. Benson, educated at Eton and Cambridge. Ordained priest in Church of England. 1903 converted to Catholicism. 1911 private chamberlain to Pope Pius X. Prolific writer. Works include religious fiction (often slightly fantastic), sermons, apologetics, biography, popular journalism. 148. THE LIGHT INVISIBLE Isbister; London 1903 Brief short stories, religious in orientation, with considerable spiritual exposition, told through the personality of a (some\vhat heretical?) old Roman Catholic priest. It is stated here. and there that the frame situation is factual, but there is no reason to accept this. * [a) THE GREEN ROBE. A mystical vision of the.green robe of God brought home to the young man the true aspect of Divinity as natura naturans. [b] THE WATCHER. The old priest tells another incident in his spiritual awakening: he had gone hunting and, annoyed hecause he had shot nothing, killed a thrush. He then had a vision of a diabolic, gloating, cat-like head in the bushes. [c] THE BLOOD-EAGLE. The old priest, when young, and a friend stumble on evidences of surviving pagan Scandjnavian worship, and a vision of a Valkyrie-like being. [d] OVER THE GATEWAY. The priest takes news of a death to the relict and sees a vision of a person in ecstasy hovering in the air. [e] POENA DAMNI. A visiting priest converses \vith a man who serves Satan and sees the poena damni shining in his eyes. Punishment of the damned. if] "CONSOLATRIX AFFLICTORUM." The ghost of a dead woman occasionally visits her child. When she cannot come, the Virgin does. [g] THE BRIDGE OVER THE STREAM. The old priest claims that death is not evil. He once saw God push a little boy under a cart wheel! [h] IN THE CONVENT CHAPEL. The old priest learned humility when he visited a convent. He felt contempt for an unlettered nun. But he saw emanating from her, while at prayer, a tie with the infinite. [i] UNDER WHICH KING? A priest, visiting vici.ous Lord B •• asks him to forego a suit that he is presenting. The priest unwittingly speaks words that bring Lord B. to his knees. God? Devil? Telepathic transfer? [j] WITH DYED GARMENTS. Successive coincidental injuries to others recapitulate the Passion and convert a sinner. [k] UNTO BABES. God reveals himself to the village idiot. [1] THE TRAVELLER. The ghost of one of Thomas a Becket's murderers comes to confess on the anniversary 'of the crime. * In [m] THE SORROWS OF THE WORLD, in] IN THE MORNING, and [0] THE EXPECTED GUEST the old priest slowly dies, to the accompaniment of visions and intense spirituality. * On the whole nicely written, but very doctrinary and sentimental. 149. A MIRROR OF SHAWTT COMPOSED OF TALES TOLD AT A SYMPOSIUM Pitman; London 1907 Fourteen n.arratives, mostly brief, told at a meeting of Catholic priests at Rome. The background is intensely religious. [a] MONSIGNOR MAXWELL'S TALE. Mystical substitution, taking on the temptations of another, ending in a state muc.h like possession. [b] FATHER JENK'S TALE. The house has a bad name, after many deaths.

BE~SO~,

R. H.

The former chapel is being used irreverently, and it see~s (though this is only hinted) that the Archangel Michael afflicts the offenders. [c] FATHER MEURON'S TALE. West Indies. Wolf howls and a spectacular exorcism. [d] FATtiER BRENT'S TALE. A visionary experience, phantom ships? Ie] FATI1ER E~~CHI'S TALE. Italy. The coming of Mithras in a church. [f] FATHER STEIN'S TALE. Religious experience, a gh0stly sister. [g] MR. BOSANQUET'S TALE. Bosanquet, the only non-Catholic present, had been legally dead for a short time, but recovered. He tells of his after-death experiences, mostly by analogy. [h] THE FATHER RECTOR'S TALE. A man sustained only by the force of evil. When he reforms, he collapses and dies. Ii] FATHER GIRDLESTONE'S TALE. Longer than the other stories in the book. A psychic invasion during meditation. [j] FATHER MARTIN'S TALE. A ghostly figure tries, for the sake of evil, to prevent a priest from attending a dying woman. [k] FATHER MACCLESFIELD'S TALE. A nasty old man dies. The priest sees him as a conventional ghost, a hare, and a swirl of leaves. [1] MR. PERCIVAL'S TALE. Wales. Ghosts in a mine, or perhaps emotional residue? [m] FATHER MADDOX'S TALE. Either creative power of the mind or intuitive psychic perception. In] MY OWN TALE. France. A haunted chamber in which no one can live. No explanation. * The American edition (Benziger, St. Louis, 1907) omits [m]. * Smoothly written, smugly religious, naive. It is curious that Father Benson should have taken the motifs of the ghost story of his day to provide little homilies. Was it an attempt to create a sectarian version of the ghost story? 150. THE NECROMANCERS Hutchinson; London 1909 Ultimately a religious novel concerned about the spread of Spiritualism. Benson considers Spiritualism not wholly fraudulent and certainly not desirable, but a form of demonolatry, potentially dangerous to the participant. * Laurie Baxter, British college student, has converted to Roman Catholicism. He has just suffered a bereavement. His fiancee has died, but as his family points out, the match had not been suitable and it is for the best, since she ~vas the daughter of a shopkeeper. Laurie thereupon encounters Spiritualism through a very potent medium. He also discovers that he, too, has mediu:nistic abilities. He can perform automatic writing, can drop off into a trance, and he is subject to control. Friends warn him that his activities are dangerous, but he refuses to listen. He considers the Spiritualistic demonstration of survival as parallel to Church teachings of immortality, indeed, as a practical application of theory. He also likes the possibility of communicating with his fiancee, even though it is soon obvious that his love for her was not very profound. During a sitting where a medium materializes the girl, he is possessed by an entity of some sort. His foster-sister manages to exorcise the entity, but it is a difficult, dangerous task. * The author speculates on the rationale of Spiritualism, whether it is emergence of odd human components or demonic, and seems to prefer the latter explanation. *

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BERESFORD, J. D. Quite competent novelistically and much superior to Benson's short stories, despite the undertone of hysteria. BENSON, STELLA (Mrs. John O. Anderson) (1892 1933) English educator, novelist, resident in China the last ten years of her life. No relation to the other Bensons discussed in this volume. Gifted, original writer; best-known work TOBIT TRANSPLANTED (American title THE FAR-AWAY BRIDE) (1930) • 151. LIVING ALONE Macmillan; London 1919 Fantasy; everyday events during World War I transmuted by "magic," told in an idiosyncratic way. * Sarah Brown, who works on the War Savings committee as an assistant, becomes acquainted with a witch who lives at Mitten Island in the Thames. There the witch keeps an establishment that might be called a cross between a rooming house and a monastic institution, where strange folk gather and have magical adventures. Sarah learns·of the sorrows of Peony, a Cockney woman who has been led astray by an imp who has been pestering her to be born. She also meets Richard Higgins, son of one of her superiors, who is also a magician and owns a fairy farm where a dragon is foreman. During a German air raid, a borrill strikes in a churchyard and awakens some of the dead, who arise, thinking it is the Last Judgment. There is also an excellent aerial battle between· the British witch and a German witch. Richard is discovered to be Peony's lover, and Sarah and the witch sail for America. * Su~nary, unfortunately, does not convey the spirit of the work, which is wilfully colored transmutation of life (including some autobiographical material) into fantasy. Within the allegorical framework, Sarah and Peony are different aspects of woman; the Mitten Island is the middle of life; the witch is ecstasy or unrestrained vital force. The ultimate theme, not entirely clear, may be that beauty and love are foreign to Sarah and that death is her only answer. * Very interesting. BERESFORD, J[OHN] D[AVYS] (1873-1947) English writer. Architect by training; journalist on a provincial newspaper; publisher's reader for Collins. Sometimes in political difficulties for his pacifistic views. Fairly prolific writer. Most famous work during early period was JACOB STAHL (1911), detailed social realism in the mode of H. G. Wells. In later life his interests turned more toward fantasy and the occult. Has written a fair amount of science-fiction, including THE HAMPDENSHIRE WONDER (American title THE WONDER) (1911), generally considered a classic and the first significant novel about a true superman. His short supernatural fiction here considered is quite different in its fabular approach from the social material of his mainstream fiction, though there are common psychological interests. 152. NINETEEN IMPRESSIONS Sidgwick and Jackson; London 1918 Symbolic short stories, often told as parabolic

BERESFORD, J. D. sketches, often anticipitations of later absurdist literature. * The dates offered are those of the author, but it is not clear wheththey are dates of writing or of publication. * Including [a) THE CRIMINAL. (1912) Semiallegorical. A most horrible criminal is at the dock, but various persons see him in different appearances. The camera, however, reveals an empty dock. Projection of one's own evil? [b) FLAWS IN THE TIME SCHEME. (1912) The three following stories: [c) AN EFFECT OF REINCARNATION. Tommy discovers that he had been a Renaissance Catholic martyr, and the discovery forces him into becoming a missionary. After all, he reasons, the situation is not likely to repeat. [d) A CASE OF PREVISION. Cornwall. Jessop, on walks about the countryside with his friends, has a persistent hallucination that there is a precipice where others see firm rock. A later landslide, killing Jessop, proves him to have been right. [e) THE LATE OCCUPIER. Cryptic and difficult to interpret, but presumably a clairvoyant dream. [f) THE LITTLE TOWN. (1912) Cornwall. St. Erth is a microcosm of the earth, with a stupid god who manipulates a puppet show. [g) THE LOST SUBURB. The narrator dreams of an old house in the suburbs. The house is no longer there, and there are only the vaguest memories of what once happened there, but his dream was veridical. [h) THE ESCAPE. (1912) A detail~ridden perfectionist has a cosmic vision and sees the futility of his ways. A dream. [i) FORCE MAJEURE. (1913) When Coleman's mistress Muriel dies, he inherits her dog. But every time that the dog barks-- which is too often-- he hears her voice quieting the dog. But when he kills the dog by pushing it out a window, a real haunting starts. [j) THE EMPTY THEATRE. (1914) Life seen as a play in a theatre. [k) THE MISANTHROPE. (1914) He has a peculiar sort of vision when he looks over his shoulder; he sees the horrible, bestial side of those whom he looks at. It affects his life. [1) POWERS OF THE AIR. (1915) Fear. The narrator lives in dread and fear of the powers in the black time and will not venture out into the winds. But a braver, stronger person goes out and experiences them, and is exhilarated [m) THE MAN IN THE MACHINE. (1915) A Kafkalike allegory of a man who finds himself encased and imprisoned in a mechanical device. Delirium under anesthesia. [n) LOST IN THE FOG. (1916). On the wrong railroad line, the narrator comes to a little village that is a microcosm of Europe. He sees World War I as village feuds and quarrels. (0) THE INSTRUMENT OF DESTINY. A casual sexual encounter in the bushes of Richmond Park; a moment's mystical experience, death; and destiny provides for a new minor savior. * While the ideas are often traditional, the philosophical note lifts these stories to a higher level and makes them thought-provoking and interesting. 153. SIGNS AND WONDERS Golden Cockerel Press; Waltham Saint Lawrence, Berks.; 1921 Short stories, sometimes experimental in approach. Including [a) PROLOGUE. The end of

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BERNERS, LORD the universe, in a playlet of a page and a half. [b) THE CAGE. The narrator has a vision of_primitive man and tries to communicate to him the wonders of the present. The result is disastrous for both men. [c) THE HIDDEN BEAST. A fierce wild animal seems to be caged in the house, and from the noise it makes, it must be abused. But the phenomenon occurs only un evenings. Symbolic interpretations. [d) THE MIRACLE. Paul, a victim of World War I, lies in perpetual coma. Suddenly, he states, "I am dead." His wife, in a modern version of the Orpheus legend, descends to the Land of the Dead, and by her love reclaims his soul and restores him to life. Ie) YOUNG STRICKLAND'S CAREER. Strickland, Sr., eager to learn about his young child's future life, consults many psychics but without being satisfied. He then buys a crystal ball. He sees in it a vision of a living scarecrow digging in the earth. The vision is fulfilled in a horrible way during the War. [f) THE NIGHT OF CREATION. At Harrison's house party Vernon and Harrison argue pedantically about psychic phenomena, Vernon believing in the more scientific aspects of research, while Harrison is the ultimate rationalist. A white figure is seen in the garden, a beautiful woman. It makes its escape, however, and cannot be found. The argument now continues: was it a materialization, and if so, from whom? The decision is negative, but later is changed. * Stories [b) through [e) are brief narratives that combine aspects of parables, essays, and the close narration of early science-fiction. The last story is more developed and more intellectual in content. [d) is probably best. BERNERS, LORD (TYRWHITT-WILSON, GERALD HUGH, 14th BARON BERNERS) (1883-1950) English diplomat, musician, artist, writer. Best known as composer of ballet music, including THE TRIUMPH OF NEPTUNE written for Diaghilev. Also skilled painter, capable writer in satirical vein. 154. THE CAMEL A TALE Constable; London 1936 Fantasy novel; horrors told in a light, ironic manner. * One winter morning, the Rev. Aloysius Hussey, Vicar of Slumbermere, and his wife Antonia are awakened by a peal from the doorbell. Outside they find a camel. It seems to be without an owner, and since Antonia had lived in the Near East and ridden camels, she decides to keep it as a mount. It becomes part of life at the vicarage, and the villagers accept it. It is soon noted by the reader, if not by the Husseys, that the camel has a supernatural aspect, since it fulfills Antonia's wishes, and usually in an evil way. Should Antonia momentarily envy the fur coat of Lady Bugle, the camel breaks into the Bugle establishment and steals the coat. The camel is also responsible for a tragic misunderstanding. Hussey happens to be an extremely hot-tempered man, and when the camel brings to the house a volume of verse written by the church organist, Mr. Scrimgeour, Hussey assumes that the lover referred to is Antonia.

BERNERS, LORD In this he is mistaken. In a moment of passion he kills the organist and buries his body. The camel, however, provides a sinister conclusion to the incident. When at a party Antonia in all innocence says, "I wish that Mr. Scrirngeour were here," the camel stalks in with the organist's corpse, which it had dug up. The vicar commits suicide and Antonia rides away on the camel. * Since Lord Berners does not commit the error of identifying the camel, one can choose among interpretations: a demon, evil wishes hypostatized, mischance. * One of the better descendants of LADY INTO FOX. Berners also contributes three good illustrations. BESANT, [Sir] WALTER (1836-1901) English author, educator, local historian, social ame1iorator. Educated at Cambridge. Taught at Royal College, Mauritius. Secretary to the Palestine Exploration Fund. Founder and chairman of the Society of Authors. Knighted in 1895. Instrumental in slum improvement projects in London, particularly the People's Palace in East End. Author of biographies, local studies of London. Popular in his lifetime for solid, comfortable novels, often in collaboration with James Rice. Best known work READYMONEY MORTIBOY (with Rice) (1872). More important as an influence than as an author. 155. THE DOUBTS OF DIVES J.W. Arrowsmith; Bristol 1889 . Social and psychological novel. * Dennis Stirling, a wealthy young man, and Kit Cottere1, impoverished wastrel writer of light verse, happen to be college chums. Neither is happy with his lot. Stirling feels that he is wasting his talents, while Cottere1 is trapped by weaknesses and lack of money. By a fortunate chance Dennis has a flask of magical mesmeric fluid, and they agree to exchange bodies for three months. In a very short time Dennis-in-Kit has established a reputation for himself as a serious journalist and political thinker, while Kitin-Dennis has held perpetual revelry with Dennis's money. There are personal complications. Kit's fiancee finds the new Kit not to her taste, while Kit-in-Dennis is still in love with her. Other complications emerge. By the time that the three-month exchange date arrives, both men recognize that their lives must continue and that return is impossible. They break the bottle of magnetic f1uid-- and are confirmed in new form, but with old identities. * There are other threads in this fairly long novel. Competent and entertaining, if not great. WITH JAMES RICE (1843-1882) English writer, editor. Educated at Cambridge. Proprietor, editor of ONCE A WEEK. Journalist, historian of turf. Unsuccessful as an author by himself, but an excellent collaborator. 156. THE CASE OF MR. LUCRAFT AND OTHER TALES Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington; London 1876 2 vol. (published anonymously but preface initialed) Short stories, including [a] THE CASE OF MR. LUCRAFT. Long, fully developed short story, transitional between Dickensian humor and that

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THE BEST GHOST STORIES of F. Anstey. Lucas Lucraft, a young man with ambitions to go on the stage, is penniless and out of work. His only "asset" is an enormous appetite. He is approached by a Mr. Grumbe1ow, who offers to buy his appetite from him for a suitable pension. Lucraft accepts, and then begins to pine away, suffering greatly from vicarious alcoholism as Grumbe10w feasts and drinks. Previous men who had contracted similarly with Grumbe10w had not lasted more than a few months each, and Lucraft is told that he will soon die, but is saved when Grumbe10w has his deserved stroke or heart attack. The Devil, in the form of a Black servant, is also involved. [b] THE MYSTERY OF JOE MORGAN. The protagonist is haunted by the ghost of a pirate, who drops hints of past crimes and future vengeance. But it is a mistake. [c] AN OLD, OLD STORY. Pleasant young lady ghosts appear to the narrator and ask him to destroy love letters they had hidden 150 years earlier. [d] LADY KITTY. A young woman ghost takes a fancy to the protagonist and helps him to get a good job. Ie] THE OLD FOUR-POSTER. Once a year the echo of death is heard. Bringing in a drowned man. [f] MY OWN EXPERIENCE. Medical school. The ghost of a skeleton clears the reputation of its former owner. [g] TITANIA'S FAREWELL. A long pastiche against modern education, told in fantastic terms. Oberon's court is leaving for Africa. * Fresh and amusing, still lively, except for [g] which is both topical and dull. * Later editions of this book are often attributed to the authors. BESSAND-MASSENET, PIERRE (1899 - ? French historian specializing in the French Revolution and the Terror. Editor of poetry. The present seems to be his only work of fiction. 157. AMOROUS GHOST Abelard-Schumann; New York 1957 French edition MARIE ROSE (1955). Translated by Hugh Shelley. * Gallic Thorne Smith. * panouche, young would-be litterateur, spends a few nights in the offices of M. Felix, his cousin, who is currently away. The office building used to be the old Pa1ais Royal, the habitation of many fine courtesans. It is suitably haunted. Rosette, one of the ghosts, takes a fancy to Panouche and becomes his mistress. Other ghosts also establish relations, sexual and conversational. Among Panouche's living friends is Annik, a young woman who is in love with him. To break the power of the ghosts (who are amiable and charming), she obtains an elixir of forgetfulness from an old occultist, spirits off the memory1ess Panouche and marries him. There are other story strands of less importance. * Disorganized and somewhat pointless. [ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 158. THE BEST GHOST STORIES Boni and Liveright; New York [1919] Introductory essay by Arthur B. Reeve, writer of Craig Kennedy detective stories: [a] THE FASCINATION OF THE GHOST STORY. * Including

THE BEST GHOST STORIES

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[b] THE APPARITION OF MRS. VEAL, Daniel Defoe. [c] CANON ALBERIC'S SCRAPBOOK, M.R. James. [d] THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS, E. Bulwer Lytton. [e] THE MAN WHO WANT TOO FAR, E.F. Benson. if] THE WOMAN'S GHOST STORY, Algernon Blackwood. [g] THE PHANTOM 'RICKSHAW, Rudyard Kipling. [h] THE RIVAL GHOSTS, Brander Matthews~ [i] THE DAMNED THING, Ambrose Bierce. [j] "DEY AIN'T NO GHOSTS," Ellis parker Butler. * There is also factual occult material. * Editorship is generally accredited to Joseph Lewis French. BESTER, ALFRED (1913 ) Outstanding American science-fiction writer, advertising executive, television executive. Unfortunately, Bester has not written much supernatural fiction, and most of this is borderline. 159 STARBURST New American Library, New York [1958] paperbound Mostly science-fiction, including [a] STAR LIGHT, STAR BRIGHT. (MFSF 1953). Mr. Warbeck, desperately trying to find a certain family, teams up with racketeers. The purpose of his quest is unusual. As an educator, he has stumbled upon a nest of incredible child geniuses whose achievements already dwarf those of the rest of the human race. The basic story is borderline science-fiction, but the ending is supernatural. [d] ODDY AND 10. (ASTOUNDING 1950) Fantasy fiction accepts accident prones as a supernaturally valid concept. Here the author describes a good fortune prone whose remarkable abilities and lack of control over them change the fate of the universe. [c] THE STARCOMBER. (MFSF 1954). Mr. Solon Aquila, possessor of strange abilities and strange devices, is an interstellar remittance man. On earth he is unwittingly responsible for the breakdown of an artist whose work he likes. He works a cure involving wish fulfillment. Aquila is possibly simply an alien, but, more likely, a fallen angel. Also titled 5,271,009. * The collection also contains the classic science-fiction stories "Adam and No Eve" and "Fondly Fahrenheit." * Original ideas and development, with one of the most brilliant surface textures in the modern genre. [ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 160. BEYOND BY RAY BRADBURY FRED ERIK PORL JEROME BIXBY ALGIS BUDRYS JAMES E. GUNN WINSTON MARKS WYMAN GUIN FREDRIC BROWN THEODORE STURGEON Berkley Pub. Corp.; New York 1963 paperbound BEYOND FANTASY FICTION, a digest size pulp magazine specializing in supernatural fiction, was published between 1953 and 1955 by Galaxy Publishing Corporation. The sister magazine to the superior GALAXY, it was modelled more or less after UNKNOWN and the MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION. * Short stories, including [a] THE GHOST MAKER, Frederik Pohle (1954) Ehrlich, an anthropologist, wants revenge because his theory that magic is more than just superstition has been ridiculed. He tracks

BIBIENA, JEAN GALLI DE down a mag~c~an via the subscription list of a magic periodical and acquires a device that evokes ghosts from the remains of once animate objects. It backfires. [b] CAN SUCH BEAUTY BE, Jerome Bixby. (1953). When wealthy American Peter Trumbull_seduces and abandons Mary, a rather silly young Cockney, she evokes the Devil and demands that Peter be forced to marry her. Trumbull, however, is dead, and the solution to the problem involves time travel. The whole situation has large implications for the fate of the universe. [c] THE REAL PEOPLE, Algys Budrys. (1953) Fairly long. The protagonist discovers that he has the power of creating reality around himself. But what started as a lark becomes perilous when he is sentenced to death for a murder he simply imagined. Modified solipsism. [d] THE BEAUTIFUL BREW, James E. Gunn. (1954) Trouble in a brewery. Out of the foam emerges a beautiful woman, who had been the Barley Bride when the grain was reaped. She must be carefully maintained. [e] I'D GIVE A DOLLAR, Winston Marks. (1954) A version of the diabolic bond. In this case it is done by cash payment for each wish. if] THE ROOT AND THE RING, Wyman Guin. (1954) The magical ring has passed through the hands of the world's greatest mathematical innovators and has been responsible for their contributions. It is given to the narrator by his wife. When it is lost in the soil around a newly planted apple tree, the fruit has peculiar properties. [g] DOUBLE WHAMMY~ Fredric Brown. Described elselvhere: [h] NATURALLY, [i] VOODOO, both short-shorts. [j] TALENT, Theodore Sturgeon. Described elsewhere. * Also included is "The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse" by Ray Bradbury, which is not fantastic. * A somewhat disappointing collection. * According to Cole this was edited by Thomas A. Dardis. BIBIENA, JEAN GALLI DE (c. 1710- c. 1780) Often listed as Galli de Bibiena, Jean •. Member of famous Italian family connected with the stage, mostly as designers. Resident in France. Wrote several rococo novels, plays, not translated. 161. THE·FAIRY DOLL (LA POUPEE) Chapman and Hall; London 1925 1000 copy edition Translated from French by H.B.V., identity unknown. Introduction by Shane Leslie. * Galanterie plus a little occultism. Reprint of translation of 1744. * A young abbe tells of his experiences. After being treated cruelly by a young lady in the woods, the abbe enters a doll shop. He sees a most beautiful doll, which he decides that he must have. He pays a high price for, takes it home, and then discovers that it is living. It is a sylphid-one of the air elementals described in the COMTE DE GABALIS. She has been hiding from her husband. The sylphid, whose name is Zamire, sees that the abbe has charms, despite certain asininities and decides to help him. She first tells him of a former protege, also an abbe, whom she helped, and reveals secrets of how to

BIBIENA, JEAN GALLI DE be successful with women: dress sanely, stop using heavy face make-up, and importune in certain ways. Typical of the instructions are those offered when a young man comes upon a sleeping woman: do not rape her as a matter of course, but first see if she is only pretending sleep, in which case go ahead. * Lightly erotic, deftly narrated, with some moments of humor, but the satire strikes values so alien as to be almost incomprehensible. * A modern reprint has been retitled AMOROUS PHILANDRE (Avon; New York 1948). BIERCE, AMBROSE [GWINNETT] (1842-1914?) American journalist, fiction writer, satirical humorist. Born in Indiana, but resident mostly in Northern California during productive period. Served in Civil War; twice wounded. After the war, removed to San Francisco, where was occupied with local journalism. After a brief residence in England, returned to San Francisco area and joined Hearst newspapers with syndicated column, PRATTLE. Renowned in his lifetime for violently combattive, abusive journalism, but a very fine satirist within limits of contemporary, local form. Author of THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY, excellent collection of mordantly ironic definitions attacking cant, hypocrisy on all 1eve1s-- though perhaps too broadly. Author of finest Civil War stories written by a combatant. Author of many highly personal, brief, sometimes cryptic supernatural short stories, ranging from extravagant local subgenre of black absurdity to psychological horror far ahead of its time. Had difficulty in publishing fiction until late in life, with the result that chronology is uncertain in much of his work. Has never been adequately studied as a literary phenomenon, although life has been fairly well analyzed. Received enormous publicity when set out for Mexico to join Pancho Villa as a war correspondent in 1913 and disappeared. Circumstances of death still not known. * The following descriptions do not cover all reprint editions of his works, which are multitudinous, but describe only original editions and important recent collections. 162. TALES OF SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS E.L.G. Steele; San Francisco 1891 Short stories, including [a] AN OCCURRENCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE. Civil War. Peyton Farquhar, Alabama planter, is about to be hanged on the bridge for attempted sabotage. The rope breaks and he swims to safety. He makes his way, in ever increasing pain and inner turmoil, to his home. But when he reaches it, he is recalled from his flight of fantasy to find himself hanged and dead. A powerful story, brilliantly told. [b] A TOUGH TUSSLE. Civil War. Lt. Byring is a brave and competent soldier, but subject to necrophobia. At his post at picket guard, he happens to be close by a dead Confederate soldier. He fantasizes that the corpse moves, and ~rows more 'and more disturbed. When his relief comes, Byring is found dead, slashed, as is the corpse. But the corpse had been dead

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BIERCE, AMBROSE for days. Bierce has left the interpretation open. Excellent. [c] THE MAN AND THE SNAKE. Borderline supernatural. Harker Brayton, after reading an ancient description of the fascinating power of a snake, sees a snake under his bed. He fights its fascination as well as he can. His corpse is later found. But the snake was stuffed. [d] A WATCHER BY THE DEAD. Madness and horror against false supernaturalism. Drs. He1berson and Harper bet their friend Mancher that he cannot remain alone all night in the dark with a corpse. The corpse, however, is a fake, a friend who happens to look much like Mancher. He is to rise up at the proper time. What happened is not made clear, but either Mancher or the friend died of horror, and years later, He1berson and Harper have deteriorated into professional gamblers. They meet a madman who may be either Mancher or the friend. One of the better te11ings of the fraudulent confrontation followed by madness. [e] THE SUITABLE SURROUNDINGS. Not properly supernatural, but about supernaturalism. Colston, a writer, insists that if one of his horror stories is read in the proper surroundings, it will overwhelm the reader with terror. Marsh is doubtful and agrees to read Colston's "Ghost Story" in a deserted house by candlelight. Marsh does not know that Colston plans to commit suicide and has written about it in his manuscript. When Marsh reads the passage and looks up to see a face at the window (a wandering boy's) he dies of fright. The irony is that Colston is unsuccessful in his suicide attempt. [f] AN INHABITANT OF CARCOSA. The narrator finds himself on a bleak, desolate plain, on which are a few weathered stones. He seeks the great city of Carcosa, but is forced to recognize that Carcosa has long been in ruins, and that he has risen from the dead. He finds his own gravestone. Probably one of the most influential stories in the history of supernatural fiction, this has set off a whole graveyard school of supernatural horror. [g] THE BOARDED WINDOW. Perhaps not intended to be supernatural. The wife of Mur10ck, a pioneer, dies of illness, and he prepares her body for burial, tying the limbs in the traditional manner. After it becomes dark, he hears a turmoil and shoots. By the flash of his gun he sees a panther dragging away his wife's corpse. He later finds that the corpse has broken its death bonds and bitten the panther's ear. Implications of catalepsy, revival of the dead, or chance? Not explained. [h] THE MIDDLE TOE OF THE RIGHT FOOT. Local men force a quarrel on Grossmith, a "stranger"~ so that a duel is called for. Actually, they have recognized him as a local man who murdered his wife years earlier. One of the men had been in love with the wife before her marriage. Grossmith and the others go to an empty house, and after noise and uproar in the dark • • • The next morning Grossmith's corpse is found and by it is the footprint of the murdered wife, recognizable by a missing toe. The house had been the place of the murder. [i] HAlTA THE

BIERCE, AMBROSE SHEPHERD. Allegorical. Haita encounters a beautiful maiden, but is unable to prolong his acquaintance with her. She is Happiness, as the old hermit explains. * This same collection of stories was reprinted by Ghatto and Windus (London, 1892) under the title IN THE MIDST OF LIFE. The Putnam (New York! 1908) edition of IN THE MIDST OF LIFE contains the supernatural stories listed above (though it differs in other respects) and adds two stories. [j] THE DAMNED THING. An inquest on the death of Hugh Morgan, whose corpse has been chewed and lacerated as if by some monstrous animal. The journalist who was present when Morgan died tells of Morgan's belief that an invisible monster existed outside his cabin. He describes the circumstances of Morgan's death, struggling with the monster. The jury does not believe him and ascribes the death to a puma. Morgan's diary vindicates the journalist, however. [k] THE EYES OF THE PANTHER. An intricate story told by indirection. The import of the story is that Irene Marlowe is a were-puma, and that her condition was caused by prenatal marking of her pregnant mother, who was attacked by a puma. * Best stories are [a], [b], [d], if], [i], U], and [k]. 163. CAN SUCH THINGS BE? Cassell; New York 1893 Short stories, including [a] THE DEATH OF HALPIN FRAYSER. One of Bierce's most thought-provoking stories. Segments of fate, horror dreams, revenants all combine to work the death of Halpin Frayser, presumably at the hands of his dead mother. [b] AN ADVENTURE AT BROWNVILLE. Written in collaboration with Ina Lillian Peterson. It is assumed that Bierce only revised Peterson's story, since much of the writing is looser and more sentimental than is usual with Bierce. The narrator witnesses the psychic murder of a young woman. Some sort of mesmeric power. [c] THE FAMOUS GILSON BEQUEST. Gilson, Western petty thief, golddust robber, horse rustler, was hanged for his many crimes. His will left his estate to his executor, if within five years no one could prove that Gilson had stolen dust. The estate proved to be enormous. Five years later, his executor, a broken man (what with all the litigation), sees Gilson's ghost in the cemetery, stealing dust from the neighboring graves. [d] THE SECRET OF MACARGER'S GULCH. Macabre irony. The narrator witnesses a ghostly recreation of a murder among pioneers. Nicely set in a frame. [e] A PSYCHOLOGICAL SHIPWRECK. Supernatural empathy between the narrator and a young woman on another ship reveals the foundering of the other ship and the death of the young woman. if] THE NIGHT-DOINGS AT "DEADMAN'S." A STORY THAT IS UNTRUE. Macabre irony. The psychopathology of love, abuse of Chinese immigrants, a ghost, and death personified. [g] JOHN BARTINE'S WATCH. Bartine's ancestor, during the Revolutionary War, was a Tory. He was taken away by a band of patriots, and nothing more was heard of him. Some days later his watch was returned. In the present the watch commemorates the time

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BIERCE, AMBROSE of the ancestor's death and also influences the present owner's circumstances of death. [h] THE REALM OF THE UNREAL. The narrator scoffed at the doings of Indian magicians. Dr. Dorrimore, from Calcutta, shows him the error of his beliefs and sets him into a series of delusions. The hypnotic effects can last for years and the question of what is reality arises. [i] A BABY TRAMP. It is supernaturally guided to the grave of its parents. [j] SOME HAUNTED HOUSES. Three short pieces as follows; [k] "THE ISLE OF PINES." Old Mr. Deluse, who is rumored to have been a pirate, dies. Not only is his ghost heard walking about, but there are shrieks of women, cannon bursts, and clashing of swords in his house. [1] A FRUITLESS ASSIGNMENT. Henry Saylor, newspaperman, is sent to investigate a haunted house. He undergoes the most spectacular demonstrations, but nothing disturbs his sang froid. He reports to his chief that his evening was uneventful. [m] THE THING AT NOLAN. Young Nolan killed his father and would have been hanged, except that his father had been seen some distance away at the time he was supposed to have been murdered. But the corpse was found at the place of the murder. * in] THE BODIES OF THE DEAD. Six short pieces. [0] THAT OF GRANNY MAGONE. As she is lying dead, the cat attacks her and her corpse responds. [p] A LIGHT SLEEPER. The corpse of Mrs. Hoskin shifts position, in the way that a sleeper does during the night. [q] THE MYSTERY OF CHARLES FARQUHARSON. A corpse turns up in a hotel room, but it is that of a man who has just died in India. Later, when the grave is checked, it is empty. [r] DEAD AND "GONE." A corpse disappears from a locked room, and its clothing holds the form of the body. is] A COLD NIGHT. Civil War. A blanket conceals a corpse during a bitterly cold night. The next morning the corpse is seen to have assumed a fetal position during the night, as if it had been cold. it] A CREATURE OF HABIT. A hanged man, though his neck is broken, runs about quite excitedly. of( [u] "MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES." Three short pieces, as follows: [v] THE DIFFICULTY OF CROSSING A FIELD. In Alabama Mr. Williamson sets out across the field and just disappears. [w] AN UNFINISHED RACE. James Worson undertakes to run a long distance on a wager. But he suddenly disappears from the middle of the road. [x] CHARLES ASHMORE'S TRAIL. The boy's footprints in the snow suddenly stopped. He is never seen again, although his mother claims to have heard his voice nearby. * In all three stories-- which are set up to be inexplicable-- the disappearance seems to be a figurative statement of death, with its" attendant mystery. of( Best stories are [a], [d], if], [k], [1], [r], [v], and [x]. 164. THE COLLECTED WORKS OF AMBROSE BIERCE, VOLUME III, CAN SUCH THINGS BE Walter Neale; Washington 1909 While Volume I of this set has no supernatural material and Volume II, IN THE MIDST OF LIFE, contains the same stories as the Putnam 1908 edition, Volume III has much new material. *

BIERCE, AMBROSE Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE DEATH OF HALPIN FRAYSER, [b] AN ADVENTURE AT BROWNVILLE. [c] THE FAMOUS GILSON BEQUEST. [d] THE SECRET OF MACARGER'S GULCH. [e] A PSYCHOLOGICAL SHIPWRECK. [f] THE NIGHT-DOINGS AT ''DEADMAN'S.'' [g] JOHN BARTlNE'S WATCH. [h] THE REALM OF THE UNREAL. [ i] A BABY TRAMP. [j] SOME HAUNTED HOUSES, as follows: [k] "THE ISLE OF PINES." [I] A FRUITLESS ASSIGNMENT. [m] THE THING AT NOLAN. Also present as new members of SOME HAUNTED HOUSES are four short pieces: In] A VINE ON A HOUSE. The strange vine shivers and shakes. When investigators dig around its roots, they discover that the roots have formed the likeness of a human body, that of a woman who was supposed to have left to visit relatives and was really murdered. [0] AT OLD MAN ECKERT'S. He simply disappears. Another man disappears later. [p] THE SPOOK HOUSE. Two politicians stop at.a deserted house for shelter during a storm. They find an inner room filled with green light, strewn with corpses. Veigh enters the room; the heavy door is slammed shut; and Veigh is never seen again. [q] THE OTHER LODGERS. When Col. Levering stops at the old hotel in Atlanta, he sees corpses in his room. When he complains to the night clerk, the clerk, too, shows evidences of not being alive. The room had been used as a hospital during the Civil War. * Ir] MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES. Three old components, with a new one: Is] THE DIFFICULTY OF CROSSING A FIELD. It] AN UNFINISHED RACE. [u] CHARLES ASHMORE'S TRAIL. And Iv] SCIENCE TO THE FRONT. Bierce offers an explanation of the disappearances in terms of holes in space. * [w] A DIAGNOSIS OF DEATH. Dr. Mannering has. the ability to make long-term prognoses and to determine the exact future date of his patient's death. Hawver says that he met Mannering, who made a peculiar gesture. Is it a death signal? Mannering has been dead for years. Hawver does not live long. [x] MOXON'S MASTER. Borderline science-fiction. Moxon has created a chessplaying automaton that is passionate, aggressive, and vindictive. When Moxon beats it at chess, the automaton assaults him and kills him. Or, that is the story told by the narrator. As years have passed, he has come to doubt what he thought he saw. [y] A JUG OF SIRUP. Silas Deemer, the storekeeper, has died, but his busy ghost keeps the store open at night and sells to certain customers. [z] STALEY FLEMING'S HALLUCINATION. He is haunted by the ghost of a black Newfoundland dog with a white mark. The dog belonged to Atwell Barton, who had been found mysteriously stabbed three years earlier. [aa] BEYOND THE WALL. Morbid love. Dampier, who falls in love with a pleasant young woman but is too shy to make her acquaintance, discovers that she lives in the next house, on the other side of his bedroom wall. They communicate by tapping, but in a fit of pique (after she has been silent for a time) on an occasion he refuses to answer her signals. He later learns that she died that night. Her ghost now summons him by tapping. [bb] THE STRANGER. Western setting. An explo-

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BIERCE, AMBROSE ration party is visited by a man from the darkness, who tells of four prospectors who had been murdered by Indians. Three of the four stand in the distance, the fourth tells the story. * [cc]·THE WAYS OF GHOSTS. Four very short stories, as follows: [dd] PRESENT AT A HANGING. The Rev. Cummings sees the ghost of a peddler, who points suggestively down the valley. At that moment the murderer was hanging himself. [eel A COLD GREETING. A vow to communicate after death is kept. [ff] A WIRELESS MESSAGE. The protagonist sees his wife in the sky, surrounded by a red glow. She has just died in a fire~ [gg] AN ARREST. Brower, escaped murderer, is turned back in his flight by the figure of his jailer-- whom he had killed while escaping. * [hhj SOLDIER FOLK. Four very short stories set during the Civil War, as follows: [ii] A MAN WITH TWO LIVES. Duck returns to his old haunts, but he had been killed and buried during the War. How can it be explained? [jj] THREE AND ONE ARE ONE. The soldier returns home, but his parents and sister snub him completely. He leaves, thinking that it is rancor because he fought on the wrong side during the war. He later learns that they ·nad been killed and the house destroyed. [kk] A BAFFLED AMBUSCADE. A soldier warns his friends of trouble ahead. But he has been dead for some time. [11] TWO MILITARY EXECUTIONS. The enlisted man is shot for striking an officer, though the officer had been his good friend in civilian life. But his ghost answers the roll call and a bullet, presumably guided by the ghost, kills the officer. Justice. * [mm] THE MOONLIT ROAD. Beautifully told in three narratives that overlap and zero in on the story. Murder, a ghost, and a series of horrible supernatural misunderstandings. * Best new stories are [n], [p], [x], [aa], [bbj, [U], and [mm]. 165. THE COLLECTED WRITINGS OF AMBROSE BIERCE Citadel; New York 1946 Edited, with introduction, by Clifton Fadiman. Despite the title, this is only a selection of Bierce's work. Including, all described elsewhere, [a] AN OCCURRENCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE. [b) AN ADVENTURE AT BROWNVILLE. [c] THE FAMOUS GILSON BEQUEST. [d) A WATCHER BY THE DEAD. Ie] THE MAN AND THE SNAKE. If] THE SUITABLE SURROUNDINGS. [g] THE BOARDED WINDOW. [h] THE EYES OF THE PANTHER. [i] THE DEATH OF HALPIN FRAYSER. [j] THE SECRET OF MACARGER'S GULCH. [k] A DIAGNOSIS OF DEATH. [1] MOXON'S MASTER. [m] A TOUCH TUSSLE. [n] A JUG OF SIRUP. [0] STALEY FLEMING'S HALLUCINATION. [p] A BABY TRAMP. [q] THE NIGHT-DOINGS AT "DEADMAN'S." [r] BEYOND THE WALL. Is] A PSYCHOLOGICAL SHIPWRECK. It] THE MIDDLE TOE OF THE RIGHT FOOT. [u] THE REALM OF THE UNREAL. [v] JOHN BARTlNE'S WATCH. [w] THE DAMNED THING. [x] HAlTA THE SHEPHERD. [y] AN INHABITANT OF CARCOSA. [z] THE STRANGER. raa] THE MOONLIT ROAD. 166. GHOST AND HORROR STORIES OF AMBROSE BIERCE Dover Publications; New York 1964 Edited, with introduction, by E.F. Bleiler. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE DEATH OF HALPIN FRAYSER. [b] MOXON'S MASTER. [c]

BIERCE, AMBROSE BEYOND THE WALL. [d] THE DAMNED THING. Ie] A WATCHER BY THE DEAD. If] AN OCCURRENCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE. * [g] THE WAYS OF GHOSTS. Four stories as follows: [h] PRESENT AT A HANGING. Ii] A COLD GREETING. [j] A WIRELESS MESSage. [k] AN ARREST. * [1] SOME HAUNTED HOUSES. Seven stories, as follows: [m] "THE ISLE OF PINES." In] A FRUITLESS ASSIGNMENT. [0] A VINE ON A HOUSE. [p] AT OLD MAN ECKERT'S. [q] THE SPOOK HOUSE. [r] THE OTHER LODGERS. Is] THE THING AT NOLAN. * [t] "MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES." Four items as follows: [u] THE DIFFICULTY OF CROSSING A FIELD. [v] AN UNFINISHED RACE. [w] CHARLES ASHMORE'S TRAIL. [x] SCIENCE TO THE FRONT. * [y] THE MAN AND THE SNAKE. [z] THE SUITABLE SURROUNDINGS. faa] THE EYES OF THE PANTHER. [bb] THE FAMOUS GILSON BEQUEST. Icc] AN ADVENTURE AT BROWNVILLE. [dd] AN INHABITANT OF CARCOSA. [eel THE SECRET OF MACARGER'S GULCH. Iff] THE MOONLIT ROAD. [gg] A JUG OF SIRUP. [hh] THE NIGHT-DOINGS AT "DEADMAN'S." [ ii] THE MIDDLE TOE OF THE RIGHT FOOT. [j j] JOHN BARTINE' SWATCH. [Kk] THE STRANGER. * Also [11] VISIONS OF THE NIGHT. An essay in which Bierce describes some of his dreams. The similiarity to his stories is striking and undoubtedly significant. BILL, ALFRED H[OYT] (1879-1964) American popular historian, historical novelist. 167. THE WOLF IN THE GARDEN Longmans, Green; New York and Toronto 1931 Costume romance with melodramatisms and supernaturalisms. * The Hudson Valley, not long after the French Revolution. Into the town of New Dordrecht comes the ci-devant Comte de Saint Loup, who wishes to settle in the area. He is not a pleasant person, and he soon makes an enemy of Farrier, the hero. When Felicity, Farrier's cousin, moves to New Dordrecht, there are complications, for both Farrier and Saint Loup wish to marry her. Since Saint Loup is a rich man, able to help Felicity's mercenary uncle, Saint Loup has the advantage. Meanwhile, the town is terrorized by a giant wolf who, strangely enough, attacks the count's enemies. The local minister, whose hobby is the study of historical magic, suspects the count of being a werewolf, as does Vashti, Felicity's Haitian maid, who prepares folk charms. Farrier and his associates decide to ambush the count while he is in wolf form, but he proves harder to kill than they thought. * Cliched lowbrow material about a generation behind the times. BIRKMAIER, ELIZABETH G. (? ? ) American author with occult leanings. Nothing known, but presumably resident in California. 168. POSEIDON'S PARADISE THE ROMANCE OF ATLANTIS Clemens Pub. Co.; San Francisco 1892 A long romance based on Ignatius Donnelly's ATLANTIS, THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD. Atlantis is advanced scientifically and has such weapons as projectors of sleep gas, but it is decadent and steeped in magic. King Atlano mounts an attack on Greece. His war is unsuc-

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BISHOP, ZEALIA BROWN cessful, but he captures the children of Deucalion, King of Greece. Atlano and his priests plan to use the children in experiments to find an elixir of life. Deucalion penetrates the Atlantean priesthood in disguise, and using hypnotic powers rescues his children and other prisoners. He escapes along with Atlana, the good queen of Atlantis, and Atlantis, as a result of divine displeasure, sinks beneath the waves. * Highly stylized Characters, pseudoBiblical language. A curiosity only. BIRNSTINGL, EDGAR MAGNUS Precocious British schoolboy. 169. DESTVR MOBED AND OTHER STORIES (Privately printed) Oxford 1915 A memorial volume; the author died at age 16. Short fiction, including [a] DESTUR MOBED. A talisman which acts much like W.W. Jacobs's monkey's paw. [b] DIARY OF A FIRE WORSHIPER. A fire spirit from an opal. A couple of other stories are concerned with the same talisman as [a]. BISHOP, W[ILLIAM] H[ENRY] (1847-1928) American novelist, frequent contributor to periodicals, poet, educator at Yale University. 170. CHOY SUSAN AND OTHER STORIES Houghton Mifflin; Boston and New York [1885] Fairly long short stories, including [a] ONE OF THE THIRTY PIECES. McNab and Barwood converse on the longevity of coins, and Barwood determines to track down the thirty pieces of silver paid to Judas. He spends much time researching the trail of the silver-- which is fatal to those who hold it-- and discovers, by chance, that one of the coins is in the possession of the father of the woman he loves. But the woman does not love him, and he commits suicide. It is decided that he was insane. * Mostly romance, with supernaturalism not strongly developed. BISHOP, ZEALIA BROWN (REED) (? ? ) Middle Western (Missouri) writer, client of Lovecraft's freelance editing business. Also wrote true confessions material. 171. THE CURSE OF YIG Arkham House; Sauk City, Wise. 1953 Three stories revised and rewritten in varying degree by H. P. Lovecraft. All three were first published in book form in BEYOND THE WALL OF SLEEP and MARGINALIA by H. P. Lovecraft, but are described here for context. The stories differ from most Lovecraft collaborations in being concerned more with elements of Southwestern or Southern folklore than with beings from Outside or necrophobia. * [a] THE CURSE OF YIG. (WT 1929) Walker Davis, young Mountain White, has a morbid fear of snakes. He and his wife are on their way to the West. When they reach the desert country, Davis is terrified by stories that he hears of Yig, the local Indian snake god. His pregnant wife comes to share his feelings. When she sees Yig invading their sleeping quarters, she attacks it, but kills Walker (whom the god had presumably possessed). Her baby

BISHOP, ZEALIA BROWN (the one that survived) is an ophidian monstrosity that is kept in a zoo. Prenatal marking? [b] THE MOUND. (abridged, WT, 1940) The most ambitious and most imaginative of the various collaborations with Lovecraft. It describes a haunted mound in the Southwest. Two ghosts are to be seen at various times on the mound, an Indian-like figure (though of no identifiable modern group) and a headless woman surrounded by blue flames. When intrepid investigators visit the mound, the figures are not seen, but the investigators usually come to a bad end. The narrator, an archeologist, decides to dig the mound, despite local warnings. He comes upon a buried staircase on the mound, and discovers a long manuscript written in archaic Spanish. Most of the story is devoted to the narrative of Panfilo de Zamacona, one of Coronadois men, who entered the mound and the underworld beyond it and witnessed marvelous events. The underworld is inhabited by a very ancient, highly civilized people who permit Zamacona to live, because he can tell them about the outside world. His persistent attempts to escape cause his doom: death and reanimation as a guardian of the mound. [cl MEDUSA'S COIL. (WT 1939) When young de Russy brings home to Louisiana a beautiful young Parisian wife, trouble begins. It is gradually learned that she had been connected, in a lewd way, with a French diabolic cult. She also has a remarkable head of hair, which seems almost as if alive. After she is murdered by her husband for unfaithfulness, the hair attains separate life. A racist ending. * There are also two essays, H. P. LOVECRAFT, A PUPIL'S VIEW and A WISCONSIN BALZAC. A PROFILE OF AUGUST DERLETH. * [a] and [bl are said to be almost wholly Lovecraft's work, being based on ideas by Mrs. Reed. [b] is worth reading. BISS, GERALD (fl. 1907-1920) British writer of mystery fiction. 172. THE DOOR OF THE UNREAL Eveleigh Nash; London [19l9l Mystery novel with supernatural elements, told largely in terms of documents and narratives. On the Brighton Road in Sussex mysterious disappearances connected with automobile accidents have taken place. Lincoln Osgood, an American resident in England, decides that the crimes are connected with Professor Wolff, a nasty German botanist and entomologist. The professor, who lives with Anna, a servant, and a beautiful and charming young daughter (later revealed to be a stepdaughter), is obviously a werewolf. Osgood and a criminal lawyer who acts as a detective (Fitzroy Manders). set a trap for the professor. They kill him and Anna, both in wolf form. The daughter has also been transformed, but since it is her first shapechanging, and that involuntary, it proves easy to dispel the elemental that caused the lycanthropy. * Routine mystery, ending sloughed off rather hastily, without much thought. * The American edition is the same as the British, except that it has a new foreword by the author welcoming American readers.

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BlACKWOOD, ALGERNON BLACK, LAD BROKE (1877-1940) British journalist, newspaper editor, political figure, fairly important writer of boys' fiction. Also used pseudonyms Lionel Day and Paul Urquhart. 173. THE GORGON'S HEAD Sampson Low, Marston; London [1932l Fantasy. Professor Crane finds the legendary Gorgon's head and is turned into stone. Some friends of the professor's daughter come into possession of the head. By a succession of accidents they freeze several persons into stone, whom they dispose of as sculpture. Eventually the stone people come back to life and the young men have a difficult time explaining. Routine. BLACK, WILLIAM (1841-1898) Scottish novelist, well-known in his day for THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF A PHAETON (1872) and A PRINCESS OF THULE (1874). 174. THE MAGIC INK AND OTHER STORIES Sampson Low, Marston; London 1892 Short stories, including tal THE MAGIC INK. Arthur Hughes happens to jostle a sinister Asiatic, who thereupon gives him a bottle of ink. The ink has the property of writing down thoughts instead of· words. Arthur, who serves as a bank messenger, has also managed to lose L7,000 he was carrying for his employers. The ink, meant maliciously, serves to save him. [b] A HALLOWEEN WRAITH. Scotland, with some dialect. A swarth indicates the illness of the girl Hector MacIntyre loves. * Rather feeble. BLACKWOOD, ALGERNON [HENRY} (1869-1951) O.B.E. English author, the leading British writer of supernatural fiction during the Edwardian and Georgian periods. Father, Sir Stevenson Arthur Blackwood, financial secretary to the Post Office; mother, dowager Duchess of Manchester. Educated by Moravian Brethren, Black Forest, and at Edinburgh University. Apparently a dreamy, yet highly self-motivated young man in youth. Enthusiastic mountain climber, traveller, camper; strongly saturated with personal nature mysticism. Rebelled against fanatical religiosity of family (Plymouth Brethren) and became convert .to Buddhism of an occult sort. Remittance man in Canada and the United States, painful experiences, including newspaper work, described in somewhat impersonal autobiography EPISODES BEFORE THIRTY (1923). Prolific author of supernatural fiction, writing in almost all aspects of genre, whimsical to serious, horror to personal mystical. Historically important in enlarging the scope of the genre to include adult consideration of odd psychological states, occultism, and true mysticism. No one else has come closer to expressing the ineffable, perhaps because (alone of major 20th century authors of supernatural fiction) he believed in and had sometimes experienced ,.,hat he wrote about. At his best an excelent writer, although there is a tendency to diffuseness in some of his work. In the post-

BLACKWOOD, ALGERNON war years he became a very successful radio and televisio~ personality. * Blackwood has never received adequate critical study, and it is unlikely that he ever will. He had strong feelings of privacy and recorded few of his subjective experiences. * The following listing does not include all his children's fantasies, plays, or the many reprint editions that sort his stories into various comainations. 175. THE EMPTY HOUSE AND OTHER GHOST STORIES Eveleigh Nash; London 1906 Short stories, including [a] THE EMPTY HOUSE. Plentiful supernatural effects as the narrator spends an evening in a house haunted by the ghost of a murderer. This is Blackwood's first viable story. While a couple of earlier stories appeared in periodicals, Blackwood did not consider them worthy of being reprinted-a decision with which I would agree. [b] A HAUNTED ISLAND. Canadian woods. At evening the narrator sees tW0 Indians paddle around the island on which he is stopping, and then land. Terrified, he seizes his gun, but is unable to move. The Indians, surrounded by a glow, enter his bedroom, then emerge dragging a scalped body behind them. The face of the corpse is the narrator's. Told as suspense. No explanation offered. [c] A CASE OF EAVESDROPPING. A rooming house is haunted by the memories of a murder. Ghosts quarrel in German, commit murder, and blood flows. [d] KEEPING HIS PROMISE. Scotland. A student is unexpectedly visited by a friend whom he has not seen for years. A ghost. While the ghost is not always visible, the sound of its breathing is audible. One of the best treatments of this common motif. [e] WITH INTENT TO STEAL. The ghost of a dead magician haunts an old barn, enticing those who enter to hang themselves. [f] THE WOOD OF THE DEAD. A traveller in the West Country finds, seated before an old inn, a very pleasant old man who invites him to visit the Wood of the Dead. The traveller learns that the man is a ghost, but keeps the rendezvous and sees a death-calling. [g] SMITH: AN EPISODE IN A LODGING HOUSE. Scotland. Reminiscences of a doctor. As a student he lived in the same house as Smith, who practiced ceremonial magic. Smith's conjurations were too successful, and the doctor encountered elementals and demons. [h] A SUSPICIOUS GIFT. A dream story, supernatural in implication, of a clever murder "frame." The story is of interest because it is thinly disguised autobiography in places, from Blackwood's New York period. * Best stories are [b], [d], [e]. 176. THE LISTENER AND OTHER STORIES Eveleigh Nash; London 1907 Short stories, including [a] THE LISTENER. The nervous author with a history of insanity in his family is exposed to a range of horrible phenomena, perhaps subjective-- things are seen, invisible presences are in his room, and the Listener is on the other side of the door. The ghost of a leper. [b] THE WILLOWS. The Swede and the narrator are temporarily trapped by a flood on a small island in the Danube.

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BLACKWOOD, ALGERNON The island is in some way a gate to another frame of existence, with hostile beings that are looking for the men, to destroy them. Strange sounds, gong-like or humming, funnels strangely cut into the sand, odd things seen blurrily in the air, and impending doom, until another sacrifice happens to be chosen. [c] THE INSANITY OF JONES. 400 years ago Jones was the victim; the manager was the torturer and murderer; and Thorpe was the friend whom Jones was shielding. In this life Jones takes violent revenge. Madness? The inexplicable nature of psychological processes? [d] THE DANCE OF DEATH. Who is the pretty girl whom no one seems able to see, under the balcony? Death. [e] THE OLD MAN OF VISIONS. Almost a prose poem. If one tries to explain, examine, or pass dreams on to others, the dreams are destroyed. [f] MAY DAY EVE. The scientist encounters elementals, projections of himself as a bestial thing and a beautiful woman. [g] MISS SLUMBUBBLE-- AND CLAUSTROPHOBIA. A character study of an old maid, and a train compartment that is haunted by a mood. A suicide had taken place in it, and others are impelled to leap out the window. [h] THE WOMAN'S GHOST STORY. A ghost and a strong-minded woman. Love. * Also present is the excellent crime story "Max Hensig." of< An uneven collection. [b] is one of the classics of supernatural fiction; in the opinion of some it is the finest single short story. But some of the other stories are trivial. 177. JOHN SILENCE PHYSICIAN EXTRAORDINARY Eveleigh Nash; London 1908 The exploits of an occult detective. Silence is a neurologist who is also profoundly learned in occult and magical matters. * [a] A PSYCHICAL INVASION. Silence is consulted by a humorist who can now write only horrible material. The humorist lowered his psychic barrie~s with hashish, and now suffers a psychic invasion from a horrible woman ghost. Silence undertakes psychic battle with the evil personality and defeats it. It was an early 19th century magician of great malignity who was finally executed at Newgate. Excellent descriptions of drug hallucinations. [b] ANCIENT SORCERIES. Vezin tells Silence of an experience he had in France. In a small cathedral town he observes that the natives seem to have a secret inner life. It is a witch cult, whereby they turn into cats and flying monsters to attend the sabbath. Vezin is almost absorbed. Silence interprets it as partly psychic memory, partly reincarnation. [c] THE NEMESIS OF FIRE. The house of Colonel Wragge is bothered by a sensation of psychic heat and by fires. Silence discovers that a fire elemental is responsible, and that it is associated with an Ancient Egyptian mummy that the colonel's brother had brought to England. [d] SECRET WORSHIP. Germany. The British traveller revisits the lonely religious school that he attended as a boy in the Black Forest, and finds it unchanged-- too unchanged. Black magic and a convincing appearance of the Devil. Silence saves the traveller. [e] THE CAMP OF THE DOG.

BLACKWOOD, ALGERNON Sweden. A camping party, one member of which is a werewolf. * Long, fully developed stories. Probably the best single volume of 20th century cases of an occult detective. While Silence is somewhat colorless, the events that he meets are well imagined. See also l89k. 178. JIMBO A FANTASY Macmillan; London 1909 Ultimately, this seems to be a parabolic warning against telling horror stories to children to frighten them into obedience. * Jimbo (James Stone), a small boy, is terrified of a certain empty house near where he lives. When he is tossed by a bull and unconscious with concussion, he finds himself in the house (of death?) where he, and other children, are held captive by Fright. He discovers, however, that his former governess, Miss Lake, is also present in the house, captive there until she can rescue him. Jimbo grows wings and is prepared to flyaway from the terrible house, which is beset by monstrosities, but on his escape flight he is both being drawn away from earth by the moon (death) and pursued by Fright. He is saved by Miss Lake, who sacrifices herself to save him and is caught by the monster of her own creation. * When Jimbo is in the soulworld, at times he transcends his child-personality, to assume his ideal nature. There is also something about the spiritual essence of trees, nature mysticism, and pantheism. * Jimbo is one of the best of Blackwood's studies of the peculiar horrors and ecstasies of childhood. 179. THE HUMAN CHORD Macmillan; London 1910 A mystical novel based on Pythagorean and cabalistic theories of sound, and the power of the Name. * Spinrobin, who is abnormally sensitive to vibration, joins Skale, a retired clergyman, in a series of experiments to control the universe by means of sound. Skale can already work miracles on animate and inanimate nature by means of vocal sound, and even has some of the great creative sounds imprisoned. For his ultimate purpose, god-like power, Skale needs a certain chord, but Spinrobin balks at the attempt to imprison God himself. While Skale is trying to achieve "the Name that Rusheth through the Universe," he makes a mistake in sound and dies. But Spinrobin and his friend Miriam are awakened to life by the new creativity that has been released. * Highly original, unusual, brilliantly executed. 180. THE LOST VALLEY AND OTHER STORIES Eveleigh Nash; London 1910 Long short stories, including [a] THE LOST VALLEY. A pair of twins, very close to another. Both fall in love with the same woman, and one commits suicide. Against this background is the legend of the Lost Valley where those who have committed suicide or died a violent death find peace denied them by their religion. Stephen comes upon the Lost Valley in the Juras and meets Mark, not knowing that he is dead. [b] THE WENDIGO. Canada. A camping tour, the wendigo (the Call of the Wild in embodied form), and the fate of Defago, one of the guides. According to legend the wendigo takes its victims up high, burns their feet, and ultimately de-

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BLACKWOOD, ALGERNON stroys them. Was the strange being that came into the camp Defago or the wendigo? [c] OLD CLOTHES. Aileen has memories and impressions of a life centuries earlier, when she was immured and her lover tortured and mutilated. Proof is found. Reincarnation. [d] PERSPECTIVE. Alps. The minister sees a panentheistic manifestation and recognizes its message. He must heal a romance that was about to break. [e] THE TERROR OF THE TWINS. Twins whose father died insane. He swore to return and fuse them into one person. [f] THE MAN FROM THE "GODS." LeMaistre, moderately successful composer, falls asleep in the theatre and awakens when it is empty. But there is another person present, a man in the gods. He sets up a supernatural performance, showing LeMaistre what his music should have been. At the end LeMaistre sees that the man is a heightened potence of himself. When he awakens, for it was a dream, he knows what to do. [g] THE MAN WHO PLAYED UPON THE LEAF. France. Borderline fantasy, abnormal psychology. A worshipper of Pan with an affinity to nature. [h] CARLTON'S DRIVE. He tells the driver of the cab to take him to the usual place and discovers that he is on his way to hell. A psychic experience after a stroke, with the usual moral message in such a motif. [i] THE ECCENTRICITY OF SIMON PARNACUTE. Parnacute, a professor of political economy, pities caged birds and releases them. As a reward he is released painlessly from his own corporeal cage by a World Policeman. Before his death, while ill in hospital, he flies about the world like a bird. * Several of the stories embody Blackwood's nature mysticism, which is difficult to summarize. * [b] is excellent. 181. THE CENTAUR Macmillan; London 1911 Panentheism, based on the ideas of Fechner and William James. The earth-soul, the universal consciousness, and mystical experience. * Two men are offered a mystical experience, which amounts to surrender of the ego but life (after death) on a different level of spiritual advancement in the original valley of creation in the Caucasus. Terence O'Malley submits with sensitivity, while Dr. Stahl, who knows more, is held back by his intellectualizing. * The first portion of the novel takes place (as told in flashback) on a cruise vessel proceeding from Marseilles to the Caucasus. On the ship O'Malley becomes acquainted with a strange Russian, who is obviously not entirely human. The Russian, as Stahl explains, is possessed by a pre-modern mystical consciousness and is an Urmensch-- a fragment of the Soul of the World. O'Malley is invited to share the experience, but holds back. The later parts of the novel take place in the Caucasus, where O'Malley meets the Russian again. There is a rushing of wind, one day, and the Russian comes as a centaur. O'Malley's spirit joins him, and together they gallop in ecstasy to the lost valley. But O'Malley must return to life. He then learns that his experience had lasted only a moment or two, and that the Russian had died at that time. Returning to London, O'Malley

BLACKWOOD, ALGERNON tells his story, then dies. He joins the giant e1ementa1s, the survivals of an earlier and happier state of consciousness on earth. He has heard the Pipes of Pan. * One of the most effective of mystical novels, deeply felt, very nicely imagined. The centaur, as a classical symbol, is the union of chthonic and uranic forces. On the personal level the novel is built on a theme common in Blackwood's works, dissatisfaction with the material world and desire for escape, with certain sexual elements. 182. PAN'S GARDEN A VOLUME OF NATURE STORIES Macmillan; London 1912 Nouvelles and short stories, including [a] THE MAN WHOM THE TREES LOVED. Nouvelle. Consciousness in plants, the divine principle as is found in trees. Mr. Bittacy, who has an intuitive bond with nature, can experience the life of trees. In his sleep his spirit wanders with them. Mrs. Bittacy, who rejects all this, wastes away. Madness involved, too? [b] THE GLAMOUR OF THE SNOW. Switzerland. Hibbert, on vacation, meets, one night, a beautiful woman with whom he skates. The next evening they ski far up the Alps and he learns that she is an ice sprite, intent on his death. [c] THE SEA FIT. Erricson's theory is that the old gods manifest themselves only where there is deep emotion and that worship must end with selfsacrifice. For Erricson, modern viking, the sea is a god. [d] THE ATTIC. The earthbound spirit of a dead miser. Released by the prayers of a Child, also dead. Ie] THE HEATH FIRE. Fire from within the earth rises to meet fire from the sun. O'Hara, a sensitive, is witness to this mystically, and dies of fever. [f] THE MESSENGER. Ecstasy, union with higher powers, mystical apprehension of reality. [g] SAND. A nouvelle. Egypt. Henriot on vacation is approached by Vance and Lady Statham who ask his help in performing a magical evocation. Lady Statham is a powerful magician and knows the technique of bringing down to earthly form those great powers otherwise too vast for embodiment. Henriot witnesses the formation of such a being from sand-- by implication in the form of an ancient Egyptian god. He later realizes that he has been an accessory to murder. [h] THE TRANSFER. A bloated capitalist is drained of his energy, which he has taken parasitically from others; the wasteland, which has taken his life force, flourishes. Ii] THE DESTRUCTION OF SMITH. A death-fetch of_a city, which destroys its own maker. [j] THE TEMPTATION OF THE CLAY. Long short story. Eliot and the young woman Manya have an empathy with Nature and the place in which they live. When they find a bed of potter's clay on their land, they are not permitted (supernaturally) to use it. The point seems tO,be that empathy and profiteering do not go together. [k] CLAIRVOYANCE. The secret sorrow felt by a childless woman in a room haunted by an infinite number of unborn children. [1] SPECIAL DELIVERY. Switzerland. A supernatural warning to quit a chalet just before a rock fall. [m] THE GOLDEN FLY. A mystical conversion experience. [n] THE RETURN. There is someone unseen in

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BLACKWOOD, ALGERNON the room. A vow to visit one another at death. Ie], [g]-- though somewhat overlong-- and [h] .are best. 183. A PRISONER IN FAIRYLAND (THE BOOK THAT_ "UNCLE PAUL" WROTE) Macmillan; London 1913 A long novel describing the awakening of life in a man who has been psychically moribund. * Henry Rogers, wealthy man of business, as a child had an ecstatic comprehension of the universe, with a consistent private mythology. But as he grew older, he lost this child-like feeling of wonder. On retirement, he feels stirrings of the old world within himself. He visits cousins in Switzerland, where the ~hildren have much the same ability to enter supersensual worlds that he used to have. His dormant faculties gradually awaken again. Soon, he, too, in dream sees the Star Cave, where one can gather starlight; rides on the Starlight Express; watches the lamplighter put out the stars; and flies freely in the night. Although there are some side issues, the result of his reawaking is that he meets, first in dreams, then in life, the woman who first created his private mythology. He has learned that the true fairyland is not a matter of dragons and princesses, but is sympathy, love, and gentleness, and that we are all prisoners in God's fairyland. * The more interesting part of the book comes near the end, but I doubt if many readers will stay with the book long enough to reach the end. Overlong and dull. 184. INCREDIBLE ADVENTURES Macmillan; London 1914 Three nouvelles and two short stories. * [a] THE REGENERATION OF LORD ERNIE. Nouvelle. Hendricks is bearleading, accompanying young Lord Ernie, son of the Marquess of Oakham, around the world. Ernie, though intelligent, is strangely lacking in psychic vitality. In French Switzerland Hendricks and Ernie are close to the area where nature-worshipping peasants hold their fire dances and rites, and Ernie is psychically compelled to join them. Participation involves one with the great elementals of fire and air, and Ernie is remarkably "regenerated." His political rise, back in England, is rapid, and his brilliance is incredible. But he is burned out at an early age. [b] THE SACRIFICE. Limasson, in French Switzerland, is in some ways a religious man who has never found his god or his purpose in life. With a strange priest who strikes up acquaintance with him (a third party drops out along the way), he is to climb the Tour de Neant. His ascent becomes a symbolic journey and a spiritual awakening. The priest is an aspect of himself. [c] THE DAMNED. Frances and Bill, sister and brother, accept a live-in arrangement with the wealthy widow, Mrs. Franklyn, in her country estate. But it is soon discovered by both that the house is intolerable. Mrs. Franklyn, who is aware of the fact, is using them as sensory organs to discover what is wrong. The house is impregnated with a horrible atmosphere, and strange noises, as of great gates closing, are heard at night.

*

BLACKWOOD, ALGERNON The solution seems to be that a succession of intolerant, hellfire and brimstone owners had impregnated the house with their concepts of Hell. The latest was Mr. Franklyn. [d] A DESCENT INTO EGYPT. George Isley is alive and physically well, but in some strange way soulless. The narrator explains the situation. In Egypt they encountered a scholar who had reconstructed an Egyptian sacred chant, and by working magically, could retreat into Ancient Egypt. Isley yielded to the power of Egypt and went back, but the narrator fought off the attraction. [e] WAYFARERS. Reincarnation, told in layers of experience. Frustrated lov~rs in the present, who must wait for new lives; lovers, one of whom dies, in the Napoleonic period. * [c] and [d] have excellent moments, particularly in the climax in Egypt in [d], but excessive length and a word-choked development are likely to repel many readers. 185. TEN MINUTE STORIES John Murray; London 1914 Short stories, usually fairly brief, sometimes little more than sketches. * Including, [a] ACCESSORY BEFORE THE FACT. Martin has a psychic experience. He fancies himself accosted by a tramp, then robbed and murdered. A short time later he sees the murderers and their true victim, but does nothing about it. [b] THE DEFERRED APPOINTMENT. Jenkyn the photographer expects Wilson, who is the soul of honor about appointments, to come for a sitting. Wilson comes, but the plate shows only a flasp of glory, and Wilson disappears. He had, of course, died a little while before. [c] THE PRAYER. O'Malley and Jones take a strange drug obtained from a Hindu. It opens their spiritual perception so that they see a prayer move a crook. They follow a golden thread back to its source and find the crook's bedridden father. [d] STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE OF A BARONET. Sir Timothy, about to lose his title and possessions to a claimant, shrinks and eventually disappears, for without his possessions he is nothing. It is all a dream. [e] THE GOBLIN'S COLLECTION. The house guest misses his shirt stud and soon learns that there is a goblin who collects small, bright things. It followed a serving boy over from Ireland. [f] IMAGINATION. Mystical experience symbolized as a centaur. [g] ANCIENT LIGHTS. A surveyor's clerk trespasses in a fairy wood, where trespassers will be prosecuted. And he is. [h] DREAM TRESPASS. France. A vision of the past, with a wonderful chateau and a beautiful countryside. [i] ENTRANCE AND EXIT. There are holes in space, Higher Space, into which one may stumble and be contained for months, or perhaps forever. [j] YOU MAY TELEPHONE FROM HERE. Her husband promised to call from Paris. During the night she receives a call-- but her cousin who is present hears no bell and the line has not been used. The spirit of her husband, while he is unconscious. [k] THE WHISPERERS. The room is filled with invisible whisperers, the spirits of books. [1] THE SECOND GENERATION. Smith returns to England to visit his divorced wife. He meets her, under somewhat peculiar circumstances, but she is dead. [m] THE HOUSE OF THE

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BLACKWOOD, ALGERNON PAST. A dream leads into the House of the Past, where lie sleeping bodies of various past states of the dreamer. [n] IF THE CAP FITS. Psychometry. Wearing another person's cap conveys all sorts of weird sensations, later explained by learning that the owner of the cap had suffered from melancholy and had tried to commit suicide. * Best stories are [a], [d], [e], [g]. Many of the other stories are somewhat routine and less successful than the more developed stories elsewhere. Blackwood apparently needed room to expand his themes. 186. THE EXTRA DAY Macmillan; London 1915 Essentially another of Blackwood's children's books for adults, the idea being that children have a mystical closeness to Reality that is no longer present in most adults. Blackwood tries to recreate this alien mode of thought (which, of course, found theoretical justification in the work of anthropologists of his day) without indulging in the patronizing baby talk that certain Victorian authors, like George MacDonald, often employed. * The "story," for there is no real plot in the usual sense of the word, describes the experiences af three children-- Tim, Judy, and Maria-and their Uncle Felix (who is visiting) in a transcendence of the events of everyday life and nature. They perceive the inner poetic essences, and under the symbolic leadership of a transfigured tramp, seek out signs for the Hidden One behind phenomenality. During their culminating search-- which occurs when the clocks are suddenly stopped-- they cause a temporary awaking in several sleeping souls. * Overlong, formless, with excellent private mythology, if one can tolerate such an ultimately sentimental universe. 187. JULIUS LEVALLON AN EPISODE Cassell; London 1916 An occult novel, ultimately concerned with magic on a high level. * Great Britain and Switzerland. * John Mason tells the story of his association with Julius LeVallon, first as schoolboys, then in Edinburgh University, then in the Juras. LeVallon has memories of a past incarnation on another planet, perhaps Mercury, since Wind and Fire were so readily available, thousands of years ago. During this earlier incarnation LeVallon, aided by Mason and a woman, had performed a great experiment, to bring down the elemental powers. But the experiment ended tragically. The powers were supposed to pass through Mason's body, but Mason's personality returned and the experiment "short circuited." LeVallon wishes to repeat the experiment in order to restore the original balance of powers. He and Mason, during their boyhood, practice psychic exercises to awaken Mason's less advanced spiritual development. When the woman from the earlier experiment is found, reincarnated, they determine to try once more, this time using LeVallon's body for the channel. The new attempt takes place in the Juras, since conditions there are better for magic. But once again it is a failure. LeVallon dies, and the powers are channelled through the woman, into her unborn child. The eternal task is still

*

BLACKWOOD, ALGERNON

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ahead of LeVallon. * In largeness of scope and detail of development Blackwood's most ambitious novel. It ranks high in its field. For the sequel, see 191. 188. tHE WAVE AN EGYPTIAN AFTERMATH Macmillan; London 1916 A long novel. The supernatural germ of the work is given in a brief narrative set in Ancient Egypt. The Syrian slave of an Egyptian general develops a passion for the general's wife. The wife has only maternal feelings for the slave, but the general does not believe this, and has the slave tortured to death and thrown into the Nile. The general's wife leaps into the "wave" after him. * In the present, Tom Kelverdon has a youthful passion for Lettice Ay mer, but she marries a Polish prince and seems lost to him. Tom also has a repetitive nightmare and day vision of a wave that hangs over him, about to break. The vision is usually accompanied by the smell of Ancient Egyptian spices. In later life, Tom meets Lettice again, and the ancient situation is repeated to a certain extent, although upon a more spiritualized level. In this life Tom gets Lettice. * Although part of the novel is a detailed representation of life among the pre-Titanic jet set and has some social interest, the novel as a whole is extremely dull. It is easily Blackwood's weakest work. 189. DAY AND NIGHT STORIES Cassell; London 1917 Short stories, including [a] THE TRYST. Personality study of an emigrant who returns to England after fifteen years, expecting his former sweetheart to be waiting for him. She is, but in the tomb. [b] THE TOUCH OF PAN. Two "natural" humans, a la LeVallon, renounce a sterile, cor~ rupt clique and go off to experience life as spirits conversant with Pan. [c] THE WINGS OF HORUS. Egypt. A half-mad Russian, taking the cure, worships Horus and curses Horus. During a masked ball an amazing display takes place, and the wings of Horus are heard taking away the Russian's soul. [d] INITIATION. Switzerland. The narrator, an Englishman who speaks a strange Yankee dialect, describes a mystical experience he attained through nature in the Alps. It has affected the remainder of his life. [e] A DESERT EPISODE. Life and death in Egypt, among sufferers from tuberculosis, and the Wave of Life. [f] THE OTHER WING. An excellent story of a little boy who lives in a large Elizabethan house, one wing of which is sealed off. He decides that Sleep and her attendant dreams live there. One night he ventures into the wing, braving the terrors of the nightmare passage. There he meets the ghost of his grandfather. A nice adumbration of the marvelous yet terrible world accessible to a child. [g] THE OCCUPANT OF THE ROOM. Switzerland. A suicide is supernaturally revealed. [h] CAIN'S ATONEMENT. In a past incarnation he permitted his brother to be killed by a savage beast, since he wanted the woman his brother was to marry. Now he can make atonement. [i] BY WATER. The clairvoyante tells Larsen to be careful of water, or he will come to harm from it. He meets his fate on the Egyptian desert.

BLACKWOOD, ALGERNON [j] H.S.H. Switzerland. Delane is visited by a strange monarch, who seeks him as a subject. Obviously the Devil. But Delane does not yield. [k] A VICTIM OF HIGHER SPACE. An adventure of John Silence. Borderline science-fiction. Silence's patient now and then slips off into Higher Space and emerges in totally unexpected places. 11] TRANSITION. John Mudbury, coming home with Christmas presents, does not know that he is dead, run over by a bus. [m] TRADITION. A spectral horse that appears during sickness and death. * Ic] and [f] are excellent. The other stories are uneven. 190. THE PROMISE OF AIR Macmillan; London 1918 A fantasy based on a metaphysical theory of evolution, the emergence of man with an avian spirit. * Joseph Wimble is intoxicated by the spirit of air, birds, and the freedom of flight, and he marries Joan for her compatible bird-like spirit. But with childbirth and married life, her spirit diminishes, and Wimble discovers that he is again psychically alone. But his daughter Joan is full of the spirit that her mother had lost-- the promise of air-- or the revelation of a new age that is to come, when intuition and bird-like. mental soaring will supplant the dull, plodding present mentality. The story is permeated with symbols of birds and air, and there are clear expositions of the occult theory of history that lies behind this story and much of Blackwood's other work. * As' a fiction, however, too great length for too slight a story. 191. THE BRIGHT MESSENGER Cassell; London 1921 Partly an attempt to convey an utterly alien type of mentality, with (mostly) a British social setting; also the moral collapse of the Western world and the future evolution of man. * A sequel to JULIUS LEVALLON. * Julian LeVallon, into whom the elemental evoked by his father's experiment was incarnated, grows up in Switzerland under the care of Mason, the narrator of the previous book. LeVallon is a strange being, with two personalities, a human one and a semi-humanized elemental. The latter is called "N. H.," presumably standing for "not human." The result of the dual personality is that LeVallon cannot function in modern society and must be treated as a mental defective. When Mason dies, LeVallon is transferred to Fillery, a British psychiatrist· who has much the same intuitive understanding of Nature as did Mason and LeVallon, Sr. Fillery's task is to separate the two personalities in Julian and permit the elemental to regain its freedom. * Interesting ideas, some good moments, but on the whole without the charm of its predecessor. Too didactic. 192. TONGUES OF FIRE AND OTHER SKETr.HES Jenkins; London 1924 Short stories, usually fairly brief. Including [a] TONGUES OF FIRE. Supernatural vengeance on a pair of malicious society gossips invests them now and evermore with mouths that shoot out tongues of fire. One of their victims was a man of power. [b] THE PIKESTAFFE CASE. Borderline science-fiction. Mr. Thorley, M. A., a tutor of sorts, works out problems of optics and

BLACKWOOD, ALGERNON higher mathematics in his rooming house quarters. He is able to enter another world, presumably the fourth dimension, through his mirror, from which he has removed the glass. When he and one of his students, Pikestaffe, disappear, they are later seen in the Elsewhere. They seem happy. [c] MALAHIDE AND FORDEN. A visit in time, through another space; a prelude to death. [d] PLAYING CATCH. Thoughts about time and relativity lead to a dream in which Mr. Anthony sees a giant hand playing ball with the moon. Will it miss some time? His dead wife tells him that it has already missed. Has he, too, been tossed? Ie] THE OLIVE. A premonitory dream and the power of Pan attract two young people to one another. If] ALEXANDER ALEXANDER. A child's fantasy, turning a component of her uncle into an imaginary playmate of a sort, later results in a ghost experience. [g] THE LITTLE BEGGAR. A man and his unborn son. A moral story. [h] NEPHELE. Through the sandals and jewelry of a Roman dancing girl, a modern girl is possessed by her spirit and dances as no one has for c~nturies. Ii] S.O.S. Switzerland. A little girl who hears an inaudible voice finds a lost traveller. [j] THE OTHER WOMAN. On his deathbed the artist sees a spiritual soulmate whom he has known all his life. Is it death? [k] A MAN OF EARTH., Some persons have a supernatural empathy with the earth. John Erdlieb is one of them. In a trainwreck he had been saved by a gnome and in the Caucasus he saw an outburst of chthonic beings, though others saw just a landslide. [1] THE MAN WHO WAS MILLIGAN. Milligan lives in a room that has a Chinese picture on the wall. It shows a man in a boat. The boat comes nearer and nearer, and Milligan is spirited away to China. A friend looks at the picture and sees Milligan in the boat. [m] PETERSHIN AND MR. SNIDE. Two men share anxieties that they will be trapped by their feet on a railroad track when a train is approaching. It works out. Borderline supernatural. In] THE WORLD-DREAM OF MR. McCALLISTER. Questionable as fantasy. A repetitive dream before crisis points in his life. It states that everything 1& all right. * Two other stories, PICKING FIR-CONES and THE FALLING GLASS are not fantastic enough to be described. * An uneven collection. [b], [d], [k] are excellent. 193. STRANGE STORIES Heinemann; London 1929 Short stories, all described elsewhere, including, [a] THE MAN WHOM THE TREES LOVED. [b] THE SEA FIT. [c] THE GLAMOUR OF THE SNOW. [d] THE TRYST. Ie] TRANSITION. If] THE OCCUPANT OF THE ROOM. [g] THE WINGS OF HORUS. [h] BY WATER. Ii] MALAHIDE AND FORDEN. [j] ALEXANDER ALEXANDER. [k] THE MAN WHO WAS MILLIGAN. [1] THE LITTLE BEGGAR. [m] THE PIKESTAFFE CASE. In] ACCESSORY BEFORE THE FACT. [0] THE DEFERRED APPOINTMENT. [p] ANCIENT LIGHTS. [q] YOU MAY TELEPHONE FROM HERE. [r] THE GOBLIN'S COLLECTION. Is] RUNNING WOLF. It] THE VALLEY OF THE BEASTS. [u] THE DECOY. [v] A DESCENT INTO EGYPT. [w] THE DAMNED. [x] THE WILLOWS. [y] ANCIENT SORCERIES. * One of the more easily met early collections.

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BLACKWOOD, ALGERNON 194. DUDLEY AND GILDEROY A NONSENSE Ernest Benn; London 1929 An ironic fantasy of a cat (Gilderoy) and a parrot (Dudley)-- staunch friends despite occasional hungers on Gilderoy's part. They decide to see the world. They escape to London and after adventures in which each shines are recaptured and taken back to Kent. There Dudley, in a pathetic ending, achieves the great destiny which has long been approaching. * The animals are nicely anthropomorphized and there are excellent Cockney characterizations. A moving story, although the tragic ending is disconcerting. Probably intended as an allegory, but it can be read on surface level. 195. FULL CIRCLE Elkin Mathews and Marrot; London 1929 Number Eleven of the Woburn Books. 530 copy edition Short story * Jordan, a British stockbroker, sees a little boy at various times in his life. Sometimes they are crisis points; at other times they are only moments of enhanced feeling. At first he thinks that the boy is only a boy, but as he grows older, he realizes that the boy is himself, both as a past presence and as a future goal. It is, in a sense, the "idea" of himself. When he lies dying, his life has returned full circle to his childhood and he dances off to the stars with the boy. 196. THE FRUIT STONERS Grayson and Grayson; London {1934] A child's flight of fantasy, linked to larger adult questions of existential concern, such as the meaning of life, perception of reality, fear. * Maria, a small girl, lives in a large Tudor house with her widowed father. A wing of the house, the Big House, is sealed off for reasons of economy, and, as might be expected, it is a place of mystery to Maria. One evening, when Maria has been sent to fetch her father's slippers, she passes the door to the Big House and ventures in. She finds herself in a perplexing, anxiety-ridden, sometimes horrible Other World. She must find the Pearl of Great Price-- but she does not know what it is nor where it is to be found. As she wanders about in bewilderment, speculating, she is beset by warnings about the Man Who Wound the Clocks, or Time, who flits through. If she does not fulfill her task before Time finishes striking, she will be lost. With her are the Fruit Stoners, beings emergent from the prune pits that she had been playing with. In some ways archetypal beings' of power, sometimes limited, sometime selfish, sometimes self-sacrificing, they help her on her quest. She becomes entangled with them erotically in fragments of adult anticipation; she takes advice from one of them (Wisdom, the apothecary); and, at the very last moment she finds the Pearl of Great Price and survives. It is her father's slippers: * A strange and brilliant book that has never received the attention it deserves, partly because it strikes eternals through a child, yet is not a child's book. 197. SHOCKS Grayson and Grayson; London 1935 Short stories, including [a] ELSEWHERE AND OTHERWISE. A nouvelle. States of being apart from

BLACKWOOD, ALGERNON our normal existence, multiple times and sp~ces into which certain persons can pass at certain times. Mainwaring disappears in one such higher space for four years, returns, but must repay his time debt. He ages twenty-five years in a moment. Overdeveloped. [b] THE STRANGER. Romance and death personified. [c] FULL CIRCLE. Described in 195. Cd] DR. FELDMAN. A haunted house, whose ghost (a murderer and suicide) compels others to suicide. The narrator mistakes the ghost for his friend Feldman and spends the night with him-- and barely escapes. [e] A THREEFOLD CORD". • • Malcolm meets a strange woman at an Hat home." He is attracted to her, and she to him. He soon discovers that she is trying to drive him to suicide. She is helped by the ghosts of his father and grandfather. She, too, had been a suicide. if] CHEMICAL. Described elsewhere. [g] THE SURVIVORS. Afterdeath experiences; presence in the land of the living. [h] THE ADVENTURE OF TORNADO SMITH. Smith, a dreamer at heart, is escorted to Fairyland for a short time by Chance and L"uck. When he reaches the heart of the land, the most familiar place of all, he finds himself back in his office. [i] THE LAND OF GREEN GINGER. A dream-like story of alternating personalities, mirror-"like exchanges of identity, all caused by an ancient Chinese mirror. Also recapitulation in time. [j] THE COLONEL'S RING. At the colonel's New Year's Eve party, a ghost, revealing a suicide. [k] REVENGE. Alps. An embezzling trustee pushes his nephew over a cliff in order to conceal his embezzlement. But he becomes lost in the mountains and is guided to civilization by the ghost of his victim. [1] THE MAN WHO LIVED BACKWARDS. Professor Zeitt is a master of relativity and space-time. By exerting the proper mental set he enters the past to change the present. Borderline science-fiction. em] ADVENTURES OF MISS DE FONTENOY. De Fontenoy is really a young man who has strange psychic experiences. They culminate in an episode in which witches, in cat form, try to sacrifice him. It is a recapitulation of something that happened in the past. * [e], [f], [i] are best. Blackwood seems to have been obsessed with suicide at this time. 198. THE TALES OF ALGERNON BLACKWOOD Martin Secker; London 1938 This seems to be Blackwood's own selection of his best work. * Including [a] A CASE OF EAVESDROPPING. [b] THE EMPTY HOUSE. [c] THE WILLOWS. Ld] WITH INTENT TO STEAL. eel KEEPING HIS PROMISE. [f] THE WOOD OF THE DEAD. [g] A SUSPICIOUS GIFT. [h] THE LISTENER. [i] THE WENDIGO. U] THE INSANITY OF JONES. [k] THE DANCE OF DEATH. [1] MAY DAY EVE. [m] THE WOMAN'S GHOST STORY. [n] A PSYCHICAL INVASION. [0] ANCIENT SORCERIES. [p] THE NEMESIS OF FIRE. [q] SECRET WORSHIP. [r] THE CAMP OF THE DOG. [s] THE MAN FROM THE "GODS." All are described elsewhere. There is also an excellent autobiographi• cal introduction by Blackwood. 199. THE DOLL AND ONE OTHER Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1946 Two short stories, among Blackwood's last work. [a] THE DOLL. Anglo-Indian revenge. The Polish

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BLACKWOOD, ALGERNON AND WILSON, WILFRED governess for Colonel Masters's daughter sees the horrible actions of the living doll. The doll, it seems had been dropped off at the colonel's establishment by a dark man. The colonel, knowing what it signified, ordered it destroyed. But the cook gave it to the'little girl. The governess tries to protect the girl and the colonel, but ancient evil must be paid for. [b] THE TROD. In rural Essex the whole countryside seems haunted, and doors have crosses carved into them. Especially feared is the Trod, a pathway through the marshes. Along it, at the equinox the Gay People (fairies) progress and attempt to persuade such humans as they meet to join them. The result is eternal life, but loss of soul. Norman, a visitor, tries"to protect Diana, the daughter of the house, from the fairy attraction, but manages to save only her body. * [b] has moments of the old Blackwood. 200. BEST GHOST STORIES OF ALGERNON BLACKWOOD Dover Publications; New York [1973] paperbound Edited with introduction by E.F. Bleiler. * Short stories, including, described elsewhere [a] THE WILLOWS. [b] SECRET WORSHIP. [c] ANCIENT SORCERIES. Cd] THE GLAMOUR OF THE SNOW. eel THE WENDIGO. If] THE OTHER WING. [g] THE TRANSFER. [h] ANCIENT LIGHTS. [i] THE LISTENER. [j] THE EMPTY HOUSE. [k] ACCESSORY BEFORE THE FACT. [1] KEEPING HIS PROMISE. * Also included, not fantastic, is the fine crime story "Max Hensig," based on Blackwood's experiences as a newspaper reporter covering the Carlyle Harris case in New York. Blackwood's introduction from 198 is also present. WITH WILSON, WILFRID According to Blackwood, Wilson, who was the Swede in THE WILLOWS, sometimes suggested story ideas to Blackwood. Nothing else is known of him. 201 THE WOLVES OF GOD AND OTHER FEY TALES Cassell; London 1921 Short stories, including [a] THE WOLVES OF GOD. Jim Peace returns to the Orkneys to retire, after long service in Canada. But he is a haunted man. He is pursued by the Wolves of God, an Indian version of the Furies. During the storm the Wolves come, and Peace's body is found, torn. He had killed a man. Ib] CHINESE MAGIC. More complex internally than is Blackwood's wont~ Dr. Francis is acquainted with Farque, who, in the Orient, has smelled a powder that has supernatural properties. It gives seven years of happiness. And then? Psychopathology, strange mental states, and perhaps doom. Ic] RUNNING WOLF. The camper at Medicine Lake sees the wolf, which neither fears man nor attacks him. It is the spirit of an Indian who broke a totemic rule and was buried as an outcast. Cd] FIRST HATE. The supernatural counterpart of love at first sight is hate at first sight. [e] THE TARN OF SACRIFICE. Megaliths and a linkage of past to present. In Roman Britain the natives had killed a Roman priest and his daughter. Implications of reincarnation and certainly madness, as the ancient situation is almost repeated. [f] THE VALLEY

BLACKWOOD, ALGERNON AND WILSON, WILFRED OF THE BEASTS. Based on an Indian belief in a hidden valley in which all the animals live in harmony, protected by the god Ishtot. Grimwood violates the valley, but learns a lesson that saves his soul. [g] THE CALL. At a house party, Headley suspects an intrigue, but instead has seen the ghost of his best friend and the woman the friend loved. [h] EGYPTIAN SORCERY. Romance mixed with worry about stock shares. A psychic visit to Egypt, where the protagonist's vitality saves the life of a dying woman and awakens love. [i] THE DECOY. A moral situation explored in terms of supernaturalism. Burley, his wife, and her lover agree to spend a night in a haunted house. The essence of the haunting is that the ghost takes the form of the person about to die. Nicely handled. [j] THE MAN WHO FOUND OUT (A NIGHTMARE). Professor Ebor, great scientist and mystic, has a repeated dream about the Tablets of the Gods, which describe the penultimates of existence. He finds them in Mesopotamia, deciphers them, and is a broken man, for the message is too horrible to be endured. His assistant can survive only by having the memory erased by hypnosis. [k] THE EMPTY SLEEVE. The Gilmers own rare violins which they sometimes permit Hyman to play. Hyman invades the premises in the form of a cat-like being. The desire-body of the soul can assume animal form; if it is injured~ the body is similarly injured. [1] WIRELESS CONFUSION. Curious optical phenomena, things growing large or small. They are connected with a brother in the Turkish arena in World War I; captivity and binoculars. [m] THE LANE THAT RAN EAST AND WEST. The land is both life and a lane. A prophetic vision, dreams, redemption, and much sentiment. [n] "VENGEANCE IS MINE." France, World War I; a Red Cross man is caught up in a semisupernatural plan to sacrifice a German POW in revenge for Louvain. He rejects the situation and receives supernatural approval. * An additional story, "Confession," is a crime story, but with atmospheric treatment of mental confusion, feelings of disruption of reality in the London fog. * Best stories are [b], [i], [n]. In this British edition [n] is attributed to Blackwood alone; in the American edition, all stories are accredited to both men. BLAISDELL, ELINORE (1904 - ? American author, editor, anthologist. AS EDITOR: 202. TALES OF THE UNDEAD VAMPIRES AND VISITANTS Crowell; New York 1947 A theme anthology as the title indicates. * Including [a] CARMILLA, J. S. LeFanu. [b] THE METRONOME, August Derleth. [c] THE FEAST IN THE ABBEY, Robert Bloch. [d] AMOUR DURE, Vernon Lee. [e] THE ADVENTURE OF THE GERMAN STUDENT, Washington Irving. [f] THE TOMB, H. P. Lovecraft. [g] CLARIMOND, Theophile Gautier. [h] FOR THE BLOOD IS THE LIFE, F. Marion Crawford. [i] THE STORY OF MING-Y, Lafcadio Hearn. [j] SATAN'S CIRCUS, Eleanor Smith. [k] COUNT MAGNUS, M. R. James. [1] "AND HE SHALL SING . • . " H. R. Wakefield. [m] THE ROOM IN

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BLAVATSKY, H. P. THE TOWER, E. F. Benson. [n] THE SECOND NIGHT OUT, Frank Belknap Long. [0] CLAY-SHUTTERED DOORS, Helen R. Hull. [p] SCHOOL FOR THE UNSPEAKABLE, Manly Wade Wellman. [q] MISS MARY PASK, Edith Wharton. * Also, [r] BROTHER LUCIFER, Chandler W. Whipple. (WT 1936). Druten, reading ancient abbey records, sees references to Brother Lucifer. But the references stop abruptly. Laughingly, he calls on Brother Lucifer, who appears. Possession is the result. [s] UNCANONIZED, Seabury Quinn. (WT 1939). Medieval Germany. Count Otho breaks faith and tries to take Gertruda, young Wolfgang's bride, by droit de seigneur. But she leaps to her death rather than submit. A werewolr thereupon harasses the countryside and kills Otho in the same way that Gertruda had died. Later Gertruda reveals herself to Wolfgang as the werewolf. He is willing to join her in animal form, but a kindly, wise old friar destroys them both. [t] SEPTIMA, Marcel Schwob. Magic and death in Africa. Witchcraft. [u] DOOM OF THE HOUSE OF DURYEA, Earl Peirce (WT 1936). A family curse, vampirism. [v] THE QUICK AND THE DEAD, Vincent Starrett. [WT 1932). Borderline supernaturalism. Irony on life and love in Paris, with suspended animation. * Also present is "The Seed from the Sepulchre" by C. A. Smith, which is really science-fiction. BLAVATSKY, H[ELENA] P[ETROVNA] (nee Hahn) (1831-1891) Russian-born adventuress, occultist, founder of the Theosophical Society. Resident in New York, London, and at end of life, Adyar, India. Operated for a time as a Spiritualist medium, then, renouncing Spiritualism, founded the Theosophical Society, much the most important 19th century occult organization. Author of several tomes of pseudoscience and occultism (ISIS UNVEILED, 1877; THE SECRET DOCTRINE, 1878), which she claimed were dictated telepathically by Masters (Mahatmas) resident in the Himalayas. Skilled at falsifying supernatural phenomena, but discredited after expose by Society for Psychical Research. Very important as a cultural influence and in the history of occultism, but negligible as a writer of fiction. 203. NIGHTMARE TALES Theosophical Publishing Society; London 1892 Fiction gathered posthumously from various sources. * [a] A BEWITCHED LIFE. A German Swiss businessman living in Japan in the 1880's becomes friendly with a Buddhist priest, and through the priest gains entry to various secret circles of Japanese religion, where supernatural phenomena are produced. Unfortunately he is both a sceptic and a very offensive person, and he loses no chance to mock what he sees. When he becomes obsessed with worry about his sister, he consults a Taoist, who shows him a vision. But he rashly refuses to allow the Taoist to restore his psychic self defenses. As a result, he is subject to horrible visions, caused by elementals, and must suffer until his next incarnation. [b]

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THE CAVE OF THE ECHOES. A shaman from Central Asia solves a murder mystery by evoking the ghost of the murdered man. Also reincarnation. [c) THE LUMINOUS SHIELD. Folkloristic magic by dervishes in Constantinople. Revelatory visions. [d) FROM THE POLAR LANDS. An old Russian, gifted with paranormal sympathy with the Arctic. [e) THE EN SOULED VIOLIN. Franz Stenio, violinist, wishes to excel Paganini, and learns that he must string his violin with human gut, obtained by willing self-sacrifice. His teacher commits suicide to provide the strings, and Franz, in public competition, seems fair to beat Paganini. But the personality of the old teacher, pulling in and out '6f the strings, destroys Franz. * These stor~es share little with Madame B1avatsky's pseudoscientific works, but belong in the general Victorian tradition of the ghost story. As fiction they are unremarkable. BLAYRE, CHRISTOPHER (pseud. of Allen, Edward Heron, also known as Heron-Allen, Edward) (1861-1943) A versatile and prolific English sCientist, author, whose works fill several pages in the Catalogue of the British Museum. Known for biological works, instructions on organology, popular fiction. It has been speculated that Allen also wrote under the pseudonyms Dryasdust and M. Y. Ha1idom, but no evidence has ever been offered for this, and it seems very unlikely. 204. THE STRANGE PAPERS OF DR. BLAYRE Philip Allan; London 1932 These are purportedly manuscripts deposited by professors in an imaginary library. Short stories, including [a) THE PURPLE SAPPHIRE. It is unlucky. The museum that holds it is struck by lightning. The char sees a naked Black around it. And the stone can be neutralized only by dropping it into a river at high tide. [b) THE HOUSE ON THE WAY TO HELL. The university librarian, on his death, is made curator (in Hell) of the library of unfinished books, works of art, and scientific projects. [c) MANO PANTEA. Italy. Supernatural protection from a charm in the shape of a hand. [d) THE THING THAT SMELT. A fraudulent medium, a haunted "cat-house," and a cat-like monster. [e) THE MAN. WHO KILLED THE JEW. A quack doctor so incompetent that he killed the Wandering Jew. [f) THE DEMON. A woman who is dying of cancer 'is helped by a quack. Her life is being prolonged by a demon. [g] THE BOOK. A library of black magic books bound as religious books is haunted by the ghost of a monk. * Rather slight, unremarkable stories, better in idea than execution. * According to Tuck the present volume is an enlarged reissue of THE PURPLE SAPPHIRE AND OTHER POSTHUMOUS PAPERS (Philip Allan, London 1921), which has not been available to me. It is said to contain [a), ~ [d), [f], and [g], as well as certain of the non-supernatural stories in this volume.

*

BLEILER, EVERETT F[RANKLIN) AS EDITOR:

(1920-

BLOCH, ROBERT 205. THREE GOTHIC NOVELS Dover Publications, Inc.; New York 1966 Containing, described elsewhere, [a) THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO, Horace Walpole. Text of the second edition, with the later introduction by Sir Walter Scott. [b] VATHEK, William Beckford, together with the appendix notes. [c) THE VAMPYRE, John Polidori. Full text, including the EXTRACT OF A LETTER TO THE EDITOR, and INTRODUCTION. [d] FRAGMENT OF A NOVEL, Lord George Gordon Byron. * Introductions by the editor. 206. FIVE VICTORIAN GHOST NOVELS Dover Publications, Inc.; New York 1971 Introduction by the editor. Described e1sewher e, [a) THE UNINHABITED HOUSE, Mr s. J. H. Riddell. [b) THE AMBER WITCH, Wilhelm Meinhold. Lady Duff Gordon's translation. [c] MONSIEUR MAURICE, Amelia B. Edwards. [d) A, PHANTOM LOVER, Vernon Lee. [e) THE GHOST OF GUIR HOUSE, Charles Willing Beale. 207. THREE SUPERNATURAL NOVELS OF THE VICTORIAN PERIOD Dover Publications, Inc.; New York 1975 Introduction by the editor. Described elsewhere, [a) THE HAUNTED HOTEL, Wilkie Collins. [b) THE LOST STRADIVARIUS, J. Meade Falkner. [c] THE HAUNTED HOUSE AT LATCHFORD, Mrs. H. Riddell. Alternate title for FAIRY WATER. BLOCH, ROBERT (1917 ) Noted American author of horror and crime stories; a member of the Lovecraft circle. Born in Chicago; long resident in Milwaukee, then removed to California, where he has written many film and TV scripts. Celebrity came with Alfred Hitchcock's motion picture PSYCHO, based on Bloch's novel of the same name. Earliest work was derivative from Lovecraft.' s or was rather crude humor; later work tends to be Clever, polished fiction which stresses wordplay and surprise endings, with a personal, brash black humor that is very effective. 208. SEA KISSED Utopian Publications; London [1945] paperbound Collection. [a) LADY IN WAX. Alternate title for WAXWORKS. (WT 1939). France. In the wax museum is a remarkable image of Salome, who holds a head on a salver. The image exerts a supernatural attraction for males, who willingly leave their heads behind with her. The narrator discovers that the figure conceals the skeleton of a witch. [b) BEETLES. (WT 1938). Hartley, an Egyptian excavator, has Come under the curse of the Scarabaeus. It follows him in the form of hordes of scarab beetles and causes his death. Insect powders do not work. [c) THE TOTEM-POLE. (WT 1938). Told by a museum attendant. The totem-pole given to the museum by Bailey is from the Shoshoonack tribe. It has human heads atop one another-- Indians and a white man murdered by Bailey. It takes its revenge. [d) SEA KISSED. Alternate title for THE BLACK KISS.' (WT 1937). Collaboration with Henry Kuttner. Near San. Pedro, California. Dean has been having dreams of sea horrors. Responsible is a sea monstrosity which had possessed the body of Morella Godo1fo, an

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ancestress of Dean's. Morella now plans to occupy his body. If she kisses him twice, he is lost. After the second kiss he finds himself in the body of a sea being, while his own body is about to return to the world. * Elsewhere [d) is attributed to Bloch alone. Bloch revised a story by Kuttner, who considered the result primarily's Bloch's story. * Reissued in Dublin with an additional story, [e) GOPER'S HEAD, Benson Herbert. This edition has not been seen. 209. THE OPENER OF THE WAY Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1945 Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a) THE CLOAK. [bJ BEETLES. [cJ THE MANNIKIN. [d) WAXWORKS. * Also [e) THE OPENER OF THE WAY. (WT 1936) The entrance to the unviolated Egyptian tomb, filled with the hidden secrets of the most powerful ancient magic, is guarded by a statue of Anubis. A human consciousness must animate the statue. [f) THE FIDDLER'S FEE. (WT 1940) Italy. Nicolo meets the great Paganini and learns the price for becoming a supernal musician; a pact with the Devil. Complications when his rival Carlo also approaches the Devil. Music that evokes love or madness. [g) THE SEAL OF THE SATYR. (STRANGE STORIES 1939) When Talquist disturbs the altar sacred to the Greek divinities, he barely escapes being sacrificed. He sees the woodland deities, including an amorous nymph] and gets a shock when he sees himself. [h) THE DARK DEMON. (WT 1936). Gordon, a figuration of H. P. Lovecraft, has persistent dreams about the Dark One that will come and take over his body. But in the meanwhile he turns his dreams into saleable stories. The Dark One, Nyarlathotep, comes, and Gordon is transformed. In the Cthulhu CycJe. [i) YOURS TRULY, JACK THE RIPPER. (WT 1943) Very often anthologized in crime collections, also dramatized, this is a type story about Jack. Modern Chicago. Jack the Ripper, the investigator postulates, is an immortal monster who prolongs his life by human sacrifice to the Devil. He is right. [j) THE FACELESS GOD. (WT 1936). Egypt. The murderous doctor hears of a strange statue in the desert and excavates it. But it is Nyarlathotep, who is even more ruthless than the doctor, and is ~ot quite a statue. Cthulhu Cycle. [k) THE HOUSE OF THE HATCHET. (WT 1941). 1941) The bickering, unhappily married couple stop to see the House of Terror, a tourist attraction based on the late Ivan Kluva's murder of his wife. The haunting is revealed to be a commercial fake, but when the narrator murders his wife, he sets off a real haunting. (1) RETURN TO THE SABBATH. (WT 1938). The actor Karl Jorla does a remarkable performance in horror films. Much of his authenticity comes from membership in horrible cults. His best performance before the camera, however, comes after he has been murdered for revealing secrets. 1m) THE MANDARIN'S CANARIES. (WT 1938) China. More a conte cruel than fantastic, but with a small element of supernaturalism when souls assume bird form. The Mandarin Quong, who attained his position by murdering his father, the previous mandarin, is a specialist in various ingenious tortures. He has a flock

BLOCH, ROBERT of canaries that eat his victims. A juvenile work, forgivable for its ignorance of the Orient. [n) THE FEAST IN THE ABBEY. (WT 1934). A juvenile work. Medieval France •. The weary traveller stops at the strange, evil, epicurean abbey, where he partakes of a feast. The monks are evil ghosts who put on a supernatural show to attract victims. This enables them to prolong their 1 ives. Cannibal ism. [0] SLAVE OF THE FLAMES. (WT 1938). Chicago. 1871. The protagonist,.a half-witted pyromaniac, meets an immortal pair who go through the centuries setting fires: Nero and a Yezidee-Zoroastrian. The evil pair prolong their lives by sacrifice of cities to Melek Taos. The half-wit, who is the reincarnation of an old associate, spoils things. [p) THE SHAMBLER FROM THE STARS. (WT 1935). A.juvenile work in imitation of Lovecraft's. Cthulhu Cycle. The narrator and his companion from Providence (H. P. Lovecraft), using nasty books, evoke a.monstrosity that drains HPL and will return for the narrator. [q] MOTHER OF SERPENTS. (WT 1936) Haiti. Premodern times. Voodoo •. The dictator, son of a witch, quarrels with his mother. The fight is first magical, but the dictator captures her and makes a corpse-candle out of her body fat. The candle strangles him. [r] THE SECRET OF SEBEK. (WT 1937). The narrator, in New Orleans.on.Mardi G+as, meets an occult scholar who has a mummy of a priest of Sebek. The problem is that Sebek protects his priests. Sebek attends in what seems at first to be a costume. [s) THE EYES OF THE MUMMY. (WT 1938) Sequel to . the preceding. The narrator, who has not learned his lesson, persists in meddling with the cult of Sebek. After experiences in Egypt, he loses his body to a spirit from a mummy. The transfer takes place through gems that serve as the mummy's eyes. It] ONE WAY TO MARS. (WT 1945). A broken-down, drunken jazz musician murders his agent and is taken on a ghostly one-way trip to Mars. Perhaps DT's. * An additional story, "The Strange Flight of Richard Clayton," is science-fiction. * Best new stories are [i) and [oj. 210. PLEASANT DREAMS Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1960 Short stories, including Ia) SWEETS TO THE SWEET. (WT 1947). Little Irma Steever, daughter of John, is an abused child. She takes her revenge with doll magic, and a peculiar sort of doll. Ib] THE DREAM MAKERS. Described elsewhere. Ic] I KISS YOUR SHADOW. (MFSF 1956) Joe Elliott tells the narrator, "1 saw your sister last night." But she has been dead for a while. A succubus situation, with a gruesome ending. Id) THE PROPER SPIRIT. (MFSF 1957) Old Ronald Cavendish is not as dotty as his legacy-hungry relatives think, even though he confesses to having conversed with or made love to most of the world's great men and women of the past. He counters accusations and threats with the help of a spirit from Renaissance Italy. [e) THE CHEATERS. (WT 1947). The fate of four persons who wear the glasses made by a dead magician. They permit one to read thoughts and see true natures. The last person, a sui-

BLOCH, ROBERT cide, has looked in the mirror with them on. If] HUNGARIAN RHAPSODY. (FANTASTIC 1958). Solly Vincent, semiretired racketeer, develops a passion for the new neighbor, Helene Esterhazy, both for her physical attractions and for the golden coins with which she bathes and on which she sleeps. Vampire. [g] THE LIGHTHOUSE. (FANTASTIC 1953) A fragment of a story by Edgar Allan Poe, finished by Bloch. Revenants, sea horror and magic, and probably madness. Unremarkable. [h] THE HUNGRY HOUSE. (IMAGINATION 1951). When they take over the old Bellman house, there are no mirrors, except for a locked room filled with them. Then they notice horrible faces staring at them from the mirrors, and more and more powerful manifestations. Ii] SLEEPING BEAUTY. (SWANK 1958). Alternate title, THE SLEEPING REDHEADS. Morgan, disillusioned by modern'New Orleans, is delighted when he meets the little old man who tells him that he maintains a fabulous whore in the luxurious style of the '90's. Morgan enjoys her, but later 4iscovers that he has been rolled. On returning with the police, he finds the bare bones of romance. An old theme, but nicely redirected. [j] SWEET SIXTEEN. (FANTASTIC 1958) Alternate title, SPAWN OF THE DARK ONE. Young motorcycle punks take over the town. A local inhabitant reacts with hostility, but a tolerant anthropologist explains the phenomenon as of demonic origin. Both are caught up in a renewed Black Sabbath. [k] MR. STEINWAY. (FANTASTIC 1954). Leo Winston, concert pianist who studies Solar Science (an occult system) discovers that his Steinway has developed a life and personality of its own. It is very jealous of his girl friend, who tells the story. [1] ENOCH. Described elsewhere. [m] THAT HELLBOUND TRAIN (MFSF 1958) Martin, a train enthusiast whose father was a railroad man, is now little better than a bum. The Devil offers him a bargain: his soul (in terms of a ride on the Hell-Bound Train) in exchange for a watch that Martin can use to stop time whenever he thinks that he is living in complete satisfaction. Martin straightens out his life, but never uses the watch. His final chance comes when he is on the train, with the Devil as conductor. In] CATNIP. (WT 1948) When a teen-aged hoodlum is responsible for the death of an elderly witch, the witch's familiar, a black cat, exacts vengeance. * The fifteenth story, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," is not supernatural. * The Jove paperback of the same title lacks [k], [1], and [m], but adds [0] THE MANDARIN'S CANARIES. [p] RETURN TO THE SABBATH, [q] ONE WAY TO MARS, all three described elsewhere. * Best stories are [a], Ie], Ii], [j], and [m]. 211. BLOOD RUNS COLD Simon and Schuster; New York 1961 Short stories, mostly crime stories, but including [a] DIG THAT CRAZY GRAVE~ (EQMM 1957) " Professor Talmadge is enthusiastic when he learns that JoJo Jones, veteran jazz musician from the 1920's, is going to perform at the Mirror Club. Together with his girl friend Dorothy he attends the concern, to find the musicians, despite their calendar years, strangely

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BLOCH, ROBERT youthful. At first Dorothy is repelled by the men and their music, then suddenly yields, ahandons her obviously cold and pointless relationship with Talmadge, and goes to the drummer, Jones. Talmadge finds her dead. His theory is that the musicians are magicians of some sort, perhaps vampires, who derive spiritual energy from others. The story is ambivalent. The title is probably from a comic book. [b] ALL ON A GOLDEN AFTERNOON. (MFSF 1956). Eve Eden, petulant, stupid, selfish superstar is on the edge of a breakdown. She comes under the care of Professor Laroc, who may be an utter charlatan, as Dr. Prager, the official Hollywood shrink claims, or Laroc may have something to do with Lewis Carroll. For high fees he enables stars to enter the dream worlds of various authors. Eve has entered (psychologically) that of Alice. For a higher fee Laroc can enable a patient to enter the dream world permanently. To prove that Laroc is a charlatan, Prager drinks a bottle labelled "Drink Me," and is turned into a white rabbit while Eve and Laroc enter Alice's world. Nicely told via Prager. [c] THE PIN. (AMAZING 1953-4) Barton Stone, artist, is looking for a studio_10ft. In his building he sees an office piled with directories, in which a small man pricks names with a pin: It is Death; or, rather, the pin is death, for Stone must take over the role. * Stories in Bloch's best mature vein-- deft, intelligently sensational, sardonic. 212. NIGHTMARES Belmont Books; New York 1961 paperbound A selection from the rare PLEASANT DREAMS. Including, described elsewhere, [a] SWEET SIXTEEN. [b] I KISS YOUR SHADOW. [c] MR. STEINWAY. [d] THE PROPER SPIRIT. Ie] CATNIP. If] HUNGARIAN RHAPSODY. [gJ THE LIGHT-HOUSE. [h1 THE HUNGRY HOUSE. [i1 SLEEPING BEAUTY. 213., ATOMS AND EVIL Gold Medal Books, Fawcett Publications; Greenwich, Conn 1962 A mixed collection, including [a] TRY THIS FOR PSIS. (MFSF 1956). Humor. Psychical research. Professor We1k is rigorously against it; Professor Seine is all for'it. Frank is the number one phenomenon, with a host of paranormal abilities, but he is in love with We1k's daughter and cannot afford to alienate We1k. Borderline science-fiction. [b] TALENT. (IF 1960). Andrew Benson, orphan found on someone's doorstep, is a colorless personality, remarkable, however, at mimicking and taking on the characteristics of others. But when he sees his first science-fiction horror film, his true nature is revealed. That was the night when Los Angeles was destroyed. [c1 YOU COULD BE WRONG. (AMAZING 1955). Harry Jessup suddenly realizes that everything around him is false, from advertising up to human relations. Could it be that flying saucers from space destroyed the United States, while he was abroad in the services, and that everything he sees is a false front? * [b] is best. 214. MORE NIGHTMARES Belmont Books; New York [19621 paperbound Stories from the rare collections THE OPENER OF

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THE WAY and PLEASANT DREAMS. * Described elsewhere, [a] THAT HELL-BOUND TRAIN. [b] THE FEAST IN THE ABBEY. [c] SLAVES OF THE FLAMES. [d] ONE WAY TO MARS. [e ] THE CHEATERS. [ f ] THE FIDDLER'S FEE. [g] MOTHER OF SERPENTS. [h] WAXWORKS. [i] THE SEAL OF THE SATYR. [j] THE DARK DEMON. 215. YOURS TRULY, JACK THE RIPPER Belmont Books; New York [1962] paperbound Short stories, described elsewhere, [a] THE DREAM MAKERS. [b] SWEETS TO THE SWEET. [c] YOURS TRULY, JACK THE RIPPER. [d] THE EYE OF THE MUMMY. Ie] THE MANNIKIN. [f] THE HOUSE OF THE HATCHET. [g] THE CLOAK. [h] THE FACELESS GOD. Ii] BEETLES. 216. BOGEY MEN TEN TALES Pyramid Books; New York 1963 paperbound A biographical article, "Psycho"-Logica1 Bloch, by Sam Moskowitz. * Including [a] A MATTER OF LIFE. (KEYHOLE MYSTERY 1960) Borderline fan~ tasy. A little man sells tbe ultimate poison to dissatisfied people, and then the antidote. [b] THE MODEL WIFE. (SWANK 1961) Haiti. Josef has a remedy for a runaway wife. He knows voodoo and is a sculptor. [c] BROOMSTICK RIDE. (SUPERSCIENCE 1957). Borderline science~fic­ tion. On the planet Pyris, science is not developed, but the natives are quite good at witchcraft. The earthmen think that the magic is only a degenerate science kept hidden by the rulers in order 'to control the people. Until a wax model of their space ship is put into operation. [d] THE SKULL OF THE MARQUIS DE SADE. (WT 1945). It has a peculiar appearance. It does not grin, like other skulls. But it has a life of sorts, and after it chews up its victims, it has been known to grin. Ie] THE THINKING CAP. (OTHER WORLDS 1953). Barnaby Codd, uncreative, unsuccessful wrLter, meets a beautiful girl at a party. She gives him a special helmet which she assures him will produce creativity. The helmet works, but he does not have the wit or strength to accept the situation. She is a version of Circe, and her reward is sharing creativity. Codd's end is fit only for a dog. If] THE SHOES. (UNK 1942) The diabolic bond. The little man hQ1ds out for only one thing: he cannot die by disease, accident, murder, and so on as long as he is associated with his talisman, his shoes. [g] THE MAN WHO COLLECTED POE. Described elsewhere. [h] THE GHOST WRITER. (WT 1940) Luther Hawkins, talented author, had helped Steven Ayres, but they quarreled. When Hawkins dies of a heart attack, he leaves Ayres his typewriter. At first Ayres is pleased, since the typewriter writes fine material in the manner of Hawkins. But the typewriter has a life of its own, the soul of Hawkins. 217. THE SKULL OF THE MARQUIS DE SADE Pyramid Books; New York 1965 Short stories, including [a] THE SKULL OF THE MARQUIS DE SADE. Described elsewhere. [b] THE WEIRD TAILOR. (WT 1944) Erik Conrad, unsuccessful, brutal tailor, is approached by a stranger who wants a suit made from a peculiar cloth that he brings with him. The suit must be cut and assembled at certain hours which the stranger

BLOCH, ROBERT indicates. When Conrad delivers the suit, he learns that he has stumbled into magic. The suit, made of the cloth of fate, will animate whatever is wearing it when the stars are right. Conrad's abused wife puts it on the window dummy, with whom she is accustomed to share her troubles. [c] "LIZZIE BORDEN TOOK AN AXE • • • " (WT 1946) When Anita's magician uncle is murdered in peculiar circumstances, Jim immediately thinks of the Borden case. The crimes are somewhat similar, and Jim speculates that something like an incubus might leap into one's mind and force one to commit murder. Anita •• [d] THE DEVIL'S TICKET. (WT 1944) Vane paints portraits_of such skill that the soul is captured in them. A little old man offers Vane a bargain: riches, if Vane pawns his soul for six months. The price of the pawn ticket is a portrait. Vane finds a unique way out of the bargain. Almost. Ie] THE BOGEY MAN WILL GET YOU. (WT 1946) Teen agers. Nancy wonders at Phi1ip,Ames's peculiarities. Is he a vampire? He does show a reflection in a mirror. There is another answer. * A good selection. [b] is quite interesting, with an opulence of imagination that is appealing. 218. THE LIVING DEMONS Belmont Books; New York 1967 paperbound Short stories, including [a] THE INDIAN SPIRIT GUIDE. (WT 1948) Orlando Crown, great ghost buster"attends_two seances. In one, he unmasks the medium, revealing fraud. In the second there is a manifestation, the ghost of the Indian Little HB_tchet. Crown is scalped. [b] "LUCY COMES TO STAY." (WT 1952) Vi is taking the cure for alcoholism when Lucy, her friend, tells her that she will never be released. Her husband is plotting to have her certified. She and Lucy escape. When the husband is found murdered, with Vi's fingerprincs OIl the weapon, Vi knows that Lucy did it. Lucy who is in the mirror. Questionable as supernaturalism. Madness.- [c] THE PLOT IS THE THING. (MFSF 1966) Peggy, who has turned away from reality into the world of the television tube, undergoes a lobotomy. When she recovers, she finds herself in the world of horror motion pictures. She wanders about in fear, since most places have a monster of some sort associated with them. She selects the peaceful Pacific of Jon Hall and Maria Montez. But she forgot about Kong. [d] UNDERGROUND. Alternate title, THE LIVING DEAD. (EQMM 1967) Eric Karon, an actor, plays the part of Count Barsac, a vampire, around Chateau Barsac during World War II. He is collaborating with the Germans, who want secrecy around the establishment. He realizes that he played his part too well when the peasants bring a stake. Not really supernatural. [e] THE BEASTS OF BARSAC. (WT 1944) Barsac, brilliant but perhaps mad scientist, is conducting experiments on transferring parts of his soul to animals. He has succeeded sufficiently to cause bodily changes in the animals concerned. He wants Jerome to assist in the experiments, but Jerome cannot determine where his unpleasant dreams end and reality begins. Nor can the reader. If] PHILTRE TIP. (ROGUE 1961). Mark Thornwa1d lusts

BLOCH, ROBERT for Adrienne, wife of his friend Charles. To gain his desire, he works up a love potion from Ludvig Prinn, which "will transforme ye beloved into a veritable bitche in heate." But Adrienne switches glasses, and Thornwald barks. [g] THE UNSPEAKABLE BETROTHAL. (AVON FANTASY READER 1949) Avis Long, who has a history of somnambulism,becomes entangled in her dreams with beings from Outside-- vaguely attached to the Cthulhu Cycle. They eventually come and take her away bodily. [h] BLACK BARGAIN.(WT 1942) During the Depression the druggist sells Gulther certain poisons and other chemicals. He guesses that Gulther is performing magical experiments. When Gulther evokes a demon and strikes a bargain with the demon, the druggist shares the good fortune for a time. But there is also a hypertrophied shadow. [i] BEAUTY'S BEAST. (WT 1941) Mardu, who operates the wonderful pet shop filled with sacred animals from the Orient, is a priest of Yama. He is using his shop to capture souls, which then are placed into his animals. [j] TELL YOUR FORTUNE. (WT 1950) Big Pete Mosko runs a crooked gambling hall. Working for him is a broken-down physicist and metaphysician named Tarelli, who wants to smuggle his daughter into the United States. Big Pete is unwilling to help Tarelli, who, as inducement, creates a scale that tells true fortunes. It eventually causes many deaths". Tarelli had made a diabolic bond and had incorporated part of his soul in the machine. * Best stories are [d] and lj ].

219. DRAGONS AND NIGHTMARES Mirage Press; Baltimore, Md. 1969 Humorous fantasies, indebted to Thorne Smith and, in the first two, Damon Runyon. * [a] A GOOD KNIGHT'S WORK. (UNK 1941). Butch is a retired hoodlum who has turned chicken farmer. On his way to market (and also to pay his local protection money), he encounters a knight from the Arthurian Round Table, who has been sent into the future to regain a sacred table from a local museum. Butch helps the knight and the knight aids Butch against the gangster who is shaking him down. [b] THE EAGER DRAGON. (WT 1943). Sequel to [a]. As a reward for Butch's help to the knight, Merlin sends Butch a dragon's egg. The egg hatches into a firebreathing dragon, which comes in handy when Butch has trouble with the gangsters. [c] NURSEMAID TO NIGHTMARES. (IMAGINATIVE TALES 1955). A combination of two earlier stories, NURSEMAID TO NIGHTMARES (WT 1942) and BLACK BARTER (WT 1943). The unemployed young man takes a job as general all-around man with a collector of supernatural oddities: a vampire, a werewolf, a dryad, a mermaid, and finally something that brings the collection to an end. Also witchcraft, demons, and a courtroom scene. * [a] and [b] are contrived, but [c], in its original form, was rather amusing, with some nice lines. * The edition cited above has not been seen, and story descriptions have been based on magazine texts. 220. HOUSE OF THE HATCHET Panther Books; St. Albans, Herts.; [1976]

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BLOCH, ROBERT A selection of material from THE OPENER OF THE WAY, with a new introduction by Bloch. * [a] THE HOUSE OF THE HATCHET. [b] RETURN TO THE SABBATH. [cl THE MANDARIN'S CANARIES. [d) WAXWORKS. [e) THE FEAST IN THE ABBEY. [f) SLAVE OF THE FLAMES. [g) THE SHAMBLER FROM THE STARS. [h) MOTHER OF SERPENTS. [i) THE SECRET OF SEBEK. [j) THE EYES OF THE MUMMY. [k) ONE WAY TO MARS. * This book should not be confused with reissues of 215, entitled THE HOUSE OF THE HATCHET. [ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 221. BLOCH AND BRADBURY TEN MASTERPIECES OF SCIENCE FICTION Tower Books; New York 1969 Despite the subtitle, no science-fiction here. Described elsewhere, [aj MANNIKINS OF HORROR, R. Bloch. Alternate title for THE MANNIKIN. [b) FEVER DREAM, R. Bradbury. [c) THE DEAD MAN, R. Bradbury. [d) A QUESTION OF ETIQUETTE, R. Bloch. [e) THE HANDLER, R. Bradbury. * Also [f) THE WATCHERS, R. Bradbury. (WT 1935). Tinsley has found the source of evil: insects. Since he is wrong, the forces of evil do not kill him. But when he learns the right answer-[g) THE SHADOW FROM THE STEEPLE, R. Bloch. (WT 1950). Sequel to THE HAUNTER OF THE DARK by H. P. Lovecraft. Fiske, a friend of Robert Blake, who died mysteriously, is not satisfied with the official explanation. Investigations lead him to Nyarlothotep; this is bad. Told in the manner of Lovecraft, but with much more skill than Bloch's earlier ventures in the style. [hI THE GRI~ING GHOUL, Robert Bloch. (WT ,1936) An early story in the manner of Lovecraft. Underground horrors and ghouls. [i] THE DRUIDIC DOOM, Robert Bloch. (WT 1936). In the manner of Lovecraft. Sir Charles Havoco, newly rich, buys a manor in an isolated area of Great Britain, On his land is a gigantic altar which he finds offensive to the sight. When outsiders remove it-- the local people will not touch it, except for blood sacrifices a passageway and monstrosities are uncovered. [j] THE MAN WHO CRIED WOLF! Robert Bloch. (WT 1945). The vacationer'~ wife is afraid of a werewolf in the neighborhood; the vacationer is having an affair with it. Its bite is worse than its beck. * [j] is competent commercial work; [g] is probably Bloch's most successful story in the manner of Lovecraft. The other new stories are negligible. BLODGETT, MABEL FULLER (1869-1959) New England writer, best known for children's fairy tales. 222. AT THE QUEEN'S MERCY Lamson, Wolffe; Bost'on and New York 1897 African adventure in the manner of H. Rider Haggard. Among the motifs are a map tattooed on the chest of a dead native priest; a lostrace of bronze-colored men; a beautiful, sensual queen (Queen Lah), who falls in love with the narrator; cults of a giant serpent and the moon; human sacrifice; and occasional supernatural visions and minor incidents. As is typical of the form, everything is destroyed at the end of the book. * Of no interest in it-

BLODGETT .. MABEL FULLER self, but a few years ago this book received some attention as a possible source of ideas for the Tarzan stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs, although the name "Lah" is the only real similarity. BOK, HANNES (1914-1964) Noted American fantasy artist, renowned for cover and interior work on genre magazines and books. A student of Maxfield Parrish's. Art is characterized by quasi-sculptural effects, a personal concept of line fluidity, traditional composition. A fine sense of color. Probably the most skilled technically of the genre artists. Bok was also a published writer, but his fiction, much in the manner of A. Merritt, shows imagination but is undisciplined and technically weak. See also Merritt, A. and Bok, H. 223. THE SORCERER'S SHIP Ballantine Books; New York 1969 paperbound Introduction by Lin Carter. * Fantastic adventure. (UNK 1942). * Gene, an unheroic hero who ventured out too far while swimming at Coney Island beach, awakens on a raft in an other-world. He is picked up by the ship carrying the Princess Siwara of Nanich on a diplomatic mission to the rival empire of Koph. As Gene gradually learns, this new world, which is medieval in material culture, contains only two countries, Nanich and Koph, which are usually at war. Koph is "the more powerful, and Siwara's mission amounts to surrender to the more militant state. Political and erotic complications arise, and the mission is deflected from its route to land on an unknown island, where Gene and Siwara meet a friendly, immortal sea man, who invokes for them the god Orcher. Orcher promises to help them against Koph, and gives them a jewel which they should break to summon him. The war goes against Nanich; the crystal is broken; and Orcher defeats Koph by forming gigantic beings out of the battle corpses and laying the land waste. It would seem that matters have been settled, but Gene thinks that he should turn the land into a democracy. As a result Siwara is out of a job and persona non grata. They return to the island of the sea man. * Not too satisfying. 224. B"EYOND THE GOLDEN STAIR Ballantine Books; New York 1970 paperbound Introduction by Lin Carter. This is a much longer version of a short novel, THE BLUE FLAMINGO, originally published in STARTLING STORIES in 1948. * In the manner of A. Merritt. * In the heart of the Everglades is an unknown building. At the top of a flight of stairs is a roof pool, within which is an invisible staircase reaching up into an other-world. Guarding the pool is a blue flamingo, who warns potential visitors telepathically that they should not climb the stairs unless they have a token. The other-~orld at the top of the stairs has peculiar characteristics: sounds are visible as color formations; gravity operates differently, so that one may be walking up walls; and strangers are changed, within a matter of twenty-four hours, to their true selves-- which may be almost anything. Hibbert, who is in jail because

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he was tricked into signing bad checks, is dragged along on a jail break with a brute (Scarlatti), the brute's gun moll (Carlotta), and a cold killer (Burks). Burks finds a semisalvation in taking the place of the original blue flamingo, which he had shot; Scarlatti and Carlotta are suitably transformed; and Hibbert is improved by the scheduled transformation. But Hibbert must leave the land, and he is now trying to find a token so that he can return. A young woman is waiting for him. Superior to THE SORCERER'S SHIP, but still only routine work.

*

BO'LD, PAUL (pseud. of Bousfield, Edward George Paul) (1880 - ?) British physician, author. Editor of St. Barts Hospital Journal, author of books on medicine and psychoanalysis, social theory. 225. THE TEMPLE OF DREAMS W. J. Ham-Smith; London 1912 Semi-eccentric occult romance. * The narrator, wandering around Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, saves a beautiful young woman from drowning. He learns that she and her father are the last survivors of the ancient rulers of Tiahuanaco and guard immense treasures. Lest he should reveal the secret of their existence, he is initiated into their organization. While under drugs, he dreams the major portion of the book. This is a long sentimental novel of political and social intrigue in an exotic setting. The characters sort themselves out into very good and very bad, but almost everyone dies in volcanic eruptions. The people of the ancient empire of Tiahuanaco are "natural Christians" and have telepathic communication. The narrator, back in the present, wonders about reincarnation. * A curiosity, possibly not meant seriously. BOLITHO, [HENRY] HECTOR (1897-1974) M.R.S.A., M.R.S.L. English author of New Zealand birth. Editor of SHAKESPEARE QUARTERLY. Author of fiction and authorized biographical studies of the British royal family. Most noteworthy work the story "The House in Half Moon Street," which has been dramatized for stage and motion picture. 226. THE HOUSE IN HALF MOON STREET AND OTHER STORIES Cobden-Sanderson; London 1935 Short stories, including [a] THE HOUSE IN HALF MOON STREET. (1933) Early Victorian London. Michael Strange occasionally passes the haunted house on Half Moon Street. On his first arrival in London, on Christmas, he saw lights in the house and witnessed the murder of a beautiful young woman. Some years later he meets a woman whom he recognizes as the murder victim and falls in love w"ith her", But he sees the scene in the haunted house again, and on this occasion recognizes himself as the murderer. He does not know that his future father-inlaw has been pla~ning to buy this very house. as a wedding present. [b] THE ALBATROSS. (1931) An excellent story of theriomorphy. The narrator, concerned with ornithology, becomes acquainted with Captain Angermann, a German sea

BOLITHO, HECTOR captain who has an incredible knowledge of sea birds. After World War I he meets the captain again, on a passenger liner which the captain commands. The captain can assume the form of an albatross. [c] THE BOY WHO WAS MAD. (1930) A half-witted boy is kind to a dying, consumptive girl and is visited by her ghost after she dies. [d] TAUREKE'S EYE. (1924) Taureke is a Maori medical student in Great Britain. He seems to go mad, swallowing a quantity of glass eyes. It is learned that an ancestor of his had swallowed the eyes of an Englishman who had insulted him. In both cases it is rejection of cultural contamination. [e] THE CRYING GRATE. (1935). Somewhat in the manner of M. R. James. The sound of a child's voice is associated with a fire grate. It came from an abbey where diabolism was practiced, with human sacrifice. * The dates are those offered by Bolitho. * An uneven collection. [a] and [b] are excellent, but the other stories, particularly the nonsupernatural ones, are much weaker. BOND, NELSON S[LADE] (1908 ) American publicist, philatelist, fiction writer, rare book dealer. Frequent contributor to periodicals circa World War II. Important work, THE POSTAL STATIONERY OF CANADA (1953). Best known for story "Mr. Mergenthwirker's Lobblies," which was turned into radio series and successful play. Best work is characterized by light touch and irony. 227. MR. MERGENTHWIRKER'S LOBBLIES AND OTHER FANTASTIC TALES Coward-McCann; New York [1946 ] Short stories, including [a] MR. MERGENTHWIRKER'S LOBBLIES. (SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE 1937) A pair of invisible creatures accompany Mr. Mergenthwirker. He feels badly at being unable to provide for them after his death. [b] THE REMARKABLE TALENT OF EGBERT HAW. A talking horse breaks into the motion pictures. [c] THE MASTER OF COTSWOLD. (WT 1944) He releases an ancient monster from a well and lives long enough to regret his action. [d] THE FOUNTAIN. (UNK 1941) The fountain of youth. [e] UNION IN GEHENNA. (FANTASTIC ADVENTURES 1943) A labor organizer organizes Hell and cuts down punishments. Bad results. [f] THE BOOKSHOP. A place where the books that were never written are stored. * A somewhat uneven collection •. The best story in the book, "Conqueror's Isle," is science-fiction. ~ .THE THIRTY-FIRST OF FEBRUARY Gnome Press; New York [1949] Introductory verse by James Branch Cabell. Short stories, including [a] THE MASK OF MEDUSA. Shaner, kidnapper and murderer, takes temporary refuge in a crime gallery, which has images of notorious murderers. In conversation with the owner he learns that the owner is conducting a one-man vendetta against murderers and that the images are really petrified bodies of the criminals. Shaner does not believe that the owner has Medusa's head. [b] THE RING. Once owned by Judas, it gives its possessor power and success, but it also brings him to a bad end. Muller, an American correspondent in Ber-

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BOND, NELSON lin, picks it up at an auction, but it is stolen from him by an Austrian paperhanger who has been working in his apartment. [c] THE GRIPES OF WRAITH. Told in Runyonese. The ghost, a remarkable embezzler in life, is earthbound until he repays what he stole. The protagonist, a grifter, wants the embezzling trick, and, to get it, pays off the debt-- in Confederate money. [d] THE FIVE LIVES OF ROBERT JORDAN. An uncomical Walter Mitty. A watch bought in a strange shop gives Jordan different lives, but each ends in death: big-time gambler, crooked financier, Don Juan playwright, great surgeon, etc. Fate. [e] "TAKE MY DRUM TO ENGLAND • • • If (UNK 1941) Drake's ship appears as a phantom in World War II. [f] THE MAN WHO WALKED THROUGH GLASS. (ESQUIRE 1938) Guimple, whenever he passes through a mirror, is reversed in speech and appearance. There is a marvelous wonderland to be found beyond the mirror; he enters the telescopic mirror lens at Mount Lick. [g] THE ENCHANTED PENCIL. Wilbert, would-be author, usually types rubbish. But when he uses a certain pencil bought from a sidewalk vendor, he writes great literature, But the pencil is soon worn out. [h] THE SPORTSMAN. Borderline fantasy. Margrave, a cripple, is admitted to the Hunt Club since he enjoys the pleasures of the chase vicariously. When he dies, the narrator hears a spectral hunt-although the interpretation is qualified. [i] SAINT MULLIGAN. (FANTASTIC ADVENTURE 1943) Mulligan, a rather coarse New York cop, saves the life of an angel, who is almost run over by a truck. As a reward, Mulligan asks for a promotion. The angel takes this to mean beatitude and confers on him a halo-- which is embarrassing in itself but also conveys miraculous powers. Mulligan, to his everlasting regret, sell s the halo to a Mr. B. L.· Zebub • * The other stories are science-fiction. Light and deft work. [c] and [i] are best. 229. NIGHTMARES AND DAYDREAMS Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1968 Short stories, including [a] THE SONG. (BLUE BOOK 1949). A sentimental story of David Bannerman, songwriter, who dies while trying to write the Song-- which is of a world beyond human audition. [b] PETERSEN'S EYE. (BLUE BOOK 1949). Borderline science-fiction. Petersen has an accident to his eye; the result is that he sees the future. There is fear when he looks at obituaries. [c] BIRD OF PREY. (BLUE BOOK 1949) Irish-American dialect. Lazy, good-for-nothing Uncle Michael proves to be of use when Dennis comes down with influenza around World War I. Michael can see the bird of death that will come for Dennis and can fight it. [d] THE SPINSTERS. (BLUE BOOK 1950) The three Parker sisters come to town (Hattie, Lucy, Chloe), and a little boy becomes friendly with them. He even surreptitiously meddles with the web that they are weaving. The Parcae. [e] THE DEVIL TO PAY. (BLUE BOOK 1951) Squaredeal Sam McGhee agrees to help Barton break his contract with the Devil. The contract holds that Barton must have unfailing good luck, including winning bets. A psychological solution

BOND, NELSON seems easy to McGhee, but the ham actor that he had hired to play the part of the Devil did not appear. The expected happens. [f] AL HADDON'S LAMP. (UNK 1942). AI, who wants to marry the boss's daughter, buys an antique Islamic lamp. It is occupied by a genie who is very helpful and lets Al get his wishes. AI's wife, however, gives the lamp to a junk dealer; its metal becomes part of the space rocket. One of the engineers strokes it and makes a wish. In the magazine version, if I remember correctly, the lamp became part of the war effort. [g] LAST INNING. (BLUE BOOK 1948) Old Tom Ward, superannuated baseball player, has a feeling of vertigo then finds himself playing with the great dead players of the past. [h] THE DARK DOOR. (BLUE BOOK 1952) Parker tells the psychiatrist about his obsession or psychic appearance. At certain crises in his life he sees a dark door, which does not really exist. He saw it when he was caught stealing fruit as a boy, when about to murder a more fortunate lover, when stealing funds from the bank. What does it mean? Parker learns very concretely in a short time. * Best stories are [c] and [d] •

BOOTHBY, GUY (1867-1905) Prolific English author of Australian birth. Noted for sensational fiction in variety magazines around the .turn of the century. Best known works are a series (with slight' sciencefiction elements) based on Dr. Nikola, an un~ scrupulous but highly intelligent mastermind, whose adventures are glamorized. 230. PHAROS, THE EGYPTIAN A ROMANCE Ward, Lock; London 1899 Thriller with romance and some supernaturalism. * Revelations from a manuscript. Cyril Forrester, successful artist, meets a very sinister old man named Pharos, usually called Pharos the Egyptian. Forrester has inherited from his father, who was an Egyptologist, a mummy which Pharos claims is that of his remote ancestor of 3,000 years before. The mummy is that of the magician Ptahmes, who had served the pharaoh during the Exodus. The relationship between Forrester and Pharos is ambivalent, for although Pharos speaks plausibly, he is utterly ruthless, deceptive, and coercive, and his protestations of friendship are unconvincing. Nevertheiess, Forrester falls under his' occult sway. Less ambivalent is Pharos's ward, a beautiful young Hungarian woman whom Pharos uses as a divining medium. She and Forrester fall in love. Forrester goes to Egypt with Pharos in order to return the mummy to'its tomb. There he has supernatural experiences, including visions of Ancient Egypt. On their return to Europe, a virulent plague breaks out, and Forrester learns that he is the carrier, inoculated by Pharos. Eventually Pharos is brought down by the judgment of Ancient Egypt for misuse of power and dies. It is revealed that Pharos was really Ptahmes, who survived through the centuries, with full magical powers. Unfortunately, there are many loose ends in the narrative, including the perplexing question of

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BOUCHER, ANTHONY how Pharos could have survived as Pharos, yet also have been a mummy. * Badly planned, unconvincing sensationalism. 231. THE LADY OF THE ISLAND John Long; London 1904 Short stories, including [a] A PROFESSOR OF EGYPTOLOGY. A rehash of A.C. Doyle's THE RING OF THOTH. Professor Constanides is reincarnated from Ancient Egypt. In the past he had unjustly killed a girl and in this incarnation he must receive her forgiveness. Also visions of the past. [b] THE BLACK LADY OF BRIN TOR. In the narrator's rented house in Devon a strange lady in black is occasionally to be seen. The narrator follows her and when she leaps off a cliff, examines the area below. She is revealing the location of her dead husband's skeleton. [c] A STRANGE GOLDFIELD. Australia. A goldfield that seems to be haunted by the ghosts of dead miners, although the situation is not clearly developed. * Thin commercial fiction of the day. BOUCHER, ANTHONY (pseud. of White, William Anthony Parker) (1911-1968) Noted American (California) editor, critic, scholar, writer. A very gifted man, trained in comparative philology at the University of California. One of world's authorities on early operatic recordings. Founder (with J. Francis McComas) of THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, one of first publications to lift science-fiction away from pulp action or fictionalized engineering, Noteworthy as probably finest modern critic of fantastic fiction and detective fiction. The annual mystery convention, the Bouchercon, named in his honor. Also used pseudonym H. H. HOLMES (after Chicago mass murderer who long held record for multiple killings) for crime fiction. Despite high critical and editorial importance, less significant as a writer of fiction., 232. THE COMPLEAT WEREWOLF AND OTHER TALES OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION Simon and Schuster; New York 1969 Two short novels, and short stories. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE COMPLEAT WEREWOLF. [b] SNULBUG. * Also, [c] THE PINK CATERPILLAR. (ADVENTURE 1945) An object cannot exist twice in the same time and space. Therefore, to escape an enemy, one can bring his skeleton from the future. This is done magically. [d] MR. LUPESCU. (WT 1945) Lupescu, too obviously a vampire, terrorizes a small boy with threats of the monster Gorgo. When Lupescu shoots the boy's father, and later removes his vampire makeup, he is discovered to be an admirer of the boy's mother. But Gorgo has assumed reality. [e] THEY BITE. (UNK 1943). The inhabitants of the ruins in the Southwest may be the Benders of Victorian criminal fame, but they are mummy-like living corpses-- and very malignant. [f] WE PRINT THE TRUTH. (ASTOUNDING 1943) Wherever Whelan (Wayland) Smith works, he offers, on leaving, one wish to his former boss. In this case a harassed newspaper publisher in a small town wishes that everything the paper prints will be true. And so it

BOUCHER, ANTHONY is. The newspaper'man solves a murder, works out labor problems, ends the war (only where the circulation of the paper reaches), and gets the woman he wants-- but not her love. Eventually the miracles come to have a sour taste. The wish is cancelled by setting up a logical paradox. [g] THE GHOST OF ME. (UNK 1942). What can one do when one's own ghost appears and announces one's imminent death? And then when the ghost is shot and killed with a silver bullet? * if] has amusing moments. AS EDITOR: WITH McCOMAS, J[ESSE] FRANCIS (1911-1978) American writer, editor. Co-editor with Boucher of THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE-FICTION until mid 1954. Co-editor with RAYMOND J. HEALY of science-fiction anthology ADVENTURES IN TIME AND SPACE (1946), one of first important science-fiction collections. 233. THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION Little, Brown and Co.; Boston [1952] The first collection built from back issues of MFSF. Many of the stories were reprints. * Including [a] ELEPHAS FRUMENTI, L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt and [b] THE GIFT OF GOD, L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt. Both described elsewhere for context. [c] THE FRIENDLY DEMON, Daniel Defoe. Described elsewhere. [d] THE THREEPENNY PIECE, James Stephens. (from HERE ARE LADIES, 1913) A wild, rollicking fantasy of the after-death experiences of Brien O'Brien, whose threepenny death piece_ was stolen by Cochulain the cherub. [e] DRESS OF WHITE SILK, Richard Matheson. (MFSF 1951) Told by a small girl, by indirection. A subtle story of a little girl who tries on her dead mother's white dress, and then does something horrible. Presumably vampirism in the past, now reemerging. if] THE MATHEMATICAL VOODOO, H. Nearing, Jr. One of the stupidest students in the class is turned into a mathematical genius by means of doll magic. This is one of a series about Professor Ransom, the other members of which are science-fiction. [g] THE HUB, Philip MacDonald. (MFSF 1951). Afterdeath experiences, leading to a horrible solitary confinement. [h] BUILT UP LOGICALLY, Howard Schoenfeld. (RETORT 1949). An absurdist fantasy of the roles of author and character, as H. H. Aspasia has difficulties with his character Frank. Universes are created; roles are interchanged. [i] THE RAT THAT COULD SPEAK, Charles Dickens. Part of NURSE'S TALE, described elsewhere. [j] NARAPOIA, Alan Nelson. Just the opposite of paranoia: expectation of good things. [k] POSTPAID TO PARADISE, Robert Arthur. (ARGOSY 1940) A small fantasy classic about the unrecorded postage stamps that can take one to the wonderful country of El Dorado. [1] JOHN THE REVELATOR, Oliver LaFarge. (MFSF 1951) When John, the new supercomputer, is operative, the clergyman attending the official unveiling asks it an existential question, Can you write the equation for God? Can you solve man's real problem? The computer does write such an equation with three unknowns, and then starts to issue fragments from the New Testament in the original Greek. Other great compu-

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BOUCHER, ANTHONY AND McCOMAS, J. FRANCIS ters follow suit. It is necessary to do the equivalent of a lobotomy. * A good collection, outstanding stories of which are [d], [h], [k], and [1]. 234. THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE-FICTION, SECOND SERIES Little, Brown and Co.; Boston 1953 Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] THE SHOUT, Robert Graves. [b] STAIR TRICK, Mildred Clingerman. [c] JIZZLE, John Wyndham. [d] THE BLACK BALL, L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt. [e] THE DESRICK ON YANDRO, Manly Wade Wellman. if] THE EARLIER SERVICE, Margaret Irwin. [g] COME ON, WAGON, Zenna Henderson. [h] THE CHEERY SOUL, Elizabeth Bowen. * Also [i] THE THIRD LEVEL, Jack Finney. The narrator, who is unhappy in this modern world, finds the third (lowest) level at Grand Central Station to be an affair of 1894, with possible communication to anywhere else in the world of 1894. Nicely told. [j] THE SOOTHSAYER, Kem Bennett. Welsh ethnic·patterns. When Tom Williams gets a hearing aid, a ghost named Ianto comes along with it. Ianto knows the future and is determined to make Tom a prophet. Tom does not enjoy being a prophet, particularly when he knows his own death date. [k] THE HOLE IN THE MOON, Idris Seabright. (Pseud. of Margaret St. Clair). Borderline science-fiction; the post-catastrophe world. A plague carried by women has almost wiped out the human race. A "last man" projects a dream image, rejects it, and settles for actuality. The plague also acts as an aphrodisiac. [1] UGLY SISTER, Jan Struther. The story of Cinderella, as told by one of her stepsisters. The point of view is different. Not properly fantastic, except in being linked to the fairy tale. * Best new material is [i] and [1]. 235. THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, THIRD SERIES Doubleday; New York 1954 Short stories, all from issues of 1953. * Including, [a] THE UNTIMELY TOPER, L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt. A Gavagan's Bar story. The magician Abaris has put a spell on Pearce's feet, so that he moves back and forth in time. [b] VANDY. VANDY. Manly Wade Wellman. man. A story about John, the wanderir.g ballotsinger. While tracking down the ballad "Vandy, Vandy," John comes upon its place oi origin. Also present is a 270-year old witchman from Salem, who first inspired the ballad. A good conjuration scene. [c] NEW RITUAL, Idris Seabright. (pseud. of Margaret St. Clair). A modern version of the old cauldron of youth theme, but now with an electric freezer. Nicely told from the point of view of a farm wife. [d] DEVLIN, W. B. Ready. A modern version of the ~ied Piper. Smoothly led on by Devlin, a stranger in the area, the parish sets up an Irish marching band, with kilts, bagpipes and all. Devlin, whose name gives an indication of his identity, marches them all to---? Nicely told in a florid way. [e] SNULBUG, Anthony Boucher. A tiny imp, of very limited powers, whose best is hardly adequate for fulfilling wishes. [f] SHEPHERD'S BOY, Richard Middleton.

BOUCHER, ANTHONY AND McCOMAS, J. FRANCIS Described elsewhere. [g) "STAR LIGHT, STAR BRIGHT," Alfred Bester. Described elsewhere for context. * [b), [d), [g) are best. BOUCHER, ANTHONY, ALONE AS EDITOR: 236. THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FIC'I'ION, FOURTH SERIES Doubleday; Garden City, N.Y. 1955. With this volume McComas is no longer co-editor. * Short stories originally published in 1954, including, [a] I NEVER AST NO FAVORS, C. M. Kornbluth. A dead-end kid who narrates like a Damon Runyon character comes into contact with folkloristic magic and evocation of demons in the Pennsylvania Dutch area. Humor. [b) $1.98, Arthur Porges. Once a century the small god Eep must take on the form of a mouse as penalty for cheating at chess. Will saves the god, and will get a reward, but Eep can only manage things up to $1.98. Clever. [c) THE ACCOUNTANT, Robert Sheckley. Morton Dee, born into one of the last few families of witches, refuses to follow the family mode and become a witch. He wants to become an accountant. When his family invoke demons to punish him, he is protected by the Accountant, the demon of crooked finance. [d) MY BOY FRIEND'S NAME IS JELLO, Avram Davidson. Folkloristic magic of children's street games, commenting on life, perhaps making the future. [e) MISADVENTURE, Lord Dunsany. Described elsewhere. [f] THE LITTLE BLACK TRAIN, Manly Wade Wellman. The hill country, told in dialect. John, wandering with his guitar, is invited to make music for a hill party. He learns the history of the area: Donie Carawan, the landlady of the area, has been responsible for a murder. She gets symbolic punishment from the Little Black Train, which seems to be a folkloristic image of death. Its cars are black coffins. * All five new stories are excellent. [f) is the best of the John series. 237. THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, FIFTH SERIES Doubleday; Garden City, N.Y. (1956) Short stories originally published in 1955, including, [a] YOU'RE ANOTHER, Damon Knight. Borderline science-fiction. Johnny Bornish, cloddish Greenwich Village artist, observes that most of his mishaps have been watched or caused by two persons, a man and a woman. He also discovers that a bronze token identifies him to his tormentors. When he induces the man to talk, he learns that he and his entire ambience are parts in a gigantic "livie," a superepic being made in the future. [b) THE VANISHING AMERICAN, Charles Beaumont. Described elsewhere for context. [c) TOO FAR, Fredric Brown. An amusing short-short about theriomorphy. [d) THE LAST PROPHET, Mildred Clingerman. Described elsewhere. [e) NELLTHU, Anthony Boucher. One of the best ways to cheat the Devil: Love. * Good stories. [a) is one of the best behind the scenes of cosmology stories. [e) has a new twist to an old tail. 238. THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, SIXTH SERIES Poubladay; Garden City, N.Y. [1957]

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BOUCHER, ANTHONY Short stories originally published in 1956, including, [a) THE COSMIC EXPENSE ACCOUNT, C. M. Kornbluth. Professor Leuten's functional epistemology is probably a crank pseudo-philosophy to scholars, but when believed and practiced by an old maid in Pennsylvania, it threatens the world. The professor and his publisher's publicity man have to undo the damage. Humor. [b] MR. SAKRISON'S HALT, Mildred Clingerman. Mr. Sakrison disappeared from a train at a pleasant small town, named Brosomething. His fiancee rides the trains for decades thereafter, looking for the station. She eventually finds it. Probably allegorical for brotherhood and tolerance. [c) FINAL CLEARANCE, Rachel Maddux. Tom returns from the dead. Bureaucracy on the other side will not process him until his dossier is correct. [d] THE SHODDY LANDS, C. S. Lewis. A don sees an incredibly shabby, shoddy world when he perceives things through the personality-lens of a student's fiancee. Contrast between this vision and the student's. [e] NO MAN PURSUETH, Ward Moore. The world is suddenly plagued by disappearances-- planes, individuals-- some of whom return. Hermione Hadstone, travelling by automobile across the continent, is pulled in and out of several such space holes. In each case she enters the past, to witness a scene of intolerance. The message is that the balance of good and evil is being upset and nature is making adjustments. [f) ICARUS MONTGOLFIER WRIGHT, Ray Bradbury. Impressionistic exhilaration of th= first man on Mars, awaiting death. Properly science-fiction, but with some weird overtones. * [b] and [f) are best. 239. THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, SEVENTH SERIES Doubleday; Garden City, N.Y. 1958 This volume is mostly science-fiction. Stories originally published in 1957, including [a) ADJUSTMENT, Ward Moore. Robert Squith, completely average philistine, has been selected to be a psychiatric companion to Robert Wais, who is "disturbed." In an unaccountable fashion, Squith wanders into Wais's private world, which is characterized by high sensuality, great but mythical books, ideal but unhistorical sports events-- and he is completely unable to appreciate it. At the end of the story there are glimmerings of readjustment. Amusing [b) THE WILD WOOD, Mildred Clingerman. Described elsewhere. * Both good stories. 240. THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, EIGHTH SERIES Doubleday; Garden City, N.Y. [1959] Short stories originally published in 1958> including, [a] A DESKFUL OF GIRLS, Fritz Leiber. Dr. Emil Slyker, Hollywood psychotherapist and psychical researcher, has discovered the true nature of ectoplasm, a thin layer of skin-like substance. He extracts it from beautiful movie stars and keeps ectoplasmic "ghosts" in great quantity in his desk. Loosely connected with the change-war series. [b] ERIPMAV, Damon Knight. On a planet of the Fomalhaut system there exists a race of cellulose vampires. Short. Humor. [c) THE MEN WHO MURDERED MO-

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HAMMED, Alfred Bester. Time travel paradoxes. When Professor Henry Hassel, great mathematician, comes home unexpectedly, he finds his wife in another man's arms. He builds a time machine and goes into the past to kill his wife's ancestors. He does this, but his wife is still present when he returns. He makes trip after trip, killing ancestors and great men, but discovers that the present remains unchanged. It is the peculiar nature of time. Science-fiction in theme, but supernatural in ultimate explanation, including ghosts. Humor. * For further volumes in this series, see MILLS, ROBERT (editor). BOUSFIELD, H[ENRY] T[HOMAS] W[ISHART] British fiction writer, political writer 241. VINEGAR-- AND CREAM SHORT STORIES John Murray; London 1941 Short stories, usually chatty and colloquial, including [a] DEATH AND THE DUCHESS. The ancient Duchess of Bolton.is 92, but looks decades younger. Her secretaries, however, pine away and die of exhaustion. The Duchess is not an ordinary vampire; her doctor has perfected a new sort of blood transfusion that permits transfer of vitality. Borderline science-fiction. [b) THE IDENTICAL TWIN. A tubercular boy has an imaginary playmate, the ghost of an uncle who died as a child. The boy and the ghost resemble .each other closely. The ghost takes the boy away, but the corpse that is found is the uncle's, uncorrupted. Presented as the reason that a doctor is joining a society for psychical research. [c] THE IMPOSSIBLE ADVENTURE. Greece. A race of centaur-like beings (bottom half horse's legs, top half human) lives in caves beneath Greece. One emerges, is injured during a landslide and earthquake, and is tended by a British traveller. Neither he nor the woman that falls in love with him can survive. [d) THE HAUNTED GHOST. A priest tells of a house that is haunted by the ghost of a woman who drowned her child. She in turn is haunted by the child. * Capably handled, if familiar in theme. BOUTON, JOHN BELL (1830-1902) New Hampshire novelist, writer of travel books, biographer. 242. THE ENCHANTED AN AUTHENTIC ACCOUNT OF THE STRANGE ORIGIN OF THE NEW PSYCHICAL CLUB Cassell; New York [1891) Fantasy novel. * Meldrum and Wadlow, members of the Hailfellows Club, after seeing what others consider a ghost, decide that it is to be explained as projection of mental content. After practice they discover that they have the power to enter certain other-worlds, those strongly felt for literary reasons. They visit the Pickwick Club, Kenilworth at the time of Queen Elizabeth's visit, Grey's world at Stoke Pogis, Byron's on the Jungfrau, Boston of the SCARLET LETTER, and Longfellow's Minehaha Falls. * A curiosity only. BOWEN, ELIZABETH (1899-1973) Noted Anglo-Irish novelist, biographer.

Born

BOWEN, MARJORIE in Dublin; most of life spent in England and on the Continent. Highly regarded for short stories and novels, which are usually narrow in range, but original in treatment and deeply felt. Much of her work is in the "fragment of life school." 243. THE CAT JUMPS AND OTHER STORIES Gollancz; London 1934 Short stories, including [a] THE CAT JUMPS, and [b) THE APPLE TREE, both of which are described in the Asquith anthologies where they first appeared. 244. THE DEMON LOVER AND OTHER STORIES J ona than Cape; London [1945) American title, IVY GRIPPED THE STAIRS. * Short stories based on "the hallucinations [that) are an unconscious, instinctive resort" away from the pain and fear of the wartime years. A couple of the stories are fantastic in our sense; several others, not described, slide into symbolic situations approaching fantasy. Including, [a) THE CHEERY SOUL. The narrator arrives as.a house guest and discovers that his hosts have disappeared. They were presumably disloyal politically in one way or another and have made a run for it. The narrator also finds notes and messages from an eccentric cook who had died a year before. Or it is all imagination. [b) THE DEMON LOVER. A modern version of the.old ballad story. Mrs. Drover, returning to her house in a bombed out area, finds a note from a lover of twenty-five years before. He expects her to keep her promise and to be ready at the time arranged-but she can remember nothing of it. She is whisked away, under horrible circumstances, by taxi, into the deserted streets. [c) THE HAppy AUTUMN FIELDS. Mary, under shock during aerial bombardment, has fugues into a placid, bucolic Victorian world that is somehow connected with her family history. She oscillates back and forth, and there is a possibility that her time experiences may have caused a death in the past. [d) PINK MAY. She reminisces about a ghost in her bedroom, during her first marriage. The ghost, never visible, causes an affair that she has been carrying on to collapse. She then has neither husband nor lover. The ghost is probably a psychological block or conscience. [e) GREEN HOLLY. During the Christmas party for the personnel of an obscure government agency, in an old house in the country, ghosts of earlier Christmases emerge. * Subtle, beautifully told stories with much that does not summarize well. BOWEN, MARJORIE (pseud. of Long, Gabrielle Margaret Vere, nee Campbell) (1886-1952) Prolific English author of historical fiction, popularized history, biography, miscellaneous work. Wrote under pseudonyms Marjorie Bowen, Joseph Shearing (which see), George Preedy, John Winch, Robert Paye, and perhaps others. A somewhat underestimated author who seldom wrote to top capacity. Her supernatural short stories are original in treatment, often with a slight symbolic touch. Her books are rare, and I regret that several were not available to me.

BOWEN, MARJORIE 245. BLACK MAGIC A TALE OF THE RISE AND FALL OF ANTICHRIST Alston Rivers; London 1909 Historical novel with incidental supernaturalism. Medieval Europe, date not precisely determined. Based on the Renaissance legend of Pope Joan. * After black magic, transvestism, and witchcraft, Ursula becomes Pope Michael II (or Pope Joan), and she intends to make her lover Thierry emperor. But Thierry developes scruples and the situation collapses. * Sketchy, uneven, but with a strong sense of the dramatic. An immature work, promising better. 246. DARK ANN AND OTHER STORIES John Lane; London [1927 ] Short stories, including [a] THE ACCIDENT. Very short. Two men, after an automobile accident, realize that they are dead. [b] A PERSISTENT WOMAN. Very short. Marital difficulties are not removed by death. The ghost of a hostile wife hangs on. Memory. [c] FLOWER OF CARNIVAL. Borderline fantasy. In the dream world of the Venetian carnival, reality is surmounted. But after the carnival is over, should one hold the dream or the reality? [d] DARK ANN. The doctor's story. In a small British town the doctor came upon the name of an Ann Marly, who had lived during the time of Charles I. Later, in an antique shop he meets another Ann Marly, with whom he falls in love. When he leaves her to attend a medical convention, he loses her. She had been a ghost or a dream. When he abandoned the dream, he abandoned love. * [a] is a skillful handling of an old theme. [d] is very nicely told, with a good balance of sentiment and restraint. 247. THE BISHOP OF HELL AND OTHER STORIES John Lane, The Bodley Head; London 1949 Introduction by Michael Sadleir. * Short stories, including [a] THE FAIR HAIR OF AMBROISE The Terror, France. A notorious dancer is murdered, and her lover, Claude, dreams that he will be killed by the same person. He acts with caution, but cannot escape fate. [b] THE CROWN DERBY PLATE. Described elsewhere. [c] THE HOUSEKEEPER. Reign of Queen Anne. Beau Selforde, a notorious rake, murders his wife so that he can marry another woman who is presumably wealthy. But the second wife is really poor, and the first wife does not rest quietly. [d] FLORENCE FLANNERY. Early 19th century. An intricate story. Florence Flannery, a 16th century Irish girl who betrayed her lover, is cursed to remain alive, ever young, until he can catch her. He comes as a fish demon. Nicely told. [e] THE BISHOP OF HELL. Late 18th century. Hector Greatrix, defrocked clergyman, leads a dissolute life of riot and lechery, until he is shot and killed by an injured husband. Thereupon he lives up to his nickname, and there is a vision of him as a fiery, tortured being. [f] THE GREY CHAMBER, Anonymous. Bowen's translation of an early 19th century German story. A night in the Grey Chamber,.which is haunted by Lady Gertrude and a skeleton. [g] THE AVENGING OF ANN LEETE. Described elsewhere. [hI KECKSIES. 18th century. The corpse of Crediton's enemy is reanimated by the Devil and violates Crediton's wife. * Well handled pe-

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BOWEN, MARJORIE riod backgrounds, capable development; material horror handled in a sophisticated manner. 248. KECKSIES AND OTHER TWILIGHT TALES Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1976 Preface by the author explaining in general terms the origin of the stories. * A collection of material from earlier volumes. Including, described elsewhere, [a] KECKSIES. [b] THE AVENGING OF ANN LEETE. [c] THE CROWN DERBY PLATE. [d] FLORENCE FLANNERY •. * Also [e] RAW MATERIAL. An unusual twist to murder and its aftermath. When old Ursula Beane suddenly dies-- her hoarded money missing and arsenic in her body-- the Catchpoles fall under suspicion. But there is no evidence and they are not prosecuted. They claim, thereupon, to be in contact with the spirit of their aunt. Some time later the narrator meets the Catchpoles in Venice. They are now wealthy and are enjoying themselves. They are accompanied by supernatural phenomena. Catchpole now admits murdering the old woman, but it turns out that the ghost wants them to enjoy the money and behaves very raucously. [f] THE SIGN-PAINTER AND THE CRYSTAL FISHES. A metaphoric mythical fiction that cannot be summarized well. [g] THE BREAKDOWN. Murdock has half fallen in love with a sketch of an early 19th century woman, Marie Blanchard. When he is on his way to visit the friend who owns the sketch, transportation breaks down and he stops for a time at the Wishing Inn. Those who pass on Christmas Eve are allowed one wish. Murdock wishes for Marie Blanchard and finds himself in the past. But there is also a resolution in the present. [hI ONE REMAINED BEHIND. Premodern Paris. Rudolph, poor and unscrupulous student, acquires a book of Renaissance spells and decides to use it. His spell summons four persons supernaturally, and he acquires luck at cards, fame, and finding hidden treasure. There is a price to be paid. [i] THE HOUSE BY THE POPPY FIELD. Death. When Maitland inherits Bothnal from a distant relative, he,encounters a ghost. The ghost tells him of an ancestor who had evoked the dead, who now remain. The implications are that Maitland, too, will meet death. [j] HALF-PAST TWO. The avenging dead. * Welcome since Bowen's books are otherwise difficult to find. Individual treatment of sometimes original themes; perhaps a little rough, but worth reading. AS EDITOR: 249. GREAT TALES OF HORROR John Lane; London 1935 Including [al SIR DOMINICK SARSFIELD, J. S. LeFanu. [b] THE QUEEN OF SPADES, A. Pushkin. [c] THE GREY CHAMBER, Anonymous. [d] THE WITCH, N. V. Gogol. Alternate title for ST. JOHN'S EVE. [e] THE GHOST OF A HEAD, Anonymous. [f] THE GREAT KEINPLATZ EXPERIMENT, A. C. Doyle. [g] THE WOMAN'S GHOST STORY, Algernon Blackwood. [hI THE DOPPELGANGER, Anonymous. [i] THE DEAD BRIDE, Anonymous. [j] THE TAPESTRIED CHAMBER, Sir Walter Scott. [kJ ALMODORO'S CUPID, W. W. Astor. [1] THE MAGIC MIRROR, George MacDonald. The intercalated tale from PHANTASTES. [m] IN LETTERS OF FIRE, Gaston LeRoux. [n] THE SHINING PYRAMID, Arthur Machen. * This collection

BOWEN, MARJORIE is very close in content, both supernatural and non-supernatural, to THE GREAT WEIRD STORIES, edited by Arthur Neale. It is probable that Neale is an unrecognized pseudonym of Bowen's. 25~MORE GREAT TALES OF HORROR BEING A COLLECTION OF STRANGE STORIES OF AMAZEMENT, HORROR AND WONDER John Lane; London [1935] Foreword. Short stories, very largely of Scottish interest, with a fair amount of crime material. Much of the older material has been abridged or edited. * Including,described elsewhere, [a] LAIRD OF CAS SWAY , James Hogg. [b] WICKED CAPTAIN WALSHAWE OF WAULING, J. S. LeFanu. [c] WOODEN WOMAN, Allan Cunningham. Alternate title for THE HAUNTED SHIPS. Cd] THE SEXTON'S ADVENTURE, J. S. LeFanu. [e] LAIRD OF WINEHOLM, James Hogg. [f] SPECTRE LOVERS, J. S. LeFanu. [g] EZRA PEDEN, Allan Cunningham. [h] GHOST WITH THE GOLDEN CASKET, Allan Cunningham. Ii] THE FATAL HOUR, Anonymous. Translated from French (and ultimately from German) by the editor. Very different from the translation in Mrs. Utterson's TALES OF THE DEAD. [j] THE ACCURSED PORTRAIT, Anonymous. Translated by the editor from French (and ultimately from German). Very different from the translation in Mrs. Utterson's TALES OF THE DEAD. * Also [k] THE ROOM WITH THE ARRAS, W. W. Fenn. Victorian skulduggery and psychic murder. Mrs. Glann, housekeeper of Glandallis, is from the left-hand side of the family and can exercise glamour. [1] HAND ON THE LATCH, W. W. Fenn. The narrator follows an unquiet ghost and finds a treasure trove. em] GHOST ON THE CHAIN PIER, W.W. Fenn. The narrator, an insomniac, thrice has a vision of a woman committing suicide. The third time he is present and prevents the act. It is an old sweetheart. Phantasm of the living. This and [k] and [1] are from Fenn's WOVEN IN DARKNESS (Kelly, London, 1885), a very rare book which it has not been possible to consult. The stories are competent Victorian commercial fiction. * en] THE COFFIN-MAKER, Nikolai [siC, really Alexander] Pushkin. In old Russia, a coffin-maker, after a debauch with the neighbors, is visited by the spirits of the dead whom he had fitted. He had invited them to celebrate. Alternate title for THE UNDERTAKER. [0] THE SUTOR OF SELKIRK, Anonymous. Rabbie Heckspeckle, shoemaker, receives a commission to make a pair of shoes for a mysterious stranger. Impelled by curiosity, Rabbie follows the stranger and discovers that he is a resident of the graveyard. Thinking that the dead need no shoes, Rabbie removes them and is himself removed. * Also some folkloristic material. * A resourceful anthology for the day. BOWLES, COLONEL JOHN (1833-1900) American author. 251. THE MASKED PROPHET ONE'S HIDDEN SELF A ROMANCE IN TWO LIVES HERE AND HEREAFTER ~ Caxton Co.; New York [1895] Eccentric occult novel about spiritual development, based eclectically on Theosophy and other less important occult systems of its day. It is more a vehicle for ideas than a story for its

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BOYER, ROBERT H. AND ZAHORSKI, KENNETH J. own sake. Its concepts include reincarnation, atomic multiple souls, Indian initiates, etc. * Two supernatural beings confront Reginald Irving in a Washington park and instruct him in occult matters. He is then taken on an allegorical journey to the Temple, or his head, where he meets Aleita, the female half of his soul. Other visions show all the inhabitants of the mind and a cosmic voyage through the universe. Some years later Aleita is separately incarnated, and Irving woos her, to the accompaniment of further occult instruction. There is a temporary setback, however, when Irving uses his psychic powers to save himself from a fire. He is suspended between life and death in another world for several years. He escapes and returns to Aleita. * This was developed from a shorter version that appeared in COSMOPOLITAN MAGAZINE as itA Romance of an Hour." * Naive, unliterary, but sometimes quite interesting in idea. The events and the system described are much more elaborate than the resume above indicates. BOYER, ROBERT H. (1937 and ZAHORSKI, KENNETH J. (1939 American educators, anthologists. Authors (with Tymn, Marshall B.) of useful reference work FANTASY LITERATURE, A CORE COLLECTION AND REFERENCE GUIDE (Bowker; New York 1979). AS EDITORS: 252. THE FANTASTIC IMAGINATION: AN ANTHOLOGY OF HIGH FANTASY Avon Books; New York 1977 paperbound Introduction and full author story-heads by the editors. Stress is on what the authors call high fantasy which includes, more or less, the older categories of light fantasy, fantastic adventure, and literary fairy tales. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE ELVES, J. L. Tieck. Translation by-Thomas Carlyle. [b] THE GROVE OF ASHTAROTH, John Buchan. [c] THE MUSIC FROM BEYOND THE MOON, James Branch Cabell. * Also Cd] RIDDLES IN THE DARK, J. R.R. Tolkien. A fragment from THE HOBBIT. Bilbo's riddling contest with Gollum. [e] THE LOQUACIOUS GOBLIN, Alexander Grin. Translated from Russian. A goblin relates the external incidents of an erotic triangle, but without much understanding. Really only a literary device, and not properly supernatural. [f] THE TALL ONE, Mark Van Doren. (1962) The power of faith. Told in the manner of a fable. The woodcutter prays to the Tall One for protection for his family if he should be disabled. The Tall One insists on a price: a child or a wife. Faith solves everything. [g] THE FOUNDLING, Lloyd Alexander. A fragment from one of the Prydain romances, the finding and early life of Dallben. [h] COME LADY DEATH, Peter S. Beagle. (ATLANTIC MONTHLY, 1963) During the reign of George III, Lady Neville, to make the party to end all parties, invites Death. Death comes, as a beautiful young woman. She makes herself popular, but decides that she would like to become human again. For this someone must take her place. [i] THE RULE OF NAMES, Ursula LeGuin. (NEW

BOYER, ROBERT H. AND ZAHORSKI, KENNETH J. YORKER 1974). When Blackbeard comes to get the treasure of the sealords of Pendor, he relies on a cardinal rule of magic. But his problem is inadequate knowledge. Transformations, dragon. [j] BELIARD, Sylvia Townsend Warner. (NEW YORKER 1974). Magical events in Broceliande. * Also included are stories that are either children's literature or not supernatural in our sense of the word: "The Light Princess," George MacDonald; "The Accommodating Circumstance," Frank Stockton; "The Peach Tree," by H.E. Bates and two fragments from THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER by C.S. Lewis. * Of the new material [h] is best. 253. THE FANTASTIC IMAGINATION II: AN ANTHOLOGY OF HIGH FANTASY Avon Books; New York 1978 paperbound Similar to the first volume in approach. Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] THE GLASS OF SUPREME MOMENTS, Barry Pain; [b] OLD PIPES AND THE DRYAD, Frank Stockton. [c] THE KITH OF THE ELF FOLK, Lord Dunsany. [d] JlREL MEETS MAGIC, C. L. Moore. eel THE THIRTY A1~ ONE, Dr. D. H. Keller. * Also [f] THE GOLDEN KEY, George MaCDonald. (from DEALINGS WITH FAIRIES, 1867) A semi-allegorical work (death and rebirth) told as a sentimental children's story, filled with an unbelievable wealth of symbolic devices; largely derivative from early German Romanticism. An analysis would take considerable space. Certainly worth reading for the wealth of imagery, if one can tolerate the sickly emotion. [g] RED-PEACHBLOSSOM INLET, Kenneth Morris. (from THE SECRET MOUNTAIN AND OTHER TALES, 1926) China, late Han times. A Taoist fairy tale about misdirected life. The fisherman Wang comes upon the pine-clad island where the Taoist immortals live, and from them, over seven years, he learns wisdom. But he is eager to return to the world and apply what he has learned. On returning, he discovers that he has been away only a day. He rises to the top of the Empire, but comes to realize that life with the Immortals was better. But having abandoned virtue, he cannot return. He paddles about the waters eternally. Morris has become a fad author, but I must confess that I find his material at best second-rate. [h] THE LEGEND OF THE CHRISTMAS ROSE, Selma Lagerlof. Stiffly translated by C.W. Stork. Medieval Sweden. An etiological legend. A Christmas miracle, a summer in mid-winter, which culminates in the finding of the Christmas rose, Helleborus niger. Forgiveness and love. [i] THE ABOMINABLE IMPRECATION, Eric Linklater. (from GOD LIKES THEM PLAIN, 1935) A pleasant tongue-in-cheek modern fairy tale of a young musician who slays a dragon and wins a princess. Complications are offered by the curse of the Shepherd AIken, which changes one's sex. Done with Li~later's usual skill and zest. [j] APRIL IN PARIS, Ursula LeGuin. (FANTASTIC 1962) Loneliness, with a tentative solution through magic. The 15th century alchemist and thinker Jehan Lenoir has one spell that works. It brings to him Professor Pennywither (specialist in Fran~ois Villon); a Gallic slave from Roman days; a small white dog; and a won-

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BRADBURY, RAY derful woman from Altair in the future. All find their emotional needs satisfied together in the Paris'of 1477. Nicely told. [k] A HARP OF FISHBONES, Joan Aiken. (from A HARP OF FISHBONES AND OTHER STORIES, 1972) Little Herryn, curious to know about her parentage, worms information out of old Saroon, and hears that her father was a musician from the frozen city across the forest. She makes herself a harp, like his, but out of the bones of a giant carp, and sets out on a quest for the city. She deactivates the curse on the city, but it has all happened through the will of the goddess. [1] THE SMITH, THE WEAVER, AND THE HARPER, Lloyd Alexander. (from THE FOUNDLING AND OTHER TALES OF PRYDAIN, 1973) Fabular approach. The arts and crafts of the smith and the weaver can be destroyed by death, but song will outlive death. Nicely told as three confrontations between Death personified and the tradesman. [m] FROM "THE THROME OF THE ERRIL OF SHERILL," Patricia A. McKillip. Fragment from the book of the same title, 1973. Part of the quest of the Cnite Caerles. Adult in language and imagery, juvenile in subject matter and values. [n] ELPHENOR AND WEASEL, Sylvia Townsend Warner. (NEW YORKER 1974). Lives, loves, and deaths of the fairies Elphenor (from the Continent) and Weasel (from Britain). A Babes in the Woods situation, with church bells causing death. 10] CRUSADER DAMOSEL, Vera Chapman. (Original) 12th century. Near East. Loves of Adela (sometimes masquerading as a young man, Adal) and Hugo; meetings in the Other Side of the Curtain, the land beyond dream, when asleep; rescue 'with a password thus gleaned supernaturally. Much like Seabury Quinn on a less skilled level. * Best new stories are If]; [1], [l]. An additional story, "Above Ker-Is," by'Evangeline Walton Ensley, an immature work, is not fantastic in our sense. BRADBURY, RAY[MOND] [DOUGLAS] (1920 Notable American writer (born Waukegan, Iii., long resident in California). Author of supernatural fiction, science-fiction, general fiction; poet, essayist, dramatist, scenarist. Possibly only major talent emergent from third period of pulp fantastic fiction. Has been fittingly called the poet of science-fiction; also skilled at evoking poetry, horror in everyday situations. Best work is imaginative, characterized by highly individual lyric style. Also a general cultural influence, symbolic figure for youth culture. Humanistic orientation, often focusing on sentimental nostalgia for premodern General America. Much of his fiction is borderline as supernatural fiction, subject to differences of interpretation. 254. DARK CARNIVAL Arkham House Sauk City, Wisc. 1947 Bradbury's first book, including [a] THE HOMECOMING. (MADEMOISELLE 1946). The Elliott, family, resident in rural America, is a collection of supernormalities-- vampires, werewolves, psychics. flying men, etc.-- but in all the matters that count, normal, loveable human beings.

BRADBURY, RAY At the moment there is a gathering of the extended family, with members from allover the world. There is one sad aspect to the gathering, the boy Timothy, who, unfortunately, is a normal, average child. While there is some sadness at his affliction, he is lapped in love and is not unhappy. He experiences some of the events through his sister Cecy, whose mind can wander. Basically, an inverted story of love, nicely handled. [b] SKELETON. (WT 1945) Harris has miscellaneous aches in his bones, but the doctors can find nothing wrong with him. Eventually, in despair he turns to Mr. Munigant, a sinister, dark little man who is a specialist. His problem is that he has a skeleton concealed in his flesh. Munigant takes care of it for him. [c] THE LAKE. (WT 1944) Memory and nostalgia for lost love. When the narrator was about twelve, his girl playmate Tally was drowned in the lake. Her body was never recovered. She left her sandcastle unfinished. When the narrator is grown and married, he returns to the lake, sees the finding of Tally's remains, and realizes that an aspect of Tally still lives. His present marriage is empty before the memory of Tally. [d] THE EMISSARY. Martin, bedridden, has two entries to the outside world, Dog, who brings him the scents and hair-caught fragments, and Miss Haight. Miss Haight is killed in an automobile accident, and Dog disappears, presumably dead. Martin desperately wants Dog to return. He does, from the dead, followed by the dead Miss Haight. Told by indirection, a very horrible little story. [e] THE TRAVELLER. (WT 1946). The Elliott family of [a]. Cecy is a traveller. She moves from mind to mind, experiencing, and she can also shift other minds from body to body. Cousin John, a renegade of two generatio.ns back, who has sold many of the Elliotts to the stake, appears and frantically demands her help. He fears he is going insane and threatens to report all the Elliotts to the authorities. But Cecy cannot be found, although her body is on her bed. [f] THE SMALL ASSASSIN. (DIME MYSTERY NOVEL 1946) Alice Leiber, who is pregnant, suddenly recognizes that her baby is an evil, hostile being that wants to destroy her. Her feelings are taken to be connected with her pregnancy, but they continue on after the baby is born. When she and her husband are both killed by the baby, the family doctor decides that Alice was really right. [g] THE CROWD. (WT 1943) Mr. Spallner, after his automobile accident, marvels that crowds gather so quickly. Some checking reveals not only that crowds gather around disasters in a matter of seconds, but that the crowds are composed of much the same people. He learns the reason for this when he is killed in his second accident. [hj REUNION. (WT 1944) A lonely boy, and the ghosts that emerge from worn clothing in the attic. Memory. [i] THE HANDLER. (WT 1947) Mr. Benedict, an undertaker with a perverted sense of humor, plays practical jokes on corpses, subjecting them to indignities, defacing them, and destroying them. But the corpses unexpectedly rise, and Mr. Benedict's remains are found.

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BRADBURY, RAY [j] THE SCYTHE. (WT 1943) Dustbowl migration. Erickson and his family, penniless and starving, are heading west, when they come upon the cabin and the wheat field. There is a dead man who has left a will deeding his property to whoever comes and finds it. He also wills an old scythe. Erickson soon learns that he has taken over the job of Death and that the wheat field is human life. The turn of the screw comes when he recognizes individual stalks of wheat and knows that he must cut down his wife and children. [k] UNCLE EINAR. He is the flying man of the Elliott family of [a] and [e]. After the great reunion he flew into a high tension wire and lost his ability to fly by night. Since he cannot take to the air ing the day, for obvious reasons, he seems grounded. He marries a congenial woman, has children, but finds a solution to his depressing problem when his children start to fly kites. [1] THE WIND. (WT 1943) Allin, who has found the valley of the winds in the Himalayas, and knows the secret of the giant wind, is being pursued. The wind absorbs the souls it kills, and it captures and absorbs Allin. [m] THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN. (WT 1944) Aunt Tilly considers Death unreasonable and refuses to accept it, even when Death comes to her and the undertaker's men carry her body out. She wins. [n] THE DEAD MAN. (WT 1945) Old Martin says that he is dead, that he died when the flood hit his farm. But he still walks around, even though he acts strangely. When he and the manicurist fall in love, he comes to life again. There is a possibility that death means being without love. But Martin and his bride move to the cemetery. [0] THE MAN UPSTAIRS. (HARPERS 1947) At the boarding house young Douglas is puzzled by Mr. Koberman. Koberman works evenings, is obviously afraid of silver, uses wooden utensils, and when looked at through colored glass, shows a very different appearance than when seen with the naked eye. There is also an outbreak of vampirism in the neighborhood. Douglas has often watched his mother dissect chickens. [p] THE NIGHT SETS. A solipsistic universe designed to fool one man. * Best stories are [a], [b], [c], [d], [f], [i], [0]. * The British edition of the same title (Hamilton; London 1948) lacks stories [h], U] and [pl. 255. THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES Doubleday; Garden City, N.Y. 1950 Stories which make use of a common symbol, Mars, for the beauty and poetry of life. The stories were originally published as independent pieces, but they are linked here, after a fashion, with transitional interludes, some of which bear the titles of earlier stories by Bradbury. Most of the stories are either clear or borderline science-fiction, and where there is a supernatural element, it is usually secondary. * Including [a] USHER II. (THRILLING WONDER 1950). Censorship. A collector of weird fiction builds on Mars a house which embodies the outlawed themes of supernatural fiction. It is the House of Usher, and its horrors are substantial. Alternate title, CARNIVAL OF MADNESS. * Several

BRADBURY, RAY of the other stories involve paranormal abilities and mental time travel, but these concepts are employed in the manner of science-fiction. 256. THE ILLUSTRATED MAN Doubleday; Garden City, N.Y. 1951 Short stories reprinted from various sources. They are tied together by the Illustrated Man, the tattooed man from the circus, who is covered with perpetually shifting pictures that show the viewer's fate. The stories represent individual pictures. * Including [a] THE VELDT. Borderline supernatural. In the future, television walls are both an unbeatable entertainment device for children and a possible psychological device. In this instance they serve to render physical the hatred and frustrations of the Hadley children. The form chosen is an African veldt, with man-eating lions. Alternate title, THE WORLD THE CHILDREN MADE. (SATURDAY EVENING POST 1950). [b] THE MAN. (THRILLING WONDER 1949). When Captain Hart's rocket lands on Planet Forty-Three in Star System Three, it should be an event, since it is the first interplanetary visit there. But the natives pay no attention. The reasons turns out to be astonishing. Something so important is happening that Hart's visit is trivial. It is the appearance of the Man, or Christ. Hart seeks the Man aggressively, while his associate Martin has more humility. Arrogance does not pay. [c] THE lAST NIGHT OF THE WORLD. (ESQUIRE 1951) It is October 19, 1969 and a dream seems prevalent: the world is due to come to an end. It does. [d] THE EXILES. (MACLEANS MAGAZINE 1949) The rocketship on its way to Mars holds the last tattered copies of books by the great horror writers, Poe, Lovecraft, Machen, and others. All other copies of their books have been destroyed by an ultra-rationalistic, sanitized society. But on Mars the "shades" of the great writers survive and try to prevent the landing of the ship, using supernatural effects. But the ship lands, the captain ceremonially destroys the last books, and a culture is dead. Alternate title, THE MAD WIZARDS OF MARS. [e] THE FIRE BALLOONS. (IMAGINATION 1951) The" Episcopal Fathers are proselytizing on Mars. Father Peregrine wants to work among the non-human fire balloons, but discovers that since they left their bodies, they no longer sin, and have attained to a natural religion that is equal to Christianity. Alternate title, IN THIS SIGN. * [a] and [d] are excellent. 257. FAHRENHEIT 451 Ballantine Books; New York 1953 In addition to the usual trade clothbound and paperbound editions, this appeared in a limited edition of 200 copies printed on asbestos. * This first edition (but not most reprint editions) contained in addition to the science-fiction title novel, the short story [a] THE PLAYGROUND. (ESQUIRE 1953) The horrors, fears, and pain of childhood fantastically expressed. A frequent theme in Bradbury's work. An anxious father, seeing the mayhem that goes on in a playground, wants his son to escape it and takes his place supernaturally. Excellent.

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BRADBURY , RAY 258. THE GOLDEN APPLES OF THE SUN Doubleday; Garden City, N.Y. 1953 Twenty-two short stories, many excellent, but few fantasies. Including [a] THE APRIL WITCH. (SATURDAY EVENING POST 1952). Cecy of the Elliott family in DARK CARNIVAL decides that she wants to experience love. She sets forth on the wings of her mind, finds a nubile young woman, and seats herself in the woman. She experiences strong emotion, but the affair that she wants to take place does not occur, and she can only hope that the man concerned will visit her at some time in the future. Delicately told. [b] EMBROIDERY. (MARVEL SCIENCE FICTION 1951) Three old women tend their embroidery while the world goes up in flames. Human figures must be removed from their web. A modern version of the Fates. * Both excellent. 259. THE OCTOBER COUNTRY Ballantine Books' New York 1955 paperbound ' Short stories, with some new material and a selection from DARK CARNIVAL. Including, all described in 254, [a] THE SKELETON. [b] THE LAKE. [e] THE EMISSARY. [d] THE SMALL ASSASSIN. Ie] THE CROWD. [f] THE SCYTHE. [g] UNCLE EINAR. [h] THE WIND. Ii] THE MAN UPSTAIRS. [j] THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN. [k] HOMECOMING. * According to the preface some of the stories have been rewritten, but on a hasty check I found no examples of revision in the stories 1 is ted above. 260. A MEDICINE FOR MElANCHOLY Doubleday; Garden City, New York 1959 Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] A SCENT OF SARSAPARILLA. [b] DARK THEY WERE, AND GOLDEN-EYED. Alternate title for THE NAMING OF NAMES. [c] ICARUS MONTGOLFIER WRIGHT. [d] THE SHORELINE AT SUNSET. California beachcombers; a mermaid's body washed ashore. Character studies. A shattering and reintegrating experience of the alien. Ie] THE DRAGON. (MFSF 1956) The relativity of experience. Two knights wait in a lonely valley for the dragon. It comes; they charge it, and are killed. Two men in the locomotive cab see the knights charge and die, but know that no remains will be found. If] FEVER DREAM. [WT 1948) Little Charles, ill, gradually loses sensation in and control of his limbs. The doctor diagnoses scarlet fever and a cold. But suppose a germ could grow large and intelligent enough to supplant human personality. [g] THE DAY IT RAINED. FOREVER. (HARPERS 1957) in the Southwestern desert where Smith and Fremley live in the old hotel, it rains only once a year, January 29th. But when the 29th comes, there is no rain and life seems intolerable. But another person joins them, a woman with a harp, and the rain seems to follow her. Surrogate experience. * Very fine stories, but the non-fantastic story "In a Season of Calm Weather" is the best story in the book. 261. THE MACHINERIES OF JOY Simon and Schuster; New York 1964 Short stories, including [a] THE ONE WHO WAITS. (MFSF 1951) Borderline science-fiction. Mars. The shape-changer that lurks in the well de-

BF.ADBURY, FAY stroys an expedition from earth, man by man. Told from the point of view of the shape-changer. [b) THE VACATION. (PLAYBOY 1963) One evening the man and his wife thought, '~ouldn't it be fine if the whole human race were gone tomorrow, and only we and our son were left?" It comes to pass, and they have a glorious vacation over the empty earth. Man was too rotten to reestablish. [c) BOYS, RAISE GIANT MUSHROOMS IN YOUR CELLAR. (Galaxy 1952) Sciencefiction in idea, but fantasy in technique. There is a feeling in the air that things are wrong, and the boys in town receive special delivery packages of mushroom spawn. It is a device for the mushrooms to take over the human race and the earth. Eating the mushrooms leads to absorption. Alternate title COME INTO MY CELLAR. [d) A MIRACLE OF RARE DEVICE. (PLAYBOY 1962) The power of good thoughts. Old Greenhill and Bantlin see the wonderful mirage on the desert. It is a giant city, although curiously enough each viewer sees it as the city of his dreams. When a mean profiteer tries to capitalize on vision or dream, it disappears, but is not permanently lost. [e) AND SO DIED RIABOUCHINSKA. (SAINT MYSTERY MAGAZINE' 1953) A complex story of perverted love. The ventriloquist loses his assistant after a nasty quarrel. He makes a perfect dummy model of her, and the dummy takes on Riabouchinska's personality and life. It later betrays him. Or is it all elaborate projection? [f) DEATH AND THE MAIDEN. (MFSF 1960) Old Mam, over ninety, lives barricaded against Death. But he comes as a handsome 'young man. He offers her twentyfour hours of youth and delights, after which' they will sleep together for eternity. She accepts. * Best stories are [b) and [d). AS EDITOR: 262. TIMELESS STORIES FOR TODAY AND TOMORROW Bantam Books; New York 1952 paperbound As Bradbury states in his introduction, this collection has been made "to locate stories by authors who rarely write fantasy; to find stories heretofore not used in other fantasy anthologies; and, most important of all, to publish stories of quality." The aims are fulfilled, but Bradbury's definition of fantasy includes much material that is not supernatural. * Including [a) THE HOUR AFTER WESTERLY, Robert M. Coates. Described elsewhere. [b) HEARTBURN,Hortense Calisher. (AMERICAN MERCURY 1951) A curious form of supernatural parasitism or mild possession that is passed along from one person to another. The criterion for transfer is disbelief. It has the symptons of nervous debility and heartburn. Symbolic? [c) HOUSING PROBLEM, Henry Kuttner. (CHARM 1944) • The covered cage in Mr. Henchard's room does not contain birds, but a tiny human house, which, as the prying landlords discover, holds some Little People. Their prying disturbs the tenants, who move away. The new tenants are of a lower social class among the Little People, and they bri~g only sloppy luck. [d) NONE BEFORE ME, Sidney Carroll. (COSMOPOLITAN 1949) Gresham, who has an obsession for collecting only the finest things, buys the fabulous dollhouse. It

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BRADBURY, RAY seems to fill an inner need, but Gresham becomes paranoid about it. He thinks of himself as a god, and considers it his world. He punishes and disturbs the dolls and acts like an Old Testament deity. But when he smashes the house he learns that he is a similar doll in a house to a much more powerful deity. [e] MR. DEATH AND THE RED-HEADED WOMAN, Helen Eustis. (SATURDAY EVENING. POST 1950) Alternate title THE RIDER ON THE PALE HORSE. Told in terms of Southwestern folklore. When Billy-be-damn Bangtry, handsome but dissolute young cowhand, lies dying after a low brawl. Maude Applegate seeks out Death to make him stay his hand. She visits with Death, and Death's granny helps her to find out how Billy can be spared. She pays the price, but finds that Billy is a worthless scoundrel and turns back to Death, who is a far superior mate. [f) SAINT KATY THE VIRGIN, John Steinbeck. (from THE LONG VALLEY, 1938) A very amusing absurdist story of a sow that is sanctified. A parody of a hagiography. [g] NIGHT FLIGHT, Josephine W. Johnson. (HARPER'S 1944) The dream of flying, the fulfillment of wishes, wartime loneliness. [h) THE COCOON, John B. L. Goodwin. (STORY 1946) Denny, eleven years old,. is an enthusiastic collector of moths and butterflies. After capturing a seemingly unique giant specimen, he gradually becomes immersed in his hobby until it swallows him. While the mechanism is not entirely clear, his room seems to be turned into the equivalent of a killing jar, and his life is pinned on the wall. [i] THE LAOCOON COHPLEX, J. C. Furnas. (ESQUIRE 1937) Whenever J. H. Simmons takes a bath lying down, a large green snake appears in the bath water. He is apparently doing this by power of unconscious thought. [j] I AM WAITING, Christopher Isherwood. (NEW YORKER 1939) The narrator has occasional involuntary experiences of being in the future. On one occasion he spans five years, but finds himself in a locked room with only a magazine for bird fanciers. He knows no more than before. [k] THE ENORMOUS RADIO, John Cheever. (NEW YORKER 1947) Metaphoric fantasy. The new radio with its noise, vulgarity and foulness, becomes a symbol of the sordid side of life, and life in turn becomes a form of sordid radio. Filth hidden beneath the fair surface. [1] THE EIGHT MIS~ TRESSES, Jean Hrolda. (ESQUIRE 1937) Barca makes a deal with Mr. Satin, the Devil. Barca gets funds until eight mistresses have betrayed him. Then he is the Devil's. Barca finds a way out of the contract. * Many excellent stories, both supernatural and non-supernatural. 263. THE CIRCUS OF DR. LAO AND OTHER IMPROBABLE STORIES Bantam Books; New York 1956 paperbound Bradbury considers all the material in this anthology to be fantasy, but his definition seems to stress the absurdist side rather than the irrational. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE CIRCUS OF DR. LAO, Charles G. Finney. [b) THE POND, Nigel Kneale. * Also, [c] THE WISH, Roald Dahl. A small boy, playing imaginatively with the patterns of an oriental carpet,

BRADB URY, RAY fantasizes that parts of it are a fire walk, other parts poisonous snakes-- and falls into the abyss he has created. [d] THE RESTING PLACE, Oliver LaFarge. Old Dr. Hillebrand, an archeologist, has a remarkable ability to find remains of ancient Pueblo culture. This is because of his contact with a long-dead Indian, whom he had excavated and treated with proper respect. The empathy is carried on to another generation. Really a figurative statement of mJtual respect. [e] THRESHOLD, Henry Kuttner. Haggard evokes a demon and strikes a bargain: two wishes granted by the de~n, after which Haggard becomes the demon's prey when he passes through a door of a certain unknown color. Haggard, more intelligent than the demon, uses a word association test to discover the color of the door he must avoid. if] THE LIMITS OF WALTER HORTON, John S" Sharnik. Horton suddenly decides that he can play the piano, seats himself, and reveals that he is one of the great virtuosi. Without music he plays each piece of the world's repertoire only once. Eventually he will exhaust the music of past and present. Will the expected then happen? [g] THE MAN WHO VANISHED, Ropert M. Coates. Charley Ballantine gradually fades away, becoming inaudible, invisible, until he tumbles into a dark world where a new life may open to him because of a past romance. * Not as interesting as Bradbury's previous anthology (262). [f] is best. BRADDON, MARY ELIZABETH (later Mrs. John Maxwell) (1835 - 1915) Foremost English sensation novelist. Renowned for LADY AUDLEY'S SECRET (1862), famous mystery story of the beautiful bigamist who pushed her husband dOT,ffi a well. Long a best-seller and very popular work on stage. A very interesting personality and a more skille d writer than usually accredited. In addition to early sensation material, also wrote mystery and comedy of manners fiction. Wrote prolifically, a great deal pseudonymously or anonymously; exact bibliography unclear. Supernatural fiction is not really her forte. 264. RALPH THE BAILIFF AND OTHER TALES Ward, Lock and Tyler; London [1867] Short stories, including [a] THE COLD EMBRACE. A German student, unfaithful to his true love, is haunted by her ghost after she commits suicide. [b] EVELINE'S VISITANT. Premodern France. The narrator kills his cousin Andre de Brissac in a duel. As Brissac lies dying, he declares that his will to live is strong and that he will repay the narrator. Some time later the narrator learns that his wife is perpetually aware of Andre's ghost, and just before she dies, she confesses that she loves the ghost. [c] HOW I HEARD M'l OWN WILL READ. The narrator, a frivolous young man, though a barrister, reads in the newspaper (of a. town he thinks he has imagined) of his own death. He goes to his home, addresses his widow-- and all consider him simply a friend of the family. But it is all a dream, arising out of a lobster supper behind stage. Vivacious. * [b] is very often anthologized.

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'BRADD ON • MARY E. 265. WEAVERS AND WEFT AND OTHER TALES John Maxwell; London 1877 3 vol. (published as by the author of "Lady Audley's Secret") A short title novel, which is not fantastic, followed by short stories. * Including, [a] JOHN GRANGER. Granger, rejected by the woman he loves, announces his intention of selling out and going to America. As far as anyone can tell, he follows out this program, and letters drawing money continue to arrive at his bank. But his rejected sweetheart, now happily married, sees his ghost and his corpse is found. The obvious party is guilty. An archetypal Victorian situation. [b] HER LAST APPEARANCE. Covent Garden in the 18th century. Mrs. Stowell, great tragic actress, dies on the stage, but makes a spectral appearance to her would-be lover. [c] SIR HANBURY'S BEQUEST. Young Hanbury Hexam, impoverished student, has a dream of an episode in the life of one of his ancestors and finds himself working out the same situation. * Lively in writing, but sometimes novel synopses rather than true short stories. 266. M'l SISTER'S CONFESSION AND OTHER STORIES R. Worthington; New York 1879 This seems to be a collection compiled in America from various British sources. So far as I was able to determine, there is no British counterpart. * Short stories, including [a] AT CHRIGHTON ABBEY. Miss Sarah, poor relation, visits Chrighton Abbey for the Christmas season. Her cousin, young Edward, who is engaged to be married, is an avid hunter. In the dusk of one morning Sarah sees the hunt leave from the unused stableyard. Only there was no hunt; it was a supernatural death portent which ran in the family. [b] THE SCENE-PAINTER'S WIFE. Joe Waylie's wife, whose circus name is Madame Delevanti, is an outrageous flirt and carries on, though innocently, with Captain Jocelyn. Joe sees this, misinterprets it, and commits suicide. On the anniversary of his death, Madame Delevanti sees his ghost and, being startled, is badly clawed by her big cats. * [a] is interesting for its detailed description of a stay at a Victorian country house. 267. GERARD, OR THE WORLD, THE FLESH AND THE DEVIL Simpkin, Marshall; London 1891 3 vol. American title, THE WORLD, THE FLESH AND THE DEVIL. * Novel of manners and modernized, semi-rationalized version of the Goethean Faust story. * Gerard Hillersdon, written-out young author, is ready to commit suicide. He is poverty-stricken and is also depressed about dancing attendance on Edith Champion, another man's wife. Some years before, he and Edith had been platonic lovers, but she married an older man for his money. * At a house party given by Edith Gerard meets Justin Jermyn, a Pan-like character-reader whose analyses have been flawless and frightening. Justin takes Gerard to his digs and persuades him not to commit suicide, promising a dramatic improvement of his fortunes. Justin also shows Gerard a vision of a beautiful young woman. The next

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BRADDON, MARY E. day Gerard learns that he is sole heir of a wealthy eccentric whose life he had saved. He is now wealthy, but he cannot forget the girl he saw in the VLSLon. He finally identifies her as Hester Davenport, the daughter of a curate whom his father had discharged for drunkenness. He chances to meet her and learns that she works as a seamstress to support her father and herself, and wishes to have nothing to do with him. Meanwhile, two new developments take place. Champion dies, and it is decided that Gerard will marry Edith after her year of mourning. Gerard also learns that his heart is weak. Edith leaves for the continent, and Gerard becomes friendly with Hester. He falls in love with her and offers marriage. She will not accept, but circumstances (and Jermyn's advice) eventually force her to become Gerard's mistress. Gerard becomes tired of her and annoyed with her father. He abandons her and turns to Edith, now to discover that she no longer wants to marry him. When he returns to Hester, he discovers that she has given birth to a child, has tried to commit suicide, and has drowned the child. He marries her, but dies soon after, the Faustian situation complete. * Supernaturalism is not handled consistently. In the first part of the novel Jermyn is almost certainly the Devil or a comparable figure, while at the end of the novel he is unconvincingly portrayed as a cheap semi-swindler, * Interesting in the earlier sections, but much weaker later, when the sentimental archetype is followed. Still, a good example of Miss Braddon's ability to move with the times. 268. THE CONFLICT Simpkin, Marshall; London 1903 Sensational society novel with supernatural elements. * The supernatural subplot, which is buried in a welter of other material, is concerned with revenge. * Walter Arden, a wholesome young man about town, comes into conflict with Konstantin Manville, a wealthy Anglo-Russian scoundrel of great wealth and physical vitality. Manville, among other things, is trying to seduce Arden's married sister. A duel is the result, and Manville is killed. As he lies dying, he declares that his essential portion is not killed but will return for revenge. The situation is comparable to that in EVELINE'S VISITANT. * Some tilne later, Arden is in Alaska prospecting for gold, when one of his friends becomes gravely ill. The friend recovers, but his personality has changed, and even though Miss Braddon does not say so explicitly, it obvious that Manville has usurped the sick man's body. He unsuccessfully tries to kill Arden, but is hilnself killed. The same situation recurs when another friend, Lord St. Just lies dying, and his body is revivified by Manville's spirit. He murders Arden's sister, but even Manville's vitality cannot overcome disease, and with St. Just's death Manville's peril ends. * Inferior to earlier work. BRADFORD, J. S. British author.

No information.

BRANDON, MICHAEL 269. EVEN A WORM Arthur Barker; London 1936 Revolt of the animals, much like Arthur Machen's THE TERROR, but less mystical. Told as a series of situations, rather than as a mystery. * The animals, weary of being man's sport, appeal to Pan, Lord of the Isles of Illusion, to reduce man to his former state of equality with the animals. Pan consents and organizes the animals, who attack man on a given day. Horses attack their riders; foxes drive hunters; rabbits march boldly before beaters; insects cause train wrecks; and a marvelous parrot delivers a lecture to an audience. The animals of the zoo break loose, and the baboon Hamet rapes a woman. As the book ends, man is tottering before the attack. * Capable, but without the strange luminosity that characterizes Machen's work. BRADSHAW, WILLIAM R[ICHARD] (1851-1927) American Author of HISTORY OF WALLPAPER and long editor of THE DECORATER AND FURNISHER magazine. 270. THE GODDESS OF ATVATABAR, BEING A HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE INTERIOR WORLD AND CONQUEST OF ATVATABAR J. Douthitt; New York 1892 Introduction by Julian Hawthorne. * Eccentric occult adventure novel, with some elements of science-fiction. * An American North Polar expedition sails through Symmes's Hole down into the hollow earth, where the Kingdom of Atvatabar is found. Here a civilization much different from ours has developed. Psychic power is under control, and there are airships, individual flying belts, and many other marvels-including the fact that the natives speak English via substitution cipher. Lexington, the hero, falls in love with Lyone, the living goddess of the land, and she reciprocates. This precipitates civil war, for her person is as sacred as that of a Polynesian princess. Lyone and the Americans win the war, but Lyone is murdered. This is not the end, however, for a gigantic living battery formed of the wills of many sorcerers and psychics creates her afresh. The hero marries her and becomes king. ,'< Almost a classic bad novel, sometimes madly humorous in its purple prose and silly ideas, sometimes annoyingly dull. The book is pretentiously illustrated by several semiprimitive artists, at least one of whom, C. Durand Chapman, seems to have been an enthusiast of the architecture of South India. * A curiosity, but a curiosity to be treasured. BRANDON, MICHAEL (c. 1900 - ?) Resources explorer, trouble-shooter for metals, petroleum; development of other natural resources, working for syndicates. Has been suggested to be a pseudonym. 271. NONCE A NOVEL Coward-McCann; New York 1944 Braggadocio, hardboiled supernaturalism in the Deep South. * After years of foreign adventure" explorer and thrill-seeker Borde Kane returns to the family lands on the Alabama coast-- a swamp and the ruins of a house.

BRANDON, MICHAEL His retirement seems partly due to being stony broke and partly due to an overpowering desire to escape the nastiness of life and the "curse of the flesh." He lives happily in primitive isolation for a iime, until Rhoda Thorpe enters his life. She is something of a female counterpart of Kane, also in flight from the foulness of human relations. She tries to seduce him, whereupon he strangles her. She dies, seemingly indifferent. He buries her and time passes. About a year later he goes over to her property, meets and enslaves her Black servant by accusing her of murdering Rhoda. But the woman, Nonce, in addition to having the vitality of an animal, is a voodoo priestess and subject to possession. Kane causes Rhoda to speak through Nonce and for a time they have long conversations. But Kane makes the mistake of allowing his lust for Rhoda to overcome him, and while he is embracing Rhoda, Nonce returns to her body and kills him. Nonce herself dies some time later, taking with her a bestial redneck. But the female principle has" triumphed. * Good local color, some fine Southern yokels, heated, brash writing, but it comes across despite the Weltschmerz of the 1930's. BREBNER, PERCY [JAMES] (1864-1922) British author of historical fiction, detective stories, adventure stories. Also wrote a lostrace novel under the pseudonym Christian Lys. 272. THE IVORY DISC Duffield; New York 1920 Fairly long society novel and romance with sensational elements. * Dr. Brook Oliver, experimental psychologist and alienist, falls in love with Estelle Bocara, the wife of an Egyptian-Indian teacher of languages. It is soon obvious to Oliver that Estelle is undeveloped, a hysterical personality, and he learns that she had been struck on the head in her childhood. A splinter of bone is still pressing on her brain. Oliver also discovers that Bocara, instead of being an innocent linguist, is really assassinating V.I.P.'s in order to attain the independence of India. Bocara is using Estelle, under mesmeric control, to implant a deadly snake poison. Oliver gets Estelle; an operation restores her full personality; Bocara is torn to pieces by a dog that he habitually abused. The moral aspect of the novel is clear by the fact that Estelle was a wife in name only. The title of the book refers to an ivory disc which conveyed the protection of the higher gods. Estelle gives it to Oliver for his protection and it seems to work. * A curious combination of fully. developed Edwardian social material and sensationalism. There does not seem to be a British edition. BRENNAN, JOSEPH PAYNE (1918 ) American poet, fiction writer, librarian at Yale University. 273. NINE HORRORS AND A DREAM Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1958 Short stories, including [a] LEVITATION. The stage demonstrator hypnotizes and levitates a boorish young man from the audience, but he has a heart attack and dies before the act ends.

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BRIDGE, ANN The young man floats away. [b) THE CALAMANDER CHEST. (WT 1953). Ernest Maax buys a beautiful chest made of calamander wood, but soon notices that a finger keeps crawling out of it. After a time the finger beckons, and Maax is seen no more. The chest was very heavy, the movers thought. [c] DEATH IN PERU. (MYSTIC MAGAZINE 1954) An American lies dying of witchcraft.. He had taken an Indian girl. His friend finds the doll that is responsible, but this does not remedy the situation. [d] ON THE ELEVATOR. The night clerk at the seaside hotel sees the thing in the raincoat get into the elevator, and later, sees one of his guests, slashed to ribbons, in the same raincoat. There is speculation about it. [e] THE GREEN PARROT. (WT 1952) The narrator helps an old lady who 1s chasing Toby, her parrot. He learns later that they are ghosts. It happened 80 years before, during a blizzard. Another blizzard is on its way. [f] CANAVAN'S BACK YARD. Canavan the bookseller stands staring out into his overgrown back yard and remarks that it seems endless. It is, if one enters it, as the narrator discovers. Canavan is trapped there, perhaps turned into a dog-like being, but at least hopelessly insane. It seems that during the witch persecutions of three centuries earlier, a hunted witch put a curse on the land. [g] THE HUNT. Mr. Oricto is pursued, even hunted, by a weasely stranger who at last traps him. The answer is in animal characteristics. [h] THE MAIL FOR JUNIPER HILL. Ed Hyerson, tough driver of U.S. mail, swears that he will take the mail through the blizzard, or through Hell. He does not make it, but his corpse or spirit is wandering through the snow toward the cemetery. * The other stories are either crime fiction or science-fiction. * [f], which is in the manner of M. R. James, is the best story in the book. BRIDGE, ANN (pseud. of O'Malley, Mary Dolling Saunders) .(1891-1974) English novelist, husband in British diplomatic corps. Long resident in China, Yugoslavia. Birth date uncertain; 1889 is also cited. 274. AND THEN YOU CAME Chatto and Windus; London 1948 The tragic power of beauty, which can reach through time to work evil unintentionally. The ancient theme of the book is the Irish legend of Deirdre of the Sorrows, the incredibly beautiful woman who fled Ireland with her husband and his brothers (the sons of Usna) and took refuge in Scotland. They were lured back to Ireland, where they all died. The modern theme centers around the MacAlpines, Highland Scottish gentry, with their connections, associates, and neighbors. Nora, the daughter of the house, is an enthusiastic amateur archeologist. She uncovers remains of a hitherto unknown vitrified fort. The discovery leads to general interest in the Iron Age, the visit of an archeologist of note (Professor Porlock), and-- as is learned later-- an irruption from the past. A strange yacht appears in the loch, bearing three handsome young men, an incredibly beaut i-

BRIDGE, ANN ful young woman, and an old bearded scholar who enter the lives of the MacAlpines and their associates. It is soon obvious that the woman is Deirdre (who had come to this same area in the legendary past), the young men the sons of Usna, and the old man, Merlin. The meeting is tragic, for when a modern young man falls in love with Deirdre, he is killed by her lover from the past. The climax of the story comes when Merlin works powerful magic, causing deaths and injuries, casting Professor Porlock into the past as a ghost-like figure, where he sees the quarrel between lovers of Deirdre. The past is recapitulated. The strangers sail away mysteriously, and everything is hushed up. It is later heard that they perished on the way to Ireland. * Good background material, though genealogically confusing; nicely written, but overlong and inanimate until the final quarter of the book. BRODIE-INNES, J[OHN] W[ILLIAM] (1848-? Scottish jurist, author of fiction. Author of works comparing English and Scottish law, historical studies of Scottish witchcraft. In later life associated with the Theosophical Society. 275. MORAG THE SEAL Rebman; London 1908 Modern Scottish folklore and mystery. Kingsburgh, a solicitor, is summoned for legal advice. He steps into a welter of folkloristic magic, seal women, supernatural dreams, and artificial induction of sleeping sickness. Morag, the seal woman, is ultimately explained as a telepathic projection. * Interesting, but the author's later work is more significant. 276. FOR THE SOUL OF A WITCH A ROMANCE OF BADENOCH Rebman; London 1910 A historical novel of early 16th century Scotland, with considerable supernaturalism. One subplot concerns the romance of Beatrix Dunbar, who has been betrothed by the Church to Leslie, a man whom she dislikes. She has refused to consummate the marriage. She falls in love with Alasdair Cumming, the local leader of the Cumming clan, bears him a child, and marries him. She is killed in one of the many raids and counterraids. The second subplot, somewhat confusedly attached to the first, is concerned with magic and the supernatural. Elspet Simpson is a dual personality, a Kundry figure. As Cecily Ross she is Beatrix's dearest friend, a Christian mystic, and a saintly visionary. As Elspet Simpson, she has been initiated into devil worship by a mysterious Dr. Finn, is the mistress of the brutal and treacherous Leslie, has supernatural powers, and at times of extreme emotion becomes a werewolf. Also present is Eochain Cumming, the last Druidic priest. He has learned the ancient worship in Asia Minor and has many supernatural abilities. A benevolent old man, he has the commission to fight evil witchcraft and he is greatly concerned with rooting out the evil personality of Elspet/Cecily. * A long, muddled beginning, but a very interesting second portion, with much folklore. The motif of the werewolf is exceptionally well handled.

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BROSTER, D.K. 277. THE DEVIL'S MISTRESS Rider; London 1915 A historical romance with much folkloristic supernaturalism. * Scotland, in the days of the Commonwealth. In the first subplot Isabel Goudie, an intelligent, cultured woman unfortunately married to a surly, boorish farmer, is greatly dissatisfied with her lot. She meets the Devil, who is in the form of a handsome young man, and is easily persuaded to join the local witch cult. She is chosen queen of the coven, and becomes the Devil's mistress. Among her adventures and exploits are riding a magic horse, casting spells on her enemies, shooting either at random or at foes with elfshot (magical stone arrowheads), paying a visit tO,a Celtic fairy hill (where a year and a day passes in what seems to be a very short time), and much else. The second subplot is concerned with the Gordons, friends of Isabel's. Old Sir Robert Gordon has also sold his soul to the Devil and has various magical abilities, but has a sporting chance for freedom. But he is entangled in Royalist conspiracies, and it takes his own and Isabel's magic to extricate him and his associates. At the climax of the story, Gordon, physically paralyzed, but free in the spirit, races with the Devil. Isabel, out of friendship, invokes the Lords of Fate to save Sir Robert, even though this means the end of her own magical abilities and possibly her death. Although she repents of her witchcraft and has a divine vision, she is caught, tried, and burned as a witch. Her choice of this death apparently redeems her. * Somewhat episodic, but intelligent and with much interesting subject matter. BROOKS, [WILLIAM] COLLIN (1893-1959) English, journalist, financial expert, economist, poet, writer of thrillers. London correspondent of BUSINESS WEEK. Most important book THEORY AND PRACTICE OF FINANCE, which has gone through many editions. Also wrote fiction under the pseudonym Barnaby Brook. 278. MAD-DOCTOR MERCIFUL Hutchinson; London 1932 Sensational novel. * Dr. Merciful, who has been trained in the Orient, is a master of Eastern as well as of Western science. He wishes to cure a case of demoniac possession by operating on the patient's pineal gland and releasing the demon. With the assistance of a spirit he operates, but the demon, instead of departing meekly, is prepared to possess the narrator. Merciful, to save his friend, takes the demon into himself and dies. * Little to recommend it. BROSTER, D[OROTHY] K[ATHLEEN] (1877-1950) British writer, mostly of historical fiction. 279. COUCHING AT THE DOOR Heinemann; London 1942 Five short stories. Including [a] COUCHING AT THE DOOR. Augustine Marchant, decadent but brilliant literary man, discovers that he is being haunted by a boa-like fur creature. As the haunting increases, he tries to transfer

BROSTER, D. K.

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it to a young artist who is illustrating his work. It is temporarily removed, but when the artist commits suicide, it returns to Marchant as a gigantic, horrible snake. While the author cleverly avoids giving specifics, it seems that Marchant took part in a devil-worshipping ceremony in Prague and unwittingly evoked a demon something like a familiar. Retribution, with obvious references to Oscar Wilde and Aubrey Beardsley. [b] THE PESTERING. A long short story, with considerable background detail. When Evadne Seton and her husband open the Hallows as an inn, they awaken an old haunting: a very solid ghost, of varying appearance, who persistently asks about a chest. The ghost, while not hostile, becomes a nuisance and the Setons search for the chest. In it is a small bronze statue (originally of Diane de Poictiers), with a dagger between its breasts, and a paper _ with magical spells. A Renaissance lover's revenge. [c] FROM THE ABYSS. An automobile accident splits a young woman into two entities, each with a body. One returns to England, while the other wanders around the area of the accident in the Alps. When the two meet, they merge and the woman dies. [d] JUGGERNAUT. Mrs. Birling, an old and inform woman, has been murdered by her attendant, who withheld her amyl nitrate during a heart attack. The chair in which she used to be pushed grows increasingly heavy and finally. avenges the murdered woman. * [a] and [b] are excellent; the other two stories are routine. [a] is often anthologized, sometimes in abridged form. BROUGHTON, RHODA (1840-1920) English Victorian psychologtcal and social novelist. Regarded highly by some for technical excellence; vilified by others for naturalistic approach to emotional situations-- considered improper. Today remembered mostly for NOT TOO WISELY BUT IQO WELL (1867) and BELINDA (1883). Deserves revival. Presently of interest not_ only for psychological analysis of Victorian women but also for vivacity of style-- she usually wrote in the present tense. 280. TALES FOR CHRISTMAS EVE Bentley; London 1873 Five short stories, including [a] THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH. Told in a series of letters between a pair of young women. A haunting so terrible that the sight of it either kills or drives the viewer mad. Clever. [b] THE MAN WITH THE NOSE. Elizabeth has had a repetitive, serial dream: a sinister man with a large nose appears to her and summons her to him with mesmeric power. On her honeymoon down the Rhine the dream advances, and in Lucerne Elizabeth disappears from her hotel. She is never seen again. The only evidence is that she had been seen in a carriage, unconscious, with the man with the nose. For the Victorians, probably Death; but for us a classical Freudian sexual situation, nose, mesmerism, and all. [c] POOR PRETTY BOBBY. Premodern wars. A death portent appears to a young woman who has thoughtlessly helped send her lover to his death. [d] BEHOLD IT WAS A DREAM~ Ireland. The young

BROWN, ALICE female narrator tells her friend of a horrible dream: her friend and her friend's husband are murdered, throats cut, by an Irish laborer. The narrator even sees the laborer on the friend's grounds. Unfortunately, they do not listen. * Excellent stories told with brilliance and vivacity. [a] and [b] are best. * Reprinted as TWILIGHT STORIES, most recently by Home and Van ThaI (London, 1947), with an introduction by Herbert Van ThaI. Description based on Van ThaI edition. 281. BETTY'S VISIONS [and UGLY BARRINGTON by The Duchess] Seaside Pocket Library Edition, #862, George Munro; New York 1886 paperbound Containing [a] BETTY'S VISIONS. Betty Brewster, an ordinary little girl in a middle-class household, happens to be psychic. When she is a child, her gift tells her about distant deaths. Her unwelcome ability persists through life, with the final experience at childbed, when it touches her on the heart and she knows that she and her baby must die. Nicely told. The English first edition is BETTY'S VISIONS AND MRS. SMITH OF LONGMAINS (Routledge, London 1886) which has not been available to me.

*

BROUN, HEYWOOD [CAMPBELL] (1888-1939) American journalist, ftction writer, dramatist. Well-known sports writer, syndicated columnist; active in politics and labor, founder of American Newspaper Guild. Apparently more significant for ephemeral writing and personality than for permanent work. 282. GANDLE FOLLOWS HIS NOSE Boni and Liveright; New York 1926 One of the children of Cabell's JURGEN; a modern fairy tale about disillusionment, with possible social and political allegory. * Gandle, a young man in an imaginary land where magic still operates, is unable to distinguish illusion from reality, except by a gnawing dissatisfaction. After rejecting wisdom, which is offered to him by a wizard, he finds a magic lamp, which controls the geni Yom. Gandle fulfills his desires for a time with a palace, a woman, a son, and a dog, but is eventually dissatisfied with them-- since he recognizes their falseness. In a moment of passion he discards the lamp and sets out for new experiences. He comes upon a glass mountain, said to be guarded by dragons and giants who hold beautiful princesses captive. He fails to climb the mountain, but on a later attempt succeeds, to discover that the dragons and giants are all dead, and there has been only one princess, who had loved the giant. Gandle retreats farther and farther into dream, and comes to think of himself as divine. Marriage removes some of his illusions, but pride and egotism cause his death. * Despite the fairy tale motives and a light touch in the writing, sombre, ruthless, and thoughtprovoking. BROWN, ALICE (1857-1948) American novelist, regionalistic short story writer (New Hampshire), playwright. Staff member of YOUTH'S COMPANION. Popular, competent work, but now forgotten.

BROWN, ALICE Macmillan; 283. THE WIND BETWEEN THE WORLDS New York 1920 Romance, with some attempt at psychological depth, plus material on Spiritualism, radioactive elements, and World War I. * There are two story strands. The Harvey family is in mourning for their son Philip, an aviator, who has been killed in the war. Philip's mother has taken to Spiritualism in an effort to contact Philip and maintains a secretary who practices automatic writing for the same purpose. The secretary's ability is half fraudulent; she deceives at times, yet is partly convinced that there is a larger aspect to her accomplishment. The second subplot concerns the Doves. Andrew Dove, now partly senile, has isolated a new element beyond radium, and this element seems to offer communication (via Morse Code) with a range of life that for want of better identification is termed the Dead. Dove needs more money to enlarge his experiments, and his daughter Andrea must help him raise it. By an odd chance she had been a lover to one of the Harvey sons. When the Harveys learn of Dove's experiments, Andrea undertakes a deception. She claims to be the secret wife of the dead Philip, since she believes in error that her lover was the man killed. But when the other Harvey son appears, she realizes her mistake and is trapped in it. The experimental strand now dries up. Old Dove perpetrates a fraud to impress the Harveys; he hides his supply of the new element (olympium); and there is now a question whether Dove ever did have any genuine phenomena. The romance, however, is disentangled. * Literate, but dated and incredible, although one scene-- between old Mrs. Brooke and the scheming secretary-- is well-handled. The author's earlier work is superior. BROWN, FREDRIC (1906-1972) American (Milwaukee and New York) newspaperman, author. Important writer of mystery and detective fiction, less important in science-fiction and supernatural fiction. Good humorist; best period practitioner of whimsical short-short stories. Most important works THE FABULOUS CLIPJOINT (1947); NIGHT OF THE JABBERWOCK (1950), COMPLIMENTS OF A FIEND (1950). 284. ANGELS AND SPACESHIPS Dutton; New York 1954 Short stories, including [a] ETAOIN SHRDLU. (UNK 1942) When an eccentric little man rents a linotype in a small town newspaper plant, so that he can print a secret formula from matrices that he has devised, no one could have anticipated what would happen. The linotype becomes animated. At first it is a very efficient money-making device, since it sets type perfectly and repairs itself, but it gradually develops a personality. When the printer inadvertently has it set some socialist literature, it goes on strike and issues ultimatums; when it sets a sex book, it demands a mate. A solu~ tion is finally reached. [b] ARMAGEDDON. (UNK 1941) When a prayer wheel in Tibet stops rotating, the powers of evil are released and Gerber the Great, stage magician, is revealed to be the

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BROWN, FREDRIC Evil One, ready to take over the world. But only momentarily, for young Herbie Westerman saves the world. [c] THE HAT TRICK. (UNK 1943). Told by indirection. Possibly a being from another science-fictional world, possibly a demon. [d] SEARCH. Peter is in heaven with God. [e] ,THE ANGELIC EARTHWO~. (UNK 1943) An angle worm assumes the form of an angel and flies away; a tael in a locked showcase turns into a teal duck; hate becomes heat; lye turns into a Rumanian coin-- periodically besetting, inconvenient, sometimes disastrous events all find a simple explanation from Brown's background in printing. [f] SOLIpSIST.. Walter B. Jehovah wills the universe out of existence, but cannot remove himself. The voice of the former creator god tells him that he can be released only by creating a new universe. Then another person can evolve who can will him out of existence. Jehovah creates such a universe in seven days. * Among the best pulp humor. [a] and [e] are best. 285. HONEYMOON IN HELL Bantam Books; New York 1958 paperbound Short stories, including [a] TOO FAR. Described elsewhere. [b] MILLENNIUM. (MFSF 1955) Satan receives his come-uppance when a little man makes the Ultimate Wish-- a completely unselfish wish that destroys Satan's empire. [c] BLOOD. Described elsewhere. [d] NATURALLY. (BEYOND 1954) A short-short story. If you are inept at geometry, you should not try to evoke demons in the traditional manner. [e] VOODOO. (BEYOND 1954) Doll magic. A short-short story. [f] A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR. (OTHER WORLD S 1951) Radio programs allover the world are interrupted for a brief message from the sponsor-- the word "fight." It stops various pugnacious activities-- even war-- since people react negatively to the command. But where did the message come from, and who is the sponsor? Supernatural by implication, not statement. [g] RUSTLE OF WINGS. (MFSF 1953) If a travelling salesman bets with you, thirteen silver dollars-pieces of si1ver-- against one dollar that you will not sign a paper selling your soul, what would you do? * [g] is nicely executed. 286. NIGHTMARES AND GEEZENSTACKS 47 STORIES Bantam Books; New York 1961 paperbound These are mostly short-short stories, only a couple of hundred words long, usually fitted with a trick or punning ending. Brown was very skilled at writing them. * Including, [a] NASTY. Described elsewhere. [b] REBOUND. Snell, a small-time crook, suddenly discovers that he has the power to make what he says come true. In his exuberance he shouts to the world, "Drop dead," but has forgotten about echo. [c] NIGHTMARE IN RED. He awakens during the last great earthquake to see in the sky, a sign saying, "Tilt." The reference (for those too young to remember) is to cheating on pinball machines. [d] THE HOUSE. (FANTASTIC ADVENTURES 1960) Presumably after-death experiences in a room symbolic of the narrator's life. [e] RECESSIONAL. (DUDE 1960) The chess pieces comment and philosophize; secondary commentary on the war years. [f] THE RING OF HANS CARVEL. Retold

BROWN, FREDRIC from Rabe1ais. In a dream the Devil gives Carvel a magic ring which will keep other men away from Carvel's wife. Carvel puts his finger into it. [g) ROPE TRICK. Indian magic does not solve the problems of a love life that is down and out. [h) JAYCEE. (MFSF 1955) After the testerosis epidemic, which destroyed the fertility of most males, parthenogenesis produces the first male baby. Unfortunately, he turns out to be a Jaycee-- water into gin, walking on water, etc. The ambiguity in the title (for younger readers) resides in Junior Chamber of Commerce. [i) DEATH ON THE MOUNTAIN. Afterdeath experiences in an imaginary land, and things that can take shape. Not too clear. [j) BEAR POSSIBILITY. Quinby, a magician, a kindly man, has only one power: the ability to change humans into animals. When his wife falls into the bear pit, to protect her life he changes her into a female bear. He is now sweating it out in the obstetrics ward. [k) FISH STORY. Robert Palmer meets a mermaid and falls in love with her. A kindly Triton transforms him into a merman, but he discovers that sea people propagate like fish. [1) MURDER IN TEN EASY LESSONS. The career of a young punk who is turned into a gangster, interspersed with comments from Hell. [m} THE LITTLE LAMB. Wayne Gray, artist, now quite drunk, is looking for his wife. He finds her nude portrait in Wagner's studio and shoots Wagner. The portrait reminds him that he had shot his wife several hours before. Perhaps meant figuratively. [n) THE GEEZENSTACKS. (WT 1943) Uncle Richard finds the dolls in a box on the street. Audrey plays with them. Her father soon notices that whatever happens to the dolls (the Geezenstacks), will soon happen to the family. His solution is to encourage Audrey to play with something else, so that the dolls can be disposed of. But when a witch gets the dolls, the connection still holds. * The other stories are science-fiction, mystery, and mild erotica. * Best are [c], [j), and [m), which last is longer than most of the other stories in this book. 287. PARADOX LOST AND TWELVE OTHER GREAT SCIENCE FICTION STORIES Random House;. New York 1973 A posthumous collection reprinting earlier material. Introduction by Elizabeth Brown, the author's widow. * Including [a) THE LAST TRAIN. (WT 1950) Fate and failure. Haig misses the last train. Supernatural by implication only. [b] IT DIDN'T HAPPEN. (PLAYBOY 1963) Kane has an insight into the universe. When he ran over a girl with his automobile, there was no trace of its having happened. He reasons that this is a solipsistic world, and that when something leaves his mind, it ceases to exist. He is only partly right, as he learns when he shoots the stripteaser. [c] TEN PERCENTER. Down-and-out would-be actor .Bill Weaver finds a wallet with cash and credit cards, and tries to use the cards. By "chance" he meets Roscoe, the owner of the wallet, who makes a deal with him: 10% of everything that Weaver makes, and Roscoe will work behind the scenes for him. Supernaturalism is invoJ.ved, also sharing that Weaver does not like. [d]

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BRUSSOF, VALERY EINE KLEINE NACHTMUSIK. (MFSF 1965). Written in collaboration with Carl Onspaugh. Dooley Hanks, clarinetist, has spent most of his life looking for the Sound. His most successful attempt comes in Germany. On passing a little wine cellar, he hears a wonderful sound, enters, and finds a strange-looking man playing an archaic musical instrument. Dooley strikes up an acquaintance with the musician (whose command of his instrument is remarkable), but cannot resist taking the instrument, since his own clarinet has been shattered. Otto the musician had used it to summon women, but Hanks, after murdering the piper, discovers that he has summoned something else in Hamelin town. [e) THE NEW ONE. (UNK 1942) World War II patriotism. In the other-world, the demons and forgotten gods live. Darveth the fire elemental is strongest and he has a pet human under his control, a pyromaniac. A fire disaster almost occurs, but a new supernatural figure has been called into existence by belief, and he beats off Darveth. Uncle Sam. [f) DOUBLE STANDARD. (PLAYBOY) 1963) Life as seen by a character.inside the TV box. His thoughts are controlled by censorship, and the outside world seems like a den of iniquity. * Craftsmanlike, good commercial fiction. 288. THE BEST OF FREDRIC BROWN Doubleday; Garden City, N.Y. 1976 Edited, with introduction, A BROWN STUDY, by Robert Bloch. * Short stories, including, all described elsewhere, [a) IT DIDN'T HAPPEN. [b] RECESSIONAL. [c) EINE KLEINE NACHTMUSIK, with Carl Onspaugh. [d) JAYCEE. [e] ANSWER. [f) THE GEEZENSTACKS. [g} REBOUND. [h) ETAOIN SHRDLU. [i) ARMAGEDDON. * A reasonable selection, with an excellent introduction. BRUCE, MURIEL American author; no information. 289. MUKARA A NOVEL Rae D. Henkle; New York [1930] Lost-race adventure, with occult and sciencefictional elements. * Richard Kirby and his companions seek a lost civilization in the mountains of Brazil. After many perils (including bestial spider-men) they come to the decayed civilization of Mukara. Advanced scientifically in some respects, degenerate in others, Mukara is currently torn between the secular and religious aspects of the culture. Kirby sides with the secular side and is in opposition to the Mudra, the female leader of the priests. Much of the remainder of the book is taken up with his initiation and his defeat of priestly magic. The Mudra calls in savage Indians, and the land is endangered, but the savages are repelled and the Mudra is revealed to be a semisupernatural being who is incarnated occasionally. * Of no great interest. The occult material is developed at the expense of story. BRUSSOF, VALERY (also transliterated as BRYUSOV or BRIUSOV., VALERII YAKOVLEVICH;) (1873-1924) Prominent Russian (Moscow) poet, compiler of folk songs, literary critic, editor, historian;

BRUSSOF, VALERY special range, Pushkin and the early 19th century. Modernist in approach to Russian literature. Prolific writer, but very little of his work translated. His historical romance THE FIERY ANGEL (H. Tou1rnin, London 1930), published as by Valeri Briussov, is worth reading. An excellent, thought-provoking writer. 290, THE REPUBLIC OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS AND OTHER STORIES Constable; London 1918 A translator is not credited. Introduction by Stephen Graham. Apparently early work from the first decade of the century. "[The purpose of this book is] to show in various ways that there is no fixed boundary between the world of reality and that of the imagination, between the dreaming and the waking world, life and fantasy; and that which all call reality is the most dreadful delirium." * Including, [a] IN THE MIRROR. Morbid psychology. A vain woman battles with her reflection in the mirror, is submerged by it, and wonders which is the real personality and which the reflection. [b] PROTECTION. A seducer who is posing as a dead husband is foiled by the husband's ghost. [c] ELULI, SON OF ELULI. A Phoenician. tomb in West Africa is disturbed, activating an ancient curse on one who abandons reality to accept the curse. [d] IN THE TOWER. Dreams of a past life at the time of the Teutonic Knights, or perhaps dreams of the future while living in the past. * The other stories, while not fantastic in our sense, involve a similar balancing and exchange of reality and unreality. The title story is science-fiction. * Sparse, nicely told. BUCHAN, JOHN (1st BARON TWEEDSMUIR) (1875-1940) G.C.M.G. Scottish author, solicitor, civil servant, publisher (part owner of Thomas Nelson), director of Reuter's news service, war correspondent, historian, M.P., Chancellor of Edinburgh University (1938), Governor-General of Canada (1935-1940). Recipient of many honors. Fairly prolific author in many fields, but now remembered mostly for mystery-espionage novels THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS (1915) and GREENMANTLE (1916), the first of which formed the basis for the motion picture of the same name directed by Alfred Hitchcock. 291. THE WATCHER BY THE THRESHOLD AND OTHER TALES Blackwood; Edinburgh and London 1902 Short stories, including [a] THE WATCHER BY THE THRESHOLD. Lad1aw is haunted by a devil that manifests itself as neural agony. When he learns that the Emperor Justinian suffered from the same complaint, he becomes an avid student of Byzantine history. Although others scoff at his theory of the pain as demoniac, it is transferred and finally disappears in a blast of hot air. Possibly of some autobiographical significance, since Buchan apparently suffered greatly from psychosomatic pains. [b] THE OUTGOING OF THE TIDE. Premodern Scotland. If one goes to the Sker sands on Be1tane Eve (April 30th), on the ebb of tide, after midnight, one becomes the property of the Devil. Heriotside and Allie are lovers, and each is urged to go to the sands for a tryst-- Heriotside by a

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BUCHAN, JOHN shadowy demon in human form, Allie by her witch mother. Allie is killed. [c] THE RIME OF TRUE THOMAS. Scottish folklore. A shepherd is engaged in conversation by a curlew and is allowed to hear the music of True Thomas's rime. This means an awakening of dissatisfaction and departure from the land. [d] BASILISSA. Venn, as a boy and as a young mari, has had a repetitive dream of a strange, many-roomed house. As a man, in a boat off a small Greek island, he is asked to save the life of the Basi1issa, whom the local populace regard as a witch. When he enters the house, he recognizes it as the house of his dream, and the beautiful young Basi1issa (queen) recognizes him from matChing dreams. They leave together. * Also included is the science-fiction story "No-man' s Land." * [d] is the best story. 292. THE MOON ENDURETH TALES AND FANCIES Blackwood; Edinburgh and London 1912 Short stories and verse, including [a] A LUCID INTERVAL. Ram Singh, a Behari landlord who feels that he is being badly treated by the Raj, poisons a group of cabinet ministers and high officials with a drug that causes the emergence of true personality. As a result a cautious conservative minister is ready to precipitate a crisis with Germany; a Lowland Scottish hypocrite no longer poses as a liberal; and a proponent of harmony becomes an activist. Singh laughs, until he learns that one result of his drug is a plan to deport Indians to South Africa as slave labor. [b] SPACE. Ho1lond, a mathematician, discovers the nature of space and the laws governing it; he can move about freely in hyperspace while he sleeps. But psychologically the discovery is almost unbearable, because of presences in space. [c] THE GROVE OF ASHTOROTH. South Africa. Along the path of Phoenician exploration is the last shrine to Ishtar: a grove, a tower-like temple, and pigeons. An Englishman of partly Jewish ancestry suffers a reversion to Near Eastern mind-modes, falls under the sway of the shrine, and revives the worship of the goddess. A friend destroys the shrine, though sensing the presence of the goddess and feeling guilt at having driv;en something "10ve1y and adorable from its last refuge." [d] THE GREEN GLEN. A beautiful Scottish glen and stream, the scene of an ancient feud, also recapitulates an ancient situation. [e] THE RIME OF TRUE THOMAS. Described elsewhere. * [e] and two non-fantastic stories are omitted from the American edition (Sturgis Walton, New York 1912). * [a] is amusing, and [b] and [c] are among Buchan's best work. 293. THE DANCING FLOOR Hodder and Stoughton; London [1926] Adventure based on Greek folklore and predestination. Two sUbplots move to a common climax. Vernon Mi1burne has a recurrent dream which drives him to study Greek culture. Kore Arabin, the daughter of an Englishman who has a barony of a sort in Greece, is thought by the natives to be a witch or demon. In a revival of pagan rites, the peasants are about to sacrifice her, when Mi1burne appears, and

BUCHAN, JOHN his classical studies enable him to save her. * Routine. 294. THE RUNAGATES CLUB Hodder and Stoughton; London 1928 Short stories told at a London dining club. * Including [a] THE GREEN WILDEBEEST: SIR RICHARD HANNAY'S STORY. Experiences around 1900 in the Transvaal. Hannay and a companion come upon an isolated tribe that maintains a shrine with a priest, a lush garden, and a green wildebeest-- which symbolizes supernatural forces. When the companion violates the shrine, he is punished supernaturally. Classical theory of holiness. [b] DR. LARTIUS: JOHN PALLISER-YEATES'S STORY. A rationalized version of a motif associated with World War I. Lartius, a Swiss, is mediumistic and is in spiritual contact with the British leaders. He then reveals information to the Germans. A spy. [c] THE WIND IN THE PORTICO: HENRY NIGHTGALE'S STORY. Dubellay has excavated an ancient altar and has found paraphernalia of the old Celtic God Vaunus. Manifestations occur when Dubellay turns his house into a shrine. Vaunus is not a pleasant god. [d] SKULE SKERRY: ANTHONY HURRELL'S STORY. An isolated island in the far north, the home of birds, known since medieval times; and the seat of an abiding feeling of terror. A monster is seen. It is rationalized, but fear remains. [e} TENDEBANT MANUS: -SIR ARTHURWARCLIFF'S STORY. Borderline supernatural. The Souldern brothers: George, the politician; Reggie, the soldier. When Reggie is killed in World War I his personality in some fashion animates the ineffectual but intelligent George. But holding hands with the dead may very well -draw one over the boundary. [f] FULLCIRCLE: MARTIN PECKWETHER'S STORY. The beautiful Georgian house is still held somehow by the 19th century lord. His personality affects those who currently own the house. Not a hostile haunting. * Among Buchan's best work. 295. THE GAP IN THE CURTAIN Hodder and Stoughton; London 1932 A metaphysical novel, with social material, about time and fate. * Professor Moe, noted Swedish savant and Nobel prize winner, has developed a new theory of time: our present time is encapsulated in a higher dimension of time, and then in higher forms. There also kinks and loops. If one can break mentally through the barrier into the higher time sphere, knowledge of the future is possible. Death also results in a similar mental passage to a higher dimension. The guests at Lady Flambard's house party are willing to experiment, and after some mild ascesis they try to see a London Times of a year in the future. They succeed, and each finds his life changed. Tavanger, a big business magnate and manipulator, reads of a "michelite" combine to be formed and tries to corner all the michelite stock. His subterfuges are described in some detail. He is successful, but a new invention makes his schemes profitless. Mayot, a politician, reads the name of the new prime minister and tries to work his way into his confidence. He is not successful,

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BULL, R.C. for "while he knew the winner, he picked the wrong race." Daker sees that he is to go to Yucatan, but he is determined not to go. But he becomes entangled with a young woman whom he wants to drop, and his only way of escaping is to go on an expedition. Goodeve sees his own obituary and dies of fright. Captain Charles Ottery also sees his own obituary, but he does not succumb. He learns, after the date, thac the notice contained several errors and really referred to a distant relative. * Nicely handled. Superior to most of Buchan's adventure thrillers. BULL, R[ANDOLPH] C[ECIL] British anthologist, collector of supernatural fiction. AS EDITOR: 296. PERTURBED SPIRITS A BOOK OF GHOST AND TERROR STORIES Arthur Barker; London [1954] Introduction by Herbert Van ThaI. * Described elsewhere, [a} THE DEMOISELLE D'yS. Robert W. Chambers. [b] THE DEAD VALLEY, Ralph Adams Cram. [c] THE DEATH MASK, Mrs. H. D. Everett. [d] THE MAN WITH THE NOSE, Rhoda Broughton. [e] GHOST OF HONOUR, Pamela Hansford Johnson. [f] THE DERELICT, William Hope Hodgson. [g] THE UNQUIET GRAVE, F. M. Mayor. [h] MORTMAIN John Metcalfe. [i] THE LOST ROOM, Fitz-James O'Brien. [j] THE FIREPLACE, H.S. Whitehead. [k1 THE INVISIBLE EYE, Erckmann-Chatrian. [11 WOLVERDEN TOWER, Grant Allen. * [m] THE CORPSE LIGHT, Dick Donovan. (from TALES OF TERROR> 1899) Dr. Lindsay, on his country rounds, sees a bloody corpse on the road. It disappears, then reappears. The vision is accompanied by a flopping slap on his face. He is led to an old haunted mill, where, later, evidence of murder is found. in] VERA, Jean Villiers de l'Isle Adam. Countess Athol died suddenly on the marital bed, and her husband mourns her deeply. He recreates the atmosphere of life, wills her to come back, and succeeds for a moment. But a casual word prevents her return. Faith and love. [0] THE DEVIL OF THE MARSH, H. B. Marriott-Watson. (from DIOGENES IN LONDON, 1893) Semi-alle~o­ rical tale. The traveller comes to the Great Marsh, sees the beautiful spirit of the marsh, and declares his love. But a previous lover, the Evil Spirit (a rotten thing), protests at her leaving the marsh. The traveller has second thoughts. [p] THE HAUNTED STATION, Hume Nisbet. (from THE HAUNTED STATION AND OTHER STORIES, 1894). The word "station" here is Australian for "fannhouse." The narrator, an English doctor unjustly deported to Australia, escapes. He comes upon a deserted house, in which are several skeletons. While he muses over it, a ghost appears and tells. him the story of the deaths, which it had indirectly caused, and tries to possess him. * A resourceful collection, particularly useful in offering samples from very rare books: [m1. [0], [p1. 297. UPON THE MIDNIGHT AN ANTHOLOGY OF GHOST AND HORROR STORIES Macdonald; London [1957] Introduction. Including, described elsewhere,

BULL, R. C.

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BULWER-LYTTON, EDWARD GEORGE

[a] THE WHITE WOLF OF KOSTOPCHIN, Sir Gilbert Campbell. [b] THE DEMON KING, J. B. Priestley. [c] THE FOUR-FIFTEEN EXPRESS, Amelia B. Edwards. [d] THE MESSENGER, Robert W. Chambers. [e] NIGHTLY SHE SINGS, Clemence Dane~ * Also, [f] THE PARLOUR CAR GHOST, "A Lady." The ghost of a drummer, in Victorian England, sells some cloth to a lady on' a train. Written in the middle of the 19th century. [g] DOG OR DEMON Theo. Gift. From NOT FOR THE ,NIGHT-TIME, 1867. Ireland. Dispossessing a tenant; killing the tenant's dog; a curse; and a ghost dog. [h] A LITTLE PLACE OFF THE EDGWARE ROAD, Graham Greene. All about the murder, but told by the wrong person. [i] DECAY, John Moore. Borderline supernatural. Cotter, aged 73, wanders through his grove of trees and sees increasing amounts of decay, until it is omnipresent. Symbolic of his approaching death. [j] AWAKEASLEEP-AWAKE, J. J. Curle. A complex interweaving of dream, prevision, murder, and afterdeath experience. [k] THE FLAGSTONE, Norman Edwards. Budding psychosis, probably, symbolized supernaturally, when Cotter hears the strange scratching and giggling from under the flagstone in his rented house. * Of the new material [h], [i], [j] are best.

Allegory of maturation and individuation. The boundaries between real life and fantasy waver and become vague as John Godly, bored middleaged businessman, approaches Fairyland. Hoping to have an affair with his secretary Maia, he becomes acquainted with a series of grotesque characters (among whom reality of role shifts), and he finally enters Fairyland. Along the way he sees a double of himself, which retraces his path back to his life. In Fairyland (the unconscious area, the dream area) a revolution is brewing. There has been too much rationalism and the ancient supernatural forces have rebelled and overthrown those who favored human activities, reason, and limitations, Godly realizes that he must come to terms with the forces of magic in order to survive. Back on earth, however, Godly's doppelganger Godelik tries to enter Godly's life, but his infantilism and naivetee cause problems. Eventually when Godly returns, both aspects of the personality may be united and Godly has a chance for a better, happier life. The episodes in Fairyland are very nicely handled, but the overlong preparatory sections are likely to discourage the reader, who may find the character-grotesques unnecessary and pointless.

BULLETT, GERALD [WILLIAM] (1893-1958) British mainstream novelist, short story writer, poet, editor. Author of critical works on George Eliot and G. K. Chesterton. Bestknown work THE JURY (1935). Fiction often has mystical touch, foreshadowing serious later work on English mystical thinkers of the Middle Ages. Highly regarded during the 1930's, but now undeservedly forgotten. 298. THE STREET OF THE EYE AND NINE OTHER TALES John Lane; London 1923 Short stories, including [a] THE STREET OF THE EYE. Paris. Young people argue about the omnipresence and watchfulness of God. Bellingham is convinced that he has been marked by God, and sees symbols of this supervision in material objects and everyday events. He comes to the conclusion that a vengeful deity wishes him to put away his "wife." He refuses, and is thought mad, but the narrator, a priest, sees something inexplicable and terrifying. [b] THE ENCHANTED MOMENT. John Pardoe, middle-aged broker who has dehumanized his life and family, is taken, between the strokes of the clock, to a fairyland of sorts. There he meets a drunken dwarf tailor named Dionysius, who says that he is God and shrinks Mr. Pardoe so that he can enter a tiny dwelling, where the dwarf grows his beard in a flowerpot. When Pardoe returns to this world, he has been changed by his experience. Obviously the germ for MR. GODLY BESIDE HIMSELF. [c] DEARTH'S FARM. Dearth looks like a horse, has empathy with horses, and is daily growing more equine. He is able to transfer his personality to a white horse, in which form he tries to kill his hated wife. * The first story is stiff and overlong, but the other two stories are excellent. 299. MR. GODLY BESIDE HIMSELF John Lane; London 1924

BULWER-LYTTON, EDWARD GEORGE EARLE LYTTON, first BARON LYTTON (1803-1873) Highly important English popular novelist, dramatist, political figure. Born into influential landowning military family; educated at Cambridge. Active as Member of Parliament in Liberal Party in youth, in Conservative Party later in life. Secretary for the Colonies, 1858-9, and influential in establishment of British Columbia and Queensland. Created Baron Lytton of Knebworth, 1866. In literature notable for setting trends or acting as literary barometer. Important novels are PELHAM (1828), fiction of Corinthianism and dandyism; EUGENE ARAM (1832) Newgate novel, or fiction glamorizing criminals; THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII (1834), RIENZI (1835), solid historical novels; THE CAXTONS (1850), MY NOVEL (1853), domestic novels; ZANONI (1842), A STRANGE STORY (1861), supernatural fiction; THE COMING RACE (187l)~ utopian science-fiction. Highly competent playwright whose work held the stage until the end of the century, most notable plays being THE LADY OF LYONS (1838) and RICHELIEU (1838). Also wrote poetry, made translations, composed much miscellaneous material, and did editorial work. A rather puzzling figure as a man; cordially hated by minor contemporaries, rancorously pilloried for personal and literary faults. The cause seems to have been mostly jealousy. A very generous and heipful man to other authors. Notorious during his lifetime for the most publicly conducted marital squabble since the days of Lord Byron and his wife. Lady Bulwer seems to have been semi-paranoid. As a writer of fiction seldom highly regarded, despite intelligence, fluency, and good ideas. Is not read much any more, apart from supernatural fiction, and is now remembered most for the line, "The pen is

BULWER-LYTTON, EDWARD GEORGE mightier than the sword." The line arose in a controversy with a blackmailer. In the field of supernatural literature Bulwer is enormously important, for his work, like that of Walpole's in the 18th century and Poe's in Bulwer's lifetime, has been patterning foundation upon which whole chains of development have been buil t. THE HAUNTED AND TIlE HAUNTERS is the first modern haunted house and has been imitated scores of times. A STRANGE STORY stands behind most more recent novels of magic or of personality change, from Stevenson's THE STRANGJr CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE and Hodgson's CARNACKI THE GHOST FINDER TO THE present. Bulwer-Lytton was seriously interested in the occult; studied its literatUre closely; knew most of the important personalities of his day; and apparently took part in Spiritualist seances and ceremonial magical rites. Despite extravagant stories that are told, his attitude seems to have been that of an investigator rather than that of a convert. On his name: He was born Ed~ard George Earle Lytton Bulwer; he became Bulwer-Lytton on his mother's death in 1843; he became Lord Lytton upon elevation. There is no agreement among reference works or libraries as to his alphabetic placement. I have followed the precedent of the Catalogue of the British Library. 300. ASMODEUS AT·LARGE Carey, Lea and Blanchard; Philadelphia 1833 Topical fantasy reprinted from the NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE, which Bulwer edited. An odd medley of satire, commentary on current events and literature, sentimental exploration, and supernaturalism; the vehicle is based ultimately on LeSage's LE DIABLE BOITEUX. There is also an allegorical framework-- satiety, excitement, passion. The narrator, who is suffering greatly from ennui, is about to visit the doctor when he is approached by Asmodeus, who offers him new sensations. There is no question of a diabolical bond; souls are easy enough to come by otherwise. Asmodeus thereupon takes the young man through a wide range of experience-politics, literature, the arts, current events, newspaper policies, and even geology. Eventually this perpetual novelty palls on the narrator and he embarks on a love affair that ends tragically. While Asmodeus is not present in this, it may have been his way of assuring the narrator's damnation. Supernaturalism enters in various ways. The narrator, accompanied by Asmodeus, attends a witches' sabbath, has an amour with a witch, and meets Kosem Kesamim, the greatest wizard of all time. He hears [a] THE TALE OF KOSEM KESAMIM. Kosem Kesamim was born about three thousand years ago, the son of kings. He learned all the empirical knowledge of his day, and even the "sciences that sleep" today. It was within his power to control the weather, awaken the dead, control geni, and much else. But he is Faustian and will not be satisfied with anything less than the ultimate source of knowledge. He evokes a fire being, which is the living principle of the world. This being is ambivalent, at first fearsome, then desirable; but it is

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BULWER-LYTTON, EDWARD GEORGE capable of removing the film from human eyes. The magiCian goes through Death to achieve his purpose. He awakens and sees that everything is nothing but corruption. Is that the real principle, he asks. In this version of the story, corruption is not the real prinCiple, and the story continues for a while. In reprints this continuation is omitted. * To return to the main story: The narrator lives for a time in Cyprolis, an underground city (allegorical for sex?). He travels to the center of the earth and sees a gigantic stone figure with countless strings emerging from it-- presumably Fate. * Most of.ASMODEUS AT LARGE is briskly written and entertaining, in the lively manner that Bulwer sometimes used when not writing of supernatural topics. But it is localized in reference, and many of the allusions would be meaningless except to a close historian of the period. The influence of Goethe's FAUST is obvious. * There is no separate British edition of ASMODEUS AT LARGE. 301. THE PILGRIMS OF THE RHINE Saunders and Otley; London 1834 (published as by the author of PELHAM) Travelogue, local color, and a double narrative with some symbolic intent. * A group of English fairies from the court of Queen Nymphalin are bored and decide to take a trip up the Rhine, visiting supernatural kinfolk along the way. Similarly, a party of humans-Gertrude Vane, her father, and her fiance-are travelling up the Rhine for Gertrude's health. She is dying of tuberculosis. The fairies recognize the situation and do what they can to make her trip more pleasant, and, at the same time, death less horrible for her. At the end Gertrude dies. Intercalated in the narrative are several stories, including [a] THE SOUL IN PURGATORY. The Angel Seralim, one of the sweetist harpists in heaven, is allowed to solace Purgatory. The angel finds there a girl who is very unhappy at the thought that her lover might mourn her too much. The angel releases her to visit the lover, but it is discovered that solace is easily found on earth. [b] TIlE WOOING OF MASTER FOX. An animal fable, probably ultimately suggested by the beast epic of REINEKE FUKS, of the slippery fox who seeks to injure the dog by stealing the dog's fianc~e, the cat, but is in turn well served by the intelligent griffin. [c] THE FALLEN STAR. Set in prehistoric times, when mammoths are still present in Northern Europe. The star Fear, wishing to inspire some human to power, is permitted to go to earth. The star finds there the crippled Morven, whom it inspires to plot successfully until he becomes king. Morven, the author announces, is the first man to use religion as a stepping stone to power. It is then revealed that Lucifer had tempted the star. This seems to be the first story to invoke prehistoric man on an anthropological level, despite the supernatural framework, which is merely allegorical. [d] THE LIFE OF DREAMS. Very short. The narrator didirects his attention to controlling his dreams and creates a dream kingdom with a beautiful

3ULWER-LYTTON, EDWARD GEORGE lover. He lives in this place for a time, since he has made it reality, but his beloved is bitten by a snake and dies. He is now looking for a land beyond even the land of dreams. * Told in the turgid manner Bulwer usually affected with the supernatural. The concepts of [c] and [d] are interesting. 302. THE STUDENT Saunders and Otley; London 1835 2 vol. (published as by the author of EUGENE ARAM) Collected papers and short stories from the NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. Including [a] THE TALE OF KOSEM KESAMIM. Shorter version. Described elsewhere. [b] MONOS AND DAIMOS. A LEGEND. An allegorical fiction. Monos, a morose wanderer who is apart from humanity, is shipwrecked with only one companion, the annoying and low Daimos. Monos cannot tolerate Daimos's company, and Daimos cannot survive without companionship. Even when Daimos is murdered and buried, he remains present. A dissociated personality fragment. [c] MANUSCRIPT FOUND IN A MADHOUSE. A conte cruel with obvious allegorical significance. The narrator, though creative, intellectual, and poetic, is a monster physically. He woos a maiden in the darkness, and she becomes pregnant. He is willing to marry her, but when she sees him by day, she drops dead, and her premature child is also a monster. Possibly with autobiographical hints? * Florid, but interesting material, obviously significant in somewhat later American developments. 303. FALKLAND AND ZICCI Routledge; London [1876] Volume 9 of the Knebworth edition of Bulwer-Lytton's works. For reasons that will become apparent in 304, this volume has been placed here out of chronological sequence. It is the first book appearance of ZICCI, which was published in periodical form in 1841. The tentative first version of ZANONI, it was left unfinished and later cannibalized, extensively rewritten. and reissued as the first part of ZANONI. * 18th century Naples. Glyndon, a young English artist, is enamored of the lovely singer Isabel di Pisani and is in peril, since others also covet her. The prophetic and magical abilities of Zicci, a remarkable young Corsican, preserve Glyndon from the traps set by the Prince di , but Glyndon discovers that he faces a. more formidable rival in love in Zicci. Zicci obviously has supernatural powers. He is ageless, can foresee the future, and can control destiny. Glyndon is disposed for a time to vie with Zicci, but changes his mind and instead takes instruction in the mysteries which Zicci and his senior associate, Mejnour, offer. When the perils from Prince di _______ are over, Zicci leaves with Isabel, but Zicci, because he has accepted love, has lost the ability to protect Isabel by magic. The novel ends abruptly as Glyndon enters Mejnour's hidden castle in the Apennines, where the magician lives, protected by a horde of Neapolitan bandits. * The allegorical framework is discussed under ZANONI. * A curious work, partly in the hyperbolic romantic style of the day, partly in the Silver Fork manner, partly Gothic. Zicci

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BULWER-LYTTON, EDWARD GEORGE is obviously a London Corinthian buck, with all the poses and pretensions of the species. The author's contemporaries found this characterization very irritating. 304. ZANONI Saunders and Otley; London 1842 3 vol (published as by the author NIGHT AND MORNING) Semi-allegorical occult novel. Bulwer quarreled with his associates and did not finish ZICCI, but he reworked the material in it extensively, developing it to more than twice the length of the first version, and finished it as ZANONI. The essential plot is much the same, although the tone of the work is completely different. It is no longer clear Corinthian, but is now murky-mysterious. Zicci has become Zanoni, a Chaldean in origin, and Isabel di Pisani has become Viola Pisani. Their romance has become orthodox wedlock. * To continue: Glyndon undertakes his occult studies with Mejnour in the ancient castle near Naples. He listens to much philosophy, learns the properties of herbs, and is frequently warned that the road to power is difficult. He must renounce the affairs of the world, particularly those of the heart. He is told that the rationale of magic is to open the mind to those hordes of beings that swarm around, some good, some evil; such opening should take place only with the pupil is ready. Mejnour sets Glyndon a simple test, and leaves the castle. But the moment Mejnour leaves, Glyndon succumbs to his lust for a beautiful peasant woman, Fi1lide, and violates Mejnour's prohibitions. He enters a forbidden room and undertakes the first steps in a magical operation. The result is horrible, for he encounters the dread Dweller of the Threshold, a horrific being with blazing eyes, and collapses. Mejnour returns and expels him. Glyndon thereupon wanders about, tormented by the presence of the Dweller. After staying for a time in England, he returns to Italy to pick up Fi11ide. They go to Paris, where the final accounting is to take place. * In the meanwhile, Zanoni and Viola live idyllically for a time. Zanoni has lost much of his supernatural power because of his indulgence in love, and is not able to protect Viola, first from the plague, which they flee, and later, from death in childbirth. Faced with the certainty that Viola and her child (whose sex is never revealed) will die, Zanoni deals with the Dweller for their lives. He has, however, weakened himself further, and the Dweller is now perpetually with the child. Viola can perceive this and in despair abandons Zanoni, fleeing to Paris, where she meets Glyndon and puts herself under his protection. Zanoni tries to find her, but unsuccessfully until the last moments. * The conclusion of the magical drama comes during the last days of the Terror under Robespierre. Glyndon and Viola are betrayed by a false friend. Glyndon, whom Zanoni finds and heals from the Dweller, escapes, but for Viola, again, Zanoni can do nothing. When, however, his emotions reach a certain crisis point, his powers return and he is able to summon Adon-Ai, his good spirit, and defeat the Dweller. He can save Viola only by taking

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her place in the tumbril. He dies. This leaves as the sole survivor of the Cha1dean secret society the 5,000 year old Mejnour, who remains passionless and aloof from life. * ZANONI is prefixed by a famous introduction in which Bu1wer-Lytton tells how he obtained the mss. describing these events from an elderly Englishman, who is probably Glyndon, although the chronology and characterization are a little strained. * At the end of most modern editions of ZANONI is to be found a key, originally prepared by Harriet Martineau, in which Bu1werLytton's allegory is expounded. Bu1wer-Lytton called his process "typing," rather than allegorization, but it all comes to the same thing. Majnour is contemplation of the actual, science, or understanding in the intellectual sense. Zanoni is contemplation of the ideal, imagination. Viola is human instinct (emotion), but not love. Adon-Ai is faith. Glyndon is unsustained aspiration, overawed and inspired by idealism, but unable to attain a goal. The Dweller of the Threshold is fear or horror. The argument is that pursuit of the ideal renders the idealist subject to human passion, and then to fear. But by faith the idealist regains the saving truth which reason cannot see. Self-sacrifice is the true redemption. Thus, the point of the novel is Zanoni's final discovery that not immortality but acceptance of the human lot is the highest privilege. * Long considered one of the classic 19th century supernatural novels, ZANONI is strongly rooted in the contemporary occult and magical traditions. As a novel, however, by present standards it leaves much to be desired. Its multiple origin has resulted in very disharmonic components, and the literary execution-- with pages of fustian in the author's worst metaphysical vein-- is not worthy of the concepts. Strangely enough, the flippant bou1evardism of ZICCI is occasionally more effective than the pretentiousness of "ZANONI. 305. A STRANGE STORY Tauchnitz; Leipzig 1861 2 vol. Semia11egorical supernatural novel with consicierab1e society material. * The story is told by Allen Fenwick, a young physician who is strongly prejudiced against anything that does not agree with his materialistic creed. He meets Lilian, a beautiful but neurotic young woman, to whom he becomes engaged, when the supernatural bursts forth on him. Margrave, a brilliant and charming young stranger, comes to town. He wants Fenwick to collaborate with him in experiments to find the elixir of life, but Fenwick refuses him. Fenwick is attracted to Margrave for his charm, yet is repelled by a sinister, even sadistic vein in him. Fenwick's fears are aroused when Margrave states meaningfully that he can obtain the same results with a pythoness (medium). Fenwick realizes that Margrave is hinting that he will use the neurasthenic Lilian. A new development comes with the arrival of Sir Philip Derva1 from the Near East. Derval, an eccentric local magnate, has been studying white magic with the great Haroun of Aleppo, and is hot in pursuit of Louis Gray1e Grayl~ was a Ithe man who murdered Haroun.

BULWER-LYTTON, EDWARD GEORGE phenomenally wicked old man who had been studying black magic in the East. When Haroun refused Gray1e's demand for the elixir of life, Grayle, says Derva1, murdered Haroun. Derva1 further states that Margrave is Gray1e rejuvenated by elixir stolen from Haroun's corpse. Fenwick is incredulous, but his scepticism receives a blow when Derval easily overcomes him and Margrave by mesmeric magic. * Soon after this Derva1 is found murdered and (to omit minor complications) Fenwick is arrested and held for the crime. While he is in prison, however, he is visited by Margrave's astral body, with which he comes to terms: Margrave will cause Fenwick's release from the charge if Fenwick does not interfere with Margrave's social activities. Fenwick agrees, but he is still not safe from Margrave, for the magician makes several magical attempts upon him. On the final occasion, Fenwick manages to seize Margrave's magic wand and turns the tables on him. He thinks that he is free of Margrave and marries Lilian, but she immediately goes mad. It is obvious (to the reader) that this is Margrave's doing. * It is now time for a change of milieu for Fenwick and Lilian, and together with Faber, Fenwick's medical colleague who acts as a source of paternal wisdom, they emigrate to Australia, hoping to be rid of the vile Margrave. * Some time later, however, a coach stops unexpectedly at Fenwick's station, and Margrave appears, now as an aged, shrunken, exhausted version of the formerly brilliant young man. He tells Fenwick of his adventures in pursuit of the elixir. He now knows how to make it, but needs help, and offers in exchange for such help some of the elixir to restore the dying Lilian. Fenwick agrees and together with Margrave, Ayesha (a mysterious veiled woman), and an Indian thug sets out to perform the operation. Ayesha warns Margrave that the time is not propitious, but he will not listen. He sets up his pentacles and lamps and arranges his magical apparatus. Margrave will be protected by his magic against the horrors that will appear (the Dweller of the Threshold), while Fenwick will be shielded by his materialism. In a wild and thrilling scene, however, the forces of evil that Margrave evokes are too powerful. The pentacle is broken; the powers of evil start a grass fire; and a stampede of animals destroys the magical defences. Margrave dies miserably. Liiian recovers health and sanity, and Fenwick may be somewhat less arrogant in his science. * The question through much of the novel is, Who and what, exactly, is Margrave? Derva1 considered him to be a rejuvenated Gray1e, but without a soul, its place having been taken by an evil spirit. Yet Margrave is intellectually but a weak shadow of Grayle. Margrave, on the other hand, seems sincerely to regard himself as Grayle's son. He claims that he does not work his magic consciously, as Derva1 and Fenwick believe, but that his wishes are carried out while he is asleep by his Will (unconscious mind). The author presents evidence for both interpretations, but the stronger case is for rejuvena-

BULWER-LYTTON, EDWARD GEORGE tion, but with certain mental attributes destroyed by the elixir. * Within the allegorical framework, each of the major characters represents a spiritual imbalance. Fenwick is materialism, with intellect too much in control. Margrave is the animal nature, with soul crushed and silenced. Lilian is hypertrophied spirit, without governing intellect or animal forces. Only Faber seems to be a balanced personality. * Very interesting in concept, but Bu1wer-Lytton lacked the art to bring the novel to life. An insufferably boring introductory society setting, with much irony; long essaylike passages; shallow, unconvincing characterizations, even allowing for the allegory; disproportionate architecture; too many trivia hamper the novel badly. These flaws do not disturb its enormous historical importance. 306. THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS: OR. THE HOUSE AND THE BRAIN Gowan's International Library; London and Glasgow 1905 A nouvelle, often anthologized in an abridged version. First published in 1859 in BLACKWOOD'S. * A pair of friends undergo terrors in an incredibly haunted house, where the entire gamut of supernatural manifestations is sounded. Later when the focus of horror is torn down, a hidden room is discovered, in which is a saucer of magnetic fluid. By means of this a magician had forced his will on the house and all who entered. * The short version of the story, usually printed as THE HOUSE AND THE BRAIN, ends here, but the original, longer version continues with the appearance of th~ magician, enormously old, but still youthful in appearance. He gains a magical power over the narrator and uses him as a medium for foreseeing the future. * The edition cited above is first separate pub1iccation, but first book appearance is in TALES FROM BLACKWOOD (first series), Volume X~ 1860. A later edition (Simpkin, Marshall; London 1925), edited by Harold Armitage tries to link Bu1wer-Lytton's house with the notoriously haunted house at Willington. * Still one of the two or three best haunted houses. BURDEKIN, KAY (i.e. KATHARINE) British author. No information. 307. THE BURNING RING Thornton Butterworth; London 1927 The supernatural reclamation of a selfish man. * Robert Carling, a self-centered though amiable semi-recluse, receives a magical ring which gives him certain supernatural powers: size control, invisibility, healing ability, etc. The ring also has the power to transport him through time in what must be planned maturation experiences. His first journey takes him to Cornwall, during the Roman occupation of Britain, where he awakens as a halfwit. He saves a Roman soldier from the Celts and in the process learns respect for others. On his second trip Carling is an innkeeper who rises high at court, to become an intimate of Charles II, who respects him for his honesty. Here he learns friendship. On his third trip, to Elizabethan England, he learns love, but this last

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BURKE, THOMAS trip ends unhappily. When he gives his ring to Mary Hugill, the woman he love~, he is brought back into the present. But he is a wiser, more mature man, ready for life. * The ring probably symbolizes pain and its transcendence. Smoothly presented, though perhaps a little too sentimental, particularly in the second episode. The Roman experience is best. BURKE, THOMAS (1886-1945) British author known mostly for fiction set in London's Chinatown; stories range from sentimental to crime and horror, with occasional mild supernaturalism. Best-known work in this area is LIMEHOUSE NIGHTS (1916). We11known in mystery-story circles for the often anthologized story, "The Hands of Mr. Ottermole," about a psychopathic policeman. 308. THE BLOOMSBuRy WONDER Mandrake Press London 1929 Crime fiction with a supernatural twist. * Stephen Trink, as seen through the personality of Mendel, is a rather shy but likeable person who has taken a fancy to the Reece family. One day, however, the whole Reece family (with the exception of a little boy who was upstairs) is found slaughtered. The police believe that a gang must have committed the crime, although no motivation is found. Mendel receives a letter from the Continent, from Trink, in which Trink propounds a theory for such crimes: that there is a floating bundle of karma, nightmare Sins, which comes down through time and cannot die until it is embodied in a terrible crime. Then it disappears. This is Trink's justification. * Much more interesting than the feeble stories about Chinatown or the overrated "The Hands of Mr. Ottermo1e." 309. NIGHT-PIECES EIGHTEEN TALES Constable; London [1935] Short stories, including [a] MIRACLE IN SUBURBIA. The old man pays Joe, a young hoodlum, a very good price to steal the beautiful Chinese jar. As part of the agreement, Joe receives immunity from injury; the old man puts his power on him. As a result, when Joe's victim slashes Joe's throat with a razor, nothing happens. But eight days later the old man is accidentally killed, and Joe's cut throat is a mystery. [b] YESTERDAY STREET. Dominic, no longer young, returns to his old childhood haunts because of a feeling of nostalgia. He enters the past and meets friends, but only three friends. He later learns that his friends had died at that time. [c] UNCLE EZEKIEL'S LONG SIGHT. Ezekiel is somewhat senile, but when he is asleep he has remarkable ability in predicting: races, sports, elections, business deals. A fortune is built on his strange ability, but with the final use of his power Ezekiel takes his revenge on an enemy by delivering a false prophecy. [dJ THE HORRIBLE GOD. Rainwater, who is an avid collector, buys the strange idol of the god Imbro1u. He then hears voices bidding him to return it to its home. If he does not, a terrible vengeance will overtake him. Fraud.

BURKE, THOMAS [e] JOHNSON LOOKED BACK. Told as a monologue delivered to Johnson. Johnson is being pursued and tormented by a horrible figure. It is Johnson's other self, that had been corrupted and befouled by Johnson. [f] THE BLACK COURTYARD. A murderer is haunted by the black courtyard in which he committed his crime. He finds that most entries lead him back into it. A week later he commits the murder, and is thereupon arrested. It is not entirely clear whether the story is about prevision, conscience and a second crime, or repeated patterns. [g] THE GRACIOUS GHOSTS. The ghosts of a pleasant young man and woman who appear and hold hands. A friend of the tenant recognizes them. They are phantasms of the living, of two people whose love was frustrated when they quarreled. The situation is resolved and the ghosts laid when the present couple enter the house. [h] THE MAN WHO LOST HIS HEAD. Peter Smothe, who wants to experience a new mode of life, leaves his comfortable existence and lives in a slum. He strikes up acquaintance with a mysterious person, who slips him a drug. The next morning Peter awakens with the stranger's face. He is arrested for murder, identified, tried, and executed. As Burke says, "When a man wilfully flees from his life, when he wilfully loses his true self-- or his head-- he has lost it forever." [i] THE LONELY INN. Friends, near the newly purchased house,· explore the countryside and find a rather shabby old inn. The hostile, shadowy men in the inn are heard to say about one of the visitors, a Scot, "Tl1at's him." Lat~r the Scot disappears, and no inn is to be found. About two hundred years ago there had been a betrayal by a Scot. [j] EVENTS AT WAYLESS-WAGTAIL. A vision of happenings in a strange place, three months in the future. The place is found, the assault and resulting death are avoided-but on a future anniversary-- under somewhat related circumstances, a death does occur. [k] THE HOLLOW MAN. Gopak unexpectedly arrives at Nameless's place of business. Fifteen years earlier Nameless had killed Gopak in Africa. But Leopard Men revived him and used him as a zombie. He escaped, and must be near Nameless. He wants Nameless to kill him again. Disintegration into dust is the result. * Excellent stories. BURKS, ARTHUR J. (1898-1974) Very prolific pulp writer, one of the fiction machines of the 1930's, stories of whose prowess with a typewriter still circulate. Onetime professional soldier, U.S. Army; stationed after World War I in Caribbean. During World War II head of U.S. Marine training program. Book publication has not picked up his best work, which is in the action pulps. 310. THE GREAT MIRROR G.G. Swan; London [1952] Adventure, with smatterings of science-fiction and supernaturalism. * Howard Davies, photographer with an expedition on the edge of the Gobi Desert, is accosted by a group of Tibetan horsemen, and then is instantaneously transported to a lamasery in Tibet by means of a matter transmitter. He is told by the Incar-

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BURKS, ARTHUR J. nate Buddha Who heads the lamasery that the Tibetans, in addition to having such paranormal abilities as telepathy, levitation, and teleportation, have developed matter transmitters and have sent some to Mars by rocket. The Tibetans on Mars, however, stole a "magical" mirror and shipped it back to Tibet. The Martians are angry at this, and are starting to occupy Tibetan bodies at the lamasery. Although Davies and the Incarnate Buddha and their associates kill all the possessed Tibetan bodies, the situation is not improved. The Martians themselves are coming through the matter transmitters with remarkable ray weapons. The nations of the earth try to help the Tibetans, but the Martians seize their mirror and depart, after devising a punishment for the Tibetans. The mirror has the faculty of showing one anything one wishes, from subatomic phenomena to scenes around the solar system. * Pretty bad. 311. LOOK BEHIND YOU Shroud Publishers; Buffalo, New York 1954 Introduction by Ken J. Krueger. * Short stories, including [a] ALL THE LIGHTS WERE GREEN. Revolution in Venezuela. Ralston is flying in Don Ruymondo de Castro, to help suppress violence. Supernatural green landing lights show them the way in. When Don Ruymondo is unsuccessful and wishes to leave, the lights blaze red. [b] OUR DAILY TUESDAY. Mark Gibney decides that he will remain twenty-one indefinitely. He keeps himself from aging, while the world changes around him. [c] YE IMPYS OF HELLE. The narrator indulges in the hallucinogen ayahuasca, and penetrates the erotic fantasies of his acquaintances. These fantasies are all Hells, including one for himself. Not too clear. [d] LOOK BEHIND YOU! Borderline science-fiction. The narrator has invented a film process, involving sight and sou.nd, with which he can trace back past events. He uses it to check sexual activity, his intention being moral reform. But there are possibilities for blackmail, too. [e] THE CHOSEN OF THE GODS. Baldwin catches a strange fever in Brazil and becomes a heightened half-mad potency of himself. An Indian medicine man destroys all his complexes with magical arrows. He becomes empty, almost divinely empty. * In terms of content and format this is one of the low points in American fan publishing. 312. BLACK MEDICINE Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1966 Short stories, many of which are sensational without being supernatural. Including [a] A BROKEN LAMP CHIMNEY. (WT 1925). Dominican Republic. Andrea murdered her husband by cutting his throat with a broken lamp chimney. When she is executed by a firing squad, the bullets in the wall form the image of a lamp chimney. [b] THE DESERT OF THE DEAD. (WT 1925) Dominican Republic. The narrator sees a ghostly reenactment of a military massacre in a closed valley. [c] FACES. (WT 1927) Dominican Republic. A plane crash. The narrator is helped to safety by the pilot, but the pilot was killed in the crash. [d] THREE COFFINS. Dominican RepUblic. (WT 1928) Carver, an engineering contractor, has the assignment of

BURKS, ARTHUR J. building a new prison on the deserted, haunted island of Beatta. Three coffins are taken along, among the supplies and equipment, and they are filled by what seem to be supernatural means. Walking dead, supernatural horrors. A rational explanation is also offered. [e] WHEN THE GRAVES WERE OPENED. (WT 1925) Harvey has invented a machine that permits the astral body to go into the past and witness past events. The occasion chosen is the Crucifixion, since there is curiosity about what happened to the dead who arose from their graves. [f] VALE OF THE CORBIES. (WT 1925) Dream experiences of a strange valley filled with hostile birds. The narrator has been there in dream many times, and on each occasion the birds became bolder and more hostile. His corpse is found pecked to death. [g] THUS SPAKE THE PROPHETESS. (WT 1924) A voodoo prophetess foretells aspects of the death of the Haitian dictator. [h] BLACK MEDICINE. (WT 1925) Haiti. Chandler, wandering about in the bush, stumbles upon a voodoo cu1tus, which he persistently follows. He sees not only human sacrifice and cannibalism, but supernatural visions of the French defeat in the early 19th century. [i] BELLS OF OCEANA. Described elsewhere. [j] THE GHOSTS OF STEAMBOAT COULEE. (WT 1926) The narrator, a hobo with bad lungs from World War I, asks for food at the farm of P10ne. He is told that he can occupy the deserted cabin in Steamboat Cou1ee-- a fanciful name given to a canyon. nearby. The cabin and its environs turn out to be among the most rambunctiously haunted places in literature. [k] GUATEMOZIN THE VISITANT. (STRANGE TALES 1931) Mexico. The narrator, an archeologist, stumbles upon the tomb of Guatemozin, the last Aztec emperor, and releases the undead ruler into the world. Guatemozin, who has many supernatural powers, intends to take vengeance on the descendants of those who betrayed or conquered Mexico. He moves about with the plague. * A weak collection. The Caribbean stories show racial bias to the point of grotesqueness, and most of the other stories are routine pulp fiction. [d] has points of interest, and [i] is worth reading for a certain baroque, exuberant overkill of horror. BURNETT, WHIT [NEY] EWING (1899-1973) American editor and journalist. One-time editor of Paris edition of New York HERALD TRIBUNE. Long a powerful force in improving American short story. Founder-editor of STORY MAGAZINE, quality fiction magazine of the 1930's. Editorial slant slightly off mainstream into absurdist and experimental work. AS EDITOR: 313. TWO BOTTLES OF RELISH A BOOK OF STRANGE AND UNUSUAL STORIES Dial Press; New York [1943] Foreword by the editor. Fiction selected from STORY MAGAZINE. Including, [a] THE CAMEL, ,. Lord Berners. Described elsewhere. [b] FOOT OF THE GIANT. Robert W. Cochran. Told by a Kentucky Mountain White. The giant landed heavily enough to dent the earth, but could barely crawl into the shack. There it lay, slowly

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BURRAGE, A. M. dying, and shrinking in size until it disappeared. Only a fingernail is left. No explanation. [c] PECOS BILL AND THE WILLFUL COYOTE, William C. White. Folkloristic Southern, semifantasy. [d] MR. SYCAMORE, Robert Ayre. John Gwi1t, a postman, is tired of life. He decides to become a tree. He plants himself and is transformed. Boredom, criticism of life. [e] THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED TO ME, Michael Fessier. Questionable as fantasy. A high school boy jumps fantastically. [f] THE MAN-FISH OF NORTH CREEK, Tronby Fenstad. Folkloristic, borderline science-fiction. A boy is born with different innards and can stay under water for incredible lengths of time. Life is not easy for the abnormal, and he dies. * Several of the other stories are whimsical and not-realistic, but not supernatural enough to be discussed here. * [b] is worth reading. [d] belabors its point, but has moments of interest. BURRAGE, A[LFRED] M[cCLELLAND] (1889-1956) British author. Wrote boys' fiction, sometimes under pseudonym Frank Le11and. Author of very popular "Tufty" school stories. Also wrote mysteries, general fiction. For our purposes one of the solid, second-rank writers of supernatural fiction (like E.F. Benson and most of H.R. Wakefield) who seldom wrote a poor story. His mode is usually well-told, traditional material, psychological in interest. See also the pseudonym, EX-PRIVATE X. 314. SOME GHOST STORIES· Cecil Palmer; London [1927] Short stories. [a] PLAYMATES. The narrator, a scholarly bachelor, adopts, for reasons that are questionable to himself, the young daughter of a dead friend. He observes that the girl develops a set of companions, centered around a room called the schoolroom. It is soon revealed that they are not imaginary playmates, but ghosts. The spiritually sterile scholar is awakened to a new sense of life. [bJ THE ROOM OVER THE KITCHEN. Mr. Walker is warned by a spectral man not to sleep in the room over the kitchen. Walker hears the story: a falsified supernaturalism that resulted in death from fright. [c] THE GREEN SCARF. An ancient house had been the scene of the murder of a Cavalier by Puritans. The signal had been given by a green scarf. The narrator and his friend find the scarf, which is inadvertently waved, and ancient evils are awakened. [d] THE WRONG STATION. The traveller on the train is persuaded to get off at an unknown station, where he finds the streets thronged with happy children and where he meets a woman with whom he falls in love. But he awakens on the train, having had a heart attack. He may return to the city of the dead. [e] THE GAMBLERS' ROOM. What happened to Paston, who used to be the worst prig at the university and is now a gambling tout? He slept in a haunted room; a friend who was with him saw Paston gambling feverishly with three scruffy ghosts from the past. That is the haunting. [f] THE SUMMER-HOUSE. Oliver, as a child, liked the summer-house because of the two "persons" there, a young man and woman. When the man was

BURRAGE, A. M. absent, the young woman was exceptionally pleasant. Years later Oliver hear the story of the summer-house when the father of the ghostly woman visits him and relents, a generation too late. [g] THE YELLOW CURTAINS. When they grew up, they said, they would have a cottage with yellow curtains. But he was killed in the war. A long-lost friend, who does not know the circumstances, finds them happily married in the cottage. The wife is ill with flu elsewhere. [h] NOBODY'S HOUSE. Mr. Harboys, having spent his time in prison for murder, returns to the haunted house to discover if he really committed the crime. The ghost shows him. [i] BETWEEN THE MINUTE AND THE HOUR. A bad gift to a starving Gipsy receives the following reward or curse: "When night runs to morning, between the minute and the hour is your time." The recipient is precipitated into other eras: the world of the dinosaurs, a fine early 19th century love affair, and death from a pack of wolves. [j] FOOTPRINTS. Hesper, .who has Gipsy blood, can will people to do things. When her lover is refused family permission to marry her, she and her lover suffer great poverty, and their child dies. Hesper sends the child ghost on a mission of revenge. [k] BROWDEAN FARM. A farm house with an ugly history, murder, then hauntings. It seems that the dissolute artist Stryde murdered his mistress. But the ghost, when it receives some sympathy, reveals a different, unsuspected situation. Reenactment. [1] FURZE HOLLOW. Harlow sees the Gipsies encamped at Furze Hollow, but later there is no trace of a camp site. Everyone is disturbed when Hurlow mentions it. Behind it is a curse that results in considerable damage. [m] WRASTLER'S END. Cornwall. The local champion is not only beaten and crippled, but his girl is stolen by the victor. After death he comes out of his grave and wrestles with his enemy. * Capable, nicely developed stories, based on traditional themes, but imaginatively handled. There is interest in the personal quirks that produce hauntings. * Best are [c], [d] , [i], and [k]. 315. SEEKER TO THE DEAD G.G. Swan; London 1942 Supernatural horror thriller. * Dr. Garrow is a black magician of great age, He has a diabolic bond and clairvoyant abilities, but is not satisfied. He wants to practice alchemy and reanimate the dead. He makes several errors, the most significant of which is hiring Moorluck, the hero of this book, as a librarian, for Moorluck has no sympathy with the doctor's experiments. Thrill succeeds thrill until one fateful occasion when Moorluck finds Garrow killed by the reanimated corpse. * Much inferior to Burrage's short stories. BURROUGHS, EDGAR RICE (1875-1950) American author, best-known for Tarzan stories (1912 on) with eponymous feral man who has become part of world culture, what with publicity, motion pictures, and television adaptations. The Tarzan stories are primarily stories of African adventure, with some elements of science-fiction. Also wrote Martian

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BUSSON, PAUL novels, which were of overwhelming importance in history of interplanetary adventure, what with early use of sword-and-raygun concept of cultural decadence. Not particularly important in supernatural fiction. 316. THE ETERNAL LOVER McClurg; Chicago 1925 Romance, adventure, decimation of animals. * Virginia Custer and her brother Barney are visiting Lord Greystoke (alias Tarzan) in Africa. Victoria has two psychological quirks: she is pathologically terrified of earthquakes, and she has dreams of a prehistoric mate so virile and powerful that modern men look puny and worthless to her. An earthquake takes place nearby. Victoria collapses, and from a cave, where he had been hermetically sealed 100,000 years ago, emerges Nu of the Niocene, a chastely heroic cave man who would make even Tarzan look feeble. Nu starts to search for his promised mate, Nat-ul, who is Victoria in this incarnation. After much to-do, Victoria and Nu take off together into the bushes. * A prequel-sequel. Back in the Niocene Nu awakens with vague memories of a future time, as does Nat-u1. Nat-u1 goes through a series of kidnappings by paleolithic lechers, escapes, and animal adventures, while Nu tries to rescue her. When obstacles are finally overcome, Nu enters a cave, the earthquake takes place, and he is sealed in. * Back in the present it is now revealed that the awakening of Nu and Victoria's adventure with him had been only a dream. Nu's skeleton is all that survives. But Victoria remains the reincarnation of Nat-u1. * Originally printed as THE ETERNAL LOVER (ALL-STORY MAGAZINE, 1914) and SWEETHEART PRIMEVAL (ALL-STORY MAGAZINE, 1915). * For the avid Burroughs devotee only. BURROUGHS, JOSEPH B. American author. The Library of Congress identifies this gentleman as Joseph Birkbeck Burroughs, M.D., who contributed papers to the LANCET, journal of the British Medical Association. This seems unlikely. 317. TITAN. SON OF SATURN THE COMING WORLD EMPEROR The Emeth Publishing Co.; Oberlin, Ohio 1905 Religious lunacy in fictional form. Antichrist, in the person of Antiochus, is raised from the tomb by Satan. Antiochus tries to achieve world domination, but is defeated by Christ at Armageddon. Almost unreadable. It is included here as a warning, since this book is sometimes sold as science-fiction or fantastic adventure. BUSSON. PAUL (1873-1924) Austrian newspaper editor (the important NEUES WIENER TAGBLATT), writer of fiction. Professional soldier in youth; war correspondent. Interested in occult matters. A very interesting personality. The only significant Eng1ishlanguage information about him is in the Dover edition of the following book. 318. THE MAN WHO WAS BORN AGAIN Heinemann; London 1927 DIE WIEDERGEBURT DES MELCHIOR DRONTE (1921), translated by Prince Alexander Mirski and

BUSSON, PAUL Thomas Moult. A historical romance, with incidents of a Late Gothic novel treated naturalistically. * 18th century Austria, Germany, France. Melchior, son of Baron von Dronte, is a sensitive boy who fits badly into the household of his father, who is a vicious Enlightenment rake. In his childhood Melchior meets two forms of the supernatural, which are obviously self-projections: Ev1i, a Turkish dervish, who is good, and Fanger1e, the soul-catcher, a minor demon of a sort. Dronte is aware that both ,forces are concerned wi th him and throughout his life he pursues the elusive dervish. After an unhappy childhood Drontegoes off to the university, where he runs wild, kills a fellow student in a duel, and joins the Prussian army to avoid punishment. Unable to face the brutality of war, he deserts and returns to his home, to find himself disinherited and a penniless wanderer. After a period of difficulty his fortunes are supernaturally restored and he settles down. He marries a girl who is the reincarnation of a childhood sweetheart, and on her death once again undertakes the quest for Ev1i. Among his adventures are a witch's flight in a haunted castle; a narrow escape at a murder inn; and occultism in revolutionary France. In Paris, while trying to help a noblewoman against the mob, he is seized, and since he will not abandon his principles is executed. He dies in'the embrace of Ev1i. * This long detailed story, filled with close cultural material, is set in a frame. Dronte's next incarnation is an Austrian bourgeois, and in this short life he achieves final redemption. * This summary does not convey the many details that make the novel interesting nor its curious blend of realism and fantasy. The frame situation, perhaps justifiable in terms of the occult ideas, is a somewhat unnecessary letdown. * The edition cited above, while first English translation, is not complete. Approximately a quarter of the novel was omitted. This material has been newly translated and restored in the Dover (1976) edition: GUSTAV MEYRINK THE GOLEM, PAUL BUSSON THE MAN WHO WAS BORN AGAIN, TWO GERMAN SUPERNATURAL NOVELS, edited with a new introduction by E.F. Bleiler. 319. THE FIRE SPIRITS Heinemann; London 1929 DIE FEUERBUTZE (1923), translated by J. Eg1ington. * Expressionist historical romance with nationalistic implications. * Napoleonic Wars, during Andreas Hofer's rebellion in Tyrol against the Bavarians and the French. * Peter Storck arrives in the Tyrol to take over the inheritance of his uncle, who is presumed to be dead since he disappeared without trace. Storck suspects the fire spirits of having made away with his uncle. The fire-spirits are flames that dance down an unc1imbab1e mountain and are desperately feared by the natives. Gradually, against a detailed historical background, Storck solves the mystery and wins himself a wife. ~ The fire-spirits are really survivals of Mithraic worship, which had been revived by his uncle, who 'considereci himself} rightly or wrongly, the reincarnation of a Roman centurion. Storck finds an archeological paradise and a

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CABELL, JAMES BRANCH hidden valley among the peaks. Fantastic elements include hints of reincarnation, paranormal abilities, including the abiiity to see Death walking about in human form. * A good historical novel in which the suspense about the fire-spirits is well maintained. One can ignore the nationalistic aspects, which are post-Wor1d-War-I revanchism. BYRON, LORD GEORGE GORDON, Sixth BARON BYRON (1788-1824) Famous British poet. Highly important in supernatural fiction as the indirect sponsor of the significant vampire theme in English literature. See also JOHN POLIDORI. 320. MAZEPPA John Murray; London 1819 The events of mid-June 1816, in the outskirts of Geneva, had enormous repercussions in the history of popular literature. Byron, Shelley, Dr. Pc1idori, Mary Shelley, and Claire Clairmont, after social evenings and telling of ghost stories, decided that each person was to write a supernatural tale of his or her own. Shelley and Clairmont did nothing; Mary Shelley started the work that eventually became FRANKENSTEIN; Byron wrote a few pages of a story about a vampire; and Polidori, abandoning his own first effort, took Byron's idea and wrote THE VAMPYRE. This story, which was first attributed to Byron and circulated widelyon the Continent under Byron's name, set off the vampire theme in English literature. Byron was outraged at the misattribution and sent his own fragmentary work to his publisher, John Murray, who printed it as a supplement in Byron's forthcoming book, MAZEPPA. There it has long lain, forgotten. * [a] FRAGMENT OF A NOVEL. The narrator is travelling in Asia Minor with a mysterious personage named Darve11, when Darve11 suddenly predicts his own death and gives the narrator a complicated series of instructions. He is to bury the corpse immediately, throw a ring into a certain place at a certain time, and wait at yet another place. The fragment ends with Darve11's burial, but the plot was to follow much the same lines as Polidori's story took. Darve11 was to come to London and vampirize society. * A very interesting piece. It is unfortunate that it was never finished.

CABELL, JAMES BRANCH (1879-1958) American (Virginia) newspaperman, author. Writings were a cause celebre in the 1920's and early 30's because of erotic material in JURGEN, resulting in the famous banning of JURGEN in Boston. Responded to philistines and conservatives in many amusing allegorical episodes in works. Writing, which is mostly ironic or satirical, falls into two major groupings, mannered stories of upper class Virginia

CABELL, JAMES BRANCH life and pseudo-medieval romances, which often contain heavy supernatural components. The pseudo-medieval culture and ,prevailing concept of decadent chivalry are shared with other early Edwardian writers, but the fantastic material is a highly original medley of profound research in obscure sources, spoofing, false references, anagrams, and private mythology. * Cabell's work is very uneven; it is sometimes brilliant stylistically, and at other times coy and word-clogged, with the result that his work usually reads better in excerpt than in totality. Two contemporary comments express Cabell's limitations: Mencken's statement that JURGEN was a product of genius but much too long, and the anonymous quip that Cabell had something to say, but said it too often. In this last context, Cabell was a rallying point for escapists of the 1930's, who seem to have misread him. Today, the sexual element in his work seems mild, especially since it is often symbolic; the perpetual double entendres are very amusing, but there sometimes is a sniggering quality that is annoying; and it is unfortunate that Cabell sometimes seems to have written deliberately to annoy philistines, a practice which is not quite so bad as writing to p lease them. Cabell saw much of his fiction as part of a giant, multivo1umed work, THE BIOGRAPHY OF THE LIFE OF MANUEL. . The unifying factor seems to be the quest for the ideal. The foundation work for the series is FIGURES OF EARTH. For those interested, the story chronology of works cited here is as follows: 323; 326; 325, 329, and the main sequence of 327, overlapping and roughly contemporaneous; 322; 328; 324. The connection is sometimes very tenuous. 321. THE CREAM OF THE JEST A COMEDY OF EVASIONS McBride; New York 1917 Allegorical psychological novel. The following, a transliteration of the Sigi1 of Scoteia (darkness) is Cabell's statement of purpose: "[This is] the story of man's eternally unsatisfied hunger in search of beauty. Ettarre stays inaccessible always and her loveliness is his to look on only in his dreams. All men she must evade at the last and many are the ways of her illusion." * On the narrative level Felix Kennaston is a moderately successful dilettante who plays at being an author. His life is changed when he finds the Sigi1 of Scoteia, a-broken bit of metal covered with strange characters, for it offers him nightly entry, in his dreams, to the riches of time and space. He ranges far and long in search of Ettarre (Beauty). His dreams, which have obvious reference to the problems of an author, are patterned: in the personality of Horvendile (Cabell) he has adventures and romance, but the moment he touches Ettarre in one of her manifestations, the dream ends and he awakes. One cannot touch a dream. He writes down some of his experiences as fiction and also discovers that still ~nother world may be open to him. He has aCCidentally stumbled on passwords and symbols that could admit him to an even more potent magic (worldly power). But he re-

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CABELL, JAMES BRANCH jects this. A short time before his wife's death he finds the second half of the sigi1 among her things and then knows that she has been the Ettarre he has sought. This enriches life for him. He never learns that the sigil is only the broken lid of an overdesigned, modern cosmetic jar. * An odd mixture of pseudo-historical material, suburban satire, and a tender personality study. Worth reading. 322. JURGEN A COMEDY OF JUSTICE McBride; New York 1919 A long semi-allegorical novel, told with much surface eroticism. Under the supernatural adventure lies the story of a man in search of justice and meaning in life. The structure of the romance is analyzed here in some detail, since the charge is often made that JURGEN is only a collection of repetitive inCidents, without plan. * The chief character is Jurgen, a pawnbroker (a handler of valuables) in Poictesme, Cabell's private version of 13th century France. Jurgen thinks of himself as a poet, but his stock of worldly wisdom always reflects on his dreams and destroys them. He also perpetually faces a dilemma: he believes in a Providence, and is shocked each time he hears that there is none, yet he also believes himself superior in wit to Providence or the gods. * In an odd moment, merely as a verbal play, Jurgen defends the existence of evil in the universe. This attracts the attention of Koshchei, the chief god (a demon in Slavic folklore), who offers Jurgen a wish. All tpat Jurgen can think of at the moment is to be rid of his nagging wife, Dame Lisa (worldly cares). Koshchei attends to this, and when Jurgen returns home he finds Lisa gone. She is soon seen walking on Amneran Heath, the local haunted place, and Jurgen is forced by public opinion and conscience to search for her. The major allegory now starts. Jurgen makes three attempts to regain what he lost, though in each case what he lost is interpreted differently. The road each time is through the cave on Amneran Heath. Jurgen first attempts wish fulfilment, or regaining the past. He tricks one of the time goddesses (Sereda, Russian for Wednesday) into restoring his youth and permitting him to relive a day that had been decisive in his life. He also obtains a many-colored garment, the shirt of Nessus, whicl!. is the opposite symbol to Lisa. It combines pain and the transcendent power of imagination. But the past cannot be regained, really, and Jurgen must try other means to achieve his quest. He has not found happiness, justice, or reason. * The second adventure in the lands of symbolism takes up most of the book, and is divided typologically according to the seasons, spring being divided in two to take account of Wa1purgisnacht. He first tries three classical modes of experience, each of which is associated with a place, a woman, and a disrupter. Thus, faith is experienced from May 1 to June 21 in Came1iard with Guenevere; physical desire, from June 22 to September 21, in Cockaigne, with the pagan sex goddess, Analtis; and dream or vision, in Leuke, with Helen of Troy. In each of these

CABELL, JAMES BRANCH CABELL, JAMES BRANCH adventures Jurgen also meets a negative principle that destroys his appetite. In Cameliard he meets the Brown Man (see THE HIGH PLACE), who is realism, the ancient enemy of all gods. The Brown Man demonstrates that the universe is impersonal and utterly unconcerned with Jurgen, who is insignificant, but Jurgen cannot believe him. In Cockaigne he meets the Master Philologist, who convinces him that desire and justice are just words, and in Leuke he meets Horvendile (see THE CREAM OF THE JEST), or Cabell, who tells him that dreams are only illusions that vanish when one tries to touch them. Jurgen had not hesitated to accept faith and desire, but when faced with his dream, in Helen, he is loath to bring her to reality. Here he takes the opposite road from that taken later by Florian in THE HIGH PLACE. * Jurgen's passage through the three lands of wish ends when Philistines conquer the land and Jurgen is judged. The three priests of the Philistines-Ageus (usage), Vel-Tyno (novelty), and Esphras (phrases) refuse to recognize his quest for verity and demand that he be satisfied with conventionalities. When he refuses, he is sent to Hell. * The two latter parts of the second adventure, or Jurgen's progress through Hell and Heaven, might be considered Jurgen's examination of his cultural heritage. Hell, which Jurgen visits from December 21st to March 21st, is an illusion, a realm created for Jurgen's father, Coth (German Koth), who symbolizes pride of the worst sort. And Heaven, which Jurgen stays in from March 22nd to April 30th, is the loving dream of his grandmother Steinvor (Investor). The Christian God himself has been created by Koshchei to quiet Steinvor. (Religion is for fanatics and old women.) All this puzzles Koshchei, who does not experience love or pride, for could the person who created the universe either love it or be proud of it? Jurgen, too, has learned that he has nothing to do with love or pride, and he returns to Amneran tired and disgusted. He resumes his true age and prepares for his third adventure, or meeting Koshchei, ultimate reality. He discovers to his amazement that Koshchei knows nothing of his adventures, and can only evoke the same emptinesses that Jurgen has already experienced. Jurgen, broken and in despair, asks for the return of Dame Lisa, and offers his shirt of Nessus in exchange, as requested by Koshchei. Koshchei cancels the past year and everything is as if it never happened. * JURGEN is much Cabell's finest work, and perhaps his only work that will survive. It is too long, it is too coy at times, and the message is buried too deeply, but it remains a minor masterpiece. * As part of his war against those critics who condemned Jurgen's adventures as being immoral, Cabell -Wrote -a short piece describing Jurgen'strial when captured by the Philistines. Jur, gen is judged by a dung-beetle, who states conservative values pontifically. Jurgen does not accept the beetle's ethos, but admits very handsomely that he recognizes the beetle's sincerity. He then accepts the headsman's axe, before descending into Hell. This is [a] THE

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JUDGING OF JURGEN (Bookfellows, Chicago, 1920). It is printed in most editions of JURGEN published after this date. 323. FIGURES OF EARTH A COMEDY OF APPEARANCES McBride; New York 1921 The life story of Manuel the Redeemer, ostensibly the central figure in Cabell's long cycle. In addition to the story line, which is meandering, there are entertaining diversions on symbolically disguised book reviewers, philistines and their sexual obtusities, and pseudo-mythology. The prevailing genuine mythology is Hindu and Slavic. * Manuel can be seen in two ways: as a sleazy rogue who "reeled blunderingly from mystery to mystery, with pathetic makeshifts, not understanding anything, greedy in all desires, and always honeycombed with poltroonery," or as a great hero who conquered the hill of dreams, redeemed a country from foreign oppression, overcame witchcraft, inculcated virtue in his neighbors, and rescued his wife from Death. Essentially, Manuel's story is an ironic clash between inner and outer essences, of a man who gets what he wants by shabby means and dies in a pretense of self-satisfaction. * Manuel, a towering young swineherd-in Poictesme (Cabell's version of medieval France) is driven to advance himself in the world. He has made a sacrifice to the spirits of Aspiration, and he is under a geas from his mother to make a figure of himself in the world. He takes the geas literally and frequently makes figures of clay, which he then unsuccessfully tries to animate (literary works). His supernatural adventures, as narrated, begins when he is surreptitiously aided by the great magician Miramon Lluagor (dreams) to conquer enchanted Mount Vraidex and rescue a captive princess. But the princess turns out to be a snob and Manuel falls in love, instead, with Niafer, a young woman in boy's garb, who had accompanied him up the mountain. But when he and Niafer are accosted by Death, and one of them must die, Manuel has no hesitation in letting Niafer be sacrificed. This action constitutes the defeat of dream and the rejection of heroism. * Manuel's second set of adventures begins when he sees Princess Alianora of Provence (a swan woman) bathing and secures one of her feathers, thinking that the feather may be of some use to him. But he soon learns that a pretense is just as good as the genuine feather, if he is willing to fill the role that others assign to him. He learns nothing, though good examples are shown to him, and only is concerned with animating his figures of earth. He achieves his desire in part when Queen Fre-ydls of the otherworld of Audela marries him and animates one figure: Sesphras (phrases; or the power of ballyhoo) which causes much misery. Tiring of Freydis, as he has of other women, he longs more and more for Niafer, whom he now misperceives in memory. He undertakes to serve Misery for a time, with the understanding that Misery must grant him a boon when the term of service is over. With the aid of Misery he rescues Niafer's spirit from the pagan underworld and uses it to animate a figure. Niafer

CABELL, JAMES BRANCH is back, but it is questionable whether she resembles the previous Niafer either physically or in personality. Manuel must now think of providing for a family, and assumes the position of Count of Poictesme, which had been awarded to him earlier, After unsuccessful attempts to dislodge the Norsemen by military means, he is helped by Miramon Lluagor, with the understanding that Manuel will be in fief to Horvendile. Land gained, Manuel proves to be an energetic ruler and is remembered as the Redeemer. * As a totality repetitive, nagging, and boring, but with excellent moments. But one should not need 350 pages to say, in a very involved, involuted way, that a politician is an opportunist, no matter how he is valued in future legend. 324. THE HIGH· PLACE A COMEDY OF DISENCHANTMENT McBride; New York 1923 A dream quest heavily laden with fairy tale material; "disenchantment" is to be read as both removal of a spell and disillusionment. * The protagonist, a romantic whose spirit is stronger than his intellect, succeeds in his quest for beauty, finds it inadequate, but continues to pursue the ideal. * The setting is early 18th century France, and the central character is Florian de Puysange, a murderous little perfectionist who cannot realize that only mediocrity is tolerated. While he denies himself no pleasure or crime, he operates carefully on the principle that one should not offend one's peers too much. * Florian has been affected by his childhood reading of Perrault's fairy tales, and human women are intolerable when compared to the beauty of Sleeping Beauty. She is the Princess Melior, sister to Melusine, and she sleeps in the enchanted town of Brunbelois. After murdering his fourth wife, Florian decides to find Melior (better), and comes to an agreement with the Brown Man (Janicot, reality). Janicot gives Florian means to break the enchantment, and in return Florian will have Melior for a year, at the end of which time he must sacrifice their child to Janicot. But there is a problem. Hoprig, the pagan high priest of the enchanted town, has been canonized by error, and he awakens with a halo and miracle-working powers. He is a disreputable old scoundrel, and Florian receives his first major disenchantment when realizes that holiness is a fraud. Hoprig had been his patron saint and was supposed to be working for him in Heaven. The new saint takes a dislike to Florian and decides to protect Melior, for the recording angel has given him, under protest, a true copy of Florian's bargain with Janicot. A year passes, during which Florian is driven to distraction by Melior's stupidity. But when the child is born, he receives an even greater shock, for Hoprig has worked out the best way to circumvent him and he is stuck with Melior. In the resulting brawl among St. Hoprig, Florian, the Archangel Michael, and Janicot, a solution is reached: Hoprig, who has become a nuisance to Heaven, what with scandalous misbehavior and insolent demands on the angels, is dropped back in the

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CABELL, JAMES BRANCH past, along with Melior and the child; Florian is returned to his childhood, and everything has been only a dream. * On the social side, the romance is a horrifying picture of life in a decadent culture; on the narrative side, it is often very amusing. One of the best sections is Florian's meeting with a singing gander, Cabell's caricature of an establishment poet. 325. THE MUSIC FROM BEHIND THE MOON AN EPITOME John Day; New York 1926 A stroke of fancy, told as a romance; tied loosely into the Manuel cycle. * Ettarre was Manuel's third daughter. After a brief marriage and several other episodes, she was captured by the magician Sargatanet and taken to his palace behind the moon. By decree of the Norns her captivity is to last 725 years. * Madoc, an ineffectual musician but a capable poet and dreamer, is attracted by the music from behind the moon (poesy) and finds his way there after a couple of adventures in the manner of JURGEN. Madoc learns of the terms of Ettarre's durance, but subverts the will of the Norns by inserting a decimal point and changing the time to 7.25 years. The result of all this is that history must be reacted and rewritten for almost 600 years. Madoc and Ettarre return to earth, where he dies, an old man, still in quest of the music from behind the moon. * A clever idea, but a slim story. 326. THE SILVER STALLION A COMEDY OF REDEMPTION McBride; New York 1926 Several aims fulfilled: the evolution of the reputation of the late Manuel; the fate of his associates; a collection of weird stories. * Poictesme, middle 13th century. Manuel is dead, and his wife, acting on the advice of the Holy Holmendis, dissolves the Fellowship of the Silver Stallion, or Manuel's equivalent of the Round Table. Horvendile appears and presides at the last meeting of the group, indicating cryptically what the fate of each member will be. [a] Gonfal becomes the lover of Queen Morvyth, but loses his head when the queen discovers that he has been laughing at her. Not supernatural, except in background. [b] Miramon Lluagor returns to his old home on the mountain, bickers with his wife, and regards the black cross with the Bees of Toupan. Before Koshchei created the present universe, there was a previous one ruled by a monster-god named Toupan. He is the leader of the Old Ones, who will return at some time. As each of the bees is brushed off the cross, Toupan's time draws nearer. But Miramon Lluagor acquires a wish with each bee that is released, and reestablishes the status quo. Not long after this, he is killed with the sword Flamberge, as predicted. [c] Coth, Jurgen's father, procedes to the West, in search of Manuel, whom he loves. He cmmes to the land of the Taoltecs, where the god Yaotl (loyalty?) puts three commands on him. Coth becomes emperor for a time, but after allegoric and priapic adventures, is blown back to Poictesme by Yaotl's flatulence. [d] Guivric the Sage, really an empty opportunist and trimmer, discovers that his identity is being

CABELL, JAMES BRANCH taken over by G1aum-without-Bones, a minor demon. He disappears, becoming a wraith. [e) Kerin of Nointe1, whose wife Saraide is much brighter than he is, wanders through underground caverns until he comes to the domain of Sc1aug, where there is a library with all knowledge. Now a learned fool, he helps work out the legend of Manuel. [f) Ninzian accidentally steps in some loose earth and reveals by his bird-like footprint that he is really a demon in disguise. His wife intends to report this to Ho1mendis, who has been conducting a witchhunt against all supernaturalism. Ninzian, attemping an evocation, calls up Lucifer and they discuss old times. [g) Donander of Evre is killed in battle and is accidentally taken to the wrong heaven, one corresponding to Valhalla. He amuses himself and annoys the gods by creating new worlds and people. [h) Jurgen is invited to appraise the jewels on the statue of Manuel. He discovers that they are false, but sets the point of the book by recognizing that the fraud was not intentionally evil, but that it begot much charity, forbearance, and bravery. While some persons in the sphere of Manuel have been disillusioned or (like Miramon L1uagor) never had any illusions about him, the legend of the great hero survives, even though he was only a man who kept up appearances. 327. SOMETHING ABOUT EVE A COMEDY OF FIGLEAVES McBride; New York 1927 The story of a successful failure, told as a symbolic satire. * Gerald Musgrave of Lichfield, a promising young poet who is entangled in a boring love affair, is visited by the demon G1aum of the Haunting Eyes, hitherto known from the Manuel romances. G1aum, who comes from Caer Omn (romance) in the land of Dersam (dreams), offers to take Gerald's place on earth while Gerald explores the lands beyond reality. Gerald accepts and descends into the lands preliminary to Antan (memories of things gone). In line with a prophecy, he calls himself Hoo the Fair-haired, Lord of the Third Truth. The two previous truths had been sex and death; his is poetry or dreams. In a series of symbolic adventures he encounters aspects of the female principle that he left behind in the world of reality, and passes through the lands of Doonham (manhood), Dersam (dreams), Lytreia (reality), and Turoine (routine), or a life cycle. In Turoine he settles down to domestic life with Aesred (erased), also called Maya (eternal illusion). Putting on rose-colored glasses he abandons his principles and leaves the redemption of Antan to others. Gerald's surrender emerges from his weaknesses, as first evidenced in his denial of sexuality. Thirty years later he returns to this world, to find himself a noted scholar of rubbish, which G1aum has written. The dreams are gone. Also present in the narrative are Horvendi1e (Cabell) and the Brown Man. * This is only the main ~ story line. There are other symbolic strands. * Cabell is determined to be naughty in this book, which abounds in sexual symbols and lewd doub1e-entendres, and is somewhat contentious. An outstanding episode is the chapter

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CABELL, JAMES BRANCH "They That Wore Blankets," which is a hilarious take-off on book reviewers. A very amusing book. 328. THE WHITE ROBE A SAINT'S SUMMARY McBride; New York 1928 Very loosely associated with Manuel via Ettarre, who appears briefly in a new incarnation. This is the story of Odo of Va1neres, a powerful churchman of the late Middle Ages. As a shepherd boy Odo meets a mysterious figure who he believes is the Lord of the Forest. This person gives him a wolf skin and a pot of ointment, with the result that Odo runs as a werewolf. When he is captured, he is saved from death by the presumed Lord of the Forest, who is revealed to be a mortal. Odo is put into a monastery for the good of his soul. He rises in the organization, becomes abbot, dies, and rides a pink cloud to a heaven, ~vhere his old master, whom he had betrayed, acts as porter. Odo's connection with Manuel lies in a peasant girl, an incarnation of Ettarre, whom he denounced as a witch. * Not one of Cabell's major works. * This is the third story chronologically of a proposed series of ten about Ettarre, presumably showing various ideals and their fates. Cabell never finished the series. * All three short romances-- THE MUSIC FROM BEHIND THE MOON, THE WAY OF ECBEN, and THE WHITE ROBE-- are printed together as THE WITCH-WOMAN, A TRILOGY ABOUT HER (Farrar, Straus; New York 1948). This has a long preface by Cabell about the cycle; it is partly serious and partly spoof. 329. THE WAY OF ECBEN A COMEDIETTA INVOLVING A GENTLEMAN McBride; New York 1929 Loosely tied into the Manuel cycle. Ultimately a fable about the disastrous results of following one's idea1s-- star, Ettarre. * King A1fgar of Ecben dreams of Ettarre and discovers that he can no longer live as he has. He resigns his kingdom to an enemy and wanders through the world of romance. At each stage of his pilgrimage something is taken away from him, until very little is left. When he meets Ettarre momentarily in the Garden between Dawn and Sunrise, she revivifies him for a moment, but even this goes down before the gods. * A sombre story, the best of the three about Ettarre. 330. SMIRT AN URBANE NIGHTMARE McBride; New York 1934 Published as by Branch Cabell. By using a slightly different name, the author wished to indicate that he was no longer working in the Manuel cycle, but was writing in a different style. This opinion may puzzle a reader, for Cabell is Cabell. * In a fairly long introduction the author states that the present work and its proposed sequels are the first attempt (apart from the Alice books by Lewis Carroll) to develop an adult dream, presented according to the laws of the dream. * To a modern reader, however, once the fantasy level has been by-passed, SMIRT seems to be grousings in the mind of an author, for most of the book is a veiled attack on critics, book reviewers, philistines, pesky admirers, and the world of

CABELL, JAMES BRANCH sensational newspaper trivia. * Smirt, the divine aspect of Smith, sets himself in his dream world the task of rediscovering the lost myth of Arachne, the spider woman. (The reason for love and death, and their linkage.) Under this compulsion he wanders about the land of dream, conversing with the All-Highest (who is proud of having written the Bible and is considering a sequel, but is unfortunately rather stupid), the Devil (whom Smirt trips very nicely), and the Stewards of Heaven. It ends in the abandonment of his hopes. * Presentation is in disconnected flashes, as in dreams, with occasional odd symbolic figurations, but the book is not too different from Cabell's other work, with the usual teasing priapistic circumlocutions. Cabell's greatest fault, unfortunately, was that he could not vary his approach and style. 331. ~ITH A SYLVAN INTERLUDE McBride; New York 1935 Published as Branch Cabell. The second volume of the Smith trilogy. * In this volume Cabell abandons the dream program announced in the first volume, for the story is constructed with traditional regularity. At the end of the first volume Smirt had abandoned his high estate, yielding to woman and her demands, and had .decided to settle down in life. He is now Smith, the tutelary deity of the forest of Branlon, somewhere in Cabell's mythical France, around the time of Charlemagne. The mode is medievalism, as opposed to the timelessness of .the first volume. * A meeting with Charlemagne, in which memory is evoked, is followed by narratives which tell the fate of Smith's four sons. These narratives are semi-alleg~r­ ical and represent reactions to life. On the narrative level they include the story of Volmar, superficially a drunken braggart, but really a man of extreme sensibility; the story of Elair, a song maker and dream, who seeks the key to magic and marries the daughter of Urc Tabaron the magician; Clitandre, a poetic burglar; and Little Smirt, a priggish politician. Mr. Smith reappears at the end with his love Tana and makes a statement of purpose. Cabell has abandoned the fanciful attacks on critics and newspaper vulgarism, and is now concerned with the establishment of four lives (books?). * Occasional striking phrases, but in general too much of the same from before. 332. SMIRE AN ACCEPTANCE IN THE THIRD PERSON Doubleday, Doran; Garden City, N. Y. 1937 The third volume in the Smith trilogy. It continues the downward path of the writer, much as in Grimm's laws of literary devolution, from highest god to minor god to minor poet. The dream aspect is not pursued strongly, but the black dog, as commentator, appears toward the end. A fair amount of the text is taken up with the usual gibes against critics and the reading public. * On the narrative level Smire is now in his third state of being and is wandering through history. As he engages in amorous adventures, he must often abandon his own desires and yield to necessity, though with pride-salving excuses. When he is Queen Dido's

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CABELL, JAMES BRANCH lover, he is cavalierly told to move on, since Aeneas is due to arrive shortly. If he does not leave, Zeus will punish him dreadfully. In his vanity and love of words he even places a curse on himself, which is later literally fulfilled. In Palestine he is forced to leave the young Miriam when the angel Gabriel comes to make an announcement. He is finally sent off en a quest that ends in death. As he reencounters figures and symbols from his past life, he gradually fades. In a return to childhood he reenters his long-sought land of Branlon, but as a ghost. His final experience is crossing the Styx. * The allegory is detailed at times, and the formal plan is complex, but not always clear. There are amusing passages, as always in Cabell, but some monotony. All in all, the Smith trilogy should not be counted among Cabell's more noteworthy works. 333. THERE WERE TWO PIRATES A COMEDY OF DIVISION Farrar, Straus; New York 1946 Published as by James Branch Cabell. Picaresque novel, told mostly in the manner of the earlier form. * Jose Gasparilla, notorious historical Caribbean pirate of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, tells of his life and adventures. Of noble birth, but impoverished, he steals a royal ship and sets out to be a pirate. His purpose is to acquire enough money to marry his love, Isabel. He is a highly successful marauder, but a gentlemanly one: he makes terms with the neighboring authorities and takes only half of what he has seized, if his victims do not resist. (One can gloss over the less pleasant side of his activities.) Seven years later, he captures a ship on which are his former sweetheart, her aged husband, and her five children. Her husband, Don Diego de Arredondo, turns out to be Gasparilla's true father, and he offers Don Jose the chance to relive his dreams. Don Diego, who has a little green stone (see THE DEVIL'S OWN DEAR SON) separates Don Jose from his shadow (reputation? past?). Jose himself goes back to relive his childhood, while the shadow carries on the business of piracy. Nine years pass before Gasparilla returns to this life. He finds that Don Diego is now dead, although Diego's ghost had met him and greeted him politely. He marries Isabel and settles down quietly in St. Augustine. The shadow dies when the· new United States navy attacks the pirate base. * Light and amusing. 334. THE DEVIL'S ·OWN DEAR SON A COMEDY OF THE FATTED CALF Farrar, Straus; New York 1949 A novel of life-acceptance, sequel, after a fashion, to THERE WERE TWO PIRATES. The setting is in part modern St. Augustine, which Cabell treats with amused sarcasm. * Diego de Arredondo Dodd, forty-year old proprietor of a second-rate tourist home, discovers that he is not of mortal origin. He was found in a fireplace, after a gust of flame, clutching a small green stone. He investigates and learns that he must be one of the progeny of Red Samael, the most lecherous of the devils of Hell. Taking his stone as identification, he seeks out Asmodeus, borrows from him a wish horse, and after passing through various dream lands reaches Hell,

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where he meets his father. Hell has changed recently. Long overcrowded, devils and imps overworked, it has expelled the damned and forbidden entry to any more humans, except those of demonic origin. Samael offers Dodd his birthright, but, in addition to a few moments in a dream castle, all Dodd asks for is an oil space heater for his tourist home and 250 gallons of oil. * The message is the same as in many of Cabell's other works, disillusionment. After a try at living fantasy, the protagonist accepts second-rate security. In this book, however, the message is not conveyed with any particular charm, and the mannerisms tend to be obtrusive. CADELL, ELIZABETH (1903 ) English author. Also wrote under pseudonym Harriet Ainsworth. 335. BRIMSTONE IN THE GARDEN William Morrow; New York 1950 Personalities, romance, and supernaturalism in a small village in the West Country. * Assorted relatives, friends, and friends of friends come to the house of Elinor Stirling and eventually pair off. The supernatural enters with Frobisher and Telemachus (two demons) and the ghost of Captain Vandeleur. Frobisher, who takes a job as a gardener, and Telemachus, who is invisible, are waiting for Mark Stirling to arrive, while Captain Vandeleur, who was mur~ dered in the middle of the 19th century, has been trapped in a well and is looking for a uniform. Frobisher causes the death of Mark, who is a scoundrel, and carries away his soul. Vandeleur goes along, and the others find happiness. * Some good characterizations, but sprawling and diffuse, with no real need for the supernatural. * There does not seem to be a British edition. CALDECOTT, SIR ANDREW (1884-l95l) G.C.M.G. British civil servant. Educated at Oxford. Administrative positions in Southeast Asia; Governor of Hong Kong; Governor of Ceylon. Fiction apparently written on a hobby basis. 336. NOT EXACTLY GHOSTS Arnold; London 1947 Ghost stories and whimsies. Several are set in Kongea, a mythical British colony somewhere in Oceania, not quite Polynesian, not quite Malayan. * Including, [a] A ROOM IN A RECTORY. A room with an evil aura-- because of magic worked there in the past-- drives a conservative rector to practice black magic. Dreams. A Kongean exorcism clears the place. [b] BRANCH LINE TO BENCESTON. As the author states, suggested by ,THE BAD LANDS by John Metcalfe. A parallel world, reached by a railroad branch line. Frent murders his hated partner there and is captured by the police. In this world the partner dies of pneumonia at the time of the crime in the other world, while Frent later dies of a broken neck when his counterpart in the other world is hanged. [c] SONATA IN D MINOR. While making a recording, one of the musicians stabbed the other. Playing the record reawakens the mood for murder. [d] AUTOEPIPHANY. An old desk, used around the end of the 18th century by an organist with revolutionary leanings, causes

CALDECOTT, SIR ANDREW modern users to write epitaphs that do not always represent their official opinions. The original owner had written many satirical poems on it. Includes some good, amusing verse. [e] l-llIIFFS OF THE SEA. An old watercolor of a church by the seashore somehow evokes the smell of the sea and bad dreams. The owner and a friend who is a folklorist track down the original situation: the artist, who was also an informer for the customs, had been murdered and his remains hidden in a buoy. [f] THE PUMP IN THORP'S SPINNEY. Questionable as fantasy. As a little boy Falmer heard strange underground noises. As an adult, shell shocked, he has dreams that lead to the uncovering a cistern containing the skeleton of a boy. Falmer had apparently heard the boy shouting for help years before. [g] LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS. In Kongea Lorimer profanes the cave of the Holy Gleam and dies of a skin disorder. He glows in the dark. Radioactivity of some sort? Not explained. [h] DECASTROLAND. Mainbarrow, an artist, is violently jealous of the success of de Castro, another artist. He paints the horrible face that he has seen in dreams, and de Castro suffers and dies along with the image in the picture. Kongea. [i] A VICTIM OF MEDUSA. A Kongean practice is divination by means of the markings on jellyfish. In England such a prediction via jellyfish comes true. [h] FITS OF THE BLUES. A Kongean ceremony involves tossing a sapphire into the sea as a sacrifice to the goddess. Lenbury steals such a sacrificial sapphire and sees everything blue. This particular stone was a "spilling stone," which colored other things. Lenbury is killed by diving into an empty swimming pool, having mistaken the white tile for water. [k] CHRISTMAS REUNION., The legend in a Christmas cracker is misread by the man playing Father Christmas, and he disappears. Murder and a revenant from Australia, although a rational explanation is also offered. [1] IN DUE COURSE. Fraudulent supernaturalism. A murder involving giant insects and wayang figures. * Best stories are [b], [d], [e]. The themes are not original, but the stories are wellhandled, often with a light touch. Excellent verse is often included. 337. FIRES BURN BLUE Arnold; London 1948 Short stories, including [a] AN EXCHANGE OF NOTES. Small-town cliques, an officious clergyman, Spiritualism. One of the singers at the concert insists that the score contains a wrong note. During the performance, though she is not present, all the singers sing the note she advocated. She had just died. [b] CHEAP AND NASTY. Aubrey Roddeck, to make a real-estate commission, plays on fears of the supernatural to give the house a bad name. The trick backfires. [c] QUINTET. Short ghost stories told at a party: a childhood experience of an apparition like a liquor ad; the ghost of a tombstone and a femily feud; animated clothing. [d] AUTHORSHIP DISPUTED. Terrison, according to Amberlake, was a psychological vampire and had drained him dry. Amberlake visits Terrison's grave to see if Terrison was also a conventional

CALDECOTT, SIR ANDREW vampire. [e] FINAL TOUCHES. Two feuding families in an English village, with supernatural "touchings" (beatings), etc. [f] WHAT'S IN A NAME. Ronald A. Transom is nicknamed "Rat" for obvious reasons. He has a pet rat and there is wound-empathy between them. [g] UNDER THE MISTLETOE. Kongea. Feuds among plantation managers and a plot of false supernaturalism. According to Kongean belief, certain trees have flame eyes. A ghost at the end? [h] HIS NAME WAS LEGION. A periodical dictated by spirits offends the local clergyman. Some unpleasant poetry is the result. [i] TALL TALES BUT TRUE. Malaya. Two stories. First, the swarth of a number-one boy who is down with malaria supervises an official reception. Second, Philip is in two places at once. A swarth. [j] A BOOK ENTRY. The visitor's book at Government House, Kongea, shows the name U. Nomi, apparently written at a time when only the governor (who is a cad) could have signed the book. But U. Nomi had been a Ugandan witchdoctor murdered by the governor at a previous post. [k] SEEDS OF REMEMBRANCE. A Kongean plant whose seeds recall memories and awaken conscience. [1] SEATED ONE DAY AT THE ORGAN. The organist collapses during a service. The mirror above the organ had shown a man cutting his throat. The mirror is returned to the shop, but seven years later the suicide takes place. * [f] is' best. Capable fiction, perhaps not quite up to the first volume. CAMPBELL, SIR GILBERT EDWARD (1833-1899) British author of popular fiction, operettas. Wrote adventure fiction, mysteries, detective short stories, supernatural fiction. First British translator of works by Emile Gaboriau, thus introducing the modern detective novel to England. 338. WILD AND WEIRD TALES OF IMAGINATION AND MYSTERY RUSSIAN. ENGLISH·AND ITALIAN Ward, Lock; London 1889 This is really three books in one, each section with separate pagination. The components were also issued separately, probably at the same time as the omnibus: WILD AND WEIRD, OR, REMARKABLE STORIES OF RUSSIAN LIFE. MYSTERIES OF THE UNSEEN: OR, SUPERNATURAL STORIES OF ENGLISH LIFE. DARK STORIES FROM THE SUNNY SOUTH; OR, LEGENDS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN. All were published by Ward, Lock, in 1889. The Russian Section: [a] NEPIMOFF'S FATHER. Serge Nepimoff, army officer and wastrel,is left with a pittance when his father dies. But he receives a posthumous letter from his father telling him to go to the Ghost Gallery at the full moon. There he learns from the Devil, who appears in the form of a notary, that all the ancestral Nepimoffs had made a diabolical bond for money. Term five years. Nepimoff accepts. Five years later, however, the truth is revealed. Rationized. [b] THE THIEF'S TAPER. Lipetskoff, a painter, has a dream vision of a murder, which he incorporates into a painting, although it does not show the identity of the murderer. He is arrested on suspicion, but is released when a secret society is believed to be responsible.

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CAMPBELL, JOHN W., JR. Under "guidance," however, he finishes the picture and shows the criminal to have been the girl's father, who had wanted her hand and body fat to make a hand of glory. Lipetskoff goes mad. [c] THE WHITE WOLF OF KOSTOPCHIN. A white wolf roams the countryside eating the hearts of its victims. When it is almost trapped, in its piace stands the Lady Ravina. Paul is in love with her, but loses his heart. She is later shot, presumably with a silver bullet. [d] THE MIDNIGHT SKATER. Olga, a Gipsy girl, has a name for sorcery. Many of her suitors have been killed by a demonic bear. The hero woos her, though warned not to, and she reveals herself as the demon. * The English section: [e] THE WARNING OF THE SWORD. Set in Heidelberg, among the students. According to the superstition, if one is accidentally wounded by a weapon, that weapon will later be the cause of one's death. [f] A DAY'S SHOOTING. Squire Stark, a hard, brutal man, is found murdered, and the brother of a poacher is the obvious suspect'. During the trial, however, the squire's ghost interferes outrageously. Several months later the squire's ghost assembles a gun and shoots the real murderer, in what is seemingly an accident. [g] WHAT WAS IT? Children should stay away from the "infernal room," or else the ghost will kill at least one of them. [h] THE GHOST AT THE PROSCENIUM. The ghost of a murdered ballet dancer performs spectacularly on the stage. [i] THE LADY ISOPEL. Whenever there is to be a family catastrophe, the ghost of vicious Lady Isopel appears. [j] 48, FERNVALLEY TERRACE, N. The Chemist's mother has been murdered. Her ghost reveals the unsuspected murderer. * The Italian section: [k] THE EVIL EYE. Edgar Rave1ston, an Englishman travelling and stopping in Italy, suffers much inconvenience, since the natives have decided that he is a jettatore, or caster of the evil eye. They are right. [1] THE MARBLE FAUN. In the 16th century Cardinal Rastelli, before paying a command visit to the Borgias, concealed his treasure by means of magic. It can be recovered only on the Eve of St. Geronimo, by magical means. [m] FROM THE GRAVE. Corsica. Two feuding families. When Bartolo, a rejected suitor, shoots Assunta and her husband while they are in church, vendetta takes a peculiar form. The dead man's avenging brother is guided by the ghost of the murdered woman. [n] THE GREEN STAIRCASE. It leads up to the picture gallery, where the pictures often assume life and are not friendly. * The stories set in Russia are the most successful works in this collection. They are fairly long and the florid treatment fits the folkloristic subject matter. The British stories are literal and crude. CAMPBELL, JOHN W[OOD], JR. (1910-1971) Very important American science-fiction editor; author, anthologist; expositor of popular science. Edi ted the magazine variously known as ASTOUN.DING STORIES, ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION! ANALOG, etc., from 1937 until his death in 1971. Also editor of short-lived sister magazine

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UNKNOWN (later UNKNOWN WORLDS), 1939-1943. This was a fairly high quality pulp magazine specializing in supernatural fiction. It had a peculiar editorial slant, perhaps because of Campbell's engineering approach. It stressed stories in which supernaturalism was presented as a rationality within irrationality and horror was less important than idea fantasy or fantastic adventure on an adult level. Many excellent stories were printed in UNKNOWN, some of them being scattered in anthologies throughout this volume. As a writer of supernatural fiction, however, Campbell was not important, wi th only one weak shor t nove 1 to his credi t. 339. THE MOON IS HELL~ Fantasy Press; Reading, Pa. 1951 Two short novels. The title novel, which is science-fiction, and [a] THE ELDER GODS. (UNK 1939) This was originally published under the pseudonym Don A. Stuart. In the future, perhaps about 3200 A.D. Civilization has collapsed, and mankind has settled into a new medieval material culture. The ultimate story is a clash between two sets of gods, the Elder Gods, hypostatizations of human feelings, who are basically benevolent, and the Invisible Ones, presumably an ultimate development of computers. Both maintain their power by predicting the future, but the Elder Ones give conditional prophecies, while the Invisible Ones give definite answers. Though the Invisible Ones are not exactly malevolent, their priesthood and the values they stand for are evil. Daron, a sailor cast up on the land by the elder god of the sea, takes on the priesthood and the Invisible Ones and destroys them. * Contrived, derivative, and dull. According to legend it was hastily written to fill the gap left when the author to whom the issue had been assigned did not produce his work. AS EDITOR: 340. FROM UNKNOWN WORLDS AN ANTHOLOGY OF MODERN FANTASY FOR GROWNUPS Street and Smith; New York 1948 paperbound A selection of material from the magazine UNKNOWN/UNKNOWN WORLDS. [a] THE ENCHANTED WEEKEND, John MacCormac. (1939). This is said to have been the most popular story to appear in UNKNOWN. James Fielden, a young American scholar, spends a weekend at the stately home of Enniscrow in Cornwall, where he is searching family archives for Arthurian material. According to tradition, the family is descended from Ninian, the woman who enchanted Merlin. Fielden falls in love with the daughter of the house, also called Ninian, and aCCidentally releases Merlin from imprisonment. Fielden is anxious to impress Ninian and asks Merlin for the ability to excel in athletic matters. The weekend turns out to be riotous. Excellent humorous fantasy. [b] NOTHING IN THE RULES, L. Sprague de Camp. (1939) Rival swimming coaches and a meet. First a woman with webbed fingers, then a mermaid. One of de Camp's best stories. [c] THE COMPLEAT WEREWOLF, Anthony Boucher. Wolfe Wolf. becomes a werewolf, although a highly moral one, and helps the authorities round up a spy ring during World War II. Humor.

{:APEK, KAREL Short novel. [d] THE REFUGEE, Jane Rice. (1943) World War II. The young man turns out to be a treacherous and hungry werewolf. What chance does a lone woman have against him, unless her family background happens to be a butcher shop. France. Good. [e] THE CLOAK, Robert Bloch. (1939). It sets one off into crime. [f] YESTERDAY WAS MONDAY, Theodore Sturgeon. (1941) Harry awakens on Wednesday instead of on Tuesday (as the day after Monday) and finds the scenes being prepared for Wednesday's events. Life behind the scenes turns out to be very interesting. [g] TROUBLE WITH WATER, H. L. Gold. (1939). Greenberg, a boardwalk concessionaire, has the folly to insult a water gnome. A curse is placed on him: he cannot approach water. His life is miserable until he placates the gnome. Good ethnic humor, although Gold apparently considered it a serious story. [h] ANYTHING, Philip St. John. (pseud. of Lester del Rey) (1939) A brownie in modern life. [i] ONE MAN'S HARP, Babette Rosmond. (1943) Jordan, a professional gambler, to give a victim another chance, jokingly offers to bet his place in heaven. Jordan wins. When he dies, he discovers that what he has won is a perpetual ski camp. He loathes it; evokes the Devil, demands Hell-and gets it-- a perpetual ski camp. Excellent. [j] THE DEVIL WE KNOW, Henry Kuttner. (1941) A "demon" from another world serves Carnevan, a criminal opportunist, in order to escape from something even worse than a demon in his own universe. An excellent horror story; one of Kuttner's best. [k] THE PSYCHOMORPH, E. A. Grosser. (1940) A shape-changer. [1] THE HEXER, Howard W. Guernsey. (pseud. of Howard Wandrei) (1939) The hexer has a sense of humor which exaggerates the foibles of his victims. A newsman is gifted with an enormously long nose; an egotistical novelist has a head like a barrel; a "cat" is given a tail, etc. All invisible. [m] THE SUMMONS, Don Evans. (1939) Delusions in the mind of an insane murderer as he undergoes insulin shock. [n] THE JESUS SHOES, Allan R. Bosworth. (1942) Wooden shoes transport a man across the sea, because he has faith. * There is also some poetry. * All in all, despite a few weak stories, an excellent collection. Best stories are [a], [b], [d], [g], [i], [j], [1]. tAPEK, KAREL (1890-1938) Important Czech novelist, playwright, journalist, political figure. Introduced the word "robot" (coined by his brother Josef) in the influential play R.U.R. (1921), an Expressionist statement of exploitation and revolt. A prolific author, mostly untranslated, though his WAR WITH THE NEWTS (English translation 1937) is generally available. A very fine writer. 341. THE ABSOLUTE AT LARGE Macmillan; London 1927 Anonymous translation from Czech. Amusing working out of a flight of fantasy, the implications of atom smashing for pantheism. The story is told mostly through Bondy, a cynical capitalist. In 1943 Rudy Marek has invented a machine which utilizes the full energy of the atom. But there

CAPEK, KAREL is an enormous difficulty: when matter is thus broken down, the Absolute is necessarily released and God is manifested. All sorts of religious manifestations occur wherever Marek's Karburators are used. Miracles, levitations, faith-healing, ecstasies, speaking in tongues, spectacular conversions are common. "Wherever a Karburator exists, God builds a chapel." Unfortunately, the manifestations of deity are no more consistent than are present day or past religions, and clashes, culminating in the Greatest War, destroy civilization. As a desperate last measure, all Karburators are to be destroyed, and religious phenomena are outlawed, although occasional miscreants huddle over bootleg machines and savor the experience. * Very nicely handled, and amusing. CAPES, BERNARD [EDWARD JOSEPH1 (c. l870? - 1918) English author. Best-known for historical romances (THE LAKE OF WINE, 1898) and detective stories (THE GREAT SKENE MYSTERY, 1907 and THE SKELETON KEY, 1918). His friend G. K. Chesterton wrote an excellent obituary notice of him in THE SKELETON KEY: a man who wrote sensational fiction with a poetic touch, putting superior craftsmanship into popular fiction. Deserves some attention. 342. AT A WINTER'S FIRE C.A. Pearson; London 1899 Short stories, including [a1 THE VANISHING HOUSE. The narrator's grandfather, a rustic musician who made a living out of waits, plays before a mysterious house that suddenly appears in the snow. He alone of the musical group has the courage to drink from the goblet which the maiden offers him. Nicely handled. [b1 DARK DIGNUM. During the Seven Years War there is a feud between Dark Dignum the smuggler and Exciseman Jones, one being a ferocious killer, and the other an overpunctilious official. Dignum is responsible for Jones's death, but Jones's skeleton evens the score when it is eroded out of the hillside. [c1 WILLIAM TYRWHITT'S "COPY." A ruined house with a nautical room in which a ghost from a previous century holds forth. The journalist learns that the ghost is that of a pirate who murdered the journalist's great grandfather. The room seems to be out at sea. [d1 AN EDDY ON THE FLOOR. Set in D Prison, perhaps Dartmoor. The warden, taking revenge on an enemy, lures him into a cell and keeps him there until he dies, whipping him daily. The cell is now haunted by a dancing thing of power and malice, an eddy on the floor. Excellent horrors once a very slow beginning is past. [e] THE BLACK REAPER. 1665. The Black Reaper goes through the upper field, and each time it sets up a shock, a villager dies. It is stopped by a barricade of children, whom Death will not touch. [f1 A VOICE FROM THE PIT. An English tourist is shown a strange hole in the rocks, which may or may not reach to Hell. Borderline supernatural. * Interesting stories, [a1 and [e] being best. 343. PLOTS Methuen; London 1902 Short stories, including [a1 THE ACCURSED COR-

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CAPES, BERNARD DONNIER. A young man encounters the Wandering Jew. The Jew, Cartophilus, renews his youth every century. The young man is present and assists at the transformation, The Jew, instead of being a pathetic or sympathetic being, as in most other fiction, is a type of the Antichrist. Told in a disjointed, feverish manner. [b] THE DEVIL'S FANTASIA. Music found in a bottle fished out of the sea carries with it a doom. It is only one voice of a duet; the Devil plays the other half. And whoever plays the music cannot stop until death or madness takes him. The curse is broken by the adroit use of a phonograph. [c] THE GREEN BOTTLE. A collection of crime associational material has a bottle with a soul inside it. The criminal blowing the bottle had died suddenly; the molten glass slumped, sealing the blower's breath and soul into the bottle. Cd] PLOTS. An essay, with little narratives included, telling ideas that Capes meant to use in fiction, but never put into print. Some are detective material, others science-fiction, and two supernatural; [e1 THE PLOT OF THE FEARFUL HEAD. It is that of the Earl of Surrey, from the time of Henry VIII, perfectly preserved and animate with evil life. [f1 THE FACE ON THE SHEET. A slide projector reveals murder supernaturally. 344. LOAVES AND FISHES Methuen; London 1906 Short stories, including [a1 A GHOST-CHILD. Tryphena, whose fiance was drowned at sea, is visited by his ghost. Nine months later, on Christmas, a Child, able to speak, appears in physical body. It will stay only for a time, it says, until Tryphena asks the question. The answer to the question is, "1 am to call you mother." [b] THE GHOST-LEECH. Ireland, in part. Ghostly teams play rugger in the graveyards, with skulls and shankbones for equipment. A mortal must keep goal for them. If he survives seven years, he receives the gift of healing sickness by touch. Also present is the concept of the soul as a moth, and a death portent. [c] POOR LUCY RIVERS. Betrayed, she committed suicide by staying out on her roof in the winter. Her spirit seems to haunt her typewriter. [d1 JACK THE SKIPPER. Is it a sea monstrosity in humanoid form that emerges occasionally from the Thames? Rationalized. [e1 THE JADE BUTTON. China, England. The button is inhabited by a powerful spirit that conveys on its master riches, immunity from harm, and, practically speaking, immortality. But the spirit is very sensitive and irascible. * [a] has an excellent macabre touch that is surprising for a work of its period, what with cultural tabus about conception and childbirth. 345. BAG AND BAGGAGE Constable; London 1913 Short stories, some long and sentimental, others fantastic. Including, [a] TONY'S DRUM. A period piece, around 1710. The Captain, returning to England after Malplaquet, brings with him the drum of Tony the Drummerboy, who had been killed in battle. The drum (presumably activated by the dead boy's ghost) offers a supernatural solution to a problem. [b] THE CORNER HOUSE. The narrator relives an experience of a genera-

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tion earlier: the death of his father in an explosion. [c] JOHN FIELD'S RETURN. A failed man commits suicide, but his ghost, beyond the limits of mortality, regains the family fortune by a series of coups. The ghost takes part in life until its corpse is found. [d] THE HAMADRYAD. The protagonist, an enthusiastic lepidopterist, restrains himself from killing a moth, at the plea of a hamadryad. The hamadryad incarnates itself as his daughter (or assumes the daughter's place as a changeling?) until she comes upon his collection. [e] THE VOICE. The voice of a drowned girl comes into the present. [f] THE POISON BOTTLE. A crime story, occasionally anthologized, in which, in a vision, a child sees murder being done. * All in all, probably Capes's best collection. 346. THE FABULISTS Mills and Boon; London 1915 Short stories told by four framework narrators. Including [a] THE PETROLEUSE. A woman trying to fire a house is assisted by a ghost, her suffragette self. Madness. [b] DANSE-MACABRE. A ghost, based on Myers's work on human survival. [c] THE MARBLE HANDS. Horror from the tomb. [d1 THE GLASS BELL. A snowing globe where a death scene is reenacted. [e1 THE QUEER PICTURE. It reenacts a murder. [f1 THE FOOTSTEPS. Phantom footsteps. [g1 THE WHITE HARE. When shot with a silver bullet, it is revealed as the mother of his sweetheart. [h1 THE THING IN THE FOREST. Hungary. Werewolves. [i] SUB SPECIE. Ancestral memories or reincarnation revealed by hypnosis. [j1 THE DARK COMPARTMENT. A ghost scene on a train. [k1 THE BLUE DRAGON. A tiny one. It emerges from a set of chinaware. [11 THE CLOSED DOOR. If you knock long enough at a closed door, the Devil may open it for you. Supernatural reenactment of a crime. * Undeveloped narratives, less effective than Capes's earlier, longer work. CAPOTE, TRUMAN (1924American mainstream fiction writer. Best-known work factual crime novel IN COLD BLOOD (1965). 347. A TREE OF NIGHT AND OTHER STORIES Random House; New York 1949 Short stories, including [a1 MASTER MISERY. A symbolic presentation of disillusionment. Sylvia, small-town woman in New York City, can survive only by selling her dreams to a Mr. Revercornb, who pays her well for them. But she discovers that she has sold the most important part of herself and that nothing is left. [b1 SHUT A FINAL DOOR. Walter, whose neurosis compels him to be treacherous and vicious, discovers that a strange voice follows him wherever he goes, calling him by telephone. It is a concrete symbol of his guilt. [c1 JUG OF SILVER. Set in a small town, not far from New Orleans. The local druggist, as an inducement to sales, sets up a jug of nickels and offers it to who, ever can guess the amount of money in it. Appleseed, a Cracker boy born with a caul, can see things that others cannot, and wins the money. [d1 MIRIAM. Mrs. H. T. Miller suddenly and inexplicably finds herself caught in a

CARLYLE, THOMAS strange relationship to a little girl who parasitically and vampirically drains her will. The situation is much like that of "The Silver Mask" by Hugh Walpole, but is told more grotesquely. Borderline supernatural. * Excellent stories, if a little prissy at times, handling universal human experiences in terms of fantasy. CARLYLE, THOMAS (1795-1881) Scottish essayist, historian, philosopher, cultural influence.. In addition to his original work, which was of international significance, Carlyle was preeminent in introducing German literature and philosophy to the English-speaking world. Although this aspect of his lifework has largely been forgotten, he translated Goethe's WILHELM MEISTER and, in the present volumes, offered a reasoned selection of the best German fiction of his day. His translations were much like his original work, wilful, highly personal, sometimes obtrusively Scottish in locution, but characterized by a remarkable richness of language. Also included are excellent, perceptive essays. AS EDITOR: 348. GERMAN ROMANCE SPECIMENS OF ITS CHIEF AUTHORS WITH BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL NOTICES W. Tait; Edinburgh; 1827 4 vol. A strong selection of material, including, described in previous collections, [a1 DUMB LOVE, J. K. Musaeus. [b] THE FAIR-HAIRED ECKBERT, J. L. Tieck. Alternate title, for ECKBERT THE FAIR-HAIRED. [c] THE TRUSTY ECKHART, J. L. Tieck. Alternate title for LOYAL ECKHART AND TANNHAEUSER. * Also [d] LIBUSSA, J. K. Musaeus. Euhemerization and fictionalization of the legends concerning the founding of the Czech nation. Libussa is the daughter of a woodsman and a dryad. The dryad had given the woodsman supernatural powers of judgment and prev~sLon, with the result that he was highly regarded among his people. When the throne becomes vacant, Libussa is chosen as queen because of her virtue and supernatural wisdom. There is some dissatisfaction about her selection. But she marries a mortal and founds Prague. Sentimentalization in terms of chivalry. [e] THE RUNENBERG, J. L. Tieck. (DER RUNENBERG, 1802) Christian, a young hunter, has left his home and is wandering about the haunted mountains. After meeting a mysterious stranger who tells him of wonders to be found in the Runenberg, Christian enters the ancient ruins and sees a spirit in the form of a fair, nude woman. She gives him a jewelled token. He then makes his way to the lowlands, marries, and prospers. One day, however, the call of the woman of the wood comes to him, and he must leave. After his departure, everything goes wrong, and he is assumed to be dead. He returns many years later, a broken man. The touch of the Other is too much for mortals. [f] THE ELVES, J. L. Tieck. (DIE ELFEN, 1811) Close by the prosperous small farms of the peasants lies a dank fir wood, which the peasants do not enter. They believe that it is dangerous, inhabited by Gipsies and other undesirables.

CARLYLE, THOMAS Little Mary, however, wanders into the woods and finds herself in a wonderful fairyland, inhabited by friendly elves. She stays there for but a short time, whereupon she is told that she must leave. She is also told that she should never reveal what she has experienced, or the result will be tragic for her. When she returns to the outside world, however, years have passed. She obeys the fairy command, grows up, marries, and has children, who in turn play with the fairies. But when, in an argument with her husband, she breaks the prohibition, the fairies leave the land en masse, and the territory, which used to be fruitful, turns into a near desert. Everything collapses. [g] THE GOBLET, J. L. Tieck. (DER POKAL, 1811) Renaissance Germany. Ferdinand, who is madly in love with Francesca, asks the help of the alchemist and mag1c1an Albert. Albert is willing to show the future to Ferdinand, but Ferdinand must remain silent. Ferdinand cannot command himself, and the magical operation fails. Francesca marries another man. Forty years later Ferdinand and Francesca meet again, without recognizing each other at first, until Ferdinand sees the goblet that had played a part in Albert's ritual. He learns that he and Francesca had been separated by parental plots, and that it is too late for anything but minimal happiness together. [h] THE GOLDEN POT, E.T.A. Hoffmann. (DER GOLDENE TOPF, 1814) Hoffmann considered this his finest work, and most authorities agree with this estimation. It is so complex that it does not lend itself well to summary. Superficially it is concerned with the experiences of the young poet and student Anselmus, who copies manuscripts for the Archivist Lindhorst and falls in love with Lindhorst's daughter, a serpent woman. Anselmus's life operates on two planes. In the everyday world he is in love with the beautiful but conventional Veronica and plans to become a Hofrat, while in the magical world of the Archivist (who is a salamander in exile from Atlantis) he is caught up in the magical duel between the Archivist and his old enemy, Liese. Eventually Lindhorst defeats Liese in a magical duel, and Anselmus goes to Atlantis with Serpentina. There are, of course, other levels of meaning in THE GOLDEN POT, with dissociated personality fragments, parallel rosters between Atlantis and Dresden, philosophical implications, mythological narratives, and much else. It is one of the landmarks of supernatural fiction, possibly the greatest fantasy of the 19th century. * Carlyle's translations-- despite linguistic wilfulness and Scottish locutions-- are still the best that have been done for these works. Outstanding stories are [b],

eel, [f], [h]. CARR, JOHN DICKSON (1905-1977) Prominent American writer of mystery and detective fiction, intermittently resident in Great Britain. Also wrote under the pseudonyms Carter Dickson and Roger Fairbairn. Generally considered one of the most important authors, particularly skilled at handling highly intricate pseudo-magical devices for concealing crime or

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misdirecting investigation. The sealed room mystery came to be his forte. In most of his fiction apparent supernaturalism is explained away, as was customary in the detective story of his day, but in the following instances Carr let it stand, unrationalized. 349. THE BURNING COURT Hamish Hamilton; London 1937 Detective mystery, ultimately based on undead beings who are reincarnated with memory over the centuries. * Miles Despard is poisoned, and there are many signs of supernatural activity: the corpse has been seen moving about after death; a ghost has appeared; a witch's ladder has been found, etc. Suspicion shifts from suspect to suspect, until Gaudin Cross is called into the case to work out a complex if slightly confusing explanation. Much historical crime material, particularly from 17th century France, is included. * In the opinion of many this is Carr's best novel, but I prefer others. I do not find the mixture of suburbia, the undead, formula whodunit, and historical crime very convincing. 350. THE DEVIL IN VELVET Harper; New York [1951] Mystery, historical adventure against a supernatural background. * England, c 1675. * In the present, Professor Nicholas Fenton, historian, has discovered records of a mysterious murder in the England of Charles II. The records are incomplete, although it is known that a then Sir Nicholas Fenton was involved. Professor Fenton thereupon sells his soul to the Devil. In exchange he is to be put back into the past, in the body of Sir Nicholas, but with his own personality and knowledge, and no tricks. The Devil agrees, making only one small reservation. Professor Fenton, back in 1675, decides to change history and prevent the murder of his wife. He immerses himself in the violent Sir Nicholas and the dirty, shabby world around him. There are sword-play, lechery, political violence, superstition, plots and complots, and a good period baCkground. Fenton may change history, but the Devil, of course, is the only real winner. * Adventure rather than bafflement, for the solution is entirely obvious from the beginning, but still one of Carr's better novels. The characterizations are handled with more skill than usual. 351. FIRE. BURN! Hamish Hamilton; London 1956 Period adventure and a sealed-room mystery in the London of 1829. * Detective-Superintendent John Cheviot enters a cab in the 1950's, on a case, and is taken to the police offices of 1829. This is the period when the Metropolitan Police (Peelers or Bobbies) were being formed, and Cheviot, in the body of an early 19th century Cheviot, applies for the position of superintendent. He is a young man of some wealth, social position, and notoriety, and his application is at first questioned, but he is accepted and soon embroiled in a raucous world of crime, crooked gambling, brutality, and mysterious events. He is present during a sealed-room murder, and must solve the mystery by contemporary methods. The ending is best not revealed,

*

CARR, JOHN DICKSON but the implications are that Cheviot's experiences were supernatural. A clever mystery, with good local color. CARR, ROBERT SPENSER (1909 ) American writer, biologist; mainstream author. Brother of John Dickson Carr. 352. THE ROOM BEYOND Appleton-Century-Crofts; New York [1948] Long, allegorical quest novel. * Danny Bryce first met Cristina when he was a boy and she a charity nurse in one of the poorer sections of town. He feels an attraction for her that includes but also transcends sexuality, but loses her through his own folly. Throughout the remainder of a partly misspent life Danny tries to find her again, but always discovers that he has just missed her. The settings include New Orleans, a Penitentes settlement in the Southwest, and New York. Years later, Danny is about to be awarded honors for his medical work among the Indians, when Cristina appears again, and Danny discovers her true~ deathless, perhaps even existence-less nature. He learns from her that death is nothing more than another room in a larger existence. He is about to proclaim this truth to the world when Cristina destroys his memories. * The above summary is centered on the supernatural element in the novel. Otherwise, THE ROOM BEYOND is a long, fully developed biographical fic~ion with much naturalistic detail. * Capable slick work, perhaps overlong for some tastes, but an imaginative rendering of the search for death. The succession of exotic locales, however, savors a little too much of Hollywood stage sets. CARTER, LIN[WOOD] [VROMAN] (1930American anthologist. Later, prolific author of fantastic adventure novels. AS EDITOR: 353. DRAGONS, ELVES, AND HEROES Ballantine Books; New York 1919 paperbound Snippets and excerpts, both prose and poetry, from various areas of premodern Western and non-Western literatures, and folkloristic sources. "Story" titles would seem to have been added by the editor. * Including [a] THE OGRE. A fragment from BEOWULF, translated by Norma Lorre Goodrich. [b] THE HIGH HISTORY OF THE SWORD GRAM. A fragment from the VOLSUNGA SAGA, translated by William Morris. [c] MANAWYDDAN SON OF THE BOUNDLESS. A portion of the MABINOGION, adapted by Kenneth Morris. [d] BARROW-WIGHT. A fragment of the GRETTIR SAGA translated by S. Baring-Gould. [e] FINGAL AT THE SIEGE OF CARRIC-THURA, James Macpherson. From THE POEMS OF OSSIAN. Prose. [f] THE SWORD OF AVALON~ Sir Thomas Malory. From LE MORTE D'ARTHUR. [g] THE LAST GIANT OF THE ELDER AGE, Fragment from the KIEV CYCLE, translated by Isabel Florence Hapgood. Better-known as one of the adventures of I1ya Muromets. [h] WONDERFUL THINGS BEYOND CATHAY. A fragment from THE TRAVELS OF JOHN MANDEVILLE. [i] TALES OF THE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS. Five stories from the GESTA ROMANORUM, Charles Swan translation. [j]

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CARTER, LIN THE MAGICAL PALACE OF DARKNESS. A fragment from the romance of chivalry PALMERIN OF ENGLAND, attributed to Francisco de Moraes. [k] RUSTUM AGAINST THE CITY OF DEMONS. A fragment from the SHAH NAMEH of Firdausi. Translated (from which language is not indicated) by Lin Carter. [1] THE PRINCESS OF BABYLON, Voltaire. * All before our base date. 354. DISCOVERIES IN FANTASY Ballantine Books; New York 1972 . paperbound An introduction by Carter titled LOST WORLDS. * Including [a] THE VISION OF YIN, Ernest Bramah. (pseud of Ernest B. Smith). (from THE WALLET OF KAI LUNG, 1900). Yin, who has made his way to the desolate rock island, finds it covered with skeletons of men who have perished there. He resists fate, and is favored by a vision of the Celestial Emperors and is told that he will aid in a restoration of traditional Chinese empire. [b] THE DRAGON OF CHANG TAO, Ernest Bramah. [from KAI LUNG'S GOLDEN HOURS, 1922) When Chang goes to woo the daughter of Shen, a task is set him. Killing dragons. On meeting a very powerful dragon in human form, still a further task is set: distinguishing exchanged babies (now young women), one human, one of dragon ancestry. [c] THE POET OF PANOPOLIS, Richard Garnett; [d] THE MINIATURE, Eden Phillpotts, both described elsewhere. * [b] has amusing moments, but the ignorance of matters Chinese is distressing. 355. GREAT SHORT NOVELS OF ADULT FANTASY Ballantine Books; New York 1972 paperbound On the cover called GREAT SHORT NOVELS OF ADULT FANTASY 1. Four short novels, including, [a] WALL OF SERPENTS, Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague de Camp. Described elsewhere for context. [b] THE KINGDOM OF THE DWARFS, Anatole France. (pseud. of Jacques Anatole Francois Thibault) Better-known under the title HONEY-BEE. An adult fairy tale. Honey-Bee is stolen away by the dwarfs, whose king wishes to marry her when she grows up. George de Blanchelande is captured by the water nixies, whose queen wishes to rear him as a lover. Good-hearted King Loc of the dwarfs resolves matters. A semi-juvenile, and not one of France's better works. [c] THE MAKER OF MOONS, Robert W. Chambers. Described elsewhere. * The fourth story, ''The Hollow Land," by William Morris, a very early short prose romance, is not supernatural. 356. GREAT SHORT NOVELS OF ADULT FANTASY, VOLUME II Ballantine Books; New York 1973 paperbound Four components, including [a] WOMAN IN THE MIRROR, George MacDonald. The untitled fragment from PHANTASTES usually called THE MAGIC MIRROR. Described elsewhere. [b] T~ LAVENDER DRAGON, Eden Phi1lpotts. Described elsewhere. [c] THE TRANSMUTATION OF LING, Ernest Bramah. (pseud. of Ernest B. Smith) (from THE WALLET OF KAI LUNG, 1900) A story told by Kai Lung, an itinerant Chinese storyteller, when he is held captive by Miao bandits. * The candidate Ling, having taken a high place in the civil service examinations at Canton, is sent as com-

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mander of bowmen to a rebellious area. He rescues the adopted daughter of a magician, who gives him one of her father's magical potions to drink. The result: whatever part of his body is severed from him turns to gold. * Not one of the better Kai Lung stories. * Also included is the science-fiction story "The Repairer of Reputations" by R. W. Chambers. CAVE, HUGH B. (1910 ) Prolific American writer of British birth, contributor to many of the adventure pulps as well as to the slicks. Also war correspondent in World War II, plantation owner in Haiti. 357. MURGUNSTRUMM AND OTHERS Carcosa; Chapel Hill, North Carolina 1977 Short stories and two nouvelles from various pulp sources. * Including [a] MURGUNSTRUMM. (STRANGE STORIES 1933). Nouvelle. At Gray Toad Inn, a run-down establishment on a deserted back road, fiendish doings are done, including classical vampirism and necrophilia. Paul Hill and his fiancee barely escaped from· it once, and were institutionalized when they told of their experiences. Paul has escaped from the asylum, is returning to the inn to clear himself. Crude horror ladled on with gusto. [b] THE WATCHER IN THE GREEN ROOM. (WT 1933) Kolitt, who has murdered his wife and secreted her remains, builds up a thought monster out a dresser. It does ·him in. [c] THE PROPHECY. (BLACK BOOK DETECTIVE MAGAZINE 1934) A slumming visit to a Black spiritualist church meeting, where doom is predicted, ends disastrously. [d] THE STRANGE DEATH OF IVAN GROMLEIGH. (SPICY MYSTERY STORIES 1937) An artist illustrating a horror story (and making clay models to work with) finds that horrors have materialized. [e] THE STRANGE CASE OF NO.7. (GHOST STORIES 1931) Brand invents a machine that releases the soul, so that it can experience death, return to its body, and report. A gorilla is also involved. [f] THE ISLE OF DARK MAGIC. (WT 1934) The Marquesas. Peter Mace, whose girl friend has died, uses black magic to animate a stone statue of her. But her corpse returns. Linked to the Cthulhu cycle of Lovecraft's. [g] THE WHISPERERS, (SPICY MYSTERY STORIES 1942) People who live in the haunted house are transformed into hairy, evil beings. Other worlds may be involved. [h] PREY OF THE NIGHTBORN. (SPICY MYSTERY STORIES 1936). Classical vampires. [i] MAXON'S MISTRESS. (SPICY MYSTERY STORIES 1936) Maxon murdered his wife and dismembered her. Her ghost possesses his body and forces him to commit suicide. [j] DEAD MAN'S BELT.(WT 1933) Depression years. Blacks living in a dump. Murder, ghosts, reanimated corpses, and the dead man's belt. [k] THE CRAWLING CURSE. (WT 1933) East Indies. Native magiC, an animated dead hand. [1] PURR OF A CAT. (SPICY MYSTERY STORIES 1942) A painter in the back woods finds a beautiful girl for a model. Vampirism. [m] TOMORROW IS FOREVER. (ADVENTURE 1943) World War II. A dead German soldier realizes he is dead and bound to Lidice. [n] THE GHOUL GALLERY. (WT 1932) According to the Ramsey family curse, each member strangles himself at age 28.

CAZOTTE, JACQUES A feud in the past. [0] THE CULT OF THE WHITE APE. (WT 1933) Africa and theriomorphy. The local witchdoctor assumes the form of a gigantic white ape. Betts is not simpatico and dies; Varricks is simpatico, sees marvels. and survives. [p] THE BROTHERHOOD OF BLOOD. (W1: 1932) Classical vampirism, told from the point of view of one about to become a vampire. [q] THE DOOR OF DOOM. (STRANGE TALES 1932) At the House of the Undead residents are war.ned not to open the iron door. Behind it is the secret of the master. Oriental magic, immortality. lr] THE DEATH WATCH.· (WT 1939) Communication electronically with the deities of outer space. A living corpse is permitted to return. Linked to the Cthulhu cycle of Lovecraft's. [s] THE CAVERNS OF TIME. (SPICY MYSTERY STORIES 1942) Grayson, in response to a telegram, wanders into a perilous cuI tic situation involving flagellation, strange drugs, droit de seigneur, etc. But it must have happened years before, and there was no telegram. [t] MANY HAPPY RETURNS. (EQMM 1966) There are cosmic quotas for survival, on the basis of birthdays. If one can eliminate others with the same birth day, one gains additional time. [u] LADIES IN WAITING. (WHISPERS 1975) Control of a sort, glamour of a sort, and sexual monstrosities. [v] STRAGELLA. (STRANGE TALES 1932) Vampirism off the coast of the Andaman penal settlement. * The other stories are either vaguely sciencefiction or violent horror and adventure. * A curious collection, valuable in illuminating trends in pulp publishing, especially because of the rarity of some of the publications involved. The aesthetic of lewd reanimated corpses, homicidal mania, and unkillable monstrosities anticipates the horror comics of the '40's and early '50's. Cave writes vividly and competently, but the book as a whole is depressing, since he obviously could have done much better work. * Best stories are [b], [j], [v]. CAZOTTE, JACQUES (1719-1792) French civil servant, writer. Very popular in his time for Oriental tales, poetry, novels. Achieved an international reputation with the present volume. In later life turned to occult secret societies and claimed to be able to predict the future. The French writer La Harpe wrote a fictional work in which Cazotte predicted details of the French Revolution. Executed as a counter-revolutionary in 1792. 358. THE DEVIL IN LOVE Hookham and Carpenter; London 1793 Anonymous translation of LE DIABLE AMOUREUX, 1772. Although today Cazotte's short novel is nearly forgotten, it was enormously popular during the late 18th and early 19th centuries in England and Germany, and was taken as a type specimen of supernatural fictio.n. Hoffmann, for example, could call his stories fictions in the manner of Cazotte. * Italy, middle 18th century. The narrator, Alvare, a spirited, vivacious, pleasure-seeking young Spanish officer in the service of the king of Naples, is drawn to the occult. Certain of his fellow officers, who are mildly annoyed at his lack of

CAZOTTE, JACOUES reverence, determine to introduce him to diabolism in a traumatic way. They give him a spell, and tell him to go to certain ruins and perform an evocation, if he wants to have a true supernatural experience. The spell works. First he sees a gigantic, sinister camel's head; then a dog; and finally a beautiful young woman. If unwise, Alvare is brave enough and he does not lose control of the being he has evoked. The woman, Biondetta, serves him willingly and becomes a member of his household. She reveals ·that she is in love with him and does her best to arouse his desires, but he never manages to consummate the act of love with her. When she tells him that she suffered incarnation out of love for him, he agrees to marry her, but being a formalist, insists on obtaining his mother's permission. They set off together toward Spain, but on the way Alvare learns that his mother has died, and that his brother has vowed revenge, since he believes Alvare's misconduct has been the cause of her death. At a certain crisis point, however, Alvare adjures Biondetta in religious terms, and she vanishes. It is now clear that she has been a demon engaged in tempting him; much of what Alvare has experienced, including his mother's death, has been illusion created by her. * A light, engaging narrative, told with much charm. Today of interest for psychological and cuI tural reasons. ·The edition read was the 1925 (Heinemann; London, 1000 copies) reprinting of the 1793 edition listed. THE CENTURIES The CENTURY volumes were one of the results of Depression newspaper wars in Great Britain in the 1930's. Books of enormous size" (often over one thousand pages), they were given as premiums for subscriptions, then taken over by commercial publishing (Hutchinson, mostly). The series included collections of detective stories, humor, adventure, supernatural fiction, love stories, nature stories, and other categories. In some instances editorship was attributed to such popular authors as Chesterton, Walpole, and Wheatley, but this attribution need not be taken too seriously. Who compiled them has not been revealed, but there is a suspicion that Ms. Asquith was occasionally involved. While the CENTURIES contained some lower level contemporary fiction, they also reprinted a wealth of classical material otherwise difficult to find. On the debit side, longer, older fiction is sometimes abridged. In this volume I have included: A CENTURY OF CREEPY STORIES; A CENTURY OF GHOST STORIES; A CENTURY OF THRILLERS; A CENTURY OF THRILLERS, SECOND SERIES; THE EVENING STANDARD BOOK OF STRANGE STORIES; THE EVENING STANDARD SECOND BOOK OF STRANGE STORIES; FIFTY YEARS OF GHOST STORIES; A CENTURY OF HORROR STORIES, as edited by Dennis Wheatley; A SECOND CENTURY OF CREEPY • STORIES as edited by Hugh Walpole. Other CENTURY volumes contain individual supernatural stories, but these are usually sparsely present and are described in sources otherwise covered in this volume.

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A CENTURY OF GHOST STORIES 359. A CENTURY OF CREEPY STORIES Hutchinson London [1934] Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE SNOW, Hugh Walpole. [b] A LITTLE GHOST, Hugh Walpole. [c] MRS. LUNT, Hugh Walpole. [d] OPENING THE DOOR, Arthur Machen. [e] MUNITIONS OF WAR, Arthur Machen. [f] CREWE, Walter de la Mare. [g] A RECLUSE, Walter de la Mare. [g] "JOHN GLADWYN SAYS • • ." Oliver Onions. [1] THE HAUNTED MAN AND THE GHOST'S BARGAIN, Charles Dickens. [j] THE LORD-IN-WAITING, Shane Leslie. [k] AS IN A GLASS DIMLY, Shane Leslie. [1] THE LOVELY VOICE, Cynthia Asquith. [m] "GOD GRANTE THAT SHE LYE STILL," Cynthia Asquith. [n] THE CORNER SHOP, Cynthia ·Asquith.[o] THE ROCKING HORSE WINNER, D. H. Lawrence. [p] RATS, M. R. James. [q] THE RED TURRET, Flavia Richardson. (pseud. of C.C. Thomson) [r] A VISITOR FROM DOWN UNDER, L. P. Hartley. [s] THE COTILLION, L. P. Hartley. [t] THE VILLA DESIREE, May Sinclair. "[u] THE DUENNA, Mrs. Belloc Lowndes.. : [v] THE APPARITION OF MRS. VEAL, Daniel Defoe. [w] THE LOST TRAGEDY, Dennis Mackail. [x] SPINSTER'S REST, Clemence Dane. [y] THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, Edgar Allan Poe. [z] THE BLACK CAT, Edgar Allan Poe. [aa] TWELVE O'CLOCK, Charles Whibley. [bb] THE AMOROUS GHOST, Enid Bagnold. [cc] PARGITON AND HARBY, Desmond McCarthy. [dd] THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROO~, Washington Irving. [eel MR. TALLENT'S GHOST, Mary Webb. [ff] THE STRANGER, Ambrose Bierce. [gg] THE STRANGER, Algernon Blackwood. [hh] MY ADVENTURE IN NORFOLK, A. J. Alan. [ii] THE APPLE TREE, Elizabeth Bowen. [jj] THE HANGING OF ALFRED WAD~~, E.F. Benson. [kk] THE CAT JUMPS, Elizabeth Bowen. [11] DISPOSSESSION, C. H. B. Kitchin. [mm] THOSE WHOM THE GODS LOVE, Hilda Hughes. [nn] THE BIRTHRIGHT, Hilda Hughes. [00] THE UNBOLTED DOOR, Mrs. Be110c Lowndes. [pp] THE BUICK SALOON, Ann Bridge. [qq] TrlE HORNS OF THE BULL, W.S. Morrison. [rr] THE MAN WHO CAME BACK, William Gerhardi. [ss] OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS; Philip Mac-Donald. [ttl THE PLAYFELLOW, Cynthia Asquith. [uu] BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, C. H. B. Kitchin. [vv] THE TARN, Hugh Walpole. [ww] THE YELLOW CAT, Michael Joseph. * Also lxx] WHEN GLISTER WALKED, Oscar Cook. Borneo. According to the native religion, suitable young women marry great jars. Also a ghost. [ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 360. A CENTURY OF GHOST STORIES Hutchinson; London [1936] Containing [a] THE FAMILIAR, J. S. LeFanu. [b] GREEN TEA, J. S. LeFanu. [c] THE TAPESTRIED CHAMBER, Sir Walter Scott, [d] THE OLD NURSE'S TALE, Mrs. Gaskell. [e] THE RESIDENCE AT WHITMINSTER, M.R. James. [f] A WARNING TO THE CURIOUS, M. R. James. [g] THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS, E. Bulwer-Lytton. Long version. [hl THE GREEN ROOM, Walter de 1a Mare. [i] EVELINE'S VISITANT, Mary E. Braddon. [j] AFTERWARD, Edith Wharton. [k] THE MIDDLE TOE OF THE RIGHT FOOT, Ambrose Bierce. [1] MAN OVERBOARD! F. Marion Crawford. [m] DRACULA'S GUEST, Bram Stoker. [nl EXPIATION, E. F. Benson. [0] THE WOMAN'S GHOST STORY, Algernon Blackwood, ""lp] THURNLEY

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ABBEY, Perceval Landon. [q] THE ROSEWOOD DOOR, Oliver Onions. [r] THE VIRGIN OF THE SEVEN DAGGERS, Vernon Lee. Is] THE LIBRARY WINDOW, Margaret Oliphant. It] THE SONG IN THE HOUSE, Ann Bridge. Lu]"PEREZ, W. L. George. [v] THE SPECTRE OF TAPPINGTON, R. H. Barham. [wI THE PHANTOM COACH, Amelia B. Edwards. [x] THE GRAY CHAMPION, Nathaniel Hawthorne. [y] YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN, Nathaniel Hawthorne. [z] THE DREAM WOMAN, Wilkie Collins. [aa] THE WEREWOLF, Captain Marryat. [bb] THE STORY OF THE BAGMAN'S UNCLE, Charles Dickens. Icc] JOHN CHARRINGTON'S WEDDING, Edith Nesbit. [dd] BERENICE, Edgar Allan Poe. [eel THE OPERATION, Violet Hunt. Iff] AS IN A GLASS DIMLY, Shane Leslie. [gg] THE LORD-IN-WAITING, Shane Leslie. [hh] PIRATES, E.F. Benson. Iii] THE SWEEPER, Ex-Private X. (pseud. of A. M. Burrage) [jj] THE RUNNING TIDE, A. M. Burrage. [kk] THE GHOST-SEER, Friedrich von Schiller. [11] THE HAUNTED SHIPS, Allan Cunningham. [mm] THE KLAUSENBURG, Ludwig Tieck. Inn] THE SAINT AND THE VICAR, Cecil Binney. [00] GIBBET LANE, Anthony Gittins. [pp] THE BOTATHEN GHOST, R. S. Hawker. [qq] THE LIFTED VEIL, George Eliot. * A rich selection. [ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 361. A.CENTURYOF THRILLERS FROM POE TO ARLEN Daily Express; London [1934] Foreword by James· Agate. Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE MORTAL IMMORTAL, Mary Shelley. [b] THE GENTLEMAN FROM AMERICA, Michael Arlen. lc] THE LEECH OF FOLKESTONE, R. H. Barham (Thomas Ingoldsby2. ld] JERRY JARVIS'S WIG, R. H. Barham. Ie] THE SPECTRE OF TAPPINGTON, R. H. Barham. If] SINGULAR PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF THE LATE HENRY HARRIS, DOCTOR OF DIVINITY, R. H. Barham. 19] THE HAIR, A. J. Alan. [hI BERENICE, Edgar Allan Poe. Ii] WILLIAM WILSON. Edgar Allan Poe. [j] THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, Edgar Allan Poe. [k] ROGER MALVIN'S BURIAL, Nathaniel Hawthorne. [1] DR. HEIDEGGER'S EXPERIMENT, Nathaniel Hawthorne. [m] THE GRAY CHAMPION, Nathaniel Hawthorne. In] WANDERING WILLIE'S TALE, Sir Walter Scott. [0] THE MONKEY'S PAW, W. W. Jacobs. [pI SIR DOMINICK SARSFIELD, J. S. LeFanu. Alternate title for SIR DOMINICK'S BARGAIN. [q] MR. JUSTICE HARBOTTLE, J. S. LeFanu. [r] GREEN TEA, J. S. LeFanu. Is] THE TRIAL FOR MURDER, Charles Dickens. It] THE STORY OF THE BAGMAN'S UNCLE, Charles Dickens. [u] NO.1 BRANCH LINE, THE SIGNAL MAN, Charles Dickens. [v] THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS, Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Long version. [wI THE WOMAN'S GHOST STORY, Algernon Blackwood. [x] SECRET WORSHIP, Algernon Blackwood. [y] THE OPEN DOOR, Mrs. Margaret Oliphant. [z] THE SUITABLE SURROUNDINGS, Ambrose Bierce. faa] A TOUGH TUSSLE, Ambrose Bierce. ebb] MAD MONKTON, Wilkie Collins. Icc] THE TWO DROVERS, Sir Walter Scott. * A good collection of classical material. [ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 362. A CENTURY OF THRILLERS, SECOND SERIES Daily Express; London [1935]

CHAMBERS, ROBERT W. Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE TAIPAN, W. S. Maugham. [b] THE LIFTED VEIL, George Eliot. [c] POLLOCK AND THE PORROH MAN, H. G. Wells. [d] MY ADVENTURE IN NORFOLK, A. J. Alan. Ie] TCHERIAPIN, Sax Rohmer. If] THE IVORY GOD, J. S. Fletcher. [g] THE APPARITION OF MRS. VEAL, Daniel Defoe. [hI THE THING IN THE HALL, E.F. Benson. Ii] THE FAMILIAR, J. S. LeFanu. [j} WHO KNOWS? Guy de Maupassant. [k} YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN, Nathaniel Hawthorne. [I} THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, Edgar Allan Poe. [m] THE BLACK CAT, Edgar Allan Poe. In] LIGEIA, Edgar Allan Poe. [0] A PAIR OF HANDS, Arthur Quiller-Couch. [pI THE HAUNTED MAN AND THE GHOST'S BARGAIN, Charles Dickens. [q] THE MIDDLE TOE OF THE RIGHT FOOT, Ambrose Bierce. [r] THE DAMNED THING, Ambrose Bierce. [s] THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS, W.F. Harvey. [t] THE UPPER BERTH, F. M. Crawford. [u] MAN OVERBOARD! F. M. Crawford. [v] THE WEREWOLF, Captain Marryat. [wI SCHALKEN THE PAINTER, J. S. LeFanu. [x].CARMILLA, J. S. LeFanu. * [y] TALE OF THE PIPER, Donn Byrne. Into the village of Destiny comes the piper sent by Uncle Valentine. He is highly skilled, but his music stirs up evil, and he cannot play religious music. When old Aunt Jenepher tells him that she will pray for him, he replies that it is too late. Nicely told. * An excellent collection. CERF, BENNETT (1899-1971) American publisher (Random House), anthologist, humorist, publicist. Much in the public eye with television quiz contests and humor column in READER'S DIGEST. AS EDITOR: 363. FAMOUS GHOST STORIES The Modern Library, Random House; New York [1944] Introduction by Cerf. Described elsewhere, [a] THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS, Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Short version. [b] THE DAMNED THING, Ambrose Bierce. [c] THE MONKEY'S PAW, W.W. Jacobs. [d] THE PHANTOM 'RICKSHAW, Rudyard Kipling. Ie] THE WILLOWS, Algernon Blackwood. If] THE RIVAL GHOSTS, Brander Matthews. [g] THE MAN WHO WENT TOO FAR, E. F. Benson. [hI THE MEZZOTINT, M. R. James. Ii] THE OPEN WINDOW, Saki. [j] THE BECKONING FAIR ONE, Oliver Onions. [k] ON THE BRIGHTON ROAD, Richard Middleton. [1] THE CONSIDERATE HOSTS, Thorp McClusky. [m] AUGUST HEAT, W. F. Harvey. In] THE RETURN OF ANDREW BENTLEY, August Derleth and Mark Schorer. [0] THE SUPPER AT ELSINORE, Isak Dinesen. [pI THE CURRENT CROP OF GHOST STORIES, Bennett Cerf. Seven short anecdotes based on room-for-one-more, haunted houses, dreams, seaweed-on-the-carpet, etc. CHAMBERS, ROBERT W[ILLIAM] 1865-1933 American artist (career abandoned), writer of popular fiction, often on near-best-seller level. Historical fiction, supernatural fiction, shopgirl romances, nature romanticism, etc. Best-known works are CARDIGAN (1901), THE DANGER MARK (1909), THE COMMON LAW (1913). One of creators, along with friend Charles Dana Gibson, of the image of the pre-Titanic jet-set

CHAMBERS,

ROBERT W.

female, the Gibson girl, also sometimes called the Chambers girl. During his lifetime held in low esteem critically, for catering to debased standards, but cheerfully frank about monetary aims in writing. Despite small significance in mainstream, highly important in the development of supernatural fiction, offering the link between Bierce and the moderns. The idea patterns from THE KING IN YELLOW permeated the supernatural fiction of the 30's and 40's in the American pulp magazines, and are still highly relevant. A modern appreciation of Chambers is to be found in the Dover edition of THE KING IN YELLOW 364. THE KING IN YELLOW F. Tennyson Neely; New York and Chicago [1895] Short stories. Running through many of them, though not always immediately relevant, is a consistent mythical pattern involving the Lake of Hali, Carcosa, the mystery of the Hyades, and the King in Yellow, which is a mind-destroying book and also a tattered personage of supernatural power-- all symbolic of Death and the land of lost souls. * Including [a] THE YELLOW SIGN. The narrator, a New York artist, finds himself on the hinterlands of death, strangely threatened by nightmare forces. A living corpse that acts as a watchman for the property next door; the yellow sign, which has been given to him by his model and lover, and is apparently a token; the horrible book; prophetic dreams of a hearse and imprisonment in a coffin-- all build up to a dream-like situation of utmost horror. [b] THE DEMOISELLE D'YS. Britanny. The narrator, a wandering tourist in the unfamiliar marshes, meets a beautiful young woman who is out hawking. He accompanies her to her home, which is maintained in the ancient Breton fashion, and they fall in love. When he leaves, he promises to return, but the vision of her dissolves and he finds himself at her grave. She had died of love for him, in 1573. Since he has been bitten by a viper, it is implied that he will now join her in death, as promised. [c] IN THE COURT OF THE DRAGON. Paris. An artist, entering a small church to find peace of mind, hears strange music and sees a horrifying figure which pursues him out of the church. It traps him in the Court of the Dragon. He awakens back in the church, but realizes that his soul is being hunted and that the hunter is someone whom he destroyed long before. Murder? A component of himself? A vengeful god-- for there is ultimately a religious basis in many of the horrors in this book. * Also inc luded are "The Mask", which is science-fiction of a sort, the petrifying liquid that turns people into statues, and "The Repairer of Reputations," an excellent story of madness in the year 1920, when America is ruled by a military dictatorship. This story, too, invokes the mythology_of Carcosa. * Surprisingly vital stories, undoubtedly the best work that Chambers did. A landmark book in abandoning the ghosts of Victorian literary tradition and concentrating on the nightmare. 365. THE MAKER OF MOONS Putnam; New York 1896 A collection, including [a] THE MAKER OF

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CHAMBERS, ROBERT W. MOONS. Really a skeletal novel; one of three stories in which the author fancifully (and differently) explains how he acquired his wife. Strange happenings in the Cardinal Woods; the Secret Service investigates. The sorcerer Yue-Laou of the Kuen-Yuin, a diabolical secret society, is working black magic there. He is creating monstrous, abnormal life forms and has imported the frightful yith-hounds of the Xin. Manufacture of gold is also involved. * The protagonist, working through the woods, comes upon Ysonde, a beautiful young woman, who explains the situation to him. She is the daughter of a lotus blossom, turned into a woman by Yue-Laou. The Secret Service takes care of matters. Tongue-in-cheek for what was later done more seriously in THE SLAYER OF SOULS. [b] A PLEASANT EVENING. A newspaper artist, possibly modelled on Chambers, becomes entangled in a clairvoyant dream, revenants, and material proof of the supernatural. [c] THE MAN AT THE NEXT TABLE. Antwerp and the U.S.A. Kensett, whose aunt has died, becomes enamored of the daughter of a highly skilled occultist. He learns from the occultist that his aunt's missing jewelry is inside a certain cat, which also happens to contain his aunt's soul. Humor, spoofing psychical research and the Theosophical Society. * [c] is amusing. 366. THE MYSTERY OF CHOICE Appleton; New York 1897 Short stories, including [a] THE MESSENGER. Britanny. Known through history is the Black Priest; he was a renowned sorcerer in the Middle Ages, and he betrayed a garrison in 1760. At his last execution he swore that he would be avenged on the descendants of Trevec. The narrator's Breton wife is a descendent of Trevec, and when the Black Priest's branded skull turns up out of the ground, his revenge begins. It takes the form of a blood-filled skeleton that walks about at night, face masked. Locked into previous stories in the volume. [b] THE WHITE SHADOW. The narrator falls, is unconscious, and spends a year in a wonderful romance with Sweetheart. He regains consciousness a year later. The ending is somewhat vague, and it is not clear what will happen. [c] PASSEUR. Presumably Britanny. The protagonist thinks of Jeanne, the passeur (ferry woman), whom he had loved. She has long been dead, drowned. On an impulse he goes to the shore and calls her, and receives an answer. The small ferry comes through, but it is the ferry of death. [d] THE KEY TO GRIEF. The murderer breaks away'from the lynchers and makes his way to the island of Grief, whence no man returns alive. There he finds solace with an Indian woman and an unspoiled wilderness. But he is returned, and finds himself at the lynching. The ending is not too clear, for Chambers, in this volume, had a penchant for for endings that are only suggestive; but this seems to be an example of the Owl Creek Bridge motif. * Also present is "A Matter of Interest," a biological science-fiction story later reprinted in IN SEARCH OF THE UNKNOWN. [a] is a good material horror story.

CHAMBERS, ROBERT W. Harper; New York; 367. IN SEARCH OF THE UNKNOWN 1904 A pseudo-novel composed of several humorous short stories. The narrator for most of the stories is a young naturalist connected with the Bronx Zoo, who is something of an Edwardian Archie Goodwin. Most of the stories, as in the sequel volume POLICE:~~ (Appleton; New York 1915), are science-fiction, but two have supernatural aspects. The individual stories are not titled. * Including [a] [IN QUEST OF THE DINGUE]. In the Hudson Mountains of the far north the narrator, lovely Professor Van Twiller, and hateful Professor Smawl of Barnard are looking for a lost land where otherwise extinct animals survive. The animals are said to include the mammoth and the dingue-- a small, cat-sized beast that makes a bell-like sound. They find the lost land, conveniently lose Professor Smawl and their guide, and see an enormous female figure, the oSpirit of the North, who hurls a gigantic wave after them. [b] [THE MAN AT THE NEXT TABLE]. Described elsewhere. In this story the narrator is not the young naturalist. * Light and frothy, with Gibson-girl attitudes, and successful humorous exchanges. 368. THE SLAYER OF SOULS Doran; New York [1920] A Secret Service thriller, black magic, and attempts at world conquest. Behind the story lies the hid-den, almost unknown land of Black China, or the area where China meets (in fantasy, of course) Kurdistan. Here the Yezidees broadcast from their strange towers emanations that are responsible for much of the world's evil: the German atrocities in World War I, the Bolsheviks, and much else. At the moment the Sheikhs-aI-Jebel, the Yezidee lords, have determined at world conquest and are assaulting the United States magically. Rational measures are not likely to halt them. * Tressa Norne, daughter of a former U.S. consul was reared as a temple girl in Black China, -and knows the Yezidee black arts. She alone can counteract the fiends, but she -fears to use her magic and is content to make a living by performing small table magic by means of genuine magic. She believes that her soul has been killed by one of the Yezidees, Sanang Noiane, a delightfully sleazy Oriental villain. She agrees to help the Secret Service and defeats the Yezidees, her magic being much superior to theirs-- but why this should be so is not explained. She kills Sanang last. By falling in love with one of the Secret Service men she gains a new soul. * Complete ethnographic and geographical nonsense, but a lurid, melodramatic, fast-moving thriller that has many good moments of excitement. 369. THE TALKERS Doran; New York [1923] Vulgar shopgirl romance, in some respects an adaptation of the Trilby theme. * Characters and motifs: Casimir Sadoul, a shabbily sinister mesmerist of remarkable power; Gilda Greenway, beautiful young woman, married to Sadoul in a civil ceremony; Dr. Pockman, ruthless experimenter, who has discovered that the

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CHAMISSO, ADALBERT VON "nyrnphalic gland" is the source of life; Sutton, hero. Gilda rejects Sadoul and leaves him; it is hinted that their marriage has never been consummated. Sadoul, jealously observing that she and Sutton are attracted to each other, murders her at a dance. Pockman reanimates her with a gland transplant. Gilda now has problems with souls: the Other One, a mildly naughty version of her, tries to usurp her body, under Sadoul's will. Gilda and the Other One pop in and out of Gilda's body. Pockman and Sadoul collaborate on experiments: Pockman photographs the departing souls of the dying and Sadoul controls them mesmerically. Sadoul intends harm to both Gilda and Sutton. * After much hysteria and considerable reflection on events by the author, the situations are resolved. Sadoul accidentally dies of snake poisoning: he has been injecting venom into his veins to arrest his tuberculosis. Sutton and Gilda fall into each other's arms. * The only point of interest in this rubbish is Chambers's description of Gilda's library. He notes very approvingly that she had no obscene books. 370. THE KING IN YELLOW AND OTHER HORROR STORIES Dover Publications; New York 1970 Edited with introduction by E. F. Bleiler. * Short stories, including [a] THE YELLOW SIGN. [b] THE DEMOISELLE D'YS. [c] THE MASK. [d] IN THE COURT OF THE DRAGON. [e] THE MAKER OF MOONS. [f] A PLEASANT EVENING. [g] THE MESSENGER. [h] THE KEY TO GRIEF. [i] [IN QUEST OF THE DINGUEj. All described elsewhere. Also included is the science-fiction story "The Repairer of Reputations." CHAMISSO~

ADALBERT VON (also known as CHAMISSO, LOUIS CHARLES ADELAIDE DE) (1781-1838) German poet, writer of fiction, botanist. Born in France. Family aristocrats forced to flee to Germany during Revolution. Settled in Berlin. After brief career as professional soldier turned to letters. Excellent lyric poet; member of Madame de Stael's salon in Switzerland. Official botanist to Russian scientific expedition around the world headed by Kotzebue. Now remembered almost solely for PETER SCHLEMIHL, which had European impact when first published, and is still read with pleasure. 371. PETER SCHLEMIHL FROM THE GERMAN OF LA MOTTE FOUQUE [sic], WITH PLATES BY GEORGE CRUIKSHANK Whittaker; London 1823 One of the classics of German Romantic literature, first published 1813. * Peter Schlemihl sells his shadow to the Devil in exchange for an ever-filling purse of gold, He wanders about Europe, seeing strange sights and having odd experiences. He is often persecuted for his deficiency, for he has been slandered by a disloyal servant. After many brushes with the Devil, who is quite willing to return the shadow in exchange for Peter's soul, Peter throws away the bottomless purse. A second group of adventures follows when he comes into possession of seven-league boots and roams the world with them. * Very amusing period piece. Many interpretations have been offered for the loss of shadow, ranging from impotence to lack of money,

CHAMISSO, ADALBERT VON but Chamisso claimed that there was no symbolic intention, simply an amusing story. * The first English edition, cited above and wrongly attributed to Fouqu~, was prepared by Sir John Bowring, the great early 19th century linguist. There have been several other translations since, none of which is outstanding. CHANDLER, RAYMOND (1888-1959) Prominent American (California) writer of mystery fiction, reared and educated in England. Generally considered one of the two foremost writers of hardboiled mystery stories. Noted for acute analysis of wealthy degenerates and peculiar blend of background verisimilitude and romanticization of connections among crime, society, and politics. 372. THE FINGER MAN AND OTHER STORIES Avon Book Co; New York [1946] paperbound Three stories and the historically important essay THE SIMPLE ART OF MURDER. Only one story is fantastic. [a] THE BRONZE DOOR. (UNK 1939]. London. Mr. Sutton-Cornish, a nasty little man trapped with a most unpleasant wife and her Pekinese, achieves a certain amount of liberty when he buys a bronze door at an auction. Apparently the door had once been used as an exit to a harem: things and persons that go through it disappear. Eventually the police investigate. * Despite some cliches about marital life, well~told with many nice touches. CHANNING, MARK British writer, long resident in India. Factual book INDIAN MOSAIC and several adventure novels with Indian background. Usually with small elements of fantasy. 373. NINE LIVES Harrap; London [1937] Adventure thriller with supernatural motifs. * On India's northern frontier a Mongol madman proclaims himself the heir of Genghis Khan. Against him is Colin Gray, a herculean series hero. After many hair-raising adventures Gray wins through. Fantastic elements in the background include protection from the Egyptian cat goddess (Gray's wife had befriended a cat in Egypt); a lama that transports himself by thought back and forth between Tibet and Egypt. * Fast-moving, but sometimes on the silly side. Talbot Mundy did it better. CHASE, JAMES HADLEY (pseud. of Raymond, Rene) (1906 ) Very prolific British writer of mystery stories. Also writes under pseudonyms Ambrose Grant and James L. Docherty. Work is mostly hardboiled action mystery, stressing abnormal side of life. Most famous work NO ORCHIDS FOR MISS BLANDING (1951) • 374. MISS SHUMWAY WAVES A WAND Jarrolds; London [1944] A curious mixture of hardboiled criminal adventure (with sleazy characters) and situation comedy in the manner of Thorne Smith. * Mexico and New York. The basic situation is a journalistic hoax and swindle. Ross Millan, newspaperman, is assigned to find Myra Shumway, the daughter of a famous stage magician. She is sup-

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CHESTERTON, G. K. posed to be held captive by Mexican bandits, who are demanding ransom. (It is all really a publicity stunt to raise the circulation of the paper.) Millan finds Myra easily enough, but it turns out that she is a professional pickpocket. With two other adventurers she and Ross become party to a plot to trick an old Indian nagual (medicine man with supernatural powers) out of a remedy for snakebite. But the Indian dies suddenly and transmits his power to Myra. She can levitate, cause things to vanish, work transformations, and perform other feats of magic. It is also discovered that her personality has become dissociated, her naughty side assuming separate existence and working a swindle on its own. * The adventurers then proceed to New York, where they become entangled with gangsters. The nagual power lasts only a month, after which everything returns to normal. Arym, the shadow side of Myra, is persuaded to return to Myra's body. Supernaturalisms include a talking dog and the transformation of a gigantic Mexican into a sausage. * Occasionally interesting in language, but the device soon palls. Disorganized structure and padding do not help. CHESTERTON, GILBERT KEITH (1874-1936) Prominent British writer with noteworthy work as journalist, poet, essayist, fiction writer, historian, religious polemicist. A brilliant stylist with remarkable ability for creating thought-plays. Along with Shaw the finest whimsical controversialist of his day. Author of many major works: THE NAPOLEON OF NOTTING HILL (1904); THE CLUB OF QUEER TRADES (1905); THE BALL AND THE CROSS (1909); ORTHODOXY (1909); THE INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWN (1911). Still highly regarded for his Father Brown detective stories, which though repetitive are often brilliant. Wrote surprisingly little fantasy. 375. THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY Arrowsmith, Bristol; Simpkin, Marshall; London [1908] A tour de force of paradoxes, both verbal and ideal, expressed in part in the terms of a Stevensonian thriller. * The story begins with two poets, Gabriel Syme, a poet of "law and order," and LUCian Gregory, a poet of "anarchism." Syme, however, is also a police detective investigating Anarchistic movements, while Gregory is a member of a seemingly powerful Anarchist group that plans to assassinate the Czar. Syme attends an Anarchist meeting along with Gregory, and learns to his astonishment that the Anarchists, following the instructions of a figure named Sunday, achieve cover by masquerading as Anarchists. Syme is taken into the order and becomes one of the General Council of the Anarchists of Europe, member Thursday, since the group is organized according to the days of the week. As Syme encounters individual members of the council, however, he learns that they are all police detectives, just as he is, and that Sunday, who has recruited them, is head of both Scotland Yard and the Anarchists. Syme tries to prevent the assassination of the Czar, which had been the purpose of the last meeting, but in the mad chase that results learns that once

CHESTERTON, G. K. again he has things backwards. The final grand pursuit of Sunday changes with dreamlike swiftness first into a masked ball, in which the Grand Council truly symbolize the days of the week and Gregory symbolizes Satan, and finally into a curious mystical experience for Syme, in which he recognizes Sunday as the Peace of God, and God. Syme is forced to recognize the ambivalent nature of man, who strives for both freedom and order. * A very pleasing work with a wealth of verbal brilliancies, although one might carp at the rather weak interrelationship of symbol and exegesis. CHRISTIE, AGATHA (nee MILLER) (1890-1976) Prominent British mystery and detective story writer, creator of characters Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Generally considered one of the giants in the form. Much less important as a writer of supernatural fiction. 376. THE MYSTERIOUS MR. OUIN Collins; London 1930 Although the Harley Quin stories are conventional detective stories in their concept of crime, its motivations, and its solution, they have an unusual supernatural impetus. In many instances a crime has not been suspected; in others it has not yet been committed, or perhaps it has been misunderstood. Mr. Satterthwaite, an elderly man about town, is usually the detective figure, but he is catalyzed into action by the unexpected appearanc.e of Quin, who often has knowledge of inexplicable provenience. Harley Quin (Harlequin) is apparently Death personified or perhaps, less likely, a supernatural justice figure. The linkage between Quin, who usually leaves with a suggestion of rainbow colors, and Death is provided by the theory that the stage figure Harlequin was ultimately derived from an ancient Celtic death god. * Since the crimes are not supernatural in any way, there is no point in doing more than list story titles. [a] THE COMING OF MR. QUIN. [b] THE SHADOW ON THE GLASS. [c) AT THE BELLS AND MOTLEY. [d] THE SIGN IN THE SKY. [e) THE SOUL OF THE CROUPIER. [f) THE WORLD'S END. [g) THE VOICE IN THE DARK. [h) THE FACE OF HELEN. [i) THE DEAD HARLEQUIN. [j) THE BIRD WITH THE BROKEN WING. [k) THE MAN FROM THE SEA. [1] HARLEQUIN'S LANE. * Good stories. There are a few more stories about Harley Quin scattered amor.g Christie's collections of short stories. 377. .THE HOUND OF DEATH AND OTHER STORIES Odhams Press; London [1933) Short stories, including [a) THE HOUND OF DEATH. A psychic nun has memories of another existence perhaps in Atlantis, when psychic powers were more developed than they are now. She is able to unleash a power of destruction called the Hound of Death. She first releases it on German troops during World War I, then, in Cornwall, after a crime. [b) THE RED SIGNAL., Dermot West has hunches when danger threatens; in this instance it is reinforced by a warning delivered (though vaguely) during a seance. [c] THE FOURTH MAN. A famous case of mUltiple personality, the topic of discussion in a train

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A CLAIRVOYANT corr~artment. The doctor, the lawyer, the clergyman know the superficial situation. The fourth man knows the true explanation: possession by the spirit of a dead woman. [d] THE GIPSY. Prophetic dreams and the second sight. Christie must have dashed this story off hastily. [e) THE LAMP. The house is haunted; that is why it is so cheap. The ghost is that of a boy who is lonely. When the son of the house dies, the ghost has a playmate. [f] THE STRANGE CASE OF SIR ANDREW CARMICHAEL. He seems to have undergone some sort of mental degeneration: he drinks milk like an animal, and acts like a cat. But the ghost of a cat haunts the house. Sir Andrew's stepmother, who has Oriental blood in her, has transferred his soul to a cat's body and poisoned the cat. Motive: inheritance. [g] THE CALL OF WINGS. Hamer, the millionaire, undergoes strange sensations, as if transcending his body and leaving it, to the accompaniment of music. Something seems to be calling him to a higher spiritual state, perhaps on Mars. Reminiscent of Blackwood. [h) THE LAST SEANCE. Ectoplasm is stolen from a materializing medium by a frantic mother, whose dead child had been materialized. [i] S.O.S. Borderline supernatural. When Mortimer finds the letters S.O.S. traced in the dust, he reasons out a clever crime that is about to be committed. The supernatural enters in that the atmosphere of the house is blamed for the criminal intention. * There are also two stories of fraudulent supernaturalism: [j] WIRELESS. Murder by seemingly supernatural voices from the radio and a disguise. [k] THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE JAR. Ghostly voices are faked to gain possession of a very valuable Chinese jar. * Also present is the excellent crime story "Witness for the Prosecution." * All in all, Christie is more satisfactory in the detective story proper. These are routine stories.

A CLAIRVOYANT (pseud. of Horn, Henry J. 1) Nothing is known about the author or authors. 378. STRANGE VISITORS: A SERIES OF ORIGINAL PAPERS. EMBRACING PHILOSOPHY. SCIENCE. GOVERNMENT. RELIGION. POETRY. ART. FICTION. SATIRE. HUMOR. NARRATIVE. AND PROPHECY. BY THE SPIRITS OF IRVING. WILLIS. THACKERAY. BRONTE. RICHTER, BYRON. HUMBOLDT. HAWTHORNE. WESLEY. BROWNING, AND OTHERS NOW DWELLING IN THE SPIRIT WORLD. DICTATED THROUGH A CLAIRVOYANT. WHILE IN AN ABNORMAL OR TRANCE STATE W. Carlton; New York 1869 One of the curious by-products of the Spiritualist Movement in America. * A compendium of miscellaneous material taken down by (written by?) Henry J. Horn, who served as editor. * Including, [a] TO THE NEW YORK PUBLIC, "Henry J. Raymond." After-death experiences. [b] APPARITIONS, "Nathaniel Hawthorne." In the spirit world Hawthorne meets a murderer who recounts his crime and tells of his horrible experiences after death. [c] AGNES REEF-- A \ ,TALE , "Charlotte Bronte." Short novel. A young lady, governess at Bristed Hall, becomes entangled with an homme fatal, who marries her

A CLAIRVOYANT bigamously. Supernaturalism includes a female ghost who appears at intervals. * Most of the other entries are essays or poetry. [ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 379. CLASSIC GHOST STORIES BY CHARLES DICKENS AND OTHERS Dover Publications; New York 1975 paperbound Short stories. * [a] SIR DOMINICK SARSFIELD, J. Sheridan LeFanu. [b] THE STORY OF THE BAGMAN'S UNCLE, Charles Dickens. [c] NO.1 BRANCH LINE, THE SIGNALMAN, Charles Dickens. [d] THE MONKEY'S PAW, W. W. Jacobs. [e] WANDERING WILLIE'S TALE, Sir Walter Scott. [f] THE TAPESTRIED CHAMBER, Sir Walter Scott. [g] THE OPEN DOOR, Margaret Oliphant. [h] THE MORTAL IMMORTAL, Mary Shelley. [i] DR. HEIDEGGER'S EXPERIMENT, Nathaniel Hawthorne. [j] THE PHANTOM COACH, Amelia B. Edwards. [k] THE DREAM WOMAN, Wilkie Collins. [1] THE APPARITION OF MRS. VEAL, Daniel Defoe. [m] THE JUDGE'S HOUSE, Bram Stoker. [n] THE WEREWOLF, Captain Frederick Marryat. [0] THE HORLA, Guy de Maupassant. [p] THE UPPER BERTH, F. Marion Crawford. [q] THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS, Edward Buhver-Lytton. Long version. * All described elsewhere. Selection made by E.F. Bleiler CLINGERMAN, MILDRED (nee McELROY) (1918 ) American author (born Oklahoma). Occasional contributor to periodicals. 380. A CUPFUL OF SPACE Ballantine Books; New York 1961 paperbound Short stories, including [a] FIRST LESSON. (MFSF 1956) An army wife whose husband is a paratrooper has horrible dreams about her husband's impending death. Her landlady, who knows Southern folklore, offers her advice on working magic and praying. It is successful. [b] STICKENEY AND THE CRITIC. (MFSF 1953) Stickeney is a monstrosity who lives in a well. To no one's regret, he devours a charlatan literary critic. [c] STAIR TRICK. (MFSF 1952) Dick, a bartender, can perform a remarkable imitation of a man going down into a basement from behind his bar. Only there is nothing there but solid floor. The unreal enters when a woman challenges him to go down with her and try the door on the other side of the cellar. [d] THE DAY OF THE GREEN VELVET CLOAK. (MFSF 1958) Mavis O'Hanlon, a young woman with problems originating from an inadequate ego, enters the Book Nook and meets a man from the year 1877. He is fascinated by the New Woman. She lends him her green cloak, and it is returned to her as an antique by the young man's descendant. [e] THE LAST PROPHET. (MFSF 1955) Reggie Pfister's discovery: lulls in conversation are completely a function of time. He learns the reason for this when a voice from the sky makes an announcement. [f] MR. SAKRISON'S HALT (MFSF 1956) Described elsewhere. [g] THE WILD WOOD. (MSFS 1957) Margaret, together with her husband and children, goes to Cravolini's to buy a Christmas tree. She finds that Cravolini has desired her, has made candle magic to win her, and she is translated out of her own body into that of Cravo-

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COATES, ROBERT M. lini's half-witted sister. [h] THE LITTLE WITCH OF ELM STREET. (WOMAN'S HOME COMPANION 1956) An extraordinary, 'bothersome child that must be possessed of a devil. [i] A DAY FOR WAVING. (MFSF 1957) Family problems when an attractive young widow wants to remarry, and her mother does what she can to prevent the marriage. The granddaughter believes that her dead father is coming out of his grave in protest, until • • • [j] A RED HEART AND BLUE ROSES. The middleaged mother, who is currently bearing a child, reflects on Damon Lucas, a young man who conceived a filial passion for her, perpetually grew younger, and obviously is going to be born to her. He is always identified by a tattoo. [k] THE GAY DECEIVER. A pleasant, grandfatherly figure, but he is the Pied Piper and must fulfill his curse against even the descendants of the people of Hamlin. * Occasionally a, little too folksy and sentimental, but often excellent. Best stories are [d], [f], [g]. COATES, ROBERT M[YRON] (1897-1973) American writer on staff of THE NEW YORKER magazine in later years. Mainstream fiction, mysteries, occasional supernatural fiction. Early s-f novel THE EATER OF DARKNESS (1929) is either a spoof or a ludicrou~ly bad effort. 381. THE HOUR AFTER WESTERI,Y AND OTHER STORIES Harcourt, Brace; New York [1957] Short stories reprinted, with some revision, from THE NEW YORKER. They often deal with the inexplicable rather than the supernatural. * Including [a] AN AUTUMN FABLE. David Acton, while out hunting, follows a partridge, which suddenly transforms into a young woman. He discovers that he is lost, although there is a cabin nearby. When he asks for directions, he learns that his coming there had been willed, and that the persons in the cabin are the Olympic gods. The gods approve of him and invite him to join them hunting. It is an important decision for him to make: if he rejects the gods, they will no longer exist, yet he cannot join them. [b] THE HOUR AFTER WESTERLY. Westerly is a town, not a direction. Davis, a travelling salesman, notices a missing hour in his driving schedule and he has no idea how he spent it. He retraces his path as far as memory permits and comes to a small village. He drives past a woman and a house that he halfrecognizes, and is himself half-recognized in a local bar. He leaves the area, but the house is empty and he knows that "it was far too late." Perhaps not intended to be supernatural. [c] THE MAN WHO VANISHED. Charles Ballantine discovers that he can vanish, i.e., become more and more transparent semivoluntarily. The phenomenon usually occurs when he thinks, not of his unhappy marriage, but of a girl in the past. He arrives at the stage where he must exercise his will not to vanish completely. When he does slip into the dark, a hand, presumably the girl's, takes his in guidance. Obvious semiallegory. [d] A PARABLE OF LOVE. Kettrick, a schoolteacher, pretends to read the minds of his schoolboys, partly as a diSCiplinary measure, partly as a semisadistic exercise. When

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he is fired from his job, he develops his ability to the point where he can hear thoughts and interpret them. This serves him well until he falls in love and marries. * Interesting stories, slickly written, without too many of the special mannerisms of the publication represented. COBB, IRVIN S[HREWSBURY] (1876-1944) American (Kentucky) newspaper edito~, journalist, fiction writer, playwright, humorist, war correspondent. Also occasionally played humorous regional character roles in motion pictures. Very popular columnist, fiction writer during lifetime, but now almost forgotten. Work is competent commercial product, reminiscent of work of O. Henry, but less sentimental, and occasionally of higher quality. 382. THE ESCAPE OF MR. TRIM, HIS PLIGHT AND OTHER PLIGHTS Doran; New York [1913] Short stories, including raj FISHHEAD. (CAVALIER 1913) Reelfoot Lake. Regionalistic. Fishhead, a Black who is piscine in appearance and has an affinity with the giant catfish of the area, becomes involved in a quarrel with drunken Crackers. They murder him, but as he dies, he emits a strange call, and the catfish avenge him. * Perhaps Cobb's best story. 383. FROM PLACE TO PLACE Doran; New York [1920] Short stories, including [a] THE GALLOWSMITH. (ALL-STORY 1918) .The professional hangman takes great pride in his work, and the author describes in full detail how he prepares for each event. His work is impeccable until he hangs the Lone-Hand Kid. The Kid is an animal and deserves death, but by a quirk of justice, has been sentenced for a murder he did not commit. The Kid resents this surrogate punishment and heckles the hangman so much that he botches the job. The Kid' dies putting a curse on the hangman. When the hangman returns home that evening, he sees a red glow at his window and a figure strangling on a rope. He dies of shock. Explained. * Neatly handled. 384. SUNDRY ACCOUNTS Doran; New York [1922] Short stories, including [a] MR. LOBEL'S APOPLEXY. A greedy motion picture director damages the reputation of a dead woman in order to make money. The dead woman retaliates by entering the finished film, spoiling a vamp sequence. * Possibly to be explained. The text is not definite. 385. SNAKE DOCTOR AND OTHER STORIES Doran; New York [1923] Short stories, including [a] THE SECOND COMING OF A FIRST HUSBAND. Arthur returns from the spirit world to stop his wife's using him as a paragon in her arguments with her second husband. [b] SNAKE DOCTOR. Tennessee poor whites. Snake Doctor, an eccentric who makes a living by catching snakes, is reputed to have an enormous fortune hidden away. Japhet Morner, a Cracker who raids his cabin, dies of a snake bite from the guardian of the treasure. But the snake is stuffed. Regionalistic approach. 386. ON AN ISLAND THAT COST $24.00 Doran; New York [1926] Short stories, including [a] THE UNBROKEN CHAIN.

COGSWELL, THEODORE R. Racial intolerance in fictional form. Africa, 1819, and the present. A slave-chain is attacked by a maddened rhinoceros, and only one man survives. He is sold as a slave to America. One hundred years later, on Long Island, Brissot's neighbors speculate as to his background. He is a ~;outherner, but since he does not boast of his ancestry there is a possibility that he is a Black masquerading as a White. When his car is struck by a maddened locomotive, he shrieks out the Mbama word for rhinoceros. Ancestral memory. Blood will tell. One drop makes you, etc. 387. THIS MAN'S WORLD Cosmopolitan; New York 1929 Short stories, including [a] FINGER THAT KILLS. A collector of Indian ethnographic material buys a Plains Indian pipe bag with a scalp attached to it. After wearing it to a masquerade, he has vivid dreams of the life of a Blackfoot brave. First known as Buffalo Fat, he is momentarily stunned in a raid against the Gros Ventres and is forced to play dead while an enemy cuts off three of his fingers to get his rings. He repays the debt against the Gro.s Ventres and becomes fairly well-known as Finger That Kills. The narrator, despite suggestions that the bag may be a fake, receives corroboration of the story from Charley Russell, the cowboy artist. * Good Indian lore. 388. FAITH~ HOPE AND CHARITY Bobbs-Merrill Indianapolis [1934] Short stories, including [a] FAITH, HOPE AND' CHARITY. New Mexico. Three criminals being transported cross country escape from a train, and through the whim of fate receive the deaths that they fear most. The Frenchman fears the guillotine, and is decapitated by an elevator. The Italian fears solitary confinement, and is trapped by an avalanche in a valley with no exit. The Spaniard murders a sheepherder and takes his place, since the two men resemble each other. He fears the garrote. But when he has himself bound, to escape suspicion, he forgets that rawhide contracts. COGSWELL, THEODORE R. (1918 ) American educator (college English, University of Minnesota, Ball State Teachers College etc.) Contributor to periodicals. 389. THE WALL AROUND THE WORLD Pyramid Books; New York 1962 paperbound Introductions by Anthony Boucher and Frederik Pohle * Short stories, including [a] THE MASTERS. (THRILLING WONDER STORIES 1954) The last earthman greets a visitor from space. Mankind has been almost wiped out by the viSitors, and the visitor (a female android) has been programmed to kill the last man. He is a vampire. [b] WOLFIE. (BEYOND 1954) Dr. Arsoldi's contract permits his clients to commit crimes by supernatural means. Peter Vincent wants to become a werewolf for a short time. [c] THIMGS. [sic] (MFSF 1958) Albert Blotz of World Wide Investigations is a lowlife. While swindling a client, he stumbles on a behindthe scenes arrangement for reediting humans to

COGSWELL, THEODORE R. give them what they deserve. The system turns his lame, spindly assistant into a healthy beauty, but it does not promise much for Blotz, who has a bad heart. To avoid imminent death he forces the editor to splice his life-tape onto that of another person, but the results are unexpected. [d] PRISONER OF LOVE. In a world where magic works on a scientific basis, Halbert Shirey, Private Warlock, poses as a demon. He runs into trouble when his nasty client frames him magically into being in love with her. He must devote himself to keeping her out of Hell. Also involved is a perpetually reanimated corpse. A take-off on private-eye stories. [e] THE WALL AROUND THE WORLD. Described elsewhere. * Nicely told commercial fiction. 390. THE THIRD EYE Belmont Books; New York 1968 paperbound Short stories, mostly science-fiction, but including, [a] MR. HOSKIN'S HEEL. (FANTASTIC UNIVERSE 1954) Alternate title for MR. HOSKIN'S BLASTING ROD. Hoskin, meek instructor in medieval culture at a minor college, becomes entangled with gangsters who want him to change an athlete's grade. Hoskin applies magic. Using a book of spells, he evokes a control and overcomes the criminals. In the UNKNOWN vein. [b] THE CABBAGE PATCH. (MFSF 1957) Borderline science-fiction. An adolescent in a culture· developed by humanoid wasps learns the facts of life. Horrible but effective. [c] DISASSEMBLY LINE. (BEYOND 1954) Officious, censorious Aunt Hester is snatched into a Limbo-like world, where, through pain, she must learn to control her faults. Since nosiness has been her problem, her nose is perpetually pulled off. When she has learned her lesson, she returns to earth, a changed woman. [d] IMPACT WITH THE DEVIL. Described elsewhere. [e] LOVER BOY. (BEYOND 1954) Sheldon sells his soul to be rid of his wife. He also asks for immortality for himself and his new wife, but overlooks an important point. He is swindled. * [a] is weak. [b] and [c] are superior. COLERIDGE, SARA (1802-1852) British poet, translator, writer of children's books. Daughter of poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, whose BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA she edited. Apparently inherited her father's genius, but did not succeed in applying it. 391. PHANTASMION, PRINCE OF PALMLAND Pickering; London 1837 (published anonymously) A long, adult fantasy romance in some ways reminiscent of Sir Philip Sidney's ARCADIA, in other ways suggestive of 18th century romanticism (Oriental tales, Ossian, etc.). It consists of a long, extremely involved narrative of events in several fairyland kingdoms. The events are too c~mplex to be summarized, and it should be sufficient to say that the story is concerned with young Phantasmion, King of Palmland. He conducts a romance with the fair Iarine and combats the hostile kingdom of Rockland, in particular the powerful General Glandreth. Supernatural elements include the fairy

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COLLIER, JOHN Potentilla, Phantasmion's friend, who helps him with special abilities-- wings, fly-feet; the sea-woman Seshelma, who works potent sorceries upon Phantasmion; .·visions,. transformations, spirits, potions, and prophecies. * While PHANTASMION was highly regarded in the middle 19th century for its "poetic prose," today it seems barely readable, although the poetry which is scattered throughout the work is much superior to the prose. Probably allegorical to some extent, and an influence on George MacDonald. COLES, MANNING (pseud. of Coles, Cyril Henry and Manning, Adelaide) (respectively, 18981965, 1891-1959) Popular British. author of mysteries and spy stories. Coles worked for British intelligence for most of his life. Best-known works are Tommy Hambledon series, particularly DRINK TO YESTERDAY (1940) and A TOAST TO TOMORROW (1940, British title PRAY SiLENCE). 392. BRIEF CANDLES Doubleday; Garden City, New York 1954 The British edition is published as by Francis Gaite (Hodder and Stoughton, 1954). * Humor in the vein of Thorne Smith. * France, 1870 and present. Immediately after the battle of Sedan, two tourists in France, the Latimer couSins, fire upon Prussian troops. They are shot and buried in an unmarked grave. * In the 1950's Sally and Jeremy Latimer, descendant and collateral descendant, are in the same area, and their presence somehow activitates the ghORtS of the two dead Latimers and their pet monkey. The ghosts go through escapades, trapping burglars in a bank vault, aiding a captured forger of passports to escape from the police, depositing criminals in jail, causing phenomena for a group of ghost-hunters, and generally proving puzzling to onlookers. James, one of the ghosts, reveals to Sally the location of the lost family treasure, and the ghosts return to their graves. * Feeble. 393. HAPPY RETURNS Doubleday; Garden City, New York 1955 The British edition is published as A FAMILY MATTER by Francis Gaite (Hodder and Stoughton; London 1956). * Sequel to BRIEF CANDLES. Fantasy with crime motifs. France. Disconnected, episodic adventures of James and Charles Latimer, the ghosts of the previous volume. When their graves are visited by their young relatives, the ghosts acquire enough temporary energy to venture out into the world of the living. Among their experiences are trapping a murderer; purchasing clothing in a department store; buying a used car and learning how to drive; joining a tour; helping to clear the name of an unhappy ghost whom they meet in Andermatt; and continuing down into Italy, where they are of service to the modern Latimers. * As in 392, imitation Wodehouse and Thorne Smith, with incredible dialogue and limping humor. COLLIER, JOHN (1901-1980). British author of fantasies, crime fiction, miscellaneous fiction, film scripts, poetry. Resi-

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dent in United States (mostly California) since World War II. One of the modern masters_of the short story and certainly the preeminent writer of short fantasies. Fine stylist, remarkable wit and ironist, obviously greatly influenced by 18th century models. Although known mostly for shorter work, also wrote TOM'S A COLD (1933), novel of life in 1995 Britain when culture has relapsed to savagery, and DEFY THE FOUL FIEND (1934), realistic psychological novel. 394. HIS MONKEY WIFE. OR MARRIED TO A CHIMP Peter Davies; London 1930 Very amusing irony on shopgirl romances, modern personality types, and Bloomsbury intellectualism. * Mr. Fatigay, an Englishman in Boboma, Africa, is engaged in teaching the natives to speak English. Since there is no one else to talk to, he falls into the habit of haranguing Emily, a young female chimpanzee, whom he obtained from an anthropologist in exchange for a set of antlers. Without Fatigay's knowing it, since Emily is mute, Emily gradually becomes well educated. She also falls in love with Fatigay, who happens to be a foolish and selfish person. Various incidents show Emily's intelligence, sweetness, and unselfishness, as opposed to Fatigay's insensitivity. Fatigay happens to be in love with Amy, a woman back in England, and decides to return to England, taking Emily along with him. Back in England he gives Emily to· Amy as a present, who accepts the ape because she sees that Emily is both intelligent and in love with Fatigay. Her intention is to humiliate the chimpanzee. After incidents with various decadent Bloomsbury types, Amy finally sets a date for marriage, but Emily, realizing Amy's unpleasant personal.ity, arranges for herself to marry Fatigay instead of Emily. She shows Amy a copy of the "Murders in the Rue Morgue," and Amy relinquishes her bridal costume. When Fatigay removes the wedding veil and sees that he is married to a chimp, he is frantic, but the bishop who performs the ceremony tells him that in the Anglican rite marriage between cousins is permitted, and that he has no cause for complaint. Fatigay drives out Emily, takes to drink, and degenerates rapidly. He is saved from a drunkard's grave by Emily, who has now become a fabulously successful novelty dancer. Fatigay finally recognizes the treasure that he has in Emily, and the two sail off to Africa together. * Summary does not convey the wit and verbal felicities. 395. GREEN THOUGHTS William Jackson Books; 550 copies printed London 1932 Introduction by Osbert Sitwell. * Mr. Mannering buys a strange orchid, which, he discovers too late, seizes, absorbs, and reproduces animal life on its branches. He sees the head of his cat peering out at him and looks more closely at it. He awakens as a head-bud on the plant, but with consciousness, memory, and quirks of personality. He had planned to cut off his dissolute nephew, but the nephew does the cutting. * A very amusing little horror story. 396. THE DEVIL AND ALL Nonesuch Press; [London] 1000 copies printed 1934 Short stories. [a] POSSESSION OF ANGELA BRAD-

COLLIER, JOHN SHAW. A hot young poet sees Angela Bradshaw and immediately desires to possess her. He does, but as a spirit possesses a person. Most of the story tells how a satisfactory solution to the situation is reached. [b] THE RIGHT SIDE. A young man, about to commit sui cide by leaping into the river, is approached by the Devil, who offers him a responsible position in Hell, if he will sell his soul. The Devil takes him to that part of Hell which harbors suicides by drowning-- a dancing lounge. But the young man rejects the offer. [c] HALF WAY TO HELL. A young man who commits suicide is accosted by a stupid fiend who has come to take him down to hell. After some jollity at a bar, the fiend is ready to leap with him down an escalator through the stars. [d] THE DEVIL, GEORGE, AND ROSIE. George takes a situation with the Devil, governing a planet which serves as the ladies' annex to Hell. He does well in tormenting the female damned until Rosie appears: she has been brought to Hell in error. [e] AFTER THE BALL. Tazreel, a clumsy and loutish demon, wishes to have a human soul for a football, as is customary in Hell. He thereupon proceeds to tempt a most accomplished hypocrite named Dickinson. [f] HELL HATH NO FURY. When Einstein declared the universe finite, Heaven and Hell became overcrowded, and angels and demons were forced to seek quarters elsewhere. An angel and a demon, both assuming female guise, come to earth, room together in London, and set their caps at a young student of architecture. * One of the great fantasy collections. 397. VARIATION- ON A THEME Grayson and Grayson; London 1935 Irony on life and the literary world in fable form. * A gorilla in a zoo gains the sympathy of a young literary man by pretending to be a fellow author. The literary man helps him to escape and shelters him, but the gorilla responds by trying to seduce his wife. The gorilla also steals his friend's masterpiece, substituting for it his own raw, crude production. But literary criticism being what it is, the gorilla's crude work is lauded, while the thieving animal is visited by a group of fascist thugs whom the literary man had attacked. The literary man never rereads his own work and never learns of the substitution of manuscripts. * Very amusing. 398. PRESENTING MOONSHINE Macmillan; London 1941 Short stories, including revisions of the following stories described elsewhere: [a] GREEN THOUGHTS. [b] VARIATION ON A THEME. [c] HALF WAY TO HELL. [d] THE RIGHT SIDE. [e] THE DEVIL, GEORGE, AND ROSIE. [f] POSSESSION OF ANGELA BRADSHAW. * Also, [g] EVENING PRIMROSE. Mr. Snell, a poor young man, discovers a wonderful way to live without cost: eating and sleeping in Bracey's enormous department store, carefully avoiding the night watchman. But he discovers that others live there, too. Ghosts. He is received amicably, but falls in love with a living girl enslaved by the ghosts. When they try to escape they are turned into dummies by the Dark Men. [h] ROPE ENOUGH_ Henry Fraser used to

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be known as the man who laughed at the Indian rope trick. Until he learns how to perform it. He climbs up into a heaven and finds there, waiting for him, a beautiful houri. His wife has other ideas. [i] THUS I REFUTE BEELZY. Mr. Beelzy, a devil, is very friendly with a little boy, but the boy's crass father considers Beelzy to be only an imaginary playmate. When the father beats the boy, Beelzy intervenes. [j] OLD ACQUAINTANCE. Irony on French eroticism. A Frenchman's dead wife is stolen by a dead friend. Amorous ghosts. [k] BIRD OF PREY. A pet parrot, raped by a strange bird of sinister appearance, lays a single egg, which hatches into a preternaturally wise bird. It quite skilfully manipulates its owner into murder. A demon. [1] BOTTLE PARTY. Frank buys a bottle containing a genie, who brings him the most beautiful women in the world. But the genie is treacherous and Frank finds himself in the bottle. [m] THE INVISIBLE DOVE-DANCER OF STRATHPEEN ISLAND. An American falls in love with an invisible girl. He knows her measurements by the flight of a group of doves around her. [n] THE CHASER. A wicked little old man sells the elixir of love for a small fee, but its antidote (death) for a high price. * A very fine collection. 399. THE TOUCH OF NUTMEG AND MORE UNLIKELY STORIES The Press of the Readers Club; New York [ 1943] Foreword by Clifton Fadiman. Short stories, including [a] EVENING PRIMROSE. [b] ROPE ENOUGH. [c] THE CHASER. [d] THE DEVIL, GEORGE, AND ROSIE. [e] HALF WAY TO HELL. [f] POSSESSION OF ANGELA BRADSHAW. [g] THE RIGHT SIDE. [hI BIRD OF PREY. [i] THUS I REFUTE BEELZY. [j] VARIATION ON A THEME. [k] OLD ACQUAINTANCE. [1] AFTER THE BALL. [m] HELL HATH NO FURY. [n] GREEN THOUGHTS. * Also [0] MIDNIGHT BLUE. An excellent short murder story, including a clairvoyant dream. This seems to be its first publication in book form. 400. FANCIES AND GOODNIGHTS Doubleday; Garden City, New York 1951 Short stories. Most of the older stories have been extensively rewritten, not always for the best. The revisions tend to tone down the language, with some loss of exuberance and zest. * Including, [a] BOTTLE PARTY. [b] EVENING PRIMROSE. [c] HALF-WAY TO HELL. [d] THE CHASER. [e] THE DEVIL, GEORGE, AND ROSIE. [f] MIDNIGHT BLUES. [g] THUS I REFUTE BEELZY. [hI ROPE ENOUGH. [i] GREEN THOUGHTS. [j] BIRD OF PREY. [k] VARIATION ON A THEME. [1] HELL HATH NO FURY. [m] THE INVISIBLE DOVE-DANCER OF STRATHPEEN ISLAND. [n] THE RIGHT SIDE. [0] POSSESSION OF ANGELA BRADSHAW. * Also [pI ARE YOU TOO LATE OR WAS I TOO EARLY. A young man becomes a modern Robinson Crusoe when he sees the wet footprint of a young woman on his bathmat. She is invisible. He overhears a conversation which changes the situation. [q] FALLEN STAR. A devil kidnaps an angel. When she will not yield to him, he incarnates her on earth for seven years. She is taken to a psychoanalyst, who teaches her all that she is presumed to have forgotten and traps the devil into being analyzed and rendered human.

COLLINS, CHARLES M. [r] PICTURES IN THE FIRE. Mahound appears in Hollywood and signs up a famous screen writer. Mahound is obviously the Devil, but he makes a bad slip. [s] THE LADY OF THE GREY. An Irish Circe has her revenge on the piggish Sassenach. [t] INTERPRETATION OF A DREAM. A young man who has a repetitive dream goes to a psychoanalyst. He dreams that he is falling down the side of a skyscraper, and in mid-fall, sees his sweetheart in the arms of a psychoanalyst., True. [u] SPRING FEVER. A ventriloquist's dummy runs away with his maker's girl friend. The maker toys with the idea of making a living young woman, but settles on a dog as less risky. * Of the new stories [r] is best. 401. PICTURES IN THE FIRE Rupert Hart-Davis; London 1958 Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] INTERPRETATION OF A DREAM. [b] ARE YOU TOO LATE OR WAS I TOO EARLY. [c] PICTURES IN THE FIRE. [dJ SPRING FEVER. * Also [e) IN THE CARDS. The Vascal system of telling fortunes by cards is most effective, especially when practiced by Myra. When she reads a gangster's fortune, she discovers that he will inherit an enormous sum of money, but will die of shock soon after. She marries him hastily, but there are problems. The prediction is correct, too literally. COLLINS, CHARLES M. American anthologist. AS EDITOR: 402. FRIGHT Avon Books; New York 1963 paperbound Including [a] THE FOREST WARDEN, E. T. A. Hoffmann. Translated by Haywood P. Norton. An earlier version of IGNAZ DENNER, described elsewhere. [b] SCHALKEN THE PAINTER, J. S. LeFanu. Described elsewhere. [c) GLAMOUR, Seabury Quinn. (WT 1939) Deep_South. Lucinda Lafferty, ancient Witch, will not permit the hunting club to trespass on her property, and tempers flare. Besides killing her chief enemy magically, she exerts glamour to ensnare Harrigan, appearing as a very beautiful and complaisant young woman. Harrigan is saved at the last moment by priestly intervention. [d] CLAY, C. Hall Thompson. (WT 1948) Set in a lunatic asylum. Jeremy, who perpetually raves about being forced to do things by Oliver, and about the Mark of Clay, kills his doctor friend. It is discovered that Jeremy's hands are from an ancestor who was cursed, clay on the hands and all. [e] THE HORROR AT RED HOOK, H. P. Lovecraft. Described elsewhere. * It is good to have the Hoffmann in a modern translation, even though it is not one of his major works. 403. A WALK WITH THE BEAST Avon Books; New York 1969 paperbound Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] PRINCE ALBERIC AND THE SNAKE LADY, Vernon Lee. [b] THE WHITE WOLF OF THE HARTZ MOUNTAINS. Captain Frederick Marryat. Alternate title for THE WEREWOLF. [c) THE MAN AND THE SNAKE, Ambrose Bierce. * [Also [d) THE HEADLESS MILLER OF KOBOLD'S KEEP, Irvin Ashkenasy. (WT 1937). First published under the pseudonym G. Garnet. Hor-

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ribly horrible horrors associated with immortal pre-Columbian Cornish degenerates who have settled in Tennessee and decapitate the narrator. Presumably tongue-in-cheek. Perhaps a version of the Owl Creek Bridge motif. * Also present are "Tiger Cat" by D. H. Keller, one of his better contes cruels '. and "Curious Adventure of Mr. Bond" by Nugent Barker, a fine, horror tale with absurdist leanings, the best story in the book. COLLINS, MABEL (married name COOK) (1851-1927) British writer on occult topics. Associated with the Theosophical Society; founder of antivivisection society. Most of her work is inspirational, sometimes with fictional elements. Best-known work, LIGHT ON THE PATH, went through many editions. Daughter of Mortimer Collins, next. Lovell, Gestefeld; New York 404. SUGGESTION 1892 Sentimental romance with occult trimmings. * Of the two Heriot brothers, Rex is an amiable, very decent young man, while Oliver happens to be a gambler and a cad. Rex loves Marjorie Hawthorn, who reciprocates his love. Oliver, however, in addition to being a bad egg, has remarkable mesmeric powers and has studied occult matters. He brings Marjorie completely under his will, using her for clairvoyance. While on the one hand he undermines Rex, on the other he forces Marjorie to marry Rex. His intention, once Marjorie is married and unites two family fortunes, is to marry Marjorie for her money after Rex is dead. He makes her steal the family jewels and controls every thought that she has, sometimes while he is in the astral body. His downfall comes when he thoughtlessly gets drunk and Marjorie escapes his control. Oliver is booted out, and he dies accidentally. * Of no interest. COLLINS, [EDWARD JAMES] MORTIMER (1827-1876) Popular British novelist, poet, classical scholar, essayist; highly regarded by his contemporaries, but now nearly forgotten. Fiction noteworthy for inclusion of taboo materials and roman a clef elements. Best-known work is partly autobiographical SWEET ANNE PAGE (1868). 405. TRANSMIGRATION Hurst and Blackett; London 1874 3 vol. Novel. * Sir Edward Ellesmere, a Victorian bravo, accidentally kills his best friend in a duel and loses the only woman he ever loved, his friend's sister. He becomes bitter and retires from life, burying himself in philosophy and occultism, as a studious but eccentric old bachelor. When he dies, he is informed that before he can be reincarnated on earth, he must live a life on another planet. He chooses Mars, which is a strange literary utopia based on Collins's hellenophilia, although religious motifs are not lacking. After a lifetime on Mars, he is reincarnated on earth, being born on the same day that he had died. He retains all his memories as Ellesmere and is regarded as a child prodigy. After various experiences in society, he marries; his

COLLINS, V. H. wife was his sweetheart in his previous incarnation. * Vivaciously written, sprightly, whimsical, eccentric, vulgar, intelligent-this fits the personality described in S. M. Ellis's WILKIE COLLINS, LE FANU AND OTHER To answer a frequent question: Mortimer Collins was not related to Wilkie Collins. COLLINS, V[ERE] H[ENRY] British essayist, editor, poet. Also wrote under pseudonym Mark Tellar. Apparently very secretive about his life. AS EDITOR: 406. GHOSTS AND MARVELS A SELECTION OF UNCANNY TALES FROM DANIEL DEFOE TO ALGERNON BLACKWOOD Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press; London 1924 Introduction by M. R. James. * Described elsewhere, [a] MRS. VEAL, Daniel Defoe. [b] WANDERING WILLIE'S TALE, Sir Walter Scott. [c] THE WEREWOLF, Captain Frederick Marryat. [d] THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS, Edward Bulwer-Lytton. The long version.[e] YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN, Nathaniel Hawthorne. [f] LIGEIA, E.A. Poe. [g] A STRANGE EVENT IN THE LIFE OF SCHALKEN THE PAINTER, J. Sheridan LeFanu. [h] THE OPEN DOOR, Margaret Oliphant. [i] THE MONKEY'S PAW, W. W. Jacobs. [j] ANCIENT SORCERIES, Algernon Blackwood. [k] THE MOON-SLAVE, Barry Pain. [1] CASTING THE RUNES, M. R. James. [m] THE BODY-SNATCHER, R. L. Stevenson. * Also, [n] THE LIFTED VEIL, George Eliot. Domestic story involving the second sight. Latimer, who has been sickly since childhood, has also had flashes of the second sight. He sees faroff places and persons and has even anticipated the future. His sight does not protect him completely against his wife, who is a beautiful but cold and scheming woman. She plans to poison him. He learns of this only when a friend momentarily revives a corpse by means of a blood transfusion. 407. MORE GHOSTS AND MARVELS A SELECTION OF UNCANNY TALES FROM SIR WALTER SCOTT TO MICHAEL ARLEN Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press; London 1927 Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] THE TAPESTRIED CHAMBER, Sir Walter Scott. [b] THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR, E. A. Poe. [c] THE OLD NURSE'S STORY, Elizabeth Gaskell. [d] NO.1 BRANCH LINE, THE SIGNALMAN, Charles Dickens. [e] SQUIRE TOBY'S WILL, J. S. LeFanu. [f] THE LADY IN THE MIRROR, George MacDonald. [g] THE CASE OF MR. LUCRAFT, Walter Besant and James Rice. [h] THE GREAT GOOD PLACE, Henry James. [i] THE UPPER BERTH, F. Marion Crawford. [j] THE NOVEL OF THE WHITE POWDER, Arthur Machen. [k] THE DOOR IN THE WALL, H. G. Wells. [1] NEGOTIUM PERAMBULANS, E.F. Benson. [m] RUNNING WOLF, Algernon Blackwood. lni THE BUN."·A.ll o'tCHANGE DE MAUX, Lord Dunsany. [0] NIGHTMARE JACK, John Metcalfe. [p] WHERE THEIR FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED, May Sinclair. [q] THE ANCIENT SIN, Michael Arlen. [r] VENUS, Maurice Baring. [s] LOQUIER'S THIRD ACT, Katharine Fullerton Gerould. [t] THE BOTATHEN GHOST, R. S. Hawker. * This book and its predecessor are excellent collections.

COLLINS, WILKIE COLLINS, [WILLIAM) WILKIE (1824-1889) Important British writer of mysteries, sensation novels, social novels. Collaborator with Charles Dickens. Playwright. Best-known works THE WOMAN IN WHITE (1860) and THE MOONSTONE (1868). Renowned for highly intricate plots. Remarkable technician in creating suspense devices. Most successful at long works, although a little prolix at times. 408. THE QUEEN OF HEARTS Hurst and Blackett; London 1859 3 vol Short stories with narrative connections. Including [a) BROTHER MORGAN'S STORY OF THE DREAM WOMAN. Originally published in somewhat shorter form as THE OSTLER in the Christmas number of HOUSEHOLD WORDS for 1855. The ostler has a frightening premonitory dream: a woman is attacking him with a knife. Some time later he becomes acquainted w~th a woman who reminds him of the dream woman, marries her, and the dream is fulfilled. * This book version of the story, which is the one almost always reprinted, is usually titled ,THE DREAM WOMAN. In 1874 Collins enlarged the story considerably and published it in THE FROZEN DEEP AND OTHER TALES as THE DREAM WOMAN, A MYSTERY IN FOUR NARRATIVES. This version has occasionally been printed in America under the title ALICE WARLOCK. [b) BROTHER GRIFFITH'S STORY OF MAD MONKTON. First published as THE MONKS TONS [sic) OF WINCOT ABBEY in FRASER'S MAGAZINE, 1855. * Alfred Monkton, hearing of his uncle's death in Italy, goes to Italy, and after some difficulties finds his uncle's corpse in the condition anticipated by a family prophecy. It is further revealed that Edward is haunted by his uncle's ghost, which will not release him until the corpse is buried in England. But the coffin is lost at sea. This is usually anthologized as MAD MONKTON. * Excellent stories~ Although Dickens rejected [b) for HOUSEHOLD WORDS, the story has a exuberance that is interesting. The other stories are mystery and domestic. 409. ARMADALE Smith, Elder; London 1866 2 vol. Roughly midway in time between THE WOMAN IN WHITE and THE MOONSTONE, ARMADALE is Collins's third great mystery novel. In the opinion of many critics it is the finest of the three, even though it has never acquired the fame of the other two novels. While it is a novel of criminal conspiracy and attempted murder, it is also supernatural in treating the workings of fate in a most equivocal set of circumstances. Collins, as many of his works show, was obsessed with the notion of fate, and this is his most ambitious treatment of the topic. * The plot of ARMADALE is too complex to summarize. Ultimately, it is based on the fact that there were four persons, cousins, with the name Allan Armadale. ·Armadale One, a swindler, stole the intended wife of Armadale Two, who murdered him. Armadale Three, the son of Armadale Two and a Creole, is a highly intelligent young man who has lived as a Gipsy for a time. He uses the alias Ozias Midwinter. His life, when he was ill, had been saved by

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COLLINS, WILKIE Armadale Four (the son of Armadale One, the swindler), and he feels an intense devotion to Four. It is around Armadale Four that the plots of men and Fate and the questions of identity swirl, and it is Three who is his salvation. * The center of the mystery situation is Miss Lydia Gwilt, a beautiful, highly intelligent but amoral adventuress, who was a party in the original swindle and now wishes a share of the Armadale fortune. She first plans to marry Four, but when this fails, plans to murder him. Then by marrying Three, she will claim to be the widow of Four. She is one of Collins's finest creations. * The supernatural aspect of the novel lies in the fact that it is all the working out of a dream. When Three and Four come upon an ancient derelict, which Fate has caused to be the ship on which Two murdered One, Allan Four has a remarkable prophetic dream, which foreshadows the development of the novel. Allan Three has the wit to understand the dream and save Four. * A very fine novel, not quite as turgid as THE MOONSTONE and superior in organization to THE WOMAN IN WHITE, with excellent characterizations and one of the most ingenious developments in all literature. 410. THE TWO DESTINIES A ROMANCE Chatto and Windus; London 1876 2 vol A fate novel. * Once again Fate is the topic of interest in a novel by Collins. It is essentially the story of a romance that Fate has destined and will force through, despite the waywardness and stupidities of the humans concerned. George and Mary. are childhood sweethearts, but are separated when in their early teens. They communicate by means of dreams, and on one occasion George is compelled by Fate to save Mary's life. But they do not recognize each other; Mary has married and George has taken the name of his stepfather. They continue to bob in and out of each other's life until finally they marry. At this point one of Collins's social interests emerges: Mary had committed a bigamous marriage and as a result suffers ostracism. ~( This is considered to be one of Collins's failures, and I would agree with this estimation. It lacks the wonderful brooding atmosphere and plot complexities of ARMADALE, to say nothing of most of Collins's other virtues. 411. THE HAUNTED HOTEL A MYSTERY OF MODERN VENICE Chatto and Windus; London 1878 Ghost ·story and detective novel. * Lord Montbarry unexpectedly marries the Countess Narona, an obvious adventuress, and the couple depart for Venice. When news of Montbarry's death from pneumonia reaches England, there is some suspicion among his family, but an investigation supports the news. Some time later the Venetian palace in which the Montbarrys lived is opened as a hotel. It offers excellent accommodations for everyone, except for persons associated with Montbarry. Members of his family, his former fiancee, and the Countess are disturbed in varying degree by foul smells, revenants, and finally the appearance of a severed head. Eventually, driven to distraction

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by the manifestations and her conscience, the countess confesses that she murdered her husband. I shall not reveal how the murder was accomplished, but the idea is ingenious. * In many respects this is Collins's last sustained work. The detective element is clever; the story embodies the full development and complexity which were Collins's forte; and the psychology of the countess and her relationship with Fate are excellent. The supernatural aspects, however, are pedestrian. 412. LITTLE NOVELS Chat to and Windus; London 1887 3 vol Short stories, including [a] MRS. ZANT AND THE GHOST. (1879) Alternate title, THE GHOST'S TOUCH. Widowed Mrs. Zant is visited by the ghost of her husband, not visibly, but only as a caress. When her brother-in-law tries to molest her sexually, the ghost protects her. [b] MISS JEROMETTE AND THE CLERGYMAN. (1875) Alternate title, THE CLERGYMAN'S CONFESSION. As a student, the narrator had an affair with Miss Jeromette, a tiny Frenchwoman. Even though she loves him, she frankly tells him that her heart belongs completely to another man who had deserted her. Two years later, the narrator, now a clergyman, sees a pillar of mist which changes into Miss Jeromette. She indicates her murderer. [c] MR. PERCY AND THE PROPHET. (1877) Alternate title, PERCY AND THE PROPHET. Dr. Lagarde, a trance medium, informs two visitors that they will fight a duel, and reveals some details. The men scoff, but the prediction is fulfilled literally, much as is the prophetic dream of ARMADALE. * [b] is interesting, but the other stories are slight and do not represent Collins at his best. COLMORE, G. (pseud.; true name given variously as DUNN, GERTRUDE COLMORE: WEAVER, GERTRUDE RENTON; BAILLIE-WEAVER, GERTRUDE) (1884 - ?) British writer of popular sentimental fiction and poetry. 413. A BROTHER OF THE SHADOW Noel Douglas; London 1926 Sensational society occultism in university circles. * Donnithorne, professor of physiology at the university, is a member of the Brothers of the Shadow, an organization of black magLcLans. Over the years he becomes entangled with the narrator and his fiancee, Jessica, who happens to be the psychic perfect for Donnithorne's purposes. The professor, it seems, wants to know the exact method of sacrificing cats in the Taigheirm rites. He already has powerful magical abilities, and can paralyze, cause visions, and injure enemies. As the story develops, hostility grows between Donnithorne and the narrator's party, but evil is staved off by the presence of John Scott, a member of the White Brotherhood, a benevolent magician. When Donnithorne uses his will to force Jessica to act as a medium for him, Scott rescues her and destroys the professor's evil organization. As a last resort, Donnithorne strikes Jessica dead by magic, and the circumstances of her funeral are those of a dream she had years before. But at the last moment Scott

CONKLIN, GROFF enters and revives Jessica. The evil magician later destroys himself in attacking Scott. * In the vein of Bu1wer-Lytton's A STRANGE STORY, but rubbish. CONKLIN, [EDWARD] GROFF (1904-1968) American writer, editor, publishing aide, anthologist. Well-known for editing the first important science-fiction anthology, THE BEST OF SCIENCE FICTION (1946), followed by many other collections. An anthologist of excellent taste and considerable resource. AS EDITOR: 414. IN THE GRIP OF TERROR Perrnabooks; Garden city, New York 1951 paperbound Short stories, including [a] IN THE VAULT, H. P. Lovecraft. [b] THE TOOL, W. F. Harvey. [c] BIANCA'S HANDS, Theodore Sturgeon. Described elsewhere for context. [d] THE WELL, W.W, Jacobs. [e] THE MOTH, H. G. Wells. * Also [f] NIGHT DRIVE, Will F. Jenkins. (Better known as Murray Leinster, pseud.) (TODAY'S WOMAN 1950) Two women have been killed on the Colchester Road, and the man disguised as a woman, seated beside Madge, talks of lycanthropy. [g] THE ILLUSTRATED MAN, Ray Bradbury. Phelps, enormously fat, alienated from wife and world, is forced to become the circus tattooed man. An old blind woman tattoos his body, but places hidden pictures on his chest, not to be uncovered until specific dates. One shows him killing his wife; the other, his death from a circus mob. Each man bears his fate pictured on him. * Not to be confused with the book of the same title or its frame situation. * [f], [g], excellent. 415. SCIENCE FICTION TERROR TALES Gnome Press; New York 1955 Short stories, including [a] FLIES, Isaac Asimov. (MFSF 1953) Casey is usually surrounded by flies. Is he Beelzebub, Lord of Flies? [b] THEY, Robert A. Heinlein. (UNK 1941) Paranoia, the ultimate reality. Hayward, in an asylum, has learned that the world is an enormous fraud rigged to control him, a being of superrea1ity. He does not remember everything, but his captors are concerned. * [bj is excellent. 416. THE GRAVEYARD READER Ballantine Books; New York [1958] paperbound Stories about graveyards, including, described elsewhere, [a] THE GRAVEYARD RATS, Henry Kuttner. [b] THE OUTSIDER, H. P. Lovecraft. [c] FREE DIRT, Charles Beaumont. * Also, [d] NIGHT COURT, Mary Elizabeth Counselman. (WT 1953) Bob Trask, reckless driver with two deaths on his record, is tried by a ghostly courc in which the personnel are all driving fatalities. His sentence lies in the future, a ghost of things to come: [e] LISTEN, CHILDREN, LISTEN, Wallace West. (FANTASTIC UN.IVERSE 1953) Mountain Whites. A woman who is fey, death, imaginary beings, mirror magic, supernatural death warnings-- or all madness. [f] THE CHILD THAT LOVED A GRAVE, Fitz-James O'Brien. (1861) A fable. A child who tends and cherishes a neglected grave finds it ready at the proper moment. Fate, symbolic overtones.

CONKLIN, GROFF [g] THE GRAVEYARD READER, Theodore Sturgeon. (SCIENCE FANTASY 1958) Difficult to su~narize. Character analysis in terms of learning to read the hidden symbolism of a grave. Nicely told and imaginative. * [f] and [g] are best. 417. BR-R-R-: 10 CHILLING TALES Avon Books; Ne\J York 1959 paperbound Short stories, including [a] IT, Theodore Sturgeon. Described elsewhere. [b] THE HANDLER, Ray Bradbury. Described elsewhere. * [c] WA&~, DARK PLACES, H. L. Gold. (UNK 1940) Presumably an attempt to repeat the success of TROUBLE WITH WATER. Kaplan, operator of a small dry-cleaning business., refuses to teach the trade to Salindrinath, a Tibetan yogi who looks like a bum. Salindrinath puts a curse on Kaplan: Kaplan's pockets, shoes, and similar places seem alive with horrible, gigantic louse-like creatures. * Weak. [d] LEGAL RITES, Isaac Asimov and Frederik Pohl. (WT 1950) The Harley place is haunted by old Hank, a ghost who had been friendly with the late owner. The new heir wants to be rid of the ghost and uses various exorcisms and magical techniques. The ghost takes young Harley to court, claiming squatter's rights and wins the case. Really labored. [e] WHITE GODDESS, Idr1s Seabright. (pseud. of Margaret St. Clair) (MFSF 1955) To the thief she seems like an ordinary old maid, but she has the power to place him in magical worlds, a water color, a snowing globe. Even after she dies, she is active. * Of the new material, only [e] is worth reading. 418. TWISTED Belmont Books; New York 1962 paperbound Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] NIGHT DRIVE, Will F. Jenkins. [b] THE SHUNNED HOUSE, H. P. Lovecraft. [c] THE THING IN THE CELLAR, D. H. Keller. [d] MRS. MANIFOLD, Stephen Grendon (pseud of August Derleth). [e] THE PLAYGROUND, Ray Bradbury. * Also [f] THE OTHER HAND, George Lange1aan. (MFSF 1961) Although the hand is on Manoque, it really belongs to his rotter brother-in-law, and is criminal and murderous. [g] THE LITTLE MAN WHO WASN'T QUITE, William W. Stuart. (GALAXY 1961) A newspaperman who frequents Skid Row becomes acquainted with a little man who is only occasionally and partly visible. The reason is that he has grown away from humanity, because of isolation. This would be all right, except that his condition permits monstrosities from another world to emerge. [h] BRENDA, Margaret St. Clair. (WT 1954) Adolescent problems for a young girl. Told in terms of a horrible, rotten, humanoid monstrosity, which is presumably a projection. * Of the new material, [h] is best. WITH CONKLIN, LUCY 419. THE SUPERNATURAL READER Lippincott; Philadelphia 1953 Short stories, described elsewhere, [a] FOR ,. THE BLOOD IS THE LIFE, F. Mario.n Crawford. [b] MRS. MANIFOLD, Stephen Grendon. (pseud. of August Derleth) [c] SHOTTLE BOP, Theodore Sturgeon. [d] GABRIEL-ERNST, Saki. [e] THE LO.ST ROOM, Fitz-James O'Brien. [f] THE NATURE

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COOK, W. W. OF THE EVIDENCE, May Sinclair. [g] THE SWAP, H. F. Heard. [h] MINUKE, Nigel Kneale. [i] BIRD OF PREY, John Collier. [j] THE THING IN THE CELLAR, David H. Keller. [k] THE STRANGER, Richard Hughes. [1] LOST HEARTS, M. R. James. [m] THIRTEEN AT TABLE, Lord Dunsany. [n] THE MOONLIT ROAD, Ambrose Bierce. [0] PIFFINGCAP, A.E. Coppard. * Also [p] THE ANGEL WITH THE PURPLE HAIR, Herb Paul. (MFSF 1950). Test pilots with a new plane of untried, dangerous design. The angel, who is AWOL from Heaven, is in love with one of them and determines the best way to be with her lover. [q] THE CURATE'S FRIEND, E. M. Forster. (1947) A faun, symbolizing loosening of restraints; told with irony. [r] THE TRAITOR, James S. Hart (MFSF 1950) A brood of vampires in New York. Mr. Lorenzo, medieval Italian, is slowly evolving away from the basic situation and has moments of compassion for mortals. He finds himself at odds with his fellows. [s] ANGUS MacAULIFFE AND THE GOWDEN TOOCH! Charles R. Tanner. (OTHER WORLDS 1951) A deceased uncle who was a magician leaves Angus a geni in a bottle. Angus asks for the gift of Midas, but with a small difference. Scottish dialect. [t] ARE YOU RUN-DOWN, TIRED ---, Babette Rosmond and Leonard M. Lake (UNK 1942) Supernatural aids to health and weight control, appetite arousers, with horrible results. [u] THE PAVILION, E. Nesbit. (1923) Borderline science-fiction. A man-eating vine. [vl THE TREE'S WIFE, Mary E. Counselman. (WT 1950) Mountain Whites. A young husband, shot as a result of a feud, is embodied in a tree, to which his young bride is married. Nicely told from the point of view of a social worker. [w] PICK-UP FOR OLYMPUS, Edgar Pangborn. When old gods, Pan and Demeter, go on their way to Olympus with faded wonders, a garage mechanic sees only their car. [x] THE TOMBLING DAY, Ray Bradbury. When the graves have to be moved because of the new highway that is coming through, old Grandmother Lob1il1y helps to dig out her long-dead lover, Mr. Simmons. He is perfectly preserved, so much so that disillusionment sets in. Reestablishment of self-respect comes when Simmons disintegrates. [y] DEVIL'S HENCHMAN, Will F. Jenkins. (ARGOSY 1952) Mountain Whites. Love magic, personal feuds, willingness to surrender heaven, a ring of power, told in a folksy way. Wellman did it better. [z] LIGHTS, Philip M. Fisher. (ARGOSY 1922) Sea mystery. Phantom lights from a sunken ship cause problems. [aa] THE SILVER HIGHWAY, Harold Lawlor. (WT 1946) An old car in the Museum of Industry, a woman ghost who appears to an old man, a quest for the historical resolution, and a sentimental resolution. * A good collection of traditional and fairly modern material. COOK, W[ILLIAM] W[ALLACE] (1867-1933) Prolific American writer for dime novels, early pulp magazines; undistinguished work in fantastic fiction. Usually writes a mixed form, with elements of science-fiction and the supernatural not completely separated. Best-known works MAROONED IN 1492 (book c. 1925), A ROUND

COOK, W. W. TRIP TO THE YEAR 2000 (book c. 1925), both of which are primitive science-fiction and PLOTTO (1928), a method for creating hack fiction. It has been claimed that Cook was a pseudonym for George C. Jenks, but this seems doubtful. 420. ADRIFT IN THE UNKNOWN Street and Smith; New York [c. 1925] paperbound First published in ARGOSY, 1904-5. Humorous fantasy with elements of science-fiction and social commentary. * In 1900 Professor Quinn travels to Mercury by means of an anti-gravity space ship. His companions are four capitalists and a burglar. After a difficult voyage they reach Mercury, have trying adventures on its baked surface, then descend into the Mercurian underworld, where there are two rival monarchies. The professor and the housebreaker make their way to the friendly land of Baigol, where they are commissioned to recover a sacred jewel from the rival kingdom of Baigadd, where the four wicked capitalists are held as slaves for their crimes on earth. The professor and the burglar are captured, and the king of Baigadd makes plans to invade earth, which he could surely conquer with his superior weaponry. But the sacred jewel changes the situation. When the burglar steals it, he loses the evil components of his personality, as do the four capitalists. The professor outwits the king, and the capitalists and the burglar return to earth. * Long, outrageous, semijuveni1e at times, with ubiquitous bad puns. A curiosity only. COPPARD, A[LFRED] E[DGAR] (1878-1957) Notable British short story writer. Best work is highly individual and outside mainstream, stressing fairy tale motifs and folktale story patterns, with excellent detail. A fine stylist with remarkable ear for lower-class and rustic speech. Now undeserved1y forgotten. 421. ADAM AND EVE AND PINCH ME Golden Cockerel Press; Berkshire 1921 Short stories, including [a] MARCHING TO ZION. A strangely disturbing tale with subliminal attachments to the life of Jesus. Michael, Monk, and Mary are undertaking a mysterious journey in which Christian symbolism keeps emerging casually. [b] PIFFINGCAP. The lead shaving mug has strange properties and is surely associated with evil. I t does odd things with hair. Told through small people in contact with the inexplicable. [c] THE KING OF THE WORLD. Ta1akku, an Assyrian soldier fleeing in the rout of the armies sent against Judah, enters the temple of the god Namu-Sarkkon. The god has the faculty of petrifying his worshippers, releasing them later for momentary life. While Ta1akku is there, a woman is released. She has been waiting for the King of the Wor1d-- death. [d] ADAM AND EVE AND PINCH ME. A dream-like story of a strange state of consciousness in which the narrator moves several years into the future and watches his unborn son playing. Symbolic anticipation. * This first volume shows Coppard at his best, with original themes, remarkable renderings of the speech and thought of rural England, and a bizarre humor. * The

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COPPARD, A. E. 1922 edition (Knopf: New York) adds the contents of CLORINDA WALKS IN HEAVEN, including [e) THE ELIXIR OF YOUTH, [f) CLORINDA WALKS IN n~AVEN, which are described in 422. Golden Cockerel 422. CLORINDA WALKS IN HEAVEN Press; Berkshire 1922 Short stories, including [a) CLORINDA WALKS IN HEAVEN. Clorinda dies, and in heaven meets all the men to whom she had been wife in previous incarnations. But she finds the most empathy with a man who is an embodiment of her unrealized desires as a spinster. Returning to earth, she does not marry in her next incarnation. [b) THE ELIXIR OF YOUTH. Ireland. The fairy girl gives a man the gift of ease-everything comes easy to him. But when he is dissatisfied, he finds that his possessions and his world shrink away to nothing. A second man asks for the elixir of youth. But an acquaintance, to whom he had offered a sip, drinks it all up, grows backward in age, and disappears. * Both excellent stories. 423. THE GOLLAN Printed, not published, for the friends of Earl and Florence Fish, Christmas, 1929 [London?] 75 copy edition A literary folktale in the Irish tradition. * The Go11an, so-called because of his stupidity, is a giant in strength, but a weakling in will. He cannot refuse a request and is often imposed upon. When he releases a leprechaun, he receives as a reward the gift of imperceptibi1ity-- he is invisible except when asleep. But the gift has disadvantages, for the Go11an cannot see others when they cannot see him, and cannot hear others when they cannot hear them. He tries exchanging senses with the animals, and becomes even more dissatisfied. Eventually he wishes himself back the way he was before the fairy gift, but this, too, is no solution. * The pseudo-allegory seems to read that no matter what one does or chooses, it will be wrong. * This edition has not been seen. The story was read in a more recent collection. 424. CROTTY SHINKWIN Golden Cockerel Press; Berkshire [1932) A free fantasy set on the Irish coast, told in language reminiscent of Synge's. * When Crotty and his friend P. J. go out fishing in their boat, they approach the dread island of Inniskalogue. Their anchor is caught, and as they pull away, they turn the island over, so that instead of smooth meadow they see mud and roots, which SWiftly transform themselves into a pleasant countryside, with church, houses, and sheep. The men see that their anchor has caught on the church steeple, and after some hesitation go to fetch it. They see a mysterious grave stone, and discover that they cannot keep' the anchor, since it runs back to the steeple. P. J. is blown away by a breath from the garden of Eden, contained in a bladder in the church, and Crotty must make his way home alone, to be greeted by his shrewish wife. The island rights itself as he leaves. * Like Irish wonder voyages, with haunted island and wish fulfillment motives. Very nicely told. While there are suspicions of a semi-allegory, the basis of the story is probably association fantasy.

COPPARD, A. E. NlNEPENNY FLUTE TWENTY-ONE TALES Macmillan; London 1937 Short stories, including (a] JOVE'S NECTAR. When Paul Latchworth takes over the old house, he finds in the basement a small supply of Chibnall's Celebration Ale, an extinct brand of high quali.ty. He reserves one bottle to drink to the memory of his ancient aunt, on the day of her death. When he receives a beautiful woman, without thinking he serves her the last bottle. He learns a little later that his aunt died at that time. Coppard ends the story with a question: Was the visiting woman a death portent? (b] SPEAKING LIKENESS. A fable-like story, using the pathetic fallacy of animated pictures and plants. (c] JACK THE GIANT KILLER. Described elsewhere. * (a] is excellent. The other two are trivial. 426. YOU NEVER KNOW, DO YOU? AND OTHER TALES Methuen; London 1939 Short stories, including (a] ROCKY AND THE BAILIFF. Rocky, the village halfwit, has' one ability: folk magic. His doings with a toad, a beetle, and a glow worm, to say nothing of messenger mice that emerge from the fire, result in a remedy for the cattle plague. The bailiff (in this case an estate manager) receives the credit. (b] THE FAIR YOUNG WILLOWY TREE. Borderline fantasy. Conversations with a telegraph post. (c] ALE CELESTIAL? Barnaby Barnes receives a recipe for wonderful ale from a troll. When he tries to adulterate it, it tastes foul to others, but good to him. Obvious allegorical implications. 427. FEARFUL PLEASURES Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1946 Short stories, mostly selected from previous volumes, including described elsewhere, (a] CLORINDA WALKS IN HEAVEN. (b] ADAM AND EVE AND PINCH ME. (c] THE ELIXIR OF YOUTH. (d] THE GOLLAN. (e] CROTTY SHINKWIN. (e] ROCKY AND THE BAILIFF. (g] ALE CELESTIAL? (h] THE FAIR YOUNG WILLOWY TREE. * Also, (i] SIMPLE SIMON. (from THE BLACK DOG, 1923) A modern folktale. Old Simon, who has been happy only three times in his life, meets an old scholar who gives him a coat. Simon dies and goes to a heaven that is an idealized version of his previous life, but the old scholar is worried. He left a.budget of sins in the coat. But there are no sins allowed in heaven. (j1 OLD MARTIN. (from FISHMONGER'S FIDDLE, 1925) In Barnover, the last person buried in the cemetery must serve the other dead, until the Last Judgment. Old Martin is greatly disturbed when his niece Monica is buried in the cemetery and there is no room for others. She will have to serve such ghosts as the bestial Stinch. Her ghost pesters him for relief, which comes in an unexpected way. Senility. [k] THE BOGIE MAN. (from THE FIELD OF MUSTARD, 1927) Also spelled THE BOGEY MAN. A modern fairy tale. When Sheila steals the little black box, she assumes a , guilt that must be forgiven. The box is the home of the little imp Shiloh, who is both evil and the other side of things. (Note the similarity of name.) He presses her to take something from him as a gift, so that she can be

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COPPARD, A.E. forgiven. But she knows that she is lost if she does. [1] POLLY MORGAN. (from SILVER CIRCUS, 1928) Polly's aunt Agatha, on a generous impulse, followed a hearse that had no mourners and dropped a flower into the dead man's grave. Her action creates the belief that she had be~n the dead man's mistress, which is not true. But she finds her life altered by the dead man's spirit, or her belief in the dead man's spirit. Young Polly injures this relationship, and when her own romance dies (on the drowning of her fiance at sea), she believes that her action was the cause. She, too, now waits for a spirit lover. [m] THE POST OFFICE AND THE SERPENT. (from NIXEY'S HARLEQUIN, 1931) A mythic narrative. In the small sinister lake on the mountain, the great serpent dwells. It is bound until the day before the Last Judgment. It asks the tourist for the present date. (n] AHOY, SAILOR BOY (from DUNKEY FITLOW, 1933) The sailor on leave finds a·pick-up who talks strangely of herself as a ghost. She says, sadly, that when she was alive, she cared only for clothes, and after death, she fears that when her last outfit is gone, she, too, will disappear. The sailor is delighted when she says that she will take off her clothing, but she disappears. [01 GONE AWAY. The tourists in France observe that their journey is taking on supernatural aspects, odd markers, a racing speedometer, impossible distances, and then vanishments of the three tourists. A puzzle story without solution. [p] FATHER RAVEN. At the gates to Heaven, Father Raven goes bond for his flock of sinners. They are admitted, but Raven, since he lied, is rejected. [q] THE DRUM. Fairy tale with allegorical motifs. Young Kinsella, leaving his uncle's home to seek his fortune, stops with a friendly giant who is keeping Truth, a beautiful young woman, captive. Kinsella releases her, but no one wants to hear her when she beats a drum in public. [r] CHEESE. Eddy Errick travels in cheese. He has made the fortune of his company by swindling a Gipsy out of a recipe for cheese, but refuses to acknowledge the debt. The Gipsies take him and by working magic imprison him much like a mouse in a cage, with a tiger pacing outside. He escapes, but finds himself in the reign of George IV, where he is put into an Asylum for Natural Wonders. [s] THE HOMELESS ONE. An old man in an asylum, mind completely disintegrated, is tutored by a mad cobbler with religious mania. The old man had tried to commit suicide. Is he a form of Judas, reincarnated? Interpretation debatable. [t] THE KISSTRUCK BOGIE. Sometimes spelled THE KISSTRUCK BOGEY. The ghost in Kisstruck's house is a suicide. It is invisible, but nude. It converses with Kisstruck, but a change in the haunting comes when the ghost has an affair with a female ghost living nearby, and they must be married hastily. * A good collection, with stories of various sorts. Of the new material, stories [i], [k], [m], [0], [q] and [s1 are best. Coppard's earliest work, however, is best of all.

CORELLI, MARIE CORELLI, MARIE (pseud. of MILLS, MARY, later MACKAY, MARY) (1855-1924) Popular British author of , near best-seller status in Great Britain and America. Well-known for highly emotional novels, usually on occult or personal religious themes. A competent musician who almost became a concert pianist, but otherwise somewhat pathetic in her complete lack of self-criticism and belief that critics were in a cabal against her. A very vulgar writer. In later years she came to believe that she was a reincarnation of Shakespeare. 428. A ROMANCE OF TWO WORLDS Bentley; London 1886 2 vol. An occult novel. * The narrator, on the edge of a breakdown from overwork, meets Raffaello Cellini, a painter of mystical pictures, who recognizes her condition and gives her a drugged wine, which renders her receptive to a guiding dream. In her dream she meets Heliobas, a masterful figure, who announces that he will help her. Obeying the dream and Cellini's advice, the narrator goes to Paris and receives instruction and medical help from Casimir Heliobas, a mystical figure of great power. Heliobas expounds his theories: each of us has two electricities, an internal divine spark which must be cultivated, and an external system, which is much like an aura. To move higher on the electrical circles of rebirth, one must enlarge the inner spark. * To gain knowledge, the narrator agrees to take a flight into the infinite under Heliobas' s protectio.n. Invoking the spirit Azul, he frees her from her body, and she undertakes a cosmic voyage with various stops: Saturn, a pleasant utopia; Jupiter, home of an electrical civilization; and the central orb of the universe, around which are rings of creation. This is also connected with Christian symbolism and mythology, and an extensive, though very muddled cosmology. On her return she is able to help Heliobas in an approaching disaster. * Other supernatural elements include the abilities of Heliobas to control animals and humans, kill by personal electricity, and provide magical implements. In a subplot, Heliobas's sister, who is on an even higher plane of development than Heliobas, recognizes her impending death by lightning and makes preparations for it. * All very shabby, but immensely popular in its time. In the second and later editions Corelli includes a long apologia and letters from enthusiastic readers. 429. ARDATH. THE STORY OF A DEAD SELF Bentley; London 1889 3 vol. Long, sentimental occult novel, sequel of a sort to A ROMANCE OF TWO WORLDS. * Theos Alwyn, poet, has come to a spiritual crisis and visits Heliobas, who is now a monk at the monastery of Lars in the Caucasus. He wants Heliobas to restore his creativity by mesmerism. Heliobas refuses, but Alwyn falls into a trance and has a vision. He meets a beautiful woman from another sphere, who tells him that her name is Edris and that they will meet again on the field of Ardath. He finds that he has composed a long poem entitled "Nourhalma" while in his trance. Despite the fact that he is a scep-

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CORELLI, MARIE tic, materialist, and scoffer, he goes to Ardath, which is near Babylon. He meets Edris again, and has a long visionary experience. * He awakens in the city of AI-Kyris, a high barbaric culture of about 5,000 B.C., where he immediately becomes associated with the poet Sah-Lurna, who is obviously a potency of himself. Sah-Lurna, although a very selfish sendualist, has also written the poem "Nourhalma." Alwyn meets the local "virgin" high priestess of the sacred snake, a femme fatale named Lysia,who treats her lovers abominably. In Al-Kyris are the following motifs and happenings: there is a prophecy that the city will fall when the high priestess becomes the king's mistress; Lysia demands that Alwyn murder Sah-Luma, for she is tired of the poet; a pre-Christian Christian prophet speaks of the Coming; Alwyn becomes a fervent Christian; and there is a secret science known only to the priests (phonographs, electric telegraphy, etc.). The threads become entangled when Lysia sacrifices a woman who was in love with the ideal Sah-Lurna, but rejected his sensuality. The land collapses in storms and earthquakes. Everyone is killed. Alwyn awakens in the present. * It is not entirely clear whether his experience was a symbolic vision .or a statement of the past. He returns to England to find himself famous because of his poem, and meets Heliobas again. He is now as violent a Christian as he used to be a sceptic. Heliobas tells him that while he cannot ascend to reach Edris, she, though an angel, can come down to him. One day, while he is in church, she descends, incarnates herself, and they go off together. * Strong allegorical aspects. Page after page of turgid rant and overwritten description, fury at book reviewers and critics, annoyance with orthodox science, etc. Perhaps important historically as a major source for imaginary lands of the sort that Dunsany later cultivated. 430. THE SOUL OF LILITH Bentley; London 1892 3 vol. Long occult novel. * EI-R§mi, an Arabian occult scientist, possesses enormous magical and paranormal powers, yet has strong doubts about the existence of the deity and even of the supernatural. Some years earlier, Lilith, a young Syrian girl, came into his hands just as she was dying; he has retained her in suspended animation ever since. He sends out her spirit to wander about the universe for him, compiling enormous tomes of ethnographic research on life on other planets. El-Rami is chidden by the unconscious Lilith, as well as by other parties, for his materialism, and he is advised to release her from her psychic bondage, to eternal bliss. Instead, he falls in love with her and determines to awaken her. The result is disastrous. Lilith collapses into dust, and El-Rami loses his mind. Other elements in the story are El-R&mi's brother Feraz, who has mystical intuitions into Truth; the Supreme Master, a monk from Cyprus who has acquired supernatural knowledge by prayer; Dr. Kremlin, a Russian refugee who works with per-

CORELLI, MARIE petual motion and records strange vibrations on a disk. They are presumably messages from Mars, but he cannot read them. Also present is Irene Vassilius, a spiritually beautiful author, who is much like Corelli's image of herself. * Turgid. 431. THE SORROWS OF SATAN: OR. THE STRANGE EXPERIENCES OF ONE GEOFFREY TEMPEST, MILLIONAIRE A ROMANCE Methuen; London 1895 A long society novel set in the wicked '90's, based largely on the depravity associated with critical success. The story is formed around Tempest, a budding young novelist who yields to his baser impulses and unwittingly makes a pact with the devil (Lucio Rimanez). As his reward Tempest receives worldly success, such as good reviews in the journals and enormous royalties, but he pays spiritually. The empty-headed society woman that he marries tries to cuckold him with the Devil, and when she fails, commits suicide. Satan finally reveals his identity during a personal interview with God, and Geoffrey vows to reform. The Devil, too, is a pathetic being. At the end of the book, Tempest has the satisfaction of cutting the Devil outside the Houses of Parliament. Also present in the novel is Miss Corel Ii, thinly disguised as Mavis Clair, a pure but persecuted author who is hated and feared by malicious book reviewers, but loved by the public, * Moralism and hysteria, but interesting in stating bluntly what many authors have felt, that book reviewers form a secret cabal under direct diabolic inspiration. 432. CAMEOS Hutchinson; London [1896] Short stories, including [a] THE DISTANT VOICE. John Denver, dying of cancer, has a dream vision of heaven, heavenly choir and all. But he wishes to live. When Valitsky (the Devil) offers him the choice between heaven or renewed life, he chooses life. Seven years later he changes his mind. He is told that compared to eternity, seven years is as nothing. [b] THE WITHERING OF A ROSE. Mrs. All ingham is married to a bounder. Her death is signalled to Fane the artist by a white figure which arises out of the haunted lake and gestures toward the Hall. [c] THE LADY WITH THE CARNATIONS. France, First seen at the theatre in Paris, then in Quimperle, the Lady is the ghost of a murdered woman. Her gravestone says, ''Manon perfide." She wants the inscription changed to ''Manon fidele." * Unremarkable, conventional stories. Corelli has occasional supernatural stories scattered in her other collections, but these are not worth separate reporting. 433. ZISKA THE PROBLEM OF A WICKED SOUL Arrowsmith, Bristol; Simpkin, Marshall; London 1897' Occult novel. * Cairo and the Great Pyramid. At a society costume ball in Cairo, the beautiful Countess Ziska creates a sensation. A young Englishman (Murray) and a French artist (Gervase) both fall violently in love with her and become bitter enemies. Gervase agrees to paint her picture, but when the picture is shown, it is not Ziska, but a horrible monster. Gervase cannot account for this, but Dr. Dean,

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a friendly occultist, suggests that a hostile spirit has interfered. * Ziska makes references to an Ancient Egyptian dancing girl, Ziska-Charmazel, Who had been murdered by King Araxes some four thousand years earlier. It is obvious that Ziska is the reincarnation of the dancer, just as Gervase is of Araxes. She leads Gervase on, takes him to hidden rooms beneath the Great Pyramid, and evoking the Araxes facet in Gervase, reveals herself and her desire for revenge. Araxes apologizes, is forgiven, and drops dead. Ziska presumably vanishes. Dr. Dean had known, in a general way, what was going on, but had been powerless to act. * Pretty bad. 434. THE YOUNG DIANA AN EXPERIMENT OF THE FUTURE Hutchinson; London 1918 Weird science, with some feminist interest. Miss Corelli had her own odd interpretation of women's rights and roles. * Switzerland in part. Despite the subtitle, futurity is not involved in the story. * Diana May, fortyyear old, highly intelligent, emotion-starved spinster, replies to an advertisement for an unattached Woman willing to take part in experiments and study "chemistry" for two years. She falsifies her own drowning and, confiding in only one friend, applies to and is accepted by Dr. Feodor Dimitrius. Dimitrius, it seems (since the explanation is vague), is extracting soul force from the universe by means of a gigantic rotor. He hopes to discover an elixir of rejuvenation and immortality. Diana serves as his willing guinea pig, despite some danger, and gradually becomes younger. The decisive experiment calls for her to swallow a cup of the soul fluid. She does so and collapses into suspended animation for a time. When she awakens, she is about eighteen years old and incredibly beautiful, but no longer a woman. She is a superior being composed of ethereal matter, heartless, and unloving. Although Dimitrius has fallen in love with her, she rejects him and returns to London, where her former friends and family refuse to accept her, she is so changed. She lives on, eternally beautiful, but inhuman. The story line above is buried in an enormous wash of words.

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CORLEY, DONALD (1886-1955) American artist, writer. Most of his work is nonsupernatural fantasy of an anemic sort. 435. THE HOUSE OF LOST IDENTITY TALES AND DRAWINGS OF DONALD CORLEY McBride; New York 1927. Introduction by James Branch Cabell. * Short stories, including [a] THE HOUSE OF LOST IDENTITY. A tumbled-down old Georgian house; the Other that faces the protagonist; a game of picquet; and psychological maturation. The ghost symbolizes family relationships and growth. [b] THE MANACLES OF YOUTH. 16th century Italy. A variant of the Spanish magician theme. The Gascon student falls violently in love with a Siennese woman. She sends him on three tasks, the last of which is fetching the elixir of youth. He returns as an old man. But it has all been glamour that she has thrown

CORLEY, DONALD over him. [c) THE TALE THAT THE MING BELL TOLD. The bell is connected with the soul of a mandarin's daughter. Obviously inspired by Lafcadio Hearn. * Mannered, self-conscious, and without much interest. CORNISH, GERALD WARRE (1875-1916) British writer, Biblical scholar. Killed during World War I. 436. BENEATH THE SURFACE AND OTHER STORIES Grant Richards; London [1918) Short stories, including [a) PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN. Experiences immediately after death. Some psychological examination. [b) BENEATH THE SURFACE. A nouvelle that turns archeological strata into fantasy. An explorer is investigating the Euphrates, looking for the Garden of Eden. By means of psychic gifts he pierces back through time and the veil of creation and becomes one with the Tree of Life and with God himself. The description of changing states of consciousness as the traveller moves into the past is well handled, and the concept is unusual. CORY, CHARLES B[ARNEY) (1857-1921) Although negligible as a writer of fiction, a distinguished naturalist with many monographs on birds and mammals of the world. Also wrote poetry, comic opera libretti. 437. MONTEZUMA'S CASTLE AND OTHER WEIRD TALES Author's Edition [Press of Rockwell and Churchill; Boston, Mass.) 1899 Short stories, including [a) THE TRAGEDY OF THE WHITE TANKS. A curiosity dealer tells of a death by suggestion, following the bite of a defanged rattlesnake. [b) AN AZTEC MUMMY. A ghost tells how he salted a ruin with relics for a dude. [c) A LESSON IN CHEMISTRY. The ghost of a chemist demonstrates a superexplosive and tells how to make artificial diamonds. [d) AN INTERESTING GHOST. The ghost of an 18th century doctor pits germs against each other for sport. [e) STORY OF AN INSANE SAILOR. He is haunted by the ghost of a comrade whom he killed in self defence. * Stories [b), [c), [d) are linked by a hallucinogenic juju powder. * A curiosity only. Primitive stories, amateurishly told. COULDREY, OSWALD [JENNINGS) British writer, poet; perhaps a student at Oxford, perhaps resident in South India at one time. 438. THE MISTAKEN FURY AND OTHER LAPSES B. BlaCkwell; Oxford 1914 Mostly mannered and precious short stories and fables, often Classical in subject matter, with much fashionable Hellenophilia. * Including, [a) THE LOVE OFFICE. Conducting the world's romance is too much work for Love alone. An organization with palatial offices has been established. The narrator visits the offices and browses through the museum of dead loves. [b) THE LOCK-KEEPER AND THE WATER NYMPH. Erotic entanglements, including a satyr. [c) LETTERS FROM THE PHAEACIAN CAPITAL. The arrival of Odysseus as seen by the Phaeacians, who have

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COUNSEIMAN, MARY ELIZABETH a brilliant modern culture with electricity and motor boats. [d) THE MISTAKEN FURY. A senile Fury, surviving from ancient Greece, accuses a junior dean of having murdered his father. It is difficult to convince her of her mistake. [e) THE TOWER GARGOYLE. Julian becomes friendly with a gargoyle and takes it into the church. [f) THE STRANGE STORY OF JABEZ EDWARDS. He mayor may not be the incarnation of a sea power. [g) THE STORY OF THE SLEEPING VAGABOND. He mayor may not be Silenus, as tied up by Apollo. [h) LEONIDAS IN HADES, [i) CYCLOPS IN MEDITATION, [j) THE INQUISITIVE SATYR-- three short sketches as the titles indicate. * [d) is a minor classic. The other stories are trivial and overwritten. COUNSELMAN, MARY ELIZABETH (1911American (Alabama) writer, educator. Work is often regionalistic, with ante-Bellum longings. Frequent contributor to WEIRD TALES and other magazines. 439. HALF IN SHADOW Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1978 short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a) THREE MARKED PENNIES. [b) NIGHT COURT. [c) THE TREE'S WIFE. [d] THE UNWANTED. * Also, [e) THE SHOT-TOWER GHOST. (WT 1949) Fraudulent haunting. A crippled Confederate soldier leaped into the river and drowned. His ghost, according to the tall tale, repeats the feat on anniversaries. The wron~ ~host appears. [f) THE MONKEY SPOONS. (WT 1950) Antique spoons with a curse on them. The owners die suddenly, recapitulating the deaths of the original owners. And the spoons acquire mysterious engraving. [g) A DEATH CROWN FOR MR. HAPWORTHY. (WT 1948) Hapworthy is a collector of magical and folkloristic objects. A death crown, according to Mountain White folklore, is a lump of white feathers found in the pillow of a person of exceeding goodness. [h) PARASITE MANSION. (WT 1942) Sadism and psychopathology, not Counselman's usual story. Marcia, injured when her car crashes, after being shot at by the sadistic youth, is held captive by the aberrant Masons. Their problem is a very nasty poltergeist who harasses halfwitted Lollie, but Marcia works out a different solution. [i) THE GREEN WINDOW. The window was hoodooed during Civil War days, so that at each death, the circumstances of the next, future death can be_ seen in it. Told in terms of a love triangle. [j) TWISTER. The motorists on the Southern back roads are warned of a forthcoming tornado. But it never comes. A recapitulation situation, but handled with novelty. [k) A HANDFUL OF SILVER. (1967) The strange Levantine at Joe's Bar and Grill on Christmas Eve has thirty pieces of silver coinage about 2,000 years old. He tries to give them to persons in trouble, but with no success. He is the Wandering Jew, although the author seems to have confused him with the legend of Judas. * Two other stories, "The Smiling Face" and "The Black Stone Statue" are not supernatural. These are respectively a conte

COUNSELMAN, MARY ELIZABETH cruel and science-fiction of a sort. The author is most effective when dealing with local types and regionalism. Best stories are [c}, [d}, [g}. * This collection is not to be confused with the British collection of the same title but different contents. COX, ERLE (1873-1950) Australian newspaperman, writer. Well-known in 1920's and 1930's as author of OUT OF THE SILENCE (1925), fairy tale-like science-fiction in the grand manner, with superwoman surviving from ancient superior civilization. Also wrote FOOLS' HARVEST (1939), amazingly prophetic future-war novel. 440. THE, MISSING ANGEL Robertson and Mullen; Melbourne 1947 Fantasy in the manner of Thorne Smith, in an Australian setting. * Tydvil Jones, who has been crushed by a domineering mother and a bitchy Wife, rebels. He makes a compact with Nicholas Senior (a devil) and decides to have some raucous enjoyment out of life. After assorted adventures involving changes of appearance', night life, and court scenes, Jones overcomes his wife and escapes the Devil. The contract had stated that Jones would be free if he could set the Devil an impossible task. A small myth explains the title of the book: at the creation one of the angels slipped up on the task that had been set him, and as punishment was sentenced to perpetual reincarnation on earth. * Good folkways, solid characters, but somewhat strained as humor. OUT OF THE SILENCE is better. CRAM, MILDRED (1889? ) American author. Dodd, Mead; New York 441. STRANGER THINGS 1923 Short stories, including [a} STRANGER THINGS. Obviously based on the life and personality of Oscar Wilde. Cecil Grimshaw, poet and leader of an aesthetic movement, after serving a year in prison for manslaughter, falsifies his death in the Swiss Alps. He then takes up life as a French peddler, but at the same time uses his great gifts as a pop poet in low dives and cafes. In addition to the fantasy of history, a supernatural element enters after the death of Grimshaw, when he stands, invisible to all, as a spirit. [b} THE LOTUS. Mitchell, who saves the life of a Chinese shopkeeper in Hong Kong, receives a small emerald Buddha as a reward. He is followed by Oriental vengeance until he reaches his family plantation in the South and settles down. But he is discontented. An announced visitor appears: an Indian named Siddhattha, who, after some metaphysical conversation, tells Mitchell that he should lead a life of activity and improve the lot of his workers. The visitor, of course, is the Buddha. The emerald is shattered, but in • Mitchell's garden stands a beautiful, gigantic lotus plant. * A third story, "The Yellow One," is somewhat concerned with fate, but is too tenuous to be described. * Suggestive of Conrad.

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CRAWFORD, F. MARION CRAM, RALPH ADAMS (1863-1942) Distinguished American architect, historian of culture. Architect for Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. Best-known books THE GOTHIC QUEST (1907), THE SUBS LANCE OF GOTHIC (1916). 442. BlACK SPIRITS AND WHITE A BOOK; OF GHOST STORIES Stone and Kimball: Chicago 1895 Short stories, including laj NO. 252 RUE M. LE PRINCE. A haunted house in Paris, once inhabited by an ancient Spanish sorcerer. One room is fitted out as a temple for magic, with pentagrams, altar, and appurtenances. The narrator spends a night there and is attacked by a gelatinous monstrosity with staring eyes. [b} IN KROPFSBERG KEEP. Germany. According to legend the keep is haunted by the ghost of Count Albert who hanged himself there. The narrator and a companion spend the night there. The narrator is awakened by the ghost, Who tries to force him to join a ghostly dance. He shoots at the ghost, and next morning finds his companion shot dead. [c} THE WHITE VILlA. Stranded travellers in Italy take refuge in an abandoned villa. While they see nothing, they hear screams and frenzied activity. A century or two earlier the owner had dueled with his wife's lover and killed his treacherous wife. [d} SISTER MADELLENA. Sicily. The convent of Santa Catarina is haunted by the ghost of a nun who had been walled up in the window where she used to meet her lover. The narrator follows the ghost and finds her remains. [e} THE DEAD VALLEY. Sweden. A supernatural version of the valley filled,with noxious gases. The narrator and a friend stumble on it and barely escape, although the friend has no memory of it. The narrator, determined to find it again, explores the hills, finds it, and once again barely escapes. Horror. * Excellent local color; transitional between the Victorian personal ghost story and the Edwardian interest in supernatural evil. CRAWFORD, F[RANCISj MARION (1854-1909) American author, born and resident for most of his life in Italy. Early occupation newspaper work in India, followed by serious study of Sanskrit and Indic culture. Very popular in his day for literate romances in colorful, exotic settings handled with scholarly care. A competent craftsman, though today his work is seen to have made too many concessions to the market. Best-known fiction A ROMAN SINGER (1884), SARACINESCA (1887), SANT'ILARIO (1889) • 443. MR. ISAACS A TALE OF MODERN INDIA Macmillan; London 1882 Crawford's first book. A fairly long novel, which, despite Indian setting, is really an English society romance. It is obviously influenced by the Theosophy of Madame Blavatsky. * Simla, 1879. Griggs, the narrator, becomes acquainted with a very interesting Oriental jewel merchant who goes by the trade name of Mr. Isaacs. Isaacs is really Abdul Hafiz, a cultured Persian who has led a colorful life, and is fully conversant with Western culture.

CRAWFORD, F. MARION Because of his wealth Isaacs is accepted in Anglo-Indian society, and he makes the acquaintance of a Miss Westonhaugh, with whom he falls in love. Before meeting Miss Westonhaugh, he had a low opinion of women, perhaps justified by the perpetual brawling of his three wives. Isaacs is willing to disband his wifery and proceeds to court Miss Westonhaugh. Isaacs is also acquainted with Ram Lal, a real mahatma who lives in Tibet and occasionally appears in astral body and works miracles. He warns Isaacs not to take Miss Westonhaugh on a proposed tiger hunt, but Isaacs is so carried away by his emotions that he ignores the advice. She dies of jungle fever. Isaacs is disconsolate, but will retreat to Tibet to study with the mahatma. * Isaacs is said to have been modelled on a historical personality. * Rather silly. The Oriental types are not handled with conviction, and the novelistic qualities are much weaker than usual with Crawford. 444. THE WITCH OF PRAGUE A FANTASTIC TALE Macmillan; London 1891 3 vol A long occult romance with semiallegorical elements. * Prague. The personalities include: the Wanderer, a nameless man, heroic in some ways but a little clouded in mind, who is looking for Beatrice, his lost sweetheart; Keyork Arabian, a gnome-like Mephistophelean character, who is working on a method for prolonging human life indefinitely; Unorna, the Witch, a beautiful young woman with incredible hypnotic and clairvoyant pONers, who is working with Arabian; the "ancient giant", a very old man whom Uno rna and Arabian maintain in a state of suspended animation, but occasionally revive to ask for supernonnal information. Unorna meets the Wanderer and falls violently in love with him, although he does not reciprocate. She tries to convince him hypnotically that Beatrice is dead, and, later, that she, Uno rna , is Beatrice. Arabian's experiment with the ancient giant proves successful; a blood transfusion from a half-mad admirer of Unorna's fills the old man with vital energy. Unorna comes upon Beatrice and tries to hypnotize her into desecrating the cathedral, but is foiled by a holy nun. At last Unorna awakens the ancient giant and asks his advice. He advises her to repent and to bring Beatrice and the Wanderer together. She does so, and as a final gesture of accommodation, drops dead. * Long, prolix, but literate, this is a novel that Marie Corel Ii might have written had she been more intelligent and a better writer. 445. THE UPPER BERTH Putnam; New York 1894 Two short stories. [a] THE UPPER BERTH. On each voyage a horror appears in Cabin 105. It is the very vigorous and malignant corpse of a suicide. [b] BY THE WATERS OF PARADISE. Described elsewhere. * The title story is one of the best material-horror stories, convincing and strong. The other story is negligible. 446. CECILIA A TALE OF MODERN ROME Macmillan; New York 1902 Society romance in modern Italy, complicated by psychological aspects of the supernatural. Two friends in Rome: Guido d'Este, morganatic

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CRAWFORD, F. MARION son of a minor, deposed king, and Lamberto Lamberti, an officer in the Italian navy. Guido has been acting as the agent for his unscrupulous aunt, the Princess Anatolie, who has so managed matters that her bad investments are counted as debts on Guido. All that will save him from the mouth of a pistol is a wealthy marriage, which he is too proud to consider. At this time Cecilia Palladio, a young heiress, comes to Rome, and the Princess and Cecilia's mother exert themselves to bring the two young people together. Unfortunately, Cecilia has been experiencing a repetitive dream for many years, and the subject of the dream is Lamberti. Lamberti, too, has had similar dreams and visions. These dreams or visions consist of memories of a life in Rome in the early 4th century A.D., when the Vestal Virgins were abolished as an institution. Cecilia had been the last vestal and Lamberti had been her would-be lover. In this life Cecilia and Lamberti are drawn to each other, but for a time each is unaware of the other's feelings. They try to resist their mutual attraction, out of fairness to Guido, but finally recognize that fate is involved and marry. * The supernatural is handled with a certain deliberate ambiguity, Crawford putting out occasional hints that a good deal of psychological projection is involved. * I have no idea whether the mores displayed fit those of upperclass Romans around 1900, but the novel is far more readable than Crawford's other novels and superior technically. 447. MAN OVERBOARD! Macmillan; New York 1903 A small volume with a single short story. * A sailor Who has been washed overboard returns as a revenant. Material horror, but effective. 448. WANDERING GHOSTS Macmillan; New York 1911 British title UNCANNY TALES. * Short stories. [a] THE DEAD SMILE. Heavy emotion, charnal horror, what with a banshee-like shrieking and a secret that must be sought in the tomb. Sir Gabriel Ockham must venture into the tomb where his wicked father's corpse lies uncoffined, brave the detached head that moves about by itself, and gain the package with the secret. The corpse smiles disquietingly until the package is removed. Incest. [b] THE SCREAMING SKULL. The skull of Dr. Pratt's wife moves about by itself, bites people, screams horribly, and rattles. The doctor had murdered his wife by pouring molten lead in her ear. The story is told in an early anticipation of stream of consciousness. [c] FOR THE BLOOD IS THE LIFE. Italy. Cristina was murdered because she chanced upon two thieves. Her ghost enters the dreams of young Angelo, attracts him to her grave, and drinks his blood. She is finished off with a stake in the traditional manner. [d] THE DOLL'S GHOST. Old Puckler, doll doctor who loves dolls, is rewarded when the ghost of a doll that he regarded tenderly leads him to the hospital where his daughter lies injured. * Also, described elsewhere, [e] MAN OVERBOARD! [f] THE UPPER BERTH. [g] BY THE WATERS OF PARADISE. * Unusual typologically.

CRAWFORD, F. MARION A skilled technician on the higher commercial levels has used the subject matter and techniques of the crude, material-horror stories of his day. * [f} is successful; the other stories are less so. CRAWSHAY-WILLIAMS [Lt. Col.} ELIOT (1879-1962) British soldier, novelist, political writer, playwright. Secretary to D. Lloyd George and Winston Churchill. Various military posts. Fairly prolific writer of satirical fiction. 449. HEAVEN TAKES A HAND A FANTASY John Long; London [1949"1 A political cartoon cast as a fantastic novel. A council meets in Heaven to decide whether the human race should be wiped out for its follies. The members are Socrates, Benjamin Franklin, Patch the Fool, Satan, the Unknown Soldier, Nell Gwyn, and a Hollywood screen star. They argue the question, watch scenes on earth by means of celestial television, but discover that their decision is not necessary. Atomic warfare has destroyed all but two humans, a boy and a girl. The council recommends sending them to the newly founded 25th universe. * Too much moral, too little story. The characters are not developed, and the situation cannot support a work of this length. THE CREEPS SERIES A series of British anthologies edited anonymously by Charles Birkin, much of whose fiction appeared in them under the pseudonym Charles Lloyd. Editorial stress was on fairly low-brow stories of horror and sadism, although stories by H. Russell Wakefield helped to raise the level of individual volumes. The following anonymous anthologies are considered here: CREEPS, THE CREEPS OMNIBUS, HORRORS, MONSTERS, NIGHTMARES, POWERS OF DARKNESS, QUAKES, SHIVERS, SHUDDERS, TALES OF FEAR, TERRORS, THRILLS. Also in the series, but undescribed are PANICS, TALES OF DEATH, TALES OF DREAD. The following works, described elsewhere, were considered by the publisher to belong in the Creeps Series: THE STRANGE PAPERS OF DR. BLAYRE, by Christopher Blayre; TALES OF THE GROTESQUE, by L. A. Lewis; DEVILS' DRUMS and VEILS OF FEAR by Vivian Meik. [ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY} 450. CREEPS Philip Allan; London 1932 A member of the Creeps Series, edited anonymously by Charles Lloyd Birkin. Short stories, including [a} THE RED LODGE, H. R. Wakefield. [b} "HE COMETH AND HE PASSETH BY," H. R. Wakefield. Both described elsewhere. [c} THE GHOST TABLE, Elliott O'Donnell. A heavy oaken table is animated by the spirit of a psychic experimenter. The table is malicious, even though the experimenter was not. [d} THE CHARNEL HOUSE, Philip Murray. An assistant at an anatomy school prepares bodies for the tank. He dies, but is still conscious of being prepared himself. [e} A WAGER AND A GHOST, Elliott O'Donnell. Spain. A pretended and a real ghost. [f} COCKCROW INN, Tod Robbins. Described elsewhere, in l398f. * The re-

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stories in the collection are fairly low-level horror stories and contes cruels. * The two Wakefield stories are worth reading. ma~n~ng

[ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY} 451. THE CREEPS OMNIBUS Philip Allan; London 1935 A combination volume, containing CREEPS, SHIVERS, SHUDDERS. Including, all described under the original volumes, [a} THE RED LODGE, H. R. Wakefield. [b} "HE COMETH AND HE PASSETH BY," H.R. Wakefield. [c} THE GHOST TABLE, Elliott O'Donnell. [d} THE CHARNEL HOUSE, Philip Murray. lelA WAGER AND A GHOST, Elliott"O'Donnell. [f} COCKCROW INN, TodRobbins. bins. [g} THE GHOST IN THE RING, Elliott O'Donnell. [hI THE POPLAR TREE, Philip Murray. [i} THE 17TH HOLE AT DUNCASTER, H. R. Wakefield. [j} WILD WULLIE, THE WASTER, Tod Robbins. [k} "AND HE SHALL SING.. " H. R. Wakefield. [l} WHO WANTS A GREEN BOTTLE? Tod Robbins. [m} OR PERSONS UNKNOWN, H. R. Wakefield. [n} THE THIRD COACH, H. R. Wakefield. [oJ THE CRIMSON BLIND, Mrs. H. Everett. [pI THAT DIETH NOT, H. R. Wakefield. [q} PROFESSOR POWNALL'S OVERSIGHT, H. R. Wakefield. [r} TOYS, Tod Robbins. [s} ACCUSING SHADOWS, Elliott O'Donnell. [t} THE TRUNK, Philip Murray. [u} THE HAUNTED SPINNEY, Elliott O'Donnell. [v} THE PATCH, Phil~p Murr~y. [ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY} 452. CRIMES. CREEPS AND THRILLS FORTY-FIVE NEW STORIES OF DETECTION. HORROR AND ADVENTURE BY EMINENT MODERN AUTHORS E. H. Samuel; London [1936} Edited anonymously by John Gawsworth (pseudonym of Terence I. F. Armstrong). * Mystery, adventure, and supernatural fiction, including [a} THE EYES OF OBI, R. Edison Page. An obi god comes to reclaim his stolen opal eyes. [b} THE SKULL, A. L. Davis. Resurrection men steal the body of an old woman and pretend a supernatural manifestation. The woman's skull retains some form of life, for it cannot stand being shut up. [c} THE NINTH YEAR, R. Edison Page. There are nine officers in an Anglo-Indian regiment, and one must die every nine years. One does, after having an affair with the wife of one of the Indian noncommissioned officers. Questionable as fantasy. [d} MURRAY'S CHILD, Richard Middleton and G. Dundas. George Murray, the once popular author, has stopped writing. Friends investigate and find that an invisible playmate takes up all his interest. Perhaps madness. • [e} THE HOUSE OPPOSITE, Oswell Blakeston. Images in the mind of a madman, who believes that he is being absorbed by the spirit of a hanged criminal. [f} DEATH FOR THE GANDER, Simon (undisclosed pseudonym). One who scoffs at ghosts pays for his jeers. The ghost of a policeman tries to help him, but it simply causes his death. [g} THE JINGLING TELEPHONE, R. Edison Page and Kenneth Jay. An innocent man, though a criminal, is hanged for a murder he did not commit. His ghost calls the chap-

CRIMES, CREEPS AND THRILLS lain and names the true murderer. [h] THE LOST MEADOW, Edgar Jepson. A strange meadow, invisible to most, and a little girl that comes from it to play with a sickly little boy. Death. [i] THE FAKIR OF TEHERAN, Frederick Carter. A somewhat confused story of visions and divine epiphanies, told by a fakir Who snooped after old gods. [j] THE SHADOW, E. H. Visiak. A novel. A reworking on a symbolic level of concepts in Captain Marryat's THE PHANTOM SHIP. The first portion of the novel is concerned with two schoolboys, Edmund Shear and Anthony Layton. Layton's great grandfather, Hamond Layton, had been a pirate, smuggler and evil man. In some odd way his influence still persists over the Layton house and Edmund is sensitive to it. As the story procedes, it becomes clear Hamond has been trapped in a situation like the Flying Dutchman's, and that in some way Shear is a reincarnation of aspects of Hamond. Shear is to work out a redemption for Hamond. Opposed to Shear is a demonic artist, Thurston, who is also a reincarnation of Hamond, in this case his evil side. Thurston acts as a force of evil on Anthony Layton and others. Edmund finally wins the battle against evil and the phantom ship is seen sinking. Hamond has been redeemed. Other supernatural aspects are a ghost and Hamond's old silk bandanna, which conveys evil. * A failed novel, unfortunately. The theme is lost amid irrelevancies and the development is very weak. CROKER, B[ITHIA] M[ARY] (n~e SHEPPARD) (c. l860? - 1920) Prolific popular British novelist around turn of century. Apparently resident in India for a time. Work heavily translated into Hungarian; perhaps of some biographical significance? 453. "TO LET" Chat to and Windus; London 1893 Short stories of Anglo-Indian life, mostly sentimental, with much Hobson-Jobson talk. * Including [a] "TO LET." The residents of the bungalow hear a crash and the sound of someone falling. Only ghosts recapitulating a by-gone crime. [b] THE KHITMATGAR. A khitmatgar is a domestic servant. About twenty years ago, an officer killed a khitmatgar by throwing a whisky bottle at him. The ghost of the khitmatgar goes about offering drinks to guests. If one accepts, one dies. [c] THE DAK BUNGALOW AT DAKOR. Two ladies spending the night there witness the ghostly reenactment of a murder. The bones are found in the proper place. [d] "IF YOU SEE HER FACE." The ghost of a dancing girl whom a rajah had tortured and killed. She appears fractionally, and if one sees her face one dies. When she manifests herself, the protagonist sees only a pair of dancing feet, with ankle rings and bells. His friend presumably saw the woman in toto, for he dropped dead. [e] THE FORMER PASSENGERS. On a previous voyage, during a storm the hatches of the liner were battened. All the passengers drowned. They can be heard at times. * Undistinguished commercial fiction of the day. [d] is much the best story in the book.

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CROSS, JOHN KEIR CROMPTON, RICHMAL (pseud. of LAMBliRN, RICHMAL CROMPTON) (1890-1969) British author of children's books and general fiction. Classical school mistress, shifted to professional writing in the 1920's. Very well-known in Great Britain for "William" stories, but little-known in America. Most popular book, JUST WILLIAM (1922) 454. THE HOUSE Hodder and Stoughton; London [ 1926] American edition entitled DREAD DWELLING. * Family problems, accounted for by the supernatural atmosphere of an ancient house. * When the Croftons buy a fine old Tudor mansion, they also acquire psychic malaise and rot, although they are (for a long time) unaware of the cause of their problems. The house evokes the worst in each of its occupants. Sister Gwenda is about to run off with a lover, abandoning her husband and children; Babs throws herself at her twin sister's fiance and tries to commit suicide when he rejects her; Mr. Crofton changes for the worst, then suddenly dies of pneumonia; Mrs. Crofton develops religious lunacy and dies. Of the family only Donald perceives that the house has caused all the evil. A check in local records reveals that the history of the house is a long successsion of suicides and unhappiness. When Donald inherits it, he puts the torch to it. * Despite the morbid developments in the latter part of the book, the overall tone is vivacious and chatty, with much amusing period slang. As life among the upper crust, well sustained. CROSS, JOHN KEIR (1914-1967) Scottish writer, anthologist, B.B.C. figure. Best-known in Great Britain for bookslf9r teenagers. Used pseudonyms Stephen MacFarlane, Susan Morley. 455 • THE OTHER PASSENGER EIGHTEEN STRANGE STORIES Westhouse; London 1944 Brittle, pointed modern work involving various aspects of horror. Only two are supernatural. Including raj CLAIR DE LUNE. The nar'rator-, greatly bored during hi~ vis-it -t~ agroup of faddist pseudo-intellectuals, sees a strange young woman on the lawn, and realizes that he had seen her ghostly hands previously. She tells him that the Black People will be coming for someone; a suicide follows. [b] ESMERALDA. Mr. Broome, a small shopkeeper, becomes more and more depressed about his dead marriage. His wife is gross and fat, and has refused to have children. As compensation Broome has created an imaginary daughter, Esmeralda, for whom he fantasizes various life patterns. He deteriorates, murders his wife; Esmeralda comes into existence, as tainted as Broome's mind. * This edition, but not the American (Lippincott) edition, has 8 colored surrealistic illustrations by Bruce Angrave. AS EDITOR: 456. BEST HORROR STORIES Faber and Faber; London 1957 Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] SKELETON, Ray Bradbury. [b].~ WATCHE~ BY THE DEAD, Ambrose Bierce. [c] BERENICE, E. A.

CROSS, JOHN KEIR Poe. [d] AUGUST HEAT, W.F. Harvey. [eJ LOT NO. 249, A.C. Doyle. [f] THE MARK OF THE BEAST, Rudyard Kipling. [g] THRAWN JANET, R. L. Stevenson. [h] "OH, WHISTLE, AND I'LL COME TO YOU, MY LAD," M. R. James. [i] HEARTBURN, Hortense Calisher. [j] OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS, Philip MacDonald. * Most of the other stories are contes cruels that are not fantastfc in our sense. CROWLEY, ALEISTER (i.e. CROWLEY, EDWARD ALEXANDER) (1875-1947) Notorious British occultist, cultist, black magician, mountain climber, poet, writer of esoteric books. ,Occult works published under many pseudonyms. Excellent account of his fascinating life in either THE GREAT BEAST by John Symonds (1951, with later revisions) or Crowley's privately printed autobiographies. 457 • THE STRATAGEM AND OTHER STORIES Mandrake Press; London [1929] Three short stories by England's Worst Man. Including [a] THE TESTAMENT OF MAGDALEN BLAIR. Married to an experimental psychologist, Mrs. Blair is a very gifted psychic with many paranormal abilities. Her husband contacts Bright's disease, and as he lies dying (and after his physical death) she observes and records what is passing through his mind. The recorded phenomena are among the most horrible in the literature, as his illness, symbolically conceived as a demon, consumes him, and as his decaying brain releases emotions and memory fragments. Horror follows horror as the compensating mechanisms that control perception of space and time fall into decay. Even after the cremation of her husband's body, Mrs. Blair continues to record his sensations as he proceeds to Universal Consciousness, which is not bliss, but a state of perpetual pain, change, and war. Mrs. Blair breaks under the strain and is now in a madhouse. * A remarkable achievement, as one of the most unpleasant stories in the genre. CULLINGFORD, GUY (pseud. of TAYLOR, CONSTANCE LINDSAY) (1907 ) 458. POST MORTEM Hammond; London 1953 Mystery story told in the supernatural mode. * Gilbert Worth, a talented and moderately successful author, suddenly finds himself dead, looking at his murdered corpse. There had been two previous attempts at his life, but the murder comes as a surprise and shock to him. He recognizes that he has always been an unpleasant man with a sharp tongue, and realizes that he has destroyed his home life by sleeping with his secretary, but murder seems to him excessive. The novel is concerned with the interactions of the various characters, who are well-drawn, and the reflections of the powerless Worth over what gradually develops. While Worth cannot communicate and cannot be perceived, except by a psychic house maid who has vague feelings of his presence, he is able to write, and he records what is going on. The solution is a surprise to him, though it may not be to the reader. More important for

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CUNNINGHAM, ALLAN Worth is a dawning recognition of his own cr~es and weaknesses and a recognition that he is in Purgatory. Before he leaves Purgatory, he manages to do one good deed. * Wellhandled, even though the mystery element is not strong. CUMMINS, HARLE OREN American writer, fl. turn of century in Boston, Mass. 459. WELSH RAREBIT TALES The Mutual Book Co.; Boston 1902 Short stories, including [a] THE FOOL AND HIS JOKE. A joker pretends to be a ghost in order to frighten a friend who has a gun loaded with blanks. It is unnerving when the "ghost" catches the bullets and throws them back. [b] THE END OF THE ROAD. The Man meets Death in human form. [c] THE WINE OF PANTINELLI. Italy. Poisoned wine. Death by suggestion. [d] THE FALSE PROPHET. France. The broken-down absinthe bum once had paranormal foresight, but he is now discredited. He shows one more flash of insight. [e] A STUDY IN PSYCHOLOGY. Dr. Van Horne hypnotizes a prisoner in death row, suggesting that he cannot die from elec'trick shock. He cannot, until the doctor releases the suggestion. [f] THE MAN WHO WAS 'NOT AFRAID. A bet. A soldier enters a tomb to take the neck-cloth off a corpse. The dead are not as dead as supposed. Rationalized. [g] THE STORY THE DOCTOR TOLD. Like Dorian Gray, the painter puts down on canvas the image of his own horrors, or conscience, and the picture haunts h~. [h] THE MAN WHO MADE A MAN. Professor Holbrok makes a man and an~ates it with electricity. But the Monster is destroyed, perhaps by divine intervention? * Trivial, florid periodical writing. The included sci,ence-fiction story "The Space Annihilator" is interesting in idea. CUNNINGHAM, ALLAN (1784-1842) Scottish poet, novelist, historical and critical writer. Best-known in the 19th century for THE LIVES OF THE MOST EMINENT BRITISH PAINTERS AND SCULPTORS, which went through many editions. Also concerned with the early 19th century revival of folkloristic studies. 460. TRADITIONAL TALES OF THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH PEASANTRY Taylor and Hessey; London 1822 2 vol. Although there are undoubtedly elements of Scottish and Northern English folklore in this collection, they have been so heavily elaborated and adapted that the stories are to be considered fiction. Some Early Romantic poetry is included in the stories, as is some dialect. * Including [a] EZRA PEDEN. Peden, a 17th century Presbyterian minister, is confronted by the ghost of a recently deceased Cavalier. They converse, on spiritual matters. It is observed that the wicked dead serve one another as mounts. * A fictionalization of what seems to have been a fairly common Scottish factual chapbook situation: the minister Who is confronted by the damned, whereupon they converse about life after death. [b] THE GHOST WITH

CUNNINGHAM, ALLAN THE GOLDEN CASKET. Cumberland coast. During a shipwreck, the fisherman Gilbert Gyrape, instead of saving the life of a woman who is washed ashore, murders her for her jewelry. He prospers for a time, but her ghost, in the form of a light-being, returns and has its revenge. [c] THE MOTHER'S DREAM. A mother has disturbing prophetic dreams about her son, whom she sees drowning. He has been lured onto the ice with the expectation of seeing an enchanted castle down in the waters. The lake also has its yearly quota of "sacrifices." [d] ELPHIN IRVING, THE FAIRIES' CUPBEARER. Phemie has a vision that her brother has been taken by the Fairies, who take a human once every seven years to sacrifice to the Devil. Borderline superna tural. [e] THE LAST LORD OF HELVELLYN • When the spectral ship of Solway is seen, it is a bad omen. Old Margery Forsythe, a notorious witch, warns the bridal party against landing, prophecying death. She is right. [f] fiIDtfH MACRONE THE PROPHETESS~ She prophecies evil for the newly weds, and it comes. [g] THE HAUNTED SHIPS. Two old beached hulks, which are haunted by evil water-elves. The elves animate a piece of wood and send it in human guise to Laird Laurie. A classic story that has been anthologized many times. * [g] is excellent; [a] and [b] are also good leisurely developed stories in the mildly inflated style that was fashionable. CUPPY, WILL[IAM] [JACOB] (1884-1949) American newspaperman (New York), humorist, book reviewer, anthologist. Best-known for humorous HOW TO BECOME EXTINCT (1941 and HOW TO ATTRACT THE WOMBAT (1949). AS EDITOR: 461. WORLD'S GREAT MYSTERY STORIES, AMERICAN AND ENGLISH MASTERPIECES World Publishing Co.; Cleveland, Ohio 1943 Introduction. Short stories, including described elsewhere, [a] THE SIGNAL-MAN, Charles Dickens. [b] THE LISTENER, Algernon Blackwood. [c] THE DOOR IN THE WALL, H. G. Wells. [d] THE DREAM WOMAN, Wilkie Collins. [e] THE MASQUE OF THE READ DEATH, Edgar Allan Poe. [f] THE BOARDED WINDOW, Ambrose Bierce. [g] MISS MARY PASK, Edith Wharton. [h] A MESSAGE TO LAURA, Francis Brett Young. World War I. A fiendish Hun is a patient in a hospital where Nurse Laura works. While unconscious he is mediumistic, and Laura's husband speaks through him. [i] A SHORT TRIP HOME, F. Scott Fitzgerald. College students and a crbninal who specializes in train seductions and blackmail. He appears on the train after he is dead, and the friends of the woman concerned must fight away evil. [j] THE MAGIC OF FEAR, Edgar Wallace. A Sanders of the River story. Africa. A native girl has the power to make appear before one the thing that one fears most. Her ability reveals that a visiting dignitary is a murderer. One of Wallace's better stories. * Also present is "The Iron Shroud" by William Mudford, not fantastic, but a predecessor of "The Pit and the Pendulum" by Edgar Allan Poe.

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CURRAN, RONALD CURRAN, RONALD American anthologist, educator (University of Pittsburgh). Has specialized in early American ephemeral literature. 462. WITCHES. WRAITHS AND WARLOCKS SUPERNATURAL TALES OF THE AMERICAN RENAISSANCE Fawcett Publications; Greenwich, Conn. 1971 paperbound A collection of supernatural (and other) material from ephemeral sources; not all of it is American in ultimate origin. The author's introduction is oriented toward psychoanalysis. * The first section is folkloristic material, only occasionally developed into fiction, as [a] JONATHAN MOULTON AND THE DEVIL, Samuel Adams Drake. The Devil engages to fill Moulton's boots with gold pieces once a month, but Moulton cuts the bottoms out of the boots. * [b] THE DEATH WALTZ, Charles M. Skinner. At Fort Union the corpse of a rejected bridegroom appears and dances the bride to death. [c] THE LEGEND OF THE PIPE, "Launcelot." (1828) Hans Bradin has the sense to give up his tobacco to the wizard-demon Veneficus; in exchange he receives an enormous magical pipe that is always full. [d] THE MIDNIGHT VOYAGE OF THE SEAGULL, Volney E. Howard. (1842) 17th century Salem; witchcraft on board the vessel. [e] THE SPHINX, AN EXTRAVAGANZA ETCHED IN THE MANNER OF CALLOT, Anonymous. (BLACKWOOD, 1828) Derivative, as the author states, from THE GOLDEN POT by E.T.A. Hoffmann. Arnold, a student in Hamburg, buys from an old woman peddler a walking stick with a beautifully carved head. As he walks with it in the evening, he is assaulted by forces that remind him of the old woman. He loses consciousness and awakens in the castle of the beautiful Countess Cordula. He has suspicions that she is not mortal, which suspicions are verified when, in an Egyptian room, she assumes a sphinx-like position and asks him to resolve the question of identities. He flees in terror, but languishes after her; He meets her again at a costume party where Mephistopheles is present, and her supernatural nature is even more apparent. All a dream. [f] TALE OF A CONJURER, Anonymous (1833) When Lady Lynch's jewelled rosary is stolen, she consults a local conjurer in Paris. He shows her a vision of the stolen jewels, but tells her that she must not reveal her source of information, or she will die on the eighth day. True. [g] THE ENCHANTER FAUSTUS AND QUEEN ELIZABETH, Anonymous. (BLACKWOOD, 1822). Faust is giving an exhibition in magic to Queen Elizabeth, Essex, and Sidney. Her Majesty wants to see famous beauties of the past, at all of whom she sneers. When he is forced to evoke Fair Rosamond twice, there is a supernatural backlash. Humor poked at feminine jealousy. [h] THE DREAM, Anonymous (1844) Colonel B____ has prophetic nightmares about a cemetery where he sees his own name on a stone. A murderous landlord is included. [i] THE WOODEN-LEGGED GHOST, John Waters. (1840) Major Hamilton, who has a metal-shod peg leg, dies. His ghost appears to Captain Gordon and gives him very precise instructions about find-

CURRAN, RONALD ing his relicts. * Also, described elsewhere, [j] YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN, Nathaniel Hawthorne. [k] THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW, Washington Irving. [1] THE BLACK CAT, E. A. Poe. [m] A GHOST STORY, Mark Twain. [n] RAPPACCINI'S ~UGHTER, Nathaniel Hawthorne. [0] LIGEIA, E. A. Poe. [p] RIP VAN WINKLE, Washington Irving. [q] THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, E. A. Poe. Most of the undescribed fiction is sensational in one way or another. A resourceful collection, but more editing would have helped. 463. THE WEIRD GATHERING AND OTHER TALES "SUPERNATURAL" WOMEN IN AMERICAN POPULAR FICTION, 1800-1850 Fawcett Crest; New York 1979 paperbound Poems, essays, and short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] THE MIDNIGHT VOYAGE OF THE SEAGULL, Volney E. Howard. [b] FAIRIES, DElLS, AND WITCHES, James Hogg. Alternate title for THE WITCHES OF TRAQUAIR. [c] FAIRIES, BROWNIES, AND WITCHES, James Hogg. Alternate title for MARY BURNET. [d] THE WATER LADY, Anonymous. Alternate title for THE 'BLACK WATER VA ULT • [e] A NIGHT ON "THE ENCHANTED MOUNTAINS," Anonymous. Alternate title for A TALE OF MYSTERY. * Also, [f] THE WITCH CAPRUSCHE, Mrs. E. F. Ellett. (1845) Pagan Denmark. Toke Jarl's wife Ruscha invokes the aid of a witch to kill him. But a potion prepared by his Finnish slave is stronger. Jarl traps his Wife, but she becomes a demon of a sort. [g] THE WITCH OF ROSEBERRY TOPPING, OR THE HAUNTED RING, Anonymous. (1835) A short Romantic Gothic novel. De Wilton experiences many sorts of supernatural horror, including a witch, phantoms that emerge from the walls, and a magic ring. But it is all fraudulent, to bring him into a political cabal to unseat the Tudors. [h] THE LAST WITCH, Clara F. Guernsey. (1873) 18th century New England? Old Lyddy Russell is believed to have bewitched young Tristram Coffin. Coffin, Sr. threatens Lyddy with a silver bullet, and the witching is removed. Later, when at sea, Coffin's ship is threatened by a supernaturally evoked storm. He fires the silver bullet at it, the storm dies, and so, it is later learned, did Lyddy Russell. [i] AUNT RACHE, Joseph R. Chandler. (1833) Aunt Rache, a colonial witch, places a successful curse on the brig. [j] THE NYMPH OF THE WATERS, Anonymous. (1826) The young Count Palatine decides to woo the Lorelei. [k] THE ENCHANTED LAKE, Anonymous,. (1828) Lake Geneva has its own siren or lorelei, and young Victor in a moment of bravado decides to meet her and tear a lock of hair from her head. He sees her, returns, but there is no returning from a third visit. Presumably folkloristic in origin, since much the same theme occurs in one of Robert Aickman's more recent stories. [1] HAMET, A TALE, Anonymous. (1812) Moralistic Oriental tale, about a young man who is conducted to a desert island by a supernatural being, and reaps a reward for his lack of faith and his insolence. [m] SEPPI, THE GOATHERD, Anonymous. (1850) Switzerland. The water fairy takes Seppi down into her abode in the lake. She warns him that he must leave immediately, or she will die. He insists on

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DACRE, CHARLOTTE staying. After a tbne he becomes bored and decides to return to earth. The fairy dies, and Seppi has been away for 80 years. [n] A SWISS LEGEND, Anonymous. (1830) Petermann the woodcutter sees dwarfs examining their treasure, and his greed is aroused. When a wandering scholar offers to help him attain the treasure, Petermann agrees. The scholar's magic opens the treasure caves, and Petermann enters-- but he must not speak a word. [0] THE THREE SWANS, Anonymous. (1828) Swan maidens. A boy is taken down into the lake to their magical apartments. When he tries to return, he drowns. [p] THE WIFE OF KING TOLV, Anonymous. Medieval Denmark. Young Hyldreda sees the marvelous train of King Tolv, the local king of the fairies, and falls under his power. He takes her away to be his queen. When her child is born, she wishes to baptise it, and he permits her to leave fairyland, but warns her, for a soul gained, a life must be lost. [q] THE MAGIC MIRROR, OR THE LADY OF THE CRYSTAL SPRING, R.W.W. Aileen, vain, selfish beauty, receives a magic mirror from the fairy Femaqua. Despite having all the advantages of a queenly state, a loving husband, and health, Aileen is not happy. The mirror shows her her soul, and she learns how to bnprove herself. [r] CROCHET, Alfred Crowquill. (1847) An ironic fairy tale of the prince Who is helped by the fairy Crochet, whose magic net comes to his assistance at the proper times. When he marries her, she loses all her magic powers except crocheting. * The title changes in [b], [c], [d], and [e] seem to be Curran's; the remaining stories have not been checked for similar alterations. * A good, resourceful collection of minor reading material of the period, although more editing would have been desirable. The editor contributes a fairly long introduction offering interpretations of motifs from what amounts to a social psychology of literature. * There are also a few very interesting stories, not supernatural, that deal with Indian-White relations.

DACRE, CHARLOTTE (1782 ? British poet, author of Gothic fiction. Popular in her day under the pseudonym Rose Matilda. 464. ZOFLOYA: OR. THE MOOR A ROMANCE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme; London 1806 3 vol Gothic novel derivative from THE MONK by M. G. Lewis. * The setting is late 15th century Italy; the chief character is Victoria de Loredani, a beautiful, intelligent woman, unfortunately governed by passions that will stop at nothing for their gratification. The plot is a complex tale of seductions, murders, intrigues, and escapades with banditti. Supernaturalism is mostly concentrated on Zofloya,

DACRE, CHARLOTTE a mysterious Moor who is servant to Henriquez, whom Victoria is attempting to seduce. Zof10ya helps Victoria in her schemes. The end comes when Victoria, along with banditti, is trapped in a cave, surrounded by soldiers. Zof10ya promises to rescue her if she will devote herself to him. She agrees, whereupon he reveals himself as Satan and hurls her from a cliff. * A minor Gothic novel of no great literary interest, except that it seems to have been of some influence on Shelley when he was a youth. * ZOFLOYA was reprinted in 1928 by the Fortune Press (London), in a limited edition with a long, digressive introduction by Montague Summers. DAIL, C[HARLES) C[URTIS) American author; no infonnation, but presumably a Kansan. 465. WILLMOTH THE WANDERER. OR THE MAN FROM SATURN Haskell Printing Co.; Atchison, Kansas [1890) A primitive novel, borderline science-fiction. * Wi11moth, a native of Saturn, wanders about his home planet on an airchair and discovers many hitherto unknown peoples, most of whom are polygamous: savage cyclopes Who live on a great lake of milk; people created with the planet itself, Who live in the molten core; twenty-foot giants who ride flying reptiles, live 30,000 years, and are then reincarnated; rose-men who drink attar; humanoid birds; and other strange peoples. He and his mate Zea then travel to Venus, where ~hey find a very interesting water civilization, which they report on back to Saturn by means of sky-writing. With the aid of the water people of Venus, Wi11moth and Zea then visit earth, in our far past. The earth is inhabited by the Tarths, a bestial tusked race, whom the Saturnians capture and breed for docility and intelligence, ultimately producing man. After many ages pass Willmoth dies, but man is on the road to development. Atlantis is also mentioned. * Dai1's conventions are the common property of the interplanetary before Wells, a travelogue of the Solar System and an occult system of reincarnation from planet to planet. But Dai1's work is easily the most exuberant of such works. While Wi11moth's adventures are eccentric and primitive, the force of Dai1's imagination and the ingenuity with which he adapts life to its environment, make this a most interesting period piece. Charming primitive woodcuts. DALE, HARRISON (1885 ?) British anthologist. His autobiographical VANISHING TRAILS has not been available to me. AS EDITOR: 466. GREAT GHOST STORIES Herbert Jenkins; London [1930) Historical introduction, THE ART OF THE GHOST STORY by the editor. * Described elsewhere, [aj WANDERING WILLIE'S TALE, Walter Scott. [b) THE OLD NURSE'S TALE, Elizabeth Gaskell. [cJ WHAT WAS IT? F~tz-James O'Brien. [dj THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS, Edward Bu1wer-Lytton. Long version. [ej MADAM CROWL'S GHOST, M. R.

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DANE, CLEMENCE James. [f) -THRAWN JANET, R. L. Stevenson. [g) TEIG O'KANE AND THE CORPSE, translated by Douglas Hyde. [h) THE LADY'S MAID'S BELL, Edith Wharton. [i) THE UPPER BERTH, F. Marion Crawford. [j) THE .MUMMY'S FOOT, Theophi1e Gautier. [k) MAESE PEREZ, THE ORGANIST, Gustavo Becquer. [1) THE TALL WOMAN, Pedro de Alarcon. [m) THE STORY OF MING-Y, Lafcadio Hearn. * Also [n) THE CEDAR CLOSET, Lafcadio Hearn. England. Just before her wedding the bride sees a horrible ghost and hears its victim begging for mercy. A couple of years later part of the sequence is recapitulated in life. When the wing of the house is torn down, the remains of the murdered victim are found. Lady Drage did it in the 16th century. A juvenile work. [0) THE CORPSE THE BLOOD-DRINKER, translated by George Sou1ie from the Chinese; from STRANGE STORIES FROM THE LODGE OF LEISURES (1913). Wang Fou, a merchant, awakens at an inn, and finds his fellow travellers have been destroyed by a vampire. She takes after him, too. Both their corpses are found the next morning. 467. MORE GREAT GHOST STORIES Herbert Jenkins; London [1932) Introduction, ANTHOLOGISTS AND OTHER GHOULS, by the editor. * Described elsewhere, [a) IN DEFENSE OF HIS RIGHT, Daniel Defoe. [b) PETER RUGG, THE MISSING MAN, William Austin. [c) THE BOTATHEN GHOST, R. S. Hawker. [d) YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN, Nathaniel Hawthorne. [e) THE SIGNAL-MAN, Charles Dickens. [f) THE FAMILIAR, J. S. LeFanu. [g) THURNLEY ABBEY, Perceval Landon. [h) THE OPEN DOOR, Margaret Oliphant. [i) THOUGH ONE ROSE FROM THE DEAD, W. D. Howells. [j) AFTERWARD, Edith Wharton. [k) IN THE BLACKFRIARS WYND, H. Pease. * Also, (1) THE PHANTOM REGIMENT, James Grant. (1856) Ghosts of soldiers, during the Peninsular Wars. DANE, CLEMENCE (pseud. of ASHTON, WINIFRED) (1888-1965) British mainstream novelist, playwright, miscellaneous writer. Highly regarded in the 1930's as a novelist, but now forgotten. Author of highly successful play, A BILL OF DIVORCEMENT (1921). Best-known novels THE BABYONS (1928), BROOME STAGES (1931). 468. THE BABYONS Heinemann; London 1927 A family history told in terms of the marriages and sexuality of four women, ranging from the late 18th century to the early 20th century. The mode is a muted neo-Gothic romanticism, with West Country estates, Gipsies; supernaturalism, and restricted sensationalism. The American edition (Doubleday, Doran; Garden City, N.Y.) was published in four separate, consecutively numbered volumes, titled according to the parts listed below. * [a) THIRD PERSON SINGULAR, GEORGIAN. James Babyon, wealthy young land owner is betrothed to his cousin Hariot. He does not love her, but prefers her companion Mene11a Trai11. When he learns that Hariot is periodically mad, with violent episodes, he jilts her and runs off with Mene11a. But on the eve of his marriage Hariot commits suiCide, and her ghost is always with James. Memory, but

DANE, CLEMENCE truly supernatural. * The second and third novels in the work, MIDSUMMER MEN and CREEPING JENNY, are not supernatural, although there is a minor element of folkloristic magic in MIDSUMMER MEN. * [b] IADY BABYON. EDWARDIAN. This is the fourth novel. A less rambunctious predecessor of REBECCA. The past, seen supernaturally, stands between man and wife as the family curse continues. When young Antonina Drury marries elderly Sir Nicholas Babyon, each partner is mistaken. She marries for love, but he because he misinterpreted her personality. Antonina is almost physically assaulted by the spiritual residue of Nicholas's dead mother and hears the death portent of James Babyon riding through the park, as her husband is thrown from his horse and killed. With Nicholas's death, the curse is broken, but whether through Antonina's love or extinction of the family is not clear. * Literate, stylistically interesting Art Deco romanticism. DANIELS, LES (1943American (Providence, R. I.) author. Author of COMIX, A HISTORY OF COMIC BOOKS IN AMERICA; LIVING IN FEAR, A HISTORY OF HORROR IN THE MASS MEDIA; and, beyond the time span of this volume, supernatural historical novels about a nearly immortal vampire. AS EDITOR: 469. DYING· OF FRIGHT MASTERPIECES OF THE MACABRE Scribners; New York 1976 Anthology, including, described elsewhere, [a] THE ADVENTURE OF THE GERMAN STUDENT, Washington Irving. [b] THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, Edgar Allan Poe. [c] ETHAN BRAND, Nathaniel Hawthorne. [d] SQUIRE TOBY'S WILL, Joseph Sheridan LeFanu. [e] THE UPPER BERTH, F. Marion Crawford. [f] LOST HEARTS, M. R. James. [g] THE YELLOW SIGN, Robert W. Chambers. [h] THE WILLOWS, Algernon Blackwood. [i] THE VOICE IN THE NIGHT, William Hope Hodgson. [j] AUGUST HEAT, W. F. Harvey. [k] THE EXILES' CLUB, Lord Dunsany. [1] THE CALL OF CTHULHU, H. P. Lovecraft. [m] A VISITOR FROM EGYPT, Frank Belknap Long. [n] ROPE ENOUGH, John Collier. [0] THE GRAVEYARD RATS, Henry Kuttner. [p] THEY BITE, Anthony Boucher. [q] YOURS TRULY, JACK THE RIPPER, Robert Bloch. [r] THE HOMECOMING, Ray Bradbury. [s] THE MAN WHO NEVER GREW YOUNG, Fritz Leiber. [t] LEVITATION, Joseph Payne Brennan. * The other stories are either mysteries 'or science-fiction. Illustrated by Lee Browne Coye. * A good collection of classical material, with exceptionally good headnotes. DARE, M[ARCUS] P[AUL] (1902-1962) British archeologist, folklorist, author. 470. UNHOLY RELICS AND OTHER UNCANNY TALES Arnold; London 1947 Short supernatural stories based on the experi'" ences of two antiquarians, Wayne and Granville. * [a] UNHOLY RELICS. The narrator, who is studying records of the A1bigenses in Toulouse, becomes obsessed with the notion of conveying the relics of Saints Edmund and Gilbert (which

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DARLINGTON, W. A. are in the Cathedral of St. Sernin) back to England. When he profanes the receptacles, he is assaulted by a horde of skeletons. The same thing had happened once before, centuries ago. [b] THE HAUNTED DRAWERS. When the stuffy researcher is told by a young flapper that her drawers are haunted, he nearly flips. She means a dresser in her bedroom. Investigation turns up 18th century letters from a young woman who had been betrayed by the ancestor of the flapper. [c] A NUN'S TRAGEDY. Investigation in the undercroft of an abbey turns out to be a horrible experience as Wayne and Granville are assaulted by the foul-smelling, slimy, filthy, very material ghost of a nun Who had been walled up. [d] A FORGOTTEN ITALIAN. Mrs. Shelley seems to be possessed by the spirits of great artists. Completely untutored, she paints masterpieces in various styles. [e] FATAL OAK. An oaken chair and a tobacco jar, made from the wood of a gibbet, have the power to kill evil persons Who touch them. [f] THE DEMONIAC GOAT. When Wayne and Granville read of a spectacular find of Saxon coins, they visit the finder, Who is listed by the directory of clergymen as being dead. It is revealed that he maintains life in a vampiric manner, conducts human sacrifices, worships at an old Roman altar, and kisses the posterior of a demonic goat. Thought forms and an elemental. [g] THE NYMPH STILL LIVES. Wayne tosses a coin into the well formerly sacred to the nymph Coventina. She appears and rewards him. [h] THE BEAM. A poltergeistic arm, covered with green hair, emerges from a beam taken from the home of a suicide. [i] THE HAUNTED HELMET. A suit of armor pieced together from miscellaneous components includes the grave helmet of one of the Guy Fawkes conspirators. It becomes animated on occasion. [j] THE OFFICER'S COAT. From the Napoleonic Wars. The former owner appears and expresses satisfaction that the coat will be taken care of. [k] BORGIA POMADE. The antiquaries locate a secret room in which is a beautiful Italian Renaissance jar. It had been made out of human bones, to magical rites, and conveys a supernatural skin disease. [1] AN ABBOT'S MAGIC. The ghost of a medieval abbot performs a black mass in the chapel. Records confirm his activities. [m] BRING OUT YOUR DEAD. The gifted young scholar is overenthusiastic when he steals a skull from an ossuary filled with victims of the Great Plague. The plague returns supernaturally and claims him, with cries to bring out one's dead, chalk marks on the door, and all. * The author attempts to imitate M. R. James's scholarly sophistication, but lacks the skill to do more than supply crude horror. DARLINGTON, W[ILLIAM] A[UBREY] (1890 ) C.B.E. Important British critic; also playwright, novelist (detective stories, fantasies), journalist. Editor of THE WORLD; drama critic for London DAILY TELEGRAPH for many years; London drama correspondent for the NEW YORK TIMES. Generally important in literary circles. Wellknown for dramatic version of ALF'S BUTTON.

DARLINGTON, W. A. 471. ALF'S BUTTON Herbert Jenkins; London 1919 Humorous fantasy set in circumstances of World War I. A1f and Bill, two Cockneys, are series characters of the author's. * In the trenches Private A1f Higgins, a rather stupid man, happens to rub one of his buttons. A genie appears, for the button is a remnant of Aladdin's lamp. Alf and Bill try to use the services of the genie in various small ways, but without much success. They are too stupid to recognize the implications of the situation, and the genie is hopelessly out of date in methods and materials. In addition to antics in the trenches, there is a long episode set in England, where A1f and Bill establish a sumptuous Oriental palace. The button is eventually lost. Today the military background, customs of the B.E.F., and incidents of life are much more interesting than the fantasy, which is a feeble derivative of F. Anstey's THE BRASS BOTTLE. It is somewhat surprising that a man with Darlington's credentials should have written rubbish like the three books considered here. 472. EGBERT Herbert Jenkins; London 1924 Humorous fantasy. * Egbert unintentionally insults a magician, Who transforms him into a rhinoceros. His friends put him on the stage as a performing rhino until they can find the magician and persuade him to release Egbert. 473. ALF'S NEW BUTTON Herbert Jenkins; London 1940 A sequel to ALF'S BUTTON. World War II. A1f receives from the genie a jade button which will grant him six wishp.s, one a week. A1f is ready to stop the war, ryut trivial events prevent this. His daughter makes a wish to look like a famous motion picture star, and is kidnapped by an amorous Moslem. All the wishes are wasted. * Commercial. DAVENPORT, BASIL (1905-1966) U.S. anthologist, publishing executive (Book of the Month Club); C.I.D. experience in Germany after World War II. Radio personality. AS EDITOR: 474. GHOSTLY TALES TO BE TOLD Dodd, Mead; New York 1950 Selected from the point of view of oral presentation, with introductory hints. Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE WENDIGO, Algernon Blackwood. [b] AUGUST HEAT, W. F. Harvey. [c] COUNT MAGNUS, M. R. James. Cd] THE HOUSE OF THE NIGHTMARE, E. L. White. [e] THE SCREAMING SKULL, F. Marion Crawford. [f] THE MONKEY'S PAW, W.W. Jacobs. [g] THE GENTLEMAN FROM AMERICA, Michael Arlen. [h) THE WHITE POWDER, Arthur Machen. [i] COUCHING AT THE DOOR, D. K. Broster. lj] THE YELLOW WALL-PAPER, Charlotte P. Gilman. [k] WHERE THEIR FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED, May Sinclair. [1] THE REFUGEE, Jane Rice. [m] JOHNSON LOOKED BACK, Thomas Burke. * Also, [n] WHERE ANGELS FEAR, Manly Wade Wellman. (UNK 1939) Too many suicides have taken place in the half-ruined house. Muriel and McCormack visit the house and soon note that the room they are in is trapping them. They look back to see their own corpses hanging

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DAVENPORT, BASIL on the wall. * It is difficult to see how some of these stories could be recited. 475. TALES TO BE TOLD IN THE DARK Dodd, Mead; New York 1953 Stories for narration, including, described elsewhere, [a] THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS, W. F. Harvey. Earlier, shorter version. [b) SREDNI VASHTAR, Saki. [c] THE BLACK SEAL, A. Machen. [d) THE BOOK, Margaret Irwin. [e) THUS I REFUTE BEELZY, John Collier. [f) THE WHITE PEOPLE, Arthur Machen. [g) THE OPEN WINDOW, Saki. * Also [h) BY ONE, BY TWO, BY THREE, Stephen Hall. (STRAND MAGAZINE 1913) MacBane, Who studies books on magic and witchcraft at Cambridge, has sold his soul to the Devil. In exchange he acquires a demon that will kill for him, but there are occasions when Mac Bane must supply a victim or die. [i) THE CLOSED CABINET, Anonymous. Victorian origin. The Mervyn family stands under a curse. Connected with the curse is a sealed cabinet. When the cabinet opens, according to legend, the curse will depart. The woman narrator sees the cabinet open itself, Ghosts and murder paraphernalia. [j] THE CLOSED CABINET, Basil Davenport. Davenport, recognizing that [i] is cumbersome, badly plotted, and barely intelligible, has shortened the narrative greatly and reworked the story. It was not worth the effort. 476. DEALS WITH THE DEVIL AN ANTHOLOGY Dodd, Mead; New York 1958 Material based in one way or another on the diabolic bond. Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE DEVIL AND MR. CHIPS, Charles Dickens. [b] SIR DOMINICK'S BARGAIN, J. S. LeFanu. [c] ENOCH SOAMES, Max Beerbolun. [d] A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL, Lord Dunsany. [e] SATAN AND SAM SHAY, Robert Arthur. [f] THE LEGEND OF MONT ST.-MICHEL, Guy de Maupassant. [g] THE DEVIL AND THE OLD M.O\N, John Masefie1d. [h] THRESHOLD, Henry Kuttner. [i] THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER, S. V. Benet. [j] THE DEVIL, GEORGE, AND ROSIE, John Collier. [k] DEVIL PUZZLERS, F. B. Perkins. [1] NELLTHU, Anthony Boucher. [m] CAVEAT EMPTOR, L. S. de Camp and Fletcher Pratt. * Also, [n] THE BRAZEN LOCKED ROOM, Isaac Asimove (MFSF 1956) The escape clause in the bond: the protagonist must escape from a sealed chamber. He does it by means of time travel. Lo] TIME TRAMMEL~ Miriam A. De Ford. (MFSF 1956) Another escape, this time with insanity and different pro~abi1ity worlds. [p] LMPACT WITH THE DEVIL, Theodore R. Cogswell. (MFSF 1956) Krans wants to go back in time to rescue a trapped person and he needs supernatural assistance. A surprising reverse ending. [q] THE DEMON AND SIMON FLAGG, Arthur Porges (MFSF 1956) Flagg must stump the Devil for twentyfour hours. Fermat's last theorem does it. Borderline science-fiction. [r] THREES IE, T. R. Cogswell. (MFSF 1956) Gathering souls is a hard-boiled, very vulgar business operation. When the protagonist asks, as his third wish, for three more, some time-recycling is needed. Ls] A BARGAIN IN BODIES, Moses Schere. (UNK 1943) A murderer must carry an invisible corpse on his shoulders while a mocking devil, visible

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to everyone, accompanies him. When a wellwisher seizes the devil's power-token and tries to remedy matters, the change is slight. [t] HELL-BENT, Ford McCormack. (MFSF 1951) The young hoodlum agrees to the Devil's wish:.never to do good. The reward: a good job in Hell. [u] THE DEVIL WAS SICK, Bruce Elliott. (MFSF 1951) Around 4500 A.D., when almost all the topics for doctoral theses have been used up, a student investigates black magic and evokes a devil, who is bmnediately paralyzed with a ray gun and hauled off by psychiatric robots. The devil emerges from the treatment as an angel. * The Dr. Faustus chapbook and a couple of folkloristic items are also included. * Of the new material [q] and [r] are best. DAVIDSON, AVRAM (1923) Prominent modern science-fiction author, onetime editor of MFSF (1962-4), winner of both Hugo and Edgar awards. 477. OR ALL THE SEA·S WITH OYSTERS. Berkley Publishing Corp.; New York [1962] Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] OR ALL THE SEAS WITH OYSTERS. [b] MY BOY FRIEND'S NAME IS JELLO. [c] DAGON. [d] OR THE GRASSES GROW. * Also [e] SUMMERLAND. (MFSF 1957) A seance, a spirit talks of fire-which the medium interprets as his earthly demise. The narrator knows better. Twist ending. [f] GREAT IS DIANA. (MFSF 1958) Ponderings on polymastia, breast fetishi~, and an 18th century British traveller in the Near East. Taylor, the traveller, is a lecherous breast fetishist, but he has the misfortune to encounter Diana of Ephesus. [g] I DO NOT HEAR YOU, SIR. (MFSF 1958) Milo Anderson, swindler and confidence man, owns an 18th century anticipation of the telephone. It operates with Leyden jars on a semi-supernatural basis. He speaks with Washington, Franklin, Burr, Arnold, looking for a way out of his predicament, but he is still a crook. [h] AUTHOR, AUTHOR. (MFSF 1959) Rodney Stirrup, decayed author of detective stories, suffers a royalty cut from his publishers. The public is tiring of fiction where the butler did it and the county families are all halfwits. It is Stirrup's misfortune to meet the butlers and the county. [i] THE MONTAVARDE CAMERA. (MFSF 1959) Collins buys from Mr. Azel (presumably the demon Azazel) the camera once owned by the great photographer Montavarde. It handles light miraculously, but what he photographs is soon destroyed. Montavarde was notorious for morbid subjects, like Black Masses. [j] THE WOMAN WHO THOUGHT SHE COULD READ. (MFSF 1959) Childhood in the slums with Mrs. Grummick, who reads the future in dried beans. Tragedy comes from following her advice, for she is not precise enough. A gem. [k] NEGRA SUM. (MFSF 1957) An ancient charm that arouses the sensation of beauty. * Excellent stories. New ideas, good detail. Also present is "The Golem," s-f of a sort. DAVIES, FRED British author, presumably Welsh; no information. 478. THE STRANGER AND SOME OTHERS A VOLUME OF

DAWSON, EMMA STORIES GRAVE AND GAY Palatine Books Co; Blackpool and London 1927 A privately published volume of amateurish short stories. [a] THE STRANGER. A haunted house, a vision of murder in the past, and a skeleton that corroborates the vision. [b] ATONEMENT. Recompense for cruelties done during a previous, Roman incarnation. [c] EMPEROR BILL-- A FANTASY. Bill, an average Cockney, is struck on the head and becomes Caesar of the land of Uncon-Shus. He lives riotously, but is killed during a revolution and awakens in a hospital. [d] THE AWAKENING. A dead mate appears to meet a dying person. Reunion. * Also present is a seemingly unknown Sherlockian parody, "The Great Pudding Mystery." Of no particular interest. DAWSON, EMMA [FRANCES] (1851-1926) American (San Francisco) poet, fiction writer. Friend of Ambrose Bierce's, who regarded her work highly. According to legend she died of starvation, but this (to my knowledge) has not been documented. 479. AN ITINERANT HOUSE AND OTHER STORIES William Doxey; San Francisco 1896 Short stories, including [a] AN ITINERANT HOUSE. A recurrent supernatural situation based on the historical fact that houses were moved from building site to building site in the early days of San Francisco. An attempt to revive a person seemingly dead; the words "Better dead than alive" are thoughtlessly spoken within the hearing of the seemingly dead person. She revives and drives the onlookers away. The situation is repeated several times as the house moves about the city. Suicides. [b] SINGED MOTHS. The three sisters fall in love with their roomer, Mr. Orne, who writes poetry to them and gives them jewelry. But the morning after All Souls' Eve, an Irish servant discovers that her fears were correct: Orne was the Devil. The sisters are dead and their jewelry is dust. [c] A STRAY REVELER. On his death the artist Penniel leaves all his property to the golddigger Aura on condition that she preserve a certain rope. Among the bequest is a painted screen with a fantastic picture on it. Aura looks behind the screen and sees a rotting corpse. In a moment of folly she burns Penniel's rope and dies of supernatural strangulation. Penniel had committed suicide with the rope. [d] THE DRAMATIC IN MY DESTINY. A long complex story about the San Francisco Chinatown, with opium visions and supernatural experiences. After a prologue, the story shifts to semidramatic form. Rhys, who is studying Chinese, learns that Si-ki has insulted Elinor, Rhys's friend. He beats Si-ki, who in revenge poisons Elinor. Rhys thereupon searches Chinatown for Si-ki amid death portents, doppelgangers, mirror visions, .and anticipatory dreams. Unusual in conveying a drug atmosphere, but not too clear. [e] A GRACIOUS VISITATION. Mrs. Trevelyan, the widow of a sea captain, is intensely interested in old Russian San Francisco. One night she is unexpectedly visited, at dusk, by five Russian sea-faring men. They show her marvelous artifacts, and she reciprocates. They

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tell long stories of shipwreck, piracy, and revolution. Later she learns that the sailors had been ghosts and that they had come to her house to discourage murderous burglars. Possibly Dawson intended this story to be the frame for a cycle of stories, but did not develop it completely. [f] A SWORN STATEMENT. Told by a man servant. His master, Mr. Audenfried, is carried off by a lady ghost who has been haunting him. Presumably he had betrayed her. One more disappearance. [g] "THE SECOND CARD WINS." Suicide. Hindu magic in the background, a magic fan. The protagonist laughed at the rope trick and offended a magician. [g] "ARE THE DEAD DEAD?" A haunted house where the ghost club meets. The narrator sees the ghosts of two persons recently deceased. * Told in an elaborate fin de siecle manner, with a compulsive flow of rich detail that sometimes obscures important points. The stories are often interrupted by competent, traditional poetry. Unusual and worth reading, despite flaws of presentation. DAWSON-SCOTT, C[ATHERlNE] A. (1868 - 1934) British novelist, anthologist (with Ernest Rhys). 480. THE HAUNTING Heinemann; London 1921 Announced as one of a series of four novels based on the handicaps of life, this one being the "inexplicable," Regionalistic psychological novel, with some sensationalism, much like comparable work by Eden Phillpotts. * Cornwall, premodern times, perhaps mid 19th century. Gale and Pascoe Corlyon are half-brothers. Gale, the older, is a prosperous local businessman. Pascoe has wandered around the world, striking semishady deals on the advice of Gale. Gale, who is something of a miser, has assumed that the profits of Pascoe's legwork and his own brain are family property, and thereby his, since he is head of the family. It comes as a surprise when Pascoe demands a settlement, claiming all the money he has sent home. Gale's reluctance to release the money and other property finally ends in his poisoning Pascoe (by an impossible means, unfortunately) and concealing the body in a sea cave that connects with his house. Gale then becomes a haunted man. First he sees visions of the flask of liquor that conveyed the poison, but soon he undergoes a full haunting by Pascoe. His character degenerates and he decides to drown in the sea cave. It is never quite clear whether the haunting is genuine or whether it merely symbolizes memory and conscience. There is also some folkloristic magic. * Competent commercial. DEARMER, GEOFFREY (18937 ) British poet, novelist, playwright. 481. THEY CHOSE TO BE BIRDS Heinemann; London [1935 ] A "lesson novel" written to show the interdependence of science and religion. A biologist an~ a preacher cannot agree on purposes and means in the universe. The Sorrels, demigods who rule earth, transfer the personality of one into a parrot and the other into a new situation.

DE CAMP, L. SPRAGUE Both grow spiritually and come to agreement. Entertainingly handled, despite the mawkish message.

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DE CAMP, ETTA (1866 7) American writer, obviously interested in Spiritualism. 482 • RETURN OF FRANK STOCKTON STORIES AND LETTERS WHICH CANNOT FAIL TO CONVINCE THE READER THAT FRANK R. STOCKTON STILL LIVES AND WRITES THROUGH THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF MISS ETTA DE CAMP Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Co.; New York 1913 Like the "Patience Worth" stories and STRANGE VISITORS by A Clairvoyant, this is material which the author claims was received through mediumship. * Including [a] WHAT BECAME OF THE GHOST OF MIKE O'FLYNN. O'Flynn's ghost watched its own funeral and then disappeared. Perhaps it crept into the grave to sleep. [b] THE MAN WHO ALWAYS TURNED UP.. Along the New England seacoast a spectral sailor's mien and gestures indicate weather and the size of fishing catches. Only a boy can see him. [c] THE WIDOW HE LOST. Rome. Mr. Blackstone, enthusiastic amateur archeologist, breaks into a newly investigated dig and finds himself in a strange royal court, which is a mixture of past and present. He has a romance with the queen, but he is found, unconscious from an earthquake. * Not very much like Stockton's work. DE CAMP, L[YON] SPRAGUE ) (1907 Major America" science-fiction and fantasy writer. One of the formative personalities in the development of pulp science-fiction and of the modern novel of fantastic adventure. Work is characterized by good humorous touches, originality, logical power and exactness. Author of standard biography of H. P. Lovecraft. Excellent popularizer of science, with LOST CONTINENTS (1954, best study of the Atlantis concept), THE ANCIENT ENGINEERS (1963). Some of his books are carried as collaborations with Fletcher Pratt (under Pratt). 483. THE UNDESIRED PRINCESS AND MR. ARSON Fantasy Publishing Co., Inc.; Los Angeles 1951 A novel and a short story. [a] THE UNDESIRED PRINCESS. (UNK 1942) Fantastic adventure in an other-world based on classical logic. * Rollin Hobart, whose hobby is puzzle-solving, is shifted supernaturally to the world of Logaia, which conforms to the rigid categorizations of language or classical logic, without gradations. If, for example, a person is a boy he remains a boy in all cliched aspects until, in an instant, he becomes an adolescent, with all traditional characteristics. Sustaining this world is a being called the Nous, Whose decrees shape everything. He happens to be the pre-Socratic philosopher Zeno. * Hobart immediately finds himself cast as a champion to save the beautiful, intelligent, and virtuous princess Argimanda from an androsphinx. On the adventure level Hobart defeats the androsphinx by out-arguing and out-puzzling it and is automatically considered the princess's fiance.

DE CAMP, L. SPRAGUE So far the story has been very entertaining, but now Hobart undertakes a long journey among ethnographic barbarians to retrieve the princess, who has been kidnapped. He rescues her, meetsZeno, whose paradoxes he solves, and learns, to his dismay, that he is Zeno's successor. But there is a way around this, and he returns to New York, where he finds the beautiful Argimanda, whom he did not appreciate sufficiently in Logaia. [b] MR. ARSON. (UNK 1941) A correspondence course in Paracelsian magic results in the accidental evocation of a fire elemental, who proves to be a great nuisance. * [a] is amusing and ingenious for the first half of the story. 484. THE TRITONIAN RING AND OTHER PUSADIAN TALES· Twayne Publishers; New York 1953 A novel and three short stories set in an imaginary Bronze Age Western Europe and now submerged Atlantic islands. The place names are variants of early Greek designations for Spain and nearby regions. Fantastic adventure. * [a] THE TRITONIAN RING. (TWO COMPLETE SCIENCE FICTION ADVENTURE BOOKS 1951) Novel. The gods, who are various sorts of biological monstrosities, are worried. Doom is hanging over them, in some away connected with the continent of Poseidonis and with Prince Vakar of Lorsk. The continent must be sunk and Vakar must be killed. Vakar is informed of his peril, and sets out on a.quest to prevent the destruction of his land and his own death. He runs through a range of swo·rd-and-sorcery adventures, including magic of various sorts, reptiles Whose glance paralyzes, cannibals, utopian savages, Amazons, "zombies," etc. He learns that his goal is the ring once owned by the king of Tritonia. Since it is meteoric iron, it has the power to undo almost any sorcery. Vakar gets the original meteorite from which the metal for the ring was taken, a beautiful Wife, and a kingdom. But the ocean islands must still sink. [b] THE STRONGER SPELL. (MFSF 1953) Tavern quarrels between priests from Setesh (Egypt) and a renegade Druid who has invented a primitive gun. Also a gigantic invisible snake. [c] THE OWL AND THE APE. (IMAGINATION 1951) Gezun, a magician's apprentice, is sent to an auction to buy a remarkable document. The bidders are forced to wear animal masks. Taking the manuscript home is a matter of magic, life, and death. [d] THE EYE OF TANDYLA. (FANTASTIC ADVENTURE 1951) Derezong Tash, court master magician, is ordered by his whimsical and bloody master to fetch the giant gem set in the idol of Tandyla, in a neighboring kingdom. Stealing the eye is strangely easy, but putting it back is very difficult. Demons. 485. SOLOMON'S STONE Avalon Books; New York 1957 Humorous fantastic adventure. (UNK 1942) * An invocation that is performed as a joke to frighten a friend results in the appearance ~f Bechard, a real demon. Bechard has a yen to try human life. He drives Prosper Nash's psyche into the astral world and takes over Nash's body. The story is concerned with Nash. Nash finds himself in a riotous world which is

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DE CAMP, L. SPRAGUE peopled by the wish-fulfillment projections of earth people. He himself is a swashbuckling 17th century French demi-rogue, while his earth friends (who do not know him in the otherworld) are variously a lecherous and bloodthirsty Turkish sultan, a Western gunfighter, a black magiCian, etc. At the moment the astral world is undergoing problems with the Arries, nasty projections from Bundists in Yorkville. Nash (as de Neche) has adventures back and forth, duelling, rescuing a kidnapped woman, disposing of a harem, fighting Arries, etc. until he learns that he must return to our world, or else his body will die. He and friends capture the stone of Solomon (which permits transfer from one world to another) and Nash straightens out things. In the process he must leave his girl friend in the astral world, but he is now studying magic in order to return to her. * Amusing in spots, but now too obviously contrived and somewhat dated. The UNKNOWN text was read. 486. THE RELUCTANT SHAMAN AND OTHER FANTASTIC TALES Pyramid Books; New York paperbound Short stories. [a] THE RELUCTANT SHAMAN. (THRILLING WONDER 1947) Virgil Hathaway, alias Chief Soaring Eagle, a Penobscot Indian from Maine, runs a tourist souvenir shop. A Seneca Who is passing through leaves in Hathaway's charge a group of Iroquois supernatural beings called Gahunga. They are about two feet tall, can vanish, and throw stones like poltergeists. They cause trouble, and Hathaway has to invoke his own dei ties. [b] THE HARDWOOD PILE. (UNKNOWN 1940) The Norway maple planted by Rudli a century earlier is cut into lumber. The dryad associated with the tree objects violently and supernaturally when the wood is to be sold. [c] NOTHING IN THE RULES. Described elsewhere. [d] THE GHOSTS OF MELVIN PYE. (THRILLING WONDER 1946) Pye, during his life, was a split personality. He now manifests himself as two diSSOCiated, opposed ghosts, against whom exorcisms do not work. [e] THE WISDOM OF THE EAST. (UNK 1942) Alan Bennett (the name is presumably an odd quirk of memory on the author's part) chases after Indian occultism. After attending lectures given by a benevolent practitioner of Hatha yoga, Bennett has the misfortune to become entangled with a left-hand Tantrist. Mantras playa large part in the story, particularly those that are inaudible. [f] KA THE APPALLING. (FANTASTIC UNIVERSE 1958) Swords-andsorcery adventure set in a land modelled after Ancient Egypt-- with some changes. Gezun of Poseidonis, to escape lynching because he killed a sacred cat, takes refuge with a professional thief. They plan a racket: become rich by creating a new religious cult with the most horrible god conceivable. They are too successful, for the god comes to life. [g] MR. ARSON. Described elsewhere. * Best stories are [b], [c]. Backgrounds are particularly interesting, with Indian lore in [a], and the workings of a lumber yard in [b], plus well-handled humor.

DE CAMP, L. SPRAGUE AS EDITOR: 487. SWORDS AND SORCERY Pyramid Books; New York 1963 paperbound Introduction. Heroic fantasy for the most part. Described elsewhere. [a] DISTRESSING TALE OF THANGOBRIND THE JEWELLER, Lord Dunsany. [b] SHADOWS IN THE MOONLIGHT, R. E. Howard. [cJ THE DOOM THAT CAME TO SARNATH, H.P P. Lovecraft. Cd] HELL SGARDE, c. L. Moore. [e1 THE TESTAMENT OF ATHAMMAUS_, Clark Ashton Smith. * Also, [f] THE VALOR OF CAPPEN VARRA, Pou1 Anderson. (FANIASTIC UNIVERSE 1957). Norse setting. Cappen Varra, minstrel from the south, ventures into a troll's lair to beg fire and rescues a princess. Nicely done. [g] THE CITADEL OF DARKNESS, Henry Kuttner. (STRANGE STORIES 1939) Derivative from the work of R. E. Howard. Prince Raynor is travelling with a Nubian companion and the Lady Delphia, when she is stolen away by a local warlord. An ancient Wizard, Ghiar, offers Raynor magical aid to free Delphia, but the wizard wants her for his own purposes: renewal of youth. Raynor must penetrate Ghiar's magical citadel. Also astrological elements. [h] WHEN THE SEA KING'S AWAY, Fritz Leiber. (FANTASY MAGAZINE 1960) In the Nehwon series. Fafhrd insists that once every seven years the Sea King travels to the other end of the world, leaving his wives and concubines free to find mortal lovers. This is the day. Fafhtd and the Gray Mouser descend into an airtube into the sea, come to underground caverns, pass certain guards (including an octopus that fences with four swords), and enjoy the queens before the sea comes in. Done with Leiber's usual originality and lightness of touch. 488. THE SPELL OF SEVEN STORIES OF HEROIC FANTASY Pyramid Books; New York 1965 paperbound Introduction WIZARDS AND WARRIORS by de Camp. * Described elsewhere, [a] THE DARK EIDOLON, Clark Ashton Smith. [b] THE HOARD OF THE GIBBEL INS , Lord Dunsany. [c] MAZIRIAN THE MAGICIAN, Jack Vance. [d] SHADOWS IN ZAMBOULA, R. E. Howard. * Also [e] BAZAAR OF THE BIZARRE, Fritz Leiber. (FANIASTIC UNIVERSE 1963) In the Nehwon series. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are commissioned by their respective wizard (or monster) sponsors to end a great menace that has come to the land. These are the Devourers, who come from another universe with shoddy merchandise and remarkable glamour. Both men undergo wonderful adventures in the Bazaar of the Bizarre. A very amusing, imaginative attack on hucksterism in terms of fantasy. [f] THE HUNGRY HERCYNIAN, L. S. de Camp. (UNIVERSE 1953) Dash-around adventures involving characters and background from THE TRITONIAN RING. Supernaturalism is present in spells of various sorts. [g] KINGS IN DARKNESS, Michael Moorcock. (SCIENCE FANIASY 54, 1962) E1ric the albino magician with the magical sword and his companion Moorg1um foolishly venture into the kingdom of the Orgians. Fantasy involved includes ghouls, reanimation of the dead, magical drugs. * Of the new material, [e] is best. [f] and [g] are not among the best work of either man.

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DE CAMP, L. SPRAGUE AND PRATT, FLETCHER WITH PRATT, FLETCHER: Biographical infonnation about Pratt is provided in alphabetical location. * The de Camp-Pratt collaboration was a fortunate one, in that each author compensated for the weaknesses of the other. Pratt provided imagination and background, while de Camp provided rigor and a livelier style. 489. THE INCOMPLETE ENCHANTER HoI t; New York [ 1941] Two short novels. Revised versions of [a] THE ROARING TRUMPET (UNK 1940) and [b] THE MATHEMATICS OF MAGIC [UNK 1940). They are excellent examples of light fantastic adventure in the UNKNOWN pattern-- a rational ordering of the supernatural, combining the freedom of fantasy and the relative rigor of sciencefiction. * Reed Chalmers has worked out a theory that it is possible to transport oneself to alternate worlds with different natural laws. The theoretical basis for this is the concept that there is an infinity of possible worlds, and that our presence in any particular one is due to our mental set. Change the set, and it is possible to enter a different world. Modified Fichte. * In [a] Harold Shea, a psychologist friend of Chalmers's, wishes to enter the world of the Irish heroic cycles, but instead finds himself in an ancient Norse world during the Fimbu1winter, just preceding Ragnarok. He finds himself in the perilous company of the Norse gods, scorned, but occasionally useful. He attends Thor, Odin, and Loki to the house of Utgard1oki, as in the Eddas, and is responsible for the retrieving of Thor's stolen hammer. When he is captured by fire giants, he discovers that magic really works in this world, and becomes a proficient wizard. Just before Ragnarok he is tossed back to our world. * In [b] Shea and Chalmers decide to visit the world of Spenser's FAERIE QUEENE. They are caught in the middle of a war between the evil enchanters and F1oriana's court paladins and white magicians. Personalities include the Amazon Britomart, the evil magician Busyrane, the wood-girl Be1phebe (whom Shea wins as a wife), and others from Spenser's epic, Without, however, the allegory. After chases, escapes, perils, monsters, enchantments, Shea and Be1phebe are precipitated back in our world, while Chalmers remains, hoping to work out a general theory of magic and work some private magic of his own. The best portion of the book is the description of a magicians' convention, in parody of a scientific convention. * Ingenious, light, good quality commercial fiction with much research and thought behind it. Continuations are to be found in 491 and 492. 490. THE CARNELIAN CUBE A HUMOROUS FANIASY Gnome Press; New York 1948 Another exploration of the concept of parallel worlds, but here the intention is working out extreme social and philosophical tendencies in individual cultures. The total adventure is probably science-fiction of a sort, but the inciting object that precipitates Arthur Finch into alternate worlds is magica1-- a carnelian

DE CAMP, L. SPRAGUE AND PRATT, FLETCHER cube with an Etruscan inscription. The first society that Finch visits is a world of pragmatics and rationalism, where bankers and politicians control most aspects of life. Finch is too irrational to fit. The second world is one of violent individualism, with fascistic gangsters as overlords. Finch becomes a member of a mob~sponsored literary society, but again cannot conform. He tries next a world of science, which is equally inhospitable, and then sets off for new, uncharted worlds. * Each of the three worlds is ingeniously contrived and the adventures are welladapted to their environment, but the reader must be prepared to have his credulity strained, perhaps because of lack of unity. 491. THE CASTLE OF IRON A SCIENCE FANTASY ADVENTURE Gnome Press; New York [1950] Sequel to THE INCOMPLETE ENCHANTER; expanded from the version in UNKNOWN (1941). * Shea and Chalmers continue their adventures. In Spenser's world Chalmers had fallen in love with Florimel, a young woman made of snow; he wants to transform her into a real woman. The magic of Spenser's world is not adequate for this, and he shifts to the world of Ariosto's ORLANDO FURIOSO. There, at the iron castle of the great magician Atlantes, he summons Belphebe and Shea to help him. Belphebe coalesces with Belphegor, a local variant of herself, and has no memory of her earlier life with Shea. Shea and two others are first trapped in the world of Coleridge's Xanadu, but Shea, too, finally arrives in Ariosto's magical world. There is no point in detailing the plot, which is very complex, beyond saying that Belphebe regains her memory and Merlin helps in the establishment of a flesh-and-blood Florimel. A werewolf is also involved. * By now the device has become mechanical and tired, particularly in this longer version of the story. * The series is further continued in WALL OF SERPENTS. 492. WALL OF SERPENTS Avalon Books; New York 1960 Sequel and conclusion to THE CASTLE OF IRON. * Fan~astic advent~re. Two short novels slightly revised into one. Original components as [a] [THE] WALL OF SERPENTS. (FANTASY FICTION 1953). Shea and Belphebe decide to rescue the two men who are still trapped in the world of Xanadu. Their best recourse is to return to another magic world and enlist the aid of a friendly enchanter. They select the world of the Kalevala, with Vainamoinen, but when they arrive in the ancient Finnish world they become involved with Lemminkainen, who is skilful as a magician, but egotistical, selfish, and tricky. Lemminkainen agrees to rescue the men trapped in Xanadu, if Shea and the others help him in his feud with the men of Pohjola. They advance by reindeer sleigh through magical barrier after barrier (including the wall of serpents) until they reach Pohjo1a, but there things go wrong. While Lem·,minkainen escapes, the others are captured. When danger threatens, Shea works magic and he, Belphebe and Pete the cop are transferred

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DEFOE, DANIEL into • • • [b] THE GREEN MAGICIAN. (BEYOND 1954). This is the world of the Ulster Cycle of Ireland, with the hero Cuchulain. (What happened to the fourth character, Bayard, is not revealed.) It is a rude and primitive world, of high and bloody heroes and very skilled Druids. Shea and party become friendly with Cuchulain and decide to save him from the death that his enemies plan for him. The background includes much incidental magic, geases galore, and a visit to the land of the Sidhe by Shea. Shea returns with a very potent Druid who transmits the three associates back to earth. The Sidhe, incidentally, are the Tuatha de Danaan, and live in an other-world. * A praiseworthy attempt is made to describe the culture of each world properly, and the adventures (allowing for pulp demands) are consistent with the culture. While characterizations are a little weak, the book as a whole is enjoyable. The best of the five adventures of Shea, however, is the first, THE IRON TRUMPET. DE COMEAU, ALEXANDER British author. Nothing known. 493. MONK'S MAGIC Methuen London 1931 Fantastic adventure, magic and love in medieval England and Germany. The exact date is not clear, but perhaps the 14th century. J. B. Cabell is the immediate prototype, but without the allegorical message. * Brother Dismas, a lay brother skilled in magic, is trying to find the elixir of life for his ruling abbot. After his latest experiment fails and there is the danger of an inquisition, he leaves the monastery on a quest. He reasons that if the men Who have written the texts he used had been successful, they would still be living, and it should be possible to ask their advice. Along the way of his quest he meets Radegonde, a young woman masquerading as a youth, and singly and together they undergo a wide range of supernatural and neo-Gothic adventures: Gipsies, robber barons, magic tokens, ghosts, magical treasure hunting, human sacrifice, a Black Mass, a witch's coven, a visit to the land of the dead, and similar motifs. Dismas learns that his quest is a chimera and returns to England, where he marries Radegonde. The almoner of the monastery receives immortality of a sort from the Devil. * Light, amusing, fluent, if a little jumpy in artificial climaxes. DEFOE, DANIEL (1659-1731) British author, well-known for ROBINSON CRUSOE, MOLL FLANDERS and a seemingly endless production of pseudo-factual accounts, political journalism, pamphlets of various sorts, and miscellaneous writing. Defoe's supernatural "fiction" is not formal fiction, but is usually anecdote included as an educational device in journalistic studies of supernatural topics presented as divinity. Like most of his other work, it is probably a blend of "factual" material (i.e. contemporary folklore, rumor, journalistic hoax) and imagination.

DEFOE, DANIEL 494. A TRUE RElATION OF THE APPARITION OF ONE MRS. VEAL. THE NEXT DAY AFTER HER DEATH; TO ONE MRS. HARGRAVE AT CANTERBURY THE 8TH OF SEPTEMBER 1705 B. Bragg; London 1706 wraps Strictly speaking, THE APPARITION OF MRS. VEAL does not belong in this study, but it has been treated as a work of fiction so long and anthologized as fiction so frequently, that its omission would distort the history of the ghost story. Defoe's account is apparently an accurate rendering in pamphlet form of an incident that took place in Canterbury, when Mrs. Henry Bargrave, a woman given to psychic experiences, announced that she had spoken to her dead friend, Mrs. Veal. There are other contemporary accounts of the incident, and according to a Latin note in a copy of the fourth printing of the pamphlet, Mrs. Bargrave considered Defoe's version satisfactory, even though he does not seem to have interviewed her. According to Defoe, Mrs. Veal's ghost appeared and proceeded to lecture Mrs. Bargrave about the afterlife, ending with a puff for a theological tract by Hugh Drelincourt. * The full text is seldom reprinted, except in Defoe's collected works. The preface is usually omitted and the theological elements are cut in varying degree. Various short titles have been used: MRS. VEAL, THE APPARITION OF MRS. VEAL, etc. 495. TALES OF PIRACY. CRIME, AND GHOSTS Penguin Books; New York [1945] paperbound Edited by Carl Withers, folklorist and authority on children's games. * This collection, is not, of course, a first edition of these stories, but it is the first modern theme selection from Defoe. Some of the pieces are very short. * Including [a] THE GHOST IN ALL THE ROOMS. A gang of burglars are frustrated by a supernatural warning. On breaking into a house they find in each room the same apparition, an old man seated in a chair. [b] THE SPECTRE AND THE HIGHWAYMAN. A highwayman sees a supernatural figure which warns him of misfortune. [c] THE CLERGYMAN AND THE MISSING DEED. A clergyman sees a ghost, which tells him how to find a missing document that will set matters right in the ghost's family. [d] A STRANGE EXPERIENCE OF TWO BROTHERS. Two brothers quarrel over a woman and are about to duel when they are confronted by the ghost of their father, who is not dead. Swarth. [e] THE DEVIL FROLICS WITH A BUTLER. A butler falls afoul of the supernatural and is annoyed by a ghostly force. He hesitates to apply remedies advised by a professedly friendly unearthly visitor. [f] THE APPARITION OF MRS. VEAL. Described elsewhere. [g] THE DEVIL AND THE WATCHMAKER. A watchmaker tries to hang himself. When friends and relatives try to cut him down before he strangles, they are forestalled by a stranger Who pretends to be helping them, but is actually hindering them. The stranger is presumably the Devil. [h] A GHOSTLY ACCUSER. During a trial the defendant addresses a person whom no one else can see, and thereby reveals his guilt as a murderer. Defoe

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DEHAN, RICHARD explains the ghost as a projection of conscience. [i] A PROFITABLE GHOST. An old gentleman who wants a building razed falsifies a haunting and tricks treasure-hunters into tearing the building down. [j] THE HAMS AND THE QUAKER. An amusing story of a thief Who is caught in a Quaker's house and pretends to be the Devil. The Quaker orders him out. [k] THE FORTUNE'r"ELLER AT BRISTOL FAIR.. At the wish of the local doctor a fortunetel1er stages a false haunting to force a young man to marry a pregnant woman he has seduced. * The individual stories come from the following sources: [a], [c], [d], [h], [i] come from THE SECRETS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD DISCLOS'D, OR AN UNIVERSAL HISTORY OF APPARITIONS (1727), first written under the pseudonym Andrew Moreton, usually reprinted as THE HISTORY OF APPARITIONS or similar short title. [g] comes from THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE DEVIL (1726). [k] comes from A SYSTEM OF MAGICK, OR A HISTORY OF THE BLACK ART (1728). All these stories originally appeared as untitled anecdotes buried in a continuous exposition. The titles applied to them are not Defoe's. * Probably fiction based on folkloristic elements. DEHAN, RICHARD (pseud. of GRAVES, CLOTILDE I. M.) (1863-1932) British playwright, author of popular fiction. 496. OFF SANDY HOOK AND OTHER STORIES Heinemann; London [1915] Short stories, including [a] A SPIRIT ELOPEMENT. A new bride discovers that whenever her husband sleeps his dreams are projected and materialize as a spirit (Katie) Whom he had met at a seance. There is little that can be done about it, until the wife projects a male counterpart to Katie and the spirits elope together. * AmUSing, but overwritten. 497. UNDER THE HERMES AND OTHER STORIES Heinemann; London 1917 Short stories, including [a] UNDER THE HERMES. A magical stone grants wishes to its possessor. After some trivial uses of the stone, the protagonist uses it to cure his sweetheart of her fad interest in painting. Supernaturalism includes the animation of a statue of Dionysius. [b] PETER. Told in fabu1ar form. Death personified takes Peter away. [c] THE COMPLEAT HOUSEWIFE. Lady Deborah, ghost of an 18th century harridan, surviving in the pages of an ancient cookbook, forces a modern American bride to prepare an ungodly 18th century dish. Also some recapitulation of the past. [d] WHITE MAN'S MAGIC. South Africa, Boer War period. Jacobus Blind's body is protected by the magic of a Barala witchdoctor, and bullets bounce off him. But a cross cut in the lead of one is too much for the magic to repel. [e] HOW YANKO MARRIED FOURTEEN WIVES and [f] THE TOOTH OF TULOO are both based on Eskimo folklore, with the Old Woman of the Sea and the magical tooth of a wizard. * Another story, "The Great Beast of Kafua" is concerned with a dinosaur. * Dehan's stories are literate and contain good detail, but themes tend to be buried in a welter of extraneous matter. [c] is best.

DE'LA MARE, COLIN DE LA MARE, COLIN British. Son of Walter de la Mare. AS EDITOR: 498.. THEY WALK AGAIN AN ANTHOLOGY OF GHOST STORIES Faber and Faber; London [1931] Introduction by Walter de la Mare. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] KEEPING HIS PROMISE, Algernon Blackwood. [b] THE ELECTRIC KING, Lord Dunsany. [c] THE GHOST SHIP, Richard Middleton [d] A TOUGH TUSSLE, Ambrose Bierce. [e] AFTERWARD, Edith Wharton. [f] POWERS OF THE AIR, J. D. Beresford. [g] FATHER GIRDLESTONE'S TALE, R. H. Benson. [h] THE WOOD OF THE DEAD, Algernon Blackwood. [i] A VISITOR FROM DOWN UNDER, L. P. Hartley. [j] CATERPILLARS, E. F. Benson. [k] THE VOICE IN THE NIGHT, W. H. Hodgson. [1] THE BECKONING FAIR ONE, Oliver Onions.' [m] ON THE BRI.GHTON ROAD, Richard Middleton. [n] THE STORY OF A DISAPPEARANCE AND AN APPEARANCE, M. R. James. [0] ALL HALLOWS, Walter de la Mare. [p] THE MONKEY'S PAW, W. W. Jacobs. [q] GREEN TEA, J. S. LeFanu. * The American 1942 (Dutton) edition has a preface by William Lyon Phelps. * Also reprinted in the U.S.A. as THE GHOST BOOK. DE LA MARE, WALTER (1873-1956) British poet, critic, writer of children's fiction, adult fiction. Publishing executive (Faber and Faber). One of the more significant literary figures of his time, although largely misunderstood and misappreciated. Excellent children's poet, remarkable craft~man in the short story. Work in supernatural fiction falls into two major groups, "children's" fiction, which is more or less literal, and "adult" fiction, which is more or less figurative, ambivalent, or metaphoric. 499. THE RETURN Edward Arnold; London 1910 Metaphysical novel about personal identity and spiritual freedom. * The story line involves possession of a sort. * Arthur Lawford, wandering in an old cemetery, chances on the grave of an 18th century suicide, a Frenchman named Nicholas de Sabathier. He is captivated in some odd fashion and dozes off. When he awakens, he discovers that he has suffered a physical change and (as he learns later) has taken on the likeness of the dead man. When he returns home, his wife and many of his friends reject him, and he is faced with the seemingly insoluble problem of determining his identity. In a Kafka-like situation he must decide whether physical changes necessitate psychological changes, and he must discover who Lawford really is. His own alienness must be accepted. Lawford finds new friends who understand his condition, falls in love, fights for his freedom, grows spiritually, and is ready to start a new life now that the episode is over. What exactly happened is deliberately left vague, but the strongest suggestions (within the story) are that Sabathier's spirit was lurking nearby and possessed Lawford, or that a phase of Lawford accepted the Sabathier nature. * Most interesting, handled more directly than is usually the case with de la Mare, although much is

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DE LA MARE, WALTER still left to the reader's imagination. * A revised edition was issued by W. Collins (London, 1922)., 500. THE RIDDLE AND OTHER STORIES Selwyn and Blount; London 1923 Short stories, including [a] THE LOOKING GLASS. The subject is death, as is so frequent in de la Mare's stories, and the treatment is questionable as supernaturalism. Alice, companion to old Lady Lennox, dying of tuberculosis, hears of the haunted garden. One goes to it on May Day midnight, to experience what comes out of the trees. She prepares for the experience. Perhaps she achieves it in spirit, perhaps not. [b] SEATON'S AUNT. Again, a double story. It may be read as a portrait of a malicious old woman and her somewhat unsympathetic nephew, who happens to die just before his marriage, or it may be read as a fringe narrative of an evil old spiritual vampire, who communes with the dead and murders her nephew and keeps his ghost in bondage. [c] THE BIRD OF PASSAGE. Death again. The narrator, exploring the estate of estranged relatives, hears the bird of passage. According to folklore this causes the hearer to succumb to wanderlust, but it is really a call to death for his distant cousin. Perhaps an attenuated banshee. [d] OUT OF THE DEEP. When James takes over his deceased uncle's town house, he also takes over the horrible memories of an unhappy childhood there, which memories reemerge in supernatural form. His presence in the house evokes parallels to the forces that hurt him as a child, and he succumbs. Perhaps the forces are spirit, perhaps projections. [e] THE CREATURES. Religious symbolism in terms of geographical exploration, with obvious allegorical intent. The narrator penetrates into a wild, hitherto unknown (to him) land, where Creativity has produced a remarkable natural garden. There are two beings, Maria and Christus, called the Creatures. [f] THE RIDDLE. Seven children come to live with their grandmother, and despite warnings, disappear into the old silklined, carved chest in the attic. So far as I know de la Mare has never revealed the solution to the riddle. Several suggestions have been made, none of which is convincing, although British royalty and the days of the week are the strongest possible interpretations. * All excellent stories. 501. MISS JEMIMA B. Blackwell; Oxford [1925] (The Jolly Books) Short story. Miss Jemima, an oid woman, describes an episode in her childhood. As a little girl she was headstrong and rebellious. She also had the misfprtune to be living with an unsympathetic aunt, who treated her harshly. On occasion Jemima saw a beautiful woman, sometimes simply as a face in the air. This vision came to be a comfort to her. After a violent disagreement with her aunt, Jemima decides to run away. The woman tempts her to come with her, but Jemima now recognizes that the woman means her no good, but is a fairy who wants to abduct her. Jemima resists the appeal and remains in normal life. * Excellent.

*

DE LA MARE, WALTER 502. BROOMSTICKS AND OTHER TALES WITH DESIGNS BY BOLD Constable; London 1925 Short stories, including [a] PIGTAILS, LTD. Late 19th century. Miss Rawlings, who is somewhat eccentric, has a supernatural experience of a sort, a vision of a little girl, which she connects (for no rational reason) with the ballad of Barbara Allen. She decides to become a foster mother for Barbara AlIens and collects thirty young girls, aged ten, whom she provides for. The other supernatural aspect of the story is that the girls do not age during Miss Rawling's lifetime, but die with her. [b] THE DUTCH CHEESE. Young farmer John is on bad terms with the local fairies, since he objects to their interest in his sister. When he throws a Dutch cheese at several fairies who are peering down his chimney, they retaliate by making off with all his sheep. His sister must strike a bargain with the fairies. [c] MISS JEMIMA. Described elsewhere. [d] THE THIEF. A children's morality of a sort. The master thief, unhappy because he is ostracized and unmarriageable, hears of the magic egg of happiness. When he finds it, though he dies soon after, he is somewhat happier. The point of the story seems to be renunciation. [e] BROOMSTICKS. Miss Chauncey's cat Sam has a life of his own, as she discovers when she watches him covertly. Although the author does not state it directly, Sam is obviously mixed up with a cult of functioning witches. [f] LUCY. Lucy remains an imaginary playmate for Jean Elspeth (who is a little simple) all Jean's life. When Jean is very old, Lucy becomes visible for a moment. The power of belief? Perhaps not supernatural? A character study? [g] THE SLEEPING BOYS OF WARWICKSHIRE. Old Nollykins, who is a master chimney sweep, has three small boys in his service. He is both a miser and a cruel man and he uses them badly. When he observes that their spirits emerge when they are sleeping, and go out and play, he questions the local Witch, hoping to make some profit from the situation. The witch deceives him, for when he follows her instructions, his preparations exclude the dream-spirits, and the boys remain in suspended animation. They remain a museum attraction for decades until the caretaker's daughter knpcks down the iron key that restrains them. They awaken and dash away. [h] THE LOVELY MYFANWY. Wales. A fairy tale. Owen ap Gwythock, Lord of Eggleyseg, does not wish his daughter to marry. When a handsome young juggler appears, Owen is trapped by magic and turned into an ass. He must give his consent to Myfanwy's marriage before being released. The juggler, of course, is a prince in disguise. The magical objects were an apple, a belt, and a ball. [i] ALICE'S GODMOTHER. Alice is summoned to the palatial estate of her godmother, Who is something like 350 years old. The old woman offers Alice similar longevity, but Alice refuses, treasuring the changes of life more than the stasis of immortality. While the author does not spell matters out, the godmother is presumably a witch, with a familiar whom Alice has

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DE LA MARE, WALTER seen. * The illustrations, in the white-onblack British woodcut school, are excellent. * Best stories are [a], [c], [e], [i]. 503. TWO TALES I. THE CONNOISSEUR II. THE GREEN ROOM "The Bookman's Journal" Office; London [1925] 250 copy edition. Two stories, including [a] THE GREEN ROOM. The young man, who is rummaging and exploring in the semi-private back rooms of an old book shop, sees the ghostly presence of a young woman and then finds a manuscript volume of poems that she had written. She was apparently a suiCide, the mistress of one of the previous inhabitants of the building, and had recorded her erotic feelings in poetry. The young man regards the ghost with horror when he sees it, but with longing when he is elsewhere, and for reasons that are difficult to explain decides to publish the poetry as a tribute to her. But he discovers that his action has not pleased the ghost. * An excellent story. 504. THE CONNOISSEUR William Collins; London 1926 Short stories, including [a] ALL HALLOWS. At eventide the footsore wanderer comes upon All Hallows, an ancient church now far removed from human habitation and almost unattended. He chances on the verger, who tells him of the degeneration that has befallen the church: the dean has merCifully been stricken insane, while horrors permeate the edifice. As they wander through the vast, empty pile, the traveller sees how the power of evil has been gradually usurping the church. There is danger, too, after dark, as the verger knows from the occasion when he barely escaped from a vast, destructive force. The whole phenomenon might be termed possession of a sort. * Also present is ''Mr. Kempe," a horror story of a mad recluse near Porlock; there are implications of murder. Some readers have taken it to be supernatural, but I do not. * [a] is one of de la Mare's finest stories. 505. ON THE EDGE Faber and Faber; London [1930] Short stories, including [a] A RECLUSE. Curious about the architecture of a country house, the traveller strikes up an acquaintance with its owner, Mr. Bloom, an elderly recluse, and accepts his hospitality for the night. Their conversation leads to various topics concerned with death, both physical and spiritual. When the traveller is about to steal away the next morning, he sees that his host was really only a momentary vision of a corpse in the bed. The implications are that Bloom is physically dead but spiritually alive, and that the house is permeated with disembodied entities. No explanations are given. [b} CREWE. The narrator listens to the monologue reminiscences of a decayed servant who tells (by indirection) how he schemed and plotted to drive out his fellow servants so that he could gain a legacy. The plot resulted in a suicide and the appearance of the vengeful dead man as an approaching scarecrow. The ghost is responsible for the death of another servant that the narrator used as a catspaw. [c] THE GREEN ROOM. Described

DE LA MARE, WALTER elsewhere. Three excellent stories. The other (non-supernatural) stories are also well worth reading. 506. THE LORD FISH Faber and Faber; London 1933. Short stories, including [a) THE LORD FISH. A modern fairy tale. John Cobbler, a lazy youth, ventures into the forbidden territory to fish. There he comes upon a strange high house in which lies imprisoned a beautiful young woman who has been half transformed into a fish by the Lord Fish. John undertakes to disenchant her, but in the process is himself transformed into a fish for a time. A magic salve is involved. [b) A PENNY A DAY. Griselda, a poor young peasant woman, strikes a bargain with a dwarf: he shall work for her and she shall pay him a penny a day for nine days. The dwarf, it soon becomes clear, is a brownie, and he tricks Griselda into forfeiting the bargain; but a new arrangement, agreeable to all, is reached. [c) THE JACKET. As a boy, Admiral Rumbold bought an old Chinese jacket that was said to have magical powers. It seems to have brought him success and to have saved his life. Now, as an old man, he gives it to a talented young street artist, whom it immediately helps. But the admiral, suddenly enfeebled, has sacrificed his own protection. [d) DICK AND THE BEANSTALK. A sequel to the nursery tale about Jack. Generations after Jack, Dick comes upon the old beans talk, which is still standing, and follows it to giant1and at its top. The giants are stupid, cruel, and greedy, and Dick has difficulties in escaping the cooking pot. When he descends, a lubberly giant accompanies him, and Dick's problem is to convince the giant that he should return home and then to destroy the beanstalk. [e) HODMADOD. A dialect word for "scarecrow." As a boy Uncle Tim saw a fairy near a scarecrow. The fairy was neither hostile nor friendly, simply alien and unapproachable. Years later, in an endeavor to regain the experience, Tim buys the scarecrow, but as he tells his niece, Letitia, the experience cannot be regained. * [e) is the best story, 'much more successful than the adu1t-chi1dren's stories in the book. * Excellent illustrations by Rex Whistler. 507. rHE WIND BLOWS OVER Faber and Faber; Lon[1936] don Short stories, including [a) "WHAT DREAMS MAY COME". Emmeline, victim of an automobile accident, undergoes horrible experiences as she lies unconscious. They culminate in a meeting with the Master of the House, Death. All delirium. [b) THE TALISMAN. Germany. Harry, a young man of eighteen, is friendly with Gessen, an old antique dealer. When Gessen turns up a Renaissance watch with the inscription, "For him who bears me I of Love and Death tell out Eternity • • • " the watch enhances Harry's love for a young woman and brings Gessen death. [c) A REVENANT. The donnish lecturer, who "discusses" Poe damagingly and crushingly in an hour, is accosted by a mysterious personality, who is obviously Poe emergent from the past. The lecturer had covered Poe in the fashionable

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DE LA MARE, WALTER cant, and Poe challenges his interpretation for want of insight and charity. De 1a Mare is obviously contrasting two schools of criticism, the biographical and the poetic, and finding biographical wanting. A fine tour de force. [d) THE TRUMPET. Questionable as: fantasy. Two boys, late at night on April 30th, are conducting a death watch. High in the church is a wooden angel, who holds a trumpet. Phil dares Dick to climb up and blow the trumpet, and Dick falls to his death. The supernatural may enter for a moment when Phil, having second thoughts, tries to stop Dick. He claims that something not a man nor a woman is coming. Phil is apparently lying, but perhaps his lie unwittingly conveys a supernatural truth? Some readers consider the story fantastic, but there is a point of ambiguity. [e) STRANGERS AND PILGRIMS. At dusk old Mr. Phelps, the verger of St. Edmunds, sees a stranger on the grounds. Together they read many poetic epitaphs and examine architecture. As the epitaphs grow more and more sinister the stranger reveals that he is looking for one person, a suicide who died in 1882. But he would not have been buried in consecrated ground. Obviously the unquiet ghost of the suicide. [f) THE HOUSE. Mr. Asprey has been forced to quit the beloved house in which he has spent his whole life. He wanders through it for a last time. examining the rooms and their furnishings (sometimes described hyperbolically) and reexperiencing old memories. He finally steps out into a beautiful world of frosted crystal, alone. The house is presumably his life, and he has just died. * Excellent stories. [f) is brilliantly handled. 508. THE SCARECROW AND OTHER STORIES Faber and Faber; London [1945] Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a) THE SCARECROW OR HODMADOD. Alternate title for HODMADOD. [b) THE LOVELY MYFANWY. lC) BROOMSTICKS. 509. A BEGINNING AND OTHER STORIES Faber and Faber; London 1955 Short stories, including [a) ODD SHOP. The traveller enters the small old shop, and the shopkeeper shows to him little "cages" which hold voices. Some are conscience, the inner self. Semiallegorical. [b) MUS IC. The doctor is summoned into the sandy wastes by a servant of old Brandt, who is intent on the music of the air and sea. The supernatural music is really there, as the doctor hears. [c) THE GUARDIAN. Described elsewhere. [d) BAD COMPANY. The narrator, on seeming impulse, follows an old man home from an underground platform. On entering the house, he finds the old man's corpse, together with a viciously worded will. The narrator realizes that he has been summoned for a purpose and destroys the will. The story ends with a question: can a ghost have a conscience? [e) THE QUINCUNX. When Beverley's hateful old aunt died, she hid her assets in some fashion so that Beverley could not find them. The narrator, visiting Beverley, sees him sleepwalking and pawing around an old picture. He is obviously controlled by the old

DE LA MARE, WALTER woman's spirit. The narrator examines the picture and finds a cryptic diagram locating something, probably the missing property, in the orchard. Other circumstances arise, and the narrator must decide whether he is bound by loyalty to his friend or duty to the old woman. [f] AN ANNIVERSARY. The spirit of an old flame returns for a tryst. * According to the preface, the stories in this volume range from before 1901 to the very recent past, and some are failed works. They are not among de la Mare's best stories, but [a] is interesting. 510. GHOST STORIES The Folio Society; London 1956 Introduction by Kenneth Hopkins. * Described elsewhere, [a] A REVENANT. [b] THE GREEN ROOM. [c] OUT OF THE DEEP. [d] THE HOUSE. [e] BAD COMPANY. [f} THE QUINCUNX. [g] AN ANNIVERSARY. Lithographs by B. Freedman. * Not the strongest selection possible for de la Mare. DE LISSER, HERBERT GEORGE (1878-1944) Jamaican journalist, novelist; author of several area studies and novels dealing with Jamaica. 511. THE WHITE WITCH OF ROSEHALL E. Benn; London 1929 Historical novel, Jamaica, 1831. The main events, including the personality of the White Witch, are based on fact. * When handsome, virile, young Robert Rutherford comes to Jamaica to learn the business of managing a plantation from the bottom up, he has the misfort~ne to take a place at Rosehall as a bookkeeper. He is shocked by the brutality with which the slaves are treated and is, for a time, nonplused by Caribbean sexual freedom. The mistress of the plantation, Annie Palmer (three husbands murdered by her) takes him as a lover, but a quarrel arises between Annie and Millie, a quadroon girl who has fallen in love with Robert. This results in a battle of magics, for Annie, Who grew up in Haiti, is a most powerful voodoo priestess and can cause supernatural visions, while Millie's grandfather, old Takoo, is the most powerful local obeah man. As a further complication, the slaves are about to be liberated, and an uprising is imminent. Annie destroys Millie by voodoo magic, including a vampiric spirit, but the slaves revolt under Takoo and Annie is killed. Rutherford is to return to England a somewhat chastened man. * Competently written, ethnographically interesting in its descriptions of plantation life. DEL REY, LESTER (full name variously given; Tuck has RAMON FELIPE SAN JUAN MARIO SILVIO ENRICO ALVAREZ-DEL REY (1915 ) Important formative figure in American pulp science-fiction in 1930's and 1940's. Editor of various magazines (FANTASY FICTION, SCIENCE FICTION ADVENTURES, GALAXY, IF. Very important in recent years as editor for Ballantine Books. Has used pseudonyms Philip St. John and Erik van Lhin. 512. " • • . AND SOME WERE HUMAN" Prime Press; Philadelphia 1949 Short stories, mostly science-fiction, but in-

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DE MORGAN, JOHN cluding [a] HEREAFTER, INC. (UNK 1941). Potts, a Fundamentalist, awakens in a heaven that is much like earth, but is hell for him. [b] FORSAKING ALL OTHERS. (UNK 1939) A dryad falls in love with a mortal. [c] THE COPPERSMITH. (UNK 1939) An elf, after 120 years of sleep, awakens and finds difficulty in adjusting to the new world. He decides to use his skill at working metal, in the hope that 20th century wastefulness will bring back a pre-machine age. * Also included is the science-fiction story "Nerves." 513. ROBOTS AND CHANGELINGS ELEVEN TALES OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION Ballantine Books; New York 1957 paperbound Short stories, including [a] THE PIPES OF PAN. (UNK 1940) When the last worshipper dies, the old gods must adapt to human life or die, too. Pan is faced with the problem of earning a living, which he does splendidly, as a jazz mUSLCLan. [b] LITTLE J~. (MFSF 1957) A. J.'s very old mother seems almost rejuvenated. Her life now centers around Little Jimmy-- a ghost. But Little Jimmy is the ghost of a man who is still physically alive. His Jimmy facet died years ago. [c] THE COPPERSMITH. Described elsewhere. [d] NO STRINGS ATTACHED. (IF 1954) Henry evokes Alfear, who amounts to being a demon. Alfear agrees to kill Henry's Wife, but persistently warns Henry about the danger of establishing a pattern. Borderline science-fiction in treatment. * The other stories are all sciencefiction. These stories and the stories in the previous volume were unusual in their day for using a sentimental approach that was sometimes very effective. DE MORGAN, JOHN (1848 - ? ) American author of dime novels. Said to have been of British birth and a tax collector on Staten Island. Wrote occasional primitive science-fiction; esteemed by collectors for very rare series of parodies of work of H. Rider Haggard (five in all), but of no literary significance. 514. HE. A COMPANION TO SHE BEING A HISTORY OF THE ADVENTURES OF J. THEODOSIUS ARISTOPHANO ON THE ISLAND OF RAPA NUl IN SEARCH OF HIS ]MMORTAL ANCESTOR Norman L. Munro; New York 1887 (published anonymously) A dime-novel pastiche of H. Rider Haggard's SHE. Adventure. * According to De Morgan, Kallikrates recovered from the wrath of She to find himself immortal and gifted with powers as great as hers. He thereupon fled to the Pacific, where he set himself up as an immortal ruler much as She had in Africa. Aristophano, a 19th century descendant, and Norse Fjord, a sea companion, set out to find He, and after adventures reminiscent of those of Vincey and Holly in Africa, find him on Easter Island. He, like She, is not entirely a benevolent person, and like She, he is haunted by an undying love that is never fulfilled. In a cave he maintains a marble statue of a beautiful woman. This is Alethea, a Greek maiden from about 300 B.C., whom He intends to keep petrified until she

DE MORGAN, JOHN loves him. Petrification and release are a matter of easy routine. But Alethea is really in love with Aristophano, whom she visits in dreams. She tells him that he is the reincarnation of her former lover Tisneo, the longdead son of Kallikrates. The high point of the novel comes when He, deciding that he has waited long enough, appeals to Alethea, who rejects him. He destroys her, steps into the flame of life, and is transformed into an old goat. Aristophano and Fjord, too, are affected. They do not become immortal, as they had hoped, but bent, withered old men. * Other fantastic elements include the telepathic, teleportational abilities of He, and the appearance of the god Tabu. * Not to be taken seriously, of course. Among curious points are some authentic features of Easter Island culture, Middle American archeology, and references to a Chinese expedition sent out by Confucius. * De Morgan's "IT," a sequel to HE, though sometimes cited as supernatural fiction, is not. It is concerned with an African expedition in quest of the Missing Link. DE MORGAN, WILLIAM FREND (1839-1917) British potter, mainstream author. Associate and friend of William Morris's, and perhaps the foremost British Victorian designer and manufacturer of ceramics. Late in life took to writing fiction, with first and best-known novel JOSEPH VANCE (1906). His novels are full and Edwardian in development, but often with a Dickensian flavor. 515. ALICE-FaR-SHORT A DICHRONISM Heinemann; London 1907 Upper middle-class romance, artistic life, social message, with some supernaturalism behind everything. The treatment is an odd mixture of Victorian plotting and Edwardian character systems. * Middle to late 19th century; two episodes separated by sixteen years. The old house at No. 40, X----- Street, Soho, is the center of many developments. Young Charles Heath has his studio there, while in the basement live the Kavanaghs, a drunken man and wife who have fallen from higher economic levels. Alice Kavanagh (Alice-for-short), age six, is suddenly orphaned when her father hammers her mother and then takes cyanide. The Heaths, who are wealthy, take Alice in. Much of the 550 pages that follow are then devoted to the romances, marriages, divorces, failures, triumphs of the Heaths and their associates. The supernatural enters in the hauntings at No. 40. A beautiful woman in 18th century garb and a gentleman with a sword wander about the house and sometimes reenact a murder. The woman's bones are found buried in the basement. After many side issues the mystery is solved and a higher ancestry established for Alice. * This might have been a fairly good mystery if it had been planned as such and shortened to about half its present length, but it is not likely that many will work through the padding to find the rather obvious supernaturalism. 516. A LIKELY STORY Heinemann; London 1911 Two narratives, modern English and Renaissance

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DENNIS, GEOFFREY Italian, united by a common symbol, a painting of a woman. * Reginald Aiken, a moderately successful artist, and his wife Euphemia live in a bickering yet devoted relationship. While Aiken is cleaning a Renaissance Italian painting of a woman, the stupid housemaid dusts some lint onto the sticky varnish and an incident arises. Reginald handles the situation badly, and Euphemia, deciding that Reginald is trying to seduce the maid, leaves in a huff. Pride keeps husband and wife apart for several months. A fantasy element resolves the impasse. The painting of the Renaissance woman proves to be sentient and it talks (to its owner) not only about its own life in the 16th century, but about the Aiken brawl. A niece of the owner perceives that the Aiken situation is all a mistake and leaves photographs of the painting with Reginald and Euphemia. The photos speak, and the quarrel is ended. A long postscript tells the history of the Renaissance lovers who were concerned with the painting-- a romance like one of Boccaccio's. * Some good detail, but wordy and not too well thought out in terms of fantasy. DENNIS, GEOFFREY POMEROY (1892-1963) British civil servant, author, essayist. One of founders of Oxford Poetry Series. Long associated with the League of Nations in Geneva, becoming chief editor and chief of document services. Highly regarded critically during the 1930's, but now undeservedly forgotten. Best-known works are MARY LEE (1922) and BLOODY MARY'S (1934), a very fine, serious school story. CORONATION COMMENTARY (1937) caused a scandal by its hostility to King Edward VIII, and was withdrawn by the publishers in Great Britain. 517. HARVEST IN POLAND Heinemann; London [1925] A long psychological novel portraying in supernatural terms both the degeneration of European society just before World War I and the spiritual odyssey of a sensitive young man. * England and Poland. Because creation was accomplished by both God and the Devil, man has seeds of both good and evil within him. In some persons, as in Emmanuel Lee, the two components may battle for domination. Lee has mediumistic powers and has always been close to the supersensual world. He must fight for his soul when he enters the domain of a decayed Polish price. There he meets evil in concrete form in a series of despicable characters. A culmination is found in the prince's halfbrother, a giant, who has sold his soul to the Devil. Although badly tempted in a spiritual orgy, Lee masters his own evil component and thereby redeems the giant. * Like the author's MARY LEE and BLOODY MARY'S, remarkable in the creation of small detail (with the result that critics have taken each of Dennis's novels to be autobiographical), but marred by excessive length and overwriting. Somewhat reminiscent of the novels of E.F. Benson in its concept of spiritual evil, but much more powerful and grotesque. * A better novel, but less fantastic, is SALE BY AUCTION (1932).

DERLETH, AUGUST DERLETH, AUGUST WILLIAM (1909 - 1971) American regionalistic (Wisconsin) novelist, poet, essayist, critic, writer of geographical books, miscellaneous writer and prolific author of supernatural fiction. Prepared biographical studies of H. P. Lovecraft and Zona Gale. Popular writer of detective stories, sometimes regionalistic, sometimes pastiches on Sherlock Holmes (as Solar Pons). * Writing of varying quality, probably because of hastiness in composition. Fairly important as regionalist; well-regarded for mainstream fiction; less successful in popular fiction. Supernatural stories (with occasional exceptions, usually regionalistic stories) tend to be derivative, repetitive~ and formulary, though workmanlike. * Area of greatest imp0.rtance is as a publisher and general influence in the development of supernatural fiction. Founder (with Donald Wandrei) and manager of Arkham House, pioneer and outstanding publishing house specializing in supernatural fiction. An excellent judge of literary quality, Derleth long dominated genre book publishing. * Has written supernatural fiction under pseudonyms Stephen Grendon, Michael West, Tally Mason, and probably others. See Lovecraft, H. P. and Derleth, A. 518. SOMEONE IN THE DARK Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1941 Introduction by Derleth, WHEN THE NIGHT AND THE HOUSE ARE STILL . . . * Short stories in the modes of M. R. James, Mary Wilkins [Freeman], H. P. Lovecraft'. * [a] GLORY HAND. (WT 1937) Harrick inherits a hand of glory. A warning is included with it, "Let no evil wish cross his lips who owns me." Inadvertently Harrick wishes two of his colleagues dead. [b] COMPLIMENTS OF SPECTRO. (WT 1941). Spectro is a fictional avenger of crime, in the manner of the Saint. Spectro's author steals a story from a young colleague and so manipulates matters that the true author is considered guilty and commits suicide. Spectro takes a hand. [c] A GIFT FOR UNCLE HERMAN. (WT 1939) Uncle Herman, a powerful black magician, usurps the body of the nephew who murdered him. [d] McGOVERN'S OBSESSION. (WT 1937) McGovern, who has just moved into a new house, produces automatic writing which accuses the previous tenant, a doctor, of murder. Skulls are found in the wall, and McGovern makes the mistake of inviting the murderer in. [e] THREE GENTLEMEN IN BLACK. (WT 1938) Another murderous nephew, caught by three avenging ghosts. [f] MUGGRIDGE'S AUNT. (WT 1935) Muggridge mistreated his old aunt, who gave him a warning on her deathbed. After death her ghost takes revenge. [g] ,BRAMWELL'S GUARDIAN. (WT 1949) Bramwell finds a golden Druidic ring on Salisbury Plain, near Stonehenge. He is warned to restore the ring, and he acquires a supernatural companion, but he is stubborn. [h] JOLIPER'S GIFT. (STRANGE STORIES 1940) A blow on the head renders Joliper, a bank embezzler, clairaudient. But his gift does not protect him from th~ man he murdered. His victim frames him. [i] ALTIMER'S AMULET .. (WT 1941) When Altimer stole an amulet fro~ Tibet, he

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DERLETH, AUGUST cut off a priest's hands. The hands follow him. [j] THE SHUTTERED HOUSE. (WT 1937) A badly haunted house. Piano playing and ghosts Who try to get in. [k] THE SHERATON MIRROR. (WT 1932) An old woman commits suicide before a mirror and wills the mirror to her hated relatives, who see her in the glass. [1] THE WIND FROM THE RIVER. (WT 1937) Murder masked as suicide is exposed supernaturally. [m] THE TELEPHONE IN THE LIBRARY. (WT 1936) A dead man makes a call and leaves his fingerprints. [n] THE PANELLED ROOM. (WESTMINSTER MAGAZINE 1933). A murder and a suicide took place in the panelled room. When one sees the panels move, one should leave. * Two other stories are carried elsewhere for context: [0] THE RETURN OF HASTUR. [p] THE SANDWIN COMPACT. * [k] and [n] are best.; In general the local, regionalistic American stories are best, while those in imitation of Lovecraft are weakest. 519. SOMETHING NEAR, Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1945 Short stories. [a] A THIN GENTLEMAN WITH GLOVES. (WT 1943) One should not embezzle money from the estate of a deceased black magician, especially if the magician's familiar will be released only when the will is carried out. Strangulation by a skeleton. [b] MR. AMES' DEVIL. (FANTASTIC ADVENTURE 1942). Ames conjures up a small demon but discovers that he cannot control it very well because of union rules in hell. Ames, after unintentionally causing several deaths through the demon, learns that he can be rid of the demon only by joining the union himself. But he forgets, momentarily, what else is involved. [c] A WIG FOR MISS DE VORE. (WT 1943) Sheila De Vore, motion picture star, uses the wig of a murderess in order to saturate herself in the personality of the murderess. She is too successful, especially to her playboy lover. He"loses his heart to her. [d ] MRS • CORTER MAKES UP HER MIND. (FANTASTIC ADVENTURES 1942) Doll magic and voodoo emanating from an unbombed house in the middle of the London blitz. [e] PACIFIC 42l. (WT 1944) A phantom train passes through each Friday. Golley pushes his disliked stepfather under i,t. The authorities do not believe his story. [f] HEADLINES FOR TOD SHAYNE. (FANTASTIC UNIVERSE 1942) A publicity-mad actor lives in a house filled with the personality of the murderer. He is possessed and takes to crime. [g] NO LIGHT FOR UNCLE HENRY. Murder, ghost, haunted room. Edward, 'semi-possessed by the ghost of Henry, puts Herbert, the murderer, into the room. [h] LANSING'S LUXURY. (WT 1942) A British real-estate speculator, Whose plans are hindered by the mysterious Mr. Zamda, who is hinted to be a wizard. [i] CAROUSEL. (FANTASTIC ADVENTURE 1942) At the amusement park, some time earlier, a Black worker killed a tormentor and was lynched. A little girl goes to the park and is protected by the ghost of the Black, but her stepmother is chewed by the phantom Ferris wheel. [j] LADY MACBETH OF PIMLEY SQUARE. (WT 1944) Mrs. Jenk, amateur actress, plays Lady Macbeth, and her astral body identifies itself with the role. The astral body

DERLETH, AUGUST thereupon murders her husband's senior partner and possesses a young actress. [k] HERE, DAEMOS~ (WT 1942) When the Rev. Webly opens the tomb of the 17th century Nicholas Millham, he disregards a curse. Millham had as a familiar a large dog named Daemos. [1] McELWIN'S GLASS. (WT 1943) The telescope shows the future, but only of persons concerned with the viewer. McElwin sees circumstances of his own death without recognizing it. em] AN ELEGY FOR MR. DANIELSON. (WT 1935) A stranger leaves an elegy for recently deceased Mr. Danielson. When Danielson's relicts play it, he comes to life for a few hours, goes to his bank, withdraws Druidic jewels and turns them over to the stranger. He had swindled the dead stranger fifty years earlier. The elegy is a Druidic chant for raising the dead. en] THE SATIN MASK. (WT 1936) A Florentine satin mask vampirically drains the life from the person who wears it. Dreams, ghosts. [0] MOTIVE. (TOP-NOTCH DETECTIVE 1939) A colloquy between a murderer and one who knows of the other's guilt. Not openly supernatural, but with overtones of horror. [p] THE METRONOME (WT 1935) Mrs. Farwell sees the ghost of her stepchild looking for the metronome. She is repaid. [q] THE INVERNESS CAPE. (WT 1945) Old Thaddeus Pierson, whose hobby is collecting crime relics, owns a remarkable cape, into which has been woven the soul of a vicious murderer. When his heir disregards warnings and wears the cape, he commits two murders and then is strangled by the cape. [r] THE THING THAT WALKED ON THE WIND (WT 1933) Canada. Probably suggested by Algernon Blackwood's story THE WENDIGO. Ithaqua, a wind-walking elemental, a snow or cold being, carries human sacrifices into the sky and then sometimes releases them a year or so later, deadly cold. [5] BEYOND THE THRESHOLD. (WT 1941) Cthulhu cycle. The grandfather of the narrator investigates hidden things, including Innsmouth. He is carried off by Ithaqua, and his corpse is found near Singapore. [t] ITHAQUA. (WT 1941) Sequel of a sort to [r]. Cthulhu cycle. Disappearances, ancient stone circles, and something like a cloud of snow that hovers over them. [u] THE DWELLER IN DARKNESS. (WT 1944) After having tried to log near Rick's Lake, lumberjacks are careful to stay away. It is a place where beings from Outside are to be found. Professor Gardner is abducted by one of these beings; his disembodied voice urges his friends to summon Cthugha, who will help them, but Gardner himself appears and scoffs at the idea. As the beings from Outside advance, the humans finally summon Cthugha, and it is revealed that the person thought to be Gardner had really been the terrible Nyarlothotep. Cthulhu cycle. * Mostly routine work. 520. NOT LONG FOR THIS WORLD Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1948 Short stories, including [a] THE SHADOW ON THE SKY. (STRANGE TALES 1932) Sir Hilary sees the hanging in the sky, coming ever closer. An old curse; and his death. [b] BIRKETT'S TWELFTH CORPSE. (STRANGE STORIES 1940) Rival corpse-

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DERLETH, AUGUST hunters eager to find the drifting body in the river. One murders the other and is suitably punished. [c] THE WHITE MOTH (WT 1933) The ghost of a deceased wife (embodied as a moth) does not want her husband to have other women. Cd] NELLIE FOSTER. (WT 1933) Vampire. Told by indirection. Among small town Midwesterners [e] WILD GRAPES. (WT 1934) A murdering nephew covered his uncle's secret grave with wild grape vines, which eventually kill him. [f] FEIGMAN'S BEARD. (WT 1934) Regionalism, death by hexerei. Old widow Klopp lets the Devil sit on Feigman's mirror. [g] THE DRIFTING SNOW. (WT 1939) When it snows, ghosts lure one out and kill one vampirically. Also titled MIDNIGHT. [h] THE RETURN OF SARAH PURCELL. (WT 1936) Retarded mentally and abused, she returned from the dead to punish her cruel sister. [i] LOGODA'S HEADS. (STRANGE STORIES 1939) African witchcraft with severed heads. [j] THE SECOND PRINT. A dead magician gets revenge by animating a photograph. [k] MRS. ELTING DOES HER PART. (STRANGE STORIES 1939) Revenge. Falsified seance is really genuine. [1] MRS. BENTLEY'S DAUGHTER. (WT 1930) The visitor sees the child playing around the well. A ghost. em] THOSE WHO SEEK. (WT 1932) An ancient abbey, the inscription, "Those who seek shall find," visions of the past, a monstrous god. en] MR. BERBECK HAD A DREAM. (WT 1935) He and his wife murdered his mother. Her ghost entangled them in counterfeiting. Somnambulistic possession. [0] THE LILAC BUSH. (WT 1930) Grandpa planted the bush; his ghost wants flowers for his grave. [p] A MATTER OF SIGHT. (WT 1930) Fourth-dimensional second sight views the past. [q] CHRONICLES OF THE CITY STATES. Five stories about Renaissance Italy; magic. [r] . PRINCE BORGIA'S MASS. (WT 1931). [s] A DINNER AT !MOLA. [WT 1929). [t] LESANDRO'S FAMILIAR (WT 1936). [u] THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS. (WT 1931). * [v] HE SHALL COME. (MANUSCRIPT, 1929) On a train a priest battles an evil being, Devil or AntiChrist? [w] MRS. LANNISFREE. (WT 1945) Told by a stupid hired man. The dead Mrs. Lannisfree comes for her husband, dripping sea water. [x] AFTER YOU, MR. HENDERSON. (STRANGE STORIES 1940) Letitia's appearances after death spoil a stock swindle concocted by her cousins. [y] BAYNTER'S IMP. (WT 1943) The imp from the bottle serves Baynter in committing murders, but when Baynter is ungrateful, it takes his place. [z] THE LOST DAY. (WT 1945) Magical books, a missing day, a crime. [aa] A COLLECTOR OF STONES. (WT 1946) Merrihew steals gravestones to pave his walk. The original owners come for them. ebb] THE GOD-BOX. (WT 1945) Stolen from Stonehenge. It contains a demon. A Druid comes to recover it. [cc] SAUNDERS'S LITTLE FRIEND. (WT 1948) Doll magic; an apelike follower. [dd] "JUST A SONG AT TWILIGHT." (WT 1930) A maternal ghost, supernatural singing, a child ghost. * Best stories are [b], [f], and [0]. 521. THE MASK OF CTHULHU Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1958 Short stories more or less connected with the

DERLETH, AUGUST Cthulhu cycle. * [a] THE RETURN OF HASTUR. (WT 1939) When Amos Tuttle left his estate in Arkham to his nephew Paul, a provision of the will was that Paul destroy Amos's books and his house. Paul is loath to do this. He gradually learns that Amos had been a practicing magician and that he had some sort of compact with Hastur (one of the gods from Outside) and had promised Hastur a haven. Hastur comes. [b] THE WHIPPOORWILLS IN THE HILLS. (WT 1948) When Dan Harrop inherits his cousin's estate near Dunwich, he discovers that his cousin had been a mag~c~an. The neighbors are hostile and the whippoorwills are seldom quiet. Dan is possessed and declares himself a chosen one of the Great Ones. He blames the whippoorwills when he is caught chewing out the throat of one of his neighbors. [c] SOMETHING IN WOOD. (WT 1947) Jason Wecter is a collector of primitive art. The narrator gives him a strange wood carving, which is obviously of one of the Ancient Ones, probably Cthulhu. The carving is activated, and Jason is absorbed. [d] THE SANDWIN COMPACT. (WT 1940) David visits the Sandwins, who are his cousins. Old Sandwin has the Innsmouth look and has made a compact (as have his ancestors), but he is trying to break it so that his son will be free. He has magical protection against most of the Great Ones, but not against Lloigor, who walks the winds. [e] THE HOUSE IN THE VALLEY. (WT 1953) When Perkins rents the old Bishop house near Arkham, he discovers that the extinct owners had been magicians. Seth Bishop, indeed, had been responsible for many dark doings, including cattle murder. Perkins discovers entrances to tunnels in the basement and is finally possessed into the cult of the Great Ones. [f] THE SEAL OF R'LYEH. (WT 1957) When Phillips inherits the house of his deceased uncle, he soon discovers that his uncle had been a mag~c~an. In this instance, Phillips himself has something of the Innsmouth taint, and while innocent at first, soon becomes a member of the group that wishes to worship the Great Ones. Also involved are tunnels to the sea, visits to the reefs off Innsmouth, etc. * Hasty work not up to Derleth's better level. Derleth was never really at home in the Cthulhu cycle. There are too many digressions to the Necronomicon, the mythology of the Great Ones, the events described in Lovecraft's stories. 522. THE TRAIL OF CTHULHU Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1962 Five connected short stories. * [a] THE HOUSE ON CURWEN STREET. (WT 1944) Originally published as THE TRAIL OF CTHULHU. Andrew Phelan, vigorous young man, goes to work for Dr. Laban Shrewsbury of Arkham. Shrewsbury is purportedly a folklorist studying the myth patterns of present-day primitive peoples, but Phelan soon learns that something more sinister is going on., Shrewsbury is deeply involved with the Ancient Ones and is desperately trying to prevent Cthulhu from remanifesting himself on earth. Invoking the fraternal jealousy and rivalry among the Ancient Ones, Shrewsbury uses flying night monsters supplied by Hastur and magical drugs

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DERLETH, AUGUST to destroy the possible gateways through which Cthulhu might come. Phelan first considers his fantastic trips and activities with Shrewsbury to be dream, but he is forced to recognize that he is in danger. When Cthulhu's batra~hian followers track down Shrewsbury and Phelan, the two men escape with Hastur's flying monsters and take refuge in a planet outside our solar system. [b] THE WATCHER FROM THE SKY. (WT 1945) Phelan returns to his old lodgings and enlists Abel Keane in the battle against Cthulhu. Phelan and Keane disguise themselves as batrachian natives of Innsmouth and proceed to Innsmouth, with the intention of destroying the local cult of Cthulhu. At the moment one Abel Marsh seems to be the head of the Esoteric Order of Dagon. When Phelan sets fire to the meeting hall of the order, Marsh is trapped. The heat melts away his disguise, and he is revealed to be a batrachian Deep One, one of the sea people who worship Cthulhu and further his interests. [c] THE GORGE BEYOND SALAPUNCO. (WT 1949) Original title THE TESTAMENT OF CLAIBORNE BOYD. When Boyd's great uncle dies, Boyd inherits his papers and art collection. He soon learns that his uncle had been on the trail of Cthulhu. Telepathic dream communications from Dr. Shrewsbury alert Boyd to attempts by the batrachians to acquire his great uncle's papers, and he soon joins Shrewsbury's organization. They bomb a Cthulhu outlet in South America and assassinate the local leader. [d] THE KEEPER OF THE KEY. (WT 1951) Nayland Colum, author of supernatural fiction, seems to have stumbled onto the Cthulhu situation, for he is enlisted by Shrewsbury. Together they proceed to Central Asia, where they find the remains of Abdul Alhazred, the author of the Necronomicon. (Shrewsbury does not accept the historical account offered by Lovecraft that Abdul was eaten alive by an invisible monster.) Shrewsbury reanimates Abdul and persuades him to indicate on a map where Cthulhu lies sleeping. [e] THE BLACK ISLAND. (WT 1952) Shrewsbury and his crew, aided by the U.S. armed forces, locate the Black Island where Cthulhu rests, which is somewhere north of the Caroline Islands. When Cthulhu starts to emerge, conventional explosives are ineffectual, and an atomic or hydrogen bomb is used. The result is a temporary setback for Cthulhu, for the story ends with the conclusion that Cthulhu is not dead, that he is still waiting, and that his organization of followers is still powerful and dangerous. [f] A NOTE ON THE CTHULHU MYTHOS. An article. * Much superior to the shoddy work in THE MASK OF CTHULHU. but by no means equal to Lovecraft's original formulations. Too much Sax Rohmer. 523. LONESOME PLACES Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1962 Supernatural short stories. * [a] THE LONESOME PLACE. (1947) Two imaginative boys people a deserted working area with horrible monsters. When, years later, a child is killed there, the narrator feels responsibility, since the horror was a projection of his own fears.

DERLETH, AUGUST [b] PIKEMAN. (WI 1946) Morton, collector of graveyard memorabilia and legends, foolishly invites the occupant of a grave to come up. His body is usurped. [c] KINGS RIDGE 214. (WI 1949) Mrs. Begbie's phone keeps ringing, but the operator is not responsible. Something dead and horrible comes out of the cellar and the sea and strangles Mrs. Begbie. [d] THE EBONY STICK. (WI 1953) Uncle Jack tries to defraud his fellow heirs, but the ebony stick of Aunt Maud (deceased) whacks him until he repents. [e] "SEXTON, SEXTON, ON THE WALL." (WI 1953) Borderline science-fiction. Old Garner, in his laboratory, is creating gigantic sexton beetles for burying his enemy. [f] THE CLOSING DOOR. (WI 1950) The retiring sexton tells his successor to finish doing the church before dark. There is a reason: ghostly reenactment of a crime. [g] A ROOM IN A HOUSE. (1950) Children's fears and hatreds work their way out in the creation of Genie, a horror monster. Years later Genie still operates. [h] POTTS' TRIUMPH. (WI 1950) Philander Potts, master interior decorator, must refinish a room in which ghosts permit no change. He comes to a grim end. [i] TWILIGHT PLAY. (WI 1949) An imaginary playmate, the ghost of Red Hawk, punishes a young bully. [j] THE DISC RECORDER. (WI 1953) A primitive recording apparatus is used by the ghost of the murdered woman to reveal her fate. [k] HECTOR. ·(WT 1951) Described elsewhere. [1] "WHO SHALL I SAY IS CALLING?" (1952) A costume party, vampires, and the expected. [m] THE EXTRA CHILD. (1950) A photograph from a happy childhood. The number of people in the photo keeps changing. [n] THE PLACE IN THE WOODS. (WI 1954) Children, as a game, perhaps due to ancestral memory, evoke the god Pan. Horrible results. [0] HALLOWE'EN FOR MR. FAULKNER. (1959) Guy Faulkner finds himself returned to a memorable occasion in 17th century England and learns that he altered history. [p] HOUSE-- WITH GHOST. An American couple is desperate to rent a British haunted house, preferably with a ghost on the staircase. When murder is committed, the ghost appears for its reward. [q] THE SLAYERS AND THE SLAIN. (WI 1949) The horrors of ancient crimes emerge from a library newspaper file. [r] THE DARK BOY. (1956) A schoolboy ghost. * Sometimes folksy stories; sometimes stories dealing with children on the level of a Briggs cartoon. 524. MR. GEORGE AND OTHER ODD PERSONS Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1963 According to the introduction these stories were all written in one month "twenty years ago" and were published under the pseudonym Stephen Grendon. * [a] MR. GEORGE. (WI 1947) The life of the young heiress is threatened by her greedy aunts and uncle. She appeals to the dead Mr. George to protect her. He does, and the "accidents" that had been planned all backfire. [b] PARRINGTON'S POOL. (WI 1947) Judge Hawley, a hard man, wronged Tom Boyle and was the cause of his suicide. Both were fishing enthusiasts. Boyle's skeleton takes a hand in the judge's fishing. [c] A GENTLEMAN FROM PRAGUE. (WI 1944) For magical pur-

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DERLETH, AUGUST poses a plaque and a chain are stolen from the coffin of Septimus Halos in Prague. Halos comes after them, skeletally. [d] THE MAN ON B-17. (WI 1950) B-17 is a railway bridge. Told by a trainman. Ghostly revenge. [e] BLESSED ARE THE MEEK. (WI 1948) Grandpa Cowell and little Kenneth are sorely tried by Mrs. Hassell. A bottle cast up on the shore provides an answer. A jinn. [f] MARA. An unfaithful mistress, driven out, dead, returns ten years later as a presence. [g] THE BLUE SPECTACLES. (WI 1948) New Orleans. A lecherous lawyer puts on the old spectacles and is transported back to 1811, to stand trial for womanizing. His judge is Jean LaFitte. It had happened to one of his ancestors. [h] ALLANAH. (WI 1945) The .ghost of a childless woman craves a child. [i] DEAD MAN'S SHOES. [WI 1946) They avenge a murder that had seemed to be a war incident in World War II. [j] THE TSANTSA IN THE PARLOR. (WI 1948) A Jivaro shrunken head is sent to murder Mr. Ambler. The wrong victim. [k] BALU. (WI 1949) A large black cat from Egypt. Transfer of personalities. [1] THE EXTRA PASSENGER. A time table murder, nicely planned, but the murderer did not know that the victim, his uncle, was a black magician. There is an unexpected person in his train compartment. [m] THE WIND IN THE LILACS. Evidence of a previous murderer. [n] MISS ESPERSON. She had lived in the British West Indies, and knew things, including how to work doll magic on a murderous stepmother. [0] THE NIGHT TRAIN TO LOST VALLEY. (WI 1948) Strangers are not encouraged on the evening of April 30. The visitor takes part in the sabbath and sees things he should not have. [p] BISHOP'S GAMBIT. Young Albert detests his mother's friend Perry Cross and is most obstreperous when a marriage is announced. He and Cross play a game of chess to decide their fate. Albert, possessed by his dead grandfather, wins and does what is expected. [q] MRS. MANIFOLD. Described elsewhere. * [a] and [n] are the best stories. AS EDITOR: 525. SLEEP NO MORE TWENTY MASTERPIECES OF HORROR FOR THE CONNOISSEUR Farrar and Rinehart; New York [1944] Including, described elsewhere, [a] COUNT MAGNUS, M. R. James. [b] THE OCCUPANT OF THE ROOM, Algernon Blackwood. [c] THE RETURN OF THE SORCERER, Clark Ashton Smith. [d] "HE COMETH AND HE PASSETH BY," H. R. Wakefield. [e] THUS I REFUTE BEELZY, John Collier. [f] THE HOUSE OF SOUNDS, M. P. Shiel. [g] THE YELLOW SIGN, R. W. Chambers. [h] THE BLACK DRUID, F. B. Long. [i] THE RATS IN THE WALLS, H. P. Lovecraft. [j] CASSIUS, H. S. Whitehead. [k] JOHNSON LOOKED BACK, Thomas Burke. [1] A GENTLEMAN FROM PRAGUE, Stephen Grendon. Pseudo of August Derleth. * [m] THE HAND OF THE o 'MECCA, Howard Wandrei. Theriomorphy against a good background of grain basin regionalism. [n] THE TWO BLACK BOTTLES, Wilfred Blanch Talman. (WI 1927) The nephew of old dead Vanderhoof hears the confession of a 200-year old wizard who had stolen Vanderhoof's soul and

DERLETH, AUGUST imprisoned it in a black bottle. The other bottle contains the wizard's soul. (Reworked by H. P. Lovecraft.) [0] MIDNIGHT EXPRESS, Alfred Noyes. (THIS WEEK 1935) A cyclical horror situation of a man who reads horrible things in a strange book in which he reads horrible things, and so on. [p] THE MANNIKIN, Robert Bloch. (WT 1937) An undeveloped Siamese twin is a familiar demon.. [q] THE CANE, Carl Jacobi. (WT 1934). It is made from a "death tree" and carries out vengeance against the enemies of its former owner. [r] THE BLACK STONE, R.E. Howard. Described elsewhere for context. [s] THE HORROR IN THE BURYING GROUND, Hazel Heald [and H. P. Lovecraft]. Described elsewhere for context. * A good collection. 526. WHO KNOCKS? TWENTY MASTERPIECES OF THE SPECTRAL FOR THE CONNOISSEUR Rinehart; New York 1946 Foreword. * Described elsewhere, [a] THE SHADOWS ON THE WALL, Mary Wilkins (Freeman). [b] RUNNING WOLF, Algernon Blackwood. [c] OLD MARTIN, A.E. Coppard. [d] ALANNAH, Stephen Grendon. Pseudo of August Derleth. [e] THE SHUNNED HOUSE, H. P. Lovecraft. [f] THE LAKE, Ray Bradbury. [g] THE SEVENTEENTH HOLE AT DUNCASTER, H. R. Wakefield. [h] THE ANKERDYNE PEW, W. F. Harvey. [i]SQUlRE TOBY'S WILL, J. S. LeFanu. [j] NEGOTIUM PERAMBULANS, E. F. Benson. [k] THE INTERCESSOR, May Sinclair. [1] THE HOUSE OF THE NIGHTMARE, E. L. White. [m] THE FOLLOWER, Cynthia Asquith. [n] THE RAVEL PAVANE, H. S. Whitehead. [0] THE GHOSTS OF STEAMBOAT COULEE, Arthur J. Burks. [p] THE WOMAN AT SEVEN BROTHERS, Wilbur Daniel Steele. * Also [q] IT, Theodore Sturgeon. (UNK 1940) A horrible sort of life in a reanimated corpse that wanders about the woods. Told with gusto. [r] THE PHANTOM FARMHOUSE, Seabury Quinn. (WT 1923) A clergyman in a sanitarium sees the old farmhouse nearby, visits the people, and falls in love with the daughter of the house. But there are werewolves about. One of them, out of love, transcends her condition to save the clergyman and beg for release. One of Quinn's better stories. [s] THE DEAR DEPARTED, AliceMary Schnirring. (WT 1944) A fraudulent medium, a fake Hindu ventriloquist; death by accident. At the next seance the dead man is present. [t] A REVERSION TO TYPE, Edgar Lloyd Hampton. (WT 1923) Also titled THE OLD BURYING GROUND. Driving a railroad line through the old Indian graveyard of the Kennisaus. The ghosts of the dead Indians resent the intrusion and harass the railway camp very spectacularly. * A good collection. 527. THE NIGHT SIDE MASTERPIECES OF THE STRANGE AND TERRIBLE Rinehart; New York [1947 ] Science-fiction and supernatural fiction, including, described elsewhere, [a] THE FIRST SHEAF, H.R. Wakefield. [b] BETHMOORA, Lord Dunsany. [c] THE SMOKING LEG, John Metcalfe. [d] THE EXALTED OMEGA, Arthur Machen. [e] CHEESE, A. E. Coppard. [f] SEATON'S AUNT, Walter de la Mare. [g] NIGHTMARE, Marjorie Bowen. [h] THE MASK OF MEDUSA, Nelson Bond. * Also [i] THE EXTRA

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DERLETH, AUGUST PASSENGER, Stephen Grendon. Pseudo of August Derleth. [j] ENOCH, Robert Bloch. (WT 1946) Enoch is a familiar, brought back by the halfwit's mother from the swamp. Enoch lives atop the young man's head and forces him to commit murders so that Enoch can eat brains. It might seem to be madness, except that Enoch, when transferred to the district attorney, continues his ways. [k] JOSHUA, R. Creighton Buck. (UNK 1941) A monstrous clock, bought from an antique dealer named Isaac Laquedem (the Wandering Jew), controls time. By changing the hands one can make time pass. Its owner is killed by lightning and the clock is thereupon sold to L. G. Jehova of Kansas. [1] MR. MINCHIN'S MIDSUMMER, Margery Lawrence. The Reverend Thomas Minchin, a puritanical prig, meets Pan and becomes converted to life. Pan assumes his form and delivers an awakening sermon to the parishioners. [m] THE EERIE MR. MURPHY, Howard Wandrei. (ESQUIRE 1937) Things happen when Murphy is present: clocks stop, motors die, planes crash. While he can predict trouble, he can neither cause nor prevent it. [n] THE FACE IN THE MIRROR, Denys Val Baker. (BRIARCLIFF QUARTERLY 1945) The narrator is pursued and haunted by a sinister man: from a barber shop, through Woolworth's, into a cinema. In desperation he strangles his pursuer and awakens as the other man. [0] THE MOON-CALLER, MacKinlay Kantor. (COLLIERS 1944) Old Dane, a reformed hunter, feels that he has a mission to protect the wild life. He also invents fabulous animals to entertain children. He is called to a congress of the animals he killed during his lifetime. The moon-caller is present. [p] SAMMY CALLS A NOOBUS, Henry A. Norton. (FANTASTIC ADVENTURE 1943) According to the ancient Egyptian documents, when a child of the pharaohs reads the spell in the king's chamber, he will evoke Anubis. To exorcise Anubis he must (among other things) calIon Osiris and Thoth. Sammy Faroes, a boy, both endangers and saves the world. Ingenious. [q] THREE MARKED PENNIES, Mary Elizabeth Counselman. (WT 1934). Borderline supernatural. Irony of fate. Three marked pennies are circulated. One will bring wealth, the second, travel; the third, death. They all go to the wrong people. [r] THE NIGHT WIRE, H. F. Arnold. (WT 1926) The newspaper night editor gets telegraph news from Xebico. A strange fog has appeared. It breaks up into humanoid fragments and destroys humanity, while the sky is aflame. But, as is soon learned, the night line has been dead all night, as has the operator-- presumably killed by the Xebican horrors. * [i] is one of Derleth's better stories. [m] and [p] are ingenious. 528. THE SLEEPING AND THE DEAD THIRTY UNCANNY TALES Pellegrini and Cudahy; New York 1947 Short stories. Described elsewhere, [a] A VIEW FROM A HILL, M. R. James. [b] GLORY HAND, August Derleth. [c] THE LADY'S MAID'S BELL, Edith Wharton. [d] THE SHADOWS, H, S, Whitehead. [e] OUT OF THE EONS, Hazel Heald [and H. P. Lovecraft]. [f] THE BULLY OF CHAPELIZOD, J. S. LeFanu. [g] CARNABY'S FISH, Carl Jacobi. [h] THE PAINTED_MIRROR, Donald Wandrei. [i1 THE

DERLETH, AUGUST DOUBLE SHADOW, C. A. Smith. [j] THE OCEAN LEECH, F. B. Long. [k] AMINA, E. L. White. [1] FAREWELL PERFORMANCE, H. R. Wakefield. Alternate title for NIMBO AND NOBBY'S FAREWELL PERFORMANCE. [m] ONE WAY TO MARS, Robert Bloch. [n] OUT OF THE PICTURE, Arthur Machen. [0] BRENNER'S BOY, John Metcalfe. [p] THE DOLL, Algernon Blackwood. [q] THE TOOL, W. F. Harvey. [r] THE DREAMS IN THE WITCHHOUSE, H. P. Lovecraft. [s] THE POSTMAN OF OTFORD, Lord Dunsany. Alternate title for HOW THE OFFICE OF POSTMAN FELL VACANT AT OTFORD-UNDER-THE-WOLD. * Also [t] OVER THE RIVER, P. Schuyler Miller. (UNK 1941) French Canadian setting. Joe Labatie, a corpse, returns and cannot be killed. A curse. [u] THE CANAL, Everill Worrell. (WT 1927) Old-~~shioned mood story about a vampire, a boat, and a sinister canal. [v] DEAF, DUMB, AND BLIND, C. H. Eddy, Jr. [and H. P. Lovecraft]. Described elsewhere for context. [w] SPIDERBITE, Robert Spenser Carr. (WT 1926) An Egyptian tomb with a mummy in suspended animation, giant white spiders whose bites revive the dead. [x] MR. LUPESCU, Anthony Boucher. (pseud. of William A. White) A clever murderer disguises himself as a supernatural being in order to mislead a child, but the demon is really waiting for him. [y] MASQUERADE, Henry Kuttner. (WT 1942) A sinister old house where murder has been committed, and vampires. [z] SEVENTH SISTER, Mary E. Counselman. [WT 1943) Southern Black folklore. An albino Black girl, who, according to tradition, should have great supernatural powers. The author handles an ambiguity very nicely. [aa] IN AMUNDSEN'S TENT, John Martin Leahy. (WT 1928) "Bodies are • • • local fittings of intelligence to particular modifications of universal matter and force." Horror. Antarctica. [bb] MAN IN A HURRY, Alan Nelson. (WT 1944) Fate, exemplified by a man who is always in a hurry. After he saves the narrator's life, he is no longer in a hurry. [cc] THE LAST PIN, Howard Wandrei. City street gangs. Young Ernie is (presumably) possessed by the spirit of his mad brother and commits murder. * Of the new material [u], [x], and [z] are best. * The thirtieth story, THE JAR, by Ray Bradbury does not seem supernatural to me. 529. NIGHT'S YAWNING PEAL A GHOSTLY COMPANY Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1952 Short stories, including, described elsewhere for context, [a] MR. GEORGE, Stephen Grendon. (Pseud. of August Derleth). [b] THE GORGE OF THE CHURELS, H. Russell Wakefield. [c] THE SIGN, Lord Dunsany. [d] DHOH, Manly Wade Wellman. [e] THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD, H. P. Lovecraft. [f] THE LONESOME PLACE, August Derleth. [g] THE LA PRELLO PAPER, Carl Jacobi. Borderline science-fiction. A sentimentalist about the past is pushed by infinite regression into the past, a generation or so each occasion. [h] THE CHURCHYARD YEW, "J. S. LeFanu." For ~ years the vicar and the sexton have quarreled about the position of a yew in the churchyard. When, after the sexton's death, the vicar moves the tree, the result is unfortunate. * This story is not, of course, by LeFanu, and is a

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DERLETH, AUGUST AND SCHORER, MARK hoax. According to hearsay, it was written by Derleth, but I have never seen a formal acknowledgment. [i] TECHNICAL SLIP, John Beynon Harris. A dying man gives three-fourths of his property to Hell for the opportunity to live again. But a mistake is made, and he returns to the past with memory and disturbs history. The situation is repeated indefinitely. [j] HECTOR, Michael West (Pseud. of August Derleth) Hector's owner sees his ghost, Hector being a dog. But the owner himself is the ghost. [k] ROMAN REMAINS, Algernon Blackwood. A satyr. [1] A DAMSEL WITH A DULCIMER, Malcolm Ferguson. A mood story of Cambodia and Coleridge. [m] THE SUPPRESSED ENDING, Richard Curle. A suppressed book tells how to evoke the Devil. A trick ending. [n] THE MAN WHO COLLECTED POE, Robert Bloch. Told as a Poe pastiche. Collecting includes the reanimated corpse of Poe. * Of the new material [n] is best. WITH SCHORER, MARK (1908-1977) American educator (Harvard, University of California), mainstream novelist, poet. Native, with friend and collaborator Derleth, of Sauk City. Stories described here are youthful products and do not represent the author's mature work either in type or quality. 530. COLONEL MARKESAN AND LESS PLEASANT PEOPLE Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1966 In their introduction the authors reveal that Derleth did most of the plotting, while Schorer did most of the writing. * Including [a] IN THE LEFT WING. (WT 1932) John Thraves practices black magic in the isolated left wing of his house. He is found dead. A vampiric monster with the form and face of a dead woman is responsible. [b] SPAWN OF THE MAELSTROM. (WT 1939) On the uninhabited island of Vomma is an incarnation of cosmic evil. It radiates intense cold and can usurp human bodies. The only defence against it is a stone talisman, a five-pointed star. [c] COLONEL MARKESAN. (WT 1934) The colonel had been discharged from Harvard not too many years earlier, for claiming that he could raise the dead. He could. [d] THE RETURN OF ANDREW BENTLEY. (WT 1932) Amos dies fearing the return of Andrew Bentley and his familiar. He asks that certain magical rites be performed to protect his corpse. They are not done, and Bentley returns from the dead. [e] THE WOMAN AT LOON POINT. [WT 1936) Werewolves in the back woods. The condition is transmitted by a bite. [f] DEATH HOLDS THE POST. (WT 1936) Dr. Prettweg has a potion that can revive the dead. He uses it for military purposes in French North Africa. [g] LAUGHTER IN THE NIGHT. (WT 1932) At a strange inn along the road, a traveller is warned not to raise the blind at night. A ghoul. Also implications of an avenging ghost from the traveller's past. [h] THE VENGEANCE OF AI. (STRANGE STORIES 1939) Egyptological. The statue of the goddess crushes her enemies, and the ghosts of the victims must run about the valley. [i] RED HANDS. (WT 1932) Borderline supernatural. Not entirely clear, but apparently vines that have a fantastic ability to

DERLETH, AUGUST AND SCHORER, MARK attack. [j] THEY SHALL RISE. (WT 1936) Dr. Brock, who is well over a hundred, believes that corpses should not be mistreated. He is most unhappy when he visits medical schools. His practice is to animate the corpses and let them avenge themselves. He is killed with a silver bullet. [k] EYES OF THE SERPENT. (STRANGE STORIES 1938) A murderous voodoo high priestess, though dead, is tracked down by an avenging detective, also dead. Voodoo magic has kept them alive. [1] THE HORROR FROM THE DEPTHS. (STRANGE STORIES 1940) Alternate title for THE EVIL ONES. Deep sea dredging destroys the seals on the tombs where the Evil Ones have been imprisoned by the Elder Gods. The Evil Ones emerge. They can be restrained by the five-pointed stone stars, but the Elder Gods must return. [m] THE OCCUPANT OF THE CRYPT. (WT 1947) When the crypt is opened, a horror is let loose. It attacks vampirically. [n] THE HOUSE IN THE MAGNOLIAS. (STRANGE TALES 1932) Zombies work the old plantation. * The authors are somewhat apologetic in their introduction. DICKENS, CHARLES (JOHN HUFFAM) (1812-1870) Preeminent British middle-Victorian novelist. Most of his supernatural fiction, such as the renowned A CHRISTMAS CAROL IN PROSE, is allegorical and expressed in the author's peculiar grotesque realism. 531. POSTHUMOUS PAPERS OF THE PICKWICK CLUB Chapman and Hall; London Twenty parts, from March 1836 to October 1837 Hidden within the wonders of THE PICKWICK PAPERS are two intercalated supernatural stories which have often been anthologized. While they are told tongue-in-cheek, with suggestions for rational explanations, readers have paid no heed to these intimations of fraud or alcoholic delirium and have accepted the stories as ghost stories. * [a] THE BAGMAN'S STORY. In Chapter XIV. Eighty years ago, Tom Smart, the traveller for the great house of Bilson and Slum, stopped at an inn at Marlborough Downs. After an evening of drinking and thought, Tom retired, to awaken a little later. An old mahogany chair addresses him, telling him that the tall man who plans to marry the widow who owns the inn is really married, with six children. A letter to that effect is in the tall man's pants pocket. Tom finds the letter and marries the widow. [b] THE STORY OF THE BAGMAN'S UNCLE. Chapter XLIX. After an evening of celebration the bagman's uncle decides to sleep it off in what amounts to a second-hand coach lot. He awakens to find the yard in animation, and he is soon off on a mysterious ride. He protects a woman from being kidnapped, duels with a ghost, and decides to marry the woman himself. After a wild chase, he awakens in the lot. What do the ghosts of mail-coaches carry? Dead letters. * Also present are two less familiar stories. [c] THE TRUE LEGEND OF PRINCE BLADUD. In Chapter XXXVI. This describes the origin of the waters of Bath from the tears of Prince Bladud, who was swallowed up by the earth. Dickens probably intended this as a pa-

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DICKENS, CHARLES rody of pretentious etiological legends, but it does not come off very well. [d] THE STORY OF THE GOBLINS WHO STOLE A SEXTON. Chapter XXIX. Essentially an advance study for A CHRISTMAS CAROL IN PROS1. Gabriel Grub, a misanthropic sexton, is engaged in digging a grave on Christmas Eve. He is approached by a goblin, tormented, and then taken down into a cavern, to goblin land, where he is shown various sadistic social visions. His experience leads to a change of heart in Grub, but cynics blame the change on a bottle of Hollands gin. * There are also two supernatural anecdotes in Chapter XX. * [a] and [b] are gems. [d} has too much moral. * The stories do not seem to be integrated into the ideastructure of the novel in any obvious way. 532. A CHRISTMAS CAROL IN PROSE Chapman and Hall; London 1843 A CHRISTMAS CAROL is so familiar that it does not need to be summarized beyond saying that it portrays symbolically the workings of conscience on Scrooge, a miserly money-lender in the City. It stands apart from the general Victorian supernatural tradition in not being concerned with ghostly justice symbols, premonitory dreams, or death portents. It is essentially a figurative statement of a human psychological condition, in which personality facets, conceived as characters, are treated with Dickens's usual gargoyled realism. Much the same approach is to be seen clearly in HARD TD1ES, THE HAUNTED MAN AND THE GHOST'S BARGAIN, and THE CHIMES. 533. THE CHIMES A GOBLIN STORY OF SOME BELLS THAT RANG AN OLD YEAR OUT AND A NEW YEAR IN Chapman and Hall; London 1844 Social commentary and emotional blackmail in terms of a dream with supernatural implications. * Trotty Veck, sixty-year old ticketporter (messenger-boy, in modern parlance), is a good-hearted, amiable person who has accepted his sorry lot in life. He has been hesitant to consent to his daughter's marriage, citing financial reasons, although this is obviously not the only factor. Throughout his life Veck has been comforted by the bells in the tower where he lives and he now hears them summoning him to judgment. In a great clatter, as he stands before them, they criticize his looking back with longing on the past. They show him his corpse, in the future, and they reveal to him many horrors to come. When he sees his daughter about to commit suicide in the Thames, he desperately tries to save her. He then awakens in his chair by the fire, on New Year's Eve, and has undergone a transformation of character. He will now permit the marriage. * A somewhat perplexing story. Dickens filled in much of the story before Veck's vision with bloated capitalists and sadistic do-gooders, and one may wonder why poor Veck was chosen to bear the brutal onslaught of a message of "trust and hope in one another." 534. THE HAUNTED MAN AND THE GHOST'S BARGAIN Bradford and Evans; London 1848 Psychological allegory, apparently based on aspects of Dickens's life during this period.

DICKENS, CHARLES The theme of this story is the motto cited several times, "Lord, keep my memory green." By this Dickens did not mean that others should remember him, but that one should have memory of both one's good and bad acts, to act as a guide and incentive for future action. * Redlaw, a chemist, basically a good man, but a man who has suffered greatly, is musing over the passage of time when he is confronted by his doppelganger. The doppelganger offers him forgetfulness of the past and the ability to create the same oblivion in others whom he should meet. Redlaw accepts the offer, which at first seems wonderful, but his character soon deteriorates and he becomes selfish, unsympathetic, and hostile. Those whom he meets react in the same manner-- with one exception, a young woman named Milly Swidger. Redlaw has insight enough to recognize his new misery and the misery he has caused, and summons back his doppelganger. He cancels his agreement and tries, with the aid of Milly, to regain his memory of right and wrong. At the end of the book he recognizes that pain and wrong must be remembered, in order that forgiveness may operate. * Dickens's selection of memory as the key component of personality (as with medieval mystics) is unexpected for his period; one would anticipate volition or intellect. 535. TO BE· READ AT DUSK [Printed by G. Barclay, Castle St., Leicester Square]; London 1852 This story was first published as a contribution to the KEEPSAKE for 1852. The edition cited above consists (usually) of unbound sheets. It was considered to be a rare pamphlet around the turn of the century, bringing high auction prices; but Carter and Pollard demonstrated that this printing was a hoax, a fraudulent publication perpetrated by Thomas Wise. It really dates from around 1890. * The story is formed around five couriers Who are conversing in Switzerland. Giovanni Baptista, a Neapolitan, tells of an Englishwoman whom he had served in her tour of Italy. She was terrified by a dream, which she insisted would come true. The dream was about a man's face. The face is not to be found where expected, among Italian family portraits, but is that of a new acquaintance, one Signor Dellombra. She is carried off by Dellombra. While no explanation is given, the man's name suggests that this is emblematic for death. A German courier tells of an experience he had in England: his master saw the swarth of his brother. It was verified. * Nicely told. 536. THE UNCOMMERCIAL TRAVELLER. Chapman and Hall; London 1860 This first edition of THE UNCOMMERCIAL TRAVELLER contains 17 papers, which had appeared in ALL THE YEAR ROUND. Among them is [a] NURSE'S STORIES. Essentially an essay on horror and supernatural stories told to children, it narrates the horrible history of Captain Murderer, the cannibal Bluebeard, and the story of Chips, ~ who sold his soul to the Devil for a pittance of naval goods and a talking rat. Chips tries to kill the rat, and is punished at sea. The bottom of his ship is eaten out by rats. The section about Chips has been anthologized under

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DICKENS, CHARLES such titles as THE RAT THAT COULD SPEAK, THE RAT, and THE DEV IL AND MR. CHIPS. It is a nice little tale. 537. THE LAMPLIGHTER'S STORY HUNTED DOWN THE DETECTIVE POLICE AND OTHER NOUVELLETTES T. Peterson; Philadelphia 1861 This seems to be first book publication for the detective material listed in the title as well as for [a] THE HAUNTED HOUSE, the Christmas annual for ALL THE YEAR ROUND for 1859. The framework, written by Dickens, supported six short stories by various hands. Dickens's contribution was [b] THE GHOST IN MASTER B.'S ROOM. A story of the narrator's immersion in his own past. After experiences with strange persons in the mirror, a living skeleton, and a nightmare ride, he returns to his childhood, with all the delights he had left behind. * Also present is Wilkie Collins's THE GHOST IN THE CUPBOARD ROOM, better known as "BLOW UP WITH THE BRIG!" This invokes supernaturalism only as a verbal gesture and need not be described. * The framework, despite the title, is not supernatural. 538. THE UNCOMMERCIAL TRAVELLER AND ADDITIONAL CHRISTMAS STORIES Ticknor and Fields; Boston 1868 Volume 27 of the Library Edition of the Works of Charles Dickens In addition to reprinting [a] NURSE'S STORIES, this seems to be the earliest book publication of Dickens's two conventional. ghost stories. The English edition did not appear until 1872. It must be admitted, however, that there were many pirated editions of Dickens's stories in America, and that there may be earlier, unrecorded publications. * [b] TO BE TAKEN WITH A GRAIN OF SALT. Often reprinted under the variant title, THE TRIAL FOR MURDER. It first appeared in DR. MARIGOLD'S PRESCRIPTIONS, the Christmas number of ALL THE YEAR ROUND for 1865. The narrator, a juror at a celebrated murder trial, sees a ghostly figure walking among the jury, bending over the judge's notes, and influencing the minds of the witnesses. This, the thirteenth juror, is also visible to the criminal. [c] NO.1 BRANCH LINE, THE SIGNALMAN. Often reprinted under the variant title, THE SIGNALMAN. It first appeared in MUG BY JUNCTION, the Christmas number of ALL THE 'lEAR ROUND FOR 1866. The signalman tells the narrator of supernatural warnings that have occurred just before train accidents in his area. On this third occasion the signalman himself is the victim, in circumstances like those of his visions. WITH COLLINS, WILKIE 539. THE lAZY TOUR OF TWO IDLE APPRENTICES NO THOROUGHFARE THE PERILS'OF CERTAIN ENGLISH PRISONERS Chapman and Hall; London 1890 In the summer of 1857 Dickens and Collins undertook a walking tour of Cumberland and Lancashire, sending back to HOUSEHOLD WORDS a fictionalized account of their wanderings. In Dickens's portion of THE LAZY TOUR OF TWO IDLE APPRENTICES is to be found the excellent untitled short story [a] [THE GHOST IN THE BRIDAL CHAMBER]. Mr. Goodchild (Dickens) has observed a strange-looking old man about t~e

DICKENS, CHARLES inn, and the old man tells Dickens his history. About a hundred years earlier he married a stupid, gentle, but rich young woman whom he detested. After causing her to make a last testament, he willed her to death. When a young friend confronted him about the death, the narrator murdered him. The last murder was found out, and the old man was hanged. He is condemned to haunt the inn, but in multiple personages, to correspond with his delight in the increased wealth which he had when alive. When the story is finished, Goodchild, in terror, drags away Mr. Idle (Collins), but it was only a dream. * The edition cited is the first clothbound edition of this story, although it was reprinted earlier in paperback form in the United States: THE LAZY TOUR OF TWO IDLE APPRENTICES (J. W. Lovell, New York, #437 in Lovell's Library, 1884). Still earlier in date was a separate pamphlet about the events in the inn, EXTRACT FROM HOUSEHOLD WORDS, RELATING TO MR. DICKENS'S VISIT TO LANCASTER, published by J. Sly, King's Arms Hotel, Lancaster (1863), where Dickens and Collins stayed. I have not seen this printing, although a copy is recorded for Stanford University Library. DIEUDONNE, FLORENCE CARPENTER (1850 - ? American author. 540. RONDAll, OR THIRTY-THREE YEARS IN A STAR Peterson; Philadelphia 1887 An eccentric novel obviously derivative from Verne, but with considerable supernaturalism in the background. * Regan, a Byronic scientist of the late 19th century, and his associates construct a gigantic cannon, which is to propel a shell to an asteroid. The shell, with Regan and a companion inside, reaches the asteroid, which is not in a stable state of development, but is still formative. It is inhabited by bird people, vegetable people, and horrible monsters of all sorts and degrees of fluidity. Besides the vivid phantasmagoric life on the asteroid, fantastic elements include an angel, a demon, a gigantic prehuman race which is older than the nebula. A utopia will develop on the asteroid. * Amateurish in presentation, but with many unusual ideas that were not expressed again or developed for decades. DILKE, LADY EMILIA FRANCES (nee CARPENTER) 1840-1904) British author, feminist. Best-known for capable surveys of aspects of French 18th century culture, FRENCH ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTORS OF THE 18TH CENTURY, FRENCH ENGRAVERS AND DRAFTSMEN OF THE 18TH CENTURY! etc. Trivial as a writer of fiction. 541. THE SHRINE OF DEATH AND OTHER STORIES Routledge; London 1886 Victorian literary fables, sentimental semiallegories told in a vague, timeless way. * Including [a] THE SHRINE OF DEATH. A young woman or girl, told to marry Death, takes the advice seriously and goes to the Shrine of Death. There she is trapped by the dead, and Death takes her. [b] THE SILVER CAGE. A de-

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DINESEN, ISAK vil aspires to a woman's soul, which is kept in a silver cage. The devil is not successful, for when the woman dies, her soul goes to Heaven. [c] A VISION OF LEARNING. A young man who is eager to acquire learning seeks it in various places. In the graveyard where the illustrious dead are buried he sees men in red or black robes disputing, but none of them knows learning. [d] THE SECRET. A wanderer comes to the Snow Maiden. They fall in love, but he is drowned and his body floats home. * The other stories, although not properly fantastic, share much of the same mood. Weak. DINESEN, ISAK (pseud. of BLIXEN, BARONESS KAREN CHRISTENTZE DINESEN BLIXEN) (1885-1962) Prominent Danish writer, long resident in Kenya as coffee planter. Highly regarded fiction, SEVEN GOTHIC TALES, WINTER'S TALES, were first written in English. Work is strongly suggestive of 19th century prototypes (Kleist, Merimee), and a symbolic touch is often present. A very fine writer. Has also written under pseudonym PIERRE ANDREZEL, which see. 542. SEVEN GOTHIC TALES Putnam; London 1934 Nouvelles, including [a] THE MONKEY. Decadence and evil, as symbolized by an animal spirit. Early 19th century Denmark. The aristocratic prioress of Closter Seven is visited by her nephew Boris, a homosexual who has caused a court scandal. She must help him to marry immediately, or his position will be serious. The prioress recommends the daughter of a local aristocrat, a very masculine, frigid woman. The girl refuses Boris, whereupon the prioress encourages her nephew to rape the girl. While Boris is not successful, it seems as if a marriage will take place, until-- it is revealed that the evil counsel had not been the prioress's, but that of her pet monkey, who had possessed her body. The prioress, returned, equalizes matters. A plot summary, unfortunately, does not justice to the Baroness's art in preparing for the ending. [b] THE SUPPER AT ELSINORE. Napoleonic Denmark. The De Conincks, two beautiful but haughty old maids and their brother Morten, are hard hit economically by the wars. Morten is engaged to be married, but just before the ceremony he commandeers a ship and sails off to become a privateer. The sisters hear of him only occasionally: he is a pirate in the Caribbean; he is a slave holder and planter; he has been hanged as a criminal. Years later his ghost appears at Elsinore. He can leave Hell only when the sea is frozen over. He reminisces about his past life, his motivations, and his values, and explains why his life took the path it did. His sisters forgive him. * [b] does not have as strong a point as the other stories in the book. [a] is a gem, as are the other, non-fantastic stories. 543. WINTER'S TALES Putnam; London 1942 Short stories, including [a] THE SAILOR-BOY'S TALE. A very young sailor on a ship bound from Marseilles to Athens, rescues and releases a falcon that had become entangled in the rigging. He feels a sense of "common tragedy" with the bird. Two years later, in Norway, ea-

DINESEN, ISAK ger to keep a tryst with a young woman, in a momentary frustration, he knifes one of his fellow sailors and must find refuge. An old Lapp woman draws him into her hut, disguises him, and misleads his pursuers. At first her motivations are not clear, but she reveals that she, in falcon guise, had been the bird that was entangled in the rigging, and that she is repaying her debt. [b] THE FISH. An episode in the life of King Erik Glipping of Denmark, who was murdered by his high constable. His fate is determined by a sending, the finger ring of his future mistress comes to him in a fish caught by a Wendish thrall. * Excellent stories.

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DISRAELI, BENJAMIN (1804-1881) British political figure now of legendary reputation. M.P., Prime Minister. Lord Beaconsfield. In early life popular, controversial topical novelist. Important in history of 19th century novel for fiction of dandyism (VIVIAN GREY), but 'S·upernatural fiction is not strong. Other fantastic works are THE VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN POPANILLA (1828), IXION IN HEAVEN (1847) • 544. THE WONDROUS TALE OF ALROY Saunders and Otley; London 1833 3 vols. (published as by the author of VIVIAN GREY) In 1831 Disraeli visited Jerusalem and examined the local antiquities. He also learned of the institution of the Princes of the Captivity in medieval Islamic Judaism. These were reputed descendants of King David, who occasionally wielded considerable local power. The resulting novel is a fantasy of history with supernatural aspects. * During the 12th century, when Arab power has been weakened by Turkish attack, David Alroy, Prince of the Captivity, makes a bid for empire. From his base at Hamadan he defeats successive Islamic and Byzantine armies and becomes the most powerful ruler on earth. He establishes his capital at Baghdad, but becomes lax and secularized, even to marrying a Moslem princess. He is brought down by treachery during a great battle against the Seljuks and is executed by Alp Arslan. He failed, but magnificently. Supernatural elements include true prophecies by a Jewish seeress; occasional incidental magic; and David's acquisition of the sceptre of Solomon, which he attained in a jinn-haunted, vision-filled cavern. * Narrated in an experimental manner with wild apocopes, elisions, and much rodomontade. As literature a curiosity based (in part) on Napoleon, but with many insights into Disraeli's future political activities.

545. THEY WENT Chapman and Hall; London 1920 A whimsical novel. The theme, which is treated puckishly, is that beauty is unmoral. 1< Behind the story lies the battle between God and a very charming devil, Theophilus, for the fairest city in the Western world. God stands for righteousness, smugness, and utilitarianism; the Devil stands for beauty, art, and tolerance. * In the early Middle Ages a Celtic kinglet expanded his domains by conquest and thought of building himself a great capital city. With the aid of a Roman engineer he lays out a great commercial center, which is efficient, but not beautiful. Beauty must wait another generation for the king's daughter, who is cruel and immoral, but with a sense of aesthetics. Evil, however, also emerges in the city, in both the princess's activities and the practices of the Druids, and the city is marked for destruction. God moves deviously, sending a halfwit to open the sea gates of the low-lying city, and the Devil's wiles cannot save it from the sea. * An amusing jeu d'esprit, an onslaught against philistinism, which cannot be summarized well. 546. IN THE BEGINNING [The Author] Florence 1927 A whimsical, mythopoetic account of the beginnings of civilization, statecraft, and morals. The frame of reference is mostly ancient Greek, but with intrusions from other mythologies. * In the beginning the gods were closer to man than they are now, and they mated easily and often with the sons and daughters of men. Linus is the product of one of these unions, the son of the earth god (Apollo?) and a mortal woman. When Linus is a young man he goes to bed with Derco, the fish goddess, who becomes pregnant by him. This enrages her, since goddesses do ~ot become pregnant by mortals, and she had wrongly thought herself safe in conducting an amour with him. She strikes Linus dead, and not long after this gives birth to Symira (Semiramis). The earth god, Linus's father, revives him, since he plans to use Linus as a culture hero and civilize the world. Some years later Linus is captured in war by Queen Symira, who is both intelligent and ruthless, and becomes her consort. Together they found a civilization, Linus receiving instruction from the last two satyrs. Finally, however, the great god (Zeus) appears over earth, becorr..es incensed at the goings on, and sends the disease of morals down upon man. This destroys everything. * A capricious reworking of many themes from ancient mythology, amUSing and witty.

DOUGLAS, [GEORGE] NORMAN (1868-1952) British expatriate, one-time civil servant, essayist, journalist, writer of fiction. Resident mostly in Italy, near Naples, whose antiquities and folk culture he celebrated in sever~ al books remarkable for learning and wit. Is now remembered for modern masterpiece SOUTH WIND (1917), which unfortunately stigmatizes him as a one-book author, since nothing else he wrote approaches SOUTH WIND.

DOUGLAS, THEO. (pseud. of EVERETT, MRS. H.D., which see) 547. IRAS; A MYSTERY Blackwood; Edinburgh and London 1896 Supernatural romance. The 1880's. Ralph Lavenham, Egyptologist, attends a seance and sees a strangely hostile Egyptian, who is apparently invisible to the others present. The Egyptian appears to him on several other occasions, and Lavenham learns that the manifestation is con-

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nected with a mummy that he has acquired. When he unwraps the mummy, it is revealed to be that of Iras, a beautiful young woman. She has been placed in suspended animation by the evil priest Savak for seven ages, or until she will accept him. The mummy awakens when it is unwrapped. Lavenham and Iras fall in love and marry. But there is a further element in Savak's curse: Iras will remain alive only as long as she wears a certain necklace with seven pendants. At the rate of one a week the pendants are removed by various supernatural means, and when the last one is stolen by Savak's spirit, Iras is transformed back into a mummy. Lavenham collapses, and for a time it is questionable whether he has been entirely sane and has not imagined the episode with Iras. Iras's mummy is found, still wrapped, but when it is opened, they find on its finger Lavenham's ring. * Sentimental sensationalism. DOYLE, SIR ARTHUR CONAN (1859-1930) British writer of fiction, poetry, essays, political tracts, apologetics for Spiritualism, and much else. Trained (at Edinburgh) as physician, specialty ophthalmology, turned to writing to supplement meagre income and soon became world-renowned literary figure. Received knighthood for propaganda work during the Boer War, but soon fell out of favor for civil rights activities, notably the Slater and Eda1ji cases, where he was partially instrumental in correcting injustice. Is today esteemed mostly for Sherlock Holmes stories, although early historical novel, THE WHITE COMPANY (1891) is generally considered his finest work. As a writer of supernatural fiction, much less important than in the detective story. 548. MYSTERIES AND ADVENTURES Walter Scott; London 1889 Short stories, including [a] THE SILVER HATCHET (1883). Contagious magic. Budapest. Two mysterious murders in old Pesth; two students find a silver hatchet from the museum; and almost two more murders. The hatchet is accursed, with a Rosicrucian spell in its handle. Anyone who holds it becomes homicidal. * Competent Victorian thrills. 549. THE MYSTERY OF CLOOMBER Ward and Downey; London 1889 Occult thriller about Oriental revenge, developing a theme indicated but not fully exploited in Wilkie Collins's THE MOONSTONE. * Scotland. General Heatherstone, retired army officer with Indian service, and his family move into the isolated castle of C100mber. The general refuses to have anything to do with the neighbors. The castle is guarded like a fortress, and the general and his son are obviously in terror of an attack. A member of the local gentry falls in love with the general's daughter and wins the general's confidence at about the same time as three Buddhist priests are "shipwrecked" on the coast nearby. The priests, who are able to control the weather and work other magic, have come (since the time is right) to avenge the

DOYLE, A. CONAN brutal murder of an adept, whom the general had killed in India many years earlier. The priests carry out their task. * In this edition, but not in all succeeding editions, there is a "factual" appendix concerning the occult subject matter, much of which is obviously taken from Theosophy. * Not one of Doyle's stronger works. Badly researched and flimsy. 550. THE CAPTAIN OF THE POLESTAR AND OTHER TALES Longmans, Green; London"1890 Short stories, including [a] THE CAPTAIN OF THE "POLESTAR." (TEMPLE BAR 1883) The journal of a medical student on an Arctic voyage. Strange cries and spectral appearances end in the captain's death as he pursues a wraith. Based in part on Doyle's own Arctic experiences. [b] J. HABAKUK JEPHSON'S STATEMENT. (CORNHILL 1884) Doyle's fictional explanation of the mystery of the ''Mary Celeste." The compass was altered and the vessel was delivered over to an isolated tribe of Blacks on the African coast, by a vengeful American mulatto. A slight fantastic element emerges in the means by which the narrator is saved. When this story appeared anonymously in magazine form, it was taken as a serious account by certain government officials. [c] THE GREAT KEINPIATZ EXPERlMENT. (BELGRAVIA 1885)' Germany. Humor. Transfer of personalities as the result of an experiment in mesmerism, leading to many contretemps. [d] A LITERARY MOSAIC (BOY' SOWN PAPER 1886) Sometimes reprinted as CYPRIAN OVERBECK WELLS. A young writer is helped by the spirits of the illustrious dead of literature. Unfortunately, their work exemplifies their foibles. A dream. [e] JOHN BARRINGTON COWLES. (CASSELL'S SATURDAY JOURNAL (1886) A beautiful but evil woman, Whose mesmeric power is so great that it can drive men to their death. [f] THE RING OF THOTH. (CORNHILL 1890) The narrator, in the museum in Paris, witnesses strange goings-on before a mummy case. It is explained: Sosra, a priest of Ancient Egypt, has survived to the present by virtue of an elixir that he drank thousands of years ago. He is searching for an antidote, which he believes was buried with his ancient lover, now a mummy in the museum. * [a], [b], [c], [e] had earlier publication in book form in the anonymous anthology DREAMIAND AND GHOSTIAND (George Redway; London 1886). * [a] and [b] have atmosphere; [c] is amusing; [f] is a nice romantic tale. 551. THE GREAT KEINPIATZ EXPERlMENT Rand McNally; Chicago [1894] Including, all described elsewhere. [a] THE GREAT KEINPIATZ EXPERlMENT. [b] THE CAPTAIN OF THE POLE-STAR. [c] J. HABAKUK JEPHSON'S STATEMENT. [d] A LITERARY MOSAIC. [e] JOHN BARRINGTON COWLES. [f] THE RING OF THOTH. * This was the edition in which Doyle's early supernatural fiction was most accessible to American readers. 552. THE PARASITE Acme Library Service, Constable; London [1894] Short novel in diary form. The chief characters are Dr. Austin Gilroy, a physiologist;

DOYLE, A. CONAN Agatha, his fiancee; and Mrs. Penelosa, a medium with enormous mesmeric power. Gilroy, at first a sceptic, is working with Mrs. Penelosa on psychic research. He soon observes that she has fallen in love with him, although he feels no attraction to her. He also learns that not only can she mesmerize; she can also project her personality, possess others, and drive them to do what she wants. When Gilroy rejects her, she assaults him psychically and sets out to destroy him. He finds himself engaged in foolish and criminal acts, and loses his job. At the climax he suddenly awakens in Agatha's boudoir with a bottle of vitriol-- and this is his last travail, for Mrs. Penelosa dropped dead at the moment he awakened. * Sensational, commercial, sometimes on the crude side, but ininteresting in the light of Doyle's later conversion to Spiritualism. Here Doyle is not a disbeliever. but he considers the area dangerous. ~< The American periodical publication (HARPER'S WEEKLY, 1894) and book edition (Harper, 1895) are illustrated nicely by Howard Pyle. 553. ROUND THE RED LAMP BEING FACTS AND FANCIES OF MEDICAL LIFE Methuen; London 1894 Short stories, mostly with medical associations, including [a] LOT NO. 249. (HARPERS 1892) Bellingham, a rather unpleasant man, has discovered the secret of reanimating Egyptian mummies. One of his experiments, Lot No. 249, is terrorizing the neighborhood. The animating process is magical and involves a remarkable papyrus. The spoil-sport protagonist makes Bellingham destroy everything. [b] THE LOS AMIGOS FIASCO. (THE IDLER 1892) In Los Amigos criminals are executed by electricity. But an error is made in the case of Duncan Warner, and his vital energy is so increased that he cannot be killed and will probably outlast his jail. 554. ROUND THE FIRE STORIES Smith, Elder; London 1908 Short stories, including [a] THE LEATHER FUNNEL. (McCLURE'S 1900) Psychometric phenomena. The antique leather funnel, which dates from the time of Louis XIV, conveys bad dreams. It was used for applying the water torture to the Marquise de Brinvilliers. [b] PLAYING WITH FIRE. (STRAND 1900) A Spiritualistic seance, conducted by a vulgar little Frenchman who is eager for results. A horrible manifestation occurs, a beast like a unicorn. A warning against irresponsible psychic investigation. [c] THE BROWN HAND. (STRAND 1899) The ghost of a little brown man haunts the pathologist. Years before, he had amputated the cancerous hand of an Afghan and put the hand in his collection of specimens. The Afghan said at the time that the hand was only a loan; he wanted his body complete after death. But the hand cannot be returned; it was destroyed in a fire long ago. 555. THE LAST GALLEY IMPRESSIONS AND TALES Smith, Elder; London 1911 ,Short stories, including [a] THROUGH THE VEIL. A Scotti·sh couple have visionary memories of the days of the Romans and Celts, when the husband killed the Roman his (present) wife loved. The situation is disrupting their marriage.

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DOYLE, A. CONAN Ancestral memory? Reincarnation? [b] "DE PROFUNDIS." (THE IDLER 1892) At sea a wife sees her husband's death image arise out of the water and look at her. She knows that he is dead. On reaching land they discover that the husband has truly died, but not under the circumstances assumed. A rational explanation is offered for the vision. A rather horrible story. [c] THE SILVER MIRROR. (STRAND 1908) It came from Holyrood, and shows events around a tall, handsome woman. Mary, Queen of Scots, and the murder of Rizzio. 556. DANGER! AND OTHER STORIES John Murray; London 1918 Short novel and short stories, including [a] HOW IT HAPPENED. (STRAND 1913) Revealed by a writing medium (presumably automatic writing). After an automobile crash the narrator suddenly meets an old friend. A moment later he remembers that his friend has been dead for some time. He comments on this, and Stanley replies, "So are you." * A nice treatment of a trite theme. 557. TALES OF THE RING AND THE CAMP John Murray; London [1922] Short stories, including [a] THE BULLY OF BROCAS COURT. (STRAND 1921) Middle 19th century. A good contemporary boxer and his manager, on their way to a match, chance upon the Bully, who stops their rig and challenges the boxer. The boxer cannot avoid fighting the Bully, and he is being soundly whipped when a ghostly dog bursts from the bushes and the Bully runs away. The Bully was the ghost of a famous boxer of an earlier generation, a horrible man. He had died drunk, head crushed beneath a cart wheel, not long after he tortured a dog. Since then he has been making a nuisance of himself. * One of Doyle's best stories, and probably his best supernatural story. 558. THE LAND OF MIST Hutchinson; London [1926] While formally a novel, this is really an apologia for Spiritualism, to which Doyle had been converted at some time during World War I. Doyle, despite age and ill health, was an ardent controvertist and missed no chances for advancing the cause of Spiritualism. The novel, in addition to the story line, embodies many factual incidents of British Spiritualism (conduct during seances, relations with the police, newspaper attitudes, etc.). * Many years have passed since Malone first met Professor Challenger and they shared the adventures described in THE LOST WORLD (1912) and THE POISON BELT (1913). Professor Summerlee is dead, and Challenger, after the death of his wife, has lost much of his old fire. Malone and Enid Challenger, the professor's daughter, while working on a journalistic coverage of the odd religions of London, come to Spiritualism. They are greatly impressed at first by both the genuine phenomena and the evidences of roguery, but end by being most sympathetic to the personalities and aims of the movement. They also find many reputable thinkers who have much the same point of view as they have. All this causes problems. Malone is fired from his news-

DOYLE, A. CONAN paper job, and Challenger forces a quarrel on Malone when Malone wants to marry Enid. Challenger, needless to say, is violently opposed to Spiritualism. A public debate is held between Challenger and an apologist, in which Challenger gets the worst of it, but the turning point comes when Enid, who is mediumistic, slips into a trance and reveals secret information that only Challenger had known. A much chastened Challenger is converted. * A sorry spectacle, the humiliation of the great scientist. Occasional passages with the old Doyle snap, but by and large an unfortunate publication. 559. THE CONAN DOYLE STORIES OMNIBUS John Murray; London [1929] A large volume containing most of Doyle's short stories apart from the Sherlock Holmes stories. * Including [a] J. HABAKUK JEPHSON'S STATEMENT • [b) THE CAPTAIN OF THE POLESTAR. [c ] THE LEATHER FUNNEL. [d) THE BROWN HAND. [e) THE GREAT KEINPLATZ EXPERIMENT. [f) CYPRIAN OVERBECK WELLS. [g) PLAYING WITH FIRE. [h) THE RING OF THOTH. [i) THE LOS AMIGOS FIASCO. [j] HOW IT HAPPENED. [k] LOT NO. 249. [1] "DE PROFUNDIS." [m] THROUGH THE VEIL. [n] THE SILVER MIRROR. [0] THE BULLY OF BROCAS COURT. * Also, apparently a new story, [p] A POINT OF CONTACT. (THE STORY-TELLER 1922) Borderline supernatural. About 1100 B.C., Tyre. At the Temple of Melmoth (sic) and Shrine of Ashtaroth. The seeress proclaims the future fame of two great men who have just met in her sanctuary: Odysseus and King David. 560. THE MARACOT DEEP John Murray; London 1929 Short stories and a novel, including [a] THE MARACOT DEEP. (STRAND 1927-8) A short novel. Professor Maracot, an etiolated Challenger, is performing deep-sea observations in a bathysphere when the cable is severed by a gigantic crayfish. Maracot and his companions are dropped into the nearby deep, where they are rescued by Atlanteans. Atlantis is an underground area, where the somewhat decadent descendants of the ancient people live precariously. In some ways they are are more advanced than we are, what with thought projectors and similar marvels, but they maintain slaves and punish miscegenation by killing the resulting children. Reincarnation is recognized. Maracot and his friends wander about, sightseeing for a time, until Maracot disturbs the Palace of the Black Marble, thereby evoking the Lord of the Dark Face, an incarnation of evil from ancient Atlantis. The evil power announces that he will destroy Atlantis. All seems lost, until an equivalent good power possesses Maracot, and Atlantis is saved. The implication, as in THE LAND OF MIST, is that intellect alone will accomplish only unwitting evil. * A product of Doyle's old age, told without the usual vigor and imagination, unsuccessful in its mixture of science-fiction and supernaturalism. Also included are two science-fiction stories about Professor Challenger, "The Disintegration Machine" and "When the World Screamed." The second considers the earth to be a living entity.

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DRAKE, H. B. 561. THE BEST SUPERNATURAL STORIES OF ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Dover Publications; New York 1979 Contains, all described elsewhere, [a] THE BULLY OF BROCAS COURT. [b) THE CAPTAIN OF THE "POLESTAR." [c) THE BROWN HAND. [d) THE LEATHER FUNNEL. [e) LOT NO. 249. [f) J. HABAKUK JEPHSON'S STATEMENT. [g) THE GREAT KEINPLATZ EXPERIMENT. [h) A LITERARY MOSAIC. [i] PLAYING WITH FIRE. [j] THE RING OF THOTH. [k] THE LOS AMIGOS FIASCO. [1] THE SILVER HATCHET. [m] JOHN BARRINGTON COWLES. [n] SELECTING A GHOST. * Also present is "The American's Story," about a giant man-eating plant. * Introduction, ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE AND HIS SUPERNATURAL FICTION by E.F. Bleiler. DRAKE, ALEXANDER (1843-1916) American artist, publishing figure (art director for CENTURY MAGAZINE, Charles Scribners), one of founders of Gro1ier Club for fine books. Renowned as collector of samplers, brass, and other antiquities. 562. THREE MIDNIGHT STORIES Century; New York 1916 500 copy edition A memorial volume to Drake. In addition to a memoir and illustrations it contains three stories published in 1893-4. * [a] THE YELLOW GLOBE. The narrator observes a man Who is staring intently at a druggist's yellow globe. They strike up an acquaintance, and it is revealed that the gazer is an artist who is trying, by more or less precise optical experiment, to create a picture of a haunted house. He has planned it with gigantic, hypertrophied vegetation and a yellow aspect. The reason, "Only a man with a haunted heart can paint a haunted house." * The other stories shade into borderline fantasy. [b) THE CURIOUS VEHICLE. A horse-drawn predecessor of a mobile home, equipped with artistic and optical paraphernalia. The artist is experimenting with halos and various forms of numinous geometric art. [c) THE LOOSENED CORD. A fable. A balloon with a birdcage attached to it is accidentally released. When it comes to earth, it is considered miraculous and is enshrined. The theme seems to be that beauty and the divine are related. *. Interesting not for literary finish, but for 'the artistic point of view. DRAKE, H[ENRY] B[URGESS] (1894- ? ) British educator long resident in the Orient. Professor of English, Keijo Imperial University, Tokyo; also taught for two years in Korea. His reminiscences of Korea are more interesting than his fiction. 563. THE REMEDY John Long; London 1925 American title THE SHADOWY THING (Macy-Masius; New York 1928). * Spiritualism, patriotic fervor, snobbery, and county-level social life. * Since their days at school, Dick, the narrator, and Avery Booth have been mortal enemies. The original cause of enmity, apart from clash of personality, was Booth's use of hypnosis to impress and control his fellow students. One such student on whom Booth experimented became possessed by an elemental, went mad, and spent

DRAKE, H. B. years in an asylum. On escaping, the maniac attacked Dick, who was forced to kill him-thereby releasing the madman's tortured soul. During the years just before World War I, Dick and Booth meet again. Booth seems to be making an effort to save himself from evil, but Dick's loathing forces Booth deeper into the forbidden practices. Using black magic he steals Dick's fiancee and marries her, although Dick soon rescues her from Booth's abominable exercises. Booth is killed in the war, but this is not the end. In a situation involving mystery for the reader, Booth's spirit possesses the badly crippled, war-damaged body of Dick's brother-in-law and resumes his wicked ways. He is finally overcome at the tomb by Dick's sister Blanche, a medium whose power for good is as strong as Booth's for evil. Blanche dies in the process. * Much about mediumistic phenomena. Both Lovecraft and A. Merritt rated this book highly, but I would not agree. I find it almost a parody of an Edwardian society novel. * Another novel by Drake, CURSED BE THE TREASURE, is often listed in bibliographies of fantastic literature, but incorrectly. DRURY, [LT. COL.} W[ILLIAM} P[RICE} (18611949) C.B.E. Career officer, Royal Marines. British playwright, author of naval stories, interesting MEMOIRS OF A MARINE (1926). Apparently very popular in his day, but now forgotten. 564. THE PETRIFIED EYE AND OTHER NAVAL TALES AS TOLD TO THE MARINES BY ONE OF THEMSELVES Simpkin, Marshall; London 1899 Short stories, including [a} THE PETRIFIED EYE. An order of dervishes uses petrified human eyes for mystical floor decorations. They murder a British sailor for his eye and cause the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy. [b} GREYFELLOW. Sea horror. A horrible thing is heard walking about on board ship. The narrator's dog hears it, too. [c} THE MAN AT THE WINDOW. A petty officer who has been wronged by his superior officer has supernatural revenge. [d} THE SHADOW OF DEATH. Successive photographs show a shadow gradually approaching its subject. * There is an earlier edition of this book (Charpentier; Portsmouth, England 1896), which has not been seen. It may not have the same contents as this volume. DRYASDUST (pseud.) Dryasdust is generally listed as a pseudonym for M. Y. Halidom, who in turn is considered to be another pseudonym. It has been suggested that Dryasdust was a house name under which more than one author wrote, but there is no proof for this and the stories I have read seem homogeneous. Dryasdust has also been identified on highly questionable grounds as either Edward Heron Allen or Francis Atkins, but thi$ is simply guesswork. 565. TALES OF THE WONDER CLUB. VOLUME ONE, Harrison; London 1899; VOLUME TWO, Harrison; London 1900. Short stories told by a group of sceptics in a

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DUMAS, ALEXANDRE haunted inn, Ye Headless Lady. * Including [a} THE PHANTOM FLEA. A gigantic spectral flea haunts a room. It possesses a corpse. A sacred relic disposes of it. [b} THE SPIRIT LOVERS. Charles and Edith are deeply in love, but they have never met and do not know each other's name. They meet and converse in dream, and both wish for a speedy death so that they can be united. [c} THE MERMAID. A tall tale of the sea. Toughyarn meets a mermaid, who falls in love with him. Her father is willing to permit the marriage, but Toughyarn must let his legs be cut off and a tail grafted on. [dj THE SPIRIT LEG. An alchemist has a vision and sees the world of the dead. tel LOST IN THE CATACOMBS. Lost until saved by a young lady ghost. [f} EXECUTION. An executioner is haunted by a poltergeist until he commits a crime and is executed by his son. [g} THE WAXEN IMAGE. A double and doll magic. [hI THE BASTILLE. The ghost of the barber's father saves the barber from death in the Bastille. * The third volume of the set does not contain any supernatural stories. * THE SPIRIT LOVERS by M. Y. Halidom (Simpkin, Marshall; London 1903) contains [b} and [c}. * Routine commercial fiction of the day at best. ) DUBOIS, THEODORA [McCORMICK} ? (1890 Fairly prolific American author of detective stories. 566. THE DEVIL'S SPOON Stokes; New York 1930 Sentimental supernatural novel. * Haroot, a fallen angel, is reprieved from torments in Hell and is sent to earth. His task is to prepare the way for one of Iblees's sons, who is to become the new incarnation and god. But Haroot falls in love with humanity and the wife of the human body he has assumed, and resolves to defeat Iblees's plans. He wanders about various heavens-- including Valhalla, where he meets an amorous Valkyrie-- and manages to send a message through to The Highest. As a reward he is redeemed. * Told in a folksy way. Very dull.

DUMAS, ALEXANDRE (1802-1870) Well-known French dramatist, novelist, journalist. Enormously important popular sensational novelist: THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, THE THREE MUSKETEERS, MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN, etc. Much less important as a writer of supernatural fiction. In addition to the present works there is some incidental supernaturalism (later all rationalized) around Cagliostro in the MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN. A series of Oriental tales is trivial. Best work done in collaboration with Auguste Maquet. 567. THE CORSICAN BROTHERS G. B. Zieber & Co.; Philadelphia 1845 (UN FAMILLE CORSE, Brussels, 1844) Merimee's COLOMBA had aroused interest in Corsica, and Dumas is capitalizing on this interest. * The narrator, a tourist in Corsica, claims hospitality with the wealthy Franchi family. He learns that there are twin sons who had been joined physically when born and were separated

DUMAS, ALEXANDRE surgically. There remained between them, however, a psychic bond so that they shared sensations. One brother, Louis, is currently in Paris, studying law, while the other, Lucien, is in Corsica, acting as an arbitrator in the local feuds. After a time the narrator returns to Paris and makes the acquaintance of Louis de Franchi, with whom he establishes friendship. One day, Louis, who is about to fight a duel, tells Dumas that the duel will prove fatal, for the ghost of Louis's father appeared and announced the time of Louis's death. The prediction is correct. A few days later the other brother, Lucien, comes to Paris and reports a similar psychic experience: Louis's spirit came and announced his death, even to showing the wound that killed him. Lucien's body shows a similar wound, for the uncanny sympathy has persisted even after death. Louis is avenged. * The edition cited is the earliest found, but has not been seen. * A weak story, but very popular in the 19th century. It was often performed in a stage version. 568. THE WOLF-LEADER Methuen; London [1904] Vol. 15 of THE NOVELS OF ALEXANDRE DUMAS (LE MENEUR DE LOUPS, Paris, 1857) Translated from French by Alfred Allinson. Supernaturalism based on French folklore, with some social (anti-aristocratic) aspects. There is a long pseudo-autobiographical introduction about Dumas and his father General Dumas, setting the story in context. * France, c. 1780. Thibault, a handsome young peasant who makes wooden shoes (sabots), has ideas above his station. When he is brutally beaten for insolence by the savage Baron de Vez, he vows revenge. He begs for the Devil's aid, and his prayer is fulfilled. The forest where he lives is apparently swarming with wolves, and a hunted black wolf enters his hut and begs refuge. They strike a bargain. Thibault's wishes shall be fulfilled, but for each wish that is not of immediate advantage to Thibault, a portion of his hair shall become the property of the wolf. This proceeds geometrically: 1 hair, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc. Thibault accepts the bond, but has nothing but pain and trouble, for his wishes backfire. His revenge fails; his love affairs collapse; and his business is ruined. He is reduced to roaming the woods, poaching game to sell, accompanied by a large pack of wolves who obey his every wish. On one occasion he assumes (supernaturally) the identity of a young nobleman who is going to an assignation, but this, too, is a failure. When his hair is almost all the property of the devil, and is flaming red, he is almost damned. He agrees to a new bond: to become a werewolf. He receives near immortality and invulnerability, but on one day each year he shall be subject to injury. On that one day, however, he is chased by the hounds of his enemy the baron, and is torn. But while he was being hunted, he passed the bier of his dead sweetheart, and in a moment of redemptive goodness, wished that he could sacrifice himself to bring her back to life. This works his redemption, and only a wolf skin is found. * A well-told story, perhaps a little

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DU MAURIER, DAPHNE episodic, but with elements of social interest. There is a modern edition edited by L. Sprague de Camp (Prime Press; Philadelphia 1950). DU MAURIER, DAPHNE (marriage name BROWNING) (1907 ) British novelist, short story writer. Granddaughter of George Du Maurier. Best-known works are REBECCA (1938, the neo-Gothic novel par excellence), FRENCHMAN'S CREEK (1942), JAMAICA INN (1936), and the short story "The Birds," from which the well-known motion picture directed by Hitchcock was derived. 569. THE APPLE TREE A SHORT NOVEL AND SOME STORIES Gollancz; London 1952 Title of American enlarged edition, KISS ME AGAIN, STRANGER. * Including [a] MONTE VERITA. Short novel set in the Italian Alps, just before and after World War I. Victor and Anna, friends of the narrator, set out to climb Monte Verita (Truth Mountain), despite the warnings of the local peasants. There is a principle there (Ie sacerdotesse, the priestesses), it is said, that is hostile to women and draws them away from life. Anna disappears from the inn below the mountain, and Victor, in search of her, discovers a monastery atop the mountain. It seems empty at times, filled with life at other times. His wife communicates with him, across a chasm. She is happy there, she says, and will not leave. Victor agrees to return once a year thereafter. Many years later the narrator is in the area and comes upon Victor, who is dying, just below the mountain. The narrator continues on to the monastery, is dragged inside, and undergoes strange awakenings and character changes. He learns that he has been summoned psychically by Anna; that the priestesses, who gain new members from the vicinity by mind control, are moon worshippers in a cult older than Christianity and have psychic abilities, perhaps immortality. The narrator now knows that he loves Anna madly and begs her to leave with him before the monastery is destroyed. But, in a parallel to the medieval legend she reveals the canker on her face and he leaves alone. The natives destroy the monastery and it is not known what has become of the cult. Obviously symbolic. [b] THE BIRDS. The familiar story, perhaps better known in the motion picture adaptation, of the time when the feathered kingdom attacked man en masse. It is told in the experiences of Nat Hocken, a small farmer near the coast. The attack resumes at the end of the story, thus denying the optimistic note in the motion picture. [c] THE APPLE TREE. In the protagonist's life there have been two women, his wife, with whom he has been at enmity for years, and a land girl, Mary, with whom he had a few moments of deep empathy and warmth, though without any physical affair. After his wife dies, he fancies that she has somehow been subsumed in an old apple tree on his land. For him the tree and all its products are the ultimate in distastefulness. Ne.ar it, however, is a pleasant tree, or Mary. The narrator decides to

DU MAURIER, DAPHNE chop down his tree-wife, but its death causes his own. * The American edition contains an additional story, [d] THE SPLIT SECOND. A fine rendering of the Owl Creek Bridge motif. Mrs. Ellis, almost hit by a cyclist, has the mOst astonishing experiences when she returns home. Her neighborhood has deteriorated; her home has been turned into a rooming house with pornographic photographers; her acquaintances are removed or dead. After a time it becomes obvious that she has been transferred about twenty years into the future. But it is all in the split second before death or injury. * Excellent stories. 570. THE BREAKING POINT EIGHT STORIES Gollancz; London 1959 Short stories, including [a] THE BLUE LENSES. When Marda West, in hospital, lies recuperating from an eye operation, she sees the people around her in terms of their animal characteristics: dogs, cats, snake, and cows. Her husband is a vulture. In terror she·tries to escape from the hospital, but is returned, to be told that the new lenses had been pressing on a nerve, and will be corrected. But when she looks into a mirror, she sees herself as a doe, the eternal victim. The point is that her husband is attempting to gain control over her property and that she has had an insight which she cannot maintain. [b] THE POOL. Deborah, on the edge of puberty, wanders at evenings down to the pool and passes into the secret world where there is freedom, and perhaps death? But the world is closed to her forever when she is no longer a child. Maturation. [c] THE ARCHDUCHESS. Borderline fantasy, told as a political fable. The small duchy of Ronda, independent and happy, is ruled by a family who have the secret of extracting immortality from the local mineral waters. But two ruthless opportunists destroy what was once a happy world, and the secret of immortality is lost. [d] THE CHAMOIS. Stephen and his wife go to Greece; Stephen is obsessed with shooting a chamois, a symbolic act for him; his Wife, on the other hand, is similarly obsessed about the goatherd who is their guide-- a caprine individual. Or is he the chamois on another level? * Good stories. DU MAURIER, GEORGE [LOUIS PAIM.t;LLA BUSSON] (1834-1896) Well-known British artist and illustrator born in Paris. Fine gentle satirist of Victorian scene and cultural movements for PUNCH, HARPERS, etc. collected as ENGLISH SOCIETY. Also wrote three novels, each with small amount of fantastic material. Two are described here; the third, THE MARTIAN, does not have enough supernatural material. 571. PETER IBBETSON Harper; New York 1891 Sentimental novel. A manuscript written in the Asylum for the Criminally Insane, where its author, Peter Ibbetson, had bee~ held for more than twenty-five years after committing a murder. * Peter (then carrying a different family name) had spent his early years in France, where his favorite playmate had been a quiet

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DU MAURIER, GEORGE little girl named Mimsey Seraskier. When Peter's parents died, he was reared by his uncle Colonel Ibbetson, whose name he took. Peter and his uncle, however, never really agreed, and when adult Peter left horne to become an architect. At a party following a commission, he sees a beautiful young woman Who reminds him of the Seraskiers. This is the Duchess of Towers. He returns to Paris to recapture the scenes of his childhood, sees the duchess, and has a remarkable dream that evening. In his dream he meets the duchess, and with her returns to the world of his childhood. He later learns that she is really Mimsey, but is encumbered with a worthless husband and a retarded child. They recognize each other with joy, especially when they learn that they have shared the dreams that Peter had experienced. But the duchess refuses to dream with him again. About a year later Peter quarrels with his unpleasant uncle, and in a moment of passion brains him with a stick. Peter is sentenced to hang, but his sentence is commuted. The duchess visits him in a dream and tells him that her child is dead and that she will leave her husband. But she will dream with Peter each night. For the next twenty-five years Peter enters her dream world, which enlarges to include figures of the past. The dreams end when Mimsey dies. * In some ways a better novel than the more famous TRILBY. 572. TRILBY Harper; New York 1894 Student life in Paris, and the wonders of hypnotism. * A trio of British art students in Paris become acquainted with strange types. Among them are Svengali, a sinister, somewhat vicious teacher of music; Gecko, a Gipsy who serves Svengali as demonstrator and accompanist; and Trilby O'Ferrall, the daughter of a Scottish remittance man of good family. On one occasion Trilby sings for the students and Svengali and demonstrates a voice of unmatched beauty, power, and range-- but absolutely without sense of pitch. One of the students falls in love with Trilby, and a marriage is planned, but the mother of the student objects and Trilby sacrifices her love to propriety. * Some years later, the students, now in London, decide to hear the new singing sensation, La Svengali, who is universally rated as the greatest artist of the day. To their surprise the students recognize Trilby, who is managed by her husband, the sleazy Svengali. Svengali, mindful of insults that he had received in the past, quarrels with Little Billee-- the student who had been in love with Trilby, and this sets off a train of circumstances: Trilby breaks down in the middle of her concert and can sing only in the horrible way of her youth. It seems that Svengali has just died of a heart attack, and without his hypnotic power to bolster her, Trilby cannot sing. * Trilby and Svengali have passed into literary folklore, and the sensational theme, which is minor in the novel, has masked what is of more interest today: student life in Paris. * The

DU MAURIER, GEORGE best editions are those illustrated by Du Maurier. The American edition above retains the original text and illustrations, in which James Whistler appeared in obvious disguise. Whistler objected to this portrayal, and later editions were altered. DUNSANY, LORD (PLUNKETT, EDWARD JORN MORETON DRAX, 18th BARON DUNSANY) (1878-1957) Anglo-Irish dramatist, poet, writer of fiction, essayist. Educated at Sandhurst, planned army as a career. Served in the Boer War and World War I. Literary work, apart from books to be described, includes plays for the Abbey Theatre, where Dunsany was a colleague of Lady Gregory and Yeats; political satires; lyric poetry; aesthetic essays; 'novels of modern Irish life; autobiography; and much miscellaneous work. A very facile and prolific writer, who could turn almost any aperyu into a marketable story; had a remarkable feeling for word music, although his matter did not always match his technique. Much of his fantasy shows a strong satirical bent, with a distaste for mechanization, mercantilism, and modernism. While he often denied that his fiction had allegorical elements, the reader is sometimes led to disagree with the author on this point. In his extraliterary life Dunsany was not the person one might have expected from his fairyland prose and poetry. He was a big, bluff man, a professional soldier for a time, and an enthusiastic big-game hunter. * Dunsany's work falls into two major groupings, the heroic, wonderland fantasies of his early years and the mildly humorous modern stories of his later years. Historically, unquestionably one of the most important writers of heroic fantasy of the century; a writer of great originality and charm. 573. THE GODS OF PEGANA Elkins Mathews; London 1905 A short collection of elaborately styled prose sketches telling about the Gods. There are 31 subtitled episodes. First is the creation, then monologues by various gods, then historical fragments about the gods and prophets, and finally a description of the end of the gods. * At the beginning, along with Fate and Chance existed the great god Mana-Yood-Sushai, whose dreams are the Gods of Pegana. When he awakens, the cosmos will cease to exist and the gods will disappear. The gods, in turn, have made the material universe for their amusement. First they made worlds, then man, and finally speech. Among the gods are Kib, the sender of life; Sish, whose hound is time; Slid, the sea and its erosive action; Mung, the god of death; Limpang-Tung, mirth and merriment, and many lesser gods. Various human prophets arise who attempt to achieve a relationship with the gods. One denies Mung and cannot die. In historical episodes, three rivers challenge the gods and are overcome by drought. Finally, there shall be the end. Either the gods will sail down the river of time to nothingness, to disappear; or the Hound of Time shall turn on them and rend them, while Time and Death kill each other.

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DUNSANY, LORD Written in a heavily rhythmical style, with obvious relationship to the King James Bible; in ideology, often close to Hinduism. As separate episodes, the individual parts are sometimes pointless, but as a whole THE GODS OF PEGANA is a convincing, marvelous creation of an alien cosmology. 574. TIME AND THE GODS Heinemann; London 1906 Sketches, short stories, and one longer work continuing the themes and treatment of THE GODS OF PEGANA. Sometimes semiallegorical, sometimes frankly mythopoetic, they do not lend themselves well to summary. * [a] TIME AND THE GODS. Time, the dark servant of the gods, looks greedily at them and destroys Sardathrion, the City of the Gods. The gods mourn at the thought that they, too, are mortal. [b] THE COMING OF THE SEA. The origin of the ocea~. Long after the world was finished, Slid, the sea-god, came to Earth with his ocean. He sweeps everything before him, and only the great mountain Tintaggon can stand up against him, casting off his waves. [c] A LEGEND OF THE DAWN. The nature of the sun. The young goddess Inzana plays with her golden ball, losing it periodically. If it should be lost, there would be eternal night. [d] THE VENGEANCE OF MEN. When the gods smite man with a great pestilence, a prophet arises and tells the gods that they, too, will come to an unpleasant end. The gods are frightened. [e] WHEN THE GODS SLEPT. Three minor spirits of evil (Malice, Hatred, Madness) steal the power of the gods and set themselves up as deities. Men will not recognize them. Only the baboons worship them, and then by being rewarded -- transformation into human shape. The origin of some humans. [f] THE KING THAT WAS NOT. The King of Runazar has the insolence to make all the images of the gods in his own likeness. The gods are so angry that they decide that Runazar has never had a king nor ever will. One of the earliest un-persons. [g] THE CAVE OF KAl. To the domain of Kai, keeper of yesterdays, go all the great deeds and happy moments. King Khanazar, who wishes to retain them, hires a harper to sing of them. Kai gets only shreds and tatters. [h] THE SORROW OF SEARCH. A fable told to King Khanazar. Shaun, zealous to serve the right gods, seeks behind the present, old gods. He finds other gods, and yet others, and finally One. But in his dying moments he sees behind the One-four more, the old gods. [i] THE MAN OF YARNITH. A mythic statement of summer and winter. When men realize that there are no gods, they put forth more energy to survive. [j] FOR THE HONOUR OF THE GODS. The gods sit watching and incite men to battle, smiling while whole peoples perish. [k] NIGHT AND MORNING. A literary myth about the alternation of day and night. [1] USURY. The small god Yahn permitted his jewels to be used as souls and thereby sharpened. But Yahn is a bitter usurer and extracts the last due. [m] MLlDEEN. The gods sit above the city of Mlideen, holding an avalanche in check. When one hundred deviational

DUNSANY, LORD gods have been worshipped there, the avalanche shall be released. [n] THE SECRET OF THE GODS. Uldoon hears the secret of the gods, but he is not permitted to tell it. The snake, learning that he is about to speak, kills him. [0] THE SOUTH WIND. Above the gods are two players, Fate and Chance, who use the gods as pieces on a chessboard. The prophet Ord sees this, and the gods in their anger turn him into the south wind. [p] IN THE LAND OF TIME. The King of the Alattans declares war on Time and invades his lands, besieging his castle. But Time hurls years on the army and beats it away. [q] THE RELENTING OF SARNIDAC. When the gods in disgust abandon man, the priests declare that the lame shepherd Sarnidac is divine. [r] THE JEST OF THE GODS. As a jest the gods put the soul of a king into a slave, but are outfaced by the slave. [s] THE DREAMS OF A PROPHET. Not suitable for summary. [t] THE JOURNEY OF THE KING. A long semiallegorical story about a king who wanted to know what lay beyond death. His various prophets spoke of different afterlives, but the king wants only eternal youth. The prophet Ulf tells hbn of Time,which serves yet frightens the gods. A dark figure then comes and takes the king on his journey-death. * Ten fine illustrations by Sidney Sime. 575. THE SWORD OF WELLE RAN AND OTHER STORIES George Allen; London 1908 Short stories and fables. [a] THE SWORD OF WELLERAN. The beautiful city of Merimna was once guarded by Welleran and his band of heroes, but they are dead and only their statues stand on the city walls. Their enemies, wondering if the heroes still live, send spies, who report the truth. But the soul of Welleran awakens the people of Merimna to their peril and urges young Rolf to take up the great curved sword. Merimna is saved, but there is mourning, for now, first, is it fully realized that the heroes are dead. [b] THE FALL OF BABBULKUND. It is a marvel of beauty, but it is doomed. The king has dreamed of its fall. The traveller finds nothing there but desert. [c] THE KITH OF THE ELF-FOLK. A little Wild Thing, akin to the Elves, has watched human religious services and wants to have a soul. Her fellow Wild Things create a soul for her out of memories, mist, and similar materials. When she takes it, she assumes human form. But when she lives among humans, she becomes disenchanted and disappointed. She gives the soul to a heartless woman and returns to her marshes. [d] THE HIGHWAYMAN. His mouldering bones hang on the gibbet, while his soul is trapped there. Friends cut him down and his soul soars away to Heaven. [e] IN THE TWILIGHT, As the narrator is drowning, memories of the past come to him. [f] THE GHOSTS. A rationalist refuses to believe in ghosts and spends a night in a haunted room in his brother's house. The room fills with 17th century lady ghosts, who are soon joined by their individual sins, in the form of dog-like monsters. One of them, murder, almost persuades the narrator to fratricide. Geometry repels the sin. [g] THE WHIRLPOOL. A personal-

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DUNSANY, LORD ized whirlpool tells his reason for existing. He is to prevent man from reaching the Happy Isles, for the gods themselves do not know contentment. [h] THE HURRICANE. The narrator looks at the horrible city and overhears a conversation between hurricane and earthquake. They agree to devastate the city the next day. But earthquake slothfully sleeps and does not come. [i] THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE SAVE FOR SACNOTH. Strange evil dreams come to the village of Allathurion; the magician reveals that they emanate from Gaznak, who comes on a comet every 230 years. Gaznak, who sets up a great fortress on the marshes, is unvanquishable save for the sword Sacnoth, and the sword Sacnoth forms the backbone of the invulnerable dragon Tharagavverug. The feats of the hero Leothric as he gains the sword and attacks Gaznak are among Dunsany's finest work. [j] THE LORD OF CITIES. A disputation between river and road, in which they are joined by the true lord, the spider. [k] THE DOOM OF LA TRAVIATA. She dies, was judged and found wanting, and sent to Hell. But at the gates to Hell the angels transporting her took pity on her and dropped her. She grew into a flower outside Hell. God punishes the rebellious angels. [1] ON THE DRY LAND. Love, having led man through the morass of life, now yields place to Death, who will lead man for ever after. * Excellent illustrations by Sime, around which Dunsany formed the stories. * Best stories are [c], [f], [h], and especially [i]. * The Devin-Adair (New York 1954) book of the same title is a completely different collection, a selection of material from earlier books. 576. A DREAMER'S TALES George Allen; London 19l0 A mixed collection of pure fantasies, semi-allegories, and turns of fancy. Including, [a] POLTARNEES, BEHOLDER OF OCEAN. In the inner lands generation after generation of young men cannot resist the urge to climb Poltarnees to reach the sea on the other side. The daughter of the King of Mondath is surpassingly beautiful, and the king promises her to the man who can climb Poltarnees and return, explaining the call of the sea. Athelvok wishes to win the princess. He climbs the mountain, beholds the sea and the lands about it, and he, too, never returns. Outgrowing youth? [b] BLAGDAROSS. The sadness of abandonment. Inanimate things converse, telling of their sad relationship with man. The rocking horse Blagdaross has the saddest tale. [c] THE MADNESS OF ANDELSPRUTZ. The narrator arrives at glorious Andelsprutz and discovers, to his dismay, that the city is dead. A poet tells him that Andelsprutz went mad, and her soul left, wandering with cathedrals in her hair, to a rendezvous with the ghosts of other dead cities. [d] WHERE THE TIDES EBB AND FLOW. So long as there is a man in London the dreamer, who lies unburied in the mud flats, because of a crime that forbids proper burial, can not be interred. But the birds are more merciful, centuries later, after man is gone. [e] BETHMOORA. The

DUNSANY, LORD dreamer would like to visit Bethmoora once again, but Bethmoora, wonderful city, is deserted. Three men rode in on mules and delivered a message, and millions fled. Perhaps it was from the desert, perhaps from the tyrant Thuba Mleen. [f] IDLE DAYS ON THE YANN. A voyage down the Yann in the land of dreams. The ship approaches Astrahahn, where men have fettered time, and trade at the wonderful city of Perdondaris, whose gate is a solid piece of ivory. When the wonderful trip is over, the dreamer returns to his own land. Now that he has gotten older, he dreams less often and visits the Yann infrequently. [g] THE SWORD AND THE IDOL. A rationalistic account of the origin of religion among the cave men. The iron sword, accidentally made from ores that were used as fireplace stones, descends in the family of Loz, though members of the family of Iz covet it. Ith creates Ged, a wooden idol who rules the weather and food-beasts, and by means of Ged acquires the sword. [h] THE IDLE CITY. By and large, one cannot enter the city without telling the watchers at the tollgate a tale. Several are told: a myth of the battle between a pagan death god and a Christian angel for a city; the ambition of an earth mist, etc. [i] THE HASHISH MAN. A sequel to [e]. A stranger tells what happened to Bethmoora. It was Thuba Mleen. The stranger has often visited Bethmoora after taking hashish, and on one occasion he surprised Thuba Mleen torturing a trespasser. He is chased away by guards, who also take hashish. [j] POOR OLD BILL. A mutinous crew with a captain who curses. At each provocation he curses the sailors' souls to the top of the mast, into the sea, and elsewhere. But he cannot curse when he is drunk. One day, when he is not sober, the sailors abandon him on an island. His cursing, however, keeps them from making land, and they finally eat each other, with the only survivor being Poor Bill. [k] CARCASSONNE. Fate has decreed that Camorak and his warriors shall never come to Carcassonne. They declare war on Fate and seek the fabulous place, but Fate wins the war. Probably not the geographical Carcassonne. [1] THE UNHAPPY BODY. A dialogue and quarrel between a body and a soul, in which each is tired of the other. * Other stories, "The Beggars," "In Zaccarath," "The Field," "The Day of the Poll," are not supernatural. * Best stories are [a], [e], [f], and [i]. 577. THE BOOK OF WONDER A CHRONICLE OF LITTLE ADVENTURES AT THE END OF THE WORLD Heinemann; Lpndon 1912 Short stories and sketches, sometimes ironic, sometimes semi-allegorical, sometimes my thopoetic. In most instances the stories slide easily from contemporary London into and out of the varied lands of dream. * [a] THE BRIDE OF THE MAN-HORSE. Shepperalk the centaur (power) steals away Sombelene (beauty) to be his mate. The heart of the matter seems to be the centaur's progress, otherwise without much point. [b] THE DISTRESSING TALE OF THANGOBRIND THE JEWELLER. Thangobrind, a masterthief engages to steal a diamond larger than a

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DUNSANY, LORD human head from the lap of Hlo-Hlo the spidergod. His reward is to be the soul of the daughter of a merchant-prince (i.e. nothing). The spider-god finds it amusing, but pursues and catches Thangobrind. [c] THE HOUSE OF THE SPHINX. The Sphinx is silent and moody because her doom is approaching. It is the "arch-inquisitor of the forest." The narrator leaves before it arrives. [d] THE PROBABLE ADVENTURE OF THE THREE LITERARY MEN. Slith, Sippy and Sorg, three thieves, try to steal the perfect.poetry from the OWner of the Box. He awakens, and Slith, knowing who he is, leaps from the edge of the world into the abyss. He is still falling. [e] THE INJUDICIOUS PRAYERS OF POMBO THE IDOLATER. Pombo has alienated all the gods by shifting his worship from one to another. He is finally advised to see the small, disreputable god ·Duth (does), who cares nothing about etiquette. Pombo, lik~ Slith, ends in the abyss. [f] THE LOOT OF BOMBASHARNA. Shard, the pirate captain, steals away the Queen of Bombasharna and lives with her on a floating island. When no one is about they hang sails on the trees and make way. [g] MISS CUBBIDGE AND THE DRAGON OF ROMANCE. She is stolen away from the lands of reality by a dragon-- romantic reading. [h] THE QUEST OF THE QUEEN'S TEARS Sylvia can neither weep nor love. King Ackronnion goes to the edge of the world to obtain the tears of the Gladsome Beast (joy). Whoever drinks of them causes all persons within hearing to weep with joy when he sings. But it does not work. [i] THE HOARD OF THE GIBBELINS. The Gibellins, who eat nothing less than men, have a tower on the edge of Terra Cognita, where their enormous wealth is stored. Alderic, Knight of the Order of the City and the Assault, hopes to get this treasure without losing his life. [j] HOW NUTH WOULD HAVE PRACTISED HIS ART UPON THE GNOLES. Nuth, the master thief, and his new apprentice visit the strange high house of the Gnoles. The apprentice succumbs to a trick on the part of the Gnoles, but no one ever catches Nuth. [k] HOW ONE CAME, AS WAS FORETOLD, TO THE CITY OF NEVER. The City of Never is miraculously beautiful and all but inaccessible. The protagonist reaches it, but sees beyond it a still more beautiful and even more inaccessible city. The concept of infinite regress, as often appears in Dunsany's stories. [1] THE CORONATION OF MR. THOMAS SHAPe Shap, in England, cares less and less about mundane things and concentrates on his marvelous kingdom. One day, he is crowned king over all the lands of Wonder, but on this plane of being he is in a madhouse. [m] CHU-BU AND SHEEMISH. Two small gods of equal feebleness and egotism are jealous of one another. Through their quarrels, an earthquake wrecks their temple and Sheemish is broken. The traveller takes Chu-bu home with him from the ruins. Perhaps Chu-bu helped him once in a card game, though the traveller could have done as well by chance. [n] THE WONDERFUL WINDOW. Mr. Sladden buys an old window from which can be seen wor.derful

DUNSANY, LORD scenes: a strange city, whose device is a banner of little gold dragons. When Sladden tries to enter this dream world, he destroys the window. Stay out of dreams. * Lb], [i], [j] are among the great classics of fantasy. Ten fine illustrations by Sidney Sime. 578. FIFTY-ONE TALES Elkin Mathews; London 1915 Very short pieces, usually a page or two in length; mostly little prose poems and mood pieces and not to be summarized. * Including [a] THE ASSIGNATION. Fame and poet. When he complains, she tells him to meet her in 100 years. [b] CHARON. The last man from earth arrives at the Styx. [c] THE DEATH OF PAN. Not quite. He revives when laughter is heard. [d] THE WORKMAN. He fell to his death. His ghost rebukes the narrator for a petty concept of time. [e] DEATH AND ODYSSEUS. Death personified comes for Odysseus, who welcomes him. [f] THE PRAYER OF THE FLOWERS. The flowers lament and Pan reassures them: civilization will fall. [g] TIME AND THE TRADESMAN. Time tells an antique faker how to work. [h] THE OEMAGOGUE AND THE DEMI-MONDE. St. Peter lets the demi-mondaine enter paradise, but refuses entry to the politician. [i] THE DREAM OF KING KARNA-VOOTRA. He addresses his queen in poetic language, asking her to come with him. Then he remembers that she has been dead for forty years. [j] A MORAL LITTLE TALE. The Devil visits the Puritan in a dream and congratulates him on his good work in killing pleasure. He then drags him off to Hell. [k] SPRING IN TOWN. Seasons personified. [1] HOW THE ENEMY CAME TO THLUNRANA. Th1unrana, "the chief cathedral of wizardry," is destined to perish. The prophecy is fulfilled when laughter is permitted to enter. [m] A LOSING GAME. Death and a man in a tavern. Death is bitter because he has already killed the best things. [n] TAKING UP PICCADILLY. Dunsany sees workmen with picks on Piccadilly. They are taking it up-- 1itera11y-- and he can see the stars, through the earth, from the areas they have removed. [0] THE FOOD OF DEATH. When Death is sick, they bring him modern adulterated foods and he thrives. Based on Dunsany's strong feelings against food adulteration. [p] THE SPHINX IN THEBES (MASSACHUSETTS). A wealthy woman wants a pet sphinx, which she finally acquires. But the sphinx asks her a question. [q] THE REWARD. Dunsany visits Hell and finds an angel rigging up tortures for food adu1terators. [r] THE TROUBLE IN LEAFY GREEN STREET. She buys an idol of the God of Rainy Cheerfulness and thereby meets her doom. (There seems to be something wrong with the text, perhaps a section omitted.) [s] THE RETURN OF THE EXILES. The cyclist, near Stonehenge, meets two shabby strangers, one with one eye and a spear, the other with a hammer. They are the old gods returning for renewed worship. A goat is not e»nough. [t] NATURE AND TIME. Both personified. They talk briefly. Nature complains that Time is not working fast enough for her in ridding the earth of man. [u] THE SONG OF THE BLACKBIRD. Poet, blackbirds in communion; an ancient

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DUNSANY, LORD wanderer remembers the time before the birds sang. Lv] THE MESSENGER. Allegory of the fate of poetry. The Muses send men to the Golden Town as messengers, but mercantilism rejects them. [w] THE TOMB OF PAN. Pan is dead and the people of the enlightened lands build a mighty tomb. Pan comes, looks at it, and laughs. * Mostly fables. [n], [q], [r] are best. 579. TALES OF WONDER Elkin Mathews; London 1916 American title, THE L~ST BOOK OF WONDER (J. W. Luce, Boston). * Short stories, including [a] A TALE OF LONDON. The sultan's hasheesheater, on command, dreams of London for the sultan and describes the city in terms like those of the Arabian Nights. He concludes by stating that the government is most good-- and falls over backwards, overcome by the drug. Besides the cultural and political irony, a theme that often occurs in the stories about imaginary lands: for them our world is dream and fascinating. [b] THIRTEEN AT TABLE. A foxhunter, far from home, begs a night's lodging from Sir Richard Arlen. At dinner there appear the ghosts of twelve ladies whom Arlen has wronged. The dinner goes nicely, until the guest, in his cups, tells broad stories and so offends the ladies that they stalk off. Sir Richard is delighted. The haunting is broken. He could not have told a broad story, since he wronged the ladies. [c] THE CITY ON MALLINGTON MOOR. A dream city, Oriental, with minarets, occasionally appears on the moor. The narrator explores it for a time, before it vanishes. [d] THE BIRD OF THE DIFFICULT EYE. Neepy Thang, son of Thangobrind, is also a master thief. He wants to steal the eggs of the Bird of the Difficult Eye. If the bird abandons her eggs unhatched, they will turn into emeralds. If the eggs hatch, it will be a bad business for Thang. Also satire on new peers. [e] THE LONG PORTER'S TALE. Jones, as a Londoner, once saw a beautiful garden and heard a beautiful song on the northern moors. When he grows older, he wants to regain the experience, but it is gone. A magician tells him that Time has taken it away, and that it may be found over the Edge of the World. The Londoner looks over at Tong Tong Tarrup. [f] THE BUREAU D'ECHANGE DE MAUX. Paris. There illnesses, problems, evils are exchanged for 20 francs. The narrator exchanges his fear of sea sickness for fear of elevators. [g] THE LOOT OF LOMA. An Indian city. The curse works on its looters. [h] THE SECRET OF THE SEA. Gorgondy, the fabulous wine that the gnomes make, loosens the tongue of an old salt. He tells of the temple in the sea where the ships go and pray. [i] A NARROW ESCAPE. The ancient magician below Belgrave Square decides to destroy London because of its noise. The spell might be effective, if apprentices could be trusted. [j] THE WATCHTOWER. In Provence a stubborn ghost guards against a Saracen invasion. [k] HOW PLASH-GOO CAME TO THE LAND OF NONE'S DESIRE. Intolerance. Death for the giant Plash-Goo when he tries to toss the dwarf Lrippity-Kang down to the Land

DUNSANY, LORD of None's Desire. [1] THE THREE SAILORS' GAMBIT. A magical gem shows potential chess moves. In the hands of three ignorant sailors it defeats Europe's chess masters. But when, using only a line of pawns, it defeats a first-rate player, it bursts with a foul stench. Dunsany, it may be remembered, was a very fine chess player, at one time champion of Ireland. [m] THE EXILES' CLUB. The narrator, guest of the crowned heads, learns that they are only waiters for the real members, upstairs, the gods. As he leaves, a flash of lightning from a window kills a dog. [n] THE THREE INFERNAL JOKES. The protagonist has an unusual quality: all women are equally ugly to him. He trades this quality to a Certain Person for three jokes that will make all who hear them die of laughter. The first joke kills 22 members of his club; the second releases him from trial when things look bad for him. He wanders the back roads of Scotland now, with his third joke. * Excellent stories, of which [b], [i], [k], [1], [m], [nl are best. With wonderful Sime illustrations. 580. TALES OF WAR The Talbot Press; Dublin 1918 Short sketches of World War I, written for patriotic purposes. Including [a] THE ROAD. Ghosts view the war road. [b] THE PUNISHMENT. The Kaiser is taken around a wrecked Germany by a phantom. Reminiscent of Dickens's A CHRISTMAS CAROL. [c] NATURE'S CAD. A talking gorilla. It is particularly brutal because it was trained by a German professor. [d] LAST SCENE OF ALL. John Ca11eron dies in battle. His experiences immediately after death. * Weak material. 581. TALES OF THREE HEMISPHERES J. W. Luce; Boston [1919] Short stories, including [a] THE LAST DREAM OF BWONA KHUBLA. A man of great will power and terrible temper, Bwona Khub1a, when dying, left behind him a dream. The African natives fear the place where he died. Two white travellers experience the dream, the apparition of an idealized London which settles over the desolation. As the image fades, they see a rhinoceros watering at the Carlton Club. [b] HOW THE OFFICE OF POSTMAN FELL VACANT IN OTFORD-UNDER-THE-WOLD. Once a year Sleggins, the postman, takes a letter from China to the three sinister people who live in the grim, isolated house. He is always relieved to return alive. But when his wife pesters him about the letter, he agrees to spy. He sees the sinister people emerge from the house, light a fire, put a powder from the letter on the fire-- and the ancient gods of England appear. The office of postman falls vacant. [c] A PRETTY QUARREL. The demigods, progeny of male gods and mortal women, are attacked by the dwarfs. The dwarfs have the advantage of surprise, but they forget that the demigods are immortal. [d] HOW THE GODS AVENGED MEOUL KI NING. The gods are very upset when he is murdered, his offering stolen by another man, and given to a goddess. They mount an attack on the murderer, but lightning strikes the wrong man. The gods are

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DUNSANY, LORD completely satisfied. [e] THE GIFTS OF THE GODS. A fable. The man alternately wishes for war and peace. The gods grant his wishes. But he worries lest the gods' will become unchanging. [f] THE SACK OF EMERALDS. The old man comes to the inn with a sack of huge emeralds. Supernatural vengeance follows. [g] THE OLD BROWN COAT. Peters, as a whim at an auction, buys an old coat. His rival at the bidding then buys the coat from him at a fabulous sum. Peters then buys it back, and begins to wonder what is so remarkable about the coat. Its real owner appears, dons the coat, and walks away into the sky with it. [h] IDLE DAYS ON THE YANN. Described elsewhere. [i] A SHOP IN GO-BY STREET. Sequel to [h]. The narrator wishes to return to Yann and find his old friend the captain of the "Bird of the River." But he has forgotten the way back to the land of dreams and must ask help. A dreamer who keeps a shop and a witch help, but when he reaches Yann, he discovers that centuries have passed. The ship is a rotten hulk and the captain is long dead. [j] THE AVENGER OF PERDONDARIS. Sequel to [i] The marvelous city of Perdondaris in IDLE DAYS ON THE YANN had an ivory gate carved from a single tusk. The narrator had speculated that the elephant that had dropped it might return to destroy the city. This happened, but later the elephant was killed by the hero Singanee. The narrator visits Singanee, but when he returns to London, finds himself centuries in the future, when London is gone and the natives have reverted to primitivism. * Best stories are [f] and [g] The sequels to [h] are weak. 582. THE KING OF ELFLAND'S DAUGHTER Putnam; London and New York 1924 Fantastic adventure novel, the quest for a dream and the place of poetry in life. * The tiny kingdom of Er1 lies beside E1f1and, and when the parliament of Erl declares that it wants a magical king, A1veric, the crown prince, sets out to win the King of E1f1and's daughter. Armed with a magical s*ord that will defeat anything except the three master runes of the King of E1f1and, A1veric enters E1f1and, fights his way through living trees, overcomes the king's champions, and runs away with Liraze1, the princess. When they reach Erl, they discover that A1veric has been away about ten years. Alveric and Liraze1 marry according to a rite used for mermaids and have a son, Orion, who is brought up by the potent witch Ziroondere1. But A1veric insists that Liraze1 conform to human standards (which she cannot do), and the princess is unhappy. Her father has sent her one of his master runes, which she thereupon opens, and she drifts back to E1fland. A1veric, who loves her, follows her, but cannot reach E1f1and since the King draws back its boundaries whenever A1veric approaches. Years pass, and A1veric wanders aimlessly in the wilderness. Orion, however, is able to enter E1fland. A resolution comes when the King of E1f1and, seeing that Liraze1 is unhappy without her child and husband, releases his last master rune and extends E1f1and over Er1,

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interpermeating it. He had been loath to do this, for he knows that materialism will destroy Elfland, but on the other hand the land cannot survive with Lirazel's unhappiness. * This can be read as a novel of fantastic adventure or as a semiallegory. There are many stylistic brilliances, but the story suffers from too many shifts of attention. Sime illustrations. 583. THE CHARWOMAN'S SHADOW Putnam; London and New York 1926 Fantasy. * Pseudo-medieval Spain. Ramon Alonzo, son of the Lord of the Tower and Rocky Forest, has a family duty to perform. His sister needs a dowry, and Ramon Alonzo must study with a magician to learn how to make gold. The magician is friendly enough, but the price he asks is high: Ramon Alonzo's shadow. The young man demurs at first and studies lesser things, but finally agrees. The magician snips off his shadow and carefully puts it away. Meanwhile, the young man has met the old and ugly charwoman, Anemone. Many years before, the magician had taken her shadow and she has regretted its loss ever since. Ramon Alonzo vows to get it back for her. The problem is that the magician keeps the shadows in a box that is opened only by three magic Chinese words, and only the magician knows them. By a subterfuge the young man learns one, and by exhausting variations discovers the others. He regains his own shadow and the charwoman's, and sees to his delight that her shadow has transformed her back into a beautiful young woman. * Many nice touches. The shadow may be a genteel symbol for sexuality, but the mood of the story is that of a traditional fairy tale. Excellent. 584. THE BLESSING OF PAN Putnam; London 1927 SymboliC, the rediscovery of life. * Elderick Anwrel, vicar of Wolding, observes that the cult of the great god Pan is being revived in his parish. The present cause of the revival is the music of a local lad, Tommy Duffin, who has learned the language of Pan from the streams and wind, and plays the pipes. In the past, however, Anwrel's predecessor, who ran off, had been Pan himself, cloven hoof and all. As a zealous churchman Anwrel fights against the new religion, but he gets little cooperation from the Villagers, who are obviously happy, and no credence or aid from his superiors. When Anwrel's wife goes over to the worshippers of Pan, the vicar yields, goes up to the megalithic circle, and sacrifices the bull. Wolding now becomes more and more primitive, cut off from its ecclesiastical connections as well as the outside world, and catches up with matters that should not have been allowed to slide. * Light and ironic in tone, with much about village life. Sime frontispiece. 585. THE TRAVEL TALES OF MR. JOSEPH JORKENS Putnam; London and New York 1931 Short stories, Jorkens is a British clubman who specializes in tall tales, usually as a trick to cadge drinks or win wagers. Many of his stories, which are really narratives rather than formal stories, are supernatural in small

DUNSANY, LORD ways. Many are ironic, with shaggy-dog endings. They vary greatly in quality, but at their best are very amusing. * Including [a] HOW JEMBU PLAYED FOR CAMBRIDGE. Jembu, an African divinity student in England, wants to make the Varsity in cricket, but is unsuccessful. He returns to Africa and asks the aid of his tribal god, Mungo. Mungo gives him cricket power, but Jembu must not exceed fifty runs per game. Through a technicality, unintentionally, he exceeds fifty in one game. He not only loses his ability, but his whole tribe is punished by the vengeful god. [b] THE CHARM AGAINST THIRST. As the title indicates. [c] THE ELECTRIC KING. A capitalist is bothered by memories, which assume the form of a vicious rat. He discovers that prayer can keep the rat off and sets up a chain of dynamos to keep a Tibetan mantra rotating. [d] A DAUGHTER OF RAMASES. Jorkens wonders about the mummy case that contains only wadded rags, and asks an Arab mag~c~an. An ancient princess is conjured up. She tells of her romance with a commoner and her plan to falsify her death so that she would be free to marry. [e] MRS. JORKENS. A mermaid. It didn't work out, and she left him. [f] THE WITCH OF THE WILLOWS. Jorkens penetrates into the magical land and becomes friendly with the witch. But when she asks him to marry her, he is caught off guard and refuses. He has never been able to enter the land again. * [c] is a small classic. Also present is the science-fiction story "Our Distant Cousins." 586. MR. JORKENS REMEMBERS AFRICA Heinemann; London 1934 American title JORKENS REMEMBERS AFRICA. * Short stories, including [a] THE CURSE OF THE WITCH. An ancient Spanish castle, long under a curse, is sold to unsuspecting Americans. The curse begins to operate and the Americans leave-- after putting their dogs in the library as a symbol of disdain. But the nature of the curse is inexpressible. [b] THE WALK TO LINGHAM. Jorkens was foolish enough to cheer when he saw a tree being expertly felled. The neighboring tree takes offence, lifts up its roots (in the evening) and follows Jorkens. If he had yielded to panic, it would have been the end. [c] IN THE GARDEN OF MEMORIES. Memories in an old garden assume tangible form. [d] THE PERSIAN SPELL. An acquaintance of Jorkens's saved the life of an Arab, Who gave him a spell which can take one back in time. He moves to the 19th century and tells of the wonders of future science. Many years in an asylum. [e] THE GOLDEN GODS. After a fairly long hunt for mountain sheep in the Ouled Nail mountains, Jorkens stumbles on the cave with the three idols and a fortune in gems. He resists temptation, which is well, for the gods pursue him with bad dreams for touching the gems. It is only by assuring the gods that he put the gems back that he survives. [f] THE CLUB SECRETARY. The ElySian Club, where all the great poets are members. The secretary, Burdon, wrote one immortal line, "A rose-red city, half as old as time." [g] A MYSTERY OF THE EAST. Satire on

DUNSANY, LORD Irish ways, and the penalty of greed. Jorkens is determined to win the Dublin lottery. He invokes the aid of both a Hindu yogi and a North African magician. Their magic does not fail, but Jorkens still does not win. * Amusing stories, of which [g] is outstanding. 587. JORKENS HAS A LARGE WHISKEY Putnam; London 1940 Short stories, including [a] THE GRECIAN SINGER. A Greek siren, Miss Anthropofalos. Her voice charms all men, but her name is really Anthropofagos. She eats a would-be lover. Lack of a driver's license is a good excuse for deportation. [b] THE SIGN. Horcher, who always steps on snails, believes in transmigration. He has trained himself to remember a sign in his next life. Jorkens finds him as a snail, making the Greek character phi. [c] THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE RILLSWOOD ESTATE. A satyr captured in the woods is domesticated and trained as a house servant. But he is snatched away by a man-hungry, wealthy widow and becomes the financier Satyrides. [d] A DOUBTFUL STORY. Jorkens, while travelling in Greece, meets Pan, who has very little of his ancient power left. Jorkens brings Pan to Yorkshire, where, after a time, he runs off with a Valkyrie. [e] JORKENS AMONG THE GHOSTS. The ghosts of mistreated servants haunt the house. Jorkens dispels them by drinking a bottle of champagne with the present char. [f] JORKENS CONSULTS A PROPHET. Using a crystal ball, a magician shows Jorkens the results of future races. Jorkens places a large bet, but loses, for the bookies noticed the betting and the jockey pulled the horse. Things are predestined only if one does not interfere. * Also present is the fine tall tale "The Neapolitan Ice." * [b] is best. 588. THE FOURTH BOOK OF JORKENS Jarrolds; London 1948 Short stories, including [a] THE HAUNTING OF HALAHANSTOWN. Jorkens, Who is fishing in the West, sees a mist wraith being conjured up out of the stream against Lord Halahanstown. Mrs. O'Rooney considers herself injured. The wraith effectively causes the disintegration of the castle. [b] MGAMU. Questionable supernatural. One of the most horrible monsters in Africa is the sivver-verri; it wipes out whole families and there is no defence against it. Polder traps it, and lets it go. [c] THE PALE-GREEN IMAGE. Africa. It is Egyptian in orLgLn. It bothers you while you own it, and if you dispose of it its new owner must murder you. Jorkens thinks he can circumvent the curse. [d] THE WARNING. Questionable supernatural. Sentient machines; a warning by a man in a madhouse. [e] THE SECRET OF THE SPHINX. Turkey. Once a century the spirit of the sphinx emerges, in the form of a woman and speaks for Destiny. Jorkens could have heard her, but he had a train to catch. [f] THE EXPULSION. Sequel to THE CLUB SECRETARY. The secretary's ghost tells Jorkens: he was expelled because half of his line was lifted from another poet. [g] BY COMMAND OF PHARAOH. Jorkens, excavating near the Great

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DUNSANY, LORD Pyramid finds the soul boat of a pharaoh. He removes it and is visited by the ghost of the pharaoh, who threatens revenge. A shotgun helps. [h] A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL. Tifferley sold his soul for the power to spot race winners. The Devil, however, cheats, so that Tifferley gains nothing by his bargain. Jorkens tells him how to appeal. [i] STRATEGY AT THE BILLIARDS CLUB. Revealed by a medium, an atomic war in the past. Jorkens is even able to show the implacement of the atomic bombs. The moon. [j] JORKENS IN WITCH WOOD. Ireland. Jorkens scoffs at the possibility that one can get lost at night in the tiny, cursed wood. [k] LOST. Questionable supernaturalism. In a madhouse: the patient had used an Oriental charm to go back into his life and change things. But he got lost in time. [1] FAIRY GOLD. Ireland. Jorkens sees the leprechaun and determines to take its gold. The leprechaun warns him that if he digs, everything concerned with the gold will disappear. It does. * Best stories are those with Irish background: [a], [j]. 589. THE MAN WHO ATE THE PHOENIX Jarrolds; London [1949] Short title novel and many very short stories and sketches. * Including [a] THE MAN WHO ATE THE PHOENIX. Paddy O'Hone shoots and eats the golden pheasant that had escaped from Lord Monaghan's preserve and believes that he has eaten the phoenix. Perhaps he has, for the world of supernaturalism is open to him. He talks with a ghost, converses with a leprechaun that scuttles about the bog, persuades a banshee to bother Lord Monaghan, sees supernatural jack-o'-lanterns, promises to disenchant a somewhat unwilling swan prince, sees the dead, and is almost sacrificed by the fairies. * [b] THE WIDOW FLYNN'S APPLE TREE. Mickey Maguire, at his own wish, is transformed into a goose and flies about. [c] THE OLD MAN'S TALE. He stepped on the fairy sod-- in the days of Cromwell. [d] THE OPAL ARROW-HEAD. To the gnomes again, to steal Gorgondy, their fabulous drink. [e] THE FINDING OF MR. JUPKENS. Murblethwaite has been looking for Jupkens for 40 incarnations. If he can keep Jupkens away from his spells for seven days, the gods will withdraw a comet that is due to smash into the earth. [f] THE AWFUL DREAM. Sir Jefcote Inlay learns that there will be no crime for five years. An intolerable situation for a legal luminary. [g] THE CHOICE. Gipsy magic and reincarnation. [h] THE RETURN. After-death experiences. [i] THE MAD GHOST. Four murderers bury a corpse in the marsh, and a mad preacher-ghost says a sermon. Dean SWift. [j] OLD EMMA. Under anaesthesia she dies for a moment and visits heaven. [k] THE GRATITUDE OF THE DEVIL. As a reward for a horrible breakfast food that Bos~er has invented, the Devil gives him a wish. Boster's wish is to write the greatest poem ever written. [1] THE JE-NE-SAIS-QUOI. A fawn in Greece. [m] POSEIDON. Talks among the ruins with Poseidon. [n] FORTY YEARS ON. A teacher has a classroom dream of the future.

DUNSANY, LORD, [0] A NEAR THING. A fable, in Dunsany's early GODS style, of the gifting of earth with gold and its transformation to iron by another deity. * Best stories are [a] and [b] 590. THE STRANGE JOURNEYS OF COLONEL POLDERS Jarrolds; London [1950 Irony in the world of London clubs. * Colonel Polders of the Electors Club holds a bitter racial grudge against Pundit Sinadryana, whom he had tried to blackball. When the Colonel sneers at Indian magic, it is not unexpected that the pundit takes him up. By burning powders and reciting spells the Indian renders the colonel unconscious for a few moments. But in those few minutes, as the colonel later tells, he lived many lives. He was a fish, a swallow, a dog, a fox, a moth, a pig, an eel, a tiger, a sheep, a butterfly, a cat, a stag, a flea, and many other forms of life, even, for a short time, a jinn. Other members of the club, who question the process, undergo the same experience. * While many of the experiences are vividly imagined, particularly each animal's perceptions of its purpose in life and the beauties that it envisions, the final result of the book tends to be boring. 591. LITTLE TALES OF SMETHERS AND OTHER STORIES Jarrolds; London [1952] Mostly crime and detective short narratives, the first nine tales being concerned with Smethers and two Scotland Yard men, Linley and Ulton. The only fantastic story is [a] THE SHIELD OF ATHENE. Several missing persons, wonderful statuary sculptured by Ardon, and the head of Medusa. '~is is a cheap and flashy method. Pressing the button of a camera is as artistic, and certainly far more moral." 592 • JORKENS BORROWS ANOTHER WHISKEY Mic hae 1 Joseph; Loridon 1954 More short stories told at the Billiards Club by the cadging Jorkens. * Including, [a] A WALK IN THE NIGHT. As Jorkens walks through the dark, he has the feeling that he is being followed by something evil and supernatural. To be rid of it, he steps over a live rail, hoping that whatever it is will be electrocuted. It is, but • • • thereby hangs a tail. [b] ONE SUMMER'S EVENING. According to folk belief, if one can hold a bunch of tottie grass completely still, i t will turn to gold. (I would guess that tottie grass must be Something like American quaking grass.) Jorkens performs the miraculous feat for an instant, but the weight of the metal during the transmutation disturbs it and it relapses into grass. [c] A FRIEND OF THE FAMILY. The ghost carries its head about and will not forgive an old wrong. It tells Jorkens to go to Egrindune Hall and ask for a dinner, giving the ghost as a reference. It is all done smoothly, and the ghost will forgive its enemies in a few more centuries. [d] THE UNRECORDED TEST MATCH. A bargain with the Devil: 20 wickets in 20 balls. It is accomplished, but by flukes and technicalities. That seems to be the point of the story. I do not under-

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DUNSANY, LORD stand cricket. [e] IDLE TEARS. Smeggit found a line of ancient Greek music carved on stone. When he plays it, the listeners cannot help but weep. It was the music of Orpheus. [f] AN IDYLL OF THE SAHARA. Jorkens steals away several Ouled Nail girls, and everyone is happy until piping is heard from the mountain. According to Jorkens's native ''boys,'.' i1;. is "the horned one." [g] THE DEVIL AMONG THE WILLOWS. In a boys' school, Suthers is a fantastic cricket player, so remarkable that he must havp. sold his soul to the Devil for the ability. It would not be cricket to allow such things, and Suthers is expelled-- after the school match. [h] THE GODS OF CLAY. A message taken do~~ by a medium, from one of the scientists of the lost planet between Mars and Jupiter. Borderline science-fiction. [i) A CONVERSATION IN BOND STREET. A medium reports a conversation with a great scientist of the past. He had set off an atomic explosion, which, he says, destroyed not only his own planet, but its sun, the galaxy, and the entire universe. But it all started up again. [j] MISADVENTURE. A completely automated elevator has its revenge on a man Who hates all machinery. [k] AN ABSENT-MINDED PROFESSOR. A remarkable vision of the future which must be reported to the Government before the professor forgets it. [1] GREEK MEETS GREEK. In this case, Terbut, the most persistent of those who scoff at Jorkens, decides to best Jorkens and tells of seeing the Indian rope trick performed. But Jorkens is not to be beaten. * Amusing, and in the better examples, [a], [b], [g], up to the earlier stories. 593. GODS, MEN AND GHOSTS THE BEST SUPERNATURAL FICTION OF LORD DUNSANY Dover Publications; New York 1972 paperbound Edited, with introduction, by E.F. Bleiler. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE THREE SAILORS' GAMBIT. [b] THE THREE INFERNAL JOKES. [c] THE EXILES' CLUB. [d] THIRTEEN AT TABLE. [e] THE WONDERFUL WINDOW. [f] THE BUREAU D'ECHANGE DE MAUX. [g] THE GHOSTS. [h] THE PROBABLE ADVENTURE OF THE THREE LITERARY MEN. [i] THE CORONATION OF MR. THOMAS SHAP. [j] POOR OLD BILL. [k] THE HOARD OF THE GIBBELINS. [1] HOW NUTH WOULD HAVE PRACTISED HIS ART UPON THE GNOLES. [m] CHU-BU AND SHEEMISH. [n] THE HASHISH MAN. [0] THE DISTRESSING TALE OF THANGOBRIND THE JEWELLER AND OF THE DOOM THAT BEFELL HIM. [p] THE SWORD OF WELLERAN. [q] THE FORTRESS UNVANQUISHABLE SAVE FOR SACNOTH. [r] THE INJUDICIOUS PRAYERS OF POMBO THE IDOLATER. [ s] HOW PLASH-GOO CAME TO THE LAND OF NONE'S DESIRE. [t] BETHMOORA. [u] IDLE DAYS ON THE YANN. [v] A NARROW ESCAPE. [w] THE SIGN. [x] JORKENS CONSULTS A PROPHET. [y] THE WALK TO LINGHAM. [z] A MYSTERY OF THE EAST. [aa] THE GODS OF PEGANA. Not the full text; extensive selections. [bb] TIME AND THE GODS. [cc] THE COMING OF THE SEA. [dd] THE SECRET OF THE GODS. lee] IN THE LAND OF TIME. * 20 illustrations by Sidney Sime.

DWYER, JAMES FRANCIS DWYER, JAMES FRANCIS (1874-1952) Australian writer of adventure stories, often with geographic and ethnographic background. Frequent contributor to American pulps. 594. EVELYN SOMETHING MORE THAN A STORY Vanguard Press; New York [1929] Sentimental treatment of survival, World War I tragedies, Spiritualism. The story is told in a rather complex series of frames and counternarratives, but the situation is simple. * France. Evelyn Halse Lake, widow of a young soldier killed in World War I, is dying, but in some way she is in communication with the dead. She herself does not understand the messages that are being transmitted through her. Through her revelations, which are conveyed by an American friend, an elderly widow acquires hidden wealth and a young war wife, who had gone mad because of the loss of her husband and children, recovers her reason and children. * Readers who remember Dwyer's highcolored rambunct10us stories in BLUE BOOK will be surprised at this anemic twaddle. DWIEWICKI, M[ICHAEL] H[ENRY] British author. 595. ENTOMBED IN FLESH Blackwood; London and Edinburgh 1897 Supernaturalism and redemption through love. * Phantasto, a free spirit ot space, neither angel nor devil, wagers with Lucifer and loses. As penalty, he is compelled to serve Lucifer in human form, supernatural powers unimpaired. He makes himself so obnoxious that he is released from the bond. * A collector's rarity.

ECHARD, MARGARET (c. 1900? ?) American playwright, novelist. Born in Indiana, long resident in California. 596. THE DARK FANTASTIC Doubleday; Garden City, New York 1947 Slick sensationalism in the neo-Gothic mode. Rural Middle West, 1870's. * Richard Tomlinson, who conducts a small private school, is married to a nasty, frigid invalid. Two other women enter his life: Thorne, a Sissy Jupe figure, and Judith, an erotic type who is in love with him. Against a background of folkloristic magic, Judith shows the invalided Abigail a magical doll, whereupon Abigail dies of fright. Judith marries Tomlinson, but he soon discovers that he is really in love with Thorne. Judith tries to blame Thorne for the doll magic (which is not unconvincing, since Thorne can perform legerdemain in a small way), but is unsuccessful. Richard announces that he will follow Thorne, who has been driven away. Judith takes poison and, while lying ill, is strangled by the ghost of Abigail. * Told in a detailed, analytical manner, without much historical background apart from talk about folk magic and mediumistic phenomena.

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EDDISON, E. R. EDDISON, E[RIC] R[UCKER] (1882-1945) British civil servant, renowned writer of supernatural fiction. Generally considered the foremost modern writer of heroic fantasy, but really a philosophical novelist using the motifs of adventure and romance to express a rather complicated metaphysical system. One may shrug at his metaphysics and scorn his values, but he was a writer of power and originality, and one of the great stylists of the century. 597. THE WORM OUROBOROS A ROMANCE Jonathan Cape; London 1922 A long romance, replete with supernaturalism and heroic deeds. It finds its closest parallel, in the older literature, in the prose romances of William Morris, although it does not display the dreamy flatness of Morris's work. * In the frame situat10n, which is soon dropped, Lessingham is taken by a martlet to the planet Mercury, to the court of Lord Juss, ruler of Demonland. The known regions of Mercury-- there are also unknown regions that are so redolent of the supernatural that a man hardly dares enter them-- include the land of the Demons, the first nation in valor and honor; the kingdom of the Witches, the paramount power, mighty in war, but without honor; and lesser nations such as Pixyland and Impland. (These names are badly chosen, and the reader should not bring to them associations from Western folklore.) The plot of the book is the struggle between the usurping power of Witch land and the resistance of the Demons. The motif of Mercury soon disappears from the story. * As Lessingham watches, to the court of the noble Lord Juss comes an apelike ambassador from Witchland, demanding that the demons yield humiliating homage to Witchland. The Demons refuse, and offer to stake their fate on a wrestling match between King Gorice XI of Witchland, a cruel and mighty champion, and Goldry Bluszco, Juss's brother, the warrior hero of the Demons. The King accepts, and although he plays foul, is killed in the match. But he is immediately reconstituted back in his palace as his successor, King Gorice XII, an evil but potent lord of magic. Gorice places a sending after the Demons and snatches away Goldry, while the other Demons are shattered and defeated. Juss learns that there will be no withstanding the Witches until Goldry is rescued. Much of the remainder of the book is devoted to this quest. Lord Juss and Brandoch Daha, second champion of Demonland, wander through the wilderness and haunted lands, encountering monsters and magic, until Goldry is recovered. In the meanwhile, the great generals of Witchland have swallowed most of Demonland, which lies under a very severe occupation. When the Demon champions return, however, the situation changes, and the witches, in turn, are hard pressed. Gorice XII attempts a second supernatural evocation, but it is disastrous to him and his kingdom. The war is over, but the Demons are not at all satisfied. There can be no more great deeds, since there are no more enemies worthy of them. At this point the gods reconstitute

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Gorice and Witchland, and the whole adventure starts over again. This is the point of the title, a snake swallowing its own tail, the Classical symbol for eternity. * THE WORM ouROBOROS is a work sui generis, with some small flaws and gigantic virtues. Most annoying, perhaps, is the lack of consistency throughout the narrative, a fault which minor editing could have removed. (Eddison is said to have spent twenty years in writing the work, and obviously did not revise the earlier sections to fit the later.) There are also problems of form, such as the pointless Lessingham frame, and there are occasional details, on the silly side, which do not fit the overall grandeur of the work. On the credit side there are wealth of wonderful personalities, most imaginative incidents, and a unique richness of language. Eddison modelled his tongue on Tudor and Jacobean English and brought the feat off, with a treasury of image that is almost unbelievable. His work ranks along with Beddoes's as one of the best language-pastiches in English. * Behind the story line is a semiallegory which is not pushed to excess: Lord Juss (ius, law); Brandoch Daha (sword and dagger); Lord Gro (grow-- the only character in the book who evolves); Demons (Greek daimones, culture heroes); and the struggle of reason, justice, and honor against irrationality, tyranny, and foulness. * Still the finest heroic fantasy. 598. MISTRESS OF MISTRESSES A VISION OF ZIMIAMVIA Faber and Faber; London [1935] This is the first published volume of a trilogy dealing with Zimiamvia, which is mentioned in THE WORM OUROBOROS as a rather second-rate place, the abode of spirits. It is the last volume chronologically in the series. * Zimiamvia is basically a Renaissance world in culture and values, but modern in its knowledge of the literatures and arts of more recent times. While the theme is not developed in this book, Zimiamvia is in a way the Platonic idea to our own world and ~ superior state of being. The important personalities are all manifestations of Zeus and Aphrodite, and there are hints of still further "returns" to divinity beyond Zimiamvia. The ultimate themes are love and power. * After the death of Lessingham in our world, he is apparently translated back tq Zimiamvia. When he is about 25 years old, great events take place. King Mezentius has been dead for a time, and the land is ruled, under a regency, by his immature legitimate son, Stylis. Among the important personalities are Horius Parry, the Vicar of Rerek, a marvelous rogue Who embodies power without beauty or wisdom; Duke Barganax, the illegitimate son of the late King, beauty and love; Fiorinda, the Dark Lady, a high emanation of the Goddess, beauty and love; Less ingham, power, beauty, and love; Antiope, Stylis's sister, who corresponds after a fashion to Lessingham's wife Mary, in our world; and Doctor Vandermast, a fine magician, who is wisdom. There are also other cross linkages, as between Lessingham and Barganax. * The story line, despite detailed development, is very simple. Parry, who is murderous and unscrupu-

EDDISON, E. R. lous, poisons Stylis. Stylis, in turn, leaves a somewhat ambiguous testament, which seems to place Parry paramount in the land. Barganax and other high officials dispute the will from various points of view. Lessingham, who is the vicar's cousin, adviser, trouble shooter, and man of affairs, manages things so that the vicar attains to high power. But at the same time, Lessingham establishes relations with Barganax, each recognizing in the other elements of himself and his respective mistress. Lessingham's work comes to nothing with the death of Antiope, the new queen, and the Vicar, impetuous and short-sighted, causes Lessingham to be assassinated. Barganax, in whom the elements of Lessingham have been recreated, becomes king in actuality as well as in name. * Supernaturalism enters mostly in the personality and activities of the aged Vandermast, what with time disruptions, shape changing, magical devices, and visions. * Sweeping and grand at the beginning, tired and somewhat confused at the end, brilliant in its recreation of Renaissance English. Particularly interesting are Vandermast's philosophical speculations, which are in part Spinozan, in part Renaissance mysticism (much like Ficino), tempered with Scholastic form. 599. A FISH DINNER IN MEMISON Dutton; New York 1941 1,000 copy edition An introduction by James Stephens serves as an apologia for the aristocratic (i.e. snobbish) attitude and values. * A FISH DINNER IN MEMISON is set two years before MISTRESS OF MISTRESSES, during the lifetime of King Mezentius, before the entry of Lessingham to the Zimiamvian scene. The book consists of alternating episodes of Lessingham and Mary in our world, and Mezentius, Barganax, the Duchess, and Fiorinda in Zimiamvia. These episodes are roughly parallel in meaning between the two worlds, although the time spans are not identical. In both lands the true realities are love and glory. Lessingham finds a wife in Mary and survives heroically in a world where the preTitanic standards have been shattered, while Mezentius overcomes a very serious rebellion among his nobles. Barganax becomes the lover of Fiorinda, the Dark Lady. All the major characters, as in MISTRESS OF MISTRESSES, are emanations of one sort or another of divinity. * The climax of the book is the great fish dinner in which Mezentius, Barganax, Fiorinda, the Duchess, Horius Parry and others philosophize in the grand tradition. As a jeu d'esprit -the king asks the diners what they would have if they were to create another world. All except Fiorinda would settle for their own eternal land, but Fiorinda speculates on a different world, which Mezentius sets up magically for her, as a bubble, as she describes it. It is our world, into which Mezentius has introduced entropy, so that things will eventually run down. Mezentius and the Duchess enter into this world, it seems, as Lessingham and Mary, and live out their lives there. At the end of the book Fiorinda (Aphrodite, the divine creativity) pricks this bubble world and

EDDISON, E. R. it disappears. * The episodes set in Zimiamvia maintain the stylistic brilliance of Eddison's other work, and the Neoplatonic philosophy is nicely set forth by King Mezentius and others. The British episodes, however, fill little formal need and are often somewhat disappointing. While the values, attitudes, and folkways of pre-Titanic county families are of some mild social interest, despite the perpetual whining tone about past glories, all in all the British episodes suggest George Lawrence in the 20th century. Nevertheless, this is the best of the three Zimiamvian books. 600. THE MEZENTIAN GATE [Printed at the Curwen Press, Plaistow] [1958] Unfinished work, posthumously published. Prefatory material by C. R. E[ddison], the author's sister; a letter of introduction by Eddison. Like Eddison's other books, this has excellent symbolic devices by Keith Henderson. * Metaphysical dynastics, with elements of romance and intrigue. This is the first acted and last written of the Zimiamvian books, for like Richard Wagner and the Ring operas, Eddison found it necessary to move farther and farther back in time, with prefatory works, to explain what happened later. In this instance Eddison did not finish the book. It consists of a prelude, with Lessingham in Norway during the early days of World War II, dying in order to enter the real world of Zimiamvia with the Dark Lady; seven introductory chapters detailing the historical formation of the Triple Kingdom; two middle chapters; and a long conclusion in which King Mezentius dies in an act of superhuman heroism, hybris and stubbornness, leaving his kingdom, as Eddison put it, "in a mess." While less than half the novel was finished, the gaps are filled by detailed summaries, so that the reader lacks nothing in terms of sequence of events. * The theme and development share much with A FISH DINNER IN MEMISON: a Renaissance-like world of swagger, beauty, bombast, daring, treachery, and simpleminded dynamism, which is in some fashion a manifestation of Greek mythology and is the real world to which our world is a defective ephemeron. Two pairs of royal lovers, King Mezentius and the Duchess, Duke Barganax and Fiorinda, are manifestations of Zeus and Aphrodite, ultimately Man and Woman in various ideal roles. Their divine nature is occasionally visible. Lessingham, Who is at once a projection of Mezentius and another incarnation of Zeus, hovers in the background. As a curious paradox the quartet and Lessingham are both mortal and immortal, human and divine. Other divine immanences include were-animals who play subsidiary roles. The ancient Dr. Vandermast, Who along with Horius Parry is the most interesting character of the trilogy, is present with magical powers. * The splendor of imagery found in the earlier books is somewhat dulled, and without development the dynastics does tend to pall~ since Eddison's greatest strength is stylistic. -Nevertheless, the book is a necessity for those who wish to learn ultimate motivations and causations.

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EDWARDS, AMELIA B. EDWARDS, AMELIA [ANN] B[LANFORDJ (1831-1892) British author and Egyptologist. Precocious writer of poetry, fiction for periodicals; frequent contributor to Dickens's magazines, especially Christmas issues. Best-known fiction is BARBARA'S HISTORY (1864) and LORD BRACKENBURY (1880). Her fiction is characterized by solid Victorian detail and great attention to accurate backgrounds. Her supernatural fiction is unusual in centering on well-handled exotic settings, though the theoretical concept of the supernatural is typical of the period. * Her second career began as the aftermath of a trip up the Nile, where she was appalled at the looting and destruction of antiquities. She became one of the founders and honorary secretary (in effect, chief) of the Egypt Exploration Fund, one of the pioneer archeological -societies. She lectured extensively in Europe and America and wrote two fascinating volumes A THOUSAND MILES UP THE NILE (1871) and PHARAOHS, FELLAHS, AND EXPLORERS (1891). A woman who deserves attention. 601. MISS CAREW Hurst and Blackett; London 1865 3 vol. Short stories in a framework. The stories, according to the protagonist, were found in a bundle of paper purchased at an old shop. * Including [a] THE ELEVENTH OF MARCH. Italy. A visitor to a monastery counts twenty-four monks, even though there are only twentythree in residence. The extra monk is Brother Geronimo, a renegade who was killed after a crime. [b] LOVE AND MONEY. Count von Steinberg, impoverished young nobleman, awakens each morning and finds money in his room. He believes that there is a supernatural explanation. Somnambulism. [c] CAIN. A painting in a gallery shows Cain after the murder of Abel. The student who copies it gradually loses strength as he paints. The original was probably painted by a fratricide. [d] THE DISCOVERY OF THE TREASURE ISLES. Long short story. Told by an aged seaman. The island is covered with ruins, among which is a jeweled idol. The seaman was there for three months (his time reckoning), but actually had been away for twenty years. Perhaps the island is enchanted; perhaps the seaman is mad. [e] MY BROTHER'S GHOST STORY. Switzerland. A death portent. Disaster in the mountains. [f] THE RECOLLECTIONS OF PROFESSOR HENNEBERG. Germany. Henneberg, a brilliant scholar, does not seem to learn new things; he only recalls things temporarily forgotten. He remembers a previous incarnation and finds in an old manuscript his handwriting. [g] THE NORTH MAIL. The protagonist, losing his way in a snowy winter night in Northern England, boards a passing coach. It is the death-coach, laden with phosphorescent corpses. Often anthologized under the alternate title, THE PHANTOM COACH. [h] NUMBER THREE. Murder and a revelatory ghost, set in the Midland potteries. Alternate title, HOW THE THIRD FLOOR KNEW THE-POTTERIES; this is the original periodical title. * Excellent material, much of it reprinted from periodicals.

EDWARDS, AMELIA B. 602 • MONSIEUR MAURICE A NEW NOVELETTE AND OTHER TALES Hurst and Blackett; London 1873 3 vol. Including [a] MONSIEUR MAURICE. Nouvelle. Post-Napoleonic Germany. In the fortress of Bruhl is confined a mysterious prisoner, a Frenchman who was once an acquaintance of Napoleon's. The little daughter of the commandant becomes friendly with the prisoner and learns that his life is in danger. On three occasions attempts on the prisoner are warded off by a supernatural appearance, the ghost of the Frenchman's dead servant. It is revealed that the prisoner is the victim of bitter personal enmity. [b] AN ENGINEER'S STORY. Italy. Two British engineers quarrel over a woman and one kills the other. But the woman is only an unscrupulous opportunist. Years later the living engineer has the chance to wreck the train on which the woman is travelling, but is prevented by the ghost of his dead friend. Sometimes printed under the slightly variant title, THE ENGINEER'S STORY. [c] THE NEW PASS. Switzerland. A ghost warns of danger in the new engineering works. Ed] A SERVICE OF DANGER. Gustav von Lichtenstein leads a dare-devil charge in the Napoleonic wars, but the narrator sees all but Lichtenstein ride away. Ghosts of dead dragoons. * [a] is the best story, with a good characterization of a child. 603. A NIGHT ON THE BORDERS OF THE BLACK FOREST Tauchnitz; Leipzig 1874 paperbound Fairly long short stories, including [a] A NIGHT ON THE BORDERS OF THE BLACK FOREST. A pair of Wandervage1, an Englishman and a German, put up at a hostelry, which is really a murder inn. The innkeeper drugs one of them. His clairvoyant visions of previous murders warn the other traveller of their perilous situation. [b] THE STORY OF SALOME. Venice. The narrator's friend Turnour has fallen in love with Salome, a beautiful Jewish woman, but for one reason or another, the romance fails. Some time later the narrator, sightseeing around the Venetian islands, comes into the Jewish cemetery and sees Salome sitting beside one of the tombstones. She tells the narrator that he should say a prayer for the person buried there, for she died a Christian. The tourist checks her story and learns that he has seen a ghost. Salome was beneath the stone. [c] IN THE CONFESSIONAL. Switzerland. A tourist steps into a quaint old church and looks into the confessional. He sees a sour-looking priest who glares at him. Later he learns that a scoundrel had disguised himself as a priest in order to hear his wife's confession. She apparently confessed to adultery, for he murdered her. His ghost is visible to the curate, too. Ed] THE 4:15 EXPRESS. Langford converses with an acquaintance on the 4:15, and learns that he is carrying L 75,000. He sees the acquaintance walk off with a stranger. Later he learns that both his acquaintance and the money have been missing for a while. It was a ghost, of course, and a repetition of the past. The identity of the murderer is easily found. [e] SISTER JOHANNA'S STORY. The Tyrol. Jeal-

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ELLIOTT, FRANCIS P. ousy, murder, suicide. Sister Johanna saw a death apparition with a bullet hole in its head. * Good stories with nicely limned backgrounds. This seems to be the only edition. EGBERT, H. M. (pseud. of EMANUEL, VICTOR ROUSSEAU) (1879~1960) American. (British birth) writer of popular adventure fiction, journalist. Frequent contributor to American pulp magazines in the first third of the century. Best-known for work done under other pseudonym VICTOR ROUSSEAU, especially THE MESSIAH OF THE CYLINDER (1917), sensational but thought-provoking conservative reply to H. G. Wells's WHEN THE SLEEPER WAKES. The present pseudonym seems to have been used mostly for book publication in the U. K. 604. DRAUGHT OF ETERNITY John Long; London [1924] Fir~t published ALL-STORY WEEKLY, 1918, as by Victor Rousseau. * Adventure, with a supernatural background. * Clifford and Chandra Pal, physicians, experiment with Cannabis indica (nowadays known as pot), a drug which, it is claimed in the story, opens the time facets of the mind and permits one to relive past and future incarnations. After taking the drug Clifford awakens in Nork, a primitive New York of the future, where a white population has been conquered and enslaved by the Yuki, Orientals who practice a degraded, bloody Buddhism. As a prince who is half Yuki and half white, Clifford heads a revolt for freedom, but is defeated by Prince Timour of the Yuki, who is Chandra Pal. Clifford and Princess Alma then drink vials of Cannabis and awaken in the present. Previously Clifford had not met Alma in this incarnation, but now the lovers meet. * Competitive pulp adventure. 605. MRS. ALADDIN John Long; London [1925] Humorous fantasy. * Merwyn, a young playboy of the stock exchange, obtains Aladdin's lamp. The attendant genie, Ayesha, is a very beautiful woman, with perhaps a slight touch of nymphomania. Complications arise when the lamp falls into the hands of an enemy. Peace is finally restored. Mervyn regains his fiancee and her fortune, and the amorous genie is frightened away by the threat to tell her husband about her escapades. To avoid further problems, the lamp is replaced in Babylon. * Probably earlier than indicated, but no periodical publication has been found. ELLIOTT, FRANCIS PERRY (1861-1924) American (Tennessee) educator; editor for various magazines, publishing houses: HOME MAGAZINE, THE NEW AGE, Harpers, etc. Contributor to popular fiction magazines of the day. 606. THE HAUNTED PAJAMAS Bobbs-Merril1; Indianapolis [1911] Somewhat coy Gibson-girl eroticism, with supernatural humor. The narrator is an etiolated Harvard man who has spent three years in England to acquire a British accent, and has returned a complete fool. The gimmick is a pair of pajamas, perhaps 4500 years old, which a friend has sent to him from China. The pajamas,

ELLIOTT, FRANCIS PERRY which were made from cloth woven by a goddess, have the property of transforming the wearer into the exact image of one of the previous wearers. This leads to considerable confusion, as the characters of the story are changed around-- interchange of sex roles, racial elements, and mistaken identities. * Amusing at first, but the author did not know when to stop, and the odd cultural values cannot carry the book. 607. THE GIFT OF ABOU HASSAN Little, Brown; Boston 1912 In the Oriental goods shop of Abou Hassan, a rather dull-witted old Persian, is an ancient carpet. It has the property of rendering one who stands upon it invisible and inaudible. Mrs. Pompernel, who is shopping for bargains, sees it and is determined to buy it at any price, and her niece Dolly and Tom Bentley conduct a whirlwind courtship invisibly upon it. The carpet is the setting for an attempted seduction and other hijinks. * Again, the world of the Gibson girl, with rich and virginal young men and women, coyness, and froth. * In this instance, less successful than THE HAUNTED PAJAMAS. A dramatic structuring does not help the reader. ELLISON, HARLAN (1934 ) Prominent American writer of science-fiction and fantasy; one .of the most gifted of the post-60 generation; winner of many (deserved) genre awards. Writer of motion picture and TV scripts. Editor of "new wave" DANGEROUS VISION anthologies, which stressed hitherto tabooed subjects. Best work is characterized by remarkable imagination, verbal pyrotechnics, although there is a tendency to shock for shock's sake. Ellison's major work comes after the terminal date for this volume, but DEATHBIRD STORIES (1975) should be mentioned. 608. ELLISON WONDERLAND Paperback Library; New York 1962 paperbound Short stories, including [a] DO-IT-YOURSELF, written in collaboration with Joe L. Hensley. (ROGUE MAGAZINE 1958) Madge Rubichek, who cannot stand her husband any longer buys a Do-ItYourself Murder Kit, which offers three ways. None works, however, and her husband has a single, superior way: a knife. Supernatural in implications. [b] ALL THE SOUNDS OF FEAR. (SAINT MAGAZINE 1962) Richard Becker, a great actor, is so saturated in his roles that there is nothing else to him. When the roles depart, so does all individuality from Becker, including his face. [c] GNOMEBODY. (AMAZING 1956) The high school punk, rejected from the track team, has the fortune to corner a gnome and bargain out a wish. He wishes to be the fastest runner in the school. He is, as a centaur. [d] THE VERY LAST DAY OF A GOOD WOMAN. (ROGUE MAGAZINE 1958) Alternate title, THE LAST DAY. Arthur Fulbright, frustrated little man with a mother complex, recognizes through paranormal abilities that the world will end in two weeks. Before it ends he must have a woman. [e] DEAL FROM THE BOTTOM. (ROGUE MAGAZINE 1960) Maxim Hirt, very ineffectual actor, murders a column-

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ELWOOD, ROGER AND GHIDALIA, VIC ist who gave him a bad review. In the death cell, the day before the gas chamber, Hirt unwittingly summons a demon (in Hippie disguise, with suitable patois) and strikes a bargain. The demon cannot change fate, since that is God's, but he can extenuate: Hirt will eat a never-ending last meal, so that they cannot gas him. The meal is beans. [f] RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY. (SCIENCE-FANTASY MAGAZINE 1956). Hobart, a small clerk who is treated shabbily by his crude boss, is depressed by the rain and Wishes, Rain, rain, go away. It works. Hobart does not realize that the times that he has wished rain away have been cumulative; when the rain does come, it floods Manhattan. * [a] is good, but the other stories are not up to Ellison's later work. ELWOOD, ROGER (1933) and GHIDALIA, VIC [TOR] (1926 ) American anthologists. Although Elwood has probably edited more anthologies than anyone else in fantastic fiction, most of his work has been in science-fiction. His collections, many of which were issued by smaller publishers, are sometimes difficult to find. The following are representative. (See separate entry for Ghidalia.) AS EDITORS: 609. THE LITTLE MONSTERS Macfadden-Bartell Corp.; New York 1969 paperbound Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] THE METRONOME, August Derleth. [b] THE PLAYFELLOW, Cynthia Asquith. [c] OLD CLOTHES, Ray Bradbury. [d] HOW FEAR DEPARTED FROM THE LONG GALLERY, E.F. Benson. le] THEY, Rudyard Kipling. [f] THE ANTIMACASSAR, Greye LaSpina. (WT 1949) Lucy is looking for her missing friend Cora, who disappeared in the Pennsylvania Dutch country. She finds a solution in the Renner farm, but comes upon a greater mystery. The antimacassar has embroidered into it shorthand symbols that say, Vampire. 610. HORROR HUNTERS Macfadden-Bartell Corp.; New York 1971 paperbound Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] ANCIENT SORCERIES, Algernon Blackwood. [b] THE GATEWAY OF THE MONSTER, W. H. Hodgson. [c] THE UNNAMABLE, H. P. Lovecraft. [d) MR. AMES' DEVIL, August Derleth. [e) I KISS YOUR SHADOW, Robert Bloch. * Also, If] THE THING ON THE ROOF, R. E. Howard. (WT 1932) According to Juntz's UNAUSSPRECHLICHE KULTEN there is a temple in Yucatan, within which sits a mummy who holds a jewel-key to the treasure of the temple. Tussmann finds the temple, uses the key, but finds nothing. On his way out he forgets to shut the door to the vault. Some time later, in England, there is a visitation. [g] IN THE X-RAY, Fritz Leiber. (WT 1942) Nancy Sawyer's ankle is mysteriously swollen, and what the x-rays reveal is not told until the end of the story. Nancy had had a twin sister of great malignancy; the twin died vowing to return and injure Nancy, who is later strangled. [h] ONE FOOT AND THE GRAVE, Theodore Sturgeon. (WT 1949) A supernatural version of the motif of the imprisoned alien

ELWOOD, ROGER AND GHIDALIA, VIC of enormous power who is working on human minds to effect his release. Claire and Thad undergo a strange metamorphosis: a foot turns into a cloven hoof. Among other motifs that are worked skilfully into a complex story with symbolic overtones are: angels and devils, animation of familiar-like beings, spells, the supernatural nature of love, etc. Interesting once passes a slow, a little coy beginning. * Of the new material [h} is worth reading. END ORE , [SAMUEL} GUY (1900-1970) American novelist, film script writer (THE DEVIL DOLL, from Merritt's BURN, WITCH, BURN; MAD LOVE). Most of early work is in the personalized, brash style of the 1930's, sometimes on the pretentious side. Best-known work is THE WEREWOLF OF PARIS. Other novels-- METHINKS THE LADY, THE MAN FROM LIMBO-- are sometimes listed as fantastic, but are not. Has also done popular biographies of Casanova, the Marquis de Sade, and Alexandre Dumas, pere. Has alEo translated THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE, by H. H. Ewers, which see. 611. THE WEREWOLF OF PARIS Farrar and Rinehart; New York [1933} Intelligent sensationalism based loosely on the historical case of Sergeant Bertrand, the 19th century French "vampire," who was a murderer, necrophiliac, and cannibal. Middle 19th century France. The story is centered (after a frame occupied by an American narrator and investigator) mostly on Aymar Galliez, a former liberal, who is gradually shifting toward religion and conservatism. * Bertrand Caillet, the bastard son of a priest from a notorious family, has the stigmata of the werewolf: born on Christmas eve, hairy palms, peculiar eyebrows, interlocking teeth. In early childhood he has a tendency to howl like a wolf at impending deaths, and in adolescence he starts to shift shape, hunt like a wolf, and attack humans. When he is wounded by a silver bullet, Aymar recognizes the situation and tries, unsuccessfully, to control Bertrand's wolfish nature. On Bertrand's maturity his lupine characteristics emerge during sex, and he usually chews up his partner. During the siege of Paris in the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune, Bertrand is a member of the National Guard and finds food easily obtainable. He falls in love and it seems as if his wolfish habits can be restrained, but it is at the cost of his mistress's blood. When he assaults a fellow soldier, he is taken prisoner, and eventually transferred to an insane asylum, where he is drugged and generally mistreated. He dies after a suicidal leap from a window. Years later when his coffin is disinterred, the skeleton of a wolf is found in it. * The reason for Bertrand's lycanthropy is fudged, although there are hints that it is due to atrocities committed during a family feud generations back. * In addition to the story line, ~ much space is devoted to social life and political gossip during this troubled period of French history, with occasional anachronisms. * Interesting at first, but the story peters

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THE EVENING STANDARD BOOK OF STRANGE STORIES out into irrelevancies, and the tragedy of Bertrand is smothered in occasional sensationalism. Still noteworthy for an attempt to present nasty topics without bowdlerization. ERCKNANN-CHATRIAN (joint pseudo ·of ERCKMANN, EMILE, 1822-1899, and CHATRIAN, ALEXANDRE, 1826-1890) • French popular novelists, dramatists. Earlier work was strongly influenced by German prototypes, perhaps because of the authors' or~g~ns in the Germanic areas of France, but shifted to fiction about French military life, with pacifist point of view, and, after the FrancoPrussian War, to strongly patriotic material. Most important work, THE CONSCRIPT, dealt with experiences of a peasant in Napoleonic wars Their work was fairly popular in 19th century England, especially for short drama, THE POLISH JEW, which is almost a folk play, and collections of short stories; but not of any great significance in the United States. Minor writers. See index for anthologized stories. 612. STRANGE STORIES Appleton; New York 1880 Anonymous translation from HISTOIRES ET CONTES FANTASTIQUES, book publication 1849. Short stories, Germanic in setting. * Including, [a} THE MYSTERIOUS SKETCH. Christian, studying art at Nuremberg, paints a crime scene that he perceived in a dream. He is immediately arrested as a suspect. He clears himself by finishing his painting and showing the real criminal. [b} THE DEAN'S WATCH. Travelling mUSicians, flocking to Heidelberg for the Christmas celebrations, are suspected of a series of murders and robberies. Kasper manages to identify the real criminal, who is the least suspected party. A small supernatural element enters in that the crimes were committed in a somnambulistic state and were the result of an animal soul. [c} THE INVISIBLE EYE. A series of suicides by hanging, from a certain room in an inn. Christian suspects an old hag called the Bat of having caused the deaths. He sees her make a dummy of the person about to be killed and then hang it. Christian makes a similar dummy of the witch, disguises himself to look like her, and hangs it in her view. She succumbs to her own magic. [d} THE WONDERFUL GLASS. Hans Schnapps, an apothecary and experimentalist, has discovered a way of recording dreams on a metal plate, His next step is an invention for complete happiness, by offering the viewer his own dream as reality. * The other tales are not fantastic. * Derivative of E. T. A. Hoffmann and unremarkable. [ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY} 613. THE EVENING STANDARD BOOK OF STRANGE STORIES Hutchinson; London [1934} A gigantic collection of mysteries and supernatural stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] THE HAIR, A. J. Alan. [b] THE SCREAMING SKULL, F. M. Crawford. [c] NO.1 BRANCH LINE, THE SIGNALMAN, Charles Dickens. [d] THE ALBATROSS, Hector Bolitho. [e] THE LAND OF GREEN GINGER, Algernon Blackwood.

THE EVENING STANDARD BOOK OF STRANGE STORIES [f] ANCIENT LIGHTS, Algernon Blackwood. [g] A PAIR OF HANDS, A. Quiller-Couch. [h] PHANTAS, Oliver Onions. [i] MRS. RAEBURN'S WAXWORK, Eleanor Smith. [j] SATAN'S CIRCUS, Eleanor Smith. [k] THE STORY OF MING-Y, Lafcadio Hearn. [1] MANSIZE IN MARBLE, E. Nesbit. Em] THE BAD LANDS, John Metcalfe. [n] THE MISANTHROPE, J. D. Beresford. [0] THE POWERS OF THE AIR, J. D. Beresford. [p] MRS. AMWORTH, E.F. Benson, [q] THE OLD MAN, Holloway Horn. [r] THE BOOK, Margaret Irwin. [s] NOBODY'S HOUSE, A. M. Burrage. [t] THE BLACK DIAMOND TREE, A. M. Burrage. [u] THE SECOND AWAKENING OF A MAGICIAN, S. K. Dennis. [v] THE MUMMY'S FOOT, Theophile Gautier. [w] FEAR, Guy de Maupassant. [x] VENUS, Maurice Baring. [y] THE HAND, Guy de Maupassant. [z] THE BATTLE OF BERKELEY SQUARE, Michael Arlen. * Also [aa] THE HOLLOW MAN, Thomas Burke. Described elsewhere for context. Ebb] THE DEVIL'S APE, Barnard Stacey. A Hindu book of black magic that tells how to project the astral body. A lay figure is stabbed, and a death takes place. [cc] DUSK BELOW HELVELLYN, Anthony Marsden. On the northern moors a strange shepherd tells the story of a murder, with detail that no one could have known. He is not the ghost of the victim. [dd] HE FOUGHT A GHOST, Louis Golding. Deaf Burke killed a man in the ring and the ghost follows him everywhere. [eel THE THIRD PERFORMANCE, Anthony Gi ttins . Sarbecoff' s "Symphonie de la morgue souterraine" has a passage in the fourth movement that kills harpists who play it. A trick ending. [ff] THE SCREAMING PLANT, Hal Pink. A "mandrake" plant, large, fearsome, carnivorous, and aggressive. It attacks its owner. Egg] THE TAIPAN, W. Somerset Maugham. A British Old China Hand sees a pair of ghostly coolies digging a grave, but no one has died, and no one else sees the grave-- nor does he on a second visit to the cemetery. Premonition. [hh] THE PIONEERS OF PIKE'S PEAK, Basil Tozer. Early pioneers on Pike's Peak are killed by enormous, seemingly intelligent spiders. Borderline science-fiction. [ii] THE VAMPIRE, Jan Neruda. A Greek artist knows when death is approaching a potential customer and has a death mask ready. Told indirectly. [jj] THE VANISHING TRICK, Charles Davy. The man from the audience uses the magician's vanishing trick as a device to run away from his wife. But his spirit returns later. [kk] THREE PENNYWORTH OF LUCK, Basil Murray. A fortune-telling machine is supernaturally accurate, but for the wrong person. [11] ESCAPE, E. H. Lacon Watson. A London fog, a bridge, a murder, and a ghost who does not know that he is dead. [mm] THE THING IN THE UPPER ROOM, Arthur Morrison. A room in Paris is reputedly haunted. Crimes follow, but their cause, whether possession or emergence of unconscious factors, is uncertain. From the very rare FIDDLE 0' DREAMS. [nn] DISCIPLINE, Lesley Storm. A personality study. A rigid, cold executive is faced by the supernatural in the form of foresight. * Of the new material Egg] and [mm] are worth reading.

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THE EVENING STANDARD SECOND BOOK [ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 614. THE EVENING STANDARD SECOND BOOK OF STRANGE.STORIES Hutchinson; London [1937] An enormous compilation of stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] THE QUEEN OF SPADES, Alexander Pushkin. Abridged. [b] GABRIELERNEST, Saki. [c] THE RIGHT SIDE, John Collier. [d] WICKED CAPTAIN WALSHAWE, J. S. LeFanu. [e] THE YELLOW CAT, Michael Joseph. [f] THE SUTOR OF SELKIRK, Anonymous. [g] COORDINATION, E. M. Forster. [h] A SCHOOL STORY, M. R. James. [i] GALLEY TROT BLIND, John Gloag. [j] THE SNOW, Hugh Walpole. * Also, [k] THE ADVENTURE OF SECOND LIEUTENANT BUBNOV, Ivan Turgenev. Folkloristic material. Bubnov meets the Devil,_who takes him to meet his grandmother and his granddaughter Babebibobu. They decide to marry Bubnov off to the young female demon, since she likes him. He is put into a tureen and eaten. All a drunken dream. Excellent. [1] THE MAN WHO DIED, Eric Ambrose. The narrator, who has just committed a murder and is unsure of his identity, discovers that he is inches taller, decades younger than he should be. Personality interchange. [m] THE BLACK DOG, R. N. Currey. Blacks in the back woods near Miami, and perhaps theriomorphy. Some dialect. [n] LOVE OR MONEY, Francis Stuart. Old Mr. Booker, Whose wife betrayed him, left his money to his son, hoping someone would get happiness out of it. Booker's ghost haunts successive heirs until happiness is attained. [0] SHINING HAT AT TARRING NEVILLE, T. H. White. Brothers who hate one another, murder, and a vindictive ghost. [p] THE DEPARTURE, Selma Robinson. Ken, who is dead, has been trying to get through to Norah for quite a time. He offers to take her with him, down into the courtyard, twenty stories below. [q] MARRIOTT'S MONKEY, Howard Jones. Perhaps H. Bedford Jones? A monkey bite and a horrible metamorphosis. [r] THE HORSE OF DEATH, Ralph Straus. Professor Torino, carnival magician, is cornered by a rustic tough and forced to make a prediction on a race. It is correct, and the rustic suffers. [s] DERRICK'S RETURN, Gouverneur Morris. Derrick returns from the dead to visit his family, but-- except for his dog-they cannot experience him. He returns to the afterworld, complaining that he might as well be in Hell, and receives an unexpected answer. [t] THE DIVINER AND THE POOR WOMAN, Post Wheeler. Medieval Japan. Perhaps a rendering of a Japanese story. Seimei the diviner receives a night's lodging at the house of a poor woman. When he is about to leave, she insists that he must give her a thousand pieces of gold. Her father, who was a noted diviner, had foretold Seimei's coming and made a promise. [u] LIKE A DIAMOND IN THE SKY, Walter R. Brooks. Simpson dares the old wizard to work a spell. He does. Mr. Simpson loses weight and just drifts away. [v] SIAMESE HANDS, Manuel Komroff. Siam. A native boy, caught stealing, claims that it is the fault of his hands, or rather his father's hands, which are on his body. The hands, when cut

THE EVENING STANDARD SECOND BOOK off, continue their old tricks. [w] THE HOUSE IN THE WOOD, John Hastings Turner. "Is it possible for an hallucination which is real and vivid to a lunatic to be so impressed on the mind of another that it materializes temporarily?" [x] THE COOK'S ROOM, Pansy Pakenham. An old French cook, summarily dismissed after years of service, commits suicide in France. But her spirit reveals the fact at her old place of employment. [y] THE BEARER OF THE MESSAGE, Fritz Hopman. Russia. The French doctor is summoned by a woman to a sick man. The man is dead, and so was the woman, twenty years earlier. [z] HAUNTED GROUND, Oliver LaFarge. After-death experiences. George Waterson leaves the beach and talks to the old woman. She suddenly tells him to go back to the beach; he still has time to get back into his body. A threadbare theme handled freshly. * Best new stories are [t] and [z]. The remainder are competent commercial work. * This volume and the preceding were premium books for the newspaper THE EVENING STANDARD. There are other books in the same category, but they do not have so much supernatural material in them. EVERETT, MRS. H. D. British author, flourished 1890-1920. Wrote under pseudonyms (or other names) Theo. Douglas (which see) and Julia Douglas, suggesting that the initial· "D" stands for.Douglas. 615. THE DEATH-MASK AND OTHER GHOSTS Philip Allen; London [1920] Supernatural short stories, presumably gathered from various periodical sources. * [a] THE DEATH MASK. A widower promised his dying wife that he \~ould not marry again. Following her request, he covered her face with a handkerchief after she died. When he thinks of marrying again, handkerchiefs assume the features of the dead woman and bedding assumes the shape of a corpse. There is no hyphen in the title of the short story. [b] PARSON CLENCH. The ghost of Parson Clench will not permit his successor to occupy the pulpit or the manse. [c] THE WIND OF DUNOWE. Thieves take the family jewelry at a ball, but the family ghost returns it. [d] NEVILL NUGENT'S LEGACY. A routine ghost. A murdered boy. [e] THE CRIMSON BLIND. Two boys watching a haunted house see a crimson blind with a gesticulating figure behind it. It is taken to be a prank, but years later one of the original witnesses sees much the same phenomenon, and it is learned that a lunatic had burned to death there years before. [f] FINGERS OF A HAND. A family on a seashore vacation are warned of danger by ghostly writing. The house collapses. [g] THE NEXT HEIR. A Canadian who inherits an enormous English estate finds supernaturalism rampant over his lands. A cousin has a cult of Pan; there is scrying, ghosts, and stigmata. Longer than the other stories in the book. [h] ANNE'S LITTLE GHOST. A child ghost haunts a house. [i] OVER THE WIRES. A phone call from a dead lover. [j] A WATER WITCH. A somewhat confused story of a white woman who drowns cattle. [k] THE LONELY ROAD. A ghost

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EWERS, HANNS HEINZ dog protects a traveller from ruffians. [1] A GIRL IN WHITE. Partly explained by somnambulism, but with an unexplained residue. [m] A PERPLEXING CASE. During World War I two soldiers Who are wounded interchange personalities. Their true identities are restored by a blood transfusion. [n] BEYOND THE PALE. Witchcraft and poltergeistic activity. * Routine material. Undistinguished stories of literal horror, many of them probably written considerably earlier than the book date. [e], which is often anthologized, is much the best story in the book. EWERS, HANNS HEINZ (1871-1943) Notorious German author with colorful life in shady side of politics and war. German agent in Mexico and the United States during World War I; interned and deported. Early member of Nazi party in Germany and author of semiofficial biography of Horst Wessel; later fell out of favor. * Fairly prolific author of popular sensational expressionist fiction, sometimes supernatural, sometimes contes crue1s. Most important works, apart from series of novels about Frank Braun, are short story collections DAS GRAUEN (1908), GROTESKEN (1910), DIE BESESSENEN (1912). The novel ALRAUNE (1911) is much his most famous work, with translations and motion picture adaptation. Among his untranslated work is a continuation and conclusion of Schiller's unfinished novel DER GEISTERSEHER along rationalistic modes. His work tends to be self-parodic at times, with violent emotion, strident posturing, and a raucous superman cult, but within this range of expression he is an excellent craftsman. Although the translations VAMPIRE and BLOOD are sometimes listed in bibliographies, they are not fantastic enough to be included here. 616. THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE John Day; New York 1927 DER ZAUBERLEHRLING (1907). Translated from German by Ludwig Lewisohn. * An episode from the early life of Frank Braun, unemployed anthropologist. Braun has finished his legal studies and is spending a season in the Italian Alps, working on a book. He notices the cretinous nature of the inhabitants and their stupid religiosity, and decides upon some amusement. He hypnotizes his mistress (whom he had practically raped in the first place) into believing that she is a saint. She is accepted as such and a cu1tus forms around her. Miracles happen, and then Braun discovers, to his chagrin, that he has lost control of the girl. The saint decides that she must be crucified and Braun is forced by the local people to thrust the spear into her side as she hangs on the cross. He is fortunate to escape from the area alive. * Rampant sensationalism with exaggerated emotionalism and a gloating focus on the pathological and sadistic, but within these limitations well done. Characterizations and incidents are excellent. The best of the Frank Braun stories. This edition is illustrated by Mahlon Blaine, whose work is well-suited to the story.

EWERS, HANNS HEINZ 617. ALRAUNE John Day; New York 1929 ALRAUNE (1911). Translated from German by S. Guy Endore. * Another episode from the life of Frank Braun, unregenerate Uebermensch. * Braun is currently a rather wild college student, and shortly thereafter in military service. He is on bad terms with his maternal uncle, Professor ten Brinken, who is a Geheimrat, a great biologist, very wealthy, and a foul wretch. To placate his uncle, who is planning to disinherit him, Braun suggests a unique biological experiment: interbreeding the worst types of humanity to produce a monster. The ultimate result is A1raune, born of the artificial insemination of one of the lowest prostitutes in Berlin by a vicious sex murderer. The second portion of the book takes place about twenty years later. A1raune has grown up under the guardianship of old ten Brinken, and she has brought death and tragedy to almost all who have been in contact with her. Her schoolmates die of various diseases; accidents take place around her. As she grows older she displays the lasciviousness of her mother and the bizarre, sadistic cruelty of her father. She exudes a sexual magnetism that is irresistible, and uses it to cause pain and sorrow. Even the vicious old ten Brinken, who well knows her nature and history, cannot resist her and commits suicide on her account. Frank Braun, now a mature man, enters her life once again and they fall in love. He, too, is being sapped vampirica11y, when A1raune dies of an accidental fall. Just before her death Braun had burned the withered mandrake root that had suggested her creation. * The name A1raune is the German word for mandrake, and the legend and symbolism of the mandrake are worked into the story. The woman A1raune was suggested by the root. The ultimate theme of the book, however, is the soullessness of life artifica11y induced. It should be noted that A1raune is not an android or a synthetic person, as is often stated in the literature. * Pretentiously overwritten at times, but with many highly painted scenes and some excellent degenerate characters. An achievement in a florid, noisy way. EX-PRIVATE X (pseud. of BURRAGE, A. M., which see for biographical information) 618. SOMEONE IN THE ROOM Jarro1ds; London [1931] Short stories. * [a] THE SWEEPER. An ancient gentlewoman, otherwise cruel and stingy, is inexplicably generous to beggars and Gipsies. In the past she had forced a dying beggar to sweep leaves, and he placed a curse on her: one day he would return and sweep her away. The symbol of the sweeper is used effectively. [b] THE BLUE BONNET. Also titled THE BLUE SUNBONNET. The ghost of a young woman appears at appropriate moments in her lover's life. [c] THE WAXWORK. Atmospherics. A reporter is in a wax museum where the ghost of Dr. Bourdette, a Parisian Jack the Ripper, has taken the place of one of the wax figures. The ghost cuts the reporter's throat, but there is no

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THE FAIRIES RETURN trace of a cut the next day. [d] THROUGH THE EYES OF A CHILD. During a conjuring exhibition for children, the strange child from outside is first seen. It is later seen entering the wall, where, later, a skeleton from the 17th century is found. [e] THE RUNNING TIDE. Cornwall. An ancient inn, once the headquarters of a notorious murdering crimp, retains psychic memories of dark deeds. Ghostly reenactments include a sailor's trollop to lure men in and a murder. [f] THE S~RANGE CASE OF DOLLY FREWAN. When Reggie learns that Dolly is pregnant, she ends up in the river, drowned. Perhaps the shove was half accidental. But when Mavis, Reggie's new love also falls into the river, she emerges as Dolly and denounces Reggie. [g] THE OAK SAPLINGS. The secretary-companion thinks she hears lovers whispering in the grove, and believes that she sees them-- though it turns out to be two oak saplings: her eyesight is bad. But the ghosts do exist and murder is revealed. [h] THE COTTAGE IN THE WOOD. The dying prostitute calls out to her long-dead lover. She comes upon him in the woods, and for a moment all her sorry past seems a bad dream. They are married and happy. But she is really dead. [i] SMEE. Smee is a game something like hide-and-seek, but more complex. The narrator tells of such a game in which he was involved: there was an extra person in the chain, the ghost of a girl who had been accidentally killed years before while playing hide-and-seek. [j] THE CASE OF MR. RYALSTONE. He is truly a double personality. When he is asleep, he lives the life of Ben Surridge, a corn chandler in Somerset. [k] SOMEONE IN THE ROOM. Suicide, reenacted supernaturally. [1] THE SHADOWY ESCORT. A code concealed in a pack of cards and the ghostly presence of a wronged man. [m] MR. CARSHAW' S COMPANION. The Devil. [n] ONE WHO SAW. Crutchley, who is in Rouen studying the history of Joan of Arc, sees a strange woman sitting in the deserted courtyard of his hotel. He feels an irresistible urge to see her face. He is aabout to enter the court when he is seized by the head waiter. What he had seen was the evil ghost of a suicide, who attracts certain men who "see," and shows them a horrible visage. Crutchley might have been saved, but later he returns and finds the woman. His hair turned white and his nerves are still not right. * Nicely handled stories which convey considerable atmosphere. Best are [a], [i], and [n].

[ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 619. THE FAIRIES RETURN OR NEW TALES FOR OLD BY SEVERAL HANDS Peter Davies London 1934 Each story in this collection is a restatement

THE FAIRIES RETURN of a-traditional story from Grimm, Perrault, or other folkloristic or literary source. Several of the modern versions are not fantastic in their new guise, but are listed here for the sake of their superior originals, as examples of degradation of themes. * [a] JACK THE GIANT KILLER, A.E. Coppard. Semia11egory of modern life, told in a flippant way, wi th Coppard' s usual "small folk." Three giants-- Demos, Kudos, Osmos-- who prey on the people are destroyed by Jack. One is electrocuted; another, trapped in a mine shaft; and the third shot with a whale-gun. [b] GODFATHER DEATH, Clemence Dane. Described elsewhere. [c] THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFE, E. M. Delafield. The capping demand made by the young poet for his bitchy wife is to become head of the B.B.C. [d] LITTLE SNOW-WHITE, Lord Dunsany. A modern setting, with a gramophone instead of a mirror. A good touch at the very end does not redeem a dull story. [e] ALADDIN, OR THE UNDERTAKER AND THE DEMON, Anna Gordon Keown. Aladdin has a demon much like those of John Collier's, and it must be socialized. [f] SINDBAD THE SAILOR, HIS EIGHTH AND LAST VOYAGE, Eric Link1ater. Sindbad undertakes to guide a tourist cruise, with annoying modern passengers. He goes over the route of his former voyages. [g] ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES, A. G. Macdonne1. Not fantastic, but a very ingenious, amusing rendering in terms of big business and high finance. [h] DICK WHITTINGTON, E.A. Robertson. Not fantastic. [i] PUSS IN THE BOOTS, Helen Simpson, Modern language and situations, stressing British politics. Irony on honesty and guile. [j] THE LITTLE MERMAID, Lady Eleanor Smith. Not fantastic. Motion-picture land. [k] LITTLE RED RIDING-HOOD, E. OE. Somerville. Ireland. Little resemblance to the original. Fairies, Celtic folklore. [1] CINDERELLA, Robert Speaight. A little supernaturalism, but more a fantasy of history, with the king Charles V in Stuart line. [m] "0, IF I COULD BUT SHIVER!" Christina Stead. Not fantastic. [n] THE SLEEPING BEAUTY, G. B. Stern. Not fantastic. [0] BIG CLAUS AND LITTLE CLAUS, R. J. Yeatman and W.C. Sellar. Told in "American" English. * [a], [b], [g] have some merit, but the other stories are far inferior to their prototypes. FALCONER, LANOE (pseud. of HAWKER, MARY ELIZABETH) (1848-1908) British writer of popular fiction. Best-known work, MADAME IXE, went through several editions. Competent commercial work. 620. CECILIA DE NOEL Macmillan; London 1891 Short psychological, sentimental novel considering various reactions to the supernatural. * At Weald Manor the ghost walks during a house party. An upper servant sees it and fortifies herself with brandy; a lower servant takes to hysterics. The members of the house party, too, perceive the ghost and undergo various psychological developments or changes as a result of the experience. Separate sections describe the reaction of each person. To the medical man,

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FALKNER, JOHN MEADE who is a materialist, the ghost does not reveal itself and there is no possibility of growth. Mrs. Mostyn takes it to be a lost soul and finds it proof of life after death. Canon Vernade, glib religionist, is shaken by the experience (which he feels rather than sees) and finds his faith in God destroyed. Austyn interprets it as indigestion, like Harley's ghost, while Mrs. Molyneux sees it all as maya, or cosmic illusion. Only Cecilia de Noel, the lady of the house, responds adequately. She recognizes that the ghost is lonely and tortured and tries to communicate with it. She tries to awaken it to a vision of God, which the ghost does not have, and embraces it, thereby winning it redemption. The implication is that the haunting is over. * An unusual idea for its period. The presentation is delicate, sometimes a little sentimental and archaic for the date of publication. FALKNER, JOHN MEADE (1858-1932) British industrialist, antiquarian scholar, occasional writer. Rose from position of family tutor to chairmanship of Armstrong, Whitworth, gigantic munitions manufacturer. On retirement awarded Oxford fellowship. Also honorary librarian at University of Durham. Considered a great scholar in matters of church history. Wrote three fairly well-known novels: THE LOST STRADIVARIUS (1895), MOONFLEET (1898), and THE NEBULY COAT (1903). The last is sometimes listed as fantastic in bibliographies, but it is not. Also wrote fine books on local antiquities, particularly Oxfordshire. 621. THE LOST STRADIVARIUS W. Blackwood; Edinburgh and London 1895 A sophisticated supernatural novel, concerned with music, evil, and mysticism. 1840 and 1750. When John Ma1travers, Oxford student, and his friend Gaskell play an anonymous piece of Italian manuscript music, they experience supernatural manifestations, culminating in the ghostly appearance of a man in 18th century costume. At a later date Ma1travers examines the place where the ghost vanished, and finds a painted-over cupboard, within which is an ancient violin. The violin, which is one of Stradivarius's finest productions, has a name, Porphyrius phi10sophus, or the philosopher Porphyry, one of the Neoplatonic thaumaturgic philosophers. * Ma1travers falls under the sway of the violin and music and betakes himself to Naples, where he devotes himself to a life of debauchery and indulgence in nameless rites. After his death it is revealed that Ma1travers had also found a manuscript from the original owner of the violin. This was Adrian Temple, Who had been a fine musician and also an unmatched profligate. He had been a member of the Medmenham Monks, had gone to Italy, immersed himself in Neoplatonic magic, and had even experienced the visio ma1efica, or the evil counterpart of the divine mystical experience. Ma1travers had followed the same path. * One of the 19th century claSSics.

FALLADA. HANS FALLADA, HANS (pseud. of DITZEN, RUDOLF W. F.) (1893-1947) German writer, well-known in the English-speaking world in the 1930's for LITTLE MAN, WHAT NOW? (1933). 622. SPARROW FARM THE TALE OF THE CITY CLERK WHO FLEW INTO THE COUNTRY Putnam; London [1937] MARCHEN VOM STADT SCHREIBER, DER AUFS LAND FLOG (1935). Translated from German by Eric Sutton. * Fantasy in the tradition, as the author states, of E.T.A. Hoffmann. The setting is a rustic Germanic world, undated, but perhaps of the early 19th century. The quaintly supernatural is mixed with everyday matters. * Guntram Spatt (Low German for sparrow), a young law clerk, is the legal heir to Sparrow Farm, the family property, which has been under the control of his uncle for many years. The branches of the family have not been in contact. The supernatural world decides that it is time to do something about the Spatt farm, and Guntram is a central figure in the struggle against usurpers for the property. The evil magician Asio, who assumes the form of an owl, puts forth as claimant a sparrow in Guntram's form, while Spatt, in turn, is in and out of sparrow shape, and is subject to great perils. Yet Spatt is not without help, for forces of good are also engaged in the combat. The old law clerk" Bubo, former chief magician of Kurdistan, put in servitude for an offence against the laws of magic, must serve ASio, yet also aids Guntram to win both the farm and his fair cousin Monica. * A clever and amusing story. The point seems to be, "If a man lets evil get a foothold in his home or heart, it wil~ swallow him." * When this" appeared, it was taken to be genre fantasy and nothing more. Now, however, it seems like a political parable against the Nazis. FARJEON, ELEANOR (1881-1965) British author of children's books, adult fiction, poetry. Authority on children's games. Daughter of Benjamin Farjeon, Victorian writer of mystery stories, sister of Jefferson Farjeon. Best-known works are two collections of nursery rhymes, NURSERY RHYMES OF LONDON TOWN (1916) and SINGING GAMES FOR CHILDREN (1919). An excellent craftsman. 623. THE SOUL OF KOL NIKON Collins; London [1923] Abnormal psychology in terms of fantasy, in a Scandinavian folk setting reminiscent of PEER GYNT. * This is the rational plot: When Kol Nikon is born to one of the village wives, she is in shock at the death of her husband. When she recovers, she refuses to accept Kol, claiming that he is a changeling. He grows up disliked and feared by his fellow villagers, because they believe that he is soulless and one of the Others. He accepts this judgment, and his personality becomes warped. While he is desperate for the love of a mother, which is denied to him, he is unable to establish human relationships, although he has a musical ability that enables him to move moods. In his

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FARNOL, JEFFERY tortured quest for normality he fastens upon a pretty young woman, and in the guise of her betrothed, Janke, impregnates her. Janke commits suicide. Kol flees from the village and stays away for two years. When he returns, he is stoned to death. * The supernatural story: Kol Nikon is really a changeling, whose "brother" is held captive by the elves in the rocks, down below. Kol is really soulless and is in communication with the various supernatural folk of the area. As a child he was comforted by Gentle Bertha (the equivalent of Mother Nature) and he is advised by the gnome Wittekind. His music has the supernatural power to charm people and to cause temporary interchange of personality. When he slept with Fiora he had bewitched her, and his magic had forced Janke, in confusion of identity, to kill himself. All this happened because Kol wanted a soul. * Told episodically, with interspersed pages of verse. Nicely done, but Ms. Farjeon is more at home in the English folkloristic story cycles like MARTIN PIPPIN IN THE ORCHARD. 624. ARIADNE AND THE BULL Michael Joseph; London [1945] Highly ironic, "modernized" version of the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. * The Minotaur is a darky with an Alabama accent; Hippolyta is a female athlete; and the other personalities are similarly euhemerized. The story culminates in a courtroom s"cene with Minos, the just judge, trying to railroad the Minotaur for murdering the Athenian youths, but the Minotaur turns out to be a Ferdinand. * Historically this can be seen as a member of a form common enough in the 1930's, a cynical reworking of Classical material, but critically one wonders why an author of Farjeon's ability bothered. "FARNOL, [JOHN] JEFFERY (1878-1952) Popular British author of light historical adventure stories in the mode of Sabatini. Very successful in Great Britain, but apparently never very popular in America. Best-known works THE BROAD HIGHWAY (1910) and THE MONEY MOON (1912) 625. THE CUPBOARD The Paget Agency; New York 1922 paperbound Costume work in pre-modern England, perhaps the late 18th century. * To Mr. Jarvey, resident of Clifford's Inn in London, comes a mysterious stranger whose presence terrifies Jarvey. Jarvey, it seems, had injured the stranger greatly some twenty years before, and now must pay. As the stranger drinks, attention diverted, Jarvey reaches for a poker • • • Later that evening a muffled figure leaves the Inn. Jarvey is not quite the same after that, for a rat-like figure haunts him. * Often anthologized, but undistinguished commercial work. The present first printing is unusual as one of the extremely rare Paget printings made to secure copyright in America. For more details see THE MISSIONARY AND THE WITCHDOCTOR by H. R. Haggard. 626. THE SHADOW AND OTHER STORIES Sampson Low, Marston; London [1929] Costume adventure and miscellaneous fiction in-

FARNOL, JEFFERY cluding [a) THE CUPBOARD. Described elsewhere. [b) BLACK COFFEE. Professor Jervis, who has been working much too hard without sleep, has a bad case of coffee nerves. Hhen a friend leaves an Egyptian mummy in his care, there is a problem. The mummy is in a remarkable state of preservation and may awaken at any moment. The professor's corpse is found, with evidences of a struggle. Perhaps not to be taken as supernatural? [c) THE GREAT QUIETUDE. Death. Fantasy by implication only. FAST, JULIUS (1918 ) American editor (of medical publications), mystery story writer (Edgar award 1946), anthologist. Birthdate sometimes given as 1919. AS EDITOR: 627. OUT OF THIS WORLD Penguin Books; New York 1944 paperbound Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a) EVENING PRIMROSE, John Collier. [b) LAURA, Saki. [c) SAM SMALL'S TYKE, Eric Knight. [d) MR. MERGENTHWIRKER'S LOBBLIES, Nelson Bond. [e) A VISION OF JUDGMENT, H. G. Wells. [f) THUS I REFUTE BEELZY, John Collier. [g) THE KING OF THE CATS, S. V. Benet. [h) THE CANTERVILLE GHOST, Oscar Wilde. [i) THE CLUB SECRETARY, Lord Dunsany. [j) A DISPUTED AUTHORSHIP, J. K. Bangs. A fragment from A HOUSE-BOAT ON THE STyX. [k) MY FRIEND MERTON, Julius Fast. Humor. A ghost has his friend sentenced to prison. [1) SATAN AND SAM SHAY, Robert Arthur. (ELKS MAGAZINE 1942). A betting Irish-American wins three bets from the Devil, who is so enraged that he vows that Sam shall never win another bet. Sam's attempts to circumvent the Devil keep all the imps of Hell busy. Amusing. FAURE, RAOUL C[OHEN) ) (1909 American author, born in Cairo, Egypt. Bestknown work, THE SPEAR IN THE SAND, modern Robinsonade. 628. MISTER ST. JOHN A NOVEL Harpers; New York 1947 Maturation of personality, told in fantastic terms. * Dr. Elian, chief surgeon at the hospital, is a good, conscientious man, but his emotional development has been paralyzed for decades. He has no zest for life and knows his patients only by their symptoms. A stranger, who calls himself Mr. St. John, appears in Elian's office and lets it be known that he is the Devil. He is not, he says, an evil being, but really a helper to man. He has been trying to improve humanity ever since God first botched the job at the Creation. After some metaphysical discussion on a dualistic note the Devil tells Elian that he will die that night, but that he is giving Elian a chance at some happiness before death. * The doctor awakens as a young man at a vacation resort, where he falls in love with a beautiful woman and has an affair with her. There is pain involved in the relationship as well as pleasure, since she is the kept mistress of a much older man, but Elian grows emotionally. At this stage of the story the Devil is with Elian under the name Faustus, an obvious allegorical note. The result is that

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the doctor meets death as a more mature person. A torrent of words at times, some cliched situations. Inferior to A SPEAR IN THE SAND, which is not supernatural.

*

FENN, GEORGE MANVILLE (1831-1909) Prolific British author of boys' fiction, historical and geographical adventure stories. Journalist. Editor of ONCE A WEEK, CASSELL'S MAGAZINE. WITH READE, COMPTON; ARCHER, F. AND OTHERS 629. SEVEN FROZEN SAILORS New Amsterdam Book Co; New York 1896 The motif of the Frozen Pirate is applied to connect seven short stories. * The narrator is a member of an expedition to discover the North Pole. Along the way they come upon a deposit of frozen human beings. As each man is thawed out to immediate life, he tells a story, then blows away in a cloud of dust. One of the stories is fantastic: [a) THE SCOTCH SAILOR'S YARN. Entangled in a love affair, the sailor falls from a cliff into a protected spot and lies in suspended animation for ten years. He awakens and learns that he is suspected of murder and must leave the country. No explanation is given for his long sleep. * It is not known which author wrote this story. * English book publication has not been located for this item. It is probably a periodical Christmas annual of considerably earlier date. FESSlER, MICHAEL (1907 ) American author. 630. FULLY DRESSED AND IN HIS RIGHr HIND Knopf; New York 1935 Semiallegorical free fantasy set in the world of the Depression. * The key figure is a vicious little man with peculiarly powerful eyes. He probably symbolizes Fear. * The nameless man, who confesses to several murders, works on the fears of three men, driving two of them to death. The third man, Johnny Price, is powerfully beset, but he is saved through the love of Trelia, a strange anima figure who swims in a lagoon in a public park. When the little man frames Johnny for two murders, Trelia faces down the little man and drives him off. * The themes are conflict with evil, redemption by love, and fear of fear. * Told in a brisk, hard-boiled manner that offers a contrast to the ultimately sentimental subject matter. Very nicely handled. FIELD, EUGENE (1850-1895) American journalist, poet, humorist; one of the earliest newspaper columnists, with well-known features in the DENVER TRIBUNE and CHICAGO XORNING NEWS. A skilled versifier, very popular for very sugary, sentimental adult and children's verse. Very highly regarded in his day. 631. THE HOLY CROSS AND OTHER TALES Stone and Kimball; Cambridge and Chicago 1893 Coyly overwritten fables and short stories, including [a) THE HOLY CROSS. Conquistadores out West, the Wandering Jew, his redemption, and the miraculous creation of the cross of snow over his grave. An etiological statement

FIELD, EUGENE of a spectacular geographical formation. [b) THE ROSE AND THE THRUSH. Fable. [c) THE PAGAN SEAL-WIFE. Harold, after encounters with rhyming fairies and his dead mother (who has turned into a seal woman) acquires a seal maiden for a wife. They live together happily for many years. When she feels death upon her, she begs for her changing-skin and asks to be laid on the shore in it. [d) DANIEL AND THE DEVIL. Daniel, a poor man with children, signs the diabolic bond: the Devil must be his servant and obey, or else forfeit. The Devil is ordered to close all the saloons-- which is too much for him. Told in parody of a business operation. leI METHUSALEH. A jocular story of the life of Methusaleh. [f) THE RIVER. Allegory of death personified. * The 1896 Scribner edition adds five more tales, including [g) THE PLATONIC BASSOON. Aurora, beautiful, wealthy, amiable, but not interested in men, falls in love with a bassoon. Her family is outraged, and her father buys the bassoon to prove to her that her passion is not requited. She drops dead with chagrin. A moderately amusing parody of the contemporary sentimental novel. Much the best item in the book. 632. THE SECOND BOOK OF TALES Scribner; New York 1896 Hitherto uncollected fables, short stories, essays, including [a) THE TALISMAN. A very sentimental version of Grimm fairy tale motifs, as a poor but handsome youth saves a princess from a witch by guessing three riddles. Swan transformations, too. [b) THE WEREWOLF. Harold, descendant of Siegfried the Dragon-slayer, suffers the hereditary curse: lycanthropy. A werewolf terrorizes the area. It is killed by Yseu1t, Harold's sweetheart, with Siegfried's own magic spear. Harold's corpse is found later. Told in Wardour Street English. * There are several saccharine fables which are not worth listing separately. [ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY) 633. FIFTY YEARS OF GHOST STORIES Hutchinson; London [1935) One of the large half-crown collections that Hutchinson issued during the Great Depression. Containing, [a) THE SAINT AND THE VICAR, Cecil Binney. St. Wilfred of Wilbraham was annoyed by the Devil, who caused audible footsteps to follow the saint. A modern scoffer is followed by such footsteps and he knows that on St. Sylvester's day he will see his follower. [b) GIBBET LANE, Anthony Gittins. On a quiet Surrey lane, a ghost story told by indirection by a mysterious figure. [c) PEREZ, W. L. George. Irony on art criticism. A character in a book is so lifelike that he assumes separate identity and annoys his creator by disputations about art. * Also, described elsewhere, [d) THE FAMILIAR, J. S. LeFanu. [e) GREEN TEA, J. S. LeFanu. [f) THE TAPESTRIED CHAMBER, Sir Walter Scott. [g) THE OLD NURSE'S STORY, Mrs. Gaskell. [h) THE RESIDENCE AT WHITMINSTER, M. R. James. [i) A WARNING TO THE CURIOUS, M. R. James. [j] THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS, Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Long version.

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FINNEY, JACK [k) THE GREEN ROOM, Walter de la Mare. [1) EVELINE'S VISITANT, Miss Braddon. [m) AFTERWARD, Edith Wharton. [n) THE MIDDLE TOE OF THE RIGHT FOOT, Ambrose Bierce. [0) MAN OVERBOARD~, F. Marion Crawford. [p) AS IN A GLASS DIMLY, Shane Leslie. [q) THE LORD-IN-WAITING, Shane Leslie. [r) DRACULA'S GUEST, Bram Stoker. [s) EXPIATION, E.F. Benson. [t) PIRATES, E.F. Benson. [u) THE WOMAN'S GHOST STORY, Algernon Blackwood. [v) THURNLEY ABBEY, Perceval Landon. [w) THE ROSEWOOD DOOR, Oliver Onions. [x) THE VIRGIN OF THE SEVEN DAGGERS, Vernon Lee. [y) THE LIBRARY. WINDOW, Mrs. Oliphant. [z) THE SONG IN THE HOUSE, Ann Bridge. [aa) THE OPERATION, Violet Hunt. [bb) THE SWEEPER, Ex-Private X. [cc) THE RUNNING TIDE, Ex-Private X. * A good selection. FINNEY, CHARLES [GRANDISON) (1905 ) American newspaper editor (ARIZONA DAILY STAR), writer. Served with U.S. Army in China, 1927-9. Highly regarded for remarkable work THE CIRCUS OF DR. LAO, which is still probably the finest American absurdist "novel." 634. THE CIRCUS OF DR. LAO Viking Press; New York 1935 One of the classics of art deco literature of the 1930's. It does not lend itself well to synopsis, since much of its charm and impact is on the verbal level. * In Abalone, Arizona (presumably the first town alphabetically in the United States, and thence the United States), a very odd circus comes to town. There is no advance advertiSing, and no one has seen it move in. Its owner-manager is Dr. Lao, an elderly Chinese (obviously Lao Tse), who speaks, according to audience and subject, either pidgin or the most cultured English. The heart of the story is the reaction of various types to incredible wonders of literature and lore. The circus parade reveals a satyr who awakens physical love in a spinster teacher; Apollonius of Tyana, who offers true magic; Medusa, who turns an inquisitive woman into stone; a vegetable dog; a mermaid, sphinx, and chimera; a cage in which some see a Russian and others a bear. When the acts begin, a pair of lewd college students witness an erotic African happening; the animals quarrel and are pacified by Apollonius's magic; the sea serpent seizes his enemy Dr. Lao; and Satan appears at a witches' sabbath. The circus ends and most of the viewers are disappointed. The glamour was transmuted into momentary reality, but the audience has been unable to assimilate it and the world of wonder is a disappearing failure to Abalone. * After the narrative portion is printed an annotated catalog~e of the various persons and beings in the story, with suitable comments on each. * A remarkable work, with many substrata of meaning. There are excellent illustrations by Boris Artzybasheff. FINNEY, JACK (pseud. of FINNEY, WALTER BRADEN) (1911 ) American writer, journalist; frequent contributor to periodicals. Best-known work is THE BODY SNATCHERS (reprint and motion picture as

FINNEY, JACK THE INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS) 635. THE THIRD LEVEL Rinehart & Co.; New York [1957] Short stories, including [a] THE THIRD LEVEL, described elsewhere. [b] I'M SCARED.. Borderline supernatural. The author takes the theme of dissatisfaction with life in the present and comments on a series of strange appearances and disappearances: people from the past, radio broadcasts from the past, vanishments, etc. Cleverly presented. [c] COUSIN LEN'S WONDERFUL ADJECTIVE CELLAR. Much like a salt cellar. When held in sprinkle position over purple copy, it removes adjectives. It has to be emptied occasionally, with resulting adjectivi tis for nearby persons. [d] OF MISSING PE,RSONS. Described elsewhere. [e] SOMETHING IN A CLOUD. Wish fulfillment and projection of a sailor's blind date, told in terms of fantasy. [f] THERE IS A TIDE • • • The narrator, a cut-throat junior executive who has the chance of injuring a rival, sees the ghost of an old man walking about his apartment. He tracks down the previous inhabitant. a Mr. Gruener, and is told that he has seen a memory of the past: a time when Gruener, who had also been a cut-throat, had been fired and was wondering about suicide. While this makes some sense to the narrator, when he checks farther, the supernatural is removed one more step. [g] BEHIND THE NEWS. Johnny Deutsch, small-town newspaper publisher, discovers that whatever reasonable piece of news he prints in his paper will come true. The explanation is remotely related to science-fiction. [h] SECOND CHANCE. The narrator, an old-car buff, has found a Jordan Playboy, badly damaged from a collision with a train. He restores it lovingly, takes it out on a trip, and finds himself back in the past-- its natal year. The car is stolen, but there is a twist of fate. * Excellent stories. The author has the knack of enriching a familiar motif by a new device at the end of the story, thereby expanding the original situation. FISCHER, MARJORIE (1903-1961) and HUMPHRIES, [GEORGE] ROLFE (1894-1969) American authors and anthologists. Ms. Fischer is known for RED FEATHER (1937) and MRS. SHERMAN'S SUMMER (1960), which won the Lippincott prize. Humphries was an educator (Hunter College, Amherst College), poet, and translator. Has won several awards for poetry: Guggenheim Fellow, Academy of American Poets Fellowship, Winterfest Poetry Award. AS EDITORS: 636. PAUSE TO WONDER STORIES OF THE MARVELOUS, MYSTERIOUS AND STRANGE Julian Messner; New York [1944] A resourceful collection of material stressing mainstream sources. There is also some folkloristic and scholarly material. ~, Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELATIVE EXISTENCES, Frank Stockton. [b] THE RIME OF TRUE THOMAS, John Buchan. [c] THE BOWMEN, Arthur Machen. [d] THE CANTER-

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FISCHER, MARJORIE AND HUMPHRIES, ROLFE VILLE GHOST, Oscar Wilde. [e] THE TRANSFERRED GHOST, Frank Stockton. [f] THE SENSITIVE GOLDFISH, Christina Stead. [g] THE REAL RIGHT THING, Henry James. [h] LADY INTO FOX, David Garnett. [i] THE BOLD DRAGOON, OR THE ADVENTURE OF MY GRANDFATHER, WaShington Irving. [j] THE CHASER, John Collier. [k] THE STORY OF THE SIREN, E. M. Forster. [1] THE SOUL OF LAPLOSHKA, Saki. [m] THE MAN WHO COULD WORK MIRACLES, H. G. Wells. The short story. [n] THE ROAD FROM COLONUS, E. M. Forster. [0] EXTRACT FROM CAPTAIN STORMFIELD'S VISIT TO HEAVEN, Mark Twain. ~, Also, [p] THE RIVAL BEAUTIES, W. W. Jacobs. A sea serpent. [q] THE PHANTOM FENCE RIDER OF SAN MIGUEL, Henry Yelvington. As the title indicates. Dialect. [r] THE QUICK AND THE DEAD, Peter Finley Dunne. Humor in the Chicago Irish dialect used in the political pieces. The ghost of O'Grady tries to keep his wife from marrying O'Flaherty. The result is a rough-house. [s] THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, F. Scott Fitzgerald. From TALES OF THE JAZZ AGE. During the period of the Civil War Benjamin Button is born at about age 70, with a full command of English. He thereupon grows younger every day, and is finally unborn some seventy years later. Very nicely imagined, with much logical and humorous detail. [t] COLONEL STERETT RELATES MARVELS, Alfred Henry Lewis. Kentucky. The Mountain Whites refuse to permit a stage magician to perform, since, in their opinion, he must be using diabolic arts. They are right. [u] THE ELF IN ALGIERS, John Steinbeck. Journalists Steinbeck, Reynolds, Knickerbocker have a Wish-fulfilling genie in a hotel room in Algiers. Questionable supernaturalism. [v] THE VOICE OF GOD, Winifred Holtby. An invention to listen to voices from the past. The journalistic dean (Inge?) asks that the voice of Jesus be captured. The Daily Standard increases its circulation enormously for a time when (presumably) the Sermon on the Mount is caught. [w] THE JUDGEMENT SEAT, W. Somerset Maugham. When a sexual triangle appears before the Throne of God on Judgment Day, he extinguishes all three spirits and comments on man's triviality for bothering him with such things. [x] SACRE DU PRINTEMPS, Ludwig Bemelmans. C. Kratzig, out of step in a Fascist world, learns that funerals are regulated by the Party. When he dies, he buries himself. Absurdist fiction. [y] "NO TROUBLE AT ALL," Ludwig Bemelmans. Gabriel, the incredible maitre d'hotel, accomplishes marvels and rises to the top of his profession by his prevision. The crowning example comes during an incredibly vulgar party, when a team of midgets carry in an enormous cake, trip, and scud it into a pseudo-tropical pool. Gabriel foresaw this and had a second cake and second team of midgets waiting in the background. Amusing. [z] THE ANGRY STREET, G. K. Chesterton. Expansion of a fancy. A street tires of always going to the same place and asks Heaven for justice. [aa] THE SAINT, Antonia White. Religious Catholic background. Little girls at a religious school err in estimating saintliness and take smooth,

FISCHER, MARJORIE AND HUMPHRIES, ROLFE and agreeable piety as the criterion. They miss the true saint, who is coarse, dirty, seemingly uncharitable, but with supernormal powers. [bb) KING O'TOOLE AND ST. KEVIN, Samuel Lover. Ireland. Dialect. Fictionalization of a folk tale. Kevin obtained land from O'Toole by curing O'Toole's pet goose. [cc) A SHEPHERD AND A SHEPHERDESS, Elizabeth Goudge. When Miss Gillespie buys a pair of china figurines, she contacts the Unknown and is impelled to buy a run-down old house and reemploy all its old servants. [ad), THE CASE OF PROMETHEUS, Max Beerbohm. Aspects of the Classical myth treated irreverently. Travellers have seen Prometheus chained in the Caucasus, gnawed by an eagle, but Russian officials have expelled them. The narrator plans to shoot the eagle, file through Prometheus's chains, and bring him to London, where he will be lionized. [eel THE LAST LAUGH, D. H. Lawrence. A surrealistic story which may portray a personal situation in the author's life in fantastic form. The probable personalities are Lawrence, Frieda, and Middleton Murry. Two persons, a man and woman, leave Lawrence and walk in the snow. One hears an omnipresent laugh and the other sees things that are apparently invisible to the companion. The man yields to a prostitute and the woman takes a policeman into the house. The next morning the policeman has a club foot and the man falls dead, shouting, "It was he." Since the message is fairly obvious, one can guess Lawrence's wife and friend were not amused. * An imaginative, resourceful and successful collection. Among the new material outstanding stories are [s), [y), [cc), [ee). 637. STRANGE TO TELL STORIES OF THE MARVELOUS AND MYSTERIOUS Ju'lian Messner; New York [1946 ) A resourceful and rich collection of Continental material. * Including [a) THE WARDROBE, Thomas Mann. Translated from German by H. T. Lowe-Porter. Albrecht van der Qualen (whose name is probably symbolic), under medical death sentence, wanders into a strange town and rents a room. There he is visited by the ghost of a suicide, who emerges from the wardrobe. Albrecht gradually passes into death. Excellent. [b) TO SARAGOSSA OR BACK TO THE POND, Fernan Caballero. Translated from Spanish by Gamel Woolsey. An Iberian version of the Flying Dutchman. A stubborn Galician is going to Saragossa, God willing or not. A saint overhears his impiety and transforms him into a frog. There he will remain until he learns humility-which will be never, for each time the frog is questioned, his reply is the same. [c) THE SPECTER'S WEDDING, Guy de Portales. Translated from French by Marjorie Fischer. A version of THE DEAD GUEST by Zschokke. [d) THE VIRGIN AS NUN, Gottfried Keller. Translated from German by Ellie Schleussner. Medieval setting. A fugitive nun, as atonement for her broken vows, offers her eight sons to the Virgin. The Virgin replies with miraculous crowns of oak leaves. [e) NILS PUNCTUAL AND HIS CLOCKS, Gabriel Scott. Translated from Danish by Anders Orbeck. Nils is a clock fetishist. When

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FISCHER, MARJORIE AND HUMPHRIES, ROLFE he dies, his ghost tends to the clocks. Lfj THE HAUNTED HOUSE, Luigi Pirandello. Anonymous translation from Italian. Fine lowerclass Italian setting. A haunted house. The tenants sue the landlord, but lose. Story stress, however, is on reactions to the supernatural. The tenants' lawyer is converted to religion. A challenge offered to the opposing lawyer is followed by a night in the house. Excellent. [g) THE NEW MELUSINA, J. W. von Goethe. Translated from German by Jean Starr Untermeyer. Supernatural favors to an ignoble fellow, and psychological entropy. The narrator becomes acquainted with a handsome young woman who travels with a peculiar case. As their acquaintance evolves to intimacy, he learns that she is an elf and is periodically reduced in size. The travelling case is a miniature house. The narrator goes with her to Elfland, where he is welcomed, since mortal blood is periodically needed to improve elfin genetics, but plays her false and loses her. One of the early classics, superior in translation to the Victorian versions. [h) THE SPIRIT OF MADAME DE GENLIS, Nicolai Leskov. Translated from Russian by R. Norman. Questionable supernaturalism. The elderly Russian princess, Who is a fantastic prude, regards the French author Madame de Genlis as an infallible guide to morality. She uses the author's works as a book of sorts, and believes that Genlis's ghost provides suitable answers. But on one occasion, when baited, the princess's theory does not hold. An improper passage. A good satire. [i) FEDERIGO, Prosper Merimee. Translated from French by Emily Mary Waller and Mary Helena Dey. An expanded version of Death, the tree, and the chair. Also included is a visit to Hell to reclaim damned souls. [j) THE STORY OF THE HAUNTED SHIP, Wilhelm Hauff. [k) THE BIG GRAVEL-SIFTER, August Strindberg. AnonyBorderline mous translation from-Swedish. fantasy. Absurdist story of a piano that falls into the sea. [1) PERSEUS AND ANDROMEDA, Jules Laforgue. Translated from French by Rolfe Humphries. A cynical modern retelling of the Classical story. [m) THE WRITER, Maxim Gorki. Anonymous translation from Russian. Irony on egotism. A dead writer follows his funeral and delivers his own funeral oration. [n] THE HUNTER GRACCHUS, Franz Kafka. Translated by Willa and Edwin Muir from German. Gracchus wanders the earth in his funeral boat, since his boat of death in some inexplicable fashion took a wrong turning. Longing for death Gracchus comes to the town of Riva and discourses with the burgomeister. An enigmatic fragment. [0) THE STRANGER, Marcel Proust. Translated from French by Marjorie Fischer and Rolfe Humphries. Borderline supernatural, semiallegorical. Dominique, who is dead internally, converses with his soul. [p) THE AVENGING FILM, Massimo Bontempelli. Translated from Italian by Cesarina Hudson. The Stanislavsky method carried to extremes. The narrator, an actor, emotes powerfully when his film is being made. But whenever the film is shown, he must emote in the same manner. I i

FISCHER, MARJORIE AND HUMPHRIES, ROLFE he happens to be caught by influences from two different episodes in the film, his emotions are mixed. Amusing. [q) TWO ACTORS FOR ONE ROLE, Theophi1e Gautier. Translated from French by Lafcadio Hearn. The Devil plays his own part as Mephistopheles, and does very well. [r) MAKAR'S DREAM, A CHRISTMAS STORY, Vladimir Korolenko. Translated from Russian by Marian Fell. Makar, a Russian peasant who has become acculturated to Yakut ways in Siberia, is a bestial, ignorant person. When he dies, he finds himself on a plain, moving toward the Judgment. At the Judgment his sins outweigh his virtues, but his eloquence and self-pity soften the hearts of his judges. Very interesting for its folkways. [s) BONTCHE SHWEIG, Isaac Loeb Perez. Translated from Yiddish by Helena Frank. The judgment of Bontche after death. His patient virtues are such that he is offered anything he wants. He asks for breakfast. [t) THE FIRST MIRACLE, Azorin. Translated from French by Warre Bradley Wells. The innkeeper watches the Three Kings during the Nativity. [u) THE THREE HERMITS, Leo Tolstoi. Translated from Russian by Louise and Aylmer Maude. True religion. A church official hears of an island where three hermits live. They turn out to be ignorant, illiterate old men who cannot even remember the creed that the bishop teaches them. But something happens that overturns the bishop's opinion of them. [v) BY THE LIGHT OF THE LANTERNS, Pierre MacOrland. Translated from French by Samuel Putnam. Life aboard the Flying Dutchman. The Dutchman, Peter Maus, and his mate, Pierre Radet, save a mortal child and raise him to adolescence. Because of his strange milieu the child grows with distorted values, and the two old men put him ashore, hoping that he can lead a normal life. Perhaps this act will cut time from the Dutchman's sentence. [w) MR •• MAILLOCHIN WAS GOING HOME, Yannik and Jacqueline Boisyvon. Translated from French by Marjorie Fischer. Mai11ochin, a small pensioner, has developed a passion for Mademoiselle Aure1ie, the handsome young florist whose shop is nearby. While on a train trip south, he finds himself in the company of Power (a burly man), Love (a beautiful woman), and Death (a bald-headed little man), all of whom declare that they want to make something of him. Unfortunately, their plans include death for Madame Mai110chin and no success with Mademoiselle Aure1ie. M. Mail10chin cannot come to terms with them. The editors see this story as an allegory of Marshall Petain, but one need not read the story in this fashion. [x) FAITHFUL PETER, Lion Feuchtwanger. Translated from German by Renatha Oppenheimer. The senile old politician is used to being informed and manipulated by his valet Peter. After Peter dies, his ghost resumes the old role. Obviously an allegory of Hindenburg and events of the early 1930's in Germany. [y) THE MIRACLE OF TWELFTH NIGHT, Guy de Pourta1es. Translated from French by Marjorie Fischer. ''The diamond of Charles the Bold [of Burgundy) wanders

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FLAMMARION, CAMILLE about the world like the soul of his implacable adversary, King Louis Xl. If Ghos t. * An outstanding collection, one of the few where the editors, instead of ransacking earlier collections, have examined a large body of new literature and have gathered up many excellent stories. It has never received the attention that it deserves. * Outstanding stories are [a}, [b), [d), [f), [g), [h), [r), [u). There is also a considerable amount of poetry, an excerpt from the trial of Joan of Arc, and some fairy tales from Grimm and Afanasiev. FLAMMARION, [NICOLAS) CAMILLE (1842-1925) Important French astronomer, popularizer of science, novelist, editor, psychic researcher. Studied double stars and planets of the solar system; founded periodical L'ASTRONOMIE and edited other astronomical journals. Very important as popularizer of astronomy (POPULAR ASTRONOMY, many English editions); works translated into many languages and diffused throughout the world. Was also concerned with reconciliation of science and a personal religion that was much like emergent evolution. In old age concerned with psychical research. 638. STORIES OF INFINITY LUMEN HISTORY OF A COMET IN INFINITY Robert Brothers; Boston, Mass. 1873 Translated from French by S. R. Crocker. * Including [a) LUMEN. (LUMEN, 1872) An example of a curious hybrid form that was frequently written in the 19th century, in which the science of science-fiction and somewhat heterodox religious or occult ideas were combined into an existential work. In F1ammarion's case the vehicle was essay-like expositional material with some fictional elements. * Dialogue between Lumen (light) and the Seeker (also called Quaerens in other editions), in which Lumen presents certain material of popular science and offers an eclectic wisdom of life. After an incarnation as a 19th century Frenchman, Lumen died and his spirit has returned to tell of its experiences. After death he floated away from earth and progressed on a cosmic flight to a planet of another solar system. There he found kindred humanoid beings. One of the preoccupations of the book then is developed : the possibility of witnessing past events if one can travel faster than light and look back with suitable telescopes or visual senses. Lumen and his associates watch episodes of the French Revolution. Other elements include descriptions of strange forms of life on other planets, a ladder of evolution for the human soul. * Curious typologically, but otherwise of no great interest. A rev~sed, enlarged edition was published in 1877. 639. OMEGA THE LAST DAYS OF THE WORLD Cosmopolitan; New York (1894) (LA FIN DU MONDE, 1894) Anonymous translation from French. * Future history, cosmology, occultism. The first setting is in the 25th century, when it is learned that a comet is rushing toward Earth. Against a background of superscience astronomers discuss what might

FLAMMARION, CAMILLE happen and popular reactions are described. Apart from some meteorological and geological damage the comet does not injure earth badly, but grazes past. In the 30th century and later the sun is gradually becoming cooler and mankind is confined to crystal and metal cities. Eventually only two human beings are left. The story then slides into semiallegorical supernaturalism. The ghost of Cheops (the human past) appears, the two humans die, but are reincarnated on Jupiter, where a new mankind is developing. * Large in scope. imaginative in detail, but essentially essay-1ikp. This edition is lavishly illustrated. 'FLES, BARTHOLD (1902 ) American, of Dutch birth, long associated with the publishing industry in various capacities: editor, buyer, executive, literary agent. AS EDITOR: 640. THE SATURDAY EVENING POST FANTASY STORIES Avon; New York 1951 paperbound Stories reprinted from the SATURDAy EVENING POST. Including, [a] THE CHILD WHO BELIEVED, Grace Amundson. (1950) A stage magician, when met by faith in his supernatural abilities, passes his power on to a child. [b) SCENE FOR SATAN, Noel Langley. (1947) A production of HAMLET in which a ghost plays the part of Hamlet's father. [c) THE ETERNAL DUFFER, Willard Temple. (1946) Barnaby Jessup, a golf duffer, finds himself in Heaven with superlative golfing skills. But this is not what he wants. [d) THE TERRIBLE ANSWER, Paul Gallico. (1950) Professor Haber, the great inventor of a mechanical brain, asks it a question about his personal life and receives an unexpected answer. [e) THE VOICE IN THE EARPHONES, Wilbur Schramm. (1950) An unskilled pilot is aided by the control tower, but there was no voice from the control tower. The . answer-- a helpful ghost. [fJ DOCTOR HANRAY'S SECOND CHANCE, Conrad Richter. (1950) Symbolic self-forgiveness in terms of a visit to the past, and perhaps a second chance. Hanray, the developer of the atomic bomb, revisits his childhood home, which is now on a military reservation. He returns to the past, to try to convince himself, as a young boy, not to study science, but to become a physician like his father. Some understanding is reached between the levels of Hanray, but his second chance may be fruitless. * Also a couple of science-fiction stories, including Will F. Jenkins's ''Doomsday Deferred." * Best story is [f). The others are trivial. FLETCHER, GEORGE U. (pseud. of PRATT, FLETCHER, which see) 641. THE WELL OF THE UNICORN William Sloane; New york [1948] Dynastic adventure in an imaginary land, with Some incidental small magic. The cultural level is generalized medieval, with most reference to Scandinavia. One wonders whether this was not originally a historical novel to which the fantasy element was later added for market reasons. * Airar Alvarson, a young

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FORD, CHARLES HENRI franklin of Da1ecar1ia, is pushed by circumstances, his luck, and the magic of the highly skilled magician Me1iboe to military leadership, marriage with a princess of the imperial house, and presumably, in the future, the empire. The linking thread to Airar's adventures is a revolt against the Vu1kings, the local ruling house, Who are oppressive and plot world domination. During Airar's experiences, most of which involve defeat and flight before the enemy, he grows from a green but intelligent youth into a mature, honest, and wise leader of men. Supernatural elements include the enchantments of Me1iboe and similar, but lesser, spells by Airar. This supernaturalism, however, is swamped beneath dynastic material. Interminable and extraordinarily dull. Pratt's fantasies with de Camp are far superior. FOLIO, FRED (pseud. American author. 642. A BOOK FOR THE TIMES LUCY BOSTON. OR WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND SPIRITUALISM ILLUSTRATING THE FOLLIES AND DELUSIONS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Shepard, Clark and Co.; Boston 1855 A burlesque on feminism and Spiritualism, technically indebted to early Dickens or Theodore Hook. The inciting cause was the book SPIRITUALISM by Judge Edmonds and Dr. Dexter. * 1876. Amaziah Badger, middle-aged bachelor living in a boarding house in a small town not too far from New York (Utica?) is suddenly beset by supernatural phenomena. His furniture wanders about the room; he hears po1tergeistic noises; and finally a spirit appears to him. The ghost of a mermaid,· it announces in verse that female spiritdom has joined in the crusade to reverse the position of the sexes and put women back in the dominance they had enjoyed before Adam's usurpation. Badger is an instant convert and rushes off to a large feminist rally in New York. On the train he meets a bloomer woman, Lucy Boston. The rally is satirized at some length. Lucy is interested in Badger's story of the ghostly mermaid and also sees the ghost. Meanwhile, the women go avidly to various Spiritualist mediums, seeking revelations, some of which are unusually ridiculous. The women alter the state constitution; Lucy runs for governor, and is elected. The official creed of the state is now Spiritualism, and all sorts of new revelations are received, Polygamy is established; women seize economic control; a Spiritualist university is founded where the ghosts of Calvin and Thomas Paine 1ecture-- but the result is chaos. Lucy resigns; a male administration will attempt to repair the damage that has been worked. * Clumsy as satire, interesting for folkways. FORD, CHARLES HENRI (1913American avant garde editor, artist, film maker. Editor of VIEW. AS EDITOR: 643. A NIGHT WITH JUPITER AND OTHER FANTASTIC STORIES View Editions, distributed by Vanguard Press; New York 1945

FORD, CHARLES HENRI Apparently an outgrowth of VIEW MAGAZINE, a little-magazine of which Ford was editor. * A collection of surrealistic material edging onto dada, presented in experimental modes. Most of the contents are not fantastic in our sense. * Including [a] THE GUARDIAN TOAD, Lydia Cabrera. A mythiC story of witchcraft adapted from an Afro-Cuban folktale. Translated from Spanish by H. R. Hays. [b] WHITE RABBITS, Leonora Carrington. A creepy little tale of an old couple who feed rabbits on rotten meat and then eat them. There is a second level of cosmological interpretation. [c] THE SISTERS, Leonora Carrington. Two sisters. One is something of a spiritual vampire, the other is a bird-being that is a real vampire. Interesting possibilities of interpretation. [d] MS. FOUND IN AN ICEBERG, Alva N. Turner. A fairy tale. A boy goes to the moon and meets the man in the moon. [e] TATUANA, Miguel Asturias. A mythiC story of Master Almondtree who divided his soul into four parts and gave it to the roads. One road proved false, and the Master undergoes pains and transformations. Probably derived in part from Central American folklore. Translated from Spanish by H. R. Hays. * Also included are a fragment from di Chirico's HEBDOMEROS and material by Paul Bowles and Henry Miller. * [b] and [c], though amateurishly presented, have interesting ideas; [e] is nicely done. The remainder of the book is trivial. The book is designed with collages, secondary use of 19th century prints, and a few original (though minor) works by Yves Tanguy, Pavel Tchelitchew, Man Ray, Alexander Calder, and Max Ernst. FORD, GARRET (pseud. of CRAWFORD, WILLIAM L.) ) (1911 American fan, editor, publisher. Published MARVEL TALES, UNUSUAL STORIES, semi-professional magazines of 1930's; issued Lovecraft's THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH. On West Coast founded Fantasy Publishing Company, Inc. AS EDITOR; 644. SCIENCE AND SORCERY Fantasy Publishing Co.; Los Angeles 1953 Short stories, including [a] THE LITTLE MAN ON THE SUBWAY, Isaac Asimov and Fred Pohl. (FANTASY BOOK 1950) Conductor Cullene of the IRT subway finds himself in the underground world of Mr. Crumley, who is a god setting up a new religious organization. Cullen is converted by a miracle and stands by Crumley during a revolt of the "angels. 1I He survives the debacle. Light fantasy. [b] THE NAMING OF NAMES, Ray Bradbury. (THRILLING WONDER STORIES 1949) A settlement is established on Mars, not too long before atomic warfare breaks out on earth and contact is lost. Bittering is the only person to be concerned about the fact that the plants and animals that were brought to Mars are starting to change, apparently in imitation of Martian forms. He observes, with horror and terror that humans, too, are changing. Eyes and skin coloration alter, Martian words creep into the vocabulary, and earth standards dissolve. Only Bittering fights the change, and

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FORSTER, E. M. even he eventually yields. When the next expedition arrives, it finds only Martians living in the hills. The Martians have no idea what happened to the colony. ~'This story is not to be confused with the brief continuity bit of the same title in THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES. [c] THE WATCHERS, R. H. Deutsch. One of the very few stories genuinely based on the Kabbalah. Raymond Lanson penetrates behind the veils of phenomenality, but not quite far enough. * [bJ is excellent. FORSTER, E[DWARD] M[ORGAN] (1879-1970) Important British mainstream novelist, essayist, biographer. Best-known works HOWARD'S END (1910) and A PASSAGE TO INDIA (1924). Also significant in science-fiction for I~hen the Machine Stops," one of the finest negative utopias based on mechanization. 645. THE CELESTIAL OMNIBUS AND OTHER STORIES Sidgwick and Jackson; London 1911 Short stories dealing mostly with a series of attitudes and motifs: the impingement of moments of high experience or ecstasy upon everyday life; the numinous nature of life; irony on philistines.~' [a] THE STORY OF A PANIC. Italy. Forster's first story. A smarmy tourist relates an epiphany. Eustace, a rather low-grade boy, makes a wooden whistle and unWittingly evokes Pan. The evocation has two results. Most of the tourists flee in panic fear; Eustace is transformed. Part of the change, however, involves an ecstasy that must be permitted freedom, or else death will be the result. [b] THE OTHER SIDE OF THE HEDGE. The materialistic narrator is fished out of the water and off the road of everyday human life, into a different existence, which seems in some ways to be an ideal world before man fell. He cannot accept it and returns to his own world. [c] THE CELESTIAL OMNIBUS., A boy comes upon the celestial omnibus, which takes those with true appreciation to a literary heaven where great authors and great characters dwell. The driver is Sir Thomas Browne. On a second trip the boys is accompanied by a pedantic poseur, Whom the boy's obnoxious father rates too highly. But the pedant finds cloudland too nebulous and falls through. His crushed corpse is found later. The boy, however, is crowned ~ELOS, the end. [d] OTHER KINGDOM. Personal relationships between members of a potential triangle, as told through a sycophantic tutor. Worters is a pompous, selfish ass; his young ward, Ford, is a callow young man who is on the path to maturity; and Miss Beaumont, Worters's fiancee, is a simple young woman of perception and sensitivity. The motivating device is a small copse, Other Kingdom, which Worters buys, but insists on debasing, despite Miss Beaumont's objections and protests. She has an empathy for the place and for the folkloristic customs associated with it. When Miss Beaumont recognizes that life with Worters will be impossible, she disappears from the grove. Worters is convinced that she has eloped with Ford, but Ford denies this. Here, as in the Marabar Caves, Forster

FORSTER, E. M. lets the reader make his own decision as to what happened. It is a fair guess that Miss Beaumont, after uttering a prayer of double entendre, has turned into a tree. The other kingdom is the vegetable kingdom. [e) THE CURATE'S FRIEND. A character study of a selfish, superficial curate who happens upon a faun, presumably left over from the Roman occupation of Britain. The faun is a symbol of the awakening of natural forces and honesty of emotion. [f) THE ROAD FROM COLONUS. Greece. To old Mr. Lucas, when he steps inside the hollow tree that would once have been the abode of dryad and naiad, comes a flash of ecstatic understanding. But it is of the spirit, and his body and mind cannot sustain it. It is also death. * Excellent stories. 646. THE ETERNAL MOMENT AND OTHER STORIES Sidgwick" and Jackson; London 1928 Short stories including [a) THE POINT OF IT. Two young men are in a boat in an estuary, and Mickey encourages Harold to row vigorously, even though he knows that Harold has a weak heart. Harold dies as a result of Mickey's enthusiasm. Mickey feels guilty for a time, but as the years pass forgets the incident. He dies a moderately respected rather trivial writer and museum official. After death he awakens to find himself half buried in sand in a wasteland, which is the Hell for those who were satisfied with the second-rate in life. His lot seems hopeless. But a Christ-like figure from across the river harrows his Hell and fights for its damned souls. The figure calls for those who have a memory, but receives no answer. It then calls for those who would like to have a memory, and Mickey is able to respond. He dies again and leaves the hell in a boat, recapitulating his former ride through the estuary with his friend Harold. * Forster's Bloomsbury friends, the author states, disapproved of this story and asked what the point was. Forster would not answer. The point seems to be that Mickey had lived for one moment of tragedy, and that this saved him. [b) CO-ORDINATION. The theme at the girls' school is co-ordination and focus on one period, the Napoleonic. The history classes consider the wars; the music classes study Beethoven's works; the crafts classes make Empire clothing, etc. In Heaven Beethoven and Napoleon receive garbled information about what is going on at the school and decide to reward the participants. Beethoven decrees a perfect performance of the A-minor Quartet and Napoleon, the Battle of Austerlitz. On earth, however, the ideal is not fulfilled: some hear a military brass band and see a school treat. But the essence is there: melody and victory. [c) THE STORY OF THE SIREN. Italy. Apparently based on Italian folklore. The young Italian tells the tourist about his brother Giovanni, who went diving into the sea to amuse the tourists, and was fished out a swollen, inhuman being. He had seen the siren, who had worked this transformation. Giovanni finds a woman like himself and marries her, but the local people believe that the coming child

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FORTUNE, DION will be the Anti-Christ and murder the woman. [d) MR. ANDREWS. When Mr. Andrews dies, his soul floats up toward Heaven. On the way he joins in companionship with a Turk. The two men, though opposed in culture and personality, are filled with love for each other, and on mutual plea are allowed to enter Heaven. Heaven is wish-fulfillment. Andrews gets a harp and robes; the Turk gets houris. But they both become bored and leave, willingly allowing themselves to be absorbed by the World Soul, which is enriched by their experience. * Also present is "The Machine Stops." * Excellent stories. FORTUNE, DION (pseud. of FIRTH, VIOLET M.) (1890-1946) British occultist, writer of occult fiction. Important member of the Order of the Golden Dawn and splinter associations, and popularizer of certain of their doctrines. Important non-fiction titles, in terms of sales, are PSYCHIC SELF-DEFENSE (1930) and TIm MYSTICAL QABALAH (1935). 647. THE SECRETS OF DR. TAVERNER Noel Douglas; London 1926 Occult detective stories, mostly from ROYAL MAGAZINE. Taverner, an Initiate, uses his knowledge of ceremonial magic and occultism in general to protect others. He operates a rest home for his cases and maintains a psychiatric practice on Harley Street. Most of his cases, which are taken down by Dr.Rhodes, his associate, are built on the concepts of reincarnation and improper use of magic by Black Lodges or malicious individuals. Taverner is said to have been modelled on MacGregor Mathers, a prominent British occultist of the early 20th century. * [a) BLOOD-LUST. A veteran of World War I is possessed by the spirit of a vampire from Eastern Europe. It leaped into the soldier's unconscious body and has since indulged its blood lust. [b) THE RETURN OF THE RITUAL. A book of magical rituals, stolen centuries ago in Italy from a White Lodge (good magicians) is in danger of falling into the hands of the Black Lodges. Taverner awakens memory in the present incarnation of the thief, who returns the book. [c) THE MAN WHO SOUGHT. Incarnations in Ancient Egypt. Taverner acts as a marriage broker by bringing together two persons. [d) THE SOUL THAT WOULD NOT BE BORN. A zombielike young woman. She had committed a great betrayal in Renaissance Italy and refused life at the moment of birth when she saw what the Akashic record held for her. The ancient wrong is expiated. [e) SCENTED POPPIES. A bohemian ne'er-do-well and occult hanger-on uses black magic to eliminate those who stand between him and a hereditary fortune. His tools include a stone impregnated with the thoughts of suicide. Also something about occult drugs that lower one's barriers to perceive the supernatural. [f) THE DEATH HOUND. Much like [f), but with an enormous ghost hound as the weapon. [g) A DAUGHTER OF PAN. An elfin girl and a subnormal boy, children

FORTUNE, DION of Pan. Taverner brings them together and they go off into the wilderness. Rhodes wonders if Taverner may not be releasing rabbits in Australia. [h] THE SUBLETTING OF THE MANSION. A triangle is broken by personality interchange, accomplished accidentally by Rhodes. Left interestingly up in the air. [i] RECALLED. An Indian mistress, discarded by Colonel Eustace, would have given birth to a mahatma if she had lived. But she committed suicide when the colonel abandoned her. She is now attacking the colonel's wife. The sin will be wiped out if the colonel and his wife agree to have the postponed baby. The colonel is a racist, and his punishment is severe. [j] SEA LURE. The woman swims in the sea and is fired upon with silver bullets. Her body, back in the clinic, shows stigmata. [k] THE POWER HOUSE. Taverner overcomes a Black Master and the Black Lodge is disbanded. The Black Master is probably based on one of Aleister Crowley's associates. * The ideas are interesting as authentic beliefs of occult circles of the day, as opposed to the usual imaginary or historical occultism in fiction. On the whole the author is happier in these short stories than in her novels, for the brevity and the formula of the subgenre conceal her weaknesses in plotting and characterization. 648. THE DEMON LOVER Noel Douglas; London [192T] Occult fiction, combining didacticism and the theme of redemption through love. * Justin Lucas, an occultist of ability, is the executive secretary of an occult society of great supernatural pow~r that masquerades as a folklore society. Lucas has taken the Left Hand Path (evil) and is a double agent: while he is organizing the hitherto inept society, he is also stealing their secrets for his personal gain. To accomplish such thefts he hires as an assistant Veronica Mainwaring, a young woman who happens to be highly mediumistic. He uses her as a mental telephone for the soCiety, but also sends her astral body out on missions of occult espionage. He is caught and is sentenced to death by the Dark Ray, which execution takes place. But Lucas overlooked the fact that he and Veronica had been frustrated lovers in a Roman incarnation, and that a debt is owed. Lucas, however, is not really "dead," despite the fact that a post mortem has been performed on his body. His astral body is earthbound and it becomes a vampire, causing the death of several children. He is again confronted by the leader of the occult society. He agrees (out of love for Veronica) to undergo the Second Death, which is true death of the body and judgment of sins. At this point the Third, a higher being, intervenes and declares that Lucas has made partial restitution and should be allowed to render more. His body is exhumed by a supernaturally forced flood and he is reanimated. As part of his redemption, he must live blind, injured by the post mortem. * Sensational approach; weak characterizations and motivations; but with a curious sort of interest.

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FORTUNE, DION 649. THE WINGED BULL A ROMANCE OF MODERN MAGIC Williams and Norgate; London 1935 Occult novel based on the theories of Magick of the Order of the Golden Dawn and comparable groups • ~< Ted Murchison is down and out and job hunting. He wanders into the British Museum and is strangely impressed by the Assyrian winged bull. In his despair he invokes the bull and the Great God Pan. He is overheard by Brangwyn, an acquaintance of better days, who offers him employment of a sort. Brangwyn is a serious student and practitioner of magic, and his step-sister Ursula has been psychically damaged by a magical experiment that in some fashion went wrong. As a result she is a little strange. She is also under the domination of one Hugo Astley, a very nasty would-be black mag~c~an. It is Ted's responsibility, in addition to general secretarial work, to protect Ursula and to participate in a repetition of the failed rite, to straighten things out. Ted does not find the job ideal, for he is repelled by the magical aspect of his work, and he and Ursula do not get along. But he is loyal. When he is approached by the black magicians, he becomes a double agent-- seemingly cooperating with Astley, but actually protecting Ursula. Astley gains control of Ursula and stages a Black Mass and mock crucifixion, in which Murchison is hung on a cross by straps. But everything finally works out well. Ted and Ursula escape and discover that they do not really dislike each other-- but are really in love. * While Fortune does not spell out things as concretely as in her later books about Morgan LeFay, the theory is the same. The Rite of the Winged Bull, which Brangwyn is so eager to perform upon his sister, is sexual intercourse spiritualized into the universal rhythm, whence it draws down enormous power. * Weak as a novel, but interesting in idea. 650. THE GOAT-FOOT GOD Williams and Norgate; London 1936 Occult novel about rebirth and development of higher personality. * Hugh Paston is somewhat incomplete and unformed. Although intelligent and wealthy, he is a failure. He has just discovered that his deceased wife was committing adultery. Broken by the discovery, he stumbles on some occult books in an old bookshop, and with the aid of the dealer, a defrocked priest, decides to experiment with the occult. He buys an old monastic property and learns that Ambrosius, a medieval abbot had maintained a pantheistic cult of Pan. After a time Ambrosius begins to appear in Hugh, although it is impossible to say whether the situation is reincarnation, possession, or merely unconscious personification of the desires for which Ambrosius stands. When Hugh attains a fusion of his own stability with Ambrosius's brilliance, zest, and power, all ends well. The fusion is accomplished by a rite of ceremonial magic. * In many ways this is the most pleasant of Fortune's novels, although it shares the technical flaws of the others. In her novels the author always has difficulty in keeping characterizations firm.

FORTUNE, DION 651. THE SEA PRIESTESS The Author; London 1938. Occult novel based on the same m~re or less consistent system touched on in the earlier, commercial works. According to the author's preface, her manuscript was rejected by the publishers \vhom she approached. * Maxwell, a real estate agent and auctioneer, is psychic to so~e extent, having odd mental experiences when he is under medication for asthma. In the course of business he becomes acquainted with Miss Le Fay Morgan, a fascinating and beautiful woman who claims to be far older than her appearance indicates. Maxwell is attracted to her. She commissions him to restore an ancient fort by the sea as a temple for her, and gradually involves him in her occult pursuits. While he comes to think of her as a woman and a wife, she rejects these roles. She sees him as the priest with Whom she can attain her esoteric advancement. Maxwell has visions of the past: ships and men from Atlantis, moon and sea worship, and human sacrifice. Most of the novel is based on Maxwell's ambivalent attitude toward Le Fay: love and fear. His fears are not without justification, since in Atlantean religion the male priest was sacrificed after the female had achieved union with the godhead Ishtar. In Maxwell's case, however, the sacrifice is performed on a spiritual level rather than physically, and Maxwell survives with heightened potencies. Miss Morgan (who had been Morgan Le Fay in another life), now that her desires have been fulfilled, leaves and her fate is not known. Maxwell embarks on a new romance with a local girl Whom he initiates into the sex magic that Miss Morgan had taught him. She, too, becomes more than woman after learning secrets from the Priest of the Moon from the past. * The ideas are much the same as those of THE WINGED BULL, but the literary treatment leaves something to be desired. 652. MOON MAGIC •. BEING THE MEMOIRS OF A MISTRESS OF THAT ART The Aquarian Press; London 1956 A posthumous occult novel, sequel, after a fashion, to THE SEA PRIESTESS. Bondage and recruiting into a magical relationship. * Lilith Le Fay Morgan, the Priestess of the Moon, needs a male counterpart to perform her ceremonies. She settles on Dr. Rupert Malcolm, an embittered neurologist. Malcolm, who is on the edge of a breakdown, what with his profession problems and his estranged wife's long illness, is easy prey and cannot resist Lilith's attraction. She leads him through the various stages of advancement and sacrifices him (spiritually, not physically) to the Moon Goddess. During the process he gains memories of previous incarnations as a Sacrificing Priest in Egypt. Lilith states her aims frankly enough to Malcolm: she is first and last Priestess of the Moon and she has magical duties to the goddess. While she does not feel love toward Malcolm, she is prepared to gratify him, even though she will still utilize him. * This is much the most interesting

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FOUQuE, FRIEDRICH DE LA MOTTE of Fortune's novels, partly because it tells its story from the point of view of the adept, and partly for the great detail about magical ceremonies as they were conceived in Great Britain in the pre-war period. While the novel is not without technical problems, it is superior in writing to THE SEA PRIESTESS. FOUQUE, FRIEDRICH DE LA MOTTE, FREIHERR (1777 -1843) German soldier, popular writer of the Berlin Romantic school. A fairly prolific author of verse and prose, much of which is medievalist in orientation. An author of international reputation during his early lifetime, but out of fashion in his later years. His most important work is UNDINE, which has assumed a classic status in both German and in translation. Not a great author, but at times a good storyteller. 653. UNDINE A ROMANCE TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN Simpkin, Marshall; London 1818 Translated from German (UNDINE, 1811) by George Soane. * On the other side of the enchanted forest, in which the nature spirits of Paracelsian cosmology hold sway, is a lake into which projects a small peninsula. On this peninsula live an aged fisherman and his wife. Many years earlier they lost their little daughter on the lake, but almost immediately afterward found a little girl whom they christened Undine, or child of the waves. Undine, Who is a water elemental come to live with humans, has grown up into an elfin being, wild and wilful, until the knight Huldbrand penetrates the haunted wood, stays with the fisherfolk, meets Undine, and weds her. She thereupon acquires a soul and becomes an exemplary Wife, although she retains the memory of ancient magic. She and the knight leave for civilization, but the knight soon loses interest in her. He begins an affair with Berthalda, Who is later revealed to be the long lost daughter of the fisherman. In a moment of rage Huldbrand tells Undine to leave, and according to the law of water elementals she must go. But on Huldbrand's wedding night, Undine comes to him and he dies with her kiss on his lips. * A fine leisurely tale, strange and eerie, charming and puzzling. It is eaSily Fouqu~'s finest work, far superior to the various minor of his that are described elsewhere in this volume. * There have been many e~itions and diff~rent translations of UNDINE. Many readers prefer that of Edmund Gosse. 654. THE MAGIC RING A ROMANCE Oliver and Boyd; Edinburgh, and G. B. Whittaker, London 1825 3 vol. Anonymous translation of DER ZAUBERRING (1813) from German. * A long Romantic novel, knightly chivalry of the most exalted sort, and magic. Around 1200 A.D., Germany, France, Scandinavia, and the Mediterranean. The plot is extremely complex. Only major motifs and sequences are here given. * Gabrielle wants to regain a magic ring from Folko Montfaucon. The ring is a matter of family dispute. Many

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knights act as her champions, but are defeated. At last Otto von Trautwanger undertakes the quest and defeats Montfaucon, but the two knights become fast friends. Otto becomes engaged to Gabrielle. * Otto's cousins, Bertha and her brother, are captured by the Northern sea-king Arinbiorn, who falls in love with Bertha. * Two magical ladies inhabit the north. There is Druda, who stands for good; she has a magical mirror and metallic circles that yield information. There is also Gerda, who is evil, and has a fine underground magic garden. She does much wickedness. * The knights take part in a crusade against the heathen Finns, and Otto meets a double, Ottur, who is a pagan. ~< Adventures among Moslems follow, and many intricate subplots. * Eventually the major characters reassemble. The young couples pair off. Ottur makes appearance under a new name, Zelotes (zeal), now a convert to Christianity and a powerful magician. He invokes the power of the ring, but Bertha cancels it with a potion from the Pope. The ring is cast into the fire, and evil is defeated. An interesting revelation is made at the end: Otto's father had travelled much in his youth, and under the identities of Hugur, Uguccione, Hygies, etc. had begotten most of the maie characters in the story. ~, There is also an allegory in which the ring is worldly power; Bertha is Christianity and faith; Gerda is superstition, etc. * A certain wild imagination of incident, but rambling and inconsequential. It probably marks first use of many motifs in German popular fiction. Influence on Wagner, Tolkien? 655. WILD LOVE AND OTHER TALES FROM THE GERMAN James Burns; London [1844] Anonymous translation. The title novel, which is not fantastic, and several short stories. including [a] ROSAURA AND HER KNIGHT. (ROSAURA 1817) Count von Wildeck, in love with Rosaura von Heldenbach, is invited to a hunting visit by her uncle, Colonel von Haldenbach. When he arrives at the castle, he is warned to bolt his door nights, but he is not told why. He realizes the force of the warning shortly thereafter, when a seeming madman tries to assassinate him. It is the colonel. Stranger still, while he is out hunting, he catches Rosaura in a serious attempt to shoot him with his own gun. * The explanation is given: Generations earlier the Haldenbachs burned down the castle of the Wildecks, killing almost all the family. A curse had been put on them by a dying Wildeck. For three weeks out of each year, all Haldenbachs become homicidal maniacs. This will continue until there are no more Haldenbachs or Wildecks, but there is an obvious escape clause. [b} THE FIELD OF TERROR. Described elsewhere. 656. ROMANTIC FICTION SHORTER TALES FROM THE GERMAN OF DE LA MOTTE FOUQUg James Burns; London Anonymous translation from German. Including [a] THE EAGLE AND THE LION. (ADLER UND LOEWE 1816) Medieval Norway. The heroic young Sywald wishes to marry the fair magical maiden

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Alfhilda, who lives on an enchanted mountain. A minstrel warns him to ignore certain phantoms along the way. He passes various monsters that are modernized versions of the attributes of the evil Norse gods and wins through to Alfhilda. She is attracted to him, but is unwilling to marry him, for her ancestors (totems?) were shape-changing lions, while his were only eagles. If he can tame a lion, however, she will yield. Sywald thereupon goes to Africa, captures a lion, and does his best to tame it. Every evening, Loki and his assistants undo the work that Sywald has accomplished, and the beast seems far from tamed. But Baldur gives the necessary assistance, and Sywald wins Alfhilda. [b} THE VOW. (DAS GELUBDE) Pre-Christian Saxons. Adalbero, being beaten in battle, vows to the gods that he will sacrifice his wife and child for victory. He wins. When he is about to fulfill his vow, the lightning of the gods strikes his sword from his hand. [c} THE UNKNOWN PATIENT. (DER UNBEKANNTE KRANKE 1814) c. 1500. Doctor Helfrad attends a mysterious masked stranger. The masked man, a demonic being, obviously has SOine association with Evil or the Devil. Helfrad's gentle piety gradually influences and softens him. The mask, it is revealed, is worn to bring magical power, and the stranger is Wagner, the assistant to the great Dr. Faust. [d} THE VICTOR'S WREATH. (DER SIEGESKRANZ 1812) King Leuthold has been deposed by a villain. One morning, Leuthold learns that he has been restored to power by a peasant rebellion !ed by a mysterious champion, who he assumes is his nephew. In a moment of exaltation he promises the champion (in absentia) the hand of his niece Diotwina, This announcement arouses consternation, since she is vowed to virginity after the death of her betrothed, Leuthold's son Sigebald. Diotwina, however, is unmoved, for she knows that the unknown champion was the animated corpse of Sigebald. [e} BERTHOLD. (DIE KOHLERFAMILIE 1814) When the merchant Berthold stops at the charcoal burner's hut for shelter, he sees a strange figure. It is an evil spirit whom the charcoal burner is reforming by prayer and demonstration of goodness. Under Berthold's influence the demon has a relapse. Some years later Berthold returns to the hut and finds the demon even more acculturated, but Berthold now has the insight to recognizes that the low charcoal burner is superior to him and that he (Berthold) can only cause harm by remaining. [f] HEADMASTER RHENFRIED. Described elsewhere. Perhaps not by Fouqu~. A few supernatural elements are present in "The Siege of Algiers," but not enough for listing. * Minor work on the whole, although [a] has a florid opulence of idea, and [e} has a good moral.

*

FRANCE, ANATOLE (pseud. of THIBAULT, JACQUES ANATOLE FRANyOIS) (1844-1924) Once very popular French novelist, journalist, biographer; renowned for amusing satirical raids on foibles of church and state, characterized by both wit and learning. Nobel Prize

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for Literature in 1921. Most fmmous works L'iLE DES PINGOUINS (1908) and LA REVOLTE DES ANGES (1914). 657. TALES FROM A MOTHER-OF-PEARL CASKET George H. Richmond; New York 1896 L'ETUI DE NACRE (1892). Translated, with introduction, from French by Henri Pene du Bois. * Short stories and sketches, most of which deal either with material from the lives of the saints or events from the French Revolution. * Including [a] AMYCUS AND CELESTIN. Early Christian Near East. The hermit Celestin converts the faun Amycus, who helps him to decorate the altar and worship. [b) THE JUGGLER OF NOTRE DAME. Friar Barnabas, who used to be an itinerant juggler offers his skill when the time comes for making offering to the Virgin. She accepts. Blessed are the pure in heart. [c) THE MASS OF THE SHADOWS. One December evening Catherine Fontaine is awakened by church bells. She attends midnight mass, where she sees a congregation dressed in antique garb. All is silence, but she is told by the ghost of her dead lover that souls in Purgatory, one night a year, can attend mass and meet old friends. She drops her lover's ring into the offering vessel. She is found dead next morning, and the ring is in the church collection vessel. * Also present is the famous "The Procurator of Judea," which is not fantastic. * Nicely written, but somewhat syrupy. 658. THE REVOLT OF THE ANGELS John Lane; London and New York 1914 LA REVOLTE DES ANGES (1914). Translated from French by Mrs. Wilfrid Jackson. * Irony on aspects of French life, combined with a tonguein-cheek attack (in terms of fantasy) on orthodox Christianity. The Esparvieu Library one of the finest private collections in France, contains several hundred thousand volumes carefully selected to convey intellectual history up to the present. Arcade, the guardian angel of young Maurice d'Esparvieu, obtains access to the library, and after dipping into speculative theology and modern science, becomes intellectually liberated. He realizes that Christianity is based on a fraud and that Jehovah is not the great god, but only a minor demiurge, whose right name is Ia1dabaoth. He thereupon resigns his post as guardian angel and sets out to organize the fallen angels resident around Paris and dissident guardian angels into a revolt against Ia1dabaoth. The revolt is to be headed, of course, by Lucifer. The rebellious angels mount their power. Since they have the weapons of modern SCience, against which the archaic swords of Heaven could not prevail, they are sure to topple Ia1dabaoth. But Satan, in a reverie, realizes that his assuming power will simply lead to the old situation over again. He calls off the rebellion. * In a subplot Maurice, in addition to conducting suitable amours and quarrelling with his family, is panic-stricken at the thought of having no guardian angel and tries to reconvert Arcade to Christianity. This results in a reversal of roles. Other .p1ot threads concern a fraudulent art dealer, an eccentric librarian, and various

*

FRASER, RONAlD Parisian types. * Well translated, nicely planned and very amusing. The Gnostic background, which fits in well with modern fads, is quite early in literature. FRASER, [SIR] RONAlD [ARTHUR] (1888-1974) c. M. G. M. B. E. British public servant, novelist. Held various diplomatic posts. Conwercia1 Minister in Paris. 659. THE FLYING DRAPER T.F. Unwin; London First Novel Library 1924 The fate of the superior man told in We11sian terms. Albert Codling has risen out of very humble surroundings to become a professor of biology at Cambridge, but has been sacked for his heterodox views on morality. He returns to his family occupation of draper, although he continues his biological researches. He has also concerned himself with self-development of a highly individual sort, with the result that he has memory with absolute recall and the ability to levitate himself and fly. His personal beliefs combine antinomianism and quietism. * Codling is seen through the narrator, Sir Philip Wokingham, and Lydia, Wokingham's fiancee, and later, wife. They befriend Codling when his ability to fly and his social ideas have alienated the church, the politiCians, and the people, and his life is in danger. Codling is at first hurt and bewildered by reaction to his ability and retreats into the wilderness (as a Jesus figure) to gain enlightenment. He matures sufficiently to accept the supreme experience that he has been avoiding: death. His spirit leaves his body and the machine or body rattles and bangs itself to death. * Another story element is a sexual triangle, since Lydia and Codling are greatly attracted to each other, but they both restrain themselves and nothing happens except unhappiness for Sir Phiiip. * Stylistically interesting at times, but amateurishly presented with weak characterizations and a wobbly story line. * There is a revised and improved edition (Jonathan Cape; London 1940), with an introduction by Humbert Wolfe. 660. FLOWER PHANTOMS Jonathan Cape; London [1926] The erotic awakening of a young woman told in terms of empathy with the vegetative world. * Judy, a student at Kew Gardens, is caught in a crisis of maturation. She is engaged to a personable young man who does not have the ability to arouse her, though she likes him, and she is disturbed by the utilitarian, materialistic life-philosophy of her businessman brother. Her means of escape is by growth, or the vegetative processes. She becomes more and more sensitive to the hidden life of the plants at Kew, and comes to see them as personalities, with the giant orchid in the role of passionate lover. Her empathy progresses until she spends a night at the gardens in the arms of the orchid and attains maturity. She is now ready for life and love. Told with delicate imagery and fine perceptions, a minor rococoism of art deco literature. '

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FRAZER, SHAMUS FRAZER, SHAMUS (i.e., FRAZER, JAMES I. A.) (1912 ) British satirist. 661. BLOW. BLOW YOUR TRUMPETS A NOVEL Chapman and Hall; London 1945 Satire, told against a quasi-biblical background. The action takes place on the earth before the Flood, when angelic powers ruled. These angels, despite their supernatural knowledge and abilities, are really very stupid, and under suitable flattery they reveal secrets of divine magic to unscrupulous humans. As a result, a magical civilization has been built which is much like a Baptist's conception of Hollywood. (Noah and his immediate family, of course, are virtuous.) A war breaks out with savages on the edge of civilization. Demons aid the savages, while angels aid the civilized people. The commotion, however, causes divine disapproval. The devils are cast into Hell; the fallen angels are dispersed; and the dominion of magic is ended. Only natural law will operate. The antediluvian civilization collapses when its magical basis has been withdrawn, and the Flood starts. Noah's ark begins to float. The story also describes two other just humans who steal past the angel Who guards the Garden of Eden, eat fruit from the Tree of Life, and are still alive. * Amusing if one can accept the conventions. FREEMAN, MARY ELEANOR (n~e WILKINS) (1852-1930) American regionalist writer, author of many genre short stories about New England life. A self-taught primitive in execution, but a keen observer and apt conveyer of folkways. Sometime secretary to Oliver Wendell Holmes (Sr.). Historically important for low-key, realistic stories of supernaturalism integrated into local settings. Most important work A NEW ENGLAND NUN (1891), THE WIND IN THE ROSEBUSH. Catalogue entries of her work are sometimes confusing. Books issued before her marriage (1902) were accredited to Wilkins. Books first issued after 1902 were accredited to Freeman. Reprints may be carried as by either Freeman Qr Wilkins. 662. THE WIND IN THE ROSE-BUSH AND OTHER STORIES OF THE SUPERNATURAL Doubleday, Page; New York 1903 Regionalistic New England short stories, tense and crisp bits of craftsmanship, told in a very Simple, declarative style. The stories are built around New England personality types and show the lingering effects of strong emotion, particularly hate, and reaction to symbolic supernaturalism. * [a] THE WIND IN THE ROSE-BUSH. When Rebecca comes to visit little Agnes, she is perpetually put off from meeting Agnes, even though Agnes is to be seen running about outside the window. A rose-bush is also seen to shake without a wind. It is later revealed that Agnes has long been dead of neglect. [b] THE SHADOWS ON THE WALL. Family quarrels and the death of one member of the family, whose shadow haunts the wall of the parlor, and is joined by another shadow when his enemy dies.

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FRENCH, JOSEPH LEWIS [c] LUELLA MILLER. A sick woman vampirically drains the health and fortune of all who tend her. When she dies, her ghost is assisted by the ghosts of the other villagers who had loved and served her. [d] THE SOUTHWEST CHAMBER. The ghost of grim, hateful old great-aunt Harriet refuses to leave her room. She alters the fittings of the room to her old furnishings and even changes the mirror images of those who enter. Her hatred survives as a force. [e] THE VACANT LOT. A site haunted by the ghosts of the long-dead past, Who interfere with the living. The Townsends move to the haunted area, which used to be an inn, but leave hurriedly when they learn the identity of some of the ghosts. [f] THE LOST GHOST. A little girl ghost who is gentle, bewildered, and very lost. * Simple stories which are among the best from the American Edwardian period. Illustrated by Peter Newell. FREEMAN, R[ICHARD] AUSTIN (1862 - 1943) British physiCian, author of detective stories. Very important in history of detective story for series of novels, short stories built upon Dr. John Thorndike, the most important detective of the generation immediately after Sherlock Holmes. Also wrote miscellaneous fiction, account of experiences in Benin around the turn of the century, apologia for eugenics. Best-known works THE RED THUMB MARK (1907), THE EYE OF OSIRIS (1911), THE SINGING BONE (1912). In the last Freeman invented the inverted detective story. 663. THE GREAT PORTRAIT MYSTERY Hodder and Stoughton; London [1918] Detective short stories, including Freeman's only known fantasy. [a] THE BRONZE PARROT. Mr. Jawley, small, timid, bullied curate, watches a group of British troops from West Africa disembarking and finds a tiny bronze effigy of a parrot in the grass. Possessing it causes a personality change which makes life much easier for him. He counterbullies his clerical superior, wins the woman he loves, and enforces general respect. A check at the British Museum reveals that the parrot had been the property of a noted Ashanti war chief and had been magically impregnated. * Probably earlier than book publication. An amusing story that makes one regret that Freeman did not write more supernatural fiction. FRENCH, JOSEPH LEWIS (1858-1936) American journalist, editor, anthologist. Prepared several solid, tasteful collections of supernatural fiction, including the anonymous anthology THE BEST GHOST STORIES (158). AS EDITOR: 664. GREAT GHOST STORIES Dodd, Mead; New York 1918 Foreword by James Hyslop, one of the betterknown psychic researchers of the day. * Described elsewhere, [a] THE HOUSE AND THE BRAIN, E. Bulwer-Lytton. Short version. [b] THE ROLL-CALL OF THE REEF, Arthur QuillerCouch. [c] THE OPEN DOOR, Mrs. Margaret Oliphant. [d] THE DESERTED HOUSE, E. T. A. Hoff-

FRENCH, JOSEPH LEWIS mann. [e] THE MYSTERIOUS SKETCH, ErckmannChatrian. [f] GREEN BRANCHES, Fiona Macleod. [g] THE FOUR-FIFTEEN EXPRESS, Amelia B. Edwards. [h] THE WEREWOLF, Captain Frederick Marryat. Carried erroneously as by H. B. Marryat. [f] CLARIMONDE, Theophile Gautier. [j] THE STALLS OF BARCHESTER CATHEDRAL, M. R. James. [k] WHAT WAS IT? Fitz-James O'Brien. * Also, [1] THE WITHERED ARM, Thomas Hardy. Wessex. Folkloristic witchcraft used as background for a study in emotion. A withered arm is cured by contact with the neck of a hanged man. [m] A GHOST, Lafcadio Hearn. A very early work, mostly essay, of no great interest. 665. THE BEST PSYCHIC STORIES Boni and Liveright; New York [1920] Introduction by Dorothy Scarborough, noted scholar of supernatural fiction. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] WHEN THE WORLD WAS YOUNG, Jack London. [b] THE RETURN, Algernon Blackwood. [c] THE SECOND GENERATION, Algernon Blackwood. [d] LIGEIA, Edgar Allan Poe. [e] THE EYES OF THE PANTHER, Ambrose B{erce. [f] THE SIN-EATER, Fiona Macleod. * Also [g] JOSEPH: A STORY, Katherine Rickford. The old man tells of the weird feeling that he felt when he walked down the hall and found in the library the boy Joseph, who was visiting. Joseph is obviously possessed by the ghost of a murdered boy, and describes the circumstances. But it is all a trap to catch the murderer, and presumably never happened. [h] THE CLAVECIN, BRUGES, George Wharton Edwards. The narrator climbs the old belfry with an aged man. During a terrible storm the old man plays marvelously on the carillon. But when the narrator looks again there is no one there and the clavecin (which in this case seems to mean the control apparatus for the carillon) is a mass of decaying rubbish. A ghost. [i] A WITCH'S DEN, Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. India. A visit to the temple of a group of non-orthodox Kali worshippers; pos~ession, ecstatic worship, etc. But mostly a fraud. * The remainder of the volume is filled with "factual" material about mediumistic phenomena, Theosophy, etc. 666. MASTERPIECES OF MYSTERY IN FOUR VOLUMES Doubleday, Page; New York 1920 All stories described elsewhere. * The first volume has no supernatural fiction. * The second volume, subtitled GHOST STORIES, has [a] THE LISTENER, Algernon Blackwood. [b] NUMBER THIRTEEN, M. R. James. [c] JOSEPH, Katherine Rickford. [d] THE HORLA, Guy de Maupassant. [e] THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS, W. F. Harvey. [f] SISTER MADDELENA, R. A. Cram. [g] THRAWN JANET, R. L. Stevenson. * The third volume, subtitled MYSTIC-HUMOROUS STORIES, includes [h] MAY-DAY EVE, Algernon Blackwood. [i] THE DIAMOND LENS, Fitz-James O'Brien. [j] THE MUMMY'S FOOT, Theophile Gautier. [k] THE MAN WHO WENT TOO FAR, E. F. Benson. [1] THE INMOST LIGHT, Arthur Machen. [m] THE SECRET OF GORESTHORPE GRANGE, A. C. Doyle. [n] THE RIVAL GHOSTS, Brander Matthews. [0] A GHOST, Lafcadio Hearn. * The fourth volume, subtitled RIDDLE STORIES, includes [p] THE MYSTERIOUS CARD, Cleveland Moffett. [qJ THE BIRTH-MARK,

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FUREY, MICHAEL Nathaniel Hawthorne. [r] THE LOST ROOM, FitzJames O'Brien. 667. GHOSTS, GRIM AND GENTLE A COLLECTION OF MODERN GHOST STORIES Dodd, Mead; New York 1926 Described elsewhere. [a] A PSYCHICAL INVASION, Algernon Blackwood. [b] ON THE STAIRCASE, Katherine Fullerton Gerould. [c] MAESE PEREZ, THE ORGANIST, G. A. Becquer. [d] THE FEAST OF REDGAUNTLET, Sir Walter Scott. Alternate title for WANDERING WILLIE'S TALE. [e] THE GHOST OF FEAR, H. G. Wells. [f1 THE TALL WOMAN, Pedro de Alarcon. [g1 THE DEAD VALLEY, R.A. Cram. [h1 THE TRACTATE MIDDOTH, M. R. James. [i1 THE GHOST SHIP, Richard Middleton. [j1 THE CANTERVILLE GHOST,. Oscar Wilde. [k1 THE MIDDLE TOE OF THE RIGHT FOOT, Ambrose Bierce. [11 ON THE RIVER, Guy de Maupassant. * This volume has been combined with GREAT GHOST STORIES and reissued under the title THE GHOST STORY OMNIBUS. FUREY, MICHAEL (pseud. of ROHMER, SAX, which see for biographical information) 668. WULFHEIM Jarrolds; London 1950 In this book the leopard has truly changed his spots, for it is so unlike the work published under the name Sax Rohmer that one can only believe that the author deliberately set out to write a work that was diametrically opposite in every way to the earlier thrillers. Whereas the stories of Rohmer are usually episodic, fast-moving, direct, cliched, monotone in mood, modern, sensational, WULFHEIM is integral, very slow moving, indirect, original in development, varied in mood, archaic, and analytical. Great heed has been paid to the technique of writing, and the reader has been assumed to have a certain intelligence. There are passages of rhythmical, highly metaphoric writing, often with a rather good aphoristic utterance. The period setting is well-handled, and there is some attempt at characterization within a masculine neo-Gothic mode. Despite these virtues, however, the story line is not too clear, and the slow pace, with many authorial aSides, is likely to discourage many readers. * Germany. Around 1500 A.D. the Abbot Caesar von Wulfheim had practiced black magic. He was executed, and his heart was buried at a crossroad. The taint of the ancient evil still hangs over the family, however, and the story has been suppressed as much as is possible. * In the early 19th century young Otto von Wulfheim has left his ancestral home hurriedly, for he can no longer combat the incestuous feelings that he has toward his sister Fragia. He has entered a monastery as Brother Hilarius. * As the story begins Brother Hilarius has obtained leave from his abbot to visit his home, for he questions his vocation. On the way he comes upon Gipsies digging up something at the crossroads. His appearance startles them and they run away. He takes up what they have dug up, a small, sealed iron casket which, although he does not know the story, contains the heart of the satanic Caesar von Wulfheim. At Castle Wulfheim, sex seems to be the main occupation

FUREY, MICHAEL of the guests and the family retainers, so that Otto's passion, which Fragia shares, does not seem greatly out of place. But with the acquisition of the casket, evil has come forth. Phantom wolves are heard howling in the distance. When Fragia opens the casket, she is engulfed by the evil from it and dies. But her body is seized by a wandering spirit and reanimated. She is now an evil being. She seduces Otto just before an unparalleled storm breaks, and she is killed by a bolt of lightning that strikes the crucifix in Otto's quarters. Otto's father dies of shock when he sees evidence of the· incestuous affair, and Otto becomes temporarily mad. He returns to his monastery and asks permission for a spiritual quest of his own. Fragia, he has now learned, was not really his sister. * Also many supernatural dreams and visions. * Worth reading; an achievement of a sort. It is regrettable that Rohmer did not work this vein earlier while he still had the energy of youth. FUTRELLE, JACQUES (1875-1912) American journalist, writer of popular fiction. Important in history of detective story for series of stories about eccentric detective Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, better known as The Thinking Machine. Best-known work: "The Problem of Cell Thirteen," which is one of the most popular stories in the genre. 669. THE DIAMOND MASTER [AND THE HAUNTED BELL] A. L. Burt; New York [c. 19l2?] The first edition of THE DIAMOND MASTER appeared from Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis, in 1909. It did not contain the short novel, THE HAUNTED BELL, which seems to have been first published in this edition. * [a] THE HAUNTED BELL. Professor Van Dusen is called in on a problem that seems to involve supernaturalism. A bell, stolen from a Japanese monastery, announces death. The professor explains it all rationally, as a matter of acoustics and wind currents, but the ending is supernatural. * Not as successful as the author's pure detective stories. The mixture of detection and supernaturalism does not jell. [a] is reprinted in GREAT CASES OF THE THINKING MACHINE.

GALLIZIER, NATHAN (1866-1927) American author, German by birth, of romantic historical novels. 670. THE SORCERESS OF ROME L. C. Page; Boston [1907] If there were a Dusseldorf School of writing, Gallizier would be a minor member. * Rome, 999 A.D. * The personalities tangled in a ~ very complex web of intrigue are the Imperial General Eckhardt; the Holy Roman Emperor Otto III; the Roman Senator Crescentius; and the Kundry figure Ginevra. (A Wagnerian note is furthered by a small musical quotation of Ring

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GANPAT motifs.) Ginevra, the incredibly beautiful wife of Eckhardt, is dissatisfied with the loyal general's lack of ambition. She falsifies her own death, reemerging as the so-called Queen of the Grove, Theodora. The various themes are the attempts by the Romans to expel the Germans; the drive for power by the greedy chancellor, Benilo; Eckhardt's attempts to trace his Wife, who he suspects is not really dead; and the machinations of Ginevra. Supernatural elements enter with a conjuration and necromancy, but they are far outweighed by the romantic plot. * A curiosity. The author wrote several other, similar historical novels, some more or less interlocked in subject matter, but with less supernaturalism: THE COURT OF LUCIFER (1910); UNDER THE WITCHES' MOON (1917), etc. GANPAT (pseud. of GOMPERTZ, MARTIN LOUIS) (1886-1951) Anglo-Indian author, soldier. Major in Indian Army. Author of travel books and articles about India, especially Northwest Frontier areas. Stories are mostly adventure or lost-race science-fiction set in India and vicinity, more authentic than Talbot Mundy's work, but inferior as fiction. Best work, travel book, MAGIC LADAKH (1928). 671. THE VOICE OF DASHIN Hodder and Stoughton; London [1926] Oriental adventure and a lost-race situation. * Somewhere in the Himalayas, in the Northwest Provinces of India, is a series of hidden valleys, approachable only on occasion by a temporary pass. In them live two lost races, people descended from Dardic Indo-Europeans, and others descended from proto-Tibetans. The two groups are hostile to one another. The Dards retain much of the primitive Aryan religion. They worship fairy-like beings and have a semi-sacred priestess. The Tibetans retain the ancient, bloody Bonpa religion. At the moment the Tibetans hold captive an Englishman and his daughter, friends of Major Louis Kerverso A small expedition is formed to rescue them. The resulting adventures include intrigues among the Dards, invasion of the Tibetan-held territory, war, and conquest by means of home-made cannon and a glider. Supernatural aspects include the Voice of Dashin, an aged priestess who has remarkable viSionary powers of past and future; crystals that permit similar visions; and an old prophecy that is literally fulfilled. * Strongly in the tradition of H. Rider Haggard, with a She-like figure, inflated speech and all. Ethnographically sound, literate, but rather dull .• 672. MIRROR OF DREAMS A TALE OF ORIENTAL MYSTERY Hodder and Stoughton; London 1928 Oriental adventure, intrigue, romance, and supernaturalism. * Since childhood Tom Carruthers has had a repetitive dream with a high emotional content. It is set in an Oriental milieu. * While exploring in a little-known part of the Himalayas in Ladakh, he sees mountains that he recognizes from his dreams. He also finds a mirror-like object which occasion-

GANPAT ally shows him supernatural VLSLons. He determines to return to the hidden corner and explore it more thoroughly. Two years later he does so, accompanied by his friend Oxley. They enter a hidden land through a monastery which is ostensibly Buddhist, but in reality is devoted to a far earlier goddess, the Mother of Visions. After passing through a corridor decorated with carvings showing men fighting dinosaurs and mammoths, they come upon a hidden valley which holds the ruins of a high pre-glacial civilization. The area is peopled, apart from a few primitive natives, by a modern sect which is engaged in regaining the wisdom of the pre-glacial people. Carruthers finds there a longlost great-uncle, who is head of the sect, and a beautiful young cousin, who is to become his wife. The plot now grows complicated, what with an extremely wicked Shaktic worshipper with political ambitions and links with the Bolsheviks; rapacious Central Asiatics, who plan to loot the secret valley; and the Indian secret service. Among the supernatural elements in the story are the vision-giving mirrors, which are very efficacious; the ancient wisdom of the pre-glacial people, which fits more or less into Theosophy; paranormal abilities; and a ghostly vision which Carruthers had before exploring the lost land. * Complex and confused in narrative, with poorly integrated subplots. Yet literate and-interesting for ethnography and geography. Probably an idea source for James Hilton's LOST HORIZON. [ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 673 • THE GARDEN OF FEAR BY ROBERT E. HOWARD AND OTHER STORIES OF THE BIZARRE AND FANTASTIC A Crawford Publication; Los Angeles [1945] paperbound Edited by William L. Crawford. * Including [a] CELEPHAIS, H. p. Lovecraft. Described elsewhere. [b] THE GOLDEN BOUGH, David H. Keller, M.D. (MARVEL TALES 1934) A dream leads Holland and his wife to the old castle, but Constance yearns for the child that Holland is either unwilling or unable to give her. In the woods she meets a man with pointed ears who is playing a syrinx. He tells her what to do. The result is horrible. Mortals, as Pan says, should not chase sunbeams. Excellent. [c] THE GARDEN OF FEAR, Robert E. Howard (MARVEL TALES 1934) Memory of a previous incarnation. Hunwulf the wanderer elopes with Gudrun and together they make their way south. A black winged man steals away Gudrun, and Hunwulf follows. The winged man lives in an ancient tower, which is surrounded by vampiric flowers, and it would seem that Hunwulf cannot rescue his wife. But he does. The narrator in the 20th century muses about the wonders which Hunwulf saw fleetingly in the tower, and could not appreciate. * The other two stories, which are undistinguished, are science-fiction. GARNETT, DAVID (1892-1981) British novelist, editor, publisher, critic, civil servant. Grandson of Richard Garnett (below), son of Edward Garnett and Constance

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GARNETT, RICHARD Black, both literary figures. Book reviewer for the NEW STATESMAN. Co-owner and editor of Nonesuch Press, one of finest private publishing houses of the century. Served in Military Intelligence in World War II and postwar years. Finest work is LADY INTO FOX, which received both the James Tait Black Memorial and Hawthornden Prizes. Has written other books, but these are not of great consequence, and he remains a one-book author. 674. LADY INTO FOX Chatto and Windus; London 1922 A comi-tragedy, ironic jeu d'esprit about a husband whose wife unaccountably and inexplicably turns into a fox. * Late 19th century England. * When Mr. Tebrick and his wife Sylvia happen to be watching a fox hunt, she suddenly metamorphoses into a fox. There is no explanation for the transformation beyond the circumstance that her maiden name was Fox. Tebrick is completely loyal to her and his love for her does not diminish, despite her new form. He protects her and his attempts to keep-alive-ln her memory of her former humanity are described in detail. But her personality gradually changes into that of a fox, and she sheds the last traces of humanness. After a time she deserts him, takes up with a dog fox, and is killed by a pack of hounds as her distraught husband tries to protect her. * Told very nicely in an archaiC, 18th century style reminiscent of Defoe. A minor masterpiece, probably the best transformation story. * This tongue-in-cheek nouvelle served to puzzle its generation, although the prevailing opinion was that Garnett had stated in fantastic terms the slanderous commonplace that many a Wife, after marriage, turns into a vixen. For parodies, see LADY INTO GEORGE FOX by Laurence Housman and GENTLEMAN INTO GOOSE by Christopher Ward. GARNETT, RICHARD (1835-1906) British scholar, poet, librarian. Associated with British Museum most of his life, where rose to position of Chief Keeper of Books, or in our terms, head librarian. A man of very wide and profound learning, he edited and introduced many books, wrote studies of Milton and Carlyle, edited Shelley's posthumous poetry, wrote a history of Italian literature, and did much other scholarly work. Today remembered for the sometimes delightful tales in THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS. 675. THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS AND OTHER TALES T. Fisher UnWin; London 1888 Short stories, including [a] THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS. Caucasus, c. 350 A.D. Prometheus, chained on his mountain, sees the eagle that torments him suddenly fall dead from the sky, while his bonds snap. It is the end of the hegemony of the Classical gods. He is free, and now a mortal. He takes up with the last priestess of Apollo. They pretend to be Christians, and Prometheus is taken to be an early martyr, supernaturally preserved. The old gods, Who make peace with Prometheus, remove themselves to Elysium, but Prometheus

GARNETT, RICHARD and his wife decide to stay on earth. [b1 THE POTION OF LAO-TSZE. China, c. 700 A.D._ The Emperor Sin-Woo, wishing to become immortal, seeks out Taoist sages to acquire the elixir of Immortality. He hears of a pair of Women who sleep in suspended animation in a cave. According to rumor, the daughter has the secret. The foolish emperor kills one of the women, but it chances to be the wrong one. When he in turn is killed by a rebellious mob, his place on the throne is taken by the survLvLng sorceress. [c1 ANAND A THE MIRACLE WORKER. (FRASER'S MAGAZINE 1872) Ananda, the favoritedisciple of the Buddha, loses his spiritual gifts as a result of pride and finds himself in a series of embarrassing and dangerous contretemps. He is assisted by supernatural forces, presumably of evil origin. When he has learned his lesson, the Buddha comes to his rescue and reveals that he has been testing and training him. [d1 THE DEMON POPE. Pope Sylvester II, c. 999 A.D., owes a boon to the Devil, who has advanced him in the Church. The Devil will take Sylvester's form and place for twelve hours. It is no lark, as the Devil discovers, for he is set upon by rebellious cardinals, who wish to depose or murder him. But when they see the Devil's cloven hoof, they all wish to make deals. Very amusing. [e1 THE DUMB ORACLE. (UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE 1878) Hellenistic Phrygia •. When the young priest Eubulides, who has succeeded to office in the temple of Apollo, learns that the famous oracle is a fraud, he leaves the area in disgust. But, some time later, hearing that the oracle has regained its voice and reputation, he returns. He finds that Apollo in Eubulides's form has been operating the oracle. Apollo will not permit Eubulides to resume his old position, but consecrates him to the service of humanity. [f1 DUKE VIRGIL. Early 13th century Italy. Who shall rule the city of Mantua? Various men put themselves forth, but the prophetess Manto urges that the long-dead Duke Virgil (the necromancer) be elected. This is done, but with such wretched regents that the city soon falls to the Imperial forces. Manto, however, has her reward in Elysium, memory intact, with Virgil. [g1 MADAM LUCIFER. When Lucifer wins a game of chess from a young man, he hears of the beautiful lady Adeliza, whom he decides to woo. But there is Luciferetta, the Devil's wife, whom really holds the sovereignty of Hell. Hell is very hot when the young man, Lucifer in the semblance of the young man, and Adeliza come before her. [h1 THE ELIXIR OF LIFE. Medieval Bactria. The sage Aboniel has found both the elixir of life and six deadly poisons. Knowing that his pupils want the elixir, he offers them a test: seven phials, seven students, one phial elixir, 6 vials poison. The students cannot accept the offer and Aboniel commits suicide, affording the ultimate irony by making his pet monkey immortal. [i1 THE POET OF PANOPOLIS. Egypt, Sth century A.D. When the bishopric of Panopolis is vacant, the previously-pagan poet Nonnus is a favored choice. But the monks and

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GARNETT, RICHARD a demon would prefer the hermit Pachymius. Apollo takes a hand. The governor, to avoid civil strife, commands that Nonnus and Pachymius should compete for the post. Apollo and the demon are arbiters. Apollo demands that Nonnus burn the bad verse he wrote in honor of the pagan god Dionysius, while the demon insists that Pachymius bathe. Neither man will yield. [j] THE PURPLE HEAD. Persia and India. The King of Persia sends a robe of unequalled purple to the Emperor Aurelianus. Both monarchs also send their wisest savant to find the secret of the purple, which lies afar in India. Borderline supernatural, in that dragons are involved. [k] THE BELL OF ST. EUSCHEMON. Medieval France. Three saints in Heaven dispute about whose bell in the small church of Epinal wards off thunderstorms. St. Euschemon goes to earth and becomes a sexton to prove the point that it is his bell. He is right, but the bell is effective because a demon is captive in it. Euschemon and the demon become friendly, but problems arise with the local bishop. [1] THE POISON MAID. Cryptomnesia, as Garnett admits, based on Hawthorne's story RAPPACCINI'S DAUGHTER. The magician Locusto has reared his daughter Mithradata in poisons, so that her kiss will kill the king's son. She rejects this role, but by chance does kiss the prince, who immediately suffers from the gravest illness-- love. The king had anticipated Locusto's action, and had reared his son in every knowr, antidote to poison. "The kiss of love is the remedy for every poison." Wi thout the profundity of Hawthorne's story, but still interesting. ;, In the 1903 (Lane; London) edition twelve more stories were added, the following of which are supernatural: [m] THE CLAW. Renaissance Venice. The young man is taken to the tower by the supernaturally aged magician Pietro di Abano, who wishes to devote him to the Devil. Pietro has a Melmoth-like compact with the Devil; if he does not supply signatories by a certain time, he perishes. The youth signs just too late, and a gigantic claw comes from the sky and takes Pietro. [n] ALEXANDER THE RATCATCHER. 17th century Italy. Rome is overrun with rats, to such an extent that it seems supernatural. The reigning pope, Alexander VIII, receives information that a strange personage known as Rattila can rid the city of rats, and meets him in the old Borgia chambers. Rattila turns out to be the shade of Pope Alexander VI, nicknamed the Ratcatcher, who wants masses said for his soul in exchange for removing his rats. It is done. [01 THE TALISMANS. The youth goes to the goblin-haunted palace, and since he has done proper tapas, demands his talisman. He is told by the old treasurer (Time) that all the traditional magical objects (Aladdin's lamp and ring, the magic mirror, the sword of victory, etc.) have lost their virtue. He then demands 'rime's forelock, at which time stops passing. Chaos is the result until Time can grow another forelock. A dream. [p] THE FIREFLY. Ironic fable. The magician yields

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GARNETT, RICHARD to the wishes of the perpetually dissatisfied firefly and turns into a star, then a lamp, then a magical lamp. [q] PAN'S WAND. Iridion has broken her lily and she must die, for she is a flower spirit. She asks Pan for help. Pan tries to conceal her from Death by transformations, but without success. The ending is a little obscure, but Death. may be coming for Pan, too. [r] A PAGE FROM THE BOOK OF FOLLY. (TEMPLE BAR 1871) Otto and Aurelia exchange rings when Otto leaves for a foreign land. Aurelia's ring is as false as Aurelia, but the Devil shows that it has magical properties. It enables Otto to see Aurelia's perfidy, but it brings him death, and damnation. [s] THE PHILOSOPHER AND THE BUTTERFLIES. (NEW AMPHION, 1886). A fable. Dialogue between a philosopher, butterflies, and a caterpillar, in which the philosopher tries to explain the facts of life to them. The point is probably mystical religion, in the Neoplatonic vein. [t] TRUTH AND HER COMPANIONS. Jupiter and his daughter Truth converse. Truth has spoken out to all classes and societies, and has been rejected, even subjected to abuse and injury. Jupiter provides her with two companions, Good Nature and Discretion. [u] THE THREE PALACES. (A VOLUNTEER HAVERSACK 1902) A fable. Three palaces represent types of experience: truth, illusion, and between them, convention. [v] NEW READINGS IN BIOGRAPHY. (THE SCOTS OBSERVER 1889) New incidents in the lives of Napoleon, Defoe, Timon of Athens, and a fable about a New York contractor and the Devil. * Best stories are [d], [i], [k], [0]. This collection of stories which cover many times and places with cosmopolitan learning is almost unique in literature. Wrily whimsical narratives, rather than formal stories, they are gracefully expressed, witty, and timeless. Only Vernon Lee has been able to work successfully in the same vein.

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GASKELL, JANE (pseud. of LYNCH, JANE) (1941 - ) British journalist, newspaperwoman, writer of fantasies. Best-known work the Atlantis trilogy, which lies beyond the time limit of this volume: THE SERPENT (1963), ATLAN (1968), THE CITY (1966). 675. STRANGE EVIL Hutchi~son; London 1957 Fantasy, romance, and adventure. Judith, a young Englishwoman, receives notice that. her cousin Dorinda will be visiting her. Dorinda is a stranger to her, since Dorinda's mother married an "Italian prince" and the families have been alienated. Dorinda arrives with her fiance, but after a time Judith discovers that they are fairies who come from an other-world to check the possible repercussions in their own world of our atomic explosions. All three remove to the fairy land where there is a situation of crisis. The population is divided into 'two hostile groups, the Internals, or fairies proper, who inhabit the interior of a mountain, and the Externals, or satyrs, centaurs, and dissident fairies, who live on the outside. The Externals suffer from lack of a vital element in the air} which element comes

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GAUTIER, THEOPHILE from the mountain, and are currently in rebellion, seeking free access to the mountain. Judith and her companions are taken as hostages. Her sympathies, however, are with the Externals, particularly when she learns that the "Italian prince" is really the evil ruler of the Internals. The Externals are victorious in the war, especially since the hypostatized cultural symbol of the Internals, a gigantic baby, runs amok and kills most of the Internals. * Written when Gaskell was only 14 years old, this is more a curiosity for its strange adolescent sexuality than a work to be taken seriously, and it is really surprising that it was published. Gaskell has since moved on to much better work. GAUTIER, THEOPHILE (1811-1872) French critic, poet, prolific journalist, dramatist, writer of fiction. Best-known in the English-speaking world for his supernatural fiction and MADEMOISELLE DE MAUPIN. While individual stories of his have been anthologized in both specialized and general collections, he has dropped out of sight, which is lamentable, since he is the most entertaining of the French Romanticists. 677. SPIRITE A FANTASY Appleton; New York 1877 SPIRITE (1866). Anonymous translation from French. A romance of 19th century Wagnerian Paris, where young Guy de Malivert, who can find no mortal woman to suit him, discovers congeniality in Spirite, the soul of a girl who died for love of him. Spirite manifests herself several times and communicates with Guy by means of automatic writing. Guy is aided by a mysterious Swedenborgian magician, but is eventually killed in Greece by bandits. He joins Spirite. * Gautier's usual elements of bizarreness and eroticism, but with a weak sentimentality not present in most of his other work. The influence of American Spiritualism is obvious. 678 . ONE OF CLEOPATRA'S NIGHTS AND OTHER FANTASTIC ROMANCES B. Worthington; New York 1882 Translated from French by Lafcadio Hearn. While Hearn's translation is not accurate, it is the most colorful and closest to the spirit of the original. Including [a] CLARIMONDE. A priest is cap(LA MORTE AMOREUSE, 1839). tivated by the charms of the courtesan Clarimonde. In his world of dreams he lives with her as a chevalier. He is saved by his superior, who opens Clarimonde's grave and reveals her as a vampire. [b] ARRIA ~~RCELLA. (ARRIA MARCELLA, 1852) Octavian, sightseeing in the ruins of Po~peii, sighs at the cast of a woman. When he revisits the ruins at night, he is drawn into the past, the world of the moon, where he meets Arria Marcella, the young woman whose cast he saw. He seems to be living a vivid life in Ancient Rome until Marcella's father appears, denouncing her as a lamia, lc] OMPHALE: A ROCOCO STORY. (OMPHALE 1845) A young man has as his mistress a long-dead countess portrayed as Omphale

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GAUTIER, THEOPHlLE on· a tapestry. [d] THE MUMMY'S FOOT. (LE PIED DE MOMIE 1863). A young man who wants an unusual paperweight buys the foot of an Egyptian mummy. But its beautiful young owner appears to him at night and begs for her foot. * The glamour and fascination of the past, told with a fine mixture of sentimentality and horror. 679. AVATAR OR THE DOUBLE TRANSFORMATION Vizete11y; London 1888 (AVATAR 1856). Ironic treatment of love and occultism. * M. Octavius de Saville, who is dying of a mysterious disease, consults Dr. Cherbonneau, who has just returned from India. The two men soon discover what is wrong: Octavius's soul is trying to leave its body, and the cause is unrequited love. While in Italy he had fallen in love with the fair and virtuous Countess Prascovia Labinsky, who did not return his passion. And now the countess and her husband are in Paris. Cherbonneau offers a solution: while in India he learned the technique of separating soul and body. He will place Octavius's soul in Labinski's body. The doctor treacherously invites Labinski to see the wonders of his laboratory, places him in a trance, and shifts souls. Octavius in Labinski's body rushes to the Labinsky residence, hoping to make love to Prascovia. But she senses something strange about him and refuses to go to bed with him. The count, too, has difficulties. For a time he does not realize what has happened and is in danger of being considered insane. But in Octavius's apartment he learns the secret of Octavius's love. He obtains no satisfaction from Cherbonneau, and thereupon challenges Octavius. By now Octavius realizes that the countess will not accept him and his fundamental decency reasserts itself. After overpowering the count in the duel, he offers to reexchange bodies. Cherbonneau undertakes the operation again, but Octavius's soul drifts away. As the crowning incident, Cherbonneau makes out a will in favor of Octavius, dies, and leaps into Octavius's empty body-- to renewed youth. * Light, amusing, skilfully handled. While the edition cited is the first English translation, Sumichrast's translation, listed below, is better. 680. JETTATURA [with A NOBLE SACRIFICE by Paul Feva1 and THE BLACK PEARL by Sardou] Brentano's; New York 1888 JETTATURE (1857). Italian folkways and the irony of fate. * Italy. Paul d'Aspremont, amiable, personable young Frenchman, has one serious fault, about which he knows nothing: he has the evil eye. People he looks at sicken and die; accidents take place in his presence; misfortune befalls his friends. He is in love with Alicia Ward, a beautiful young Englishwoman, but his presence is endangering her life. After a full exposure to Italian folkways concerning the evil eye and a stream of insults, Paul finally recognizes his condition, but he does not know what to do about it. He tries not to look at Alicia, but this proves 1mpossib1e. After he is forced into a duel with an Italian nobleman, one of Alicia's other

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THE GENTLEMAN IN BLACK admirers, he sees that there is only one thing to do. He blinds himself with a red-hot iron. But even this is of no help. Alicia has been so weakened that she dies. A ghost is also present. * While the ghost is an unnecessary factor, the remainder of the novel is well worked out, and the description of Italian types is good. The present translation, apparently the first in English, is much inferior to Sumichrast's, listed below. 681. THE GASCON EDITION THE COMPLETE WORKS OF THEOPHILE GAUTIER TRANSLATED AND EDITED BY PROFESSOR F. C. DE SUMICHRAST, HARVARD Postlethwaite, Taylor and Knowles, Ltd.; London and New York 1901 12 vol. The title is misleading, for this is by no means the complete works of Gautier. * Volume III contains ROMANCE OF A MUMMY, which is not fantastic enough to be carried separately, although it describes the Biblical contest between Moses and Aaron and the magicians of Pharaoh. Volume IV contains ONE OF CLEOPATRA'S NIGHT and KING CANDAULES, both insufficiently fantastic for our purposes. * Volume VI contains [a] SPIRITE. [b] THE VAMPIRE. Alternate title for CLARIMONDE • [c] ARRIA MARCELLA. [d ] THE MUMMY'S FOOT. * Volume VIII contains [e] AVATAR and [f] JETTATURA. * Volume XI contains [f] OMPHALE. * This is the closest there is to a standard translation of Gautier's major works. [ANONYMOUS] 61'\2. THE GENTLEMAN IN BLACK WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY GEORGE CRUIKSHANK William Kidd; London [1830] The diabolic bond, with satirical intent. The mode is really early Victorian (despite the date), rather than Romantic. * France and England, the 1780's on. * The Devil, in the semblance of a somewhat seedy gentleman in black, approaches two men individually and offers each a bond: limitless wealth in exchange for sin. During the first year of the bond, each is to sin for one second; the second year, two seconds, and so on, doubling each year. Neither Charles Maxwell, the Englishman, nor Louis Desonges, the Frenchman, is mathematically inclined, and they accept the bond. Both lead reasonable though extravagant lives for a time. The reckoning comes when they learn that the burden of sin each year is longer than a year. Maxwell invokes the aid of a crafty English lawyer, who outwits the Devil. The lawyer proves that the Devi1's cash has been counterfeit, since the Devil has been making it himself, and the Devil agrees to let Maxwell off in exchange for a check based on financial speculation. The Frenchman accepts the help of a Jesuit and obtains a papal cancellation of the bond. * A trivial example of the popular literature of the day. It has been attributed to either James Dalton or John Yonge Akerman, with Dalton apparently the stronger claimant. GEROULD, KATHARINE FULLERTON (1879-1944) American writer, educator (Bryn Mawr).

GEROULD, KATHARINE FULLERTON 683. VALIANT DUST Scribners; New York 1922 Short stories, including [a] LOUQUIER'S THIRD ACT. Near Winnipeg. Louquier, an actor in semi-retirement, settles in near solitude near the river. His isolation is broken by the invasion of some sort of hostile, invisible spiritual entity, which attacks him psychically. He fights off invasion after invasion, and seems to defeat it by resorting to violent emotion, but the entity tricks him into physical violence and wins. [b] BELSHAZZAR'S LETTER. At a house party the talk turns to matters occult and it is decided to attempt automatic writing. Some of the pads remain blank, but one, that of Fenwick, is covered with writing purporting to come from Jack Hi11es, the dead brother of one of the Women present. The interesting part of the story is the emotional impact of the phenomenon on the members of the party. The sister of the dead man rages hysterically; the writer is in a funk. To prevent embarrassment the host suggests telepathy, since the highly discreditable material was known to him. But this is a transparent fiction. The story ends with a question. Was the writing faked by the host as a warning to Fenwick, or did it emerge from Fenwick's unconscious mind? * Excellent stories, well-developed Edwardian character analysis, good sense of drama. GERRARE, WIRT (pseud. of GREENER, WILLIAM 0.) (1862 - ? ) British novelist, authority on firearms, member of a family who specialized in the literature of firearms. Apparently had some acquaintance with Russia and Russian culture. 684. RUFIN'S LEGACY A THEOSOPHICAL ROMANCE Hutchinson; London [1892] In many ways a pre-Stoker DRACULA. Manuscripts of Rufin Petrovitch Osooroff. * In Russia Madame Fe1ician, a witch with mesmeric powers, is the head of a secret organization. She has a stock of fantastic drugs, can send her astral body out to possess other bodies, and is unspeakably evil. After conflict, chase, and turmoil (including a supernaturally induced suicide), Madame Felician dies. * A mixture of sensationalism based on the career of Madame Blavatsky and motifs from the crime novels of the day. * Badly told and incredible. GHIDALIA, VIC [TOR] (1926 American anthologist, publicist for the American Broadcasting Company. Has specialized in theme anthologies. This is a partial listing. AS EDITOR: 685. THE MUMMY WALKS AMONG US A. E. P.; Middletown, Conn. [1971] paperbound The theme is the reanimated mummy. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] A VISITOR FROM EGYPT, Frank Belknap Long. [b] THE MUMMY'S FOOT, Theophile Gautier. [c] THE EYES OF THE MUMMY, Robert Bloch. [d] THE VENGEANCE OF AI, August Derleth and Mark Schorer. [e] MONKEYS, E. F. Benson. * Also, [fJ THE MAN IN CRESCENT TERRACE, Seabury Quinn. (WT 1946) A wounded girl comes pattering out of the dark

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GHIDALIA, VIC to Trowbridge and Grandin; a bum is found slashed to death; and there is a secret society which practices reanimating the dead. The villain is modelled upon A1eister Crowley. [g] THE NAMELESS MUMMY, Ar1ton Eadie (WT 1932). The young curator encounters a beautiful woman who knows more Egyptology than he does, and together they open the mummy case of Mark Antony. The woman is Cleopatra, and she seems to have learned a trick from A. Conan Doyle. * [f] is one of Quinn's better stories. 686. EIGHT STRANGE TALES Fawcett Publications; Greenwich, Conn. 1972 paperbound Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] THE SECOND INTERMENT, Clark Ashton Smith [b] THE YELLOW WALL PAPER, Charlotte Perkins Stetson. [c] BY WATER, Algernon Blackwood. [d] THE SNOUT, Edward Lucas White. [e] A WIG FOR MISS DE VORE, August Derleth. * Also [f] DIG ME NO GRAVE, Robert E. Howard. (WT 1937) Old John Grimlan has just died, and his funerary arrangements are suggestive: his corpse is to be placed on a table with seven black candles and his executor is to read a certain spell. Grimlan was 300 years old, and his bond with Melek Taos has just run out. * One of Howard' s ~leaker stories. The manner of E. Hoffmann Price is not congenial to him, and the device is not well sustained. 687. WIZARDS AND WARLOCKS Manor Books; New York 1972 paperbound The theme is magic. Described elsewhere, [a] THE SECRET OF SEBEK, Robert Bloch. [b] IN THE LEFT WING, August Derleth and Mark Schorer. [c] THE NECROMANTIC TALE, Clark Ashton Smith. [d] YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN, Nathaniel Hawthorne. [e] CASTING THE RUNES, M.R. James. [f] THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MRS. MACRECHAM, Richard Marsh. [g] APPRENTICE MAGICIAN, E. Hoffmann Price. * Also [h] SO SWEET AS MAGIC, Bruce Elliott. (FANTASY FICTION 1956) Short novel. Bardoni, a capable stage magician, is approached by the Count Saint Germain. What their conversation was about, Bardoni does not remember, for he was drunk, but he awakens in an other-world, parallel to ours, and almost identical, except that in it supernatural magic is valid. He learns that Saint Germain is a harbinger of great disaster. Bardoni himself is in danger. Using black magic taught to him by friendly fellow magicians, he invokes the god Adonis and ventures into Ancient Egypt to learn what he should do. He returns to our world and foils Saint Germain, Who had been exploiting Bardoni's counterpart from the other-world to work real magic. * Of some small interest for conveying the atmosphere and personalities (in disguise) of the modern world of legerdemain, but as a story, weak and erratic. 6~R. THE DEVIL'S GENERATION Lancer Books; New York 1973 paperbound "Populating a neighborhood of netherwor1ds, these little monsters • • • teach their elders the uncanny rules of the game." The theme is children, but it is not followed too rigorously. * Including, described elsewhere, [a]

GHIDALIA,

VIC

THE BLACK FERRIS, Ray Bradbury. [b] MR. LUPESCU, Anthony Boucher. [c] THE OTHER WING, Algernon B}ackwood. [d] CALL HIM DEMON, Henry Kuttner. (THRILLING WONDER STORIES 1946). The mysterious being masquerading as a human, the Other Uncle, and the horrible monster who lives in another dimension and needs raw meat for survival, are aspects of the same entity. This is the fantasy world of the children. On adult side, psychopathic crime caused by a cruel and thoughtless child. The author permits either interpretation. One of Kuttner's finest stories. [el FLORAL TRIBUTE, Robert Bloch. (WT 1949) The boy who lives next to a cemetery with his old grandmother is acquainted with many visitors. When he returns after World War II, he finds the old house, his grandmother (although she had died), and many new visitors from the cemetery. The title comes from the family penchant of taking cemetery grave flowers for house decorations. Nicely told. [f] THE PLACE IN THE WOODS, Aug-. ust Derleth. (1962) The farm children play in the woods and inadvertently activate ancient rituals. They are saved by the opportune arrival and death of old Tom, the hired man. One of Derleth's better stories. * The other stories are science-fiction. A good collection. [ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 689. GHOST STORIES COLLECTED WITH A PARTICULAR VIEW TO COUNTERACT THE VULGAR BELIEF IN GHOSTS AND APPARITIONS R. Ackermann; London 1823 A collection of contemporary fiction based on the theme of false supernaturalism. In some cases the seemingly supernatural is an accidental event that is misinterpreted, in other cases it is fraud or imposture. The stories, most of which are short, sometimes narratives rather than formal short stories, are probably reprinted from various collections and periodical sources. Some are obviously of foreign origin. The publisher, Ackermann, is renowned for his beautiful books containing colored mezzotints, and the present volume is attractively illustrated with six colored plates. * All fiction is anonymous. [a] THE GREEN MANTLE OF VENICE. Translated from German and sometimes attributed to C. H. Heun. A short novel set in South Germany. It deals with the exploits of Green Mantle, purportedly a supernatural being with ghostly powers, who saves a beautiful young woman and her father from the French occupational forces. Green Mantle is really a lover, with a bag of elaborate tricks much like Gothic motifs. [b] THE GHOST OF LARNEVILLE. A dog. [c] BARBITO, OR THE SPECTRE OF THE CUENZA. Spain. Don Lopez, as a lark, stages his own funeral and goes off to the wars. When he returns he is taken to be an evil spirit. [d] THE VILLAGE APPARITION. The pastor and his daughter see a ghost. It is explained as a projection mischievously perpetrated by a travelling expert in optical apparatus. [e] THE HAUNfED CASTLE. A fearful goblin. A Gothic situati,on, either coiners or a secret SOCiety. [f] A LONDON GHOST. A corpse walks-- but merely to provide

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GHOST STORIES AND OTHER QUEER TALES robbers with assistance. [g] THE DESERTER'S GHOST. A prankster terrorizes the Prussian soldiers. [h] THE WATER SPIRIT. Fraud. [i] THE FRIAR'S GHOST IN THE IMPERIAL PALACE AT VIENNA. The Great Elector of Saxony serves a sham ghost badly. [j] THE GHOST OF GENERAL MARCEAU. A smugglers' trick. [k] THE GHOST OF COUNT WALKENRIED. Paris. It visits a banker and discusses a message to be sent to its father. Imposture. [1] THE EXTRAORDINARY CONFESSION OF A GHOST. France. A Gothic situation. A prisoner. [m] THE DEVIL AND THE PRUSSIAN GRENADIER. The Devil is seen walking. A smugglers' trick. [n] THE DANGER OF TAMPERING WITH THE FEAR OF GHOSTS., Bernhardi engages to insult a corpse in its tomb, and is found, the next morning, the victim of a stroke. [0] THE HAUNTED INN. A somnambulist. [p] THE BEAR OF FRIEDRICHSHALL. Norway. A bear demon; an enemy soldier in disguise. [q] THE ENAMOURED GHOST. A giant, horrible spirit with a flaming head; a resourceful lover who is braving parental disapproval. [r] MARIANNE. The returned dead. Confusion of identity among the dead, lunatics, and look-alikes. A rationalized version of the doppelganger, a favorite device among Romantic writers. * This British edition does not seem to have been popular, probably because of its editorial position. In America, however, this book was soon reprinted, and it went through many editions, on up to the middle 1860's. An edition issued by James Miller (New York, 1865) was examined. This contains stories [a] through [p], but does not contain [q] and [r]. It adds, [s] THE COLD HAND. In an inn, a clammy hand passes over the narrator's face. [t] THE HARVARD COLLEGE GHOST. A falsified haunting causes madness. Possibly of "factual" origin. [u] GARRICK'S GHOST. A tradition about Garrick: that he pretended to be sick and went secretly to the theatre to impersonate himself. [v] APPARITION OF LORD WILLIAM PETTY. A ghost and premonitions, with Dr. Priestley. Not explained, presumably "factual." * These American editions are illustrated with woodcuts by Darnley. [ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 690. GHOST STORIES AND OTHER QUEER TALES C. A. Pearson; London [1931] Mostly crude horror. [a] THE ARMLESS MAN, W. G. Litt. An amputee gains new, invisible arms of spiritual matter. When these are acCidentally cut off, he bleeds to death. [b] THE TERROR BY NIGHT, Lewis Lister. Maynard aCCidentally invokes an ancient pagan god who attacks him. He escapes by crawling into an iron hoop, the deity being allergic to iron. [c] THE LAST ASCENT, Ernest R. Punshon. Air mystery. A creature like a human female that haunts the upper air. [d] THE MAILED FOOT, Hermina Black and Edith Blair-Staples. When the honor of the Flaxham women is at stake, the ghost puts its foot down. It tramples the seducer to death. [e] THE PIPERS OF MALLORY, Theo Douglas. (pseud .. of Mrs. H. Everett) Ghostly bagpipers announce death in a Scottish

GHOST STORIES AND OTHER QUEER TALES family. [f] THE JUNGLE, Paul Eardley. The revenant of a discarded native mistress. [g] THE EIGHTH LAMP, Roy Vickers. Murder among railroad men. The victim returns to punish his wife's seducer. [h] THE UNKNOWN QUANTITY, E. R. Punshon. Murder, to obtain research funds, and ghostly revenge. [i] THE TOMTOM CLUE, Cecil Morgan and Scudamore Jarvis. Borderline supernatural. A tomtom skin proves innocence. [j] THE CASE OF SIR ALISTER MORRAN, Margaret Strickland. He is a were-tiger. [k) THE KISS, M.E. Royce. From a dead man. [1] THE GOTH, Roy Vickers. A sunken village, the sight of which means death by drowning. [m] THE TRAGEDY AT THE "LOUP NOIR," Gladys Stern. Derivative from THE MYSTERIOUS SKETCH by Erckmann-Chatrian. An artist paints enough of a supernaturally revealing picture to be apprehended by the police, but when the picture is finished, the true criminal is taken. [n] THE HAUNTED CHESSMEN, E.R. Punshon. (WT 1930). A set of living chessmen, made of human bone, force their owner to play, with life as the stake. [0] THE SECOND CHANCE, Hubert Dayne. A murder could have been prevented in another incarnation. In this incarnation, a second chance. [p) THE MAN WHO GOT BACK, William Pollock. A real bridge fiend. The dead man kept his promise to be the fourth. * [1] and [n] are effective, but the remainder of the stories are reminiscent of WEIRD TALES of the 1920's. [g] and [1] seem to be the only supernatural fiction by Vickers, who is an important writer of mystery fiction. GILBERT, WILLIAM (1804-1890) British novelist, writer on social reform, miscellaneous author. Father of W.S. Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan fame. 691. THE WIZARD OF THE MOUNTAIN A. Strahan; London 1867 2 vol. Connected short stories built around the personality of the Innominato, an astrologer, seer, and wizard of 13th century Italy. The Innominato is consulted by various parties who ask his aid. * [a] THE DOCTOR ONOFRIO. A wicked lawyer is given wealth and renewed youth by the Innominato on condition that he use them properly. For each misdeed that he commits, his life span will be halved. In almost no time at all he is back at his starting point and dead of old age. [b] FRA GEROLAMO. A priest who has the opportunity to win wealth renounces it at the urging of a vision. [c] THE MAGIC FLOWER. A bourgeois girl wishes to marry a young nobleman, despite the disapproval of his father, the Duke. The Innominato gives her a flower. It may be magical. [d] THE LAST LORDS OF GARDONAL. A wicked nobleman who desires a beautiful young peasant woman unintentionally murders her. The Innominato promises to bring her back to life if the nobleman releases certain hostages. She is revived, but as a vampire. [e] TOMAS AND PEPINA. An aged couple asks for renewed youth, but the best that the Innominato can do is give a youthful body to one and a youthful mind to the other. [f] THE ROBBER CHIEF. A robber clashes

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GILCHRIST, MURRAY with the Innominato and his ghost is later condemned to haunt a palace until his evil is expiated. [g] DON BUCEFALO AND THE CURATE. An avaricious priest and a clerk plan to use the wizard. The priest wants money and the clerk wants forgetfulness, to quiet his nerves, since he is holding some money illegally. Both get what they wish, but too well. [h] THE PHYSICIAN;S DAUGHTER. A young woman wants her lover to be restored to health. The Innominato gives her a plant token for him. [i] THE TWO LOVERS. The wizard's magic satchel, which transforms stones to gold, is instrumental in ridding a girl of a worthless suitor. [j] THE STRANGER The wizard lies dying and a strange demonic being, mysteriously invisible, then Visible, is to be found in the castle. It is cleac that the wizard may nave sold his soul to the Devil. [k] THE INNOMlNATO'S CONFESSION. As a young man he planned to become a priest, but was sidetracked to a secular life and the study of magic. Aided by a certain Malatesta, he gained magical powers, but at the expense of foreswearing all religion. He refused to sell his soul, however, when it became obvious that the Devil was involved. The ghost of his wife helped him in his resolve, and since then he has lived an exemplary life, using his gifts to do good. He dies well. * A good period piece. GILCHRIST, [ROBERT] MURRAY (1868-1917) British journalist, author. Now remembered mostly as a regionalist (Derbyshire), although earlier work was in a very different vein. 692. THE STONE DRAGON AND OTHER TRAGIC ROMANCES Methuen; London 1894 Very purple fin-de-siecle short stories, including, [a] MIDSUMMER MADNESS. 18th century England? Rupert is about to marry Phyllida, but she is strangely cold. There has obviously been another love in her past. The marriage takes place. Rupert sees her walking with Cuthbert, her previous lover, and knows that his love is lost. But (though this is implied and not stated) Cuthbert is dead and the Phyllida with him was her doppelganger. As she says, ''Dead love has slain my passion." [b] WITCH IN-GRAIN. The narrator sees Michal, obviously under the influence of Witchcraft, and watches the old witch Benmusk being tortured. Benmusk finally talks, telling the narrator to go to Baldus's tomb at night. He goes there and finds Michal, wrapped in flame, while a black shape approaches. Michal had been the master-witch. [c] THE RETURN. When the narrator returns, after years abroad making his fortune, he finds much changed in the village. He meets Rose Pascal, his old sweetheart, and they spend an idyllic night in the open. The next morning the narrator awakens to find himself beside the crossroad grave of Rose, who had committed suicide many years before. [d] THE BASILISK. The basilisk is both figurative and literal. The young man's lover breaks the spell of the basilisk, but dies. [e] THE PAGEANT OF GHOSTS. The narrator watches a horde of ghosts march through

GILCHRIST, MURRAY the hall. History. * Sometimes obscure, semisymbolic at times, overwritten in a sensuous style reminiscent of Shiel's. Probably as close to Beardsley in prose as one can get, although the quality is not always present. GILLIES, R(OBERT] P[EARSE] (1788-1858) British author of literary remLnLscences of importance, poet, novelist, translator. Associated with Sir Walter Scott and Scott's publisher, Constable. AS EDITOR AND TRANSLATOR: 693. GERMAN STORIES SELECTED FROM THE WORKS OF HOFFMANN, DE LA MOTTE FOUOUE, PICHLER, KRUSE, AND OTHERS William Blackwood; Edinburgh, T. Cadell, London 1826 3 vol. Mostly material that is not supernatural, but including [a] THE SISTERS, Anonymous. Alternate title for THE FATED HOUR, Anonymous, described elsewhere. [b] THE SPECTRE BRIDE, Anonymous. Alternate title for THE DEATH BRIDE, Anonymous, described elsewhere. [c] ROLANDSITTEN, E. T. A. Hoffmann. Alternate title for THE ENTAIL, described elsewhere for context. * Also [d] THE FIRST OF MAY, OR WALLBURGA'S NIGHT, Anonymous. 17 th century Switzerland. Gertrude and Alice are both in love with Rudolf, but Alice wins. Gertrude, Who already has a bad name for witchery, now betakes herself to an old witch and joins the witch cult. One "evening, some years later, on Walpurgis night, Gertrude drags Alice out, flies with her on a broom to the far north (perhaps the Brocken), and abandons her there. It is years before Alice reaches home again. She finds that Gertrude has assumed her shape and is living with Rudolf. The witch yields before holy water and the wrongs are righted. [e] THE WARNING, Anonymous. The late Hofrath E----- tells of an incident in his youth. While travelling, he was informed by a ghost that he should avoid Waldheim's residence; Waldheim is murdering travellers for their money. * The translation is capable, but the described fiction is not important. [ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 694. THE GIRL WITH THE HUNGRY EYES AND OTHER STORIES Avon Books; New York [1949] paperbound Short stories, including [a] THE GIRL WITH THE HUNGRY EYES, Fritz Leiber, Jr. Set in the world of modern advertising, the girl, a poster queen, is a psychic vampire. She is responsible for a chain of death. Allegory of hucksterism. [b] MRS. MANIFOLD, Stephen Grendon. (pseud. of August Der1ech) Mrs. Manifold runs a cheap hotel for seamen in Wapping and is watchful for men from Singapore. Revenant. [c] DAYDREAM, P. Schuyler Miller. As boys James and Charles make elaborate paper figures and play games with them, using them as actors. One such figure is Mr. Mudge. In a painful episode later in life Mr. Mudge and his cat take part. [d] COME INTO MY PARLOR, Manly Wade Wellman. A gardinel, a semisupernatural, carnivorous plant that attracts and traps men. Told with good Carolina local

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GLOAG, JOHN color. * This collection, presumably edited by Donald A. Wollheim, also contains William Tenn's "Venus and the Seven Sexes," which is science-fiction. * A good selection. GLASGOW, ELLEN (1874-1945) American regionalist (Virginia) author. Fiction is mostly apologetic for Southern culture, particularly ante-bellum period. An excellent craftsman, highly regarded critically. Pulitzer prize, 1942. Best-known works, THE ROMANTIC COMEDIANS (1926), THEY STOOPED TO FOLLY (1929). 695. THE SHADOWY THIRD AND OTHER STORIES Doubleday, Page; Garden City, N.Y. 1923 Virginia regionalist setting; psychological ghost stories, fully developed. * Including [a] THE SHADOWY THIRD. A sordid story told in supernatural terms. Guilt. A nurse attending the supposedly insane wife of a wealthy young doctor learns that the doctor is really trying to gain control of his wife's money. The wife's only abnormality is that she can see the ghost of her dead child, but the nurse (and one of the Black servants) can also see it. After the doctor has put his wife away in an asylum, he meets his fate through the indirect means of the ghost. [b] DARE'S GIFT. The memory of treachery reaches out from the past. Sir Roderick Dare, who betrayed Bacon's Rebellion, saturated the pre-Revolutionary mansion with the psychic residue of his crime. In the present a lawyer finds his case ruined by treachery, while in the War between the States a young woman betrayed her Yankee lover, Who was hidden in one of the rooms of the house. [c] THE PAST. Selfish and unselfish love contrasted. The deceased Mrs. Vanderbridge haunts Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbridge, and is driving the present wife to death. The ghost is exorcised by renunciation. [d] WHISPERING LEAVES. Young Pelham is guarded by the ghost of Mammy, an old Black servant. She saves his life on several occasions. * Very capable, interesting stories, which invoke supernaturalism in a sophisticated manner to account for an emotion or predisposition. GLOAG, JOHN (1896 One of the leading British authorities on history and aesthetics of industrial design, furniture design, domestic architecture, everyday life in the past, and similar topics. Many books on such subjects; best-known work is ENGLISH FURNITURE, which has gone through many editions. Also has written a considerable amount of fiction. 696. IT MAKES A NICE CHANGE Nicholson and Watson; London 1938 Short stories, including [a] ANCESTOR WORSHIP. A memory technique for regaining ancestral memory. A fraud. [b] NOW HE'S WARNED. A ghost story told as a warning. [c] LATE GUEST. A ghost who is a compulsive appointment keeper. [d] PENDULUM. (LONDON MERCURY 1936) After an aCCident, the psyche of the narrator leaves his body and watches time far into the future, then reverses and travels into the past. This

GLOAG, JOHN continues, like a pendulum, until he settles in the present and awakens. But life holds nothing for him after such a visionary experience. [e) WAVE LENGTH. When the Rev. Colin Dallaway is struck by lightning, he acquires a new and distressing sense: hearing the thoughts of others. He overhears a plan for murder. [f) GALLEY TROT BLIND. Attacks by a spectral hound that apparently guards an ancient treasure, the blood of St. Botolph. The treasure is found and discovered to be rubies. But there is a switch ending, fraud. [g) JUST A MYSTERY. The protagonist plans his own death to further an inexplicable cosmic plan. [h) THE SLIT. A technique for seeing past and future. It does not work too well. [i) RESTORATION. Leldon Abbey was torn down during the Reformation, but the last descendant of the original mason, a blind jerry builder, as a sort of compensation for the wretched work that he did, recreates supernaturally the appearance of the original abbey. * Some of these stories may have been written for radio broadcast, whence their skimpiness and narrative quality. 697. FIRST ONE AND TWENTY Allen and Unwin; London 1946 A collection from previous volumes. Including, described elsewhere, [a) PENDULUM. [b) WAVE LENGTH. [c) RESTORATION. * Also, [d) DOUBLE BROADCAST. Telepathy. The narrator, in New York for the World's Fair, finds himself in a woman's body in London. Her husband is poisoning her. A message left by the narrator is not enough for prosecution. [e) CONTINUITY. Bill, living atop an old Roman site, has a recurrent, progressive dream. His death by a barbarian's axe in Roman Britain is paralleled in our time. [f) "THINGS'LL REACH OUT FOR YOU." A haunted wood in which a stubborn academic is lost for thirty years. [g) NOT FOR THE BEST. A sermon in which afterdeath experiences are discussed as mystical absorption. [h) JUNGLE. Sensuous reminiscences of the world of a leopard in the jungle. How the transformation took place is ~ot remembered. Madness. Nicely imagined. GLOSSOP, REGINALD British author. Has written several fantastic novels, most of which fall into the category of weird science-fiction. 698. THE ORPHAN OF SPACE G. MacDonald; London 1926 Thriller. * Taoist magic and western science unite to overthrow the Soviet dictator who threatens the world. Li Huang-Hai, a Chinese savant, discovers a secret held by his alchemist ancestor: the earth is a living being. Enlisting the help of the earth, he strikes Soviet headquarters with an atomic explosion. * Unusual in idea, but clumSily written. GODDARD, RICHARD E. British novelist; also writer on business topics, GENERAL CARGO, AN INTRODUCTION TO SALESMANSHIP. No biographical information has been found.

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GODWIN, WILLIAM 699. THE WHISTLING ANCESTORS Stanley Smith; London 1936 A thriller based on voodoo, a sex-mad mulatto, vivisection, and a dastardly plot to overthrow Whj.te civilization and set up an empire of devil-worshippers. * Worthing, sidewalk artist, hero, is pitted against a voodoo-master who has kidnapped two girls, one for lust, the other for sacrifice. Other elements include zombies; vivisection to create a new race of fauns and nymphs; voodoo gods that whistle; and the final triumph of good. Caspar Pettifranc, the voodoo-master, has escaped, however, and the author promises a sequel, which, so far as I know, has not been published. GODWIN, WILLIAM (1756-1836) British novelist, political theorist, historian, biographer, miscellaneous writer, novelist, cultural influence. A man of great but flawed genius, he was teacher to most of the younger generation of Romanticists, including Coleridge and Shelley. Along with wife Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, one of the leading figures in the liberal movement of late 18th, early 19th centuries. In fiction most important work is THINGS AS THEY ARE (1794), better known as CALEB WILLIAMS, social novel that is also the most important pre-modern detective novel. Father of Mary Godwin Shelley. A giant of English literature. 700. ST. LEON A TALE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY G. G. and J. Robinson; London 1799 4 vol. After the success of CALEB WILLIAMS Godwin determined to write another novel. "It struck me that if I could 'mix human feelings and passions with incredible situations' I must thus attain a sort of novelty." The result was ST. LEON, the trials and tribulations of a man who owns the philosophers' stone and immortality, but is unable to enjoy their benefits. The theme that money is not everything, and may even be a burden., is, of course, ironic for Godwin, Whose financial problems are well known. * 16th century France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Hungary. Reginald de St. Leon, scion of ·a noble French family, has served well in the Italian wars. He returns home, marries, and rears a family. But when he takes his son to Paris to attend the university, a weakness in St. Leon's character becomes evident: he gambles away his patrimony. With the help of his Wife, who is a stronger, more stable person, he retires to Switzerland, where he becomes a small farmer. The family takes to the pastoral life well enough, but a natural catastrophe wipes out their labors, and they are faced with ruin. At about this time a mysterious stranger appears and begs refuge. The stranger is being hunted through the land, although he swears that he is not a criminal. In gratitude the stranger makes a proposal to St. Leon: he will reveal a great secret if St. Leon agrees to tell no one about it, not even his wife. For a time St. Leon refuses to take the oath, but when the stranger lies dying, agrees. The secret is manufacturing gold, and, as a by-product, the elixir of life. * This

GODWIN, WILLIAM secret, unfortunately, does not bring happiness to St. Leon, any more than it did to the stranger. St. Leon is of a cold and selfish nature, and he immediately thinks of his family as insects of an hour, and becomes estranged from them. He also has difficulties with the local authorities, who question him about his sudden wealth and the fate of the stranger. He cannot give satisfactory answers and is put in prison, but he buys his way out and escapes to Italy. In Pisa, where he settles, he is taken to be a magician, and is again forced to flee. By now he realizes that he is a pariah, and after his wife's death he decides to disappear as St. Leon and assume new identities. This is successful for a time, but in Spain he is held prisoner for twelve years by the Inquisition and escapes death by the merest chance, as the victims are being led out to the auto da fe. He now moves to Hungary, when, in Buda, he sets himself up as a philanthropist and entrepreneur, hoping to form a base of gratitude that will protect him. This, too, fails. The Turks believe that he is building up revanchism; the Austrians believe that he is working for the Turks to prevent uprisings; and the peasants hate him for their own reasons. He is imprisoned by Bethlen Gabor and forced to make gold. On his escape, he encounters unexpected difficulties from his own son. St. Leon is' youthful in appearance, and his son does not recognize him, but believes that St. Leon is trying to steal his fiancee. At this point St. Leon leaves the area and the novel ends abruptly. * As is the case with Godwin's other fiction ST. LEON is long and turgid, with perpetual analysis of and reflection on psychology and social philosophy. Despite the historical setting, there is no real attempt to convey Renaissance life or cultural personalities. The characters (and many of the situations) are stock, sentimental material from the 18th century. Yet Godwin is a powerful, thought-provoking writer and ST. LEON is well worth reading. It is also an obvious source for much that recurs in FRANKENSTEIN. * The edition read was the 1850 reprint (Bentley; London) of the 1831 edition, with the second preface or Advertisement. ) GOLD, H[ORACE] L[EONARD] (1914 American author, editor, anthologist of Canadian birth. Edited GALAXY MAGAZINE, BEYOND, and IF. Gold was an excellent editor and in its early days GALAXY was a leading magazine. 701. THE OLD DIE RICH AND OTHER SCIENCE FICTION STORIES Crown Publishers; New York 1955 A dozen stories, mostly science-fiction, but including [a] TROUBLE WITH WATER. (UNK 1939) Ethnic humor, combined with rather dubious folklore. Greenberg, a concessionaire at Rockaway, has the misfortune to insult a water gnome, who puts a curse on him: Greenberg cannot come into contact with water. While this situation is good for business, for rain avoids Greenberg's business area, the disadvantages are obvious and frightful. Told with a good range of folkways. One of the classics of fan-

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GORMAN, HERBERT S. tasy humor, and much the best story that Gold has written. [b] AND THREE TO GET READY. (FANTASTIC 1952) Psychiatric ward of a hospital. A little man begs to be admitted and restrained. His problem is odd: if he mentions anyone's name three times, that person dies. The rationale is handled with deliberate ambiguity. * This is not the first appearance for [a], which is frequently anthologized. GOREY, EDWARD [ST. JOHN] (1925Modern American artist, whose little volumes of macabre verse (or prose) and accompanying pen and ink drawings are among the best humor in the genre. Designer of camp DRACULA for New York stage. A very gifted artist in a narrow range. AS EDITOR: 702. THE HAUNTED LOOKING GLASS GHOST STORIES CHOSEN AND ILLUSTRATED BY EDWARD GOREY Looking Glass Library; New York 1959 Containing [a] THE EMPTY HOUSE, Aigernon Blackwood. [b] AUGUST HEAT, W. F. Harvey. [c] THE SIGNALMAN, Charles Dickens. [d] A VISITOR FROM DOWN UNDER, L. P. Hartley. [e] THE THIRTEENTH TREE, R. H. Malden. [f] THE BODY-SNATCHER, R. L. Stevenson. [g] MAN-SIZE IN MARBLE, E. Nesbit. [h] THE JUDGE'S HOUSE, Bram Stoker. [i] THE SHADOW OF A SHADE, Tom Hood. [j] THE MONKEY'S PAW, W. W. Jacobs. [k] THE DREAM WOMAN, Wilkie Collins. [1] CASTING THE RUNES, M. R. James. * Also illustrations by Gorey. GORMAN, HERBERT S[HERMAN] (1893-1954) American novelist, poet, playwright, biographer. Newspaper work in Springfield, Mass. and New York. With N.B.C. University of the Air. Most important works THE INCREDIBLE MARQUIS (1929), life of Alexandre Dumas, pere; JAMES JOYCE (1939). 703. THE PLACE CALLED DAGON Doran; New York [1927] Regionalistic horror and romance, with some heed to the psychological factors behind evil. * Young Dr. Dreeme, after two years in the small, isolated Berkshire community of Marlborough, has good reason to believe that he still does not know the sour natives, particularly the Westcotts. But one day he receives a call to attend Jeffrey Westcott, whom he finds to be a surprisingly cultured man, educated in Europe, but a most unsympathetic personality. Gradually aspects of the hidden life of the area become open to Dreeme. There is a secret cult of evil, headed by Westcott, who is practicing magic of a sort in order to develop his will to godlike degree. The natives are descendants of the Salem witches, and the bodies of the original witches are buried at a local shrine of evil, the Place Called Dagon. Dreeme becomes involved with two women, Westcott's wife, the priestess of the cult, and a young Woman who is the destined victim for a human sacrifice. Dreeme spies on a Sabbath, watches Westcott perform an invocation and create a spiritual

GORMAN, HERBERT S. contact with the past, and attempt a human sacrifice. But when Westcott and his chief henchman, an evil minister, are killed, the cult disappears, for its members had been ordinary farmers Whose latent ancestral evil had been evoked by Westcott to some extent against their own will and predisposition. * Literate presentation, but weak characterizations and motivations. GOULD, ARTHUR LEE (pseud. of LEE, ARTHUR STANLEY GOULD) (1894-1975) British author, biographer. Associated with the R.A.F.; has written extensively on aviation and political topics. 704. AN AIRPLANE IN THE ARABIAN NIGHTS T. Werner Laurie; London [1947) Fantastic adventure. * The passengers and crew of a plane suddenly find themselves centuries in the past, in the Baghdad of HarunaI-Rashid. Harun wants the moderns to help his vizier combat a Chinese sorcerer, whose magic threatens the realm. Adventures follow. Harun tries to take one of the modern women for his harem. One of the passengers is turned into a dog. Several others are shanghaied by the Chinese. But the sorcerer is killed and they are sent back to their own time. * Mildly amusing in spots, but formulary and commercial. GOWANS, ADAM [LUKE) Scottish anthologist, publisher, translator. AS EDITOR: 705. FAMOUS GHOST STORIES BY ENGLISH AUTHORS Gowans and Gray; London and Glasgow 1919 Described elsewhere, [a) TO BE TAKEN WITH A GRAIN OF SALT, Charles Dickens. [b) THE OLD NURSE'S STORY, Mrs. Gaskell. [c) THE TAPESTRIED CHAMBER, Sir Walter Scott. [d) THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS, Edward Bulwer-Lytton. [e) THE HAUNTED SHIPS, Allan Cunningham. [f) NO.1, BRANCH LINE, THE SIGNAlMAN, Charles Dickens. [gj THE MYSTERIOUS BRIDE, James Hogg. [h) A TRUE RELATION OF THE APPARITION OF MRS. VEAL, Daniel Defoe. [i) THE BAGMAN'S STORY, Charles Dickens. [j) MARY BURNET, James Hogg. Also included is an essay by Charles Dickens, "Telling Winter Stories." GRAHAM, [MATILDA) WINIFRED [MURIEL) (marriage name CORY) (c. l870? 1950) Prolific British novelist. Although has written more than 85 novels, her work is little known in the United States. In addition to fiction the author has written Spiritualist apologetics and attacks on Mormonism. 706. THE GODS OF THE DEAD William Rider; London [1912) Shopgirl romance with occult and supernatural elements. * Cosmos Turnus, semi-successful architect, attributes his business misfortunes to an Egyptian mummy that he has inherited. While his daughter is being born, he burns the mummy and its robes, and something occult passes to the baby. She grows up to be a beauty, far above her class in poise and regality. After fighting off a villainous lecher with a

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GRAINVILLE, JEAN long black beard, she marries a young Scottish laird of incredibly high family and pushes him nicely into Parliament. While she does not exactly have memories of Ancient Egypt, there are obviously influences about her and on one occasion she is aware of a ghost that is hovering nearby. She is presumably a reincarnation. * UnWitting self-parody. Inflated style, ridiculous attitudes, and Silly plotting make this seem like one of Ambrose Bierce's parodies of the 1890's. GRAINVILLE, JEAN BAPTISTE FRANCOIS XAVIER COUSIN DE (1746-1805) French priest, schoolmaster, poet, miscellaneous writer. Left clergy and married during the Revolution; reentered clergy during Consulate. Committed suicide in the Somme. Ms. of the present work edited and published through the influence of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. 707. THE LAST MAN OR. OMEGARUS AND SYDERIA A ROMANCE IN FUTURITY R. Dutton; London 1805 2 vol (published anonymously) LE DERNIER HOMME (1805); anonymous translation from French. * Originally written as a prose epic in ten cantos, but translated as a novel. A half-incoherent, rhapsodic fantasy based in part on heterodox religion and contemporary occult systems. * A traveller enters the Cavern of Death near the ruins of Palmyra. There he falls into space indefinitely and awakens in a circus-like place, where he sees Time in chains, and where a spirit speaks from a tripod. The spirit, in the manner of a Greek oracle, gives the traveller visions of the ultimate future. * The world has changed enormously. The moon is gone; the sun is cooling; and Brazil is the only habitable area. Mankind is completely sterile with the exception of Omegarus, a young man, and Syderia, a young woman of Tupi Indian stock. (The names refer to omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet, and sidus, Latin for a star or constellation.) * The problem set forth is whether Omegarus and Syderia shall mate and start a new human race, or whether mankind shall become extinct. Adam, recreated by Divine Will, tells the story of his life and urges the young people not to mate. The Genius of Earth, however, presents the opposed argument. The Genius has been promised life as long as man exists, and it is to his interest that the human race continue. After a succession of miracles Omegarus and Syderia decide to continue humanity, when the Last Judgment begins and the bodies of all humanity are recreated, tearing huge gaps in nature as atoms rejoin their former associations. The Genius of Earth, in despair, invokes evil spirits to continue his life, but they are of no avail. Death appears, strikes down Syderia, and after a tremendous battle kills the Genius of Earth, who in Samsonian gesture, destroys the world. All is over. * Very interesting scientific ideas for this period, and much undiSCiplined imagination. Some of the motifs in this strange book are probably allegorical, but it would seem that much is meant literally.

GRAINVILLE, JEAN There are correspondences between Grainville's system and that of William Blake: the contrast of Demiurge and Supreme God, planetary deities, the nature of the Fall, etc. GRANT, JAMES (1822-1887) Scottish novelist, miscellaneous writer. Born into military family and served as officer in army for short time before turning to architecture, then writing, for living. A very prolific writer; most characteristic work is military fiction, based very largely on family reminiscences of the Napoleonic Wars. Best-known work THE ROMANCE OF WAR. Intensely concerned with Scottish nationalism in later years. 708. THE DEAD TRYST AND A HAUNTED LIFE Routledge; London [188?] Two short novels. [a] THE DEAD TRYST. (ROUTLEDGE'S CHRISTMAS ANNUAL, 1874) Franco-Prussian War. Charlie Pierrepont, an Englishman serving in the Prussian army, is in love with Ernestine von Frankenburg. They arrange a tryst. Charles is wounded in battle and long thought dead. When he arrives at the trysting place, he meets a pale and somewhat distraught Ernestine. It is not until later that he learns that she is dead, her corpse in the next room. [b] A HAUNTED LIFE. Jack Beverley is killed on a tiger hunt in India. As he lies dying, he cries out that he is en rapport with his wife Ida, and that they shall soon meet. His wife in England shares the experience and has a dream vision of his death. On several occasions after this in England Beverley's ghost is seen near her, but she is only vaguely aware of a presence. She sees him on Christmas Eve, and it is her death. * Competent commercial work. The pro-Prussian attitude of [a] is unusual for the period. GRATACAP, LOUIS POPE (1851-1917) Naturalist associated with the American Museum of Natural History, New York. A competent scientist who wrote bad s-f novels: THE EVACUATION OF ENGLAND (1908), THE MAYOR OF NEW YORK (1910), THE NEW NORTHLAND (1915). Best-known work, THE GEOLOGY OF NEW YORK CITY. 709. THE CERTAINTY OF A FUTURE LIFE IN MARS, BEING THE POSTHUMOUS PAPERS OF BRADFORD TORREY DODD Brentano' s; New York 1903 Occult utopia, based in part on ideas from Louis Figuier and from Madame B1avatsky. * Dodd, an American settled in New Zealand, tells of his father's expertise in electrical research, including what amounts to radio. Dodd Sr. is convinced that in the procession of souls, humans are reincarnated in different planets in sequence, and that Mars is the next stop. Dodd Sr. dies and sends back to earth three messages describing life on Mars, a destructive meteor shower, and his own impending death after seeing his dead wife. He will presumably continue on with his spiritual evolution. Dodd Jr. also dies, leaving the pr-esent ms. * Appended is a paper by Schiapare1li about Mars. * Of no interest, except as an example of a premodern genre, the occult interplanetary novel.

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GRAVES, ROBERT GRAVES, ROBERT [RANKE] (1895 ) Notable British poet, novelist, essayist, miscellaneous writer, long resident in Majorca. Poetry, though personal and anti-modernist, is highly regarded. Excellent historical novels, best-known of which is I, CLAUDIUS (1934), which won both Hawthornden and James Tait Black Memorial Prizes. In later years became intensely concerned with personal amalgamation of Classical studies, history of religions, poetic theory and psychology, centering on mother goddess figure. Noteworthy book here, THE WHITE GODDESS. Translator of Apuleius, Ornar Khayyam. Fine handbook of writing technique, THE READER OVER YOUR SHOULDER, with A. Hodges. 710. THE SHOUT E. Mathews and Marrot; London 530 copy edition 1929 Woburn Books No. 16 A complex tale, surrealistic in its images and narrative mode and dream-like in its shifts of structure and meaning. * On the first level, the narrator, who is scoring a cricket match at an insane asylum, listens to a narrative from Crossley, one of the patients. Crossley admits that his story changes from time to time, but is essentially true. The narrative centers around an insipid young couple who simultaneously have a prophetic horror dream of a stranger with peculiar abilities who comes between them. Later, Richard meets the stranger and brings him home. The stranger, Charles, claims to have lived in Australia, where he picked up the power of the magical shout, which can kill or madden. Richard is determined to hear the shout, and the next day he and Charles go out to the sand hills. The shout almost destroys Richard, but also makes him aware that the stones in the area are the souls of the village folk. Shortly thereafter, Rachel, his Wife, and Charles drive him out of the house, and in despair Richard goes out to smash his stone-soul. But it is Charles's soul that he shatters, and Charles is now a powerless split personality. Rachel remembers nothing and time is for her as it was previously. * To return to the asylum frame: Crossley shifts personality back and forth to Charles and Richard, emits the shout, and lightning kills him and the doctor. But the ultimate narrator, who knows Richard and Rachel, learns that they know nothing of the whole episode. * The point, apart from narrative and madness, and perhaps dissociated personality fragments, may be that power cannot be borne by ordinary people. 711. SEVEN DAYS IN NEW CRETE A NOVEL Cassell; London 1949 American title WATCH THE NORTH WIND RISE. * A utopia based on those aspects of poetiC theory, philosophy, history of religions, and personal quirks revealed in THE WHITE GODDESS. * Centuries in the future, after our civilization has collapsed, most of the world lives in small societies that are modelled after Minoan Crete. (Test communities had shown that the New Cretan model was the most vital in overcoming anomie and the problems of the 20th century world.) New Cretan society is divi-

GRAVES, ROBERT ded into five castes or estates, based on personality type. It is a gynecocracy, structured rigidly by custom, controlled by witchcraft, all ultimately derived from one or another aspect of the White Goddess, who really exists. The cultural level is primitivistic, with Dionysian as well as Apollinian elements. * Into this world emerges Edward Venn-Thomas, a minor poet of our time, drawn by the power of the witches, who in turn fulfill the will of the Goddess. Venn-Thomas is there for a purpose, but he knows nothing of it. He wanders through the culture observing, taking part in some activities, interfering with others, violating tabus, and unwittingly causing much damage. It is eventually revealed that his task is to destroy New Crete by releasing the too heavily institutionalized demonic forces, or causing "the north wind to rise." New Crete, for all its virtues, is much like BRAVE NEW WORLD. It is a sterile dead end, without life, humor, or "character," and the Goddess wants these elements restored to man. * A brilli"ant work, packed with Graves's richness of idea; in turn amusing, horrifying, thought-provoking, with one of the best technical solutions to the difficulties of the utopian form. GREEN, JULIEN (or JULIAN) (1900 ) O. L. H. French writer of American descent, resident in France. Sometime teacher of French literature in American universities. Highly regarded in France as contemporary novelist, winner of many distinctions: Grand Prix Litteraire de Monaco, Grand Prix National de Lettres, etc. A powerful name in the 1930's and 40's, but now pretty much forgotten. 712. IF I WERE YOU Harper; New York 1949 (SI J'ETAIS VOUS, 1947) Translated by J. H. F. McEwen from French. * Understanding in petit-bourgeois Paris. Fabian Especel, a young man in a religious household, is dissatisfied and bored with his life as a petty clerk. He is accosted by M. Brittomart, a seedy, diabolic figure, who offers him the ability to change bodies at will. In each shifting Fabian will assume the personality of the other person, but will retain some memories of Fabian, so that he can consider his situation with detachment and return to his original body. Fabian noW experiences lives and problems. His first incarnation is in his boss, a stuffy, elderly bureaucrat. Here Fabian learns the limitations of an inadequate body. Tiring of this, he enters a handsome young thug, who is unfortunately very stupid. Fabian-Esmenard commits a murder and is likely to be trapped in the thug, but he is rescued by Brittomart. Fabian's next experience is of spiritual rottenness: a despicable religious pervert, and his next visit, which is developed at much greater length than the other episodes, is into a young man of weak character. Here Fabian tries to help his host by breaking some of his psychological bonds. Returning, after some difficulty, to his own body, he discovers that he has been away for three days. He now knows that he can love anyone, and, presumably re-

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GREENOUGH, MRS. RICHARD S. deemed, although it is not clear from What, he dies. * The author's usual virtues and flaws: fine characterizations and personality types, excellent adumbration of existential themes, good local color, structural problems, compulsive over-analysis and excessive descriptive detail. GREEN, WILLIAM CHILD British author of Gothic novels, miscellaneous writing. Flourished 1800-1825. 713 . ABBOT OF MONTSERRAT; OR, THE POOL OF BLOOD A ROMANCE A. K. Newman; London 1826 2 vol. A Romantic Gothic novel of higher literary quality than most members of the form. Like other late Gothic novels it is not so much concerned with the persecution of the innocent as with the fall of a Byronic scoundrel. * Obando is a malcontent monk in the convent of Montserrat, in Spain. After being tempted by the demon Zatanai (a yellow being who partakes of the nature of snake, brute, and man), he agrees to renounce Christianity and worship Zatanai. In exchange he receives three wishes: becoming abbot, winning Isobe1 as his mistress, and finding his lost brother Marco. The diabolic aid is not as effective as it might be, and the usual lures and traps are apparent. Obando's missing brother has become the fearsome bandit Roldan, who keeps a pool of (seeming) blood to frighten his victims, and Obando will have to kill Roldan to win Isobel. The abbotship comes only when Obando strangles the incumbent. When the monastery is attacked simultaneously by Roldan's followers and the Inquisition, Obando is snatched aloft by Zatanai. But when the monk shows signs of repentance, the demon hurls him down into the monastery. * Green wisely avoided the plot complications favored by most Gothic novelists and took some pains with characterization. While the novel is obviously derivative from M. G. Lewis's THE MONK, it is not a slavish imitation. GREENOUGH, MRS. RICHARD S. (1. e. GREENOUGH, SARAH DANA LORING) (i827-1885) American writer of fiction, travel accounts, poetry. Wife of sculptor Richard Greenough. 714. ARABESQUES: MONARE. APOLLYONA. DOMITIA. OMBRA Roberts Brothers; Boston 1872 Fantastic adventure in the medievalist tradition of the German Romantics. * [a] MONARE. When young Walter of Izerley is undergoing his vigil for knighthood, he hears a woman's voice begging for delivery from captivity. A ring is also tossed to him from an unknown source. He sets out on his quest, which takes him to Islam, but along the way encounters a werewolf, which he kills, using its blood to reanimate its victims. In Islam he learns that the ring has the property of making him invisible when he is in danger. He finds the young Woman who had called for help, and with the aid of Monare, a dwarf Egyptian sorceress, he and the girl escape back to Christendom. [b] APOLLYONA. The young man meets the dreaded Witch of the

GREENOUGH, MRS. RICHARD S. Pyrenees, who takes him down to her subterranean abode, which is reminiscent of Beckford's halls of Eblis. There the young man abides for a time as her lover, witnessing wonders. He also hears the intercalated tale of Sardanopolus. But when the witch is away, he awakens, sees his life in a magical draught that the witch keeps, and knows that the witch is Death and that what he has seen has been all illusion. He escapes, but when he comes to the surface, he is an old man. [c] DOMITLA. Rome. In early Christian times a matron has an accident and almost dies. But when she revives, her body is obviously possessed by another personality, that of an evil woman from pagan times. She prays to an idol of Mercury and, together with an ancient witch, searches the stones of the area for a hidden object. Her daughter witnesses all this and offers to help, so that her true mother will rest peacefully in death. [d] OMERA. The narrator is first captured by banditti, but escapes with the aid of a young woman who gives him a charm against magic. He then visits the enchanter Malitka, who is preparing a poison so that the young man's stepmother can murder her husband. On the advice of Ombra, the magician's goodhearted daughter, the young man evokes the dead enchantress Malaloul to get an antidote for the poison. A doppelganger is also involved. Ombra, who is conceived semiallegorically, then disappears with the death of Malitka. * Well-sustained, imaginative; among the best late 19th century fantasies. GREENWOOD, EDWIN British author, flourished 1930-40. Bestknown work the mystery story THE DEADLY DOWAGER (1935). 715. MIRACLE IN THE DRAWING ROOM A DARING AND CYNICAL NOVEL OF THE MODERN WORLD'S REACTION TO AN OLD-FASHIONED MIRACLE Skeffington and Son; London [1935] Clobbering satire on certain aspects of modern education and mores. 1937, when England has gone semi-socialist and bureaucratic, and is governed by endless ministries and committees who interfere in private life. * Fred Cantlowe and his wife Agatha were both reared as Fabian liberals, but in their hearts they are hypocrites. Fred is a swindler and big business sharper, while Agatha is a crypto-Fascist, a member of one of the more damaging social service committees of the state. They have sent their children to the most advanced schools (obviously modelled on Bertrand Russell's famous school), with expected results. Charles, the older, is an out-and-out thief, seducer, and all-around bum. Florence is a whore. And Francis, Who has been unable to accept modernism, is turning to mysticism and religion. * As the story opens, Fred is in danger. If he does not raise several thousand pounds immediately, he will be jailed. Charles has stolen the company assets and impregnated Fred's secretary, Who is demanding marriage. Florence is drifting from one liaison to another. As a response to the family problems,

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GREGORY, FRANKLIN Francis, Who has been called home from college, in desperation cries out for a miracle. In a suspension of time he finds himself on a mountainside with St. Francis of Assisi, Whose life he had been studying. Francis asks to follow the saint, and awakens with the stigmata. This causes a new set of problems. His mother wants to put him in a lunatic asylum and has the political power to be a nuisance. His sister, who is gradually reforming, wants the newspapers to help Francis, but they first turn the event into a circus then (under instructions from higher-ups) call it fraud. It seems as if the miracle is a failure, and Francis in a second meeting with St. Francis asks that the stigmata be withdrawn. But some good has been accomplished. Charles reforms and marries the secretary, while Florence, Who now regrets her affairs, is to marry for love. * Very amusing in a heavy-handed way, with much fun poked at the absurdities of the world of the 1930's. But the author's attempts to rehabilitate his characters do not ring true and the novel collapses in the last quarter. GREGORY, FRANKLIN (1905 ?) American novelist, newspaperman, public relations expert. Author of several novels. Sometime resident of the Far East. Birth date has also been given as 1901. 716. THE WHITE WOLF Random House; New York [1941] An attempt at adult treatment of the werewolf theme. * Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Dutch area. * The family of Pierre de Campd'Avesnes (Oatfield, for what it is worth?) has long been settled in the United States as luxury perfumers, but the ancient family records have been preserved. Hugues, in the 12th century, was a werewolf who sold his soul to the Devil and also bargained that every seventh heir of the family would be a werewolf. * In the 20th century Pierre grows more and more uneasy at the strange transformation that has taken place in his daughter Sara. From an unexceptional young Woman of the college set she has become moody, withdrawn, and has obvious memory fugues. Her friend David Trent is worried, too, for he has traced her odd behavior to a meeting with a witch man in slum Philadelphia. He knows that she has been visiting the witch and presumably is being initiated into a cult. He als~ knows that she was involved in a child murder, although she has no memory of it. * A white wolf is now a matter of concern in the countryside. Livestock has been slaughtered, children killed, and adults attacked. Then there are suddenly two wolves, the white one and a smaller brown one. Pierre is forced to recognize the supernatural when he connects his daughter with the crimes. She casts no shadow and a photograph of the wolves shows only Sara and David. The remedy is severe but inescapable. * Very odd dialect, a little too much club life, but a very creditable attempt to examine some of the emotional situation that might be involved in lycanthropy.

GRIFFITH, GEORGE GRIFFITH, GEORGE (pseud. of JONES, GEORGE GRIFFITH) (1857-1906) British sensational author of 1890's and early 20th century. Prolific writer of low-grade adventure stories, often with fantastic elements. Wrote much material that would now be called science-fiction: interplanetary, future war, catastrophe, etc. Anticipated Wells in writing science-fiction en genre, but level of quality is not high. Best known works are THE ANGEL OF THE REVOLUTION (1893) and its sequel OLGA ROMANOFF, OR, THE SYREN OF THE SKIES (1894). 717. VALDAR THE OFT-BORN A SAGA OF SEVEN AGES C. A. Pearson; London 1895 An episodic historical adventure novel, which amounts to lion-hunting through the ages. * Va1dar, son of Odin, passes down the ages until his last "incarnation" in modern London. He first awakens in the desert of Mesopotamia, where he associates himself with the Armenians to destroy the Assyrian empire of Nimrod. He witnesses the fall of the Tower of-Babel. A warrior of incredible prowess, he comes into contact with Mark Antony, Augustus, Mohammed, Vikings, Richard the Lion-hearted, Sir Francis Drake, and Napoleon. In most of his lives he falls into a trance and reawakens later, but after his Roman episode he dies of old age and is reborn as Khalid, leader of Mohammed's armies. Associated with him in each of his inhistorical appearances is Ilma, who is serially reincarnated. He always loses her. At the very end a fruitful conclusion to Va1dar's life seems in sight. * Second or third rate adventure, of no merit or great interest. The book contains primitive illustrations by Harold Piffard, in which all the historicC'.l characters are portrayed as British physical types of the upper crust. 718. ~HE MUMMY AND MISS NITOCRIS A PHANTASY OF THE FOURTH DIMENSION T. Werner Laurie; London [1906 ] American title MISS MARMION. * A rather confused thriller which attempts to combine several discordant themes. * Back in Ancient Egypt the Princess Nitocris caused the death of two wicked officials, the high priest Anemen-Ha and the chief of the army, Menka-Ra. All three are reincarnated (after a fashion) in contemporary Britain. Nitocris is the daughter of Professor Marmion; the high priest is Pharig, and the general is Prince Oscar Oscarovich. The professor knows the secrets of the fourth dimension. There is also a magic jewel. The general and the high priest plot against Nitocris, but are foiled. * A curiosity for comp1etist collectors. GRIFFITHS, ALAN British writer. Lovat Dickson; 719. STRANGE NEWS FROM HEAVEN London [1934] Amusement plus irony on Fundamentalism. * Hubert Snelling, an Anglican priest, dies and is taken to Heaven, where he meets with a situation reminiscent of J. K. Bangs's stories about the Styx. There is one flaw in Heaven: the inhabi-

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GRUBB, DAVIS tants remain at the age of their death for all eternity. Thus, "Those Whom the gods love die young" is literally and infuriatingly true. Heaven is a somewhat tiresome place, full of immorality among the young and frustration for the old. Snelling starts a revolution demanding renewed youth for everyone. But it is discovered that he is not really dead and he is thrown back to Earth. He awakens at his own burial service, tells of his experiences, and is murdered by the outraged preacher. * Mildly amusing, but a short story could have conveyed the same idea more elegantly. GROSSE, MARQUIS VON (i.e. GROSSE, KARL) German author, flourished 1785-1805. Se1fstyled Marquis von Grosse or Marquis von Pharnusa. 720. HORRID MYSTERIES A STORY William Lane at the Minerva Press; London 1796 4 vol (DER GENIE, ODER MEMOlREN DES MARQUIS VON G----, 1795) Translated from German by Peter Will. This is one of the Gothic novels mentioned in Jane Austen's NORTHANGER ABBEY. It is too intricate to be summarized. The story proceeds by a series of clumsy flashbacks and stories within stories, of which only the first half have a common thread. The second half of the book is a series of loosely integrated episodic adventures, sometimes on folkloristic themes. * The first part of HORRID MYSTERIES narrates by indirection the adventures of Don Carlos, a dashing young Spaniard, against a seemingly omnipotent, omnipresent secret society modelled after the German Illuminati of the 18th century. When Carlos refuses to follow the society's orders and tries to resign, he is pursued and harassed. There is a fair amount of seeming supernaturalism, all explained. * A curious work, with hysterically heightened atmosphere, pursuits and escapes, deaths and seeming resurrections, ghosts and explanations, heavy eroticism (both heterosexual and homosexual), and extreme vacillation in interpreting incident and character, It is probably not worth disentangling. * Since the original edition is completely unobtainable, we should be grateful for two reprint editions: Holden and Hardingham, London, 1927, with a digressive introduction by Montague Summers, and The Folio Press, London 1968, with a more pertinent introduction by Devendra P, Varma. * There is another translation mentioned by Summers (THE GENIUS, Allen and West, London 1796, translated by Joseph Trapp) which I have not seen. GRUBB, DAVIS (1919 ) American writer, author of the excellent regionalist suspense and mystery story THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1953). 721. TWELVE TALES OF SUSPENSE AND THE SUPERNA~ Scribners; New York 1964 Short stories, many of which are set in the same premodern General America, with sma1ltown folkways, as was THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, * Including [a] ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE. (WT

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GRUBB, DAVIS 1948) When Henry lost a foot as a result of an industrial accident, the foot (according to the terms of a bet) was buried with all due ceremony. But it has a life of its own and behaves distressingly, including seduction and murder. [bJ RADIO. Will's radio refuses to turn off, and bombards him with commercials and rubbish programs. He smashes it, but his wife is upset, for she liked to listen to it during the day. When she assumes the voice of the radio and spouts commercials, it is too much. Madness? [cJ THE RABBIT PRINCE. Tom Spoon, slightly rambunctious schoolboy, dislikes Miss Tinkens, an old maid school teacher. When the Great Galvani of the magical circus offers him a wish, Tom asks that Miss Tinkens be transformed into a rabbit. After a time Tom's conscience bothers him, and he asks Galvani to restore her. But all have forgotten an elementary fact about rabbits. [dJ THE MAN WHO STOLE THE MOON. Dode Hornbrook, a dumb boy who is in love with blind Daisy, steals the moon from a pool. Semisymbolic, folkloristic. [eJ THE HORSEHAIR TRUNK. (EQMM 1956) Marius Lindsay discovers that he can project his astral body and with great effort manipulate small objects. When his wife (whom he treats sadistically) runs away, Marius intends to commit a perfect murder while in the astral body. Late 19th century. [fJ BUSBY'.S RAT. Old Busby, former river pilot but now crippled by an accident, broods in hatred and refuses to let his daughter marry. Busby has as a pet a gigantic wild rat, that is almost a familiar, and a horde of smaller rats whom he feeds and cherishes. When a decent young ~an wants to marry Liza, Busby attacks him, and is killed. But the rats hold the equivalent of a trial on the"young man. Supernatural by implication. [gJ WHERE THE WOODBINE TWINETH. Eva has a group of imaginary playmates. One of them, a doll, tells Eva that if her parents drive them away, they will take Eva along. They do. Excellent stories. A British reissue, which I have not seen, is titled ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE (Arrow; London 1966).

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GUNN, NEIL M[ILLERJ (1891-1973) British writer, one-time civil servant. Most of fiction is Scottish regionalism. Novel HIGHLAND TIDE won James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Best-known work, YOUNG ART AND OLD HECTOR. 722. THE GREEN ISLE OF THE GREAT DEEP Faber and Faber; London 1944 A semiallegorical novel dealing with political theory and the roles of thought and feeling in life. Young Art and Old Hector fall into a pool and drown. They awaken in the Green Isle of the Great Deep, or the Celtic land of the dead. Life there is regimented and is under the control of a coalition of dictators, efficiency experts, and psychologists. The official position is that efficiency of the group is of more importance than individual freedom. The fruit of paradise (happiness) is canned, and the people are fed chemicals which render

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HAGGARD, ANDREW it poisonous to them. Art and Hector cannot accept this situation. With a group of similarly disaffected people they set off a rebellion. The rulers are greatly worried lest God, who is sleeping, should be awakened. (God, it seems, does not bother himself about administrative matters unless there is an emergency.) The rulers hunt down Art and Hector and put them to torture. But Hector, finding a position of ultimate resistance, refuses to yield and demands to see God. Even the managers cannot deny this right to him. When God awakens, he sees that something is wrong and after an interview with Hector sets aside the dictatorship of reason, imposing, instead, a government of the heart, in which Hector shall have a role. Hector and Art then awaken, rescued from the pool. One of the curious mystico-po1itical semi-allegories of the day, (like O'Neill's LAND UNDER ENGLAND, Rex Warner's THE AERODROME, Ruthven Todd's OVER THE MOUNTAIN) in which toti1itarianism is found wanting, but in terms that are an odd mixture of realism of surface and fantasy of substructure. In Gunn's case the linkage of Celtic folk beliefs, orthodox Christianity, and modern managerial civilization is a little incredible and the remedy of Wisdom (Hector) and Imagination (Art) s.trained. The novel is enjoyable as a novel, but not as good as YOUNG ART AND OLD HECTOR.

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HAGGARD, ANDREW lCHARLES PARKER] (1854-1923» Lt. Col. British author of historical novels, popular accounts of French history and culture. Brother of H. Rider Haggard. 723. LESLIE'S FATE AND HILDA. OR THE GHOST OF ERMINSTEIN Arrowsmith, Bristol; Simpkin, Marshall, Kent; London [1892J Two short novels. raJ LESLIE'S FATE. Charles Leslie, a young Scot, is exploring in the Highlands when he chances upon a cave leading to the center of an extinct volcano. He finds inside a Hindu temple, complete with ghat, lotuses, sacred crocodiles and beautiful priestess. Leslie and Lutchmee (Lakshmi?) fall in love and live together for a time, but Lutchmee dies and Leslie decides to destroy the land by means of an incantation that she had given him. Years later he sees the same temple in India, and finds Lutchmee reincarnated as a cobra. When Leslie dies, the narrator sees two lady ghosts at his funeral, for Leslie's wife had been jealous of the cobra and it had bitten her in self defence. [b] HILDA, OR THE GHOST OF ERMINSTEIN. Ghostly reenactment of a crime in the Schloss von Erminstein in Hungary, where in the 14th century a knight had murdered a young woman. The Ghost Gallery is shut off from the rest of the house, since the ghost resents witnesses to his activities. Superna-

HAGGARD, ANDREW turalisms include a ghost in armor, candles that burn blue, bloody footprints, and similar props. * Both stories are low-level. HAGGARD, H[ENRY] RIDER (1856-1925) Noted British writer of stories of African adventure, often with supernatural elements. Spent several years (1874-81) in South Africa as civil servant (secretary to governor of Natal, staff member of special commissioner to the Transvaal on its annexation) and as ostrich farmer. Studied native institutions and history closely and wrote excellent studies, notably CETYWAYO AND HIS WHITE NEIGHBOURS (1882). Returned to England, became barrister, then turned to writing, while living as country squire in ancestral Norfolk. Wrote succession of African adventure novels, most famous of which are KING SOLOMON'S MINES (1885), ALLAN QUATERMAIN (1887) and SHE (1887). These three novels have gone through many editions, and motion picture adaptations have been made of the first and third. * SHE is enormously important in the history of science-fiction and supernatural fiction, both as an exemplar of the lost-race novel and for many motifs and attitudes which were widely imitated. Like THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO and LOOKING BACKWARD, SHE is one of the great patterning works in fantastic literature. * While Haggard was not a great novelist by mainstream criteria, he was an excellent storyteller, a literate writer in a subgenre that is often subliterate. He had an excellent imagination and could impart a sense of excitement. His background material was authentic and interesting. His flaws lie in weak characterizations, a sententious style that can be irritating, and repetitiousness. Haggard also wrote historical fiction, romances, and domestic novels, none of which is outstanding. More important were his studies of British agriculture, farm labor, land utilization and similar topics, for which he was awarded a knighthood. * A full, detailed, sensitive biography of Haggard is still wanting. * In the following entries, only those books are described in which supernaturalism plays a significant part. Minor elements occur in several other books. 724. SHE A HISTORY OF ADVENTURE Longmans, Green; London 1887 One of the great fantastic romances, the inspiration for many similar stories; a work of mythic significance. * In the Vincey family, which can trace its descent to the time of Pericles, a potsherd has been handed down. On it is an inscription which relates, very briefly, the adventures of Kallikrates and Amenartas, renegade priest of Isis and princess of the royal house of Egypt in the fourth century before Christ, who broke their vows and fell in love. To escape the wrath of the goddess they fled far south, and eventually came upon an ancient ruined city named K6r, which was ruled by an immortal white woman with supernatural powers. The immortal queen fell in love with Kallikrates, and when he rejected her, killed him, in a moment of rage, with her

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HAGGARD, H. RIDER preternatural powers. Amenartas, however, was permitted to leave K6r. She bore Kallikrates' son, to whom revenge was assigned. Generations of Vinceys, who have considered the sherd genuine, have sought the ancient land of Kdr, but without success. * Leo Vincey and Ludwig Holly, his friend and tutor, undertake the quest. Following the instructions on the sherd, profiting by previous explorations, they approach K8r after many adventures. Close to K6r they are captured by cannibals who kill their victims by placing redhot pots on their heads, but they are rescued by She, who foresaw their coming. She accepts them, recognizing Leo as the reincarnation of Kallikrates, but the ancient triangle reemerges; Leo falls in love with Ustane, a native girl who is presumably Amenartas reincarnated. She reacts violently, killing Ustane, and willing Leo to love her. It would seem that She has won the ancient battle, but her rashness defeats her. She wants Leo, too, to enter the Flame of Life, so that he can become immortal, and to show him that it is harmless, she enters it. She is transformed into a withered husk and dies almost immediately. The two travellers leave the land, ever to be followed by the memory of that remarkable but evil woman, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed. * Despite certain period mannerisms, SHE is one of the most powerful works in the genre. The image of immortal She, brooding over the ruins of KOr, waiting for her dead lover, has moved generations of readers. Haggard seems to have been obsessed by Woman in her various roles, and this preoccupation with the mythic aspect of woman as devourer and sustainer emerges strongly in SHE. * There are scores of works ultimately based on SHE, as well as three continuations (preludes and a sequel) by Haggard. Sidney Marshall (THE KING OF KOR) and John De Morgan (HE) wrote rather weak direct sequels to SHE. Andrew Lang and W. H. Pollock composed the parody HE. Lang's sonnet, "She," which is often printed with Haggard's novel, is from this parody. * There are modernized, "improved" editions of SHE; they are to be avoided. * Strictly speaking, the edition cited is the British first edition. It was slightly preceded by the pirated American edition (Harper; New York 1886), which, though paperbound, feuilleton, has excellent line illustrations taken from the British periodical publication in THE GRAPHIC. 725. ALLAN'S WIFE AND OTHER TALES Spencer Blackett; London 1889 A short novel and three short stories. Including [a] ALLAN'S WIFE. Allan Quatermain, a young man in South Africa, after the death of his father sets out on a trading expedition into the almost unknown regions north of the Transvaal. He is accompanied by the great Zulu wizard Indaba-zimbi, who offers many sound bits of advice, most of which Allan foolishly disregards. Thanks to the wizard's magic, Allan escapes being killed by a Zulu impi on the occasion of the (historical) Botha trek. In the north, Allan and the wizard

HAGGARD, H. RIDER are dying of thirst when they are saved by Stella Carson, a childhood friend of Allan's from England. Allan and Stella fall in love and are married. But there is a discordant factor: Hendrika the Baboon-woman, a feral woman who has been reared by baboons and only partly rehabilitated by the Carsons. She is insanely devoted to Stella and resents Allan After she attacks Allan, she is expelled, whereupon she goes mad and kidnaps Stella. Allan rescues Stella, who is pregnant. The shock of the experience with the baboons is too much for her, and she dies in childbirth. Allan finds the memories impossible to bear and leaves the country with his newly born son. When he returns some fifteen years later, the country has been depopulated by Zulu raids. Allan visits his wife's grave and sees her spectral appearance-- the survival of love. * The ultimate theme of the story is love of various sorts: bitter conjugal, animal, and sound conjugal. A moving story. The other stories are adventure stories dealing with hunting in Africa. 726. NADA THE LILY Longmans; London 1892 Historical and ethnographic novel which might be called THE DOOM OF CHAKA, since the romance indicated by the title is secondary to the "political" aspects of the novel. The story is told by Bopo (otherwise known as Umbopo), an aged blind man, who had been responsible for the death of Chaka and was the power behind the throne for Dingaan, the next king of the Zulus. * The story begins when Bopo and Chaka are both boys, and Bopo gave Chaka water, even though there was hostility between their tribes. Chaka swore brotherhood to Bopo, and held to his pledge. Years later, when Chaka started his conquest of South Africa, Bopo, who had been driven out by his own people, took refuge with Chaka and became his chief wizard. Life with Chaka, oath or no oath, is perilous, for Chaka is a mad dog, with more than a million deaths to his account. Bopo's sister is one of Chaka's wives, and in response to an omen, Chaka orders that her child be strangled. Bopo and his sister evade Chaka's decree by substituting babies, and Bopo rears the child, Chaka's son, as his own. This is the hero Umslopogaas, who appears in other stories by Haggard. When Unslopogaas is a young man, however, Chaka learns something of the truth; the result is a slaughter of both Bopo's family and Chaka's. Umslopogaas is believed dead, for he has been dragged away by a lion. His life is saved by a young man named Galazi, who is the leader of a pack of wolves who may be ancient warriors under enchantment. The two men become blood brothers and Umslopogaas achieves leadership of a small tribe nearby and acquires the magic axe that he carries in later stories. * Bopo, however, has vowed revenge. After visions of the Zulu sky goddess, he lays a successful plan to murder Chaka, who is succeeded by Dingaan. Nada now becomes an important part of the story. She is the most beautiful woman in the area, and Dingaan wants her for his harem. Umslopogaas,

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HAGGARD, H. RIDER who now knows that he is not Bopo's son and that she is not his sister, takes her to wife. The resolution is tragic. An invasion of Dingaan's forces is beaten off, but Galazi and the wolves are all killed; Umslopogaas is disabled by a concussion, and while he is disabled, Nada, who has taken refuge in a cave, is trapped and dies of thirst and starvation. Dingaan is killed, but the Zulus have little to look forward to but defeat and degradation from the Whites, who are beginning to move into the area. * Supernatural elements are profuse, with prophecies, fate, the Sky Goddess, and the supernatural wolf pack, but they are held within cultural context. * This is generally considered to be Haggard's finest work, a sustained, tragic story. While Nada is a sop to the romantic market, the remainder of the book is powerful, imaginative, and filled with cultural detail. 727. STELLA FREGELIUS A TALE OF THREE DESTINIES Longmans, Green; London 1903 A love story with elements of science-fiction and supernaturalism. * Morris Monk, an inventor of good family, is working on a radiolike device which he calls an aerophone. Up to the present he has had only partial success with it, since its working is linked in some way to the compatability of the users. For family and financial reasons Monk is willing to marry his cousin, Mary Porson, even though he does not really love her. Their engagement is announced, but Mary must accompany her ailing father to the Continent, and during their absence, Monk meets his true love. By chance or fate he is present when a ship is wrecked off the coast and he saves the life of Stella Fregelius, the daughter of a local clergyman. Morris and Stella see much of each other. With her help he perfects his invention, and they fall in love. The situation is growing scandalous, and Monk's father breaks up the affair. But before Monk and Stella part, they vow a spiritual marriage, to be effective after death. Stella is killed almost immediately after this. Morris Monk is a broken man, but Mary comforts him and he marries her. She understands the situation and they live together happily. Years later Morris tries to communicate with the dead by means of his invention, but without success. Yet by practicing askesis he is able to see Stella as a silent, smiling simulacrum. Eventually some communication between them takes place during dreams. Morris pines away and dies, perhaps after a breakthrough to Stella. * Told in a leisurely way, with feeling for the strangeness of Stella and a good characterization for Monk Sr. 728. AYESHA THE RETURN OF SHE Ward, Lock; London 1905 The first sequel to SHE. * After their return to England Vincey and Holly cannot forget the wonderful Queen of Kor, nor can they believe that She is really dead. Upon receiving a supernatural sign, therefore, they go in search of She in Central Asia. They wander about for eighteen years and undergo many hardships before they come upon the iand of Kaloon in

HAGGARD, H. RIDER Eastern Turkestan. It is inhabited by a lostrace of Greeks descended from Alexander's armies. The land is ruled by a king, who happens to be mad, and Atene, his beautiful wife, who is Amenartas reincarnated. In the center, of the land stands the mountain of Hes and the Sacred College of Hes, where Leo and Holly expect to find She. Atene, the Khania, tries to stop them, but they attain to the mountain where they meet She, with all her supernatural power, but now a very withered old woman. When She perished in the Flame of Life, it is revealed, her spirit was transferred to the body of the ancient priestess of Hes, who was at that time dying. * Once again Leo must choose between Amenartas and Ayesha, but this time he makes the correct choice and decides for She. His decision is the last of a series of ordeals, physical and psychological, which he has had to pass, and the process of She's redemption has begun. War breaks out between secular Kaloon under Atene and the Sacred College, and She's magic storms sweep· the country. But She's victory is empty. Amenartas has committed suicide, vowing revenge, and once again She accidentally kills Kallikrates (Leo). Leo was impatient to celebrate their marriage, while Ayesha, who has been transformed back into her former great beauty, was reluctant, since she was no longer completely human. When she kisses Leo, he dies. She thereupon once again vanishes in the flame and goes to the land of the dead to seek Leo. Holly returns to England and writes down the record of events. * There is a fair amount of background magic in the story-- clairvoyance, prediction, magical control of others, death by will, weather control, to say nothing of the activities of the hostile goddesses, Isis and Aphrodite, behind the scenes. One of the more interesting characters is the ancient shaman Simbri, the great-uncle of Atene. * With AYESHA we see a shift in the interpretation of She. Though still fiery and impetuous, she is no longer described as a monster of wickedness, but as Leo's rightful mate, a spirit incarnated for his sake. Amenartas is now considered the intruder. * A good adventure story with many excellent moments, but without the sombre charm of SHE. 729. BENITA AN AFRICAN ROMANCE Cassell; London 1906 American title THE SPIRIT OF BAMBATSE. * Present-day Rhodesia, c. 1890. The background situation: some time in the 17th century Portuguese traders and exploiters were driven from their gold fields by Black expansion and fled, with a fortune of gold, northward, eventually coming to the Zimbabwe-like fortress of Bambatse. There they made a last stand and all died. The last person to die was a woman, Benita Ferreira, who leaped from a rock spire into the river. Her ghost, according to the Bambatse, still haunts the ruins. * Benita Clifford (who is partly of Portuguese African descent), her father, and Jacob Meyer, a villainous person who happens to be Clifford's partner, are permitted to search for the

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HAGGARD, H. RIDER treasure in exchange for a thousand rifles and ammunition, which the peaceful Bambatse need against the invading Matabele. Benita finds the treasure, but not before considerable hardship and peril. Supernatural elements enter with a sort of telepathy between Benita and Meyer, Meyer's mesmeric abilities, the ghost of the earlier Benita, the ghost's possession of Benita Clifford, prophecies, and omens. There is also a contrived romance and a striking picture of African life. * A good adventure story, but without the power or depth of some of Haggard's other work. 730. THE GHOST KINGS Cassell; London 1908 American title THE LADY OF THE HEAVENS. * African adventure, based in part on contemporary British theoretical anthropology. Rudyard Kipling is said to have contributed to the plot, although it is not known exactly what Kipling did. * When the Doves, British missionaries, open their station just across the river from the bloody empire of the Zulu king Dingaan, it is obvious to everyone that there will be trouble. * The plot is very complex. Rachel Dove, the daughter of the family, arouses the desires of the Lion, a renegade Briton who has gone native in the worst way. She also establishes a relationship with a very decent young Englishman, though for a long time it is feared that he is dead. Rachel saves the life of a mysterious young woman who belongs to an unknown race, the grey-skinned Ghost People. Dingaan's magicians declare that Rachel is the Lady of the Heavens, or an incarnation of the Zulu sky goddess. Dingaan summons her to his court, and to prevent the slaughter of her family and the mission natives, she agrees to go. The horrors of the trip and residence at the king's kraal are too much for her, and she temporarily loses her mind. The Zulus decide that only the magic of the Ghost People can help her, and send her on to the north to meet them. The Ghost People, it is revealed, have great magical powers, but they are not entirely benevolent. They also live in a peculiar magical relationship with their environment. Each member of the tribe is psychically attached to a tree, with which he has a life bond. If his tree is cut down, he dies. There is also one tree for the whole tribe. * A conflict breaks out among the Ghost. People, for there is disagreement about what should be done with Rachel. The dominant party wants to kill her. But with the help of the dying queen, Rachel holds out long enough to be rescued by her young man. The tree that symbolizes the race is killed, and the Ghost People die. * An excellent long, detailed description of pioneer life on the Veldt is a strong point, but the romance is extraneous and weak. 731. THE YELLOW GOD Cupples and Leon; New York 1908 Crooked finance in England, thwarted romance, effectively functioning fetishes, and erotic

HAGGARD, H. RIDER captivity in darkest Africa. * Some years before, Alan Vernon's uncle, who was a missionary in Africa, spent some time in the land of the Asiki. He left rather hurriedly, taking with him a golden fetish mask named Little Bonsa. Or, as the Asiki put it, Little Bonsa took the missionary away, since it was tired of life in Asikiland. The mask is definitely supernatural. It can offer horrible visions and seemingly float through the air toward one. Back in Bonsa Town there is another fetish, Big Bonsa, the mate to Little Bonsa. Both are deadly. * Alan Vernon, recovering from black water fever from his trip to Africa, has become entangled with crooked entrepreneurs, and as a last resort to gain enough money to preserve the family estate and marry Barbara, decides to take Little Bonsa back to the Asiki and ask for some of their plentiful gold. He and Jeekie, his comic servant, make their way through perils, with the fetish, which is recognized and feared, ensuring their safety. At Bonsa Town there is an unexpected development. Asika, the beautiful, vicious priestessqueen of the land, confesses to a passion for Alan and decides that he shall be her next husband, as soon as the present one dies. Asika is Haggard's extreme attempt to present devouring woman: beautiful, sensual, frenzied, unspeakably cruel and vicious. In some fashion she is perpetually reincarnated and has memory of lives for at least two thousand years. During this long tUne on earth she has been married many tUnes and her collection of mummified husbands is enormous. * Alan and Jeekie escape after wounding Big Bonsa, who is some sort of unexplained monstrosity; meet Barbara in the jungle; and return to England with gold and jewels. The wicked capitalist turns up and meets a horrible fate at Asika's hands. * Not one of Haggard's better works. 732. MORNING STAR Cassell; London 1910 Romance and supernatural morality in Ancient Egypt. TUne is not specified, but events take place after the expulsion of the Hyksos, perhaps 1,500 to 1,200 B.C. The manuscript was read for accuracy by Haggard's friend the Egyptologist E. Wallis Budge. * The story line is of a supernatural come-uppance. When Prince Abi plots against his half-brother the weak, childless reigning pharaoh, he learns from Kaku, his court astrologer, that he shall thrive for twenty years, after which his star shall be swallowed by the morning star. Such proves to be the case. A daughter is unexpectedly born to the queen, and she is called Neter-Tua, Morning Star. She grows up to be a strong-willed, capable woman, and she falls in love with her childhood playmate, Rames, the last descendant of a previous royal house now greatly humbled. Rames is sent out of the country to the separatist kingdom of Cush (Upper Egypt), where he has dynastic claims, and Neter-Tua is trapped by Abi, who wants to marry her for the throne. The old pharaoh has been killed by Kaku's doll magic. But Asti, Neter-Tua's companion and Rames's

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HAGGARD, H. RIDER mother, is an even stronger magician, for the gods work through her. She dissociates NeterTua's ka (or spiritual body), which has almost divine powers. As divinity incarnate the ka marries Abi and makes life Unpossible for him, while Neter-Tua and Asti escape to Cush. They are conveyed part of their way on a boat operated by the kas of the dead pharaoh and Asti's husband. With Rames they return and take over the kingdom, being aided by a physical embodUnent of the great god Amen. * Other supernatural matters include visions, appearances of the dead, crystal ball scrying, control of the elements, and prophecies. Well structured, but with a vein of cruelty in' the excursion of the wholly-other into human life. 733. THE MAHATMA AND THE HARE A DREAM STORY Longmans, Green; London 1911 Haggard, who was a Norfolk squire and in earlier days an avid hunter, apparently had some sort of psychic experience which dramatized for hUn the cruelty of blood sports. The present book is a fictionalized argument, in fantastic terms, against such brutality. * The narrator, as a result of his acquaintance with a powerful spiritual figure named Jorsen, has become a mahatma and nightly, in his dreams, wanders the Great White Road-- the path taken by departing souls after death. He sees a hare coming up the road, and he and the hare converse. The hare tells hUn a horrible tale of human brutality, culminating in its death as it is fished out of the sea, in which it tries to take refuge, and torn to pieces by the hounds. During the hare's last moments the squire who owned the property had a stroke and died. His spirit, too, comes along the Great White Road. He and the hare dispute their roles in the life, the hare having the better of the argument. An appeal is made to the authorities-- the Voices-- and the hare is justified. * Well-handled. 734. RED EVE Hodder and Stoughton; London [1911] Semihistorical fantasy set in mid-14th century England, Venice, and Avignon. Treason, the French and English Wars, romance, and the Black Death link four characters: Hugh de Cressi, Red Eve Clavering, Sir Edmund Acour, and Grey Dick. Hugh, the younger son of a merchant, though of noble descent, is in love with Eve, who reciprocates. Against them are Eve's family and Acour, who is both a spy for the French and a despicable person. He wants to marry Eve for her money and her physical charms, and will stop at nothing. After much turmoil and skulduggery Acour drugs her and marries her while she is only half-conscious. The body of the novel thereafter is devoted to Hugh's attempt to catch the traitor and release Eve. Much assistance is given by Grey Dick, a strange personality who is an archer of Robin Hood's calibre. The supernatural enters with Murgh, who is the Black Death or Plague personified and hypostatized. He appears in weird human guise, displays many supernatural powers, and forces the pace and

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HAGGARD, H. RIDER path of the action. With Murgh's aid Hugh and Eve come together, and Acour is killed. Meanwhile Europe lies dying under the plague. * One of the better late novels. While the personalities are still stereotyped, the tendency to be sententious is not as obtrusive as usual, and the narrative is relatively brisk. The introduction of Murgh as a symbol is successful. 735. THE WANDERER'S NECKLACE Cassell; London 1914 Historical romance and adventure. Memories of an earlier incarnation. * The narrator tells of his life as Olaf Thorvaldson, a Dane of the later part of the 8th century A.D. Olaf, who has been cheated in love by a loose woman, breaks his ties with his land and family and leaves the country. In the court of Byzantium he rises to become general of the Imperial bodyguard, but has the misfortune to be attractive to the widowed and wicked Empress Irene. (While still in Denmark he had had dreams and visions which informed him of a still earlier incarnation in Ancient Egypt. There he had had a wife, and when they were forced to part, each took half of a scarab necklace.) Olaf, guided by a vision, has found half of the necklace in an ancient barrow, and the other half is owned by Heliodore, a young Egyptian woman of high descent. Both Heliodore and Olaf recognize their previous bond and fa1l in'love. The thwarted Irene, however, has Olaf blinded, and it is only after considerable pain and difficulty that Olaf and Heliodore are united. Eventually, beyond the memories of the 20th century narrator, Olaf, wife, family, and friends return to Denmark to escape the intrigues of the Byzantine Empire. * An emasculated 8th century, with Olaf a proper English gentleman of the Victorian period. 736. THE IVORY CHILD Cassell; London 1916 African adventure with supernatural elements. The first part takes place before ALLAN AND THE HOLY FLOWER, the second part shortly thereafter. * In England, Allan Quatermain becomes acquainted with Lord Ragnall and his fiancee, Miss Luna Holmes. At a house party Allan is instrumental in saving Miss Holmes from two strange African magicians, Harut and Marut, who try to kidnap her and take her back to Africa with them. * Some years later Lord Ragnall visits Allan in Africa and tells him of his tragedy. He and Luna had been married. They had a child, which was killed by an elephant in a procession, and as a result of this Luna lost her mind. Ragnall took her on a health trip, but while they were on the Nile, she disappeared from their boat. Ragnall is not sure whether she is dead or not. * To Allan, however, the story is clear: she has been kidnapped by Harut and Marut, the two priests of the White Kendah, who believe that she is the incarnation of their oracle-priestess. The Kendah, Allan has learned, are divided into two groups: the White Kendah, who are racially much like their Ancient Egyptian ancestors and worship an ivory figure of Horus; and the Black Kendah, who are negroid

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HAGGARD, H. RIDER and worship Jana, a gigantic, invulnerable elephant, who is the embodiment of Evil. Jana, it is said, has been magically treated so that neither White nor Black may injure him. Eventually, a whole nexus of relationships is uncovered. Luna is the incarnation of the Ivory Child's priestess; Jana is destined to be killed during Quatermain's visit; the White Kendah and the Black will war; the Ivory Child is to be destroyed; but the White Kendah will win the war. Allan, Hans, Ragnall and RagnaIl's man make their way to the Kendah territory, where events turn out as in the prophecy. Allan discovers that his bullets are useless against Jana. He is almost ki1led by the gigantic elephant, but Hans, his faithful Hottentot servant, shoots Jana and saves him. The priests had forgotten to immunize Jana against yellow men. Hans, however, is killed. Ragnall's wife is rescued and regains her mind. * There is much magic in the background, what with the doings of Harut and Marut, who produce visions, are clairvoyant, and can work other types of magic. The elephant does seem to be an embodiment of evil. Although the basic plot is much like that of other Haggard novels, the incidents are well handled and the power of Fate is well indicated. 737. WHEN THE WORLD SHOOK BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT ADVENTURE OF BASTIN. BICKLEY AND ARBUTHNOT Cassell; London [1919} Semi-allegorical science-fiction and adventure. * After a long and digressive introductory section, Arbuthnot and his friends Bickley (science) and Bastin (narrow religiosity) are cast up on a savage Polynesian island. Bastin enrages the natives by his fanaticism, and the Whites take refuge in a tabu area. There they find the remains of a once great civilization, including marvelous statuary (prototypical of Easter Island sculpture) and ruined flying machines. Within a cave they find two members of the ancient race lying in suspended animation. Arbuthnot and his associates revive the sleepers and learn that they are Oro, the priest-king of the great civilization and Yva, his daughter. They have been asleep for about 250,000 years. (In intermittent incarnations Yva has served as Arbuthnot's wife.) Oro (pride) has great powers, both scientific and paranormal, but he is a fanatic and megalomaniac, and when he discovers that the peoples of the earth are as sinful as they had been in the past, he decides to change the configuration of the continents and destroy most of the human race. It had been his doing, in the past, that the ancient civilization had been destroyed. The party goes far into the earth, where on a track, a gigantic internal gyroscopic mechanism maintains the earth's equilibrium. Oro plans to shift its path, but Yva (love) sacrifices herself to save the world. Also present is a tour of the world at war by Oro and Arbuthnot, as transported in the spirit by Oro. * A good idea, but too great length, the allegorical nature of the characters (which are not well handled), and sentimental religiosity damage the story.

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738. THE ANCIENT ALLAN Cassell; London [ 1920) Historical romance and adventure. A direct sequel, though years have passed, to THE IVORY CHILD. Allan Quatermain, now resident in England, receives a communication from the widowed Lady Ragnall. Each had thought the other dead, and it was only by chance that Lady Ragnall learned of Quatermain' s whereabouts. On a visit to her he learns of further connections that the Ivory Child had with Ancient Egypt. Lady Ragnall had brought back with her a quantity of a magical herb that the Kendah used to open the psyche, and together they inhale the fumes of the herb, reliving ancient incarnations. Allan is the Egyptian nobleman Shabaka; Lady Ragnall is his sweetheart, Princess Amada, daughter of the pretender to the throne; and Hans, the faithful Hottentot, is the Ethiopian dwarf Karoon, otherwise known as Bes. Bes, though King of the Ethiopians, serves Shabaka. Shabaka has been summoned to the court of the Persian King of Kings to demonstrate the Egyptian manner of lion hunting, but he offends the vicious king and is sentenced to death. He is reprieved when the king has bad dreams, and is sent to Egypt to fetch Amada for the royal harem. Once back in Egypt he joins the rebellion against the Persians, but when Amada rejects him (since she believes that he traded her for his freedom in Persia) goes south to Ethiopia with Bes. There Bes regains his kingdom, and with his troops, in alliance with Egyptian loyal forces, the Persians are expelled. Shabaka and Amada are married, but Amada now bears the curse of Isis. This is why her marriages through the ages have been unfortunate. Ragnall's death was in consequence of the curse. Allan and Lady Ragnall now reawaken in the present. * Other fantasy elements include scrying and the paranormal abilities of the sage Tanofir. Reasonably good adventure mate~ial in the first portion of the novel, but threadbare characterizations and Victorian ethics. 739. THE MISSIONARY AND THE WITCH-DOCTOR Paget Literary Agency; New York 1920 paperbound A separate publication for copyright purposes. * Nouvelle set in Africa. The Rev. Thomas Bull, an arrogant, aggressive egotist, accepts a mission in Sisa country even though the situation is obviously going to be difficult for his wife and young daughter. The natives, who are a branch of the Zulu nation, are divided in loyalties, some (including the chief) leaning toward Christianity, others, led by the magician Menzi, holding to their ancestral religion. Due to Bull's unsympathetic personality there is much hostility between the two groups, although his daughter Tabitha is highly regarded by Menzi. When Bull scoffs at Menzi's magical abilities, Menzi, who was a pupil of Zikali's, produces true supernatural magic, including visions, foreknowledge, and serpent control. The hostility between the two men is somewhat lessened when Menzi saves Ta-

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HAGGARD, H. RIDER bitha from dying of snakebite, but Bull is too stubborn to learn humility. The point of the story, which must have infuriated many contemporary readers, is that a pagan medicine man could be a better Christian than a professed minister. * This story is reprinted in collections under the title LITTLE FLOWER. * The present publication is one of the peculiar side issues of American copyright law of the time. A British publication, to gain full copyright protection in the United States, had to be physically published within two years after its registration, or else it would enter the public domain. The Paget Agency, and other agencies, occasionally printed small editions of a dozen or two copies of potentially valuable properties, and, to comply with the letter of the law, would sell them to the office boy or friends for a token price. Such semi-official publications, of course, are now very rare. Other such publications in this volume are THE DREAM OF X by William Hope Hodgson and THE CUPBOARD by Jeffery Farnolo 740. SHE AND ALLAN Longmans; New York 1920 An interweaving of two popular story chains, the adventures of Allan Quatermain (and his associates Hans the Hottentot and the Zulu champion Umslopogaas) and the romance of SheWho-Must-Be-Obeyed. It is set chronologically a short time before the Vincey-Holly expedition described in SHE. * Allan Quatermain, the brooding sceptic who would like to believe, is once again suffering doubts about the nature of life and death, and is looking for certainty about the fate of his beloved dead. He asks the Zulu wizard Zikali, who admits his ignorance and powerlessness in this area, but tells Allan of a much greater figure, with whom he has been in telepathic contact. This is She in K6r. Zikali, too, wants the answer to a question and he suggests that Allan take along the Zulu prince Umslopogaas, whom Allan now first meets. Unslopogaas also wants knowledge about his dead, Nada and the Wolf Man. * The passage to Kor is perilous, further complicated by the presence of Robertson, a mad missionary, and his daughter, who play a secondary role in the story. The situation at K6r, however, is not what it was when Leo and Holly came, for Ayesha is at war with Rezu, a gigantic male K6rian who had also entered the Flame of Life and is immortal and almost invulnerable. Rezu has set himself up as a sun god and demands human sacrifices. In exchange for aid against Rezu, whom Umslopogaas kills in fulfillment of an ancient prophecy, She sends the travellers beyond the doors of death, where they both find what they have been seeking. She also reveals the answer that Zikali wanted. But Allan is still not satisfied, for he cannot accept either She's history or her powers. * There is also a fair amount of background supernaturalism, some of which is centered on Zikali's token, which is apparently his spirit placing. * Despite the unnecessary missionary, an imaginative, entertaining adventure story.

HAGGARD, H. RIDER 741 . SMITH AND THE PHARAOHS AND OTHER TALES Arrowsmith; Bristol 1920 Short stories and nouvelles, including [a] LITTLE FLOWER. Alternate title for THE MISSIONARY AND THE WITCH-DOCTOR, described elsewhere. [b] SMITH AND THE PHARAOHS. Nouve lle. J. E. Smith, a bank clerk, is fascinated by an Egypttian portrait bust at the British Museum. The subject of the bust is unknown. When Smith inherits money, he undertakes yearly trips to Egypt, where he excavates, hoping to find the prototype of the bust. He seems almost guided in his selection of site, and after a few years he finds the tomb of Queen Ma-Mee. the original of the bust. He treats her few physical relics with reverence and deposits most of his finds in the Egyptian museum. One evening, he loses track of time, and is locked in at the museum. It happens to be the night of the annual revival of the ancient rulers of Egypt. He is interrogated, and while technically he has profaned their resting places, he is forgiven at the intercession of Ma-Mee. Present are Cleopatra and Rameses II. [c] ONLY A DREAM. The narrator, the evening before his second marriage, broods about his dead first wife. She had told him that she would think of him when he married again. Her ghost appears to him and tells him, that since she could not give her life to him, she shall give him her death. She leaves her skull. The narrator awakens, wondering if he can marry. [d] BARBARA WHO CAME BACK. Nouvelle, county life. Barbara's son turns out to be a violent, worthless cad. Barbara, who is in the afterworld with her husband and friends, decides to be reborn as her son's child, in the hope of stabilizing him. * Of the new material [b], although overlong, has psychological interest. [c] is a nicely done horror story. 742. WISDOM'S DAUGHTER THE LIFE AND LOVE STORY OF SHE-WHO-MUST-BE-OBEYED Hutchinson; London [1923] Haggard's last book about She, but the earliest in She's life. It is a manuscript written by Ayesha during her embodiment as Hes in Central Asia, after the arrival of Leo and Holly. * Ayesha, an Arabian princess of great beauty, is in a wayan incarnation of Isis, the great Mother Goddess, instituted to wreak divine vengeance on Egypt around the time of the Persian conquest by Artaxerxes. She becomes high priestess of Isis in Egypt, and on being treated insultingly because of her beauty, brings destruction on Egypt, Sidon, and Artaxerxes. As a second plot the goddess Aphrodite, the enemy of Isis, has placed a curse on Ayesha, so that she falls in love with Kallikrates, a handsome Greek wanderer. The eternal triangle begins here: Ayesha, Kallikrates, and the Egyptian princess Arnenartas. * When Egypt falls, Ayesha proceeds south to K8r, to join her old master Noot, in what might be called a secondary center of the cult of the Mother, around the Flame of Life. After a time Arnenartas and the fickle Kallikrates also arrive, and the duel between the two women comes to its first conclusion. Ayesha is growing old, and

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HAGGARD, H. RIDER to regain her youth, enters the Flame of Life. She is transformed into the remarkable, immortal being, She. Along with her physical transformatLon occurs a psychic change as human attributes, in part, slough off. In a moment of passion, before she realizes her supernatural powers, she causes the death of Kallikrates. The pregnant Arnenartas is escorted back to civilization, and Ayesha learns her fate: that she must wait alone in K6r until Kallikrates is reincarnated and comes back to her. * Here Ayesha is no longer passion incarnate, nor an immortal spirit, but a mortal woman captive to forces stronger than herself: love and the supernatural. * WISDOM'S DAUGHTER is a tired book, without the baroque charm of the earlier books about She-Who-Must-BeObeyed, at times boring in its chronicle of Near Eastern disaster. But it does convey a feeling of relentless doom as Ayesha not only loses what she desires, but interferes with the cosmic plan. 743. HEU-HEU OR THE MONSTER Hutchinson; London [1924] African. adventure, set chronologically before KING SOLOMON'S MINES. * Allan Quate~main, now retired in England, tells a story of his youthful adventures. Many years earlier, when Allan was trading in the back areas with his Hottentot servant Hans, a violent electrical storm drove them to seek shelter in a nearby cave that Hans knew about. In the cave was a remarkable ancient painting of a gigantic, grotesque gorilla-like being of apparent intelligence. It is the god Heu-Heu. Allan asks Zikali, the great witch-doctor, about it, and soon finds himself on a quest to the land of of the Walloo where Heu-Heu still lives and is worshipped. There are several reasons for Allan's journey: he is to rescue the local princess from being sacrificed to Heu-Heu; he is to bring back to Zikali leaves of a certain tree that survives as a single specimen in Heu-Heu's sanctuary (Zikali uses the leaves to produce visions); and he is to get diamonds and rubies for his efforts. The expedition is a partial success. The princess is saved and the priestly cult wiped out; Heu-Heu is revealed to be a costumed man on stilts; and Allan returns to Zikali with the leaves. But he forgets the diamonds and rubies. There is also a tribe of apelike missing links who are almost exterminated by Allan. * Supernaturalism is not as strong as in some of Allan's other African adventures. It is concentrated mostly in the abilities of Zikali, the greatest witch-doctor that Africa has ever produced. While the lost-race aspects of the Wal100 are somewhat stale, the descriptions of Black native life, as always, are fascinatingly handled. 744. TREASURE OF THE LAKE Hutchinson; London [1926] Adventure, with some attempt at greater psyChOlogical analysis than is usual in the earlier novels. * Quatermain the hunter becomes acquainted with the native Kaneke, who is, as Hans puts it, two men: a ruthless chief and a

RAGGARD, H. RIDER a dreamer. Kaneke has been expelled from the distant land of the Engoi and he wishes to return as king. He enlists Allan's aid. The Engoi, it is revealed, are ruled by a sacred priestess with supernatural powers and her consort. When they age, they are put to death. As Quatermain and Kaneke make their way to the land of the Engoi, it becomes obvious that Kaneke is something of a scoundrel, and yet his ability to foresee things is remarkable. Along the way Allan rescues Arkle, a white man who has also been expelled from the land of the Engoi. He is under a geas, for he has been drawn from England by the power of the priestess, the Treasure of the Lake, or the Shadow as she is variously called, who is his soul-mate. Aided by magic the three reach Engoi. War breaks out and Kaneke defects to the enemy. Natural catastrophes caused by supernatural means, magic of various sorts, including control of wild animals, defeat the enemy and Arkle is installed as the new Divine King. He has hopes of breaking the -old sacrificial system. Reincarnation is also involved, and it is revealed that the whole adventure had been foreseen and planned by Kumpana, the chief native medium, who is the real source of power that the Shadow taps. Allan is annoyed at being a toy of Fate. * A good adventure story, obviously influenced by the work of James Frazer. 745. ALLAN AND THE ICE-GODS A TALE OF BEGINNINGS Hutchinson; London [1927J A direct sequel to THE ANCIENT ALLAN. * Allan Quatermain believes that Lady Ragnall is setting her cap for him and hurriedly drops her acquaintance. After a short time he hears that she has died and has left her great wealth to him. Allan refuses the bequest, but cannot reject the remembrance that Lady Ragnall has left him, the casket of taduki leaves. At the urging of a friend he undergoes the fumes once more and relives a previous incarnation. He was Wi, a cave man of the Upper Paleolithic, who lived somewhere in Northern Europe during the last ice age. An intelligent, good-hearted man, he lives a full life with his family and fellows until he rescues the beautiful blonde Laleela from the sea. She is from a much higher, neolithic civilization in the South, probably Lakedwellers. Wi and Laleela fall in love, and although he cannot wed her, she becomes a spiritual mate of a sort, to the great annoyance of Aaka, his physical wife. The glaciers begin to advance rapidly, and most of Wi's people die. Wi, Laleela, Aaka and others try to escape over the sea to the South. Wi is about to die when one of the women leaps into the sea to die with him. It is not clear whether it was Laleela or Aaka, thus offering a ladyor-the-tiger situation. As the book ends, Allan tries to solve the problem and muses over the meaning of it all. * Routine. ~ITH ANDREW LANG: (biographical comments below) 746. THE WORLD'S DESIRE A NOVEL Longmans; London 1890 The fate of Helen after the Trojan War was a

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RAINING, PETER topic of speculation in the Classical world, and several different stories are recorded. Lang, who was a great Classical scholar and folklorist, here brings her into association with the great Odysseus. * Odysseus returns to his home in Ithaca, to find everyone dead and the buildings in ruins. Apparently the plague has struck. Only his great black bow survives unharmed. In his despair he goes to the temple and appeals to the gods. Aphrodite responds. She chides him for neglecting her, but offers him a boon. The World's Desire (Helen, beauty, Woman), shall be his. But there is a condition attached: if he yields to any other woman, he shall die. He is told of a supernatural sign by which he can recognize Helen. * Odysseus is thereupon kidnapped by Sidonian traders who plan to give him as a slave to the pharaoh of Egypt. But Odysseus overcomes his captors and goes ashore as a free man, clad in the golden armor of Paris. Although he is not aware of it, his appearance fulfills a prophecy which concerns the queen of Egypt. Odysseus is almost immediately caught up in intrigues. Pharaoh's wife falls passionately in love with him, and intends to put the pharaoh away so that she can marry Odysseus. Odysseus locates Helen, who is called the Other Hathor by the Egyptians and worshipped as a goddess, because of her supernal beauty. Odysseus tries to be true to Helen, but the queen, invoking the aid of a magical serpent (lust?) assumes Helen's appearance and seduces Odysseus. Odysseus's doom has come upon him, and he dies as pharaoh's general, defeating an invasion of the People of the Sea. He is killed by Telegonus, his son by Circe. The et~rnal Helen places him on his pyre and disappears. * Supernatural elements include the Biblical plagues of the Exodus; visions; and the nature of Helen as embodied symbol. The writing tries to hit the mood of Lang's translation of the ODYSSEY; the interpretation of He len echoes his poem ''He len of Troy." * All contrived and without much fictional conviction. * Roger L. Green in his ANDREW LANG reveals that each author wrote separate sections, but that there was much mutual rewriting, with Haggard considered senior author. RAINING, PETER [ALEXANDER] (1940British anthologist active in both mystery and supernatural fiction. Journalist, publishing executive (New English Library), freelance writer. Anthologies often show considerable resourcefulness in gathering unusual and interesting material. Most of his work falls after the termination date of this book. AS EDITOR: 747. THE GENTLEWOMEN OF EVIL AN ANTHOLOGY OF RARE SUPERNATURAL STORIES FROM THE PENS OF VICTORIAN LADIES Robert Hale; London 1967 Short stories, including, described elsewhere, raJ TRANSFORMATION, Mary Shelley. [bJ THE OPEN DOOR, Margaret Oliphant. [cJ THE ITALIAN'S STORY, Catherine Crowe. [dJ THE OLD NURSE'S TALE, Elizabeth Gaskell. [eJ THE

HAINING, PETER PHANTOM COACH, Amelia B. Edwards. [f] THE LIFTED VEIL, George Eliot. Carried as by Mary Ann Evans. [g] EVELINE'S VISITANT, Mary E. Braddon. [h] SANDY THE TINKER, Mrs. Charlotte Riddell. [i] AT THE DIP OF THE ROAD, Mrs. Molesworth. [j] A TALE OF A GAS-LIGHT GHOST, Anonymous. * Also [k] THE GORGON'S HEAD, Gertrude Bacon. The captain of the vessel tells an excursion group of his adventure in the haunted cavern on a Greek island. Medusa. He escaped by looking into a pool of water. 748. THE MIDNIGHT PEOPLE BEING EIGHTEEN TERRIFYING AND BIZARRE TALES OF VAMPIRES Leslie Frewin; London 1968 Historical material excerpted from various sources and some fiction, including, described elsewhere, [a] THE VAMpYRE, John Polidori. Version without the editorial material. [b] "THE STORM VISITOR, Thomas Preskett Prest." A fragment from VARNEY, THE VAMPYRE, by J. M. Rymer. [c] AN EPISODE OF CATHEDRAL HISTORY, M. R. James. [d1 "AND NO BIRD SINGS," E. F. Benson. [e] THE DRIFTING SNOW, August Derleth. [f] WHEN IT WAS MOONLIGHT, Manly Wade Wellman. [g] PILLAR OF FIRE, Ray Bradbury. [h] THE GIRL WITH THE HUNGRY EYES, Fritz Leiber, Jr. [j] OVER THE RIVER, P. Schuyler Miller. [j] THE LIVING DEAD, Robert Bloch. Alternate title for UNDERGROUND. * Also [k] BAT'S BELFRY, August Derleth. (WT 1926) Derleth's first story in WT. The moors, an old cottage, strange books, bats in the cellar, a bloodless corpse, journal fragments, vampires. [1] THE BELIEVER, Sydney Horler. Father R--- knew a real vampire who confessed to his deeds. They go to Scotland Yard about it. [m] DR. PORTHOS, Basil Copper. Guess who is the vampire. [n] DRINK MY BLOOD, Richard Matheson. (IMAGINATION 1951). Alternate title for BLOOD SON. Young Jules desperately wants to become a vampire when he grows up. He steals a bat from a zoo and pleads with it, slashing his own throat to feed it. [0] THREE YOUNG LADIES, Bram Stoker. A fragment from DRACULA. 749. GOTHIC TALES OF TERROR VOLUME ONE. CLASSIC HORROR STORIES FROM GREAT BRITAIN Penguin Books, Inc.; Baltimore, Md. 1973 Short stories and fragments, including [a] SIR BERTRAND, Mrs. Anne L. Barbauld. 1773. Fragment of an unfinished novel, medieval in setting, with considerable supernaturalism of the sort found in romances of chivalry. [b) THE MONK OF HORROR, OR, THE CONCLAVE OF CORPSES, Anonymous. 1798. A monk in the convent of Kreutzberg visits the vaults to inspect the dead, who are waiting for him and warn him. [c) THE NYMPH OF THE FOUNTAIN, J. K. Musaeus. Attributed here to William Beckford. Described elsewhere. [d) THE BLACK SPIDER, Anonymous. c. 1800. Rudolpho de Burkart, a young student of occult matters releases a supernatural black spider from its magical confinement, on the promise of assistance in his affairs. The help, which involves transfer of personality, is deceptive and treacherous, and Rudolpho loses his soul.

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HAINING, PETER Renaissance Germany. Semihumorous. [e) THE WATER SPECTRE, Francis Lathom. c. 1810. Medieval Scotland. In some ways an outgrowth of MACBETH. Usurpation. murder, prophecies by the Weird Sisters. A ghost seen three times indicates the villain's death. [f) SECRETS OF CABALISM, OR RAVENSTONE AND ALICE OF HUNTINGTON, William Child Green. 16th century England. Fanciful treatment of a historical incident, with some slight supernaturalism via astrology. [g) THE UNKNOWN! OR, THE KNIGHT OF THE BLOOD-RED PLUME, Anne of Swansea. (pseud. of Mrs, Julia Anne Curtis). Romantic Gothic, chivalric material in medievval Wales. Derivative from THE MONK by M. G. Lewis. The maiden Erilda is tempted by the fiend Wertwrold, who comes in the guise of a handsome young knight, at the behest of a magic ring. For his sake Erilda kills her father and is damned. [h) THE DANCE OF THE DEAD, Anonymous. c. 1810. Medieval Germany. When the piper Willibald is cheated out of his due (he had saved the life of the burgomaster by playing magical music), he protests. He is thrown into prison, where he dies. But his spirit arises each night and awakens the dead, who dance about the town. [j] LEIXLIP CASTLE, Charles R. Maturin. Described elsewhere. [j] THE VAMPYRE, John Polidori. Short version, without the editorial additions [k] THE ASSASSINS, Percy Bysshe Shelley. 1814 Fragment of an unfinished Oriental tale. The author planned to introduce the Wandering Jew, but the small portion that he wrote contains no explicitly supernatural material. [1] THE DREAM, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Described elsewhere. [m] THE BURIAL. Lord George Gordon Byron. Alternate title for FRAGMENT. Described elsewhere. [n] A TALE FOR A CHIMNEY CORNER, Leigh Hunt. 1819. Germany. Otto, who has apparently driven his wife to her death by his temper, is permitted a second chance. She returns from the dead with the understanding that she will remain only as long as he controls himself. When he lapses, he finds only a set of clothing where she had been. [0] THE SPECTRE BRIDE, William Harrison Ainsworth. 1821. Heavily supernatural, immature work. The gentle Clotilda is fascinated and misled by a purported lover who turns out to be the Wandering Jew. He ruins her, just as he has 999 other young women. Alternate title for THE BARON'S BRIDE. [p] THE DICE, Thomas De Quincey. Alternate title for THE MAGIC DICE, described elsewhere. [q] THE TALE OF THE MYSTERIOUS MIRROR, Sir Walter Scott. Alternate title for MY AUNT MARGARET'S MIRROR. Described elsewhere. [r] THE MAGIC WATCH, attributed here to Raphael the occultist. Described elsewhere under the title THE DIAMOND WATCH. It is probably not by Raphael. [s] THE DEMON OF THE HARTZ, OR, THE THREE CHARCOAL BURNERS, erroneously attributed to Thomas P. Prest. Alternate title for WALDECK, Anonymous, described elsewhere. [t] THE DEVIL'S WAGER, William Makepeace Thackeray. 1836. Medieval France. The devil Mercurius has the soul of Sir Roger de

HAINING, PETER Rollo in tow. He will be released if he can persuade a member of his family to sayan ave for him. It is difficult, but he tricks his brother, who is a black magician, into saying the prayer. [u] THE EXPEDITION INTO HELL, James Hogg. Alternate title for GEORGE DOBSON'S EXPEDITION TO HELL. Described elsewhere. [v] THE GHOST AND THE BONE-SETTER, J. Sheridan LeFanu. With the preface linking it to the other Purcell Papers. Described elsewhere. * Other material, not fantastic, is included by Horace Walpole, Nathan Drake, M. G. Lewis, and E. G. Bulwer-Lytton. An excerpt from THE MYSTERIES OF THE INQUISITION is wrongly attributed to G. W. M. Reynolas. * Often unusual material, although much of it does not fit my definition of Gothic. There may be questions about [b] and [d]. * The edition described is not the first edition. This is GREAT BRITISH TALES OF TERROR, GOTHIC STORIES OF HORROR AND ROMANCE (Gollancz; London 1972). It has not been seen. 750. GOTHIC TALES OF TERROR VOLUME TWO CLASSIC HORROR STORIES FROM EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES Penguin Books, Inc.; Baltimore, Md. 1973 paperbound Gothic, Romantic, and a little Victorian material. Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE NEW MELUSINA, J. W. von Goethe. [b] THE GHOST-SEER, Friedrich von Schiller. [c] THE BRIDE OF THE GRAVE,· J. L. Tieck. Alternate title for WAKE NOT THE DEAD. [d] THE FIELD OF TERROR, F. de la Motte Fouque. [e] THE BOTTLE-IMP, F. de la Motte Fouque. Misattributed here to J. K. Musaeus. [f] THE SPECTRE BARBER, J. K. Musaeus. Carried here as by unknown authorship. [g] THE CREMONA VIOLIN, E. T. A. Hoffmann. [h] THE FATAL MARKSMAN, J. W. Apel. Alternate title for DER FREISCHOTz. [i] THE DEVIL'S LADDER, here attributed to Alois W. Schreiber. [j] THE WANDERING JEW'S SENTENCE, Eugene Sue. A fragment from the novel. [k] RIP VAN WINKLE, Washington Irving. [1] THE ADVENTURE OF THE GERMAN STUDENT, Washington Irving. [m] HUGHES THE WER-WOLF, Sutherland Menzies. [n] SHADOW--A PARABLE, E. A. Poe. [0] THE CHRISTMAS BANQUET, Nathaniel Hawthorne. [p] THE POSSESSED ONE, Anonymous. * For· the following stories the dates are those given by Haining for fj."':st English printing. [q] THE HARP, Karl Theodor Korner; Anonymous translation from German. Sellner and his wife play duets on flute and harp. After her death, her invisible spirit plays the harp again with Sellner. [r] THE WITCH OF EYE, Fran~ois Baculard d'Arnaud. Annonymous translation from French. 1820. Fraudulent supernaturalism. An episode during the reign of Henry VI of England, when the Duchess of Gloucester, the Witch, and others work magic against the king. A faked conjuration. [s] THE UNHOLY COMPACT ABJURED, Charles PigaultLebrun. Anonymous translation from French. 1825. Gothic. St. Amand, a young soldier, wanders into an enchanted chateau. In order to be released, he vows to sacrifice the first dove that he holds. The dove turns out to be his wife. But good wins. [t] LOUISE, OR THE

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HALL, AUSTIN AND FLINT, HOMER EON LIVING SPECTRE, Anonymous. A version of M~RI­ ANNE, which is described elsewhere. [u] JAN SCHALKEN'S THREE WISHES, Anonymous. l820? Anonymous translation from Dutch. Death, the apple tree, and the chair. [v] MAREDATA AND GIULIO, OR, THE OCEAN SPIRIT, Anonymous. Anonymous translation from Italian. 1826. Giulio rescues a beautiful young woman from the se~. She seems to be a mute. He marries her, has a child by her, and is reasonably happy. But when she is forced to speak, she reveals that she is a sea-woman. She must leave. [w] VALDRWULF, OR THE FIEND OF THE MOOR, Anonymous. 18287 Stated to be of Scandinavian origin, but more likely to be British. A version of the Beowulf story, with Romantic touches. Valdrwulf helps the Saxons against the Cymry, and slays a monster like Grendel. [x] THE STRANGE GUESTS, Anonymous. 1837. American Indians. The Chippewa hunter gives hospitality to two strange women, who are revealed to be spirits from the land of the dead. They are testing the worth of men. The hunter passes the test, but his wife does not. Probably a rendering of an Indian folktale. Much like Schoolcraft. * Also present, though not supernatural, is CORWIN THE BILOQUIST by Charles Brockden Brown. The edition described is not the first edition. This is GREAT TALES OF TERROR FROM EUROPE AND AMERICA GOTHIC STORIES OF HORROR AND ROMANCE (Gollancz; London 1972).

*

HALIDOM, M. Y. British author. His name is believed to be a. pseUdonym. Also wrote under other pseudonym DRYASDUST. Identity unknown. 751. THE SPIRIT LOVERS AND OTHER STORIES Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co.; London 1903 Short stories from TALES OF THE WONDER CLUB by Dryasdust. Including [a] THE SPIRIT LOVERS. [b] THE DREAM OF TOUGHYARN. Alternate title for THE MERMAID. Described elsewhere. HALL, AUSTIN (c. 1885-1933) and FLINT, HOMER EON (born FLINDT) (1892 - 1924) American authors of pulp fiction. Hall was a prolific author, notably of Western stories. His fantastic fiction often had a philosophical bent, although plot treatment was typical of. that of pulp fiction of the period. Flint was also a popular writer. His death remains an unsolved mystery. His bullet-ridden corpse was found in a canyon in California. Both men are now remembered mostly for THE BLIND SPOT, one of the legendary works of early sciencefiction, but certainly a flawed piece. 752. THE BLIND SPOT Prime Press; Philadelphia 1951 First published in ARGOSY 1921. * Borderline science-fiction. * Some time before the beginning of the narrative, Professor Holcomb of the University of California announces that he has factual evidence of supernal importance, the Blind Spot. He gives no details. At about this time, a mysterious stranger, the Rhamda Avec, appears in San Francisco, marvels at the

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sun ana the utopian splendor of the city, and meets Holcomb, who thereupon disappears without trace. Occasionally the Rhamda is seen around San Francisco, but as a ghostlike figure that cannot be apprehended. * The more modern section of the novel begins when two friends, Hobart Fenton and Harry Wendel, chance on the mystery of the Blind Spot. Motifs include the Nervina, a beautiful woman who corresponds in a way to the Rhamda; a strange ring which saps the life of males who wear 'it and contains a stone that is lighter than air; a house in San Francisco that seems to be a natural gateway into the world of the Blind Spot; and a natural dilation of the gateway, occasionally, so that persons tumble through it and disappear. The two friends penetrate into the world of the Blind Spot, which is not explained, but is somehow parallel to our world, somehow a mirror image, and somehow connected with the mysteries of life and death. But life in the world of the Blind Spot marches along like life in a lost-race story, and adventures and conspiracies are a disappointing continuation to the problems set and left unanswered in the first part of the story. * THE BLIND SPOT was long one of the legendary works in American pulp science-fiction; it certainly qualifies as one of the good-bad books of the genre. It was obviously hastily plotted and written; it abounds with false leads and loose ends; it is overlong and padded; it fizzles into boredom and cliche when the authors surrender to stock situations. Yet it conveys a sense of mystery and has interesting concepts. The sequel, THE SPOT OF LIFE, by Austin Hall, written after Flint's death, has none of the virtues of the first novel and is a ,routine pulp adventure story. * This edition is illustrated by Hannes Bok.

*

HALL, GERTRUDE (marriage name BROWNELL) (1863 1961) American author, journalist. Translator of Rostand's CHANTICLEER and CYRANO DE BERGERAC, also of poetry of Verlaine. Best-known work, THE WAGNERIAN ROMANCES (1907), prose paraphrases and discussions, in print up at least until the 1940's. One of the longestlived of fantasy authors. 753. FOAM OF THE SEA AND OTHER TALES Roberts Brothers; Boston 1895 Short stories, including [a] FOAM OF THE SEA. Archaic Greek world, somewhat reminiscent of Hesiod, where a few satyrs and centaurs still survive. The experiences of two primitives or nature beings on first contact with a civilization sufficiently advanced to forge iron and manufacture ships. Or, at least, this is the most plausible interpretation of the story, which is told in a totally subjective, empathetic way, without identifications. [b] GARDEN DEADLY. Pre-Homeric Greek world. A nameless city has been weakened by the activities of a Circe-like woman, who has been busied in transforming male visitors into whatever animals their psyches image. The wanderer (Heracles) comes to challenge her sport, falls in love

HAMILTON, EDMOND with her, and wishes to take her away into normal life. When she learns that he plans to destroy her world of magic, she tries to turn him into an animal, but fails, since his nature is really man. * [a] is interesting, but sometimes frustrating because of its deliberate reticence and vagueness. [b] starts slowly but moves colorfully in later sections. * The interesting area in Ms. Hall's work, apart from the psychological considerations of [b], is stylistic: a perpetual flood of highly concrete, visual images, sometimes of considerable originality, which specificness contrasts oddly with her diffidence in other areas. HALL, LELAND [BOYLSTON] (1883-1957) American musicologist, educator (Smith College), writer. Best-known work SALAH AND HIS AMERICAN (1934), travel, social theory, and reminiscences based on experiences in Morocco. 754. SINISTER HOUSE Houghton Mifflin; Boston and New York 1919 Guilt and ghosts, in a haunting with psychological ramifications. In the new housing development of Forsby, there is a single old house, which the narrator and his wife loathe, while its occupants, the Griers, find it wonderful. There is a problem, however: the life of Julia Grier is being sapped by a haunting-- a spectral woman and man. It is no secret that the ghosts are those of the previous owners of the property, but it is not clear what hold they have on the Griers. When the secret is revealed (a fraudulent act on Grier's part to gain an inheritance), the power of the ghosts is broken and love repels them. * In the mode of Henry James, though written in a conversational style. The subtleties do .not come across.

*

HAMILTON, EDMOND [MOORE] (1904-1977) American science-fiction author. Hamilton specialized in a very formularized adventure story based on weird science, and was a frequent contributor to the pulp magazines (particularly WEIRD TALES) during tl\e. ...1:9rmative period of American science-fict10n. He is unfortunate in that the work for which he is remembered is not his best work. 755. WHAT'S IT LIKE OUT THERE? AND OTHER STORIES Ace Books; New York [1974] paperbound Short stories, mostly science-fiction or weird science. * Including [a] THE ISLE OF THE SLEEPER. Described elsewhere. [b] DREAMER'S WORLD. (WT 1941) Henry Stevens of Midland City, Illinois, has a consistent dream life. He is a heroic young nobleman in a barbaric world and has sanguinary adventures. Or perhaps it is the other way around: Khal Kan of Jotan may dream about the drab world of Midland City. Khal Kan is involved in a reconnaissance mission, a love affair with a spitfire princess of a hostile people, and an invasion of savages who use poisoned arrows. Knowledge transmitted by Stevens-- gunpowder-helps somewhat, but Khal Kan is killed, and Stevens, too, dies. The other-world is pre-

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sumably another planet. [c] TWILIGHT OF THE GODS. (WT 1948) Weird science adventure based on Norse mythology. Really a capsulated novel. Eric Wolverson, who has been amnesiac for several years, is precipitated by ancient megalithic magic into a world where the Norse Ragnarok is about to break. Eric is really the god Tyr, whom Hela, the consort of Loki, has given a draught, causing him to lose his memory. The Aesir are suspicious of Wolverson-Tyr, and he most prove himself. Ragnar6k comes with atomic weapons. Scientific concepts operate in the background. [a] has a certain period charm, but the other stories are run-of-the-mill commercial fantastic adventure stories. 756. THE BEST OF EDMOND HAMILTON Nelson Doubleday Inc.; Garden City, N. Y. [1977] Edited with introduction, FIFTY YEARS OF WONDER, by Leigh Brackett, Mrs. Hamilton, who was much superior to her husband as an author. * Including [a] THE MAN WHO RETURNED. (WT 1934) Back from death. An Enoch Arden situation. The grave is better, after all. [b] THE MONSTER GOD OF MAMURTH. Described elsewhere. [c] CHILD OF THE WINDS. (WT 1936) On the Plateau of the Winds in Turkestan, Brandt finds living winds (who have personalities) and Lora, a beautiful young woman. The winds resent it when Brandt and Lora try to elope, but one little wind is friendlier than the others, and the lovers escape. [d] ALIEN EARTH. (THRILLING WONDER STORIES 1949) Doses of chlorophyl slow human metabolism enough that one can enter the life of the vegetable world. So far, science-fiction, but the forests communicate telepathically. * Commercial fiction.

*

HAMMETT, [SAMUEL] DASHIELL (1894 - 1961) Major American writer of detective fiction, creator of Sam Spade, the Continental OP, Nick Charles, and many other important characters. Generally considered one of the two masters of the hardboiled detective story. Bestknown works THE MALTESE FALSON and THE THIN MAN. The circumstances of the following anthology are not known, but Hammett was a very well-read man, and it is entirely possible that he assembled it. AS EDITOR: 757. CREEPS BY NIGHT CHILLS AND THRILLS John Day; New York 1931 An anthology, including, described elsewhere, [a] GREEN THOUGHTS, John Collier. [b] THE MUSIC OF ERICH ZANN, H. P. Lovecraft. [c] THE KING OF THE CATS, Stephen Vincent Benet. [d] FAITH, HOPE AND CHASTITY , Irvin S • Cobb. * Also [e] THE HOUSE, Andre Maurois. Translated from French by Jacques Chambrun. For years the narrator has dreams of a house, about which she has wandered. She chances upon the house, and learns that it has been deserted by the owners because of a haunting-- by the dreamer. [f] THE KILL, Peter Fleming. The young man's uncle, Lord Fleer, has an illegitimate son who is a werewolf. The werewolf is determined to kill everyone who stands between him and Lord Fleer's property. It is unfor-

HANSOM, MARK tunate that the young man talks to strangers in railroad stations. A couple of good lines. [g] TEN O'CLOCK, Philip MacDonald. Questionable as fantasy. The barrister whose mistress is murdered has visions, but it is not clear whether they are an eidetic sense or supernatural. [h] THE SPIDER, Hanns Heinz Ewers. Translated from German by Walter F. Kohn. III Paris, in a certain room in the Hotel Stevens, people commit suicide most determinedly by hanging themselves in a difficult way. M. Richard Bracquemont, a young medical student, determines to solve the mystery. The secret, which involves mimetic magic, witchcraft, and a spider, is best unrevealed. [i] THE GHOST OF ALEXANDER PERKS, A. B. Robert Dean Frisbie. Ghosts desert a sinking ship, just as rats do. Perks, who had committed suicide on a horrible desert island overrun with rats and giant crabs, boarded the old Pirara and haunted it until shortly before the ship went down. [j] MR. ARCULARIS, Conrad Aiken. Arcularis, who is on a voyage to regain his health after a serious operation, has strange somnambulistic experiences which lead him ever closer to an empty coffin in the hold of the vessel. But he died on the operating table. [k] THE PHANTOM BUS, W. Elwyn Backus. A sinister black bus seen mornings; a repetitive, sequential dream aboard a black bus laden with the dead; and supernatural death. [1] BEYOND THE DOOR, Paul Suter. (WT 1923) An entomologist is drawn to death by a woman whom he forced to suicide. [m] A VISITOR FROM EGYPT, Frank Belknap Long. (WT 1930) The god Osiris, whose benevolence has been exaggerated, visits an American museum to claim the relics of a dead follower. [n] THE WITCH'S VENGEANCE, William Seabrook. Purportedly factual. Witchcraft, doll magic, and suggestion among French peasants. * Best described stories are [eJ, [hJ, [jJ. * The British edition is titled MODERN TALES OF HORROR. HAMPTON, LOU American author. Nothing known about her. 758. GHOSTS OF MY STUDY A BOOK OF SHORT STORIES Authors and Publishers Corporation; New York 1927 Short stories, including [a] AFTER. After death experiences. The narrator, who has been murdered by his swindling cousin, watches over his sweetheart and sees his cousin's repentance. [b] THE MYSTERIOUS GIFT OF THE HERMIT OF KANAWHA. He could read minds. [c] HER LOVER-- THE GHOST. A dialogue between two parties, one dead. [d] THE GHOST OF THE OLD HOUSE. It listens in on the living. * There are also several primitive science-fiction stories, one of which, "The Hidden Continent," deals with Symmes's Hole. * Amateurish, sentimental, melodramatic. HANSOM, MARK British author of detective stories and mysteries, often with a slight supernatural or pseudo-supernatural twist. Perhaps a pseudonym.

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759. SORCERER'S APPRENTICE Wright and Brown; London [1939] A thriller based on black magic. * Michael Banim [sic], who is 400 years old, is a modern London sorcerer. When he places glamour on a young woman, her brother and her friends kill him, but he will not stay dead. He curses his enemies with various deaths, which are permanent. A way is found to break the curse and destroy Banim. * Crude horror. HARDIE, JOHN L[IPP] Scottish educator, anthologist. AS EDITOR: 760. TWENTY-TWO STRANGE STORIES Art and Educational Pub lis he r"s , Ltd.; Glasgow and London [ 1945] Including, described elsewhere, [a] DR. HEIDEGGER'S EXPERIMENT, Nathaniel Hawthorne. [b] RUNNING WOLF, Algernon Blackwood. [c] THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR, Edgar Allan Poe. [d] THE MONKEY'S PAW, W. W. Jacobs. [e] THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS, E. Bulwer-Lytton. Short version. [f] A NIGHT AT A COTTAGE, Richard Hughes. [g] THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM, Washington Irving. [h] SCHALKEN THE PAINTER, J. S. LeFanu. [i] MARKHEIM, R. L. Stevenson. [j] SINGULAR PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF THE LATE HENRY HARRIS, D.D., R. H. Barham. [k] THE ACCIDENT, Oliver Onions. [1] THE MIRROR, Walter Scott. A short version of MY AUNT MARGARET'S MIRROR. [m] THE UPPER BERTH, F. Marion Crawford. [n] THE WEREWOLF, Captain Frederick Marryat. [0] THE DIAMOND LENS, FitzJames O'Brien. [p] A WATCHER BY THE DEAD, Ambrose Bierce. HARPER, C. ARMITAGE American anthologist. Has also written books on conservation and local history in Arkansas. AS EDITOR: 761. AMERICAN GHOST STORIES Houghton Mifflin; Boston and New York 1928 Described elsewhere, [a] THE SPECTER [sic] BRIDEGROOM, Washington Irving. [b] LIGEIA, Edgar Allan Poe. [c] THE GHOST OF DR. HARRIS, Nathaniel Hawthorne. [d] WHAT WAS IT? FitzJames O'Brien. [e] THE TRANSFERRED GHOST, Frank Stockton. [f] THE RIVAL GHOSTS, Brander Matthews. [g] THE DAMNED THING, Ambrose Bierce. [h] THE EYES, Edith Wharton. [i] THE WATER GHOST OF HARROWBY HALL, J. K. Bangs. [j] THE SHADOWS ON THE WALL, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman. [k] THE UPPER BERTH, F. Marion Crawford. [1] ''DEY AIN'T NO GHOSTS," Ellis Parker Butler. [m] THE WOMAN AT SEVEN BROTHERS, Wilbur Daniel Steele. Also [n] A GHOST STORY, Mark Twain. A parody of the conventional Victorian horror story, with all the props of chains and blood, together with satire on the mercantilism promoting various Cardiff Giants, fake and even more fake. The narrator, after a barrage of horror effects, is visited by the ghost of the Cardiff Giant, with whom he converses. The ghost wants its remains, across the street in a museum, to be given burial. But the narrator reveals that the remains are only a plaster cast. The ghost retires, discomfited. [0] A GHOST

*

HARTLEY, L. P. STORY, Joel Chandler Harris. From NIGHTS WITH UNCLE REMUS. Black dialect. Told by Tildy, with the frozen remnants of a play situation. The Man steals money from the eyes of the dead 'Oman, and she comes back from the dead for her eye-money. [p] THE HAND, Theodore Dreiser. When Davidson murdered the sinister Mersereau, Mersereau stretched out his powerful right hand in menace. The hand haunts Davidson for years, and he starts to hear threatening messages from Mersereau. The theory of materialization, from psychical research, explains the persecution to Davidson, and years later, he dies, partly insane, in an asylum, strangled. The doctor considers it tuberculosis, and explains the handprints on Davidson's throat as Davidson's. Left ambivalent by Dreiser.

HARRE, T[HOMAS] EVERETT

(1884-1948) American author, anthologist, writer on political and social topics from far right. AS EDITOR: 762. BEWARE AFTER DARK! THE WORLD'S MOST STUPENDOUS TALES OF MYSTERY, HORROR. THRILLS AND TERROR Macaulay; New York [1929] Including, described elsewhere, [a] NEGOTIUM PERAMBULANS, E. F. Benson. [b] FISHHEAD, I. S. Cobb. [c] THE SHADOWY THIRD, Ellen Glasgow. [d] LUKUNDOO, E. L. White. [e] RAPPACCINI'S DAUGHTER, Nathaniel Hawthorne. [f] LAZARUS, Leonid Andreyeff. [g] THE CALL OF CTHULHU, H. P. Lovecraft. [h] NOVEL OF THE WHITE POWDER, Arthur Machen. [i] THE DEVILS OF PO SUNG, Bassett Morgan. [j] THE ISLE OF VOICES, R. L. Stevenson. [k] HUGUENIN'S WIFE, M. P. Shiel. [1] THE STRIDING PLACE, Gertrude Atherton. [m] THE FOUNTAIN OF GOLD, Lafcadio Hearn. * Also [n] THE MONSTERGOD OF MAMURTH, Edmond Hamilton. (WT 1926) Hamilton's first story, borderline sciencefiction. A lost city in North Africa, said to be haunted by a monstrous supernatural being. The narrator discovers that the city is protected by an invisible spider-like monstrosity and guarded by an invisible wall. [0] THE MOLLMEIT OF THE MOUNTAIN, Cynthia Stockley. South African folklore. An insane old woman, considered in supernatural terms. Borderline. [p] THE LAME PRIEST, S. Carleton. (pseud. of Susan Carleton Jones). A lame priest haunts the North Woods as a werewolf. [q] THE COCONUT PEARL, Beatrice Grimshaw. A psychic Dutch woman has two gems: a pearl as large as a coconut and her daughter. * This is the first book appearance for [g] and [n] HARTLEY, L[ESLIE] P[OLES] (1895-1972) Noted British critic, book reviewer. Work highly regarded in Great Britain, but not well-known in America. 763. THE TRAVELLING GRAVE AND OTHER STORIES Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1948 Excellent material gathered from scattered sources, book and periodical. Many of the stories are not supernatural. * Including [a] A VISITOR FROM DOWN UNDER. Descrioed

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HARVEY, ALEXANDER

elsewhere. [b] PODOLO. Venice. A visit to the island of Podolo, where it is hungry. Unexplained, except in terms~f the terror of the protagonist and the Italian boatman. [c] THREE, OR FOUR, FOR DINNER. Venice. The Englishmen would like to meet the Conte Giacomelli, an Italian entrepreneur. There has been a suicide, whose body the Englishmen fish out of the water. Jokingly, one of the Englishmen sends an Italian boy to invite the corpse to dine. The expected. [d] FEET FOREMOST. The house is haunted by Lady Elinor, who was murdered in the 15th century. She must be carried over the threshold. But once she is in, someone in the house dies. Fairfield carries the lame girl in, and death is expected, but there is a strange escape clause. [e] THE COTILLON. Masks are to be worn until midnight. Marion Lane's lover, greatly disturbed by her infidelity, has committed suicide, but this is not yet known. Beautifully handled. [f] A CHANGE OF OWNERSHIP. Ernest returns to his lonely house. He has been locked out and the figure inside will not let him in. When he confronts it, it is the image of himself, a murderer. [g] THE THOUGHT. Mr. Greenstream frequents churches where he can pray alone. He prays for things that he should not, and is assigned a confessor who turns him cold. [h] CONRAD AND THE DRAGON. A modern fairy tale, told with a certain cyn~c~sm. A dragon gobbles up all the suitors for the princess's hand, including Conrad's brothers. The princess is the dragon, and it has power as long as the suitors love the princess. Unsatisfactory. [i] NIGHT FEARS. The night watchman at his fire; the stranger who approaches for warmth. Suicide. Who is the stranger? There are hints. * Also present are the excellent crime stories "The Island" and "The Killing Bottle." * Hartley is the master of the double entendre and sinister talk at cross purposes. Excellent work, except for [g], which is inappropriate to this volume.

and is still written about with rancor in some occult circles. Hartmann was one of those who removed the shrine. The present novel is an odd sort of roman a clef that is intended to be an apologia for the shrine. * Pancho, who desires spiritual advancement, joins an outlandish African cult, which is easily recognized as a parody of Theosophy. Among the motifs of the story are the Talking Image, which gives out great truths, although these are misinterpreted by the initiates. The image is finally betrayed and sold, but Pancho encounters it again later, and receives enlightenment. * The point of the novel, apart from the historical referent, is that enlightenment is to be found in one's soul, not in cultism. There is a disingenuous note which disclaims any reference to Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott. Between the incident of the shrine and this book, Hartmann had quarreled with Blavatsky. 765. AMONG THE GNOMES AN OCCULT TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE UNTERSBERG T. Fisher Unwin; London 1895 A satire on rationalism, utilitarianism, scientism in terms of a dream experience. * The narrator is one of a team of ultra-rationalists who are exploring the Untersberg in an attempt to disprove the ancient legends of gnomes. They take refuge in a cave during a storm, and the narrator, who wanders away from his companions, finds himself in the land of the gnomes. The gnomes, who partake of the natures of botn gems and light, consiaer him a supernatur~l being, and he is much honored. He falls in love with the Princess Adalga, and their marriage is planned. But the narrator insists on teaching the gnomes logic, rationality, and scientific method, with the result that Adalga's character is changed for the worse and a pointless war breaks out. He awakens, and it was all a dream. There are probably small allusions to con~emporary figures in occultism and psychic research. A curiosity only.

HARTMANN, FRANZ (1838-1912) German-born physician, occultist, write.r on occult topics, long resident in Great Britain and America. Associate of Madame Blavatsky in the Theosophical Society. Best-known for moderately scholarly works on occult matters: MAGIC BLACK AND WHITE (1886), THE LIFE AND DOCTRINE OF PHILIPPUS THEOPHRASTUS BOMBAST OF HOHENHEIM KNOWN BY THE NAME OF PARACELSUS (1891) 7b4. THE TALKING IMAGE OF URUR J. W. Lovell; New York [1890] At Madame Blavatsky's establishment in Adyar, India, was a wooden shrine in which, it was claimed, supernatural messages were found, teleported from Tibet. When Hodgson of the Society for Psychical Research went to investigate the shrine, he found that it had been removed and destroyed, obviously to avoid the unmasking of fraud, a simple magician's cabinet. Hodgson's report, which was completely unfavorable to Blavatsky and her associates, caused a stir,

HARVEY, ALEXANDER (1868-1949) American author, translator, editor (CURRENT OPINION, AMERICAN MO~~HLY). Born in Belgium. Prepared editions of Classical authors and Nietzsche for Haldeman-Julius Little Blue Books. 766. THE TOE AND OTHER TALES Mitchell Ken.nerley; New York 1913 Short stories, mostly surprisingly erotic for the period. Including [a] THE FORBIDDEN FLOOR. When the narrator stays at the old Bowers mansion, he learns that the 'son of the house lives alone on the top, or forbidden, floor, and will not come down. The house is also supposed to be haunted. He is approached by the ghost, who is a beautiful young woman from the 18th century (whom history reported as no better than she should be), and she makes love to him on the forbidden floor. She has many lovers, for the paradoxical purpose of proving that she had been innocent and had meant no harm in her life. [b] THE GOLDEN

*

HARVEY, ALEXANDER RAT. The narrator is a psycho-analyst. He observes a litter of baby rats and notices that one rat is golden in color. He keeps it as a pet. After a time he discovers that he has the ability to see the complexes of patients in terms of symbolic animals. The rat's fleas carry a bacterium that affects the nervous system, causing the visions. He i~ in love with a married woman, who reciprocates, but they become entangled in the visions and actualities of the golden rat. * Unusual stories. HARVEY,

W[ILLIAM F[RYER] (1885-1937) writer, journalist, poet. Bachelor of medicine, but apparently did not ~ractice. Best-known work is short story THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS, which was made into motion picture starring Peter Lorre. An excellent craftsman. 767. THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS AND OTHER ~ Dent; London 1928 Short stories, including raj THE TOOL. Borderline supernatural. A clergyman who commits murder while amnesiac and while under the control of a secondary personality. He considers himself a tool in the hands of God. [b] THE HEART OF THE FIRE. As long as a fire burns on the Aislaby hearth, the family shall do well. A corpse is at present concealed beneath the hearth. The fire"wards off supernatural vengeance from the murdered man, or perhaps the fire is to be understood as an externalized symbol which restrains psychological reactions. [c] THE CLOCK. The horrors of being alone in a house where Something sets the clock going. [d] PETER LEVISHAM. Intricacies of Fate. The narrator, thrice, without understanding the situation, encounters a murderer and on the last occasion gives him a warning. The narrator also breaks the murderer's alibi. [e] MISS CORNELIUS. A modern witch, whose poltergeistic frauds have been exposed by Saxon, takes revenge by afflicting his house with genuine poltergeistic phenomena. [f] THE ANKARDYNE PEW. The house is haunted with peculiar sights and sounds, including bird noises. A vision in a crystal ball and old records reveal that in the family chapel the pew had been profaned by being used as a cockpit. [g] MISS AVENEL. A spiritual vampire. She drains vitality, but leaves her old memories with her nurse. [h] THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS. Old Adrian Bolsover, not long before his death, developed automatic writing to such an extent that his hand apparently consisted of an independent personality. The hand forges a note requesting that it be severed and sent to Bolsover's nephew. It then scuttles about, a particularly evil and spiteful entity. [i) SIX TO SIX-THIRTY. The phone message states that Gideon has been wounded. Thd doctor comes, but Gideon is unharmed. The inexplicable call has prevented a murder. [j] GHOSTS AND JOSSERS. A word game, the losers of which "die." Three schoolboys "die" when they play. Their words are Coronel, Gallipoli, Mesopotamia. World War I. [k] THE DEVIL'S BRIDGE. ~ritish

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HARVEY, W. F. France. Fictionalization of a folktale. As a reward for building a bridge over an unfordable stream, the Devil demands the soul of the first person to cross the bridge. Questionable as supernatural. [1] TWO AND A THIRD. Mediumistic communications reveal a personal situation of some depth. * Good stories. Best are [e], [i]. * This book was issued under the same title by Dutton in New York in 1928. 768. MIDNIGHT TALES Dent; London 1946 Short stories, mostly fantastic, taken from three previous collections: MIDNIGHT HOUSE (1910); THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS (1928), as above; and MOODS AND TENSES (1933). It is edited by Maurice Richardson, who contributes a heavily psychoanalytically oriented introduction. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE TOOL. [b] THE HEART OF THE FIRE. [c] THE CLOCK. [d] PETER LEVISHAM. [e] MISS CORNELIUS. [f] THE ANKARDYNE PEW. [g] MISS AVENAL. [h] THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS. * Also, [i] MIDNIGHT HOUSE. Strange dreams in an old inn accompany childbirth and death. Supernatural only in its implications of parallelisms in fate. [j] THE DABBLERS. Private games and language among students at a public school, including one game that is a survival of a Black Mass. No supernaturalism. [k] UNWINDING. A game in which the players keep adding terms to a list, the new term being suggested by word association with the last. What with cryptomnesia on the part of the old vicar it indicates a murderer. Borderline supernatural. [1] MRS. ORMEROD. A servant with a strange hold over a young couple. Richardson understands her as a malevolent hysteric; she is more probably a spiritual vampire with a certain amount of almost supernatural power. [m] SAMBO. An African fetish is mistaken for a doll and is given to a little girl who plays with it along with her other dolls. But Sambo's power exerts itself, and Sambo gets the honor he deserves, including doll sacrifice. [n] THE MAN WHO HATED ASPIDISTRAS. By a compensation mechanism he becomes the human equivalent of an aspidistra. [0] ACROSS THE MOORS. A clergyman tells in gruesome detail the story of his own death. [p] THE FOLLOWER. An author works out an interesting plot concerning ancient manuscripts with (hinted) diabolism. He is warned away supernaturally, when the situation occurs among his neighbors. [q] AUGUST HEAT. James Clarence Withencroft, while idly sketching one very hot morning, draws a picture of a criminal in the docks on a charge of murder. A short time later, while walking he meets a person, a stone mason, who looks exactly like the criminal. The mason has just carved a tombstone with Withencroft's name, birth, and death dates on it. As the story ends, it is very, very hot, enough to drive one mad. [r] SARAH BENNET'S POSSESSION. A Quaker widow, once married to a ruffian in the Indian army who deserted her. His penitent spirit tries to contact her in various ways: Morse code, flashes of light, dreams, sketches

HARVEY, W. F. drawn by others, etc. The widow is so fine a person that there is no possibility of direct contact with the dead man. * Excellent stories, often with subtleties lurking behind the story line, with supernatural horror as an added dimension to psychological revelations. * The American edition is titled THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS (Dutton; New York 1947). It is not to be confused with 767. Dutton has published two books with the same title but very different contents. 769. THE ARM OF MRS. EGAN AND OTHER STRANGE STORIES Dutton; New York 1952 A posthumous collection. Mostly mystery stories, but including [a] THE ARM OF MRS. EGAN. Young Dr. Gilbert Lennox, who is a bungling fool, makes an incorrect diagnosis of Mrs. Egan's child. The child dies. Mrs. Egan summons Lennox, and in effect places a curse on him. He is thereafter plagued with other incorrect diagnoses, misfortunes, and accidents. All too often they involve the name Egan or are connected with Mrs. Egan. She finally causes his death. [b] ACCOUNT RENDERED. Mr .. Charles Newcombe, every December 17th, engages a doctor to anesthetize him around midnight, for, he says, experiments in psychical research. Each time, a strange-looking old man comes into the room looking for him. It is explained in terms of a notorious crime of a few years bac k . [c] THE FLYING OUT OF MRS. BARNARD HOLLIS. Old Mrs. Hollis's astral body and her evil component dissociate themselves from her, fly to Africa, and engage in a violent argument. [d] THE HABEAS CORPUS CLUB. A place where fictional characters who have given their lives for the reading public have an opportunity to develop. Semi-essay. * Much weaker than the earlier stories. HAUFF, WILHELM (1802-1827) German author. Doctor of Theology, tutor to children of Baron von Hugel, for whom wrote famous fairy tales. A very prolific author, despite short life. Work includes literary fairy tales among the best in world literature, satirical fiction, early detective fiction. A favorite author in Germany, but not very well known in America. no . TALES BY WILHELM HAUFF G. Be 11; London 1890 Translated from German by J. Mendel. This is not first appearance for all of these stories, but it is first English-language collected edition. (MAHRCHEN FUR S6HNE UND T6cHTER GEBILDETER STANDE 1825) It consists of three story cycles, with loose frame situations containing independent short stories. The cycles are [a] THE CARAVAN. (DIE KARAVANE). Including [b] THE STORY OF CALIPH STORK. (DIE GESCHICHTE VON KALIF STORCH) Arabian Nights material. A caliph and his vizier are induced to transform themselves magically into storks. They are warned not to laugh, lest they forget the magical word that will change them back into human shape. They laugh, but regain the word in the ruins of Babylon, where an enchanted princess in the form of an owl helps

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HAUFF, WILHELM them. [c] THE STORY OF THE HAUNTED SHIP, (DIE GESCHICHTE VON DEM GESPENSTERSCHIFF) Arabian Nights setting. A seemingly derelict vessel is controlled by corpses who repeat their sea duties like clockwork. The power of the Koran releases them. [d] THE STORY OF LITTLE MUCK. (DIE GESCHICHTE VON DEM KLEINEN MUCK) Nicea. Muck. is a dwarf who has stolen a pair of magic slippers and a wand from a witch. When he is mistreated by the king, he causes a pair of ass's ears to grow on the king's head. [e] THE STORY OF THE FALSE PRINCE. (DAS MARCHEN VOM FALSCHEN PRINZEN) Arabia. When Labakan the tailor pretends to be Prince Ornar, fairy magic determines the true prince. [f] THE SHEIKH OF ALEXANDRIA. (DER SCHEIK VON ALESSANDRIA UND SEINE SKLAVEN). Including, [g] THE DWARF LONG NOSE. (DER ZWERG NASE) Also titled DWARF NOSE and similar variants. Nose, when a little boy, was captured by a witch who turned him into a dwarf and taught him gourmet cooking. Eventually he escapes and becomes the duke's chef. He regains his original form when he finds the herb that is used to prepare the greatest dish of all. [h] THE YOUNG ENGLISHMAN. (DER JUNGE ENGLANDER) A lover of privacy avenges himself on prying neighbors by teaching a young ape to act and speak like a man. He presents the ape as his gauche and rustic nephew from England. Society accepts the disgusting antics of the ape as British peculiarity. * From [i] THE INN IN THE SPESSART, (DAS WIRTHSa~us IM SPESSART), [j] THE STORY OF THE FLORIN. (DIE SAGE VOM HIRSCHGULDEN). Medieval Germany. When the brutal Donnerwetter von Hohenzollern refuses to reward a witch for saving the life of his little son, she curses his estate. Gothic in mode. [k] SAID'S ADVENTURES. (SAIDS SCHICKSALE) Arabian Nights situation. Said's fairy godmother is powerless to help him until he is twenty-one, and before'that age he undergoes many perils. [1] THE CAVERN OF STEENFOLL. (DIE H6HLE VON STEENFOLL) A cavern in the Hebrides where dead soldiers appear from a treasure-laden wreck out at sea. Two young men undertake a magical ritual to locate the treasure. Some treasure is found, but the young men are lost. This is presumably an item from Scottish folklore, since other versions of the story were written at about the same time as Hauff's. [m] THE COLD HEART. (DAS KALTE HERZ) Originally published in two parts. Sometimes titled THE AGATE HEART or THE STONE HEART. Peter Munk, a charcoal burner in the Black Forest, obtains three wishes from the Glassman, the supernatural being who has power over the woods. Munk uses the wishes foolishly, and ruins himself. He then appeals to another, more terrible and demonic being, Black Michael, or Dutch Michael, as he is sometimes called, and exchanges his heart for wealth. He degenerates further and further, finally murdering his wife. But he repents, and regains heart, wife, and happiness with the help of the Glassman. Folkloristic in approach, longer than the other stories, with material on vil-

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lage life. * Among the best literary fairy tales in English. [d], [el, [fl, [hl, and [i] are best. HAWTHORNE, JULIAN (1846-1934) American journalist, writer of sensational fiction, social studies, biographical and critical material. Edited works and wrote biographical study of his father, NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE AND HIS WIFE (1884). After turn of century became entangled in fraudulent ventures and served prison term. Best-known fiction is ARCHIBALD MALMAISON (1884), a horror tale of amnesiac fugues and a hidden room. 771. DAVID POINDEXTER'S DISAPPEARANCE Appleton; New York 1888 Short stories, including [a] KEN'S MYSTERY. On Hallowe-en, Keningale, an artist, is travelling about Ireland. He hears the legend of Ethelind Fionguala, a 16th century bride who was' kidnapped by a band of vampires. He finds her grave, and near it, a mysterious woman who asks for the antique ring he had bought in a curio shop in Cork. On an impulse he gives it to her. The landscape changes, and he finds himself in the past, where he meets Ethelind, the woman of the cemetery, who has invoked him by means of the magic ring. She, too, is a vampire. [b] MY FRIEND PATON. Germany. The ghost of a dead acquaintance takes Morriss through a secret passage in time to stop robbery and murder. * [a] is probably Hawthorne's best short story. 772. THE PROFESSOR'S SISTER Belford, Clarke and Co.; Chicago, New York, San Francisco 1888 Romance, occult novel based on philosophical concepts. * Germany. Three American students in Dresden become acquainted with the Hertrugge family: Professor Conrad Hertrugge, Buddhist by conviction, experimenter in occult phenomena; Hildegarde Hertrugge, Conrad's young sister; and Catalina Hertrugge, their young stepmother, relict of a June and December marriage. Ralph Merlin, Conrad's close friend, falls in love with Hildegarde, while Catalina falls in love with Ralph and almost throws herself at him. Just before the marriage of Hildegarde and Ralph, Hildegarde falls sick and dies. Ralph goes off to Africa for two years, during which time he is saved from peril and led back to civilization by what seems to be Hildegarde's ghost. When all the characters reassemble in Dresden some time later, explanations and further developments occur. Catalina had stolen poisonous bacteria and given them to Hildegarde, while Conrad had preserved Hildegarde's body in trance state. His theory is that matter is only an aspect of a relationship between the universe and the spirit, and that matter may be preserved as long as the spirit is not separated from it by physical death. He revives Hildegarde, who marries Ralph, but the disease runs its course and she dies, soon followed by Ralph. * Hawthorne's best supernatural novel, stylistically purer than his earlier work, and'less sensational than later.

HAWTHORNE, JULIAN 773. KILDHURM' S OAK A STRANGE FRIEND A. L. Burt; New York [1889] Apparently the first separate printing of this story, which appeared previously in ELLICE QUENTIN AND OTHER STORIES (Chatto and Windus; London 1880). * A luridly written Gothic derivative which,tells the story of a luck oak over the centuries. In the 16th century Sir Brian Kildhurm killed his wife's lover. Lady Kildhurm committed suicide, but before her death, planted acorns wet with her own and her lover's blood. There is also a prophecy: the oak shall stand for two hundred years, bringing death to three and riches to one. The curse is fulfilled by the tree, which is shaped somewhat like a man and can move its branches without wind. Sir Norman Kildhurm murders Colonel Banyon for the colonel's Indian jewels, hides them in the oak, and is then killed by the oak. Later, in the 18th century, a Kildhurm daughter is to be married to a descendant of the colonel's, and the demonic oak dies. It falls over a cliff and gives up the jewels. * Feverishly presented, with many gaucheries, but also with some strokes of imagination. The theme might well have appealed to Nathaniel Hawthorne, but how differently he would have handled it! 774. THE GOLDEN FLEECE Lippincott; Philadelphia 1892 A pseudo-book. This is really the May 1892 issue of LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE furnished with a title page and sold as a book. * Romance. California. Not too far from Trednoke's house is concealed the long-lost treasure of the Aztecs. Kamaiakan, an aged Mexican Indian who is Trednoke's servant, is the reincarnation (with full memory) of one of the men who originally hid the treasure. He had decided that the time has come to transfer the treasure to the last descendant of the Aztec rulers, who happens to be Miriam, Trednoke's daughter. Kamaiakan, who is an accomplished magician, invokes the spirit of Semitzin, the princess who helped him conceal the treasure centuries earlier, and on occasion the princess possesses Miriam. Complications arise when Harvey Freeman, an engineer interested in land development, arrives. Miriam falls in love with him, and so does Semitzin. After a series of events fulfilling an ancient prophecy, Kamaiakan retrieves the treasure, but is killed by the poisonous gas that guards it. Semitzin refuses to leave Miriam's body, but is forced out when Kamaiakan dies. An earthquake releases floods of water that will make the harsh desert land fruitful-- and saleable. The title of the book refers to a garment worn by Semitzin. It has magical powers. * Rubbish. It is worth noting that even at this early date Hawthorne was fascinated with the possibility of quick wealth through land development. 775. SIX-CENT SAM'S Price-McGill Co.; St. Paul [1893] Interconnected short stories, including [a] MR. DUNTON'S INVENTION. Hypnotic power is used to steal an invention. [b] RAXWORTHY'S TREA-

HAWTHORNE, JULIAN SURE. Raxworthy's collection is pilfered, but a medium, with the help of Six-Cent Sam, who acts as a ghost, finds the treasure. [c] THE ELECTRICAL ENGINEER'S STORY. Mediumistic powers and a process for renovating diamonds. [d] THE UNSEEN MAN'S STORY. Carigliano opens a hitherto unviolated Egyptian tomb, that of Queen Amunuhet, and encounters living mummies who attempt to sacrifice him for crimes he committed in past incarnations. [e] THE SWARTHY MAN'S STORY. Psychic from childhood, he achieves liberation from his body and experiences a past incarnation as a primitive man. [f] THE IRISHMAN'S STORY. Love and intrigue. An injured lover uses hypnotism. [g] MY OWN STORY. Borderline science-fiction. Sound waves create life and a famous singer revives the dead with vibration. * Commercial fiction. This collection has been reprinted as MR. DUNTON'S INVENTION AND OTHER STORIES. HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL (1804-1864) Major American (Massachusetts) writer, one of the giants of 19th century literature. Occasional customs official, U.S. Consul at Liverpool. Resident for a time in Italy. Bestknown works, THE SCARLET LETTER, THE HOUSE OF SEVEN GABLES. Chronicler of the Puritan conscience in figurative vein. * Hawthorne is a difficult author to cover in a survey of this sort, since much of his work consists of a rational story that is paralleled with supernatural hints that may be intended to deepen the theme but are ultimately rejected or ignored. This technique is to be seen even in THE SCARLET LETTER, where it is possible to work out a supernatural scenar~o. In the following descriptions only those stories have been included where the supernatural elements are strong or seem to have been meant literally, although there is much room for difference of interpretation. * Hawthorne's processes of "moralization" or "allegory" would require extended discussion, but we can simply say that his work varies from one-to-one allegory of a simple sort to very complex symbolization, where the equations are vague and far-reaching. Needless to say, there is no real consensus on the interpretation of many of his stories. 776. TWICE-TOLD TALES American Stationers Co.; Boston, Mass. 1837 Short stories and essaylike material reprinted from various sources. Including [a] THE GRAY CHAMPION. (1835) In 17th century Boston, during the height of Governor Andros's tyranny, an ancient man of dominating personality, dressed in old-fashioned garb, appears at a mass protest. He confounds Andros and his followers. As a symbol he is Liberty, since he appears at crises, but in the body he is probably one of the regicides of Charles I. [b] MR. HIGGINBOTHAM'S CATASTROPHE. (1834) Fate. The protagonist thrice hears of Higginbotham's murder, and each time learns that the story is false. He arrives in time to save Higginbotham. In Hawthorne's murky area between realism and un-realism. [c] THE GREAT CARBUNCLE. (1837) An allegory of selfishness and

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HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL greed. According to Indian legend, in Maine there is a gigantic gem. It symbolizes the desire of the seeker. A party of searchers hunt for it, according to the weakness of each. It is found by a loving couple, who renounce it as too splendid for life. [d] THE PROPHETIC PICTURES. (1837) The Romantic motif of pictures that foreshadow the future. The great artist, whose skill lies in rendering inner personality, paints the portraits of Walter Ludlow and Elinor, his fianc~e. But he shows Ludlow as mad, and Elinor, sorrowing. What he paints comes true, but Hawthorne's contribution to the theme is a feedback mechanism, as the painter ponders about causation. Probably not intended to be supernatural. [e] THE HOLLOW OF THE THREE HILLS. (1830) Guilt and conscience in supernatural guise. A runaway adultress approaches an ancient witch for visions of those the adultress left behind. The vision kills her. [f] DR. HEIDEGGER'S EXPERIMENT. (1837) Folly. Heidegger has a small quantity of the water of life, which he gives to four friends who represent greed, sensuality, dishonesty, and petty egotism. Even though they are near death, their qualities emerge in momentary revivification. [g] FANCY'S SHOW BOX. A MORALITY. (1837) Is guilt limited only to those actions committed? Or does it extend to thoughts, moods, and possibilities? Old Mr. Smith is beset by Fancy, Memory and Conscience in visions of crimes that he did not commit. * The second edition of this book (1851) also contains the series [h] LEGENDS OF THE PROVINCE HOUSE, three of the four components of which have fantastic elements. In each case a rationalized explanation is offered which more than balances the supernatural hints developed within the story. [i] HOWE'S MASQUERADE. The scene is the mansion (now long destroyed) of the old colonial governors of Massachusetts. At a costume ball held by Howe, the last British governor of the province, during the siege of Boston, a strange procession takes place. It is presumably the ghosts of the earlier governors. It is also much like the pageant of kings in MACBETH. It demoralizes Howe. [j] EDWARD RANDOLPH'S PORTRAIT. In an apartment of Province House hangs a picture so darkened by age and smoke that nothing can be seen of its subject. It is of Randolph, one of the associates of the infamous Governor Andros of the 17th century. The picture reveals a horrible countenance at a crisis moment when Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson is transferring power from Colonials to British troops, during the siege of Boston. [k] LADY ELEANORE'S MANTLE. When Lady Eleanor, a haughty English beauty, came to Boston, around 1720, it was claimed that a mantle she wore was the magical source of her beauty. It is pride. Her mantle, however, is impregnated with smallpox, and the results are horrible. * [1] THE SISTER YEARS. (1837). An allegory personifying the Old and New Years. [m] THE WHITE OLD MAID. (1835) The motif of the supernatural appointment, qualified by love and guilt. Two women who love the dead

HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL man, one of them too well, agree to meet at a date far in the future, to resolve their conflict. The meeting, when both are very old, happens to the accompaniment of supernatural phenomena, visible to some. Memories of the past. 777. MOSSES FROM AN OLD MANSE Wiley and Putnam; New York 1846, 2 vol bound as 1 in cloth Short stories, including La] THE BIRTHMARK. (1843) An allegory on perfectionism, which, in rejecting the actual for a slight flaw, fails to see that this flaw in itself establishes the ideal (a diluted influence of German idealistic philosophy?) and is also trivial. The scientist Aylmer, who is more like a Renaissance natural philosopher than a modern, decides that his wife would be perfect if a tiny birthmark in the shape of a hand were removed from her cheek. Its removal is the direct, consequent cause of her death, by removing her from the realm of materiality. [b] A SELECT PARTY. A nice jeu d'esprit as various cliches and colloquial abstractions, in fantastic terms, attend the Man of Fancy's castle in the air. Present and participating are Monsieur On-Dit, the Oldest Inhabitant, the Wandering Jew, the Clerk of the Weather, etc. Many contemporary allusions in the text. [c] YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN. (1835) An allegorical statement of suspicion and a Puritan Othello in Colonial Salem. Brown, who should be happily married, yields to the persuasions of an unnamed elder traveller, whose identity is obvious. Brown sees that his community is riddled with Devil worship; he attends a sabbath, is initiated, and sees his pure wife as a fellow communicant. This experience, which may be a dream in the forest, sours his life. He has lost faith and thereupon destroys what is good around him. [d] RAPPACCINIfS DAUGHTER. (1844) A fantasy much like the work of E. T. A. Hoffmann, set in premodern Italy; egotism, the misguided drive for power, and young lovers destroyed by the family poison. Giovanni Guasconti, a young student in Padua, is exposed to two conflicting ideal influences, the rational medical pursuits of his family friend Dr. Baglioni and the demonic, irresponsible experiments of the toxicologist Rappacc~n~. Rappaccini has so worked on the physiology of his beautiful daughter that she is a walking poison; her very breath slays insects and causes flowers to wilt and die. She and Giovanni fall in love, and Rappaccini, in a misguided attempt to maintain his ~aughter's isolation, renders Guasconi, too, poisonous. But Baglioni's interference, with a Mithradatic antidote, not only destroys Rappaccini's work, but destroys Beatrice. The reader is left with the situation that Baglioni's partly malicious rationalism is no better than Rappaccini's perverted wisdom. A remarkable story, which could be interpreted in much greater detail. [e] THE HALL OF FANTASY. (1843) Much like [b], an exegesis of a figure of speech. The narrator is taken to a place which "occupies in the world of fancy the same position

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HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL which the Bourse, the Rialto, and the Exchange do in the commercial world." He sees great busts of authors, schemes for remarkable inventions. Much heed is paid to Millerism, the fanatical religious movement that predicted the end of the world in the 1840's. [f] THE CELESTIAL RAILROAD. (1843) A statement of good, evil, hypocrisy in terms of a contemporary railroad, which passes through the territories of Bunyan's PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, particularly the Dark Valley. The theme is the smooth antinomianism common enough in the contemporary philosophies. The story should probably be read in proximity to Bunyan's work, if all the allusions are to be caught. [g] THE NEW ADAM AND EVE. (1843) The earth's population has been swept away by divine judgment, but man's works remain. A new Adam and Eve are created, and they wander over the artifacts of civilization. They come at dusk to Mount Auburn Cemetery, where they find as a symbol of themselves a marble statue of a sleeping child. Their thoughts are permeated with death, and they accept it. [h] EGOTISM; OR, THE BOSOM SERPENT (1843) Roderick Elliston, who is tormented by the serpent in his bosom, awakens the serpents in the bosoms of others. The serpent is egotism, in Elliston's case sexual jealousy.. Physiology (presumably from the concept of the tapeworm) is not completely ruled out, but a cure is possible. An obvious moralization of a figure of speech. [i] THE CHRISTMAS BANQUET. FROM THE UNPUBLISHED "ALLEGORIES OF THE HEART." A story within a story, a moralization of the sense of withdrawal from humanity. The banquet is an annual affair, the guests being the ten most m~serable persons to be found. Present each year and seemingly discordant to the rather crude physical trappings and obvious miseries is Gervayse Hastings. His misery, which consists of egoism, is so thoroughgoing that it negates part of his existence. [j] ROGER MALVIN'S BURIAL. (1832) The poisoning of life through guilt, even though the action causing guilt can be justified. When young Reuben Bourne, after a fracas with Indians, abandons his severely wounded friend and father-in-law to be, his action can be defended. Indeed, Melvin, the wounded man, urged him to it. But when Bourne returns to civilization, he finds that his life is soured and that the universe (in terms of his economic advancement) disapproves of his action. He lied about what had happened. A comparable sacrifice is needed to redeem him. This comes, many years later, when he shoots his only son at the spot where Melvin died. Melvin had not been buried. The raw, unburied past emerged. [k] A VIRTUOSO'S COLLECTION. (1842) A remarkable collection of the rubbish, things of virtue and beauty, from all periods. The collector is the Wandering Jew and his doorkeeper is Peter Rugg. (See PETER RUGG by William Austin.) The point of the story seems to be a dichotomy between linkage with the things of the past, no matter how interesting, and visions of the future. The pas t is death. [1] p' S CORRESPONDENCE (1845) Correspondence from a madman

HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL in London, in which the result (in modern terms) is an if-of-history. For P. Lord Byron is alive, fat, and conservative; Shelley has taken to religion; Keats is writing an epic comparable to Milton's; Napoleon is wandering around London. * Also present are two stories which might be considered sciencefiction in retrospect: AN ARTIST OF THE BEAUTIFUL and EARTH'S LAST HOLOCAUST. * The 1854 edition (Ticknor and Fields; Boston), revised by Hawthorne, adds [ml FEATHERTOP; A MORALIZED LEGEND. (1852) The dangers of introspection and self-realization. Mother Rigby, an old witch, decides to make herself a scarecrow out of a pumpkin, odd pieces of wood, and ragged old clothing. She then has the whim of animating it, prettifying it, and sending it into civilization, much as did Hauff's malicious professor in THE YOUNG ENGLISHMAN. As long as Feathertop, the scarecrow, smokes the old witch's pipe, he is surrounded by the illusion of beauty, affluence, charm, and personality. He is immediately accepted by local society, but a glance in the mirror destroys not only the opinion of others but his own self-esteem. He decides to die. As Mother Rigby then philosophizes, the world is full of people no better than Feathertop. Why should Fathertop, having seen himself, be singled out for self-tormenting doubts and death? 778. THE SNOW-IMAGE AND OTHER TWICE-TOLD TALES Ticknor, Reed and Field; Boston 1852 Short stories, including [al THE SNOW-IMAGE. (1851) The limitations of rationalism. When Peony and Violet, two children, make a snow girl in their yard and animate it, their creation is not'recognized as such by their parents. The well-meaning ignorance and officiousness of the parents results in death for a living flight of fancy. [bl ETHAN BRAND. A CHAPTER FROM AN ABORTIVE ROMANCE. Generally considered one of Hawthorne's most significant stories for both idea and realization. Ethan Brand has long been away from his lime kiln in the hills, in search for the unpardonable sin. He now returns, at the same time as a wandering showman who has an apparatus which removes the life from the universe (in terms of bad pictures). Brand states that he has found the sin. The next morning his skeleton is found in the lime, with indications that his heart had been stone. * There is no agreement as to the meaning of this story. The unpardonable sin has been considered alienation from humanity (as Hawthorne states, though it is not clear whether this is only one facet of the sin), manipulation of others, or the quest itself-- although egoism is probably the answer that subsumes most of the partial definitions. First printed 1850 as THE UNPARDONABLE SIN. lcl THE MAN OF ADAMANT. (1837) Hawthorne's version of an etiological legend, a petrified man. Richard Digby, a religious fanatic, has taken refuge in a cave. The ghost of his former sweetheart in England tries to win him back to life with the water of grace, but he rejects her. A

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HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL good example of one of Hawthorne's moralizations. 779. SEPTIMIUS A ROMANCE Henry S. King; London 1872 American title SEPTIMIUS FELTON. * At his death Hawthorne left three drafts of a story about a search for the elixir of life. The first, lightly edited, was published by Una Hawthorne under the title SEPTIMIUS or SEPTIMIUS FELTON. The second, THE DOLLIVER ROMANCE, was published in 1876, while the third, now called SEPTIMIUS NORTON, was published only in extracts in periodical form in 1890. All three versions are to be found in Volume XIII, THE ELIXIR OF LIFE MANUSCRIPTS of THE CENTENARY EDITION OF THE WORKS OF NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE (Ohio State University Press; Columbus 1977). SEPTIMIUS FELTON is not entirely consistent internally, since Hawthorne never finished it, but it is certainly publishable. * Egotism and the search for the suspension of natural law, in a neo-Gothic network of plots and deceptions. * 1776 and a little later. Several roads lead Septimius Felton, a disillusioned young man, toward the elixir of life. During one of the minor incursions of the Revolutionary War Felton quarrels with a young British officer, and in a duel of sorts kills him. He buries the corpse in a thicket, with no real feelings of remorse, but retains the officer's papers, including a document written in several languages describing an elixir of life. This document ties in with a family tradition about Felton's first ancestor in America, who lived among the Indians for a time and learned many of their medicinal secrets. He, too, left a tradition about an elixir. As a third component, Sybil, a young woman, appears at the Englishman's grave and becomes friendly with Felton. She tells him the legend of the bloody footprint. (Centuries earlier a similar seeker had perfected the formula for the elixir and had decided that a human sacrifice was needed to provide an ingredient. He is now immortal, but where he walks a bloody footprint is to be seen.) Sybil further reveals that the secret ingredient of the elixir will appear only from a bloody grave, information which is rendered more striking by the appearance of exotic red flowers on the Englishman's grave. A fourth personality, Dr. Portensoaken (or Portsoaken), a drunken old occultist, encourages Felton in his quest for the elixir. Felton prepares the elixir, but as he is about to drink it, Sybil snatches it from him and drinks it. She reveals that it is a poison which she and Portsoaken had planned for Felton. Sybil, as ex-mistress of the British officer had wanted revenge, and Portsoaken is involved in a scheme to estrange an English inheritance that is falling due to Felton. The true elixir of life differs from that of death in one ingredient, which is inaccessible. Some years later Felton assumes his English inheritance, but lives a blighted life. * Although Hawthorne was obviously dissatisfied with SEPTIMIUS FELTON, and modern scholars generally regard it

HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL without great enthusiasm, it is a fascinating collection of motifs and involved plot strands in the Romantic Gothic tradition. 780. THE SNOW IMAGE AND UNCOLLECTED TALES NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE Ohio State University Press; Columbus 1974 Vol. XI of the Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne This is the standard modern scholarly edition of Hawthorne's works, used as the most authoritative and fullest collection of Hawthorne's anonymous work not reprinted during his lifetime. The section UNCOLLECTED TALES includes [a] ALICE DOANE'S APPEAL. (1835) An ambiguous story of possible fornication and incest. Walter Brome boasts of his conquest of Alice to her brother, who thereupon kills him. It is then revealed that Walter, too, was Alice's brother, and that the imbroglio has been caused by a wizard who is manipulating matters. After death Alice appears to the spirit of Walter to declare her innocence, which he does. [b) A VISIT TO THE CLERK OF THE WEATHER. (1836) On another world, a huge stone edifice, where various mythological personalities come and go. Much like others of Hawthorne's abstracted allegories based on figures of speech. [c) THE ANTIQUE RING. (1842) Once the property of Merlin, it contains a diamond and an active spirit. The ring does good as long as no evil is done; if it is used to work evil, it becomes evil. It was involved 'in the fall of Essex. When it is found in a church charitable drive, its good properties have been restored. * Minor work. 781. THE GHOST OF DOCTOR HARRIS The Tucker Publishing Co.; New York 1900 #1 in the Balzac Library In germ this was a factual ghost story that Hawthorne told to friends at Liverpool in 1856. He wrote the text down, on request, but it was not published until 1900, in the periodical NINETEENTH CENTURY.. * Hawthorne states that in 1843, in the Boston Athenaeum, he often saw the ghost of the late Dr. Harris, a local Unitarian minister. The ghost, which sat reading a newspaper, would look appealingly at Hawthorne, as if asking him to speak. Hawthorne remained silent, and nothing came of the experience. * Hawthorne recorded the situation in his journals, but readily admits that the story has been worked up into literary form. Since Hawthorne was neither dishonest nor a lunatic, the readiest explanation is mistaken identity. HAY, IAN (pseud. of BEITH, JOHN HAY) (18761952) Scottish journalist, playwright, novelist, military historian. Best-known work THE FIRST HUNDRED THOUSAND, documentary about the B.E.F. in World War I. Also collaboration on play version of LEAVE IT TO PSMITH with P. G. Wodehouse. 782. HALF A SOVEREIGN AN IMPROBABLE ROMANCE Hodder and Stoughton; London 1926 Humorous fantasy in the manner of Wodehouse. * Colonel Miles, a brave soldier in the last

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HAZLITT, WILLIAM war, also happens to be a rather shy, easygoing person socially, and his acquaintances take advantage of him. He is induced to go on a yachting trip to the Mediterranean, on which he is pestered and victimized by a collection of bores. At Tunis, near the site of ancient Carthage, one of the bores insists on holding a seance, and it is discovered that Miles is somewhat psychic. Indeed, after receiving a slight electric shock, he observes that Queen Dido is in his room, temporarily possessing the body of one of the party. Dido tells him that he is Aeneas reincarnated and gives a ring which will enable him to turn the tables on his obnoxious associates. For a day Miles thereupon oppresses the oppressors. When his victims rebel, Dido comes to his help with a collection of Carthaginian ghosts and the guests are almost roasted alive in old Carthaginian style. As a result of the experience Miles wins the woman he loves and is somewhat stronger in personality. He is also mature enough to recognize that his magical revenge had lowered him to the level of the others. * Dramatic in structure. Commercially competent, no more. HAZLITT, WILLIAM [THE SECOND] (1811-1893) British editor, bibliographer, scholar, translator, journalist, writer on jurisprudence. Now remembered mostly for studies of early humor and old cookbooks. AS EDITOR: 783. THE ROMANCIST, AND NOVELIST'S LIBRARY THE BEST WORKS OF THE BEST AUTHORS J. Clements; London 1839-40 4 vols. The first two volumes were edited anonymously. The last two are accredited to Hazlitt. * This remarkable collection contains several score novels and short stories, including sentimental, supernatural, Gothic, and Romantic material. VOLUME ONE. Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO, Horace Walpole. [b) THE OLD ENGLISH BARON, Clara Reeve. [c) DER FREISCHUTZ, J. W. Apel. [d) THE BOTTLE IMP, F. de 1a Motte Fouqu~. * Also [e) THE MIDNIGHT EMBRACE IN THE HALLS OF WERDENDORFF, Anonymous. Germany. A Gothic short story, presumably of German origin. Lord Albert seduces young Josephine, a beautiful peasant woman. But when he is about to be married, he allows his bride to persuade him to poison Josephine. At midnight the spirit of the murdered woman comes and kills him. A typical Romantic motif. [f) THE DIAMOND WATCH, Anonymous. 18th century Germany. Presumably translated from German. The student Theophan accepts a beautiful diamond watch from a mysterious old man. There is one condition: he must wind it every day, or he is lost. The old man parlays this condition into the acquisition of Theophan's soul. [g) THE GHOST OF KILSHEELAN, William B. MacCabe. Irish regionalism, partly in dialect. The ghost of Major B1ennerhassett, murdered during the land troubles, appears to old Biddy and tells who the murderer

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was and where proof can be found. [h} THE DEAN OF BADAJOZ, Anonymous. The dean asks the Spanish magician Don Torribio to teach him magic. The magician hesitates, since he fears ingratitude, but finally agrees. Years pass, and the dean proves himself ungrateful. The magician then awakens the dean. It has all been illusion and the dean has failed. VOLUME TWO. Including, described elsewhere, [i} THE SPECTRE BARBER, [J. W. Musaeus]. Alternate title for DUMB LOVE. [j] THE ENCHANTED ISLAND, Washington Irving. Alternate title for ADALANTADO OF THE SEVEN CITIES. [k} THE CYPRESS CROWN, Caroline de 1a Motte Fouque. [1] THE SPECTRE UNMASKED, Anonymous. * Also [m] ANTONELLI, J. W. von Goethe. When dying, a rejected admirer of the great singer Antonelli swears to make her heed him after death. Spectral persecution: groans, lights, and, finally, applause. [n} THE DEVIL' S LADDER, OR THE GNOMES OF THE REDRICH, Anonymous. Attributed elsewhere to A. W. Schreiber. Translated from German. A gnome kidnaps the baron's daughter and Ruthe1m vows to rescue her. Gnomes build a ladder up the side of the mountain. [oJ THE DAUGHTER OF HIPPOCRATES, Leigh Hunt. Medieval Sicily. Gaultier disenchants a gigantic, friendly serpent by kissing it. A beautiful maiden, enchanted by Diana centuries before. [p] THE BOGLE 0' THE BRAE, James Hogg. Falsified supernaturalism with a magic lantern. VOLUME THREE. Including, described elsewhere, [q} THE MAGIC DOLLAR, F. de 1a Motte Fouque. [r] THE FIELD OF TERROR, F. de 1a Motte Fouque. [s] RIP VAN WINKLE, Washington Irving. [t] THE VAMPYRE, John Polidori. Without the editorial matter. [u} THE ITALIAN, Mrs. Ann Radcliffe. [v} THE GHOST-SEER, F. von Schiller. Full text with Fo11enius's continuation. [w] ST. IRVYNE, P. B. Shelley. * Also [x} THE SEXTON OF COLOGNE, Anonymous. Presumably translated from German. Premature burial. Manifestations that seem supernatural. [y] WOLMAR, A GERMAN LEGEND, R. H. Horne. Medieval Germany. Count Wo1mar cannot stand against his enemy von Deutzberg. With the help of a magician he strikes a bargain with a demon and defeats his enemy, but is turned into a statue of Deutzberg. [z] AMORASSAN, OR THE SPIRIT OF THE FROZEN OCEAN, M. G. Lewis. From ROMANTIC TALES. Oriental moral tale. The vizier Amorassan obtains the services of a jinn, who summons for him the Spirit of the Frozen Ocean. She symbolizes truth and interferes with his career. He is exiled from court and becomes a poor fisherman, but stands higher in the Book of Fate. A second Oriental tale intertwines with this and cowments on it. [aa} KESTER HOBSON, A TALE OF THE YORKSHIRE WOLDS, Anonymous. Treasure found by a double dream, as in The Spectre Barber. [bb} THE LAIDLAWS AND THE SCOTTS, James Hogg. A 16th century border raid, in which a falsified ghost is used. [cc} THE DROWNED FISHERMAN, Mrs. S. C. Hall. Ireland. A death appearance. [dd} THE DEAD GUEST, Heinrich Zschokke. Translated from German. The legend of the Dead Guest: he appears every hundred years, wins the hearts of three

HEARD, H. F. maidens, and strangles them on their wedding nights. Young von Hahn is taken to be the Dead Guest. VOLUME FOUR. Including, described elsewhere, [eel THE NECROMANCER, Lawrence F1ammenberg. * [Also [ff] A VISION OF PURGATORY, William Maginn. Sweeney promises to guard Sir Theodore's corpse. He breaks his promise and is taken to Purgatory by St. Colman. A dream. [gg} AZMOLOCH, OR, THE CASTLE OF LINDEN-WOOLFE, Anonymous. A Gothic novel obviously derivative from THE MONK by M. G. Lewis. The Baroness Linden-Woo1fe, enamored of Conte Reubenza, commits murders to rid him and herself of marital encumbrances. She is aided by the demon Azmo1och, a dark, shrouded figure. When she is taken by the Inquisition, the demon offers her safety if she accept him completely. She is taken to a witches' sabbath, where she participates for a time, but when she refuses to drink blood, the witches demand her as prey. Also ghosts, prophetic dreams, divine lightning. * Earliest publication found; there is a later separate publication from around 1870. The set also contains the following Gothic and Romantic material which is not sufficiently supernatural to be described: ZASTROZZI, P. B. Shelley. THE CASTLE OF WOLFENBACH, Eliza Parsons. COUNT RODERICK'S CASTLE, OR GOTHIC TIMES, Anonymous. HANS OF ICELAND, Victor Hugo. THE HAUNTED CAVERN, John Palmer. THE BRAVO OF VENICE, M. G. Lewis. THE CASTLES OF ATHLIN AND DUNBAYNE, Ann Radcliffe. A SICILIAN ROMANCE, Ann Radcliffe. ELLA ROSENBERG, W. Herbert. THE ORPHAN OF HOLLENBACH, OR POLYCARP THE ADVENTURER, Anonymous. THE ROMANCE OF THE FOREST, Ann Radcliffe. EDGAR HUNTLEY, Charles Brockden Brown. THE CHILDREN OF THE ABBEY, Regina M. Roche. THE EARL OF SALISBURY, John Leland. THE WILD IRISH BOY, Charles Maturin. Print is small, but readable. HEARD, H[ENRY} F[ITZGERALD} (1889-1971) British essayist, journalist, social theorist, writer on occult topics, novelist. Resident since World War II in California, where was associated with Aldous Huxley in Hollywood vedanta movement. Best-known works PAIN, SEX AND TIME (parameters of mystical or occult experiences) and A TASTE FOR HONEY (excellent pastiche of Sherlock Holmes). Often wrote under name Gerald Heard. 784. THE GREAT FOG AND OTHER WEIRD TALES Vanguard Press; New York [1944] Short stories, including [a] THE SWAP. Theory of knowledge, expressed in terms of a psychological experience. Mather, an anthropologist, takes the position that there would be no possibility of certain knowledge unless other viewing lenses could be used. Jones has found a Sufi treatise which gives a workable recipe for personality exchange. He and Mather exchange bodies, but the result is not spectacular. The only real conclusion is that each is dissatisfied with his new tenancy and is having great problems with coordination. [b} DROMENON. Professor She1bourne, great authority on Gothic architecture, takes the position

HEARD, H. F. that Gothic religious architecture was not simply a question of engineering or art, but was itself a religious experience. In a neglected cathedral he learns, by actual experience, that a mysticism is hidden and revealed in a floor maze, a pattern, and elements of stained glass. It is a way to come to the Presence. lc] THE CAT, "I AM," Innes reveals to his doctor, Hamilton, the strange phenomena associated with the stray cat "I AM. i, It comes at definite times and it has even indicated that it is a demon ready to pounce on its prey. Or madness. [d] THE ROUSING OF MR. BRADEGAR. Mr. Bradegar, 60 years old, awakens suddenly and believes that he has had a stroke. But as he awakens more fully he finds himself back in his childhood. The point is not clear. * lb] is a very thoughtprovoking story, if somewhat garrulous. * This collection has been reissued as WEIRD TALES OF TERROR AND DETECTION, with different total contents, but supernatural stories as above. 785. THE LOST CAVERN AND OTHER TALES OF THE FANTASTIC Vanguard; New York 1948 Four long short stories, including [a] THE CUP. Told by a reformed art forger and thief to a cracksman who is about to raid the church treasures. The narrator had decided to steal the Saxlin Cup-- a heavily jewelled church vessel from ancient Armenia-- but as he saw the local vicar struggling along with it, pushing forces of evil, the thief was instantly converted. He later witnesses an exorcism performed by the cup and joins the church. Conceived mystically and metaphysically rather than in terms of folklore or occultism. [b] THE CHAPEL OF EASE. A medieval chapel, resorted to during World War II by a government worker, is the scene of opposing forces of terror and horror. The narrator first experiences them as moods rather than as beings. He learns that the chapel had been used by a mystically oriented priest who wished to act as intercessor for the ghosts of lepers, criminals, and suicides buried nearby. * Excellent ideas, sometimes quite strikingly presented (like the description of the demoniac and the priest's struggle against evil), but verbose. Buried within the flood of words are those snippets of odd information and insights for which Heard is appreciated. 786. THE BLACK FOX A NOVEL OF THE SEVENTIES Cassell; London 1950 Ambition, pride, ecclesiastical politics, and magic in a Trollope-like setting in Victorian England. * Canon Charles Throcton, an Anglican clergyman whose specialty is Islamic studies, is slightingly passed over in a matter of preferment. While he really has been treated shabbily, his pride and ambition do not permit him to accept the injury in the spirit of obedience, and he half-seriously uses a magical recipe given by Ibn Barnuna, a (mythical) Moslem traveller. His enemy is soon tormented by a disease much like erisypelas and dies, leaving his position open to Throcton. But now Throcton notices all about him

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HEARN, LAFCADIO evidences of foulness and corruption, symbolized by a dead, mangy black fox that he finds in his garden. His sister, who is close to him, witnesses his gradual breakdown and sees some of the rottenness. A Sufi master, who is attending a local Islamic conference, explains the situation to her and provides her with vision to see what is really happening: Throcton is haunted by the evil he evoked. It is in the form of Anubis, a leprous jackal, since Throcton had sinned twice: murdering by magic and then denying it. The sister, with the psychic aid of the Sufi, agrees to take the evil to herself to save her brother's soul. Her death provides him with enough liberty that he can decide to make reparation. He goes to Egypt to study with the Sufi. * Basically GREEN TEA in modern form. Some interesting detail on ecclesiastical operations, but very slow, with mountains of turgid detail and pretentious reflection. It might have made a good nouvelle. I should add, however, that competent critics like Anthony Boucher have rated it highly. HEARN, [PATRICI01 LAFCADIO [TESSlMA CARLOs1 (1850-1904) American author, born in Santa Maura, Greece. Journalist in Cincinnati, New Orleans; miscellaneous writer. Travelled to Japan in 1891 as correspondent; became fascinated with Japanese culture; settled in Japan as naturalized citizen, with name-change to Koizumi; recognized as interpreter of Japanese culture for the West. Also did translations from French, notably Theophile Gautier; and cultural studies of New Orleans and the West Indies. During his lifetime his early florid style was admired; today his simple, expressive later style is more highly regarded. 787. SOME CHINESE GHOSTS Roberts Brothers; Boston 1887 Short sketches and stories based on fiction and folklore. * [a1 THE SOUL OF THE GREAT BELL. Kouan-Yu, a Chinese bellmaker, is unsuccessful in casting a bell. His great masterpiece cannot be founded unless a virgin is mixed into the melt. His dutiful daughter leaps into the molten metal. Since one of her slippers dropped off as she leaped, the tone of the bell calls for the lost slipper. [b] THE STORY OF MING-Y. A Chinese scholar has a love affair with the ghost of a long-dead courtesan from T'ang times. [c] THE LEGEND OF TCHI-NIU. Tong-Yong, a dutiful son, sells himself into slavery to acquire funds for a proper funeral for his father. He becomes ill and is nursed by a strange woman, whom he marries. Due to her efforts he regains his freedom. She was the goddess Tchi-Niu, who was impressed with his filial piety. [d] THE RETURN OF YEN-TCHIN-KING. Supreme Judge Yen is sent by the Emperor as an ambassador to a rebellious chieftain. Yen's plain speaking offends the warlord, who puts him to death, but Yen's spirit reports to the Emperor. [e] THE TRADITION OF THE TEA PLANT. One of the traditional Japanese stories about the domestication of tea.

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The Buddhist missionary Boddhidharma keeps dozing off during his meditations. To stay awake he cuts off his eyelids. But they are restored, and where he tossed the amputated flesh he finds the tea plant. [f] THE TALE OF THE PORCELAIN-GOD. Pu, the greatest potter in China, is commissioned by the Emperor to make a vessel whose surface shall have the color and life of human skin. Pu can make such a vessel only by sacrificing himself. * Florid and saccharine versions. 788. KWAIDAN STORIES AND STUDIES OF STRANGE THINGS Houghton Mifflin; Boston 1904 Material, sometimes very short, based on Japanese folklore and popular literature. * Including [a] THE STORY OF MIMI-NASHI-HOICHI. A blind Buddhist reciter is called upon to entertain a company at nights. He does not realize that his listeners are ghosts. A priests paints charms on his body to protect him, but Hoichi's ears are overlooked. Miminashi means earless. [b] OSHIDORI. A Buddhist morality tale. A hunter who kills one of a pair of wild ducks is visited in dream by a beautiful woman, the mate of the dead duck. The next day the surviving duck commits harakiri in front of him. He joins a monastery. [c] THE STORY OF O-TEI. As she lies dying, she promises to rejoin Nagao in a new incarnation. Many years later Nagao meets a beautiful young woman who is the image of O-Tei. The woman spontaneously remembers her previous incarnation long enough to identify herself. [d] UBAZAKURA. A wetnurse vowed her life to save that of her fosterchild. As she lies dying, she begs that a cherry tree be planted in her memory. Its blossoms resemble nipples with milk. [e] DIPLOMACY. The death vow of an angry, dying man can cause a haunting. A samurai cleverly evades the potential ghost. [f] OF A MIRROR AND A BELL. The priests collected bronze mirrors and bells as material for a gigantic bell. One woman begrudged her gift, and the metals would not melt. She committed suicide, leaving a note that whoever breaks the bell will get wealth. Since the bell is ill-omened, it is discarded, but men try to break it in absentia by magical means. Two men get suitable rewards. [g] JIKININKI. A priest who stops overnight in a village where a death has taken place sees a horrible monster eat the corpse. When he meets the monster later, it reveals, in embarrassment, that it was once a greedy priest, and that it is being punished for its sins. [h] MUJINA. A catch tale. An old merchant encounters faceless demons in the dark, in a haunted area. [i] ROKURO-KUBI. A demon which can detach its head from its body and move about as a head. A former samurai, turned priest, beats off a group of such demons. [j] A DEAD SECRET. The ghost of a woman. It wants a secreted love letter destroyed. [k] YUKI-ONNA. A snow-bound handsome young man is spared, because of his youth and beauty, by a snow demon. She warns him never to tell of her, or he will die. Later she marries him. After ten children he forgets her warning and tells her of

HEARN, LAFCAD 10 the incident in the past. He has a narrow escape. [1] THE STORY OF AOYAGI. Tomotada meets a beautiful young woman in the forest, living with poverty-stricken parents. He takes her as mistress for a time, since he cannot get permission to marry her. They live happily together for years, until one day she droops, dies, and disappears. She was the spirit of the tree. The story is fragmentary. [m] JIU-ROKUZAKURA. The old tree is dying, but a samurai, who loves the tree, commits harakiri, offering his soul up for the preservation of the tree. [n] THE DREAM OF AKINOSUKE. He is invited to Fairyland, marries a princess, and is given an island to govern. When his wife dies, some years later, he is returned to earth. He learns that he has been away only for a moment or two, and that his fairyland had been an anthill, and his princess an ant. A common motif in Oriental fiction. [0] RIKI-BAKA. Reincarnation and folk magic to ward off bad karma from a previous life. Clay from the grave. * Stories beautifully told in Hearn's later, simple style. The title of the book means GHOST STORIES. 789. FANTASTICS Houghton Mifflin Boston 1914 550 copy edition Hearn became a fad author for a short time, and old newspaper and periodical files were ransacked for previously unreprinted material. * Introduction by the editor, Charles Woodward Hutson. * Thirty of Hearn's contributions to the NEW ORLEANS ITEM from 1877 to 1887. Most are short fables or prose poems which try to evoke a mood by means of poetic vocabulary, lush imagery, and emotional writing. Only those that have a story line are mentioned here. * Including [a] HEREDITARY MEMORIES. (1880) A gentleman tells the doctor about a repetitive dream of an Oriental city, with river, minarets, and similar sights. The doctor explains it as ancestral memory. since the subject's father had been in India. [b] THE GHOSTLY KISS. (1880) The protagonist, seated next to a beautiful woman in the theatre, lusts for her and wishes to kiss her. He does, later, and finds himself in a graveyard, near a stone. [c] METEMPSYCHOSIS. (1880) Memories and anticipations are caused by cyclical universes, the doctor says. Everything will repeat. [d] THE VISION OF THE DEAD. (1880) A Creole lover is near the grave of his beloved when she rises. Love is as strong as death. [e] THE NAME ON THE STONE. (1880) The protagonist is told not to look at the name on the stone. [f] THE FOUNTAIN OF GOLD. (1880) The dying man tells the priest of wandering about as a Conquistador and stumbling on a lost valley, where he lived in bliss with a beautiful woman for a time. When he leaves the valley, he discovers that he has been there for centuries. He cannot find the way back. [g] L'AMOUR APRES LA MORTE. Prose sketch. The longing of a dead man in his grave. * The titles have been supplied by the editor. Trivial, immature material that would have been better left undisturbed. Hearn himself did not regard this early material very highly.

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790. THE SELECTED WRITINGS OF LAFCADIO HEARN Citadel Press; New York 1949 Edited by Henry Goodman. Excellent introduction by Malcolm Cowley. A very good selection of material, with the full texts of SOME CHINESE GHOSTS and KWAIDAN (without the appended essay material of some editions), and much other material. It contains just about everything that one might want of Hearn's, unless one were seriously concerned with his various apologia for Japanese culture. * Including [a] THE STORY OF THE GREAT BELL. [b] THE STORY OF MING-Y. [c] THE LEGEND OF TCHI-NIU. [d] THE RETURN OF YEN-TCHIN-KING. [e] THE TRADITION OF THE TEA-PLANT. [f] THE TALE OF THE PORCELAIN-GOD. [g] THE STORY OF MIMI-NASHIHOICHI. [h] OSHIDORI. [i] THE STORY OF O-TEI. [j] UBAZAKURA. [k] DIPLOMACY. [1] OF A MIRROR AND A BELL. [m] JIKININKI. [n] MUJINA. [0] ROKURO-KUBI. [p] A DEAD SECRET. [q] YUKIONNA. [r] THE STORY OF AOYAGI. [s] JIU-ROKUZAKURA. [t] THE DREAM OF AKINOSUKE. [u] RIKIBAKA. * Many of Hearn's later works contain fiction based on Japanese prototypes, but such work falls more into folklore than literature. The present selection, however, contains four additional stories of Japanese supernaturalism that are based more on literary models. [v] THE MIRROR MAIDEN. (from THE ROMANCE OF THE MILKY WAY, 1905) Many suicides have taken place in the old well until a Shinto priest occupies the property. He discovers that a beautiful woman lives in the well. She is compelled to lure men to their death. The priest is able to resist her, and she asks him to remove her remains. All that is found are a couple of ornaments and an ancient mirror, of which she is the spirit. [w] THE RECONCILIATION. (from SHADOWINGS, 1900) A samurai who has put aside his wife comes to regret it. He searches for her and spends the night with her. But the next morning he finds a skeleton in a ruined house. [x] STORY OF A TENGU. A Buddhist priest saves the life of a kite which some boys are mauling. The kite, which is a spirit in bird form, offers the priest a wish. He asks to be able to see the Buddha preaching, far in the past in India. It is granted, but by illusion. (from GHOSTLY JAPAN, 1899). [y] OF A PROMISE KEPT. (from A JAPANESE MISCELLANY 1901) A samurai has promised his family that he will return on a certain day, and preparations for his reception are made. He appears, but as a ghost. He had been treacherously held captive, and suicide was his only means of escaping to keep his word. HECHT, BEN (1893-1964) American novelist, playwright, motion picture scenarist (WUTHERING HEIGHTS), producer. Associated for time with CHICAGO DAILY NEWS and member of Chicago Renaissance of the 1920's. Best-known works ERIK DORN (1921), THE FRONT PAGE (play, 1928, with Charles MacArthur). At one time considered one of most promising young writers. Viking Press; New 791. A BOOK OF MIRACLES York 1939

HEINLEIN, ROBERT A. Heavy, talky, ironic short stories and nouvelles. * [a] A LOST SOUL. If one looks closely, one can see two angels hovering around a skyscraper. The reason: Joe Feeney, at the steel mill, fell into the melting pot and became part of a steel girder. God ordered his angels to bring Feeney to Him, but it is not possible. [b] THE LITTLE CANDLE. Rabbi Ben Ezra of a tiny New York temple feels so ineffectual against the Nazi atrocities that he commits suicide. Before his death is di~­ covered, the shabbes goy lights a candle. The congregation, not knowing of the goy's action, assume that the candle has been burning supernaturally all night. Perhaps not intended to be supernatural. The folly of belief? God works through low and trivial tools? [c] THE MISSING IDOL. Mr. Kolisher, Hollywood mogul, is making a superepic of the life of Jesus. But God and His angels happen to come along at the time of the filming and are greatly confused by duplication of history. God decides to make the leading man a true son of His, but provides him with an odd attribute: he does not appear in photographs. This causes problems. [d] DEATH OF ELEAZER. Eleazer, a saintly rabbi, is murdered by an American Nazi who mayor may not be the incarnation of a known demon. (Hecht is not clear on this point.) During the trial of the Nazi everything goes in favor of the killer until the ghost of Eleazer appears, visible to certain persons. [e] REMEMBER THY CREATOR. Nouvelle. God sends the archangel Michael to earth, incarnated as an ordinary man, to bring mankind closer to Him. But Michael rebels and sides with mankind, recognizing as a good crypto-Marxist, that Man and God do not share the same interests. [f] THE HEAVENLY CHOIR. Radio broadcasting is seriously hampered by the spirits of the dead who persist in singing barbershop quartets and creating other disturbances. [g] THE ADVENTURE OF PROFESSOR EMMETT. Emmett, a competent entomologist, but a very neurotic man, is cozened into marriage by a designing woman. When he discovers that he is impotent, he commits suicide and awakens as a termite of a new species. The neo-termites eat stone, are coldresistant, and are much hardier than the older species. Emmett realizes that the neo-termites could mean the end of man, and goes to Washington (hitchhiking as a termite), and writes notes to the president by climbing in and out of an inkwell and walking across paper. The danger is averted. Probably a spoof, but very heavy-handed and meandering. * Hecht persistently buttonholes the reader with page after page of personal gabble that might have been entertaining, if it had been presented with wit or dexterity, but is simply a bore. HEINLEIN, ROBERT A[NSON] (1907 ) Major American science-fiction writer, in the opinion of many, the foremost American science-fiction author during the formative period of the late 1930's and early 1940's. Many important works, outstanding being

HEINLEIN, ROBERT A. STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND, METHUSELAH'S CHILDREN, I WILL FEAR NO EVIL and the Future History series. Although much of his s-f has a mystical or irrational element, his supernatural fiction is by no means as important as his s-£. 792. WALDO AND MAGIC. INC. Doubleday; Garden City, N.Y. 1950 The first novel, [a] WALDO (ASF 1942, under the pseudonym Anson MacDonald) is sciencefiction in treatment, although the subject matter is ultimately supernatural. Waldo Farthingwaite, a space-man's Nero Wolfe in appearance and personality, is myasthenic. The greatest engineer in the solar system, he has built a low-gravity world for himself beyond earth's gravitational field, and serves as a troubleshooter for extraordinarily difficult problems. When the world's transportation system seems threatened because of an inexplicable failure of power receivers, the only lead toward solving the problem is a non-rational one which threatens the scientific concept of the universe. A Pennsylvania hexer had "cured" an ailing machine by ''magic,'' declaring that lack of contact with the Other World had been the problem. Waldo discovers that the Other World is the source of spirit and can be manipulated mentally, with corresponding results on the material world. He cures his own disability and becomes a ballet-dancer and a charming man. [b] MAGIC, INC. (UNK 1942 under the title THE DEVIL MAKES THE LAW) Set in a modern America in which magic works and is as vital to life and business as rational technology, this includes elements of crime fiction and an attack on crooked politics. * The narrator, owner of a building supply house, refuses to pay protection to racketeers, and finds his stock ruined by elementals. By hiring a powerful witch, he is able to restore his business, but it becomes obvious that the crooks are only on the outskirts of a plot to create a monopoly of magic through state legislation and licensing. A fiend is behind the scheme, and a trip to Hell is necessary. * Of biographical interest because of Heinlein's venture into politics, but not one of his better stories. 793. THE UNPLEASANT PROFESSION OF JONATHAN HOAG Gnome Press; New York 1959 Title novel and short stories, including [a] THE UNPLEASANT PROFESSION OF JONATHAN HOAG. (UNK 1942 under the pseudonym John Riverside.) A mystery 'novel with a solid fantasy background. Teddy and Cynthia Randall, husband and wife team of private eyes, are approached by a little man who offers them what seems an easy assignment, if he is sane: he has complete amnesia about his daytime activities and wants to know what he does. Following Mr. Hoag proves shattering to the Randalls' sense of reality, and in a very short time the Randalls learn that they have attracted the unfavorable attention of a very vicious secret organization with supernatural powers called The Sons of the Bird. When Hoag's profession is discovered, it is surprising, since it involves a new cosmology and a glimpse behind

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HENDERSON, ZENNA the scenes of cosmology. A fine mystery novel, even though the ending is a little weak. [b] THE MAN WHO TRAVELLED IN ELEPHANTS. (SATURN SCIENCE FICTION, 1957) John Watts, who travelled in elephants for years, along with his now deceased wife, "survives" a bus crash to find himself in the greatest of all circuses. He is Rex of the circus and his wife is Queen. Excellent handling of an old, sentimental theme. [c] OUR FAIR CITY. (WT 1948) Big-city crooked politics, brutal cops, crusading reporters, and a wind-being that conserves the old rubbish of the city-- including newspapers with damaging information. [d] THEY. Described elsewhere. * The other stories are science-fiction. * The Pyramid paperbound reprint is titled 6 X H. HEKKING, AVIS British author. Nothing known. 794. A KING OF MARS John Long; London 1908 Political romance, religious novel, occult enlightenment, adventure. * A ms. transmitted from Mars. Beylo, a handmaiden to good king Amklu, tells of Anayru's rebellion. Superscience and the magical abilities of the prophet Visaya prolong the war, while Anayru is smitten down by the evil karma he has created. Amklu regains his throne and Beylo marries well. Ludicrous. HENDERSON, ZENNA (1917 American writer (Arizona) best-known for stories about the People, humanoid aliens of superior endowment stranded and forced to survive on earth. Essentially stories of tolerance. S-f. 795. THE ANYTHING BOX Doubleday; Garden City, Short stories, including [a] THE ANYTHING BOX. Described elsewhere. [b] COME ON, WAGON! (MSFS 1956) Borderline s-f. The narrator's nephew Thaddeus unwittingly demonstrates almost miraculous powers of psychokinesis. His toy wagons move along after him and his toys operate by themselves. When he is a little older and rationality has set in, a crisis arises in which only Thaddeus's ability can save a life. He fails. [c] WALKING AUNT DAID. (MFSF 1955) Aunt Daid, whose name indicates that she should have been dead decades ago, is probably well over 150 years old. She is cared for by a charitable family, even though she has degenerated into a machine-like organism. Once every twenty or thirty years, however, she must be taken for a walk by a male, who returns a shaken man for the rest of his life. The task now falls to Dev, the narrator, who witnesses a remarkable transformation and is faced with a question that destroys his ego. [d] THE GRUNDER. (IMAGINATION 1953) It is a fish-like creature that swims through soil and rock, perhaps in some dimensional way. If it is trapped properly, at the right time, and if the "fisherman" runs his hand over it three times (which is flesh-ripping) marital problems can be solved. [e] STEVIE AND THE DARK. (IMAGINATION 1952) Stevie, by child magic, has a thing of evil imprisoned. It is

HENDERSON, ZENNA touch and go whether the thing will escape, and then whether Stevie will escape. [f] AND A LITTLE CHILD -(MFSF 1959) Liesle, a very strange child, can see inner essences where adults see only figures of speech. She also can enter other worlds based on this vision. * When not over-sentimental, Henderson's work is excellent. Best stories are [c] and [e]. HEPWORTH, GEORGE [HUGHES] (1833-1902) Nationally known Unitarian minister, Boston. Worked on Civil War relocation of former slaves; assisted in Irish famines. Popular religious columnist in newspapers. Apparently an extraordinarily amiable and helpful man, though a minor writer. 796. : ! ! Harpers; New York 1881 A fictionalized argument for reincarnation. * Gerard Roussel can remember previous incarnations. He knows the circumstances of his death in Paris during Napoleon's invasion of Russia and he has also recovered"memories of a later incarnation. When visiting Berlin he discovers much that looks familiar. By good fortune he has letters of introduction to the Hohenstaufens (whose deceased grandfather he had been) and he discovers that Bertha, the daughter of the house, had been his wife and remembers her previous incarnation. Together they find material evidence for their last life together. * Hepworth's authorized biography does not discuss this book, which expresses a point of view undoubtedly unacceptable for 19th century Unitarianism. * How does one ask for this book in a shop? 797. THE OUEEREST MAN ALIVE AND OTHER STORIES R. F. Fenno; New York [1897] Short stories, including [al THE QUEEREST MAN ALIVE. Dr. Rem, under hashish, tells a tall tale of a telescoping man. As a result of accidents he was first stretched out to 8' 6", then compressed to 3' 6". Hanging for his own murder stretched him back out to his normal size. [b] YEGOR'S PORTRAIT. Russia. Yegor was killed in a riding accident some time before, but his portrait is alive and Yegor emerges evenings. His cousin and best friend Stephan carouses and gambles with Yegor for an evening, and then learns that Yegor has a request. He is earthbound because he left an illegitimate child without support. Stephan undoes the wrong. * Not important. HERING, HENRY A[UGUSTUS] (1864 - ?) British author, known to detective story collectors for THE BURGLARS' CLUB (1906), a short story collection. 798. ADVENTURES AND FANTASIES Wright and Brown; London 1930 Short stories, including [a] THE DISINTEGRATED GREENGROCER. A ghost takes over the body of Timperley, a greengrocer. [b] PSYCHE'S EXPERIENCE EXCHANGE. A business organization that buys and sells memories. [c] PSYCHE'S LIQUID THOUGHT. Archibald, ineffectual, frustrated writer, buys Poe's thought from the exchange and writes an excellent short story.

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HERON, E. AND H. But when he buys Omar Khayyam's, he produces only a dun for unpaid tents. Ed] THE LATE EUGENE ARAM. The ghost of Aram, a notorious historical criminal of the 18th century, tries to mislead the narrator and haunts a judge. [ej THE TELEPATHER. A machine to communicate with the world of spirits. [f] THE VANISHED PRIME MINISTER. He drinks some lethe water and loses his memory for three years. [g] MR. BROADBENT'S INFORMATION. Lord Baxter, experimenting with the creation of life, manufactures a very appealing entity. [h] THE CREW OF THE "FLYING DUTCHMAN." Vanderdecken gathers a ghostly crew from old deserters. * Curiously old-fashioned for their date of publication. Routine, otherwise. HERON, E. AND H. (pseud. of PRICHARD, HESKETH v. [1876-19221 and his mother PRICHARD, KATE O'BRIEN RYALL) H. V. Prichard seems to have been the major partner in their collaborations. A British soldier, sportsman, civil servant, naturalist. D.S.O. in World War I, but out of favor for urging abandonment of trench warfare in favor of less stationary tactics. Very popular writer of fiction for variety periodicals. Bestknown for periodical stories about Don Q., a sadistic bandit, who along with Sherlock Holmes and Captain Kettle was considered one of the more important character creations of the day. Don Q. is now deservedly forgotten. 799. GHOSTS BEING THE EXPERIENCES OF FLAXMAN LOW C.A. Pearson; London 1899 Probably the first important adventures of an occult detective, if LeFanu's Dr. Hesselius is momentarily overlooked. Low, Oxford trained psychologist, is one of those who have taken "the first steps towards • • • classifying spirits and ghosts, with the result that some very bizarre and terrible theories have been put forward." * [a] THE STORY OF "THE SPANIARDS," HAMMERSMITH. A soggy, spongy creature, which taps along the corridors, attempts to strangle persons who sleep in a certain bed. The ghost of a leper. [b] THE STORY OF MEDHANS LEA. The shrieks and whimpers of a child, a horrible face at the window, and something tall and black that assaults one outside. [c] THE STORY OF THE MOOR ROAD. The earthslip at the quarry released an Earth Elemental, which chases people along the Moor Road and is very nasty. Ed] THE STORY OF BAELBROW. Psychic influences out of an old barrow and a mummy combine to effect an animation. [e] THE STORY OF THE GREY HOUSE. Residents tend to be hanged mysteriously. The answer is a plant with red blossoms, into which an earthbound spirit has passed. [f] THE STORY OF YAND MANOR HOUSE. The haunted room is lethal after dark. A previous inhabitant likes to return. [g] THE STORY OF SEVERNS HALL. For generations every male of Yarkindale's lineage has committed suicide by self-strangulation. It is the ghost of the last member of the collateral line who once owned the hall. [h] THE STORY OF SADDLER'S CROFT. Strange doings around the temple. The spirit of Agapoulos, a member of the local

HERON, E. AND H. cult of Diana, possesses young Sinclair, even to changing his appearance. [i] THE STORY OF NC. 1, KARMA CRESCENT. A series of straGge deaths, seemingly supernatural, but Low finds a rational explanation in a Chinese secret society. [j] THE STORY OF KOt--'NOR OLD HOUSE. Horrible deaths like cancer. A fungus from Africa and a nude, shining white figure that stalks around the house. partly ~ationalized. [k] THE STORY OF CROWSEDGE. LOW's first conflict with the dreadful Dr. Kalmarkane, a remarkable occult investigator ,rho has uncovered many of the secrets of matter and spirit and is ahead of Low in knowledge. LOW's friend d'Imiran appeals to Low for help. D'Imiran has been acting as Kalmarkane's assistant and is being harassed magically by the vicious scientist. A disembodied hand. [1] THE STORY OF ~. FLAXMAN LOW. Kalmarkane suggests that Low collaborate on an infamous magical project. Low refuses, and Kalmarkane vows revenge-which takes the form of a spiritual incubus. Low fights off the attack and offers Kalmarkane the choice of instant death or a duel. Low wins the duel. * Derivative from Doyle, but important historically, despite corr~ercial level. * The reissue GHOST STORIES (Pearson, 1917) contains only stories [a] through [fl. * The original periodical publication contained photographs of each haunted house! HERTZ-GARTEN, THEODOR (pseud. of DE MATTOS, ISABEL ? ) Presumably a British author. 800. THROUGH THE RED-LITTEN WINDOWS AND THE OLD RIVER HOUSE Cassell; New York 1892 No. 11 of the "Unknown" Library A small book w'ith two short stories. Including La] THROUGH THE RED-LITTEN WINDOWS. The narrator, who has quarreled badly with his brotherin-law, is accosted by a strange woman, whom he follows to her home. She leaves him in a room, where he soon sees what seems to be a ghostly reenactment of a past crime. His brother-in-law is involved. The vision vanishes; he is imprisoned for a time; a personality change or interchange seems to take place. All this is rather confused, but then the whole story is delirium in the hospital. * Substandard. HEYSE, PAUL [JOHANN LUDWIG] (1830-1914) German writer of fiction, translator (Shakespeare, Italian classics), poet. Most famous member of Munich Circle of middle 19th century. Best-known for nouvelles of psychological interest, particularly L'ARRABBIATA (1855). Although almost unknown in the English-speaking world, very important in German Victorian literature. Nobel Prize for Literature, 1910. * The four small volumes that follow are components, though separate books, of a set titled AT THE GHOST HOUR. All have been translated from IN DER GEISTERSTUNDE (1892) by Frances A. Van Santford. 801. THE FAIR ABIGAIL Dodd, Mead; New York 1894 (DIE SCHONE ABIGAIL) Germany. During the

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HEYSE, PAUL Franco-Prussian War the narrator became engaged to the fair but cold Abigail. It was a tepid engagement, and when he received no answers to his letters while he was in military service, he soon forgot Abigail and married another woman. Ten years later, the narrator comes upon Abigail's name and then finds her in his hotel room. She acts strangely, but he discovers that he still loves her. He agrees to accompany her. When they come to an iron fence on the outskirts of town, she slides through and kisses him through the fence. He loses consciousness, but learns later that he has been rescued by passersby from a vampire. Her abode is the cemetery. * Nicely told, although the translation, as in the other volumes of the set, is very florid and ornamental. 802. THE FOREST LAUGH Dodd, Mead; New York 1894 I (DAS WALDLACHEN) Germany. When a young doctor visits a friend, he hears laughter emergent from the tree tops. It is the young sister of his friend and a crippled boy, who climbs higher than he should. A short time later the boy falls and is killed. But his ghost haunts the area. Laughter and the thud of his crutches are heard. The haunting ceases when the young woman has her first child. No explanation is offered. 803. THE HOUSE OF THE UNBELIEVING THOMAS Dodd, Mead; New York 1894 (DAS HAUS ZUM UNGLAUBIGEN THOMAS, ODER DES SPIRITS RACHE) In the vein of E.T.A. Hoffmann. * In the older section of a North German town stands an ancient house, currently occupied by a Czech and his dependents, including the beautiful and amiable young Gundelchen. They are considered witches by the xenophobic neighbors. A young student, somewhat the worse for liquor, injures himself outside the old house and is taken in by Gundelchen, who nurses him. They fall in love. Problems are caused, however, by two besotted ghosts, who haunt various houses in turn and also do duty by appearing at Spiritualist seances, where they work mischief. They reveal the amour to the family of the young man's fiancee and also knock over a lamp, setting fire to the old house. * Unsuccessful. 804. MID-DAY MAGIC Dodd, Mead; New York 1894 Short stories. [a] MID-DAY MAGIC. (MITTAGSZAUBER) There are no rooms available at the old inn, and the narrator is put up in an isolated garden house in a neglected garden. He is warned that a ghost sometimes appears. It is mid-day when he sees the young woman threading her way through the overgrown garden paths. They converse politely for a time before he realizes what she is. He later learns her history. She had committed suicide when her lover died on the Retreat from Moscow. [b] LITTLE LISBETH. ('S LISABETHLE) A child is injured trying to save her pet rabbit from a dog and dies of blood poisoning. What with sorrow, the family neglects her pets, and the child appears and mutely begs for help. *

HEYSE, PAUL [a], despite difficulties in form, offers one of the most appealing, most touching ghosts in the literature. HEYWARD, DUBOSE (1885-1940) American (South Carolina) writer, mostly regionalist material. Best-known work PORGY (1925), turned into successful play (1927) and musical work PORGY AND BESS, by George Gershwin (1935). 805. THE HALF PINT FLASK Farrar and Rinehart; New York 1929 Short story about profanation and Black folklore in the Gullah-speaking islands off the coast of South Carolina. * The narrator, who resides on Ediwander Island, is compelled out of courtesy to give hospitality to Barksdale, an unsympathetic person who is the friend of a friend. Barksdale, a fanatical collector of early American bottles, removes a unique specimen from a Black grave and refuses to restore it. The social repercussions are heavy, but even worse, a demon named Plateye manifests itself. It takes the form of a woman whom Barksdale loved desperately, and lures him into the swamp. The bottle is restored. * Motivations are a little weak, but an interesting story. HICHENS, ROBERT S[MYTHE] (1864-1950) Popular British novelist, journalist, poet. Best-known works THE GREEN CARNATION (1894), a witty, perceptive spoof of Oscar Wilde and the Aesthetic Movement, and THE GARDEN OF ALLAH (1904), long a best-seller. A competent writer who never fulfilled his early promise. 806. THE FOLLY OF EUSTACE AND OTHER STORIES Heinemann; London 1896 Three stories, including [a] THE RETURN OF THE SOUL. The narrator, a sadistic young man, hates his ancient grandmother and her cat. When the old woman dies, he strangles the cat. Twenty or so years later, he marries a young woman named Margot, but their marriage is very unhappy. Margot has inexplicable memories of his ancestral house, and the narrator becomes convinced that she is the reincarnation of the cat, seeking revenge. After quite a few domestic brawls, she kills him, strangling him in the traditional cat method. Then, in a flash, she reaches out the window and catches a bird in her hand. The narrator was right. * As in usual with Hichens, nicely written, but overlong. The bird incident at the end is well handled. 807. FLAMES Heinemann; London 1897 A very long, fin de siecle occult novel. * Valentine Cresswell and Julian Addison, young men about town with nothing better to do, meddle with occult practices. In this they are encouraged by an occultist named Marr, while Dr. Levillier, a friend who is a neurologist, tries to dissuade them. During one of their experiments, Valentine suddenly slumps over and cannot be revived. Levillier pronounces him dead, but Valentine suddenly and inexplicably awakens and seems none the worse for his experience. After a time, however, it is obvious

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HICHENS, ROBERT S. that Valentine has changed greatly. Whereas he used to be a rather prissy young man, he is now a riotous liver. Julian, too, from his association with Valentine, has become a womanizer, gambler, and habitual drunkard. Two other persons now assume importance in the story. One is Marr, who apparently dropped dead at the same time that Valentinp. collapsed during the seance, and the other is a prostitute, Cuckoo Bright, who was with Marr at the time of his death. Cuckoo, who is a force for good, falls in love with Julian and blames Valentine for Julian's degradation. She confronts Valentine, who readily admits that he is really Marr and that he transferred his psyche to Valentine's body by will-force. Cuckoo, Levillier and their friends determine to drive out Marr, but Marr seems unbeatable. He is so demoniacally confident in his supernatural powers that he almost welcomes each confrontation and battle with the forces of good. But in the final conflict, when he tries to force his will magically on the others, Cuckoo's love proves stronger than his evil, and he is defeated. But the cost is high. Both Valentine and Julian are dead, burned out psychically. * Many excellent touches, literate, intelligent; but enormously overdeveloped. It is doubtful if many readers will have the patience to work through Hichens's endless developments, repetitions, and reflections. The title refers to the soul-force that emerges in the semblance of flame under certain· conditions. 808. TONGUES OF CONSCIENCE Methuen; London 1900 Long short stories and nouvelles, most of which portray obsessions in terms of fantasy. Including [a] SEA CHANGE. Sir Graham Hamilton, a great painter, used a London boy as a model in a sea picture. The boy was so influenced by Hamilton's enthusiasm that he ran away from home to sea. The boy's vessel went down in a storm; his body was washed ashore; and his unidentified body was buried near a sea resort. Through fate or by chance, Hamilton, who is on the edge of a breakdown, is staying at the resort in question. He learns of the grave, although he does not know who its occupant is, and fantasizes about it. He sees visions and paints a picture of the dead boy as a bloated corpse. His own death results. Borderline supernatural. [b] THE CRY OF THE CHILD. Maurice, an ambitious young doctor, neglected his child when it was sick, and it died. Since then he has been haunted by its cry, which he hears everywhere. His second wife grounds the curse by assuming guilt and bearing the child. [c] HOW LOVE CAME TO PROFESSOR GUILDEA. A scholar has rejected love all his life, but now love, a feeble-minded entity, seeks him out. Disaster. The psychological interpretation is obvious, as in the previous story. [d] THE LADY AND THE BEGGAR. Mrs. Errington, a notoriously hard and stingy woman, not only refuses to help a deserving beggar who is obviously very ill, but prevents her son from helping him. The beggar dies and haunts her.

*

HICHENS, ROBERT S. She leaves her money to the beggars of the area. Conscience. * Skilful character studies. [c] is occasionally anthologized, and is worth reading. [a] has good moments, but is ultimately unconvincing. 809. THE BLACK SPANIEL AND OTHER STORIES Methuen; London [1905] Short title novel and short stories. Including [a] THE BLACK SPANIEL. Antivivisection ideas used as the basis for a novel. Vernon, whose dog died years before under the hands of vivisectionists, has strong feelings about the care of dogs, and dislikes Deeming, who is cruel to animals. Deeming dies and is recognizably reincarnated as a black spaniel, which Vernon purchases and abuses in order to punish Deeming. * Capably handled, but a rather silly story. * The other stories in the volume are based on the African travels that resulted in THE GARDEN OF ALLAH. * [bl THE DESERT DRUM. A supernatural drumming, heard in the Sahara, is the presage of death. [cl THE PRINCESS AND THE JEWEL DOCTOR. A Tunisian uses the supernatural powers of gems to cure or control sickness. Told in the setting of a conte cruel. [d] THE FIGURE IN THE MIRAGE. A woman who is about to be kidnapped by an Arab Spahi sees him before her in a mirage, while others see an oasis. Borderline supernatural, symbolism obvious. * Stories designed for an impact ending offering strong emotion. 810.' THE DWELLER ON THE THRESHOLD Methuen; London [19111 Occult psychological novel. * MaIling returns to England after several years in Ceylon, and meets Chichester, an old acquaintance. Chichester is curate to the Rev. Marcus Harding, who is clergyman at a fashionable London church. It soon becomes obvious that something is wrong between Chichester and Harding, since both men diffidently make MaIling a partial confidant. Enough hints are dropped for Ma11ing to guess that the situation might be a case for his friend Professor Stepton, a psychical researcher. It is gradually revealed that Chichester and Harding had undertaken occult exercises to strengthen the will of Chichester, who used to be a very meek, retiring man. But as Chichester's will grew, Harding's waned and a sort of psychic interchange took place, so that Chichester in a sense is now Harding. The situation is complicated by Chichester's recognition, as a result of his psychic unity with Harding, that Harding is a sensualist and hypocrite, despite his pose of holiness. The situation seems beyond resolution when Harding suddenly dies. His personality component leaves Chichester, and Chichester reverts to his former weakness. Skilfully handled with a sense of mystery well maintained, although the occult situation is not as clear as it might be. 811. SNAKE-BITE AND OTHER STORIES Cassell; London and New York [19191 Short stories, including lal THE HINDU. A nouvelle narrated by Sir William Trumbull,

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HILTON, JAMES

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a specialist in nervous diseases. The wife of John Latimer, millionaire newspaper owner, is greatly interested in occult matters. To please her, and also to satisfy his own curiosity, he visits several mediums. He hears, to his amazement, that his wife has had an affair with a disreputable Indian occultist, since dead. Desperate to learn the truth, he contacts the Hindu's spirit. At about the time that he decides that his wife is guilty, he begins to see a strange Hindu under circumstances that seem to be supernatural. When he is on the edge of a breakdown, Sir William, .the narrator, intervenes and unravels the situation. There is a rational solution, but it is not too convincing. [bl THE LIGHTED CANDLES. Rome. The apartment formerly occupied by the deceased Princess Andrakov has a bad atmosphere in the back room. Three candles (symbolic of a corpse) are often inexplicably lighted. Several deaths occur against a background of Russian politics and supernatural horror. [cl THE NOMAD. Algeria. Madame Lemaire's fate is not clear, but before she left with the mysterious traveller, she said that she would go with the Devil himself, to leave the miserable EI-Kelf. Not explained, and perhaps not intended to be supernatural. Cal is an interesting development of a common theme, although the rational explanation is less attractive than a supernatural one would have been.

*

HILTON, JAMES (1900-1954) British journalist, author. Best-known works GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS (1933), a sentimental tale about a schoolmaster, and LOST HORIZON (1933). The latter novel won the Hawthornden Prize and became both a best-seller and a cultural factor. 812. LOST HORIZON Macmillan; London 1933 Mainstream novel with a semi-metaphysical bent, contrasting opportunity and faith. * In 1931 Conway, the British consul at Maskul (Kabul?), is forced to leave hurriedly to escape a revolution. His plane is highjacked, and he and three other passengers are flown through the Kuen-Lun mountains deep into Tibet, where they make a forced landing. They are met by a Chinese, who takes them to the hidden monastery of Shangri-La, where they learn that it may be months before they can return to civilization. The Europeans react in different ways. One, an American swindler, is delighted to find a place of refuge and plans to make the local gold mining operation more profitable; another, an Englishwoman, plans to open a mission. The third, Mallinson, Conway's assistant, becomes nearly hysterical with frustration. * Conway, however, is a man of considerable scholarly attainments as well as a sympathetic personality, and to him the wonders of Shangri-La are opened. He learns from the abbot, a European monk who had been born in the early 18th century, that human life span has been increased enormously in Shangri-La by a combination of drugs and

HILTON, JAMES breathing exercises, as well as by a certain property of the air. He also learns something of the spiritual quest of the monks. * The abbot offers Conway leadership of the monastery; Conway is the successor that the abbot, who is about to die, has been looking for, and the kidnapping had been planned. Conway is not unwilling to accept the responsibility, but his faith is not very strong and he is easily convinced by Mallinson that Shangri-La is a hoax. He and Mallinson leave, together with a Chinese woman whom Mallinson loves. This is the end of the story. A postscript adds that Conway emerged in Western China with an extremely aged Chinese woman (thus demonstrating the truth of the abbot's story) and turned back to find Shangri-La again. * Superficial and sentimental, with type characterizations, but very important in the popular culture of the 1930'5 and 40'5. The theme is probably taken from one of the Gurdjieff groups, with suggestions from Ganpat. HITCHCOCK, ALFRED (1899-1980) Renowned British (later American) film director, television personality whose whimsical appearance and mannerisms embellished the tales of horror that were set forth. Many anthologies have been published under his name, although it seems that most, if not all, were ghost-selected for him, notably by Robert Arthur. These collections are mostly crime fiction, but with occasional supernatural stories. AS EDITOR: 813 . BAR THE DOORS TERROR TALES COLLECTED BY ALFRED HITCHCOCK Dell Pub. Co.; New York 1946 paperbound Introduction by Hitchcock, SPEAKING OF TERROR. * Short stories, including [a) POLLOCK AND THE PORROH MAN, H. G. Wells. [b) THE HALF PINT FLASK, DuBose Heyward. [c) THE KILL, Peter Fleming. [d) THE UPPER BERTH, F. Marion Crawford. [e) MIDNIGHT EXPRESS, Alfred Noyes. [f) THE DAMNED THING, Ambrose Bierce. [g) COUCHING AT THE DOOR, D. K. Broster. [h) THE METRONOME, August Derleth.. [i) THE PIPE-SMOKER, Martin Armstrong. [j) THE WOMAN AT SEVEN BROTHERS, Wilbur Daniel Steele. [k) THE BOOK, Margaret Irwin. All described elsewhere. 814. FEAR AND TREMBLING SHIVERY STORIES Dell Pub. Co.; New York 1946 paperbound Introduction, THE FORMS OF FEAR, by Hitchcock. Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a) CASSIUS, H. S. Whitehead. [b) THE TARN, Hugh Walpole. [c) OH, WHISTLE, AND I'LL COME TO YOU, MY LAD, M. R. James. [d) THE BAD LANDS, John Metcalfe. [e) GHOST HUNT, H. R. Wakefield. [f) SKULE SKERRY, John Buchan. [g) THE RED ROOM, H. G. Wells. [h) THE SACK OF EMERALDS, Lord Dunsany. HODGSON, W[ILLIAM) H[OPE) (1877-1918) British writer killed in World War I. Early life spend at sea (though unhappily), whence vividness and authenticity of his many sea stories, in contrast to flaccidity of his general fiction. Long neglected, unappreciated, one of most important formative influences

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HODGSON, W. H. in modern tale of supernatural horror. Despite lack of literary technique beyond action prose and apparently little psychological insight, had the capability of isolating and evoking deep layers of horror especially relevant in today's estranged world. Most of his symbols seem obviously projectional and would repay study. Also created a consistent, elaborate mythology of horror which has often been borrowed and imitated. The following listing contains only those items for which a strong case can be made for supernaturalism. Many of his short stories fit into a general category of sea-adventure-horror, in which the mechanism is sometimes supernatural, but more often, what with biological monstrosities, is sciencefiction of a sort. 815. THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND Chapman and Hall; London 1908 Metaphysical and occult novel based on visionary experiences. The story is told in a manuscript found among ruins near a pit-like formation in an isolated area in Western Ireland. The area is saturated with a feeling of evil and horror. * The narrator, an elderly man who lives with his sister in a vast old stone house, brooding over a lost love (a not infrequent motif with Hodgson) is beset by the utmost horror. His first breaking of the bonds of normal mentality comes with a cosmic vision, which sweeps him beyond the stars to a horrible desolate plain, which holds statues of the evil gods of mankind and a gigantic simulacrum of his house. Around this edifice snuffles a horrible swine-like monstrosity. * This experience seems to have opened a channel for psychic invasion, for after seismic disturbances in the nearby pit, his property is overrun by semisupernatural anthropomorphic swine-monsters who hold him under siege for several days. After the monsters have left, he investigates the pit and is almost trapped by rising water. * His second cosmic vision soon follows. After visiting the Sea of Sleep, where he meets his dead love, he is taken ahead through time to the infinitely far future, where he sees the end of the solar system. He also sees what is probably the emergence of souls from a Green Sun and a comparable procession of evil from a Dark Star. These are both at the center of the universe and in another dimension. After a retreat back to the Plain of Silence, where are the idols, the house, and the swine monstrosity, he is returned to his own home. There he meets defeat and destruction by the Hog (as the being is termed elsewhere). * The concept behind THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND is much the same as that of THE NIGHT LAND and CARNACKI THE GHOST FINDER: that human life is surrounded by incredibly powerful and hostile forces that are symbolized in human-bestial form. This world of horror exists in both the human mind and the universe. Man, once his defences are broken, can be exposed to this horror. While many of the story ideas are derived from THE TIME MACHINE by H. G. Wells, the metaphysic of horror is Hodgson's. On another level, ob-

HODGSON, W. H. viously, this is a fanciful statement of the emergence of a psychosis, with the traditional psychoanalytic symbolism of the unconscious mind. * One of the classics of supernatural fiction. 816. THE GHOST PIRATES Stanley Paul; London 1909 Supernatural happenings at sea, again with obvious psychoanalytical implications. * When Jessop, the narrator, ships on the "Mortzestus" in 'Frisco, he learns that the former officers and crew had jumped ship, forfeiting their pay. Only one sailor is left, a Cockney who declares that he is going to have a pay day from the ship, no matter what happens. Jessop learns that the ship has had more than her share of bad weather and accidental deaths, and is plagued by "too many shadows." After the ship puts out to sea, mysterious events occur in a horror-crescendo. Jessop sees shadows climb out of the sea, up into the rigging; men aloft are assaulted and tossed down to their death; and some sailors simply disappear. As the hauntings mount, the ship seems to be encased in a mist-world, where the outside world is not visible, and the shapes of spectral ships are to be seen in the water alongside the "Mortzestus." In some way, as Jessop, who is a superior sailor, reasons it, the ship lacks the barriers that protect most things 'of the material world from the immaterial, and it is naked to attacks of beings belonging to another state of existence. The end comes when the ghost pirates swarm out of the sea, slaughter the men of the "Mortzestus," and drag the ship down into the water. Jessop, who had managed to hide, survives. He is rescued by a passing vessel that saw part of the final horror. While the "Mortzestus," in its private world, was unaware that a ship was nearby, the other ship could see the "Mortzestus" clearly and wondered why it did not respond to signals. * Vivid, filled with the minutiae of a sailing vessel, this is one of the great sea novels. While in a sense it is derivative from THE INHERITORS by Conrad and Hueffer, it is highly original in detail and well done. Although it is overshadowed as visionary horror by the more spectacular THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND and THE NIGHT LAND, as a work of art, it is finer. 817. THE NIGHT LAND Eveleigh Nash; London 1912 A very long novel, partly science-fiction, partly supernatural fiction, set millions of years in the future. The sun has been dead for ages, and the entire human race (exception noted below) lives in the Great Redoubt, a metal pyramid 8 miles high, with subterranean extensions, and survives by tapping the Earth Current. All around the pyramid, in perpetual darkness (except for earth flames) lurk the 'forces of evil, both incarnate and discarnate. Some are horrible physical monstrosities that rage around the dead landscape; others are potent spiritual forces that try to lure men from the safety of the pyramid. There are enormous statue-like beings of frozen horror

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HODGSON, W. H. that inch toward the pyramid a few feet every thousand years; odd cowled humanoid beings that wander a set path and destroy humans who trespass; sirenlike voices that come out of the dark; a lighted house inhabited by a psychic monstrosity; and many other horrors brilliantly conceived. * The narrator is a telepathic young man who works in the great observatory that guards the fortress against the perils of the outside darkness. He has the ability to hear signals from beyond. A message unexpectedly comes to him from a young woman from a forgotten branch of the human race. Hundreds of thousands of years earlier a group of dissidents left the Great Redoubt and founded another, smaller pyramid far away. Over the millennia communication between the two pyramids had lapsed and the existence of the Lesser Redoubt had been all but forgotten. It is now in trouble. Its supply of the Earth Current has been waning over the past millennia, so that only a few thousand people are left. And now the current is almost dead. The humans are threatened by the horrors outside. At first the officials of the Great Redoubt are sceptical, for the powers of evil are extremely ingenious in drawing men out of the protecting pyramid, but a Word of Power permits identification and they are convinced that the messages are genuine. But there is little that they can do. An army of enthusiasts leaves the Great Redoubt without sanction of the authorities and is exterminated by the forces of evil. The narrator petitions to be allowed outside. Since it is his legal right, he cannot be held back. Armed \\lith the Diskos, a strange weapon utilizing the Earth Current, he leaves the pyramid, wanders past soul-shattering perils, combats monsters of various sorts, until after perhaps a thousand miles of travel he reaches the area of the second pyramid. The situation is tragic, for the Earth Current has failed, the monstrosities have penetrated the minds of the humans, who let them in, and the pyramid has fallen. Only a few survivors wander about in the darkness, including Naani, the young woman with whom the narrator has been in telepathic communication. He rescues her and together they make their way back to the Great Redoubt, fighting almost every inch, occasionally saved by the intercession of good supernatural forces. At the very last, Naani is killed, but the Earth Current revives her inside the Great Redoubt. Naani is safe, but the general situation is unchanged: mankind lives precariously, for only as long as the Earth Current lasts, while forces of evil run rampant. * This fantastic odyssey contains remarkable vlslonary concepts. The passage through the dark and the battles with monstrosities are finely handled. Yet in an incomprehensible act of folly Hodgson told this story in a bombastic pseudo-archaic English, through the lens of an 18th century (?) Englishman who is reincarnated in the far future along with his beloved wife. The mixture of absurd English and silly romance do much to spoil what would otherwise

HODGSON, W. H. be a major work. * The Holden and Hardingham (London 1921) reissue is greatly abridged, but not for the better. 818. POEMS AND THE DREAM OF X R. Harold Paget; New York 1912 paperbound A small volume containing two abridged stories and some poetry. Including [a] THE DREAM OF X. This is a very severe abridgment of THE NIGHT LAND, perhaps prepared by Hodgson. It contains a few incidents from the long novel, but in highly compressed form. Since the interest of the novel lies in the remarkable detailed descriptions of the horrors, the present book is really only a curiosity for collectors. The gibberish in which the story is presented is even more obtrusive in short scope than in the full novel. * The book itself is one of the Paget publications designed to hold American copyright. For details see H. Rider Haggard's THE MISSIONARY AND THE WITCH-DOCTOR, where the publishing situation is described. * The description above has not been based on the paget edition, which is said to survive in a single copy in the Library of Congress, but on the reprint THE DREAM OF X (Donald M. Grant; West Kingston, R.I. 1977), with an introduction by Sam Moskowitz and colored illustrations by Stephen E. Fabian. 819. CARNACKI THE GHOST FINDER Eveleigh Nash; London 1913 Short stories, each describing a case of an occult detective. * [a] THE THING INVISIBLE. The chapel of the Jarnocks is haunted by a being that strikes down enemies and trespassers with an antique dagger. Rationalized. [b] THE GATEWAY OF THE MONSTER. A room is very badly haunted by a giant hand-like manifestation of incredible malignancy. It destroys whatever living thing is in the room. Even Carnacki's defences are strained to their limit when the Thing works on Carnacki's mind. A ring is found. [c] THE HOUSE AMONG THE LAURELS. An Irish haunted castle boasts of falls of blood and death to visitors. Carnacki and certain of the local people try to spend a night there, with horrible results. Rationalized. [e] THE SEARCHER OF THE END HOUSE. Supernatural manifestations accompany a false haunting. [f] THE HORSE OF THE INVISIBLE. During their courtships the women of the Hisgins family are haunted by the Horse. An asp1r1ng suitor falsifies a haunting and awakens a real one of utmost viciousness. * The Arkham House edition (Sauk City, Wisc.; 1948) contains, in addition to the stories described above, [g] THE HAUNTED "JARVEE." A ship that is haunted by shadowy beings, very similar to THE GHOST PIRATES. [h] THE HOG. A man whose psychic barriers are weak asks Carnacki for help. Both are almost overcome by a cosmic force from beyond, called the Hog. Affinities to THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND. Another story, "The Find," is not supernatural. * Among the most original occult detective stories. Hodgson seemingly knew nothing of historical occultism. Expanding from Bulwer-Lytton's A STRANGE STORY he created a whole body of knowledge including texts, authorities, spells,

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HODGSON, W. H. monstrosities, and perils. As with much of Hodgson's other work, while the surface level is routine commercial fiction of the day, the emotional complexes that are touched are deep and powerful and far outweigh weaknesses in technique. 820. MEN OF"THE DEEP WATERS '~EEP WATERS OF MYSTERIOUS SEAS. AND THE GREAT DEEP OF LIFE" Eveleigh Nash; London 1914 Short stories, including [a] THE SEA HORSES. (1913) A sentimental story ending on a supernatural note. Old Granfer Zacchy makes a hobby horse in the shape of a sea horse for his young grandson. But he also foolishly fantasizes about the horse and affairs on the bottom of the sea. The child is drowned, and some time later, old Zacchy, too, is drowned. The two go off together on magical sea horses. Best forgotten. [b] THE DERELICT. (1912) If materials, conditions, and the life force are all present, strange things may develop. An abandoned hulk, a derelict surrounded by a thick scum, covered with thick mould. It "bleeds" when the mould coating is broken, and the men who have boarded it realize, almost too late, that it is living and hostile. One of the good material-horror stories of its generation. [c] THE VOICE IN THE NIGHT. (1907) Sea horror. A fungus has attacked a derelict; walking fungi shamble around the decks. [b] and [c] are borderline sciencefiction. 821. THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND AND OTHER NOVELS Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1946 An enormous volume containing complete texts of [a] THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND. [b] THE NIGHT LAND. [c] THE GHOST PIRATES. Also present is "The Boats of the 'Glen Carrig,'" which is sea-monster science-fiction. * Included are an introduction by H.C. Koenig, who is very largely responsible for introducing Hodgson to American readers, and a bibliography by A. Langley Searles. 822. DEEP WATERS Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1967 Foreword by August Derleth. * Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] THE SEA HORSES. [b] THE DERELICT. [c] THE VOICE IN THE NIGHT. * Also [d] THE HABITANTS OF MIDDLE ISLET. The narrator, Trenhern, and others are searching for the lost "Happy Return," on which Trenhern' s fiancee had been sailing. At Middle Islet they find the deserted ship, but no trace of the missing people-- except that the calendar aboard the ship is changed each day. The explanation is in strange faces in the water and the dead fiancee who comes aboard out of the water and takes her lover to death. Much the same sea-death configuration as in THE GHOST PIRATES and THE HAUNTED "JARVEE." Not a s ignificant story. * Some of the other stories are marine-monster science-fiction. 823. OUT OF THE STORM Donald M. Grant; West Kingston, R.I. 1975 Edited with introduction by Sam Moskowitz. * Short stories, including [a] OUT OF THE STORM. (1909) A wireless message from a

*

HODGSON, W. H. woman on a storm-beset vessel. The sea is personified as a living, evil, even god-like monstrosity. Highly emotional, but borderline supernatural at best. [b] ELOI, ELOI LAMA SABACHTHANI. Alternate title THE BAUMOFF EXPLOSIVE. (1912, 1919) Baumoff's theory is that matter is concentrated energy and that, given the proper vibrations, it may be disrupted. He is also a religious fanatic and wants to prove that the darkness attendant on the crucifixion of Jesus was a physical phenomenon created by the impact of strong emotion on the ether. He undergoes a mock passion, dies, and a strange voice is heard jeering at him after his death. Told in the manner of Poe, rather than in the adventure pattern that Hodgson usually followed. * Some of the other uncollected stories amount to being borderline science-fiction. * [b] is worth reading, but the remainder of the stories are trivial and could well have been left unreprinted. Moskowitz's long introduction covers Hodgson's bibliography in contemporary periodicals and, apart from material in the British fan magazine SHADOW, is the best modern source for Hodgson's biography. HOFFMANN, E[RNST] T[HEODOR] W[ILHELM] or A[MADEUS] (1776-1822) Noted German writer, musician, jurist. Took middle name AMADEUS in honor of Mozart. Long in Prussian civil service, stationed at various times in plock, Warsaw, Berlin; theatrical and operatic manager in various places, including Bamberg. Second-rank composer of day, with excellent opera UNDINE, which is still occasionally performed. Remembered for succession of brilliant fantasies, romances, historical fictions that are generally considered to be the high point of the German Romantic Movement. Very important in 19th century European literature. Unfortunately, badly served in English with weak Victorian translations that distort the originals considerably or philologists' translations that are lifeless. 824. THE DEVIL'S ELIXIR Blackwood, Edinburgh, and Cadell, London 1824 2 vol. (DIE ELIXIERE DES TEUFELS, 1816) Translated from German by R. P. Gillies. THE DEVIL'S ELIXIR[S] is a creative reworking of certain themes from THE MONK by M. G. Lewis, far excelling its prototype in imagination and depth. It shows in strongest form Hoffmann's preoccupation with fragmentation of the personality, which he fantasizes as doppelgangers or doubles. Many of Hoffmann's other works are concerned with the same motif, but THE DEVIL'S ELIXIR is by far the most complex and elaborate. * Brother Medardus, a young Capuchin of unknown but obviously aristocratic origin, feels hitherto unknown urges when he reaches maturity. He becomes increasingly passionate, proud, and haughty. Under his care are certain of the relics in the cloister, and among them is a bottle of liquor with which the Devil had tried to tempt St. Anthony. This liquor is s~id to be fatal to the soul. Medardus, after some initial resistance, partakes of the liquor in the

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HOFFMANN, E. T. A. hope that it will restore what he considers his waning faculties. The abbot notices that Medardus's character has changed and to be rid of him sends him on a mission to Rome. Along the way Medardus comes upon a man who is asleep at the edge of a cliff. When Medardus walks up to the man, the stranger awakens suddenly and falls over the edge. Medardus considers himself an unintentional murderer, but when the stranger's valet appears he does not refuse the new role that fate offers him. It seems that Count Viktorin, the man who fell, was his exact double, and the valet accepts Medardus as the count in disguise for an amorous intrigue. Medardus takes up Viktorin's life and undergoes many unusual experiences. But Viktorin, who is Medardus's half-brother, is not really dead, and he takes up a part of Medardus's life, and thereby his personality. From this point on the two men change places psychologically over and over until both are so swallowed up in their confused identities that neither is sure who he is. Intrigues, murder, supernatural manifestations follow in rapid succession until Medardus regains a portion of himself and returns to the monastery. He recognizes that Viktorin had also been his evil principle in separate form and that his adventures had been sponsored by the Devil. In the words of the author, his intellect had been "obscured by the vapours of folly, so that nothing appeared except as a strange caricature of itself." The ultimate frame of reference is philosophic and Fichtean. * A truly fascinating work, complex in narrative structure, but thought provoking both in social me.terial and its analysis of a man who did not know where he began or ended. * The translation is, of course, a period work. The modern edition THE DEVIL'S ELIXIRS (Calder; London 1963) translated by Ronald Taylor is superior. 825. HOFFMANN'S STRANGE STORIES FROM THE GER~~N Burnham Brothers; Boston 1855 Anonymous translation. While the publisher does not reveal sources, the probabilities are that this collection, like HOFFMANN'S FAIRY TALES, was translated through a French intermediary version. * Including [a] THE COOPER OF NUREMBERG. (MEISTER MARTIN DER KUPFNER UND SEINE GESELLEN, 1819) Alternate titles MEISTER MARTIN THE COOPER, MASTER MARTIN THE COOPER, etc. Life and romance in Nuremberg in the days of Hans Sachs. Probably one of the sources for Wagner's DIE MEISTERSINGER. By and large character studies and romanticized cultural background, but some supernaturalism in a rhymed prophecy that is fulfilled. [b] ANTONIA'S SONG. (RATH KRESPEL, 1818, 1819) Alternate titles ANTONIA, THE CREMONA VIOLIN, COL'NCILLOR KRESPEL, RATH KRESPEL, THE STORY OF KRESPEL, etc. Krespel, an eccentric mUSLCLan, has a beautiful daughter, Antonia, whose delicate health precludes her using her great vocal abilities. Krespel discourages a young musician who sues for her hand, and the young man leaves. When he returns, some time later, he learns that Antonia has died and that

HOFFMANN, E. T. A. Krespel has witnessed her death and near apotheosis in dream-vision. There is also a lifebond and parallelism between Antonia and an old Cremona violin that Krespel owns. The theme of the story is the relation of the artist to death. [c] THE WALLED-UP DOOR. (DAS MAJORAT, 1817) Alternate titles ROLANDSITTEN, THE ENTAIL, THE LEGACY, etc. The castle of R-----sitten is haunted by the ghost of old Daniel, who committed a murder because of passion and greed. Good character studies, semidetectional plot. One of Hoffmann's major works. [d] THE LOST REFLECTION. (DIE ABENTEDER DER SILVESTER-NACHT, 1816) Alternate titles A NEW YEAR'S EVE ADVENTURE, etc. A double story, the adventures of an enthusiast in Berlin and Erasmus Spikher in Venice. This is the source of the Venetian episode in Offenbach's CONTES D'HOFFMANN. [e] COPPELIUS, THE SANDMAN. (DER SANDMANN, 1816-7) Alternate titles THE SANDMAN, THE DANCING DOLL, etc. The familiar story of the tormented student Nachaniel, Olympia the dancing doll, Spalanzani the scientist, and the frightful Coppola. Nathaniel falls into the snares of Coppola and perishes miserably on the third assault. The interpretation of this story is questionable: fate, or pursuing evil, or madness and distorted vision. [f] FASCINATION. (DER MAGNETISEUR, 1814) Mesmerism, animal magnetism, as the sinister Danish Major, who is a magnetiser, devours the soul of the fair Maria. Handled mostly by indirection, in a very complex narrative technique. The major has apparently made a pact with Evil, returning to life as a different personality after death. [g] THE AGATE HEART. (DAS STEINERNE HERZ, 1817) Animal magnetism, minor supernaturalism at a sentimental party. [h] THE MYSTERY OF THE DESERTED HOUSE. (DAS ODE HAUS, 1817) Alternate titles, THE DESERTED HOUSE, THE EMPTY HOUSE. Borderline supernaturalism. Madness, animal magnetism, visions as a young man tries to solve the mystery of a beautiful woman he has seen looking from the window of the deserted house. * Also present as early book publications in English are "Berthold the Madman," "Salvator Rosa," "Cardillac the Jeweller," and "The Pharo Bank." * This is the first English appearance in book form for many of these stories and the only appearance for a couple. The translation, however, is very bad. Several of the stories have been rewritten and do not represent Hoffmann's work. 826. HOFFMANN'S FAIRY TALES Burnham Brothers; Boston 1857 Translated from French intermediaries by L. Burnham. * Including [a] IGNAZ DENNER. (IGNAZ DENNER, 1816-17) Andres, the gamekeeper at Fulda, becomes involved with crime and the supernatural when he helps a solitary traveller in the forests. The traveller, Denner, is revealed, years later, to be the chief of the bandits and the son of a Neapolitan bandit who sold his soul to the Devil. Denner has a similar compact and must sacrifice children of his own blood. A doppelganger and diabolic temptation make life difficult

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HOFFMANN, E. T. A. for the gamekeeper. [b] LITTLE ZACK. (KLEIN ZACKES GENNANT ZINNOBER, 1819) In the kingdom of paphnutius fairies and all their enchantments have been banished by law, and they go underground. But the fairy Rosenschoen, who is masquerading as an abbess, continues to work her magic. She takes pity on a monstrous human dwarf, Zach, and decrees that all the wisdom, glory, beauty, and power that are displayed in his presence should be attributed to him, and all the evil to others. Zach abuses his gift and rises to be prime minister. An injured lover, whose fiancee Zach has stolen, invokes the aid of Dr. Prosper Alpanus, a magician, who shows how Zach can be overcome. *. [a] is a typical Romantic crime and horror story, perhaps with English prototypes, but [b] is one of the delightful fairy tales that are among Hoffmann's best work. The present translation is bad, but it seems to be the only version in English. 827. WEIRD TALES Nimmo; London 1885 2 vol. Translated from German by T. J. Bealby. * Including [a] THE CREMONA VIOLIN. [b] THE SAND-MAN. [c] THE ENTAIL. [d] MASTER MARTIN THE COOPER. All described elsewhere. The translation, while stiff and archaic, is much more accurate than the previous Burnham versions. Also included are a long biographical introduction by Bealby and etchings by A. Lalauze. 828. THE SERAPION BRETHREN Bohn's Standard Library, George Bell; London Vol. 1, 1886; Vol. 2, 1892 Translated from German by Alexander Ewing. * Short stories fitted into the framework of an informal club, the members of which tell stories. Several of the personalities represent Hoffmann's friends. * Including [a] THE STORY OF KRESPEL and [b] MASTER MARTIN, THE COOPER, AND HIS MEN, both described elsewhere. * Also [c] A FRAGMENT OF THE LIVES OF THREE FRIENDS. (EIN FRAGMENT AUS DEM LEBEN DREIER FREUNDE, 1818-19) Three friends tell of their supernatural experiences. One saw the ghost of an old-maid aunt, who died of bitterness after being abandoned at the altar. She enacts a mock wedding. The second has a borderline supernatural experience. The third observes a strange odor whenever something preternatural is about to occur. [d] THE MINES OF FALUN. (DIE BERGWERKE ZU FALUN, 1819) Elis, a young Swede, decides to become a miner at the Falun complex, but supernatural considerations are a problem. He has to decide whether to accept the revelation of the Metal Queen and how to relate himself to the demonic Torbern. [e] NUTCRACKER AND THE KING OF MICE. (NUSSKNACKER UND MAUSEKONIG, 1816) The well-known source for Tchaikowsky's NUTCRACKER SUITE. Christmas and Marie's dream experiences as the mice and the toy soldiers battle. The Nutcracker is Marie's champion. Fantastic marchen are included in the story. [f] THE SINGERS' CONTEST. (DER KAMPF DER SANGER, 1818). Set in medieval Germany, at the legendary contest between the greac Minnesinger. Wolfram von

HOFFMANN, E. T. A. Eschenbach must pit his simple melodies against the diabolic art of Klingsor. [g] [Unnamed story which German editors usually refer to as EINE SPUKGESCHICHTE] A young woman plans to impersonate the ghostly White Lady. She evokes a true haunting. [h] AUTOMATONS. (DIE AUTOMATA, 1814) Alternate title AUTOMATA. The experiences of Ferdinand with an automaton called The Talking Turk. Information is received that seems to be of supernatural origin. Hoffmann makes much of the eerie nature of machine intelligence. [i] THE STRANGER CHILD. (DAS FREMDE KIND, 1817) When Hoffmann's friends complained that NUTCRACKER AND THE KING OF MICE was neither for children nor adults, Hoffmann set about writing a fantasy solely for children. It is a sentimental story about two children whose contact with the Bright Child is broken by the gnome Pepser. Much less successful than NUTCRACKER. [j] THE LIFE OF A WELL-KNOWN CHARACTER. (AUS DEM LEBEN EINES BEKANNTEN MANNES, 1819) The Devil appears on the streets of Berlin as a very amiable gentleman who greets everyone politely. [k] [Unnamed fragment sometimes called THE MARBLE FACE]. In a certain house there is a marble slab with a figure strangely like a human face. Years before, magic had been worked there. [1] ALBERTINE'S WOOERS. (DIE BRAUTWAHL, 1819) A fantasy of love and magic. Edmund Lehsen has fallen in love with Albertine, but he has competition. Aided by the supernatural wisdom of Leonhard, a long-dead 16th century alchemist, he manages to elude the spells of the equally dead coiner Manasseh. Many nice small touches. [m] THE UNCANNY GUEST. (DER UNHEIMLICHE GAST, 1819) Similar to FASCINATION. Mesmerism and evil. [n] THE VAMPIRE. (DER VAMPYR, 1821) Not a vampire in the modern sense, but a corpse-eating ghoul. [0] THE KING'S BETROTHED. (DIE KONIGSBRAUT, 1821) King Daucus Carota I (the botanical name for a carrot) of the Vegetable Kingdom wishes to marry the fair Anna von Dapsel and sends her a wedding ring on a carrot. The Vegetable Kingdom escapes the bonds of nature for a time until the atrocious poetry of Anna's sweetheart Amandus von Nebelstern forces the vegetable king away. In addition to the fairy tale aspects of the story there are implications of psychological states and satire on Hoffmann's contemporaries. * The members of the Serapion Club comment on the individual stories and add small points of interest. The more important stories are [a], [d], [e], [h], [1], and [0]. 829. TALES OF HOFFMANN Harrap; London [1932] Including, all described elsewhere, [a] THE SAND MAN. [b] THE MYSTERY OF THE DESERTED HOUSE. [c] THE LOST REFLECTION. [d] THE WALLED-IN DOOR. * The texts have been edited to the point of distortion. The colorful illustrations by Mario Laboccetta, however, are probably the finest that have been done for Hoffmann. 830. THE TALES OF HOFFMANN Heritage Press; New York 1943 Introduction by Arthur Ransome. * [a] A VISIT

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HOFFMANN, E. T. A. AT MIDNIGHT, A PROLOGUE, by the Illustrator, Hugo Steiner-Prag. The illustrator is visited at night by Hoffmann, who converses about aspects of his own personality and comments on the artist's work. * Including, described elsewhere, [b] THE SAND-MAN. Translated by T. J. Bealby. [c] THE MINES OF FALUN, Translated by E. N. Bennett. [d] COUNCILLOR KRESPEL. Translated by Barrows Mussey. This is the best translation. [e] THE MYSTERY OF THE DESERTED HOUSE. Translation ascribed to Maria Labocceta [sic]. [f] THE ENTAIL. Translated by T. J. Bealby. [g] THE UNCANNY GUEST. Translated by Alexander Ewing. * Also [h] DON JUAN. Translated by Jacques LeClercq. (DON JUAN, 1813) One of Hoffmann's early pieces transitional between music criticism and fiction, Hoffmann being the foremost music critic of his day. Mozart's music reaches out beyond the opera, and a ghost. [i] THE VOW. (DAS GELUBDE, 1817). Gothic situations, set in Poland, with a death portent. Marginal as supernatural. * Also 37 illustrations by Steiner-Prag. 831. TALES OF HOFFMANN A. A. Wyn; New York 1946 Edited, with an introduction, by Christopher Lazare. Including, described elsewhere, [a] ANTONIA'S SONG. [b] THE GOLDEN POT. [c] THE LEGACY. [d] DON JUAN. [e] THE DOUBLES. (DIE DOPPELTGANGER, 1822) A complex story of interchanged children, lost identities, life at a small German court, prophecies, and incidental magic. * Illustrations by Richard Lindner. 832. THE BEST TALES OF HOFFMANN Dover Publications; New York 1967 Edited, with long introduction, by E. F. Bleiler. Selection has been made on the basis of modern literary and philosophical interest, and for musical adaptations. The older translations have been checked, mOdernized somewhat and corrected. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE GOLDEN FLOWER POT. Translated by Thomas Carlyle. [b] [Untitled ghost story usually called EINE SPUKGESCHICHTE]. [c] AUTOMATA. Translated by Alexander Ewing. [d] NUTCRACKER AND THE KING OF MICE. Translated by Alexander Ewing. [e] THE SAND-MAN. Translated by T. J. Bealby. [f] RATH KRESPEL. Translated by T. J. Bealby. [g] THE MINES OF FALUN. Translated by T. J. Bealby. [h] THE KING'S BETROTHED. Translated by Alexander Ewing. [i] TOBIAS MARTIN, MASTER COOPER, AND HIS MEN. Translated by Alexander Ewing. * Also [j] A NEW YEAR'S EVE ADVENTURE. Translated by Alfred Packer (pseud. of E. F. Bleiler). Although there are earlier partial translations, this seems to be the first complete translation in English. The German artist in Venice, the beautiful courtesan Giuletta, the Shadowless Man, and Dr. Dapertutto. * Also included is "Signor Formica," perhaps Hoffmann's best historical tale, which is not fantastic. Seven drawings by Hoffmann show characters and situations. 833. SELECTED WRITINGS OF E. T. A. HOFFMANN University of Chicago Press; Chicago and Lon-

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don 1969 2 vol. Foreword by Rene Wellek. Edited and translated by Leonard J. Kent and Elizabeth C. Knight. New translations. The first volume includes, described elsewhere, [a1 THE GOLDEN POT. [b1 THE SANDMAN. [c1 COUNCILLOR KRESPEL. [d1 THE MINES OF FALUN. [e1 THE DOL~LES. Also [f1 RITTER GLUCK. (1809) One of Hoffmann's early fiction-essays on music. It ends on a note of fantasy as the gentleman in costume, who has been discussing Gluck's music with the narrator, announces that he is Gluck. Presumably great music is imrr,ortal. The second volume is devoted to "Kater Murr," one of Hoffmann's idiosyncratic and unusual works, which, however, was never finished. While part of it is narrated by a tomcat and there is a little clairvoyance, it is not supernatural enough to be described here. HOGG, JAMES (1770-1835) Scottish poet, writer of fiction, .editor. Was shepherd in youth, whence nickname the Ettrick Shepherd. Wrote books on care of sheep. Self-taught. Was associated with BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE; friend of Sir Walter Scott's. Fairly popular author of historical fiction based on Scottish history (taking the part of the Covenanters, as opposed to Scott's aristocratic point of view). Wrote some excellent poetry on folkloristic models and subjects. During his lifetime considered something of a joke, but now more highly regarded, particularly for the powerful THE PRIVATE MEMOIRS AND CONFESSIONS OF A JUSTIFIED SINNER. 834. THE BROWNIE OF BODSBECK AND OTHER TALES W. Blackwood; Edinburgh and J. Murray; London 1818 2 vol. Three short novels, including [a] THE BROWNIE OF BODSBECK. A historical novel from the opposite point of vi~w to Scott's OLD MORTALITY. The supernatural enters extensively with the Brownie, a seemingly supernatural being being who has a bond with the daughter of the protagonist. [b] THE HUNT OF EILDON. A folkloristic story about medieval Scotland. The king has two snow-white beagles who never miss a hunt. They are good spirits in disguise, and they kill ministers of the Devil. There is also a clown, a coarse shepherd named Croudy, who is transformed inLo a boar. Accusations of witchcraft and other supernaturalism abound. Sometimes semiallegorical; sometimes satirical and humorous. * Later editions often include [c] THE SURPASSING ADVENTURES OF ALLAN GORDON. A Scottish youth finds a lost race of Norse settlers in Greenland, with whom he lives for a time until bears destroy the settlement in seemingly intelligent raids. * Interesting material. [a] suffered from competition with Scott's OLD MORTALITY when it was first published, but today it seems just as effective as Scott's work. 835. WINTER EVENING TALES COLLECTED AMONG THE COTTAGERS IN THE SOUTH OF SCOTLAND Oliver and Boyd; Edinburgh; Whittaker, London 1820 3 vol. Despite the subtitle these are works of fic-

HOGG, JAMES tion, with perhaps a slight basis in history or folklore. * Including [a] THE RENOWNED ADVENTURES OF BASIL LEE. A short picaresque novel. The first two thirds of the story are concerned with the narratoris adventures as a British soldier in the American revolution. The second part describes his experiences on the Isle of Lewis, among witches, where he sees phantom armies and watches evocations of the dead. [b] DREADFUL STORY OF MACPHERSON. Major Macpherson and his friends are hunting in the forest of Glenmore when a stranger confronts the major. On a second hunt the entire party is destroyed by supernatural means. The stranger was probably the Devil. [c] JOHN GRAY OF MIDDLEHOLM. COUNTRY DREAMS AND APPARITIONS. NO.1. A Scottish version of a general folktale. Jock Gray has a repeated vision of the town of Kelso, with a monk, the abbey, and a certain stone. He goes there and finds himself directed back to his own property, where he digs and finds treasure. Cd] COUSIN MATTIE. COUNTRY DREAMS AND APPARITIONS. NO.4. Premonitory visions of a murder. [e] WELLDEAN HALL. COUNTRY DREAMS AND APPARITIONS. NO.5. Short novel. The ghost of auld Welldean will not permit his books to be touched. His scapegrace son is afraid to visit the ghost, but Gilbert, a broken-down" scholar, and the butler play detective and find a missing will and some bonds. Good characterizations. [f] THE WIFE OF LOCHMABEN. COUNTRY DREAMS AND APPARITIONS. No.3. A primitive detective story with the murder described by the ghost of the murdered woman. [g] TIBBY JOHNSTON'S WRAITH. Heavy dialect, told by an old man, of a wraith that appeared to a friend. * Excellent material. 836. THE PRIVATE MEMOIRS AND CONFESSIONS OF A JUSTIFIED SINNER WRITTEN BY HIMSELF Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green; London 1824 (published anonymously) Evil, Scottish Calvinism, Antinomianism, and Romantic psychology all combined in a remarkable novel. The erratic George Saintsbury made the claim, which is occasionally repeated, that Hogg was not entirely responsible for this book, but that Lockhart had helped him and had written the better portions. The claim is absurd and is completely belied by the existence of the manuscript, as well as by other clear evidence. * The word "justified" in the title is the contemporary equivalent of "born again." * The book begins with the EDITOR'S NARRATIVE, which is a history of events, as told by an omniscient observer. * In the late 17th century George Colwan, a Scottish laird, entered into a very unhappy marriage with a religious fanatic. Violently offended at the merrymaking at her wedding, she refused to receive her husband, with the result that he seems to have forced her. A son, George, was the issue of this incident. After a time the Colwans separated. At first they lived in different apartments, then, some time later, Mrs. Colwan removed to Glasgow. About a year after the birth of George she gave birth to another son, Robert, whose father

HOGG, JAMES was said to be her religious guide, Robert Wringhim, a canting, sanctimonious rogue. The two households no longer met, and young Robert was brought up to hate the other Colwans. * The novel is concerned with the two young men. George Colwan is an aimable, personable young man, but Robert, who has assumed the name of Wringhim, is a vicious, cowardly, fanatically religious prig. Wringhim, who is jealous of George and wants to inherit the family estate, first undertakes a pestering persecution and then plans to murder him by pushing him over a precipice at Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh. But he is deterred at the last moment by a seemingly supernatural manifestation in the air, which is explained as a looming mirage, a phenomenon not unknown in Scotland. Some time later, however, George's corpse is found. Suspicion first falls on another man, but a witness comes forward, after a time, to testify that Wringhim had stabbed George. Wringhim flees the country. * If Hogg had ceased writing here, he would have written an" excellent crime story, but he continued with a marvelous document of psychopathology. This is Wringhim's memoir and diary, which recapitulates the same events already narrated, but in more detail and from Wringham's warped point of view. Wringhim, it is revealed, had been overcome by his stupid mother's Calvinism and has accepted the doctrine of Chosen and Damned uncritically. He knows that George is Damned, and he knows that he himself is Chosen and cannot sin. It is his duty to rid the earth of sinners. He meets a congenial stranger, a doppelganger of himself, who reinforces his beliefs and leads him into extensions of them. While it is obvious on the second level that this being is the Devil, Wringhim believes him to be Peter the Great, or perhaps he salves his conscience by pretending this belief to himself. This person, Gil-Martin, urges Robert to kill George on Arthur's Seat, and when this fails, helps him to murder George. Gil-Martin assumes the appearance of another man (the previous suspect) to evade justice. After Wringhim inherits the estates, he notices strangenesses of time. He learns that whole segments of his life are missing, in which he is claimed to have seduced a young woman and then to have murdered her. He is unable to account for these fugues. When his original crime is detected, he escapes to the south. He eludes capture, but decides that he and Gil-Martin have a suicide pact and hangs himself. * The third section of the book, about a chapter in length, tells that Wringhim's corpse has been found in a remarkable state of preservation, and with it has been found the document just summarized. It raises the question in the last paragraph whether Wringhim was a great sinner or only a madman. This same question has taxed modern commentators. Is the whole narrative a projection, as Andr~ Gide thinks in his preface to the Cresset Press edition (London, 1947) or did Wringhim's evil (as a result of heredity and bad environment) evoke the devil and an unwitting diabolic bond? * This is one of the

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HOGG, JAMES great classics of supernatural fiction, no matter how one interprets it, perhaps the finest English supernatural novel of its century. * Reprints are sometimes titled THE SUICIDE'S GRAVE or THE CONFESSIONS OF A FANATIC. Some editions are abridged and bowdlerized. 837. THE SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR TALES ILLUSTRATIVE OF PASTORAL OCCUPATIONS, COUNTRY LIFE, A~~ SUPERSTITIONS W. Blackwood, Edinburgh, and T. Cadell, London 1828 2 vol. Short stories of Scottish life reprinted from BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE. * Including [a] THE SOUTERS OF SELKIRK. A light Hoffmann-like story about the shoemakers of Selkirk, who had regional peculiarities. A dream vision, the aftermath of an elaborate hoax, enables one of them to win a wife and wealth. [b] THE LAIRD OF CASSWAY. A phantasm of the living prevents a fratricidal duel. [c] THE BROWNIE OF THE BLACK HAGS. Semiallegorical fantasy, with considerable psychological depth. Merodach, a Brownie, works as a servant and has a love and hatred relationship with the mistress of the house. She treats the Brownie sadistically, but her cruelty always rebounds on her. The Brownie, moved equally by love and hate, leads her across the countryside until she dies. [d] TIBBY HISLOP'S DREAM. Tibb.y, who is a simple but honest servant, has supernatural dreams in which she sees her master (who is engaged in a tenancy suit) beset by birds. The dream turns out to be prophetic on two levels. [e] MARY BURNET. Mary is annoyed by the lecherous Allanson, who summons her by '~illpower. But it is revealed that it was Mary's spirit (astral body in modern terminology) that had come. The next day Mary vanishes. At the yearly hiring of servants in the nearby market town Allanson sees Mary in various guises, and he is driven to his death by her. Some years later Mary's parents are visited by a dwarf who tells them that they will be able to see Mary the next day. She appears in a carriage, and it is obvious that she has been living in fairyland. [f] THE LAIRD OF WINEHOLM. Humorous. Rationalized ghost story. [g] A STRANGE SECRET. A complex story told from several points of view, Motifs include an illegitimate child, abduction by Catholic priests, mysterious events, and some witchcraft. [h] THE MARVELOUS DOCTOR. He tells two tall tales of his scientific exploits, as follows: [i] THE SPANISH PROFESSOR. The Doctor demonstrated a remarkable elixir of love in Spain and obtained royal favor after a scientific duel before the crowned heads. [j] THE COUNTESS. While in England wife-hunting, the Doctor was in danger from cattle incensed by his elixir. Both stories are humorous. [k] THE WITCHES OF TRAQUAIR. Colin Hyslop, who is desperate to have Barbara, is seriously considering joining the local witch cult and selling his soul. In this he is encouraged by his aunt. One day he sees two white deer, which approach him and transform themselves into women. They scold him and give him an elixir to drink (repentance). His aunt and her colleague die in a magical

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attempt on him. The other witches in the area denounce Colin as a witch, but at the trial the truth comes out. Theriomorphy into cats is also present. [1] GEORGE DOBSON'S EXPEDITION TO HELL. George, a hackney driver in Edinburgh, takes a customer to Hell and has difficulty in leaving. He is permitted to depart only when he signs a bond to return. The story is a dream, but George takes it seriously and dies. There is a supernatural aftermath. [m] WILL 0' PHAUP. A short narrative about a famous local character. He has seen fairies several times, and perhaps gnomes. * Sometimes excellent. Outstanding stories are

[a], [c], [d], [e], [1]. 838. TALES AND SKETCHES OF THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD Blackie and Sons; Glasgow 1837 6 vol. The first collected edition of Hogg's stories, published posthumously, but embodying Hogg's final revisions. While it does not gather up all Hogg's fiction, it includes some material not previously published in book form. Later editions of Hogg's works omit certain stories. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE BROWNIE OF BODSBECK. [b] THE SURPASSING ADVENTURES OF ALLAN GORDON. [c] THE WIFE OF LOCHMABEN. [d] COUSIN MATTIE. [e] WELLDEAN HALL. [f] THE HUNT OF EILDON. [g] THE ADVENTURES OF BASIL LEE. [b] PRIVATE MEMOIRS AND CONFESSIONS OF A FANATIC. [i] GEORGE DOBSON'S EXPEDITION TO HELL. [j] THE SOUTERS OF SELKIRK. [k] THE LAIRD OF CASSWAY. [1] THE BROWNIE OF THE BLACK HAGS. [m] TIBBY HISLOplS DREAM. [n] MARY BURNET. [0] THE LAIRD OF WINEHOLM. [p] A STRANGE SECRET. [q] THE MARVELLOUS DOCTOR. [r] THE WITCHES OF TRAQUAIR. * Also [s] A STORY OF GOOD QUEEN BESS: HER JEALOUSY OF A SUCCESSOR. Elizabeth I and King James of Scotland sentence to death (by assassination) a young woman who might have claims to the throne. She and her foster-sister mysteriously disappear. Supernaturalism includes a witch, ghosts, clairvoyant dreams, but much of it is. explained in a Gothic manner. [t] THE FORDS OF CALLUM. Heavy dialect. A supernatural voice, speaking through the window, reveals the location of a corpse. [u] THE CAMERON IAN PREACHER'S TALE. Macmillan probably murdered Johnstone, most think, but there is no corpse or evidence. After a trial he is released. A year later a supernatural voice summons Macmillan, who is later found dead. His ghost appears to the preacher and confesses the crime. [v] A TALE OF THE MARTYRS. 17th century. Visions and clairvoyant dreams reveal killings. [w] ADAM SCOTT: A BORDER TALE. Early 18th century. Adam, after fighting off two highway robbers, finds himself accused of robbery. Things look bad for him, but a clairvoyant dream reveals his plight to his friends and he is saved. [x] THE MYSTERIOUS BRIDE. Ireland. Birkendelly falls violently in love with the young woman he meets at a certain spot on the road and exchanges rings with her. His corpse is found later. She is the ghost of a woman an ancestor of his betrayed and murdered. [y] NATURE'S MAGIC LANTERN. A seemingly supernatural looming in the sky, explained as in

HOLLAND, W. BOB THE PRIVATE MEMOIRS AND CONFESSIONS OF A JUSTIFIED SINNER. * The new material is by no means as important as the reprinted stories, but [u] and [x] are worth reading. HOLLAND, W[EST] BOB (1868-1932) American anthologist. AS EDITOR: 839. TWENTY-FIVE GHOST STORIES J. S. Ogilvie; New York 1904 A frequently reprinted collection. Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE BLACK CAT, E. A. Poe. [b] COLONEL HALIFAX'S GHOST STORY, S. Baring-Gould. [c] THE DEAD WOMAN'S PHOTOGRAPH, [Elia Peattie]. Alternate title for THE STORY OF AN OBSTINATE CORPSE. [d] THE SPECTRE BRIDE, A FOLK STORY FROM THE LAKES REGION, [Elia Peattie]. Alternate title for ON THE NORTHERN ICE. * Also [e] THE FLAYED HAND, Guy de Maupassant. (LA MAIN ECORCHEE). Anonymous translation from French. Not to be confused with THE HAND (LA MAIN), which is a later version of the same theme. A dried hand, formerly the property of a local witch, originally that of an 18th century criminal, assaults and strangles its owner. [f] THE VENGEANCE OF A TREE, Eleanor F. Lewis. A lyncher responsible for the death of an innocent man is crushed beneath the falling tree that was used for the lynching. A ghost, too. [g] THE PARLOR CAR GHOST, Anonymous. A ghost accosts a woman on a train and tells her his story. In a moment of folly he boasted to other salesmen that he would not leave the train until he sold a case of blue denim. He was then killed in an accident, and he cannot leave the train until he sells the cloth. The woman releases him. In this version the story has an American setting; in Bull's version (297f) the setting is British. [h] GHOST OF BUCKSTOWN INN, Anonymous. Fraudulent haunting to obtain publicity. [i] THE BURGLAR'S GHOST, Anonymous. British origin. A criminal poses as a ghost and informs to a detective, for the sake of revenge. [j] A PHANTOM TOE, Anonymous. A seemingly glowing toe in the dark. A homicidal maniac. [k] MRS. DAVENPORT'S GHOST, Anonymous. Professor Davenport, a professional medium, plans to swindle his clients. His mistress-medium is to pretend to be the late Mrs. Davenport. But the real wife appears and denounces him as a murderer. [1] THE PHANTOM WOMAN, Anonymous. Gilbert Dent takes a fancy to the woman in the empty house. He sees her spirit several timeE.• She strangles him. [m] THE PHANTOM HAG, Anonymous. Attributed to Maupassant in the Avon edition (see below), but not his work and probably of British origin. Britanny. A death-hag, whose touch indicates those about to die. [n] SANDY'S GHOST, Anonymous. Western dialect. A ghost reveals to its partner the location of its golddust. The dust is held for the dead man's son. [0] THE GHOSTS OF RED CREEK, Anonymous. Told partly in Black dialect. Revenants after a family is dead. [p] HOW HE CAUGHT THE GHOST, Anonymous. Clanking chains. A pet rat. [q] GRAND-DAME'S GHOST STORY, An-

HOLLAND, W. BOB onymous. A ghost reveals long-lost property and skeletons in the closet. [r] A FIGHT WITH A GHOST, Anonymous. A horrible face is occasionally seen. The maniacal former owner of the house. [s] THE GHOST OF THE COUNT, Anonymous. Mexico. The ghost reveals the location of treasure. [t] THE OLD MANSION, Anon[u] A MISFIT GHOST, ymous. A haunted house. Anonymous. The ghost aboard the "Eagre" is a somewhat lubberly fellow. [v] AN UNKNOWN GUEST, Anonymous. It steals small bright, shining objects. A pack rat. [w] THE GHOST OF A LIVE MAN, Anonymous. A visitor in astral body indicates on the ship's chart the location of the ship that is in trouble. [x] THE GHOST OF WASHINGTON, Anonymous. John Reilly suddenly finds himself and his bicycle back in Washington's Valley Forge. Certain of the soldiers want to shoot Reilly as a spy, but Washington gives him the benefit of the doubt. With Washington's encouragement he races his bicycle against a horse and wins-to find himself back in his own time. * This collection has been reprinted in toto as TWENTY-FIVE GREAT GHOST STORIES (Avon; New York 1943) and in part as 20 GREAT GHOST STORIES (Avon; New York 1955), in both cases without crediting the book to Holland. It has also been printed under Holland's name as PERMABOOK OF GHOST STORIES (Permabooks; New York 1950). In the original edition none of the stories was accredited. * Holland probably assembled this collection from Victorian Christmas annuals and periodicals. Most of the described material is insignificant, but [g] is amusing and [x], which is later in date than the remainder of the volume, is an unusual story, considerably ahead of its time. HOLMES, CLARA H. American author. Only other information is that she published a book of poetry in 1926. 840. FLOATING FANCIES AMONG THE WEIRD AND OCCULT F. T. Neely; New York [1898] Amateurish short stories, including [a] NORDHUNG NORDJANSEN. Borderline science-fiction. He floats down the North Polar opening through the earth, and eventually emerges at the South Pole. The people inside the earth are strange. [b} IN THE BEYOND. Experiences of a young man struck by lightning. He goes to Heaven, rejects it,and finds himself back on earth. [c] THE TRAGEDY OF THE GNOMES. A fairy tale about Gnomes and the Ic~ King. [d] AN UNFAIR EXCHANGE. A heart attack. A banker and a criminal adventurer interchange personalities. [e] A TALE OF TWO PICTURES. A house is haunted by a ghost who reveals past murders and the location of important documents. [f] A NINETEENTH CENTURY GHOST. A rather vague story about a ghost of fear and hatred from the past. [g] WHAT BECAME OF THE MONEY? A crude mystery story about missing money and family susp~c~ons. Somnambulism and hypnotic rapport are explanations offered for the "crime." HOLT-WHITE, WILLIAM [EDWARD BRADDEN] (1878 - ? British novelist, biographer of King Edward

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HORNIMAN, ROY VII and President Theodore Roosevelt. 841. THE MAN WHO DREAMED RIGHT Everett and Co.; London 1910 A Wells ian fantasy on special abilities and imminent war. * Harry Mymms, an otherwise unimportant Londoner, can foresee the future in controlled dreams. His conscience bothers him, since he wonders if it is ethical to place bets on the basis of foreknowledge. He makes the mistake of asking the advice of his clergyman, who has extensive and high connections. The news of Mymms's ability leaks out, and in a short time he is pulled back and forth by abductors as newspapers, financiers, and governments want to control him. The Germans have him for a time, but he ends up in Washington under the brutal benevolence of Theodore Roosevelt, who tries to persuade him to think American. The upshot of the situation is that Mymms's gift has brought the world to the brink of a world war. As a last resort the nations appeal to Mymms to dream the result of negotiations that are going on. Mymms can only gasp that what he dreamed is too horrible. . It was his own death. * Told mostly via Marsden, ostensibly a young man about town, but actually a high official in the British war office. * A competent job, interestingly handled. HORLER, SYDNEY (1888-1954) British writer of popular detective and mystery fiction. His series mastermind, Dr. Vivanti, has been parodied by John Dickson Carr as Dr. Chianti. Has written a fair amount of material that is supernatural or borderline sciencefiction, but texts are almost impossible to obtain in the United States. The quality level of Horler's mysteries, however, does not impel one seek the impossible. 842. THE VAMPIRE Hutchinson; London [1935] Supernatural novel told in the manner of an espionage thriller. * Ingredients: Dr. Martin Kent, rising young neurologist; Helena von Alsing, beautiful siren with a touch of nymphomania, who conceives a violent hatred against Kent when he rejects her; Sir Norman Rodney and his daughter Sonia, who is soon to be the victim of a vampire; Inspector Barty of Scotland Yard, who is quite willing to accept vampirism as a police topic; Dr. Paul Metternich, modern-day van Helsing; and-- Count Ziska, a classical vampire who protects himself by working through the Sovranian Embassy. Also included are ceremonial magic, a Black Mass, a nasty dwarf, kidnappings, plans for human sacrifice, political dirty work, stakings, and the triumph of good, but at a cost. * Little to recommend it. HORNIMAN, ROY (1874-1930) British author. Noteworthy for crime novel ISRAEL RANK (1907), which was basis for comic motion picture KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS. 843. THE SIN OF ATLANTIS J. MacQueen; London 1900 Psychology and novel of manners against an occult background. Sin and destruction. linked

HORNIMAN, ROY by reincarnation through the ages. The Duke of Havant, Lever (evil), Broadhurst (good), and Helga (love) are reincarnated from the remote past in Atlantis. In their former lives the Duke had destroyed Atlantis by yielding to Lever. Now Lever tries to force the Duke to repeat his sin, while Broadhurst fights for good. There is a flashback to Atlantis, in which the duke is the last priest-king. * ISRAEL RANK is much better. HORSNELL, HORACE (1883-1949) British author, perhaps a pseudonym. Wrote two other works of fantastic fiction, THE COOL OF THE EVENING (1942), MAN ALONE (1940) 844. CASTLE COTTAGE Hamish Hamilton; London 1940 A character study in the form of a ghost story. * Miss Lavinia (Vene) Bligh, a lady-like retired lady's maid who is a professional housesitter, becomes temporary caretaker of Castle Cottage, a fine, beautiful Regency house with some period furnishings. It is not long before she notices the ghosts, a young man in a uniform from the Napoleonic period, and a young woman. She learns their story, which was one of love and frailty. Lionel had died in the wars, and Pamela did not survive him long. Vene is sympathetic toward the ghosts and would like to help them, since they are obviously unhappy, but circumstances crowd her. The owner of Castle Ccttage dies, and it will be only a short time before the estate will be sold to a developer and the house razed. She sees a parallel to her own life in Pamela's situatio~, and undertakes to marry the ghosts. Yet she is not completely satisfied, for she begins to have doubts whether the ghosts are really those of Pamela and Lionel, and whether there may not be other ghosts involved. Her dilemma (which remains ambiguous because of the author's treatment) is rendered more acute by the aperyu, which she receives from the local madwoman, that ghosts can be insatiable devourers of emotion. The problem is resolved by the firing and destruction of the house. * Handled with tenderness and charm in places, but somewhat unsatisfactory in ultimate idea and in the appearance of unnecessary coincidence. HOUGHTON, CLAUDE (pseud. of OLDFIELD, CLAUDE HOUGHTON) (1889-1961) British author of psychological romances, often embodying personal mysticism and a remote allegory. Ideas are more clearly expressed in essay volume, THE KINGDOMS OF THE SPIRIT. Best-known work the fine psychological-mystical-mystery story I AM JONATHAN SCRIVENER. Later work tends to be repetitive of earlier. 845. JULIAN GRANT LOSES HIS WAY Heinemann; London [1933] Psychological novel, moral in intention, mystical in framework. * The narrative is the afterdeath experiences of Julian Grant, who as a very young man seemed to have the kingdoms of the world before him, for he was handsome, intelligent, gifted, and wealthy. By

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HOUGHTON, CLAUDE the time of his death, however, he had become an utterly selfish hollow man, without inner essence, a sadistic brute who existed only by absorbing (figuratively speaking) the vitality of others. Grant does not know that he is dead, but despite his arrogance is forced to relive experiences that might have been key moments in his life. He recapitulates his childhood with his father, a noted authority on mysticism and himself an eremetical mystic; he experiences his prolonged affair with the beautiful Stella, who loves him deeply, while he treats her badly; he relives his shattering of friendship; and ends with his rape of a young woman from whom he obtained a certain surrogate life. In the afterworld, which is like the world of dreams in that surroundings are not wholly subject to time and space, but respond to volition, he is given help and advice by an artist, who is a comparable egotist. But Julian cannot accept or totally understand either his status or his fate. As the book ends, he is drawn by his fate to the group that his Will fits, similar swine in a seedy restaurant. After a time he may evolve beyond them, if he follows the instructions left to him by the artist. * An interesting work. Grant complains, during his "trial," that the parts of his life that he has relived do not strike crisis points, and the reader is likely to have the same criticism. While the individual time sectors are sometimes brilliantly handled and the afterworld is suitably horrible, there is no real empathy with a degenerating character such as Houghton postulates. 846. THREE FANTASTIC TALES Frederick C. Joiner; London 1934 edition of 275 copies Introduction by Clemence Dane (pseud. of Winifred Ashton). Three semiallegorical short stories. * [a] THE MAN WHO HATED EVERYBODY. Warburton tells of his experience. He was obsessed with hatred and dropped all his friends. But he had a dream: he awakened and the world was silent. Everything was frozen in place, utterly unmoving. He was in the land of death. He unexpectedly hears Big Ben and he is overwhelmed by a feeling of forgiveness toward his enemy and calls to him. He goes to his enemy's house, and his enemy awakens and faces him. At this point Warburton awakens. He soon learns that his enemy died when Warburton summoned him. [b] THE MADNESS OF CHRISTOPHER CURLEW. The members of the club decide that only permanent happiness is desirable. Such was the case of Curlew the novelist. He created Una, presumably his ideal woman, and after the third chapter of his book looked up and saw Una standing before him. He now lives with her in the asylum. A statement of loneliness. [c] THE STRANGE CASE OF MR. ANATOLE PICKERING. Pickering awakens on Wednesday and has no memory of what happened the day before. Friends upbraid him for not keeping appointments. His only clue is a highly scented primrose in his buttonhole. When he goes out, however, he meets a woman who reminds him strongly of a long-lost childhood friend, Fenella. She, too, has a primrose very much like his. She is a

HOUGHTON, CLAUDE symbol; the world exists only because of her-Death. * Interesting in concept, nicely handled, with a dream-like quality. 847. THIS WAS IVOR TRENT Heinemann; London [1935] Like other of Houghton's novels, notably I AM JONATHAN SCRIVENER, THIS WAS IVOR TRENT is essentially a description of the hollow man of the 1930's-- a person who is seemingly a successful, well-adjusted person, but is internally empty, shattered, and abysmally lonely. In SCRIVENER the mode is not fantastic, although there are hints that the book is an allegory of divinity, but in TRENT the basic situation is exploited in terms of a mystical experience based on an occult theory of evolution. * When Ivor Trent, financially successful, but emotionally bankrupt and collapsing novelist, is walking toward his secret working quarters, he is confronted by a person from the future, the ideal evolution of the human race, which mayor may not be a projection of what Trent might have been had he grown straight. This vision leads to a physical collapse, plus a rebirth of a sort, and establishment of an inner position that had hitherto been lacking. The analysis of Trent's character takes place mostly through the experiences of Rendell, an admirer who had been helped by one of Trent's novels. Rendell becomes acquainted with Trent's associates and gradually comes to see Trent's horrible spiritual predicament. The novel ends on a note of hope as Trent accepts his new identity and role. * One need not accept the semiallegory to find this a very interesting personality study, with many curious types, all handled with Houghton's usual deftness. I believe that Graham Greene praised the craftsmanship of this novel. HOUSMAN, CLEMENCE (1861-1955) British illustrator, occasional writer of fiction. In later life a strong social activist. Sister of Laurence and Alfred Edward Housman. 848. THE WERE-WOLF John Lane; London 1896 The destruction of evil by love. * Medieval Scandinavia. White Fell, a very beautiful woman, comes out of the night after many strange portents. Two brothers are concerned with her. Christian is sure that she is evil and a werewolf. Sweyne, on the other hand, falls in love with her and refuses to listen to Christian. White Fell kills several members of the family, and Christian decides that she must be destroyed. After a chase, during which she wounds him badly, they meet in combat. White Fell kills Christian, but she dies when his blood, rendered holy by his sacrifice of life, acts on her like holy water. * Semiallegorical, reminiscent of the work of William Morris in its dreamy atmosphere, verbal techniques, and settings. One of the best werewolf stories. HOUSMAN, LAURENCE (1865-1959) British playwright, critic, writer of fiction, artist. Has called himself "England's most censored playwright," since 32 of his plays

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HOUSMAN, LAURENCE have been censored for dealing with religious topics or for involving members of the royal family. Best-known work, VICTORIA REGINA (1934); also literary fairy tales THE FIELD OF CLOVER (1898). A very prolific writer. 849. IRONICAL TALES Jonathan Cape; London [1926] Mostly strongly allegorical fables dealing with abstractions, but including [a] LADY INTO GEORGE FOX. A parody of David Garnett's LADY INTO FOX. Mr. Turbeck, who is a clergyman, discovers that his wife has never been baptised. He urges her to it against her will, and sees her turn into her ancestor, George Fox, the Quaker divine of the 17th century. The situation is very embarrassing, especially when Georgina denounces a group of clergymen who are playing ball. [b] BLIND LOVE. When King Agwisaunce refuses the love of an amorous fairy, she puts a curse on the family: the child that the pregnant queen wil-l bear will be invisible until she "plays the wanton." [cl THE FAMILY FAIRY. She has a cyclical personality, working good magic and alternate magic on alternate days. She is thus something of a nuisance. [d] KILL OR CURE. Presumably an allegory on patent medicines. Semolina stays with her fairy godmother, who has kills and cures. The kills are diseases growing like flower plants, and among the cures is a bottle named Glob, which contains an American genie. It will cure anything. * [aJ is amusing, if read after Garnett's work. 850. STRANGE ENDS AND DISCOVERIES TALES OF THIS WORLD AND THE NEXT Jonathan Cape; London 1948 The general theme of this collection, the author states, is a cosmic sense of humor. * Short stories, sometimes developed, sometimes fictionalizations of ideas or points of view. * Including [a] THE GREAT ADVENTURE. Two planetmaking demiurges converse. One complains that he is bored of his world. The other urges him to install free will in his creations. The results will be interesting. [b] THE RETURN JOURNEY. When Timothy comes to the gate of Heaven, Peter tells him that he should relive certain sins, knowing the pain that they caused. Timothy accepts, but cannot force himself to repeat his sins. His reluctance opens Heaven to him. [c] THE IMPOSSIBLE PENITENT. On the eve of Easter, the Devil comes to Father Simon and wants to confess. He is tired of evil and wants to make peace with God. After some doubts the priest listens to the Devil's nightlong confession. But the Devil has the last word: April Fool! For Easter has fallen on April 1st. [d] THE FALL OF THE SPARROW. A missionary who has to address an audience boards the express train and then learns that his stop is local. The conductor is unyielding. The missionary prays that the train be stopped. The powers in Heaven hear his prayer, categorize it, and decide that they will honor it. But their mode is ironic and cruel. tel THE NEW DISPENSATION. The Devil challenges God to a new wager: leave man to his own devices. The loser will then abandon the world to the other.

HOUSMAN, LAURENCE [f] VESSELS OF CLAY. Tom, a bad egg, steals his mother's funeral money and leaves. Before long he is in prison for other offences, and then accidentally killed in a prison riot. To gain redemption in the afterlife he has to do penance. He is incarnated as his mother's teapot (where she kept her money), and then works to make recompense. [g] THE CATCH OF THE CHERUB. Mrs. Stubbs's cat, while prowling on the church roof, has caught a cherub and mangled it. Mrs. Stubbs nurses it back to health, but its presence causes problems. Too many people believe it is her illegitimate child. [h] IMPROVED RELATIONS. Jabez Binny, hanged for murdering his wife, shows some repentance in the afterworld to the Recorder. To make amends Binny and his wife are returned to earth, but in reverse roles. The new situation works out better than the old. [i] THE 'CRY OF THE PARROT. Angela, in Purgatory because (among other things) she went to church bareheaded, is condemned to trim a living hat with parrot feathers. The hat is the clergyman who expelled her for being without a hat. [j] AN UNEXPLAINED MIRACLE. The very primitive Wambabas have no words for god, love, or heaven, and the missionaries have difficulty in communicating with them. One of the native women repeats the miracle of the loaves and fishes with clothing, but the missionaries cannot accept it. [k] HIDDEN IDENTITY. The narrator receives a cable from his friend Unwin in India: "Come at once. I've disappeared." An ancient Indian makes himself acquainted with the narrator, and the narrator learns that the local "bad yogi" has exchanged bodies with Unwin. The old Indian is Unwin. Death is the only release. [lJ MAGGIE'S BITE. The narrator tells of an incident in his youth. While staying at a farm in Wales, he aroused the enmity of a very vindictive girl named Maggie. She swore that she would bite him because of a kiss that he stole from her. Many years later, after Maggie is dead, he returns to the farm. His hand is crushed by a window sash, and there are toothmarks. [m] LITTLE PEAR-BLOSSOM. Sister Lisa looks forward to the erotic delights of sanctity, and has them. * Stories [d], [g], [h], [i], [m] have been reprinted from an earlier collection, WHAT NEXT? (Jonathan Cape; London 1939). * On the whole, cerebral and flaccid. Best are [d], [g], [i]. ) AND AICKMAN, HOWARD, ELIZABETH [JANE] (1923 ROBERT (1914 - 1981) Ms. Howard is a British actress" radio personality, editor, and writer, currently married to Kingsley Amis. Her best-known work is THE BEAUTIFUL VISIT (1951). * Mr. Aickman is a British author and editor (the Fontana collections of ghost stories), often considered the finest living practitioner of the traditional supernatural story. He is the grandson of Richard Marsh (author of THE BEETLE) and an authority on British inland waterways. It is unfortunate that more of Aickman's fiction does not fall within the time limits of this study.

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HOWARD, ROBERT E. 851. WE ARE FOR THE DARK SIX GHOST STORIES Jonathan Cape; London 1951 Stories in the manner of the later Aickman, closely written, fully developed fictions which explore the psychological environs of a mystery, but seldom offer an explicit explanation and often do not even suggest one. According to Mr. Aickman stories [a], [c], and [e] are basically Ms. Howard's, while [b] and [d] are his own. * Including, [a] PERFECT LOVE, Elizabeth Howard. Based on the career of Maria Mielli, a great opera singer of the not too distant past, the story is told through the records kept by the narrator's father, a compulsive clipping saver. The reason for the mysterious actions of Mielle seems to be that she had had an illegitimate child; that it is invisible to most persons; and that its father, an unknown benefactor, may have been a spirit or ghost. [b] THE INSUFFICIENT ANSWER, Robert Aickman. Young Cust is sent to Slovenia to visit the noted sculptress Lola Hastings, partly for a news story, partly to prod her into returning to England. He discovers a mysterious establishment, with an imprisoned young woman, tombs, and prohibitions. The solution seems to lie in a comment about Whitby, which close readers will appreciate. [c] THREE MILES UP, Elizabeth Howard. In this story of the British water ways, a pair of boaters explore a mysterious channel, hear (but do not understand) indications that they are progressing back through time, and end beyond the known world. Presumably built on the eerie feeling that sometime arises when one boats in landlocked, twisted waterways. Although Howard is the author, Aickman is the authority in this area. [d] THE VIEW, Robert Aickman. A modern version of the Tir-nan-og theme. Carfax, ill, depressed, has a short period of happiness. On a trip to the Island (Man?) for a rest, he meets a beautiful woman with whom he stays for a time as lover. Their association is almost idyllic, but there are recurrent disquieting factors suggesting less pleasant possibilities: a mysterious figure called an island god and a changing view. When Car fax and Ariel's happiness reaches a peak, he finds himself in a ruin, near a large city, and learns that he has become an old man. The names may be significant. [e] LEFT LUGGAGE, Elizabeth Howard. A more routine piece than the other stories in this book. Fallard's uncle has left him a suitcase. In the past it had been associated with an affair, in which the woman pursued Fallard' s uncle.. The suitcase recapitulates. * The sixth story, "The Trains" by Aickman, is excellent, but despite the subtitle of the book, I do not see the story as supernatural. It is an eerie, almost surrealistic story of terror. * Excellent material. HOWARD, ROBERT E[RVIN] (1906-1936] American (Texas) writer of pulp fiction, poet, member of the Lovecraft coterie. Wrote prolifically in many areas of adventure fiction:

HOWARD, ROBERT E. general, sports stories, Westerns, regionalistic humor, and especially fantastic adventure. Noted during his lifetime for fiction pitting larger-than-life heroes physically against supernatural enemies or problems, usually in colorful, semi-mythological settings. Work is a curious combination of elements: narrative gusto, crude power, imagination, skilful plotting, limited interests, anti-Black racism, poetic touches. His native intelligence is often underestimated, and under the facade of frontier robustness, unfortunately, was hidden a very sensitive man. He committed suicide just when his work was showing signs of maturity. While his stories of bloody fantastic adventure remain the best in their subgenre, his regionalist fiction seems more interesting today. Although Howard was a coterie author for decades, he is currently a literary property of great value, since the Conan stories (in degraded versions) have been used in comic books. After Howard's deach two large caches of manuscripts were found, mostly inferior, rejected work. A series of editors has reworked this material-- adapting stories from one series to another, finishing fragments, and fleshing out sketches, and even altering the older works. The editors involved, while excellent writers on their own account, have been heavy-handed, insensitive collaborators, and have never revealed exactly what they have done. The bibliographic situation, what with original fragments, edited versions, reedited editings, and restorations is chaotic. The present survey has been limited to stories by Howard alone, early editings, and pastiches that fall within our time period. See also Nyberg, B. 852. SKULL-FACE AND OTHERS Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1946 A large memorial volume, one of the treasured Arkham House rarities. Edited, with foreword by August Derleth. * ~ncluding [a} ROBERT ERVIN HOWARD: A MEMORIAM, H. P. Lovecraft. A stiff literary appreciation. [b} A MEMORY OF R. E. HOWARD, E. Hoffmann Price. A much more personal account of Howard and his environment. Probably the most revealing of the nearly contemporary accounts. * This is first book appearance for most of the stories in this volume, but since they run in story chains, several stories are described elsewhere for continuity and context. [c} SKULLS IN THE STARS. [d} RATTLE OF BONES. [e} THE HILLS OF THE DEAD. [f} WINGS IN THE NIGHT. [g} THE HYBORIAN AGE. [h} THE SHADOW KINGDOM. [i} THE MIRRORS OF TUZUN THUNE. [j} KINGS OF THE NIGHT. [k} THE PHOENIX ON THE SWORD. [I} THE SCARLET CITADEL. [m} THE TOWER OF THE ELEPHANT. [n} ROGUES IN THE HOUSE. [oj SHADOWS IN ZAMBOULA. * Also [p} WOLFSHEAD. (WT 1926) Africa. A Portuguese colonial castle among the Blacks, mysterious murders, a man possessed by the spirit of a werewolf. A Black uprising. Willingness to sacrifice himself lifts the curse from the possessed man. [q} THE BLACK STONE. (WT 1931) Loosely within the Cthulhu cycle. Hungary. In the valley

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HOWARD, ROBERT E. stands the Black Stone, a monolith of fabled supernatural associations. It had been the center of an aboriginal cult wiped out during a Turkish invasion. The narrator goes to it on Midsummer night and sees ghostly reenactment of human sacrifice, and a horrible toad-like monster that is worshipped as a god. It is a Thing from Outside, and the stone is ouly the spire of a gigantic building. Written in the manner of Lovecraft. [r} THE HORROR FROM THE MOUND. (WT 1932) An attempt to blend the classical vampire story with a Southwestern milieu. Steve Brill, despite warnings from old Lopez, whose ancestors have lived in the area since the 16th century, insists on opening the Indian mound. In it, buried by Conquistadores, lives the vampire Don Santiago de Valdez. He emerges. Nicely handled violence, good local color. [s} THE CAIRN ON THE HEADLAND. (STRANGE TALES 1932) Ireland. The evil demon known as Odin had taken part in the Battle of Clontarf (1024 A.D.), when Brian Boru destroyed Norse power in Ireland. Since he was in human form, Odin was killed by a spear that had a cross carved on it. He lies buried in the cairn, but if anyone drops a sprig of holly on him, he will arise. Ortali excavates the cairn and accidentally awakens Odin, while O'Brien, who has been given the Cross of St. Brendan by the long-dead Meve, drives Odin away. [t} BLACK CANAAN. (WT 1936) Kirby Buckner returns home to the swamps of Louisiana to find a Black uprising in progress. The swamp Blacks are led by Saul Stark, a most powerful juju-ma~and his mistress, a quadroon of great beauty and wickedness, who is priestess of Damballah. Buckner undertakes to kill Stark, but the glamour of the priestess overcomes him and it is only by chance that he survives and accomplishes his mission. Among Stark's powers is the ability to "put men into the swamp," or transform them into aquatic horrors. A fine piece of regionalist horror, if one can overlook the extreme racist point of view. [u} THE FIRE OF ASSHURBANIPAL. (WT 1936) Central Arabia. Steve Clarney and Yar Ali, fleeing hostile Arabs, chance upon the lost city they have been looking for. In the throne room sits a skeleton holding a pulsing gem. Steve and Yar Ali are captured by enemies, but the monstrosity that guards the gem is their preservation. Loosely tied into the Cthulhu cycle. [v} SKULL-FACE. (WT 1929). Short novel. An immature mixture of Fu Manchu and THE CALL OF CTHULHU, told in Howard's action style. * London. The villainous Kathulos is a mummy fished out of the sea off Senegal. An adept surviving from Atlantis, he plots domination and is aided by many vicious cultists. Among his tools are an elixir that creates ape-like strength, hypnotic powers, and the beautiful (but frail) Zuleika. Against Kathulos are John Gordon, crime investigator, and the narrator, Steve Costigan. They win, but openings are left for sequels. Little good can be said about this work. [w} THE VALLEY OF THE WORM (WT

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1934) Memories of a previous incarnation during the Indo-European migrations. Niord Worm's-bane is one of the great heroes. When his people fight their way into the area of the Picts, they trespass on the domain of a horror older than humanity. Beneath ruins lives a worm-like monstrosity, obviously partly supernatural, which emerges on provocation. It wipes out a band of the Aesir, but Niord kills it, dying in the event. A powerful story in its simplicity and evocation of primitive mentality. Perhaps the best of Howard's stories of ancient man. * SKULL-FACE AND OTHERS was not the strongest selection of Howard's fiction, perhaps because Derleth was basically out of sympathy with Howard. As a result there is much immature material. Best stories are [f], [0], [r], [t], [w]. 853. CONAN T·HE CONOUEROR THE HYBOREAN AGE Gnome Press; New York 1950 Although this was the first of the Conan books to be published, it is Conan's final adventure. Conan, who is now a fairly familiar figure in popular culture, was Howard's most famous character. An anti-hero of a sort, he comes from the savage frontier of civilization, probably Ireland in today's world, and rises from untutored barbarian gaping at the wonders of the south to become king of one of the more powerful lands, probably modern France. A remarkable physical specimen, a passionate, daring scoundrel with a kernel of decency and honor, he wanders through a series of adventures that are still the best in their subgenre. The stories are set in a pre-glacial world, where national and cultural groups are recognizable in historical counterparts. Howard was a rapid writer, preferring to go to on to a new story rather than improving one already written, and his work is very uneven. * Introduction by John D. Clark, Ph. D. * Originally published in WT (1935-6) as THE HOUR OF THE DRAGON. * Conan is now King of Aquilonia. He is reasonably competent and is popular among his people. But he is threatened by a coalition of Aquilonian rebels and invaders from neighboring lands. As the novel begins Conan's enemies are assembled in a tomb, where a magician, using the Heart of Ahriman (a gem with incredible magical powers) transforms the mummy of Xaltotun into a living man. Xaltotun, priest-king of ancient Acheron, had been the greatest magician of all time, and the conspirators want his help in overthrowing Conan. What with Xaltotun's magic, Conan is badly defeated in battle and captured, while his country is overrun and occupied. Conan escapes, however, and his adventures are concerned with regaining his throne. He learns from supernatural sources that the destiny of his kingdom lies with the Heart of Ahriman, against which no magic can stand, and he goes in search of it. It had been in Xaltotun's possession, but one of the conspirators stole it when it became obvious that Xaltotun was not a colleague, but the real master of destiny. The jewel is the only power source over which he has no control and which can destroy him. It changes

hands and Conan follows it through many perils. Among the motifs are a visit to Stygia (Egypt); the appearance of a great Stygian magician who wields the black hand of death; magicians from Khitai (China) who bear an irresistible branch from the Tree of Death; a vampire queen who dwells in the GreaL Pyramid; and a powerful old witch. It has become clear that Xaltotun is aiming not simply at political mastery of the Western world; he intends, in the greatest feat of magic in history, to transform the world back into the past, to the condition it was when Acheron was the mightiest power. He is close to success when Conan, now in possession of the Heart, confronts him in battle. While Conan's army destroys the invaders, his associates face down Xaltotun with the gem, and he changes back into a mummy. * The longest and most ambitious of the Conan stories; imaginative, fast-moving, one of the classics of bloody fantastic adventure. 854. THE SWORD OF CONAN THE HYBOREAN AGE Gnome Press; New York 1952 Adventures of Conan, not in chronological order. [a] THE PEOPLE OF THE BLACK CIRCLE. (WT 1934) Short novel. Conan is now chief of a sort among the fierce Afghulis (Afghans), near the frontiers of Vendhya (India). When an acolyte of the Black Seers-- extremely potent magicians who dwell in the Himalayas-assassinates the King of Vendhya by the foulest black magic, Conan is drawn into the resulting turmoil. At first Conan is only trying to rescue some of his men held by the Vendhyans, but in a very short time he finds himself pitted against the Black Seers, in order to save the Queen of Vendhya. Much spectacular magic and interesting characters. [b] THE SLITHERING SHADOW. (WT 1933) After a military defeat Conan and a young woman flee south, through and past the kingdoms of the Blacks, to the deserts of the far south, where they come to a seemingly deserted city, once built by fabulously advanced yellow men (the Smithfield people?). Seemingly dead men come to life and the Slithering Shadow gobbles people up. [c] THE POOL OF THE BLACK ONE. (WT 1933) Conan is rescued at sea and is taken aboard a vessel bound for a mythical land in the West, where the captain hopes to find strange books of magic. They make land at an unknown island, where semihuman black giants perform strange rites around a black pool that petrifies and shrinks persons thrown into it. The lives of the black giants and the pool are supernaturally connected. [d] RED NAILS. (WT 1936) Short novel. Conan and a female pirate whom he has been pursuing through the jungles are fortunate enough to destroy a most ferocious dragon (dinosaur) and come to the great integral city-building of Xuchotl. This city is inhabited by two hostile groups., Tecuhtli and Xotalancas (presumably Nahuatl colonies in Africa) who live in sealed-off sections of the city and conduct ferocious raids against each other. Torture, a witch woman, immortality by drinking life essence during human sacrifice,

*

HOWARD, ROBERT E. a tittering monstrosity, magic of various sorts, and a fantastic weapon dissolve in the usual solvent, torrents of blood. * Nevertheless, among the better Conan stories. Extravagant adventure embodying a considerable amount of antiquarian lore and imagination. 855. THE COMING OF CONAN Gnome Press; New York 1953 Introductory material about the Conan stories, including a letter from Howard, a letter from H. P. Lovecraft, and the essay [a] THE HYBORLAN AGE by R.E. Howard and John D. Clark. This essay, which is broken into sections prefacing individual stories, is a supposititious history of the premodern heroic age. It includes the worlds of both King Kull and Conan. * Two stories about Kull follow. These are described elsewhere for context. [b] THE SHADOW KINGDOM and [c] THE MIRRORS OF TUZUN THUNE. * Conan stories then follow. [d] THE TOWER OF THE ELEPHANT. (WT 1933) Conan, a very young man, while in the thieves' quarter of Zamora, hears of the Elephant's Tower, where the mighty magician Yara lives with the great gem called the Elephant's Heart. Conan determines to steal the gem, and together with the master thief Taurus, whom he meets in Yara's gardens, scales the tower and enters it. Taurus is killed, but Conan encounters a semisupernatural elephant man from the stars whom Yara has crippled and enslaved. There is a strange freedom for Yag-kosha, the elephant man, and a strange doom for Yara. le] THE GOD IN THE BOWL. (SPACE SCIENCE FICTION 1952) Found among Howard's papers and edited by L. Sprague de Camp. For all practical purposes a primitive detective story. Conan, a young man, is caught in the house of a murdered man and accused of the crime. Some effort is spent in discovering the circumstances of the murder, which seems to be connected with a bowl that the victim had recently received. It held a serpent-man. Not very good. [f] ROGUES IN THE HOUSE. (WT 1934) Conan and the nobleman Murilo are in the pits beneath the house of Nabonidus, the Red Priest, planning to assassinate Nabonidus. But an ape-man whom Nabonidus keeps as bodyguard and pet proves to be an obstacle for Conan, Murilo, and Nabonidus. Not especially fantastic. 19] THE FROST GIANT'S DAUGHTER. Also known in a somewhat different version as GODS OF THE NORTH (THE FANTASY FAN, 1934). Present version edited by L. S. de Camp. Conan is in the far north and is the last survivor of a battle between the Vans and the Aesir. Wounded, half delirious, he sees a beautiful semi-naked woman standing before him, teasing and taunting him with her beauty. He staggers after her, fights his way through frost giants, but the intercession of the god-giant Ymir saves her. [h] QUEEN OF THE BLACK COAST. (WT 1934) Conan, troops at heels, manages to leap aboard a ship that is sailing for Cush and escapes. Along the voyage, however, they are met by the "Tigress," a dreaded pirate vessel captained by Belit, a beautiful but blood-thirsty lady pirate.

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HOWARD, ROBERT E. All the sailors are killed, but Conan's fighting abilities so impress Belit that she takes him for her mate. They wander down the coast plundering and slaughtering until they come to a black river that is dead of life. They sail up the river looking for loot and come to age-old ruins, haunted by a flying being that is the last survivor of the oldest race of earth, and a horde of were-hyenas. The pirates are all massacred, including Belit, and Conan survives only through the intervention of Belit's ghost when he is in greatest peril. * [d] is a good story, while lh] is probably the best of the Conan stories, perhaps because it is the only one based on another emotion than lust, greed, or hatred. 856. KING CONAN THE HYBORIAN AGE Gnome Press; New York 1953 Introduction by L. Sprague de Camp. * [a] JEWELS OF GWAHLUR. (WT 1935) Conan, now a fairly well-known adventurer and soldier of fortune, offers his service as a general to one of the Black kingdoms. His real purpose, however, is to steal the fabled jewels called the Teeth of Gwahlur. Others have the same idea, and a complicated series of adventures involving an impersonation of a goddess, ghouls, and plots within plots busies Conan and his enemies. [b] BEYOND THE BLACK RIVER. (WT 1935) Short novel. Adventure among the savage Picts of the western-most areas; swamp devils, Pictish witchcraft, slaughter, chase, etc. In all probability this was not originally a Conan story but an American Indian story that Howard adapted. [c] THE TREASURE OF TRANICOS. Posthumous short novel. Edited rather heavily by L. Sprague de Camp. The history of this story is in doubt. According to early accounts of it, it was originally a Conan novel, then was adapted to the European Renaissance. The opposite adaptation seems more likely to be correct. * Count Valenso of Korzetta has fled to the Pictish wilderness with his niece and their entire household. He is obviously hiding from some terrible threat, which manifests itself as a "black man." Conan is fleeing through the Pictish wilderness. He escapes a band of Picts by taking refuge in a tabu area. In his refuge there is a cave in which several "mummified" pirates and their treasure are guarded by a very vicious elemental. Pirates come to the same area in search of the treasure. Conan is the common factor in all the subplots. The peril that Valenso is trying to escape is the magician Thoth-Amon of the Ring, who finally finds him. Picts assault the fortress of Valenso and almost everyone is massacred. * The original version of this story, THE BLACK STRANGER, has been reissued; it is much superior to the adaptation. [d] THE PHOENIX ON THE SWORD. (WT 1932) The first story about Conan. It was apparently originally written as an adventure of King Kull, then recast as the beginning of a new series. Conan, uneasy king of Aquilonia, is beset by assassins and also by a supernatural monster evoked by Thoth-Amon of the Ring. He is saved by the semisuperna-

HOWARD, ROBERT E. tural sage Epemitreus, whose spirit had called forth Conan's spirit and traced a symbol on his sword. [el THE SCARLET CITADEL. (WT 1933) An anticipation of CONAN THE CONQUEROR. Conan, King of Aquilonia, is overthrown by rebels, foreign intervention, and the doings of the sorceror Tsotha. Conan is captured and must escape from the pits in the Scarlet Citadel controlled by Tsotha-lanti. Fantastic elements include the magician Pelias, whom Tsotha has kept "brainwashed" for ten years; and a flying monstrosity that Conan rides back to his capital to save the situation. * A weak selection, although there is a good scene with the Pictish devil in [bl and interesting adventures in the pits in [el. 857. CONAN THE BARBARIAN Gnome Press; New York 1954 Fantastic adventure. [al BLACK COLOSSUS. (WT 1933) The sinister figure of Natohk emerges from the desert and attacks the kingdom of Khoraja (Western Iran?). The princess is told by the god Mitra to go on the street and place her realm in the hands of the first man she meets. This is Conan, in one of his more brutish manifestations. As cornrnander-inchief Conan repels the invasion of Natohk, who is revealed to be a great wizard of the past, who had just awakened from suspended animation. [bl SHADOWS IN THE MOONLIGHT. (WT 1934) Conan, one of the last survivors of an army of mercenaries on the losing side of a war, together with Olivia, an escaped captive from the Hyrkanians, ventures among the ruins along Vilayet (the Caspian Sea). There, in a ruined hall parrots scream phrases in an unknown tongue and black iron statues with glittering eyes seem to wait for the moonlight, so that they can become animated. At the end of the story Conan joins the local pirates. [cl A WITCH SHALL BE BORN. (WT 1934) Conan is captain of the royal guard in the desert kingdom of Khauran (Mesopotamia?). Queen Taramis is surprised to learn that she has a twin sister, a hereditary evil being, who suddenly appears with an army and takes her place. Salome, the twin, had studied to be a witch in Paiking in Khitai (China), but flunked out because of her sensuality. Conan, one of the few to observe that Salome has taken Taramis's place, is crucified and left for the vultures. On the cross he performs one of his greatest feats of heroism: he bites through the neck of an attacking vulture~ He is rescued for his own purposes by Olgerd Vladislav, the Kozak hetman (who appears in one of the pastiches, later). Conan rescues Taramis and achieves his revenge. [dl SHADOWS IN ZAMBOULA. (WT 1935) Conan, a mercenary in a Central Asiatic province, takes part in the feud between the beautiful Nefertari, mistress of the Turanian governor, and the evil Totrasmek, priest of the temple of Hanuman. This story contains the famous wrestling match between Conan and Baal-pteor, the inhuman strangler of Yota-pong. Conan almost meets his match! Magic, too. [el THE DEVIL IN IRON. (WT 1934) The local Turanian ruler of the Vilayet coast

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HOWARD, ROBERT E. plans to trap Conan, who is now leader of the Kozaks of the plains. The trap almost works, but Conan finds himself with an escaped slave girl on the island of Xapur. Only a short time earlier, the island had been covered with ruins, but now there is a fortified city in operation. It is due to the magic of Khosatrel Khel, a metal being from earlier ages of the earth, who had been inadvertently released from magical captivity by a fisherman. Conan is fortunate to survive, for there is only one weapon that can harm Khosatrel Khel. * While Lal is weak, the other four stories are among the better adventures of Conan, with highly colored marvels in each. 858. THE DARK MAN AND OTHERS Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1963 Introduction by August Derleth. * Short stories. [al THE DARK MAN. (WT 1931) The first of the adventures of Turlogh O'Brien and Athelstane the Saxon. Early 11th century, not long after the battle of Clontarf. Turlogh, a bitter, hatred-filled Irish outlaw, is following Danes who have kidnapped an Irish girl. Along the way, he comes upon a corpse-strewn battle site, where Danish corpses lie together with those of a small, dark people (Picts). Also present is a dark idol, which Turlogh, on inexplicable impulse, picks up and carries along with him. When he arrives at the Hebrides, where the woman is being held, he goes berserk and rushes upon the Danes. He is suddenly aided by a group of Picts. The Danes are all killed, but Athelstane, who is with them and has been stunned, is saved through the intercession of a Christian priest. The Picts had followed the idol, which is that of Bran Mak Morn (see the earlier Pictish stories in BRAN MAK MORN or WORMS OF THE EARTH). The idol also saves Turlogh's life. [bl THE GODS OF BAL SAGOTH. (WT 1931). Sequel to [al Turlogh has been captured by Norsemen and is on board ship. Athelstane, who is also aboard, manages to save Turlogh's life. The ship is wrecked, and both men are cast up on a strange Antillian island with a fairly high civilization. The two men save the life of Brunhilda, a ruthless Norse woman who has been deposed as queen, and agree to restore her to power, thereby overcoming the priesthood. The high priest, who has supernatural powers, creates a monsterdemon against them and later animates a gigantic statue, which crushes Brunhilda. [cl PIGEONS FROM HELL. (WT 1938) Regionalistic horrors. Two tourists spend the night in a deserted house in backwoods Texas. Something from the second story overpowers the will of one of them, lures him upstairs, kills him, and sends the corpse back down to kill its friend. Other elements include supernatural pigeons; voodoo; and the creation of zombie-like beings. ldl PEOPLE OF THE DARK. (STRANGE TALES, 1932) A theme that Howard seemed to like: a man in the present has memories of previous incarnations, with strife, love, hatred, and death. In this case the narrator remembers underground horrors, much like Arthur Machen's semi-ophidian, subterranean fairies. One still survives. [el THE

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CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT. (WT 1931) Much the same theme. Memories of an earlier incarnation involving Children of the Night, semihuman beings. Present application. [f] THE DEAD REMEMBER. (ARGOSY 1936) Cow-country supernaturalism. Gordon, a Texan, in a drunken brawl kills a Black and the Black's mulatto mistress, who is a witch of a sort. Gordon is overtaken by supernatural revenge. Told in letters and documents. The text in this volume is not complete, the last half having been inadvertently omitted. The full text is available in the similar collection PIGEONS FROM HELL. [g] THE VOICE OF EN-LIL. (ORIENTAL STORIES, 1930) A lost race of Sumerians in East Africa, with a gong that has supernatural powers. [h] THE MAN ON TIm GROUND. (WT 1933) Cow-country feuds. Two Texans, bored with dry-gulching one another, shoot it out. One is killed, bue his astral body picks up his rifle and shoots the other. [i] THE GARDEN OF FEAR. Described elsewhere. [j] THE THING ON THE ROOF. (WT 1932) In the mode of Lovecraft. Violating- the horrible Temple of the Dead, a pre-Indian building in Yucatan, has its perils, particularly if one forgets to shut the door behind one. [k] THE HYENA. (WT 1928) Told by a Southwestern American in Boer Africa. Senecosa the witchdoctor can turn into a hyena. [1] DIG ME NO GRAVE. (WT 1937) In the mode of E. Hoffmann Price. The diabolic bond, signed centuries ago with Malik Taus; reanimation of the dead by a Yezidee rite; ~nd payment of the bond. [m] THE DREAM SNAKE. (WT 1928) Faming, who dreams of a horrible snake, is killed by it one night as he sleeps. [n] IN THE FOREST OF VILLEFERE. (WT 1925) Pre-modern France. A werewolf. [0] OLD GARFIELD'S HEART. (WT 1933) Old Garfield has been smashed up while trying to break a wild horse, and he should die. But there is a mystery. About 60 years earlier, when he was 50 years old or so, he had been badly wounded in an Indian raid and treated by a medicine man. His heart was replaced with that of a god, and he cannot die as long as it is in his body. When Garfield is shot in the head, the doctor removes the still-beating heart, a stone, and passes i.t to an Indian warrior in ancient garb who has mysteriously appeared. * [c], with suitable small editing, would be one of the classics of regionalistic horror. [f] is nicely handled. Most of the other stories are secondary or juvenilia. * Much the same collection (omitting only [a]) has been published as PIGEONS FROM HELL (Ace Books; New York 1979) 859. RED SHADOWS Donald M. Grant; West Kingston, Rhode Island 1968 Introduction by Glen Lord. * This volume assembles the various stories, poems, and unfinished work about Solomon Kane, a 16th century Puritan adventurer who wandered about the world of his day, driven compulsively, often cruelly, to avenge wrongs. His most characteristic adventures take place in an Africa derivative from that of H. Rider Haggard. Not all the stories are supernatural. * Including [a] SKULLS IN THE STARS. (WT 1928) Kane, wandering over the English moors at night, is attacked by a

HOWARD, ROBERT E. horrible spirit. It is the ghost of a lunatic who has been murdered on the moor. [b] THE RIGHT HAND OF DOOM. Kane is present when the severed hand of a notorious wizard works revenge. [c] RED SHADOWS. (WT 1928) Kane comes to Africa in pursuit of a murderer. In this adventure he first meets N'Longa, the medicine man who appears in other stories. N'Longa, whose life span is measured in centuries, perhaps millennia, is a powerful magician, able to send out his spirit and possess others. He has an Atlantean carved staff, which has passed through the hands of Moses and Solomon and has magical potency. In this story Kane and N'Longa are captured and are about to be burned alive when N'Longa possesses a corpse and sets them free. [d] RATTLE OF BONES. (WT 1929) Kane is present when the skeleton of a murdered man takes vengeance. Germany. [e] THE HILLS OF THE DEAD. (WT 1930) Kane, wandering through the dark lands of Africa, comes upon a city inhabited by vampires who emerge at night and attack their prey. The magic of N'Longa destroys the living corpses by summoning thousands of vultures, who tear the dead. [f] HAWK OF BASTI. A fragment. Borderline supernatural. Kane helps an old comrade in arms to regain power in a lost race descended from Ancient Egyptians. [g] WINGS IN THE NIGHT. (WT 1932) Semi-human bat people prey on the helpless Black villagers, who appeal to Kane for help. Kane agrees, but finds that he cannot prevent the destruction of those who trusted him. His conscience tortures him and he takes a terrible revenge. Slightly supernatural in the ending. [h] THE FOOTFALLS WITHIN. (WT 1931) Kane, captured by Arab slave traders in Africa, warns the Arabs not to open the sealed tomb in the jungle. When they open it, the Staff of Solomon (which N'Longa had entrusted to him) saves his life from the elemental that emerges. * Another fragment, "The Children of Asshur," is not supernatural. It and [f] were finished by Ramsey Campbell in the two volume set, SOLOMON KANE, published by Bantam (New York 1979). * Sensational, fast-moving, but mostly immature or routine work. [g], however, has a human situation that is powerful and a savageness that carries conviction. 860. BRAN MAK MORN Dell Publications; New York 1969 paperbound Short stories concerned with the Picts, who for Howard were a Neolithic, pre-Indo-European population fairly widely distributed in Western Europe. They were displaced by the invading Celts; some of the Picts mingled with earlier primitive races, others went, literally, underground. * Foreword by R.E. Howard explaining the significance of Pictdom to him. * [a] THE LOST RACE. (WT 1927) A Celtic warrior, seeing a wolf fighting a losing battle against a panther, helps the wolf. When he is captured by underground Picts and about to be burned alive as a sacrifice, he is released on the intercession of a warrior. Theriomorphy. The warrior had been in wolf form. [b] MEN OF THE SHADOWS. Not precisely dated, but

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during the Roman occupation of Britain. Bran Mak Morn, the last king of the Picts, achieves power by defeating Gonar, Pictish wizard, in a supernatural battle of wills. Visions of past and future. [c] KINGS OF THE NIGHT. (WT 1930) Bran awaits a crucial battle against a small Roman invasion of the north. If he wins, Pictdom will support him and perhaps the Romans can be beaten back completely. Trouble is caused by a mutinous band of Norsemen, who demand a leader not Pict, Briton, nor Gael. Gonar summons from the past the great King Kull of Valusia. [d] WORMS OF THE EARTH. (WT 1932) Bran Mak Morn wants revenge against Titus Sulla, governor of York. His only recourse is to go to the underground serpent people for help. He steals their magical symbol, a black stone, as a bargaining point. [e] [Untitled fragment] Bran enters the lands of the red-headed people, pre-Pict, pre-Celt. [f] THE DARK MAN. Described elsewhere. * [d] is one of Howard's savage, brutal stories that carry inner conviction. [c] is of some interest. - The remainder of the volume is trivial. * WORMS OF THE EARTH (Donald M. Grant, West Kingston, Rhode Island 1974) is identical in content with this book, except that it omits a seventh story, "The Night of the Wolf," which is not supernatural. 861. KULL Bantam Books; New York 1978 paperbound Introduction by Andrew J. Offutt. * This volume contains all the adventures of King Kull, except KINGS OF THE NIGHT, which is carried under the Bran Mak Morn listing. Chronology is not always consistent, but Kull's world is perhaps about 100,000 B.C. The civilized world consists of Atlantis, Valusia (another lost land), and the Pictish islands. Kull, an Atlantean by birth, has seized the throne of Valusia. He is a truly heroic figure, without the brutal, lecherous, elemental aspects of Conan; his contribution to mankind is his perpetual war against the ancient serpent people, who are still a threat to humanity. Not all the stories about Kull are fantastic. Some are simply adventure stories. * Including [a] THE SHADOW KINGDOM. (WT 1929) This story introduces Kull and describes his first meeting with his friend and ally Brule the Spear-Slayer, a-Pict. The Picts inform Kull that the serpent men are plotting to seize his kingdom. By a sort of glamour they are able to assume any form, including that of Kull himself. There is a phonetic password, but who has time to use it? Also a ghost. [b] THE ALTAR AND THE SCORPION. Set in Kull's reign, but with only a reference to Kull. The young man and woman are about to be sacrificed by Thuron, high priest of the Black Shadow. The young man prays to the scorpion god of his ancestors, with results. [c] DELCARDE'S CAT. Alternate title THE CAT AND THE SKULL. Kull encounters the age-old talking cat, Sareme, who knows past and future. He comes to accept her advice and guidance, but on one occasion they lead him into a magical world, outside space and time, under the forbidden lake. Kull survives

HOWARD, ROBERT E. AND DE CAMP, L. SPRAGUE battles with sea monsters, encounters with the people of the Enchanted Domain, and learns at the end that it has all been a plot of the sorcerer Thulsa Doom. [d] THE SKULL OF SILENCE. Centuries earlier, Raama, the greatest of all scientists of old, had imprisoned a spectre of silence. Kull, curious, must investigate. He releases the being and must fight for his life and for the safety of the universe. An interesting story. [e] THE STRIKING OF THE GONG. The bitterly xenophobic Valusians resent Kull and plots are common. Kull is attacked, and while unconscious for a moment or two spends quite a bit of time in death. [f] THE MIRRORS OF TUZUN THUNE. (WT 1929) Tuzun Thune, a wizard of the Elder Race, has a room with magic mirrors. Kull is almost dissolved into the mirrors when Brule rescues him. * There are also three fragments THE BLACK CITY, UNTITLED FRAGMENT (THE PURSUIT OF FENAR), UNTITLED FRAGMENT (BRULE'S TALE) that probably would have been fantastic had Howard finished them. All three have been finished by Lin Carter in KING KULL (Lancer Books; New York 1967), which otherwise has the same fiction as this volume. * Of the adventure stories here "By This Axe I Rule" has some small interest as the prototype from which THE PHOENIX ON THE SWORD was developed. * [a] and Lf] are good action stories; Ld] is interesting in idea. The remainder of the volume, fantastic and non-fantastic, is routine and trivial. WITH DE CAMP, L[YON] SPRAGUE: 862. TALES OF CONAN Gnome Press; New York 1955 Introduction by P. Schuyler Miller. * Four posthumous stories found among Howard's unpublished manuscripts. Originally Oriental adventure stories, they were adapted by de Camp to fit the Conan cycle. Supernaturalism was added. According to de Camp's GHOSTLY NOTE, they are about four-fifths the work of Howard and one-fifth that of de Camp. la] THE BLOODSTAINED GOD. Set somewhere in the Hyborian version of the Middle East. Conan wants to loot the treasures of the ancient deserted temple in Kezankia. The blood-red god is encrusted with rubies and distressingly mobile. [b] HAWKS OVER SHEM. Conan is looking for work as a mercenary in the Shemitish city of Asgalun. The king is a religious maniac, and the city is disrupted by opposing military factions. Kushites (Blacks), Anakim (Shemites), and Hyrkanians (Central Asiatic Turks). Supernaturalism enters with Zeriti, witch mistress of King Akhirom; she evokes a demon. [c] THE ROAD OF THE EAGLES. A close sequel to SHADOWS IN THE MOONLIGHT. Political hassles within the Empire of Turan as various factions try to gain control of the exiled brother of Yildiz, the current emperor. Mostly battle and ambush, but some supernaturalism when a horde of vampires emerges from a hidden cave complex. [d] THE FLAME-KNIFE. Conan is now captain of the mercenaries with King Kobad Shah, somewhere in the Middle East. While trying to repay a debt, Conan stumbles on the

HOWARD, ROBERT E. AND DE CAMP, L. SPRAGUE stronghold of the Hidden Ones, who are a Hyborian counterpart of the medieval Islamic Assassins of Mount Alamut, master, cult, gardens, drugs, and all. There is much confused slaughter, back and forth, until all the plots are resolved by the emergence of ghouls, who live in caves beneath the hidden city of Yanaidar and attack everyone. Also present is Conan's old enemy, Olgerd Vladislav, the Cossack hetman from A WITCH SHALL BE BORN. * These stories would not have been among Howard's better works, and the adaptations do not ring true. 863. CONAN THE ADVENTURER Lancer Books; New York 1966 paperbound Introduction by L. Sprague de Camp. * Described elsewhere, [al THE PEOPLE OF THE BLACK CIRCLE. [bl THE SLITHERING SHADOW. [cl THE POOL OF THE BLACK ONE. * Also [dl DRUMS OF TOMBALKU, R. E. Howard and L. S. de Camp. Finished by de Camp from Howard's first section and outline. Conan in the Black kingdoms. Native magic. 864. CONAN THE USURPER Lancer Books; New York 1967 paperbound Introduction by L. S. de Camp. * Described elsewhere, [al THE PHOENIX ON THE SWORD. Lbl THE SCARLET CITADEL. [cl THE TREASURE OF TRANICOS, R.E. Howard and L. S. de Camp. A different version from that published in KING CONAN. While it retains de Camp's contribution linking it to the Conan series, it follows Howard's manuscript more closely and material previously dropped has been restored. [dl WOLVES BEYOND THE BORDER, R. E. Howard and L. S. de Camp. The first half of the story was found among Howard's papers; the second half was written by de Camp. Indian-like Picts, rebellion along the frontiers, tied very loosely into the Conan cycle. The first person narrator, Gault Hagar's son, a supporter of Conan's rebellion, witnesses Pictish magic: transfer of personality from a man to a snake, and vice versa; Pictish wood devils; and the Pictish medicine man, who is obviously a Neanderthal man. * Routine. HOWELLS, W[ILLIAMl D[EANl (1837-1920) American (Ohio and New York) mainstream writer, editor (THE ATLANTIC), journalist. U. S. Consul, Venice, 1861-65. Wrote much naturalistic fiction, best-known of which is THE RISE OF SILAS LAPHAM (1885), also some Utopian works. Now venerated, but not read. 865. QUESTIONABLE SHAPES Harper; New York 1903 Three nouvelles describing the entry of a very etiolated supernatural into the lives of the leisured, moneyed class of the turn of the century. There is no question of thrills or horror, but, instead, a very detailed description of psychological and social consequences of a brief supernatural incident. In two of the stories the supernaturalism is so tenuous as to be questionable. * Lal HIS APPARITION. Hewson, while staying at a resort hotel, awakens to see an apparition. He is not sure what it is, but he is convinced that it is

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HOWELLS, W. D. AND ALDEN, H. M. meaningful for him, and that on second repetition it will be explained. For a time he cherishes his experience enough not to cheapen it by telling it as a ghost story, but eventually he does, and through the unwitting means of a young woman whom he admires, it becomes widely publicized. Since it ruins the reputation of the hotel, he feels honor bound to assume the obligation that his story created, and he buys the hotel. After a time, he comes to recognize that the experience, though it was not repeated, was very meaningful for him, since it happened on the day that he met his wife, the woman who spread the story. [bl THE ANGEL OF THE LORD. Ormond, who has a weak heart, has long been depressed at the thought of death. When he moves to the country he suddenly becomes elated. He offers breakfast to a tramp, with the half-joking suggestion that the tramp may be an angel from God. Later, he runs to meet the tramp and dies of a fall. The tramp presumably is the unwitting bearer of death, or it may all be explained psychologically. One of the most needlessly involved stories in the telling. [cl THOUGH ONE ROSE FROM THE DEAD. The Alderlings are very close to each other, and Mrs. Alderling has often proclaimed that she will be with her husband, no matter where he is after death. She dies, and Alderling believes he hears her calling him to go to her, into death. Questionable as supernatural. * The first story is the most interesting of the three, not so much for its genre strength as for its description of a now alien mode of social response to an equivocal situation. On the whole, however, Howells's non-supernatural fiction is far superior to these stories. WITH ALDEN, HENRY MILLS, AS EDITORS: 866. SHAPES THAT HAUNT THE DUSK Harper; New York 1907 A collection of material from HARPER'S MAGAZINE. * [al THE CHRISTMAS CHILD, Georg Schock. German-American milieu. A little girl whose dead mother watches over her. Told with some attempt at naturalism and character study. [bl THE WHITE SLEEP OF AUBER HURN, Richard Rice. A confused story of soul fragments and segments that can be dissociated. The author has ignored limitations of time and space, with the result that it is not clear what has happened. Probably a swarth. [cl IN TENEBRIS, Howard Pyle. A town drunkard dies at the same time as one of the pillars of society, and both go to the same reception place. The drunkard is sent to one of the lower heavens, while the good man is sent to Hell, so that he can sin and be saved. [dl THE LITTLE ROOM, Madeline Yale Wynne. Described elsewhere for context. [el THE BRINGiNG OF THE ROSE, Harriet Lewis Bradley. A 17th century young lady ghost is in the habit of giving roses to those whom she meets: a red rose is for a social call, a white rose for a death warning. A young visitor is thrilled to receive a red rose, but it is all explained away. [f) PERDITA, Hildegarde Hawthorne. The ghost of a little girl can be seen only by

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sensitive persons. [g] AT LA GLORIEUSE, M. E. M. Davis. A rambling, sentimental story of a Louisiana house that is haunted by the ghost of a vain woman who committed suicide. [h] A FADED SCAPULAR, F. D. Millet. A ghostly figure seen at night; explained as the ghost of a man who died outside the bounds of religion. [i] AT THE HERMITAGE, E. Levi Brown. Voodoo, death spells, witchcraft in the 19th century Deep South. [j] THE REPRISAL, H. W. McVickar. A death-warning from a ghost. * Muted supernaturalism, usually nicely written, but somehow lifeless. Psychological in orientation. HUBBARD, L[AFAYETTE] RON[ALD] (1911American writer, psychological theorist, founder of a religion. Popular author of much commercially competent pulp adventure, Western, science-fiction, and supernatural fiction in the 1930's and 40's. Best-known work from this period FINAL BLACKOUT (1940) and TO THE STARS (1950, book title RETURN TO TOMORROW). In 1950 announced Dianetics, psychotherapeutic system which it was claimed would remove effects of early (including prenatal) traumata. This evolved into religious organization, the Church of Scientology, of which Hubbard is the head. 867. DEATH'S DEPUTY Fantasy Publishing Co., Inc. Los Angeles' 1948 Short novel. (UNK 1940) * Clayton McLean is supernaturally saved from deach and is taken to Destruction, who is personified. McLean is then deputized as an agent to cause 1nJury, damage, and death on earth. He is something like an accident prone: wherever he goes, accidents happen, from which he emerges unscathed. He worries about his wife, breaks the bond that has been placed upon him, and dies. But, his self sacrifice was vain. His wife, as part of him, had been equally immune to the "spell," and she continues as a deputy for Destruction. * An interesting idea, reasonable commercial development, but it would have been better as a short story. 868. SLAVES OF SLEEP Shasta Publishers; Chicago 1948 Fantastic adventure novel. (UNK 1939) One of several stories by Hubbard based on the ARABIAN NIGHTS. The concept behind this work is that we inhabit two worlds, this, and another (during our sleep) which is ruled by Jinn and is an Arabian Nights world. Normally the two selves do not meet in consciousness. * Jan Palmer, rich, amiable, but weak willed, is present when a jinn is released from a jar. The jinn. instead of being grate£ul,.curses Jan with "eternal wakefulness," so that he experiences his counterpersonality. This is Tiger, a raffish, insolent, humorous, daring sailor in the world of dreams. Tiger's adventures follow. He seizes the Ring of Solomon, a magic talisman, and after many adventures that combine heroism and slapstick, becomes ruler of the dream world. Eventually a merger is reached between the Palmer and Tiger facets, and Palmer learns how to manage the problems that his

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HUBBARD, L. RON family cause. * Amusing, but obviously hastily written and not wholly consistent. 869. TRITON AND BATTLE OF WIZARDS Fantasy Publishing Co., Inc.; Los Angeles 1949 Short novel and short story. [a] TRITON. (UNK 1940 as THE INDIGESTIBLE TRITON by Rene Lafayette) Fantastic adventure. Semihumorous come-uppance for persecutors. Bill Greyson, young millionaire, is hampered by a vicious family. To escape their harassment, he feigns insanity and is institutionalized. One day, while fishing, he captures a triton, who turns out to be Trigon, the nephew of Neptune. The triton possesses Bill and makes him appear really insane. After much fuss and to-do, Trigon and Bill escape to the sea, where Bill's wits save Trigon from the soldiers of Oceanus and Neptune. Bill, laden with gold, returns to the surface. * Formula. The other story is science-fiction. TWO 870. TYPEWRITER IN THE SKY FEAR Gnome Press; New York SCIENCE FANTASY NOVELS 1951 Two short novels. [a] TYPEWRITER IN THE SKY. (UNK 1940) Fantastic adventure, with moments of parody. Horace Hackett, whose name indicates his literary stature, is writing a blood and bosom epic of the Spanish Main. He takes the liberty of using his friend Mike de Wolf as the Spanish villain. Mike finds himself in the world of the book and at the mercy of his friend's typewriter. He tries to break the hold that the typewriter has over him, for he knows that he will be killed at the end of the novel. The story moves through pirates, sea raids, impersonation, a beautiful heroine (whose actions and personality alter as Hackett changes his plan from chapter to chapter), tropical islands, romance, a hurricane, and an English sea dog who is scheduled to kill Mike. As the story closes, Mike wonders if there is another typewriter in the sky, creating earth. [b] FEAR. (UNK 1940) James Lowry, anthropologist, scoffs at the supernatural and is overheard by a pair of spiteful demons at a moment of power. They beset him with illusions of the most frightening sort. Lowry discovers that four hours from his life are missing (as well as his hat) and obsessively conducts a search for them. Demons in his own form, that of his wife, that of his best friend harass him until he learns the terrible truth. A good atmosphere of fear, horror, and psychological confusion. * [a] is a routine adventure story carried through competently, with a good central idea. [b] is a superior psychological mystery in sensational terms. 871. FEAR AND THE ULTIMATE ADVENTURE Berkley Medallion Books; New York 1970 Two short novels. [a] FEAR. Described elsewhere. [b] THE ULTIMATE ADVENTURE. (UNK 1939) Stevie Jepson, penniless young man, is driven by circumstances into becoming a guinea pig in Professor Bolton's project to transfer persons to other worlds. The professor has had most success with imaginary worlds, and Stevie is dumped into the world of the City of Brass in the Arabian Nights. In his first visit

HUBBARD, L. RON Stevie sounds a gong that awakens the enchanted city. In his second he rescues the ruling princess from a horrible jinn, plays pranks on ghouls (involving shape transformations), and ends as the husband of the princess. * Routine. HUEFFER, FORD [HERMANN] (changed name by deed poll, 1919, to FORD, FORD MAnOX) (1873-1939) British novelist, editor, publisher, critic. Founder of the ENGLISH REVIEW and TRANSATLANTIC REVIEW. Long resident in Paris where sponsored Hemingway and Pound. Taught in U.S.A. (Olivet College, Michigan). Best-known works, collaborations with Joseph Conrad (THE INHERITORS, parts of NOSTROMO) and World War I series about Christopher Tietjens (SOME DO NOT, NO MORE PARADES, A MAN COUlD STAND UP). Considered one of the finest stylists of his day. 872. THE "HALF MOON" A ROMANCE OF THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW Eveleigh Nash; London 1909 Historical novel with elements of psychological study, adventure, and social matters. Intelligent and nicely written. * Action takes place c. 1608 in Rye, Holland, the seas, and the Hudson River area. The motivation of the story is the passion of Anne Jeal, the daughter of the mayor of Rye, for Edward Colman, one of the barons (patricians) of the Cinque Ports. Anne, who is both vicious and shortsighted, uses every means in her power to bring Colman to her. She first works through the ambivalent legal situation of the day, whereby the port of Rye had its own privileges apart from the Kingdom of England, and then practices witchcraft. Her magic includes doll magic, control of winds, and emotional working on the minds of others. Colman is forced to flee to the Netherlands, whence he accompanies Henry Hudson on his third voyage. In America Colman is killed by an Indian arrow, or, to be more precise, by a sending of Anne Jeal's working through an Indian arrow. * Nicely written, but the characterizations do not jell, perhaps because Hueffer is caught between romantic conventions and modern analysis. The most interesting part of the novel is the detailed description of life and legalities in the decaying port of Rye. * Another novel by Hueffer, LADIES WHOSE BRIGHT EYES, involves time travel, but is not supernatural enough to be included. HUGHES, RICHARD [ARTHUR WARREN] (1900 - 1976) British playwright, poet, novelist. Educated at Oxford, spent considerable time on the road in England, the Continent. His one-act play THE SISTERS' TRAGEDY has been praised by G. B. Shaw as the finest one-act play in the literature. Novel HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA (1929), also known as THE INNOCENT VOYAGE, also highly regarded. Hughes is now apparently forgotten. 873. A MOMENT OF TIME Chatto and Windus; London 1926 Short stories and sketches, including [a] THE STRANGER. Mr. Williams, the rector of a small Welsh town, finds on his doorstep a disabled

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HUME, FERGUS imp from Hell. Since he is a kindly man, he and his wife cannot avoid taking it in, even though his soul may be damned thereby. Williams dies shortly thereafter, and the imp is properly grateful. [b] LOCOMOTIVE. When Seth is driving the locomotive, there is a crash and he is killed. His ghost and that of the locomotive drive off through the countryside. Three wanderers see the train go by, and the musician leaps aboard, just before cockcrow. [c] LLWYD. Borderline supernatural. Llwyd, a halfwit, can visualize the fairies, but his father's Welsh fundamentalism oppresses him. [d] SHE CAUGHT HOLD OF THE TOE. Nellie found Time hanging on a tree. She mistook it for a stocking and turned it inside out. Time was thereby reversed and things went backwards. [e] THE GHOST. John killed Millie very easily by cracking her head on the cobbles. Her ghost follows John to the police station. But it is all wrong. [f] THE DEVIL-STICK. Perhaps not intended to be supernatural. The carved staff speaks to Long Jonathan and gives him advice. He took the staff from a drunken Black by the docks. Really an "alibi" for a crime. [g] A NIGHT AT A COTTAGE. A hobo den in a deserted house. Most vagrants avoid the house because it is haunted by the ghost of a drowned man. [h] THE VICTORIAN ROOM-- AND JAMES. The ghost causes men to cut their throats. James, too, acts under its compulsion, but he has a safety razor. A tall tale. See l444cc. * Often Welsh in background and speech patterns. Formless sometimes, sparse, but excellent. HUME, FERGUS[ON] [WRIGHT] (1859-1932) British writer of sensational fiction. Reared in New Zealand and achieved fame in Australia with THE MYSTERY OF A HANSOM CAB (1886), weak imitation of the work of Emile Gaboriau, set in Australia. Novel became an international best-seller, despite poor quality. Removed to England, became prolific writer, but never repeated first success. Work is low in quality. Best book is probably HAGAR OF THE PAWN SHOP. 874. THE GENTLEMAN WHO VANISHED A PSYCHOLOGICAL PHANTASY F. V. White; London 1890 American titles THE MAN WHO VANISHED or THE MAN THAT VANISHED. * Adrian Lancaster, hottempered young man about town and playboy, strikes a friend during a brawl and believes that he has committed murder. In his flight from the law he chances to come to the house of Dr. Roversmire, a half-Indian occultist who loves the same woman that Lancaster does. Roversmire offers the loan of his own body as a disguise, while he goes on to the astral world for new experiences. Lancaster accepts the offer and personalities are interchanged. He soon discovers, however, that he has been tricked. His friend was not killed. Roversmire's servant denounces Lancaster-in-Roversmire for the murder of Lancaster, and Lancaster is in trouble. He commits suicide and awakens in his own body. * Low-level thrills. 875. A SON OF PERDITION AN OCCULT ROMANCE Rider; London 1912 Reincarnation by clique. * Alice Enistor

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(maiden), her father (would-be black magician), Don Pablo Narvaez (adept of the Left-hand Path), Douglas Montrose (hero), Dr. Eberstein (white magician, adept of the Right-hand path) are entangled supernaturally. Enistor wants to regain the family fortunes by black magic; Don Pablo wants to marry Alice, so that he can use her for occult experiments; Alice and Montrose are in love; and Eberstein, as the agent of the powers of good, tries to protect the lovers and check the forces of evil. In a past incarnation in Chaldea, Montrose had killed Enistor, and thus owes him a psychic debt. Good and evil battle back and forth, with good eventually triumphing, though not totally. Among the supernatural aspects are visions of the past, memory of past incarnations, control of wills, telepathy, prophecy, and transfer of personality from one body to another. Mention is made of Atlantean incarnations. Some Christian orthodoxy is mixed with the occultism. * Crudely sensational. HUNT, BARBARA (marriage name WATTERS) (1907-) American author, business woman. Resident of Chicago, East Coast. 876. SEA CHANGE Rinehart and Co.; New York 1946 partly a study of a "bitch and a witch," partly a chronicle of magics. * New England, c. 1825. In the now decaying seaport town of Sheraton, the Overbys have been the leading family. Old Obediah Overby, at about the time of the Revolution, had been a shipping magnate, and his descendants have retained his wealth. Lucy Overby, his granddaughter, is used to having what she wants, and when she develops a passion for Esteem Mathias, a viciously handsome young sea captain, she buys him: he marries her in exchange for a ship, but leaves with the ship the following day. Lucy, despite her passion, is spiritually hardboiled, and when she comes into contact with the local practicing witch, Elisa Lopoza, she recognizes the potential of witchcraft and and undertakes a formal study of magic. In this she is not helped by Elisa, who is a good witch. Lucy worries about her husband's fidelity. When she hears that he is carrying on with women at various ports, she works doll magic on the women. She kills one and drives the other from South America to Sheraton, where she tortures her with further witchcraft. Lucy also learns how to dissociate her astral body and spy on Esteem. He turns out to be a scoundrel, who sells his crew and officers into slavery and is murdered by them. Lucy, too, degenerates. After murders and human sacrifices, she evokes the spirit of Esteem, who is lighthearted about the matter, for he in turn evokes his Spanish mistress and promises to haunt Lucy with feats of sexuality. As the book ends Lucy is a soured woman. The town is against her, and she faces a long haunting from Esteem, since she is still fairly young. * Slick, but weak in characterizations, unconvincing, and sometimes anachronistic in details.

HUXLEY, ALDOUS HUNT, VIOLET (1866-l942) British author of fiction, biography. Daughter of A.W. Hunt, pre-Raphaelite painter. Hostess and member of important literary circles from Rossettis to Henry James, Conrad, D. H. Lawrence. Secretary and mistress to Ford Madox Ford. Columnist in PALL MALL GAZETTE. Active feminist. Well-regarded as craftsman in the manner of Henry James, but now largely unread. Best-known work perhaps THE WIFE OF ROSSETTI (1932). 877. TALES OF THE UNEASY Heinemann; London 1911 Fully developed Edwardian comedy of manners, somewhat reminiscent of the work of Henry James. * Including [a] THE TELEGRAM. Alice, a heartless flirt, suddenly realizes that she is growing old. She decides to marry one of the men whose life she has made unhappy. She invites Everard to dine with her, and he agrees to marry her. But then a telegram comes, and she learns that Everard had previously died. Nicely handled. [b] THE OPERATION. A triangle, much unhappiness, and a clairvoyant vision of the operation which ends in death. The vision is the means of reconciling a husband and wife. Also premonitions and linking of lives by fate. [c] THE PRAYER. Kate prays frantically over the corpse of Edward Arne, her dead husband. begging that he be brought back to life. He revives, but there is something strange about him, which might be described as loss of soul. Both husband and wife suffer for years because of her unreasonable prayer. He does not wish to live; both are drug addicts; and she finally reverses her prayer by murdering him. [d] THE COACH. On St. John's Eve the death coach picks up a load of persons who have died violent deaths. They discuss their gory pasts. Among them are a baby farmer, a murdered man, a hanged murderer, and a girl who has been run down by the death coach. More traditional than the other stories in this volume. [e] THE WITNESS. A murderer who returns to the scene of his crime, years later, finds waiting for him the woman for whom he committed the crime. But she makes a strange request. She asks him to kill his old dog Roger, who had seen the murder. Roger might tell the story to the mongrel of Dysart's, who is a police informer. [f] THE BAROMETER. Two little boys in a gloomy, religious household have death premonitions when they hear Biblical tales about storms. The family scoffs at then, but lightning strikes that night. * Excellent stories, in which the supernatural is used as a technical device to indicate ironies of fate and the intimate relationship of life and death. HUXLEY, ALDOUS [LEONARD] (1894-1963) Important British mainstream novelist, essayist. Grandson of T. H. Huxley, brother of Julian Huxley. After leaving Oxford, journalist with ATHENAEUM. Resident in France and Italy for time, removed to California in 1938, where came under influence of vedantic thought, notably through H. F. Heard. Highly regarded

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for brilliant satirical novels, POINT COUNTER POINT (1928), BRAVE NEW WORLD (1932), EYELESS IN GAZA (1936), offering amusing caricatures of our culture and important personalities. Later work, after saturation in occult and mystical thought, tends to be doctrinaire. Always remarkable for technical ability to convey intellectually frothy conversations. Highly important in science-fiction for negative utopia BRAVE NEW WORLD, which was finest fantastic attack on norms of late 20's and early 30's. 878. TIME MUST HAVE A STOP Chatto and Windus; Toronto and London 1944 A study of selfishness of various sorts, related with Huxley's usual brilliance of surface. * 1929. In the double story the realistic subplot is concerned with Sebastian Barnack, a gifted but very immature l7-year old Englishman, who has difficulty with the demands of society, sex, conscience, and ultimately the universe. His experiences in England and Italy do not concern us. Let it be enough to say that his selfishness and thoughtfulness are responsible for the political imprisonment and torture of a saintly Italian who had helped him. In later life Sebastian makes such reparation as he can and grows spiritually, thus demonstrating work on the Self. * The supernatural part of the novel is concerned with Sebastian's uncle Eustace, an amusing fleshy hedonist with a touch of masochism, who suddenly dies of a heart attack. Eustace experiences an after-death life of a half-individualized sort, with evanescent memory of his former sensual pleasures. He is turn between these memories and desires, and the light of mystical self-annihilation, which he rejects. His attempts at communication with his friends and relatives, via a spiritualist medium, result in farcical misunderstandings and misinterpretations. To some extent Eustace is independent of time and space, for in addition to reliving part of his past, he has flashes of the horrors of World War II as it concerns friends and relatives. Eustace, through his rejection of the light, will remain a fragmentary ghost. * Told with all the wonderful glib intellectual nonsense that looks so impressive, the amusing characterizations, and clever writing of the early Huxley, as well as the mystical cant that the late Huxley valued. Half-comedy, half-serious, the work is unfortunately somewhat marred by the clash between satirist and modern mystic. HYNE, C[HARLES] J[OHN] CUTCLIFFE [WRIGHT] (1866-1944) British writer of popular fiction, contributor to variety periodicals, particularly around the turn of the century. Creator of Captain Kettle, sadistic, greedy, ruthlessly loyal martinet in the merchant marine, who is said to have been almost as popular as Sherlock Holmes, but is now deservedly forgotten. Hyne's most important work in the field of fantastic fiction is THE LOST CONTINENT (1900), a novel of romance and dynastic conflict in Atlantis. Hyne also wrote some supernatural

INGOLDSBY, THOMAS fiction under the pseudonym Weatherby Chesney. This is not recorded for any American library, and has not been available tc me. 879. ATOMS OF EMPIRE Macmillan; London 1904 Short stories, including [a] THE MUMMY OF THOMPSON-PRATT. Thompson-Pratt, a chemical demonstrator at the museum, has exactly the same congenital markings on his chest as does a mummy from Ancient Egypt. He is a direct descendant of the mummy, and all his ancestors apparently had the same markings. Gargrave places Thompson-Pratt under hypnosis, using a phonograph to record results, and hopes to record remarkable archeological data. Thompson-Pratt's personality becomes transferred to the mummy, which is temporarily animated, but the mummy can talk only about wine, women, and betting. The triviality of life.

INGALESE, ISABELLA American writer, author, with husband, of books of occult instruction. Presumably connected with the Occult Book Concern; otherwise publication would be difficult to explain. 880. LINKED LIVES A TALE OF YESTERDAY AND TODAY The Occult Book Concern; New York 1903 The trials and tribulations of an honest young working woman of good family, much on the level of a barroom ballad. * Margaret Blondell almost marries wealthy young Mortimer, but when he refuses to let her psychopathically vicious mother move in with them, she rejects him. She takes a job as a typist-- though her skills are momentarily limited, since her mother has bitten Margaret's hand badly-- and becomes the prey of an office lecher. Dorn, one of her bosses, is an inveterate womanizer, and sets out to take her. He undergoes a bigamous marriage with her, then after the marriage is consummated, abandons her. Margaret, who is in dire straits, is fortunate enough to be taken up by Dr. Mata Bennet, an occult practitioner who had previously appeared to Margaret in visions to encourage her. Mata reveals that about five hundred years earlier Margaret had sinned with Dorn and that she must atone for it in this life. Part of her atonement will be bearing Dorn's illegitimate child. But things are not quite what they seem. Dorn turns up, and on his deathbed reveals that the marriage was legal, since his previous wife had died without his knowledge. Mortimer dies, but his uncle will adopt Margaret and her child. Margaret also occasionally sees her father's ghost. * The author's other fiction, MATA THE MAGICIAN is presumably connected with this. INGOLDSBY, THOMAS (pseud. of BARHAM, RICHARD JAMES) (1788-1845) British humorist, miscellaneous writer, clergyman. Minor canon of St. Paul's, later priest

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in ordinary, King's Chapel Royal. Contributor to periodicals of day, particularly BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY, where he began famous ballads in 1837. Member of circle with Sydney Smith, Theodore Hook. Among best humorous poets of the century, with considerable influence on later Victorian developments. 881. THE INGOLDSBY LEGENDS, OR MIRTH AND MARVELS BY THOMAS INGOLDSBY, ESQ. Bentley; London. First Series, 1840. Second Series, 1842. Third Series, 1847. Originally published in BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY. Three collections of material, mostly verse, mostly humorous, often parodies of contemporary sensation fiction, particularly that of BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE. In later editions the three series are usually printed together as one book. While the verse is amusing and often remarkable in its technical agility, we are concerned only with the prose fiction. * Including [al THE SPECTRE OF TAPPINGTON. A burlesque of a ghost story. A mysterious spectral presence steals the young man's trousers. Somnambulism. [bl GREY DOLPHIN. A LEGEND OF SHEPPEY. A bothersome corpse in Medieval England. It is rejected by earth and water. St. Bridget appears to the clerk of St. Bridget's, hand of glory in her hand, and tells him that the corpse is buried too close to her. The irascible baron, Robert de Shurland, demands that the corpse be reburied, and when the priest refuses, knocks him into a grave. The fall kills the priest. St. Austin appears to the Abbot of Canterbury and orders that Shurland be punished. The baron beats off the besiegers of his castle, but dies, as predicted by an old witch-hag. [cl MRS. BOTHERBY'S STORY. THE LEECH OF FOLKESTONE. Usually known as THE LEECH OF FOLKESTONE. Elizabethan England. An unfaithful wife works doll magic on her husband, but is foiled by the superior magic of a greater magician. [dl SINGULAR PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF THE LATE HENRY HARRIS, DOCTOR IN DIVINITY. Not humorous; supernatural horror. Mary Graham gives a lock of her hair to her lover, Frederick S----, and swears that she will be with him in spirit. She learns too late that he is a magician. Her spirit is dragged to his lodgings in Leiden, where he is a student. [el JERRY JARVIS'S WIG. Humor. Temptations and crimes beset Joe Washford when he wears the wig of old Jerry Jarvis, a lawyer. * [b] is rather pointless and involved, but [a], [c], [e] are excellent of their sort. The edition read (John Lane; London 1903) is the most attractive that I have seen. It is profusely illustrated by Herbert Cole.

*

INGRAM, ELEANOR [MARIE] (1886-1921) American writer of popular women's fiction. 882. THE THING FROM THE LAKE Lippincott; Philadelphia 1921 Romance and supernatural thrills on the shopgirl level. * Roger Locke, a wealthy and successful writer of popular songs, has bought an old house and farm in Connecticut. This purchase is central to the two subplots. The farm serves as a haven for a young cousin who

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IRELAND, W[ ILLIAM] H[ENRY] has made a marriage which Locke considers a mesalliance. It also provides Locke with a confrontation with the supernatural. Nights, in utter darkness, he is visited by a mysterious woman (whom he does not see until almost the end of the book). She raves about witchcraft, demonology, evil, and horrors, and urges him to leave the house before he is destroyed. On other occasions, while sleeping, he is repeatedly attacked by a psychic monster. In his dreams he finds himself qn a strand, the sea behind him, while through a gap in an almost endless cliff a horrible mental being taunts him and attacks him. His only mode of defense is exerting his will. In some odd way the monster and the woman of the dark are connected, as are the monster and the shallow, foul-smelling pond that is just beyond his window. A resolution comes when he discovers that the young woman is real and willing to marry him. He is almost beaten by the monster, but prayer results in divine intervention of a sort, and the cliff wall is restored. According to the occult explanation, a witch ancestress of the young woman had opened the gap by her magical exercises. According to the narrator's elderly academic cousin, all hallucination caused by methane from the foul lake. * Not very good. IRELAND, WILLIAM HENRY (1777-1859) According to statement by his father, his full name was Samuel William Henry Ireland; according to another source, he was illegitimate, and his proper surname was Irwyn. * Celebrated forger of Shakespearean and other Elizabethan manuscripts. He claimed to have found the manuscript of VORTIGERN, a hitherto unknown play by Shakespeare, which was purchased by Sheridan, produced, and hooted off the stage after a single performance. After two published confessions, he took to journalism and the writing of fiction, and is said to have died in penury. Apparently a very plausible scamp. 883. GONDEZ THE MONK A ROMANCE OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY 1805 4 vol. An undisciplined and digressive Gothic novel, so complex in plot as to be nearly unintelligible. In the school of M. G. Lewis, it contains the familiar Gothic plot of mistaken identities, persecution, and the triumph of good. It also contains a semihistorical ap proach to Scotland around 1300. * In 1306 Robert Bruce and his companions, defeated in battle, take refuge without revealing their identities at the monastery of St. Colomba on the island of Oronza. The monastery is ruled by Gondez the Monk, who is the epitome of all that is wicked and lustful in Gothic monks. He is hostile to Bruce. Portents and supernatural manifestations warn Bruce to leave the monastery. After many digressions and flashbacks, the thread of the plot is resumed when Bruce undertakes an investigation of the monastery, uncovering many secrets. Bruce would like to place Gondez on trial,

IRELAND, W[ILLIAM] H[ENRY] but the Inquisition intervenes and takes Gondez off to Rome. During his examination there, supernatural manifestations take place. The Red Woman, the ghost of a Scottish witch, appears and flits about the chamber. Many identities are revealed. There are also witches of the Shakespearean sort in Scotland. * The supernatural is plentiful in this novel, but structural defects and bad writing make it of interest only to the historian. IRVING, WASHINGTON (1783-1859) The first American author of truly international reputation. Resident in England and Spain 1815-1832 (secretary to the American Embassy at London for a time), ambassador to Spain, 1842-6. First important work, A HISTORY OF NEW YORK by Diedrick Knickerbocker (1809) opened British literary circles to him, and his career was greatly aided by Sir Walter Scott. In addition to fiction, essays, and fictionalized essays, worked diligently at various historical projects, most notable being THE LIFE AND VOYAGES OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, THE LIVES OF MOHAMET AND HIS SUCCESSORS, and the unsuccessful LIFE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON. Historically important as the author of the first successful American short stories. His fiction and essays are a curious mixture of mid-18th century technique and Romantic subject matter, British or European in point of view, rather than American, hence long in disfavor among more nationalistic critics. Nevertheless, one of the most readable, most enjoyable authors of his half century. Editions read, the Hudson Edition (Putnam, 1890) and THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WASHINGTON IRVING, edited successively by Henry A. Pochman, Herbert L. Kleinfeld, and Richard D. Rust. 884. THE SKETCH BOOK OF GEOFFREY CRAYON C. S. Van Winkle; New York 1819-20 7 parts (published as by Geoffrey Crayon) Essays and short stories, including [a] RIP VAN WINKLE. The familiar story of the village ne'er-do-well who slept for twenty years under enchantment in the Catskills. [b] THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM. In the mode of German romanticism. A bridegroom appears at a reception where he is not known, and leaves announcing his own death. [c] THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. Ichabod Crane, ridiculous schoolmaster in old Dutch New York, is chased by the "headless horsp.man." There is no need to give details for these old favorites, beyond pointing out the typical tongue-in-cheek rationalizations of the endings. 885. TALES OF A TRAVELLER BY GEOFFREY CRAYON, GENTLEMAN John Murray; London 1824 Published earlier than the American Carey and Lea (Philadelphia) edition. Short stories. The first series, [a] STRANGE STORIES BY A NERVOUS GENTLEMAN, describes a storytelling session in which supernatural or nearly supernatural stories are told. These include [b] THE ADVENTURE OF MY UNCLE. A spectral appearance in an ancient French castle; a vehicle for character studies, with sly hints of scandal as the real explanation of the appearance.

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IRVING, WASHINGTON [c] THE ADVENTURE OF MY AUNT. She observed that the portrait of her dead husband winked at her. Rationalized as a robber. [d] THE BOLD DRAGOON; OR, THE ADVENTURE OF GRANDFATHER. Told by an Irishman. His grandfather, somewhat fortified, has an experience at a Dutch inn. Since he cannot sleep, because of the heat, he arises during the night and returns to find a ghostly appearance making music while the furniture dances about. Explanations. [e] THE ADVENTURE OF THE GERMAN STUDENT. One of the early masterpieces of horror. A German student in Paris during the Revolution is interested in the occult. He comes upon a beautiful young woman near the guillotine and offers her shelter for the night, and perhaps a more permanent arrangement. But next morning he finds a decapitated corpse in his rooms. She had been guillotined the day before. Told from a madhouse. Alternate titles are THE GERMAN STUDENT, THE LADY IN THE VELVET COLLAR, etc. A very popular story in its time. [f] ADVENTURE OF THE MYSTERIOUS PICTURE, [g] ADVENTURE OF THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER, [h] THE STORY OF THE YOUNG ITALIAN: A story-chain based on a picture that exudes an atmosphere of supernatural horror. In [h] an explanation is given. A young Italian, framed by a rival in love, murders his rival but is tormented by the face of his victim. He tries to exorcise the image by painting a portrait of the dead man, but only increases his pangs of conscience or the haunting. * In the fourth section, [i] THE MONEY-DIGGERS, the stories deal mostly with buried treasure.. Including [j] THE DEVIL AND TOM WALKER, Near Boston. Walker, a miserly, miserable, vicious fellow, while walking through a swamp meets a gigantic black man, with whom he enters upon conversation. This is the Black Woodsman, or Old Scratch, and the trees in the swamp are named, being lifetokens for the local populace. At first Walker refuses to sign the usual bond, but when his wife disappears, presumably spirited away by the Devil, he signs and sets himself up as a usurer with the Devil's treasure. After a time the Devil comes and takes him away. [k] WOLFERT WEBBER, OR GOLDEN DREAMS and [1] THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLACK FISHERMAN, connected stories, culminating in a treasure hunt with supernatural concomitants. Wolfert, Black Sam, ar.d Dr. Knipperhausen (who knows magic) try a conjuration, but are routed by what may be supernatural forces, though precedent is against their being supernatural. 886. THE ALHAMBRA Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley; London 1832 Earlier than the American (Carey and Lea) edition. * Short stories and essays about Spain, including [a] LEGEND OF THE ARABIAN ASTROLOGER. The great astrologer and magician Ibrahim Ebn Abu Ayub creates supernatural defences for the Moorish kingdom of Granada: a rider which automatically turns in the direction of invasion, and a chessboard by means of which the king can defeat the enemy by striking the pieces. The king and the astrologer quarrel

IRVING, WASHINGTON over a Frankish princess, and the astrologer descends into an enchanted cave with the woman. [b] LEGEND OF PRINCE AHMED AL KAMEL; OR, THE PILGRIM OF LOVE. A Moslem prince, brought up in ignorance of love, learns it through the language of the birds. The dove reveals the secret, and he is helped by an owl and a parrot. Magic and the flying carpet of Solomon enable him to win his bride, a Christian princess. [c] LEGEND OF THE MOOR'S LEGACY. Peregil, an impoverished watercarrier, is charitable toward a dying Moor, and acquires a magical means for locating the treasures hidden in the ruins of the Alhambra. A manuscript and a magic candle. [d] GOVERNOR MANCO AND THE SOLDIER. Grim old Manco interviews a soldier who tells him a tall-tale about a magical horse and a Moslem army, led by the long-dead Bobadil, waiting underground to attack Christendom. [e] LEGEND OF THE TWO DISCREET STATUES. On St. John's Eve, when all enchantments are broken, a Moorish talisman enables l2-year old Sanchica to explore the Moslem supernatural world about Granada. She meets the enchanted princess of [a] and finds treasure, which her father removes. [f] THE LEGEND OF THE ENCHANTED SOLDIER. A student who is wearing a ring with the seal of Solomon sees a rusty, ancient soldier standing guard on a bridge. Conversation reveals that the soldier is enchanted and emerges only once a century. To obtain great treasure, the soldier reveals, the student needs a fasting priest and a virgin. [g] THE ADVENTURE OF THE MASON. An impoverished mason hired by a priest to wall up treasures eventually gains the treasure. Only indirectly supernatural in that the priest's ghost walked. [h] LEGEND OF THE ROSE OF THE ALHAMBRA. The ghost of the Moorish princess Zorahayda haunts the tower and emerges from the fountain to comfort a love-lorn young woman. She leaves behind a magic lute. [i] LEGEND OF DON MUNIO SANCHO DE HINOJOSA. A chivalrous Spanish nobleman is killed at the battle of Salmanara, but at the time of his death he appears at the Holy Temple at Jerusalem. * In this collection, which is based in part on Spanish folklore, Irving is not as consistently ironical as in the stories set in America. 887. CHRONICLES OF WOLFERT'S ROOST AND OTHER PAPERS Constable; Edinburgh [etc.] 1855 Short stories and essays, including [a] THE GRAND PRIOR OF MINORCA. The Grand Prior, who has been insulted by the French commandant, kills him in a duel on Good Friday. He compounded the sacrilege by refusing to grant the commandant time to prepare for death, and he disregarded the commandant's dying request. The prior is thereupon haunted by the ghost of the commandant, which bothers him every Friday. He undertakes a pilgrimage to the commandant's family chapel in France, but meets new difficulties with the ghost of the commandant's famous uncle. * Irving's preface stating that the story had been taken from a French source was long taken to be persiflage, but the story has recently been identified as

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IRWIN, MARGARET one of the fictions in THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT by Count Jan Potocki. [b] GUESTS FROM GIBBET ISLAND. Old Dutch New York. Vanderscamp, a Dutch pirate who has made a nuisance of himself with his former neighbors, happens to pass by Gibbet Island, where some of his old shipmates have been hanged. In a jovial mood he invites them to dinner. They come. [c] DON JUAN: A SPECTRAL RESEARCH. Don Manuel de Manara, rake and ruffian, kills a man in a street fight and discovers that his opponent was his own doppelganger. He sees the funeral of his body, attended by ghosts of his ancestors. He reforms. [d] LEGEND OF THE ENGULPHED CONVENT. Spain. Under Moorish attack it was swallowed up by the earth, through saintly intervention. [e] THE PHANTOM ISLAND. THE ADALANTADO OF THE SEVEN CITIES. Don Fernando, a Portuguese, has a commission as Adalantado of the Seven Cities, if he can find them. He reaches the island, spends a short time there, undergoes a strange experience, and awakens in a boat. On returning to Portugal he learns that more than a century has passed. * Mostly material scraped together for publication, but [e] is an old favorite. IRWIN, MARGARET [EMMA FAITH] (marriage name MONSELL) t1889-1967) British author, best-known for historical fiction, ROYAL FLUSH (1932), YOUNG BESS (1944), the latter being the first volume of a trilogy about Queen Elizabeth I. Heinemann; 888. STILL SHE WISHED FOR COMPANY London 1924 American title, WHO WILL REMEMBER. * Egotism, love, and linkages in time. The story is told through two women, Rose Janet Challard in the 1920's and Juliana Clare in 1779. The confines of time dissolve in some weird fashion for these two women, and their lives interpenetrate. Links between them are Juliana's diary, a portrait about which Rose has strange feelings, and Chidleigh, an old run-down 18th century mansion. Most of the novel is devoted to Juliana and her brother Lucian, who is the working force behind the time fusions. Lucian, it is gradually revealed throughout the novel, has been a member of the Medmenham Monks and has undergone occult experiences and training in Italy. Since childhood he has been aware of the presence of a strange, ghostly girl (Rose Janet in the present), and he is now using the techniques of magic to reach her and enter her age. Juliana, who is both stupid and devoted to him, is apparently a fine scrying medium, and he uses her for his magical purposes. The future bursts into the past when they both see Janet, and Lucian for a short time enters the future as the man in the picture. Rose Janet, too, sees the past. Lucian's occult experiments, however, are destroying Juliana, and she is near death before Julian recognizes that he cannot let her die, even though it means his own death for murder. Although Lucian is apparently a homosexual, there is also an incestuous note here, in that Janet and Lucian are (after a fashion) the same being. The novel ends with Lucian dead; Juli-

IRWIN, MARGARET ana now able to lead a normal life; and Janet the survivor of a spiritual crisis and maturation experience. * Some nice passages of 18th century life, but wordy and curiously without a central point. 889. MADAME FEARS THE DARK SEVEN STORIES AND A PLAY Chat to and Windus; London 1935 Short stories and the title play. * Including [a] THE BOOK. Mr. Corbett's late uncle had dabbled in black magic, and in his library is The Book. It not only gives magical answers, but drives its possessor to commit crimes. lb] THE EARLIER SERVICE. In the 15th century a priest was tried for holding a Black Mass. According to the trial records, a woman lay ready for sacrifice, whereupon a tomb opened and a long-dead knight emerged, to save her. The situation is being repeated in the present, with links to the past and personality exchange or merger. [c] MONSIEUR SEEKS A WIFE. Early 18th century France. The narrator, for family reasons, visits the Comte de Riennes, with the intention of marrying one of his three daughters. He settles on the exciting Claude, but she is a witch and a werecat. The narrator is drawn into an obscene sabbath. lc] THE CURATE AND THE RAKE. In the 18th century a wife to one of the Marvells eloped with a lover. In the present Chalmers becomes entangled with the past situation and fused with the earlier lover. * Sophisticated in narration, with excellent embellishments of old themes. Much of the author's treatment is concerned with the psychological impact of the supernatural: the degeneration of Corbett, the erotic awakening of Chalmers, the family involvement in Claude's evil ways.

JACKS, L[AWRENCE] P[EARSALL] (1860-1855) British educator, clergyman, editor. Professor of Philosophy, Manchester College, Oxford; founder and editor of the HIBBERT JOURNAL. Prolific writer of miscellaneous prose, often in the vein of the social gospel. "Smokeover il material, about mythical industrial town, widely circulated in Great Britain. Not wellknown in America, apart from the HIBBERT JOURNAL. 890. ALL MEN ARE GHOSTS Williams and Norgate; London 19l3 Donnish short stories with a strong didactic element; often allegorical in a personal way. * Including [a] PANHANDLE AND THE GHOSTS. Panhandle, who deals in paradoxes, claims that ghosts and humans live in separate parallel worlds that occasionally overlap, and that just as ghosts are objects of terror and horror to us, we are objects of terror and horror to ghosts. The house is a focal point for both worlds, and Panhandle tells that he was shot at as a ghost. But Panhandle is himself

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JACKSON, CHARLES LORING a ghost, the ghost of the narrator's philosophy. lb] ALL MEN ARE GHOSTS. Dr. Piecraft dies of shock when he learns that his brother went down on the "Titanic." He awakens in Heaven, where he writes an allegorical Oriental tale, THE HOLE IN THE WATERSKIN. [c] THE PROFESSOR'S MARE. Professor Scatterhood is a remarkable judge of horses and has an almost supernatural empathy with them. When he comes upon a horse that reminds him of his old sweetheart Ethelberta, he buys it, though it is known to be vicious. But the professor's gift asserts itself, and he brings the horse under control. He is sure that the animal is Ethelberta reincarnated, and he turns out to be right. [d] WHITE ROSES. Questionable as supernaturalism. The professor tells of a visit to a strange town, where he meets an acquaintance whom he had helped psychologically by talking about survival. An incident occurs which might be interpreted as proving such survival. Knowledge superior to that of mortals, and communication with the dead. * Literate, but very dull. JACKSON, CHARLES LORING (1847-1935) American chemist, educator. Apparently a distinguished scientist, with many papers in the Harvard Chemistry Laboratory Contributions. Professor of Chemistry, Harvard. 891. THE GOLD POINT AND OTHER STRANGE STORIES The Stratford Company; Boston 1926 Fantastic short stories, vanity published for obvious reasons. * [a] THE GOLD POINT. In a college feud Alonzo Fortescue makes use of black magic to injure his enemy, the narrator. He temporarily transforms him into a wraithlike being, tries to kill him in a train wreck, and makes similar other attempts on his life. But the narrator accidentally gains Fortescue's source of power, a small golden object, and wins out. The gold point brings all sorts of supernatural abilities. [b] THE MOTH. Sequel to [a]. The holder of the gold point wins everything he wishes, until he discovers that his wishes have adverse consequences, each time in association with a moth. The magic of the gold point is destroying his soul, and the moth is his guardian spirit. [c] AN UNCOMFORTABLE NIGHT, A house haunted by the ghost of a passionate woman. The furniture makes love to the protagonist. [d] MR. SMITH. Suggested, according to the author, by the work of E. T. A. Hoffmann, most probably THE MASTER FLEA. A deadly feud exists between the Prince of the Vegetable Kingdom and the Cuttlefish, both of whom are in human form. The cuttlefish creates a blue plague, which is directed against the prince, but is defeated by a golemlike being that Browne, the protagonist, has created. [e] THE CUBE. A parasitic being, much like a lump of flesh, attaches itself to a woman and forms a duplicate of her. It plans to kill her by willing her to death. If] LINDEN. An isolated Germanic town, where everything revolves around the worship of Linden. There is a special priesthood, a cult that involves sacrifice of

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JACKSON, CHARLES LORING fingers and ultimately human lives, and supernatural effects. In a strange, dream-like shift, it is recognized that the traveller is Linden, and he is accepted as the living god. [g] THE TRAVELLING COMPANION. Early 19th century. A ghost poses as a travelling companion in order to bring the son of its murderer to its skeleton. [h] LOT 13. An ancient grandfather clock, with a peculiar rhythm of its own, also affords visions through its back. It finishes off a murderer, driving his heart to overload by sympathetic vibration. [i] AN UNDISCOVERED "ISLE IN THE FAR SEA." Borderline science-fiction. An island inhabited by two races of monstrous beings, the friendly or indifferent ravenoles and the stupid and malignant graveroles. The ravenoles are more intelligent than humans. They communicate among themselves with only two words, to which they attach supersegmental phonemes. [j] THE THREE NAILS. The protagonist can unravel threads from his eyes onto three nails set in a mysterious pattern, and thereby enter new personalities and new bodies. lk] A REMARKABLE CASE. A man attacked by a giant jellyfish survives, but one of the creature's whips is buried in his brain. It divides his psychic organization to such an extent that doubles spring from him when he becomes excited. [1] SISTER HANNAH. She is invisible from the front, and can be seen only by ultra-violet light. Borderline science-fiction. Odd stories, very original in ideas of a grotesque sort, but most amateurish in presentation.

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JACKSON, SIR THOMAS GRAHAM (1835-1924) Distinguished British architect and historian of architecture, specializing mostly in medieval schools. Author of travel and architectural books, most important of which are THE CHURCH OF ST. MARY THE VIRGIN, OXON. (1897) and REASON IN ARCHITECTURE (1905). 892. SIX GHOST STORIES John Murray; London 1919 Short stories in the mode of M. R. James. [a] THE LADY OF ROSEMOUNT. While Henry Charlton and friends are rummaging around an old, half-ruined chapel, they come upon a fine alabaster statue of Lady Alionora, a 14th century woman of somewhat ill repute. Thereafter Henry has disturbing dreams. One evening he is drawn to the chapel, forced to kiss the lips of the statue, and hears, "You are mine." He is saved by the collapse of the remaLnLng ruins. [b] THE RING. Italy. When Bryant takes a gold ring from the unlooted, secret Etruscan tomb, he excites the wrath of Tinia, the Etruscan thunder god. He should have returned the ring. [c] A ROMANCE OF THE PICCADILLY TUBE. George, a playboy, will no longer receive half his father's estate, according to the new codicil to the will. The lawyer carrying the signed codicil is accidentally killed in the subway (American usage), and George chances to get the codicil. He is a haunted man after that. He decides to make restitution, but he, too, is killed in the subway. A very unsafe place, the Picca-

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JACOBI, CARL dilly Tube station. Cd] THE EVE OF ST. JOHN. A murder in Commonwealth days is reconstructed by study of old documents, chance found. On St. John's Eve the supernatural holds sway, and the murder is reenacted by a menacing ghost. le] PEPINA. Sir Edward Wilson, K. C., Attorney-General for the Crown, had an Italian mistress whom he abandoned. She committed suicide, but said that she would return. To cover up the Italian affair, Wilson commits murder, but is stricken by supernatural vengeance. [f] THE RED HOUSE. 18th century England. Young William Hetherington, a wild youth, betakes himself to bad company, Jerry Abershaw, the noted highwayman. When the pair rob a friend of William's family, the friend is willing to cover up for a time if William will leave the country. Jerry will not permit this, and William commits murder. On a ride home he sees the ghost of his victim. * Certainly an achievement for a man of Jackson's age, but in the absolute rather routine stories. [d] has a certain period interest. JACOBI, CARL [RICHARD] (1908 American (Minnesota) author, editor. Contributor to fantastic pulp magazines. 893. REVELATIONS IN BLACK Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1947 Mostly supernatural fiction, but with occasional science-fiction stories. * Including [a] REVELATIONS IN BLACK. (WT 1933) The narrator encounters a beautiful woman in a garden; reads a symbolic narrative written by a madman; and discovers that he is entangled with vampires and werewolves. Despite concessions to pulp solutions, some nice mood material. [b] PHANTOM BRASS. (RAILROAD STORIES, 1934) Telegraphers along the railroad line. A dead man sends a message that saves lives. [c] THE CANE. Described elsewhere. [d] THE COACH ON THE RING. (GHOST STORIES, 1932) Alternate title for THE HAUNTED RING. Germany. Heavily atmospheric. A ring that contains a cameo of a coach and horses; a ghost; a curse that operates for 200 years. [e] THE KITE. (THRILLING MYSTERY, 1937). Alternate title for SATAN'S KITE. Borneo. A kite flying in the air controls the health and causes the death of Corlin's wife. It is revenge for profanation of a Tibetan temple. Good theme, but weak resolution. A sacred silk. [f] THE SATANIC PIANO. (WT 1934) The first model performs the music that is in the composer's mind and is a recording device; the second model, animated by human parts, has a life of its own. Sensational. 19] THE LAST DRIVE. (WT 1933) The corpse of a reckless driver, being transported in a truck, cannot resist the temptation to rise and drive. [h] THE SPECTRAL PISTOL. (WT 1941) Alternate title for THE PHANTOM PISTOL. A gun collector, a werewolf, an ancient Czech pistol expressly designed for shooting werewolves. Marred by badly handled olde Englisshe. [i] SAGASTA'S LAST. (STRANGE STORIES, 1939). Sand from the Yezidee area was used in making the

JACOBI, CARL lens of the telescope. It shows supernatural things, also death as punishment for murder. lj] THE TOMB FROM BEYOND. (WONDER STORIES, 1933). Borderline science-fiction. The tomb, transported from the lost culture of Dras, which is now under water, is a dimensional entrance point for a horrible monster. [k] THE DIGGING AT PISTOL KEY. (WT 1947) Trinidad. Cunard, a beastly man, kills his house boy and hides the body. His property is also a possible site for pirate treasure. Voodoo revenge unites the themes. ll] CARNABY'S FISH. (WT 1945) It has a head like a beautiful blonde's, and is most vicious and hostile. lmJ THE KING AND THE KNAVE. (WT 1938) Alternate title for THE DEVIL DEALS. Sargent is having an affair with Losada's wife and is surprised when Losada invites him to see a rare pack of playing cards. The cards are magical, and when Sargent plays solitaire, his life is at stake. [n] A PAIR OF SWORDS. (WT 1933) In the art museum the narrator witnesses a duel between two ghosts, Frenchmen of the 17th-century. lo] A STUDY IN DARKNESS. (STRANGE STORIES, 1939) Alternate title for SPAWN OF DARKNESS. An Oceanic fetish in the form of a rat; a color organ; and the role of light in activating and destroying evil. [p] MIVE. (WT 1932) Jacobi's first story. A swamp, visions of ancient warriors destroyed by supernatural lepidoptera, and a sinister, 15" black butterfly. Mood story. [q] THE FACE IN THE WIND. (WT 1936) The toad wall is ostensibly maintained to keep the swamp frogs from invading the grounds of the manor. But it has another purpose, since Bibles are built into it: to hold back the Harpies. One of them, Celaeno, lives nearby. * Best stories are [a], [1], [q]. * This is the best selection of Jacobi's work, good commercial fiction of its day, often with good mood and atmosphere, and delicate writing. But sometimes spoiled by lapses into action and fisticuffs presumably demanded by the market. 894. PORTRAITS IN MOONLIGHT Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1964 Short stories, including [a] PORTRAIT IN MOONLIGHT. (WT 1947) Trinidad. Clarkson, miserable person and hard boss, buys a painting from a Black sidewalk artist. The painting is titled "Youth." The painter tells Clarkson to put the picture in the moonlight. Clarkson disappears, after growing progressively younger. The painter was the brother of an employee that Clarkson had treated badly. lb] WITCHES IN THE CORNFIELD. (WT 1954) Scarecrows on fields that used to belong to feuding neighbors carryon the enmity. A death by magic. [c] THE CORBIE DOOR. (WT 1947) At Corbie House there is a residue of ancient evil and black magic. The new owner, inheriting from his uncle, sees visions of a procession, a ritual sacrifice, and a toad-like monster that sits atop a pillar. His ancestors were wicked, and so is he. [d] INCIDENT AT THE GALLOPING HORSE. (WT 1948) Caribbean. The ruins of an ancient inn, where in the 17th century the innkeeper invoked Maya gods to

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JACOBS. W. W. punish a wife who had been seduced by Ollonais the pirate. Her ghost still rides and the ancient magic still operates. [e] MATTHEW SOUTH AND COMPANY. (WT 1949) Trinidad. Walters likes to invent imaginary names and identities. A harmless amusement, but he has made an enemy of his servant, who is a voodoo worshipper, and the imaginary personalities take form. Or so it seems to Walters. [f] THE LORENZO WATCH. (WT 1948) Hatworth has the ability to find lost articles, including victims of drowning. His ability gives him an idea for murdering his wife. Supernatural punishment. [g] THE SPANISH CAMERA. (WT 1950) The camera which Lydia Lancaster inherits from her blacksheep explorer uncle carries out her uncle's revenge against the men who plotted to murder him. [h] THE LA PRELLO PAPER. Described elsewhere. * Best stories are lb] and [e]. JACOBS, W[ILLIAM] W[YMARK] (1863-1943) British one-time civil servant (accountant), popular writer of fiction. Was highly regarded around the turn of the century for contrived humorous stories based on working class small-folk in a seaport, told largely in dialect. These stories now seem very trivial, but his occasional supernatural stories remain powerful. 895. LIGHT FREIGHTS Methuen; London 1901 Short stories, including two peripheral tales. [a] BREVET RANK. Seaport humor and dialect. The visiting captain considers himself an expert hypnotist and he engages to hypnotize the mate of the home vessel into believing that he is captain. The mate plays it to the hilt, up to and including the captain's wife. [b] JERRY BUNDLER. An old inn is reputedly haunted by the ghost of a highwayman, Jerry Bundler. According to the story, the ghost tried to strangle the grandfather of one of the present characters. As a joke it is decided to impersonate the ghost, but the result is tragic. 896. THE LADY OF THE BARGE Harpers; London and New York 1902 Short stories, including [a] THE MONKEY'S PAW. Fate rules life, and if man interferes with fate, it is to his sorrow, said the Indian yogi who activated the monkey's paw. The paw will grant three wishes to three successive people. The first two users of the paw ended disastrously, according to the soldier. The present holder discovers that the paw will get money, kill, resurrect the dead, and return the dead to its grave. One of the modern classics of horror. [b] THE WELL. When Benson pushes his good-for-nothing blackmailing cousin Wilfred down the well, he thinks that his problem has ended. But his fiancee, who insists on sitting on the coping of the well, hears a voice whispering, "Jem, help me out." The next day Jem helps Wilfred out. A good story. 897. SAILOR'S KNOTS Methuen; London 1909 Short stories, including, [a] "THE TOLL-HOUSE." A haunted house. Several fear-stricken

JACOBS, W. W. friends wander about in it and discover that the ghost has taken its toll from their number. A modern masterpiece of economy and architecture. [b] KEEPING UP APPEARANCES. Humor. A sailor's wife induces a shipmate of her husband's to play ghost, in order to stop her husband's spendthrift ways. 898. NIGHT WATCHES Hodder and Stoughton; London 1914 Jacobs's last book of seaport fiction. * Short stories, including [a] THE THREE SISTERS. When Ursula dies in the gloomy old house near the marshes, she tells her three sisters that she will return and watch over them. Tabitha, a miser who wants Ursula's inheritance, tries to frighten Eunice to death by impersonating Ursula's ghost. But she, too, dies of fright. Conscience, or, more likely, a ghost. JAMES, G[EORGE] P[AYNE] R[AINSFORD] (1799-1860) British novelist, public servant. Prolific author of historical romances, occasional poetry, biographical studies. Often re-ferred to as "the solitary horseman," since so many of his novels began with such a character. British consul at Boston, Mass., Richmond, Va., and Venice, where died. No one of his 90 odd books is outstanding, although some critics prefer DARNLEY (1830) or THE ANCIENT REGIME (1841). Apparently an estimable man, if not a great writer. 899. THE STRING OF PEARLS Bentley; London 1832 (published as by the Author of DARNLEY Material written for the most part when James was only 17 or 18 years old. Derivative from the ARABIAN NIGHTS or one of its imitations, bowdlerized, and demonstrating very little knowledge of the Orient. * Containing [a] THE STORY OF HADGEE IBRAHIM AND HIS SON. Hamet, after a very wild youth, decides to reform and mould himself according to his father's desires. He decides to carry his father to Mecca, and with the aid of a fairy who gives him a bottle of magical liquid, he transforms himself successively into a camel, a horse, and a dog. This demonstrates his reformation. [b] THE STORY OF THE CHARITABLE MAN. When the young man's fiancee disappears, a dog is found nearby. The young man cherishes the animal and at the risk of his own life refuses to obey an order from the king that all dogs be slain. The dog thereupon transforms itself back into his fiancee. It was all done to test his love. [c] THE BUILDING OF BAGDAT. The tyrannical caliph Almansur wishes Baghdad to be a wondercity. He is helped by the gifted young artist Ahnaf. Unfortunately, they disagree and Ahnaf is forced to flee with the aid of magic. Almansur pursues him, but Ahnaf's fiancee Isrillah breaks a talisman. This causes an earthquake and shatters the land. The caliph is stranded in a desert and must fight ifrits in order to win his way back to civilization. He learns humility. ld] THE HISTORY OF THE DIVER OF OMAN. Saidy, a pearl diver, saves the sea princess Elheurah from a monster. As a reward he is given the ability to stay under water as long as he wishes. This ability, plus his na-

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JAMES, HENRY tive good sense, enables him to become Sultan of a land in Borneo (?), and wins him Elheurah. Also involved are giants and magical lands. [e] THE TRAVELS OF PRINCE ACBAR. A prince of India, he rides a magic horse to meet a Persian princess, with whom he falls in love. When rebellion breaks out in his own realm, the simurgh transports him back in time to quell the revolt. [f] THE PALACE OF THE TALISMAN. When the King of Tartary intervenes in a battle between two lions, aiding the weaker one, the lion turns into a dying woman, who confides to him a child, the Princess Margha. Margha has also inherited from her mother a talisman which she must always keep with her. When, as a young woman, she loses the talisman, she is turned into a statue (for her own protection) by a fairy. The King of Tibet, her favored suitor, releases her. He in turn must undergo various magical trials. * Surprisingly readable, despite period sentimentality and mora1isms, and obvious immaturity. 900. THE CASTLE OF EHRENSTEIN. ITS LORDS, SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL. ITS INHABITANTS, EARTHLY AND UNEARTHLY Smith, Elder; London 1847 3 vol. A late survival of rationalized Gothic. Set in Germany, around 1400 A.D., it has the typical Gothic plot structure of usurpations and fate-twisted identities, overladen with a multitude of seemingly supernatural events. A haunted chapel with bats and spectral lights, phantom figures in armor who hold ghostly court, ghostly voices that speak at crucial moments, skeletons, the Black Rider, spectral music are only a few in a long list of phenomena. Everything, however, is rationalized. * Despite some stiffness and a balanced classical style that fits ill with the subject matter, a literate and competent piece of work. JAMES, HENRY (1843-1916) American (later British) mainstream writer. Brother of William James the psychologist. Resident of New York in earlier life, Great Britain (and occasionally the Continent) from 1876 on. Highly regarded for fiction, occasional travel books and biography, essays, theoretical statements. Mostly concerned with comedy of manners, especially Americans in world culture. Enormously concerned with matters of technique. Best-known works THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY (1881), THE AMBASSADORS (1903 , THE GOLDEN BOWL (1904), and, of course, THE TURN OF THE SCREW. 901. A PASSIONATE PILGRIM James R. Osgood; Boston 1875 Short stories, including La] THE ROMANCE OF CERTAIN OLD CLOTHES. (ATLANTIC MONTHLY, 1868). 18th century Massachusetts. When Perdita Willoughby marries Arthur Lloyd, her sister Viola is jealous, for she, too, had desired Arthur. When Perdita is on her deathbed during childbirth, she forces her husband to swear that he will keep her wardrobe for their child. Arthur thereupon marries Viola, and to quiet her demands, breaks his oath to Perdita. Vio-

JACOBS, W. W. friends wander about in it and discover that the ghost has taken its toll from their number. A modern masterpiece of economy and architecture. lbl KEEPING UP APPEARANCES. Humor. A sailor's wife induces a shipmate of her husband's to play ghost, in order to stop her husband's spendthrift ways. 898. NIGHT WATCHES Hodder and Stoughton; London 1914 Jacobs's last book of seaport fiction. * Short stories, including lal THE THREE SISTERS. When Ursula dies in the gloomy old house near the marshes, she tells her three sisters that she will return and watch over them. Tabitha, a miser who wants Ursula's inheritance, tries to frighten Eunice to death by impersonating Ursula's ghost. But she, too, dies of fright. Conscience, or, more likely, a ghost. JAMES, GlEORGEI P lAYNE I RlAINSFORDI (1799-1860) British novelist, public servant. Prolific author of historical romances, occasional poetry, biographical studies. Often re"ferred to as "the solitary horseman," since so many of his novels began with such a character. British consul at Boston, Mass., Richmond, Va., and Venice, where died. No one of his 90 odd books is outstanding, although some critics prefer DARNLEY (1830) or THE ANCIENT REGIME (1841). Apparently an estimable man, if not a great writer. 899. THE STRING OF PEARLS Bentley; London 1832 (published as by the Author of DARNLEY Material written for the most part when James was only 17 or 18 years old. Derivative from the ARABIAN NIGHTS or one of its imitations, bowdlerized, and demonstrating very little knowledge of the Orient. * Containing lal THE STORY OF HADGEE IBRAHIM AND HIS SON. Hamet, after a very wild youth, decides to reform and mould himself according to his father's desires. He decides to carry his father to Mecca, and with the aid of a fairy who gives him a bottle of magical liquid, he transforms himself successively into a camel, a horse, and a dog. This demonstrates his reformation. lbl THE STORY OF THE CHARITABLE MAN. When the young man's fiancee disappears, a dog is found nearby. The young man cherishes the animal and at the risk of his own life refuses to obey an order from the king that all dogs be slain. The dog thereupon transforms itself back into his fiancee. It was all done to test his love. lcl THE BUILDING OF BAGDAT. The tyrannical caliph Almansur wishes Baghdad to be a wondercity. He is helped by the gifted young artist Ahnaf. Unfortunately, they disagree and Ahnaf is forced to flee with the aid of magic. Almansur pursues him, but Ahnaf's fiancee Isrillah breaks a talisman. This causes an earthquake and shatters the land. The caliph is stranded in a desert and must fight ifrits in order to win his way back to civilization. He learns humility. ldl THE HISTORY OF THE DIVER OF OMAN. Saidy, a pearl diver, saves the sea princess Elheurah from a monster. As a reward he is given the ability to stay under water as long as he wishes. This ability, plus his na-

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JAMES, HENRY tive good sense, enables him to become Sultan of a land in Borneo (?), and wins him E1heurah. Also involved are giants and magical lands. leI THE TRAVELS OF PRINCE ACBAR. A prince of India, he rides a magic horse to meet a Persian princess, with whom he falls in love. When rebellion breaks out in his own realm, the simurgh transports him back in time to quell the revolt. lfl THE PALACE OF THE TALISMAN. When the King of Tartary intervenes in a battle between two lions, aiding the weaker one, the lion turns into a dying woman, who confides to him a child, the Princess Margha. Margha has also inherited from her mother a talisman which she must always keep with her. When, as a young woman, she loses the talisman, she is turned into a statue (for her own protection) by a fairy. The King of Tibet, her favored suitor, releases her. He in turn must undergo various magical trials. * Surprisingly readable, despite period sentimentality and mora1isms, and obvious immaturity. 900. THE CASTLE OF EHRENSTEIN, ITS LORDS, SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL. ITS INHABITANTS, EARTHLY AND UNEARTHLY Smith, Elder; London 1847 3 vol. A late survival of rationalized Gothic. Set in Germany, around 1400 A.D., it has the typical Gothic plot structure of usurpations and fate-twisted identities, overladen with a multitude of seemingly supernatural events. A haunted chapel with bats and spectral lights, phantom figures in armor who hold ghostly court, ghostly voices that speak at crucial moments, skeletons, the Black Rider, spectral music are only a few in a long list of phenomena. Everything, however, is rationalized. * Despite some stiffness and a balanced classical style that fits ill with the subject matter, a literate and competent piece of work. JAMES, HENRY (1843-1916) American (later British) mainstream writer. Brother of William James the psychologist. Resident of New York in earlier life, Great Britain (and occasionally the Continent) from 1876 on. Highly regarded for fiction, occasional travel books and biography, essays, theoretical statements. Mostly concerned with comedy of manners, especially Americans in world culture. Enormously concerned with matters of technique. Best-known works THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY (1881), THE AMBASSADORS (1903 , THE GOLDEN BOWL (1904), and, of course, THE TURN OF THE SCREW. 901. A PASSIONATE PILGRIM James R. Osgood; Boston 1875 Short stories, including lal THE ROMANCE OF CERTAIN OLD CLOTHES. (ATLANTIC MONTHLY, 1868). 18th century Massachusetts. When Perdita Willoughby marries Arthur Lloyd, her sister Viola is jealous, for she, too, had desired Arthur. When Perdita is on her deathbed during childbirth, she forces her husband to swear that he will keep her wardrobe for their child. Arthur thereupon marries Viola, and to quiet her demands, breaks his oath to Perdita. Vio-

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la goes into the loft and opens the clothing chest. She is found dead, her face badly scratched by fingernails. * This is James's first ghost story, unusual in being his only supernatural fiction to involve material horror, yet anticipatory in seeing ghosts as miasmas from personal relationships. lb] THE LAST OF THE VALERII. (ATLANTIC MONTHLY, 1874) A maundering American narrator reflects on events. His god-daughter has married Count Marco Valerio, a Roman nobleman, even though the narrator does not approve of mixed marriages. All seems well with the married couple until, at the daughter's urging, the villa of the Valerios is excavated for Classical remains. A wonderful statue of Juno is found, and Marco, whose racial unconscious is still pagan, immediately slides into worship of the old gods. He has returned to his ancestors. His fixation, though supernatural in origin, is easily cured by reburying the statue. Apparently in part an outgrowth of James's previous translation of Merim~e's La Venus d'Ille. Readable stories, in some ways suggestive of Hawthorne's work, although without the "moralization." 902. THE LESSON OF THE MASTER Macmillan and Co.; London and New York 1892 Short stories, including la] SIR EDMUND ORME. (BLACK AND WHITE, 1891) This is James's first ghost story written in his mature manner: preoccupation with the psychological trivia of a societal setting; intense, highly skilled concentration on narrative viewpoint and structural features; weak supernaturalism arising out of an emotional situation defined by societal tabus; anile, verbose surface texture. * In this instance a ghost symbolizes erotic elements. At Brighton, England, the narrator is courting Miss Charlotte Marden, a young woman. Her mother occasionally acts very strangely, and the narrator wonders about her behavior. He then comes to perceive a strange man, who is present at unlikely times, and he is shocked to learn that only he and Mrs. Marden can see the figure. It is the ghost of a former beau of Mrs. Marden's, whom she had apparently treated too flirtatiously. The ghost is visible only, otherwise, to lovers, and Charlotte sees it only when she falls in love with the narrator. It vanishes when Mrs. Marden dies. The moral for all concerned, sincerity, honesty. 903. THE REAL THING AND OTHER TALES Macmillan; New York ahd London 1893 Short stories, including two that are borderline supernatural. la] NONA VINCENT, (ENGLISH ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE, 1892) A projection of James's own unfortunate experience with the British stage. His play THE AMERICAN had been a failure, largely because of James's insistence on an unsuitable actress. NONA VINCENT is the story of a budding playwright whose play seems headed for failure because of the inadequacy of the leading lady. The situation is saved when the woman who is the inspiration for the heroine visits the actress, so that the actress can perceive her essence.

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JAMES, HENRY At this moment the play comes to life and the playwright has a vivid dream that he is visited by Nona Vincent, his heroine. [b] SIR DOMINICK FERRAND. (COSMOPOLITAN, 1892) A struggling young author buys a piece of secondhand furniture and finds in it a cache of somewhat discreditable letters written by a notable politician of the immediate past. The author, who is not overburdened with scruples, plans to sell them to a shady magazine, in exchange for money and a commitment to publish his work. But Mrs, Ryves, a fellow lodger at his house seems to know about the letters by supernatural means and persuades him not to release them. It is later revealed that she is the natural daughter of the politician. Although no explanation is offered she was either utilized by the spirit of the politician or had an inexplicable clairvoyant empathy. A curiously melodramatic subject, handled with some subtlety, The concept of hypersensitivity and preternatural empathy, particularly among women, appears in many of James's nonsupernatural stories, 904. THE PRIVATE LIFE THE WHEEL OF TIME LORD BEAUPRE THE VISIT COLLABORATION OWEN WINGRAVE James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co.; London 1893 Short stories, including [a] OWEN wINGRAVE. (GRAPHIC, 1892) A paradox in supernatural terms: the absolute pacifist who dies fighting heroically against his family's military tradition. ONen Wingrave, member of a military family, ,qho is be ing prepared for Sandhurst, announces that he will not continue his studies, since he rejects the family values. His family accuses him of lacking idealism and courage, and family pressure forces him to visit the head of the family, who lives in a house with a haunted room. Generations earlier one of Wingrave's ancestors had killed his son in a rage. (The assumption is that this death prefigured Wingrave's revolt.) The vicious young woman whom Wing rave hopes to marry dares him to spend a night in the haunted room. The next morning he is found dead, but triumphant. One who does not accept values is destroyed. * A thought-provoking, well-handled story. Many of James's contemporaries criticized the tragic ending, but James, it is now quite clear, was right in destroying Wingrave. 905. EMBARRASSMENTS Heinemann; London 1896 Short stories, including [a] THE WAY IT CAME. (CHAPBOOK, 1896). Later retitled THE FRIENDS OF THE FRIENDS. In some ways this is an anticipation of THE TURN OF THE SCREW in presenting both a surface story and a subliminal (very different) story told via a characterization. Taken literally, as presented by the narrator, it is a story of psychic necrophilia. It is narrated by the fiancee. Two persons, to the knowledge of the fiancee, have had psychic experiences. One is her fiance, who had seen a death vision of his mother; the other is a woman friend who had experienced a similar portent of her father's death. The fiancee decides that the two should meet. An

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appointment is set up, but the fiance fails to keep it. The next day, however, he tells the woman that he had met the friend, who visited his apartment the night before, but said nothing. The fiancee then reveals that her friend had unexpectedly died that night and could not have paid a visit. The experience must have been supernatural. The young man cannot accept this. After a time the woman declares that since the fiance loves the ghost friend more than he does her, she is breaking off the engagement. The fiance commits suicide some years later. * The other and more probable interpretation is that much of the situation is projection on the part of the narrator. There was no necrophilia, no suicide, and perhaps no ghost-- simply the last social call of the friend. * Very ingeniously and subtly handled, but flawed by James's inability to characterize the narrator, who is James speaking falsetto. The societal point of the story is, of course, obvious. 906. THE TWO MAGICS THE TURN OF THE SCREW COVERING END Heinemann; London 1898 Two nouvelles, including [al THE TURN OF THE SCREW. (COLLIERS, 1898) This is generally and rightly considered James's most important supernatural fiction. According to the author (NOTEBOOKS, 1/12/1895) its subject matter derived ultimately from a story told to him by Archbishop Benson, the father of the Benson brothers considered in this volume. In Benson's story, dead evil servants return to haunt a house and the children of the house, attempting to lure the children into death. James's finished story, of course, is not this simple. * As the plot line goes: a nameless governess, whose good character is attested to in a partial frame situation, accepts a rather unusual position in the country. She is to assume full charge of Miles and Flora, two small children, but under no circumstances is she to communicate with her employer, an extremely attractive young man. She proceeds to her position and is at first enthusiastic about the two children. (She has a tendency to feel things strongly.) But in a short time she changes her opinion. She sees an evil-appearing man on the mansion tower and in other dangerous places, and she becomes convinced that it is the ghost of Peter Quint, a former valet. After a time she sees a comparable evil female figure, a Miss Jessel, her predecessor, who left under equivocal circumstances and died. Miss Jessel had apparently been carrying on with Quint. The governess believes that the ghosts are trying to gain control over the children, in an attempt to drag them over into their own evil, after-death plane of existence. She is also convinced that the children have been partly corrupted by the ghosts. She manipulates the children and confronts Quint, but believes that she is losing the struggle. In a desperation move she sends the little girl away with the governess and returns to the house to face down Quint and drive him away. In the final struggle, as reported by the

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governess, Quint may be banished, but the little boy dies, presumably taken along by Quint. * It might be added to this resume that the story is told entirely from the point of view of the governess, and that what the governess reports is not without occasional serious internal contradictions, which must be intentional on James's part. It is also clear that the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose, a vegetative personality, has never seen the ghosts and is merely the echo of the governess. Whether the children have really seen the ghosts is, from the governess's account, a matter for speculation. * While THE TURN OF THE SCREW is, for James, clumsily handled, with pages of inflated talk inappropriate to the narrator, it is most interesting for its psychological intricacy and its ambivalence, natural and supernatural. It is unquestionably the most studied and "interpreted" story in the corpus of modern supernatural fiction, with an almost unbelievable range of interpretations, often in the most fanciful modes. It has been read by Edmund Wilson and others as an anticipation of Freudian sexuality; by others as a restatement of the Christian myth of the Creation and the Fall; and by still others as a contra-narrative of various figurative sorts. James's own statements have not served to resolve ultimate questions. On the one hand he stated that he was not sure what had happened and asked the reader to fill in the story from his own mind. On the other hand, as in the preface to THE ASPERN PAPERS (1908) he speaks of the story as if it were a simple, literal haunting and mentions "bring[ingl the bad dead back to life for a second round of badness." * There are three major interpretations of the story. First: The governess's story is to be taken literally. She joined battle with two evil spirits in order to save two children from death and a horrible existence after death. In this interpretation, if there are inconsistencies in her account, they do not affect the basic point. Second: An opposite interpretation. There are no ghosts; there is no real supernaturalism. It is all projection on the part of the governess, a diseased aftermath of her frustrated passion for her employer. The personalities are to be equated symbolically: Quint equals the shadow side of her employer equals the boy Miles; Jessel equals the shadow side of the governess equals the girl Flora. The true story is that a neurotic woman has caused the death of her charge. Third: The supernatural is real, but has been evoked by the governess, rather than by the children, as is usually supposed. She is an agent of evil who has never really understood her own role in the haunting. Her own personality has given Quint and Jessel power, and she can achieve only a partial victory against them. But it is a victory, since the remainder of her life is blameless. * A case can be made for each of these three interpretations, but my own preference is for the third. It fits best with the concept of

JAMES, HENRY the supernatural in James's other ghost stories; it does not violate James's original anecdote or his later comments; and it offers a turn of the screw. The governess, as is suggested from hints dropped in various places, is a counterpart of the young lady caught up in a Gothic situation. For her the horrors are real, even though they have been evoked by her lusts and inadequacies. But they are not necessarily real for others. * In any case, much of the fascination of THE TURN OF THE SCREW stems from the fact that it is mysterious and dubious. 907. THE SOFT SIDE Methuen; London 1900 Short stories, including [aJ THE REAL RIGHT THING. (COLLIERS, 1899) Privacy, put in supernatural terms. James had very strong notions about personal privacy, particularly where it concerned the great and notorious. * Not long after the death of the noted author Ashton Doyne, George Withermore is approached by a publisher and Doyne's widow to write a biography of Doyne. Withermore accepts the commission, but as he works over the dead man's papers feels that there is a presence in the room. Papers move; items that he wants turn up suddenly. He gradually realizes that ghost does not want him to write its biography; in a final confrontation, the ghost appears in the doorway and bars his entry. The widow, too, is forced to accept this situation. [bJ THE GREAT GOOD PLACE. (SCRIBNERS MAGAZINE, 1900) George Dane, successful author; is on the edge of a breakdown; he can no longer cope with the life in which he is enmeshed. He is kind to a younger writer, who offers to assume his burden. In an unexplained fashion Dane finds himself in an idyllic monastic situation, suggestive of both Italy and the English countryside. When he has attained a new stability, he returns to his life, having been away only a few hours. His integration experience has been successful. [cJ THE THIRD PERSON. Character study. Two old maid cousins inherit an old house by the sea. They find an ironbound box of documents in the cellars, and almost immediately a haunting begins. It is the ghost of a young man who carries his head awry. The local vicar, who works through the documents, discovers that one of the ladies' ancestors had been hanged for smuggling. The women accept the responsibility of bringing peace to the ghost, but adopt different tactics. One believes that the ghost wants to make restitution for its illegal activities. She gives her savings to the government. The other is convinced that the ghost is bored and would be pleased by a daring and illegal act. She goes to Paris, and on her return smuggles a Tauchnitz book into Great Britain. (For those who do not know the situation with Tauchnitz: The Tauchnitz editions were small paperbound books published in Germany, with a strong selection of English fiction. They were not piracies, but books with distribution limited to the Continent. It was not permitted to bring them into Great Britain or the United States.) In any case, the ghost disappears.

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* Light in tone, deft in the handling, and amusing. 908. THE SENSE OF THE PAST W. Collins; London 1917 Preface by Percy Lubbock. * An unfinished novel. The story of a man obsessed with selfimmersion in the past, and the results of this obsession on himself and others. * Ralph Pendrel, who is deeply fascinated by the past, is rejected by a woman who has an almost opposite compulsion, a fear of venturing beyond her narrowest purlieus. Pendrel has inherited a fine old Georgian mansion in London, furnished in early 19th century style. This house offers him a chance to indulge in his "metaphysical" pursuits. A portrait, a door that opens to and from the past, and his polar counterpart in the early 19th century all afford him the possibility of entry. To summarize the story baldly, though James, of course, is far more subtle. Pendrel goes into the early 19th century with his own personality and memories, but with the physical appearance of a 19th century counterpart. He finds himself as good as contracted in marriage to a young woman of linked family. As the fragment ends, a sense of uneasiness is beginning to emerge. * According to James's somewhat incoherent notes for the remainder of the story, the uneasiness is to increase to major proportions. It will be resolved by psychic empathy between Pendrel and Nan, the sister of his semi-fiancee. While the man from the past has come into the present (his future), we know nothing of his reactions. * James never finished THE SENSE OF THE PAST, for reasons that may be speculated on. This is unfortunate, for it is one of his intrinsically more interesting works. A dramatic version, titled BERKELEY SQUARE (published 1928), by John Balderston and J. C. Squire cannot convey the murky subtleties of the novel, but follows the story line. 909. THE TRP.VELLING COMPANIONS Boni and Liveright; New York 1919 Edited by Albert Mordell. Short stories, including [aJ DE GREY: A ROMANCE. (ATLANTIC MONTHLY, 1868) First book publication of this story. New York, around 1820. The characters are Mrs. De Grey, a fairly wealthy widow; her son Paul; her confessor, Father Herbert; her companion, Margaret Aldis. When Paul goes to Europe on the Grand Tour, Mrs. De Grey takes Margaret as a companion. Paul, on returning, falls in love with Margaret, and they are to be married. Father Herbert, however, regards the situation with horror, since, ~or centuries, any woman whom a male De Grey loves dies in a short time. There is a curse on the family. The priest is right, and Margaret soon begins to pine. But she refuses to accept the curse; Paul accepts it, and dies. Father Herbert, at the end of the story, wonders who suffers the most pain, perhaps a surviving third party, such as he had been a generation earlier, when the curse, via paul's father, had killed the woman whom both men loved. Curiously Gothic in feeling, without the smoothness of the other two early stories in 901.

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JAMES, HENRY 910. THE GHOSTLY TALES OF HENRY JAMES Rutgers University Press; New Brunswick, N. J. 1948 (published 1949) Edited by Leon Edel, with a long introduction, HENRY JAMES'S GHOSTS, and full prefatory notes to each story, detailing circumstances of composition, publication, implications, texts, and similar matters. These notes are often fascinating. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE ROMANCE OF CERTAIN OLD CLOTHES. [b] DE GREY: A ROMANCE. [c] THE LAST OF THE VALERII. [d] SIR EDMUND ORME. [e] NONA VINCENT. [f] SIR DOMINICK FERRAND. [g] OWEN WINGRAVE. [h] THE FRIENDS OF THE FRIENDS. [i] THE TURN OF THE SCREW. [j] THE REAL RIGHT THING. [k] THE GREAT GOOD PLACE. [1] THE THIRD PERSON. * Also, [m] THE GHOSTLY RENTAL. (SCRIBNERS MAGAZINE, 1876) Not previously reprinted. The narrator, a Harvard Divinity School student with an unpleasant habit of prying, comes upon a house that is reputed to be haunted. Peeping inside, he witnesses a strange happening: a- ghostly figure passes over money to an elderly man. The student gradually pieces the story together. One Captain Diamond had killed his daughter by his unkindness when she slipped from virtue. Her ghost haunts him, but at the same time accords him a quarterly allowance of old coins and bills. The student worms his way into the captain's confidence and sees the ghost fairly closely. But when the captain lies dying and the student goes to the house in his place, it is revealed that the ghost had been the captain's daughter, who is not dead. The student reflects on terror and conviction, but the daughter now sees the death portent of her dying father. [n] THE JOLLY CORNER. Written in 1905, but first published in the New York Edition (Scribners) of James's works. The idea is derived, with modifications, from the unfinished THE SENSE OF THE PAST. * Brydon returns to the house of his childhood, where with Miss Staverton, a friend, he speculates on his other self, or himself as he might have been. The house has the reputation of being haunted. One night Brydon follows a sort of psychic trail and is confronted by a something from an earlier period, which he cannot accept as himself. When he recovers from the shock, he learns that Miss Staverton had the same vision, in dream, and that she recognized the ghost as Brydon's alter ego. * The concept of subjective reality, of course, has relationships to that of THE TURN OF THE SCREW. Some readers interpret James's text to indicate two ghosts, but I do not follow this reading. * Also included are the stories "The Private Life," "The Altar of the Dead," "Maud-Evelyn," and "The Beast in the Jungle," which I would consider psychological, not supernatural. * The texts in this volume are in all cases James's final versions, which in some instances differ significantly from the texts described in earlier volumes. There is no consensus among scholars which texts are preferable. I prefer the earlier texts.

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JAMES, MONTAGUE RHODES JAMES, MONTAGUE RHODES (1862-1936) O. M. Distinguished B~itish scholar, writer of ghost stories. Dean, later provost, of King's College, Cambridge; Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum; Provost of Eton College. One of the top medievalists of Europe, with many scholarly works, particularly in the study of medieval manuscripts. His first collection, GHOST-STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY, is generally taken to mark the beginning of the modern era of supernatural fiction. Most of his stories are concerned with the "evil that dieth not but lieth in wait," with a fine use of the exotica of antiquarianism. In the opinion of many the foremost modern writer of supernatural fiction. James was also very knowledgeable in popular fiction, particul~rly that of the Victorian period, and it is largely due to his efforts that the work of J.S. LeFanu is available and appreciated. 911. GHOST-STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY Edward Arnold; London 1904 Written over a period of about ten years and originally read aloud to "patient friends, usually at the season of Christmas." [a] and [b] date back to October, 1893. * [a] CANON ALBERIC'S SCRAP-BOOK. In 1883 the English antiquarian Dennistoun is examining the old church at St. Bertrand de Comminges, near Toulouse, when the verger (who is obviously nervous in the church) volunteers that he has an old book which Dennistoun might wish to buy. It turns out to be an immensely valuable, highly important collection of manuscript material put together by Canon Alberic around 1700 It has one flaw: it is accompanied by a demon which periodically manifests itself, as Dennistoun discovers when he sees the hairy, spiderlike creature. [b] LOST HEARTS. When 12year old Stephen comes to live with his elderly, scholarly cousin Abney, he does not know that two children have disappeared from the house, and that he is scheduled to go the same way: human sacrifice in order to give Abney supernatural powers. He has horrible dreams that reveal part of the situation, and is saved when the hostile ghosts kill Abney. [c] THE MEZZOTINT. Mr. Williams, curator of an important museum, receives from a dealer a mezzotint. The price seems high, and the picture seems unremarkable at first. But it changes, and shows, in progressive stages, the kidnapping of a child by a skeletal figure. Revenge for the hanging of a poacher long ago. [d] THE ASH-TREE. During the witch hunts of 1690 old Mrs. Mothersole was hanged. Just before her death she said to Sir Matthew Fell, "there will be guests at the Hall." Since that time mysterious deaths have taken place in a certain chamber, right outside which is an ancient ashtree. When the ash is destroyed by fire, evil giant spiders emerge, and in a hollow, amid the roots, is found the skeleton of Mrs. Mothersole. [e] NUMBER 13. Viborg, Denmark. The tourist at the Golden Lion is confused about Sometimes it has three windows, his room. and sometimes two. Sometimes there is a room Number 13 between his Number 12 and the neigh-

JAMES, MONTAGUE RHODES boring Number 14. There is also a Renaissance magician, whose demise or disappearance was mysterious. Found beneath the floor boards of the non-existent Number 13 is a document that may be a contract with the Devil. [f] COUNT MAGNUS. Like [e], background from James's travels in Scandinavia. Mr. Wraxall, tourist in Sweden, comes upon the estate of the evil 17th century Count Magnus de la Gardie. The count is still remembered locally as a monster of wickedness, and things happen around his tomb. In an unfortunate moment Wraxall, outside the count's tomb, says, "Ah, Count Magnus, there you are. I should dearly like to see you." He does, even though he flees back to England and tries to hide. [g] "OH, WHISTLE, AND I'LL COME TO YOU, MY LAD." Parkins, a scholar on holiday, while poking around old Templar ruins at the seaside, finds an ancient metal whistle. On an impulse he blows it, and the winds rise. He also seems to see a vision of a man chased by something white and horrible across the beaches. Back at his hotel he has the distressing experience of encountering what his whistle had evoked: a malevolent cloth being. [h] THE TREASURE OF ABBOT THOMAS. Somerton, an antiquarian, has the wit to solve the mystery of long hidden, almost forgotten treasure. Centuries before, according to a record he reads, Abbot Thomas of the abbey at Steinfeld, Germany; had hidden a large quantity of gold, and made sly hints about it. Somerton connects this with stained glass windows that had come from Steinfeld, and solves an ancient cryptogram. He finds the gold, but wishes that he had not, for the abbot left a guardian. * Very fine stories, one of the landmark books in the history of supernatural fiction. This edition and reprint editions up to 1919 contain 4 excellent pen and ink drawings by James's friend James McBryde. They are not present in later reprints, but they have been restored in the Dover (New York, 1971) edition, which also contains a life and appreciation of James. 912. MORE GHOST STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY Edward Arnold; London 1911 In the preface James states his aesthetic principles: the setting, characters, and speech should be familiar; ghosts should be malevolent or odious; technical terms of occultism should be eschewed. The stories that follow were prepared for successive Christmas seasons. * [a] A SCHOOL STORY. The miscellaneous hauntings of boys' schools, as described by reminiscing old boys, are capped by the story about Sampson, a master. During Sampson's Latin class, a Scottish boy (presumably with second sight or mediumistic) after a dreamy episode hands in a sentence that upsets the master: "Remember the well among the yews." A second episode, "If you won't come to me, I'll come to you," is followed by an appearance outside the school window and the disappearance of Sampson. Years later a golden luck piece of Sampson's is found in a well, with two skeletons. [b] THE ROSE GARDEN. When Mrs. Anstruther alters the grounds of her newly purchased house, she in-

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JAMES, MONTAGUE RHODES structs the gardener to remove the remains of a rotted summer house and a pole that is set firmly in the ground. Removal of the pole is followed by dream phenomena, culminating in a face among the bushes. County historians reveal the story of a hanging judge who would not rest until he was staked. [c] THE TRACTATE MIDDOTH. Eccentric, unpleasant old Dr. Rant left two wills: one, left openly, favored his nephew Eldred; the other, hidden, favored his niece. The old doctor's appearance, years after his death, in the library that inherited certain of his books starts a chain of events leading to the discovery of the hidden will. The nephew, who is a shady scoundrel, is killed by the spider-webby thing seen in the library. Rant, it seems, was not buried, but was placed, seated at a table in a vault. [d] CASTING THE RUNES. Dunning, who is reader for a learned society, is responsible for the rejection of Karslake's manuscript on alchemy. Karslake, who is both a very potent magician and a madly vindictive person, exacts a supernatural revenge. He casts the runes on Dunning. Karslake plants a piece of paper, suitably marked, on Dunning, and unless Dunning can return it within a certain time, he will die horribly. Fortunately for Dunning, however, a friend knows the secret of the runes, and the sending is returned to Karslake. [e] STALLS OF BARCHESTER CATHEDRAL. The old metal box contains records of a shameful deed by an archdeacon of the early 19th century. He murdered his 92-year old predecessor to obtain his position. But the stalls, beautifully carved 17th century work-- showing a witch cat, death, and the devil-- had been chiseled from a gallows oak, and the guilty man who touches the wood shall be punished. [f] MARTIN'S CLOSE. Chief Justice Jeffreys tries George Martin for murdering a half-witted country girl. Martin had led Ann on, but when he discovered that his affair with her had spoiled a good marriage, murdered her. Supernatural events led to his discovery, but did not stop even during his imprisonment and trial. Ann is around. Very nicely told as a trial record, with comments. The old song, "Madam, will you walk with me," is involved. [g] MR. HUMPHRIES AND HIS INHERITANCE. On the estate is a maze that has been kept securely locked for decades. When Humphries opens it up, horrors emerge. There is a metal globe, like a celestial globe, but with odd names and figures, and there is something like a yew tree that is seen about. * First-rate stories. 913. A THIN GHOST AND OTHERS Edward Arnold; London 1919 Short stories. [a] THE RESIDENCE AT WHITMINSTER. 18th century. Strange events around Lord Saul, heir to the Earl of Ki1donan. A black cock is missing; Ashton's nephew dies suddenly and strangely; and the Earl soon follows. About a hundred years later Saul's scrying stone is found, and strange things are seen. There are also folk memories of the young lord's wandering through the night with a host of beings behind him. Supernatural in-

JAMES, MONTAGUE RHODES sects. The present incumbent at Whitminster wisely does not disturb Saul's things. [b] THE DIARY OF MR. POYNTER. When Denton buys the manuscript diary of the late Mr. Poynter, he finds much about Warwickshire antiquities, and also a piece of patterned fabric-- somehow reminiscent of human hair-- that his aunt insists must be copied for curtains. Copies are made, and they are attractive, but there is a horrible aspect to them: it seems as if someone were peering over them. When Denton sits at night in front of them, his hand touches • •• [c] AN EPISODE OF CATHEDRAL HISTORY. Early Victorian England. It is decided to renovate the choir of Southminster Cathedral, and all the wonderful old oak is ripped out. Under the pulpit an unsuspected early tomb is found, and from that time on disturbances occur around the cathedral. There is general malaise; deaths occur; and a howling is heard at night. The main incident is told by an elderly workman who saw the opening of the tomb when he was a boy. A horrible, hairy monstrosity with red eyes emerged. [d] THE STORY OF A DISAPPEARANCE AND AN APPEARANCE. Christmas. The narrator's Uncle Henry has disappeared, and the narrator has a dream about a horrible Punch and Judy show, in which supernatural revenge catches up with Punch. A little while later he sees a real Punch and Judy show. During the performance one of the operators dashes away in terror, toward a quarry, where Uncle Henry's corpse is found, murdered. The real names of the puppeteers were those perceived in the narrator's dream. tel TWO DOCTORS. Early 18th century. Told mostly in documents from a servant. Dr. Abell holds a grudge against Dr. Quinn, who is found dead, suffocated by his bed linen. Abell had speculated about demons, may have made a pact with demons, and may have stolen grave linen for magical use. * Excellent stories. 914. THE FIVE JARS Edward Arnold; London 1922 A semi-juvenile story told in the form of a long letter to a young friend. It was written for the daughter of the McBryde who illustrated GHOST-STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY. * The narrator falls asleep in the mead and dreams of a strange plant. Following the advice of the stream, which speaks to him in its own fashion, he finds the plant, eats it, and discovers that he now has supernaturally enhanced vision. This discloses to him a small metal box which had been buried since Roman times. It contains five jars of unguent', each of which liberates a sense or faculty from the bonds that keep mortals'from the supernatural world. As he applies a new unguent each successive night, he is enabled to see fairies, understand the speech of animals, and converse with the unseen world. His gift is not without peril, for the forces of evil also want to gain control of the box. The narrator is under a siege of sorts as various attempts are made on him. With the aid of advice from the Right People (fairies), he repels evil and gains permanent possession of the chest and its powers. * Light, fanciful, mildly ironic, and very

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JAMES, MONTAGUE RHODES pleasurable reading. 915. A WARNING TO THE CURIOUS AND OTHER GHOST STO~IES Edward Arnold; London 1926 Short stories. * [a] THE HAUNTED DOLLS' HOUSE. A dollhouse is a miniature version of Ilbridge House, an old English manor. In the dollhouse a crLme is repeatedly enacted. * This story was originally prepared as a manuscript for the library of the Queen's Doll House. [b] THE UNCOMMON PRAYER-BOOK. In the family vault there is a set of prayer-books which were printed underground during Cromwell's rule. They are watched over by a presence, perhaps the ghost of old Lady Sadleir, who strikes them open on Cromwell's birthday, as a gesture of defiance. [c] A NEIGHBOUR'S LANDMARK. Folkloristic fragments and old records serve to reconstruct the story of "that which walks in Betton Wood." It is characterized by an unbearably high-pitched cry. ld] A VIEW FROM A HILL. The old binoculars show landscapes and buildings from the past. The case is filled with extracts from human bones so that one sees, literally, through dead men's eyes. [e] A WARNING TO THE CURIOUS. According to legend, three Saxon crowns guard England from invasion. When one is found and removed, it is restored to its place by supernatural means. [f] AN EVENING'S ENTERTAINMENT. A fireside story told by an old grandmother to her grandchildren, recapitulating elements of local folklore. The two young men were odd, but it turned out that they were diabolists, and one sacrificed the other. In the lane, ever since, strange poisonous flies are to be found, and the local folk do not gather berries there any more. Beelzebub. * Excellent stories. 916. WAILING WELL The Mill House Press; Stanford Dingley [England] 1928 157 copy edition. Ironic horror, set at Eton,. It was written for the Eton College Troop of Boy Scouts and was read at their campfire in August, 1927. * The Scouts, on an outing from camp, are warned not to approach Wailing Well, a small copse in the middle of the field. Judkins Major, the school ne'er-do-well, deliberately ignores the warning and walks over to the copse. The other students and masters see him being stalked by living skeletons, but space warps prevent their helping him. The population of the well is thereby increased by one skeleton. * Told with grisly humor, poking fun at aspects of public school life. 917. THE COLLECTED GHOST STORIES OF M. R. JAMES Edward Arnold; London 1931 Containing La] CANON ALBERIC'S SCRAP-BOOK. [b] LOST HEARTS. [c] THE MEZZOTINT. [d] THE ASH-TREE. [e] NUMBER 13. [f] COUNT MAGNUS. [g] "OH, WHISTLE, ~ND I'LL COME TO YOU, MY LAD." [h] THE TREASURE OF ABBOT THOMAS. li] A SCHOOL STORY. lj] THE ROSE GARDEN. [k] THE TRACTATE MIDDOTH. ll] CASTING THE RUNES. lm] THE STALLS OF BARCHESTER CATHEDRAL. [n] MARTIN'S CLOSE. [0] MR. HUMPHREYS AND HIS INHERITANCE. [p] THE RESIDENCE AT WHITMINSTER. [q] THE DIARY OF MR. POYNTER. [r] AN EPISODE

JAMES, MONTAGUE RHODES OF CATHEDRAL HISTORY. [s} A STORY OF A DISAPPEARANCE AND AN APPEARANCE. [t} TWO DOCTORS. [u} THE HAUNTED DOLLS' HOUSE. [v} THE UNCOMMON PRAYER BOOK. [w} A NEIGHBOUR'S LANDMARK. Lx} A VIEW FROM A HILL. [y} A WARNING TO THE CURIOUS. [z} AN EVENING'S ENTERTAINMENT. [aa} WAILING WELL. * [bb} THERE WAS A MAN DWELT BY A CHURCHYARD. James's version of an acted out terror tale for children. When old Mother Wilkins, a suspected witch, was buried, the clergyman threw into her grave money that she had given to the church-- tainted money. John Poole, a notorious miser who lives by the churchyard, steals the money. The corpse comes to reclaim its property. Told in connection with Manilius of A WINTER'S TALE. [cc} RATS. Mr. Thomson, staying for a short rest at the old country inn, notices the locked room. He must pry. He sees a horrible sight, bedclothes moving as if alive. Once is not enough, despite his terror, and on the second occasion he sees a living scarecrow-like figure, but with chains and naked skull, coming toward him. A landlord of the past, hanged for complicity with highwaymen. [dd} AFTER DARK IN THE PLAYING FIELDS. A mood piece about trees, birds, and the talking owl pursued by a Something that may get the narrator, too. [eel STORIES I HAVE TRIED TO WRITE. A short essay telling of stories that James never found occasion to write, Or was dissatisfied with and suppressed. * Of the new, described material, [bb} and [cc} are nicely done. 918. THE BEST GHOST STORIES OF M. R. JAMES World Books; Cleveland, Ohio 1944 Collection. * [a} CASTING THE RUNES. [b} CANON ALBERIC'S SCRAP-BOOK. [c} LOST HEARTS. [d} NUMBER 13. [e} TWO DOCTORS. [f} THE HAUNTED DOLLS' HOUSE. [g} THE RESIDENCE AT WHITMINSTER. [h} THE DIARY OF MR. POYNTER. [i} COUNT MAGNUS. [j} THE ROSE GARDEN. [k} A NEIGHBOUR'S LANDMARK. [I} THE MEZZOTINT. [m} THE ASH-TREE. [n} "OH, WHISTLE AND I'LL COME TO YOU, MY LAD." l o} A SCHOOL STORY. [p} WAILING WELL. [q} THE TREASURE OF ABBOT THOMAS. Lr} RATS. [s} A WARNING TO THE CURIOUS. [t} A VIEW FROM A HILL. [u} MARTIN'S CLOSE. [v} THE TRACTATE MIDDOTH. [w} STORIES I HAVE TRIED TO WRITE. JEFFERIES, [JOHN} RICHARD (1848-1887) British essayist, writer of fiction, chronicler of British rural matters. Once very popular for nature mysticism that is odd combination of sentimentality and profound knowledge of British landscape, wild life, and folkways. Best-known work is small statement of faith, THE STORY OF MY HEART (1883), which was published in many editions in Great Britain and the U.S.A. Important work is AFTER LONDON (1885) s-f novel of Britain reverted to primitivism after collapse of civilization, partly due to pollution of environment. An interesting writer at times, though the following book is • by no means important. 919. THE EARLY FICTION OF RICHARD JEFFERIES Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton and Kent; London 1896 50 copy edition

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JERROLD, DOUGLAS Edited with introduction by Grace Toplis. * Short stories, including [a} A STRANGE STORY. The squire's wife sees a doppelganger of Fitz-hugh at the village church and hears the words, "Seven years." She takes this to be a death portent. Cholera comes and depopulates the small village, thereby fulfilling another portent. Seven years later Fitz-hugh dies when a veranda collapses. * Juvenile work. JEPSON, EDGAR (ALFRED) (1863-1938) British writer of general fiction, mystery fiction, contributor to periodicals. Translator of works by Gaston Leroux and M. Leblanc. Of his forty odd books, no one is outstanding. 920. THE HORNED SHEPHERD Published by the Sons of the Vine Bivington House, Elm Road, Wembley [Great Britain}; 1904 100 copy edition paperbound Aspects of Sir James Frazer's THE GOLDEN BOUGH and the romances of Anatole France. Time and place not precisely indicated, but probably the Early Christian Near East. * Big Anna and the Egyptian (Gipsy in this context) are the stewards of the mysteries. They worship the Lord of the Forest (Pan), and offer yearly sacrifices on St. John's Eve. Once in a hundred years, however, an embodiment of the god appears and is sacrificed. This sacrifice brings prosperity and good crops. At the moment the Horned Shepherd is the avatar. He has a hair formation which grows into horn-like masses, and his music has a Pan-like supernatural power. The story situation is that he must be sacrificed, yet cannot be. The paradoxical situation is resolved when he is drowned, then revived, thus satisfying both demands. * There are also parallels with the life of Jesus. Supernaturalism is not strong and is conveyed more by implication than direct statement. Literate, but artificial and lacking in positive virtues. 921. NUMBER NINETEEN Mills and Boon; London [19l0} American title THE GARDEN AT 19. * Horror thriller suggestive of Arthur Machen's THE GREAT GOD PAN. * Plowden moves into a lonely neighborhood, where evil and suburbia are nearly blended. Next door to Plowden is 19, Walden, where a magician and his niece live. While Plowden and the niece carryon a romance, the magician and his associates are busied trying to evoke the lords of the abyss by means of black magic. They are successful. A statue of Pan comes to life and moves about the house in an aura of evil. Two people are killed, the magician goes mad, and Plowden and the niece marry. * Competent commercial work. This book is sometimes incorrectly listed in bibliographies as a collection of short detective stories. JERROLD, DOUGLAS [WILLIAM} (1803-1857) British dramatist, novelist, essayist, editor • One of most popular playwrights of his day, with BLACK-EYED SUSAN; OR, ALL IN THE DOWNS on the boards for decades. Frequent contributor to PUNCH, other journals. Edited several news-

JERROLD, DOUGLAS papers and magazines. Very important as central literary figure. Renowned as a wit. Now almost forgotten, although his minor humor classic MRS. CAUDLE'S CURTAIN LECTURES (1846) is still occasionally read. 922. A MAN MADE OF MONEY Punch Office; London 1848-9 Somewhat amorphous combination of the diabolic bond and humors of British middle-class life, with romance subplots and Dickensian grotesque characterizations. * Solomon Jericho, married to a spendthrift wife and saddled with two stepchildren, during the give and take of marital conflict wishes that he were made of money. In some way or another, not spelled out, a diabolic bond is set up: Jericho's heart and chest are transformed into a wad of banknotes. When he wants money, he simply peels off a note. But there is a price: he gradually wastes away, what with loss of substance. His condition is not suspected until a duel, at which his opponent's bullet passes through his chest without hurting him. His friends and associates are terrified of him, for they suspect that he has been dealing with the Devil. Eventually he is used up and he disappears. * Told in full Victorian style. The allegory is obvious. JOHNSON, M. T. Presumably a British lady author. 923. A TALE OF SECOND SIGHT AND THE FORBIDDEN SAIL City of London Publishing Co., Ltd.; London [n.d., c. 1875] 2 short stories, including La] A TALE OF SECOND SIGHT. "The gentle form of Cecilia appears to warn her kindred, when any disaster is about to happen." Her warnings, however, are not always precise. Sometimes years pass before fitting situations occur. In the meanwhile a sensitive Victorian girl suffers from bad dreams, hears ghostly footsteps, and meets other similar phenomena. She eventually has an experience involving the second sight. * The second story is not fantastic. * Overfelt sentimental material. A curiosity only. JOHNSON, ROSSITER (1840-1931) American writer, editor. Edited Appleton's ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIAS, various anthologies. Author of CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD, enormous, fascinating semidocumentary of the Civil War. AS EDITOR: 924. LITTLE CLASSICS J. R. Osgood; Boston 1875 12 vol. A duodecimo set, reprinted several times, two volumes of which contain fantastic fiction. VOLUME TWO. INTELLECT contains, described elsewhere, la] THE HOUSE AND THE BRAIN, E. Bulwer-Lytton. Lb] THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, E. A. Poe. Also [c] D'OUTRE MORT, Harriet Prescott Spofford. Switzerland. Heated and romantic prose. Reymund is in love with Orient, and they occasionally discuss the question of the soul. One day, Orient hears Reymund's voice, as if from nowhere, and when she returns home, sees Reymund in the house. He

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smiles and seems transfigured, but disappears. Orient saw his soul, which had been projected, for he had been tossed from his horse and was dying. [d] THE CAPTAIN'S STORY, Rebecca Harding Davis. Cincinnati, 1858. Joseph C. Wylie was a clerk on a Mississippi stern-wheeler when he disappeared. It seems unlikely that he would have run away, leaving his family, and there is no evidence for death. But many persons have different theories. After a time, his friends and the captain of the ship (the narrator) consult mediums to learn his fate. The first medium gives a substantial account of Wylie aboard an ice-locked whaler in the far north. A second medium says that he was drugged and murdered. A third, at a seance, claims that he was shanghaied, so that another man could have his wife. But then Wylie returns. He had left to dodge his bills, but his leaving was encouraged by another man who wanted his wife. The solution to the three solutions is that in each case the medium, by true telepathy, read the mind of the questioner and extracted his knowledge and opinion as fact. Cleverly handled. * VOLUME 8, MYSTERY includes, all described elsewhere, [e] THE GHOST, W. D. O'Connor. [f] THE FOURFIFTEEN EXPRESS, Amelia B. Edwards. [g] THE SIGNAL-MAN, Charles Dickens. [h] THE HAUNTED SHIP, Allan Cunningham. [i] THE BIRTHMARK, Nathaniel Hawthorne. * Of the described material, [c] is weak, while [d] is excellent. VOLUME 8, MYSTERY, offers a good selection. JOHNSTON, MARY (1870-1936) American (Virginia) novelist. Earlier fiction is historical, often with regionalistic interest. Later work tends toward own private mystical system. Best-known work, TO HAVE AND TO HOLD (1900). 925. SWEET ROCKET Harper; New York [1920] Sentimental panpsychism and nature mysticism not worked too well into a novel. * Sweet Rocket, an old estate in the hills of Virginia, in some way permits its inhabitants to perceive very clearly the ultimates behind life. These amount to a macro-consciousness, subsuming individual human minds. That this awareness can extend beyond the present is shown by the experiences of one of the characters, who has memories from a remote ancestor. * Presented in a disorganized manner, with poorly limned characters. All rather pointless, despite a promising beginning. JONES, GUY LPEARCE] AND CONSTANCE [BRIDGES] American husband and wife. Both probably born around 1900. Guy Jones has been a newspaperman, managing editor of the North American Newspaper Alliance. During World War II, he was with the O.W.I. Constance Jones is also a writer, did state-side war work during World War II. 926. PEABODY'S MERMAID Random House; New York [1946] A homily on loyalty and trust presented as a psychological fantasy. * Arthur Peabody, who has been severely ill ",·ith the flu, 2nd

JONES, GUY AND CONSTANCE his wife Polly come to St. Hilda, a British Caribbean possession for a recuperative vacation. Here they become enmeshed in the social activities and amours of the stuffy colonials and occasional tourists. Polly becomes convinced that her husband is having an affair with a beautiful and notorious siren, and after much misunderstanding leaves him for a time. Peabody also finds himself in trouble with the administration and the police, for they are convinced (since they know that he could not be having the affair that his wife believes) that he is harboring an illegal alien. This is during World War II and the situation could be serious. Actually, Peabody has only caught a mermaid, but his handling of the situation is inept. She is very small (like a child), mute, subhuman in intelligence, but devoted after a fashion to Peabody. After some harassment by the police, he releases her and things are patched up all around. It is curious, though, that no one except Peabody and possibly a Black servant has ever seen the mermaid. The consensus is that he is suffering from delusions. He returns to the States somewhat shaken, a little wiser. * Partly farce, partly sentiment, partly semi-allegory. According to the blurb, Guy started the story, left for the wars, whereupon Constance finished it. This history may account for the ambivalence of situation. 927. THERE WAS A LITTLE MAN Random House; New York [1948] Values and good manners. * Fitzgerald, an ad man about to break into the big time, is on an important flight to England when his plane makes a forced landing at Ballynabun, Ireland. There he becomes acquainted with the Widow Daly, who operates an inn and pub, and also meets a leprechaun who comes to be known as Horace. The leprechaun takes a fancy to Fitzgerald, since Fitzgerald has treated him couteously and has not tried to take his pot of gold. From here Fitzgerald's rise in the ad world is rapid, but, as he learns, his success is due to luck from Horace. Horace comes to America and begins to restructure Fitzgerald's life. Fitz is engaged to a beautiful but mercantile young woman, of whom the leprechaun does not approve. The climax comes when Fitz decides that the rat race is not for him. He resigns his job, and his fiancee breaks their engagement. But Fitzgerald has a cushion: the leprechaun has so arranged things that the Widow Daly comes to New York on a visit. Fitzgerald settles down with her in Ireland, with all the luck that the leprechaun offers. * Contrived and slight, but amusing at times. JOYCE, MICHAEL British writer. Author of books abouc Gibbon and Hobhouse, translator of Plato's SYMPOSIUM. 928. PEREGRINE PIERAM. THE STRANGE STORY OF HIS PEN AND THE STORY HE NEVER WROTE John Murray; London 1936 A mannered ironic nouvelle about a young author who discovers that whatever he writes comes

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KARIG, WALTER true. The power of his pen wins him a wife, kills her when he is tired of her and wants another woman, and brings him fame. But he is not happy. Toward the end of the story he comes to realize that hatred is much the same thing as murder. A country woman, however, is able to write the happy ending that he could not write. * Mild adumbrations of important issues, in a fantastic rendering of a conceit. Well done.

KANER, H[YMAN] British author, publisher; flourished in the 1940's. In addition to lurid science-fiction and supernatural fiction, wrote books on economics and business. 929. THE SUN OUEEN Kaner Publishing Co.; Llandudno 1946 Weird science, fantastic adventure. * Roger Marshall and Jean Lorrimer are accidentally transmitted to a meteor-like planet within the sun. Roger wins a duel against a mental being who is identified as a "rock god," and the earthlings become involved in a dispute between the people of the Sun Queen (good) and the Black Knights (evil). After many a melee Jean is captured. The wicked high priest of the Black Knights almost works his will on her, but Roger and the forces of good save her and defeat the Black Knights. The rock god makes peace with Roger and Jean and returns them to earth. * Low level. KARIG, WALTER (1898-1956) American newspaper man (Newark Evening News), author, public relations man. Author under various pseudonyms of children's books (Nancy Drew and X-Bar-X Boys), mysteries. Public relations officer with U.S. Navy in World War II, and co-editor of BATTLE REPORTS. 930. ZOTZ! Rinehart and Co.; New York 1947 Part farcical humor in the manner of Thorne Smith, part satire on bureaucracy in Washington during World War II. * Professor John Jones, one of the world's authorities on Near Eastern languages and archeology, receives a relic with an inscription on it. When he deciphers it and unwittingly follows the directions on it, he obtains from Astarte the power to kill by pointing and saying the syllable "Zotz!" In the first subplot Jones is desperate to use his new ability in the war effort and tries to offer his power to the president. He gets the run-around, and when he is finally in the presence of the president, neither person recognizes the situation. Jones has no time to explain, for he falls off the presidential yacht. He ultimately collapses, resigns his job at a small Southern seminary, and becomes a cockroach killer in a restaurant. * The second subplot concerns Virginia Finster,

KARIG, WALTER who mysteriously arrives in town when Jones acquires his power. Jones falls in love with her (and she may reciprocate), but Jones is never quite clear whether she is a supernatural being or just a student working up a thesis on ophidolatry. The romance never reaches fruition, and the reader, too, wonders about Miss Finster. * Often amusing in development, with many good little touches, but the dual plotting is not entirely successful. The author's description of redtape is entirely convincing. KARL OFF , BORIS (pseud. of PRATT, WILLIAM HENRY) (1887-1969) British-born actor, very familiar from motion pictures and television. Although appeared in more than 120 silent and sound films, is now remembered mostly for role as first and best monster in FRANKENSTEIN. Also popular for stage and screen role in ARSENIC AND OLD LACE. AS EDITOR: 931. TALES OF TERROR World Publishing Co.; Cleveland, Ohio [1943] An anthology of mystery, crime, and supernatural fiction, including, all described elsewhere, la] THE WAXWORK, Ex-Private X. [b] THE JUDGE'S HOUSE, Bram Stoker. lc] THE DAMNED THING, Ambrose Bierce. ld] THE TARN, Hugh Walpole. le] THE FURNISHED ROOM, O. Henry. If] FATHER MACCLESFIELD'S TALE, R. H. Benson. 19] THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS, W. F. Harvey. lh] THE WILLOWS, Algernon Blackwood. li] THE BECKONING FAIR ONE, Oliver Onions. lj] CLAY-SHUTTERED DOORS, Helen R. Hull. lk] OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS, Philip MacDonald. * There is an amusing preface by Karloff, in which it is indicated that Edmund Speare is co-editor. 932. AND THE DARKNESS FALLS World Publishing Co.; Cleveland, Ohio 1946 Fiction and verse, including, described elsela] "JOHN GLADWYN SAYS.. " Oliver Onions. lb] THE ANGELUS, William Younger. [c] THE HANGING OF ALFRED WADHAM, E. F. Benson. [d] THE GROVE OF ASHTORETH, John Buchan. [e] ONE WHO SAW, Ex-private X. [f] THE STRANGER, Algernon Blackwood. [g] THE PANELLED ROOM, August Derleth. [h] THE WITNESS, Violet Hunt. li] LITTLE LOUISE ROQUE, Guy de Maupassant. lj] THE RED LODGE, H. Russell Wakefield. lk] THE SUTOR OF SELKIRK, Anonymous. [1] WHERE THEIR FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED, May Sinclair. lm] THE GHOST, Richard Hughes. [n] THE MORTAL, Oliver Onions. [0] THE WELL, W.W. Jacobs. [p] THE CHASER, John Collier. [q] WHERE THE TIDES EBB AND FLOW, Lord Dunsany. lr] OUT OF THE DEEP, Walter de la Mare. ls] BROWDEAN FARM, A. M. Burrage. [t] THE WEIRD OF AVOOSL WUTHOQUAAN, Clark Ashton Smith. lu] THE SILVER MASK, Hugh Walpole. [v] THE WOMAN'S GHOST STORY, Algernon Blackwood. [w] THE BRUTE, Joseph Conrad. lx] THE THING ON THE DOORSTEP, H. P. Lovecraft. [y] THE DEPARTURE, Selma Robinson. [z] THE ADVENTURE OF SECOND LIEUTENANT BUBNOV, Ivan Turgenev. [aa] AMOUR APRES LA MORTE, Lafcadio Hearn. [bb] THE HORRIBLE GOD, Thomas Burke. [cc] THE SCOOP,

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KELLER, DAVID H. Leonora Gregory. [dd] THE CYPRIAN CAT, Dorothy Sayers. An ailurophobe visits friends in an isolated village. His friend's wife is a cat-like young woman who has an antipathy to crossing running water, and the cats at the inn harass him nights. Particularly a Cyprian (gray with black stripes) cat. On one occasion the wife is comatose while the cat tries desperately to get into the room. When the guest shoots the cat, the expected happens. * This seems to be the first printing of this story in a supernatural anthology. [eel JENSHIH, OR THE FOX LADIES, Shen Chi-Chi. Translated from Chinese by Wang Chi-Chi. A fox woman. [ff] VIY, Nicholas Gogol. Translated from Russian by Constance Garnett; from MIRGOROD: STORIES. Cossack folklore. A witch girl dies and philosopher Homa must read prayers over her for three nights while the powers of evil fight to get her. Viy (You) is a demon with eyelids that reach to the floor. [gg] DEATH, Dorothy Richardson. A very brief account of experiences at the moment of death. * Of the new material, [dd] and [ff] are excellent. * It is assumed that Karloff did not really edit this anthology, what with fairly elaborate headpieces and introductory material, but the actual editor, to my knowledge, has not been revealed. KELLER, DAVID H[ENRY], M.D. (1880-1966) American physician, psychiatrist, journalist, writer of fiction. Associated with various state institutions (Illinois, Pennsylvania) as psychiatrist. Wrote popularly on medical topics. First became well-known as pioneer science-fiction writer in the 1920's in the Gernsback magazines. His stories were unusual in being concerned more with social aspects of scientific advances than with adventure or science, and in occasionally being hostile to the scientism prevalent in the genre at the time. During the 1930's and later his interests shifted more to supernatural fiction-contes cruels, free fantasies, horror fiction-in which his psychiatric background is sometimes visible in idea and symbol. He was a compulsive writer, who wrote much more than has been published, but was apparently completely lacking in power of self criticism. His work is usually spontaneous and unplanned, sometimes technically amateurish, but sometimes excellent in idea, power, and symbolic depth. A very uneven writer, despite fine imagination. Best considered an interesting, highly individual American primitive. 933. THE DEVIL AND THE DOCTOR Simon and Schuster; New York 1940 A highly personal idyll of the Pennsylvania Dutch countryside. It was originally written as two novels, which have been rather ineptly joined. * Old Dr. Jacob Hubler, a semi-retired M.D. who keeps an unprofitable bookshop, has philosophized much about the Devil. He is convinced that the Biblical account of the Battle in Heaven is merely propaganda prepared by the winning side. The doctor is then quite interested when a stranger calling himself Robin Good-

KELLER, DAVID H. fellow enters the shop and claims to be the Devil. Goodfellow tells a very different account of the Creation and the Fall, making Jehovah the villain of the story. He also reveals that the Doctor is one of the few persons permitted to know the true history and that he is thereby under the Devil's protection. The doctor has had many dreams and wishes in his life, and he now discovers that they are coming true. Chief of them is the stone fence (wall). The Doctor has long wanted a country home with certain specifications, including the possibility of spending the remainder of his life building a stone fence. He attains this wish and also a handsome young wife. * In the second half of the novel trouble comes to the doctor, trouble undoubtedly stirred up by Jehovah. But the Doctor, aided by Goodfellow's ingenuity and resourcefulness, survives the attack. * A noteworthy book, despite many flaws: lack of unity, hasty writing, repetitiousness. According to rumor, which I have never seen substantiated, the original edition was as good as suppressed because of complaints by religionists. If so, it was odd, for the similar REVOLT OF THE ANGELS by Anatole France has not been molested. 934. THE THING IN THE CELLAR The Bizarre Series; Millheim, Pa. [1940] paperbound A separate publication of one of Keller's best-known stories (WT 1932). Contents, [a] INTERVIEW WITH DR. KELLER by Julius Schwartz and Mort Weisinger (SCIENCE FICTION DIGEST, 1933). A trivial piece. [b] THE THING IN THE CELLAR. This is about a little boy who is terrified about something that he thinks lurks in the cellar. The cellar is shut off from the rest of the ancient house by a thick oaken door. The parents of the child, worried at his phobia, consult a doctor, who tells them to nail the door open and force the child to stay alone in the kitchen by the open door. The child is found dead, ripped to pieces. The parents and the doctor confront one another, and the doctor has the last word, "Didn't you tell me that there was nothing there? Nothing down there? In the ce llarZ" * The story is followed by a very brief essay by Keller, [c] THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FEAR, in which he describes the writing of the story and offers an explanation: the child's fear gave whatever was there the power to injure him. Unconscious emergence. 935. LIFE EVERLASTING AND OTHER TALES OF SCIENCE, FANTASY AND HORROR Avalon Co.; Newark, N. J. 1947 Introduction by Sam Moskowitz. Short stories, including [a] THE BONELESS HORROR. (SCIENCE WONDER STORIES 1929) Borderline science-fiction, an euhemeristic approach to Greek mythology and modern occultism. In the remote past there were three great empires: Atlantis, Gobi, and Mo. Each plans to destroy the others. Atlantis is sunk; Mo is exploded; and Gobi is elevated so high that civilization is no longer possible. The rulers of Mo suffer the most, for in their serum of immortality has treacherously been inserted a substance

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that dissolves their bones. They lie forever, giant jellies, sentient, in a cave in Central Asia. [b] THE THING IN THE CELLAR. Described elsewhere. [c] THE THIRTY AND ONE. (MARVEL SCIENCE STORIES, 1938). One of Keller's folkloristic-mythical stories about pre-modern Cornwall. A giant holds the trail and will permit no one to pass. The Homunculus and the Sage advise that thirty men be sent as one. Their essences are placed inside the princess, who distracts the giant. The thirty men emerge and kill the giant. Semi-allegorical. [d] HEREDITY. A vampire wife and a werewolf son soon destroy a businessman. One of Keller's symbolic studies of family relationships. [e] THE FACE IN THE MIRROR. Schizophrenia and dissociated consciousness as the face in the mirror talks. * As usual, very uneven, but interesting work. Also included is the fine science-fiction story "Unto Us a Child Is Born." 936. THE ETERNAL CONFLICT Prime Press; Philadelphia 1949 400 copy edition Introduction by Thomas S. Gardner, Ph. D. * Symbolic novel told in mythological terms. The themes are Keller's peculiar philosophy of sexuality: that sexual conflict is one of the principles creating progress in human culture, and that failure to accept sexuality with all its concomitants will be disastrous. * It is told in episodic fashion, centering around an unnamed female goddess, the Woman, who in turn is the parthenogenetic product of the great creatrix, Mother. The Woman decides to experience life after her own fashion. She makes worlds, lives in them, creates human beings with whom she can have relationships; slaughters them; sets up a gigantic library, with a Librarian and Resident Scientist, who comment on matters; procures a baby, but not by natural means; destroys her unwilling semi-lover; and discovers that everything is empty and not worth continuing. While is "immortal," she also has the power to destroy herself. * This is certainly the finest of Keller's longer works and probably one of the works by which he will be judged. The succession of mythic images, the apt absorption of techniques from earlier mythic writers, and the relative freedom from the usual stylistic ineptnesses make this well worth readtng. The message, of course, is the faults of modern woman. 937. T.llli HOMUNCULUS Prime Press; Philadelphia 1949 Primitivistic fantasy with much the same frame of reference and procedure as THE DEVIL AND THE DOCTOR. * Dr. Bumble, former Colonel, U. S. Army Medical Corps, (an autobiographical reference) is something of an antifeminist. In order to demonstrate that the human race can be propagated without females, he decides to manufacture a homunculus according to a recipe from the works of Paracelsus. His wife indulges him. He establishes a pit filled with horse manure as a heat source and places in it a glass jar, which he surrounds with a suitable preparation. At this time a very odd couple comes to work for the Bumbles.

KELLER, DAVID H. Brother and sister. going variously by the names of Pete and Sarah. or a Russian alias, they are soon revealed to be Pan and Lilith, twins who existed before the creation of earth. Lilith, being a freemartin, is sterile, although she desperately wants children and has moved through many marriages along the years. As the Doctor's project gets under way, he is beset by various obstacles: gangsters (the gangster chieftain feels that motherhood has been insulted), big business, the Russians, etc. At one time tha Doctor is jailed for his own protection, since hostile journalists have whipped up hysteria. When the forty-week incubation period is over, the pit is opened, the glass vessel cracked, and a baby taken out. The experiment wor~ed. It is then reveal,~d that Lilith was responsible for its success. The Doctor and his wife adopt the baby, and without explanation by the author, the whole experiment seems to be forgotten by the outside world. * Not very well handled. The immediate idea-source was perhaps SALOME by Viereck and Eldridge. Since publication date was often widely separated from writing date in Keller's work, this may well date back many years. 938, TALES FROM UNDERWOOD Published for Arkham House by Pellegrini and Cudahy; New York 1952 Short stories, including [a] THE BRIDLE. (WT 1942) Small town, perhaps Pennsylvania, poor whites, feuds, folklorist LC ,nagic. The young doctor, strange to the area, meddles in the local quarrels and buys (from her shiftless father) a young witch girl. She had been ridden-- i.e., a bridle made of human leather had transformed her into a horse. The doctor is in love with her, but she is incurably vicious and in despair he replaces the bridle and vows to tame her as a mare. Nicely told. [b] THE GOD WHEEL. Mythic fiction. After years of searching for the cave, John Alden returns to his native land and finds it. He descends and finds a god pinned to a wheel. This is the First God, the Unmoved Mover, who has plans for Alden. Alden becomes permeated with divinity, returns to the surface, and establishes oak forests and stone- temples, which arise almost instantaneously. In a short time the world is covered, wars are stopped. and most of the human race dies. It is time for a new world. [c] THE GOLDEN BOUGH. Described elsewhere. [d] THE OPIUM EATER. Pennsylvania, folk magic. Aza White, ostensibly a decadent cracker who grows opium poppies and is an addict, is really a powerful witch whose enemies come to bad ends. The local pastor reads up on witchcraft, and White is brought down. [e] THE THING IN THE CELLAR. Described elsewhere. [f] THE MOON ARTIST. (STIRRING SCIENCE FICTION, 1941) An insane artist draws a picture of wolves, moonlight, and horror. The narrator is attacked by the wolves, but on next viewing, the picture is blank. [g] CREATION UNFORGIVABLE. (WT 1930) A creative author writes a fantasy about apemen, prehistoric men, and a dinosaur god. His writing

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KELLER, DAVID H. calls it all into being. The author has a narrow escape, and the dinosaur now lives in the nearby swamp. [h] THE DOOR. (ARKHAM SAMPLER, 1949) A complex symbolic story about the relations between the sexes, happiness, emotional isolation, and other psychological matters. A humanoid door in the midst of a desert is entry to a dream garden for a woman whose wishes (beauty) have been crushed by the hostile forces of the outside world. * The other stories are contes cruels or sciencefiction. Best stories are [a], [b], [d], [h]. 939. THE FOLSOM FLINT Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1969 An excellent introduction by Paul Spencer, IN MEMORIAM: DAVID H. KELLER. * Short stories, including [a] THE GOLDEN KEY. (DESTINY 1953) An excellent metaphoric story. A "Responsible Force" erects a mile-high tower in the desert. Atop the tower is a golden key, which will give all the riches of the world. A trio of ruthless acrobats, the Flying A's, climbs the tower. [b] THE LANDSLIDE. A doctor, digging idly, comes upon a hair follicle of incredible size. Another version of a favorite fictional concept of Keller's, that the contours of the earth really conceal monstrous animals. [c] THE FOLSOM FLINT. A Folsom skull is found with a projectile point in its occiput. The eccentric who finds it dresses the skull and arranges electric signals, planning to talk to it. He does so, by psychic means, and the skull tells him that he had murdered it in a previous incarnation and that it hates him. It eventually kills him. [d] SARAH. (GROTESQUE 1952) Borderline science-fiction. The millionaire builds a completely automated automobile factory, which is run by a cybernetic intelligence that he calls Sarah. They quarrel, and Sarah exhibits too llluch personality. [e] FINGERS IN THE SKY. (UTOPIAN, 1952) A paranoid deaf and dumb woman converses by means of finger talk with horrible forces in the sky. The doctor hires a stenographer to take down the woman's conversation. [f] THE THING IN THE CELLAR. Described elsewhere. * [a] is an excellent story; [e] is interesting. The other described contents are routine. This collection also contains the excellent contes cruels "A Piece of Linoleum" and "The Dead Woman." 940. THE LAST MAGICIAN NINE STORIES FROM WEIRD TALES VOLUME ONE. THE DAVID H, KELLER MEMORIAL LIBRARY P.D.A. Enterprises; New Orleans 1978- paperbound Edited by Patrick H. Adkins. Short stories including [a] THE LAST MAGICIAN. (WT 1932) Imaginary medieval Mediterranean land. The Master in Castle Doom learns that all his followers except one have been massacred. He and the survivor work on a gigantic magical revenge. The Master has discovered that the land lies on and conforms to a titanic sleeping monster. He builds a macrocosm-microcosm model of Astrobella, activates it, awakens the monster, and destroys the land. [b] VALLEY OF BONES. (WT 1938) The white trader who

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KELLER, DAVID H. poisoned the isolated Zulu tribe for the sake of their ornaments returns to gather up their weapons and artifacts. He wants to sell them to museums. The dead take vengeance. [c] THE DAMSEL AND THE CAT. (WT 1929) Medieval. Soon after the gigantic cat arrives at the castle, the duke's daughter starts to waste away. Livestock is drained of blood and killed. A trap is set. It seems for a time as if the duke's daughter is responsible, but it is the cat in her form. [d] THE LITTLE HUSBANDS. (WT 1928) Fantastic only in the sense of being absurd. A tribe of feminists in the Amazon area capture men for husbands and keep them until they are tired of them. After which, death. But the women are seventy feet tall. [e] THE GODDESS OF ZION. (WT 1941) Zion National Park. Lief Larson tells of a previous incarnation, several hundred years earlier, when he was a Norseman wandering about America. In what is now Zion National Park he found a lost race of brown men who were ruled by a goddess-priestess, whose lover he became. The brown men sacrificed'strangers by training a tame mammoth to toss them over a cliff, but proto-Larson survived. In the present incarnation, as the narrator sees, Larson is joined by the ghosts of his longdead lover and the mammoth, and the mammoth obligingly throws them both over the cliff. * Also present are a very good autobiographical statement by Keller and the excellent conte cruel "Bindings Deluxe." KELLETT, E[RNEST] E[DWARD] (1864 - 1950) British schoolmaster, miscellaneous writer. Has written on varied topics, history of literature, history of culture, religion, music. Best-known work A SHORT HISTORY OF RELIGIONS (1933), which has gone through several editions. 941. A CORNER IN SLEEP AND OTHER IMPOSSIBILITIES Jarrolds; London 1900 Fantasies, such as might have been written by a superior J. K. Bangs. Including, [a] A CORNER IN SLEEP. Borderline science-fiction. An eccentric inventor discovers that sleep is a form of energy. He isolates it and attempts to gain a monopoly, but is mobbed by irate insomniacs. [b] SELF-HAUNTED. A traveller in the Netherlands sees a horrible being materialize in his bed. It is himself in distorted form. The "demon" tries to occupy the traveller's body. [c] THE TABLES TURNED. A registry office (employment office in American English) introduces ghosts to psychic researchers. A ghost must be found to haunt Charkley Grange, whose rude and loud owner is very hard on ghosts. The timid ghost Mr. Gespenst is so unsettled that he is frightened to life. [d] A POET MALGRE LUI. A machine (from the Devil, of course) that turns prose into poetry. [e] MEMORIA PONDEROSA. Professor Magus has a device for storing memories. Problems when a wife drinks part of her husband's stored memories. [f] A FEAST OF REASON. A certain part of the brain contains the soul, as a cannibal chief who ate a missionary discovers. [g]

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KELLY, JAMES PAUL LEX TALIONIS. In Haroun al Rashid's Baghdad a magician cures headache by cutting off the head, scraping out the pain, and restoring the head. But when he accidentally interchanges a man's and a woman's head, what shall his punishment be? [h] INTIMATION OF IMMORTALITY. People are living too long and a society is formed to "give nature a tonic." Bottles of "unexhausted nature" are used to ease the old folk off. Borderline supernatural. KELLEY, THOMAS P. (c. 1900? Canadian occasional author of adventure, science-fiction, supernatural fiction. According to Tuck fought in prize ring, 1927-9, under name Tommy Kelley. 942. I FOUND CLEOPATRA Export Publishing Co.; Toronto 1946 paperbound Adventure, with elements of science-fiction and supernaturalism. (WT 1938-9.) Brian O'Hara, Herculean young American, finds among his family heirlooms an ancient Egyptian scroll written by Kharmes, an officer of Cleopatra's bodyguard. The scroll tells of removing a sarcophagus containing "One Who Sleeps" from Egypt to a secret hiding place in West Africa. O'Hara determines to find the burial place and the enormous treasure that is present. * From here the story turns into a collection of miscellaneous motifs that are best listed: a very wicked Spaniard, the Wolf, who becomes O'Hara's enemy and sicks gangsters onto him; a 300-pound dog-man, with whom O'Hara must fight; the Midnight Lady who visits O'Hara mysteriously and helps him; captivity among Arabs in West Africa; a temple where Na-Ela, a young woman, sleeps in suspended animation; a hidden city beneath a lake, where Cleopatra (the Midnight Lady) rules; a 2,000 year life span for Cleopatra, but immediate death unless she can eat again of the fruit of the Tree of Life; the Tree of Life, which came from Eden; a sea-gorilla reminiscent of King Kong, etc. Na-Ela alone knows where the Tree of Life grows, and Cleopatra, who has turned nasty, will spare no pains to extract the information from her. On eating the fruit a second time, Cleopatra turns to dust. Pretty bad. A crude mischmasch of motifs from Haggard and Burroughs. The book text, which is said to have been abridged, has not been available to me. I have read the magazine version.

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KELL Y, JAMES PAUL American author. No other information. 943. PRINCE IZON A ROMANCE OF THE GRAND CANYON McClurg; Chicago 1910 398 The canyon of the Colorado River was perhaps the last unexplored place within the continental United States, and until J. W. Powell's passage through it, was a subject of speculation. Kelly's novel is probably ultimately based on Powell's accounts. Lost race and geographical adventure with some supernaturalism. Professor Raymon (also known as Ramon Navarez), his daughter, and niece float down

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the Colorado River and enter a lost land where the Aztecs took refuge after the Conquest in Mexico. The land is divided between two hostile city states, the Red City, which is Aztec in culture, worships Tezcatlipoca, and the Pearl City, which is Gothic in architecture, Christian, and is ruled by Prince Izon. Izon chances to meet the explorers, but he and they are captured by the forces of the Red City. Izon is scheduled to die as a human sacrifice after a ceremonial period as divine king. The wicked Aztec priest, Topeltzin, however, is willing to exchange Izon's life for the love of Raymon's daughter. Good wins out by divine intervention through a remarkable thunderstorm. "Omnipotence had spoken" in response to a maiden's prayer. Red City is wrecked and Izon is saved. Other supernaturalism includes visions, black magic, clairvoyance, nature magic, and omens. A curiosity only. Lurid color plates.

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KERBY, SUSAN ALICE (pseud. of BURTON, ALICE ) ELIZABETH) (1908 British journalist, author, long resident in Canada. 944. MISS CARTER AND THE IFRIT Hutchinson; London [1945] Synthetic fantasy about World War II. Wish fulfillment in supernatural form. Miss Georgina Carter, a British spinster, comes into possession of an ifrit that had been imprisoned by Solomon. The ifrit used to be wicked, but has decided to reform, and Miss Carter declares herself willing to help him. In turn he helps Miss Carter in a romance with an army officer and assists her to live comfortably, despite food shortages. Fluent but insipid.

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KERRUISH, JESSIE DOUGLAS (c. 1890? - 1949) British author. Unimportant except that THE UNDYING MONSTER was turned into a fairly significant horror film. 945. THE UNDYING MONSTER A TALE OF THE FIFTH Heath Cranton, Ltd.; London DIMENSION [1922] A fairly long occult-supernatural novel. It tells, in the form of a mystery story, of the curse that hangs over the Hammand family. It describes the reaction of certain persons as death stalks the Hammands on cold, dry, starlit winter nights. It will not hurt to reveal that Miss Luna Bartendale, one of the very few female occult detectives, is consulted and that she finds a solution in theriomorphy and ancestral memory. The evil is finally exorcised via the old Norse gods and Richard Wagner. * Suspense is well maintained and the atmosphere is convincing, although one might cavil at a syrupy style and too great length. There is excessive occult cant about Fourth and Fifth Dimensions, and a hand of glory. 946. BABYLONIAN NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENTS Denis Archer; London 1934 A cycle of stories told to Nebuchadnezzar to overcome his insomnia. Some attempt is made to create period settings. Including [a]

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KERSH, GERALD THE BEEMASTER'S DAUGHTER. Feuds between rival villages in Ancient Egypt. Borderline fantasy. [b] THE CURSE OF SHAVRIRI. Reminiscent of the Arabian Nights. A prince swallows a god. He is expelled from his land and a curse is placed on him: he shall marry a bitch. At Sodom he buys a dog, which is an enchanted woman; he marries her after she regains human form through the water of life. lc] THE MOUNTAIN OF THE CHAIR. Idas the Cretan (in Britain) uses iron to ward off the ghosts of the dead. [d] SENEFERU AND SEBEK. Ancient Egypt. A childhood prophecy is fulfilled when a pharaoh forsakes his throne for love. [e] THE SEAGULL LORD OF TYRE. A magic cord enables one to undergo transformations into animal form. [f] THE HOPLITES FROM HELLAS. Two Greek deserters from the Egyptian army wander the wilds of Africa. A soothsayer's prophecy is fulfilled when a dead man kills to save his friend. Sentimental, but competent commercial women's fiction.

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KERSH, GERALD (1911-1968) Russian-born British and American author resident in U.S.A. after World War II. Led colorful life in various occupations, including professional wrestler. Prolific author of sketches, short stories, often told with great narrative gusto. 947. THE BRIGHTON MONSTER AND OTHERS Heinemann; London 1953 Short stories, including la] WHITE HORSE WITH WINGS. Greece, World War II. A veteran of the German invasion of Greece tells of being saved from the Germans by a gigantic white horse with wings. His fellows do not believe him. [b] JUDAS FORGIVEN. Mr. Embody, the bird man, for years has delighted in feeding the birds of London. They know him. In an emergency, to save his sister's life, he agrees to trap the birds for a poulterer, and receives thirty pieces of silver. It was all in vain, since his sister dies, but the birds would not forgive him. As he lies dying, however, the birds grant him pardon. lc] THE EPISTLE OF SIMPLE SIMON. Roman Palestine. Simon, who has recently become a Christian, does his best to convert the hermit who saved his life and healed him. He does not realize that the hermit is Jesus. A few minor supernaturalisms. Not Kersh's best work, but the included science-fiction story, "Whatever Happened to Corporal Cuckoo?" is excellent. 948. ON AN ODD NOTE Ballantine BOc>l<S; New York [1958] paperbound A collection of Kersh's more important fantastic stories, several of which had appeared in earlier volumes. Including [a] SEED OF DESTRUCTION. The power of faith. Ziska, curio dealer and jeweller par excellence, manufactures pedigrees: for artifacts that he sells. He invents a curse on a seal ring, and falls victim to the curse, but in an irony of fate. [b] PROPHET WITHOUT HONOR. Bohemund Raymond, newspaperman and alcoholic, is descended from the Crusader Bohemund and a Saracen princess. When he is drunk, he speaks

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KERSH, GERALD with an Arabic accent. As a joke, when Bohemund is out of town, one of his low companions rearranges the letters on Bohemund's typewriter. Bohemund, when he returns, is so drunk that he does not notice the change and types gibberish. But twenty years later, when Bohemund's copy is found, it is seen to be Arabic, and prophetic at that. [c) THE EXTRAORDINARILY HORRIBLE DUMMY. Also titled THE HORRIBLE DUMMY. Echo the ventriloquist and Mickey, the horrible living dummy. The basis for the episode in the British motion picture DEAD OF NIGHT. [a) FANTASY OF A HUNTED MAN. Kentucky, and a potential lynching. The racist major and the hunted Black undergo a personality interchange. [e) THE GENTLEMAN ALL IN BLACK. The great crooked financier Mahler deals with the Devil. He drives a hard bargain, but the Devil wins anyway. [f) THE EYE. The right eye of executed criminal Rurik Duncan is transplanted into the head of a four-year old boy. While the tissue is knitting, the boy speaks with the voice and memories of Duncan, but the "possession" ends at a very inconvenient moment. * Good narratives, with unusual detail. Also present is the excellent sciencefiction story "The Brighton Monster." KEY, UEL (pseud. of KEY, SAMUEL WHITTELL) (1874 - ?) British writer. 949. THE BROKEN FANG AND OTHER EXPERIENCES OF A SPECIALIST IN ~POOKS Hodder and Stoughton; London [1920) Five short stories concerning Dr. Arnold Rhymer, occult detective, who occasionally works with Scotland Yard. [a) THE BROKEN FANG. Mysterious murders, corpses drained of blood are traced to a pair of Boches, one of whom animates vampiric zombies by psychic power. Also espionage. [b) THE SHROUDED DOME. Mysterious events at Wilford Court. Cuthbert Musgrave, a scientist, is experimenting with mediumistic phenomena. As his medium he uses his cousin Harold, who owns Wilford Court. Harold is supposed to materialize Myra, a dead woman. Dr. Rhymer comes on the scene in time to frustrate Musgrave, who had planned to drain Harold by the experiments. [c) A POST-MORTEM REVERSED. Rhymer provides a manuscript to be read. The ghost of a brilliant but selfish surgeon helps a young doctor to perform'a difficult operation. [d) A SPRIG OF SWEET BRIAR. During the war the Germans used a virus which rendered the person inoculated with it subject to psychic control. The daughter of Colonel Briar of the British Secret Service is in danger. The Germans also provide a double of her sweetheart. The true sweetheart makes a dream journey to save her. [e) A PREHISTORIC VENDETTA. Excavations reveal the skeleton of a murdered paleolithic man and that of his murderer. A modern murder parallels the ancient one, even to physical peculiarities. Reincarnation and/or possession. * Crude, sensational stories of World War I vintage, presumably reprinted from periodicals. Sometimes on the silly side.

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KIP, LEONARD KING, C[HARLES) DALY (1895-1963) Psychologist, writer of mystery stories. Doctorate from Yale. Best-known works, apart from the following book, BEYOND BEHAVIORISM (1923) and series of "Obelist" detective novels. 950. THE CURIOUS MR. TARRANT Crime Club, Collins; London [1935) One of the legendary rare books in detective fiction, this contains eight cases solved by dilettante detective Trevis Tarrant. Six are seemingly supernatural crimes that have rational explanations. These are outside our area of interest. Two, however, involve true supernaturalism: [a) THE EPISODE OF THE MAN WITH THREE EYES. Mr. Hor, a mysterious personage, supplies a small amount of supernatural knowledge. [b) THE EPISODE OF THE FINAL BARGAIN. Tarrant's faithful female companion is psychically' attacked. She falls into a coma and obviously will soon die. Her astral body, it is explained by Hor, is being manipulated. King, under Hor's guidance releases his own astral body for a short time, in order to save the young woman. The ending is surprising. * [b) is much the best story in the book, which otherwise, to my mind, does not deserve the high ratings it has received. KINROSS, ALBERT (1870-1929) British author, contributor to periodicals around the turn of the century. 951. THE FEARSOME ISLAND BEING A MODERN RENDERING OF THE NARRATIVE OF ONE SILAS FORDRED, MASTER MARINER OF HYTHE [etc.) Arrowsmith; Bristol [1896) Ostensibly the adventures of a shipwrecked seaman, around 1560, on an enchanted island somewhere in the Atlantic. * Silas Fordred and a companion, soon dead, are cast up on an island filled with perils that seem supernatural. There is a gigantic "living" idol that cuts in two those who try to steal its gems, and a castle with countless perils and traps. Also present on the island are a hairy man and an old woman, the daughter of the Spanish sorcerer Diego Rodriguez, who prepared the traps. Fordred sees the many perils as supernatural, but the modern reader will recognize them as performed by mechanics, electricity, poison gases, photography, and ~imilar means. Borderline science-fiction. * An interesting account, despite a very suspect 16th century dialect and some anachronisms beyond the inventions. KIP, LEONARD (1826-1906) American (Albany, N.Y.) attorney, occasional writer of travel books (California), contributor to periodicals and newspapers. 952. HANNIBAL'S MAN AND OTHER TALES THE ARGUS CHRISTMAS STORIES The Argus Co.; Albany, N. Y. 1878 Short stories. All except [d) are reprinted from Christmas issues of the Albany ARGUS. * Including [a) HANNIBAL'S MAN. Switzerland. The narrator and his wife Ursula find what seems to be a statue imbedded in the ice of a

KIP, LEONARD glacier. When they remove it, they find it is a frozen man in armor, who thaws out very readily. He was a soldier in Hannibal's army. The Carthaginian, after visiting the sites of Rome and Carthage, returns to Switzerlanu and offers to exchange his jewelry for Ursula. The narrator is unwilling, and since the Carthaginian is a turbulent fellow, trouble ensues. During a chase, the Carthaginian falls into another crevasse in the glacier, and this time the narrator and his wife leave him where he is. [b] IN THREE HEADS. A long short story set in old Dutch New York, 1758. A Ch"ristmas party. A ghost in ancient costume reveals the location of the long-lost Hillebrandt Patent to the land, signed by Stuyvesant, Indians, and all. [c] THE GHOSTS AT GRANTLEY. The ghosts of two 18th century brothers, hostile to each other, appear every Christmas. One was hanged for murdering the other. It is discovered that he was innocent. When the ghosts are convinced that they are really both dead, they cease the haunting. [d] PRIOR POLYCARP'S PORTRAIT. The narrator, a rather slippery physician, hopes to marry the daughter of the house. He helps himself, when no one is about, to a bottle of port; he later learns that it was a special bottle, which according to family tradition will afford a divination for the household. The unfortunate point for the doctor is that he had rather foolishly slipped a proposal of marriage into the bottle. He is saved by the ghost of Prior Polycarp, who watches over the family fortunes. Only a few words on the note are legible, and these reveal the location of long-missing documents. The doctor does not get his bride. [e] ST. NICHOLAS AND THE GNOME. Nick is tired and disillusioned. A gnome restores his zest for the job. * [a] is in part a child of FRANKENSTEIN. Much more interesting than the five described stories is "The Secret of Apollonius Septrio," one of the most imaginative early science-fiction stories of evolution and one-way time travel. KIPLING, [JOSEPH] RUDYARD (1865-1936) Anglo-Indian author, often considered the poetic spokesman of British 19th century imperialism. Born in Bombay, educated in Great Britain, resident again in India 1882-9. Spent remainder of life in Great Britain except for four unhappy years (1892-6) in Vermont, and frequent travels. Rejected position of poet laureate in 1895; received Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907. Extremely popular in English-speaking world up until later years, but since then has been under a cloud for narrow, jingoistic Weltanschauung. A small revival of interest in his poetry took place after T. S. Eliot praised it, but at present Kipling is read almost solely in his juvenile and semi-juvenile work: THE JUNGLE BOOK (1894), THE SECOND JUNGLE BOOK (1895)-- despite elements of satire. A reasonable modern evaluation of his fiction is

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KIPLING, RUDYARD that at best he was an excellent storyteller, often with original ideas; that he had the ability to see stories in hitherto unappreciated situations; but that he was a very uneven writer, with much inferior work. In the following section THE JUNGLE BOOKS, PUCK OF POOK'S HILL, REWARDS AND FAIRIES, THE BRUSHWOOD BOY and his other books for the yeung have not been described. Nor has it seemed worthwhile to list his many stories that are fantastic only in invoking the pathetic fallacy, with talking animals or objects. 953. THE PHANTOM 'RICKSHAW AND OTHER TALES A. H. Wheeler and Co.; Allahabad [1888] paperbound Short stories set in India, including [a] THE PHANTOM 'RICKSHAW. Jack, a selfish brute, has had an affair with Mrs. Alice Keith-Wessington, and he has treated her badly. In the hope of a more advantageous marriage, he ha~ discarded her, although she (a rather stupid woman) is deeply in love with him. She follows him about in her 'rickshaw, trying to awaken his love again. When she dies, he thinks for a short time that he is free of her, but her ghost, in the phantom 'rickshaw, is even more of a problem than the living woman. His marriage falls through, his health declines, and he will soon be dead. Nicely imagined. Conscience? [b] MY OWN TRUE GHOST STORY. From one room of the dak bungalow (guest house) come the sounds of a ghostly billiards game. But nothing is to be seen. The native attendant reports that the empty room used to be a billiards room. Explained as a rat and window furniture. 954. PLAIN TALES FROM THE HILLS Thacker, Spink and Co.; Calcutta 1888 Short stories set in India, including [a] THE BISARA OF POOREE. In a richly jewelled box rests a small wooden fish. This is the bisara, a potent love charm. It operates only if it changes hands by being stolen. If it is come by honestly, it causes death within three years-- unless passed on. [b] BY WORD OF MOUTH. Epidemics. Dr. Dumoise's wife dies of typhoid, but her spirit appears to a native boy and gives him a message for her husband. She will meet him next month. He dies of cholera. [c] IN THE HOUSE OF SUDDHOO. Seemingly effective Indian magic, but really legerdemain. * Certain later editions of PLAIN TALES FROM THE HILLS, as in the OUTWARD BOUND EDITION, add [d] HAUNTED SUBALTERNS. Violent poltergeistic and Spiritualistic phenomena are associated with two young men in the Indian Army. Most striking is a banjo that plays by itself. It all might be an elaborate practical joke perpetrated by pranksters, but this does not seem possible. Is it all genuine? 955. LIFE'S HANDICAP BEING STORIES OF MINE OWN PEOPLE Macmillan; London 1891 Short stories and verse, including La] THE MARK OF THE BEAST. India. Fleete, drunk and uncontrollable, profanes the temple of Hanuman. One of the priests, a silver man (i.e., a leper in an advanced stage of the disease), places the curse of Hanuman on Fleete. Fleete,

KIPLING, RUDYARD thereupon becomes like an animal. The curse must be lifted. His friends kidnap the leper and use red-hot rifle barrels to persuade him to release F1eete. [b] THE DREAM OF DUNCAN PARRENNESS. A symbolic dream, whereby material success but spiritual failure are promised to a young man. There is material proof of his dream when he awakens. His name, it is presumed, is symbolic. * [a] is a brutal but effective story. 956. MANY INVENTIONS Macmillan; London 1893 Short stories and verse, including [a] THE CHILDREN OF THE ZODIAC. In the remote past six of the signs of the zodiac lived on earth and were like minor gods: the bull, the ram, the lion, the twins, and the maiden. Leo and Virgo assume humanity, since they wish to learn about' life and death. When death comes, they are not afraid. Death must be accepted. [b] "THE FINEST STORY IN THE WORLD." Charlie Mears, an otherwise commonplace young man, has one astonishing ability: he can remember flashes of a life in Scandinavia and" North America around 1,000 A.D., and before that a life in Greece. It would be the finest story, says Grish Chunder, but it can never be told, for it would upset the world. In any case, adds Chunder, when Mears experiences love, his memories of previous incarnations will no longer come to him. And so it proves. [c] THE LOST LEGION. A British invasion force in Afghanistan, moving in on the fort in the dark, seems to have additional soldiers and good assistance. Ghosts of dead warriors. 957. TRAFFICS AND DISCOVERIES Macmillan; London 1904 Short stories and verse, including [a] "WIRELESS." Speculation from the early days of experimenting with radio. A parallel is drawn between the behavior of Hertzian (radio) waves and the poetic impulse. A stirring of the ether results in activating a sensitive mechanism in both case. In one, an eager amateur tries to pick up signals from Poole, and overhears the conversation of two warships. In the other, a man with terminal consumption composes "The Eve of St. Agnes," starting with inferior versions and gradually approaching the final text. Aspects of his life paralleled Keats's. [b] "THEY." The narrator, missing the road, drives his motor car into a garden in the country. He hears the voices of children, sees the children, and is unexpectedly welcomed by the blind woman who lives in the house. He demonstrates his motor car to them. On future visits he continues to see and hear the children, and overhears local folklore without really understanding it, until the recognition comes to him: the children are the ghosts of local dead who "walk in the wood." * Among Kipling's better short stories. Far more complex and thought-provoking than the earlier narratives and anecdotal tales. 958. ACTIONS AND REACTIONS Macmillan; London 1909 Short stories and verse, including [a] THE HOUSE SURGEON. A detective story of sorts.

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KIPLING, RUDYARD The house is beautiful; no one has ever died in it, it is so salubrious; but it is filled with an almost tangible feeling of depression and despondency. It drives its inhabitants to rest cures. The narrator decides to investigate the situation, and after some rather ludicrous errors, learns the cause of the mood permeating the house. One of the previous owners had fallen out of a window and died. A surviving sister was sure that the death was suicide, and her anger and pain focused on the house and remained there. They are lifted when she is convinced that the death was accidental. 959. DEBITS AND CREDITS Macmillan; London 1926 Short stories and verse, including [a] THE ENEMIES TO EACH OTHER. The early days in the Garden",of Eden and immediately after the Expulsion, told from the basis of Moslem folklore and scriptures. Among differences from the Christian myth are several etiological legends, including the roles of the peacock and the mole. The peacock connived at Eblis's penetration of the Garden, and the mole lost its vision because it spied on Adam and Eve. The story ends with our first parents accepting life, after episodes in which (urged by Eblis) they committed the crime of self-idolatry. [b] THE GARDENER. Little Michael Turrell, an illegitimate child, is brought up by his maiden aunt, who is devoted to him. When World War I comes, he enlists and is soon recorded as miSSing in action. Eventually his body is found and buried in one of the enormous Belgian military cemeteries. His aunt visits the cemetery, and is helped to find his grave by a man who had been putting flowers on the graves. As she leaves, she looks back, thinking still that he is a gardener. Perhaps Jesus? Perhaps Death? [cJ ON THE GATE. A TALE OF '16. "Office official izes the best of us." The reception area of Heaven during World War I is pandemonium complicated by the most pervasive and annoying bureaucracy and red tape. St. Peter, who converses with Death, is a most humane person who uses subterfuges, legalistic tricks, and propagandist devices to force the dead (who seem low in self-esteem) into Heaven. The imps of the Lower Establishment do not have much chance. Also present are Judas, Shakespeare, Calvin. * Nicely handled, with good ironic touches. 960. LIMITS AND RENEWALS Macmillan; London 1932 Short stories and verse, including [a] UNCOVENANTED MERCIES. Connected with ON THE GATE. Problems of life and afterlife as seen in a pseudo-Biblical eschatology. Two Guardian Spirits have disregarded their orders and have permitted their human charges to meet. The result is a love affair for the humans. But the Archangel of the English, a stuffy, officious fool, objects; he had intended to use the humans for higher purposes. More benevolent than he are Death (the Angel Azrael) , Gabriel, and Satan. Love and the Guardian

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Spirits are strongest and win out. * A curious story, densely written, bitter, and somewhat cryptic. KIRK, RUSSELL [AMOS] (1918 American educator, political theorist, author, columnist. Has taught history of civilization at Michigan State College, East Lansing, and political theory at C.W. Post College. Prominent member of New Conservatives. Publication, THE CONSERVATIVE MIND (1953). Resident in Scotland for a time, LL. D. University of Edinburgh. 961. THE SURLY SULLEN BELL TEN STORIES AND SKETCHES, UNCANNY OR UNCOMFORTABLE Fleet Publishing Corp.; New York [1962] Short stories from various periodical sources. Including [a] UNCLE ISAIAH. When a "protective association" operated by ex-convict Costa tries to extort money from Daniel Kinnaird of Kinnaird's Cleaners, Kinnaird invokes his strange Uncle Isaiah, who had disappeared years earlier. Isaiah appears and arranges a meeting with Costa. Both disappear as a gigantic bird is seen flying over the ~udflats. [b] EX TENEBRIS. Mrs. Oliver, a very old woman who has returned to England after a lifetime in India, is settled in a somewhat decrepit cottage in Low Wentworth. The local planning officer wants to remove her and raze the cottage. She appeals to the non-existent vicar of the deserted church, and a long-dead cleric, burning with anger and righteousness comes to her aid. [c] THE SURLY SULLEN BELL. Mr. Loring visits Mrs. Schumacher, an old flame, at the wish of her husband. He finds her in bad health. Poison and mind control are involved. [d] THE CELLAR OF LITTLE EGYPT. Told in terms of the narrator's Uncle Jake, a drunkard who swears off drink after the mysterious crime and still more mysterious solution. Turn of the century small-town America. Involved are mediumistic phenomena, psychic abilities, murder, and a revenant. [e] SORWORTH PLACE. Head-wounded war veteran Bain comes into the life of Mrs. Lurlin, impoverished proprietess of a dismal great house in Scotland. Her husband, who was given to nameless evils, died about a year before, and promised to return for her on the anniversary of his death. [f] BEHIND THE STUMPS. The poor whites of Pottawattomie County are a problem to census takers, and Special Interviewer Cribben, a hard man, is sent in. He fulfills his task, except for the isolated Gholsons. When he visits them, he learns why the Gholsons are feared. Dead. [g] WHAT SHADOWS WE PURSUE. Mr. Stoneburner, bookdealer, buys 12,000 books from the library of the deceased Mr. Corr. Strange things happen. The gas is turned on; books move about; and eventually the expected discovery is made. Also a short essay on supernatural fiction. Kirk accomplishes the unusual feat of writing convincingly about both Great Britain and small-town America. His stories, while traditional and literal, are

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KNIGHT, DAMON high-level commercial fiction. [c], [d].

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KNEALE, [THOMAS] NIGEL (1922 British author, actor, playwright. Scriptwriter for BBC, including noteworthy QUATERMASS series, later turned into novels and motion pictures. Best-known most recent work, THE YEAR OF THE SEX OLYMPICS (1976). Betterknown in Great Britain than in America. 962. TOMATO CAIN AND OTHER STORIES W. Collins; London 1949 Foreword by Elizabeth Bowen. Short stories, including [a] ENDERBY AND THE SLEEPING BEAUTY. Told by a Cockney during World War II. A British Tommie in North Africa comes upon an enchanted city, la Arabian Nights, kisses the princess, and barely manages to escape. [b] "MINUKE" Poltergeistic phenomena of the utmost enthusiasm take place in a house built atop an ancient megalithic site. [c] THE PHOTOGRAPH. Borderline supernatural. A delirious child confuses himself with a photograph of himself. [d] CURPHEY'S FOLLOWER. Borderline supernatural. A bedraggled duck may be Curphey's follower. [e] PEG. After-death experiences of a girl. Poignant. [f] ZACHARY CREBBIN'S ANGEL. Perhaps he was visited by an angel who left him flowers from paradise. [g] THE STOCKING. Monkeys emerge from the ceiling, walls, onto a sick child. Perhaps delirium. [h] THE POND. The old man captures frogs from the pond, flays them, and mounts them in parodies of human activities. When the last frog in the pond has been taken, it is his turn, and his naked corpse is found mounted, in the semblance of a frog. [i] THE PATTER OF TINY FEET. Psychic phenomena, perhaps the foot patter of a ghost child that never existed, perhaps a projection from its dead mother, perhaps fraud. A sordid background. Most of the other fiction in the book falls into much the same pattern: horrors implicit in everyday situations, as experienced by small British folk. At times there is a resemblance to the work of A. E. Coppard. While Kneale's work is uneven, [fl, [h], [il, as well as some of the non-fantastic stories are certainly worth reading.

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KNIGHT, DAMON [FRANCIS] (1922Noted American science-fiction author, editor, critic. Has prepared many anthologies, most important being 13 FRENCH SCIENCE-FICTION STORIES (1965) and the ORBIT series. 963. TURNING ON Ace Books; New York [1966] paperbound Mostly science-fiction, but including [a] ERIPMAV, described.elsewhere. [b] BACKWARD, 0 TIME. (GALAXY 1956) Alternate title, THIS WAY TO THE EGRESS. Time moves backward, people are returned to the womb, etc. [c] THE NIGHT OF LIES. (MFSF 1957) The last four humans after the invaders from the stars: the greatest scientist, the greatest singer, the greatest boxer, the greatest whore. But they are all only abstractions which quickly vanish. Dream pro-

KNIGHT, DAMON jections. [d] MAID TO MEASURE. (MFSF, 1966) yana's mother was a witch. Yana can change into things-- including a bikini. [e] A LIKELY STORY. (INFINITY, 1956) Conte A clef about a small science-fiction convention, with members of the writing population of the New York area, all easily identifiable. The story line is not clear, but since one sequence involves a literal rain of cats and dogs, the story must be fantastic. AS EDITOR: Doubleday; Garden City, 964. THE DARK SIDE New York 1965 Including, described elsewhere, [a] THEY, R. A. Heinlein. [b] MISTAKE INSIDE, James Blish. [c] TROUBLE WITH WATER, H. L. Gold. [d] THE STORY OF THE LATE MR. ELVESHAM, H. G. Wells. [e] IT, Theodore Sturgeon. [f] NELLTHU, Anthony Boucher. [g] CASEY AGONISTES, Richard McKenna. [h] THE MAN WHO NEVER GREW YOUNG, Fritz Leiber. * Also [i] THE BLACK FERRIS, Ray Bradbury. (WT 1948) The giant Ferris wheel, as a symbol of time, takes Mr. Cooper into childhood or old age. Two boys frustrate his plans for crime. An excellent story. [j] C/O MR. MAKEPEACE, Peter Phillips. (MFSF 1954) Makepeace, shell-shocked in World War II, suddenly starts receiving mail for a Mr. E. Grabcheek. He has a breakdown and becomes institutionalized, but the mail continues to corne, even though .it seems "proved" that Makepeace himself had been sending it. The psychiatrist speculates that a dissociated personality fragment can have a life of its own, and is usually evil. A devil. [k] EYE FOR INIQUITY, T. L. Sherred. (BEYOND, 1953) The narrator discovers a way, easily teachable to others, of making perfect counterfeit money by will-power. KNIGHT, ERIC MOWBRAY (1897-1943) Anglo-American writer, lived in Yorkshire unt.il 1912, then removed to America, with many changes of residence, though mostly in Philadelphia area. Studied as artist, but abandoned art because of color blindness. Worked on Philadelphia newspapers. During World War II, Special Services Division, killed in 1943. Best-known work LASSIE COME HOME, although Sam Small Yorkshire stories at one time had an almost cultic status among readers of fantastic £iction. 965. SAM SMALL FLIES AGAIN THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF THE FLYING YORKSHIREMAN Harper; New York [1942] Stories centered more or less on Sam Small, the archetypal Yorkshireman. * Including [a] STRONG IN THE ARMS. Sam was once witness to an incredible contest between Black Cawper, the local strong man, and Wada, an ancient Saxon, who is doomed to haunt Wada's Keep until a better man than he comes along. Cawper loses, but he gives Wada another chance a generation later, with his wife. [b] SAM SMALL'S BETTER HALF. Once Sam split into two men, one of whom held his good qualities, while the other embodied his minor faults. The good Sam stayed at home and was attentive to his

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KNOWLES, VERNON wife, while the other took a holiday at Blackpool. Sam's wife must decide what to do. [c] THE FLYING YORKSHIREMAN. Nouvelle. While Sam and his wife are in Hollywood, where their daughter is trying to break into motion pictures, Sam discovers that he can fly. The secret is faith. Strong satire on local folkways. This, the first story about Sam Small, was published in a collection of nouvelles by various hands titled THE FLYING YORKSHIREMAN, edited by Whit Burnett (Harper; New York 1938). [d] SAM SMALL'S TYKE. Sam "finds" a most attractive little bitch, although there is a Gipsy who claims that she is his. The Gipsy mutters a charm as he leaves. The dog is so intelligent that she can almost talk. She soon does, and then turns into a handsome young woman-- while Sam's wife is away. * Among the best humorous fantasy of its generation. * To complete the confusion hinted at above in [c], this collection was reissued by World Publishing (Cleveland, 1946) under the title THE FLYING YORKSHIREMAN. KNOWLES, VERNON (1899-1968) Writer of fiction, poet. Born, educated in Australia, later resident in Great Britain. Possibly resident in New York for a time. 966. THE STREET OF QUEER HOUSES AND OTHER STORIES Boullion-Biggs; New York 1924 Short stories and primitive fables of a sort. * Including [a] THE STREET OF QUEER HOUSES. An architect decides to express the twelve sides of himself in building, and designs twelve highly individual houses, which come to be inhabited by strange people. There is an old maid who finds a book that opens up for her the way to a paradisical world; a Doctor of Inanimate Surgery, who has endowed a table with chess-playing ability; a Gardener, who is transformed into a plant; a Man Who Dabbles in Magic makes a mistake in a spell and invokes the demon of destruction upon the street. [b] THE STAR-MAIDEN. The youth falls in love with the star-maiden, who comes down out of the sky to him. When the Lord of the Skies objects, Love overrules him. [c] THE WATCH. A horror dream convinces the dreamer that a watch he received mysteriously is a deadly device. True? [d] THE AUTHOR WHO ENTERED HIS MS. He enjoyed meeting his heroine, but an officious friend burns the ms. while he is in it. [e] THE PINE THAT WALKED. Zeus gave it the ability to walk at nights. It is chopped down. [f] THE COUNTRY OF THE GODS. A religiously faithful pagan is taken to the country of the gods, where he meets a young woman. [g] THE ELIZABETHAN GOWN. When a young woman puts on an Elizabethan gown, she meets a suitable lover, and they go back to Elizabethan times. [h] THE BOOK OF THE THOUSAND ANSWERS. A most potent book, the heart of the most powerful magic, but it has been lost for a long time. Karanda finds it, and the book saves him. [i] ROADS. The Man goes to the City Wonderful along the Road of Death. Life allegorized. * Rather weak, amateurish affairs, accompanied by drawings that must be

KNOWLES, VERNON seen to be believed. * The British edition of the same title (Wells Gardner, Darton; London 1925) is a different collection. It contains [a], [d], [g], [h] and the follmving new stories: [j] HONEYMOON COTTAGE. A dead girl brought back to life by a magician lacks desire to live and commits suicide. [k] THE HOUSE THAT TOOK REVENGE. When a disowned son dies of starvation, the house avenges him. [1] THE WEEPING GOD. He seems to weep because a stream falls upon his head. Siva. [m] A MATTER OF CHARACTERIZATION. The author's characters come to life, are dissatisfied with their portrayal, and kill the author. [n] THE HOUSE OF YESTERDAYS. Past days can be recreated here, but the price is enormous. [0] THE THREE GODS. They are supposed to be protecting the land, but they are faced the wrong way. [p] THE PENDANT. It conveys success, but permits no rest and causes death i f removed. [q] THE MAN WHO WAS TROUBLED BY HIS SHADOW. He tries to lose it. [r] THE IDEALIST. He makes dreams come true, and the outside world is offended. [s] THE BROKEN STATUE. A kindly god permits a girl to take the place of a statue that she broke. * Mostly short, undeveloped, semi-allegorical. 967 • TWO AND TWO MAKE FIVE Newnes; Lond on [1935] Fabular short stories, taken in part from earlier volumes. Including [a] THE CURIOUS ACTIVITIES OF BASIL THORPENDEN. He is an occult engineer, with a means of travelling through time, and an apparatus for storing emotions. He is also able to enter the Land of Ideas, where he progresses to the Territory of Reality. [b] THE FIRST COMING. Christ manifested himself (before the incarnation in Palestine) to a people who accepted him with love. This upset the Divine Plan, and the scenario had to be transferred. [c] THE BRIEF HISTORY OF A BOY WHO WAS DIFFERENT. His goodness itself was disturbing, but when he sported a halo, this was too embarrassing for his parents, who locked him up. His death comes as a relief. [d] THE TWO SELVES. Mr. Zaye is a capable magician, and during a ceremony he separates Blenkinsop into good and evil personalities. Zaye drops dead, and the personalities are left. Murder is the result, and the evil Blenkinsop, accepted calmly as a twin, is executed. [e] THE ROAD TO TOLBRISA. An imaginary land. One of the natives tells the traveller why the short cut is not used: man-killing trees. [f] THE GREAT ONION. The professor is developing the largest onion in the world. He is too successful. It almost takes over. [g] THE BIRDS. A deposed despot, held in ~onfinement, derives great pleasure from the birds outside his window. He vows to help them if he ever returns to power. But when he regains power, although he forgets his vow, the birds do not. [h] THE SHOP IN THE OFF STREET. It is a gateway to fairyland and a source for purchasing fairy things, like seven-league boots, workable wings, etc. When Beckett takes wings and enters fairyland, an idiotic doppelganger

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KORNBLUTH, CYRIL M. takes over his life. [i] THE GONG OF TRANSPORTATION. Imaginary land. The gong serves to transport objects, and King Merea devotes his life to stealing the marvels of the world, so that he can build a perfect realm. He dies of old age when he is satisfied, but his son is ready to start the process allover. [j] THE PAINTER OF TREES. Dying, the great painter is approached by the spirits of trees. He makes a single last sketch of the idea of a magnolia. Those who see the sketch after his death see that it is of a god. [k] THE CHIMPANZEE. Mr. Chelson, a drunken Englishman in the jungle, has spent 11 years training Teena, a chimpanzee, to act like a human and talk. Teena has his revenge. He and his fellow apes kidnap Chelson and train him to act like a chimp. [1] A SET OF CHINESE BOXES. Narratives within a frame situation, tall tales told to arouse the vitality of a sick man. There are four stories, as follows: [m] MR. ESDALE'S TALE OF THE DETACHABLE SOUL. Esdale, a successful burglar, has qualms about murder. His fellow criminals take him to a witch who gives him a medicine that enables him to detach his soul (or conscience) at the right time, so that no crime is too brutal for him. [n] MR. WESTOVER'S TALE OF THE MS. PRELUDE IN C MINOR. The only surviving manuscript of the great diabolic musician Restinya. Playing it evokes a monstrosity and the urge to kill. [0] MR. SEARLE'S TALE OF THE PORTRAIT-PAINTER. A demonic artist painted the narrator into a picture, where he was imprisoned for twenty years. When the house burns, he is released, still the same age as when he entered. [p] MR. HASSELL'S TALE OF THE WATER THAT QUENCHED THIRST. A supernatural drink that makes it both unnecessary and impossible ever to drink again. * Stories [e], [g], [h], U], [k] are from HERE AND OTHERWHERE (Robert Holden, London 1926). [f] and [i] are from SILVER NUTMEGS (Robert Holden, London 1927). * Considerable improvement over the first volume. KORNBLUTH, CYRIL M. (1923-1958) American science-fiction author, prolific contributor to the genre magazines. Now remembered for science-fiction stories THE LITTLE BLACK BAG, THE MARCHING MORONS and novel THE SPACE MERCHANTS (1953, in collaboration with Frederik Pohl). Much more important in s-f than in supernatural fiction. 968. THE EXPLORERS SHORT STORIES Ballantine Books; New York 1954 paperbound Introduction by Frederik Pohle * Sciencefiction stories mostly, but including [a] THE MINDWORM. (WORLDS BEYOND, 1950) One of the best science-fiction treatments of a supernatural theme. The Mindworm, mutation caused by atomic testing, is a mind vampire: he stimulates high emotion, then drains the person dead. He is unsuspected and unpunished among the big city folk, but when he moves to a West Virginia mining town, with a heavily Slavic and Balkan population, the people there recognize him and know what to do. [b] THIR-

KORNBLUTH, CYRIL TEEN O'CLOCK. (STIRRING SCIENCE, 1941) In his grandfather's secret room Peter finds the old clock with thirteen numerals on its face. When he starts it going, he finds himself in the Other World of Ellil, where magic operates. He finds a witch girl in peril, a corrupt magical-political organization in power, and his grandfather. Written when Kornluth was only 18, and should not have been reprinted. * [a] is an excellent story. 969. A MILE BEYOND THE MOON Doubleday; Garden City, N.Y. 1958 Mostly science-fiction, but including [a] KAZAM COLLECTS. (AVON FANTASY READER, 1951) Detective Fitzgerald investigates Kazam, of the Cult of Hagar. Kazam and the detective share the perils of fighting a hostile magician, Runi Sarif. This involves an Other World which is hell to most, but a heaven to Runi. Shape changing, transformations, magical duels. [b] THE WORDS OF GURU. (STIRRING SCIENCE FICTION STORIES, 1941) Peter, who establishes relations with Guru (presumably a demonic monster from another world, or something similar) gains magical power and even learns the Word that will destroy the world. * Both on the weak side, but the volume contains the classic s-f story, "The Little Black Bag." KORNBLUTH, MARY G. [BYERS] (1920Wife of Cyril Kornbluth. AS EDITOR: 970. SCIENCE FICTION SHOWCASE Doubleday; Garden City, N.Y. [1959] A memorial volume to the recently deceased Cyril Kornbluth. * Mostly science-fiction, but including [a] THAT LOW, Theodore Sturgeon. (FAMOUS FANTASTIC MYSTERIES, 1948) Maxwell Fowler, a desperately unhappy and unsuccessful engineer, a specialist in failure, goes to Mrs. Hallowell, psychic, who predicts his future. With one slight error. [b] OR THE GRASSES GROW, Avram Davidson. (MFSF, 1958) The TickisaIl Indians are being dispossessed from their reservation by big business interests, with government complicity. But there was a treaty guaranteeing the reservation as long as the sun shone and the grass grew. Old Uncle FoxHead works Indian magic to change the situation. [c] THE COLD GREEN EYE, Jack Williamson. (FANTASTIC, 1953) Young Tommy, who has been reared by Jains in the Himalayas, is sent to his nearest of kin, horrible Aunt Agatha Grimm in Kansas. Tommy causes her to enter her next cycle on the wheel of transmigration. Jain magic. [d] EXPENDABLE. Philip Dick. (MFSF, 1953) The war between man and the insects, personalized. eel MANTAGE, Richard Matheson. Owen Crowley, disappointed author, wishes that "life could be as simple as a movie. All the drudgery set aside in a few flashes of weary looks, disappointment " It becomes so for him. * [b] is excellent. KUMMER, FREDERIC ARNOLD (1873-1943) American writer of fiction, works on popular

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KUTTNER, HENRY science and history. Wrote mysteries, general fiction, science-fiction. Used pseudonym Arnold Fredericks. 971. GENTLEMEN IN HADES THE STORY OF A DAMNED DEBUTANTE Sears Publishing Co.; New York [1930] Soft-core erotica of the 20's. Lavinia McGann, a high-stepping debutante, is killed in an accident and awakens in Hell. Being an ambitious young woman, not overburdened with scruples, she vamps Ben Franklin, Noah, Adam, and finally even Satan himself. When Satan visits Earth, she acts as Satan's deputy. When the playboy responsible for her seduction and death appears in Hell, she marries him as the worst punishment that can be inflicted on him. * Froth, irony on high life of the 20's, feminism, flappers, etc. A period piece. * An earlier book, ~ADIES IN HADES (J. H. Sears; New York 1928) is in the same vein. KUTTNER, HENRY (1915-1958) Noted American (mostly California) writer of science-fiction, supernatural fiction, mysteries; in last years film script writer. Earliest work was in the mode of Lovecraft, but Kuttner soon outgrew this and became one of the best technicians in the genre magazines. His mysteries, too, are still highly regarded. Married to Catherine L. Moore (whom see) in 1940. Almost all work after this date is in collaboration with Moore. Important pseudonyms for Kuttner-Moore are Lawrence O'Donnell and Lewis Padgett. Much of Kuttner's best work is weird-science, and thereby is not really eligible for description here. 972. AHEAD OF TIME Ballantine Books; New York 1953 paperbound Science-fiction, but including [a] BY THESE PRESENTS. (FANTASTIC 1953) The Devil makes an arrangement with Fenwick: immortality and eternal youth. In exchange the Devil removes a few memories from Fenwick. Fenwick lives a triumphal life but does not enjoy it. * Also contains the fine "Home Is the Hunter." 973. THE DARK WORLD Ace Books; N~w York [1965] paperback Fantastic adventure in the mode of A. Merritt. ,~ (STARTLING STORIES 1946) * Parallel worlds, forked time streams, and potential transfer of persons between the two world~,. The story describes many phenomena that seem magical, but are explained "rationally." * Edward Bond, who has had curious experiences in the past, is drawn into the Dark World. He is told that he is Ganelon, a member of the Coven, the ruling group of the world. He still has the memories of Bond and knows little about his new circumstances, with the result that he almost falls prey to other members of the Coven. These include a vampiric woman, for whom he feels a physical attraction; a dwarf with powers like those of Medusa; a werewolf; and the "god" Llyr. Llyr is identified as a mutation that originally shocked earth and the Dark World apart. Ganelon/Bond plays both ends against the middle. Following the advice

KUTTNER, HENRY of Merlin, who survives in a moribund state, he acquires magical weapons and defences, and destroys both his associates in the Coven and the god Llyr. The final battle is between the Bond component and the Ganelon component.. * Not one of Kuttner's better works. WITH MOORE, C[ATHERINE] L.: 974. THE MASK OF CIRCE Ace Books; New York 1975 paperbound Fantastic adventure, borderline science-fiction. (STARTLING STORIES, 1948) * Two parallel universes occasionally meet, the last crossing and temporary merger having taken place about three thousand years ago. At present the universes are close again. Jay Seward, after psychiatric treatment, awakens in a land obviously related to that of Classical Greek mythology. There are satyrs, nymphs, sacred priestesses, and divinities. Seward also has an identity problem: he both is and is not Jason the Argonaut. At the moment the land is being torn apart by hostility between Hecate and Apollo, the last surviv[ng gods. While pretending to aid Apollo, Seward really fights for Hecate, largely because of Circe, Hecate's priestess. There has been a chain of Circes reaching back into Jason's age, and the fates of Jason and Circe are intertwined. The Circes retain common identity through a mask, which is really a very elaborate electronic device. In the past Jason had turned coward and had shirked his responsibility. The question is whether Seward will fulfill Jason's work in this incarnation. It is revealed that the old Greek gods had been benevolent human mutations arising during one of the universe-crossings of the past; that they had tried to create an even greater being, a giant intelligence, who became the evil Apollo. There are two weapons against Apollo, the Mask of Circe and the Golden Fleece, both of which are artifacts created by the longdead Hephaestus. Only a human can use them. Seward fulfills his destiny and destroys Apollo, but is returned to his own universe. Presumably he later returns to the Greek world and Circe. * In the mode of Merritt. Interesting for its application of weird science to mythic material. 1922) KYFF IN-TAYLOR , [LADY] BESSIE ( ? British author. 975. FROM OUT OF THE SILENCE SEVEN STRANGE STORIES Books Ltd.; l19 20] Seven short supernatural stories, somewhat reminiscent of the work of E. F. Benson. * La] "ROOM NUMBER TEN." Scot land, A haunted room where the murder of an old man by a nurse is occasionally reenacted. The ghost of the nurse is the ancestress of one of the present characters, and the two confront each other in defiance. [b] "TWO LITTLE RED SHOES." Children's ghosts. The children died of abuse. [c] "OUTSIDE THE HOUSE." One cannot leave the house at night. Windows and doors must be kept closed, or else the ghosts of dead miners will drag one underground. The miners died as the result of greed and callous-

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LAGERLOF, SELMA ness on the part of the mine owner, an ancestor of one of the characters. [d] "THE WIND IN THE WOODS." A supernatural wind buffets the wanderer in the woods. At the ruined cottage ghosts reenact a crime. Photographs reveal ghosts. [e] ''THE TWINS." Identical twins in whom good and evil are separated. The evil twin, after trying to frame his brother for a crime he himself committed, is hanged. But he haunts the living twin, disrupting his marriage. He is finally dispelled by love. [f] "SYLVIA." The protagonist sees the figures of ghostly Gipsies. Last century Gipsies kidnapped an amnesiac girl. [g] "THE STAR INN." Haunted by lovers and a white cat. * Routine work.

LA FARGE, OLIVER [HAZARD PERRY] (1901-1963) American anthropologist, administrator, writer of fiction. Author of fascinating TRIBES AND TEMPLES (with Eric Blom), expedition in search of Maya remains; Pulitzer-Prize winning LAUGH ING BOY (1929); THE YEAR BEARER'S PEOPLE (1931). Official adviser to Hopi Indians; authority on Indians of Southwestern United States and Middle America. Also a fine writer of fiction. 976. A PAUSE IN THE DESERT A COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES Houghton Mifflin; Boston 1957 Short stories, including [a] JOHN THE REVELATOR. Described elsewhere. [bl THE RESTING PLACE. Described elsewhere. [c] SPUD AND COCHISE. (1935) Southwestern folkloristic material, based on the tall tale. When Spud Flynn makes up his mind to help Elvira Hartshorn, he has to tangle with the supernal badman, Snakeweed. Snakeweed can be killed only with a magical bullet made by a Navajo medicine man, and Snakeweed has the bullet. It must be stolen, and Spud asks Cochise to help. They make magic together, and Cochise agrees. * Three excellent stories, of which [cl is outstanding. LAGERLOF, SELMA [OTTILIANA LOVISA] (1858-1940) Swedish author, first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature (1909). Much of work is based on Swedish folklore, with a fair amount of incidental supernaturalism. Most noted works, GOSTA BERLING (1894), THE RING OF THE LOWENSKOLDS (1928-31). Two generations ago her WONDERFUL ADVENTURES OF NILS, a juvenile story based on folklore, was very popular. A very capable author whose work is undeservedly forgotten. 977. INVISIBLE LINKS Little, Brown; Boston 1899 Translated from Swedish by Pauline Bancroft Flach. * Short stories, including [al THE

LAGERLOF, SELMA KING'S GRAVE. Tragedy and marginal existence in pre-modern Sweden. Tonne, who is a wood gatherer, falls in love with Jofrid, the daughter of the charcoal burner, when he sees her dancing in the woods. They marry, and their living situation is somewhat improved until they take in a foster-child. The child dies from neglect, though the neglect is not wilful. This shatters their harmony: Tonne wants to make complete restitution, while Jofrid, listening to the voice of old King Atle who sits nearby on his burial mound, is cold and casual about the matter. Her coldness about the situation causes her death; she is snatched into the mound by the dead king. [bl THE LEGEND OF REOR. Reor, a fine young man who is the best archer in the county, is offered a bride by the mountain giants. She is a beautiful young woman, and he accepts her. They are accompanied by the serpent of good fortune. lcl MAMSELL FREDRIKA. A fantastic treatment of the death of the early 19th century novelist Fredrika Bremer. She is taken to the mass of the shades by her dead sister and greets Death, a handsome young man. ldl HIS MOTHER'S PORTRAIT. The mother of old Mattson, a pilot, is accustomed to step out of her portrait frame and give Mattson good advice. She advises him to marry. * lal is excellent. The others are slight. LAING, ALEXANDER [KINNANI (1903 American poet, editor, editor (radio and technical magazines), educator and librarian (Dartmouth). Well-known in 1930's for two novels of borderline science-fiction interest. THE CADAVER OF GIDEON WYCK (1934) and THE MOTIVES OF NICHOLAS HOLTZ (1936, with Thomas Painter), both unusual in being hard-boiled s-f. AS EDITOR: 978. THE HAUNTED OMNIBUS Farrar and Rinehart; New York [19371 A large volume, including, described elsewhere, [al AUGUST HEAT. W. F. Harvey. [bl THE TREASURE OF ABBOT THOMAS, M. R. James. [cl THE WENDIGO, Algernon Blackwood. [dl THE SCREAMING SKULL, F. M. Crawford. [el THE MONKEY'S PAW, W.W. Jacobs. [fl THE HORLA, Guy de Maupassant. 19l LAURA, Saki. lhl THE WHITE PEOPLE, Arthur Machen. [il THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS, W. F. Harvey. ljl ADAM AND EVE AND PINCH ME, A. E. Coppard. [kl WHERE THEIR FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED, May Sinclair. [II AN OCCURRENCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE, Ambrose Bierce. lml THE GHOST SHIP, Richard Middleton. [nl WILLIAM WILSON, Edgar Allan Poe. [01 THE GENTLEMAN FROM AMERICA, Michael Arlen. lpl CASTING THE RUNES, M. R. James. [ql A MAN WITH TWO LIVES, Ambrose Bierce. [rl THE OPEN WINDOW, Saki. [sl THE WOMAN'S GHOST STORY, Algernon Blackwood. [tl THE HAUNTED HOTEL, Wilkie Collins. luI CLORINDA WALKS IN HEAVEN, A. E. Coppard. lvl GREEN THOUGHTS, John Collier. [wI A VISITOR FROM DOWN UNDER, L. P. Hartley. [xl PEREZ, w. L. George. lyl AFTERWARD, Edith Wharton. [zl THE FURNISHED ROOM, O. Henry. [aal MARKHEIM, R~ L. Stevenson. lbbl THE STORY OF MING-Y, Lafcadio

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LAMB, HUGH Hearn. [ccl THE HALF PINT FLASK, DuBose Heyward. [ddl THE YELLOW WALL PAPER, Charlotte Perkins Stetson. [eel THE KING OF THE WORLD, A. E. Coppard. * Also [ffl THE GHOSTS OF WULAKAI, Owen Lattimore. Folklore gathered at a Manchu settlement, not too far from Peking. Ghosts of soldiers. Perhaps factual. [ggl THE SECOND KALANDAR'S TALE, from the Arabian Nights. The kalandar had been transformed in,to an ape by the jinn Jirjaris, whose wife the kalandar had seduced. The human princess Sitt al-Husn, skilled in magic, recognizes his true nature and battles with the jinn in a thrilling magical combat, with many transformations. [hhl FULL FATHOM FIVE, Alexander Woollcott. The familiar anecdote of the spectral appearance and the sprig of seaweed it conveniently leaves behind as proof of its presence. [iiI THE FEATHER CLOAK, Johannes C. Andersen. (Hans Christian Andersen) A Hawaiian myth told in modern form. * There are also many fragments from earlier literary and folkloristic sources: Pliny, Sir Thomas Browne, John Aubrey, BEOWULF, THE GRETTIR SAGA, etc. * A * An abridged edition of good collection. this book has been published as GREAT GHOST STORIES OF THE WORLD (1941). It omits stories [pI, [ql, lrl, [sl, ltl, [ul, [vI, [wI, [yl, [ffl.

LAMB, HUGH (1946British editor, anthologist, specializing mostly in Victorian collections. AS EDITOR: 979. VICTORIAN TALES OF TERROR W. H. Allen; London 1974 The Coronet (London 1976) edition has been read. * Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [al XELUCHA, M. P. Shiel. [bl THE SHADOW IN THE MOONLIGHT, Mrs. Molesworth. [cl THE LAST OF SQUIRE ENNISMORE, Mrs. Riddell. [dl WOLVERDEN TOWER, Grant Allen. [el MADAM CROWL'S GHOST, J. S. LeFanu. [fl THE BLACK LADY OF BRIN TOR, Guy Boothby. [gl THE DEAD MAN OF VARLEY GRANGE, Anonymous. * Also, [hI THE MURDERER'S VIOLIN, Emile Erckmann and Pierre Chatrian. Switzerland. The musician Hafitz puts up at a dismal inn, his thoughts full of the violinist Melchior, who has been hanged for murdering his mistress. The ghost of Melchior appears. Slight variant of the murder-inn theme. [il THE CAVE OF BLOOD, Dick Donovan. (Pseud. of Joyce E. P. Muddock) This is essentially the same story as THE PREDICTION, Anonymous, in the anthology TALES OF THE WILD AND THE WONDERFUL. According to Lamb it is from Donovan's TALES OF TERROR (1899), no copy of which is available in American libraries. W. H. Allen; London 980. TERROR BY GASLIGHT 1975 Victorian fiction, some supernatural, some not. * Including, described elsewhere, lal NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH, Rhoda Broughton. Alternate title for THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH. [b I THE HAUNTED HOUSE OF PADDINGTON, Charles OIlier. [cl THE HOUSE OF STRANGE STORIES, Andrew Lang.

LAMB, HUGH [d] THE INVISIBLE EYE, Erckmann-Chatrian. [e] THE EARTH DRAWS, Jonas Lie. [f] THE WONDERSMITH, Fitz-James O'Brien. 19] KENTUCKY'S GHOST, Elizabeth S. P. Ward. [h] THE BASILISK, R. Murray Gilchrist. * Also [i] A DEAD MAN'S TEETH, S. Baring-Gould. Told by a Cornish quarryman: a skull had been found and the quarryman took some of its teeth as a charm. The teeth brought him dreams of life as a drunken, roaring squire. [j] THE DOOMED MAN, Dick Donovan. (from TALES OF TERROR, 1899) Sea horror. Captain Tredegar, as narrated by a smug, prying mate, is a haunted man. He had been responsible for the capture and execution of a criminal, and the criminal cursed him with a haunting. The narrator sees the ghost. [k] THE WEIRD WOMAN, Anonymous. Alternate title for THE TREGETHAN'S CURSE, Anonymous, described elsewhere. * The two new stories are negligible. 981. VICTORIAN NIGHTMARES W. H. Allen; London 1977 Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE DEVIL OF THE MARSH, H. B. Marriott-Watson. [b] THE RETURN, R. Murray Gilchrist. [c] THE CORPSE LIGHT, Dick Donovan. [d] GHOSTS THAT HAVE HAUNTED ME, J. K. Bangs. Alt. title for GHOSTS I HAVE MET. [e] THE MAN WITH THE NOSE, Rhoda Broughton. [f] THE SHIP THAT SAW A GHOST, Frank Norris. [g] A STRANGE GOLDFIELD, Guy Boothby. [h] THE STORY OF BAELBROW, E. and H. Heron. * Also [i] THE HAUNTED CHAIR, Richard Marsh. Fleming, a rotter who should be in Ceylon as a remittance man, appears and lifts money from acquaintances. Astral body. [j] HAUNTED BY SPIRITS, George Manville Fenn. Humor. The haunted room; too much spirits. [k] A GHOST SLAYER, J. Keighley Snowden. Yorkshire dialect. Weasel kills the ghost of old Betty, but the phantom coach is another matter. LAMPORT, RICHARD FIFIELD British author. 982. VEENI THE MASTER "THE STORY OF A DREAM" A ROMANCE Stanley Paul; London [1912] Occult novel with a slight nod towards sciencefiction. * Adrian Osgood, a modern mystic, would like to know the First Cause. Instead, he is approached by a spiritual being that calls itself Veeni. Veeni tells him that a comet is approaching the earth and will destroy it in a few months. He offers to remove Osgood's personality to another world in exchange for Osgood's soul after death. Osgood accepts. Veeni makes the same offer to many others, all of whom accept, despite the warnings warnings of Alythes, a good spirit who is disguised as a cardinal. Veeni transports his charges to the planet of Zan, which revolves around Sirius, and attacks the natives, who do not accept his domination. After Veeni takes the capital of the planet, there is a grand revelation: Alythes reveals himself to be the angel Gabriel, and Veeni is unmasked as Satan. Satan is swindled out of his souls. * The author reveals that he has modelled his work after the novels of Marie Corelli. A curiosity, only.

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LA SPINA, GREYE LANG, ANDREW (1844-1912) Scottish literary figure, folklorist. One of the most gifted and versatile men of his generation. Literary editor for Longmans; important critic and reviewer. Poet. Historian, particularly matters of Scottish history. Major figure in British anthropological school of folklore. Writer of fiction. Translator of Odyssey and Iliad. Compiler and writer of "color" fairy tale collections. Best-known works BALLADES IN BLUE CHINA; THE ODYSSEY, A PROSE TRANSLATION (with S. H. Butcher); . PICKLE THE SPY; MYTH, LITERATURE, AND RELIGION; BLUE FAIRY TALE BOOK, etc. A remarkable man, but it is unfortunate that no one of his achievements is great enough to merit permanent memory. Lang, together with W. H. Pollock (and perhaps with the assistance of H. Rider Haggard) wrote a parody of Haggard's SHE. This is HE, published anonymously, not to be confused with John De Morgan's work of the same name. It is not fantastic enough to merit separate description. It consists of adventures around London paralleling those of Holly and Vincey, culminating in a swindle. 983. IN THE WRONG PARADISE AND OTHER STORIES Kegan Paul, Trench and Co.; London 1886 Short stories, including [a] THE END OF PHAEACIA. Based on Lang's folkloristic reconstruction of Classical culture. Mr. Gowles, a bigot ted missionary is cast up on Phaeacia, where he unwittingly fulfills an ancient prophecy and causes the destruction of the island. [b] IN THE WRONG PARADISE. The recently deceased first goes to the wrong paradise, that of the Ojibbeway Indians. From there he proceeds to the Greek~ and finally to the Moslem paradise, where, to save a friend who has been sentenced to Hell, he performs magic and destroys everything. A dream. [cl THE HOUSE OF STRANGE STORIES. Four anecdotes told at a house party; the ghost of a Catholic priest who had committed the sin of writing down a confession and wanted the paper destroyed; a woman who died in the haunted tower; a guest who had the feeling of being watched; and the young man who looked out his window and saw a spectral hearse, the driver of which he recognized later, in life. All folkloristic. [dl IN CASTLE PERILOUS. An interview with a ghost. * Competent stories, nicely written. This volume also contains Lang's celebrated essay "The Great Gladstone Myth," in which he proved by the methods followed by Max Mueller and Gladstone, that Gladstone was simply a solar myth. LA SPINA, GREYE (nee BRAGG, FANNY GREYE) (1880-1969) American writer for popular magazines, remembered mostly for her work in early issues of WEIRD TALES. Fairly well-known hand weaver. Also newspaper photographer. 984. INVADERS FROM THE DARK Arkham Houoe; 1960 Sauk City, Wisc. Supernatural novel, originally published in

LA SPINA, GREYE WT (1925),somewhat revised for book publication. * Horror with a feminine orientation. Portia Delorme marries Howard Differdale, an occultist and white magician. For magical reasons their marriage is never consummated, but Portia learns quite a bit of magic from Howard before he dies. * Most of the book is concerned with the conflict between Portia and the Princess Tchernova, a wealthy, beautiful, Russian werewolf. Both women desire the same man, Owen Edwardes. The princess tries to attract Owen and transform him into a werewolf, while Portia persistently tries to rescue him. Owen has been transformed and the princess seems the victor, when a jealous Russian suitor kills her. Other supernaturalisms include plants and spells to transform one into a werewolf, and Portia's investigations while in the astral body. There is also an unnecessary world-peril frame. * Commercial fiction of its day. LAWRENCE, MARGERY (marriage name TOWLE, MRS. ARTHUR E.) (c. 1895? 1969) British author, journalist. Converted to Spiritualism in later years. Apparently most of her collections of short stories contain individual supernatural items, but her work is extraordinarily difficult to find in the United States. 985. NUMBER SEVEN QUEER STREET BEING SOME STORIES TAKEN FROM THE PRIVATE CASEBOOK OF DR. MILES PENNOYER RECORDED BY HIS FRIEND AND OCCASIONAL ASSISTANT JEROME LATIMER Robert Hale; London 1945 Exploits of an occult detective. * [a] THE CASE OF THE BRONZE DOOR. A Chinese bronze door serves as a focus for the spirit of an ancient Chinese princess. A triangle results. Pennoyer persuades the princess to release the man she is haunting. [b] THE CASE OF THE HAUNTED CATHEDRAL. Two ghosts are seen around the cathedral, that of the architect and that of a little girl whom he sacrificed to stop the run of misfortunes during the building of the edifice. Exorcised. [c] THE CASE OF ELLA McLEOD. Ella, a Scottish serving woman, feels a strong attachment to a dog. Pennoyer discovers that they had been brother and sister in a previous incarnation. They go off into the spirit world crying Greek to one another. [d] THE CASE OF THE WHITE SNAKE. An orphanage into which an enormous white serpent-like thing creeps nightly. It is an ectoplasmic projection, caused by love. Pennoyer serves as matchmaker. [e] THE CASE OF THE MOONCHILD. A lunar cult in England maintains a school of black magic. An attempt is made to create a Black Messiah. Pennoyer invokes the Sons of Fire, benevolent spiritual beings, who burn up the black magicians. The cult is obviously modelled upon Aleister Crowley's Thelema in Sicily. [f] THE CASE OF THE YOUNG MAN WITH THE SCAR. A rather confused story of an evil American Indian foster mother who works mesmeric magic, brotherhood with a tree, and ghosts. 19] THE CASE OF THE LEANNABH SIDHE. The Irish fairies are incensed when Flaherty

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drives a golf course through their council grounds. He is killed in an "accident," and the fairies leave a changeling in place of his son. It is for Pennoyer to make peace with the angry Siddhe and persuade them to take back the changeling. It is a dangerous commission. * Literate, but smothered in words. [g] has a couple of good moments. LAYLAND-BARRATT, FRANCES (c. 1890? - 1953) British occasional poet, author. 986. LYCANTHIA Herbert Jenkins; Lon30n 1935 Supernatural novel. * Lycanthia Kritzulesco, daughter of a Polish count and an Englishwoman, comes, on the death of her father, to live with an English aunt. The young woman is raw and coarse, with many habits which ill befit an English maiden-- like smoking cigars. Soon after her arrival a giant wolf terrorizes the neighborhood. It is tracked down, worried by dogs, and killed-- but Lycanthia lies there. It seems that a peasant woman had initiated her into a cult in Poland. * Occult background with much condemnation of Spiritualism as communion with demons. * Of no great interest. LEAD BEATER , C[HARLES] W[EBSTER] Notorious British occultist, connected for a time with the Adyar Theosophists and Annie Besant. Several of his books were very popular and went through many editions. AN OUTLINE OF THEOSOPHY (1902), OCCULT CHEMISTRY (with Annie Besant, 1908), THE INNER LIFE (1911-2) • 987. THE PERFUME OF EGYPT ANi) OTHER WEIRD STORIES Theosophical Office; Adyar, Madras 1911 Short stories. [a] THE PERFUME OF EGYPT. Egyptian magic and a ghost. [b] THE FORSAKEN rEMPLE. A vision in an Egyptian temple. [c] THE MAJOR'S PROMISE. Death does not stop the major from visiting his fellow officers, as promised. [d] A TEST OF COURAGE. A vision of elementals, with material evidence left behind. [e] AN ASTRAL MURDER. A vengeful ghost starts a train and kills the seducer of his wife. [f] A TRIPLE WARNING. Visions of the dead. [g] THE CONCEALED CONFESSION. A priest's ghost reveals a written confession. [h] JAGGANATH. A story told by Subba Row, an Indian occultist associated with Madame Blavatsky. The great image of the god Jagganath is really inhabited by an elemental. [i] THE BARON'S ROOM. A story told by Madame Blavatsky. A haunted room in a European castle. [j] SAVED BY A GHOST. Blood and thunder adventures in South America during revolutions. The protagonist is saved by the ghost of his younger brother. * Little literary finish, annoying "philosophical" endings, garbled mysticism. The author's imagination seems to have been exhausted in his occult writings. LEE, VERNON 1935)

(pseud. of PAGET, VIOLET)

(1856-

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LEE, VERNON British expatriate (Italy) author, well-regarded for pioneering cultural-historical studies of pre-modern Italy, especially 18th century music and art. Fine essayist, poet, writer of fiction. Today remembered mostly for supernatural fiction, though THE STUDY OF WORDS (1923), a discussion of prose style, is well worth reading. 988. A PHANTOM LOVER A FANTASTIC STORY Blackwood; Edinburgh and London 1886 Psychopathology, or marital problems, or supernaturalism, much in the manner of Lee's friend Henry James. The story is limited to the observations and judgments of a single person and is ultimately ambiguous as to event and its meaning. * A nouvelle. The narrator, a portrait painter, stays with the Okes of Okehurst in Kent, while painting Mrs. Oke's portrait. Mr. Oke is a splendid figure of a man, but dull and curiously pathetic, in some way psychologically impotent. Mrs. Oke, whom the narrator considers beautiful, is a dreamy, somewhat withdrawn woman whose pleasure it is to annoy her husband in an amiable way. Centuries earlier their common ancestor was involved in a crime: the ancestral Oke and his wife waylaid her lover and murdered him in a nearby wood. The present Oke is heartily embarrassed by the story (although the reason for this is not presented), but Mrs. Oke delights in it and it awakens her emotionally. Since she resembles the ancestral Mrs. Oke, as seen in a contemporary portrait, she dresses like the portrait and does her best to goad her husband into despair and rage. The husband deteriorates mentally, claiming that he hears footsteps and sees strangers. After accusing his wife of having an affair with the ghost of the centuries-dead lover, he kills her and himself. * Ms. Lee apparently liked the theme of belles dames sans merci-- beautiful, frigid, irresistible women who treat their men shamefully. Both Okes, it seems, are mentally disturbed. Mrs. Oke, who lost a child through a miscarriage and cannot have another, has rejected her husband because of his limitations and Oke, who loves her, is driven to madness by her cruelty. Whether a ghost exists is by no means clear. * Nicely handled, although when Ms. Lee wrote in her own manner, the results were superior. 989. HAUNTINGS FANTASTIC STORIES Heinemann; London 1890 Nouvelle and short stories. [a] OKE OF OKEHURST. Described elsewhere, under the title A PHANTOM LOVER. [b] AMOUR DURE. A journal kept by Spiridion Trepka, a German-Polish historian studying Renaissance sources in Italy. In his researches he comes on the history of Medea da Carpi, a woman of the late 16th century. Her beauty and charm were so great that no man could resist her, but she was utterly cold and selfish, and her tools usually died. She was strangled by Duke Robert's orders, without opportunity to confess, and according to local folklore, her evil ghost still walks. Before Duke Robert died,

*

LEE, VERNON he placed within his own statue a small figurine which was to limit her power as an evil spirit after death. Trepka is at first horrified at the details of her life, but he gradually succumbs to her charm, just as did all other men (Duke Robert had refused ever to meet her), and when he comes upon an ancient portrait of her, his fall is complete. He now receives communications from her in an abandoned church, where he sees the ghosts of her former lovers. Obedient to her wishes he destroys Duke Robert's figurine, thereby removing an impediment to her power over the Duke's soul. Trepka's corpse is found the next morning. Medea has served him as she served all others. The title refers to her motto: Amour dure, dure amour. Love endures, cruel love. [c] DIONEA. Letters to a wealthy benefactress in Rome from an elderly Italian scholar. After a shipwreck, a young girl was found lashed to a plank. She spoke no Italian, but a locket gave her name as Dionea. She is placed in a convent, and as she grows older, it becomes obvious that there is something strange about her. She is beautiful, but all the young men look at her with fear. Where she goes, unsuitable love breaks out. As the old scholar gradually reasons, she is in some way connected with Dionea, mother of Aphrodite. When a wealthy young artist comes to the area, he accepts her as a model, but he, too, falls under her spell, though in a different manner: he sacrifices his pregnant wife on an ancient altar to Venus. [a] A WICKED VOICE. In 18th century Italy the castrato singer Zaffirino was renowned for his art and his malice. His voice contained magic. When he chose, his first song could make a woman turn pale; his second" could make her fall in love with him; and his third could kill her. An old nobleman tells the narrator (a Norwegian composer of operas) of family history corroborating the legend. The Norwegian, unfortunately, has insulted a portrait of Zaffirino and the malice of the long-dead singer follows him. He hears a ghost voice of incredible perfection, and as the story ends, Zaffirino's ghost holds him a hair from death. The composer longs to hear the end of Zaffirino's song and die. * Excellent stories, filled with good local color and antiquarian detail. One of the landmarks of Victorian supernatural fiction. 990. POPE JACYNTH AND OTHER FANTASTIC TALES John Lane; London 1907 Not formal Edwardian stories, but narratives, sometimes in period manner. * Including [a] POPE JACYNTH. Odo, later Pope Jacynth, is the subject of a wager between God and Satan. Satan gives Odo intellect, strength, and finally, the papacy, then claims him on the basis of spiritual pride. But an angel claims Odors heart, which was full of love and hope. [b 1 PRINCE ALBERIC AND THE SNAKE LADY. Early 18th century Italy. In the Middle Ages an ancestor of Alberic's met Oriana, the Snake Lady. If he had been faithful to her for ten

LEE, VERNON years she would have been disenchanted. At present, Prince Alberic meets her and would be faithful, but circumstances and the Old Duke are against him. The snake is killed, and Alberic dies. Nicely told. [c] THE LADY AND DEATH. A COMPANION-PIECE TO DURER'S PRINT. Renaissance Germany, narrated in the present. Berchthold, a physician, promised himself to Death in exchange for the ability to heal the Plague. When his time comes, his loyal wife is willing to take his place. Her knight challenges Death in the Todesthal, and wins. Perhaps it was St. Theodulus. [d] ST. EUDAEMON AND HIS ORANGE-TREE. Eudaemon, a monk who does much to improve the lot of the peasantry by teaching them agriculture, digs up a statue of Venus. During a fete he places his ring on her finger, which clenches over it. She is reluctant to release the ring, and Eudaemon turns her into an orange-tree. * The fifth story, "The Doll," is not supernatural. 991. FOR MAURICE FIVE UNLIKELY STORIES John Lane; London [1927] Short stories dedicated to Maurice Baring. A long, interesting introduct10n on sources for the stories. * Including [a] THE GODS AND RITTER TANHUSER. (1913) Alternate title TANHUSER AND THE GODS. Aphrodite is depressed because Tanhuser, with whom she is conducting an affair, insists on attending the great Wartburg poetic contest in medieval Germany. Apollo (disguised as a physician) and Athena (disguised as an astrologer) go along with Tanhuser. Hi-jinks arise as the result of different poetic traditions and ways. Apoll~ takes up with an elderly bluestocking abbess, who wants to carry him off to her establishment, while Athena has a fine time with a magician cardinal, who thinks she is the Devil. Tanhuser is expelled because of forbidden Classical allusions and decides to repent. Delightful. One of the finest humorous fantasies. [b] MARSYAS IN FLANDERS. (1900) Historical documents, comments about a statue of Marsyas which is washed ashore and mistaken for Jesus. It causes trouble until it is staked with an iron rod. [c] THE VIRGIN OF THE SEVEN DAGGERS. (1889) Don Juan is one of the worst lechers and scoundrels in Renaissance Spain, but he has a devotion to the Virgin of the Seven Daggers. Working magic with a Jewish magician, he uncovers the Alhambra treasure vaults, where a beautiful Moorish princess and her retinue lie alseep. When forced to comment on the princess's beauty, he will not admit that she is more beautiful than the Virg1n. Decapitated, he receives mercy from the Virgin. [d] WINTHROP'S ADVENTURE. (1881) Winthrop, a British artist in Italy, is fascinated by the portrait of a Baroque composer, which shows a few bars of music otherwise unknown. He follows clues and finds the half-ruined house where the composer had lived, and is rewarded by hearing the composer's ghost playing the music in question. * Excellent.

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LEFANU, J. S. LEE-HAMILTON, EUGENE (1845-1907) British scholar, poet, resident in Italy. Husband of Mary Holdsworth, popular women's novelist of turn of century. 992. THE LORD OF THE DARK RED STAR BEING THE STORY OF THE SUPERNATURAL INFLUENCES IN THE LIFE OF AN ItALIAN DESPOT OF THE THIRT~ENTH CENTURY Walter Scott Publishing Co.; London 1903 . Historical novel with considerable supernaturalism, based roughly on the life of Eccelino da Romano, Tyrant of Verona, one of the chief allies of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen. Eccelino (or Ezelin, as he is often called) has been remembered as a singularly cruel and impious man, suitably punished by Dante. * Ezelin, the son of Iblis and a witch, is desperate for power and is utterly ruthless. He murders his pious wife and descends into Hell to make a bargain with Iblis. He will receive a kingly throne if he sacrifices his first son, who is not to be baptized. Ezelin marries Selvaggia, the illegitimate daughter of the emperor, and tries to carry out his part of the agreement. He sacrifices the child, but learns too late that Selvaggia had secretly baptized it. The pact is broken. The emperor dies (1250 A.D.), and Ezelin's power wanes. His principate is on the edge of collapse when Selvaggia causes one of her father's Moslem assassins to kill him. Death, who has been gaming throughout with Sin, has won. * Wildly imagined against a background that sho'ws much research. The manner of Ezelin's death is not historical. Enjoyable, if a little florid. LE FANU, J[OSEPH] S[HERIDAN] (1814-1873) Important Anglo-Irish (Dublin mostly) writer of mystery novels, supernatural fiction, historical ro~ances. Newspaper and periodical editor and proprietor, especially the DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE. In mystery fiction important for writing the first sealed room mystery in English literature, and also for UNCLE SILAS (1864), which is the finest Victorian mystery novel. A good choice for the foremost writer of supernatural fiction in English literature, certainly in the Victorian period. Work is untypical of its time, in being much less interested in social aspects of supernaturalism than with psychological intricacies that anticipate modern depth psycholody. This aspect of his writing probably derives from two sources: his saturation in early 19th century Romantic literature and science (especially the Germans) and his fascination with the doctrines of Swedenborg. His nouvelle CARMILLA, probably the best vampire story of all, was important in establishing the vampire theme in higher levels of modern English literature. It is still occasionally dramatized. 993. GHOST STORIES AND TALES OF MYSTERY McGlashan; Dublin 1851 (published anonymously) A very rare book. Four long short stories, including [a] THE WATCHER. Captain Barton

LEFANU, J. S. of Dublin is haunted by the shadowy figure of a man whom he believes dead. It is the father of a girl whom he wronged. The persistent pursuit of the Watcher, ever creeping closer, is one of the most convincing haunts in the genre. It is explained partly as delusion (hypostatized conscience) and partly as manifestation. [bl SCHALKEN THE PAINTER. (1839) 18th century Netherlands. Rose Velderkaust, the sweetheart of Schalken, is betrothed by her greedy uncle to a stiff, repulsive stranger who offers an enormous dowry. After the wedding Rose appears, mad with terror, clad in a shroud, and reveals that she has been married to the dead. Strange sexuality. * The other two stories are mysteries. 994. CHRONICLES OF GOLDEN FRIARS Bentley; London 1871 3 vol. A very rare work. * Including [al A STRANGE ADVENTURE IN THE LIFE OF MISS LAURA MILDMAY. This is a mystery novel, not in itself fantastic, but it incorporates lbl MADAM CROWL'S GHOST, a short story which had previously been published in periodical form: ALL THE YEAR ROUND (1870). The ghost of old Madam Crowl returns to reveal the remains of a crime. Told in Northern English dialect. [cl THE HAUNTED BARONET. (BELGRAVIA, 1870) A highly supernatural revenge novel based on the relations of two families, the Feltrams and the Mardykes. The Feltrams once held the estate, but a Feltram woman had been murdered by a Mardyke, and the Mardykes gained control of the land. The present generation are Sir Bale Mardyke and Philip Feltram. Sir Bale is a cruel, bitter master, a waster who has lost much of his patrimony; he retains Feltram as steward mostly to salve his conscience at having embezzled Feltram's inheritance. Feltram is amiable and honest, but weak. When Sir Bale misplaces a sum of money, he accuses Feltram of having stolen it and drives him out. Bale is then visited by a half-mad, psychic preacher who tells him where the money is and warns him to make peace with Feltram or else Feltram will return "with strength." Bale does not heed him, but soon learns that Feltram has been seen near a haunted lake on the estate and that witnesses claim that Feltram has been drawn into the water supernaturally. His body is found and preparations are made for a funeral when it is discovered that Feltram is alive, but a different man. Gone are the hesitations and weaknesses. (The implications are that Feltram has returned from the dead, a suicide filled with an evil power.) Bale's poor human folly is no match for Feltram's supernatural evil, and Bale is dragged down. When Bale's finances are low, Feltram brings him money and takes him to the "wise man" who had supplied it. They cross the haunted lake and penetrate a dismal forest where they meet a fat, gouty, parrot-like old man. Bale follows his advice and prospers for a time, then decides to marry. His new wife dislikes Feltram and Bale is forced to dismiss him. Feltram is last seen rowing away into the dismal lake. Not long after

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LEFANU, J. S. this Bale realizes that he has made a bond with the Devil and that it is due. Old portraits found in the attic include one of the "wise man," and Bale knows that he has no hope. He is found dead, and the estate reverts to the Feltrams. The implications are that the old parroty man was either one of the long-dead Feltrams or a demon in his form. * One of the half-dozen best Victorian supernatural novels, very effective in its symbolism of birds and forest, and its sense of inevitable doom. 995. IN A GLASS DARKLY Bentley; London 1872 3 vol. Short stories and nouvelle. Including [al GREEN TEA. (ALL THE YEAR ROUND, 1869) Dr. Hesselius, a Victorian counterpart to the modern occult detective, is consulted by Mr. Jenning, who is haunted by a hypostatized spirit of suicide. Jenning's organ of spiritual perception has been opened by over-indulgence in green tea. The projection takes the form of a monkey. [bl THE FAMILIAR. Alternate title for THE WATCHER, but set in terms of Dr. Hesselius's practice. [cl MR. JUSTICE HARBOTTLE. (BELGRAVIA, 1872) A vicious hanging judge, probably based on Judge Jeffreys, uses his office to imprison his mistress's husband. He is summoned before a supernatural court, presided over by a horrible judge who is an enormously greater version of himself, and is sentenced to death and hanged. [dl CARMILLA. (THE DARK BLUE, 1871-2) Laura, in her family castle in Styria, is visited by the beautiful young Carmilla. When Laura's health declines and similar cases are recalled, an old physician recognizes vampirism. The vampire is identified as the longdead Countess Mircalla von Karnstein. Her body is found and destroyed. * Beautifully told. * The fifth story, 'The Room in the Dragon Volant," is a fine adventure-mystery story. set in early 19th century France, but is not at all fantastic. * One of the keystone books in supernatural fiction. 996. THE PURCELL PAPERS Bentley; London 1880 3 vol Edited with a memoir by Alfred Graves. * A posthumous collection assembling early fiction by LeFanu. Some of the stories are ostensibly told by Father Purcell, but the device is not strained. * Including [al THE GHOST AND THE BONESETTER. (DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE, 1838) Humor. A wicked Irish squire leaves his picture evenings and wanders about. He is not concerned with the good of his soul, but about a lame leg. [bl THE FORTUNES OF SIR ROBERT ARDAGH. (DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE, 1838) The story of Sir Robert's bond with the Devil is told in two ways. In the popular version the Devil calls, summons Ardagh, and makes off with him in the manner of Maturin's MELMOTH. In the true version Sir Robert is given death warnings by a strange servant who is obviously the Devil in disguise. [cl THE DRUNKARD'S DREAM. A drunkard has a vision of Hell, but it does not reform him. [dl STRANGE EVENT IN THE LIFE

LEFANU, J. S. OF SCHALKEN THE PAINTER. Alternate title for SCHALKEN THE PAINTER, described elsewhere, in a slightly different text. eel JIM SULIVAN'S ADVENTURES IN THE GREAT SNOW. (DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE, 1839) Irish folkloristic humor. Jim is thought to be dead, and when he appears, is mistaken by his shrewish wife for a ghost. [f] A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF A TYRONE FAMILY. (DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE, 1839) Fanny Richardson marries Lord Glenfallen and discovers, to the accompaniment of supernatural warnings (a black drape) that her husband is mad and a bigamist. This, the short form of THE WYVERN MYSTERY, is usually considered to be a source for JANE EYRE. [g] "THE QUARE GANDER." (DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE, 1840) One of the few occasions in which LeFanu used Irish folkloristic humor. A fairy-seer tells Mooney that the gander is his father reincarnated, and circumstances for a time favor the seer's opinion. [h] BILLY MALOWNEY'S TASTE OF LOVE AND GLORY. (DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE, 1850) Billy is reported dead in the wars. When he returns, he is taken for dead. * Of the new material [b], [c], [f] have points of interest, but the remaining stories are not the major LeFanu. 997. THE WATCHER AND OTHER WEIRD STORIES Downey London [1894] Designed and profusely illustrated by Brinsley LeFanu, J. S. LeFanu's son. * Including [a] THE WATCHER. [b] THE DRUNKARD'S DREAM. [c] SCHALKEN THE PAINTER. [d] THE FORTUNES OF SIR ROBERT ARDAGH. [el A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF A TYRONE FAMILY. Also included is "Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess," from GHOST STORIES AND TALES OF MYSTERY. This is probably the first sealed room mystery. 998. MADAM CROWL'S GHOST AND OTHER TALES OF MYSTERY George Bell; London 1923 Edited with prologue, epilogue, bibliographic and critical material by M. R. James. This marks the first appearance in book form of many of LeFanu's best stories. Compiling it was a masterly piece of work by James, since many of the stories originally appeared anonymously. * [a] MADAM CROWL'S GHOST. Described elsewhere. [b] SQUIRE TOBY'S WILL. (TEMPLE BAR, 1868) When the old squire dies, his sons quarrel bitterly over the inheritance, and Handsome Charlie swindles his brother. A strange bulldog that resembles the old squire, a revelatory dream, and a succession of portents and hauntings make this one of LeFanu's finest stories. [c] DICKON THE DEVIL. (LONDON SOCIETY, 1872.) The reason that a local personality behaves so strangely: he was carried away by the ghost of old Squire Bowes and underwent a shattering experience. Cd] THE CHILD THAT WENT WITH THE FAIRIES. (ALL THE YEAR ROUND, 1870) Ireland. The coach with the beautiful lady in it takes away little Billy Ryan, who is seen no more. Background of Irish folkways. eel THE WHITE CAT OF DRUMGUNNIOL. (ALL THE YEAR ROUND, 1870) For a certain Irish family a white cat is a symbol of death. It is not friendly, like a banshee,

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LEFANU, J. S. but sits upon the corpse and chases the mourners away. [f] AN ACCOUNT OF SOME STRANGE DISTURBANCES IN AUNGIER STREET. (DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE, 1853) Ireland. The ghost of a hanging judge takes the form of a rat and tries to entice visitors to hang themselves. He is often successful. [g] GHOST STORIES OF CHAPELIZOD. (DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE, 1851) Ireland. Three stories, as follows: [h] THE VILLAGE BULLY. The bully beats young Ned brutally. Ned dies of tuberculosis, but his ghost appears, stripped for combat. A blow paralyzes Bully Larkin. [i] THE SEXTON'S ADVENTURE. The sexton, who is a hard drinker, promises his wife one evening that he will not take a drop. "If I do, may the Dev il take me." He almost does. [j] THE SPECTRE LOVERS. Peter Brien sees a scene from the past as he speaks with a ghostly army officer and his mistress, and almost helps them in their ancient evil.* [k] WICKED CAPTAIN WALSHAWE OF WAULING. (DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE, 1864) The captain disturbs a corpse candle, and a curse is placed on him. His ghost shall remain in the corpse candle until the candle is used up. This happens about fifty years later. [1] SIR DOMINICK'S BARGAIN. (ALL THE YEAR ROUND, 1872) Ireland. Sir Dominick sells his soul to the Devil, repents, and believes that he is safe when the appointed day passes without supernatural visitors. But Sir Dominick forgot leap year. em] ULTOR DE LACY. (DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE, 1861) While hiding among the ruins during the rebellion, the De Lacys are overtaken by supernatural revenge for a crime that one of their ancestors committed. en] THE VISION OF TOM CHUFF. (ALL THE YEAR ROUND, 1870) Tom, a hard drinker, dies momentarily and dreams that he is hunted along the countryside by the Black Dog and a gigantic figure with a sack. Tom is reprieved for a time and stops drinking. But when he relapses, he meets the fate that had been shown to him. [0] STORIES OF LOUGH GUIR. (ALL THE YEAR ROUND, 1870) Six very short folkloristic accounts of a center of fairy activity in the vicinity of Limerick. It contains in its depths the sunken castle of a magLcLan. Long ago the castle sank beneath the water when the magician's wife could not hold her tongue during a conjuration. The magician prowls the roads, trying to release himself by tricking the peasantry into speaking to him. Other episodes concern a banshee; a dream of a ghost and buried treasure; and the death of a governess after a horrible man in red beckoned her along a corridor. * Lhe better stories are [b], Cd]' [i], [j], [k] [1], en]. 999. GREEN TEA AND OTHER GHOST STORIES Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1945 Foreword by August Derleth. * Containing [a] SCHALKEN THE PAINTER. [b] SQUIRE TOBY'S WILL. [c] GREEN TEA. Cd] WICKED CAPTAIN WALSHAWE. [e] CARMILLA. [f] THE SEXTON'S ADVENTURE. [g] MADAM CROWL'S GHOST. [h] SIR DOMINICK'S BARGAIN. [i] THE VISION OF TOM CHUFF. [j] ULTOR DE LACY. [k] DICKON THE DEVIL.

LEF ANU, J., S • [1] THE HOUSE ON AUNGIER STREET. [m] MR. JUSTICE HARBOTTLE. [n] THE FAMILIAR. 1000. BEST GHOST STORIES Dover Publications; New York 1964 paperbound Edited with introduction by E.F. Bleiler. * [a] SQUIRE TOBY'S WILL. [b] SCHALKEN THE PAINTER. The text of GHOST STORIES AND MYSTERIES. [c] MADAM CROWL'S GHOST. The first reprinting of the full text. [d] THE HAUNTED BARONET. [e] GREEN TEA. [f] THE FAMILIAR. [g] MR. JUSTICE HARBOTTLE. [h] CARMILLA. [i] THE FORTUNES OF SIR ROBERT ARDAGH. [j] AN ACCOUNT OF SOME STRANGE DISTURBANCES IN AUNGIER STREET. [k] THE DEAD SEXTON. [1] GHOST STORIES OF THE TILED HOUSE. A fragment from THE HOUSE BY THE CHURCHYARD. Montague Summers reprinted part of it previously as NARRATIVE OF THE GHOST OF A HAND. This is the first reprinting of the introductory sections. [m] THE WHITE CAT OF DRUMGUNNIOL. [n] SIR DOMINICK'S BARGAIN. [0] ULTOR DE LACY. [p] AN AUTHENTIC NARRATIVE OF A HAUNTED HOUSE. (DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE, 18612) An editorial note by LeFanu states that this is a genuine record of a haunted house and not a work of fiction. It describes poltergeistic phenomena in a house at a British watering place. 1001. GHOST STORIES ArID MYSTERIES Dover Publications; New York 1975 paperbound Edited with introduction by E.F. Bleiler. * Including [a] WICKED CAPTAIN WALSHAWE OF WAULING. [b] GHOST STORIES OF CHAPELIZOD. [c] THE CHILD THAT WENT WITH THE FAIRIES. [d] THE VISION OF TOM CHUFF. [e] THE DRUNKARD'S DREAM. [f] DICKON THE DEVIL. [g] THE GHOST AND THE BONESETTER. [h] A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF A TYRONE FAMILY. * Also [i] LAURA SILVER BELL. (BELGRAVIA, 1872) Based on Northern English folklore. Laura, a beautiful but silly young woman, is captivated by the charms of a fairy prince, whom all others see as an ill-favored man of darkness. Despite warnings, she elopes with him and is seen no more, except by Mother Carke, the local witch and midwife. One night the dark stranger calls upon the midwife and demands her services. Laura is in childbirth. Mother Carke cares for her, delivering a strange being that can talk at birth. She escapes only through Laura's good will. [j] STORIES OF LOUGH GUIR. Described elsewhere. [k] THE MYSTERIOUS LODGER. (DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE, 1850) Published anonymously. A semi-allegorical story of the visitations of ev~l and good upon a family, with fear, deach, and supernatural horror involved. While M. R. James considered this part of the LeFanu canon, I would reject it. It has been included for the sake of completion, even though to me it is very different from LeFanu's work. * The introduction is concerned mostly with LeFanu as a writer of mysteries. * Story [i] is one of LeFanu's best stories. LEIBER, FRITZ [REUTER], JR. (JR. is dropped in later work) (1910 - ) Prominent American writer of science-fiction

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and supernatural fiction. Son of noted Shakespearean actor of same name. Winner of many well-merited genre awards. Most favored work series of fantastic adventure stories about Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. While always one of the leading authors of his era, Leiber's work has evolved and improved and much of his best fiction dates from after the deadline for the present volume. 1002. NIGHT'S BLACK AGENTS Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1947 Mostly supernatural fiction. The aesthetic of the modern stories is: "A ghost with the soot of factories on its face and the pounding of machinery in its soul. The kind that would haunt coal yards and slip around at night through deserted office buildings . . . A real ghost. Not something out of books." "A smoky composite face with the hungry anxiety of the unemployed, the neurotic restlessness of the person without purpose, the jerky tension of the high-pressure metropolitan worker • • • the inhibited terror of the bombed civilian, and a thousand other twisted emotional patterns." This program is carried out successfully in some of the following stories. * Including [a] SMOKE GHOST. (UNK 1941) Catesby Wran, who gave some indication of paranormal abilities in his childhood, is aware of a horror that he can see from the elevated cars of Chicago. It is a sack-like thing, dirty, foul, and it draws nearer, leaving sooty, greasy prints. It is a projection and embodiment of the filth and foulness of the city. He staves it off temporarily by an act of acceptance and worship. [b] THE AUTOMATIC PISTOL. (WT 1940) Small-time prohibition gangsters and bootleggers, one of whom has an automatic which he treats almost as if it were animate. It is something like a familiar to him. When he is murdered, the pistol assumes life and direction and avenges him. [c] THE INHERITANCE. (WT 1942) The down-andout nephew of the deceased retired policeman inherits a uniform, some newspaper clippings, and the residue of crimes. His uncle had been a psychopathic killer who used his uniform to gain trust. The uncle's spirit possesses the protagonist and almost commits another murder. [d] THE HILL AND THE HOLE. (UNK 1942) Rural American in setting, but reminiscent of M. R. James's work. Geologic surveyors see the formation on the depression-time farm as a hill, but the strange little girl on the farm sees it as a depression inhabited by hostile skeletal beings. Since two surveyors are strangled by unknown hands (with a fragment of finger bone left behind in one case), she must be right. [e] THE DREAMS OF ALFRED MORELAND. At night, in his dreams, a professional chess player at an entertainment arcade plays a fantastically complex game, remotely like chess, but with an enormous board and pieces of strange and unknown powers, against an invisible opponent. Moreland, although he does not remember much of the dreams, knows that the outcome of the game is very important both for him and the human race. He feels most

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threatened by a piece called the Archer. He knows that it is of greatest danger to him, yet he also knows that it is a gambit of a sort, and if he takes it, the results will be disastrous. If] THE HOUND. (WT 1940) Can there be a modern American version of a werewolf that can afflict a young man who works in a department store? There is, but as the story ends it is not clear what (or who-perhaps the girl friend?) it is. 19] THE MAN WHO NEVER GREW YOUNG. After World War III, in revulsion against man's actions the universe moves backwards and time reverses. Bodies solidify in graves, are taken out, upon which they take up life, descend through middle age amd childhood, and disappear back into the womb. It reverts back to Ancient Egypt. Nicely handled. * Two stories are concerned with the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. [h] THE SUNKEN LAND. Described elsewhere for context. li] ADEPT'S GAMBIT. Short novel. This was the first story written in the cycle, and the setting had not yet been rendered firm. In this story events take place in the Near East, around 250 B.C., rather than in an other-world. The two heroic rogues are indulging in their favorite occupations-- drinking and wenching-- in Tyre, when they discover that a curse has been laid upon them. Every woman that Fafhrd kisses turns into a sow, while the Gray Mouser's loves (with one exception who wears a charm) turn into giant snails. The two rogues ask their patron, Ningauble of the Seven Eyes, for explanation and advice. He tells them that they have meddled too much in the supernatural, are connected with the Elder Gods, and are thus susceptible to magical influences. He outlines in rather vague terms a series of magical objects they must obtain and activities they must perform before they can encounter the adept who is injuring them. They make their way east to Persia, defeat an adept whom they raise from a tomb, and continue on to the Castle Called Mist, where matters are finally resolved, though not too satisfactorily. The adept cannot die until his life tokens are destroyed; he exchanges bodies with his sister, who had accompanied the adventurers; and he had been responsible for much of the evil luck that Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser had encountered. * Much the weakest story in the cycle; too long, not too well thought out, and not improved by coyness. * One of the landmark volumes in modern fantastic fiction, despite ld. Best stories are la], [b], [e], 19], and [h]. * The paperback reissue from Ballantine, TALES FROM NIGHT'S BLACK AGENTS, omits li]. 1003. GATHER. DARKNESS! Pellegrini and Cudahy; New York l1950] This is really science-fiction, although it uses the story techniques of supernatural fiction. * (ASTOUNDING, 1943) * 2305 A.D. After a brief golden age for mankind on the three planets-- Earth, Venus, Mars-- humanity has fallen under the control of a scientific priesthood known as the Hierarchy. Using the techniques of a highly advanced science, the Hier-

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archy systematically manufactures miracles to maintain its power and translates the terms of Christianity into fact. Angels, for example, are police mechanisms disguised as gigantic figures in white; enormous figures of God appear, speak, and cast lightnings. But a counter movement has arisen, a secret society known as the Witchcraft, which uses the materials of historic European witch lore just as literally as the Hierarchy uses Christianity. The members of the Witchcraft have telepathic familiars who suck blood, and in order that the rank and file of the Witchcraft may retain interest in the coming insurrection, they are permitted to play pranks on members of the Hierarchy. The story line concerns a renegade member of the Hierarchy who wants to reveal its true nature to the people. He is caught between the two organizations. Chases, thrills, escapes. The Witchcraft wins out, but with surprises. The theme, of course, was a favorite one in science-fiction of the day (cf. SIXTH COLUMN by Robert A. Heinlein), but Leiber's treatment is highly imaginative, even if not entirely convincing. 1004. CONJURE WIFE Twayne Publishers; New York 1953 (UNK 1943) A supernatural turn to campus politics and worse at a small university, which, it is common knowledge, figures the University of Chicago. Norman Saylor, Professor of Sociology at Hempnell College, discovers to his horror that his wife must believe in witchcraft. She has a storeroom full of magical ingredients and a considerable library of magical texts. He raises a tremendous fuss, and for the sake of domestic peace she agrees to destroy her materia magica, although she makes the point that her witchcraft has been only psychic self defense. After the destruction of the witch materials misfortune after misfortune befalls Saylor. It is soon obvious that more than just campus politics are involved, for Saylor is faced with trumped up charges of seduction and is menaced by a stone architectural monster which comes to life. Even worse happens to his wife, whose soul is stolen away by one of the other faculty witches. Saylor makes an about face, recognizes that he has been wrong, and tries to fight back. * Nicely handled as a suspense story, although Saylor's psychology is a little simplistic. * This was the source for the rather good motion picture BURN, WITCH, BURN (1962). . 1005. TWO SOUGHT ADVENTURE Gnome Press; New York 1957 The adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser in the Other World of Nehwon, where magic holds sway and expertise with hand weapons is a great aid to longevity. A whimsical pair of heroes or anti-heroes, they undergo very imaginative experiences, and do not always win out completely. * [a] THE JEWELS IN THE FOREST. (UNK 1939, under the title TWO SOUGHT ADVENTURE) In the southern part of Lankhmar, near the village of Soreev, stands the treasure house of Urgaan of Angarngi. According to the peasant girl who lives nearby, the stone building is

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inhabited by a fearsome giant who crushes trespassers to death. No onC! hd:i Lver seen the giant, and the house is a house of terror. Urgaan, a master architect of the past, had had dealings with demons and has protected his treasures. [bl THIEVES' HOUSE. (UNK 1943) The Gray Mouser and Fafhrd are commissioned by the Guild of Thieves to steal the jewelled skull of Omphal, a master thief of generations earlier, and restore it to the guild. The thieves plan to double-cross the two adventurers, and do. But a third factor enters: the supernatural powers of the ancient thieves who dwell as skeletons in forgotten crypts beneath Thieves' House. They want to have the skull restored to them, and they set a time limit. (cl THE BLEAK SHORE. (UNK 1940) A strange little man, apparently annoyed by hearing the Gray Mouser and Fafhrd boast of their adventures, puts a geas on them. He tells them thrice to go to the Bleak Shore. They must stop all other activities and go there. Their path leads them across the known world, through untravelled seas, until they reach the Bleak Shore, where they discover that an unknown death-- the hatching of evil-- awaits them. [dl THE HOWLING TOWER. (UNK 1941) The strange house on the plains is inhabited by a madman who has murdered his father and brothers and is tormented by the ghosts of hounds. To protect himself the mad wizard gives travellers a drug which releases their souls to fight the phantom hounds; no traveller survives the combat. Fafhrd is tricked into drinking the drug, and the Gray Mouser must join him in the near-death world to save him. [el THE SUNKEN LAND. (UNK 1942) Lavas Laerk, a halfmad grandee, has taken a strong oath not to speak until he has raided the sunken land of Simorgya. His black ship runs down the small boat on which Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are sailing, and Fafhrd is impressed into Lavas Laerk's crew. They come to the land of Simorgya, which has risen from the sea, and the adventurers dash ashore to find treasure. But Fafhrd is wiser. He realizes that chance has not been involved, but a plan. Simorgya had been inhabited by black magicians and monsters, and it still is. [fl THE SEVEN BLACK PRIESTS. (OTHER WORLDS, 1953) On the Green Hill stands an idol-like formation in which is set a gigantic diamond. When Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser steal the diamond, they discover that the priests who guard it are most hostile-but, in any case, they were hostile before, too. When the priests are eliminated, the idol or god takes a hand by possessing Fafhrd. [gl CLAWS FROM THE NIGHT. (SUSPENSE, 1951) Lankhmar is beset by birds with poisoned claws who steal the jewelry of wealthy wives and courtesans. The Gray Mouser and Fafhrd stumble on the secret: a madwoman who believes that she is the incarnation of an ancient, neglected divinity. Not fantastic, except by implication in the ending. Alternate title DARK VENGEANCE. * Outstanding stories are lal, [cl, [el. * Leiber's Nehwon stories are the finest American swords and sorcery adventure since the work of

LELAND, CHARLES GODFREY R. E. Howard, noteworthy both for their imagination and Leiber's characteristic light touch. There are other stories in the series, but they are beyond the chronological scope of this study. 1006. SHADOWS WITH EYES Ballantine Books; New York [19621 paperbound. Short stories; * lal A DESKFUL OF GIRLS. Described elsewhere. [bl A BIT OF THE DARK WORLD. (FANTASTIC, 1962) The strange black phenomenon which hovers around a peak in California is visible to some. As the narrator discovers, after' experiencing the horror associated with it, it is something from Outside and it is aimed at the narrator's host. In some ways a very adult telling of concepts from the Cthulhu cycle, lifting the horror from the crudely material plane to the spiritual. lcl THE POWER OF THE PUPPETS. (THRILLING MYSTERY, 1941) The puppets of Jock Lathrop can do thingB no puppet should be able to do. He is the world's greatest performer. The explanation: by a genetic freak, his body contains the remains of suppressed mUltiple births, which gradually emerge into separate finger-beings. Told in an action plot. Borderline science-fiction. ldl THE DEAD MAN. (WT 1950) Professor Max Redford has a remarkable subject, John Fearing, whose body is so completely under control of his unconsciGus mind that it can produce (when hypnotically suggested by Redford) the symptoms of any disease. Redford makes the ultimate demonstration when he wills Fearing into death and then unsuccessfully tries to resurrect him. Perhaps the fact that Fearing was Redford's wife's lover caused Redford to use the wrong awakening signal. Six months lacer the correct signal is given at Fearing's tomb, with expected results. [el SCHIZO JIMMIE (THE SAINT, 1950) He has the paranormal ability of inducing insanity among those close to him. Or so the madman says. [fl THE MAN WHO MADE FRIENDS WITH ELECTRICITY. (MFSF, 1962) When the xenophobic Easterner bought the house in California, right next to the high tension line, he was delighted, for he liked the hum of the wires. He learns to communicate with the electricity, but is outraged to learn that the electric grids are intercontinental, including Communist countries, and that the grids plan to take over the world. He is electrocuted by a wire knocked loose during a storm, but it looks as if the telephone wire tied him up. * [al is excellent; [fl is good. LELAND, CHARLES GODFREY (1824-1903) American (mostly Philadelphia) poet, folklorisc, journalist, miscellaneous writer. Author of the HANS BREITMAN BALLADS (reflections in dialect of a German-American) and other very fine macaronic verse. Ardent follower of George Borrow; student of English Gypsies and enthusiast for their ways; student of Italian folklore, particularly pre-Christian survivals in peasant religiosity; enthusiast for Arts and Crafts movement. Autobiography, MEMORIES, is a fascinating document for both Civil War

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LELAND, CHARLES GODFREY experiences and reminiscences of major literary circles in America and Great Britain. 1007. fLAXIUS LEAVES FROM THE LIFE OF AN IMMORTAL Philip Wellby; London 1902 A loose series of sketches dealing with the life of Flaxius, an Etruscan magician who said a good word for a forlorn lady. She revealed herself as a fairy and gifted him with eternal youth. Flaxius proceeds up through the ages, giving little dissertations and anecdotes. Some of the sketches are supernatural; others are moral. The series ends with Flaxius in a drab future where uniformity and scientific development are supreme and it is a crime to tell a joke. Mind power is utilized. * Amusing at times. LEROUX, GASTON (1868-1927) Historically important French writer of mystery fiction, usually on a highly sensational level. Best-known works THE YELLOW ROOM (1907), classic on locked-room theme, and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1911), source for several motion pictures and plays. Highly romantic, but rubbishy at times. 1008. THE NEW TERROR Macaulay; New York 1926 Title novel and two short stories. * [a] THE NEW TERROR. France. The narrator has been in love with Cordelia since childhood and they have agreed to marry. Their parents, however, insist on a delay, and the narrator goes away for a couple of years. When he returns, it is obvious that something is wrong and that Cordelia is avoiding him. After a while, however, they meet again and are married. Strange things happen. A portrait of Cordelia that was painted by an English artist holds Cordelia's externalized sensation, so that if it is placed in a draught, Cordelia feels cold. Cordelia also falls into a trance whenever her husband kisses her. It is learned that her astral body is in love with the English artist, and that he has the power to attract her astral body. The narrator challenges the Englishman to a duel, but as they fire Cordelia's troublesome shade leaps between them and Cordelia, back in her apartments, falls dead of a chest wound. A Gallic twist to a tale of adultery, but otherwise unremarkable. The other two stories are contes cruels. * The British edition (THE BURGLED HEART John Long; London 1925), which is the true first edition in English, has not been seen.

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LE SAGE, ALAIN RENE (1668-1747) Important French dramatist, translator, writer of novels. Historically significant in providing a middle link between Spanish picaresque fiction and the middle 18th century British development. Plays are considered excellent, but little known in the English-speaking world. Best-known books are GIL BLAS DE SANTILLANE (1715 through 1735) and LE DIABLE BOITEUX (1707), both of which have been available in many editions and translations. 1009. LE DIABLE BOITEUX; OR THE DEVIL UPON TWO STICKS Jacob Tonson; London 1708

LESLIE, SHANE (LE DIABLE BOITEUX, Paris, 1707, revised 1725) Theophrastian characters and sentimental stories of some charm fitted upon a slight topical and supernatural framework. * Spain. When the student Don Cleofas Leandro Perez Zambullo bolts out of the garret window of his mistress's home in order to escape a forced marriage, he takes refuge in the laboratory of a magician who dwells nearby. He hears a small voice begging for release and discovers a devil who is imprisoned in a bottle. In exchange for release the devil promises to instruct him in life. The student smashes the bottle, and Asmodeus emerges, a small, crippled devil. (Asmodeus's lameness, which does not seem to have any deep significance, is the result of a quarrel with a more powerful demon, who dropped him from on high.) Asmodeus takes the student aloft, removes (by illusion) the roofs of Madrid, and shows him the situations and personalities below. Several intercalated stories tells of romances and plots. The novel ends abruptly when Asmodeus hears the magician summoning him and must return to the laboratory. Cleofas, however, has a good marriage in prospect. Asmodeus, assuming the form of Cleofas, had rescued a beautiful young woman from a fire, and her parents are both wealthy and grateful. Light, entertaining material that has served as the ultimate model for many diabolic tours for purposes of satire and amusement. The edition read ~vas the anonymous translation published by Nimmo and Bain (London 1891). A variant title is THE DEVIL ON TWO STICKS.

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LESLIE [SIR] [JOHN RANDOLPH] SHANE (1885-1971) British (London and Ireland) biographer, editor (DUBLIN REVIEW), educator (University of Pennsylvania, Notre Dame), traveller. Achieved some fame in earlier years for visiting Leo Tolstoy and for living as a tramp for a time. 1010. MASOUERADES STUDIES IN THE MORBID John Long; London 1924 Short stories, including [a] THE POPE'S TEMPTATION. The Devil tempts the Pope, but the strongest lure that the Devil might use (return to his original childhood home) cannot be used, since the Devil, too, is "damned homesick." Told mostly in archaic style. [b] CONNEMARA. When the Master of the Hunt dies, from miles around the foxes gather for his wake and eventually mutilate his body. [c] A SAVING PHANTASM. When Coppleston's mistress attempts suicide, her astral body appears to him and he sa\'es her. [d] THE DRUMMER OF GORDONMUIR. Phantom drums as a family death portent. During World War I. [e] A STUDY IN SMOKE. During the casting of a big gun, a workman accidentally falls into the melt. His ghost is to be seen around the gun. [f] MIDIR AND ETAIN. A version of the Irish heroic legend of the fairy Midir, whose woman (Etain) is incarnated as a human and must be regained by a stratagem. [g] KATHLEEN. Her personality, transferred to a horse, kills her husband's rival. Lh] LOADED DICE. Fate. The expres-

LESLIE, SHANE sion, "C'est drole, pas un grain de plomb" has a fatal significance. [iJ A SAINT. A fire poltergeist. [j] THE NECROPHILE. The power of love. When the Duke's young wife dies immediately after the marriage ceremony, he refuses to release her body. By a miracle, she is alive again, a year later. [k] THE WEIRD GILLY. Irish heroic folklore about a trickster figure, the Gilly, who has various magical powers. * Unexceptional commercial fiction. lb] is best. (1898-1963) LEWIS, C[LIVE] S[TAPLES] British educator, poet, fiction-writer, author of palatable religious polemics. Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English, Oxford. Most nOLeworthy works: SCREWTAPE LETTERS (1943), THE GREAT DIVORCE (1945). A series of fantasies for teen-agers, THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, has been popular. A good stylist. 1011. OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET John Lane; London 1938 The first of the Perelandra novels, a personal melange of axiology, Neoplatonic supernaturalism and religiosity, and science-fiction adventure. While the narrative emerges as the experiences of an Earthman on Mars, there are frequent conversationalized passages on generic as well as individual morality. The story line is simple, abstracted almost to the level of a fable. * Ransom, a philologist, whose name is relevant to the allegorical background of the story, is on a walking trip when he stumbles into the power of two unscrupulous interplanetary explorerers, Weston and Devine. Weston, a brilliant physicist who has constructed a space ship, represents scientism, racial egotism, and intellect without moral control. Devine, a businessman, represents greed and selfish dishonesty. Weston and Devine have already visited Mars, which is rich in gold, and the Martians have told them to come back with another earthman, who, it is assumed, will be sacrificed by the natives. Devine wants the Martian gold, while Weston sees Mars as a step in the human conquest of the universe. On Mars, Ransom escapes and becomes acquainted with the Martians. He soon realizes that his fears had been without base, for the intelligent Martians are benevolent. Intelligence is not limited to one species, as on earth, but is shared by three species who embody modes of perception: the artistic impulse, intellect and philosophy, and technology. Above the three forms of life are various invisible spirit-like beings called eldila, headed by the Oyarsa, or tutelary planetary deity. Mars is a utopia of a sort, since each group lives at peace with the others and many of man's evil drives are lacking. Mars is also a member of a universal mind via the oyarsa and comparable entities on other planets. Earth alone is silent, since its oyarsa, ages before, had become evil and misdirected. Earth is now in quarantine from the other planets, and the successful voyage from earth is enormously important, since it may indicate the beginning of a new age. Weston and Devine, who run

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LEWIS, C. S. amuck like European explorers of the Renaissance, are captured by the Martians, and after a philosophical interrogation by the oyarsa are sent back to earth. Ransom accompanies them. * In terms of writing, this and its first sequel, PERELANDRA, are probably the most literate of interplanetary novels, with many remarkable descriptive passages. Lewis saw landscapes with a painter's eye and was able to transmit his rich vision. As science-fiction (a classification which might have enraged the pawky Lewis), it is primitive, often uninventive, and on occasion silly, especially where the smug religiosity impinges on the story values. 1012. PERELANDRA A NOVEL John Lane; London [1943] A sequel to OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET. Here the emphasis has been shifted from abstract ethics to Judaeo-Christian mythology. The scientific element is rudimentary and is submerged beneath a refabling of Eden and the Temptation. * Since Ransom is the only human with a fluent command of Old Solar (the language spoken by the un-fallen peoples of the solar system), he is transported to Venus by the oyarsa of Mars. He finds Venus an alien world with enormous seas and floating islands, small land areas, and multitudinous life forms who live together in amity. This milieu is beautifully and brilliantly described. Also present on Venus are two "humans," the King and Queen, or the Creation. Since, according to the storYI God has incarnated hiwself on earth, it is both possible and necessary for new planetary creations to be on a higher level than ours. Ransom learns the reason for his presence when he sees Weston, who has come to Venus by spaceship, under the guidance of the wicked oyarsa of earth. Weston has changed since the Martian episode. He no longer represents scientism, but has grown toward emergent evolution, antinomianism, and eventually toward complete selfishness. Even worse, Weston is now possessed by one of the wicked spirits from earth and is attempting the spiritual seduction of the new Eve. He undertakes this over many long conversations. Ransom tries to refute Weston, but without too great success, and he realizes that his role on Venus is to murder Weston, which he does. This episode over, the hidden oyarsa of Venus appears and turns the governance of the planet over to the King and Queen, who have matured and will found the superior race. * Written in sensuous prose, but very weakly plotted and without much inner conviction. 1013. THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH A MODERN FAIRY-TALE FOR GROWN-UPS John Lane; London [1945] The third volume loosely forming the Perelandra series. * It is really two stories muddled together. The first story is that of Mark Studdock and the N.I.C.E. (National Institute of Co-ordinated Experiments). Studdock, a very naive young academic opportunist (very reminiscent of some of the minor Watergate personalities), is enmeshed in the campus politics of the small college of which he is a fellow. Desperately eager to be one of the powers of

LEWIS, C. S. the inner ring, he truckles and toadies to the worst of the politicians. Almost before he knows it, he is caught up by the N.I.C.E., which is recruiting from the college. The N.I.C.E. is an immensely powerful bureaucratic organization, ostensibly concerned with social work, but really a fascistic group that plans to take over England and eventually the world. Devine (now Lord Feverstone), from OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET, is one of its higher personalities. Studdock is repelled by some aspects of the organization-- a brutal secret police under the control of a sadist, psychological control techniques, calculated terror but he is forced partly by circumstances and partly by his own weakne·sses to cooperate. It is his task to enable N.I.C.E. to seize control of the local countryside by staged riots. * This section of THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH is very nicely handled, with fine satiric characterizations, excellent descriptions of academic politics and the jostlings and schemings within the all-powerful organization. The development is not as skimpy as in the two previous Perelandra novels, nor has Lewis found it necessary to fall back on verbal subterfuge to carryon his story. It offers an excellent character study of naivetee, weakness, futile resistance, conformity, and rebellion. * Unfortunately, Lewis has tied this novel into the Perelandra series. The N.I.C.E. is not solely concerned with worldly power. Ie is also an occult organization operating under the egis of the wicked eldils of earth, and its purpose is to enslave the mind of man, forever. The present situation is one of the critical battles of all time. Against the N.I.C.E. is the Order of Logres, a direct descendant of Arthur's order, and the seventy-second Pendragon is Ransom. Ransom, aided by advice from the eldils and oyeseru of the other, sane worlds, is pitted against the N.I.C.E. Associated with him, after a time, is Jane, Mark Studdock's wife, a modernist woman, many of whose ideas and practices Lewis regards with disapproval. Jane happens to be a remarkable psychic who has clairvoyant dreams of great importance. It is really to gain control of Jane that the N.I.C.E. recruited Mark. Jane is the only source of information about the immediate football that both teams want. This is the ancient magician Merlin, who is sleeping in what used to be the old college grounds. Since he is a relic of pre-modern times, a former wielder of Atlantean magic, he can convey forces that no modern man can control. Part of the novel is now a scramble to see whether N.I.C.E. or Logres will recruit Merlin. But Merlin, upon awakening spontaneously, is found to be on the side of good, and with the help of his magic N.I.C.E. is destroyed in a wild orgy of death. An earthquake removes even its physical plant. The battle for good has been won. Mark has awakened. Jane sees that her ideas about feminism and birth control are wrong. Merlin is presumably destroyed by the magic he evoked. Ransom is to

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LEWIS, L. A. return to Perelandra. The reader, however, may wonder why the eldils and oyarsa of earth cannot found another N.I.C.E. * As hinted above, unfortunate that a good fictional study of totalitarianism, opportunism, and oblique discipline has been joined to Perelandra. 1014. THE DARK TOWER AND OTHER STORIES W. Collins; London 1977 Edited with introduction by Walter Hooper, notes by Roger Lancelyn Green and Alastair Fowler. Miscellaneous fragments and minor works, including [a] THE DARK TOWER. A long fragment of a presumably unfinished work dating from 1939. It is very loosely attached to the Perelandra trilogy. Orfieu has invented a machine that shows a strange world much like our own. The inhabitants are human, and the chief building is almost the same as a college tower nearby. But the culture is ruled by a monstrosity, the stingingman. This is a human, obviously unspeakably evil, who has a sting on his forehead. His venom turns ordinary men into automaton-like beings. Ransom and associates study the other world and learn that individual inhabitants greatly resemble individual earthmen. Scudamour, for example, is almost identical to the stingingman. Psychological tensions mount as Scudamour recognizes this likeness, and after an unexpected melee, Scudamour finds himself the stingingman of the other world. He is able to save the counterpart of his fiancee on earth, and discovers the theoretical background of the situation: parallel worlds. The inhabitants of Othertime, while behind us in most areas of science, have studied time far more successfully. The manuscript ends abruptly. There are obvious allegorical symptoms. While the editors disparage this fragment a little, I found it much more thought-provoking and challenging than the mawkish perelandra trilogy. [b] THE SHODDY LANDS. (MFSF 1956) The narrator has the experience of seeing the world through the eyes of another person, a vapid girl. It is a trumpery place. A fine device, though based on Lewis's distaste for the feminine side of our culture. [c] FORMS OF THINGS UNKNOWN. The first lunar explorers cease communicating. Circumstances indicate trouble. Jenkins finds the reason: Medusa. Trivial. LEWIS, L. A. British author. No other information. 1015. TALES OF THE GROTESOUE UNEASY TALES Philip Allan; London 1934 A member of the CREEPS SERIES. * Short stories. [a] LOST KEEP. Peter Hunt inherits a beautiful model of a castle and a lens by means of which he can project himself into the castle. He makes a fortune by kidnapping victims to Lost Keep and then abandoning them. But he falls prey to the family curse. While he is visiting Lost Keep, his son dusts the model. [b] HYBRID. In a previous incarnation Chalmers had evoked a hybrid monstrosity. It possesses him until his wife gives

LEWIS, L. A. birth to a feathered baby. lc] THE TOWER OF MOAB. A strange religious sect tries to build a tower to Heaven, but opens a road to Hell through its foundations. [d] THE CHILD. A madwoman kills her children, but one of them, or a ghost, survives in a welter of blood. [e] THE DIRK. Fratricide and revenge by a ghost. [f] THE CHORDS OF CHAOS. A musician who plays the music of the spheres psychically picks up by accident the music of lost Atlantis, the Chords of Chaos, which bring destruction. [g] THE MEERSCHAUM PIPE. It causes the smoker to become a sadistic murderer. [h] HAUNTED AIR. Landslides sometimes release horrible things from below that fasten on planes and drag them to destruction. [i] THE IRON SWINE. An airplane with a churlish, murderous personality. [j] ANIMATE IN DEATH. Cary dreams of a body, alive, yet dead, in some strange dimensional plane, to which he might be lured. His occultist friend Eyston penetrates the other space and drags the corpse back, but dies in the attempt. * Occasional original ideas, as in [a], [f], [j], but somewhat crude in development. Literal stories of material horror. LEWIS, M[ATTHEW] G[REGORY] (1775-1818) British plantation owner (Jamaica), literary dilettante, author of one of the most important Gothic novels (THE MONK, 1796) and Romantic nouvelles (ROMANTIC TALES, 1808). Also wrote Gothic play THE CASTLE SPECTRE (1798) and some verse. Work is significant in marking departure from earlier Gothic novel; shows strong influences from German popular literature. 1016. THE MONK J. Bell; London 1796 3 vol. (published anonymously) THE MONK is probably the most famous and most widely reprinted Gothic novel, perhaps because it long had the reputation of being soft pornography. Written when Lewis was a young man, it has many literary flaws, but in boldness of imagination and liveliness it is exceptional in the form. * Spain, except for the inserted story, THE LEGEND OF THE BLEEDING NUN, which is set in bandit-ridden, spook-infested Germany. Two plots run concurrently through the book. First that of Ambrosio and Antonia, and secondly, that of Raymond and Agnes. * The monk Ambrosio is renowned for his piety and his intellect, and he is the ornament of his monastery. But he is really a monster of duplicity, pride, and repressed lust. He is seduced quite easily by Matilda, a young woman who has entered the monastery in the guise of a novice, and he progresses farther and farther into sin, Matilda being his guide. He conceives a passion for Antonia, a beautiful young woman, and aided by magic worked by Matilda, he enters Antonia's apartments with the intention of raping her. In his escape he kills her mother. The second theme is concerned with Agnes, a young woman who has been immured in a convent, and Raymond, her lover. The nuns abuse Agnes horribly, but Raymond obtains a release for her from the Pope, in-

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LIBRARY OF THE NEWEST ENGLISH NOVELS, TALES vades the convent with armed force, and rescues Agnes and her baby. * The two plots are united by a common factor, superstition, here equated with Latin Catholicism. * At the end of the novel when Ambrosio has been found out and imprisoned, subject to the Inquisition, Matilda visits him in his cell. She tells him that she has sold her soul to the Devil to obtain freedom, and recommends that Ambrosio make a similar bargain. After being tortured he is willing, and the Devil appears. Once Ambrosio is completely his, the Devil reveals what has really been happening. Matilda is a demon, sent to seduce him. Antonia was his sister, and Ambrosio has killed his own mother. The Devil then takes Ambrosio up, claws in his scalp, and drops him on the crags of the Sierra Morena. * Imbedded in the novel is [a] THE LEGEND OF THE BLEEDING NUN. This has occasionally been reprinted separately with retitling and some editing. When Raymond was in Germany, he persuaded Agnes to elope with him. She was to disguise herself as the local haunt, the Bleeding Nun, to avoid suspicion. But Raymond did not look closely enough and the woman that he took in his carriage was really the Bleeding Nun. She haunts him and drives him to despair. When he is desperate, a mysterious old man evokes the spirit of the nun, asks her what should be done to release Raymond, and calms her. He is the Wandering Jew. The resolution with the Wandering Jew is sometimes omitted in such separate publications as RAYMOND AND AGNES, OR, THE BLEEDING NUN OF THE CASTLE OF LINDENBERG (Dean and Munday; London c. 1820). * The publishing history of THE MONK is very complex, with many variations in the text. In response to many protests about the erotic element, Lewis expurgated certain passages for the fourth edition (1798, published as AMBROSIO, OR THE MONK). Succeeding editions are often compromises between Lewis's two texts. M. Summers in his THE GOTHIC BIBLIOGRAPHY has covered reprint editions fairly thoroughly, although it must be recognized that Summers is not always reliable. The edition read for this project has been that of E. A. Baker (Routledge; London 1922). * THE MONK remains one of the most readable of Gothic novels. While at times it is garrulous and somewhat gloating in its eroticism, it is alive. [ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 1017. THE LIBRARY OF THE NEWEST ENGLISH NOVELS, Julius Wunder; Leipzig TALES. AND POEMS 1837 2 vol. A collection of Romantic and Early Victorian fiction, including [a] SANDY SANDEMAN, THE PIPER, E[dward] Mayhew. Scotland. Sandy, a sot, has two adventures. He tries to drink with an unknown person who must be the Devil, and he then falls prey to fairy music. While he disappears to the eye, he is held prisoner in a small area where he dances without cease. One hundred years later a hunter shoots at a stag and accidentally kills the invisible

LIBRARY OF THE NEWEST ENGLISH NOVELS, TALES Sandy, who appears and disintegrates before the hunter's eyes. [b} THE SPIRIT OF THE FOUNTAIN, J. S. Coyne. Gothic manner. A knight promises to be faithful to the spirit, but lapses. [c} THE GERMAN STUDENT, Anonymous. Conrad von Altenfelt, student at Heidelberg, makes a bond with a spirit and lives a life of riot and dissipation. When the bond is ended, the evil that he did becomes visible, and he goes mad. Presumably to be taken figuratively. [d} A SPECIAL EVENING IN THE LIFE OF A MUSICAL AMATEUR, G. D. The narrator acquires the power to see Father Thames and Echo as persons. Rationalized. * Unimportant material. LIE, JONAS (1833-1908) Norwegian writer of fiction. Made considerable use of folkloristic material, particularly in later works. 1018. WEIRD TALES FROM NORTHERN SEAS FROM THE DANISH OF JONAS LIE Kegan paul, Trench, Truebner; London 1893 Translated from Norwegian by R. Nisbet Bain. * [a} and [b} come from DEN FREMSYNTE [c} from FORTAELLINGER OG SKILDRINGER (1872); the remainder of the stories from TROLD (1891). * Short narratives heavily folkloristic in subject matter. [a} THE FISHERMAN AND THE DRAUG. A draug is a sea demon. Elias, a fisherman, harpoons a seal, which escapes, harpoon and all. Years later he is on the sea with his family when he sees a ghostly boat riding parallel to his. On it is the draug whom he had harpooned. Most of Elias's family is washed overboard. Elias leaps into the sea to save his only surviving child. [b} TUG OF WAR. A draug is sitting in the stern of a boat, preventing it from sailing properly. A boy throws a ballast stone at it and dislodges it. When they reach land, the draug comes for the boy. [c} FINN BLOOD. Eilert, an otherwise worthy young man, is brought up in a community where Finns are second-class citizens. As a result of social pressure he scorns a Finnish girl (Zilla) whom he really loves. When his boat capsizes, he is taken down through a passageway to an underwater world, peopled by all sorts of monsters, where he is received by Zilla and her father, a merman. The merman is angry at the slight put on Zilla. After a time Eilert awakens and finds that he has been uncorlscious for six weeks, nursed by Zilla, whom he now marries. [d} JACK OF SJOHOLM AND THE GAN-FINN. Jack, a boat builder, goes to Finmark and falls in love with Seimke. Her old grandfather, however, dislikes Jack. The old man is a mighty wizard, able to control winds, and he sends spells against Jack. But with Seimke's aid Jack survives and returns to his home area. There he makes a bargain with a draug. The draug demands every seventh keel -- i.e., every seventh boat shall be lost at sea. But when Jack loses his brothers and sisters to the draug, he returns to Seimke. eel "THE EARTH DRAWS." While boating, a young man sees a mooring ring, which, upon being pulled, opens a drawer in the rocks. Other

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LINDSAY, DAVID rings open other drawers, all filled with valuables. There is a price, however, a troll woman who wants him to marry her. He is unwilling and goes away to live his own life, but each year, before Christmas, he finds a ring in his floor, with a trapdoor, which he must open. [f} THE CORMORANTS OF ANDVAER. A beautiful young woman announces that she ~~ill wed only the man who can fetch a ring from a certain wreck. She saves the life of a sailor and she helps him magically to recover the ring. But she will be his bride only until sundown. She disappears, leaving rotten rags behind her. She was a cormorantwoman. [g} ISAAC AND THE PARSON OF BRONO. Isaac fishes up the sea boot and leather jacket of his drowned brother, but the pastor will not give them Christian burial until his own life is in danger and the dead brother helps to save it. [hI THE WIND-GNOME. Bardun, a local dare-devil, gains power over a troll woman, who assures him of prosperity and gives him a magic rudder. Things go well for years, until his son-in-law, a king's officer, erodes his authority. When the sonin-law and Bardun's daughter are drowned by troll magic, Bardun sails away to the south with his magic rudder. [i} THE HOMESTEAD WESTWARD IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS. The young drummer beats his way into the mountains and finds himself in a magical situation with four young women who want to marry him. He is imprisoned by their father until he agrees to marry one of them. He is set free by the youngest woman, who is bitter at being last in line for marriage. The drummer's first choice was a snake woman. [j} "IT'S ME." A giant maid takes service with a merchant. While she is useless at housework, her great strength makes her indispensable around the warehouse. But her magical nature and wildness are uncontrollable. [k} THE HULDREFISH. When Nona eats the strange eyeless fish, he undergoes a visionary experience, descending through the internal waters of the earth. * Told with the inconsequentiality and inconsistency of folktales. [a), [f), and lil are most interesting. Excellent pen and ink illustrations by Laurence Housman. LINDSAY, DAVID (1878-1945) British metaphysical novelist. A writer of great imagination and originality, odd strengths and weaknesses. Almost ur,kno","r; during his lifetime, but currently a fold authcr. 1019. A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS Hethuen; London 1920 A metaphysical novel set in the framework of an interplanetary voyage, usi.'J.g the incidents of fantastic adventure. Most of the names are interpretable and the incidents fit a conceptual framework. * Maskull, a man from earth, spends five days on the planet Tormance (Torments) which revolves around the double sun of Arcturus. During this period he undergoes fantastic adventures, sometimes horrible, sometimes existential. He sees frames of reference embodied in fantastic terms, grows

LINDSAY, DAVID new sense organs to appreciate them, sees new spectra-- always with a doom hanging over him. On the fifth day he is killed and is reborn as Nightspore, a higher potence of himself. He is then shown the horror of the universe, which he must face with courage. The theoretical basis behind the story is that all sparks of life from creativity or God are diverted by a dual and equal (or even more powerful) power, which is variously called Shaping (phenomenality) or Crystalman. This second power is also self-will. As the sparks pass through Shaping, they become devoured or distorted, causing a world which is a rotten copy of the original world of Muspel (light and fire). This original world, that of Surtur (fire) or Krag, is struggling for its existence. Shaping is all-pervasive and so strong that almost none of the sparks of life returns to its original source. Only with the help of Krag (pain) can the spark Maskull-Nightspore return to its ancient home. Maskull recognizes this background only partially, and he"is torn between the rotten but pleasant world of Shaping and the harshness of Krag, whom he does not recognize. He proceeds through love as a way of life, duty, earthly wisdom, philosophical wisdom, until he finally goes beyond all phenomenality. * These are the ideas within A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS, but the development is a series of concrete adventures with strange beings, weird landscapes, and mystifying experiences. * A remarkable work. 1020. THE HAUNTED WOMAN Methuen; London 1922 A love story with metaphysical concerns. * Runhill Court (anciently Runehill) is built upon and incorporates part of a Saxon building. According to legend, the house had belonged to a man named Ulf, who had been spirited away by supernatural forces. Today it is merely considered haunted in a peculiar way. For certain persons a stairway becomes visible and accessible, leading to rooms in the ancient Saxon tower of the past. This, however, is only a mechanism. It is what happens in the rooms that is important: the emergence of one's ideal, real personality, as opposed to the battered one of this world. * Henry Judge, a widower, has inherited Runhill and is considering selling it. Among the possible buy"ers is the aunt of Isbe 1 Loment. To both Judge and Isbel the secret stairway appears, and they fall in love up in the supernatural rooms. But their experience of the ideal lasts only as long as they are upstairs. Once they leave, they forget everything. On looking out of one of the shuttered windows they see an alien, early Saxon landscape, and in the near distance, a figure in Saxon dress who is playing a cello-like instrument. Its sound permeates the building. It is clear that there is a sinister mystery about this figure, who is Ulf, and that Ulf's glance is death. Judge, to circumvent the amnesia that arises when he leaves the rooms, climbs down the outside of the tower and regains our own land and time, but with the ecstasy and knowledge that he would otherwise have lost. He and

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LINDSAY, DAVID Isbel have realized their love in our world, too, but Judge, unable to resist the chance, leaves the tower to face Ulf. Ulf sweeps up his instrument and kills Judge with a tone. It is death to penetrate too far beyond phenomenology. * There is also a ghost. * A strangely moving book, profound in its thought, and on the whole well executed. 1021. SPHINX John Long; London 1923 Intellectual prostitution philosophically considered, with a little science-fiction. * Nicholas Cabot, a brilliant young self-taught scientist, has discovered the secret of recording and reading dreams. Since he needs solitude and suitable surroundings to continue his work, he goes to live as a paying guest in a resort town (under circumstances much like Lindsay's own life, as owner of a rooming house). He becomes entangled both with a daughter of the house and with an attractive widow. He also becomes acquainted with Lore Jensen, a highly gifted musician who is squandering her talent on the most rubbishy work. Cabot's dream apparatus reveals to him that Lore desperately needs help, for her unconscious is rebelling at her life. But Lore commits suicide, thereby releasing her troubled soul. Cabot's death follows soon after, and the woman who caused it reads his dream record of emergence after death. He and Lore ride off together to infinity. * A very strange novel" with both thoug~t-provoking_metaphysics and a good picture of pre-Titanic resort life among the Bl"itish middle classes. Most critics have dismissed SPHINX as a failure, but I find it curiously fascinating. 1022. DEVIL'S TOR Putnam; London 1932 This is Lindsay's magnum opus, a very long novel filled with painterly detail. Some readers have considered it a failure, but colossal; others have considered it simply colossal. It is based ultimately on speculation about the nature of man, the universe and the godhead. Behind the novel lies a mythical history. * At some time in the remote past, perhaps paleolithic times, a being from another planet landed on earth and was accepted as a mother goddess. She eventually died, and her grave is inside a tor in Dartmoor. In her tomb is half an ancient talisman which has supernatural powers. The other half has changed hands many times and is in Tibet at present. Each half, separately, offers visions of the past and theophanies of the goddess. But when the two halves are brought together, the results, according to an ancient prophecy found at Cnossus, will be catastrophic. A man and woman present shall beget the next development in humanity. Controlling the halves of the talisman are cycles within the universe and fate. When it is the right time, the tomb will be opened and the new world will begin. * As the book begins, various parties converge on Dartmoor and undergo psychic experiences. Hugh Drapier has come to visit his cousin Ingrid Fleming and has a strange story to tell. While he was in Tibet he helped a pair of explorers who were in danger, by

LINDSAY, DAVID temporarily accepting a talisman that they had stolen from a monastery. He should have given the talisman back to them, but was unwilling, being fascinated by its incredible properties. The two explorers, Saltfleet and Arsinal, are in pursuit of him. The presence of Drapier and the talisman offers the stimulus to fate, for in fairly rapid succession lightning strikes open the tomb of the great mother and Drapier is killed while holding the second half of the talisman, which he had picked up in the tomb. When Arsinal and Saltfleet arrive, they ask Ingrid to give them the talisman, since they believe they have a right to it. Arsinal, a noted scientist, has tracked its course from Crete to Tibet, while Saltfleet has been carried along by destiny. There are many complications when it is discovered that the second half of the talisman is available. Ingrid agrees to join the halves. The ancient prophecy is fulfilled and Saltfleet and Ingrid find themselves selected by fate as the founders of the new humanity. * A"plot summary cannot do justice to the breadth and scope of this work. It is not easy reading, but for massive power there is nothing comparable in English fantastic literature. 1023. THE VIOLET APPLE AND THE WITCH Chicago Review Press; Chicago 1975 Introduction by Colin Wilson. Edited by J. B. Pick. Two posthum6us works by Lindsay. THE VIOLET APPLE was rejected by Lindsay's publishers, while THE WITCH was not finished. * [a} THE VIOLET APPLE. Metaphysical concepts worked into a novel of manners, without too much success. The themes, as in much of Lindsay's other work, are self discovery by supernatural means, and death. Anthony Kerr, successful London playwright, has betrayed his inner V~S10n. He has cheapened his gifts by applying them to the ephemeral stage. He is ambivalent about two women, the conventional Grace, and the colorful Haidee, who is engaged to one of his best friends. A supernatural resolution to his and Haidee's problems comes from a glass ornament, a treasured possession of the Kerr family since the Crusades. According to legend, the ornament contains a seed from the Tree of Paradise. (Lindsay carefully withholds the identification of the tree.) The ornament is broken and Kerr, impelled by fate, plants the seed. It sprouts and grows into a plant with unnatural rapidity, soon producing two small violet fruits-- within a matter of days. "Haidee, unhappy because she is unconsciously aware that she, too, has sold herself, eats one of the fruits and persuades Kerr to eat the other. The fruit has a terrible effect on them. It kills the outer man in them, so that they no longer can live their glittering, empty lives. Yet it offers them a bare chance of building, very laboriously, a new personality. This they set out to do. It has all, of course, been fated. * The reader must be patient, for while the effects of the apple are described with Lindsay's best profound imagination, the first two thirds of the novel are almost a parody

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LINKLATER, ERIC of a stilted shopgirl romance. [b] THE WITCH. Details are not given, but Mr. Pick has edited the text fairly heavily. * Ragnar Pole is inexplicably summoned to the mysteries of the universe. His summoner is the witch Urda Noett (the significance of whose names should be obvious). She works upon him by dreams, visions, and glamour. At first Ragnar thinks that he is fulfilling an earthly quest, but he soon realizes that everything he perceives is only a symbol for something greater and profounder, as he passes through the mysteries. What begins as a social visit is metamorphosed into the house of life and death, and an exposition of three musics (in an emanational universe) that penetrate, control, and are Being. * The novel breaks off abruptly during Pole's experience, and only scattered fragments remain of later developments. Pole is to return to life for a time, but like Maskull and Judge, he is to die when confronted by his fate. * While [a} is mostly a bore that comes to life too late in its development, [b] is one of the most remarkable, most thoughtprovoking works in the range of supernatural fiction. LINKLATER, ERIC (1899 - 1974) Scottish (Orkney Islands) educator, poet, novelist. Author of several intelligent, very amusing novels. Best-known work JUAN IN AMERICA (1931), clever satire on American ways during the Depression years, based partly on own experiences; sequel, JUAN IN CHINA (1936); and RIPENESS IS ALL (1935). Popular in Great Britain, but little-known in America. The following books do not represent his best work. 1024. GOD LIKES THEM PLAIN Jonathan Cape; London 1935 Short stories, including [a] THE ABOMINABLE IMPRECATION. A pleasant, tongue-in-cheek modern fairy tale of a young musician who slays a dragon and wins a princess. Complications are offered by the curse of the Shepherd AIken, which changes one's sex. [b] THE DANCERS. The mysterious disappearance of the Pomfret party in the Orkneys. The explanation: They landed on Eynhallow, played their gramophone, and were visited by friendly Little People, with whom they are still dancing and cavorting. The heather ale is fine. One member of the party returns to get more gramophone needles. (This was in the days of hand-cranked machines that used steel or cactus needles.) [c] GOD LIKES THEM PLAIN. The imaginary land of Jocynthia. Queen Perdis, at an inn for a night, meets the storyteller Malis. When they kiss, they exchange faces and parts of their personality. The result is to Perdis's advantage, although at first she does not see it: she gains Perdis's wit. Semi-allegorical? [d] KIND KITTY. Kitty, a drunken slattern from Edinburgh, after her death goes along the road to Heaven. She enters Heaven by a subterfuge, but does not really like the place. Our Lady is a trivial person, as is God. Kitty decides to stay at the inn outside the gates

LINKLATER, ERIC of Heaven and be a servant. [e] THE RELUCTANT MIRACLE. Tongue-in-cheek. Beta and Dowsabell, daughters of a would-be alchemist, decide to become prostitutes. But St. Polydore arrives opportunely and with miraculous appearances of money staves off the plans of the young women. But Beta and Dowsabell have their own way. * Amusing material, told with Linklater's light touch. 1025. SEALSKIN TROUSERS AND OTHER STORIES Rupert Hart-Davis; London [1947] Short stories, including [a] THE GOOSE GIRL. Orkneys. Parallels to Greek mythology. The narrator, a demobbed soldier, settling down on one of the islands, one morning happens to see the local goose girl bringing back a giant gander that must have escaped. The girl is nude and he falls in love with her. They marry, and she has a little girl. As the child grows up, the narrator notices that she glows in the dark, and her beauty is obviously on the superhuman level. He hears the legend of Helen of Troy and then reveals what he found not long after the child was born. (He had been away at the time.) Fragments of a gigantic egg shell. [b] SEALSKIN TROUSERS. On the crags by the sea Elizabeth meets a young man whom she remembers from the university. He wears a strange pair of sealskin trousers and reveals himself to be a remarkable swimmer. As their conversation proceeds, it is clear that he is a sealman, the only sealman with an M.A. from Edinburgh, and that the seal people are worried about the humans. He transforms her into a sealwoman and they leave together. Two excellent stories. 1026. A SPELL FOR OLD BONES Jonathan Cape; London 1949 Ultimately political sacire, the reemergence of a free Britain, but in vehicle an amusing story of personalities and events in Scotland around the beginning of the Christian era. * Scotland is a land of small kingdoms, with Druids supplying religious needs. The people would be happy enough were it not for the giants that are occasionally born. At the moment there are two: Furbister (the West? Capitalism?) upon whom most of the story settles and a rival, Od McGammon (Soviet Russia). The giants are not exactly malevolent, but are selfish, greedy, rather stupid, intellectually short-sighted, and panicky. Their fear of competition (and ultimately of each other) leads to perpetual aggression and conquest of the small kingdoms. The story is told mostly in terms of Albyn (Albion, England), a lackadaisical poet and lover, who has married the daughter of the local puppet king whom Furbister has set up. Despite Albyn's attempts to keep peace between the two giant empires, war breaks out. In a great battle both giants are swallowed by a bog, after most of their armies have been killed. Albyn, too, is temporarily swallowed, but he emerges a year later and with a magical spell reconstitutes the fallen soldiers. (Once tyranny is removed, free men will rise again.) Trouble is not yet ended, however, for Albyn leaves

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LIPPARD, GEORGE his home to fight the Roman invaders in the south. * Witty and enjoyable. The allegory need not_be pursued. LIPPAFD, GEORGE (1822-1854) American (Philadelphia) journalist, author, political enthuast. Highly popular on lower levels for LEGENDS OF THE REVOLUTION, series of short fiction sketches, frequently reprinted, ultimately leading to lecture tours on a patriotic basis. Most noted work THE MONKS OF MONK HALL, both as fiction and as stage play. In 1850 Lippard founded fairly important secret society, The Brotherhood of the Union, with himself as Supreme Washington. This was socialist in economy, violently conservative and jingoistic right-wing politically. Sometimes claimed to be ancestral to the K.K.K. Lippard is an unimportant author by mainstream standards, but a very interesting personality who has never been thoroughly studied. 1027. THE OUAKER CITY: OR. THE MONKS OF MONKHALL A ROMANCE OF PHILADELPHIA LIFE, MYSTERY AND CRIME G. B. Zieber; Philadelphia 1844-5 published in 10 parts, papQ2rbound Title often used in reprints, THE .o,!l.B , OF MONK HALL. * Sensational expose novel in the manner of French feuilleton novels (Sue and Hugo) and British counterparts. Crime and supernaturalism in early 19th century Philadelphia. * A series of very complicated plots and intrigues find a nexus around Monk Hall. This is a gigantic underground brothel, gambling den, and thieves' hang-out, where well-to-do Philadelphia rakes, politicians, and pillars of society maintain love nests. Chief denizen of Monk Hall is Devil-Bug, a half-mad cripple of enormous strength who combines the properties of Hugo's Quasimodo and Triboulet (Rigoletto) and furthers the plot by killing off unwanted characters in ingenious ways. * The chief subplot concerns Byrnewood, a young man about town, who wagers with Lorrimer, a friend, about the results of a seduction that Lorrimer is working on. After agreeing on their wager, they go to a fortune teller who bids them repent and mend their ways, or one will kill the other within three days. They scoff and go to Monk Hall, where Byrnewood discovers that the girl in question, who is present in the Hall, is his sister. Lorrimer plans to deceive her with a bogus marriage. When Byrnewood protests, he is overcome by the personnel of the institution, but escapes. Other plots concern the experiences of Devil-Bug and his beautiful young daughter. The supernatural enters with ghosts and visions and with Ravoni, a two-hundred year old alchemist and cultist, He is setting himself up as a new god, with an elaborate cult, temples, and vestal virgins. He can raise the dead and can paralyze with a glance of his masterful eye. Devil-Bug, at first enslaved by Ravoni, later murders him. After several hundred thousand words all the threads of the story are tied together. Lorrimer is killed by Byrnewood; various adult-

LIPPARD, GEORGE erers are punished; and Devil-Bug dies in the ruins of Monk Hall. * According to the author's claim, this novel was written for moral purposes: to show the evils of Philadelphia and also to prove that seduction is worse than murder. The author, the preface reveals, has a younger sister, and he is afraid that he might die and leave her unprotected. There are also diatribes against Evangelical Christianity and Roman Catholicism, including an anecdote of a young sailor who refused to kiss the Pope's toe and was ground up into salami. * A curiosity only. Amusing in small doses, disgusting in large. * The edition cited is that conjectured by Blanck. The edition read has been the Peterson (Philadelphia, c. 1865) reprint. LLOYD, JOHN URI (1849-1936) American (Cincinnati) educator, pharmacologist, author. Another case of a scholar of unquestioned ability and integrity revealing strange aspects ot his personality through fiction. Professor of Pharmacology, Cincinn"ati College of Pharmacy; partner in Lloyd Brothers, large pharmaceutical firm; founder of Lloyd Library; recipient of honorary degrees. In fiction, in addition to the eccentric ETIDORHPA Lloyd was known for Kentucky regionalism, as in STRINGTOWN ON THE PIKE (1900) 1028. ETIDORHPA; OR, THE END OF EARTH THE STRANGE JOURNEY OF A MYSTERIOUS BEING AND THE ACCOUNT OF A REMARKABLE JOURNEY [etc.] Author's edition; J. U. Lloyd; Cincinnati 1895 A long eccentric romance with interspersed sections that describe scientific experiments in chemistry and physics that the author believes support his theories and that expound philosophical ideas. * Llewellyn Drury, the author of these memoirs, is haranguing himself on metaphysics one evening, when a strange bearded man suddenly appears in a chair in Drury's study. The stranger identifies himself as I-Am-the-Man. They converse briefly. The stranger disappears, but reappears a year later with a long manuscript which he reads to Drury. * In the early 19th century I-Amthe-Man joined a secret occult organization and from egotistic motives betrayed its secrets. (The references here are obviously to the Morgan Affair.) As punishment and also as a means of advancing him spiritually, he is sent on a long quest. He is taken by a telepathic guide to Kentucky, where an eyeless, sexless, nude humanoid being conducts him into caverns beneath Mammoth Cave. Together they descend toward the center of the earth. As they go, the psychopomp imparts scientific insights to the man, as well as spiritual teachings about science, God, man, and the soul. They pass through endless, strangely lighted caverns; they march through a forest of giant tree-like mushrooms; and eventually come to an underground lake which they cross in a metal boat operated by mental power. A long digression comes when the psychopomp urges the man to sample liquid from a mushroom fruit. The man thereupon has astonishing dreams of Dante-like

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LONDON, JACK hells, with misshapen organisms and gigantic hands emergent from the ground, and he is hounded by demons of alcoholism. He is forced to choose between temperance and alcohol. Buoyed by the vision of Etidorhpa, a beautiful young woman, he chooses temperance. He then awakens and they continue on their way, eventually coming to the end of the earth's crust. The narrator and the sexless being leap off into the hollow center of the earth and come to the Unknown Country, which is not described but is probably the domain of spirits. By now the journeyer has evolved both spiritually and physically. He is telepathic, and he no longer breathes or enjoys a heart beat. The story ends at this point. * As fiction or philosophy, this book is of course negligible, but it has long been a collector's item, perhaps because of the elaborate illustrations of J. Augustus Knapp. * There is some textual variation among editions, and later editions often do noc contain all the original illustrations. * The edition read has been the third (1896) edition. The 1976 paperbound Pocket Book edition has an introduction by Neal Wilgus linking Lloyd's book with hallucinogens. The influence of Jules Verne is obvious. LONDON, JACK (1876-1916) American (mostly California) writer of fiction, social documents; early socialist. Illegitimate birth, childhood poverty and hardships, odd-job youth left many marks on personality, ending in suicide. Although by no means a great writer, his work struck empathy in world readership. During his lifetime he was the most highly paid writer in the United States; during the 1920's and 30's, he was the most popular English-language author in the U.S,S.R. Bestknown work THE CALL OF THE WILD (1903); most significant fiction probably THE IRON HEEL (1907), forceful picture of future totilitarianism. Not important as a writer of supernatural fiction. 1029. MOON-FACE AND OTHER STORIES Macmillan; New York 1906 Short stories, including [a] PLANCHETTE. For four years Chris has been Lute's half-fianc~. He loves her; she loves him; yet he refuses marriage for a mysterious, undisclosed rea~on. Lute's family, while they like Chris, are disturbed at the situation; Chris's failure to act or leave is spoiling Lute's life. Riding accidents start to befall Chris. Twice gentle horses try to kill him. Then, during a session with a medium and a planchette, a message comes to Chris from Lute's dead father. He has tried to kill Chris twice, because of what Chris is doing to Lute, and he will keep trying until he succeeds. The third horse succeeds. * An odd story for London, without his usual garish simplistics. The reader is more likely to be curious about Chris's unspecified impediment than about the external story. 1030. THE NIGHT-BORN AND ALSO THE MADNESS OF JOHN HARNED WHEN THE WORLD WAS YOUNG [etc.] Century; New York 1913

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LONDON, JACK Short stories, including [a] WHEN THE WORLD WAS YOUNG. (SATURDAY EVENING POST, 1910) A burglar on the property of James Ward sees an astonishing sight: a nearly naked bronzed giant who leaps and cavorts through the trees. The next day he visits Ward to warn him against the stranger and sees that the naked man had been Ward. The point of the story is that Ward is an atavist. Since childhood he has run with the wild beasts and he has a private language that has been identified as a very ancient proto-Germanic tongue. Ward's curious reversion, whether reincarnation or ancestral memory, vanishes after he battles with and vanquishes a grizzly bear. This is one of a series of plots that Sinclair Lewis sold to London. It is obviously one of the sources for Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan. 1031. THE STAR ROVER Macmillan; New York 1915 A rambling fictional attack on prison conditions in California, with atrocities and adventure sequences. The point of the book seems to be that the human spirit is free, no matter what torments the body is subjected to. The prison subject matter, including the technique whereby consciousness is dissociated, is derived in part from the factual experiences of Ed Morrell (later printed as THE TWENTY-FIFTH MAN). Darrell Standing, college professor, in a moment of rage killed a man, and he is sentenced to life imprisonment. Prison life is difficult for him, since he is an "incorrigible," but matters become much worse when the prison administration (wrongly) believes that he has been implicated in a prison break and has hidden dynamite somewhere in the prison. The warden and his aides determine to torture the location of the dynamite from Standing, and place him in the "jacket"-a particularly vicious form of straitjacket-in solitary for days at a time. Through knuckle-talk he learns a technique of dissociating his consciousness from his body and relives many lives and experiences of the past. These range from those of cave men to Mormons, the most imaginative being a life as an English seafarer in the court of 17th century Korea. Most of these experiences are adventures in the manner of pulp fiction. Whether they are reincarnations or attunement to Humanity is never completely clear, although the weight would seem to be on reincarnation. (In his earlier life Standing had flashes of such material.) But the prison cannot be denied. Standing half-accidentally strikes a guard and is executed. Written in London's most florid, braggadocio style, repetitive and longwinded, but with occasional flashes of interest. Alternate title, THE JACKET. 1032. THE TURTLES OF TASMAN Macmillan; New YorK 1916 Short stories, including [a] THE ETERNITY OF FORMS. (RED BOOK, 1911) Madness, neo-Aristotelianism, and perhaps the supernatural. Sedley Crayden and his brother frequently argue about philosophical matters. The brother dies and Sedley sees his ghost seated in his

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LONG, FRANK BELKNAP chair. To prevent the reappearance of the ghost, Sedley himself sits in the chair. Actually Sedley had murdered his brother with a poker and what he sees is delusion. Unremarkable. 1033. CURIOUS FRAGMENTS JACK LONDON'S TALES OF FANTASY FICTION National University Publications, Kennikat Press; Port Washington, N.Y. 1975 Edited by Dale L. Walker, with introduction. Preface by Philip Jose Farmer. Most of the stories in this collection are sciencefiction, though sometimes rather tenuously. Including [a] WHEN THE WORLD WAS ·YOUNG. Described elsewhere. [b] WHO BELIEVES IN GHOSTS. A juvenile piece from London's high school days, 1895. Youths discuss souls and haunts, and two of them venture into a haunted house. They then playa game of chess, which grows more and more heated, until one tries to strangle the other. They have been recapitulating the situation of a murder years before, chess-game and all. [c] EVEN UNTO DEATH. (1900) Borderline supernatural. A lover makes a vow. "Even in death I shall claim you, and no mortal man shall come between." He dies and his corpse is being shipped out of the frozen north. His fiancee, with a new lover, happens to be on board the same ship. By accident his coffin is knocked over and his frozen corpse is hurled upon her. This is enough to make her keep her vows.

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LONG, FRANK BELKNAP, JR. (JR. dropped in later years) (1903 ) American (New York) poet, writer of fiction. While he has written mainstream and mystery fiction, he is known mostly for supernatural fiction and science-fiction. Important member of the Lovecraft circle in WEIRD TALES. Work often has the quality of giving bizarre and horrible twists to familiar material. 1034. THE HOUNDS OF TINDALOS Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1946 Short stories, including [a] DEATH WATERS. (WT 1924) Central America. The narrator tells of horrors on a foul-smelling, snakeinfested lake. Byrne offends and insults the Black boatman, who summons the snakes to vengeance. [b] THE OCEAN LEECH. (WT 1925) Borderline science-fiction. A giant sea leech that conveys strange ecstasies as it drains the blood of its victims. In function, much like the Dweller in Merritt's THE MOON POOL. [c] THE SPACE EATERS. (WT 1928) Borderline science-fiction. A conte A clef involving H. P. Lovecraft. Strange monstrosities haunt the wood, sucking out human brains. They come from another dimension, but can be held off momentarily by the ancient sign. Howard's brain is eaten. [d] THE HOUNDS OF TINDALOS. (WT 1929) Chalmers has a Chinese drug that permits him to go back in time. He retreats beyond phenomenality, but comes upon the Hounds of Tindalos, who pursue him back to present. One of their limitations is that being angular, they manifest themselves only

LONG, FRANK BELKNAP in angled areas. Curves repel them. [e] A VISITOR FROM EGYPT. (WT 1930) Osiris, for the Ancient Egyptians, was by no means the benevolent god that we believe. He comes to the museum in disguise, posing as a great scholar, but before he leaves with the remains of his followers, shrivels the curator with three breaths. [f] SECOND NIGHT OUT. (WT 1933) The dead black horror comes on board the ship the second night out. [g] THE DARK BEASTS. (MARVEL TALES, 1934) Regionalistic, folkloristic, poor Whites. Oglethorpe hates the frogs and believes that they are demonic and harmful. His wife knows that they are protection against the horror from the swamp. She is right. Like the fairy tale of the little dog that barked. [h] THE ELEMENTAL. (UNK 1939) Wheeler is half-possessed by an elemental who must fulfill his wishes. But the powers of the elemental are limited and Wheeler seems trapped on a rock in the sea. [i] FISHERMAN'S LUCK. (UNK 1940) The fishing rod that Mason buys at a pawn shop has a peculiar property~ It drags things out of the past. It brings back the head of a murdered Chinese and a living young woman from the early 19th century. The rod is a lark on the part of the god Hermes. [j] THE REFUGEES. (UNK 1942) When the Little People come to the United States from Ireland during the war, they settle at Miss Kelly's place. When her fiance enters the house they mistreat him abominably. [k] THE CENSUS TAKER. (UNK 1942) Borderline science-fiction. The man from the future is horrified to learn that Philip is a bachelor and reports it to the proper authorities. Strong-arm men thereupon haul Philip away to the future. In the other world, however, the whole series of events is a dream, created by dream machines. [1] GRAB BAGS ARE DANGEROUS. (UNK 1942) The party grab bag has a sinister occupant and is almost responsible for Satterly's death. A ghoul. [m] STEP INTO MY GARDEN. (UNK 1942) Persephone's strange garden inexplicably takes the place of Kendrick's suburban plot. Strange fruit must be eaten and odd vermin are visible. Death treated figuratively. [n] IT WILL COME TO YOU. (UNK 1942) Cromer has a fine job, located for him by Bannerman. He is a food taster. The chicken tasted wonderful, but others died of ptomaine poisoning after eating it. Why? It would be improper to reveal the secret. [0] THE PEEPER. (WT 1944) Michael O'Hara y best keyhole columnist east of Chicago, has betrayed his gifts. He meets death, and the Peeper, his counterpart on the other side, writes a brief obituary. Nicely handled. [p] THE BLACK DRUID. (WT 1930) Mr. Benefield accidentally takes the wrong overcoat, a coat in some way connected with Druid magic. It turns him temporarily into a foul-looking, horrible being. * The remaining stories are sciencefiction. * While the earlier material is now interesting mostly for nostalgic reasons, the stories written in Long's maturer period, the late 1930's on, are noteworthy for the concrete, tangible, yet highly moving horrors that permeate them. Best stories are [d], [1]. [m].

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LONG, FRANK BELKNAP The Belmont (New York 1963 paperbound) edition of the same title contains only [c], [d], [h], [i], [1], [0], and [pl. * THE EARLY LONG: THE HOUNDS.OF TINDALOS (Doubleday; Garden City, N.Y. 1975) contains the same supernatural contents as the Arkham House edition, except that it omits [pl. It does not reprint the science-fiction stories of the earlier collection. Long has contributed an excellent introduction and head notes to the Doubleday edition, making it preferable to the Arkham House. 1035. THE HORROR FROM THE HILLS Arkham House; Sauk City, Wise. 1963 Short novel. (WT 1931). * Supernatural horror in the mode of Lovecraft, merging into weird science at the end. * Algernon Harris, curator of archeology at the Manhattan Museum of Fine Art, receives a piece for the Asiatic collection: a stone statue of a horrible monstrosity that is vaguely elephantine, but has many weird appendages. Ulman, the man who has brought in the statue, wears a mask and tells a strange story. He had been captured in Asia by members of an unknown culture. His captors told him that he was the new servitor of Great Chaugnar and that it was his task to take Great Chaugnar to the West. Chaugnar, the priests, told him, is the ultimate god and is unconquerable and evil. Ulman learns that Chaugnar, though seemingly of stone, is a living being and is vampiric. Ulman dies shortly after telling his tale, and it is discovered that his face and body have been horribly disfigured and transformed. * Chaugnar is placed in the museum, but it soon becomes obvious that he walks, and has committed several murders. In desperation Harris and his superior consult Little, a mystical occultist, who is not unaware of the true nature of Chaugnar, since there had been dream warnings. Little also reveals that Chaugnar, while incredibly dangerous, is not the omnipotent being that his priests claim, but is simply a horror from another dimension. Little thereupon produces a ray that shifts things in time, and Chaugnar, after a chase, is pushed back out of the present. * Material horror told in a literate manner, although the shift to "scientific" explanations is utterly unconvincing. 1036. NIGHT FEAR Zebra Books; Kensington Publishing Corp.; New York 1979 paperbound Edited with introduction by Roy Torgerson. Short stories, mostly science-fiction, but including [a] THE HORROR FROM THE HILLS. Described elsewhere. [b] HUMPTY DUMPTY HAD A GREAT FALL. (STARTLING STORIES, 1948) Borderline science-fiction. The Orban boy, born on a spaceship, alone from the age of eight, is in some way uncontaminated by the spacetime limitations that beset our mentalities. He has invented a dimension hoop that permits entry to an other-world, which is characterized by an infinitely repeated series of circumstances from nursery rhymes-- but acted out in most horrible ways. Wayne, Ruth, and young Orban enter this world and dodge its horrors

LONG, FRANK BELKNAP for a time. Very interesting in concept, as a new source for nursery rhyme sadism, but told as a pulp action story. [c) THE MAN FROM NOWHERE. (UNK 1940) Artists, Greenwich village. Borderline science-fiction. North's friend Revell is a great painter, but when North's girl poses for him, North becomes very upset, particularly when the girl (though otherwise seemingly unharmed) is "half-melted." Revell is a heat-being from another world who cannot help but "melt" time and things. [d) JOHNNY ON THE SPOT. (UNK 1939) Death personified, told in first-person hard-boiled style. Nicely handled. [e) THE WERE-SNAKE. (WT 1925) The Near East, the Temple of· Ishtar, Ishtar. A serpent woman. * [b) and [d) are best. LOVECRAFT, H]OWARD] P[HILLIPS] (1890-1937) American (mostly Providence, R. I.) poet, fiction writer, miscellaneous writer, scholar. The dominant figure in American pulp supernatural fiction of the 1920's and 30's, whose work has had enormous repercussions in world literature since his death. Lovecraft's biography and personality have been described so many times that it is not necessary to say more than that he was for most of his life a semi-recluse who conducted an enormous correspondence with dozens of pen-pals, that he was saturated in 18th century ways and ideas and considered himself an outsider in his own time, and that he had peculiar ideas about the role of an author and gentleman in modern life. He was one of the most intelligent and learned writers of the century (despite being mostly self-educated), a complete rationalist in point of view. His fiction, while stylistically that of a technical writer working according to smash-ending formulas of the period, has been considered important in stating in clearest form one of the alienation myths of the mid 20th century: the precarious aloneness of man, surrounded by concealed horrors emergent from both the inner world of his psyche and the cosmos, beyond phenomenality. Lovecraft's essays were often superior to his fiction, especially when he was interested in the topic and did not take refuge in pomposity. One of his finest works is the remarkable SUPERNATURAL HORROR IN LITERATURE. The following descriptions, while covering all Lovecraft's supernatural fiction and much of his other work, have been limited to first printings of stories (notably Arkham House editions) and early reprint editions that are of interest to collectors. This listing does not cover all later reprint editions and regroupings of stories. In recent years Lovecraft's publishing history has become both complex and repetitive, and no purpose would be served by complete listings. The so-called Lovecraft-Derleth collaborations have been included here, since they are credited on title pages as collaborations, even though they are almost entirely the work of Derleth alone. (Cf. the essay FINAL NOTES by August Derleth in THE DARK BROTHERHOOD, as described below.)

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LOVECRAFT, H. P. 1037. THE SHUNNED HOUSE W. Paul Cook; The Recluse Press; Athol, Mass. 1928 Preface by Frank Belknap Long. * The terrible old Harris house in Providence. For over fifty years it has stood empty, and for more than a hundred years before that it destroyed the health of those who lived in it. Strange mould patterns and nauseous exhalations have been seen in it. The narrator, whose uncle, Dr. Whipple, is deeply interested in local antiquities, traces the history of the house and discovers that it was built on the longforgotten graveyard of a mysterious Huguenot. The narrator and his uncle visit the house, with terrible results. A humanoid mist-being arises from the dirt floor of the cellar and devours Dr. Whipple. The narrator returns next day, excavates, finds a jelly-like being of enormous size buried under the house, and destroys it with concentrated sulphuric acid. The evil is dead and the house is once again habitable. * One of Lovecraft's best stories. * This volume, the first of Lovecraft's books, has had a confused and disputable publishing history. Cook printed about 300 sets of sheets, but it is not clear whether he disposed of any sets, either bound or unbound. Unbound sheets came into the hands of R. H. Barlow, a friend of Lovecraft's, in the early mid 1930's, and Barlow either gave away or sold a half-dozen. or so handbound copies of the book. The remaining sheets, perhaps 150 or so, passed into the possession of August Derleth, who distributed them in the early 1950's, some as sets of unbound sheets, some bound as Arkham books. It is estimated that about half the original printing was lost cr destroyed over the years, and that no more than 150 or so copies \vere ever distributed. It may well be the reost valuable genre book described in this study. Buyers should beware, however, for there is a fraudulent offset edition bound in red cloth and morocco. For bibliographic details see Currey. 1038. THE CATS OF ULTHAR Dragcn Fly Press; Cassia, Florida 1935 paperbound A small pamphlet containing the text of one story, THE CATS OF ULTHAR, originally published in 1920 in an amateur publication called THE TRYOUT. The present edition was issued by R. H. Barlow in an edition of only 42 copies. It has not been seen, and the story description is based on later publications. * One of Lovecraft's early stories in the manner of Dunsany. In the land of Ulthar, beyond the river Skai, a caravan of wanderers passes. A caravan boy named Menes has a pet kitten, which strays away and is sadistically killed by an old man and woman. When Menes learns what has happened, he calls on the gods. The cats rise up and eat the old man and woman. From that day on, in Ulthar, "no man may kill a cat." * A slight, unpleasant jeu d'esprit. 1039. THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH Visionary Press; Everett, Pa. 1936 Supernatural horror. * The narrator, rambling about, viewing antiquarian delights, much as did Lovecraft, is fascinated by the rumors

LOVECRAFT, H. P. about the small town of Innsmouth, on the north shore of Boston. According to hearsay from the neighboring towns, Innsmouth is almost isolated culturally and strangers are not welcomed. The population is heavily inbred and shows certain physical peculiarities, which outsiders consider repulsive. The town also has had a bad history: smuggling, gold running, and worse. * The narrator boards the single bus that connects with Innsmouth and makes his way to the tow~, where he begins his antiquarian delving. He finds a garrulous nonagenarian and pieces together the following history. One of the Marsh family, before the decay of Innsmouth, had gone on an expedition to the South Seas. There he met certain more or less humanoid sea people, who performed certain curious rites. The captain made a ccntract with them. The sea beings were allowed to establish a colony on a reef outside Innsmouth, and in exchange for interbreeding with the local people, brought in gold. This interbreeding is the cause of the "Innsmouth look." Persons with sea-being blood gradually become less human as they grow older. They eventually develop gills and take to the sea. Marsh's contract did not please everyone and there was some protest, but Marsh's followers and the sea people arose one night and massacred all their opponents. Since then Innsmouth has been a stronghold of Otherness. * The narrator is not satisfied with learning this, but insists on prying farther. He is fortunate to escape with his life as he is pursued by humans, semi-humans, and un-humans. Later, however, he discovers that he, too, has Innsmouth blood and should take to the sea. In the meantime he has informed the authorities and the Federal government has attempted a "clean-up" by bombing the reef, which used to swarm with sea people. * A fine story of supernatural adventure and discovery, despite the unfortunate surprise ending which does much to spoil what went on before. * According to William L. Crawford, the publisher, about 400 sets of sheets were printed, but half of these were destroyed. About 200 copies were bound and issued. 1040. THE OUTSIDER AND OTHERS Arkham House; Sauk City; Wisc. 1939 This, one of the legendary-books in supernatural literature, marks the beginning of serious specialist publishing of fantastic fiction in America. * Edited with introduction (HOWARD PHILLIPS LOVECRAFT: OUTSIDER) by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei. It contains most of Lovecraft's more important fiction. Including [a] DAGON. (THE VAGRANT, 1919) During World War I, after escaping from a torpedoed vessel, the narrator reaches a region of the Pacific where there has been an upheaval of the sea bottom. He sees a great monolith covered with unknown writing, showing humanoid creatures worshipping a sea monster. The monster appears. It was Dagon, the fish-god of the Philistines. lb] POLARIS. (THE PHILOSOPHER, 1920) Memories of a previous incarnation in the lost polar land of Lomar, where, overcome by the baneful influence of Polaris,

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LOVECRAFT, H. P. the narrator failed to give the alarm against invading Eskimos. [c] CELEPHAIS. (THE RAINBOW, 1922) In the manner of Dunsany. Elaborate, ornamental prose. The dream life of Kuranes, who has tried by drugs and other means to regain his wonderful kingdom of Celephais. He achieves his desire, but persons in this world find the corpse of a tramp. [d] HYPNOS. (THE NATIONAL AMATEUR, 1923) Dream journeys through space and time to other universes. The narrator and his associate penetrate beyond thought and being to a barrier which only the companion penetrates. This is disastrous, for cosmic laws have been violated. Supernatural punishment comes. When Corona Borealis rises in the spring, the friend is turned into a marble statue. [e] THE CATS OF ULTHAR. Described elsewhere. [f] THE STRANGE HIGH HOUSE IN THE MIST. (WT 1931) A house high on a mountain near Kingsport, where there is an opening to worlds beyond our normal perceptions. [g] THE STATEMENT OF RANDOLPH CARTER. (THE VAGRANT, 1920) Carter and Warren are students of and eager experimenters in the black arts. On one celebrated occasion Warren descends into a crypt which he believes to be the entrance to subterranean realms and does not come back. Instead, over a phone wire which Warren trailed behind him, Carter hears a gelatinous voice say, "You fool, Warren is DEAD~" [h] THE SILVER KEY. (WT 1929) When Carter reached maturity, he lost the key to the gate of dreams and thereby entry to strange and enchanted lands. But he regains the key and returns to his childhood world. He is seen no more. Dunsanean. li] THROUGH THE GATES OF THE SILVER KEY.(WT 1934) Sequel to [h]. Written in collaboration with E. Hoffmann Price. After Carter has disappeared, his estate must be settled, even though some of his friends believe that he is still living. At a meeting in New Orleans, to determine the state of his affairs, a mysterious Hindu appears. He claims to have news of Carter and brings papers in Carter's own hand, proving his statement. He then tells what happened. Carter, after many trials, had passed to the ultimate, Yog-Sothoth, where he learned that he is only a facet of an archetypal being of infinite variation, Yog-Sothoth itself. Carter expressed the wish to experience the personality of Zkauba, a wizard on the planet Yaddith, but he became trapped in Zkauba's body, for he had not been adequately prepared for his experience. He fled in time and space in Zkauba's unwilling body, to reach earth. It is then revealed, as the reader long knew, that the Hindu is really ZkaubaCarter in a mask. Carter disappears into a strange clock-like device. An effective story which suffers somewhat by its association with [h], which is different in mood and implication. [j] THE OUTSIDER. (WT 1926) The experiences, told from the point of view of the Outsider, of a revenant who arises from a grim, dark land to the surface world, and there learns that it is a monstrous, putrid corpse. A superior version of Bierce's AN INHABITANT

LOVECRAFT, H. P. OF CARCOSA. lkl THE MUSIC OF ERICH ZANN. (NATIONAL AMATEUR, 1922) Faris. Zann, a halfmad musician of genius, attains contact with beings from beyond this cosmos. His violin playing acts as a sort of bridge. But evil horrors come and Zann's attempt to play them away is not successful. [11 THE RATS IN THE WALLS. (WT 1924) Delapore, an American whose ancestor left England after an especially bloody crime, buys the ancE'.stral home and renovates it. (The name, de la Poer, embodies a reference to Poe, who also played with the same formation.) But night after night he has horrible dreams and hears spectral rats running up and down in the walls. While exploring the basement, he discovers an entrance to an underground world beneath his house, where there are thousands of human skeletons and a chronological series of temples, all arranged for slaughter and cannibalism. Delapore reverts to family type upon a hereditary enemy. Or perhaps it is all madness. There are good moments in this imaginative story, but many readers object to the ravings and garglings at the end. lml COOL AIR. (TALES OF MAGIC AND MYSTERY, 1928) A living dead man remains "alive" only by living under refrigeration sufficient to keep him from decomposing. Obvious echoes of Poe's M. VALDEMAR. [nl HE. (WT 1926) An ancient New Yorker (indeed, He is New York) tells of strange dark magic in colonial days and shows visions of New York through the ages, including a Mongol supercivilization of the future. He is revealed to be an ancient wizard. A phantom monstrosity composed of Indians He had murdered comes for him. An obvious outgrowth of Lovecraft's hatred for New York and its melting-pot population. lol THE HORROR AT RED HOOK. (WT 1927) Detective Malone, Trinity College graduate, becomes involved in the case of Robert Suydam, in one of the worst sections of \~aterfront New York. Suydam, a wealthy old man of culture, has been gathering strange books and associating with cuI tics of the most unsavory sort. Malone learns that Suydam has smuggled Yezidees into New York and has made a supernatural pact. When Suydam is dead, his corpse is reanimated by the· magic of the physically present Astarte, a tittering monstrosity. Excellent folklore; one of Lovecraft's most effective stories. lpl THE TEMPLE. (WT 1925) World War I. A Prussian submarine commander learns that crimes at sea are punished by beings like mermen. Perhaps they are drowned sailors? He is drawn by a mental compulsion to a lighted temple of sunken Atlantis. [ql ARTHUR JERMYN. (WT 1924) Alternate title, THE WHITE APE. One of the progenitors of a noble and gifted British family married a white ape. lrl THE PICTURE IN THE HOUSE. (NATIONAL AMATEUR, 1919) In a half-ruined old New England house a traveller seeking shelter finds an old man who raves learnedly and disturbingly of cannibalism. The narrator leaves when he sees red stains seeping through the ceiling. Borderline supernatural in that there are suggestions of abnormal longevity. lsl THE FESTIVAL. (WT 1925) A traveller summoned by his

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LOVECRAFT, H. P. ancestors to the haunted town of Kingsport moves into the remote past. He descends with strange mute figures into caverns hitherto unknown. ttl THE TERRIBLE OLD MAN. (THE TRYOUT, 1921) A retired pirate, who talks to a collection of pendulums in bottles, is selected as a suitable subject for burglary. The corpses of the burglars are found, slashed by cutlasses. [ul THE TOMB. (THE VAGRANT, 1922) A young man who sleeps near an ancient tomb becomes saturated with the personality of one of the dwellers in the tomb. [vl THE SHUNNED HOUSE. Described elsewhere. [wl IN THE VAULT. (THE TRYOUT, 1925) An undertaker who disfigures corpses for the sake of economy (i.e., big bodies into little coffins) meets with the anger of the dead. [xl PICKMAN'S MODEL. (WT 1927) Pickman, an artist of genius, paints incredible canvases of horror-ghouls, charnal scenes, etc. His cellar in Boston's old North End has contacts with strange realms best not described. [yl THE HAUNTER OF THE DARK. (WT 1936) Robert Blake (a jesting reference to Lovecraft's pen-pal Robert Bloch), a writer and artist of talent, investigates an ancient church that had once belonged to a disreputable religious group, the Starry Wisdom sect. The cult had offered its devotees access to other worlds. Blake unwittingly calls up the Haunter of the Dark, the monstrosity that had been worshipped there. The story ends with Blake surrounding himself with light to repel the being-- until the electricity goes out. [zl THE DREAMS IN THE WITCH-HOUSE. (WT 1933) A modern student of higher mathematics discovers a link between ancient witchcraft and the most recent speculations on time and space. He becomes entangled in the witcheries of Keziah Mason, a colonial witch, and her familiar, Brown Jenkin. [aal THE THING ON THE DOORSTEP. (WT 1937) Asenath, a girl from an ancient witch family, is really an ancient wizard who escapes death by transferring his personality from one body to another. When Asenath is about to shift to her husband's body, he rebels and murders her. But the witch's power is still enough to transfer personalities. The decaying corpse, with the husband's soul in it, comes to the narrator's door to tell of the interchange. [bbl THE NAMELESS CITY. (TRANSATLANTIC CIRCULAR, date uncertain) A ruined city in the Arabian Desert is inhabited by invisible monstrosities. lccl THE LURKING FEAR. (HOME BREW, 1923) The horrible Martense family has evolved into subterranean, cannibalistic monsters. lddl THE CALL OF CTHULHU. (WT 1928) The ancient monster-god Cthulhu, who lies entombed in the sunken city of R'lyeh, is brought to the surface by volcanic disturbance and emerges from his crypt. His emergence had been known in advance in terms of cosmic cycles, through dreams and other revelations. Told through the visions and paintings of a half-mad artist, the investigations of a folklorist, and the narrative of a Louisiana police inspector who raided ceremonies con-

LOVECRAFT, H. P. ducted by the worshippers of Cthulhu. Finally, there is the story of the sailor who was present when the land rose and the tomb opened. * This has been one of the most influential stories in modern supernatural fiction, the ultimate source of dozens of other stories based more or less on the Cthulhu cycle. lee] THE DUNWICH HORROR. (WT 1929) At Dunwich, near Arkham, Massachusetts, the degenerate Whateley family has long been in contact with horrors from other spheres of existence. From one such. contact is born Wilbur Whateley, only partly human, who studies the NECRONOMICON and practices black magic to open the world to an invasion by the outer horrors. Good detail, nicely developed statement; extremely important historically. lff] THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH. Described elsewhere. * These are the purely supernatural contents of THE OUTSIDER. There are also several science-fiction stories which invoke much of the same subject matter as the supernatural stories, but from a radically different point of view. ·These are "The Colour out of Space," "The Shadow out of Time," "At the Mountains of Madness," and "The Whisperer in Darkness." The first three are among Lovecraft's best work. "The Whisperer in Darkness" attempts to shift the Cthulhu configuration from metaphysics and comparative religions to a rational, material frame of reference-- interplanetary visitors with superior science-- but is otherwise unexceptional. Also present is the final, revised text of the perceptive, very useful SUPERNATURAL HORROR IN LITERATURE, Lovecraft's long essay. * In the above descriptions, the dates of original publication (except for WT) have been taken from Owings and Chalker, THE REVISED H. P. LOVECRAFT BIBLIOGRAPHY. In many instances, however, stories were not published until several years after composition. Such are [j] and [bb], from 1921; [p] and [q] from 1920. (See de Camp, LOVECRAFT, A BIOGRAPHY.) * THE OUTSIDER is the repository for most of Lovecraft's important fiction, and even apart from its considerable value on the rare book market, it is a major book in the history of American supernatural fiction. Lovecraft's concept of horror from Outside, which he developed from the work of Bulwer-Lytton, Machen, and Hodgson, has been pervasive in later American fiction, while many of his story motifs have been widely borrowed, usually to their great detriment. These include the so-called Cthulhu Mythos or cycle, and the NECRONOMICON. The central concept of the Cthulhu cycle is, "Let sleeping gods lie." On earth, at one time in the past, great and malevolent entities ruled. At present they are either temporarily banished from earth, or imprisoned, awaiting release. On occasion, rash humans, to their sorrow, release them or invoke them. These gods, the best-known of whom is Cthulhu, are arranged in a pantheon of sorts, to which Lovecraft's less able followers added personalities, as well as trivializing the deities themselves. Lovecraft has been the only author who handled the concept convincingly. As-

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LOVECRAFT, H. P. sociated with the Cthulhu cycle, though not a necessary part, is the NECRONOMICON, an imaginary book written by the equally imaginary mad Arab, Abdul Alhazred. The NECRONOMICON (the title, usually mistranslated, simply means HOW TO CONTROL THE DEAD) is a master book of magic which enables one to contact all sorts of named and nameless horrors. It, too, has had a sorry history after Lovecraft. Lovecraft's earlier work, when he was working upon models furnished by Poe, Bierce, and Dunsany, is not too strong, but his later, more characteristic work is sometimes very powerful. The reader, however, must be prepared to accept certain obtrusive mannerisms, which some critics have found highly objectionable. Lovecraft, while he wrote in a classically balanced, rhetorically fulfilled manner, was by no means a subtle or graceful writer. He also used a semiprivate vocabulary of horror terms which were intended to slide the reader off into an appropriate context, although the device often does not function, as when he offered numinous sounds at moments of crisis. His background from story to story is likely to be repetitious, and his concept of horror is occasionally on the puerile side. Most annoying is his persistent adding a new climactic mechanism at the very end of the story -- in commercial terms, a punch-line ending. All these points have been cited by critics as examples of bad writing, and the charge cannot always be denied or refuted, beyond saying that Lovecraft demands more acceptance and more reader empathy, because of his peculiar techniques, than most other writers. Yet despite these flaws, his work reveals a vivid imagination, a remarkable ability at the creation of mythic thought, an excellent command of scholarly detail, and many of the indescribable characteristics of a powerful mind at work. His stories have no real counterparts and are certainly worth reading. Within these parameters, outstanding stories are [j], [1], [0], [v], ly], [z], [dd], lee], [ff] •

1041. BEYOND THE WALL OF SLEEP Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1943 This is really an afterthought volume to THE OUTSIDER, gathering up such fragments, minor works, collaborations, and newly found pieces as had not already been published. It is edited, with introduction, by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei. * Miscellaneous non-fiction. lal AUTOBIOGRAPHY: SOME NOTES ON A NONENTITY. (1933) [b] THE COMMONPLACE BOOK. A notebook kept by Lovecraft, with story suggestions, ideas. Originally published separately (The Futile Press, Lakeport, California 1938). [c] HISTORY AND CHRONOLOGY OF THE NECRONOMICON. A spoof. * Four overwritten, mannered "prose poems:" [d] MEMORY. (UNITED CO-OPERATIVE, 1919). tel WHAT THE MOON BRINGS. [NATIONAL AMATEUR, 1923). The narrator hates the moon, since he has discovered that a reef in the sea is merely the forehead of an enormous figure. [f] NYARLATHOTEP. (UNITED AMATEUR, 1920) When Nyarlathotep came from Egypt

LOVECRAFT, H. P. to the lands of the West, the narrator went to him. At first he saw only chaos, but he finally penetrated to the fear that lies behind all things. Nyarlathotep has been borrowed by other writers. [g] EX OBLIVIONE. (UNITED AMATEUR 1921) Life is an interruption of a better state of being. * Five Dunsanean stories: lhJ THE TREE. (TRYOUT, 1921) Two friends in ancient Greece are rivals for an artistic commission. One apparently murders the other, from whose tomb springs a tree that exacts vengeance. [i] THE OTHER GODS. (FANTASY FAN, 1933) Atop the highest mountain of earth dwell the gods. Barzai, whose knowledge is great enough to protect himself against them, visits them, to discover that they are protected by still higher gods. [j] THE QUEST OF IRANON. (THE GALLEON, 1935) Iranon, an inspired singer, wanders about agelessly, looking for his past. His madness preserves him until he learns that he is mad. lk] THE DOOM THAT CAME TO SARNATH. (1920) Frogmen who worshipped a strange idol once inhabited the land, but were slaughtered by invading humans. The frogmen are avenged. [1] THE WHITE SHIP. (UNITED AMATEUR, 1919) A white ship takes Basil Elton, keeper of the North Point Light, to the lands of dream. But the ship is wrecked. * [m] FROM BEYOND. (FANTASY FAN, 1934) Crawford Tillinghast claims that the pineal gland is the sense organ of the mind proper. He invents a machine to stimulate it and is driven mad by horrible amoeboid monstrosities. Borderline science-fiction. [n] BEYOND THE WALL OF SLEEP. (PINE CONES, 1919) Joe Siater is a Mountain White from the Catskills, and seemingly a rather low form of life. But an invention that reads unconscious mental processes reveals that Slater is really an imprisoned cosmic being of light. On his death, proof of his true nature is seen in the sky. [0] THE UNNAMABLE. (THE VAGRANT, 1920's.) Graves, inscriptions, contact with the Unnamable; New England colonial lore. [p] THE HOUND (WT 1925) A pair of diabolists raid graves for charnal curios. They open the grave of" a ghoul and are punished. [q] THE MOON BOG. (WT 1926) Ireland. The Moon Bog is said to have been an encampment of Partholan's invading army. When the bog is drained, ancient supernatural isms awake. [rl THE EVIL CLERGYMAN. (WT 1939) Alternate title, THE WICKED CLERGYMAN. A fragment of one of Lovecraft's dreams published as a story. The narrator is changed into the likeness of a clergyman who works black magic. [s] HERBERT WEST-- REANIMATOR. (HOME BREW, 1922) He revives the dead. The corpses escape. They return years later and carry off West. [t] THE DREAM-QUEST OF UNKNOWN KADATH. Described elsewhere as a separate publication. [u] THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD. (WT 1941, in abridged form) Short novel. Joseph Curwen, 18th century magician, settled in the New World in order to conduct his experiments in gaining eternal life and evoking the dead. His agents searched the world for the remains of fanous people, whom Curwen thereupon resurrected in his laboratory. His neighbors

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LOVECRAFT, H. P. objected to his pursuits and killed him, later destroying all records of him. Charles Dexter Ward, a remote descendant in the 20th century, discovers a hidden record of Curwen that had survived, and learns that Curwen's sorcerous associates are still practicing in Europe. He recapitulates Curwen's experiments-- and then something happens which it is best not to reveal. The story is told in the manner of a mystery story, with the past gradually reconstructed. Unfortunately, the mystery setting detracts from the story rather than enhances it, since the situation is transparent. * Revisions and collaborations: While this is first book publication for most of them, they are described elsewhere for context. [v] THE CRAWLING CHAOS, with Elizabeth Berkeley. [w] THE GREEN MEADOW, with Elizabeth Berkeley. [x] THE CURSE OF YIG, with Zealia Brown-Reed. [y] THE HORROR IN THE MUSEUM, with Hazel Heald. [z] OUT OF THE EONS, with Hazel Heald. [aa] THE MOUND, with Zealia Brown-Reed. [bb] THE DIARY OF ALONZO TYPER, with William Lumley. Also included is the science-fiction story "In the Walls of Eryx," in collaboration with Kenneth Sterling. * [cc] THE CHALLENGE FROM BEYOND. (FANTASY K~GAZINE, 1935) This was a round-robin story written by C. L. Moore, A. Merritt, H. P. Lovecraft, R.E. Howard, and Frank Belknap Long. Lovecraft's part is the longest and most ambitious. The story is concerned with a mysterious cube that draws the protagonist's mind to another planet, where he inhabits a strange body and eventually becomes a god. As might be expected from the different styles and attitudes of the writers, the parts clash horribly. * Miscellaneous associational material includes [dd] THE CTHULHU MYTHOLOGY: A GLOSSARY, by Francis T. Laney. [eel AN APPRECIATION OF H. P. LOVEcraft, by W. paul Cook. * A selection of Lovecraft's poetry is also present. These include miscellaneous early poems; the grouping THE ANCIENf TRACK; the sonnet collection FUNGI FRO~ YUGGOTH; and a few late poems. Much the most interesting of these are the FUNGI FROM YUGGOTH, which use the same ideas as Lovecraft's more characteristic fiction, are wellcrafted, but completely conventional in technique. * The fiction is almost all minor, although [u], despite its being strangely tired and routine, has interesting concepts and good moments. * Stories written considerably earlier than publication: [m], 1920; [iJ, [j], [q], 1921; [p], 1922. 1042. MARGINALIA Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1944 Foreword by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei. * Miscellaneous material by and about Lovecraft. * [a] IMPRISONED WITH THE PHARAOHS. (WT 1924) This was originally published under the name of Houdini, for whom Lovecraft ghosted it. Horrible dreams in the Great Pyramid; dreams of subterranean life and monstrosities. * Two juvenile works, [b] THE BEAST IN THE CAVE. (THE VAGRANT, 1918) Explorations in Mammoth Cave and discovery of a bestial, degenerate man. [c] THE TRANSITION OF JUAN ROME-

LOVECRAFT, H. P. RO. Mexico. A protective Hindu ring; the transformation of Romero into something indescribable. * Six short prose fragments. [d1 AZATHOTH. [e1 THE BOOK. [f1 THE DESCENDANT. [g1 THE VERY OLD FOLK. [h1 THE THING IN THE MOONLIGHT. [i1 TWO COMMENTS. * Stories revised by Lovecraft, described elsewhere. [j1 MEDUSA'S COIL, Zealia B. R. Bishop. [k1 WINGED DEATH, Hazel Heald. [11 THE MAN OF STONE, Hazel Heald. * Essays by Lovecraft: [m1 NOTES ON THE WRITING OF WEIRD HORROR. [n1 SOME NOTES ON INTERPLANETARY FICTION. [01 LORD DUNSANY AND HIS WORK. [p1 HERITAGE OR MODERNISM. [q1 COMMON SENSE IN ART FORMS. [r1 SOME BACKGROUNDS OF FAIRYLAND. [s1 SOME CAUSES OF SELF-IMMOLATION. [t1 A GUIDE TO CHARLESTON, South Carolina. [u1 OBSERVATIONS ON SEVERAL PARTS OF NORTH AMERICA. * Essays, appreciations of Lovecraft by various hands. [v1 SOME RANDOM MEMORIES OF H. P. L., Frank Belknap Long. [w1 HIS OWN MOST, FANTASTIC CREATION, Winfield Townley Scott. [x1 THE WIND THAT IS IN THE GRASS, A MEMOIR OF H. P. LOVECRAFT IN FLORIDA, R. H. Barlow. [y] LOVECRAFT AND SCIENCE, Kenneth Sterling. [zJ LOVECRAFT AS A FORMATIVE INFLUENCE, August Derleth. [aa1 H. P. LOVECRAFT, AN APPRECIATION, T. O. Mabbott. [bb1 THE DWELLER IN DARKNESS, Donald Wandrei. * Poetry dedicated to Lovecraft by Clark Ashton Smith, Henry Kuttner, Francis Flagg, Frank Belknap Long, August Derleth, Charles W. White, Richard Ely Morse. * The guest memoirs and essays are of varying interest, [w1 and [aa1 being perhaps most valuable. Lovecraft's fiction is juvenile or minor. His essays are more significant, particularly [t1, a splendid piece which makes one regret that he did not do more writing in this vein. 1043. THE WEIRD SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH AND OTHER STORIES OF THE SUPERNATURAL Bartholomew House; New York 1944 paperbound This is the first commercial book of Lovecraft's fiction, and thereby a collector's item. [a1 THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH. [b1 THE OUTSIDER. [c1 HE. [d1 THE FESTIVAL. All described,elsewhere. Also included is the science-fiction story "The Whisperer in Darkness." 1044. BEST SUPERNATURAL STORIES OF H. P. LOVECRAFT World Publishing Co.; Cleveland and New York 1945 Introduction by August Derleth, editor. * Including [a1 IN THE VAULT. [b1 PICKMAN'S MODEL. [c1 THE RATS IN THE WALLS. [d1 THE OUTSIDER. [e1 THE THING ON THE DOORSTEP. [f1 THE MUSIC OF ERICH ZANN. [g1 THE HAUNTER OF THE DARK. [h1 THE PICTURE IN THE HOUSE. til THE CALL OF CTHULHU. [j] THE DUNWICH HORROR. [k] COOL AIR. [11 THE TERRIBLE OLD MAN. All described elsewhere. Also present are the science-fiction stories "The Colour out of Space" and "The Whisperer in Darkness." 1045. THE DUNWICH HORROR Bartholomew House; New York 1945 paperbound Described elsewhere, [a1 THE DUNWICH HORROR. [b1 THE THING ON THE DOORSTEP. Also the science-fiction nouvelle "The Shadow out of Time."

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LOVECRAFT, H. P. 1046. THE DUNWICH HORROR AND OTHER WEIRD TALES Editions for the Armed Forces; New York paperbound [1945] Armed Services Edition 730. Introduction by August Derleth. Incl~ding raj THE DUNWICH HORROR. [b1 IN THE VAULT. [c] THE RATS IN THE WALLS. [d] PICKMAN'S MODEL. tel THE MUSIC OF ERICH ZANN. [f] THE OUTSIDER. [g] THE CALL or CTHULHU. [h] THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH. til THE MOON BOG. [j] THE HOUND. * Also two science-fiction stories, "The Colour out of Space" and "The Whisperer in Darkness." * Primarily a collector's item. 1047. SOMETHING ABOUT CATS AND OTHER PIECES Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1949 Edited by August Derleth. Miscellaneous material by and about Lovecraft. The title is derived from the essay [a] SOMETHING ABOUT CATS, in which Lovecraft, with heavy humor, defends and praises his favorite animal. * Five stories extensively revised by Lovecraft, described elsewhere for context. [b1 THE INVISIBLE MONSTER, Sonia H. Greene. [c1 FOUR O'CLOCK, Sonia H. Greene. [d] THE HORROR IN THE BURYING GROUND, Hazel Heald. le] THE LAST TEST, Adolphe de Castro. [f] THE ELECTRIC EXECUTIONER, Adolphe de Castro. * [g] SATAN'S SERVANTS, Robert Bloch. Lovecraft made suggestions and supplied a few linking passages in a juvenile work by Bloch. Gideon Godfrey visits the witch village of Roodsford in New England, not long after the Salem witch executions, and discovers a cult ready to explode into the world. The witches are all un-dead, and Godfrey disposes of them easily by thumping them with a large Bible. Some notes at the end by Lovecraft. Probably influenced as much by R. E. Howard's Solomon Kane stories as by Lovecraft. * Six essays by Lovecraft. [h] THE DESPISED PASTORAL. til TIME AND SPACE. [j] MERLINUS REDIVIVUS. [k] AT THE ROOT. [1] THE MATERIALIST TODAY. [m] VERMONT: A FIRST IMPRESSION. * [n] THE BATTLE THAT ENDED THE CENTURY. Al terna te title, MS. FOUND IN A TIME MACHINE. 2001. A humorous account of a prize fight between R. E. Howard and B. A. Dwyer, with many ingroup allusions. Perhaps in collaboration with R. H. Barlow. HPL denied writing it, but the denial may have been literary persiflage. [01 NOTES AND A DISCARDED DRAUGHT OF THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH. [p] NOTES FOR AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS. [q] NOTE FOR THE SHADOW OUT OF TIME. * This material is followed by about twenty pages of poetry, mostly dejecta and rejecta. * Appreciations of Lovecraft follow~ [r1 A MEMOIR OF LOVECRAFT, Rheinhart Kleiner. [s1 HOWARD PHILLIPS LOVECRAFT, Samuel Loveman. [t] LOVECRAFT AS I KNEW HIM, Sonia H. Davis. An important essay by Lovecraft's former wife. It offers a corrective to many of the essays in the earlier Lovecraft volumes, which were undeservedly hostile to Mrs. Lovecraft. [u] ADDENDA TO H. P. L., A MEMOIR, August Derleth. The basic document was a small book published by Derleth, H. P. L., A MEMOIR. [v] THE MAN WHO WAS LOVECRAFT, E. Hoffmann Price. [w] A LITERARY COPERNICUS

LOVECRAFT, H. P.

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Fritz Leiber, Jr. * The book closes with a poetic dialogue by Derleth and a short poem by Vincent Starrett. * Very little of interest in this volume. 1048. THE DREAl1 OUEST OF UNKNOWN KADATH Shroud Publishers; Buffalo 1955 Introduction by George Wetzel. * THE DREAM QUEST OF UNKNOWN KADATH was written in 1926, but was not published until after Lovecraft's death. The manuscript was a first draft, apparently written "off the top of the author's head," and was not revised. This is its first appearance as a separate book, although it had previously appeared in BEYOND THE wALL OF SLEEP. * Randolph Carter, whose name occurs elsewhere in Lovecraft's stories, has entered the world of dream and is determined to visit Unknown Kadath, where the Great Ones, earth's gods, are said to disport. Carter wanders through various lands-- Celephais, Ulthar-and locatIo's Kadath by examining the various physical types of the dream world and investigating those which are most like Easter Island statues. Aided by cats and ghouls (under the command of Pickman) Carter leads an invasion of Kadath. There he finds Nyarlathotep, who mockingly tells him to return to the lands of non-dream, so that the Great Ones can return to Kadath. This ending, of course, has implications for Lovecraft's own life, since in this year Lovecraft abandoned the dream of marriage and a normal life and returned to Providence. This is apparently his last Dunsanean story, if one assumes that those printed later had been written earlier. * Lovecraft considered this an inferior work, not worth tightening up for publication, and I am inclined to agree with him. It is certainly the poorest of his mature works. Repetitious, alternating aiming for childishness and horror, maundering and wandering, it has little to offer except a rather pointless integration of the earlier Dunsanean stories. 1049. THE SHUTTERED ROOM AND OTHER PIECES BY H. P. LOVECRAFT AND DIVERS HANDS Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1959 Miscellaneous material. * [a] THE SHUTTERED ROOM, "H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth." Presumably written almost entirely by Derleth. Young Abner Whateley comes to Dunwich to settle the estate of his deceased grandfather, Luther Whateley. His grandfather left him a note telling him to take down the mill end of the house and destroy any living thing that he may find there. Abner disregards the note, and the results are horrendous. An ill-fitting mixture of Innsmouth and Dunwich motifs. [b] THE FISHERMAN OF FALCON POINT, "H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth." Presumably written almost entirely by Derleth. Innsmouth material. Enoch Conger, fisherman, talks with a fish-woman on Devil's Reef and apparently strikes a bargain with her, taking to the sea a la Marshes. * Juvenile and very minor work: [c] THE LITTLE GLASS BOTTLE. [d] THE SECRET CAVE. [e] THE MYSTERY OF THE GRAVE-YARD, OR "A DEAD MAN'S REVENGE." [f] THE ALCHEMIST. Typical in pattern, though early. Charles Le Sorcier is

LOVECRAFT, H. P. 600 years old. [g] POETRY AND THE GODS. Greek gods. [h] THE STREET. Allegorical treatment of the displacement of WASPS by Slavs, Jews, and Reds. In his younger days Lovecraft was a racist and bigot who firmly believed that Anglo-Saxon culture was being ''mongrelized'' by alien hordes. He was, however, a humane, kindly man, and he held his theories as abstractions, not applicable to individuals. In later years he outgrew most of this xenophobia. * [i] ALL BUGS. [j] IDEALISM AND MATERIALISM. Essays. * [k] THE COMMONPLACE BOOK OF H. P. LOVECRAFT. Reprinted previously in BEYOND THE WALL OF SLEEP, but here annotated by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei. * [1] LOVECRAFT IN PROVIDENCE, Donald Wandrei. A very interesting account of a visit to Lovecraft. [m] LOVECRAFT AS MENTOR, August Derleth. A tribute to Lovecraft. [n] OUT OF THE IVORY TOWER, Robert Bloch. A somewhat equivocal tribute. [0] THREE HOURS WITH LOVECRAFT, Dorothy C. Walter. [p] MEMORIES OF A FRIENDSHIP, Alfred Galpin. [q] H. P. LOVECRAFT: THE BOOKS, Lin Carter. Comments on the books, real and fanciful, to which Lovecraft referred in his fiction. See also 1057h. [r] H: P. LOVECRAFT: THE GODS, Lin Carter. A listing and discussion of the various private deities and exotic beings mentioned by Lovecraft. [s] SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE CARTER GLOSSARY, T. G. L. Cockcroft. [t] NOTES ON THE CTHULHU MYTHOS, George T. Wetzel. [u] LOVECRAFT'S FIRST BOOK, William L. Crawford. The ownerpublisher of Visionary Press describes the publication of THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH. * Also included are photographs of Lovecraft's parents, Lovecraft, the house fictionalized into THE SHUNNED HOUSE, and a poor reproduction of Frank Utpatel's illustrations to THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH. * Some of the essays are of interest. The fiction is negligible. 1050. DREAMS AND FANCIES Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1962 Introduction by August Derleth. * Lovecraft often had very detailed vivid, structured dreams, which served him on occasion as material for his stories and poetry. He once commented to the effect that while he might not be the greatest writer in the world, he was probably the greatest dreamer. Derleth includes about 60 pages of such dreams as recorded in Lovecraft's correspondence, and follows this with stories whose origins can definitely be traced to dreams. * [a] DREAMS AND FANCIES. A fascinating collection of material. [b] MEMORY. [c] THE STATEMENT OF RANDOLPH CARTER. [d] CELEPHAIS. [e] THE DOOM THAT CAME TO SARNATH. [f] NYARLATHOTEP. [g] THE EVIL CLERGYMAN. [h] THE THING IN THE MOONLIGHT. All described elsewhere. Also included is the science-fiction story "The Shadow out of Time." Other stories could have been included. I believe that THE CALL OF CTHULHU and DREAMS IN THE WITCH HOUSE were based on dreams. 1051. THE DUNWICH HORROR AND OTHERS THE BEST SUPERNATURAL STORIES OF H. P. LOVECRAFT Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1963

LOVECRAFT, H. P. Introduc.tion by August Derleth, H. P. LOVECRAFT AND HIS WORK. Including [a] IN THE VAm.r. [b] PICKMAN'S MODEL. lc] THE RATS IN THE WALLS. [d] THE OUTSIDER. [e] THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH. [f] THE MUSIC OF ERICH ZANN. [g] THE HAUNTER OF THE DARK. [h] THE PICTURE IN THE HOUSE. [i] THE CALL OF CTHULHU. [j] THE DUNWICH HORROR. [k] COOL AIR. [1] THE TERRIBLE OLD MAN. [m] THE THING ON THE DOORSTEP. * Also the science-fiction stories "The Whisperer in Darkness," "The Colour out of Space," and "The Shadow out of Time." Described above. 1052. AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS AND OTHER NOVELS Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1964 Introduction by August Derlet~. * Including [a] THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD. [b] THE SHUNNED HOUSE. [c] THE DREAMS IN THE WITCH HOUSE. [d] THE STATEMENT OF RANDOLPH CARTER. [e] THE DREAM QUEST OF UNKNOWN KADATH. [f] THE SILVER KEY. [g] THROUGH THE GATES OF THE SILVER KEY, with E. Hoffmann Price. * Also the science-fiction novel, "At the Mountains of Madness." All described elsewhere. 1053. DAGON AND OTHER MACABRE TALES Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1965 Introduction by August Derleth. * A pick-up volume of minor material, for the most part, from the two first collections. * [a] DAGON. [b] THE DOOM THAT CAME TO SARNATH. [c] THE CATS OF ULTHAR. [d] THE STRANGE HIGH HOUSE IN THE MIST. [e] THE.TEMPLE. [f] THE LURKING FEAR. 19] THE FESTIVAL. [h] HERBERT WEST-REANlMATOR. [i] IMPRISONED WITH THE PHARAOHS. [j] THE TOMB. [k] POLARIS. [1] BEYOND THE WALL OF SLEEP. [m] THE WHITE SHIP. [n] ARTHUR JERMYN. [0] CELEPHAIS. [p] FROM BEYOND. [q] THE TREE. [r] THE MOON-BOG. [s] THE NAMELESS CITY. [t] THE OTHER GODS. [u] THE QUEST OF lRANON. [v] THE HOUND. [w] HYPNOS. [x] THE UNNAMABLE. [y] HE. lz] THE HORROR AT RED HOOK. [aa] THE EVIL CLERGYMAN. lbb] THE BEAST IN THE CAVE. lcc] THE ALCHEMIST. [dd] POETRY AND THE GODS. [eel THE STREET. [ff] THE TRANSITION OF JUAN ROMERO. * Also the fragments [gg] AZATHOTH. [hh] THE DESCENDANT. [ii] THE BOOK. [jj] THE THING IN THE MOONLIGHT. * [kk] SUPERNATURAL HORROR IN LITERATURE. All described above. Also the science-fiction story, with Kenneth Sterling, "In the Walls of Eryx." AS REVISING EDITOR OR IN COLLABORATION WITH OTHERS: 1054. THE HORROR IN THE MUSEUM AND OTHER REVI~ Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1970 Lovecraft's name alone is given on the title page. * Lovecraft derived most of his precarious income from ghost-,vriting and revis ing copy, some of which included fiction. The present volume contains the most significant of the supernatural stories that received his contribution. While it is in no case clear exactly what or how much Lovecraft contributed, the fact that all the stories are written in the full detail characteristic of Lovecraft's work, with his sombre approach, but vary greatly in subject matter (from cheap and silly to effective) would seem to indicate that Love-

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LOVECRAFT, H. P. craft limited himself to heavy restyling. * The attributions are those given on the contents page of this volume, although Lovecraft should be named for all the stories. of, Including [a] LOVECRAFT'S "REVISIONS," August Derleth. A brief discussion. [b] THE CRAWLING CHAOS, H. P. Lovecraft and Elizabeth Berkeley. Visions from an overdose of opium. The narrator watches the destruction of earth as the ocean pours into a rift and the earth explodes. Purple mood-prose. [c] THE GREEN MEADOW, H. P. Lovecraft and Elizabeth Berkeley. A ms. from a meteorite, about another world. Also purple prose. [d] THE INVISIBLE MONSTER, Sonia Greene. (WT 1923) Captain Orne, after a forty-hour battle, brings in a fifty-foot sea monster. But it is only an infant of its species, and its parent, vlhich is seemingly intelligent and possessed of strange powers, comes for the captain. [e] FOUR O'CLOCK, Sonia Greene. The monster comes from the grave at four o'clock. Overwritten. [f] THE MAN OF STONE, Hazel Heald. (WONDER STORIES, 1932) At the cave are to be found wonderful statues of a man and a dog. A vengeful hillbilly used a formula from the Book of Eibon to punish his adulterous wife and her lover. [g] WINGED DEATH, Hazel Heald. (WT 1934) Feuds among entomologists, culminating in murder. The victim is reincarnated as a tsetse fly and not only infects his murderer but writes an English message on the ceiling. [h] DEAF, DUMB AND BLIND, C. M. Eddy. (WT 1925) After a fairly long introduction, a record kept by a deaf, dumb, and blind man of a horrible invisible presence that is with him in his room. The final lines are written by the presence. [i] THE GHOSTEATER, C. M. Eddy, Jr. A ghost and a werewolf as a benighted traveller accepts hospitality. [j] THE HORROR IN THE MUSEUM, Hazel Heald. (WT 1933) A London wax museum. The most interesting exhibit is that of a monstrosity, one of the Old Ones, fondling the corpse of its discoverer. In the Cthulhu cycle. [k] OUT OF THE EONS, Hazel Heald. (WT 1935) At the Cabot Museum in Boston is a mummy recovered from a ruin-covered volcanic spur temporarily heaved up from the sea. The mummy is identified by occultists as the legendary T'yog of K'nyan, who braved the sight of the Devil-god Ghatanothoa and was petrified, as happens to those who look on Ghatanothoa. The occultists are correct, but the mummy's brain is still alive, and present on the retina of the mummy is an image of the god, which also has the power to petrify. Cthulhu cycle. [1] THE DIARY OF ALONZO TYPER, William Lumley. (WT 1938) Decadence in Upstate New York. Typer takes over the house of the long-dead magician Claes van der Heyl, but there are strange Things in the cellar behind the curiously locked iron door. Cthulhu cycle. [m] THE HORROR IN THE BURYING GROUND, Hazel Heald. (WT 1937) Thorndike the undertaker has perfected a wonderful embalming fluid. When injected into the living, it produces a deathlike appearance, but with full retention of

LOVECRAFT, H. P. consciousness. Ghosts and revenge. [n] THE LAST TEST, Adolphe de Castro. (WT 1928) Short novel. The great epidemologist Clarendon also dabbles in magic. He is aided by Surama, who seems to be a pre-human fish-man from Atlantis. A supernatural plague, too. De Castro (pseud. of Adolf Danziger) was an associate of Ambrose Bierce's and even collaborated with Bierce in a reworked translation of a German novel. [0] THE ELECTRIC EXECUTIONER, Adolphe de Castro. (WT 1930) The narrator, on the trail of a runaway embezzler, is accosted on a Mexican train by a madman with an electrocuting helmet. A supernatural element-- not explained-- enters with bilocation or teleportation. [p] TWO BLACK BOTTLES, Wilfred B. Talman. (WT 1927) Described elsewhere. * Three other stories are described elsewhere because of their separate book publication: [q] THE CURSE OF YIG, Zealia Bishop. [r] MEDUSA'S COIL, Zealia Bishop. [s] THE MOUND, Zealia Bishop. * Two other stories, "The Loved Dead" by C. M. Eddy, Jr., and "Till All the Seas" by R. H. Barlow are not supernatural, but deal respectively with necrophilia and the future extinction of mankind. * Also present is a plate showing an example of Lovecraft's revisions. * By and large, despite Lovecraft's improving hand, low-level material, but [k], [p], and [sl are superior. WITH DERLETH, AUGUST 1055. THE LURKER AT THE THRESHOLD Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1945 Supernatural horror in the manner of Lovecraft. Apparently written by Derleth with the inclusion of two brief, disconnected passages by Lovecraft. * Set near Arkham, Mass, with a detailed background of ancient and modern diabolism and many cross-references to Lovecraft's ideas and motifs. * Ambrose Dewart, an Englishman, comes into possession of an ancestral estate near Arkham. On the land is an ancient house with a round window, through which, on occasion, strange landscapes can be seen. There is also an old sealed tower and a circle of standing stones. Dewart spends some time investigating his ancestor and pieces together information showing that the ancestor, Abijah Billington, and a Wompanoag wizard named Quamis had been involved in ceremonies to invoke horrible entities from beyond our cosmos. Strange noises and murders plagued the countryside until Billington left for England, leaving instructions that his successors should not look through the round window, should not stop the brook which surrounds the tower, and should not open the tower. Dewart does not heed these warnings. * The story line shifts to other characters who reveal gradually that Dewart has been possessed by Billington's spirit and Quamis has come back to life. Together Dewart-Billington and Quamis invoke the ancient monstrosities. The final narrative tells of Dewart's death, the banishment of the horrors, the destruction of the tower, and also provide explanations. The visiting entity had been Yog Sothoth, the

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LOVECRAFT, H. P. AND DERLETH, AUGUST Lurker at the Threshold. Cthulhu cycle. * The New England background is not convincing, and the Lovecraft manner is not captured successfully, but this is still the best of the Derleth pastiches. 1056. THE SURVIVOR AND OTHERS Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1957 Short stories. * [a] THE SURVIVOR. (WT 1954) Borderline science-fiction. The narrator rents the old Charriere house in Providence. He becomes interested in its history and in its association with Jean-Francois Charriere, who had died three or four years previously. He notes that the house has a musty, reptilian smell; he surprises a reptilian being in the house; and he learns that Charriere had been experimenting with grafting reptile cells for attaining tissue immortality. Charriere had apparently been in some sort of "hibernation." [b] WENTWORTH'S DAY. Modelled somewhat after Lovecraft's THE PICTURE IN THE HOUSE. The narrator takes shelter with an old rustic and learns through the old man's ravings that he had borrowed money from a neighbor and that repayment is due that day. The neighbor, long dead, murdered by the rustic, comes to collect. [c] THE PEABODY HERITAGE. Modelled somewhat after THE DREAMS IN THE WITCH HOUSE by Lovecraft. When the present Peabody takes over the ancestral home, he discovers that his ancestor had been a wizard. A secret chamber affords entry to and from other-worlds via the geometry of its angles. The ancestral Peabody, a most noxious man, returns and commits child murder. The present Peabody destroys the ancient monster, but signs a bond with evil and recognizes his fate. [d] THE GABLE WINDOW. (SATURN, 1957) Cthulhu cycle. When the narrator moves into his cousin Wilbur's home, he discovers that Wilbur had been a wizard. Among the dead Wilbur's notes are records of visions that he has seen through the gable window, which is from Leng (a numinous place in Lovecraft's aesthetic). The narrator performs the proper rites and sees into other worlds and dimensions. But he is visible to the other side and barely escapes from an attack by a monstrosity from Outside. [e1 THE ANCESTOR. When the narrator goes to live as secretary to his cousin Ambrose Perry, he discovers that Perry is a wizard. He is working with the forbidden books. Ambrose locks himself in his chambers and refuses to see anyone-- for good reason. He has been partially transformed into an apelike being that his dog kills. [f1 THE SHADOW OUT OF SPACE. Borderline science-fiction. Modelled after Lovecraft's THE SHADOW OUT OF TIME. Piper's psyche is kidnapped into a body of the Great Race, while his own body is inhabited by the alien mind. [g] THE LAMP OF ALHAZRED. Abdul Alhazred was the author of the NECRONOMICON, the mythical book of black magic that Lovecraft and his followers often cite. Abdul's lamp comes into the possession of Ward Phillips (Howard Phillips Lovecraft) and in an occult way forms his life and inspires him. A figurative approach to the biography of H.

LOVECRAFT, H. P. AND DERLETH, AUGUST P. Lovecraft. Much more interesting than the other stories, which are routine. * Lovccr.:>ft's share in this boek is smiill. [a] wc:s written from a fev1 notes and a plot SUffirr:ary by Lovpcraft, \vhile [g] was based en excerpts ()f letters written by Lovecraft. 1057. THE DARK BROTHERHOOD Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1966 Miscellaneous material. * [a] THE DARK BROTHERHOOD, "Howard P. Lovecraft and August Derleth." A sect:larization of the Cthulhu mythos and borderline science-fiction. Providence. A young man and his girl friend follow a similacrum of Edgar Allan Poe and stumble on interplanetary horrors. Written by Derleth, perhaps from notes of Lovecraft's. [b] DEAF, Dl~ AND BLIND, C. M. Eddy, Jr. De~ scribed elsewhere. [c] THE GHOST-EATER, C. M. Eddy, Jr. Described elsewhere. A third story by Eddy is not supernatural. * [d] SUGGESTIONS FOR A READING GUIDE. A fantastically ambitious reading program worked out by Lovecraft for a friend. [e] ALFRED, 'A TRAGEDY. A short tongue-in-cheek play, joking ascribed by Lovecraft to Beaumont and Fletcher. [f] AMATEUR JOURNALISM. Of interest becau.se of Lovecraft's obsession with the topic. [g] THE CANCER OF SUPERSTITION, H. P. Lovecraft and C. M. Eddy, Jr. An outline .and brief sections for a boek that was to have been ghost-written for Houdini. *. The remainder of the book is devoted to essays about Lovecraft, some of which are excellent. [h] THE LOVECRAFT BOOKS, SOME ADDENDA AND CCRRIGENDA, William S. Home. A supplement to Lin Carter's essay about Lovecraft's books, printed in THE SHUTTERED ROOM. [i] TO ARKHAM AND THE STARS, Fritz Leiber. A very amusing tongt:e-in-cheek, matter-offact account of a modern visit to Arkham University, and a discussion of the events that took place there a generation earlier, in THE DUNWICH HORROR. [j] THROUGH HYPERSPACE WITH BROwN JENKIN, LOVECRAFT'S CO~~RIBUTION TO SPECl~ATIVE FICTION, Fritz Leiber. Leiber means science-fiction. [k] LOVECRAFT AND THE NEW ENGLAND MEGALITHS, Andrew E. Rothovius. An interesting discussion of Lovecraft and the large-stone remains of New England, like North Salem, New Hampshire. Did Lovecraft know of them? [1] HOWARD PHILLIPS LOVECRAFT, A BIBLIOGRAPHY, Jack Chalker. [m] THE CTHULHU MYTHOS, Jack Chalker. A listing and discussion of works by other authors using material from Lovecraft's Cthulhu cycle. [n] WALKS WITH H. P. LOVECRAFT, C. M. Eddy. Reminiscences. [0] THE MAKING OF A HOAX, August Derleth. Lovecraft's invention of the NECRONOMICON and the growth of the legend about it. [p] LOVECRAFT'S ILLUSTRATORS, John E. Vetter. A thorough discussion of the various artists who illustrated Lovecraft's work. Lovecraft liked the work of Virgil Finlay best. [q] FINAL NOTES, August Derleth. In this essay Derleth states very clearly that Lovecraft left no unfinished manuscripts. The stories that have been published as by Lovecraft and Derleth have been written wholly by Derleth, using as a basis odd notes and occa-

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LUIGI, BELLI sional sentences left by Lovecraft. Only three stories have any appreciable copy by Lovecraft: THE LAMP OF ALHAZRED, which incorporates letter fragments; THE SURVIVOR, notes and a plot summary; THE LURKER AT THE THRESHOLD, two short, unconnected passages. LOW~TIES,

MRS. [MARIE ADELAIDE] BELLOC (18681947) British novelist, dramatist, historical writer. Sister of Hilaire Belloc. Best-known work THE LODGER (1913), classic fictional account of the Jack-the-Ripper murders. 1058. STUDIES IN LOVE AND TERROR Methuen; London 19l3 Short stories, including [a] THE WOMAN FROM PURGATORY. As school girls, Agnes and Teresa were chums. Agnes marries, while Teresa runs off with a married man. Life is difficult for both of them. Teresa commits suicide, while Agnes's husband takes a mistress. * Agnes knows that Gerald Ferrier, a young poet, is in love with her, and as revenge against her husband decides to have an affair with Ferrier. But as she mounts the stairs to Ferrier's apartment, Teresa's ghost stops her. Probably a conscience symbol. * Competent higher-level commercial work. 1059. FROM OUT THE VASTY DEEP Hutchinson; London' [1920] Spiritualism, crime, and comedy of manners. * The house party takes place at Wyndfell Hall, currently owned by Lionel Varick, widower. His hostess for the party is his friend the Hon. Blanche Farrow, a hard-headed, intelligent woman. The guests are an assortment of types: Bubbles, a young woman, who is psychic and acts as a medium; Bill, her loyal platonic boy-friend; Tapster, a somewhat low millionaire who lusts to marry Bubbles; Helen, a rich young woman whom Varick wants to marry; and others of less consequence. Matters become sticky when a ghost is seen about the house. The guests are not surprised that the servants see it, but are shattered when it is visible to them. It is the ghost of Milly, Varick's deceased wife. Also seen by certain persons is the swarth of Milly's former companion, a woman who hates Varick. After Bubbles holds a disastrously successful seance, the characters interact in various ways. The resolution of the story comes with revelation of a crime which the reader had probably suspected all along. * Smooth, but with shadowy characters. The sensationalism behind the scenes does not fit the restrained Edwardian writing. LUIGI, BELLI Australian writer. Undoubtedly a pseudonym based on the name of the motion picture star Bela Lugosi. 1060. THE MUMMY WALKS Transport Publishing Co. Pty. Ltd.; Sydney, Australia [1950?] paperbound This volume and the following book are typical of a phase of Australian ephemeral literature: 48-page soft-bound booklets with lurid covers

LUIG I, BELLI of ted based on motion picture images. They are occasionally supernatural fiction, but more typically mystery fiction with gadgets from science-fiction. They seem to be pseudonymous, often with names suggestive of motion picture stars from the horror or crime range. * Vernon Templeton, collector and antique dealer, acquires an Egyptian mummy. When he unwraps it, it comes to life. The mummy of an Egyptian high priest and magician, it has considerable supernatural powers. It claims to be benevolently disposed toward him, but most of what it does is wrong and it soon turns nasty. Templeton, his fianc~e, and her Egyptologist father have some difficulty in deactivating it, which is done by rewrapping it in its cerecloths. * Low level. An obvious mixture of F. Anstey's THE BRASS BOTTLE and a modern horror film. 1061. CURSE OF THE MUMMY Transport Publishing Co. Pty. Ltd.; Sydney, Australia [1950?] paperbound Sequel to THE MUMMY WALKS. * A new owner of the mummy unwraps it, and the malicious magician from Ancient Egypt remembers that it has a hard grudge against Templeton. Templeton is harassed in many ways, from physical violence to magic, and he is fortunate to escape with his life. * The ending is very weak: strength through courage. LYNCH, [JOHN GILBERT] BOHUN (1884-1928) British author. Authority on history of boxing, with many books on early period. Also author of MENACE FROM THE MOON (1925), early interplanetary novel. AS EDITOR: Cecil Palmer; Lon1062. A MUSTER OF GHO~TS don 1924 American title THE BEST GHOST STORIES. * A long introduction by Lynch. * Described elsewhere, la] THE SHADOW OF A MIDNIGHT, Maurice Baring. [b] THE THING IN THE HALL, E. F. Benson. [c] THE WILLOWS, Algernon Blackwood. [d] THE OLD NURSE'S TALE, Mrs. Gaskell. [e] THE TRACTATE MIDDOTH, M. R. James. [f] THE VICTIM, May Sinclair. * Also [g] THE FOUNTAIN, Elinor Mordaunt. A gushy story of a water woman who commits suicide in a fountain when her husband commits adultery. The husband is ever after haunted by water. [h] THURNLEY ABBEY, Perceval Landon. (from RAW EDGES, Heinemann; London 1908) A very effective material horror story of a skeleton that appears in a haunted room and survives several destructions. [i] NOT ON THE PASSENGER LIST, Barry Pain. A jealous husband haunts a transAtlantic vessel. The ghost is outwitted. LYTLE, ANDREW [NELSON] (1902American educator, writer. Managing editor the SEWANEE REVIEW (1942-3). Professor of English, University of Florida. Best-known work BEDFORD FORREST AND HIS CRITTER COMPANY, which has gone through several editions. 1063. A NAME FOR EVIL A NOVEL Bobbs-Merril1; Indianapolis and New York 1947 Psychological, supernatural novel set somewhere in the American South during World War

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MACARDLE, DOROTHY II. * The external story: Brent and his wife Ellen buy a very rundown plantation, move in, and despite lack of cash gradually make it livable. There is only one problem: a century or so earlier, the plantation had been owned by a Major Brent, a remarkably cruel, dynamic domestic tyrant, who had destroyed both slaves and his own family to bring the plantation to maximum efficiency. In the folk beliefs of the local Blacks old Major Brent is still master of the place, and nothing is done that might go against his wishes. The modern Brent is at first mildly annoyed by this circumstance, but then begins to see the ghost of the vicious old man prowling around the house. A war of nerves takes place between ghost and man, although it is never brought into open conflict. Modern Brent soon realizes that the Major is really after Ellen, whom he wishes to abduct into a death-bride situation. A cousin, just released from the army, comes to live with them, and for a time the cousin helps Brent guard against the major. But the cousin is lured to death, and it is learned that he, too, was a ghost. Ellen is now pregnant and the peril is greater. Brent loses when the Major steals Ellen's spirit away to be his bride, and they disappear down the well. * There are strong indications, however, that this is really a regionalistic version of THE TURN OF THE SCREW. The whole story may be a fantasy on the part of the obnoxious narrator, who is not entirely sane. The Major may be the projection of Brent's nastiness, which has been syncretized with a convenient folk belief. The relationship of names is never explained. On the external level it is hinted that the narrator is descended from one of the Major's children whom he expelled, but a symbolic equation is stronger. The true story may be that Brent has murdered his wife. * Ingenious, attentionholding, stylistically sensitive, but greatly overwritten.

MACARDLE, DOROTHY [MARGARET CALLAN] (1889 - ? Irish novelist, historian, playwright. Wrote a 1000-page history of Ireland, THE IRISH REPUBLIC, with preface by de Valera, which has gone through many editions. Best-known work in America, THE UNINVITED, mostly because of the motion picture of the same name. 1064. UNEASY FREEHOLD Peter Davies; London 1941 American title THE UNINVITED. * Sentimental supernaturalism. Roderick Fitzgerald and his sister are looking for a house outside London where Roderick can write his plays. They find what seems a suitable place on the Bristol Channel, but soon discover themselves entangled in confused emotions from the past.

MACARDLE, DOROTHY The house is haunted. One of the rooms projects an atmosphere of gloom and terror that is unbearable, and a shining figure is occasionally to be seen on the staircase. In the past, two women died under somewhat suspicious circumstances-- Mary, the lady of the house, and Carmel, her husband's model. Not too far away lives the old Commander, from whom the Fitzgeralds bought the house, and Stella, his granddaughter. Stella is supernaturally attracted to the house, and is fast becoming a prey to the power of the ghost. Seances and a psychical researcher do little to resolve the situation, since there is considerable confusion about the nature and identity of the ghost or ghosts, until Roderick solves the mystery. There are two ghosts warring over Stella. One is the vicious Mary, who is not really Stella's mother as is generally supposed, and the other is the protective Carmel, Stella's real mother. Stella persuades Carmel to withdraw, and Roderick confronts the evil Mary and drives her away. * Unconvincing narrative personality, since the author canno~ write as a male; much overdevelopment and triviality •. McCARTHY, JUSTIN HUNTLEY (1860-1936) Anglo-Irish writer, son of political figure Justin McCarthy. Prolific writer of light historical romances; also popular histories of Ireland and the U.S.A. Most famous work IF I WERE KING (1901); sentimentalized tale of Fran~ois Villon in France of Louis XI; often reprinted, turned into operetta (by Rudolf Friml) and motion picture as THE VAGABOND KING. 1065. TIm DRYAD Methuen; London 1905 Historical romance set in Greece (Athens and vicinity) around 1300 A.D. Athens is currently ruled by Duke Baldwin, a descendant of the crusader of the same name. The story is told through the personality of Simon of Rouen, a French adventurer of common birth, who is a giant in strength and not overburdened with morals, yet capable of loyalty and admiration for higher things. * In the wood lives the dryad Argathona, whom Zeus has granted the power to live as long as there is a tree in Greece. Through her domain passes the young Prince Rainouart, son of Baldwin, who is as noble and comely as Baldwin is scheming and crude. Rainouart is wounded in a scuffle with robbers, and Argathona saves his life. They fall in love, and he pledges her his hand. The dryad is momentarily away when Rainouart has fainted, and the Duchess Esclaramonde of Thebes passes by. She, too, has an eye for Rainouart, less for his attractions than for his political heritage. Since she is skilled at low magic, she casts a glamour over him, bewitching him into thinking that she saved his life and was pledged to him. They go to Athens, where they are married. Argathona, with Simon as her squire, follows in the guise of a Greek knight, wins the wedding tourney, and strikes a bargain with the promiscuous Esclaramonde: the golden apple of Paris for a night of love. But Argathona arranges matters so that Rainouart is a witness to the proposed

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MacDONALD, GEORGE adultery. This brings a resolution: Rainouart is freed of his enchantment; Esclaramonde declares war, leaving Athens; the Athenians are badly beaten; and Rainouart and the dryad betake themselves to the woods. There the dryad is converted to Christianity by a friendly hermit, and by so doing loses her immortality. On Esclaramonde's death, they wed. * Smooth and fluent commercial work, amusing for an hour or two, but on afterthought not very satisfactory. MacDONALD, GEORGE (1824-1905) Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, Congregational minister. Left ministry in 1851 because of problems of faith, not so much doubts as heretical views. During lifetime well-known for Scottish regionalistic fiction, most of which is no longer read. Highly imaginative poet. Editor of stuffy magazine, GOOD WORDS FOR YOUNG, where much of his shorter fiction first appeared. Now remembered mostly for mythic fantastic fiction intended for children (hence beyond the scope of this volume), b~t now seen to be personal and symbolic investigations into problems of metaphysics and his own psyche. A complex, puzzling personality. At best a brilliant creator of images and symbolic statements, but a very uneven writer. Best-known works DAVID ELGINBROD (regionalistic, with metaphysical bent), AT THE BACK OF THE NORTH WIND. Also important in comparative literature for heavy influences from German literature, particularly Novalis. 1066. PHANTASTES A FAERIE ROMANCE FOR HEN AND WOMEN Smith, Elder; London 1858 An allegorical novel, strongly influenced by early 19th century German Romanticism, particularly Novalis, whom the author frequently quotes. The author's theory of imagination, as given in ORTS, offers a second source of ideas: an unconscious portion of the mind is filled with symbols from a symbol-producing universe. These are then revealed through the imagination. * Anodos (pathless, Aimless), a young man just come of age, is permitted to visit Fairy Land to seek his ideal. He undertakes a journey through the strange, both charming and horrible land. His experiences can be broken down into several adventures which are loosely connected with the central theme and the degree of his spiritual progress. At the end of individual adventures (which are often erotic in substructure), Anodos realizes that he has failed, usually because of not having followed instructions-- in other words, guilt. * Anodos's first adventure is concerned with the animistic forces of nature, as examplified in humanoid trees: the malevolent ash, who wishes to kill him; the friendly beech; and the wily female alder, who seduces him and almost succeeds in delivering him to the ash. He is rescued by a knight, who may be a higher potency of himself, or perhaps a father figure or Jesus. Anodos's second adventure consists of recalling to life (by song, musi~) the marble image of a woman. This, too, ends in disaster, and he gains a horrible

MacDONALD, GEORGE shadow which attaches itself to him. (Pride.) * The narrative is then interrupted by [a] [THE MARCHEN OF COSMO VON WEHRSTAHL, STUDENT AT PRAGUE]. (This is occasionally anthologized under such titles as THE LADY IN THE MIRROR, THE MAGIC MIRROR, and THE WOMAN IN THE MIRROR.) Cosmo, who is interested in magic, chances to buy a mirror in which, each night, he sees reflected the form of a beautiful wor,lan. He falls in love with her and desires her physical presence. Using his magical resources he causes her to appear, but she begs him to release her from the spell of the mirror. Cosmo agrees; after some complications he succeeds, but dies in the attempt. The theme is thus basically that of the book: redemption through renunciation or self-sacrifice. * Anodos then wanders to the house of life, which has four doors-- tears, sighs, dismay, and timeless terror. After passing through each door, he has adventures, each of which ends tragically. These include a battle with folkloristic giants (selfishness of varIous sorts), and his capture by his shadow, which has taken the form of a knight. But Anodos finally realizes the point of his experiences. In his last adventure he becomes the squire of the knight who saved him from the ash tree. He dies to save deluded worshippers from a monster masquerading as a benevolent god. He awakens in real life, after having been away 21 days-- which presumably stand for his 21 years of age. * While it is questionable how literally or allegorically each image in the book is to be taken, the novel as a whole is based on central ideas of 19th century Christianity. Anodos was a selfish young man who was forced to learn that the lower self had to die to give birth to the higher. Within this framework institutionalized religion, the family relationships, and societal elements enter. But one need not worry about ultimate meanings. PHANTASTES is a sometimes brilliant, sometimes cloying story of great originality. The most desirable edition is the Fifield (London, 1905) edition, with a brief preface by Greville MacDonald, the author's son, and illustrations by Arthur Hughes. 1067. THE PORTENT. A STORY OF THE INNER VISION OF THE HIGHLANDERS, COMMONLY CALLED THE SECOND SIGHT Smith, Elder; London 1864 Psychopathology, a curse, fate, paranormal abilities, suggestions of reincarnation, all in a neo-Gothic setting. Short novel. Early 19th century Scotland and England. * In the family background of Duncan Campbell lies a haunting and a curse. Generations earlier two brothers vied for the same woman, and the loser, a violent-tempered man, rode his brother down, driving him over a cliff. What with a loose horseshoe, the killer himself went over the cliff soon after. Since then the murderer's ghost rides about, the clink of his loose horseshoe a portent of evil or misfortune. Young Duncan Campbell, whose birth is mysterious, grows up within the legend, and often hears the supernatural clink of the

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horseshoe in moments of peril, while his old nurse, who has the second sight, has seen the visitant many times. When Campbell reaches manhood, he goes to England to become tutor to the children of a distantly related family, and there meets and falls in love with Lady Alice. She is spiritually defective in some way, with a lowered level of consciousness, and the family with whom she lives plays upon her abnormality to alienate her inheritance. Campbell discovers that she is a somnambulist and often wanders through the deserted hall and haunted chamber of the old wing of the manor. He can summon her mesmerically. He also discovers that when she awakens during such walks, she is a different, more nearly normal personality. He determines to educate her and restore her to normalcy, but her family inexplicably objects, forcing him to stop. Some time later he is caught with her in the haunted chambers, ignominiously expelled from the manor, and injured, while Alice, whose mind collapses, is put into a madhouse. When Campbell recovers, he can find no trace of her. * The years pass. He enters the army, is wounded at Waterloo, and returns to Britain as a half-pay soldier. But he never loses hope of finding Alice again. When he returns to his native mountains, twelve years after the disaster, he finds that his old nurse still lives and is willing to use the second sight to help him. He returns to the hall, where he once had been tutor, and learns that Alice is once again in residence, but as a half-confined madwoman. He visits her secretly, finds that he still has the power to summon her, and gradually he builds up her mind again. They elope; she regains her inheritance; and they go to live in Scotland. There are also dreams, omens, paranormal hearing, an appearance of the ghost, suggestions of repeated patterns of fate and reincarnation, and many psychological oddities. The mood in the first part of the story is well sustained as a spiritualized Gothicism, with many of MacDonald's remarkable insights and aphorisms. The story is much less convincing in the second half, however, and in this respect the novel is inferior to the earlier, simpler periodical version of the story. 1068. LILITH Chatto and Windus; London 1895 A long parabolic narrative heavily laden with Victorian Christian symbolism. Just as PHANTASTES was MacDonald's first considerable work, LILITH was his last, and the implication is that the author considered them related works. Like PHANTASTES, LILITH is ultimately a story of spiritual rebirth and salvation told metaphorically in fairy tale motifs, but it lacks the erotic element of PHANTASTES and concentrates on images of pain and despair. While the message is religious, the mechanism, oddly enough, verges upon science-fiction, with discussions of dimensions and hints of other planetary worlds. * Vane, whose name hints something of his personality, passes through a mirror into another world which contains various spiritual qualities personified

*

MacDONALD, GEORGE as individuals or groups. The land is a wounded land, and before it can thrive it needs the water of grace or life. Vane's guide, mentor, helper, and superior is a raven, who has two other aspects, that of an anci.ent librarian and that of Adam Cadmos-- the first man as seen supernaturally and as typifying humanity. Vane, who follows his own selfish or thoughtless inclinations, is offered the gift of rebirth through death. He rejects it, and his unwillingness .to let the carnal man die causes him and others great pain. He wanders through many abortive adventures before he achieves his death. He has an anticipation of a divine vision, which is not fulfilled, since his life on earth is not yet finished. Among the personalities of the story are Mara (Death ::Jr Pain personified, a sympathetic being) and her enemy Lilith, Adam's first wife, a vampiric being who stands for sin or selfish evil. There are transformations, suspended animation, dimensional wanderings, and much incidental supernaturalism, superficially on a· fairy tale level, but usually allegorically conceived. * When the final version of LILITH was written, (an earlier version exists in manuscript only), MacDonald's family disputed whether it was worth publishing. Much the same difference of opinion still exists about it. Some critics regard it highly for its fine images and verbal flashes.; others (apart from those who consider it a morbid imitation of the ALICE stories) regard it as a most unpleasant work with an unpalatable message, sometimes written down to a juvenile level (with the most disgusting baby talk). While in a sense it is a hypertrophied Victorian literary fable, it is by no means a children's book. MACHEN, ARTHUR [LLEWELLYN] (born JONES, ARTHUR LLEWELLYN; father assumed name MACHEN in 1874) (1863-1947) British writer of fiction, actor, journalist. Raised in Welsh parsonage near Caerlon on Usk, amid Roman ruins, unspoiled rustic countryside, Welsh cultural nationalism, fervent (somewhat unorthodox) religiosity-- all of which influenced later writings considerably. Moved to London at early age, where did miscellaneous literary work, reviewing, translating (MEMOIRS OF CASANOVA, THE HEPTAMERON of Margaret of Navarre), fiction writing. On failure of literary career became actor for several years, apparently quite competently. Returned to London and took post on EVENING NEWS, where remained for many years, working intermittently for other newspapers in later years. During Fleet St. period was almost legendary figure because of remarkable facility of writing and pawky personality. In last years received literary pension from Crown. In supernatural fiction, despite small output, the dominant figure of the time segment just before M. R. James and A. Blackwood, a figure of great historical importance, particularly later in the century in America. Creative work stops around 1900, for most work published later is either written considerably earlier or

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MACHEN, ARTHUR is minor. Work is characterized by scholarship in many bizarre areas of knowledge, notably occultism, alchemy, and magic; remarkable stylistic virtuosity and ability to write image-laden prose; excellent imagination; sentimental semi-mysticism for nature and good old days; ability to see everyday matters in a transcendent light; Welsh sympathies; experimentation with form, not always successful; and, unfortunately, a frequent note of petulant complaint. Undoubtedly one of the most gifted British authors of his day, but a man who never fulfilled early promise. 1069. THE CHRONICLE OF CLEMENDY; OR. THE HISTORY OF THE IX. JOYOUS JOURNEYS. IN WHICH ARE CONTAINED THE AMOROUS INVENTIONS AND FACETIOUS TALES OF MASTER GERVASE PERROT. GENT., NOW FOR THE FIRST TIME DONE INTO ENGLISH BY ARTHUR MACHEN Carbonnek. Privately printed for the Society of pantagruelists [London] 1888 350 copy edition. Probably written to satisfy one of the affectations of the day, bowdlerized, sentimentalized Rabelais. Heavily tongue-in-cheek short stories, told in pseudo-archaic English, set in the framework of a Welsh drinking society, the officers of which must entertain one another with stories. Including, [a] STRANGE STORY OF A RED JAR. Brother Drogo, cellarer of the nearby priory, finds in his wine cellar an ancient red jar. The jar which is sealed, contains wine from Roman days. Drogo cannot resist its delights, drinks heavily, and finds himself in the company of naked bacchantes. [b] HOW THE FOLK OF ABERGAVENNY WERE PESTERED BY AN ACCURSED KNIGHT. Sir Jenkin, a clockwork knight, beats out the house on the Abergavenny clocktower. But he leaves his post and hunts out local miscreants, like young lovers, adulterous monks. He is tried for witchcraft and burned. A hoax. [c] THE QUEST OF THE DIAL AND THE VANE. This contains two short narratives, [d] QUEST OF CONSTANCY, [e] QUEST OF VARIETY. Two knights, to please a merry company, go on quests to determine which is the better, constancy or variety in love. They return and tell their experiences, which are remarkably imaginative. A hoax. [f] WHAT FELL OUT IN THE ANCIENT KEEP OF CALDICOT. A heretical magician, practicing alchemy in the keep, uses magic to kidnap and seduce the beautiful Loyse. [g] THE AFFAIR DONE AT THE HOUSE WITH THE LATTICE. Sir Philip Meyrick, a young adventurer, falls in love with the daughter of Maurice Torlesse, who is a magician of great power. The young lovers watch while Torlesse creates a magical replica of the landscape and bathe it with thunderstorms. The magician, however, looks closely into the replica, and sees the hidden lovers. Meyrick is forced to kill him in self-defence. * Rationalized interpretations for those who wish them. Amusing stories with a bookish joi de vivre, if one can accept the self-conscious convention. 1070. THE GREAT GOD PAN AND THE INMOST LIGHT John Lane; London 1894 Fin de sieele horror stories, heavily indebted

MACHEN, ARTHUR to Stevenson in style, narrative technique, and in the concept of London as a Baghdad of the Arabian Nights -- i.e., a place where anything strange might happen, and curious stories almost automatically turn up. * [a} THE GREAT GOD PAN. (WHIRLWIND, 1890) A minor cause celebre when published, roundly denounced as decadent fiction, this tells from various disconnected points of view the life history of a supernatural femme fatale. The first episode recounts an experiment conducted by a ruthless scientist to remove the limitations that keep mankind from perceiving the ultimate reality, or Pan. This involves an operation upon the brain of Mary Vaughan, a young woman, who experiences Pan and goes horribly mad. Nine months later she bears a girl, dying shortly thereafter. The girl, Helen Vaughan, is reared in the country, but disappears after leaving tragedies and horrors and incidents of supernatural encounter behind her. About twenty-four years after the initial experiment a wave of suicides and mental collapses is afflicting the aristocratic young men about town. Villiers and Austin are disturbed by the situation, and by tracing common factors learn that behind everything is a Mrs. Beaumont, a beautiful, fascinating, but utterly evil woman. Those that associate with her come into contact with an evil that is ineffable. She is offered the chance of suicide, and her corpse devolves away from humanity, turning into something utterly alien and horrible. She was the daughter of Mary Vaughan and the god Pan. [b} THE INMOST LIGHT. Told within the same stiff conventions as [a}. Dyson and Salisbury chance upon the case of Dr. Black, whose insane wife died under suspicious circumstances. A fellow doctor, who conducted the autopsy, stated that the wife's brain was not human, that Black probably murdered her, and that he did not blame Black. By coincidence (covered by the thematic concept of Stevensonian London) Dyson and Salisbury come upon a remarkable opal-like gem and Black's diary. He had been experimenting with extracting souls, and had reconstituted his wife's into the gem. He died a broken man. * This story, according to Machen, was rejected by Miss Braddon as too horrible to print. * In these stories Machen had not yet mastered the Stevensonian technique, and the narrative is choppy, undeveloped, and curiously disharmonic between vehicle and subject matter. 1071. THE THREE IMPOSTORS; OR, THE TRANSMUTATIONS John Lane; London 1895 A second, far more successful attempt to imitate Stevenson; in the opinion of many it is superior to Stevenson's comparable work. * Stories set in an ingenious framework that is best not revealed. * Including [a} ADVENTURE OF THE MISSING BROTHER. Charles Phillipps, amateur ethnologist, young man about town who serves as one of the two focal points for the chain of narratives, chances to converse with a Miss Lally in Leicester Square. She is accustomed to meet her brother there, and she has a premonition of disaster when she sees him walk past with a stranger. The stranger's

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MACHEN, ARTHUR face is mask-like, and his hand and arm, she sees, are the bones of a skeleton. Miss Lally thereupon tells Phillipps the story of her life in [b} NOVEL OF THE BLACK SEAL. She has been secretary and confidant to Professor Gregg, the ethnologist. Gregg has been acting mysterious about a project which he has been unwilling to disclose to her, but he takes her and his child to a remote valley in Wales, where, after more mysterious activities, he disappears. He leaves behind him a manuscript which reveals that Gregg believes that the fairies still survive underground in certain places, as malevolent, semisupernatural beings, and that he intends to beard them. This is tied in with the stone hexacontalithos, which has carved upon it in strange hieroglyphs the secrets of protoplasm. The professor experiments with the stone, which he has found, and using a local boy who is half-fairy, he releases human flesh from its limitations. The professor then descends under the hills to find the hidden people and is never seen again. This story is often reprinted under the alternate title THE BLACK SEAL. [c} THE RECLUSE OF BAYSWATER. Dyson, the second of the two focal points of the story chain, meets at a rooming house a beautiful young woman. This is Miss Leicester, who tells him [d} NOVEL OF THE WHITE POWDER. Her overworked brother took a prescription filled by a careless druggist and reacted strangely. At first he seemed to improve physically, but then his personality changed. He became a recluse and refused to see anyone. When his door was eventually forced, he had transformed into a black slimy monstrosity that dripped into slimy liquescence. The medicine, it seems, normally harmless, had by long storage and repeated changes of temperature, been changed into the transformation drug used at witches' sabbaths, the vinum sabbati. Often reprinted under the title THE WHITE POWDER. * [b} and [d} are among the classics of supernatural literature, beautifully narrated, highly imaginative, thought-provoking, even with a note of humor that is seldom noted. The mythology expressed in [b} often occurs in Machen's work, and has been very important historically. In reprints some material is usually omitted. * This edition is designed by Aubrey Beardsley. 1072: THE HOUSE OF SOULS Grant Richards; London 1906 An omnibus volume with a fine frontispiece by Sidney Sime. * Described elsewhere, [a} THE THREE IMPOSTORS, altered, abridged, but with the fantasy episodes retained: [b} ADVENTURE OF THE MISSING BROTHER; [c} NOVEL OF THE BLACK SEAL; [d} THE RECLUSE OF BAYSWATER; [e} NOVEL OF THE WHITE POWDER. * [f} THE INMOST LIGHT. [g} THE GREAT GOD PAN. * Also [h} A FRAGMENT OF LIFE. Fantasy by implication only. Individuation. The awakening of a mystical consciousness in a young Londoner whose roots are in the ancient Welsh countryside. The impingement of higher consciousness on the petty, almost squalid details of daily life is brilliantly handled, as is the gorgeously mad pro-

MACHEN, ARTHUR clamation of the preacher Richards. [i} THE WHITE PEOPLE. (1899) In the frame situation two of Machen's occult flaneurs discuss the nature of evil, saints of evil, and the symbolic nature of certain occult traditions. The heart of the story, however, is the remarkable document entitled [j} THE GREEN BOOK. This is a diary-like document written by an adolescent girl, telling of her half-unwitting initiation by her nurse into the ancient supernatural traditions and rites of the countryside. It tells of her own spiritual experiences in a heightened mystical reality, and of a weird, hostile universe that is revealed to her. Incorporated are much folklore, genuine and literary, and several brilliant fairy tales. Evil is triumphant. This document is probably the finest single supernatural story of the century, perhaps in the literature. * [k} THE RED HAND. Murder in London. The background involves the degenerate fairy races who dwell eternally hostile, in caverns below. * The Knopf (New York 1922) edition of the same title omits [a} and [k} but contains a new introduction by Machen. Machen's introductions, though often crotchety, are always of interest. 1073. THE HILL OF DREAMS Grant Richards; London 1907 Frontispiece by Sidney Sime. To quote the author: "This is a Robinson Crusoe of the soul, in which the hero's solitude is a 'solitude' of the spirit, and the ocean surrounding him and dissociating him from his kind is a spiritual deep." * Lucian Taylor, son of a Welsh country parson, is gifted with literary ability but cursed with a hypersensitivity which makes intolerable to him the hypocrisy, coarseness, and unwitting (and witting) cruelty of local folk. As his literary attempts fail and his personal life becomes more and more intolerable, he withdraws from the world into occult practices. He studies the magical writers of the past, practices mental disciplines, and inflicts pain on himself until he gains the ability of the spiritual alchemist: transmuting life around him to gold. He sees the Roman splendor still around his section of Wales, and when he goes to London to write the perfect book, he experiences London as a demoniac and Dionysian bedlam. After a glorious bacchanal he is found dead by his landlady, a bottle of laudanum or other drug nearby. * A remarkable stylistic achievement in the decorative manner, on the same level as De Quincey's more famous work. The story line, at its broadest, is at least partially autobiographical in that Machen suffered similar frustration as a young man. A highly individual version of the sensitive young man in the brutal world. 1074. THE ANGELS OF MONS, THE BOWMEN, AND OTHER LEGENDS OF THE WAR Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent; London 1915 In his work as a journalist for the London EVENING NEWS Machen created one of the most important pieces of folklore associated with World War I, a fiction that is still believed by many to be factual. In the EVENING NEWS for

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MACHEN, ARTHUR September 29, 1914 appeared [a} THE BOWMEN. According to Machen's short sketch, at the Battle of Mons phantom bowmen from England's past aided the B.E.F. The story created a sensation, since it was taken for fact, and it has entered the annals of psychic research as a true incident. There was never any intention on Machen's part to present anything but fiction, and he stated as emphatically as he could that the story was purely imaginary, but many people refused to believe him, and the incident became international. Letters were written to the newspapers claiming to have information about the phantom bowmen, and Harold Begbie, a fairly well-known author, wrote a book to prove the factual basis for Machen's fiction. [b} THE SOLDIERS' REST. Also from the EVENING NEWS, as are the remaining stories. St. Michael descends to help the British. [c} THE MONSTRANCE. A German soldier who committed atrocities is haunted. [d} THE DAZZLING LIGHT. A vision of medieval troops armed with crossbows. The vision is later explained as a prevision of new technical equipment, crossbows for propelling grenades. * Machen contributes a long preface about the legend of the bowmen, and other historical material by fellow newspapermen is included. * All very ephemeral as literature, and hardly worth reading, but curious in historical retrospect. * The second British edition (1915), but not American editions, also contains [e} THE LITTLE NATIONS. Dr. Duthoit's gardener has prepared a seedbed, but when the doctor sees it, it is a relief map of Gallipoli, with hordes of ants in combat. More interesting than the other stories. 1075. THE GREAT RETURN Faith Press; London 1915 paperbound A mystery story told as reportage piecing together events, exemplifying one of Machen's favorite themes: that the Grail was not a pagan survival (as most folklorists of Machen's day held), but a Christian mystery associated with the early Celtic (non-Roman) Christianity. The story is presented as a reporter's reflections over histories and incidents that happened for a glorious nine days. A feud that could have ended in at least an assault, and perhaps worse, is dissolved in repentance, restitution and forgiveness. A girl, dying of consumption, given twenty-four hours to live, is restored to blooming health. The bell of St. Teilo is heard, restoring hearing to the deaf. Remarkable lights are to be seen in the sky and in the old ruined chapel, and in the church the smell of incense is to be observed where no incense was used. The culmination comes when the Sangraa1, the lost miraculous altar, and the bell of St. Tei10 appear at a Grail mass, with their three red-clad supernatural attendants. * Interestingly handled. 1076. THE TERROR Duckworth; London 1917 A story of the Welsh countryside during World War I, told as a mystery story, solution hinted during the narration and confirmed at the end of the volume. ,', A succession of brutal mur-

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MACHEN, ARTHUR ders takes place in Wales. The victims are usually isolated people, although there are cases of families having been killed. There is no real evidence as to the identity of the murderer or murderers. An odd feature of the crimes is that there is a complete official cover-up of all news about them, with violations of the censorship being very severely punished. The first explanations, when the crimes are believed to be only local, is that a criminal madman is guilty, perhaps even a person with multiple personalities. As it becomes obvious that the phenomena are widespread, the general feeling is that the Germans are in some way responsible. When a dark column with glowing lights seems in some way connected with individual deaths by smothering, the supernatural seems involved. Dr. Lewis, a physician near Porth (a mythical small Welsh sea resort town that Machen often invokes), comes to the solution. All the crimes are sporadic cases of revolt of the.animals. Man's wickedness in the Great War has so disturbed the cosmos that man has forfeited his ancient hegemony over the animals. The dark column with lights was a pillar-formation of moths. Pleasantly told, although the mystery is not very mysterious, and it is not clear why the government censored all news. 1077. THE SHINING PYRAMID Covici-McGee; Chicago 1923 875 copy edition Edited with introduction by Vincent Starrett. A collection of minor and ephemeral work, essays and short stories. Including [a] THE SHINING PYRAMID. (c. 1895) Mysterious symbols formed of ancient flints and a missing young woman in the Welsh countryside. Dyson deciphers the message and alone with Vaughan witnesses a human sacrifice by the Other People: small, Mongoloid, only partly material fairies. [b] OUT OF THE EARTH. During World War I occasional travellers in Wales report abominable actions by small children. The explanation: malevolent fairies who are rejoicing at the human misfortunes in the war. [c] THE SPAGYRIC QUEST OF BEROALDUS COSMOPOLITA. The experiences of a spiritual alchemist. It originally formed the introduction to a catalogue of occult books. [d] THE SPLENDID HOLIDAY. A fragment, possibly from THE HILL OF DREAMS. Borderline. fantastic. Mystical apprehension of reality. Also titled NATURE. [e] THE LOST CLUB. (1890) Stevensonian, obviously based on THE SUICIDE CLUB. A club, the members of which draw lots to disappear. A return to the premises is disconcerting: it has disappeared. [f] IN CONVERTENDO. A fragment from THE SECRET GLORY. Questionable supernatural. Ecstasy. [g] DRAKE'S DRUM. (1919) On the "Royal Oak," during the surrender of the German fleet after World War I, a muffled drum is heard. Drake's. There are also essays which repeat the ideas of HIEROGLYPHICS, Machen's remarkable study of literary psychology and purpose. This book and its companion volume THE GLORIOUS MYSTERY were a cause celebre in the 1920's. Machen accused Starrett of having pirated the stories and essays con-

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MACHEN, ARTHUR cerned. The accusation, it was so"on revealed, was completely inaccurate and unjust, since Machen had previously given Starrett carte blanche and Starrett was acting under Machen's authorization. Mostly trivial material, despite Machen's.technical skill, but [e] is interesting, despite a· certain archaic quality. 1078. THE GLORIOUS MYSTERY Covici-McGee; Chicago 1924 Edited with introduction by Vincent Starrett. Essays and fiction, minor, ephemeral material hitherto uncollected. * Including [a] THE HOLY THINGS. (1897) Ecstasy sees great and holy sacraments in the things of everyday life in London. A vision in Holborne. [b] SCROOGE: 1920. A NEW CHRISTMAS CAROL. A jeu d'esprit. The Ghost of Christmas of 1920 presents Scrooge with a demand note from the Commissioners of Income Tax. "My name is Pussyfoot. I am also called Ruin and Despair." Two other stories are concerned a little with ecstatic perception, but not enough to be considered fantastic. Most of the book is devoted to essays and reviews based on Machen's belief that a Celtic Christian church, independent of Rome, survived until fairly late times. Trivial material. 1079. ORNAMENTS IN JADE A. A. Knopf; New York 1924 1000 copy edition Short stories and essay material, including described elsewhere, [a] NATURE. Alternate title for THE SPLENDID HOLIDAY. [b] THE HOLY THINGS. Also [c] WITCHCRAFT. (1897) Miss Custance takes Captain Knight to visit old Mrs. Wise, an ancient cotter. She later returns to get the obscene doll that Mrs. Wise has made and the ointment. [d] THE CEREMONY. (1897) The young woman has long been fascinated by the phallic menhir; when she sees a cottage girl performing strange, obscene rites before it, she, too, knows what she must do. Conveyed by suggestion. * [c] and [d] are small gems. 1080. THE SHINING PYRAMID Martin Secker; London 1924 Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE SHINING PYRAMID. [b] OUT OF THE EARTH. [c] IN CONVERTENDO. Also [d] THE HAPPY CHILDREN. A traveller in the North sees a procession of children, many of whom bear the stigmata. It is the Eve of the Holy Innocents. Either a vision of Elizabethan times or ghosts. The trade edition and the identical A. A. Knopf edition (New York) were both published in 1925., 1081. THE GREEN ROUND Ernest Benn; London [1933] Short supernatural novel, told in semi-essay fashion. * Mr. Lawrence Hillyer, a somewhat scholarly recluse of independent means, fears that he is going mad when he suddenly bursts into glossolalia and finds himself in a dwam (in this instance, loss of ego). He attends a specialist and is told to go to the sea, re-' lax, and socialize as much as he can. Following this advice, he resorts to Porth (Machen's decayed Welsh seaport) and soon becomes in-

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volved in a strange contretemps. He is accused of fraternizing with a suspected sex murderer, when he knows that he was alone, and is mobbed and driven out of the resort. At a later time he gathers from conversation that he overhears, that he is accompanied by an extremely ugly person whom others can see, while he cannot. At a later stage of his breakdown he himself sees a follower that others cannot see. He undergoes odd visionary experiences, including impossible visits by friends, and life becomes for him more and more terrifying and confusing. Poltergeistic phenomena take place in his rooming house. His eventual solution is to flee the British Isles and take refuge in the Near East, where he is safe and undisturbed. The development of his case is paralleled with journalistic accounts of similar phenomena and a discussion of Hillyer's researches into a peculiar brand of mystical occultism. The explanation is that his normal psychic barriers had been lowered, that he was unwittingly a medium, and that the malicious Little People gained a foothold within him which they were reluctant to abandon. 1082. THE CHILDREN OF THE POOL AND OTHER STORIES Hutchinson; London [1936] Short stories, including [a] THE EXALTED OMEGA. Told in a complex manner with disrupted time sequences and parallelisms that are not always clear. The supernaturalism is centered around Mr. Mansel, a scholarly semi-recluse, who has heard what seem to be voices discussing a party and a murder by poisoning. He dies, and sometime after his death a medium picks up by automatic writing what must be a message from him, hinting at. the poisoning which succeeding tenants in Mansel's apartment had committed. [b] THE CHILDREN OF THE POOL. Roberts, a vacation boarder at a small farm in Wales, hears a shrieking female voice that recounts to him peccadillos from his youth and threatens exposure. Roberts is shattered by the experience and expects blackmail. But the narrator gradually recognizes that it has been a supernatural manifestation, fairy in origin, from the dirty pool near the farm house. There are hints that similar things have happened in the past. [c] OUT OF THE PICTURE. M'Calmont, a Scottish artist, is trying to create a new style for his painting, a combination of 18th century landscape realism and concepts from the Kaballah to heighten and vivify his work. The narrator, a newspaper reporter who occasionally covers art exhibitions, sees in all M'Calmont's paintings a demonic figure that in each successive picture grows larger and approaches the foreground more. He asks M'Calmont about it, but the artist evades the question angrily. Later it is revealed that the figure has emerged from the canvases and (like Mr. Hyde) has subsumed M'Calmont, who has disappeared. [d] CHANGE. The Darren mystery. In the vicinity of Porth, Wales, a vacationer's child is replaced by a changeling. Responsible was the baby-sitter Alice Hayes, who seems to be a recruiter for the fairies. Ideas more subtle than in the earliest work, and technique

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tending toward obscureness. * Best stories are [a], [b], [c]. Also present is the excellent psychological study, "The Tree of Life." 1083. THE COSY ROOM AND OTHER STORIES Rich and Cowan; London 1936 Miscellaneous material, including, described elsewhere, [a] THE LOST CLUB. [b] THE HOLY THINGS. [c] NATURE. Alternate title for THE SPLENDID HOLIDAY. [d] DRAKE'S DRUM. [e] A NEW CHRISTMAS CAROL. Alternate title for SCROOGE: 1920. [f] WITCHCRAFT. [g] THE CEREMONY. * Also [h] MUNITIONS OF WAR. (1915) Loading ships for the war. Ghosts of sailors who died at Trafalgar help and are quite noisy about it. [i] THE GIFT OF TONGUES. Essay material on glossolalia and the uttering of the ancient Christmas Preface in a Welsh Methodist chapel. [j] AWAKING: A CHILDREN'S STORY. (1930) The awakening of sensibility, in a sort of ecstasy, at a fair. The adults call it sunstroke. [k] OPENING THE DOOR. (1931) Reminiscences of a newspaper reporter on strange interviews. Among them was the Rev. Secretan Jones, who received much publicity because he declared that the street system of London, designed for horse traffic, could not bear the weight of automobiles. Jones, although ignorant of it, is bothered by fairies who upset his papers and remove him from time and space. [1] THE COMPLIMENTS OF THE SEASON. (1934) A materialist sees birds create a doll-like form from moss and twigs and lay lilies on it, for Christmas. [m] N. Canon's Park, a somewhat decayed residential section of London, is perceived by certain individuals as a sort of paradise. A 19th century clergyman who has seen the vision by occult means offers an explanation from Jacob Boehme: Before the Fall matter was fluid and controllable by the human spirit. A more modern explanation is perichoresis, or interpenetrating worlds. There are also some sketches of individuals with heightened perceptions. Of the new material [k] and [m] are best, though [m] is a little diffuse. 1084. TALES OF HORROR AND THE SUPERNATURAL A. A. Knopf; New York 1948 Edited with introduction by Philip Van Doren Stern. Introductory article ARTHUR MACHEN by Robert Hillyer. Including la] THE NOVEL OF THE BLACK SEAL, [b] THE NOVEL OF THE WHITE POWDER. [cl THE GREAT GOD PAN. [d] THE WHITE PEOPLE. [e] THE INMOST LIGHf. [f] THE SHINING PYRAMID. 19] THE BOWMEN. [h] THE GREAT RETURN. [i] THE HAPPY CHILDREN. [j] OUT OF THE EARTH. [k] N. [1] CHILDREN OF THE POOL. [m] THE TERROR. All described elsewhere. Both introductions are good. 1085. HOLY TERRORS SHORT STORIES Penguin Books; Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England 1946 paperbound Short stories, including [a] OPENING THE DOOR. [b] THE HOLY THINGS. [c] THE CEREMONY. [d] THE SOLDIERS' REST. [e] MUNITIONS OF WAR. [f] THE HAPPY CHILDREN. [g] THE GREAT RETURN. Not a very strong collection.

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MACLEOD, FIONA from childhood experiences and an old Highland nurse, the stories and poetry were claimed to have been written in a trance state. It is possible that Sharp had a female collaborator in certain stories. Sharp was almost pathologically sensitive about Fiona Macleod, who assumed the position of an alter ego, and the secret of her identity was well kept. Of Sharp's writings under his own name, the only one now remembered seems to be THE GYPSY CHRIST (1895), a collection of short stories. 1089. THE WASHER OF THE FORD AND OTHER CELTIC MORALITIES Celtic Library, Patrick Geddes; Edinburgh [1896] Folklore and pseudo-folklore of the Hebrides turned into stories, often expressed in Macleod's swollen, neo-Ossianic style. Verse, both Gaelic and English, is occasionally incorporated into individual stories. The subject matter is heavily religious, often focussing on early Celtic Christianity, but bringing in motifs from later time. * Including [a] THE WASHER OF THE FORD. Blind Torcall, who is able to cause or quell strife with his music, comes to the Ford of Life, where the Washer (Mary Magdalene) winnows souls, destroying the unworthy, permitting others to cross. Torcall's sight is restored. The theme is repentance. [b] MUIME CHRIOSD. Strange shifts of modality, as, after an early life in the Hebrides, St. Bride is transported to the Holy Lands to become the foster mother of Jesus. [c] THE FISHER OF MEN. Christ wanders about the Scottish hillsides. [d] THE LAST SUPPER. A Celtic dream. [e] THE DARK NAMELESS ONE. Told within a modern frame situation. St. Colum confronts Black Angus, the seal man. Angus is looking for Kirsteen, whom he stole away, a thousand years earlier. Angus has become a seal and Kirsteen has become the seawitch. In some vague way Angus is also associated with Judas. [f] THE THREE MARVELS OF HY. Connected stories about St. Colum describing his spiritual growth, his response to Druidic lore, when he learns that all life is one and must be loved. In the final episode Colurn learns that he acted wrongly with Black Angus the seal-man. [g] THE ANNIRCHOILLE. Culdee times. Cathal, a young Celtic monk, renounces his vows in favor of paganism, since he has fallen in love. The ascetic Culdees imprison him in a hollow tree, so that he will die of hunger and thirst. He is saved by the Hidden People-- tree people. They turn him into a male dryad. Cathal later awakens the dormant spirituality of the monk who had cursed him. [h] THE SHADOW-SEERS. Four short episodes dealing with second-sight, modern Celtic visions of death fetches, etc. * The other stories are historical. * Competently written within the odd conventions that Macleod set himself, but probably too peculiarly personal for modern readers. Historically, an aberrant form of fin de siecle writing. 1090. THE DOMINION OF DREAMS Constable; London 1899 Again the Hebrides and Celtic Scotland. Short stories told in a rhapsodic manner, with occa-

MACLEOD, FIONA sional Gaelic inclusions. Including [a] DALUA. Dalua, the fool of the ancient gods, is still on earth, deluding men. He places shadows in the mind of Dan Macara and makes him mad. [b] BY THE YELLOW MOONROCK. The career of the late Rory MacAlpine, finest piper in the land, but a handsome, dissolute lecher. He has become fey dreaming about Bridhe, the wife of the Celtic god Amadan Dhu, the Dark Fool. She has power over men one night a year. She stings them to death and dispatches their souls. Rory achieves his destiny at the Yellow Moonrock. [c] CHILDREN OF THE DARK STAR. A meeting of the two brothers born under the Dark Star, Alasdair and the evil Gloom Achanna. Gloom tells of the magical deeds that he has accomplished by the power ot his pipes. Alasdair learns that Gloom has seduced and abandoned Alasdair's sweetheart. [d] ALASDAIR THE PROUD. The evil-working Gloom first destroys Alasdair's faith in woman then plays him into madness with his pipes. This is not the same Alasdair as in [c]. There are links brought out by Gloom with an old Celtic tale. [e] THE AMADAN. Sequel to [d] Alasdair is still mad, and does not know his family. Alan Dall prays for him, and the prayer, assuming the form of a separate spirit neutralizes the magic of Gloom and cures Alasdair. [f] THE HERDSMAN. Questionable fantasy. Alan MacAilean is shunned because the Highlanders have seen a double of "him, the Fair Herdsman, which has a long supernatural association-- perhaps Jesus, perhaps pre-Christian. The story is rationalized, though rejection of revelation is involved. The point is not clear. * The following stories are based on the ancient heroic cycles rather than on modern material. 19] HONEY OF THE WILD BEES. Death personified. [h] THE BIRDS OF EMAR. [i] ULAD OF THE DREAMS. * One must have a certain empathy toward the convention-- heavily imaged prose based on Celtic speech patterns, poetic inclusions, and obscurity of reference-- but if one does, [a], [b], [c] are worth reading. MacNISH, ROBERT (1802-1837) Scottish physician, poet, author. Medical degree from Glasgow, studied at Paris. Doctoral thesis, THE ANATOMY OF DRUNKENNESS, which the DNB hints was based on personal experience. Interested in psychological borders of medicine, such as sleep, dreams, phrenology, etc. Usually wrote non-medical material under the pseudonym A MODERN PYTHAGOREAN. Much his most famous work during his lifetime was THE METEMPSYCHOSIS, which was often reprinted. MacNish is now almost completely forgotten. 1091. THE MODERN PYTHAGOREAN A SERIES OF TALES. ESSAYS. AND SKETCHES William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh; T. Cadell, London 1838 2 vol. The first volume is devoted to a memoir of MacNish. The second volume contains fiction including [a] THE METEMPSYCHOSIS. (BLACKWOOD'S 1826) An ambitious story about personality interchanges worked by the Devil. GBttingen. Frederick Stadt feels dizzy for a moment, then

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suddenly realizes that he is taller and larger than he used to be. He also notes with annoyance that his friends and professors now call him Wolstang. He learns from an "old man who is present at the right time that he and Wolstang have changed bodies and that he has signed a paper, in his own blood, while drunk, agreeing to the exchange. Wolstang will not agree to return to his own body and it seems as if Stadt is trapped. The old man is willing to release him in exchange for his soul, but Stadt will not accept. Unfortunately, if the true Wolstang should die, Stadt would return to his old body and be buried alive. This happens, but resurrection men provide an escape. An ambitious and entertaining story. Obviously the source for Doyle's THE GREAT KEINPLATZ EXPERIMENT. [b] THE MAN WITH THE NOSE. It is huge. When he smokes, the house is filled with fumes and the landlord sees unpleasant visions. Semi-fantastic. [c] THE BARBER OF GOTTINGEN. By university law he can shave only university personnel, but when the demonic little man enters and forces him to oblige, the barber must shave-- for hours, for it is the Devil. A dream. [d1 TERENCE O'FLAHERTY. Ireland. A strange old man induces henpecked, illiterate O'Flaherty to sign a certain book. The old man then begins a demonic rout, playing the violin with such power that even the furniture dances around. [e] THE VISION OF BRUCE. Scotland, 13th century. When an armored ghost appears, Bruce strikes it with his battle axe. The ghost then reveals itself to be his dead brother. It takes him down to the land of the dead where True Thomas of Ercildowne gives him a magical symbol of victory. When Bruce awakes, he finds the shattered corpse of an acsassin before him. [f] DEATH AND THE FISHERMAN. Netherlands. The stranger offers the hospitable Dutch couple two wishes. They ask for a chair from which one cannot rise, a tree from which one cannot descend without their permission. As in the folk tale, they trap Death. * [a] is worth reading. McSPADDEN, J[OSEPH] W[ALKER] (1874-1960) American editor, writer, anthologist. Bestknown works apart from widely circulated anthologies, STORIES FROM WAGNER, THE BOOK OF HOLIDAYS. AS EDITOR: 1092. FAMOUS GHOST STORIES Crowell; New York [1918 ] Including, described elsewhere, la] A TRUE RELATION OF THE APPARITION OF MRS. VEAL, Daniel Defoe. [b) THE TAPESTRIED CHAMBER, Sir Walter Scott. [c] THE PHANTOM 'RICKSHAW, Rudyard Kipling. [d] THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS, Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Short version. [el THE WERE-WOLF, Captain Frederick Marryat. erroneously carried as by H. B. Marryat. [f) WHAT WAS IT? Fitz-James O'Brien. [g] THE GRAY CHAMPION, Nathaniel Hawthorne. [h] THE STORM-SHIP, Washington Irving. Colonial Manhattan. During storms a ghostly ship is sometimes seen. Various explanations. [i]

McSPADDEN, J. W. THE LADY WITH THE VELVET COLLAR, Washington Irving. Alternate title for THE ADVENTURE OF THE GERMAN STUDENT. lj] LIGEIA, E. A. Poe. [k] THE BAGMAN'S STORY, Charles Dickens. [1] TO BE TAKEN WITH A GRAIN OF SALT, Charles Dickens. [m] THE OLD NURSE'S STORY, Mrs. Elizabeth Gaskell. (HOUSEHOLD WORDS, CHRISTMAS NUMBER, 1852) This seems to be first anthologization of this story. Hester, a garrulous old nurse, tells of an experience in her youth. She was nursemaid to Rosamond, a little girl, in a haunted house. Two generations earlier old Lord Furnivall had driven his daughter out of the house because she had "married morganatically" and born a child. In his action he was urged on by his other daughter, Grace Furnivall. Hester hears the ghostly music of the dead old lord playing the organ and must fight hard to keep her charge from being lured away by the ghosts of the dead mother and daughter. As the story ends there is a supernatural reenactment of the expulsion; Grace Furnivall, who is now an old woman, tries to interfere, but can only watch her ghostly self of fifty years before reenact the crime. "What is done in youth can never be undone in age~" * Nicely told, particularly with the twist at the end, which lifts the story above the conventional thriller of the day. Perhaps an ultimate source, indirectly, for THE TURN OF THE SCREW? * Sometimes reprinted as THE OLD NURSE'S TALE or THE NURSE'S STORY, 1093. FAMOUS PSYCHIC STORIES Crowell; New York [1920] Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE WHITE OLD MAID, Nathaniel Hawthorne. [b] THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR, E.A. Poe. [c] THE DREAM WOMAN, Wilkie Collins. [d] THE OPEN DOOR, Mrs. Margaret Oliphant. [e] THE STALLS OF BARCHESTER CATHEDRAL, M. R. James. [fJ THE MAN WHO WENT TOO FAR, E. F. Benson. [g] THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS, W. F. Harvey. This seems to be first book appearance. Described elsewhere for context. [h] FROM THE LOOM OF THE DEAD, Elia Peattie. [iJ THE SHADOWS ON THE WALL, Mary Wilkins Freeman. * Also [j] THE GHOUL, Evangeline W. Blashfield. Egypt at the time of Mahdi's Rebellion. A woman is thought to be a ghoul. Rationalized. 1094. FAMOUS MYSTERY STORIES Crowell; New York [1922] Short stories, including [a] THE SPECTRE OF TAPPINGTON, R. H. Barham, under pseudonym Thomas Ingoldsby. [b] THE MYSTERIOUS SKETCH, Erckmann-Chatrian. [c] THE DESERTED HOUSE, E. T. A. Hoffmann. [d] THE ADALANTADO OF THE SEVEN CITIES, Washington Irving. [e] THE UPPER BERTH, F. Marion Crawford. [f] THE DIAMOND LENS, Fitz-James O'Brien. [g] THE HORLA, Guy de Maupassant. [h] THE MUMMY'S FOOT, Theophi Ie Gautier. All described elsewhere. MALDEN, R[ICHARD] H[ENRY] (1879-1951) British clergyman, author of religious works, occasional writer of fiction. Dean of Wells Cathedral. Best-known for historical works about Wells Cathedral, and inspirational books about the Old and New Testaments.

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MALET, LUCAS 1095. NINE GHOSTS Arnold; London [1943] Written between 1909 and 1942, these stories are avowedly in imitation of the work of M. R. James. The aesthetic is supernatural horror based on antiquarian lore. * la] COLLECTOR'S COMPANY. A Cambridge scholar, a parttime preacher, assists a rector who happens to be a profound student of Neoplatonism and thaumaturgy. The scholar witnesses a magical ceremony and later learns that the Neoplatonist was killed by the evil he evoked. [b] THE DINING-ROOM FIREPLACE. Ireland. A haunted room, a peculiarly posed portrait from the 18th century. Manifestations take place in the room. Behind the picture is found the record book of an infamous club. It would seem that this story and [aJ were suggested by THE LOST STRADIVARIUS by J. M. Falkner. lc] STIVINGHOE BANK. A young scholar, checking the manuscripts, comes upon the story of John of Costessey, a 16th century minister who was really a witch, monkey-like familiar and all. When the scholar finds the bones of the familiar, things start to happen. [d] THE SUNDIAL. An old stump (really a stake) holds down the spirit of a suicide. When the stake is removed, bad dreams and hauntings. [e] BETWEEN SUNSET AND MOONRISE. The curate is aware that Miss Vries is troubled, and she drops hints of supernatural problems. As he leaves, he sees a mass of demons approaching. They coalesce into a single monstrosity that passes through him. This scene is the only effective moment in the book. [f] THE BLANK LEAVES. The genealogist, burrowing through old records, comes upon ancient evil. A parish clerk had been executed and his hand was later used as a hand of glory. [gJ THE THIRTEENTH TREE. The visitor learns that no son has ever succeeded to the lands, as the result of a curse laid by an Elizabethan witch whose son was executed by the ancestor of the landlord. The visitor witnesses a spectral vision of past events. [h] THE COXWAIN OF THE LIFEBOAT. A reconstruction of the history of a sailor who made a bond with evil. Not too clear. [i] THE PRIEST'S BRASS. An enthusiast of brass rubbings. A monumental brass that is kept secret and not shown. An evil priest centuries ago. A sexton who is probably that priest, still living. A magical attack, in terms of past landscapes, in which the visitor survives and the sexton dies supernaturally. * Literate but dull. The later stories are less successful than the earlier. MALET, LUCAS (pseud. of HARRISON, MARY ST. LEGER, n~e KINGSLEY) (1852-1931) British novelist. Daughter of Charles Kingsley. Member of literary circles in France and England, including that of Henry James. During late 19th century considered a daring writer, since she occasionally mentioned matters of sex and maladjustment. Best-known work THE WAGES OF SIN (1891) and THE HISTORY OF SIR RICHARD CALMADY (1901). Probably not read at all any more. Although only one book is considered here, small amounts of super-

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MALET, LUCAS naturalism appear in certain of her other books. 1096. THE TALL VILLA George H. Doran; New York [1919] Society romance with supernaturalism. * The Copleys have suffered financial reverses since Morris Copley has gambled on a shady deal. They are forced to leave London and settle at Tall Villa, which Frances Copley has inherited. Morris Copley soon leaves for South America, where he plans to recoup his fortunes, and Frances is left alone in Tall Villa. In the early 19th century a Lord Oxley, a collateral kinsman, committed suicide in the house, which he had maintained as a love-nest. Frances feels his presence in the house. At first she is frightened of him, but she gradually becomes so unhappy that she tries to evoke him and render his shady outline more solid. Her love soon releases him from his purgatorial punishment, and he now appears voluntarily. While this is going on, Frances hears tha~ her husband has deserted her and has taken up with South American women; and a bounder associate of his tries to seduce her. The ghost protects her and Frances comes to realize that her lot is with the dead Oxley and not in this world. On Oxley's final appearance she joins him and they leave together, her body in the chair by the fire. * Overwritten and pretentious, in the late Victorian manner.

MANLEY, SEON AND LEWIS, GOGO American writers, editors. AS EDITORS: 1097. LADIES OF FANTASY TWO CENTURIES OF SINISTER STORIES BY THE GENTLER SEX Lothrop, Lee and Shepard; New York 1975 The subtitle is a series subtitle that does not fit this particular book. * Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] THE PAVILION, E. Nesbit. [b] THE UNWANTED, Mary Elizabeth Counselman. [c] THE MUTED HORN, Dorothy Salisbury Davis. [d] THE ENSOULED VIOLIN, H. P. Blavatsky. [e] NO SHIPS PASS, Lady Eleanor Smith. Also [f] SEARCHING FOR SUMMER, Joan Aiken. (1957) Where can one find a bit of clean sunshine in smoggy, clouded England? The honeymooners go off on their motor scooter, but no sun is to be found-except around and about an old witch's cottage hidden in the woods. [g] THE SORCERER, Grazia Deledda. Anonymous translation from Italian. No date given, but the author died in 1936. Sardinia. Saveria remains childless despite prayers, pilgrimages, processions, and masses. Antonio is sure that her sterility is due to the hostile magic of Peppe. A golden louis persuades Peppe to remove the spell, and the two men go into the mountains together. Peppe works his magic, but the outcome is unexpected. Saveria, nevertheless ,. is no longer sterile. [h] THE RED WAGON, Jane Roberts. (HFSF, 1956) Philip, a disincarnate spirit, possesses the body of fiveyear old Peter and writes (in lemon juice, so that others cannot see it) a journal that will prove the reality of reincarnation. But he

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MANN, JACK has to fight off absorption by the boy's mind. The diary shows the gradual alteration. Also present is the science-fiction story "Doorway into Time" by C. L. Moore. Of the described material [g] is well worth reading. Colorful jacket by Edward Gorey.

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JACK (pseud. of VIVIAN, EVELYN CHARLES) (1882-1947) Prolific author (British) of popular fiction. Wrote under pseuds. JACK MANN and Ca~RLES CANNELL as well as under his own name. Author of many mystery stories, occasional works on historical and military matters. By no means an important author during his lifetime, but now collected for marginal science-fiction novels as E. Charles Vivian and for series of occult detective novels as Jack Mann. 1098. GREY SHAPES Wright and Brown; London 1937 Occult-detective novel. Gregory George Gordon Green, known as Gees, is a private detective of impeccable aristocratic origin. He entered the police force after the university, but found the discipline impossible and resigned, leaving behind him much hard feeling. As the series begins he is not an occult detective in the same sense as Blackwood's John Silence or Hodgson's Carnacki, since he has no real knowledge of the supernatural, but he occasionally stumbles upon cases that involve the irrational. In HER WAYS ARE DEATH, however, he is unexpectedly characterized as nearly an adept -- or very high in occult advancement. * This is Gee's second case. His first (GEES' FIRST CASE) is concerned only with Communists. >~ Tyrrell, a wealthy young squire in the Cumberlands, seeks Gees's help. Tyrrell's sheep are being slaughtered by some mysterious animal, and the police are helpless. Gees investigates and recognizes that the sheepkilling is not natural, and that there is some connection with the fairy lore of the area. His suspicions fallon the MacCouls, father and daughter, who are neighbors, Tyrrell is infatuated with Gyda MacCoul and is planning to marry her. The solution is obvious, of course, to both Gees and the reader. The MacCouls are werewolves. They are of mixed fairy-human stock, and Gyda plans to have a child by Tyrrell, for the fairy stock is incapable of reproducing itself. The MacCouls also used to live in the Middle Ages, and have the ability to move out of time and reappear at a later age. * Flippant in approach, soggy in the middle, a good example of what intelligent writers were forced to produce in the Depression years. 1099. NIGHTMARE FARM Wright and Brown; London 1937 Occult-detective novel. Gees is hired to go to Knightsmere (known locally as Nightmare), Shropshire, to rid the place of a haunting. The Hunters have a haunt that appears whenever wickedness is rampant in the family. A whirling, chuckling thing that is very dangerous to women, it kills or drives one mad. Green connects the manifestation with the elementals

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MANN, JACK of Kir-Asa (see CITY OF WONDER by E. Charles Vivian). The elementals are found to have a focus in a secret room in the chimney of the former manor house, where the corpse of the original wicked Hunter lies, strangely preserved by the elementals. Gees releases the spooks, but the result is most unfortunate to him. Other supernatural elements include exorcising one of the demons from a young woman. * Routine. This volume establishes the series formula. 1100. MAKER OF SHADOWS Wright and Brown; London [1938] Occult-detective novel. * Gees is called upon to battle pre-Celtic magic in the Scottish highlands. There Gamel MacMorn (the Maker of Shadows), an ancient Pictish priest, threatens the Aylmer family with his magic. MacMorn absorbs life from human sacrifices, while the souls of his victims become shadows that flit about. It looks as if Gees has met his match, for MacMorn outwits him and even puts a geas on him. But at the last minute Gees is saved by a dea ex machina. * Possibly suggested by A. Merritt's CREEP, SHADOW~ 1101. THE NINTH LIFE Wright and Brown; London [1939] Occult-detective novel. * When Tony Briggs becomes engaged to Cleo Kefra, there is consternation, for Briggs has a sensitive government job. Gees is called in to break up the romance, but he soon discovers that there is a connection between Cleo and a series of bestial murders seemingly committed by a giant cat. On closer acquaintance he falls in love with Cleo, and she tells him her history. She is Egyptian, more than 5,000 years old, and will survive with unchanging beauty as long as Sekhmet (the cat goddess) has one worshipper on earth. As part of the contract, however, every now and then the goddess demands a human death. After nine such killings, Cleo believes, she will be free. Cleo is not the monster of wickedness that Gees first thought, but a sensitive woman who suffers greatly because of her periodic possession by the goddess. Cleo also has other magical powers, such as standing outside time. She and Gees are in love with each other, but fate and the goddess have other plans for them. * The story of Cleo is handled with surprising sensitivity. Despite concessions to the market, the best of the Gees novels. 1102. THE GLASS TOO MANY Wright and Brown; London 1940 Not so much a supernatural novel as a detective novel with supernatural elements. It is sequel, after a fashion, to MAKER OF SHADOWS, and is concerned with the same supernatural phenomena, though to a lesser degree. * Gees is summoned by the wealthy Sydnor Reed" who is fearful for his life and sanity. A housemaid in Reed's establishment had demonstrated a nervous disorder of the left hand, which suddenly turned into homicidal mania and a horrible death. Reed has noticed that he is starting the same symptoms. Gees soon finds the causation, a mysterious Dyak poison, but who is administering it? There are several suspects, and

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MARGOLIES, JOSEPH the story moves in the manner of a classical detective story. Supernatural elements enter with Upper paleolithic evil, a fantastic drug, and shadows of the same sort as those controlled by Gamel MacMorn. * The mystery portion is more interesting than the occult. 1103. HER WAYS ARE DEATH Wright and Brown; London [1940] Occult-detective novel. * Gees is summoned to the West Country to help Naylor, a local landowner of wealth against a witch. Naylor tells Gees a long story of a feud between two families, reaching from the days of the Norse gods to the present. In certain generations the Naylors are berserkers, while the Warenns are witches. Naylor claims that Ira Warenn, the last survivor of the other family, has injured him by witchcraft. Gees, however, dislikes Naylor and refuses to help him. Instead, he meets Miss Ira Warenn, a beautiful young woman, and hears her side of the story. She admits the feud, but claims that while she is destined to kill Naylor, Naylor has injured her. As Gees becomes better acquainted with her he observes that she has a remarkable power over animals; that she is in possession of ancient manuscripts, a sword that sings when death is near, and a battle axe, on the narwhal-ivory handle of which is engraved instructions for attaining the fourth dimension. It is the Rod of An, a priestly artifact from ancient Atlantis. It is this that Naylor really wants. Ira,after years of study, built on her father's research, has learned to enter the fourth dimension, where time and space are superseded, although she is far from being in complete control of her ventures. The higher dimensions are peopled by superhuman entities. Gees, who finds her more and more attractive, warns her against her pursuits, since she is not ready spiritually for them, but she refuses to listen and even takes him with her on short jaunts into the fourth dimension. The simmering feud suddenly explodes and Naylor steals the Rod of An. In a battle which Ira and Gees watch from a distance, Naylor fights the god Thor, one of the beings from higher dimensions, and is killed. Gees loves Ira, but he refuses to go along with her magic, and she refuses to abandon it. The last he hears of her is when she tries to visit him via the fourth dimension but is captured by one of the higher beings. She will not be harmed, but she will not be permitted to return to earth. * By now a formula, with disparate elements of Norse mythology, occultism, Flatland, village yokels, and love not too well blended. Magazine version read (FFM 1952). MARGOLIES, JOSEPH [AARON] (1889 - 1982) American businessman, bookbuyer for Brentano's in New York. AS EDITOR: 1104. STRANGE AND FANTASTIC STORIES Whittlesey House; New York 1946 Introduction by Christopher Morley. * Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] ENOCH SOAMES, Max Beerbohm. [b] DANIEL WEBSTER

MARGOLIES, JOSEPH AND THE SEA SERPENT, S. V. Benet. [c] CATERPILLARS, E.F. Benson. [d] THE CRIMINAL, J. D. Beresford. [e] THE MIDDLE TOE OF THE RIGHT FOOT, Ambrose Bierce. [f] THE OCCUPANT OF THE ROOM, Algernon Blackwood. [g] IN THE MIRROR, Valery Brussof. [h1 VARIATIONS ON A THEME, John Collier. [i] THE TRIAL FOR MURDER, Charles Dickens. Misattributed to Dickens and Charles Collins. See THE OMNIBUS OF CRIME, edited by Dorothy Sayers. [j1 THE BRUTE, Joseph Conrad. [k1 THE UPPER BERTH, F. Marion Crawford. [11 TRUE RELATION OF THE APPARITION OF ONE MRS. VEAL, Daniel Defoe. [m] NO. 1 BRANCH LINE, THE SIGNAL-MAN, Charles Dickens. [n] THE THREE INFERNAL JOKES, Lord Dunsany. [0] THE OTHER SIDE OF THE HEDGE, E. M. Forster. [p] THE ELIXIR OF LIFE, Richard Garnett. [q] AUGUST HEAT, W. F. Harvey. [r] THE ROMANCE OF CERTAIN OLD CLOTHES, Henry James. [s1 THE MEZZOTINT, M. R. James. [t1 ''WIRELESS,'' Rudyard Kipling. [u1 CARMILLA, J. S. LeFanu. [v1 THE NOVEL OF THE WHITE POWDER, Arthur Machen. [w1 THE GHOST SHIP, Richard Middleton. [x] THE DIAMOND LENS, Fitz-James O'Brien. [y] LIGEIA, E. A Poe. [z] LAURA, Saki. [aa] THE CYPRIAN CAT, Dorothy Sayers. [bb] WANDERING WILLIE'S TALE, Sir Walter Scott. [cc1 THE VICTIM, May Sinclair. [dd1 THRAWN JANET, Robert Louis Stevenson. [eeJ TARNHELM, Hugh Walpole. [ff] THE DOOR IN THE WALL, H. G. Wells. [gg] THE ANCIENT SIN, Michael Arlen. [hh] THE GHOST, Richard Hughes. [ii] LORD MOUNTDRAGO, W. Somerset Maugham. [jj] DESIRE, [kk1 KERFOL, Edith WharJames Stephens. ton. [111 THE SPECTER, Guy de Maupassanto MARGULIES, LEO (1900-1975) American editor, publisher. Editor of THRILLING WONDER STORIES; editorial director Standard Magazines; publisher of various fantastic and mystery magazines, including THE SAINT, FANTASTIC UNIVERSE, MIKE SHAYNE MYSTERY MAGAZINE, etc. * Items 1107 and 1108 were ghost-edited by Sam Moskowitz. It has not been revealed whether Margulies had assistance on the other two, although it is reasonable to assume that he had. AS EDITOR: 1105. THE GHOUL KEEPERS NINE FANTASTIC STORIES Pyramid Books; New York 1961 paperbound This collection and the following three collections were built out of WEIRD TALES, then defunct, the rights to which Margulies owned. * Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] THE LAKE, Ray Bradbury. [b] WHEN THE NIGHT WIND HOWLS, L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt. * Also [c] THE 'ISLE OF THE SLEEPER, Edmond Hamilton. (WT 1938) Garrison, shipwrecked, drifts to a desert island peopled with exotic fauna and flora, plus a beautiful, complaisant young woman. She bids him not to awaken the Sleeper (who lies asleep in a clearing), since this is all his dream and will vanish if he awakens. When the Sleeper has bad dreams, horrible monstro-

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MARGULIES, LEO sities emerge, like the apemen that chase and capture Garrison and the young woman. Probably Hamilton's best story. [d] PLEASE GO 'WAY AND LET ME SLEEP, Helen W. Kasson. (WT 1945) Ambie Collins, unhappily married and enamoured of the young woman at the soda fountain, receives assistance from the ghost of his grandfather. Also a subplot among the ghosts. [e] THE WITCH IN THE FOG, Harry Altschuler. (WT 1938) Erroneously carried as Altschyler. A take-off on Oriental thrillers. Blenheim Orange sold his beautiful young cousin to an Indian rajah. While she resented being sold, in India she learned how to project herself, the magical use of the thug's neckerchief, and similar matters. Revenge. Originaliy published under the pseudonym Alexander Faust. [f] CLAIR DE LUNE, Seabury Quinn. (WT 1947) Jules de Grandin and Dr. Trowbridge (see series comment under Seabury Quinn) come upon a spiritual vampire from 18th century France. They finish her off. [g] SPAWN OF DAGON, Henry Kuttner. (WT 1938) Elak the Atlantean accepts a commission from the masked man to kill the sorcerer Zend. But he discovers that he is on the wrong side, since the masked man (one of the sea-people) wants to sink Atlantis. Also animated corpses, magical globes, etc. 1106. THE UNEXPECTED 11 STRANGE STORIES Pyramid Books; New York 1961 paperbound Short stories. Described elsewhere, [a] THE PROFESSOR'S TEDDY BEAR, Theodore Sturgeon. [b1 LEGAL RITES, Isaac Asimov and Frederik Pohl. [c] THE HANDLER, Ray Bradbury. [d] THE AUTOMATIC PISTOL, Fritz Leiber. [e] THE VALLEY WAS STILL, Manly Wade Wellman. * Also [f1 THE STRANGE ISLAND OF DR. NORK, Robert Bloch. (WT, 1949) A take-off on the sadistic comic book of the period. The narrator, a newspaper man, visits the Island of Dr. Nork, where a genial Nobel Prize winner creates all the wonderful sound effects, sadistic happenings, and supernatural powers that occur in the literature. Black humor. [g1 MRS. HAWK, Margaret St. Clair. (WT 1950) Many applicants reply when they see the photograph of Mrs. Hawk in the matrimonial news, and Mrs. Hawk increases her herd of swine. Circe in modern disguise. [h1 THE UNWANTED, Mary Elizabeth Counselman. A census-taker visiting Mountain Whites discovers the power of love in creating phantom-real children for a childless woman. [i] THE SCRAWNY ONE, Anthony Boucher. (WT 1949) When Harker finds an old magician who can summon a demon, his fortune seems made. He murders the magician, offers the corpse to the hungry demon and gets his wish: to be the wealthiest man in the world. [j] COME AND GO MAD, Fredric Brown. [WT 1949[ George Vine, a newspaper reporter, is generally believed to suffer from amnesia. But George remembers quite well. He was Napoleon. When he voluntarily enters a madhouse for a story, he learns the horrible situation: we are all simply toys for the Brightly Shining, the group intelligence of earth-- or ants. [k] THE BIG SHOT, Eric Frank Russell. (WT 1949) After-death exper-

MA.RGULIES,

LEO

iences of a mobster. * The best of the Margulies collections, with some excellent material. 1107. WEIRD TALES Pyramid Books; New York [1964] paperbound Short stories, including [a] A QUESTION OF ETIQUETTE, Robert Bloch. (WT 1942) A census taker. interviews a witch and wishes that he had not. Unwilling initiation. [b] THE SEA WITCH, Nictzin Dyalhis. (WT 1937) A strange woman from the sea. A sea witch, granddaughter of a legendary supernatural sea being, she has returned for revenge on the man who injured her cent:lries earlier. Told in a lush, romantic way. * Also, described elsewhere, lc] THE STRANGE HIGH HOUSE IN THE MIST, H. P. Lovecraft. [d] THE DRIFTING SNOW, August Derleth. [e] PIGEONS FROM HELf., Robert E. Howard. * Ghost-edited by Sam Moskowitz. * The 1979 reissue does not include [e]. 1108. WORL~S OF WEIRD Pyramid Books; New York [1965] paperbound Ghost-edited, with introduction and notes, by Sam M:>skowitz. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] ROADS, Seabury· Quinn. [b] THE VALLEY OF THE WORM, R. E. Howard. [c] MOTHER OF TOADS, C. A. Smith. [d] THE THING IN THE CELLAR, David H. Keller. * Also [e] THE SAPPHIRE GODDESS, Nictzin Dyalhis (WT 1934) Fantastic adventure. The narrator, a depressed failure on earth, is suddenly snatched into an other-world, where he is told that is King Karan, who has been deprived of memory and incarnated on earth by the wicked sorcerer Djl Grm. In the adventures that follow he regains his memory and his realm. Motifs include a demon Princess of Hell who has designs on his body; a prince of elementals who aids him with advice and free transportation; the goddess, a giant sapphire, which is his transformed wife; and wizardly feuds. Should have been a novel, not a short story. The other stories are science-fiction. MARRYAT, FLORENCE (1838-1899) British author, editor. Daughter of Captain Frederick Marryat. In later life generally known by name of second husband, as Mrs. [Francis] Lean. Popular writer of somewhat rubbishy society novels, translated into many languages. One-time editor of LONDON SOCIETY, other periodicals. Apparently a woman of boundless energy. In addition to bearing her first husband eight children, she worked as a playwright, comic actress, opera singer, popular lecturer, novelist, and manager of a school of journalism. In later life an enthusiastic and aggressive supporter of Spiritualism and various forms of occultism, which she managed to reconcile with membership in the Roman Catholic Church. Despite her great popularity in the United States, her supernatural fiction is almost impossible to find, and I regret that I cannot comment on such alluring titles as THE BLOOD OF THE Vk~PIRE and THE DEAD MAN'S MESSAGE. 1109. THE GHOST OF CHARLOTTE CRAY Tauchnitz; Leipzig 1883 paperbound

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MARRYAT, CAPTAIN FREDERICK Short stories, including [a] THE GHOST OF CHARLOTTE CRAY. Braggett, a British publisher, has been carrying on a flirtation with Miss Cray, an elderly blue-stocking. She is very upset when he marries a handsome young woman, and announces that she will visit him and confront the new Mrs. Braggett. She dies shortly thereafter. Her ghost pops into the office several times, hoping to find Mrs. Braggett. [b1 THE INVISIBLE TENANTS OF RUSHMERE. A haunted house with a full range of sound effects~ footsteps, argument, and shooting. An enraged father, years before, shot an errant daughter who married without consent of the parents. [c] LITTLE WHITE SOULS. India. Mrs. Dunstan, the colonel's wife, goes to the castle in the Mandalinati Hills to have her baby. The castle is said to be haunted by the ghost of an Englishwoman who had been killed by a rajah who kidnapped and imprisoned her. The ghost's child, too, was killed, and the ghost is looking for an English child to take its place. [d1 A MIDSUMMER'S NIGHTMARE, OR, THE AMATEUR DETECTIVE. Humor. Trueman, a hack writer, is employed as an amateur detective. He is to find a missing person, young Cockleboat, son of Lord Seaborne. Detective and missing man end up in a haunted house. Rationalized. * Commercial work. MARRYAT, CAPTAIN FREDERICK (1792-1838) C. B. F. R. S. Legion of Honor. British naval officer, author, editor. As boy, obsessed with sea and ran away from home so many times that parents despairingly entered him in the Royal Navy in 1806. Distinguished service, rising to position of captain, although it is said that promotions would have been rapider if certain caricatures in his writings had not offended higher authorities. Commanded sloop patrolling St. Helena during Napoleon's exile. High naval command in Burma during Burmese War. Resigned from navy in 1830, partly for reasons of health, partly for lit:erary career. * Established great popularity with THE NAVAL OFFICER (1829, better known as FRANK MILDMAY) and maintained it with other sea fiction, bestknown works being MR. MIDSHIPMAN EASY, PETER SIMPLE, MASTERMAN READY. Also wrote fiction in other areas, travel books, and edited METROPOLITAN MAGAZINE. Resident in America for two years. While not a great novelist by mainstream standards, an entertaining narrator whose wide knowledge of sea matters imparts a vividness not matched elsewhere in the genre of sea fiction. 1110. THE PHANTOM SHIP Henry Colburn; London 1839 3 vol. Sea and geographical adventure based ultimatelyon the legend of the Flying Dutchman. * 17th century Flanders, Goa, and areas between, on land and sea. There has long been a mystery in the Vanderdecken household and Philip learns its nature only after his mother's death. He opens a sealed room, and in addition to much unsuspected wealth, finds a letter that reveals his father, whom he believed dead, to be the Flying Dutchman. In a moment of hybris

MARRYAT, CAPTAIN FREDERICK Captain Vanderdecken had sworn he would round the Cape, despite Heaven or Hell. His ship still sails as a phantom, bringing death to those who see it. Release can come only if his son brings to him the fragment of the True Cross that is a family relic. Young Philip accepts the responsibility of finding the Dutchman and releasing him. He takes to the sea on several occasions and sees the phantom ship, but in each case, his vessel is lost, and he is no farther ahead than before. In some mysterious way another sailor is connected with Philip and the Flying Dutchman. This is the evil, one-eyed pilot Schriften, who tries to frustratp. Philip's quest, sometimes by denouncing Philip to the other seamen, sometimes by trying to steal the relic. Schriften, too, is part of the same large plan of fate and survives shipwrecks and other disasters. Between voyages Philip marries Amine, a beautiful and virtuous young woman who is daughter of a Flemish doctor and a North African Moslem woman who had been a sorceress of sorts. Amine knows a small amount of magic, but not enough to be of much help, though she often tries. * On his last voyage Philip takes Amine with him, a fatal decision, for as Schriften (who likes Amine) predicts, it will be a tragic voyage. The phantom ship is sighted, and on this occasion it passes right through Philip's vessel, which is wrecked shortly thereafter. Philip and Amine are separated. Philip undergoes adventures around Malaysia, while Amina is picked up at sea and taken, eventually, to Goa. There she is unwise enough to work scrying magic to see Philip's fate. She is caught in the act and burned by the Inquisition. Philip arrives in time to see her death, and loses his reason. It is many years later, when he is an old man, before he regains his senses and resumes his task. On this last attempt, his evil a1terego, Schriften, is with him. Philip rises spiritually and forgives Schriften for the evil he has done, and now first learns the cosmic plan: he could not reach the Phantom Ship until he had risen above hatred and had neutralized Schriften. Schriften disappears, and Philip boards the Dutchman, where with the fragment of the True Cross he releases ship, crew, and captain from the curse. * Rambling and discu,sive, with the ultimate themes ineptly handled, but very interesting in its detailed, authentic descriptions of life and events at sea. * Included in the text is [a] [KRANTZ'S NARRATIVE) (Chapter 39), a tale often anthologized under such ad hoc titles as THE WEREWOLF, THE WHITE WOLF OF THE HARTZ, THE WHITE WEREWOLF OF THE HARTZ MOUNTAINS, etc. Krantz, Philip's friend, tells of his childhood experiences with the supernatural, in order to explain a fate that he believes is impending. Krantz's father, a widower from Transylvania, lives with his children in an isolated part of the Hartz Mountains. A stranger (who claims to be a fellow Transylvanian) visits them with his beautiful daughter. Krantz's father falls in love with her

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MARSH, RICHARD and marries her, taking an oath in the name of the Spirits of the Hartz to protect and cherish her. In the meanwhile, a white wolf has been seen around the area, and in a short time it begins to attack and kill the Krantz children. The surviving children, who hate and fear their new stepmother, follow her one evening and find her devouring the corpse of their little sister. She is the white wolf, a werewolf. Krantz's father shoots her. The vengeful master spirit of the Hartz places a curse on him and the children: their bare bones shall be picked clean by beasts of prey after violent deaths. As soon as Krantz finishes his tale, the curse is fulfilled when a tiger leaps out and carries him off. An excellent Romantic tale, the first significant werewolf tale in English, and still one of the best. It marks first appearance of many of the standard werewolf motifs.

*

MARSH, RICHARD (1857-1915) British author of popular fiction, frequent contributor to variety periodicals around the turn of the century. Work in general is sometimes ingenious in idea but badly, even shoddily, executed. Is still remembered for THE BEETLE, which has acquired an almost legendary status. 1111. THE BEETLE A MYSTERY Skeffington & Son; London 1897 With the exception of DRACULA this was probably the most popular horror novel of the 1890's. According to literary fo1klore-- although I have never found corroboration for the anecdote-- the novel was written on a wager with Bram Stoker, each man agreeing to produce a supernatural novel by a certain time. * The Beetle is now in London, planning to avenge itself on Paul Lessingham, a politician who had injured it many years earlier in Egypt. The Beetle is a Child of Isis, a member of an African sect which practices human sacrifices and develops magical powers as a result. It can create the illusion of transforming itself into a giant beetle-- or perhaps it can really accomplish the transformation, the text is not entirely clear. * Lessingham's fiancee is kidnapped by the Beetle, and he and Sydney Atherton, a scientist who is developing poison gases, give chase. After much dashing back and forth and drawing-room chitchat, the Beetle is accidentally killed in a train wreck. Told in memoir form by various persons. Long, lurid, sensational, Victorian in mannerisms to an annoying degree, badly written. While there are occasional moments that evoke mystery and horror (as when a bum tries to invade the Beetle's premises and is victimized) most of the novel is a bore. 1112. CURIOS SOME STRANGE ADVENTURES OF TWO BACHELORS John Long; London 1898 Short stories about two young men, Pugh and Tress, who are friendly rivals in collecting curios. Most of the stories are about criminal matters. Including [a) THE ADVENTURE OF LADY WISHAW'S HAND. In the 14th century the hand of Lady Wishaw was cut off as punish-

MARSH, RICHARD ment for theft. The hand, perfectly preserved and still living, remains in the Wishaw family. If members of the family do not keep up the ancient feud involved, it strangles them. 1113. TOM OSSINGTON'S GHOST James Bowden; London [1898] Mystery and romance, with some supernaturalism in the background. * When Madge Brodie, young piano teacher, rents the cottage, she does not know that it had been the property of wealthy, eccentric Tom Ossington. Ossington's wife had run off with another man (Ballingall), and Tom had apparently died intestate, although there is reason to think that his will and fortune are hidden somewhere in the house. Now, mysterious events. Ballingall (an ex-convict) appears and claims that Ossington's ghost has named him heir. Madge and friends find Ossington's will, which leaves his property to whoever can find it. Ossington's mad wife appears and makes a nuisance of herself. She and Ballingall can see the ghost, which is often present. Eventually the -ghost leads Mrs. Ossington to the place where the property (gold, stock certificates, bills) is hidden. She conveniently drops dead. Ballingall runs off. Madge and her friends get the money. * Starts with an interesting situation, but soon falls apart into a mass of absurdities. 1114. A SECOND COMING John Lane; London 1900 Religious novel. Told as a succession of incidents involving people of various social levels: rich, poor, navvies, preachers, children, etc. Christ suddenly returns to earth, landing in London. He works miracles, such as raising the dead, healing the sick, punishing the brutal. Although he is accepted by a few who are simple in heart, he is rejected by most others, including a Roman Catholic cardinal and an Anglican archbishop. Christ leaves, and everything is much as it was before. * Christ speaks in the English of the King James Bible. A sermon in a series of vignettes. 1115. THE SEEN AND THE UNSEEN Methuen; London 1900 Short stories, including [a] A PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPERIMENT. Death by suggestion. Lizards, snakes, and then a horrible monster in a box. [b] THE PHOTOGRAPH. Odd doings at Canterstone Jail. The astral body of the wife of an unjustly imprisoned man creates spirit photographs that both conceal her husband and show the true criminal. [c] A PACK OF CARDS. Colonel Farmer, card-sharp extraordinary, with his magical pack of reader cards. His ghost plagues a victim. Rationalized. [d] THE VIOLIN. The musician Coursault has disappeared, but his violin is in a pawnshop. At times it plays Coursault's music and it eventually indicates where Coursault's body is to be found. [e] THE TIPSTER. Mr. Gill's unfailing prophecies give Major a fortune at the race track, but they also mislead him disastrously. If] THE FIFTEENTH MAN. A football match •• The fifteenth man on the team has just died in the hospital. [g] THE HOUSEBOAT. Murders committed there are reenacted. * Commercial work.

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MARSHALL, ROBERT 1116. AMUSEMENT ONLY Hurst and Blackett; London 1901 Short stories, inc1udi-.1g raj STRANGE OCCURRENCES IN CANTERSTONE JAIL. Oli.ver Mankell, Gipsy magician, is senter.ced to three months for pretending to magical powers. He proves his case while in Canterstone, at the expense of the prison officials. Will control. Hurn~rous. [b] HIS FIRST EXPERIMENT. Borderline supernatural. Playing with hypnotism has consequences when the husband of the subject enters. * [a] is amusing. 1117. BOTH SIDES OF THE VEIL Methuen; London 1902 Short stories, including [a] GEORGE OGDEN'S WILL. A reductio ad absurdu~ of the revelatory ghost. When George Ogden drew up his will personally, he indicated the beneficiaries clearly enough, but he forgot to put in amounts. As his children quarrel about the will after his death, his ghost appears and discusses its intentions. This does not satisfy the heirs, however, and they go to court. George's ghost now appears in court and testifies to the amazed judge. [b] STA~TON'S DINNER. A spoof on Theosophical Buddhism. Staunton, who has been away from London for years, communicates with his solicitors once a year by seemingly supernatural means. He now returns to England and gives a banquet to his acquaintance. At the feast he does not eat or drink, but works much magic. He announces that he is a mahatma and will soon reach nirvana. [c] A KNIGHT OF THE ROAD. England in the 18th century? When Lovell loses a fortune gaming, he plays highwayman and regains it all. Forced to fight a duel with one of the men he robbed, he kills his opponent. The devil is present and is pleased with him, whereupon Lovell vows himself to Hell. [d] A SET OF CHESSMEN. France. A set of haunted chessmen, formerly the property of a chess fiend, who, though dead, still plays through them. [e] THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MRS. MACRECHAM. Following a recipe in THE ART ANJ THEORY OF MAGIC, an ancient book, Waller turns his shrewish landlady into a cat. The recipe for disenchanting her: cut her throat. MARSHALL, ROBERT (1863-1910) British playwright, miscellaneous writer. Two of his plays, SHADES OF NIGHT (produced 1895) and HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR (produced 1898) apparently very popular in Great Britain and the United States. 1118. THE HAUNTED MAJOR Leicester Square Library; London 1902 One of the amusing side products of the golf craze of the turn of the century was a small body of fiction dealing with golf. Some of it was fantastic fiction. Probably the best of these works is THE HAUNTED MAJOR. * Topical humor based mostly on characterizations. Major Gore, the narrator, is a fortune-hunting sportman. He observes that the American heiress in whom he is interested admires Lindsay, the golf champion. Since Gore is very good

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at sports, he is rash enough to believe that he can learn to play championship golf in a week. He challenges Lindsay to a match, but he soon learns that he has been foolish. He is about to face defeat when the ghost of Cardinal Smeaton, a notorious figure from the Scottish renaissance, offers to help him. The cardinal has a grudge against the Lindsay family and offers his own clubs, plus supernatural aid. Gore wins the match, but not the heiress. * Nicely told, with amusing characterizations. Reprint title, THE ENCHANTED GOLF CLUBS. MARSHALL, SIDNEY JOHN (1866 - ? American (Washington, D.C.) author. 1119. THE KING OF KOR; OR. SHE'S PROMISE KEPT. A CONTINUATION OF THE GREAT STORY OF "SHE" S. J. Marshall; WashBY H. RIDER HAGGARD ington, D.C. 1908 A Spiritualist sequel to SHE. * The spirit of Ayesha possesses the body of Holley's servant Michael, and Leo, Michael, and Holley all trek back to Kor, where they have long "philosophical" discussions. Ayesha and Ustane continue their old battle over Leo, with Ayesha winning again. Holley gradually remembers a previous incarnation in Kor and meets his ancient soul-mate Iganit. All die and all live happily in the hereafter. * Eccentric, unliterary, and of no interest except as a curiosity associated with H. Rider Haggard. MARTEN, AMBROSE Presumably British. No information. AS EDITOR; 1120. THE STANLEY TALES ORIGINAL AND SELECT W. Morgan; London [c. 1825]° 6 vol. An early 19th century anthology of short stories, containing supernatural fiction and quite a few crime and detection stories. Many of the stories are reprinted from earlier sources. * Including [a] BATHMENDI, Anonymous. An allegory in the 18th century manner. The pursuit of Happiness, which is said to be "bathmendi" in Persian. [b] THE POSSESSED ONE, Anonymous. A confused story of a young man who is accompanied by a mysterious evil, supernatural companion. It is a ghost. [c] THE RING AND THE MENDICANT, Anonymous. Count Roque Schlemil accepts the aid of a demon in finding a lost ring and is thereby in the power of the demon. [d] THE SPECTRE UNMASKED, Anonymous. A burlesque of Gothic themes. A ghost and a ruined abbey are explained as a wrecking operation and the Holy Grail is discovered by a woman detective figure to be a pot. [e] THE CYPRESS CROWN, Caroline de la Motte Fouque. Wolf, a soldier, discovers by supernatural means that his brother has been murdered. Then he meets a fate foretold by omens. This frequently anthologized story by the wife of Friedrich de la Motte Fouque is often printed under the title WOLF. It is a rather effective story. [f] THE CASTLE OF ESCLEES, Anonymous. A woman seen running through the ruins is explained as a Gothic ghost. [g] LEGEND OF MARSEILLES, Anonymous. Much the same plot as [e]. This, too, was fre-

MASEFIELD, JOHN quently anthologized in the early 19th century. [h] ELLY AND OSWALD, Anonymous. Switzerland. Prophetic dreams. [i] GASPAR WESSELING, Anonymous. Executed for a crime, he is revived by an alchemist and is now centuries old. [j] THE FATED HOUR, Anonymous. Described elsewhere. lk] THE DEATH'S HEAD, Anonymous. Described elsewhere. [1] ADVENTURE IN MANTUA, Anonymous. Evocation of the dead. [m] A GHOST STORY, Anonymous. Alternate title for THE FAMILY PORTRAITS, which is described elsewhere. [n] KABAK, Anonymous. An Oriental tale. Magic. [0] THE DEATH BRIDE, Anonymous. Described elsewhere. [p] THE SABLE CLOAK, Anonymous. A lovelorn student is offered love and money if he will sign himself away to a man in a sable cloak. [q] THE GHOST WITH THE GOLDEN CASKET, [Allan Cunningham]. Described elsewhere. * A very rare collection. MASEFIELD, JOHN [EDWARD] (1878-1967) o. M. British poet, writer of fiction, journalist. Created Poet Laureate in 1930, an appointment which has often been criticized. 1121. A MAINSAIL HAUL Elkin Mathews; London 1913 This is the second, greatly enlarged edition, the first edition having been published in 1905. Essays on historical English pirates, folklore of the sea, and a few short stories. * Including raj PORT OF MANY SHIPS and [b] SEA SUPERSTITION, essay-sketches, about the apocalyptic situation when the giant sea serpent, the King of the Sea, will awake. [c] A SAILOR'S YARN. A tall tale of a sailor who bought a monkey and determined to make it speaK. The results are only a little unexpected. [d] THE YARN OF LANKY JOB. Job, a lazy tar, ships on a strange ship, is put off for sleeping on watch, and is pulled out of the water by the rat flag-ship, whose boats row every sea, picking up rats that leave sinking ships. The rats are half human. [e] THE SEAL MAN. A folk tale told by an old woman. The wraith of O'Donnell passed out to sea and became a gigantic seal. As a seal he begat a child on a woman, the child being half seal, half man. It grew up on land, but when it tried to take its sweetheart into the sea, she drowned. [f] THE WESTERN ISLANDS. Riches unbelievable. Spirits, red devils, blue devils, and a golden queen waiting for a man to kiss her and become king. It happens like that. [g) IN A CASTLE RUIN. Andy MacDonnell returns, marries, and has a child. But then it is learned that the real Andy had died a year before, and that this is a dragon-man with pointed ears. A folktale. [h] A DEAL OF CARDS. The Caribbean Sea in the 18th century. Joe, a deserter from a King's ship, wounded, would like to abandon his life as a pirate. He has two chances, each of which he misses. On each occasion he has a vision of a frightful Black woman who offers him his choice of cards. He meets a horrible fate. [i] THE DEVIL AND THE OLD MAN. On board ship the AB confesses that he sold his soul to the Devil. He can escape if he sets the Devil three tasks that the Devil

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MASEFIELD, JOHN cannot fulfill. The captain of the ship engages to save him. * Excellent material. The folk tales have an air of authenticity, and the more formal stories like [h] and [i] are imaginative and nicely handled. MASON, A[FRED] E[DWARD] W[OODLEY] (1865-1948) English author. Educated at Oxford. Toured the Provinces as actor for several years. M.P. for Coventry, 1906-1910. Major in Naval Intelligence, World War I. Author of many romantic novels, adventure novels. Now remembered mostly for detective stories featuring M. Hanaud, notably AT THE VILLA ROSE (1910) and THE HOUSE OF THE ARROW (1924). 1122. THE FOUR CORNERS OF THE WORLD Hodder and Stoughton; London 1917 Short stories, including [a] THE CLOCK. A murder mystery. A murder that seems like a suicide. Cranfield is the local suspect, but he has a perfect, irrefutable alibi. But Cranfield commits suicide and leaves a confession. He has discovered that the old clock has the property of halting time (as in H. G. Wells's story THE NEW ACCELERATOR). While others were in stopped motion, he was able to go out and commit murder. [b] RAYMOND BYATT. Royle learns that his wife is being bothered by the ghost of Byatt, who committed suicide a short time before. Byatt is forcing her to suicide, too. But when Royle checks, he learns that Byatt committed suicide to avoid prosecution for forgery, not for love of Mrs. Royle. This disclosure releases the haunting, but Royle's wife is annoyed at the new circumstance, as a blow to her vanity. lc] THE HOUSE OF TERROR. The ghost of Channing returns, desirous of Linda. To meet Channing on equal terms, Tresk commits suicide. [d] THE REFUGE. A ghost approaches and examines the old table that the protagonist bought at a sale. After a time they converse and the ghost is willing to accept help. In the old table are love letters which the protagonist burns, ending the haunting. Later a confirmatory story is revealed. * Competent, higher level commercial fiction. [a] is best, a jeu d'esprit on the preoccupation with time in some detective stories. 1123. THE THREE GENTLEMEN Hodder and Stoughton; London 1932 A modernized, more sophisticated version of time-hopping (see PHRA THE PHOENICIAN by E. L. Arnold for a cruder type). Three short novels, each with the theme of love hampered by a parent. The first two end tragically, the third happily. While the mechanism is presumably reincarnation in matched trios, the author does not belabor the point. Memory from one life to another is trivial and fugitive-scenes, expressions, moods. * In the first life Attilius Scaurus, a young Roman playboy during the reign of Hadrian, is sent to the army in Britain to shape up. The treatment is successful. After years of service he falls in love with a British girl, but her treacherous father has him murdered. In the second life, Elizabethan England, Anthony Scarr meets

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MATHESON, RICHARD his fated love, but they have the misfortune to affront Queen Elizabeth, and the romance is off. Scarr, in the pay of Walsingham, dies as a saboteur aboard a ship of the Spanish Armada. In the third life, modern England (set mostly in Italy), Adrian Shard meets the girl again, and is about to be trapped by Fate a third time. But he is now saved either by greater intelligence or by luck. He outwits his enemies, gains the woman, and returns for his new, second vision of Rome. * Nicely told. The historical aspects are handled with care. MASTIN, JOHN (1865-1932) Scottish author, scholar. Member of many honorary societies. Author of technical papers in many sciences, and fair amount of sciencefiction in short story form. Much of his work is vitiated by a surreptitious attempt to reconcile science with religion by embodying religious concepts in science-fiction. Author of two science-fiction semi-juveniles, THE STOLEN PLANET (1905), THROUGH THE SUN IN AN AIRSHIP (1909). 1124. THE IMMORTAL LIGHT Cassell; London 1907 Semi-juvenile science-fiction with strong elements of religious fantasy. * After the invention of a steel that holds heat indefinitely, Tissington and his companions decide to explore the South Pole. There, upon leaving their ship, they fall down volcanic shafts into caverns where they find a Latin-speaking lost race with a science higher than our own. This is the City of the Earth. The inhabitants entreat them to go no farther, since to the south is a supernatural barrier between man and God, which cannot be passed. The barrier is there, but the explorers find a dimensional projector which hurls them into the land beyond the Barrier. Since they are basically good men, by divine sufferance they are permitted to live. They visit cities inhabited by superhuman beings who converse telepathically. At the South Pole they are temporarily blinded by the Immortal Light, a divine beacon. * Occasionally imaginative ideas, but floridly written. The attempt to bring religion into the science-fiction form of Verne is not successful. MATHESON, RICHARD (1926Modern American science-fiction writer, author of motion picture and television scripts. 1125. BORN OF MAN AND WOMAN TALES OF SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY Chamberlain Press; Philadelphia 1954 Short stories, including [a] TO FIT THE CRIME. (FANTASTIC, 1952) Ancient Iverson Lord, a traditional poet given to grandiloquence, is dying. In the afterworld he is greeted by patois and slang. This is his Hell. [b] DRESS OF WHITE SILK. (MFSF 1951) Told by a little girl who lives with her grandmother. One room of the house contains her dead mother's possessions, particularly the white silk dress. The little girl is forbidden to enter

MATHESON, RICHARD the room, but while her grandmother is out, she creeps in with a playmate. Something happens, but Matheson does not spell it out. Presumably vampirism. [c] DISAPPEARING ACT. (MFSF, 1953) A ms. found in an old notebook. An ineffectual author finds that his world is crumbling and disappearing around him, until he, too, is gone. A figure of speech transferred to fantasy. [d] THE WEDDING. (BEYOND, 1953) Frank, about to marry Fulvia, insists on every absurd magical practice associated with a folk wedding. His intention is to ward off evil. But when he yields to one superstition on his wife's part--carrying her over the threshold-- he drops dead. The wife is either a diabolist or a demon. [e] WITCH WAR (STARTLING STORIES, 1951) Borderline science-fiction. Paranormal abilities. The war of the future may not be fought with material weapons, but with the psychic abilities of, perhaps, a group of teenagers. * The same collection, with the exception of [e] and three of the science-fiction stories, has been reissued as THIRD FROM THE SUN (Bantam Books; New York 1955 paperbound). * Terse, sparsely written stories, successfully sensational. Best story is [b], which is excellent. The title story is a fine science-fiction horror tale. 1126. I AM LEGEND Gold Medal Books, Fawcett Publications; Greenwich, Conn. 1954 paperbound Supernatural fiction in background, but ultimately science-fiction in rationale and explanations, perhaps with a political semi-allegory. * These are the experiences of Robert Neville, the last "man" on earth, 1976. In a relatively short time such of the earth's population as did not die became vampires of the classical sort. They are severely impaired intellectually and emotionally; cannot move about during the day; must avoid garlic; and can be killed only by impalement with a wooden stake. Neville lives in a fortified house, besieged by vampires during the night, sallying out during the day to stake such as he can find. As time passes, he investigates the cause of the catastrophe and works out rational explanations (plus some modifications of the data given above) for it. The vampirism is a bacterial plague, with a bacillus that causes the body to simulate life. * An interruption comes when he captures a woman who is normal, or perhaps only mildly infected. This event is his downfall, for he has been so immersed in his death-dealing routine that he has not recognized a new phenomenon. The bacillus has mutated and a group of humans now maintain the vampire germ in their bodies, move about during the day to a certain extent, and act like normals. Unfortunately, they are hostile, since Neville has been killing members of their group without knowing their special characteristics. One of their women traps Neville. * Explanations are ingenious, but the plotting and characterizations lack the brilliance of such other last man stories as Shiel's THE PURPLE CLOUD. In the political message, the brutal suspiciousness of Neville

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MATHESON, RICHARD is paralleled by the ruthless of the new vampires, or Right vs. Left. 1127. SHOCK! Dell Books; New York 1961 paperbound Short stories, including [a] LEMMINGS. (MFSF, 1957) Two policemen at a beach witness a human counterpart of the lemming migrations into the sea. Very short. [b] LONG DISTANCE CALL. (BEYOND, 1953) Old bedridden Miss Elva Keene receives mysterious phone calls. First silence, then noise, then finally a voice. The call is from the cemetery. Alternate title, SORRY, RIGHT NUMBER. [c] MANTAGE. Described elsewhere. [d] THE HOLIDAY MAN. (MFSF, 1957) David has the very unpleasant task of predicting holiday casualties. A supernatural aspect to the prediction. [e] LEGION OF PLOTTERS. Mr. Jasper, a sensitive and methodical man, tabulates the day's annoyances and observes that they are scheduled according to a mathereatical principle. From there it is an easy matter to run amok. Perhaps madness? [f] THE EDGE. (MFSF, 1958) How many Donald Marshalls are there? Exact duplication of a person-- past history, present circumstances. [g] THE CREEPING TERROR. Described elsewhere. [h] DEATH SHIP. (FANTASTIC STORY MAGAZINE, 1953) Borderline sciencefiction. When the ship lands on the strange planet, it finds the wreck of itself and the corpses of its crew. How can it be explained? Telepathic control by the natives? No. A modern Flying Dutchman situation is involved. [i] THE DISrRIBUTOR. (PLAYBOY, 1958) Theodore Gordon moves into the neighborhood, becomes acquainted, while scandal and tragedy mount. Gordon is apparently hypostatized Trouble. * Original ideas, very well presented. This collection has been reissued as SHOCK 1. 1128. SHOCK II Dell Books; New York 1964 paperbound Short stories, including [a] NO SUCH THING AS A VAMPIRE. (PLAYBOY, 1959) Rumania. Dr. Gheria's wife shows all the classical symptoms of vampiric attack. He takes measures and the local peasants know exactly what to do about a vampire. Rationalized. [b] DEADLINE. (ROGUE, 1959) His life lasted exactly one year, starting New Year's Day; on December 31st he was an aged man. Allegory, of course. A feat to bring off a theme as cliched. [c] THE MAN WHO MADE THE WORLD. (IMAGINATION 1953) Mr. Smith is sure that he made the world, about five years ago. That would be all right, except that he has a premonition that he will die. Then everything will dissolve. [d] THE LIKENESS OF JULIE. (1962, in ALONE BY NIGHT) Glamour and mind control. A plain, but supernaturally gifted coed attracts victims for her own rape. But it ends with suicide for her victims. [e] BIG SURPRISE. (EQMM 1959) Alternate title, WHAT WAS IN THE BOX? Somewhat in the mode of Bradbury. Old Mr. Hawkins tells boys to dig in a certain place, whereupon they will have a big surprise. Ernie digs, finds a coffin ten feet down, and a real surprise. Mr. Hawkins. [f] CRICKETS.

MATHESON, RICHARD (SHOCK, 1960) Old Mr. Morgan has listened to the crickets for seven years and has finally broken their code. They are spelling out the names of those about to die. His own name is sounded, and his chewed corpse is found. [g) FROM SHADOWED PLACES. (MFSF, 1960) Peter is dying from the curse of a Zulu witchdoctor. The only remedy can be provided by a young Black anthropologist who has been initiated in Africa. Good stories, [d), le), [g) being outstanding. Dell Books; New York 1966 1129. SHOCK III paperbound Short stories, including [a) WITCH WAR. Described elsewhere. [b) GIRL OF MY DREAMS. (MFSF, 1963) A pair of racketeers, one of whom is psychic, try to clean up. Told as a brutal, hard-boiled caper. [c) THE DISINHERITORS. (FANTASTIC STORY, 1952) Borderline science-fiction. When Alice leaves her sleeping husband and wanders off into the countryside during their picnic, she comes on the situation of the three bears. But there is a sinister, rational explanation. [d) SLAUGHTER HOUSE. (WT 1953) An elaborate story of the downfall of two brothers who buy a Victorian house and start to remodel it. In the living room is a good portrait of a young woman. The degradation of the brothers is lurid and sensational, but without the more violent physical manifestations of the conventional haunted house. [e) SHOCK WAVE. (GAMMA, 1963) In the old church, the organ is starting to fall apart. It will have to be replaced before its vibration does damage. Tied in with this is the similar situation faced by old Mr. Moffat. The organ comes to life and drags everything down with it in a Samsonian finish. [f) FIRST ANNIVERSARY. Described elsewhere. [~) NIGHTMARE AT 20,000 FEET. (1961, from ALONE BY NIGHT) Wilson, who is nervous on planes, sees a gremlin out on the wing-- leaping on and off, prying off the motor plates, poking at the propellor. But no one else can see the gremlin. le] and [g] are best.

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MATSON, NORMAN [HAGHEJM] (1893-1965) American journalist, writer of fiction. Husband of playwright Susan Glaspell, with whom collaborated. Achieved temporary fame with THE PASSIONATE WITCH, listed as a collaboration with Thorne Smith. 1130. FLECKER'S MAGIC Boni and Liveright; New York 1926 Semiallegorical fantasy set in modern Bohemian Paris. Spike Flecker, young American art student, encounters the perplexing supernatural. A handsome young woman approaches him and gives him a ring that she says will grant any one wish that he makes. She claims to be a witch, although later it is revealed that she is only the real witch's deputy. Flecker cannot make up his mind what to wish for, partly because he comes to realize, from the young woman, that his wish might destroy the universe. If, for example, he wished for happiness, his wish might destroy all aspects of being or of change. He eventually discards

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the ring without wishing, but establishes a liaison with the young woman. In the background is the witch, an ancient woman who is the last of her kind. All the other witches committed suicide when the era of rationality began, but this witch now knows that the basis of modern science (subatomic particles, etc.) is irrational and basically the same as her magic. Bouncy, vivacious, empty, except for the exposition of witchcraft; most interesting aspect is that so little could be stretched into a book. E. M. Forster, on the other hand, liked it. 1131. BATS IN THE BELFRY Doubleday, Doran; Garden City, New York 1943 A sequel to THE PASSIONATE WITCH by Thorne Smith and Matson, using the same general setting and most of the same characters as the first book. Almost seven years have passed, and T. Wallace Wooly, Jr., is living in marital boredom with Betty, his third wife. The supernatural once again impinges on Wooly, for he starts to hear a small voice, which gradually becomes stronger and emerges from the radio. It is Jennifer, the witch, who wants to be released from her grave. Wooly and his comic associates are at first skeptical, then reluctant, but when Jennifer supernaturally causes a run on the local bank, they decide that her wishes must be obeyed. They exhume her casket, from which she emerges as beautiful as before. She resumes life at the local posh hotel, even more nymph-like in her behavior than ever, but without the malice or earthy quality of seven years earlier. She soon has the male population of the town aroused, and as a natural concomitant, the female, too. Wooly takes up with her again. Betty Wooly at first refuses to believe in Jennifer, but after a confrontation with her, in which Jennifer turns her into a cat, takes her seriously and starts to apply for a divorce. But Jennifer becomes tired of it all, and asks Wooly, who is equally bored, to go away with her. They both die. Jennifer is reburied in her old grave. She and Wooly, in the spirit, travel the world, but she gradually fades away and Wooly awakens at his own funeral ceremonies. He resumes life, somewhat chastened. Synthetic. Occasionally better • written than the Thorne Smith volumes, but without the flash and the truly cockeyed perspective.

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MATTHEWS, [JAMES) BRANDER (1852-1929) American attorney, educator (Columbia University, Professor of English), literary historian, writer of fiction. Highly regarded around the turn of the century as a writer of short stories and as a literary influence. 1132. TALES OF FANTASY AND FACT Harper; New York 1896 Short stories, including [a] A PRIMER OF IMAGINARY GEOGRAPHY. The Flying Dutchman takes the narrator on a voyage around various imaginary countries of liter.3.ture and folklore. lb] THE KINETOSCOPE OF TIME. A kinetoscope was a primitive ancestor of the motion picture.

MATTHEWS, BRANDER The narrator sees many great scenes from life and literature through the eye holes of the device. When he leaves, he sees that the proprietor is Cagliostro. LcI THE DREAM-GOWN OF THE JAPANESE AMBASSADOR. The narrator falls into a trance whenever he looks at a certain crystal, and lives experiences from history and literature. Explained as cryptomnesia. [dl THE RIVAL GHOSTS. Duncan", an American of Scottish ancestry, owns a haunted house. When he unexpectedly comes into a Scottish peerage, the family ghost attaches itself to him. The American and Scottish ghosts disagree savagely, until Duncan discovers that one is a woman and the other a man. Marrying them off together is an excellent solution. * This is not first book appearance for this story. * Amusing. In [cI the author invokes fairly sophisticated psychology to account for seemingly supernatural effects. MATURIN, CHARLES ROBERT (1780-1824) Irish clergyman, dramatist, novelis"t, sometime resident in London. Generally considered the culmination and greatest writer in the Gothic novel, with MELMOTH THE WANDERER the finest work in the direct tradition. Established his reputation with FATAL REVENGE (1807), which led to sponsorship by Scott. His play BERTRAM, OR THE CASTLE OF ST. ALDOBRAND (1816), was well received "on performance, but other dramatic efforts not too successful either as literature or in popularity. A writer of remarkable imagination and power, but without much sense of proportion or ability at selfcriticism. At the moment, now that enthusiasm for Gothic novels is a facet of many of our subcultures, Maturin is a fad author. 1133. FATAL REVENGE; OR. THE FAMILY OF MONTORIO Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme; London 1807 3 vol. (published as by MURPHY, DENNIS JASPER; later editions attributed to Maturin) Long, very complex Gothic novel. Since the story line is fragmented and disorganized, I have presented subplots in isolation, with no attempt to adhere to the author's narrative order. * Late 17th century Naples. The powerful Count di Montorio has two sons, Ippolito and Annibal. Since they have been reared in monkish superstition, both are credulous and ignorant. Ippoloto is voluptuous and dissipated, and Annibal is timid, gloomy, and mistrustful. Their adventures proceed separately, and are integrated toward the end of the book. * In the first subplot, Annibal, who lives in the family castle at Muralto, determines to solve the mystery of a reputedly haunted passage. As his investigation proceeds, he encounters supernatural manifestations in great quantity, including a scene in the family vaults that is a masterpiece of horror. Most of this supernaturalism is associated with Father Schemoli, the count's confessor. Sometimes Schemoli is seen as a skeleton. The count, learning of Annibal's investjgations, imprisons him, refusing to release him until he reveals what he has learned. Each evening Schemoli enters Annibal's cell by supernatural

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MATURIN, CHARLES ROBERT means, and discourses. He reveals that he is not entirely human, but is a member of a lost elder race that dwelt in caverns underground. Because of divine displeasure he must appear as a skeleton each day. Schemoli also commands Annibal to murder the count. Annibal refuses, and finally escapes from his imprisonment. * Ippolito, in the meantime, has been engaged in a life of dissipation in the fleshpots of Naples. One evening he follows a masked figure who offers to give him a true horoscope. They proceed to a tomb, where Ippolito sees a magical pageant; a demon converses with him; and he is persuaded to commit a human sacrifice, which is then revealed to be a man in the semblance of his father, the count. Annibal flees, but is seized and imprisoned by the Inquisition. The masked man appears in his cell and urges him to murder the count. An earthquake takes place, the prison of the Inquisition is shattered, Ippolito escapes by sea-- and is washed ashore at the feet of the tempter, the masked man. * After other supernatural incidents the brothers collapse psychologically and agree to commit the murder. Schemoli leads them to the count's apartments, but at the last moment, Schemoli bursts out of the count's room, overcome with emotion, and tries to stop them. They break away and commit the murder. * Secrets are revealed in Schemoli's confession. He is the brother of the count, driven out of the realm by the count's plots. He fled to the Orient, learned stage magic, and returned in disguise as a monk. His austerities and dynamic personality soon gained him the position of confessor to the count. All the seemingly supernatural incidents had been either stage magic or chance, cleverly used by Schemoli to further his scheme of having the count's own children murder him. But at the last moment he learned that Ippolito and Annibal were really his own sons, adopted by the count in a moment of conscience. All that Schemoli has gained is his own execution and the banishment and early death of his children. The family of Montorio is extinct. * A remarkable novel, superior even to MELMOTH THE WANDERER in atmosphere and color, though very difficult to follow. 1134. MELMOTH THE WANDERER A TALE Constable, Edinburgh; Hurst, Robinson and Co.; London 1820 4 vol. (published as by the author of BERTRAM.) A long Romantic-Gothic novel, generally regarded as the high point of the tradition. The story is complex and is told within frames. * Young John Melmoth, attending the deathbed of his miserly uncle in early 19th century Ireland, learns of the existence of a mysterious 17th century ancestor who is still alive. Through tales that come to his attention by various chance (or providential) ways he reconstructs the history of Melmoth and discovers the infamous offer which Melmoth makes to his fellow man. * The first story is revealed by a manuscript. It tells of the experiences of Stanton, an English traveller in Spain. Stanton first meets Melmoth on a stormy night and

MATURIN, CHARLES ROBERT prophecies a future meeting-- which occurs in an English madhouse where Stanton has been imprisoned to satisfy the greed of his relatives. Melmoth appears supernaturally and offers to release him if - - - and the manuscript ends without revealing the conditions. The second story, which occupies roughly half the novel, is the life history of Moncada, a young Spaniard who has been cast up on the Irish shore and rescued by John Melmoth's neighbors. Moncada is destined to be a monk, since his superstitious parents believe that this is the only way that they can redeem their premarital familiarity. Young Moncada loathes the monastic life and spares no effort to be released, but the monks wish to keep him in the monastery because of the wealth of his family. After a long conflict with the superior and a frustrated attempt at escape, Moncada is turned over the Inquisition. He is visited in his cell by Melmoth, who offers him release on certain terms. Moncada rejects the offer with horror, and later escapes from the Inquisition. While he is in hiding, he reads the third story, a manuscript describing events on a desert island in the Indian Ocean. There dwells the beautiful maiden Immalee. She is periodically visited by Melmoth. She falls in love with him, and he, after a fashion, with her. While educating her-- since she has been isolated for years-- he inevitably elevates her soul. Paradoxically, good has emerged from evil, and Melmoth leaves her. The fourth and fifth stories (Guzman and Walberg, and the Mortimers) are less important; following the pattern of the others, no one will accept Melmoth's offer. In the final background episode Immalee is brought to Spain and is revealed to be a Spanish lady of quality. Her parents wish to marry her off, but she is faithful to Melmoth, and Melmoth agrees to marry her. Even his magical arts are not enough to seduce native virtue. They are married by a dead man, called from the grave by Melmoth's power. But by now Melmoth's situation is desperate, for he tries to tempt his wife, and fails. * The scene shifts back to Ireland and the present, and the ancient Melmoth appears, now showing the signs of his age. We learn that he made a bargain with the Devil: prolongation of life and certain magical powers in exchange for his soul. There is, however, an escape clause: if Melmoth can persuade someone to take over his bargain, he will be released. As the progress of the novel has shown, temptation in various circumstances and on various levels has proved unsuccessful, and Melmoth must suffer his contractual fate. * While highly romantic in attitude and a little confused in structure (though by no means so much so as FATAL REVENGE), it is still one of the most remarkable novels in English and certainly one of the great classics of supernatural fiction. Its strengths lie in the vividness with which the author presents his situations, and in the remarkable heightened language. * The

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MAUPASSANT, GUY DE best edition is the University of Nebraska reprint (Lincoln, Nebraska 1961), with an introduction by William F. Axton. MAUGHAM, W[ ILLIAM] SOMERSET (1874-1965) British mainstream novelist, dramatist. Bestknown works LIZA OF LAMBETH (1897), OF HUMAN BONDAGE (1915), CAKES AND ALE (1930). 1135. THE MAGICIAN Heinemann; London 1908 As a young man, during his Paris days, Maugham roomed with Aleister Crowley, the notorious black magician of later years. THE MAGICIAN is based on the personality of Crowley, with some elements taken from Oscar Wilde. * Paris and England. The story centers on Oliver Haddo, as seen by several British visitors and expatriates. Haddo, a grossly fat giant of a man, of good family and Oxford education is a learned student of black magic and occultism. He is insanely ambitious in this area and immoderately vengeful after insults and slights. His aim is to manufacture homunculi, since in this he would be rivalling God in power. When he is struck and beaten by a member of the British circle into which he has forced himself, he vows revenge. He works glamour on his insulter's fiancee and causes her to marry him, after which he systematically works her public degradation. He does not consummate his marriage, however, for he needs her virginity to accomplish certain magical feats, including scrying. Her friends are at first bewildered, then apprehensive for her. Haddo eventually kills her, since he needs her blood and vital force to animate his homunculi, but he himself is killed when, in astral body, he attacks her former fianc~. * While the personality and achievements of Haddo are nicely handled, the structuring and characterizations are not up to Maugham's major work. MAUPASSANT, [HENRI RENt ALBERT] GUY DE (the DE was assumed in later life) (1850-1893) Historically important French author, highly regarded at one time for mastery of short story based on fragment of life theory, but now read mostly for material with erotic or horror elements. 1136. , THE COMPLETE SHORT STORIES OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT Hanover House; Garden City, New York [1955] Edited with introduction by Artine Artinian. This is obviously not a first edition for many of Maupassant's stories in English translation, but it is the most reliable edition. * Maupassant wrote more than 270 short stories, but until about 1940 it was not clear exactly what works of Maupassant were available in English. In the so-called COLLECTED WORKS OF MAUPASSANT, published in 1903, there were some 59 stories by other authors, falsely attributed to Maupassant. The earlier translations, in addition, were often not reasonable translations, but adaptations, expansions, and occasionally redirections. Artinian's edition is as close to a definitive edition as exists. Translators, however,

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are not indicated. For those who use other editions, variant titles have been cited. Including [a] ON THE RIVER. (SUR L'EAU) The narrator, boating on the Seine, throws out his anchor in hope of relaxing for a time. But he is haunted by ever increasing fear and dread, which mount greatly, particularly when he discovers that he cannot move his anchor. When he finally rips it loose, he discovers a corpse at the end of the line. [b] THE INN. (L' AUBERGE) Snowbound in the Alps, with a corpse outside the hut. A corpse that keeps trying to get in. Madness? [cl MAD? (UN FOU) Jacques Parent, who has died in the madhouse, has the ability to control the will of animals, manipulate things by teleportation, and is being driven mad by it. Also titled MADNESS. [d] FEAR. (LA PEUR) Two anecdotes of the se~~ing supernatural, with rational explanations: an ogress, a ghostly wagon. [e] THE UNKNOWN. (L'INCONNUE) Gontran describes an affair which he almost had with a beautiful brunette with heavy eyebrows. He recognized her as a ghoul from the Arabian Nights, or so it seemed. Also translated as THE STRANGER and THE WOMAN OF THE STREETS. [f] MAGNETISM. (MAGNETISME) Two anecdotes, one of the fisherman's son who dreams of his father's death as it happens at sea, and the other of a lover who goes to his mistress. Rationally explained. [g] WAS IT A DREAM? (LA MORTE) A widower who mourns his wife sincerely goes to her grave at night. The epitaphs on the stones recombine to form true statements, instead of conventional phrases. He learns that she had a lover. He is found unconscious in the graveyard the next morning. Was it a dream? Also translated as THE DEAR DEPARTED and DEAD WOMAN. [h] THE SPECTRE. (L'APPARITION) A widower requests the narrator to fetch a packet of papers from his dead wife's room. While the narrator is there, the ghost of the dead woman appears and asks him to comb her hair. He does so, whereupon she disappears through a locked door. Also titled THE APPARITION and THE STORY OF A LAW SUIT. [i] THE LEGEND OF MONT-SAINT-MICHEL: Described elsewhere. [j] HE? (LUI?) A compulsion in terms of fantasy. The narrator cannot endure solitude; he is even prepared to marry to avoid being alone. He sees a person sitting in his chair, and, intermittently, knows the presence of something supernatural. Also titled TERROR. [k] THE" ENGLISHMAN. (LA MAIN) Maitre Bermutier tells of an Englishman whom he met in Corsica. The Englishman kept a withered hand and forearm fastened to the wall with a strong chain. "It always wishes to escape," said the Englishman. One morning the Englishman is found dead, strangled, the hand is missing, but two fingers are found, bitten off the hand. Also titled THE HAND. This story is not to be confused with THE FLAYED HAND, which is described elsewhere. [1] WHO KNOWS? (QUI SAlT?) Told by a mad-· man. On returning home, he sees his furniture march out and disappear. Some time later he sees it in Rouen, in a dealer's shop.

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MAURICE, MICHAEL By the time he brings the police, the furniture has disappeared, and it reappears back in his house. Maupassant's last story. Also titled WHO CAN TELL! [m] LITTLE LOUISE ROQUE. (LA PETITE ROQUE) A horrible sex murder at Carlelin; a child raped and murdered. No suspect emerges, but the mayor acts very strangely. He seems to court death. It is eventually learned that he murdered the girl and is tormented by the perpetual sight of her corpse. Conscience. [n] THE HORLA. (LE HORLA) The narrator is oppressed by an invisible vampiric being who controls his will. It seems to be one of a new race of beings destined to take over the world from man. * Most of these stories are trivial, but [a], [g], [k], [1] are worth reading, while In] is one of the great classics of psychopathology. It is often taken as symptomatic of Maupassant's mental decline (from syphilis), but this view is difficult to maintain. Earlier editions of Maupassant's works, like THE WORKS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT (National Library Company; New York, 1909) contain [0] THE GOLDEN BRAID. (LA CHEVELURE), a story of fetishism, murder, a ghost, and madness. Also translated as ONE PHASE OF LOVE, A WOMAN'S HAIR, THE TRESS and THE TRESS OF HAIR. Apparently Artinian rejects this story as not by Maupassant, but it is accepted by other authorities, as in Helmut Kessler's MAUPASSANTS NOVELLEN (Braunschweig, 1966).

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MAURICE, MICHAEL (pseud. of SKINNER, CONRAD ARTHUR) (1889? ) British clergyman, schoolmaster; author of several works of fiction under pseudonym, but better known for religious works under his own name: CONCERNING THE BIBLE (1927), which reached at least seven editions. 1137. NOT IN OUR STARS T. Fisher Unwin; London [1923] Predestination vs. free will told in a combination society romance and metaphysical murder novel. Odd things are happening around Menzies, a diffident young man about town. He .has intense moments of prevision, in which he can foretell (in terms of his future knowledge of an event) both trivia and important things. Connected with this is a bombardment of earth by enormous meteors, some of which cause great damage. In his alter-ego of Valdez, an astronomer, Menzies speculates that these impacts have the potential power of reversing time. ,~ During this same period of stress Menzies has met and fallen in love with Hetty. They are first haltingly revealing their love, when a meteorite strikes nearby and Menzies falls unconscious. It is later revealed that earth's time structure was changed for an hour. Menzies awakens about a year later in the death cell in prison, a few hours before a scheduled execution. He is, of course, baffled and frustrated, for he has no knowledge of what has happened. He is executed, and thereupon awakens the day before, and so it goes on, each day coming in reverse sequence. As time passes backwards

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he learns that he married Hetty; incorrectly believed that she had committed adultery with Savile, a former suitor of hers; and killed him with a poker. When Menzies reaches the impact time of the meteorite, time flows normally again, and he is perplexed what to do. Should he enter predestination by marrying Hetty, or should he withdraw? Small events seem to show that his experience was valid. He decides to accept his lot and marry her, since he will have almost a year of happiness before the murder. At this point Hetty breaks the chain of foreordination, and Menzies realizes that he is free. * Not a good novel technically, but interesting in situation as Menzies flounders through time speculating and acting against his will. The author's profession, undoubtedly, necessitated a happy ending. MAUROIS, ANDRE (pseud. of HERZOG, EMILE SALOMON WILHELM) (1885-1967) K. B. E. Legion of Honor. Member of French Academy. Recipient of many honorary degrees. Author of novels, biographies, essays, historical works. Best-known work (in English) ARIEL, THE LIFE OF SHELLEY (1924) and excellent children's fantasy FATTYPUFFS AND THINIFERS (1940). Also wrote NEXT CHAPTER, THE WAR AGAINST THE MOON and THE THOUGHT READING MACHINE, which use subject matter of sciencefiction satirically. 1138. THE WEIGHER OF SOULS Cassell; London 1931 (LE PESEUR D'AMEs, 1931) Translated from French by Hamish Miles. Based on the experiments of Crookes and the telephone theory of the mind. * Dr. James has succeeded in trapping soul fluid on death. He has also discovered that mixing compatible souls causes a glow that probably represents happiness. The narrator, a French war comrade of James's, has seen the experiments. Summoned from abroad, he finds that James has committed suicide on the death of his wife and wants their soul fluids mixed. But the vessels are broken. * Nicely told, but not major work. MAYOR, F[LORA] M[ACDONALD] (1872 -? ) British author, presumably Scottish. Author of several works of fiction. 1139. THE ROOM OPPOSITE AND OTHER TALES OF MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION Longmans' London 1935 Short stories, including [a] THE KIND ACTION OF MR. ROBINSON. Reconstructed from early 19th century documents. Mr. Robinson, a courteous Devil, comes to the assistance of M~rsden, but gives him a fifty year bond. Every ten years Robinson appears with a reminder. Marsden pays the bond by suicide at the proper time. Nicely handled. [b] LETTERS FROM MANNINGFIELD. Epistolary. A ~iddleaged woman who has sacrificed her life to her parents receives a new entry to the world through fairy manipulations. There is a hollow that is haunted by small fairies, who may be either benevolent or malevolent. [c}

MEIK, VIVIAN TALES OF WIDOW WEEKS. Also set in Manningfield. The widow is a folkloristic English witch who hurts and heals. [d} FIFTEEN CHARLOTTE STREET. A countryman, found in an exhausted state in London, tells a curious story of having been hypnotized and psychically drained by a doctor. Dr. Arleigh decides to investigate the story and by chance stumbles upon an old school companion, Curran, who is a psychic vampire. [d} THE UNQUIET GRAVE. Reminiscences of a tragedy in the North. The young man kills a rival, must flee, and enlists. The young woman pines and dies, but before her death sends a supernatural deathmessage to her lover. [f} MISS DE MANNERING OF ASHAM. c. 1800. Told partly in family history, partly by modern appearance of the ghost, and partly through Miss de Mannering's narrative. She was seduced and bore a child which died soon after birth. She kept the birth secret and burned the child's body. Her ghost now wanders about, looking for the baby, hoping to put it in consecrated ground. [g} "THERE SHALL BE LIGHT AT THY DEATH." James Clarkson, rotter, murdered his aunt for her money and let her servant be executed for the crime. Just before her death, she said to him, "There shall be light at thy death." Clarkson is tormented by fear of retribution, all the more so when the Devil (in the dress of a wealthy man) appears and drops hints. [h} LE SPECTRE DE LA ROSE. c. 1820. At the dress ball Lucy vows herself to the Spectre of the Rose. He appears again later, in Italy. * Good stories on the whole, well developed, often 'with original ideas and treatment. MEIK, VIVIAN [BERNARD} {1895 ? British author, engineer, war correspondent (World War II). Travelled and worked in India and Africa. Ethnological study, THE PEOPLE OF LEAVES, about wild tribe in India. Third book (in addition to two following), THE CURSE OF RED SHIVA, sometimes listed as fantastic, is really a mystery novel about a conspiracy. Philip Allan; London 1140. DEVILS' DRUMS [ 1933} Sensational adventure in Africa, on the literal level of horror. Mostly concerned with experiences of Geoffrey Aylett and Father Vaneken. * Including [a} DEVIL DRUMS. Death by native magic. [b} WHITE ZOMBIE. A planter's wife keeps zombies, including her husband. [c} AN ACRE IN HELL. The spirit of a dead witch doctor commits murder, until laid by Father Vaneken. [d} THE DOLL OF DEATH. Doll magic, until the doll turns. [e} L'AMITIE RESTE. Spirits, witchdoctors, elementals. [f} THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SHADOW. A white whose wife joined the witch cult. [g} RA. A Eurasian magician, cursed in a previous incarnation, works black magic in Africa. [h} HONEYMOON IN HATE. A widow uses magic to avenge her husband's death. [i} DOMIRA'S DRUM. Domira the Deathless offers peace behind the Veil to those who have befriended

MEIK, VIVIAN him. Crude material, sensational on a low level. 1141. VEILS OF FEAR Philip Allan; London 1934 Sequel of a sort to 1140. There may be intervening episodes that have not been published in book form. * When Martyn, senior reporter of the SUNDAY COURIER, is sent to get a story from Geoffrey Aylett, he does not suspect that his life will be changed (and soon ended). Aylett reveals to him the existence of Ashraf Daiye, a monster of supernatural evil, and when Martyn gives his story to his editor, Ashraf's photograph comes to life and kills the editor. Martyn thereupon determines to help fight the forces of evil. Martyn, Aylett, Mrs. Aylett, and Father Vaneken first go to the Near East, where they defeat one of Ashraf's agents temporarily embodied as a scorpion. The next battle is with Ashraf himself, whom Martyn destroys by touching him with a fragment of the True Cross. But now they learn that Ashraf is not the mastermind they thought, but only a lieutenant. They have crossed the Veil of Fear, but must still pass the Veil of Blood and then encounter the supreme personage of evil, whose identity is unknown. The next episode is set in the foothills of the Himalayas, where they encounter an elemental-like being that takes the form of a gigantic liver. The final adventure is in Hong Kong, where the evil mastermind (Da Souza), who has achieved his power by stealing Tibetan secrets of white magic, manifests himself. Martyn challenges" him with the True Cross, and both die. * Supernatural matters include visions, dream experiences that are real and in the astral body, demonic personalities, will control, etc. * Low-level hack work. MEINHOLD, [JOHANNES] WILHELM (1797-1851) German Lutheran clergyman, poet, novelist, miscellaneous writer. Achieved fame with DIE BERNSTEINHEXE, although earlier poetry well received by Goethe and others. Fell out of favor in light of scandal concerning DIE BERNSTEINHEXE and dropped into obscurity in Germany, though his work long had popularity in Victorian Great Britain. 1142. THE AMBER WITCH H. G. Clark; London 1844 (MARIA SCHWEIDLER, DIE BERNSTEINHEXE, 1843) Translated from German by E. A. Friedlaender. * A chronicle novel set in 17th century Pomerania. In 1841-2 the author released it in part, claiming that it was a genuine historical document. It is so close in historical detail and language that it was accepted as a genuine document and was highly regarded as a picture of life "and theological activities. When Meinhold revealed that it was fiction, and that he had written it to discredit rational Biblical criticism (if a critic cannot distinguish between history and a novel, how is he qualified to comment on the historicity of the Bible?), it dropped out of favor in Germany. For details see the Introduction to FIVE VICTORIAN GHOST NOVELS edited by E. F.

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MEINHOLD, WILHELM Bleiler. * Narrated by Pastor Schweidler, THE AMBER WITCH tells of the miseries of life on the small Baltic island of Usedom during the Thirty Years War. The pastor and his daughter Maria are in disfavor with the reigning duke, since the pastor has pressed for salary arrears and Maria has refused to become the duke's mistress. What with the ban that the duke has placed on them, and general economic upheaval, the Schweidlers would starve if Maria had not found a lode of amber along the beach, which she secretly visits at night. About this time witch activities take place. People die, crops fail, cattle sicken. Maria is blamed, largely through the duke's enmity, and her nocturnal visits to the amber lode are taken to be visits to the Devil. She is sentenced to death, but is rescued from the executioner at the last moment by a young nobleman. The duke has just died, and it is revealed that the duke and old Lizzie, his chief informer, were the real witches. * A minor masterpiece, still the best novel about witchcraft. * The edition cited above is the first English translation, but the translation by Lady Lucy Duff Gordon (John Murray; London 1844) is superior, and is the translation that has often been reprinted. 1143. SIDONIA THE SORCERESS Simms and McIntyre; London and Belfast 1849 2 vol. (SIDONIA VON BORK, 1848) * Translated from German by Lady Jane Wilde, the mother of Oscar Wilde. * A chronicle novel set in Renaissance Pomerania, late 16th and early 17th centuries. * Sidonia von Bork, daughter of Count Otto, feudal lord of Stargard and other towns, is corrupted as a child by her father's worldly ambition and Socinian theology. She grows up to be an utterly selfish, heartless, ruthless, vindictive sensualist. At the court of the stupid, pious Duchess of Wolgast Sidonia uses her physical charms to capture the affections of Prince Ernest, heir to the Duchy of Pomerania, but she is caught in fornication and expelled from the court. Her proud father disinherits her and commits suicide. The middle years of Sidonia's life are not known, although she is said to have learned witchcraft from Gipsies. In 1592, however, she reappears in Pomerania as a most potent witch. Her years of hardship and her magical endowments have not improved her character, for she is as arrogant and vengeful as before. Nobles and commoners alike are terrified of her, since thwarting her leads to horrible misfortune. She is assigned a prebenda at a small convent operated for the daughters of wealthy noblemen. She terrorizes both convent and the neighborhood with her supernatural powers, and there seems to be no way to stop her. All her enemies die miserably. Eventually, the sun-angel Och is invoked in a cabalistic conjuration, and he tells how to disarm her. She is then taken, tried, and burned, but her evil magic lives after her. The ducal family becomes extinct, and the land is ravaged during the Thirty

MEINHOLD, WILHELM Years War. * Told as a historical memoir, with a wealth of material on local customs, usages, manner, religious habits, legal matters, and witch-hunting. Equal to Defoe in its command of incident and detail. A remarkable novel, but a rather barbarous translation. MEREDITH, GEORGE (1828-1909) British mainstream novelist. Best-known work THE ORDEAL OF RICHARD FEVEREL (1859), THE EGOIST (1879). The following work is very atypical. 1144. THE SHAVING OF SHAGPAT AN ARABIAN ENTERTAINMENT Chapman and Hall; London 1856 Meredith's first novel, a long and complicated Oriental tale set in the Middle East. The frame situation consists of the career of Shibli Bagarag, a barber. He wishes to enter the city and exercise his trade. The problem is that hirsuteness is held in high esteem and barbers are considered outlaws. The magical basis for this situation comes from the clothier Shagpat, on whose head has been implanted the Identical, a hair which can be cut with only one weapon, the Sword of Events. Shagpat, aided by the magical lore of his wife (the daughter of the vizier, enchanted into the form of an old woman), undergoes many magical perils and adventures before he achieves his purpose. Included are transformations, serpent power, genie, evil queens with magic, magical trials, underworlds, illusions, and much other paraphernalia from the Arabian Nights. In addition to the main story there are intercalated stories of the same sort. * A very curious work, at times written with great imagination of small incident and richness of fantasy; but it is perplexing that an author of power should spend so much effort on an essentially trivial matter. The stylistic and ideal involutions of the later Meredith are not present, but there is an allegorical element in many of the names and incidents. There is also said to be a larger political allegory, but this is not readily apparent. MEREDITH, OWEN (pseud. of LYTTON, EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON, First Earl of Lytton) (1831-1891) British diplomat, civil servant, poet, novelist. Son of Edward George Bulwer-Lytton the novelist. Held various diplomatic posts. Governor General of India during Afghan War of 1879-80, where attempted to create a puppet state of Afghanistan. Policy severely criticized; resigned at fall of Beaconsfield ministry. Appointed ambassador to Paris, which post held until his death. As Owen Meredith prolific author of romantic poetry, sometimes of technical interest, but not very highly regarded today. Best-known work LUCILE (1860). 1145. THE RING OF AMASIS Chapman and Hall; London 1863 3 vol. Pseudo-philosophical, semi-allegorical novel. * Roughly the first third of the book is

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MERIMEE, PROSPER occupied by the musings, speculations, and reactions of a German doctor to a man who is first known as the Gentleman in Black, then later as Count Edmond R------. While R----has acted with heroism on at least one occasion, there is obviously an estrangement between himself and his wife. On the third meeting, the doctor learns the strange history of the count. * Years before, when the count had been excavating in Egypt, he came upon the mummy of Amasis, a royal prince. On the mummy's hand was a ring. As the count was examining the unwrapped mummy, a stranger, first taken to be a Kabile chief, appeared, translated the inscription on the ring and an accompanying papyrus, and warned the count: do not meddle with fate. Amasis's crime was fratricide by neglect of duty. It is later recognized that the stranger was probably Amasis himself, an undying principle. When the count returns to Germany, a sexual triangle develops between himself, his brother Felix, and Julia. Julia chooses Felix. Some time later, when Felix and Edmond are boating, Felix is accidentally drowned. Edmond and Julia are eventually married, but on his marriage day Edmond is so tormented by a haunting that he goes berserk. During his madness he reveals that he is haunted by a hand, the hand of his brother, which he did not take when Felix was drowning. Edmond, too, has become a fratricide, through the power of the ring. He is still haunted, and his wife, who knows the true story of Felix's death, cannot forgive him. The ring, of course, is selfishness. * When the author finished this work, it is said that his father, a wellknown novelist, forbade him to use the family name on it, since it was so low in quality. I must agree with the senior Bulwer-Lytton, for the novel is immature work, cluttered with chapters of pretentious rant. There is a later edition that is somewhat tightened, but the book is still not really worth reading. * Some later editions are carried under the author's name. MERlMEE, PROSPER (1803-1870) French novelist, translator, essayist, archeologist. One of the masters of local color in fiction. An excellent scholar and a fine writer, unfortunately now remembered in the English-speaking world only for CARMEN, the source for the opera of the same name by Georges Bizet. 1146. WORKS OF PROSPER MERlMEE Bigelow, Brown and Co.; New York 1905 8 vol. bound in 4 Edited by George Saintsbury. Anonymous translation from French. Despite the title, this set does not offer the complete works of Merimee. * Volume One contains no supernatural material. Volume Two includes [a] THE VISION OF CHARLES XI. (VISION DE CHARLES XI, 1833) This is sometimes cited in occult sources as a factual record, and it is possible that it may be a folkloristic item that Merim~e worked into fictional form. Charles XI of Sweden, unable to sleep, is passing the night irritably with courtiers, when he observes a light in the assembly hall. His courtiers are afraid to en-

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ter, but Charles steps boldly into the hall and sees a supernatural assemblage. He sees a corpse being crowned and an execution. The situation is explained as the assassination of King Gustavus III and the execution of Baron Ankarstroem, both of which events took place five reigns later. [b] THE VENUS OF ILLE. (LA VENUS D'ILLE, 1837) A bronze statue of Venus is excavated on the lands of M. de Peyrehorade and is responsible for disturbances. It is singularly unpleasant in expression, and it resents liberties. A workman's leg is broken, while a stone hurled by a tough is thrown back at him. The young man of the house is about to be married. To free his fingers for a tennis match, he places his ring on the finger of the statue. When he returns later to take back his ring, he discovers that the statue has clenched its fist and will not release the ring. On Peyrehorade's wedding night, the statue comes for him and strangles him in the presence of his bride. When the statue is later melted to form a bell, it continues its evil ways. A classic of 19th century supernatural fiction. Volume Three includes [c] THE "VICCOLO" OF MADAM LUCREZIA. (IL VICCOLO DI MADAMA LUCREZIA, 1846) A young Frenchman staying in Rome becomes acquainted with the Aldobrandis, a patrician family, and becomes immersed in what seems to be a supernatural love affair. A small house, once owned by Lucrezia Borgia, but long untenanted, reputedly haunted, excites his interest when a female figure tosses a rose to him from a window. Several internal ghost narratives add to the mood of supernaturalism, but the incident is rationalized. Saintsbury, however, feels that not everything has been explained away. [d] LOKIS. (1866) Lithuania. The narrator, a comparative philologist who happens to be a clergyman, visits young Count Szemioth in order to examine ancient documents and to study one of the Lithuanian dialects. He observes that the count's mother is mad, and learns that she was attacked, while in advanced pregnancy, by a bear. She never recovered from the shock. The count, too, has peculiarities. Animals cannot tolerate his presence, and certain of his actions are strange. While riding through the woods one day, the count and the narrator come upon an old witch woman who tells them that the animal kingdom is prepared to elect a new king, now that the lion is dead. Some time later, after the professor has left the count's domains, he receives an invitation to the count's wedding, indeed, is asked to perform the service. The result, however, is tragic. The bride is found next morning with her throat torn open. A gigantic animal has passed through the garden. The count is seen no more. He has presumably gone to become King of the Beasts. "Lokis" is the Lithuanian word for bear. * While all Merimee's work is excellent, [d] is outstanding. This is not the first translation of THE VENUS OF ILLE, a frequently anthologized story. Henry James made an earlier translation.

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MERRIL, JUD ITH MERRIL, JUDITH (pseud., later name change; nee GROSSMAN, JULIET) (1923 American science-fiction author, editor. Collaborated with Cyril Kornbluth as CYRIL M. JUDD. Best-known work science-fiction novel SHADOW ON THE HEARTH (1950), down to earth account of housewife in atomic attack. Author of many anthologies demonstrating resourcefulness and excellent taste. AS EDITOR: 1147. SHOT IN THE DARK Bantam Books; New York 1950 paperbound Primarily a science-fiction anthology, but including [a] MR. LUPESCU, Anthony Boucher. Described elsewhere. [b] HE WAS ASKING AFTER YOU, Margery Allingham. Australia. Murder. The dead man tracks down the living, step by step; both leave together, dead. [c] THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR. E. A. Poe. Described elsewhere. [d] THE BRONZE PARROT, R. Austin Freeman. Described elsewhere. 1148. BEYOND HUMAN KEN TWENTY-ONE STARTLING STORIES OF SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY Random House; New York 1952 Introduction by Fletcher Pratt. Mostly science fiction, but with a few supernatural items. Including [a] A GNOME THERE WAS, Lewis Padgett. (Pseud. of Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore) lb] OUR FAIR CITY, Robert A. Heinlein. [c] THE COMPLEAT WEREWOLF, Anthony Boucher. [d] THE ANGEL WAS A YANKEE, S. V. Benet. All described elsewhere. Also, [e] THE MAN WHO SOLD ROPE TO THE GNOLES, Idris Seabright. (Pseud. of Hargaret St. Clair) (MFSF 1951) A sequel to Lord Dunsany's HOW NUTH WOULD HAVE PRACTICED HIS ART UPON THE GNOLES. An ambitious salesman hopes to make a fortune selling cordage to the gnoles. In bargaining he makes a serious error and stays for dinner. A good collection. 1149. BEYOND THE BARRIERS OF SPACE AND TIME Random House; New York 1954 A theme anthology based on paranormal abilities. It is often problematic whether individual stories are supernatural or science-fiction. Introduction by Theodore Sturgeon. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] BEHOLD IT WAS A DREAM, Rhoda Broughton. lb] THE VELDT, Ray Bradbury. [c] THE GHOST OF ME, Anthony Boucher. [d] INTERPRETATION OF A DREAM, John Collier. Also, [e] WOLF PACK, Walter M. Miller, Jr. (FANTASTIC, 1953) World War II, during the invasion of Italy. Kessel, assigned to bomb Perugia, has a dream liaison with a woman living there and is torn between duty and ethics. Conscience? Nicely developed. [f] NO ONE BELIEVED ME, Will Thompson. (SATURDAY EVENING POST, 1948) An inmate of an asylum, able to talk with animals. Not explained. [g] THE LAOCOON COMPLEX, J. C. Furnas. (ESQUIRE, 1937) Whenever Simms takes a bath, he finds a green snake in the tub with him. A great psychologist explains it as creation by mind force. [h] MALICE AFORETHOUGHT, David Grinnell. (MFSF, 1952) When two writers conceive the same idea and treatment several times, a telepathic ether is postulated. The ether can also be used as a

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MERRIL, JUDITH weapon. [i] THE LAST SEANCE, Agatha Christie. Described elsewhere. [j] MEDICINE DANCER, Bill Brown. (FANTASY FICTION, 1953) Old Pete's daughter, Taka, an Indian girl, has an amazing success as a dancer in Los Angeles, but her dances always bring rain. Her father is somewhat disturbed at the situation, and changes the rain symbols on her drums to symbols for war. [k] THE WALL AROUND THE WORLD, Theodore R. Cogswell. (BEYOND, 1953) In the small area circumscribed by the thousand-foot wall, a magical culture operates, with broomsticks for riding, telekinesis, and limited telepathy. rnere is an explanation. [1] DEFENCE MECHANISM, Katherine MacLean. (ASTOUNDING, 1949) A fictional explanation for the rarity of telepathy. * Most of. these stories are borderline science-fiction. Other stories that I would consider science-fiction are: "Perforce to Dream," John Wyndham (inducement of collective hallucination); "Crazy Joey," Mark Clifton and Alex Apostolides (telepathic boy) ; "The Golden Man," Philip K. Dick (advanced mutant humanity); "Belief," Isaac Asimov (levitation and academic politics); "Mr. Kinkaid's Pasts," J. J. Coupling (time travel); "The Warning," Peter Phillips (telepathy and world destruction); "Operating Instructions," Robert Sheckley (telekinetic space travel). 1150. GALAXY OF GHOULS Lion Library Edition; New York 1955 paperbound S-f and supernatural fiction, including, described elsewhere, [a] A WAY OF THINKING, Theodore Sturgeon. [b] 0 UGLY BIRD! Manly Wade Wellman. [c] THE DEMON KING, J. B. Priestley. [d] HOMECOMING, Ray Bradbury. * Also [e] WOLVES DON'T CRY, Bruce Elliott. (MFSF 1954) The werewolf in the zoo fulfills a need for a childless woman. [f] THE AMBASSADORS, Anthony Boucher. (STARTLING STORIES 1952) The lupine Martians cannot tolerate primate humans, nor can humans accept intelligent wo!ves. As ambassadors, werewolves and were-apes. [g] SHARE ALIKE, Jerome Bixby and Joe E. Dean. (BEYOND, 1952) Two men cast away in a boat, one of whom is a vampire from Rumania. The situation must be accepted by both. [h] BLOOD, Fredric Brown. (MFSF, 1955) The last two vampires escape to the future in a time machine-- and find a vegetable world. [i] THE TRIFLIN' MAN, Walter M. Miller, Jr. (FANTASTIC UNIVERSE, 1955) Science-fiction, but narrated as folklore until the end. As folklore: a demon bridegroom, abandoning wife and child, but visiting at night. As sciencefiction, interplanetary visitor. [j] PROOF OF THE PUDDING, Robert Sheckley. (ASTOUNDING, 1952) Borderline science-fiction. The last man on earth, who survived the total war by flying to the dark side of the moon; he returns to earth with powers of almost divine creation. It ends with a pun. [k] MOP-UP, Arthur Porges. (MFSF, 1953) After the final war, one man, one witch, one vampire, and one ghoul are all that survive. But there are animals: A rabbit dragging a stake for the vampire; birds and torch-bearing raccoons for the witch; and large beasts of prey for the ghoul. What

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MERRIL, JUDITH for the man except death? [1] THE WHEELBARROW BOY, Richard Parker. (MFSF, 1953) He keeps misbehaving, and his teacher turns him into a wheelbarrow-- but is unable to return him to human form. The union will probably take care of him, but much depends on how the parents feel about it. Humor. [m] FISH STORY, Leslie Charteris. (Pseud. of Leslie C. Yin) (BLUEBOOK, 1953) Borderline supernatural. An old man shows how to swim like a fish-- with extraordinary results. There are implications which the author does not expand. * This same collection has been reprinted under the title OFF THE BEATEN ORBIT. 1151. S-F: THE YEAR'S GREATEST SCIENCE-FICTION AND FANTASY Gnome Press; New York 1956 Simultaneously published in paperbound form by Dell. * Introduction by Orson Welles. * Short stories, including [a] OF MISSING PERSONS, Jack Finney. (GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, 1955) At the Acme Travel Agency the narrator examines the literature for Verna, which is the "place to escape to." The pamphlets show a rustic, early American idyllic life (much like that in NEWS FROM NOWHERE by William Morris), but with such modern conveniences as washing machines. Persons destined for Verna are carefully screened. But the narrator panics at the last minute and loses his chances forever. lb] SENSE FROM THOUGHT DIVIDE, Mark Clifton. (ASTOUNDING, 1955) Borderline s-f. A sequel to "What Thin partitions" by Clifton and Alex Apostolides, which does not happen to be in the books co~sidered in this volume. Kennedy is still looking for PK-gifted people to activate his anti-gravity cylinders. He becomes involved with the Swami, a half-fraudulent, half-genuine PK-er. By no means as interesting as the first story in the series. * Also included are two good science-fiction stories, "Birds Can't Count" by Mildred Clingerman and "The Country of the Kind" by Damon Knight. * This first volume of a yearly series sets the pattern for succeeding volumes: good stories, but lamentably little fantasy and that little slanted toward science-fiction. 1152. SF: '57 THE YEAR'S GREATEST SCIENCEFICTION AND FANTASY Gnome Press; New York 1957 Short stories, including [aj THE COSMIC EXPENSE ACCOUNT, Cyril M. Kornbluth. Described elsewhere. [b] PUT THEM ALL TOGETHER, THEY SPELL MONSTER, Ray Russell. (PLAYBOY, 1956) The narrator is watching an advance showing of a new s-f epic, THE. It is about an animated glob of vaseline that is thought to be hostile but is really only looking for a comparable female. The sex star takes off with it. The story is straight satire until the ending, at which time the narrator seems to have been transformed into a monster. Amusing. [c] THE ANYTHING BOX, Zenna Henderson. (MFSF, 1956) Sentimental story told by a school teacher who has a semi-autistic child in her class. The child has an invisible box called the "anything box," which amounts to wish fulfillment. The teacher is able to use the box to bring about improvement in the child. [d] THE

MERRIL, JUDITH DAMNEDEST THING, Garson Kanin. (ESQUIRE, 1956) Told through a vulgar, unscrupulous undertaker. The corpse sat up and insisted on writing out the terms of his own funeral. * Also present are the brilliant s-f story "Prima Belladonna," by J. C. Ballard and two excellent s-f stories, "The Man Who Liked Lions, John Bernard Daley and "Compounded Interest," Mack Reynolds. * This collection was published simultaneously by Dell as SF THE YEAR'S GREATEST SCIENCE-FICTION AND FANTASY SECOND ANNUAL VOLUME. 1153. S-F: '58 THE YEAR'S GREATEST SCIENCEFICTION AND FANTASY Gnome Press; Hicksville, N.Y.; [1958] Short stories, including [a] YOU KNOW WILLIE, Theodore R. Cogswell. (MFSF 1957) When Willie McCracken shoots a Black, he is found not guilty. The murdered man's aunt, an ancient obeah woman, vows revenge, but seemingly does not live long enough to obtain it. One evening, however, while Willie is having intercourse with his wife, he changes physically to the counterpart of the murdered Black. [b] NEAR MISS, Henry Kuttner. When Dillon wants to disrupt the traditional Mexican way of delivering the wonderful shrimp of Guaymas to the market, he is forced to use the services of a powerful brujo, or wizard. His magic is not strong enough to destroy a truck, but it does cause complications; doll magic. [c] FLYING HIGH, Eugene Ionesco. (MADEMOISELLE, 1957) A metaphoric fantasy about the repercussions of unacknowledged crime. The corpse that was murdered ten years before continues to grow, in some strange disease of death, entrapping the young couple who live with it-- until final release. Guilt. * A bad year for the s-f, but three good fantasies. * This collection was published simultaneously by Dell as SF THE YEAR'S GREATEST SCIENCE-FICTION AND FANTASY THIRD ANNUAL VOLUME. 1154. S F: '59 THE YEAR'S GREATEST SCIENCEFICTION AND FANTASY Gnome Press; Hicksville, N. Y.; 1959 Short stories, including [a] SPACE-TIME FOR SPRINGERS, Fritz Leiber. [b] CASEY AGONISTES, Richard McKenna. Both described elsewhere. * Also, [c] THE RIVER OF RICHES, Gerald Kersh. (SATURDAY EVENING POST, 1958) The toctenut, much like the English walnut, when opened shows meat similar in appearance to the human brain. The Amazonian Indians use the nuts to playa game much like marbles. Occasionally there is a tocte nut that is alive and sentient, and with it one can win spectacularly. The narrator has such a nut until the Indians outwit him. [d] FRESH GUY, E. C. Tubb. (SCIENCE FANTASY, 1958) After the holocaustic war, when what is left of the human race has dug in underground and will emerge at the right time, a ghoul, two vampires, and a werewolf converse. [e] OR ALL THE SEAS WITH OYSTERS, Avram Davidson. (GALXY, 1938) Life forms of the metal world, told in terms of a bicycle shop. Safety pins, coat hangers, and bicycles are developmental

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MERRITT, A. stages, and can regenerate. An enemy to the metal life is destroyed. Or, perhaps, less likely, just plain murder. * Of the described material- [e( is excellent. * This collection was published simultaneously by Dell as SF THE YEAR'S GREATEST SCIENCE-FICTION AND FANTASY FOURTH ANNUAL VOLUME. 1155. THE 5TH ANNUAL OF THE YEAR'S BEST S-F Simon and Schuster; New York 1960 Mostly science-fiction. Including [a] THE OTHER WIFE, Jack Finney. (SATURDAY EVENING POST, 1960) THE CAPTAIN'S PARADISE in terms of other-worlds. Al has the faculty of stepping into a parallel world much like this, but different enough (including wife) to make the novelty appealing. [b] MARIANA, Fritz Leiber. (FANTASTIC SCIENCE FICTION, 1960) Borderline science-fiction. A statement of neurosis in fantastic terms. Mariana, living in the future when environment is created by matter transmission, flips the switches that cancel her surroundings, her home, and her husband. When she rejects the offer for psychological treatment that follows, she discovers that the last switch says, Mariana. [c] THE SHORELINE AT SUNSET, Ray Bradbury. Described elsewhere. * Three good stories. * While Merril's series continued for several more volumes (up through SF 12), the fantasy aspect was dropped. MERRITT, A[BRAHAM] (1884-1943) American newspaper executive, science-fiction and fantasy writer. Associated with PHILADELPHIA ENQUIRER as reporter; later with Hearst's AMERICAN WEEKLY, first as assistant to editor, then as editor in 1937. Extremely popular author of mythic lost-race novels during period post World War I and 1920's. At that time often considered the leading American writer of fantastic fiction, though since then his critical standing has dropped greatly. An enormous influence on pulp fiction development. The following descriptions cover all Merritt's fiction except the mystery thriller SEVEN FOOTPRINTS TO SATAN (1928), which is concerned with an unusual criminal mastermind, but is otherwise unremarkable. 1156. THE MOON POOL Putnam; New York 1919 Fantastic adventure. A retread of a short story THE MOON POOL (ALL-STORY, 1918) and a sequel novel, THE CONQUEST OF THE MOON POOL (ALL-STORY, 1919). The first element by itself is supernatural, a variant of the monster from the crypt theme; the second is sciencefiction. * Professor Throckmorton, while exploring the mysterious ruins of Metalinim in the Caroline Islands, sees his family wiped out by a non-material, glowing, tinkling monstrosity that lives beneath the ruins and emerges according to a lunar cycle. Throckmorton escapes long enough to tell his story aboard ship, but the monstrosity (here called the Dweller, later called the Shining One) follows him over the moonlit sea and absorbs him. Such absorption is accompanied by sensations of utmost pain and delight. * In THE CONQUEST OF THE MOON POOL (which is integ-

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rated with the preceding short story). Dr. Goodwin and his companions (Larry O'Keefe, handsome young Irish-American adventurer and Olaf Huldricksson, a Norwegian sea captain who does duty for a Viking) open the Dweller's door and pass into the hidden land beneath the ocean. This is Muria, which has many wonders. There are superscience, including antigravity, invisibility, molecular disintegration; intelligent batrachian humanoids; a lost-race descended from surface people; the Silent Ones, three survivors of a supernally intelligent reptilian race from the geological past; Yolara, a beautiful and wicked queen who lusts for Larry and vamps him; Lakla, a good young woman, servitor to the Silent Ones, in love with Larry; and the Dweller, or as it is otherwise called, the Shining One. The Shining One was originally created by the reptilians as a useful intermediary being, but it escaped control and has become unutterably evil. The Silent Ones have been condemned by their long-dead fellows -to remain in Muria, restricted to a single temple, until they destroy the Shining One. Since they still retain feelings of love for it, they have been unable to obtain release by killing it. At the moment Muria is in social ferment, and the ruling class is planning to ascend to the surface and conquer the world, feeding its multitudes to the Shining One. Civil war breaks out, with the Americans, Lakla, the Frogmen, and the reptilian Silent Ones on one side, and Yolara, the Murian ruling class, and the Shining One on the other. The willingness of Larry and Lakla to sacrifice themselves gives the Silent Ones the nudge to act. * Fine imagination, fast motion, ridiculous characterizations, pretentious style, but still one of the historically important works of early American pulp science-fiction and fantasy. 1157. THE SHIP OF ISHTAR Putnam; New York 1926 Fantastic adventure from the pulp magazines. (ARGOSY, 1924) * Kenton, an archeological dilettante, receives as a souvenir from excavations in the Near East a great stone block incised with cuneiform writing. He sees that the block is hollow, and as supernatural forces operate, the block suddenly crumbles to reveal a small, ancient ship upon an ocean. He recognizes, in some fashion, that the ship is not a model but a microcosm of a larger reality and wills himself aboard. To anticipate: the ship exists in another world, parallel to ours, and is the seat of a seemingly eternal cosmic duel between the evil god Nergal of Babylon and an aspect of the goddess Ishtar. The priests of Nergal inhabit one end of the ship, while Sharane, the priestess of Ishtar, and her maids inhabit the other. Neither group can cross over to the other end of the ship. Every now and then the gods battle, to a perpetual draw. Kenton is drawn aboard the ship several times, as galley slave to Klanath, the vicious priest of Nergal, lover to Sharane, and finally

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MERRITT, A. master of the ship. He finds comrades in a Viking galley slave and in two "passengers," an Ancient Persian and an Ancient Babylonian. They expel Nergal and his priests, but find themselves pursued by the hostility of the god. A succession of sea battles, chases, captures, escapes, and adventures on land ends in the death of the major characters. The souls of Kenton and Sharane are taken to herself by Ishtar. * The most romantic -of Merritt's works. Very uneven as a novel. Sometimes fascinating, sometimes dull; pretentious, yet with a knowing wink of humor now and then; finely imagined, if not always executed. * This present first edition is abridged from the magazine text. The so-called Memorial Edition (Borden Publishing Co.; Los Angeles [1949]) presents the full text as well as illustrations by Virgil Finlay. 1158. THE FACE IN THE ABYSS Liveright; New York [1931] Basically science-fiction, but with a few fantastic elements that edge into supernaturalism. It was originally published as a nouvelle, THE FACE IN THE ABYSS (ARGOSY-ALLSTORY 1923) and a sequel novel, THE SNAKE MOTHER (ARGOSY, 1930). Both are here combined in an abridged version. * Background. Yu-Atlanchi is the last remnant of a supercivilization of Atlantean origin, dating from before the rise of the Andes Mountains. The human culture developed under the guidance of a prehuman race of serpent people. At the moment only one member of the serpent people is still living, the Snake Mother, and the land is decadent and ripe for trouble. * The Andes. Nicholas Graydon, American mining engineer, and his partners are looking for the lost treasure of the Incas. They chance upon Suarra, a beautiful young woman who is handmaiden to the Snake Mother. Graydon's partners, who turn out to be rogues and scoundrels, seize her, hoping to get fabulous treasures. Graydon defends her, but is overpowered. With the help of the Snake Mother the rogues are easily disposed of. Suarra takes them to a place where gold drips like tears from the eyes of a gigantic stone face that radiates an overpowering vitality. The rogues are overpowered by the evil emanatiug from the face and are dissolved. Graydon is saved from the same fate by the Snake Mother, and is told to leave the land. * In the sequel Graydon returns to Yu-Atlanchi to find Suarra. Rebellion breaks out under the leadership of Nimir, the almost divine being who had lived in the stone face. Nimir represents greed and evil, and was one of a group of hypostatized, immortal god-like beings whom the ancient Yu-Atlanchians created. The Snake Mother is aided by Graydon and the Lord of Folly (a figure similar in origin to Nimir). After a superscientific battle, the Snake Mother and the forces of good win. Other fantastic elements are invisible winged serpents, spider men created by directed evolution, attempted possession, and dream machines. * While the present book text is

MERRITT, A. abridged, the later Avon (New York 1945 paperbound) edition reproduces the magazine text. * The original nouvelle, THE FACE IN THE ABYSS, is a good adventure story. The sequel, despite the usual imaginative subject matter is a little coy. 1159. DWELLERS IN THE MIRAGE Liveright; New York [1932] Fantastic adventure (ARGOSY, 1932), based on psychopathology and fanciful ethnology. * During a scientific expedition to Central Asia Leif Langdon meets modern descendants of the ancient Uighurs. They are fascinated by his appearance, skill with languages, and physical strength, and they declare him of ancient Uighur blood. They initiate him into the cult of their monster god, Khalk-ru, and he unknowingly aids in a human sacrifice to restore the fertility of the desolate land. When he realizes that a horrible monstrosity has manifested itself and killed a woman, he is stricken with horror and remorse and is haunted by the memory. * Years later, Leif and Jim, a Cherokee friend, are wandering through Alaska, when they come upon an unknown valley hidden beneath a mirage. The land, which is almost subtropical, is ruled by descendants of Uighurs who fled Central Asia when it became a desert. Also present in the land are pygmies, who are related to the American Indians. There is no love lost between the two peoples. The Uighurs maintain the cult of Khalk'ru. In other respects the land and culture share many elements with the world of Norse mythology. Leif and Jim first stay with the pygmies, but ancestral memories bubble up in Leif. He is expelled by the pygmies and joins the Uighurs, where he declares himself to be the promised redeemer, the longdead great warrior-king Dwayanu. He is accepted by the queen, Lur (the best of Merritt's femmes fatales), as her lover; and and as her paw (now completely submerged by the personality of Dwayanu) he pacifies the land and conducts sacrifices, to which Khalk'ru appears. By now he realizes that Khalk'ru, a horrible octopus-like monstrosity, is not a god, but a being from another dimension. The spell on Leif is destroyed when Jim, who had been on the other side during the wars, is killed. Dwayanu is forced down out of Leif's mind; Lur is killed; and the cult of Khalk'ru is destroyed. Leif leaves the valley with Evalie, a girl from outside who had been a priestess among the pygmies. * In Merritt's original manuscript, which is followed in some of the later paperback reprints, Evalie, too, is killed and Leif alone leaves the valley. * This is the last and best of Merritt's wonderland fantasies. One can forgive the stylistic peculiarities and the nonsensical ethnology for the plot ingenuity, imagination, and psychological depth. The story lends itself to detailed psychoanalytical exploration, though it is not known whether this aspect was intentional on Merritt's part. 1160. BURN. WITCH. BURN! Liveright; New York [1933]

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MERRITT, A. Black magic in a modern setting, presented in the form of a detective mystery. It opposes modern science to witchcraft, awarding the true victory to witchcraft. * (ARGOSY, 1932) Dr. Lowell, a psychiatrist, and Ricori, a sentimentalized Mafia chieftain or gangster, are pitted against Madame Mandelip, a witch who has the power to capture souls. She then uses them to animate dolls, which she employs for various evil purposes. Lowell's science and Ricori's force are both unsuccessful against the dollmaker. Human love and personality, however, prove to be the strongest forces of all. One of the dolls (formerly Lowell's nurse) rebels and kills the witch. * A good thriller, with considerable thought embodied in it. 1161. THRU THE DRAGON GLASS Arra Printers; Jamaica, New York [1932 or 1933] paperbound A small booklet. The title of the story elsewhere is THROUGH THE DRAGON GLASS. * (ALL-STORY, 1917). Merritt's first story. Sentimental Oriental advanture. Herndon, millionaire adventurer, during the sack of the imperial palace in Peking, is supernaturally guided to a secret room, within which is a magical mirror. The mirror serves as an entry to a Chinese fairyland, which is inhabited by a beautiful and amorous young woman and a malicious old sorcerer and his pet dragons. Herndon barely escapes and promises to return. While it is not spelled out, the assumption is that Herndon, in a previous incarnation., had been involved with the woman and the master magician. * An entertaining fantasy. 1162. CREEP, SHADOW: Crime Club, Doubleday, Doran; Garden City, N. Y. 1934 Sequel of a sort to BURN, WITCH, BURN! * (ARGOSY, 1934) Told in the manner of a mystery thriller. The menace of the ancient lore returns to New York with two newcomers, Dr. Keradel and his daughter Dahut. Keradel is a modern warlock who practices human sacrifices to evoke a now-forgotten pre-Celtic god-monstrosity. Dahut is the reincarnation of the ancient Breton princess who opened the sea gates and flooded the legendary city'of Ys. Dahut also practices shadow magic, ensnaring souls and shadows and sending them about to bewitch and murder. A series of murders is traced to Dahut and her father. Against the powers of evil are Dr. Lowell and Ricori, as powerless as before, and Alan Caranac, an ethnologist who is the reincarnation of Dahut's ancient lover in Ys. The resolution to the situation is supplied by human personality: Dahut falls in love with Alan and for his sake kills her father and uses her control of the sea to overwhelm the monstrosity that Keradel had evoked. But her shadows rise in rebellion and drown her. * A good mystery thriller, with even some moments of humor. 1163. THREE LINES OF OLD FRENCH Bizarre Series; Millheim, Pa. [1937] paperbound Sentimental fiction from World War I. (ALLSTORY, 1919) * A wounded soldier is callously used for an experiment in suggestion.

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While he is semiconscious and suggestible, the doctor gives him a piece of paper and whispers a few words to him. The soldier thereupon finds himself in an almost paradisical land, where he is acclaimed as a hero by a beautiful young Frenchwoman of the middle ages. When he awakens and learns that his experience was false, he is broken emotionally until he happens to look at the paper the doctor had given him. He finds written on it, three lines of old French, from the young woman. * This story was extremely popular when it was first published, since many bereaved readers took it as a proof of survival. Today, in addition to being sloppy, it seems cruel and meretricious. 1164. THE METAL MONSTER [Murder Mystery Monthly; Avon Book Co.] New York [1946] paperbound. Fantastic adventure, borderline science-fiction (ARGOSY, 1920) * During Central Asiatic explorations Dr. Goodwin and his party come upon a lost race of ancient Persians and the Metal Horde-- a gigantic organism composed of millions of individual cells of living metal. While the metal being normally takes the form of a city-like structure, the individual elements can combine and recombine (like an erector set) into all sorts of forms, including imitations of animals. The horde has plans of conquering and geometrizing the world by means of power drawn from the sun. In temporary control of the horde, because of an inexplicable empathy she has with the Metal Emperor, is Norhala, a young woman who has been driven out of the Persian culture. Norhala uses the metal organism to destroy the Persians, but she and the horde perish when civil war breaks out among the metal beings and a short circuit results. * A slightly different version (printed in SCIENCE AND INVENTION, 1927) is titled THE METAL EMPEROR. * Very ingenious in the concept of the metal beings, pretentious in language, cliched in plot, and somehow unbelievable. Merritt seems to have considered this his poorest novel. 1165. THE FOX WOMAN AND OTHER STORIES Avon Book r.o.; New York 1949 paperbound A posthumous collection of short stories and fragments. Described elsewhere, [a] THE FOX WOMAN. [b] THROUGH THE DRAGON GLASS. [c] THREE LINES OF OLD FRENCH. * Also, [d] THE DRONE. (FANTASY MAGAZINE, 1934) Two anecdotes about theriomorphy. The first, a were-hyena in Africa. The second, a gradual metamorphosis into a bee-like man. An abridged version of this story has been reprinted as THE DRONE MAN. [e] THE WHITE ROAD and [f] WHEN OLD GODS AWAKE, two negligible fragments of a few pages each. [g] THE WOMEN OF THE WOOD. (WT, 1926, in a slightly different version as THE WOMAN OF THE WOOD) Tree people in the Vosges. A family of woodcutters has vowed enmity against the trees. An American vacationer, to whom the trees turn for help while promising wonderful delights, is responsible for the death of the woodcutters. He leaves the area, partly in shock at what he has done, partly disappointed that he has not joined the

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MERRITT, A. AND BOK, HANNES tree life. * Also present are the sciencefiction stories "The People of the Pit" and "The Last Poet and the Robots." * [g] is Merritt's best short story, perhaps a little too sensational, with pulp concessions, but with excellent adumbrations of depths beneath the surface. WITH HANNES BOK: (see separate entry on BOK) 1166. THE FOX WOMAN THE BLUE PAGODA New Collectors' Group; New York 1946 1000 copy limitation stated, but apparently not followed. THE FOX WOMAN is one of two extensive fragments left by Merritt on his death, the other being THE BLACK WHEEL. * [a] THE FOX WOMAN. Merritt's portion, 16 out of 100 pages of text, is set in Yunnan, China, probably not long after World War I, though dates are not given. Joan Meredith, who is pregnant, is trying to escape a band of hired killers who have just murdered her husband and their party. She is close to the Temple of the Foxes, and she hopes to take refuge in it. A vixen stands in her path, and in her despair she calls to it for help, so that she can have vengeance. The fox turns momentarily into a woman and promises to help her. The gang of toughs that is on her trail is supernaturally dispersed and she is given refuge. When she awakens from her exhaustion, the priest of the temple, Yu Ch'ien, tells her that she will die, but that she will have revenge on her husband's brother, who, she knows, has been responsible for the murders. She dies, but before she passes, the fox spirit enters her womb, to be born in her child. When Charles Meredith arrives to murder the baby, to obtai.n the full estate, Yu Ch' ien easily \vards him cff by supernatural me.ans and tells him that the child, a girl, will come to him when the time is right. This is the end of Merritt's fragment. [b] TIlE BLUE PAGODA. Bok pickll up the story 18 years later, when Jean Meredith comes to Ne\V York to stay \vith he.r uncle. Jean is much like a case of mUltiple personality. At times she is a normal young woman, and at other times she is Yin Hu, the fox woman. When one personality is active, the other is normally sleeping. The fox woman, who has great supernatural powers and even alters Jean's physical appearance when she is topmost, is determined on punishing Charles Meredith. She succeeds, causing the deaths of Meredith, his wife, and his associates. But the human aspect of the fox woman dies. The fox component is apparently released, but must remain locally, and cannot return to China. * The exact plot is complex and not easily summarized. Other supernatural elements include psychic control, transformations, a picture which offer5 access to an other world, animating the statues in the local art museum, and the appearance of other sprites of the same order as the fox woman. ,', Merritt's fragment was promiSing, although it would have been difficult to continue the story on the same level. Perhaps this is why Merritt never finished it. Bok's continuation, however, is not very \VeIl done, with many technical weak-

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nesses. Bok's illustrations are much more interesting than his text. 1167. THE BLACK WHEEL COMPLETED AND ILLUSTRATED BY HANNES BOK New Collectors' Group; New York 1947 (copyright notice, 1948) 1000 copy limitation stated, but apparently not followed Manuscript fragment left unfinished by Merritt. Merritt's share consists of the first 32 printed pages out of 108. * Fantastic adventure. Dr. Ross Fenimore ships as physician on board the "Susan Ann," a "clipper" owned and operated by the eccentric millionaire Jim Benson. The "Susan Ann" is almost an exact replica of a ship of the same name captained by Benson's great grandfather, and its crew (whom Benson has hired at enormous cost) is descended from the original sailors. Benson, who is either possessed by the spirit of the ancient sea captain or is his reincarnation, aims at recapitulating his ancestor's adventures. He assembles a strange group of guests, and the ship sails into the Caribbean. After being badly damaged by a storm, they come upon a small island where they discover a beached wreck. When they explore the wreck, which is obviously quite old, they find in a sealed cabin mummified human bodies and a ship's wheel. The wheel, which is made of a black, unidentifiable wood, is composed of locked hands, and it obviously has supernatural characteristics. One of the company has paranormal knowledge of what is to be found in the sealed room, and is obviously connected with one of the mummylike corpses. * Merritt's fragment ends abruptly. In Bok's continuation several of the ship's company are possessed by the spirits of the dead bodies found in the wreck. To one of them is revealed in dream what the past situation had been. In Ghana, in the early 19th century, a group of sacred priests and priestesses with supernatural powers had been disrupted by the kidnapping of a key member of the group. Taking the temple treasures as ransom they set out in search of him, but were captured, enslaved, and destined for the slave markets of the West Indies. Along the way they seized the ship, with the aid of a friendly white man, hid their treasure on a small island, and became stranded on still another island. There they lived in a sort of living death. Benson's ancestor chanced upon them, and horrified by them, sank their ship. They were gradually immobilized by the salt water, and became mummified, though their spirits are still active. What exactly they want,_ Bok never makes clear, perhaps release, as is hinted at the end. The present day party (in addition to occasional possession by the priestess Irzulie and others of the ancient Blacks) goes through a mutiny and violent storms. There is also an expedition to the treasure island, which is now inhabited by blind, white cave subhumans. By the end of the story only the narrator and one woman are left alive. * Unlike THE FOX WOMAN, Merritt's fragment might have lent itself to completion, but Bok's part is not a very good job. The illustrations, how-

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METCALFE, JOHN ever, are among his very best work. METCALFE, JOHN (1891-1965) British mainstream novelist, educator. Husband of Evelyn Scott. Sometime resident in Canada (as a boy), the United States. Wellregarded for tense, cryptic stories of brooding supernaturalism, but now undeservedly forgotten. 1168. THE SMOKING LEG Jarrolds; Londonll9251 Short stories, including Cal THE SMOKING LEG. Burma. A whiskey-sodden surgeon places two objects in the knee socket of a lascar who is about to go to England: a magical gem of great power and an amulet to restrain it. The clash between the two forces is so great that the leg seems to smoke. The London surgeon who operates on the knee makes the mistake of removing the gem first. [bl NIGHTMARE JACK. His story. A criminal, a Burmese god with a treasure of magical rubies. Possession of the rubies degrades one enormously. In some ways a more profound version of Dunsany's A NIGHT AT AN INN. [cl THE DOUBLE ADMIRAL. An intrjcate puzzle story. Hood, the retired admiral, sees on the horizon an island invisible to most others. To prove its existence he and friends take a boat toward it. The admiral suddenly dies, and his friends find that they are returning to the mainland. But it seems that the admiral is not dead. As they first went to the island they passed another boat with their doppelgangers on board. The admiral from the second boat has taken the place of the first. The only explanation offered is that life is like an hourglass. As the top ebbs, the bottom grows. [dl THE GREY HOUSE. When Hammond takes a taxi, it conveys him to a mysterious house, apparently not in our world. In order to return to the house he recapitulates his actions. A friend follows a chain of beads that Hammon dropped, and comes to a ruin. Entry into the past. eel THE BAD LANDS. Ormerod wanders through an ordinary countryside and gradually penetrates to a land of utmost evil, where the focus is a deserted farmhouse. In it is a spinning wheel which is the source of the evil. Ormerod sets fire to the evil place, but is arrested, for he had set fire to an ordinary farm in our world. The explanation may be spiritual badlands which interpenetrate our world, perhaps madness. [fl PROXY. Claude has a repetitive dream about a walk in the country and a young woman. He awakens one morning and discovers that it was not a dream, and that he has committed murder. Borderline supernatural. * [cl and eel are modern classics, adumbrative rather than specific, subtle, compressed, finely crafted stories that thrust the describable into the indescribable. The nonsupernatural stories are sometimes in the mode of Maupassant. 1169. JUDAS AND OTHER STORIES Constable; London [19311 Short stories, including Cal MORTMAIN. A ghostly barge follows the newly married Temples on their ship honeymoon. Although it changes

METCALFE, JOHN in appearance, it is the sunken barge of Mrs. Temple's dead husband. She feels an irresistible urge to leap overboard and join the dead. Also present are material but ghostly carrion moths, emblematic of the dead man. [b] TIME-FUSE. Faith. Miss Moody, an elderly lady who has dabbled in various aspects of occultism, reads accounts of the life of D.D. Home and believes that if she, too, has faith, she can perform miracles. She handles glowing coals without harm. But when, later, she discovers that the medium she trusts is fraudulent, she loses faith, and horrible burns spontaneously appear on her. [c] MR. MELDRUM'S MANIA. Meldrum is gradually turning into the god Thoth and has difficulty in adjusting to his new state of being. * Also present are two stories that are questionable as supernaturalism. [d] FACE OF BASSETT. The curate Tobias Breech, during World War I, sees the amorous activities of Bassett and a local woman. Bassett is killed in the war and the woman takes up with another man. Breech sees a stained glass figure in the church change to the wrathful appearance of Bassett. The curate thereupon murders the woman and her new husband. Probably meant as madness. [e] NO SIN. A curious adaptation of the VENUS OF ILLE motif. Protopart's wife has died and in accordance with her wishes he has placed a statue of her in the house, with his wedding ring on its finger. Protopart is also having an affair with a blind girl who suffers from a mild form of insanity. The blind girl does not know that the dead wife approved of the affair, and pulls the statue down upon herself. Or perhaps it falls of its own will. Not entirely clear. * [a] and [c] are best. 1170. BRENNER'S BOY White Owl Press; London 1932 125 copy edition Short story. Warrant Officer Winter, retired, happens to meet his old superior office Rear Admiral Brenner on a train. With Brenner is a most obnoxious boy-- almost a changeling in appearance and behavior. In passing conversation it is agreed that Winter shall take the boy for a time as a vacation. Winter does not take the agreement very seriously and is astonished when the boy appears a few days later. For several days Winter and his wife must tolerate the boy's incredible, bad behavior, until the boy suddenly disappears. Winter visits the admiral, and learns that the boy has died and that the visitor had been a ghost. Still further, darker complications are hinted at in the ending. A very interesting, if cryptic, story. 1171. THE FEASTING DEAD Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1954 Short novel. Colonel Habgood and his son Denis become acquainted with the family of M. Vaignon, a French landowner living in Auvergne, and Denis, as part of an exchange of children goes to stay with Vaignon. It is soon observed that he has formed an odd attachment to a servant named Raoul Privache. When the boy returns to England, he expects Raoul to follow him. This happens. Raoul, a

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MEYRINK, GUSTAV strange lumpish sort of man appears and is soon installed with the Habgoods. Denis, however, undergoes character changes and appears to sicken physically, while odd noises frequently come from his bedroom. Colonel Habgood associates the problem with Raoul and comes to believe that Raoul is a vampiric being known from the folklore of Auvergne. He also learns that the true Raoul Privache died many years before. Raoul is beaten off in England, but Denis runs away to France, back to Vaignon's chateau. Raoul appears again, in the form of a scarecrow in the fields. The colonel follows, but there is nothing that he can do to help, and Denis is destroyed. * Nicely told with adumbrations of odd sexuality and insanity as well as supernaturalism. The puzzle element includes the role of Vaignon, who may have been using Denis to rid his premises of the unwanted monster. MEYER, JOHN J[OSEPH] (1873-1948) American writer, author of several highly eccentric novels that are more or less supernatural or science-fiction: 13 SECONDS THAT ROCKED THE WORLD (1935), THE IMMORTAL TALES OF JOE SHAUN (originally, 1942), etc. The volume below is typical. 1172. THE DEER-SMELLERS OF HAUNTED MOUNTAIN THE ALMOST UNBELIEVABLE EXPERIENCES OF A CEREBROIC HUNTER IN THE HILLS OF THIS WORLD, AND THE LOWLANDS OF THE UNIVERSE WITH A GYPSY-EYED SPIRIT ADVENTURER HUMOROUSLY TATTLE-TALED BY JOHN J. MEYER The Cerebroscope Co.; New York 1921 Eccentric, occult novel. * Richard Reyem goes to Haunted Mountain on a hunting trip but is captured by persons from the depths of the mountain. These are Germans, who, among other things, plan world conquest. After interludes in which the author's psyche wanders the universe in cosmic voyages, Reyem outwits the Germans. Reyem is a Cerebroist, one of a group of spiritually advanced persons whose exact nature Meyer is unable to communicate, despite page after page of exposition. MEYRINK, GUSTAV (pseud., name change 1917, of MEYER, GUSTAV) (1868-1932) Austro-German satirist, occult novelist, and short story writer. Born in Vienna; early life in Prague; later life in Bavaria. Important contributor to SIMPLICISSIMUS, other periodicals of the day, pioneer Expressionist writer. Foremost 20th century German writer of supernatural fiction, and perhaps the foremost modern writer of supernatural novels. Known in the English-speaking world for THE GOLEM (1914), but some other novels of his are superior: DAS GRONE GESICHT (1916), WALPURGIS NACHT (1917). A remarkable writer who used the subject matter of contemporary occultism in a highly individual, metaphysical way. 1173. THE GOLEM Gollancz London 1928 (DER GOLEM, 1914) Translated from German by Madge Pemberton. * A symbolic novel of love

MEYRINK, GUSTAV and spiritual development according to occult systems. The plot of THE GOLEM is simple and can only suggest the intellectual content, rich local background, and imagination of the novel. * Prague, 1890. Athanasius Pernath, a gem-cutter in the old ghetto, falls in love with Miriam, the daughter of the saintly cabalist, Hillel. Pernath also has the misfortune to incur the enmity of Aaron Wassertrum, a foul junkdealer who symbolizes the evil pole of the ghetto. Wassertrum frames Pernath for murder, and Pernath spends almost nine months in prison. When he is released, he finds that the old ghetto is being razed. Miriam has left the area and may be dead. As Pernath's story ends, he is still searching for Miriam. * Meyrink then continues with a frame situation: the foregoing story has been a dream caused by the narrator's taking Pernath's hat from a restaurant. The narrator, a journalist, now goes in search of Pernath. Though many years have passed, he eventually finds the immortal Pernath and Miriam, in a state of being transcending life and death, in a non-existent house. * Over and around this plot swirls the strange life of the ghetto-- the cabala, miracle workers, criminals, students, whores, lovers, artists, cafe musicians-- many of whom are engaged in a mystical quest. Pernath has many supernatural experiences, visions, and revelations, some of which involve the tarot. He also sees and confronts the Golem, which for Meyrink is not the Golem of Jewish folklore, but in one sense is the composite spirit of the ghetto and in another a symbol of rebirth and immortality. It is the etheric body of occult systems. Pernath achieves the experience of the Golem because of his past: all his memories have been removed by hypnosis, and his psyche has become split. * A fine Expressionist novel with a rich content of mystical and occult thought. This material is not closely related to Jewish mysticism, despite the title and setting of the book, but reflects the occult schools of Meyrink's day. * The first English edition cited above is not the most desirable edition, since the translation is somewhat abridged and is often very inaccurate. The Dover (New York 1976) edition corrects the translation and restores the missing passages. A long introduction by E.F. Bleiler offers the only modern English-language survey of Meyrink and his work, and also describes in detail the ideas of the novel-- which are too complex to be summarized here. MIDDLETON, RICHARD [BARHAMJ (1882-1911) British miscellaneous writer. A very talented man who committed suicide in despair of commercial success. 1174. THE GHOST SHIP AND OTHER STORIES T. Fisher Unwin; London 1912 The basic collection of Middleton's fiction. Other collections contain less important work. * Introduction by Arthur Machen. * Short stories and essay-like fiction, including [a] THE GHOST SHIP. British village folkloristic

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MILLS, ROBERT P. setting. A ghost ship is blown by a storm into a small English village. It sails away later with many of the young village ghosts aboard. It is more than hinted that the ship was an 18th century pirate. Very nicely told. One of the finest humorous fantasies. [b] ON THE BRIGHTON ROAD. Two tramps walk along the road to London, the adult tramp and the boy sick with pneumonia. The boy says, ''We are all dead, all of us who're on it, and we're all tired, yet somehow we can't leave it." [c] THE COFFIN MERCHANT. The sales representative of the coffin merchant approaches only those who are to die within the next twentyfour hours. [d] THE CONJURER. A mediocre stage magician accomplishes a single remarkable act-- the disappearance of his wife. le] SHEPHERD'S BOY. Some can see him; some cannot. He has been dead for a time, and it costs nothing to feed him. * Excellent stories. MIKSZATH, COLOMAN (i.e. KALMAN) (1847-1910) Hungarian novelist, noted for Chekhovian realistic studies of everyday matters in peasant life. Considered one of the more significant late Victorian authors. 1175. THE GOOD PEOPLE OF PALOCZ Dean and Son; London [1893] (A JO POLOCOK 1882, 1892 in this edition). Introduction by Clifton Bingham. Anonymous translation from Hungarian. Large foliosized book with short stories based on life in peasant Hungary; the mode is sentimental, the language pseudo-archaic. The text is accompanied by elaborate vulgar oleograph illustrations. * Including [a] MISTRESS GALANDA. Witchcraft. The servant palyus lies dying. He has made a bond with the Devil and his time is running out. After his death and burial, on St. Luke's Day, a great uproar is heard from the cemetery at night. A beautiful young woman is seen at his grave, her face covered with his blood. She is being attacked by a pack of supernatural dogs. Investigation reveals that she is the witch Galanda, who can assume the form of a young woman. (1920 MILLS, ROBERT P[ARK] American editor, literary agent. Associated with MFSF: managing editor until April, 1958 (retirement of Anthony Boucher); editor until March, 1962. Also edited VENTURE SCIENCE FICTION. Head, literary department, New York offices, General Artists Corporation. AS EDITOR: 1176. THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, NINTH SERIES Doubleday; Garden City, N. Y. [1959] This book and the following book are in direct succession to those edited by Anthony Boucher, the previous editor of the series. * Short stories, including [a] SOUL MATE, Lee Sutton. (MFSF 1959) Summerfield accidentally comes into total mental contact with an attractive but sluttish girl. The transfer of thought and emotion is unbearable for him. When Summerfield drives her to death, she is with him

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for eternity. [b) DAGON, Avram Davidson. (MFSF 1959) China. An unpleasant person, turned into a goldfish. Good Chinese background, probably based on Davidson's service in the Orient. [c) THE WILLOW TREE, Jane Rice. (MFSF 1959) Disruptions of time, madness, nicely told. [d) THE PI MAN, Alfred Bester. (MFSF 1959) His actions are almost inexplicable. If he is mad, he is mad in a new way. The answer is that he is reactive and must always counteract whatever force is operative-- hate with love, love with hate, etc. Supernatural aspects. Told in semi-experimental prose. [e) CASEY AGONISTES, Richard McKenna. (MFSF 1958) Dying men in a tuberculosis ward and an apelike thought-projection called Casey, which attains a sort of life and permanence. Told with a wry humor. Original and nicely expressed. 1177. A DECADE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION Doubleday; Garden City, New York 1960 The tenth volume in the series. It is larger than previous volumes, and the contents, on the whole, are on a higher level. * Including, described elsewhere, [a) SPUD AND COCHISE, Oliver LaFarge. [b) WALK LIKE A MOUNTAIN, Manly Wade Wellman. lc) THE SEAL MAN, John Masefield. * Also [d) THE CAUSES, Idris Seabright. (Pseud. of Margaret St. Clair) (1952) Barroom conversations about the reason for the world's plight. Various explanations are offered: that the Olympian gods have moved to New Zealand; that the world was supposed to end, but that the trumpet for sounding the Last Trump has been lost; that an evil Tibetan adept is pronouncing curses; that Hermes himself jests. [e) THE HYPNOGLYPH, John Anthony. (Pseud. of John A. Ciardi) (MFSF 1953) On an alien planet the natives trap game and their enemies by devices that fascinate the sense of touch. Some supernatural aspects. [f) UNTO THE FOURTH GENERATION, Isaac Asimov. (MFSF 1959) Marten is looking for a particular Levkowich. He traces down Lefkowitzes and other variants of the name, until he locates his man, the ghost of a dead ancestor who summoned him. An interesting idea. 19) WILL YOU WAIT, Alfred Bester. (MFSF 1959) The diabolic contract seen in terms of big business, modern advertising, and legal chicanery. [h) PROOF POSITIVE, Graham Greene. (from NINETEEN STORIES, 1947) At the meeting of the local Psychical Society Mr. Weaver offers proof positive that the soul is a t'enant of the body and has a life of its own. He has been dead for some time. [i) A TRICK OR TWO, John Novotny. (MFSF 1957) Jesse, who wants to seduce the beautiful Laura, learns that every man has a hidden paranormal ability. In his case he can strip a woman nude by teleporting her. Laura, however, has a devastating counterability. [j) THE MEETING OF RELATIONS, John Collier. (YALE REVIEW, 1941) The stranger approaches the herdsmen and talks of the lands to the east where men slay one another and seize their goods. He is Cain. [k) FIRST LESSON, Mildred Clingerman. Described elsewhere for context. [1) TO FELL A TREE, Robert F. Young.

MINIATURE ROMANCES FROM THE GERMAN (MFSF 1959) Borderline science-fiction. On the planet of Omicron Ceti 18 Strong is cutting man on the tree crew, and it is his job to remove the thousand-foot tree that threatens to fallon the village. It is apparently the last tree of its sort. As he trims the tree, he sees a dryad-like being, with whom he converses. Many emotions run through him, including guilt and shame, but he still fells the tree. He learnE latf>.r tha t the tree had a symbiotic relationship with the village. Everything dies. * Best described stories are [g), [i), and [1). (1880-1938) MILLS, WEYMER JAY American author. 1178. THE GHOSTS OF THEIR ANCESTORS Fox Duffield and Ce.; New York 1906 Romance in early Federalist New York. * Old Knickerbocker has four daughters, three of whom follow his precepts, while the fourtn, Patricia, is rebellious. Patricia determines to marry a church organist, a man whom her father considers unacceptable, forbidding the match. But the ancestors, whom old Knickerbocker holds in high reve~ence and is often quoting, take a hand. The ghost of his great great grandmother comes and summons the present family to a hearing. The ancestral ghosts are not as Knickerbocker thought, for they find against him and for Patricia. He thereupon gives his consent. * Routine. [ANONYMOrS ANTHOLOGY) 1179. MINIATL~E ROMANCES FROM THE GERMAN WITH OTHER PROFUSIONS OF LIGHT LITERATURE C. C. Little and J. Brown; Boston 1841 Partly translations from German, partly original material. * Including, described elsewhere, [a) UNDINE, F. de la Motte Fouque. [b) THE VIAL GENIE, AND THE MAD FARTHING, F. de la Motte Fouque. Alternate title for THE BOTTLE IMP. [c) THE COLLIER FAMILY OR, REDMANTLE AND THE ~ffiRCHANT, F. de la Motte Fouque. Alternate title for BERTHOLD. * Also a collection of partially interlocked stories associated with the Almadora Ravine, which may possibly be identified with Almazora, Spain. This material is dated 1817 in a special preface, but earlier publication than 1841 has not been found. Including [d) THE FORTIETH HOUR. Wonderland fantasy. Muzoil meets the fair Seraphina, a female enchantress with an underground palace. Against them is Logoul. When Logoul tries to kill Muzoil, he is killed by supernaturally guided lightning. [e] MAURICE, OR AWAY FOR ST. BRANDAN'S. The protagonist is taken away on a cloud from Almadora to an island off the barren coast. He wishes to go to the Island of St. Brandan (a legendary island in the North Atlantic, discovered, according to Irish legend, by St. Brandan). He is attacked by the witch Maduba, but is rescued by a powerful magician and the island sinks beneath the sea. It is all a vision. * Gushy, highly romantic material, difficult to put into sense. Attributed author is Thomas Tracy, an American clergyman.

MIRRLEES, HOPE MIRRLEES, lHELEN] HOPE (c. 1890 - 1978) British educator, poet, novelist. Collaborated with Jane Harrison, noted Classical scholar. 1180. LUD-IN-THE-MIST Collins; London [1926] Semi-allegorical fantasy set in a very nicely handled Olde Englisshe folk culture in the mode later made popular by Tolkien. * Lud-inthe-Mist (London?) is the capital of Dorimare, a small country bordered on the west by Fairyland. There has been no intercourse with Fairyland for centuries, and the principal export of Fairyland, fairy fruit, is banned. Indeed, it is not a topic for polite conversation and possession of it is a criminal offence. The symptoms of consuming fairy fruit are an ecstasy of a sort, sometimes followed by abandonment of routine existence and a rapid flight over the mountains to Fairyland, whence no one returns. At the moment Nat Chanticleer is Mayor of Lud. He accepts the cultural bias against the fruit, yet he has an empathy for a widened experience like that given by the fruit. In his case the peculiar feeling is evoked by a sound. During his administration the banned fruit becomes more prevalent than ever, and the situation becomes scandalous when his only son has obviously eaten the fruit and his daughter, having eaten it at the local finishing school for girls, has taken off to the hills. Chanticleer tries to isolate his son, but only manages to set him into the heart of the smuggling operation. As Chanticleer moves against the subversives, he finds himself outwitted at almost every turn. He is declared dead by the town council and deposed. By investigating privately, however, he is able to clear away most of the mysteries involved, but finds it necessary to journey into Fairyland to find his son. His trip (which, apart from the very beginning, is not described by the author) is the cause of great changes. Nat returns with the knowledge that fairy fruit is neeessary to life. After some small misgivings the land of Dorimare accepts his point of view, and fairy fruit becomes an accepted article of commerce. The small-town culture is broken, and life becomes broader and fuller. * There are, of course, subplots. Other supernatural elements include visions and delusions; return from the dead as a fairy; the occasional presence of Duke Humphrey, the head of the fairy cult, who has been dead for centuries; and various semi-supernatural personalities. * Beautifully handled in terms of surface detail, but the author's theme is not clear (beyond the obvious attack on puritanism or philistinism) and the relation of the symbol and the exposition seems awry. Still, worth reading. MITCHELL, ElDWARD] plAGE] (1852-1927) American newspaper man, editor New York SUN, 1903 on. 1181. THE CRYSTAL MAN LANDMARK SCIENCE FICTION Doubleday; Garden City, N. Y. 1973 Edited by Sam Moskowitz with introduction LOST GIANT OF AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION-- A BIOGRAPHICAL PERSPECTIVE. ,,< Short stories from the 1870's and 1880's, most of which were first

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MITCHELL, E. P. published in the SUN. Most are primitive science-fiction, with occasional supernatural elements. * Including [a] THE FACTS IN THE RATCLIFF CASE. (1879) Miss Borgier (whose name is obvious) has a mesmeric glance that stupefies like morphine and can render a person unconscious. She uses it to murder her husband. [b] THE STORY OF THE DELUGE. (1875) Editorial humor in fictional form. Mingled cynicism and reportage of new Assyriological discoveries, including the story of Noah. [c] AN UNCOMMON SORT OF SPECTRE. (1879) Kalbsbraten, a Rhenish robber baron of the 14th century, is celebrating the birth of quadruplets when a ghost from the future comes and converses with him. It is one of the newly born chiljren, from eighty years in the future. Interesting speculation about the relativity of time. [d] THE CAVE OF THE SPLURGLES. (1877) The area under the red oak in Prince's pasture has a bad reputation: things are apt to reach out and seize you. The narrator, a scoffer, investigates, is seized, and finds himself in the realm of the devils. But they have grown old, lazy, and moral. [e] THE DEVIL'S FUNERAL. (1879) In the far future the Devil has died, and his followers attend his funeral. An autopsy takes place to discover his essence, but the results are not revealed. But when the Devil dies, the world dies, too. [f] THE WONDERFUL COROT. (1881) A gullible railroad baron is being swindled by a group of fake mediums, some of whom have painted (under comtrol) "masterpieces" from the spirit world. Among the pictures, however, is a well-painted Corot. When the protagonist surprises the mediums in an act of burglary, they attack him, and he saves himself by leaping into the Corot. He finds himself in France. All madness, however. [g] AN EXTRAORDINARY WEDDING. (1878) At a seance a young man and woman materialize and ask to be married. The man is preswnably a Frenchman, the woman, Cleopatra-'- possibly. lh] BACK FROM THAT BOURNE. (187?) John Newbegin, the town drunkard, dies and is buried. He materializes at a seance and resumes his life, a reformed man. What will happen if other spirits come back to earth in this fashion? This story and the previous two are humorous spoofs of Spiritualism, but they raise serious questions. [i] THE TERRIBLE VOYAGE OF THE "TOAD." (1878) Captain Crum and his associates decide to sail the s loop "The Toad" to Europe to see the Paris Exposition. In a drunken moment, however, the Captain swears that Beelzebub himself cannot stop him. Beelzebub does, in the form of a sea monster. Probably all drunken fantasy. [j] THE DEVILISH RAT. (1878) An enthusiast sleeps at the haunted castle Schwinkenschwank, hoping to dissociate his soul, with which he is not satisfied. He is possessed by the soul of a giant rat, which in turn held the soul of Judas. [k] EXCHANGING THEIR SOULS. (1877) A Russian prince· and a carriage maker from the Caucasus seem to have exchanged bodies. A mesmerist restores them. But it is all explained as cryptomnesia from childhood association. So-

MITCHELL, E. P. phisticated psychology for fiction of the period. [1] THE CASE OF THE DOW TWINS. (1877) A tall tale. Siamese twins, cut apart, retain mutual sensitivity. When one dies, the other, the stronger personality, assumes his body. lm] THE LAST CRUISE OF THE "JUDAS ISCARIOT." (1882) The ship seems good in terms of design and condition, but everything goes wrong with it. The owner decides to scuttle it, but it does not go down properly. It returns and assaults the captain's house. [n] THE FLYING WEATHERCOCK. (1884) The Devil objects to a chapel on a piece of land that he owns. First he gives the congregation a wonderful weathercock which assumes life and flies about, then he spirits the chapel away. [0] THE LEGENDARY SHIP. (1885) Comments on a ms. from the 1680's. A community ship that represents the wealth and the male population of the area goes on a trading voyage and does does not return. Apparently in response to prayer a phantom ship appears and sinks before the eyes of the populace, revealing the fate of the missing ship. Obvious influence of Hawthorne. [p] THE SHADOW ON THE FANCHER TWINS. (1886) They are opposites. Daniel is dark, passionate, restless, dynamic; David is light, calm, peaceful. Both fall in love with the same woman, and fearing that their brotherly devotion will die, each vows death if he succumbs to love. David deserts from the Continental Army to see the girl, and on the firing squad that executes him is Daniel. The life bond is strong enough that Daniel, too, dies. Told in the manner of a fable; influence of Hawthorne. * While Mitchell, because of his ingenious ideas, is an important author of primitive science-fiction, he is less significant as an author of supernatural fiction. Nevertheless, this is a valuable collection, since before Moskowitz's work only [h] and the science-fiction story "The Tachypomp" had been known. Moskowitz's long introduction is not so much about Mitchell as about other early American science-fiction in newspapers and periodicals. It is uncritical, but has much valuable information. MITCHELL, JlAMES] LESLIE (1901-1935) Scottish novelist, archeologist, popularizer of science. Highly regarded in the 1930's for trilogy, A SCOTS QUAIR, mostly about social revolution in Scotland. Best-known in America for science-fiction novels, GAY HUNTER and THREE GO BACK, and for historical work, THE CONQUEST OF THE MAYA. 1182. THE LOST TRUMPET Jarrolds; London [1932] Character studies in terms of supernaturalism, political axe-grinding. * Egypt, not too far from Cairo. Colonel Anton Kyrilovitch Saloney, a White Russian exile who had appeared as narrator in an earlier collection, CAIRO DAWNS, is approached by two archeologists who want him to help them find the trumpet with which Joshua blew down the walls of Jericho. They have traditional information and a docu-

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MITCHELL, J. A. ment that tells where it is buried. When the trumpet is found and sounded, it proves to be the supernatural means of breaking down the walls around personalities, permitting the emergence of true and rightly directed essence. The colonel and his mistress, Princess Pelagueya Bourrin, decide that the Reds are not so bad after all and plan to return to the U. S. An unawakened young Englishwoman, who S. R. has hitherto been motivat~d only by a wish for revenge on her brother's murderer, is able to forgive the murderess (a blind Egyptian prostitute) and is sexually awakened. A pornographic novelist recognizes higher values. One of the archeologists, who is Jewish, becomes a fervent Zionist, and so on. * Told with literacy, although in 1982 the political statements seem incredibly naive. * Mitchell's more famolls THREE GO BACK is superior. MITCHELL, J[OHN] A[MES] (1845-1918) American journalist, writer of fiction. Founder and editor of LIFE (a humorous paper modelled after PUNCH, not to be confused with the Luce publication). Best known work AMOS JUDD (1895), also two works of science-fiction THE LAST AMERICAN (1889) and DROWSY (1917). 1183. GLORIA VICTIS Scribner; New York 1897 An odd mixture of sentimentality, social realism, and religiosity. * Dr. Thorne, a minister (who is not really central to the book), believes that the Christ still comes among us, working miracles. * The story is concerned with Stephen W~dsworth, the son of a professional swindler and conman. As the book opens, Wadsworth, Sr., swindles Mrs. Zabarelli, a widow, out of her life savings and takes an engraved ring from her small daughter. Wadsworth, Sr., then disappears with the police after him. Stephen is his father's son, in modern terms a sociopath; utterly unmoral, subject to hysterical rages, yet charming and affable when he wants to be. After a brief criminal career, he comes upon Thorne, who houses him for a time. But Stephen, though still a boy, commits a murder and runs away. Ten years later, Thorne meets Stephen again. Stephen is now a circus high-wire man and is in love with his partner, Filippa Zabarelli, the daughter of the family that his father had ruined. Stephen wears the ring that his father had taken from the girl, but neither Stephen nor Filippa has any idea of its past history. On persuasion from Thorne he removes the ring, which is in-grown, and the engraving on the inside of the ring reveals the sordid story from the past. Stephen, during a quarrel, strikes out against Filippa's mother, but accidentally kills Filippa instead. He is now truly remorseful. A stranger meets him, as he is wandering about in a daze, and accompanies him back to the corpse. The stranger, who is obviously the Christ, resurrects the girl. Stephen has changed. He had previously fought against too heavy odds. * Literate, but incredible from several points of view. Reprinted in 1910 (Life Publishing Co.; New York) as DR. THORNE'S IDEA.

MODERN GHOSTS

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[ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 1184. MODERN GHOSTS SELECTED AND TRANSLATED FROM THE WORK OF GUY DE MA.UPASSANT [etc.] Harper; New York and London 1890 Introduction by George W. Curtis. * Including [a] THE HORLA, Guy de Maupassant; [b] ON THE RIVER, Guy de Mapuassant; both described elsewhere. Also [c] THE TALL WOMAN, Pedro de Alarcon. Translated from Spanish by R. Ogden. Spain, c. 1860. The engineer Telesforo is terrified of a tall woman who appears each time that misfortune strikes him. When he confronts her, she says that she is his personal devil. The narrator also sees her. [d] MAESE PEREZ, THE ORGANIST, G. A. Becquer. Translated from Spanish by R. Ogden. His ghost plays the organ. [e] FIORACCIO, G. Magherini-Graziana. Translated from Italian by Mary Craig. Fioraccio, vicious fence,· dies unrepentant and can not be buried. His corpse keeps climbing out of the grave. At an exorcism it is asked what it wants. It asks for burial in the Arno, but this is of no avail. The other two stories are not at all fantastic.

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MOFFETT, CLEVELAND [LANGSTON] (1863-1926) fu~erican journalist, author of detective novels. THROUGH THE WALL (1909) is one of Queen's Quorum titles. Remembered now almost solely for the short story THE MYSTERIOUS CARD, one of the finest puzzle stories. 1185. THE MYSTERIOUS CARD Small, Maynard; Boston [19l2] Two short stories. When THE MYSTERIOUS CARD was first published in the BLACK CAT magazine in 1896, it caused a small sensation, since it offered a puzzle without a possible solution. The author was harassed with requests for an explanation; other authors tried to elucidate the story; and the idea passed into literary folklore, along with the story of the Paris Exposition. [a] THE MYSTERIOUS CARD. An American in Paris is handed a card on which are written a few words in French. He does not understand French and asks his friends for an interpretation. But each person whom he asks reads the card and turns away in horror and disgust. His friends desert him, his wife leaves him, and his business partner severs relations. His life turns to misery. By chance he comes upon the woman who gave him the card. She is dying. He takes out the card and now discovers that it is blank. lb] THE MYSTERIOUS CARD UNVEILED. The woman who gave Burwell the card was an occultist. She saw that Burwell (unknown to himself) was inhabited by a fearsome fiend who had committed many crimes. By occult means she imprinted a photo of the fiend on the card, hoping that the image would force the demon to see its own evil. The attempt was unsuccessful. * The first story is an interesting jeu d'esprit; the second does not work. ,~ The book was published with the second story sealed off, as a challenge to the reader. While some listings and bibliographies give book publication date as 1896, this is incorrect. The correct date is as above.

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MOLESWORTH, MRS. MARY MOLESWORTH, MRS. MARY LOUISA (nee STEWART) (1839-1921) British author of children's books, born in Rotterdam of Scottish parents. Birth date is also given as 1842. After commercially unsuccessful attempts at writing adult fiction, attempted children's books and was immediately successful. One of the major Victorian authors in the form, with many works well received in both Great Britain and America. Best-known work probably THE CUCKOO CLOCK (1877), which went through many editions. Many other Victorian fairy tales. 1186. FOUR GHOST STORIES Macmillan; London 1888 Four typical Victorian ghost stories. [a] LADY FARQUHAR'S OLD LADY. A TRUE GHOST STORY. Ireland. The seeming ghost of a pleasant-looking elderly woman. It walks through doors into a lumber room where the effects of the landladies are stored. One of the landladies had died at the time of the visitation. [b] WITNESSED BY TWO. Both Ambrose the butler and Anne see the wraith of Kenneth Graham, who should be on his way to India. A newspaper account seems to confirm the fact of Graham's death. But it is a mistake. Graham is alive, but he dreamed that he was visiting Anne at the time of the supernatural event. [c] UNEXPLAINED. Germany. A fairly long story. British tourists, wandering about one of the areas where pottery is made, pick up a china cup of a beautiful but unissued pattern. This serves as a psychic link to a young Englishman who had been killed by lightning there two years earlier. He had purchased a similar piece. His ghost appears at the inn. Supernaturalism minimal in quantity. [d] THE STORY OF THE RIPPLING TRAIN. A smoke-like appearance is resolved into a gray silk train of a lady ghost, a friend who has just died. The overall point of view is that hauntings are not purposeful justice symbols, but erratic, inexplicable, even trivial. Literate, but restrained to the point of weakness. 1187. UNCAN:N TALES Hutchinson; London [1896] Short stories, including [a] THE SHADOW IN THE MOONLIGHT. Long. When the family rents a house in Cornwall, there are strange drafts in the gallery, a sensation as of an icy electric shock, and a shadow that fumbles around. But there is a puzzle: the phenomena accompany the family to a new residence. The solution: a set of ancient tapestries. Traced back to their place of origin, they reveal a secret compartment and a scandal from the past. [b] "THE MAN WITH THE COUGH." Germany and Ita ly. Schmidt, a courier carrying valuable business information, undergoes a fugue in which he receives supernatural warning of trouble, though in a symbolic way. [c] "HALF-WAY BETWEEN THE STILES." A RIGHT-OF-WAY INCIDENT. Fate, or perhaps mild prophecy. During a blizzard the farmer lost his wife and child, the wife dying of exposure, the child missing. He expects to find them again at the stile, and does find his long-lost daughter. [d] AT THE DIP OF THE ROAD. At a certain place the figure

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MOLESWORTH, MRS. MARY of a man is to be seen running along beside the coach, but it never goes beyond the dip in the road. It is a servant who died before he could tell something to his master. * Capable stories, but unexciting. WITH MOLESWORTH, BEVIL 1188. THE WRONG ENVELOPE AND OTHER STORIES Macmillan; London 1906 Short stories and a short novel, mostly society fiction, but including [a] A STRANGE MESSENGER. Wales. Young Dr. Warden is informed by a messenger that an accident has taken place at the mine. He attends, but learns that no messenger was sent. It was the ghost of a dead miner. [b] A GHOST OF THE PAMPAS. According to the preface, this was written by the author's deceased son, Bevil. * Life on the pampas. Darcy and his friend the gaucho Doroteo are out riding when Doroteo and his wonderful palomino horse are killed by a vicious bull. But their ghosts appear later and offer f~ncouragement and he lp to Darcy. Some local color. * Tired work on Mrs. Molesworth's part. (ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 1189. MONSTERS A COLLECTION OF UNEASY TALES Philip Allan; London 1934 One of the CREEPS SERIES. * Short stories, including [a] THE TWO OLD WOMEN, Vivian Meik. Vaguely connected with the book DEVILS' DRUMS. Meik discovers that two women in his apartment building are working African magic and are vampiric ghouls. They maintain a slaughter house for humans and can also assume the form of rats. [b] THE ROUND GRAVEYARD, E. K. Allan. A very vicious ghost, that of an apelike man buried several hundred years ago. It is called an elemental. [c] THE INTERRUPTED HONEYMOON, George Benwood. Marshall does not like Mr. Darel, an elderly Indian gentleman, for Darel makes eyes at Mrs. Marshall. But Darel does even better: he slips Marshall a drug and changes bodies with him. [d] THE CARETAKER'S STORY, Edith Olivier. An old sailor. While starving on a desert island, he ate a seagull that contained the spirit of one of his shipmates, thereby committing spiritual cannibalism. The gulls take revenge. Or perhaps all insanity. [e] A LOVER CAME TO SUNNAMEES, Guy Preston. Owen Tudor, a cad, is about to possess Sunnamees, a Gipsy girl, when something knocks him out of his body and he watches his body, animated by a different spirit, take Sunnamees. [f] THE HAUNTED TELEPHONE, Elliott O'Donnell. Dr. Byrne is summoned by telephone to The Bluestones where Delacourte lies dead. The doctor suspects a crime, especially when Mrs. Delacourte sets fire to the house while he is locked in. It is all a dream, but it reveals what happened a year earlier to Dr. Oldfield, who did not escape. [gj THE YELLOW CAT, Michael Joseph. First book appearance of this often anthologized story. Grey, a professional gambler whose luck has been bad, adopts a yellow cat. Although the cat is nasty and unfriendly, it seems to change Grey's fortunes. But when, at

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MOORE, C. L. the instance of a woman he kills the cat, his luck goes bad again, and he is finally transformed into what he has long been spiritually: a nasty, yellow cat. [h] THE "LOCUM," Kenneth Ingram. In this case, not medical. The locum, who takes the place of a clergyman, is either a diabolist madman or a minor demon. Left ambiguous. * The other stories are contes cruels. * Crude material, except for [g], which is nicely done. * Edited by Charles L. Birkin. [ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 1190. THE MOON TERROR BY A. G. BIRCH AND STORIES BY ANTHONY M. RUD, VINCENT STARRETT AND FARNSWORTH WRIGHT Popular Fiction Pub. Co.; Indianapolis [1927] Edited by Farnsworth Wright (1888-1940). the editor of WT from November 1924 through March 1940. Wright was an excellent editor who recognized quality work and was not as narrow in his requirements as most of his colleagues in pulp fiction. The present collection does not represent the best from WT. A small volume of reprints from early issues of WT. It was given at one time as a premium for subscriptions. * Including, [a] THE MOON TERROR, A. G. Birch. (WT 1923) The Sect of the Two Moons, a Chinese secret society, demands that the rest of the world surrender, or else it will destroy the world by means superscience and sorcery. It is a close call before Dr. Gresham and his associates defeat the sorcerers. Derivative from R. W. Chambers, and crude. [b] PENELOPE, Vincent Starrett. (WT 1923) A whimsy about a man whose life is greatly influenced by Penelopes: a girl named Penelope, the star Penelope, etc. When subject to the gravity of the star, he turns upside down. Mildly amusing. * The other two stories, "Ooze" by Anthony Rud and "An Adventure in the Fourth Dimension" by Farnsworth Wright are weird science fiction of a sort. MOORE, CATHERINE LUCILLE (1911American writer of science-fiction and supernatural fiction. Wife of Henry Kuttner, whom married in 1940. Work since that date has been been collaborative in varying degrees. Early work, which appeared mostly in WT, is characterized by highly romantic approach that is distinctive; later work is much more restrained, but is highly imaginative and technically accomplished. At her best, one of the finest writers to emerge from the American pulp phenomenon. See also KUTTNER, HENRY and PADGETT, LEWIS (collaborative pseudonym). 1191. SHAMBLEAU AND OTHERS Gnome Press; New York 1953 Series short stories from WT. The first three are concerned with Jirel of Joiry, a somewhat more sophisticated female version of the pulp heroes. A hellcat, an Amazon, a noblewoman of medieval France, she is perpetually caught up in supernatural adventures. [a] BLACK GOD'S KISS. (WT 1934) Jirel's first adventure. The castle of Joiry is taken and Jirel is captured, doomed to become the concubine of Guillaume, her conqueror. Desperate for re-

MOORE, C. L. venge, she escapes into the dungeon of her castle, where she knows there is an entry to evil magic. She passes through a dimensional tunnel into a strange hell-like land, where she is instructed by a demon (who has assumed her form) to take back to Guillaume the Black God's kiss. Jirel finds her way to the Black Temple, kisses the image, and laden with a fearful horror returns to earth and destroys Guillaume-- by kissing him. [b] BLACK GOD'S SHADOW. (WT 1934) Sequel to [a]. Jirel is now caught in her ambivalent emotions, for she has discovered, too late, that she felt love for the man who had mastered her and whom she killed. A ghostlike fragment of Guillaume beseeches her to free him from the horrors to which she delivered him, and she descends again into the supernatural world to battle the frozen god for Guillaume's soul. [c] JIREL MEETS MAGIC. (WT 1935) While pursuing an evil sorcerer whose castle she has stormed, Jirel stumbles into a strange witchland. It is ruled by Jarisme, a purple-eyed enchantress, who takes a violent dislike to her. Jarisme summons a convocation of weird monstrosities from other worlds and proceeds to destroy Jirel. But Jirel wins. * The remaining stories, which are borderline science-fiction, are concerned with Northwest Smith and his Venusian comrade, Yarol. Both are interplanetary soldiers of fortune, scoundrels, and drifters of the far future. They, too, have a penchant for adventures with monstrosities from other worlds, times, and dimensions. [d] SHAMBLEAU. (WT 1933) Moore's first story. Mars. Smith rescues Shambleau, a strange female being, from an infuriated mob, and falls under her spell. She is a vampiric creature who exhausts life energy, while providing an obscene, sensual pleasure. Medusa. The story is a little cumbersome in presentation, but excellent in its suggestions of nameless erotic horrors and human frailty. [e] BLACK THIRST. (WT 1934) Smith, on Venus, is hired by an incredibly beautiful woman to penetrate the fortress-palace of the Alendar. For centuries the Alendar has been breeding the Minga girls, gems of female pulchritude, for interplanetary harems. Smith penetrates the palace, but is captured. As he is taken into the depths by the Alendar, he encounters increasing beauty, eventually so overpowering as to be painful, and, if he continues, lethal. The Alendar, who is not really human, lives vampirically on beauty. [f] THE TREE OF LIFE. (WT 1936) Smith, who is in a ruined Martian city, hiding from the patrol, meets a telepathic woman who takes him to the Tree of Life. This is a living entity from which has been taken the artistic motif so common on Mars. It is a horrible monster. [g] SCARLET DREAM. (WT 1934) In a Martian bazaar Smith buys a beautifully patterned cloth. Tracing its incredibly intricate lines transfers him to an other world, where the humans constitute a sort of poultry yard for a dimensional monster. The only escape is to go to the chamber of the Name, where the Name rings inces-

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MOORE, C. L. santly, and pronounce the Name-- which is the pattern on the cloth. But this can bring death. Nice symbolism. * Very interesting stories with fascinating unconscious symbolism and very unusual ideas. Certainly one of the landmarks in modern supernatural fiction. 1192. NORTHWEST OF EARTH Gnome Press; New York 1954 The first two stories are about Jirel of Joiry. * [a] HELLSGARDE. (WT 1939) Jirel must redeem her captured men at arms by bringing a mysterious casket from the haunted castle of Hellsgarde. The castle is indeed haunted, by the violent ghost of Andred, former owner of the castle, who died rather than reveal its secret. Also present are a strange band of people who drink the vitality of ghosts. More sophisticated than the earlier stories aoout Jirel. [b] THE DARK LAND. (WT 1936) Jirel, dying of a pike wound, is translated, on death, to the dark land of Romne, which is ruled by Pav, a god larger than life. Pav has saved Jirel from death because he wants her for a consort. Jirel is unwilling and looks for a weapon to defeat him. The white witch, a discarded mistress of Pav's, shows Jirel a way to escape Pav, and the truth about Pav and the land of Romne is revealed. * The remaining stories are concerned with Northwest Smith and Yarol, adventurers and somewhat sympathetic scoundrels of the far future, and are borderline science-fiction. [c] DUST OF GODS. (WT 1934) Smith and Yarol are commissioned to fetch the dust of Black Pharol, legendary evil god of the distant past. It is to be found in a fragment of the missing fifth planet now imbedded in Mars. The dust is to be used for magical purposes. [d] LOST PARADISE. (WT 1936) Smith and Yarol perform a service for a Sele (one of the almost extinct natives of the Moon) and in exchange ask for the Secret. The Sele cannot refuse, and takes Smith back in time to the era when the Moon was a flourishing planet. The Moon was maintained by three vamp~r~c divinities who would withdraw their strength if any of their victims resisted. Smith, in a Sele body, resists and causes the dea~h of the Moon. [e] JULHI. (WT 1935) The ruined city of Vonng on Venus, where parallel worlds interpenetrate. Smith falls prey to the supernal Julhi, who with her vampiric band, is entering our universe. Her gateway is Apri, the half-mad young woman who must die. [f] THE COLD GRAY GOD. (WT 1935) An attempt to bring back one of the ancient, nameless, and abominably evil Martian gods by means of dimensional magic. Smith loses his body for a time. [g] YVALA. (WT 1936) Smith and Yarol are sent on a white-slaving expedition to a moon of Jupiter, -where incredibly beautiful women have been seen. They find Yvala, a Circe-like beauty, a group-being. * Original, imaginative, with characteristic erotic symbolism and depths. Among the best pulp fiction of the day. While some of Moore's later work, like "Vintage Season," may be technically superior and maturer, for sense of wonder 1191 and 1192 are unique in the literature.

MORE, ANTHONY MORE, ANTHONY (pseud. of CLINTON, EDWIN M., JR.) (1926 ) American (California) technical writer, occasional author of s-f for the genre magazines. 1193. PUZZLE BOX Trover Hall; [San Francisco, California] 1946 Short stories, including [a] FOOTSTEPS. Supernatural footsteps. [b] SEVEN SAPPHIRES, A lost race in Canada. An evil monster. Seven sapphires that are the focal point of evil. lc] THE LAST MESSAGE. A religious fanatic receives a warning from God. Construction camp background. [d] FIVE STRANDS OF YELLOW HAIR. Murder and a shadow-girl motif. * The title story is science-fiction. MORESBY, L. (pseud. of BECK, L. ADAMS, which see for biographical information) 1194. THE GLORY OF EGYPT A ROMANCE Nelson; London [1926] Oriental adventure involving magic and a los~ race of Egyptians. * The ancient Chinese document that Soames and Ross obtain 'from a sick Lepcha whom they have helped tells of a hidden land in the mountains and refers to the Glory of Egypt. (Mrs. Beck does not explain how a T'ang document would have recorded the word "Egypt.") They decide to find the land, and with official permission, since they will do a little spying along the way, head for the mountains along the Tibetan border. They are warned off several times, for everyone seems to know their secret purpose. They witness magic-- the transmutation of iron into gold, visions of the future, and solidified visions much like photographs. And Ross receives notes, some amorous, from a mysterious woman whose party is ahead of them. They reach the borders of the land, where they see gigantic insects (as large as horses) that hunt across the valleys, and they finally corne upon a titanic fortress, filled with the statues and architectural features of ancient Egypt. There Ross rescues the woman who had sent him notes (the Egyptian princess, never named) from being a human sacrifice. They start on their way back to India. She, although imperious and fully conscious of her rank as Queen of Egypt, is madly in love with him, but he is both awed and a little frightened of her and does not reciprocate her feelings. Along the way Ross and Soames quarrel. The Queen saves Ross's life, but commits suicide, since she knows that he does not love her. Ross returns to India with the Glory of Egypt, a gem the size of an apple. * Poor characterizations, skimpy writing. By no means as craftsmanlike as Mrs. Beck's work done under her marital name., MORGAN, ARTHUR and BROWN CHARLES R. British authors. 1195. THE DISINTEGRATOR A ROMANCE OF MODERN SCIENCE Digby, Long; London [1891] A mystery story with a background of "science" and occultism. * Henry Francis has disappeared, and his "ghost" has been seen. The explanation lies in experiments with vibra-

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MORRIS, WILLIAM tions. Francis has been disintegrated, and while his body could be reassembled, his soul could not. Attempts are made to converse with it through mediums. * A curiosity only. MORLEY, CHRISTOPHER [DARLINGTON] (1890-1957) American writer, editor. Author of light verse. Novelist, best-known works being WHERE THE BLUE BEGINS (1922), THUNDER ON THE LEFT (1925). Editor with Doubleday Page. Founder, with William Rose Benet, of SATURDAY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. Editor of later editions of BARTLETT'S FAMILIAR QUOTATIONS. Judge for Book of the Month Club. Important literary personality of the 1930's. 1196. THUNDER ON THE LEFT Doubleday, Page; New York 1925 Semi-allegorical fantasy, much like a Barrie play set into novel form. Its point, if any, is obscure. * During vacation a group of children are playing at a birthday party at a beach house. They discuss adults and their strange ways. It is Martin's birthday, and when he blows out the candles on his cake, he makes the wish to be an adult. This is sufficient to transport him 18 years into the future, where as a child's mind in an adult body he enters into the life of the adults around the beach house. Some of the adults are his childhood friends, grown up, others are not. Martin as a child-adult is an odd creature, seemingly unaware of all the tensions, problems, and drives of the adult world, but his presence seems to act as a catalyst on the adults. He stays with George Granville and his wife Phyllis, who immediately falls in love with him and expects sexual intimacy. George realizes that he is in love with another woman, who had previously been only a business acquaintance. A sense of malaise develops, however, and omens of catastrophe are observed. A ghost from the past, one of Martin's playmates who had died, tries to get into contact with the adults and wants Martin to return to the past. Martin finally leaves, just as a horrible event is about to happen: the porch, with the children on it, is collapsing. Martin is then back in his own time again, apparently no wiser, no different. * Despite some beautiful surface texture stylistically, rather unsatisfactory. The point of the novel is very cloudy. It is not clear whether Martin is the center of the story, with the theme that childhood must be protected from the horrors of the adult world, or whether George and Phyllis are central, with the theme that the past (innocent though it may be) can destroy happiness. In any case, despite technical virtuosity, dull and dated. MORRIS, WILLIAM (1834-1896) Important British designer, artist, poet, writer of prose romances, publisher (Kelmscott Press). One of motivating forces in Victorian design, with wide influence on domestic furnishings, architecture, typography, fine arts. Member of the Pre-Raphaelites. A fine

MORRIS, WILLIAM traditional poet with much excellent lyric and epic poetry. Pioneer socialist. Influential member of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Author of NEWS FROM NOWHERE, one of the few literary utopias in which one might want to live, a charming antimechanistic, neoprimitive culture. Author of much educational and inspirational literature on aesthetics. During his lifetime Morris was esteemed mostly as a poet. At present he is considered most important as an aesthetic influence who helped break down dominant Victorian theories of the function of art. Morris's prose romances, which can be linked to Old Norse prose and poetry, medieval romances, Irish wonder voyages, and similar early non-realistic literature, have served as a departure point for much pseudo-medieval fantasy since their time. They are, however, idiosyncratic in some ways. They are written in an artificial dialect or trade jargon consciously develo?ed by Morris, with revival of medieval words and comparable word coinings, and archaic speech patterns. This complex used to be called Wardour Street English, after the locale in London where fake antiques or secondhand furnishings were sold. Morris also used a linear plot which avoided side interlinkings, just as did his wallpaper patterns. Specially noteworthy was his depersonalization and abstraction of names, events, and personalities; this technique gave his work a mythic or pseudo-allegorical atmosphere, even though there seems to be little formal allegory for most of his story elements. An unfortunate result of this process is that the reader is often uneasy lest he miss some device, which never appears. The three romances that are described have been selected as those which show an appreciable amount of supernaturalism. Several other romances either hint at matters supernatural or are simply medievalist in setting. These have not been described. 1197. THE STORY 0] THE GLITrgRING PLAIN WHICH HAS BEEN CALLED THE LAND OF THE LIVING MEN OR TIlE ACRE OF THE UNDYING [Kelmscott Press, Ha'lllllersmith, England] [1891] Prose romance. A death-quest and a trial of constancy set in a world reminiscent of Old Norse culture, with semi-totemic exogamous folk communities. * When the Hostage, the betrothed of Hallblithe of the Ravens, is stolen away by the Ravagers, raiders from the sea, Hallblithe goes in search of her. He is first taken in by a trickster figure, the Puny Fox of the Ravagers, and is led to the Isle of Ransom. There he finds himself in a peculiar position, treated as if an enemy, yet protected, apparently, by the will of a higher power. A dream tells him that the Hostage is to be found in the Glittering Plain. He becomes friendly with the Sea-eagle, an aged and infirm leader of the Ravagers, and together they are taken to the Glittering Plain, the Land of the Undying. This is a dreamy place much like Avalon, where youth is restored and men live eternally so long as they do not leave. There are no duties, no

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MORRIS, WILLIAM obligations, and nothing but mild sensual delights. It is obviously one of the lands of the dead, death of the spirit. The KING, who is a semisupernatural ruler, offers Hallblithe his daughter to wife, but Hallblithe rejects the offer as well as the whole insipid, enervating land; he passes his test by holding out for the outer world, with pain, death, love, duty, and his folk. This wins him the enmity of the KING, but on returning to the Isle of Ransom, he gains both the Hostage and the good will of the Ravagers. * Short, beautifully written (with more care given to language than in the later prose romances), fairly clear in meaning, this is the finest of the prose romances considered here. The edition read was that of Longmans Green (New York 1905). 1198. THE WELL AT THE WORLD'S END [Kelmscott Press, Hammersmith, England] [1896] A very long story of a vaguely sacramental quest, told as the adventures of a prince of a tiny kingdom placed in a pseudo-medieval British world of small city-states and independent lands. * Ralph, youngest son of the King of the Uplands, decides to seek his fortunes in the outside world and attain to the Well at the World's End. His adventures take him through many perils, mostly conceived in terms of a modernized Arthurian romance, involving jousts, strange lands, raids and battles, captivity, and love. The supernatural enters in the person of the Lady of Abundance, who (with the aid of a sorceress) has drunk of the Well and is seemingly immortal, if she can escape violent death. (She is profane love.) Ralph and his wife Ursula accomplish their quest and reach the Well roughly half way through the story. The remainder of the book is an unwinding of themes already stated. During the time that the quest takes, Ralph matures into a responsible man. On returning home, he takes over and expands his father's kingdom peacefully. * Perhaps the Well signifies acceptance of life. In any case, Ralph's quest is a secular, somewhat selfish quest, in which the Living Water of Celtic and Christian mythologies has devolved to a limited immortality and quickening of one's nature. The heavy pseudo-allegorical note is never brought to fulfillment. * Some readers like this best of Morris's prose romances, but I find it interminable, with too little matter for too much material. 1198. THE WATER OF THE WONDROUS ISLES [Kelmscott Press; Hammersmith, England] [1897] Prose romance, with idea-sources from romances of chivalry and Irish wonder voyages. The themes are sexuality in various modes, betrayal, and exploitation. * The small market town of Utterhay lies not too far from the wood Evilshaw, into which no man willingly sets foot. A witchwoman comes to Utterhay, and by a sleight kidnaps Birdalone, a little girl. She takes her through Evilshaw to the lands on the other side, to the Green Eyot, where she rears Birdalone to be a farm girl and servant. Birdalone grows up beautiful and kindly, although she is abused by the witch. The witch seems to have

MORRIS, WILLIAM a destiny in mind for her, although this is not fully revealed. Birdalone has secretly won the friendship and love ("motherhood") of Habundia, the local wood godling, and with the godling's advice decides to escape from the witch. When the opportunity arrives, she takes the magic boat that the witch occasionally uses and sails out onto the water with it. She passes through the Wondrous Isles, which seem to be symbolic in nature. One represents before-and-after life; another is sterile, empty, except for deluding mists; two more, the Isle of Kings and the Isle of Queens, are abodes of sexual death. On the fifth, the Isle of Increase Unsought (perhaps capitalism?), however, she finds a situation of interest. Three damosels are there held captive by the sister of the witch of the Green Eyot. The damosels befriend her, and when she escapes to the mainland, she goes to the Castle of the Quest, where the lovers of the women wait. Following her information, the knights venture to the Isle of Increase Unsought, and ,though the witch long deceives them with her magic, they rescue the women and bring them back to the Castle of the Quest. * A new problem arises. Birdalone falls in love with Arthur, one of the three betrothed knights, and he reciprocates. Out of fairness to the other young woman, Birdalone leaves the land and dwells for five years in the City of the Five Crafts, where she finds her mother. On her mother's death, her happiness disappears and she determines to seek out Arthur and the other Knights of the Quest. But the castle is haunted and abandoned by the knights, and Birdalone must continue her search for Arthur, using the witch's magic boat. She recapitulates her escape of years before, and passes through the Wondrous Isles, and finds that since her awakening to love and maturity they have changed. The witch of the Green Eyot is dead. Birdalone renews her relationship with the wood goddess, who helps her to find Arthur, who is mad, living as a wild man in the woods. Birdalone cares for him and restores him to health, and they and the surviving knights and ladies go to the City of the Five Crafts. * Other supernatural elements include shape changing, elixirs, delusions, and perhaps the Greywethers, megalithic stones in circles, that are said to come to life if properly approached. * It may be reading too deeply into this romance to see it ultimately as a statement of Morris's social philosophy: the church (the witch of the Green Eyot); economy (the witch of the Isle of Increase Unsought); harmony with nature (Habundia); the state (the Red Knight). MORROW, WILLIAM C[HAMBERS] (1852-1923) A:nerican author. 1200. THE APE THE IDIOT AND OTHER PEOPLE Lippincott; Philadelphia 1897 A beautifully designed little book with short stories collected from various sources. Several are on the edge of being supernatural, but do not quite venture across the boundary. Fin de siecle in presentation; intelligently sen-

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MOSKOWITZ, SAM sational; elaborate, highly felt style. * Including [a] OVER AN ABSINTHE BOTTLE. In a San Francisco bar two strangers meet over liquor and play dice. One, who is starving, wins $148,000 from the other, who is a bank robber sought by the police. The irony is that neither man can use the money. After death experiences. [b] AN ORIGINAL REVENGE. At the San Francisco garrison a soldier commits suicide so that he can haunt his persecuting superior officer to death. His ghost accomplishes its mission. Rationalized. [c] THE MONSTER-MAKER. Borderline science-fiction. The surgeon has determined that it is possible to remove the cerebrum, yet maintain life. The resulting monster, like Frankenstein's, is a problem. MOSKOWITZ, SAM (1920 American collector, fan, editor, anthologist, long an important personality in American fandom. Editor of magazine SCIENCE-FICTION PLUS (1952-4), last, somewhat anachronistic Gernsback publication; revived WEIRD TALES (1973-4). Has edited or ghost-edited many science-fiction and supernatural anthologies, usually stressing unusual, little-known material of interest to collectors. Has done pioneer work in gathering biographical data on important s-f authors, much of which might otherwise have been lost. Most important books~ SCIENCE FICTION BY GASLIGHT (1968), UNDER THE MOONS OF MARS (1970). Discoverer of E. P. Mitchell. See also entries for ALDEN NORTON and LEO MARGULIES. AS EDITOR: 1201. HORRORS UNKNOWN Walker and Co.; New York 1971 Short stories, including [a] THE CHALLENGE FROM BEYOND, C. L. Moore, A. Merritt, Frank Belknap Long, H. P. Lovecraft, R. E. Howard. Described elsewhere. [b] GRETTIR AT THORHALLSTEAD, Frank Norris. Somewhat fictionalized version of the encounter between Grettir and the horrible Glamr, from the GRETTIRSAGA. Described elsewhere. * Also, [c] WEREWOMAN, C. L. Moore. (LEAVES #2, 1939) Northwest Smith becomes involved with werewolves in a traditional, earthly setting. The transformation is partly psychological, partly caused 'by emanatioris from a stone, with suggestions of dimensions. Some good touches, but not one of Moore's best stories. [d] FROM HAND TO MOUTH, Fitz-James O'Brien. (1858) A dream fantasy in the manner of Hoffmann, partly an allegory of the writer's condition vis a vis publishers. * After an evening of hilarity the narrator finds his hand too unsteady to unlock the door to his rooming house. He is offered shelter at the Hotel Coup d'Oeil by a personality who calls himself Count Goloptious. The hotel is a luxurious establishment, furnished surrealistically with huge animated hands, ears, eyes, and mouths, all of which work against the narrator. The next morning the narrator discovers that he is the count's prisoner. The count is a publisher and exacts copy as payment for hotel charges. The narra-

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MOSKOWITZ, SAM tor becomes acquainted with Rosamond, a young artist in a neighboring apartment. She, too, is victimized by the count. Her legs have been removed and hidden in the basement. Together with a green bird (cash?) they plan escape, but are trapped by Goloptious, who hurls the narrator into a burning lake. The narrator then awakens on his doorstep. It was all a drunken dream. * A curious work, filled with imaginative touches, but structurally loose. It first ran serially. When 0' Brien could not finish it, the rather weak conclusion was prepared by Frank H. Bellew. [e] BODY AND SOUL, Seabury Quinn. (WT 1928) Drs. Trowbridge and Grandin and a mummy that is animated by the soul of a recently executed murderer. The soul was transferred by suggestion, but it is hinted that it may really be a vampiric evil spirit. Routine. Other stories about the "dapper little Frenchman" and his incredulous Watson are described under Seabury Quinn. [f] UNSEEN-UNFEARED, Frances Stevens. (PEOPLE'S FAVORITE MAGAZINE, 19l9) A special photographic filter permits the narrator to see horrible monstrosities, the emanations of evil thoughts; also the soul of a recent suicide. [g] THE POOL OF THE STONE GOD, W. Fenimore. (AMERICAN WEEKLY, 1923?) Explorers, an island, giant pearls, and a stone statue of a winged monstrosity that comes aliv~ and attacks the party vampirically. Moskowitz suggests that this story was written pseudonymously as a hasty filler by A. Merritt, who was then associated with the AMERICAN WEEKLY. It seems unlikely that Merritt would have perpetrated such crude, immature work, yet it must be admitted that Merritt used the name Fenimore in THE BLACK WHEEL. Let a computer decide. [d] is well worth reading. WITH NORTON, ALDEN H. 1202. GHOSTLY BY GASLIGHT FEARFUL TALES OF A LOST ERA Pyramid Books; New York 1971 paperbound Notes by Sam Moskowitz. * Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] THE FRIEND OF DEATH, Pedro Antonio de Alarcon. [b] WHO KNOWS? Guy de Maupassant. [c] THE MOONSLAVE, Barry Pain. [d] THE MAN WHO LIVED BACKWARDS, Allen Upward. * Also [e] THE STORY OF A GHOST, Violet Hunt. This is a first version of THE PRAYER, which was changed considerably, particularly in the ending. The later version is preferable to this. [f] THE SPIDER OF GUYANA, Erckmann-Chatrian. (translation, STRAND MAGAZINE, 1899) The spider itself, which lives in the falls and drags in large animals and humans for its prey, is not supernatural; but its existence is revealed by a Black woman who is psychic. [g] THE SPELL OF THE SWORD, Frank Aubrey. (PEARSON'S, 1898) The sword, with a skull and jewels on the hilt, is cursed and moves its holder to murder. The narrator has a vision of the many men who have held it and the many it has killed. He escapes. [h] THE MYSTERY OF THE BRONZE STATUE, W. B. Sutton. (HARMSWORTHS, 1899) It is of the Emperor Maximinus, and when the moon plays on it, it expands to Maximinus's full size and

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MULLEN, STANLEY attacks people. [i] DOCTOR ARMSTRONG, D. L. B. S. (source not indicated) Armstrong has the chance to take revenge for injuries in a previous incarnation, with the Spanish Inquisition. He takes it and will suffer in his next life. Visions of the past, too. [j] THE ENCHANTED CITY, Herbert Murray. (GOLDEN ARGOSY, 1887) Mexico. The Indian sees a snake and a panther battling and shoots the panther. The snake turns into a beautiful woman, who offers a reward. But she does not treat him properly. * The additional story "The God Pan" by Huan Mee (a facetious pseudonym representing "you and me"?) is not supernatural. MOXLEY, F[RANK] WRIGHT (1889-1937) American (New York, New Jersey) lawyer. 1203. RED SNOW Simon and Schuster; New York 1930 paperbound The end of the human race, told with a savage gusto. * August 17, 1935, as the titans of world finance sit closeted at their plots in Manhattan, a reddish snow-like substance falls from the sky allover the earth. It penetrates all substances and seeks out human flesh, into which it is absorbed. It is first taken for a curiosity of meteorology, until some months later it is discovered that the human race is completely sterile. Without exception. While no explanation is given for the red snow, the implication is that the gods have become outraged at human wickedness (as they have in the past) and have decided to wipe earth clean. * The ensuing phase-out of humanity is horrible, with few moments of lighter material. The capitalists seize the wealth of the world, but discover that wealth is meaningless. Wars break out, with the Whites against the Non-Whites. Japan is depopulated. Jews and Catholics are exterminated in certain areas. Religious fanaticism erupts and an evangelical American army invades Asia. A female pope tries to conquer America by love and is blown up. Sexual mores change. As material civilization collapses, some men and women move to primitivistic communes. * Most of the book is offered as historical resum~, but an occasional central point is to be found in Phaeton Howard Andrews, who was born not long after the red snow fell. In 2027 Andrews is the last man left alive on earth. As he watches, a glowing vessel drawn by horses approaches. It stops, and a non-human takes Andrews away. It is presumably Helios-- the repetition of the Greek myth of the fall of Phaeton being paralleled with the fall of man. * Much rant and purple prose; occasional powerful passages, but by and iarge a prolonged bore, although by no means unintelligent. MULLEN, STANLEY (1911- 1973?) American (Colorado) artist, author. Assistant Curator, Colorado State Historical Museum, specializing in Indian archeological material. Painted Indian ceremonial dances, series nationally exhibited. Fairly prolific author

MULLEN, STANLEY K. of pulp adventure and science-fiction. Editor of GORGON, fan magazine of 1940's. 1204. KINSMEN OF THE DRAGON Shasta Publishers; Chicago 1951 Fantastic adventure. * Eric Joyce, an American, helps Sir Rodney Dering to save the world from the Kinsmen of the Dragon, a secret society with its roots in Anwynn, a parallel world. There, descendants of ancient Celts from Ys retain a magical science that is superior in some ways to our rational science. Ingredients include reincarnation, dimensional passages, invasion from the other world, shadows that kill, atomics, and romance. * A low-level thriller suggesting the poorer aspects of A. Merritt and Sax Rohmer. [ANONYMOUS] 1205. THE MUMMY! A TALE OF THE TWENTY-SECOND CENTURY Henry Colburn; London 1827 The author of this is WEBB, JANE (1807-1858), better-knoNn as MRS. JOHN CLAUDIUS LOUDON. Together with her husband one of the foremost British horticultural writers of the century. Aided husband on technical botanical works, also wrote. popular works, notably THE LADIES' COMPANION TO THE FLOWER GARDEN (1841), which was in print throughout most of the Victorian period. She and her husband are among the unfamed creators of Victorian culture. * One of the children of FRANKENSTEIN, interesting in its curious medley of themes from current events, literature, and social theory. It contains snippets of almost every popular fictional form of its period and the immediate past, and also anticipates future developments. It offers utopian thought, Gothicism, anti-intellectualism, Egyptological discoveries, fantastic inventions, memories of Napoleon, Byronism, a dynastic theory of history, and much else. * The plot line, which is intricate and is not worth exploring in detail, is based on two concerns: first, the awakening, by electricity of the mummy of King Cheops and its presence as a symbol during later events, and secondly, the political, military, and amorous adventures of a group of characters. The s-f element is strong, with many inventions and many projections of history; the supernatural element enters in the background, in the ultimate anti-intellectual theme, when the Mummy reveals that it was not really revived by electricity, but by God as a warning against scientific prying. This is, of course, much the same message as in FRANKENSTEIN, although FRANKENSTEIN has no overt supernaturalism. * THE MUMMY! was reprinted in 1872, and was apparently fairly well known in its day. It is without literary merit, although interesting for its science-fictional ideas. MUNBY, A[LAN] N[OEL] L[ATlMER] (1913-1974) British librarian, bibliographer, author. Associated with Bernard Quaritch, rare book dealer; author of works dealing with bibliography. Librarian of King's College, Cambridge. 1206. THE ALABASTER HAND AND OTHER GHOST STORIES Dennis DODson; London 1949

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Stories written while the author was a prisoner of war in Germany, 1943-5. In the mode of M. R. James. [a] HERODES REDIVIVUS. The narrator, on finding a rare book in an acquaintance's collection, reminisces about a scandal and a peril of his schoolboy days. He had made the acquaintance of a bookseller named Race, who, in addition to collecting curiosa, seems to have murdered little boys. The connection is with Giles de Retz, who reappears every now and then in history. [b] THE INSCRIPTION. The small decorative temple erected by ancestor Samuel Winchcombe in 1785 not only conceals his grave, but contains a "sentinel" who will avenge profanation of the tomb. [c] THE ALABASTER HAND. There is a local tradition that no one should occupy the stall next to the alabaster funerary monument of Renaissance clergyman Walter Hinkman. When the new incumbent ventures to sit there, the hand of the monument seizes him. A partial explanation is to be found in a bit of church history, plus the discovery of a hidden relic. [d] THE TOP LEY PLACE SALE. When Dunton, a wealthy and insensitive boor, inherits Topley Place, he decides to sell the paintings, furniture, and miscellaneous effects by auction. Included in the sale are the relics of old Admiral Topley of the Napoleonic Wars-- loaded pistols, sword, portrait. During the night Dunton's own portrait is shot by the admiral's pistol and Dunton dies of a heart attack. [e] THE TUDOR CHIMNEY. During renovation of the Old Hall, a stately home, a chimney is opened and a very nasty ghost makes itself known. Its history is traced to the 17th century, when an obnoxious squire was burned to death by his enemies. [f] A CHRISTMAS GAME. Fenton, who left New Zealand under some sort of cloud, comes to a Christmas holiday with the narrator's family. During a game, Fenton collapses and has a stroke. As Fenton lies dying, the narrator sees a Maori, blinded, feeling his way toward Fenton's room. An act of brutality in Fenton's past. [g] THE WHITE SACK. The narrator, lost on Skye, makes his way with great difficulty through the hills and peat bogs. His last hours are the most dangerous, for he is being stalked by a white, mist-like thing-- a Celtic horror, the White Sack. [h] THE FOUR-POSTER. Old Clarkson the archeologist has horrible dreams and dies of a heart attack. The dreams consist of watching resurrection men taking up a corpse, and their apprehension. There were also noises and breezes that seemed supernatural, and the presence of a cloth-covered thing. The bed curtains are responsible. They have a history. [i] THE NEGRO'S HEAD. An 18th century murder mystery is solved. One of the murderers was drowned, perhaps by supernatural means. This is implied, rather than stated. [j] THE TREGANNET BOOK OF HOURS. The narrator has bought a medieval book of hours, but one leaf, that for the burial service, has been replaced by a modern forgery. The story: the original owner had caused the death of a neighboring landowner, whose land he coveted. At the death of

MUNBY, A. N. L. the owner of the book, the corpses of the injured parties appeared and prevented burial. The scene was recorded in the book of hours, but a later owner found it too horrible to keep and ripped it out. [k] AN ENCOUNTER IN THE MIST. Beverley is lost in the mountains of Wales when a kindly old man appears out of the mist and gives him a map. He follows the map and almost falls over a cliff. It seems that the old man is the ghost of a friendly 18th century hermit who does not realize that his map is out of date. ll] THE LECTERN. Wales. The narrator comes upon a ruined house which has the reputation of being haunted. The local vicar tells the story: during the Napoleonic Wars, the son of the house looted a lectern in Ireland and brought it home. One evening, while he was in the chapel, the lectern came to life and chewed him up. [m] NUMBER SEVENTY-NINE. When the narrator wants to buy Item 79, an occult manuscript, he learns that the bookseller has burned it. The bookseller's assistant had used it to raise the dead, altogether too successfully. [n] THE DEVIL'S AUTOGRAPH. The narrator goes to live with a bachelor uncle, a retired clergyman, and observes that the old man reacts strangely to comments having to do with the Devil. After the old man's death, it is discovered that he had signed a diabolical bond. The Devil's autograph is to be seen, misquoting Scripture. * Intelligent stories, with curious antiquarian information, yet with formal problems. The author has difficulty in closing his stories and the reader is often left dissatisfied. Best stories are [c], [k], [n]. MUNDY, TALBOT (pseud. of GRIBBON, WILLIAM LANCASTER, perhaps later name change) (18791940) British-born writer, later resident in U.S.A. Public servant in Africa, India, for ten years. Frequent contributor to adventure pulp magazines. Strongly interested in the occult, and active member in several organizations, notably the Point Lorna Theosophists in California. In his later years occult apologetics entered his work fairly heavily, usually as exhortatory material urging characters (and thereby readers) to change their life styles. Much of this is the occult version of muscular Christianity. * As a writer of adventure fiction set in exotic climes Mundy was one of the most skilled craftsmen of his day. Like Eric Ambler he had the ability to suggest locale and alien personality types by minimal hints and suggestions. He was also a good stylist and constructer of plots. If his characters separate themselves out into goods, bads, and mahatmas, this was partly due to his market. * Mundy wrote much of his fiction in series formed around a central character, although not all the stories in a series were necessarily fantastic. The earlier stories based on Athelstan King epitomize the sense of honor and duty of the best British military tradition, while the Jimgrim stories are based on an American who comes to have al-

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MUNDY, TALBOT most messianic stature. Grim seems to have been Mundy's favorite character, since he is central in many Near Eastern adventures set chronologically earlier than the Indian adventures that culminate in JIMGRIM. 1207. CAVES OF TERROR Garden City Publishing Co.; Garden City, N. Y. [1924] paperbound Oriental intrigue and adventure, with an occ'-1lt component. (ADVENTURE MAGAZINE, 1922) * Athelstan King, who has left the service of the Raj after frustrating Yasmini's attempt to take over India (described in KING-- OF THE KHYBER RIFLES, 1916), is assigned to investigate a dangerous revolutionary movement in India. yasmini is at work again. Associated with her is the Grey Mahatma, a most remarkable holy man who is either one of the Nine Unknown (a mysterious occult group that uses the Ancient Wisdom for its own ends) or high in its organization. Despite the Grey Mahatma's wisdom and intelligence, he was outwitted by Yasmini and she has gained a hold over him. King and Jeff Ramsden are captured by Yasmini, and under the escort of the Grey Mahatma they are taken down into a subterranean world, where they undergo trials and torments. They are also shown occult marvels: clairaudience, clairvoyance, transmutation, and much else. The purpose of the trip is that the Mahatma would like to recruit Grim-- though he also wants to kill Ramsden. King and Ramsden manage to escape, and the revolutionary movement collapses. But the Grey Mahatma, as punishment for his negligence in the matter of Yasmini, must be sacrificed to increase the secret science of the adepts. He is to be used as a guinea pig in vibratory experiments. King and Ramsden would like to save him, for they respect him highly, but when they return to the caves they find only a dusty skeleton, the last remnant of a once great sage. * Fast moving, nicely imagined, fictionally convincing exoticism. It has been reprinted in periodical form under the title THE GREY MAHATMA. 1208. THE NINE UNKNOWN Bobbs-Merrill; Indianapolis [1924] A nominal sequel to CAVES OF TERROR, not entirely consistent with it. (ADVENTURE MAGAZINE, 1923) * Jimgrim, King, Chullunder Ghose, Jeremy, Ramsden, Narayan Singh and Ali of Sikunderam undertake a quest for the Nine Unknown, who are now conceived of as a benevolent secret society that preserves the Ancient Wisdom and uses it to help mankind. Complications arise when the associates become entangled with a rival Nine of evil origin (Kali worshippers and Shaktists), who are also in search of the true Nine and its secrets. After considerable adventure, often involving supernatural elements, Jimgrim and his associates aid the Nine Unknown to destroy the false Nine. As a reward they are permitted to watch the purifying of the Ganges by transmutation of metals. * Excellent ethnic characterizations, in Ali, the best of Mundy's rogues from beyond the Khyber Pass, and in the slippery babu Chullunder Ghose.

MUNDY, TALBOT Original subject matter, rapid movement. One of the most successful attempts to weld adventure onto the occult novel. On the debit side are many reflective passages which are often coy. 1209. OM THE SECRET OF AHBOR VALLEY BobbsMerrill; Indianapolis [1924] Essentially a novel of trust and faith, using in part the mechanism of an Oriental adventure tale. * Cottswold Ommony, one of the finest foresters in the Indian service, has resigned his post after 23 years, perhaps to seek out a chimera. He intends to enter the Ahbor Valley, partly to see if he can discover the fate of his sister and her husband who disappeared there twenty years earlier, and partly to investigate a miraculous stone there, perhaps connected with the Masters. A fragment of the stone has come to Delhi-- just looking at it is an uncomfortable experience-- and intrigues start to grow around it. One of the claimants of the stone is the Lama Tsiang Samd up , a Tibetan abbot whom Ommony has never met, although they are fellow trustees of a Buddhist mission near the entrance to Ahbor Valley. Ommony has heard information about the lama that is shocking, and he decides to investigate him. The lama plans to travel about India with a troupe of actors, putting on a miracle play of a sort, and Ommony disguises himself as a Bhat Brahman to join the troupe. The disguise does not fool Tsiang Samdup for an instant and Ommony knows that the lama has recognized him, but both accept the fiction. The lama's chela, who also plays a leading part in the play, is a mysterious young person named Samding. By the time the tour is over, Ommony and the lama are convinced of each other's good faith, and the lama makes it possible for Ommony to enter the hidden valley of the Ahbors and see the remarkable stone. The stone, it seems, was created ages ago by great mental scientists who coexisted with the cave men, and it is a psychic mirror for self examination or perhaps for healing. Only Samding is able to stand before it in full light. But by admitting Ommony to the valley, the lama must die. It is his karma. He has violated the law of the Ahbors. He thereupon tells his life history. An extremely intelligent young man, sent to England and the Continent for education, he also underwent the traditional lamaist training to destroy pride and self will. When Ommony's sister and her husband, the Terrys, entered the valley Samdup was able to preserve their lives for a short time (before their natural deaths) by proclaiming that their unborn child would be a divine incarnation. It was almost true, for Elsa Terry (or Samding) is a remarkable person who is to be the new redeemer sent from the East to the West. Thereby the lama has come to understand both his own karmic flaws and the role of the greater Masters who occasionally advised him. He asks Ommony to accept guardianship of Samding. * An excellent Oriental novel, with fairly good characterizations, an

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MUNDY, TALBOT ingenious plot, and most of all a long, fascinating account of the life of an actor on the native Indian stage. 1210. THE DEVIL'S GUARD Bobbs-Merrill; Indianapolis [1926] British title RAMSDEN. A loose sequel to THE NINE UNKNOWN. * (ADVENTURE MAGAZINE, 1926) * Jimgrim and Ramsden receive a mysterious ~essage from Rait, a former friend of Ramsden's, asking them to rescue him from the Black Circle, an organization of evil Tibetan adepts. As inducement Rait offers a lead to Shamballa (in this context a place where schools of occult development are maintained) and a manuscript written by Jesus when he came to Tibet after the crucifixion. Although they distrust Rait, Jimgrim, Ramsden, Chullunder Ghose, and Narayan Singh enter Tibet. After great hardships and misfortunes they encounter the black magicians, but are badly beaten. Ramsden and Chullunder Ghose barely escape death, while Narayan Singh sacrifices himself to save his friends. Jimgrim alone wins through, since he has progressed to a higher state of understanding than his comrades, but even he needed help from benevolent adepts. Jimgrim is to go on to Shamballa. * A fast-moving action story, filled with adventure and occult lore, but good on Tibetan matters and thought-provoking. * This is Jimgrim's last supernatural adventure. In JIMGRIM, the sequel to this book, he sacrifices himself to destroy the menace of a wouldbe world-conqueror. JIMGRIM is science-fiction. 1211. BLACK LIGHT Bobbs-Merrill; Indianapolis [1930] Romance, Oriental plots, personality development. * India. Joe Beddington, young American millionaire with a vicious, dominating mother, becomes involved with Amrita, a young Western woman who has been reared in a heterodox Hindu temple by the master yogi Ram Chittra. Joe's mother disapproves of the romance, and a vicious maharaja wants to kidnap Amrita for his harem. Ram Chittra, who possesses many paranormal abilities and speaks in the Delphic manner common to magniloquent Mundy sages, resolves problems by invoking the Black Light. This is a projection of the akashic record. It reveals to the wicked their past misdeeds and inner rottenness. The rajah dies of snakebite; Joe's mother is defeated; Joe attains manhood and Amrita. * The plot is simple and leads up to the Black Light climax without much incident, but there are many long conversational clashes. Overlong and windy. This is the "ghost book" THE MAN FROM JUPITER that collectors used to try to find. Appleton-Century; New 1212. FULL MOON York 1935 British edition is titled THERE WAS A DOOR. * (AMERICAN WEEKLY, 1935) Oriental adventure and intrigue, based ultimately on a conceit of Charles Fort's, that people who disappear mysteriously may end in the fourth dimension. * Warrender, member of the Indian

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police, is instructed to investigate the disappearance of General Frensham. The trail, which he enters in disguise as a Pathan, begins in an Indian whorehouse (an institution which fascinated Mundy and appears in several of his stories) operated by Wu Tu, a beautiful Eurasian, whose Chinese name of Five Poisons fits her personality. It ends in a series of caves beneath Gaglajung in Rajputana. In the caves are to be found the remains of an incredible civilization. Imbedded in transparent stone is the nude body of a woman nine feet high, and around the area are artifacts of hardened gold, some of which yield documents of dimensional mathematics beyond what we know. In the caves is also the entrance to the fourth dimension, where the ancient great race apparently went en masse. What this fourth dimension is is only hinted, but it seems to be being beyond being. ~ae can enter the fourth dimension only during full moon. Warrender goes through many hair-raising adventures before the case is concluded, and he wins a wife in Frensham's daughter, whom he finally realizes that he loves. Taron Ling, a remarkable hypnotist who can cast horror visions, meets a well-deserved death, while Wu Tu, also a skilled hypnotist, enters the fourth dimension-- which is what she wanted. The police will suppress everything. Technically competent, but written down, rather tired, and without the odd charm of much of Mundy's other work. 1213. OLD UGLY FACE Appleton-Century; N,~w York 1940 Nominally this is a sequel to THE TH~ER DRAGO~ GATE (a guns and guts novel of Oriental adventure and political intrigue), but it is best considered as an independent work. The characterizations have changed from the first novel; the inner situation has become highly supernatural, whereas the first novel was rational; and the author's mode of presentation is a new one, being an attempt to write a novel with the character analysis and descriptive detail of a mainstream novel. It is also a vehicle for the author's occult concerns with many pages of Vedantic Christianity. The ultimate causation is political chaos in Tibet. The old Dalai Lama and the Tashi Lama are both dead, and the young Dalai Lama, a five-year old boy, is a political prize whom various parties are desperate to control or replace: Russians, Germans, Japanese, British. At the moment the new Dalai Lama is being held prisoner, virtually for sale. The only incorruptible figure of the former administration is the remarkable Ring Ding Gelong Lama Lobsang Pun (Old Ugly Face), who is now a fugitive, with a price on his head. The subterranean policy of the British in India is to restore Lobsang Pun to power as Regent, and to keep the Dalai Lama independent of foreign control. Andrew Gunning and Elsa Burbage Grayne, wife of Tom Grayne (who remained in Tibet after the events of THE THUNDER DRAGON GATE) plan to enter Tibet to bring supplies to Grayne, and become in-

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volved in a very complex nexus of plots. After many side issues they conduct Old Ugly Face to the Shig-po-ling monastery, where the boy Dalai Lama is being held. From there it is a relatively easy matter for Old Ugly Face to make himself master of the situation. The supernatural element is omnipresent, with several of the characters (especially Elsa) having strong telepathic abilities. Lobsang Pun himself is apparently only a littie below being a Master. Thought transmittal, control of action of others, induced visions, bilocation, control of material phenomena are only part of his abilities. As the story ends he fulfills the desires of Elsa, Gunning, and Tom Grayne. Despite the obtrusive and boring philosophizing an otherwise well handled novel. The action plot is well integrated with the other concerns, and the author's technique for retaining suspense through long conversations is both unusual and successful.

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MUNN, H[AROLD] WARNER (1903 - 1982) American writer who has worked at many other jobs, including lumber industry on the West Coast. Friend and associate of H. P. Lovecraft, with mutual influence. Early contributor to WT, other occasional fiction. In recent years author of fairly elaborate fantastic adventure novels. 1214. THE WEREWOLF OF PONKERT Grandon Co.; Providence, R.I. 1958 Anonymous biographical introduction about Munn. Two very popular stories from early issues of WT. Transylvania, middle to late 15th century. The first document is revealed by a document written on human skin, that of the werewolf himself. [al THE WEREWOLF OF PONKERT. (WT 1925) Wladislaw Brenryk, a jeweller, recounts his horrible life. The area is beset with werewolves, and Brenryk is attacked by a pack. He kills one of them and-- such being the custom-- is offered by the Master his choice of death or taking the place of the dead werewolf. He becomes a werewolf, but being more intelligent than the others, feels abhorrence at his way of life. He schemes to destroy the Master and become a normal man again. The plot fails, and the Master, as a disciplinary measure, forces Brenryk to kill and eat his wife and deliver his daughter to the wolves. After this Brenryk does not wish to live any longer and informs to the military, who kill all the werewolves except the Master. He is more truly supernatural, even to being vamp~r~c. Brenryk himself is executed. [bl THE WEREWOLF'S DAUGHTER. (WT 1928) Brenryk's daughter was not killed by the wolves, but has grown up in Ponkert, with Dmitri, the captain of the troop who took Brenryk, as her foster father. She does not know her origin, but the villagers all hate her and fear her. It is generally understood that when the formidable old Dmitri dies, she will be killed. Hugo, a young Frenchman accompanying a Gipsy caravan through Ponkert, falls in love with her and rescues her when the villagers at-

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MUNN, H. WARNER attack. Old Dmitri dies holding back the fanatical villagers, and behind everything the Master plots. A new complication enters. When Ivga was fastened at the pyre, her soul left her body and promised the Master one of her descendants each generation, in exchange for rescue. This opens the way for several sequels. * These two stories are the first and third in a sequence of six. * Now mostly a nostalgia item, although the first story has interesting touches. MURPHY, JAMES British author. Irish? 1215. THE HAUNTED CHURCH A NOVEL Spencer and Blackett; London 1889 A strange medley of ghosts, treasure, South American political adventure. * Ireland in part. Captain Phil Driscoll, a retired slaver, murders Swarthy Bill, an old shipmate who inconveniently turns up. But Swarthy Bill cannot be disposed of this easily: his ghost haunts the area vigorously. A second plot is concerned with Cantrell, Swarthy Bill's son, at the university. (Bill had been the black sheep of a good family.) Cantrell has many prophetic dreams and visions associated with his dead father. A trip to South America and a revolution are also included. * A hodgepodge that certainly does not deserve the high rating that Montague Summers implied for it in his introduction to VICTORIAN GHOST STORIES. MURRAY, VIOLET T[ORLESSE] (1874 - ? British journalist, occasional author, anthologist. Her other work of interest, FIFTY MASTERPIECES OF MYSTERY (Odhams Press; London 1937), an anonymously edited anthology, has occasional supernatural fiction, largely duplicated in the CENTURIES. It has not been available for examination. 1216. THE RULE OF THE BEASTS Stanley Paul; London [1925] Borderline science-fiction. * 1933 as seen in retrospcct from 4030. A terrible plague sweeps the world, destroying all mankind except Synding and a few friends who have been protected by injections of elan vital. When the humans start to rebuild a culture, they discover that animals have now been endowed with reason equal to that of humans, yet still possess instincts that are near to God (or nature). Mankind must redevelop under the unwelcome tutelage of the animals, but the new society will be better than the previous. * Mildly amusing at times, but generally routine. [MUSAEUS, JOHANN KARL AUGUST] (1736-1787) German educator (Weimar Gymnasium), literary figure. Probably the first important German author to make use of folkloristic fairy tales for fictional purposes. An Enlightenment writer rather than a Romantic, his work was very popular and widely diffused; it undoubtedly set off many imitations in German and English. Several of his stories (by chance not included

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MUSAEUS, J. K. in Beckford's translation) were often anthologized in 19th century English-language anthologies. * Not a great writer, but a very good story teller. Unlucky in being surpassed as c'. folklorist by the Grimms and as a writer of fantastic fiction by Hoffmann. See the author index for other material by Musaeus. 1217. POPULAR TALES OF THE GERMANS TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN J. Murray; London 1791 3 vol. (published anonymously) The translation has been attributed to William Beckford, but to my knowledge no evidence has ever been published to support the attribution. * From VOLKSMAHRCHEN DER DEUTSCHEN (1782-7, 5 vol.) * [a] RICHILDA. (RICHILDE) Medieval Brabant. Albertus Magnus, great magician and sage, as a birth present gives Richilda a magical mirror that will show what she wishes. She grows up to be a proud, vain woman, and often asks the mirror who is fairest in the land. She also asks about the handsomest man. This is Gombold, who is already married. Gombold cannot resist Richilda's charms. He divorces his wife and marries Richilda, bringing into his home his young daughter Blanca. When Blanca grows up, the mirror, of course, shows Blanca to Richilda, who tries various expedients to be rid of her. With the help of the court dwarfs Blanca escapes and Richilda is suitably punished. lb] THE BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES OF THE THREE SISTERS. (DIE BUCHER DER CHRONIKA DER DREI SCHWESTERN) The baron, who is somewhat reckless with the lives of others, is trapped successively by three animals: a bear, an eagle, and a leviathan (whale), to each of whom he promises a daughter. The animals come in human form and take the women off to their courts. When Rinaldo, the baron's son, grows up he determines to find and rescue his sisters. He visits each in turn. They are happy, apart from their husbands' transformations. The bear is human one day a week; the eagle, one week out of seven; and the leviathan one month out of seven. During their human phase they give him tokens, and Rinaldo goes in quest of the source of the enchantment. This is the dead magician Zornebock. With the aid of the tokens he overcomes the magician's magic, and the beasts assume permanent human form. All is well. (Zornebock, of course, is an old Slavic deity, the black god, later assimilated to the Christian Devil.) [c] THE STEALING OF THE VEIL, OR THE TALE A LA MONTGOLFIER. (DER GERAUBTE SCHLEIER) Friedbert sees three beautiful swan maidens bathing and steals the veil of one, thereby freezing her in human form. They are about to be married when the maiden manages to get her veil back and flies away. Friedbert seeks her out, and eventually finds her on Naxos. * [d] ELFIN FREAKS, OR, THE SEVEN LEGENDS OF NUMBER-NIP. (LEGENDEN DER RUBEZAHL) The Rubezahl is a mischievous local nature demon. As with comparable demons across the Old World, apotropaic magic against him consists of setting him to count innumerable objects. He is not good at arithmetic and becomes entangled in the counting process.

MUSAEUS, J. K. Five stories involving the Number-Nip, as follows. [e] [Untitled] He kidnaps Emma and takes her into caverns below. To keep her entertained he supplies her with baskets of turnips, which his magic permits her to turn into servants and companions. She eventually uses the old ruse of setting him counting and escapes. [f] lUntitled] While still angry about his fiasco with Emma, the Number-Nip hears a young traveller make an insulting remark about him. He frames the young man as a highway robber. When his victim is about to be hanged, the Number-Nip relents, yielding to the pleas of the young man's fianc~e, and turns the hanging into a farce. [g] [Untitled] An honest peasant borrows money from the Number-Nip and returns it on time. [h] [Untitled] The Number-Nip comes to the help of a devoted, hardworking wife cursed with a weak, brutal husband. [i] [Untitled] A rogue impersonates the Number-Nip and in the form of a headless horseman highjacks a coach with the countess and her daughters. The true Number-Nip comes to their rescue. As Count Giantdale he entertains them, while transporting the rogue back into prison. * [j]. THE NYMPH OF THE FOUNTAIN. (DIE NYMPHE DES BRUNNENS) When young Matilda is abused by her stepmother, she leaves home and takes service with the housekeeper of the Knight Templar Conrad. Her mother had been friendly with the local nymph of the fountain, who gave Matilda, as a birth present, a wooden pomander which will grant three wishes. Matilda uses two of them to gain entrance, in wonderful raiment, to the knight's ball, and the third, after she has married the knight, to protect her children from a wicked nurse and her mother-in-law. * Amusingly told, in a strange compromise between awe and irony. The themes, of course, are folkloristic fairy tales. MUS PRATT , ROSALIE [HELEN] (1906-1976) British journalist, occasional writer. Also wrote under pseudo JASPER JOHN. 1218. TALES OF TERROR Henry Walker; London 1931 Short stories, including [a] THE CASTLE OF SHADOWS. A paying guest in Ireland, a ghost in ruffs, the supernatural shadow of a dog. According to the author, the explanatory tale is too horrible to be told, and isn't. [b] THE FOXES' REVENGE. Foxes strike back at the Master of the Hunt. When he is thrown and lies dying, the fox masks in his house come to life. After the funeral a fox sits on his grave and causes the dead man's son to commit suicide. [c] THE GREEN GOD. A green jade idol commits murder. [d] A VENETIAN GHOST STORY. Rough Venetian fishermen jocularly send a boy to invite to dinner a corpse that they had fished out of the water. It comes. [e] THE TRICOLOUR DEATH. Borderline sciencefiction. Corsican revenge with outlandish rays. [f] A GHOST OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS. It leads people to its skeleton. [g] THE CURSE OF RAVENSMORE. A luck cup, a closed room, a hostile old ghost who curses a woman to

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NATHA.H, ROBERT bear a child with a dog's paw for an arm. [h] THE BRIDE. A boy is betrothed by his half-mad father to an iron statue of a "Chaldean Venus of the first period." When he comes of age, he mocks the statue by putting a ring on its finger, and the obvious happens. [i] THE SISTERS OF LONE SANDS HALL. Family degeneracy, dipsomania, a haunted house. [j] THE MYSTERIOUS MARRIAGE. A ghost with a sword. [k] THE HOUSE OF THE SKULL. A skull kept in a cage does not wish to be buried. * The spine of the book carries Jasper John as author, while the title page gives the author as Rosalie Muspratt/ Jasper John. * Crude stories of literal horror. Of no importance. MYERS, JOHN MYERS (1906 American novelist, poet. Best-known work perhaps THE HARP AND THE BLADE (1941), good debunking historical adventure set in France during the Dark Ages. 1219. SILVERLOCK Dutton; New York 1949 Adventures among literary characters and in literary situations, with a vague theme of spiritual growth. * Shandon (who is later called Silverlock because of a white lock of hair) is the only survivor of the ship Naglfar (out of Norse mythology) when it goes down. In the sea he meets a person named Golias (from the author of the medieval Goliard poems), who seems to know much more about their circumstances than does Shandon. They are off a land called the Commonwealth [of literature]. After some difficulties they reach land and undergo a series of episodic adventures among literary personalities: Circe, Robinson Crusoe's cannibals, Norse raiders, Don Quixote, Robin Hood, Gargantua, Beowulf, and many others. Shandon, who grows somewhat in altruism, almost ends up in Hell. After his escape he awakens again in the sea, floating, but in the wrong ocean. * Individual adventures are nicely handled and are sometimes paradoxically amusing, but the device palls after a time, especially since there is no strong central unifying factor.

NATHAN, ROBERT [GRUNTAL] (1894 American novelist, poet, playwright. A fine craftsman, noted for a characteristic light, ironic approach that is not as superficial as it first seems. Among better-known works, THE FIDDLER IN BARLY (1926), JOURNEY OF TAPIOLA (1938), PORTRAIT OF JENNIE (1940). Most of his books fall into the area where whimsy and fantasy overlap. Only those books that are supernatural are described. 1220 •. THE BISHOP'S WIFE Bobbs-Merrill; Indianapolis [1928] Character study, with fantasy as a vehicle for irony. * The Bishop, a worldly cleric,

NATHAN, ROBERT is obsessed with building a cathedral, not for reasons of faith, nor even of egotism, but simply because he believes that a bigger and better building is called for in modern America. He needs funds, and in an odd moment wishes that he had an angel to help him. The Archangel Michael appears and agrees to act as his archdeacon. When Michael first arrives, he is as unworldly as the bishop is worldly, but he gradually becomes altered by his stay on earth. He and the bishop's wife fall in love, but their romance cannot be physical, since the angel is sexless. Eventually the angel returns to Heaven. Nothing much has been been accomplished, beyond bringing color and love to the otherwise vague existence of the bishop's wife. * Pleasantly told, but light weight. 1221. THERE IS ANOTHER HEAVEN Bobbs-Merrill; Indianapolis [1929] Honesty, self-respect, and after death experiences in Heaven. * Three men cross the River Jordan into Heaven. They are Professor Wutheridge, previously met as a minor character in THE BISHOP'S WIFE; young Meiggs, whose mother was a social force in town; and Sammy Lewis, born Levy, who converted to Christianity partly because of business and social reasons and partly because he wanted to be loved. Heaven turns out to be a dismal place. Wutheridge discovers that his parents are young and foolish, and that a lover of his mother's lives with them. He soon learns that he has nothing in common with the teasing sexual antics of his parents. Meiggs learns that his mother selfishly wants to keep him as a small boy. Lewis-Levy is unhappy because there is no visible God, no Jesus, no angels. Lewis alone has the strength to act. He leaps into the Jordan, hoping to find Jesus back on earth, and has a rebirth experience in the river. He emerges happy and meets a Friend, who has for him the Bread of Life. He has accepted his Jewish heritage. * The threads are not entirely clear. Concentration on a single character instead of contrasting three, as different qualities, might have been more successful. 1222. PORTRAIT OF JENNIE Knopf; New York 1940 Short semiallegorical supernatural novel, dealing with problems of hope and love. * Jennie, at first, is a little girl dressed in somewhat old-fashioned clothing, redolent of the past. Eben Adams, a talented but unsuccessful artist, meets her in Central Park, sketches her, and begins to be successful commercially. He meets her on several later occasions and continues to paint her, but she is strange. Her references are all to a dead past. She grows too rapidly. And she appears and disappears in an almost supernatural manner. By the end of the year she is a young woman, and she and Adams are in love. He goes to the Cape, where she has promised to meet him. He finds her in the waves, during the great hurricane of 1938, and she is seemingly washed away. Later he hears what he already

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NATHAN, ROBERT knew, that Jennie had been washed overboard from a ship, while returning from an eight year stay abroad. * It has always been disputable what Jennie really is, apart from being dissociated time stages of a personality which manifests itself to a man sorely in need of hope and love. Nathan apparently considered her an embodiment of Dunne's theory of serial time. But, as Adams says, "You think God is trying to tell me something, but what?" * Poignant and thought-provoking, in many ways Nathan's finest work. 1223. BUT GENTLY DAY Knopf; New York 1943 The Owl Creek Bridge motif smoothly handled, plus philosophizing on life, values, love, Americanism, etc. * During World War II a plane crashes in backwoods Pennsylvania. We next see Cpl. Henry Arkbester, U.S.A.F., walking through the countryside, on furlough to visit his family and Eileen, his fianc~e. He is accompanied by a chaplain, who happens to be going in the same direction. Together they reach the Arkbester farm, but it is inhabited by strangers-- hospitable, kindly, but limited. Soon Henry comes to see and accept that he has come into the past, right after the Civil War, and that the present Arkbesters must be his great grandparents. He enters the simple life and takes part in the conversations on ethics, politics, morality, and society that engage the Arkbesters and tries to awaken them to a little more tolerance. He meets another Eileen and falls in love with her, but as he is trying to protect a runaway girl from her outraged father, he is accidentally killed. His death will presumably affect the past. Back in the 1940's people gather around the plane, examining the corpses. They find Henry, a burnt spot over his heart (where he had been shot), and a smile on his face. * Competently and interestingly developed, although the question of acceptance is rather smoothly bypassed. The chaplain's discussions with the temporals are well handled. He is presumably God or a semidivine figure. 1224. THE RIVER JOURNEY Knopf; New York 1949 Short novel, death in various traditional symbolic forms. * Minnie Parkinson has just heard from her doctor that she has only a short time to live and wishes to be remembered by her husband. Leaving him money, she decides, is not enough. But she likes the idea of buying a river boat and sailing together down the river as a remembrance journey. Two other persons accompany them on the boat. One, Nora, is also under a medical death sentence, with a weak heart, while the fourth member of the party, Mr. Mortimer, is obviously Death. The party moves slowly down the river, each changing as life carries them on. Minnie finds herself attracted to Death, while Nora and Minnie's husband Henry find a mutual attraction. As the journey comes to a conclusion, Minnie recognizes that memory in other persons means little. She decides that she

NATHAN, ROBERT wants to leave with Death immediately. During an accident at a circus, both Minnie and Nora are taken away by Death. * Very nicely told. 1225. THE INNOCENT EVE Knopf; New York 1951 Ironic fantasy. * The atomic problem, and Eve spoils things again. * Millionaire contractor Martin Clough is giving a Hallowe'en costume party. Various types are present: journalist, book reviewer, senator, bishop, member of a foreign trade mission, representative from Southeast Asia, movie producer, his starlet mistress Mary Ann, etc. Lucifer and Samantha, a female demon, crash the party. Lucifer is there for a purpose, and while Samantha establishes an erotic rapport with the journalist, Lucifer has colloquies with the various guests. Toward midnight Lucifer makes his proposal. As envoy from Tartarus, he offers to take complete charge of the atomic bomb. In this way earth can be saved. Lucifer offers each guest a wish-fulfillment dream, and it looks as if his proposal might be accepted, when Mary Ann's primal innocence spoils his plans. In the meanwhile, Samantha has made love to and consumed the journalist. As Lucifer and Samantha soar away from earth, Lucifer hopes that there may be other inhabited planets. A flash behind them is probably earth exploding. * The casual ironic note is well maintained; the balance between types and individuals is 'held; and there are occasional good epigrams. The ending is forced. NEALE, ARTHUR No information, but it is a reasonable guess that this is a pseudonym for Marjorie Bowen (Mrs. Gabrielle Campbell Long). AS EDITOR: 1226. THE GREAT WEIRD STORIES Duffield; New York 1929 Including, described elsewhere, [al THE GREAT KEINPLATZ EXPERIMENT, A. C. Doyle. [bl THE RED ROOM, H. G. Wells. lcl THE WOMAN'S GHOST STORY, Algernon Blackwood. [dl IN THE VALLEY OF THE SORCERESS, Sax Rohmer. [el THE MARK OF THE BEAST, Rudyard Kipling. [fl THE BLACK CAT, Edgar Allan Poe. [gl THE TAPESTRIED CHAMBER, Sir Walter Scott. [hl THE SHINING PYRAMID, Arthur Machen. lil THE TRIAL FOR MURDER, Charles Dickens. * Also [jl IN LETTERS OF FIRE, Gaston Leroux. France. The master of La Chaux-de-Fonds makes a diabolical bond. "Thou shalt win!" is burned into his wardrobe, and he never loses at cards. The dogs were stricken dumb at the Devil's appearance. Anonymous translation from French. [kl ALMODORO'S CUPID, William Waldorf Astor. A confused story of the wicked Renaissance Baron Racoczy, whose portrait emerges from its frame. It wears a magic ring that makes it irresistible to females. Also visions of the past. l1] THE GHOST'S "DOUBLE," L. F. Austin. A pretty female ghost from the past, plus her disconcerting ghostly double. [ml THE MAN WHO LIVED BACKWARDS, Allen Upward. An Indian yogi turns time back for him to a crisis point, and he lives backwards. A magic ring is involved. lnl A GHOST OF A HEAD, Anonymous.

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NESBIT, EDITH Probably translated from French. Public Prosecutor Desa11eux is responsible for the execution of an innocent man, and the head of the dead man haunts him. [ol THE DOPPELGANGER, Anonymous. Germany. Mesmerism, astral bodies, doppelgangers. * Also included are "The Power of Darkness" by E. Nesbit and "The Warder of the Door," by L. T. Meade and Robert Eustace, which are not really supernatural. NEELE, HENRY (1798-1828) British author, suicide while insane. Well-regarded as a minor poet and critic during his lifetime. Most important work LECTURES ON ENGLISH POETRY, published posthumously in volume below. 1227. THE LITERARY REMAINS OF THE LATE HENRY NEELE Smith and Elder; London 1828 A posthumous collection of essays, poems, short fiction, including [al TOTTERIDGE PRIORY. The narrator converses with the ghost of Lord Chesterfield, who despises the Elizabethan poets for their crudeness and prefers to talk scandal. A dream. [bl THE SHAKESPEARE ELYSIUM. In Heaven Shakespeare's characters are to be found living in various expected groupings. A dream. [cl THE DINNER OF THE MONTHS and [dl EVERY DAY AT BREAKFAST. Slight stories built upon personifications of days and months. [el THE COMET. The most ambitious story in the collection. The narrator, while travelling, meets Dr. von Schwarzmann, a saturnine figure whom the ignorant consider to be the Devil. Schwarzmann tells his story. When he was born, it was under a comet, and each succeeding crisis in his life has occurred at the appearance of a comet. A comet is currently visible and Schwarzmann meets his fate from a spring gun. [fl THE MAGICIAN'S VISITOR. The Renaissance magician Cornelius Agrippa is visited by a stranger who wants to see the spirit of his dead daughter Miriam. Agrippa reveals her in a mirror. As the stranger leaves, Agrippa observes (from a realistic religious painting of the Crucifixion) that the stranger was the Wandering Jew. [gl THE HOURI. A PERSIAN TALE. Death prophecy and a magic mirror * [fl, which was occasionally anthologized in the early 19th century is much the best story in the collection. The other stories are negligible. NESBIT, ED ITH (marriage name BLAND, MRS. HUBERT) (1858-1924) British journalist, poet, author of children's books. One of founders of the Fabian Society. Became very popular as author of nicely written stories (often more or less fantastic) about British children of the upper middle class: THE RAILWAY CHILDREN, THE WOULD-BE GOODS, THE TREASURE SEEKERS, etc. The cultural patterns and values in these are now so strange that the realistic portions seem fantastic. 1228. GRIM TALES A. D. Innes & Co.; London 1893 Victorian ghost stories from periodical sources. * [al THE EBONY FRAME. When the narrator

NESBIT, EDITH opens the strangely sealed painting, he discovers a likeness of himself in Cavalier dress and the picture of a beautiful woman. He evokes the woman, who was a 17th century witch, and she persuades him to forswear Heaven. The house catches on fire and the picture is destroyed. Also reincarnation. [b] JOHN CHARRINGTON'S WEDDING. Charrington told his friends and fianc~e that he would return from the dead, if necessary, for his wedding. He does. [c] UNCLE ABRAHAM'S ROMANCE. Back in the early 19th century he fell in love with a young woman who seemed to live in a graveyard. She set him a definite appointment, warning him that if he missed it, he would lose her. He missed it. [d] THE MYSTERY OF THE SEMI-DETACHED. Premonitory visions of a crime. [e] FROM THE DEAD. After relinquishing the woman he loved, on learning that she loved another, the protagonist married the girl who had warned him about his former fiancee. When he learns that she had forged the evidence, he leaves her. She dies in childbirth, but her corpse is animated and presumably would assume life if he had enough faith and love to retain her. But he fails. [f] MAN-SIZE IN MARBLE. Two stone effigies on a tomb. They come to life and walk about once a year, and woe to the person whom they catch. [g] THE MASS FOR THE DEAD. Premonitory audition. Kate, being forced into an unwelcome marriage, hears the mass for the man she does not want. * [f] is a fairly good story, but the others are routine periodical stories, often sensational in the wrong way and undeveloped. Nesbit was far better at children's books. 1229. DORMANT Methuen; London [1911] Borderline science-fiction. * Drelincourt, who is searching for the elixir of life, comes into an unexpected inheritance and then discovers that his ancestors had undertaken the same quest as he. In the family mansion he discovers a hid~en room with a beautiful young woman in it. She has been in suspended animation for more than fifty years. He revives her, falls in love with her, but both die accidentally when she tries to render him immortal. * Average. [ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 1230. NEW TALES OF HORROR BY EMINENT AUTHORS Hutchinson; London l1934] Mysteries and supernatural stories, including [a] THE LOST CLUB, Arthur Machen. Described elsewhere. * Also [b] THE MURDERER, Richard Middleton. The victim is seized and tried as the murderer. Merging of identities? [c] MEDUSAN MADNESS, E. H. Visiak. A madman tries to express the inexpressible with hints of a vision at sea, of powers beyond man. Interesting, but cryptic. [d] SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS, John Gawsworth. (pseud. of Terence Ian Fytton Armstrong) A girl passing through a swamp is torn between two perils which her imagination creates: tongues of fire from the trees, in imitation of Pentecost, and the dangers of the swamp itself. Psychological rather than

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NEWTE, H. W. C. supernatural. [e] THE TRUTH, Frederick Carter. Two versions of the same incident: one, a supernatural tale of a dead man who rode atop his rival to meet a dead mistress; the other, explanation in terms of abnormal psychology. [f] A'BODY'S LASSIE, Hugh MacDiarmid. The ghost of a young woman who appears to several people, assuming for each the features of his own dead. Memory. Scottish dialect. [g] THE STRANGER, Hugh MacDiarmid. In a taproom, old Ben refuses to drink with a stranger because Ben's wife says that the stranger was not born of man and woman. The wife is a seeress of a sort. The stranger settles the argument. [h] The HOUSE OF DUST, Herbert de Hamel. World War I. Haunted house and material proof later. [i] JOSHUA GREENWAY, E. H. W. Meyerstein. A somewhat confused story of magic and revenge. [j] MURDERER'S CORNER, Charles Duff. A howcould-I-have-known story about ghosts in the town jail. [k] DRINK MONSTER, Charles Duff. A pair of "eye crystals" are mistaken for animal eyes and cause death by suggestion. [1] THE NEW WAR, Herbert Palmer. A dream in which matter declares war on humanity, and earthquakes and vulcanism devastate the planet. [m] VISION AND TELEVISION, R. L. Megros. A television broadcast is interrupted by a telecast from the future. Borderline science-fiction. * [b], [c], [g] are best. * The editor of this anthology was John Gawsworth. NEWTE, H[ORACE] W[YKEHAM] C[AN] (1870-1949) British author, journalist; frequent contributor to periodicals and newspapers. 1231. THE EALING MIRACLE A REALISTIC STORY Mills and Boon; London [1911] Social novel focusing on sexual mores in terms of fantasy. * Olive Teversham-Dingle, socialite and prude, is an influential member of the church of St. Dionysius. Lena Swallow, an intelligent young woman, approaches her and asks her for a recommendation as district nurse for the church. Olive, who learns that Lena has born an illegitimate child and is not repentant, is indignant and sees that Lena does not get the job. This is a blow to Lena, who is desperately in need of work. As Olive rebuffs Lena, her eyes fallon a "venerable stranger," and the personalities of Lena and Olive are interchanged. Lena-in-Olive does not cope well with her new life, while Olive-in-Lena finds her new role impossible. On several occasions she is on the edge of starvation. She works at various small jobs without too much success. When she meets Lena's lover (a pillar of the church), she learns that he had some justification for his action and she falls in love with him. She repulses him, however, and does not consummate her passion. When everything seems hopeless and death near, Olive-inLena meets the Man of Sorrows again and is transferred back to her old body. This move solves economic problems, but it does not change the fact that Olive is still in love with Lena's lover. * Full Edwardian development, perhaps a little too caricatured for modern reading.

NICHOLSON, JOHN NICHOLSON, JOHN (pseud. of PARCELL, NORMAN H.) British author. 1232. COSTELLO. PSYCHIC INVESTIGATOR Arthur H. Stockwell; Ilfracombe, Devon [1954] Exploits of an occult detective, closely derivative from W. H. Hodgson's CARNACKI, THE GHOST-FINDER. * [a] THE CASE OF THE SIGHING GHOST. Spectral appearance and heavy sighs from the tragic Lady Matheson, early 18th century mistress of Matheson Manor. She wants to reveal documents. [b] THE MONSTER OF THE GREEN ROOM. A horrible, murderous monstrosity from the spiritual badlands. [c] THE HAUNTING OF LONGDON BARROW. A barrow is excavated, a burial chamber found, and a skeleton removed. After that, dangerous phenomena. [d] THE CASE OF THE GNASHING TEETH. Manifestations of a set of teeth, later followed by the rest of the skeleton. [e] THE CASE OF THE STRANGLING HAIR. William Joyce is assaulted and finally murdered by long, yellow hair, which wraps itself around his neck. It is from his wife, whom he murdered. [f] THE WALKER IN THE PICTURE GALLERY. When Sir Denzil's ghost 'walks, those who meet him die soon after. Art thieves in the picture gallery suffer that misfortune. [g] THE TERROR OF THE DEVEREUX VAULTS. Each new holder of the title must offer a Black Mass and sell himself to the Devil within six months after acceding, or there will be trouble. The present titleholder does not follow precedent, and is pestered by the demonfilled corpse of the last baronet. Lh] THE EVIL IN PURTON COPPICE. A horror, presumably the ghost of a murderer, slashes its victims to death in the coppice. * Weak, trite, literal supernaturalism. NICOLSON, J[OHN] U[RBAN] (1885-? American poet, author. 1233. FINGERS OF FEAR Covici Friede; New York 1937 Horror laid on thick. * Selden Seaverns, who is down and out during the Great Depression, is offered a position by a club acquaintance whom he accidentally meets. To help the friend, Ormond Ormes, gain an inheritance, he agrees to write a thesis on the influence of Elizabethan literature on the colonies. They proceed to Ormes's home, in the wilds of the Berkshires, and Seaverns finds himself in the middle of horrors and terrors galore. The house is haunted, and he sees a lady ghost vanish through the walls. This is later explained. Everyone in the family (with one exception) is insane, and the insanity takes the form of homicidal pseudo-lycanthropy. He sees a beautiful, nude young woman try to bite a servant to death. He finds another woman with her throat cut, also chewed. Orme is accidentally killed when he tries to tear Seavern's throat out. Other shocking devices include incest, dead illegitimate babies kept in the . safe, corpses in the cistern, and another nude young woman who has sexual transports while embracing a portrait. The supernatural enters with the ghost of Ormes's father, who controls the activities of his descendants to

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NORMAN, HENRY some degree and is occasionally seen when things are worst. His picture is alive, and his laugh is not mirthful. * A deliberate attempt by an intelligent stylist at a material-horror shocker. It does not come across; the horror is laid on too thick and the characterization of the half-despicable hero does not jell. * Written forty years too early. Today it would make a fine horror movie. [ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 1234. NIGHTMARES A COLLECTION OF UNEASY TALES Philip Allan; London [1933] One of the CREEPS SERIES, edited by Charles L. Birkin. * Including [a] HIGH TIDE, Hester Holland Gaskell. Death and seemingly supernatural revenge as a dead man, temporarily "prayed alive," traps his enemy at high tide. [b] THE ESCAPE, John Batho. Premonitory vision of a murder. [c] "BINKIE, " A. C. S. Tibbett. India. A mummified cat acts as protector to one it likes. [d] HANGMAN'S COTTAGE, Philip Murray. A cottage on the site of an old gallows. Psychic impressions of the past and supernaturally induced suicide. [e] THE HEADLESS LEPER, Frederick Cowles. A mass celebrated by leper ghosts, pursuit, skeleton. [f] THE HAUNTED BUNGALOW, B. Lumsden Milne. Malaya. The ghost of a native mistress watches over the Englishman, but disapproves of his marriage. [g] THE END OF THE HOLIDAY, V. A. Chappell. Caught in Deepdene after dark and sacrificed by the ghosts of ancient priests. [h] THE CURSE, Ronald Aggett. An ancient feud, possession, ghost, murder. [i] THE WHIMPUS, Tod Robbins. Adventure nouvelle. A mermaidlike fish with golden hair and deep blue eyes. It delights in gold and jewelry, and charms human males by a humming noise. Obvious spoofing idea. * Negligible except for [i]. NISBET, HUME (1849-1921) British author, born in Scotland, resident intermittently in Australia, where died. Unsuccessful artist, art teacher turned to fiction writing, where became prolific author of rubbishy romances and adventure stories. 1235. STORIES WEIRD AND WONDERFUL F. V. White; London [1900] Short stories, including [a] A CUP OF SAMOS. An antiquary meets a young woman who claims to have slept since the days of the Druids. She was a seeress. [b] THE OLD WRECK. A dream of pirate treasure comes true. [c] THE VAMPIRE MAID. A vampire. [d] NORAH AND THE FAIRIES. A child sees fairies. [e] THE OLD PORTRAIT. An old, painted-over picture, when cleaned, releases a vampiric woman. * Crude and sensational. NORMAN, [Sir] HENRY (1858-1939) Important British politician, newspaperman. Area studies, THE REAL JAPAN (1892), PEOPLE AND POLITICS OF THE FAR EAST (1895). Long a member of Parliament, where was influential on important committees. Sometimes called the Savior of Niagara Falls, since his publicity efforts led to preservation. Present

NORMAN, HENRY volume dates from his early years in book publishing. AS EDITOR: 1236. THE WITCHING HOUR (UNWIN'S ANNUAL FOR 1886) T. Fisher Unwin; London 1886 A Christmas annual, including [a] BY THE WATERS OF PARADISE, F. Marion Crawford. A Welsh prophetess, a spirit of the waters, romance. One of Crawford's weaker works. [b] THE SPECTRE OF STRATHANNAN, W. E. Norris. A rationalized ghost. [c] A MYSTERY OF THE CAMPAGNA, Von Degen. (pseud. of Ann C. Rabe) First appearance here, but described, for detail, under separate publication. [d] THE HIDDEN DOOR, Vernon Lee. (Pseud. of Violet paget) A spoofing of the legend of Glamis Castle. In Hotspur Castle no Hotspur smiles after having been taken to the hidden room and shown the family secret. Or, so the legend runs. A distant relative of the Hotspurs chances on the hidden room, opens it, and-- sometime later-- recognizes that the curse of the Hotspurs has fallen on him. All nonsense. [e] POT-HOOKS AND HANGERS, William Archer. Borderline. Graphology seems to reveal that a woman is a stiletto murderess. * Commercial work. NORRIS, [BENJAMIN] FRANK [LIN] (1870-1902) American journalist, editor, writer. War correspondent in South Africa, Cuba. Associated with Doubleday Page. Important in American literary history as the first significant writer of naturalistic novels in the manner of Zola. Best-known works McTEAGUE (1899), THE OCTOPUS (1901). Work described below is minor. 1237. A DEAL IN WHEAT AND OTHER STORIES OF THE NEW AND OLD WEST Doubleday Page; New York 1903 Short stories, mostly based on the adventures of the Three Black Crows, adventurers who trouble-shoot around the world. Including [a] THE SHIP THAT SAW A GHOST. The Three Black Crows are on a job. Aboard the old Glarus they are approaching a mysterious island, about which there is a legend. They see a ghost ship, perhaps two hundred years old, and the Glarus refuses to obey the helm. The only explanation is that she has seen a ghost and is frightened. [b] THE GHOST IN THE CROSSTREES. The Three Black Crows are assigned to take possession of a guano island before the competition can reach it, but a ghost on board the schooner forces them to turn back. Rationalized. * [a] is interesting. NORTH, STERLING (1906-1974) and BOUTELL, CLAR) ENCE B. (1908 American authors, anthologists. North was a newspaperman, literary editor of the Chicago DAILY NEWS and the New York WORLD TELEGRAM AND SUN, poet, critic, writer of fiction. Bestknown work RASCAL, winner of several awards. AS EDITORS: 1238. SPEAK OF THE DEVIL Doubleday, Doran; Garden City, New York 1945 A collection of material having to do with the Devil in one way or another. * Including, de-

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NORTON, ALDEN scribed elsewhere, [a] ENOCH SOAMES, Max Beerbohm. [b] THUS I REFUTE BEELZY, John Collier. [c] WANDERING WILLIE'S TALE, Sir Walter Scott. [d] THE DEVIL, GEORGE, AND ROSIE, John Collier. [e] ASMODEUS, OR, THE DEVIL ON TWO STICKS, Alain Ren~ Le Sage. An excerpt. [f] BOTTLE PARTY, John Collier. [g] THE DEMON POPE, Richard Garnett. [h] THE DEVIL AND TOM WALKER, Washington Irving. [i] SATAN AND SAM SHAY, Robert Arthur. [j] THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER, S. V. Benet. [k] THE DEVIL IN A NUNNERY, Francis Oscar Mann. [1] THE GENEROUS GAMBLER, Charles Baudelaire. [m] THE DEVIL AND THE OLD MAN, John Masefield. [n] REVOLT OF THE ANGELS, Anatole France. An excerpt from the last part of the book. [0] THE THREE LOW MASSES, A. Daudet. * Also [p] THE DEVIL AND THE BROKER, Bret Harte. Ironic commentary on stock market foibles. A broker wins over the Devil by a new mode of temptation that tempts the Devil himself. [q] THE DEVIL'S AGE, Franchun Beltzarri. Fabular. A poor man has to discover the true age of the Devil. [r] THE LEGEND OF MONT-SAINT MICHEL, Guy de Maupassant. Fictional treatment of folktales. Outwitting the Devil. [s] THE THREE WISHES, William Carleton. Billy Dawson, a smith, receives three wishes from St. Moroky: a sledge hammer that cannot be released or restrained, a chair that will not release a sitter, a purse from which things cannot be withdrawn-- all controllable by Billy. He uses the magical objects to defeat the Devil. Humorous. Irish dialect. [t] ST. JOHN'S EVE, Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol. The Devil, folkloristic magic, greed and evil among the Cossacks. [u] GHOST STORY, Selma Lager16f. An excerpt from GOSTA BERLING. Sintram, millowner at Fors, is in league with the Devil. He has assorted supernatural powers, such as sending and communicating with a gigantic black dog, etc. * Also included is verse, a segment from Goethe's FAUST, Marlow's DOCTOR FAUSTUS, and considerable editorializing. Of the new material [t] is much the best. NORTON, ALDEN [HOLMES] (1903 American publishing executive, writer; associated with Popular Publications; editor of SUPER SCIENCE STORIES and ASTONISHING STORIES. Later editorial director for Popular Publications. Listed as the editor of several sciencefiction and supernatural fiction anthologies that were ghost-edited by Sam Moskowitz. AS EDITOR: 1239. HORROR TIMES TEN Berkley Medallion Books; New York 1967 paperbound Notes by Sam Moskowitz. * Including [a] COOL AIR, H. P. Lovecraft. [b] THE LONESOME PLACE, August Derleth. [c] THE CAPTAIN OF THE 'POLE [d] THE DEAD VALLEY, R. STAR,' A.C. Doyle. A. Cram. [e] THE GORGON'S HEAD, Gertrude Bacon. Erroneously carried as by Dorothy Baker on the contents page. [f] THE DEAD REMEMBER, R. E. Howard. All described elsewhere. * Also [g] THAT RECEDING BROW, Max Brand. (Pseud. of Frederick Faust) (ALL-STORY WEEKLY, 1919) Science-fiction of a sort. The

NORTON, ALDEN discovery of a missing link much like Pithecanthropus erectus. When the narrator acts inhumanly, his facial features become simian. [h] THE SKELETON IN THE CLOSET, Robert Bloch. (FANTASTIC ADVENTURES, 1943) Black humor. Tarleton Fiske undertakes the inlTestigation of the death of his uncle, who is wandering around as a living skeleton. The uncle han been a magician. * Ghost edited by Sam Moskowitz. 1240. MASTERS OF HORROR Berkley Medallion Books; New York 1968 paperbound Introduction and notes by Sam Moskowitz. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE WEREWOLF, Clemence Housman. [b] DRACULA'S GUEST, Bram Stoker. [c] THE TRANSFORMATION, Mary Godwin Shelley. [d] THE YELLOW SIGN, R. W. Chambers. [e] THE WOMEN OF THE WOOD, A. Merritt. [f] BLIND MAN'S BUFF, H. R. Wakefield. * Also [g] BEFORE I WAKE, Henry Kuttner. (FAMOUS FANTASTIC MYSTERIES, 1945) Pete Coutinho saves the life of a toad, which in exchange gives him the power to enter dream worlds, including the Spanish Main. * Ghostedited by Sam Moskowitz. 1241. HAUNTINGS AND HORROR TEN GRISLY TALES Berkley Medallion Books; New York 1969 paperbound. Introduction and notes by Sam Moskowitz. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE MAKER OF MOONS, R. W. Chambers. [b] THE TEMPLE, H. P. Lovecraft. [c] A PROPHECY OF MONSTERS, C. A. Smith. [d] OVER AN ABSINTHE BOTTLE, W. C. Morrow. [e] NO. 252 RUE M. LE PRINCE, R. A. Cram. [* Also [f] THE DELUSION OF RALPH PENWYN, Julian Hawthorne (COSMOPOLITAN 1909) Two themes indicated, but poorly integrated. A young man goes to India, joins a secret occult organization, and is followed by their revenge. The death-bride, whose murderous activities are revealed by clairvoyance. [g] IT BURNS ME up! Ray Bradbury. (DIME MYSTERY, 1944) The narrator, who has almost certainly been murdered by his wife, is present during the police examination of the corpse. Macabre by-play among detectives, medical examiner, newspaper men, and leg-flashing wife. [h] THE SOUL OF MOZART, W. E. P. French. (COSMOPOLITAN, 1902) A lost manuscript by Mozart, a song to lyrics of Goethe's, the last descendant of Mozart's sister-in-law (Aloysia Weber), and a strangely acting cat that may contain Mozart's spirit. * [fj is amusing as a take-off on the hardboiled story. The other two stories should have been left in COSMOPOLITAN. NORTON, FRANK [HENRY] (1836-1921) American (New York) journalist, associated with the Frank Leslie publishing enterprises. Most important work, ILLUSTRATED REGISTER OF THE CENTENNIAL EXPOSITION, 1876. 1242. THE MALACHITE CROSS A ROMANCE OF TWO COUNTRIES Union Square Series #1. Cleveland Publishing Co.; New York 1894 Occult thriller based largely on French prototypes, and perhaps Gounod's opera FAUST. * France and the United States. The personali-

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NOYES, ALFRED ties are Viscount Honore de Valmy, reckless wastrel; his aunt, wealthy, but hesitant to die and leave her money to Honore; Father Gronevitch, a necromancer who has been injured by the Valmy family and has studied magic in the East; Madame Vardie, Honore's mistress; Marguerite, also Honore's mistress, who has poisoned the aunt and suffers remorse; and the malachite cross, a natural cross which offers visions of spirits and control of persons of the sex opposite to the holder. Also included is a spectacularly haunted house in New York. The plot revolves around the cross, which Gronevitch wishes to obtain. It is too complicated to be summarized, but wickedness is finally punished and virtue of sorts rewarded. Honore, who did not like dogs, is fittingly killed and mangled by a pack of stray dogs whom his murdered aunt had cherished. * A curiosity only. NOYES, ALFRED (1880- 1958) British traditional poet, novelist, historian. Technically competent, facile traditional verse was very popular at one time in Great Britain, best-known book being TALES OF THE MERMAID TAVERN (1913). Delivered Lowell Lectures, Harvard, 1913; Professor of English, Princeton, 1914-1923, with leave for part of World War I. C.B.E. Created stir when his life of Voltaire was condemned by the Holy Office at Rome; Noyes, a convert to Catholicism, fought decision and won retraction. No longer considered an important author. 1243. WALKING SHADOWS SEA TALES AND OTHERS Cassell; London [1918] Mostly propaganda stories from World War I, including [a] THE LUSITANIA WAITS. A British sailor, captured and taken undersea by a German submarine, sees the ghosts of the drowned passengers from the Lusitania. They take revenge on the German crew. [b] THE LOG OF THE "EVENING STAR." Six months after Captain Dayrell died, his widow married Captain Burgess. They went to sea together on Dayrell's old ship. A Mary Celeste situation arises. The ship is found crewless and no reason for the situation is apparent. A manuscript explains: Dayrell's ghost came, Burgess went mad, and everyone was murdered? Or was it Burgess, mad, playing ghost? [c] THE GARDEN ON THE CLIFF. Borderline supernatural. Old Cap'n Ellis treasures his flowers. When a German plane bombs his area, his flowers try, vainly, to protect him. * Routine work. 1244. THE HIDDEN PLAYER Hodder and Stoughton; London [1924] Short stories, including [aJ CHECKMATE. Everard Martin, author, often plays over classic chess games. After pondering Huxley's trope that life is like a game of chess against a hidden player, Martin discovers that he is playing a game of chess against an invisible opponent. He loses and knows that tragedy is near. A sordid affair from his past results in the suicide of his illegitimate son, who has been committing incest, and in Martin's

NOYES, ALFRED suicide. lb] BEYOND THE DESERT. A ludicrous "American" story of crime and the supernatural. A criminal repents after seeing the ghosts of old pioneers. lc] THE IMMORTAL. The cactus, which fruits once every three hundred years, gives prolonged life for the same period. But there is only enough liquor from the cactus fruit for two. The problem is whether to accept immortality of a sort. Told in part as a crime story. ld] BILL'S PHANTASM. Bill, a ship's mate, returning from the sea, has an evening of frolic with an old flame. To mislead his wife, he tells her that he had been talking and drinking with Captain Joe, an old friend. But Joe had just died. The psychical research society interprets the incident as a remarkable evidence of survival. Just as the story "The Red Rat" pokes fun at Ezra Pound and modern poetry, this story is aimed at the British Society for Psychical Research. * Rather weak material. lb] is omitted from the American edition. and NYBERG, BJORN lEMIL OSCAR] (1929DE CAMP, L. SPRAGUE (1907 Nyberg is a S\vedish business executive associated with Litton Industries of France. De Camp is covered in alphabetic location. 1245. THE RETURN OF CONAN Gnome Press; New York 1957 A pastiche of the Conan stories by Robert E. Howard. It is assumed that Nyberg wrote the basic story and that de Camp polished the English. * Conan, King of Aquilonia, finds himself on a new quest. His queen, Zenobia, is supernaturally abducted by a flying monster, and Conan learns from his old acquaintance Pelias the wizard that the purpose of the abduction is to lure Conan to Khitai. Conan, by his just rule, has weakened the power of sorcery throughout the world, and the master magician Yah Chieng hopes that Conan's death will restore the rule of magic. Conan heads irresistibly eastward, meeting old friends, destroying old enemies (like King Yezdigerd of Turan), and finally arrives at Paikang, where Yah Chieng has his stronghold. But with the Khitan wizard Conan has for once met his match, and it takes direct divine intervention by the god Crom to save him. He and Zenobia return safely home. * Not very good. * Reprinted as CONAN THE AVENGER.

O'BRIEN, FITZ-JAMES (1828-1862) Irish-American journalist, poet, short story writer. Born in County Limerick, Ireland. Early life obscure, because of author's habit of deliberate mystification, but claim to have attended Dublin University is false. Came to America in 1852, where he was soon appreciated for his literary facility and bohemian ways.

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O'BRIEN, FITZ-JAMES Apparently improvident and irresponsible, though good-hearted and amiable. Frequent contributor to New York newspapers and local periodicals. During Civil War enlisted in Seventh Regiment of New York National Guard, was wounded in action, and died later of tetanus. Though by no means a writer of the stature of Poe or Hawthorne, a colorful figure with a fine imagination and many unusual ideas. Anthologists have treasured his work. 1246. THE POEMS AND STORIES OF FITZ-JAMES O'BRIEN COLLECTED AND EDITED WITH A SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR BY WILLIAM WINTER J. R. Osgood; Boston 1881 Short stories and poetry from original periodical publications of the late 1850's and early 1860's. * Including [a] THE DIAMOND LENS. A microscope, whose lens has been fashioned from a gigantic diamond, according to instructions received from the spirit of Leeuwenhoek, reveals secrets of a microscopic world includ{ng a wonderful sylph. An excellent story which manages to combine supernaturalism, science-fiction, and a locked-room mystery situation. [b] THE WONDERSMITH. The Gipsies plan wholesale murder by means of animated dolls equipped with poisoned swords. But by accident the bottle which contains the souls for the dolls is broken, the dolls are prematurely animated, and the Gipsies are destroyed. [c] THE LOST ROOM. A horde of supernatural revellers invades the hero's room, transforms it into something strange and wonderful, then offers to dice with him for the room. The spirits win and the room disappears. While the motif is not developed, in some strange way the room, the spirits, and the decorations are distorted elements from the narrator's past. ld] THE BOHEMIAN. The narrator, an impoverished but ambitious young lawyer, i.s approached by a mesmerist '"ho wants to use the lawyer's fiancee as a medium for finding treasure. The mesmerist is a bohemian in the sense of Murger's BOHEME. They find the treasure, but the narrator learns that his greed has destroyed something more valuable than gold. [e] THE POT OF TULIPS. Old Van Koeren, an insanely jealous man, drove his wife and son to death. He wrongly believed that his wife's child was not his. At death, however, he was forced to recognize that he was wrong, and his unquiet ghost prowls about. The narrator, engaged to Van Koeren's granddaughter, sees that the ghost has a peculiarly··shaped flowerpot and finds the old man's missing wealth. If] WHAT WAS IT? An invisible, humanoid being, semi-intelligent, perhaps an elerr.ental, haunts a house. It is captun~d, but it dies, since no one knows what to feed it. A plaster cast of it is preserved. One of the classics of horror literature. [g] THE DRAGON FANG. A tongue-in-cheek fantasy of Chinese politics and rr.agic, told in hyperbolic, pseudo-Oriental fashion. The wandering street magician Piou-Lu displays marvels to the crowds, but to the high mandarin Wei he reveals his true powers and identity. He is a native Chinese of imperial descent who is waging victorious rebellion against the Tartars. * While

O'BRIEN, FITZ-JAMES a few other fantastic stories of O'Brien's are scattered about in the literature or remain unreprinted in their original newspaper or periodical publications, these other stories -- with the exception of FRO~ HAND TO MOUTH-are trivial. * Th,~ major stories in this collection are Cal, [bl, [cl, [fl. O'CONNOR, WILLIAM o (oUGLAsl (1832-1889) American civil servant, occasional writer. After newspape~ work (Boston, Philadelphia), discharged for Abolitionist views. Held various governmental positions in Washington for remainder of his life. Now remembered mostly for friendship with Walt Whitman. When Whitman was discharged from goverlli~ent position because of LEAVES OF GRASS, O'Connor wrote THE GOOD GRAY POET (1866) 1247. THREE TALES THE GHOST THE BRAZEN ANDROID THE CARPENTER Houghton Mifflin; Boston 1892 Preface by Walt Whitman. A memorial volume of sorts, reprinting earlier work. * Including Cal THE GHOST. Christmas. Victorian sentimentalism and melodrama, obviously in the mode of Dickens's A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Dr. Charles Renton, hard-hearted rentier, first is harsh with an impoverished Irishwoman who cannot pay her rent, then under supernatural compulsion from the ghost of a dead friend, relents. * The·story was first published separately in book form as THE GHOST (Putnams; New York 1867) with illustrations by Thomas Nast. * [bl THE BRAZEN ANJROID. A fantasy of history, set in the reign of Henry III of England. Friars Bacon and Bungy are persuaded to construct a brazen head with powers of speech, in order to influence the superstitious king during his stay at Lincoln. Bacon conceives of the head as purely mechanical, with a speech apparatus modelled after the human mouth and tongue. But the sinister Malatesta, an Italian scholar and magician, comes upon the scene, produces a tongue that he claims is supernatural, and wishes to incarnate a spirit in the head. What with quarrels the head is smashed. While Bacon still interprets the situation rationally, the stronger possibility is that Malatesta is either the Devil or in league with the Devil, and that the minor demon Simara smashed the head on Malatesta's orders. * [bl has points of interest O'DONNELL, ELLIOTT (1872-1965) British writer, lecturer, actor, radio broadcaster on matters supernatural. Wrote many uncritical popular accounts of factual hauntings, and some fiction. Best-known works, FAMILY GHOSTS (1933), FAMOUS CURSES (1929), SOME HAUNTED HOUSES OF ENGLAND AND WALES (1908). First name is sometimes spelled ELLIOT' on his publications. 1248. FOR SATAN'S SAKE Greening; London 1904 Episodic occult novel. * Penruddock commits suicide and is taken to Hell (in the sun) by a fiend. He enters the service of the Devil as a minor fiend and is assigned to tempting

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O'DONNELL, ELLIOTT earthlings. He tempts an artist to commit murder, a sailor to wreck a ship, some Western roughs to murder an English boy, a woman to murder her aunt by summoning an elemental, and so on. In all these successful cases he is opposed by Sagatheela, a good spirit, his former sweetheart, who tries to awaken his good side. In the final episode, which involves forgiving an enemy, Sagatheela prevails and Penruddock is saved for heaven. Material, literal supernaturalism, crudely handled, ideologically on a level with Marie Corelli. 1249. THE SORCERY SHOP William Rider; London 1912 Occult thriller. * In a shop in San Francisco Hamar finds the account of a 17th century English sailor who found a book of Atlantean black magic. He also acquires the Atlantean documents. In London he and two associates use the book to summon demons, and make a compact. The three associates will advance seven steps in magical power and retain their abilities as long as they remain in association. If the group is broken, the bond is forfeit. They open an organization for peddling black magic. Hamar also tries to seduce a woman magically. Her friends break the bond, and Hell receives the Sorcery Club. * Idea good, execution not good. 1250. DREAD OF NIGHT FIVE SHORT GHOST STORIES Pillar Publishing Co.; Dublin [19451 Short stories, including, described elsewhere, Cal THE GHOST IN THE RING. [bl A WAGER AN0 A GHOST. [cJ THE HAUNTED TELEPHUNE. Also [dl THE SHADOWS ON THE BLIND. As the title indicates. eel THE HOUSE OF THE GHOSTLY TAP DANCING. As the title indicates. * Rather crude commercial fiction of the 1930's. 1251. THE DEAD RIDERS Rider & Co.; London 1952 Occult Oriental adventure novel, followed by a mystery-thriller sequence. China, Mongolia, England. * Burke Blake, traveller and soldier of fortune, joins an archeological expedition to the Gobi Desert, in search of the tomb of Genghis Khan. Along the way a dust storm overtakes the expedition, and Blake, separated from his companions, has good reason to believe that he is the only survivor. He comes upon another expedition, however, which is also aimed at the tomb. The expedition is captured by the Lovonans, a people with great skill in black magic, who worship the evil principle. Among their supernatural isms are the so-called Dead Riders of Shadna Rana, the spirit of an ancient Lovonan wizard, who is followed by a troop of ghosts. The captured explorers are urged to renounce Christianity and accept devil worship. Blake refuses, is in danger, but escapes and returns to England. Years later he comes upon expedition members who he thought were dead. He also becomes entangled with a black magic cult, and is in peril of death. Some of the threads from both portions of the story are tied together; vengeance from China strikes down the true villain, and the Dead Riders come for his soul. * Little to recommend in it. The au-

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O'DONNELL, ELLIOTT thor's fiction is much inferior to his nonfiction. His various case books, if of no great value as history or folklore, are nicely handled. O'DUFFY, ElMAR [ULTAN] (1893-1935) Irish journalist, at one time connected with the Paris Edition of the Chicago Tribune; civil servant (Dept. I. F. S., Eire), economist. 1252. KING GOSHAWK AND THE BIRDS Macmillan; London 1926 1253. ASSES IN CLOVER Putnam; London [1933] Economic theory, critique of capitalism and Americanism, satire against human folly and weakness-- all put into an exuberant fictional vehicle with reminiscences from the Old Irish heroic cycles. * Ireland, for the most part, from about 1950 on. * The vulgar American capitalist King Goshawk threatens the little remaining romance in life. He buys all the song birds and wild flowers and charges admission to see them. The old Philosopher, who finds this intolerable, journeys to the Heavens to seek a champion against Goshawk and comes to Tir na nOg, where he finds Cuchulain. Cuchulain is equally incensed at events on earth, and incarnates himself in the body of a Dublin clerk and proceeds to heroic actions. But he sickens of the enormous task, and finding a complaisant millionaire's daughter, returns with her to Tir na nOg to beget a son. The result is Cuandine, who comes to earth ten years later an adult and a great champion. But he, too, finds himself in difficulties. When he speaks out against the giant trusts, he is laughed out of Ireland, and while he is lionized for a short time in England, he is soon forgotten. The book ends abruptly with Cuandine settling a small brushfire war between two comic opera countries. * In the direct continuation, ASSES IN CLOVER, the center of attention shifts for a time to a new character, Mac ui Rudai, who might be taken as an Irish Everyman. But Cuandine returns when a songbird escapes from Goshawk and takes refuge in Ireland. The Irish refuse to give it up, and Goshawk declares war. Cuandine, equipped with a living airplane modelled after the steeds of heroic tale, destroys the air armadas from America.' But he is outwitted by Slawmy Cander, the world's most powerful banker, and when he breaks three geases that the gods had put on him, fails. He and his wife betake themselves to the stars. An epilogue describes earth's exploitation of a vast and simple lunar population, and the end of the world. * The story line is unremarkable; what is noteworthy is the great richness of imaginative detail with which O'Duffy has clothed his story. The result is a very unusual work, perhaps a little too long, but still a work that should be remembered. OLIPHANT, MARGARET OLIPHANT (nee WILSON) (18281897) Scottish novelist, often cited as an example of British Victorian who was forced to support

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OLIPHANT, MARGARET extended family by literary endeavors. Wrote solid, competent novels, none of which is outstanding, much non-fictional work including literary history (THE VICTORIAN AGE IN ENGLISH LITERATURE), cultural history (MAKERS OF VENICE), business history (ANNALS OF A PUBLISHING HOUSE-- Blackwood of Edinburgh), and miscellaneous work. 1254. A BELEAGUERED CITY George Munro; New York 1879 Supernatural novel with strong moral implications. It is told by the Mayor of Semur and by M. Lecamus, a man of mystical sensibility. The mode of narration has been strongly influenced by Wilkie Collins. The inhabitants of Semur, a small French city, are inclined to set more value on money and worldly success than on spiritual things. The spirits of the town dead decide to take a hand. One night they expel all the humans from the town and cover the area with a mist. The citizens remain outside the city wall, terrified, for three days, until they begin to understand that a change is expected of them. The mayor and priest enter the town as an embassy and the populace is permitted to reenter. They vow to change their ways, but soon backslide. * An unusual work, typical of Oliphant in its strong emphasis on morality, and also typically overwritten. * The edition above is a first edition, but the British (Macmillan; London 1880) edition is much preferable. 1255. A LITTLE PILGRIM Macmillan; London (published anonymously) 1882 Smugly sentimental after-death experiences. The Little Pilgrim, a woman who was small in size, but large in heart and love, dies and awakens in Heaven. Everything there is goodness and light. She wanders about a bit, meets her dead mother-- who has now assumed a supernatural potency-- and after much enthusiasm rushes off to help some newly dead who have just arrived. * Told in simple, very effective language, but in subject matter mawkish to the point of being offensive; the worst side of Victorian religiosity. * Sequel episodes are described in 1258. 1256. TWO STORIES OF THE SEEN AND THE UNSEEN Blackwood; Edinburgh 1885 A nouvelle and a long short story. * [a] LADY MARY. A new interpretation of an old theme in supernatural fiction: the spirit that is restless because it left something undone during life. Mrs. Oliphant's treatment is unusual in telling much of the story from the point of view of the ghost, and in seeing the situation as a moral one. Wealthy old Lady Mary likes her companion, her penniless young cousin Mary, but is reluctant to make a will protecting her. It is not that she is evil or selfish; it is just that she cannot conceive that death may be near. Finally, under some pressure, she writes a holographic document, but then hides it. She dies fairly suddenly. Young Mary is without resources, except for the friendship of the local vicar. Old Lady Mary awakens in a spiritual state that must be a purgatory, and is aware that she has

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OLIPHANT, MARGARET committed evil by leaving things undone. While her mind is vague at first, she obtains permission to return to earth and right the wrong, although she is told that most such efforts are not successful. She returns, invisible to almost everyone except animals and a few children, but since she is only a shade she cannot reveal the hidden, unsuspected will. In the meanwhile, young Mary has taken a position as governess with the new inhabitants of old Lady Mary's house. One of the children can see the ghost. By an intense act of will and love old Lady Mary makes herself visible for a moment to young Mary, but the result is not what she wanted-- the young woman simply collapses. Some time later, however, when the furnishings of the old woman's house are being dispersed, the hidden will is found. [b] THE OPEN DOOR. Scotland. Long short story. When the Anglo-Indian colonel takes the house of Brentwood, he also takes a haunting. Among the ruins of the " otfices," at a ruined gateway a disembodied voice cries to its mcther to be let in. The haunting is associated with serious illness for the narrator's son. A night with the ghost convinces the narrator, the doctor (temporarily), and the preacher of its genuineness. The preacher, who knows the circumstances, persuades the ghost to withdraw. Connected with the recent death of Mrs. Oliphant's son. * [a] would be· excellent at half length. 1257. THE OPEN DOOR AND THE PORTRAIT TWO STORIES OF THE UNSEEN Roberts Brothers; Boston 1885 (published as by the author of A LITTLE PILGRIM) The bibliography of Mrs. Oliphant has never been worked out and is very confused; texts, too, are difficult to locate. This is the earliest book publication for [b] that I have been able to locate, but it is possible that there is an earlier British edition. * [a] THE OPEN DOOR. Described elsewhere. [b] THE PORTRAIT. When Philip Canning returns home after years abroad, he discovers that his father has become a cruel, grasping landlord without compassion for his tenants or his poor relatives. Philip protests rationally, with no results, and makes things a little worse by sentimental charity. At this time the portrait of his dead mother-- which had been held by another branch of the family-- comes to the Cannings. Philip has odd psychic experiences connected with the portrait and is apparently half-possessed by the spirit of his mother. This brings the greedy Canning, Sr., to heel. * Here, as elsewhere Mrs. Oliphant deserves credit for attempting a more imaginative, more moral, and more profound treatment of a standard theme: the living picture. 1258. THE LAND OF DARKNESS WITH SOME FURTHER CHAPTERS IN THE EXPERIENCES OF THE LITTLE PILGRIM Macmillan; London 1888 (published anonymously) A sequel to THE LITTLE PILGRIM, continued in much the same saccharine mode as the first volmne. * [aj THE LITTLE PILGRIM IN THE SEEN AND UNSEEN. The Little Pilgrim in Heaven, overflOWing with love and desire to do good, is

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OLIVER, JOHN RATHBONE shown scenes on earth, which she is permitted to visit with a sage guide. [b] ON THE DARK MOUNTAINS. The Pilgrim, still pushing, is taken to the Land of Darkness (a rather anemic Hell), where she watches the trials of a soul trying to redeem itself through love. It does work its way out. [c] THE LAND OF DARKNESS. The experiences of a newly dead person, who does not realize his death, in a materialistic, capitalistic Hell. It is the world adumbrated in the previous story, but much more conventionalized. The soul is trying to work its way to the face of God. Presumably it will succeed. 1259. STORIES OF THE SEEN AND UNSEEN Roberts Brothers; Boston 1889 An omnibus volume. This was the standard American edition of Mrs. Oliphant's supernatural fiction. * Described elsewhere, [a] A LITTLE PILGRIM. [b] THE LITTLE PILGRIM IN THE SEEN AND UNSEEN. [c] THE DARK MOUNTAINS. [d] THE LAND OF DARKNESS. [e] THE OPEN DOOR. [f] THE PORTRAIT. [g] OLD LADY MARY. * Roberts also published another collection under the same title with only [e], [f], [g]. * The Blackwood (Edinburgh, 1902) edition of STORIES OF THE SEEN AND UNSEEN also contains [h] THE LIBRARY·WINDOW. (1896) Short story. Scotland. Mrs. Balcarres's house faces on the old College Library, in the wall of which is a windowlike architectural feature that causes much coffee-table discussion. Is it a dummy window inserted for architectural balance; an old, bricked-up window; or a real window? For Mrs. Balcarres's young niece, however, the window is a real window, through which she sees more and more each day. She gradually discerns a furnished room, with a portrait and a young man. This culminates in the young man's opening the window and waving to her. After this, there is nothing there but wall. The suggested explanation: a long-dead ancestress had once betrayed a lover who used to be in the room, and the vision of the past is permitted to certain women of the family. * This is much Mrs. Oliphant's best supernatural story. * Bibliography, as with 1257, is not certain. This is the earliest book appearance that I have located for this story. OLIVER, JOHN RATHBONE, M. D. (1872-1943) American physician, clergyman (Protestant Episcopal Church), educator, psychiatrist. Taught history of medicine at Johns Hopkins University. Author of books on psychiatry and medicine. 1260. PRIEST OR PAGAN Knopf; New York 1933 Religious and metaphysical novel; the psychology of a Judas figure; the quest for evil and the conflict between physical and spiritual paternity. * The story is concerned with three personalities: Father Fred Minot, a saintly (if somewhat naive) Anglican priest; Marion Nichols, the illegitimate son of Minot's secretary; and the person known variously as Hell Fire or Fields, who amounts to a priest of evil and is Marion's father. Minot, through various sins of omission, is responsible for much of the career of Marry Nichols. Nichols,

OLIVER, JOHN RATHBONE after his mother dies in childbirth, is adopted by two old maids and grows up as a sociopath-charming, intelligent, physically handsome. But in all his cold relationships he is a Judas who does not hesitate to betray others for his selfish purposes. When fourteen, he runs away from home for a summer and lives as a tramp. During this time (the many coincidences in the novel are apparently fate and predestination) he meets the criminal Hell Fire, who is already an active worshipper of evil. Hell Fire sees that Marry is one of the few born with enough psychic sensitivity to open the doors to the other worlds and sets Marry on the path of evil, but Marry betrays him to the police and it is many years before their relationship is resumed. Marry returns home; attends a posh prep school, Princeton, Oxford; and becomes an Anglican priest. Through all his academic successes and personal betrayals he has been supported and helped by Minot, who has even lied on occasion to save him. Minot does not known Marry's true -identity. But Marry, when he finds a misleading letter that Minot had written years before, assumes that Minot is his father and hates him for it. Much of his later life is an attempt to punish Minot. Marry has long been secretly following a program aimed at contacting supernatural evil, and when he usurps Minot's place at college, is ready to start active experimentation. With the aid of Hell Fire (who is out of prison and working at the college) his spirit leaves its body and enters spiritual realms, hoping to open the door to great forces from beyond. On one occasion he is apparently followed back by an elemental, which remains to haunt the chapel. But Minot accidentally discovers what Marry and Hell Fire are doing, and his interference disturbs Marry's potence sufficiently, when Marry is next beyond the door, that he panics, is trapped out of his body, and dies. While the prayers of a saintly nun and Minot help somewhat, forces from beyond explode into this world. On the ruins of Marry and his experimentation Minot and Hell Fire at last recognize each other's claim to the dead man. * A long, fully developed novel, with much creative detail and some good characterizations. Minot and Hell Fire are well drawn, but Marry, the product of good and evil, is shadowy and vague. A larger problem, however, is the moral message. One ends the novel with the feeling that Oliver, despite the association of Mithraism and evil, is really supporting old-fashioned dualism-- which was probably not his intention. Still, for the detail, the adumbrations of rottenness, worth reading. ONIONS, OLIVER (name changed later to OLIVER, GEORGE) (1873-1961) British novelist. After early career as artist and draughtsman became professional writer. Has written social novels, psychological fiction, mysteries. A greatly underestimated writer. Best-known work, short story, THE BECKONING FAIR ONE.

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ONIONS, OLIVER 1261. WIPDERSHINS Martin Secker; London 1911 A nouvelle and short stories. [a] THE BECKONING FAIR ONE. Nouvelle. Oleron, a moderately successful author who is looking for living quarters, comes upon an old house in a decaying section of London. It is in bad repair, but the rent is very low. He likes the atmosphere of the house, but as he works ther"e, he gradually notices that a personality permeates the rooms. His work does not progress, for under the influence of the house he comes to believe that what he has already written is inadequate, and must be discarded. As the other personality grows, even to occasional physical manifestations like combing long hair, Oleron's vitality gradually wanes. Occasionally, when he leaves the house for a short time, he recognizes that it is baneful,but he cannot resist returning. A personality emerges from the haunting, a vicious, very jealous woman, who desperately hates Oleron's only friend, Elsie. The house injures Elsie physically and eventually destroys her and Oleron. A fine story, restrained, beautifully written; in the opinion of many, the best classical ghost story. [b] PHANTAS. Suspension of time when there is community of idea. Abel Keeling, Renaissance sailor and shipbuilder, lies dying of thirst aboard his sinking ship, and he thinks, madly, about the perfect ship of the future. He sees a vision of such a ship. His Majesty's destroyer in the 20th century appears and the men see Keeling. The master of the 20th century ship is another Abel Keeling. The dream has bridged time. [c] ROOUM. Rooum, a "gipsy" engineer, has an uncanny intuitive ability to solve engineering problems, but he does not stay long at anyone job. He is haunted by a something that runs after him, and occasionally runs through him. He questions the narrator, a more bookish engineer, about atomic theory and interpenetration. Rooum finally goes berserk on the job, using the heavy equipment to try to kill the runner. [d] BENLIAN. Told by a painter of miniatures, now in the madhouse. The sculptor Benlian, who has created a monstrosity form in stone, which he calls his god, is gradually transferring himself to the stone. He becomes vaguer and vaguer on" photographs, as there is less left of him. The miniaturist, who was at first imperceptive and did not recognize the god, comes to accept Benlian's mission. [e] 10. Alternate title, THE LOST THYRSUS. Questionable supernaturalism. The emergence of ecstasy, taking the form of madness. Bessie is awakened to a bacchantic sense of life by the poetry of Keats. [f] THE ACCIDENT. Romarin wishes to be reconciled with Marsden, a friend of his youth, with whom he quarreled bitterly a generation before. Romarin is wealthy and famous, and he would like to help Marsden. They have a lunch engagement, but as they are about to meet, a stage set shifts between them, and Romarin has a time fugue in which he lives through their meeting--

ONIONS, OLIVER which ends in murder. When time returns to the present, Romarin decides hastily on discretion. [g] THE CIGARETTE CASE. A new setting for a very old theme. Englishmen in Provence, out for a walk, encounter a pair of Englishwomen, with whom they spend an hour or so. Their French friend will not believe them, but when they return to the Englishwomen's house, they find ruins-- but the narrator's cigarette case. [h] HIC JACET. Harrison, who has made his fortune writing low-grade detective stories, is asked to write the biography of his dead friend, the artist Andraiovsky. He attempts to do this, despite quarrels with the dead man's sister and her fianc~e, but on his last effort, when he thought he was writing about the artist, unconsciously wrote an outline for more detective stories. There is no supernatural forgiveness for intellectual prostitution. til THE ROCKER. A ghost child, visible to a psychic Gipsy. * In reprint editions of WIDDERSHINS, til is omitted. * A landmark book in the history of supernatural fiction. Outstanding are [a], [c], [d], [f], [gJ.

1262. GHOSTS IN DAYLIGHT Chapman and Hall; London 1924 Short stories and a nouvelle, including [a] THE ASCENDING DREAM. "The dream of ascending stairs is a sign of danger." Successive explorers of the unknown-- primitive man with the first boat, Elizabethan man, modern man in airplane-- learn that dream and progress call for complete self sacrifice as they share a common dream. [b] THE DEAR DRYAD. Three episodes-- Pictish, medieval, and World War I-in which women leave offerings in an oak tree, which plays the part of a matchmaker. [c] THE REAL PEOPLE. Nouvelle. Long, but the essential story is simple: an author's characters assume life, run away with his book, and interfere with him. [d] THE WOMAN IN THE WAY. Told in part as a 17th century document, in part as reflection on the events by Onions. The ghost of a young woman is to be met in a certain field. A clergyman is called in to investigate the haunting. Reminiscent of THE BOTATHEN GHOST, perhaps ultimately from the same source. * The fifth story, "The Honey in the Wall," is not supernatural. * The weakest of the three Onions collections. 1263. THE PAINTED FACE Heinemann; London 1929 Three nouvelles. * [a] THE PAINTED FACE. Set mostly in Tunis. Mrs. Van Necker, an Englishwoman who travels, also chaperones girls who would otherwise be unattended. In her party is Xena Francavilla, the only child of a very wealthy, slightly unsavory Sicilian. When Xena joins the party in Sicily, she is shy and withdrawn, but on a short sea voyage and during her stay at Tunis, she expands greatly. Much of her new personality is due to meeting Verney Arden, a young Englishman whom she had previously known in Egypt, and much is due to something much deeper, more mysterious. In Tunis she seems to know the geography and folk customs. This culminates in a visit to the site of a vanished shrine, and an assumption

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ONIONS, OLIVER of a past identity. As she later tells it, she was recognized by the ancient gods and was marked as property by Poseidon. During a previous existence she was a siren of some sort, and as punishment for her murderous activities was condemned to perpetual reincarnation, always a temptress, but never satisfied. To avoid injuring Arden, she undertakes a strange form of suicide: she paints her face. When one sleeps, the soul leaves the body. If the face is painted, the soul will not recognize its body and will not enter. She is found dead. * Good, but overlong. [b] THE ROSEWOOD DOOR. The beautiful, curved rosewood door that Mr. James purchased from a house that was being demolished proves to be an entry for supernatural experiences. The first night that Agatha sleeps behind it, a strange man enters her room and leaves a sword behind. The next day, a stranger, who looks like the vision of the night before, comes to the house; he is a neighbor, listed as missing in action during the war, and away for years. He and Agatha fall in love and decide to marry. But Agatha has forebodings about the door and tries to keep him away from it. It is in vain, for when he passes through it, he assumes the personality of a Cavalier returning from the wars. In a recapitulation of the past he questions her fidelity and murders her with the sword that the ghost had left behind. [c] THE MASTER OF THE HOUSE. When the three Peckover brothers and their sist~rs rent a house, they are constrained to permit the owner to occupy one wing that is sealed off. This is the entering wedge for a story of lycanthropy, Indian black magic, and tantrism. A criminal from India, known to one of the Peckover brothers, plans to return to India in the form of an "Alsatian." * This story is not typical of Onions, being a rather weak thriller, not at all convincing. * [a] and [b] are excellent. 1264. THE COLLECTED GHOST STORIES OF OLIVER ONIONS Nicholson and Watson; London 1935 This omnibus volume contains most of the stories from the three individual collections. Not all the stories, however, are supernatural. There is a new preface by the author. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE BECKONING FAIR ONE. [b] PHANTAS. [c] ROOUM. [d] BENLIAN. tel THE LOST THYRSUS. Alternate title for IO. [f] THE ACCIDENT. [g] THE CIGARETTE CASE. [h] HIC JACET. til THE ASCENDING DREAM. [j] THE REAL PEOPLE. [k] THE WOMAN IN THE WAY. [1] THE PAINTED FACE. [m] THE ROSEWOOD DOOR. [n] THE MASTER OF THE HOUSE. [0] "JOHN GLADWYN SAYS • • • " * Also, new stories, [p] THE OUT SISTER. An English artist, travelling in Sicily, sketches the convent door while talking to the out sister who is in charge of selling lace. The out sister greatly admires the artist's hair, which she says was like hers before she entered the convent. That evening, the artist's hair is mysteriously combed, and a crucifix is found in the

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ONIONS, OLIVER room. But there is no lay sister of the sort. [q} THE ROPE IN THE RAFTERS. France. James Hopley, whose face was horribly disfigured during the war, is staying alone (except [or two servants) at a French chateau belonging to a friend. The supernatural grows around him-with breathing sounds, smells, and things seen. At the same time he is pushed toward death by the horror reactions of the peasantry. He is to be the replacement for the ghost of Jean the Smuggler, a 19th century ghost. Of the new stories, [q} is excellent.

*

O'SULLIVAN, VINCENT (1872-1940) British journalist, writer, of American birth. Best-known work ASPECTS OF WILDE (1936), based on personal acquaintance with Wilde. 1265. A BOOK OF BARGAINS Leonard Smithers; London 1896 Elaborately written fin de siecle stories with more than a dash of Stevenson in them. Colorful and characterized by the aloof sensationalism of the period. * Including [a} THE BARGAIN OF RUPERT ORANGE. Rupert, starving in New York, is given five years of wealth and happiness by a shabby old man, presumably the Devil. His fall is rapid. [b} MY ENEMY AND MYSELF. A passionate lover, when he discovers that his mistress has another lover, vows murder. He commits the murder, but finds himself under the necessity of repeating the murder when the corpse visits him. [c} THE BUSINESS OF MADAME JAHN. When Harbout murdered his wealthy old aunt, Madame Jahn, the crime seemed perfect. But Madame Jahn kept returning. The first evening she was a young woman. The next evening, perhaps ten years older. On her latest visit she is a decaying corpse, still able to speak. [d} WHEN I WAS DEAD. The narrator finds himself a disembodied spirit, invisible to all after his death. * The other stories are crime stories. * Interesting, if one can stand the period style. * There is a frontispiece by Aubrey Beardsley, also a friend of O'Sullivan's. OUSPENSKY, P[ETER} D[EMIANOVICH} (also transliterated in other ways) (1878-1947) Russian occultist, philosophical writer. Member of various occult groups in St. Petersburg and Moscow; became follower of George Gurdjieff, whose teachings (basically a heretical form of Sufism) Ouspensky systematized and elaborated in terms of modern science. Left Russia after overthrow of Czarist gover~ent and henceforth resident in France and England. Best-known works TERTIUM ORGANUM, A NEW MODEL OF THE UNIVERSE, IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS. At one time these books were very influential among more intellectually inclined occultists. 1266. THE STRANGE LIFE OF IVAN OSOKIN A NOVEL Holme Press, New York; Stourton Press, London 1947 A philosophical fantasy by one of the more intelligent occultists. The system expounded is much that of Gurdjieff, which holds that man, despite illusions of freedom and choice, is nothing but a machine and not in control of

OWEN, FRANK his fate-- unless he spends years in special training. The story itself is a biographical novel, much in the tradition of the 19th century novels, but thin and undeveloped. * Russia, c. 1900. Osokin, a poor young Russian of the bourgeoisie, is badly disappointed in love and desperately wishes to relive the past and avoid his previous mistakes. He has two possible courses of action: committing suicide, or appealing for help to an older magician whom he knows. The magician is willing to place him back in the past with full memory, but warns that little will be changed. Osokin goes back ten years, but discovers that despite his foreknowledge, things happen much as before, because of human weakness. After a time he loses his memory of the future (since it becomes increasingly painful and frustrating), and he arrives back at his former position: desperate unhappiness because of frustrated love and readiness to consult the mag1c1an. The magician once again explains the situation to him, but now offers a third choice: submitting to the magician for perhaps fifteen years of training in order to learn how to master himself. What Osokin will do is not revealed, but the hints are that he will fail again. * Some interesting details of life in Czarist Russia, a curious sense of doom pervading the novel, and odd speculations at the end. OWEN, DEAN (pseud. of McGAUGHY, DUDLEY DEAN) American (California) author, editor; radio scripts, radio trade editing. 1267. THE BRIDES OF DRACULA Monarch Books, Inc. Derby, Conn. 1960 paperbound A spin-off of the Universal-International Technicolor motion picture of the same name, based on a screenplay by Jimmy Sangster. * Vague Central Europe or Germanic Balkans, perhaps 19th century. Marianne Danielle, on her way to a position in a school near Badstein, is abducted and taken to the chateau, where she unwittingly releases the vampiric Baron Meinster. In the meanwhile, Lee Van Helsing (not the Van Helsing of DRACULA) comes upon the scene, having been summoned by the village priest to help combat local vampirism. Marianne escapes from the chateau and falls in with Van Helsing. Two minor vampires and a vampire mistress appear. The baron lusts after Marianne, as well as after her blood; Van Helsing beds her; Van Helsing and the baron clash several times; Van Helsing wins. While Van Helsing is prepared for emergencies by travelling with a suitcase full of sharpened stakes, he defeats the baron by calling to the attention of a sort of vampiric judicial board the fact that the baron has violated ethics by making love to a mortal. Bats rip the baron to pieces and Van Helsing presumably stakes the remaining vampires. * Need more be said? OWEN, FRANK (1893-1968) American author, anthologist. As Frank Owen wrote saccharine pseudo-Oriental stories,

OWEN, FRANK many of which appeared in WT; as HUNG LONG TOM, poetry; as ROSWELL WILLIAMS, fiction that in the 1930's would have been considered soft erotica. 1268. THE WIND THAT TRAMPS THE WORLD SPLASHES OF CHINESE COLOR The Lantern Press; New York 1929 Sentimental short stories set for the most part in China. The approach is reminiscent of Ernest Bramah's Kai Lung stories and L. Hearn's adaptations of folktales, but without the occasional wit of Bramah or the stylistic chromatics of Hearn. * Including [a] THE WIND THAT TRAMPS THE WORLD. (WT 1925) Steppling the explorer (who appears in other stories) comes upon the City of the Big Winds in Central Asia and strikes up an acquaintance with Hi Ling, a Chinese floriculturist. Years before, Hi Ling had developed a miraculous flower, which was stolen away by the Wind That Tramps the World, and he has built a house in the mountains, where all winds eventually arrive, awaiting the culprit. It arrives. [b] THE BLUE CITY. (WT 1927) Hwei Ti, whose death has been prophecied by Woo, ascends at night to the Blue City, where he meets a charming young woman. He cannot stay during the day, for the splendor would kill him, but when he returns, it is for permanent residence. [c] THE FROG. When hideous, misshapen Fu Hsi, keeper of the garden, is slandered and injured by a mob that has been incited by Pu, he is saved by the spirit of the garden, a beautiful woman. PU's affairs, after this, do not prosper. * Period pieces. Other stories have vague suggestions of supernaturalism, but not enough to be described. "The Snapped Willow" and "The Inverted House" have intimations of life-bonds and sympathies with vegetation. 1269. THE PURPLE SEA MORE SPLASHES OF CHINESE COLOR The Lantern Press; New York 1930 Short stories, including [a] THE GOLDEN HOUR OF KWOH FAN. Kwoh, a wealthy collector, shows Cummings the great jar of Ilibar, which contains a miraculous perfume from the past. That evening Cummings creeps back to the jar, opens it, and beholds the emergence of a remarkable dancing girl. A draught from the window dissipates the girl, and the enraged Kwoh's golden hour follows. [b] THE PURPLE SEA. (WT 1928) Borderline fantasy. Lee Goona, shipwrecked on a desert island, is rescued by Jimber Jawn, a gigantic seaman, and his bestial crew. During a'dreamlike sequence of events, an act of piracy takes place, a beautiful woman is seized for Lee to rescue, and an escape is successful. Lee awakens on the island. Was it all a dream? [c] THE PERFUMES OF CHOW WAN. He is able to manipulate perfumes to create illusions to deceive the other senses. His perfumes turn an ugly old woman into a beautiful young dancer. After her death the viewer causes the dancer to live again; "Love can make anything exist." [d] THE RICE MERCHANT. Ten Tsai has found a very strange gem. Wishing it identified, he shows it to the the greatest expert, the

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OWEN, WALTER merchant Doong Dong-Sung. Doong tells him it is a romance stone: if one looks at it in the dark, one will see a beautiful dancing girl. Ten follows instructions, beholds the woman, but is imprisoned in his room and dies of thirst. Doong's story was a cruel hoax and his hypnotic power was great. [e] LOVE LETTERS OF A LITTLE HOUSE. Set in New York. The mandarin bandit Chang Kien, who appears elsewhere, leases a house and is told, as a condition of the lease, that he must leave when a certain woman comes. Ghosts and resumed love. [f] THE TINKLE OF THE CAMEL'S BELL. (WT 1928) When the wealthy Li Kan decides to travel and see strange lands, in a desolate area he comes upon a beautiful house inhabited by a beautiful woman. He observes that the house is supernaturally maintained, and that the woman is alone. But whatever she touches withers and dies. She draws the fire out of a remarkable opal that he shows her. He later learns that her case is recorded in the annals: long ago she accepted immortality on the condition that she drain the life from whatever she touched. Li later awakens in the road, alone. [g] THE OLD MAN WHO SWEPT THE SKY. A mythical fantasy. * A curious atmosphere in THE PURPLE SEA and some touches of imagination in [f], but otherwise of no great interest. 1270. THE PORCELAIN MAGICIAN A COLLECTION OF ORIENTAL FANTASIES Gnome Press; New York 1949 Introduction by David Kyle. * Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] THE PURPLE SEA. lb] THE OLD MAN WHO SWEPT THE SKY. [c] THE RICE MERCHANT. [d] THE BLUE CITY. [e] THE GOLD EN HOUR OF KWOH FAN. [ f] THE WIND THAT TRAMPS THE WORLD. * Also [g] THE FAN. (WT 1925) Li Hsien is a heartless courtesan who kills her lovers and makes their lips into fans. Her latest lover is saved by the intervention of the fan. [h] DOCTOR SHEN FU. An immortal Chinese alchemist who has the elixir of life. He keeps a woman in suspended animation. [i] THE FOUNTAIN. A Mohammedan sculptor [sic] whose work is considered the best in the world. When a Westerner picks a flower associated with the sculpture, he is killed by the other flowers, and a dead woman is found where the flowers had been. [j] MONK'S BLOOD. Immortality by drinking blood. [k] THE PORCELAIN MAGICIAN. Tang Ling is the best potter in the Orient. His painted animals have a life of their own. His magical skill creates tiles that will repel a Japanese invasion. * [g] and [i] have been taken from the earlier collection DELLA WU, CHINESE COURTESAN (1931), and [h], from A HUSBAND FOR KUTANI (1938). OWEN, WALTER (1884 ? British author. Remembered mostly for A CROSS FOR CARL (1931), a very horrible antiwar novel told in semi-fabular form. 1271. "MORE THINGS IN HEAVEN •• " Andrew Dakers; London [1947] A thriller. * Letherbotham is killed, it is

OWEN, WALTER discovered, by a group of Zoroastrian black magicians who have vowed to kill all descendants of Alexander the Great, to prevent Alexander's reincarnation. Merlin Alaska, a detective, is consulted. A series of flashbacks shows what has happened to other descendants of Alexander, and Alaska solves the mystery. He carries the battle to the black magicians, evoking the fire elemental that killed Letherbotham. * Poorly organized, sprawling, probably not meant seriously, but literate and with many ideas. OXENFORD, JOHN and FElLING, C. A. Oxenford (1812-1877) was a British attorney, journalist, dramatist, dramatic critic (London TIMES), translator. A very capable linguist operating in several languages. Introduced Schopenhauer to the English-speaking world; translation of Calderon highly regarded. Prolific writer of plays, opera librettos, popular in their day, but now forgotten. * Nothing is known about Fei1ing. He may have been an expatriate German. AS EDITORS AND TRANSLATORS: 1272. TALES FRO¥. THE GERMAN CO¥~RISING SPECIMENS FRO¥. THE MOST CELEBRATED AUTHORS Chapman and Hall; Londen 1844 Mostly Romantic material from a generation earlier. Many are first appearances in English. Including, described elsewhere, [a] LIBUSSA, J. K. M~saeus. [b] THE COLD HEART, Wilhelm Hauff. [c] NOSE, THE DWARF, Wilhelm Hauff. [d] THE SAND~~N, E. T. A. Hoffmann. * Also, [e] THE ~~USENBURG, Ludwig Tieck. (DIE KLAUSENBURG, 1836) A heavy family curse lies on the Klausenburgs because of ancient cruelty to a Gipsy. In the present generation it takes a peculiar form. The brilliant, dynamic, but consumptive Elizabeth is a profound student of philosophy. Following Fichte, she decides that Will is all and declares that she will become immortal on death. She dies and returns as a horrible spectre, crushing the heir to Klausenburg in her embrace. [f) THE wO~ERS IN THE SPESSART, Karl Immermann. A fragment from the novel M~CHHAUSEN (1838) anti-Hegelian in tone. A student of Albertus Magnus's overhears his sleeping master murmur a magical word. When the student applies the word, the veils that conceal the universe are rent, the ideas become visible, and the student comprehends the cosmos. He undergoes various magical adventures, sees an enchanted young woman wrapped in cobwebs (symbolic), but ages forty years in forty minutes. [g) THE ELEMENTARY SPIRIT, E. T. A. Hoffmann. (DER ELEMENTARGEIST, 1821-2) Paracelsian magic and the 18th century occult adventurer. Vincent, a young soldier, falls under the influence of O'Malley, a notorious black magician, whose spells evoke a salamander (fire-elemental). Ironic. [h) THE NEW PARIS, J. W. von Goethe. (DER NEUE PARIS 1811) A story from DICHTUNG UND WAHRHEIT. A marchen of an enchanted garden, fairy princesses, and living toys. Delicately handled and delightful. [i) ALI AND GULHYNDI, Adam Oehlenschlager.

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PAGE, NORVELL A long Oriental tale with much magic of the Arabian Nights sort. * Several of these stories-- those by Tieck, Hoffmann, Immermann, Goethe-- have symbolic interpretations that are beyond the scope of this book. * Good material.

PADGETT, LEWIS (pseud. of KUTTNER, HENRY and MOORE, CATHERINE L., which see for biographical information) 1273. A GNOXE THERE WAS AND OTHER TALES OF SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY Simon and Schuster; New York 1950 Essentially a science-fiction collection, but with two weird stories. Including [a) A GNOME THERE WAS. (U~ 1941) Tim Crockett, half-baked enthusiast, is caught in a mine explosion as he is trying to organize the miners. He is changed into a gnome. An ancient law decrees that since gnomes do not breed, new gnomes are to be fashioned from humans trapped underground. Crockett plans to get back into human shape. Told with black irony. Transformations. [b) CO~PLlMENTS OF THE AUTHOR. (UNK 1942) Tracy accidentally murders a wizard. The wizard's familiar swears vengeance, since it must die within a short time of its master. Tracy is protected by the wizard's magic book, which covers all possible situations and will give him ten answers. The question is whether he has enough time to outlive the familiar. * Also present are the classic science-fiction stories "The Twonky, ". "See You Later," "Mimsy Were the Borogoves," and "This Is the House." PAGE, NORVELL (1904-1961) American journalist, report writer for the U. S. government, prolific contributor to the hero pUlps. Under pseudo GRANT STOCKBRIDGE wrote 116 lead novels for THE SPIDER magazine. Also assorted mystery fiction. 1274. FLAME WINOS Berkley Publishing Corp.; New York 1967 paperbound Fantastic adventure in the manner of R. E. Howard, perhaps with some influence from Harold Lamb. * (UNK 1939) Prester John, according to Page, was not a mythical king of Central Asia or Africa, but an incredible gladiator from Alexandria of the first century A.D. Prester in this case meant whirlwind, a description of his berserk fighting style. * John, wandering through Central Asia, comes upon the Mongol land of Turgohl, north of the Karakorum. The city is ruled by a syndicate of magicians, who, while uniting to keep the land in servitude, quarrel and plot against one another. John pits his incredible muscles and fighting reflexes against the wizards, but eventually finds himself in the arena, where he must fight three gladiatorial combats:

PAGE, NORVELL beasts, men, and gods. Weaponless he manhandles tigers and lions, squads of soldiers, and finally withstands Death itself. As his reward he asks a question that he has been prompted to ask: How can one man control Turgohl. The answer: Through the crystal ball. A fairy tale element now enters: an enchanted princess, held in the form of a child by the magic of the ball. John smashes the ball; the princess instantly assumes maturity. But problems are not over yet. John, leading the princess's forces, must still defeat the wizards. He does, but the princess turns out not to be a fairy tale princess. There is also a myst~ry element: who is the wizard chief? * Routine commercial work. 1275. SONS OF THE BEAR GOD Berkley Publishing Corp.; New York [1969] paperbound Blood-soaked adventure, with a modicum of supernaturalism. A sequel to FLAME WINDS. (UNK 1939) * After Prester John (Wan Tengri) has been outwitted by his princess and expelled from the city of Turgohl, he and Bourtai, the treacherous little wizard who serves him, come upon a hidden land controlled by the ancestors of the present-day Ainu. These proto-Ainu are ruled by a magical priesthood and a magical king; they use the power of the bear god to overawe a captive population of Tocharians (Central Asiatic Indo-Europeans). Their magic includes animating prairie grass so that it strangles; causing projections of a gigantic bear; clairvoyance, etc. Wan Tengri smashes through the magic, drives the Ainu into the ocean to Japan, and usurps the kingship. While he is "pacifying" the outer lands, however, he is again outwitted by a woman and is lucky to escape with his life. Still ahead of John are several kingdoms to conquer before he can assume the legendary stature of Prester John of the middle ages, but the editors of UNKNOWN seem to have felt that enough was enough, and this is the last adventure recorded of John and Bourtai. No great loss. PAIN, BARRY [ERIC ODELL] (1865-1928) British humorist, fiction writer, miscellaneous writer. During his lifetime noted mostly for his humorous work; excelled in somewhat sharp comic portrayal of servants and lower classes; sometimes heavy handed treatment. While early work tends to be crude, soon evolved into a very accomplished technician in the short story. Undeservedly forgotten. 1276. IN A CANADIAN CANOE H. Henry & Co.; London 1891 In part material reprinted from the GRANTA, published while Pain was up at Cambridge. * This contains two story sequences "In a Canadian Canoe" and "The Nine Muses Minus One" which occasionally have small amounts of fantastic material, but not enough to be worth describing. * Also, [a] THE CELESTIAL GROCERY. Fantasy in the mode of F. Anstey, satire on personality types, allegorizing. The narrator, a snobbish minor schoolteacher, is taken by a rowdy, modern low-class pegasus to the celestial grocery shop, where abstract

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PAIN, BARRY qualities are sold. He can buy love, political fame, or literary fame, but finally takes instead the "best thing" for his father, who lies in an insane asylum. When he returns to earth, he learns that his father has just died. But he, too, is insane. [b] THE GIRL AND THE BEETLE. A STORY OF HERE AND HEREAFTER. Parallelisms between the life of a humanized beetle and humans. Thomas the beetle dies, and two humans, Marjorie and Maurice, find his body. They treat his death seriously, and in dream the beetle makes revelations to them which are suppressed in their memories. But Marjorie suddenly remembers the beetle's prophecy when she becomes supernaturally aware of Maurice's death. * Both stories show an odd mixing of disparate elements that are not well integrated. 1277. STORIES AND INTERLUDES H. Henry & Co.; London 1891 Short stories, reminiscent at times of Victorian fables, including [a] THE GLASS OF SUPREME MOMENTS. When Lucius Morne is idly sitting, watching his fire, the fireplace suddenly turns into a stairway that leads up into mist. A beautiful woman appears and asks him to mount the stairs. In a small room at the top she shows him, in a magic mirror, the supreme moments in the lives of his friends. When he demands to see his own supreme moment, he learns that it is death and that she is Death. [b] EXCHANGE. A complex story of sacrifice and vicarious suffering, told in a confused manner. When Doris is ice-skating, she falls and injures her head. As she lies unconscious, an old woman appears to her and shows her images of the horrible future that awaits Doris's family. The old woman is willing to change this if Doris will yield a part of herself. Doris agrees and awakens with severe brain damage and mental deficiency. Major Gunnical also sees the old woman and learns what she plans for the part taken from Doris. He offers himself in exchange. The old woman must accept his offer. He dies and is reincarnated as a bird, tormented by being kept in captivity. Doris, who has died but returned to mental normalcy, wanders in spirit past the bird, pities it, but does not know the story of the major's sacrifice. [c] WHEN THAT SWEET CHILD LAY DEAD. The pathetic fallacy as flowers, winds, comment on death. On the human side, friends are shocked when the father of the dead child plays spirited music. * pain's technique had not jelled yet, and the death eroticism is annoying. Minor work. 1278. STORIES IN THE DARK Grant Richards; London 1901 Short stories, including [a] THE DIARY OF A GOD. A diary kept by a small-minded clerk who has unexpectedly come into an inheritance. As his character changes, he leaves London and goes out into the country, where he is taken to be mad. But he is in communication with the great gods, who promise that he will marry a beautiful goddess. Madness, but an approach like that of Dunsany. [b] THIS IS ALL. The protagonist does not follow medical advice and

PAIN, BARRY dies. His spirit discovers that he is no longer alive. [c] THE MOON-SLAVE. The Princess Viola, who is a remarkable dancer, wanders evenings to the sandy center of the old overgrown maze, where she dances to the music of an invisible orchestra. This continues until one evening, when she discovers that she is not dancing alone. The search next day does not find the princess, who has disappeared, but in the sand are her footprint and that of a large, cloven foot. [d] THE CASE OF VINCENT PYRWHIT. His wife's voice over the phone tells him that he will soon join her. But she is dead and the phone disconnected. [e] THE BOTTOM OF THE GULPH. An ironic continuation of the Roman legend of M. Curtius, who leaped into the abyss to save Rome-- and what met him in the gulph. [f] THE UNDYING THING. The late 18th century Sir Edric Vanquerest was a wicked man, and he kept a pack of wolves. His pregnant wife was frightened by the wolves, and the baby was marked. The wife died, and the baby was abandoned in Hal's Planting, the nearby woods, but it survives, deathless, and when it comes to the hall, the family shall be extinct. The present Sir Edric is an amiable man, but he pays for the family sins. [g] THE GRAY CAT. It is associated with an idol, and there is something supernatural about it. * Two other stories, "The Green Light" and "The Magnet" are borderline stories of madness, which are probably not intended as supernaturalism. 1279. THE ONE BEFORE Grant Richards; London 1902 Humorous fantasy, personality types interacting on a quest plot. * The motivating object is the Sahib i dirina, a magical ring from the Orient. It has the property of causing the wearer to assume the emotional structure (but not the personality or memory) of the previous wearer. It happens to be in the hands of an eccentric traveller and savant, Nathaniel Brookes, and it is eagerly sought after by Oriental religionists and their commercial agents in England. * When Brookes hears of the domestic tyranny of Ernest Saunders Barley, a bullying little faddist, he sends the rings to Barley to alter his personality for the better. But Barley's wife, a meek, downtrodden woman, wears it instead of Barley. Since the previous wearer was a lion tamer, Mrs. Barley soon works Barley into shape and life is happier in one household. Meanwhile, an unscrupulous antique dealer learns that the ring is in England and undertakes investigations and schemes, aided by his crooked brother-in-law. Plots go back and forth, the ring shifts hands with minor reverberations, until Brookes, realizing that things are getting out of hand, recovers the ring by a stratagem. * Interesting, not for the somewhat slight plot line, but for the amusing character grotesques, outstanding of whom are a pair of gossiping young housemaids. 1280. AN EXCHANGE OF SOULS Eveleigh Nash; London 1911 Borderline science-fiction in part. * Dr.

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PAIN, BARRY Daniel Myas, a noteworthy scientist, would like to determine scientifically what the Ego is and conducts experiments with dying animals. He has also invented an elaborate apparatus by means of which he hopes to transfer human souls. The narrator becomes friendly with Myas and Myas's fiancee Alice, a rather vapid, ignorant young woman whom Myas is frankly encouraging for experimental purposes. Myas dies suddenly of an overdose of drugs. There is suspicion of murder, but the narrator learns that Myas's soul has been transferred to Alice's body. Myas would like regain his old body, but in his new form he has forgotten the process. Alice-Myas continues to alter, and dies in a train wreck. The narrator then has supernatural experiences with the combined ghost of the two. * The point seems to be that the Ego is not an absolutely entity. Smoothly handled, but a rather trivial story. 1281. HERE AND HEREAFTER Methuen; London 1911 Short stories, including [a] THE UNFINISHED GAME. The owner of a resort hotel has problems with an old billiard room. The score adjusts itself to certain figures; noises are heard; and he finds himself playing a game with a ghost. [b] THE FOUR-FINGERED HAND. Brackley's father often saw a supernatural hand which served as a warning not to do certain things. Brackley himself now sees it, since his father is dead. But he does not obey it, and it strangles him. An unusual story, for while the motif is common enough, the rationale for events is surprisingly modern. [c] THE TOWER. Vyse, who is not entirely an admirable character, has a very odd tower. It is haunted by animal-like presences that can be heard and felt, but not seen. Vyse asks his friend to come with a revolver if he hears the whistle blown, since previous persons who have meddled with the "beasts" have been found dead. Vyse, too, is found dead, face chewed off by an invisible monstrosity. [d] THE UNSEEN POWER. Persons who sleep in the haunted room tend to disappear. The mechanism for their disappearance is mechanical-- a balanced trapdoor in the floor-- but the evil itself operates by possession of a sort. * A fifth story, [e] THE WIDOWER, is questionable as fantasy. A widower is going to be remarried, and he undergoes all sorts of psychic turmoil. He says the wrong name at the altar and faints in embarrassment, striking his head on the step, killing himself. It would all be rational, except for the last line, "And the dead woman went to sleep again." * Oddly enough, themes that might have been handled by Richard Marsh a decade or so earlier, but handled with much more art. 1282. STORIES IN GREY T. Werner Laurie; London [1911] Short stories, including [a] SMEATH. Fairly long. Percy Bellowes, a shady stage hypnotist, hires Smeath, an ugly, dwarfish man, as an assistant. Bellowes soon learns that when Smeath is under hypnosis, he i.s completely clairvoyant. Bellowes sets up shop as

PAIN, BARRY fashionable psychic, exploiting Smeath. While under hypnosis Smeath chances to reveal that he is a wanted murderer. Bellowes does not survive long. Interesting characterizations. [b] ROSE ROSE. Although stupid, Rose Rose is an almost perfect artist's model. Sefton's picture is almost finished, when it is learned that Rose has been killed in an accident. Rose continues to come and pose, but Sefton finds the situation unbearable and commits suicide. [c] THE WOMAN IN THE ROAD. Very short. A Gipsy woman, killed by a car, cursed it just before she died. Her ghost causes an accident. [d] LINDA. Escourt visits his brother after the death of the brother's wife, and finds that he is living with the dead wife's sister, whose name is also Linda. She is both unpleasant and gifted with paranormal abilities. Centuries earlier, an ancestral witch was rescued foom the pyre by the Devil. As payment, he can take unmarried maidens away. The brother kills Linda to save her from Hell. Madness, except that an extra voice is heard-. * All four nicely done. 1283. THE NEW GULLIVER AND OTHER STORIES T. Werner Laurie; London [1913] Title nouvelle and short stories, including [a] ZERO. Zero is a very obliging bulldog who seems to have powers of prevision. He warns his owners of catastrophe. After he defends the family from a rabid dog, he obligingly commits suicide. [b] IN A LONDON GARDEN. Light, humorous musings in a garden, including a couple of supernatural anecdotes that are rationalized and too slight to be described. * "The New Gulliver," which, probably speaking, is science-fiction, is an amusing burlesque of the too-intellectual utopia. 1284. COLLECTED TALES VOLUME ONE Martin Secker; London [1916] Although a second volume was announced, it did not appear. Short stories, including [a] THE CELESTIAL GROCERY. [b] EXCHANGE. [c] THE GLASS OF SUPREME MOMENTS. [d] ZERO. [e] THE MOON-SLAVE. [f] THE DIARY OF A GOD. [gJ THE UNDYING THING. * Pain considered these his best stories. While I would not agree with the selection, the volume is useful in being fairly common and reprinting material that is otherwise unobtainable. 1285. GOING HOME BEING THE FANTASTIC ROMANCE OF THE GIRL WITH ANGEL EYES AND THE MAN WHO HAD WINGS T. Werner Laurie; London [1921] An allegory of modern life. * George Overman , (force) meets Dora Muse (art), who awakens in him new sentiments. He had hitherto been keeping with him, as a semi-prisoner, Eagle, a winged man (liberty). When Overman falls in love with Jane, Dora's maid, Eagle carries Dora away. There are other allegorical personalities. * One might wonder why Pain wrote it. 1286. SHORT STORIES OF TO-DAY AND YESTERDAY Harrap; London [1928] Including [a] THE TREE OF DEATH. A timeless, unidentified land, Arabian in background. The Tree of Death produces a silver nut, which when it matures into a tree, must seize a hu-

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PARGETER, EDITH man in its tentacles for fertilization. [b] MIRACLES. A mind-reading team which operates fraudulently has a genuine manifestation. [c] THE REACTION. An extremely potent drug produces a sensation of beatitude that seems to last a year. But the reaction includes visions of utmost horror. [d] NOT ON THE PASSENGER LIST. Described elsewhere. PARGETER, EDITH [MARY] (1913British novelist. Also wrote mystery novels under the pseudonym ELLIS PETERS. Her first mystery novel won an Edgar Allan Poe Award. 1287. THE CITY LIES FOUR-SOUARE A NOVEL Heinemann; London [1939] Supernatural neo-Gothic of a sort. * Dr. Julian Sears, a young man about to be married, buys a fine old house in the slums for a very low price. He does not know that it is haunted. The ghost soon makes itself known to him. It is that of a young man who died in a riding accident in 1837. His name is Patrick Mundy, and copies of his verse are still extant. At first Sears is terrified at the manifestation, but upon discussing the matter with the local vicar, recognizes that he has a medical duty. He becomes friendly with the ghost, who is now visible to him. Mundy tells of his life and unrequited love. Damaris, the woman he loved, married another man. She died in childbirth a couple of years after Mundy's death, and Mundy has remained in the house hoping to find her again. Thanks to Sears's insight, Mundy realizes that Damaris had really loved him. Meanwhile, Sears's fiancee is becoming disturbed at Sears's perpetual abstraction and strange doings, and is about to break their engagement. She goes to the house and leaves her engagement ring on a table, and at this point Mundy, hoping to help his friend, manifests himself. The fiancee, in terror, falls down the stairs and has a concussion. Sears, who comes along at that time, in a rage orders Mundy out. Mundy decides that he should leave, and this sacrifice on his part opens a door for him. Damaris comes from heaven and takes him away. * Intelligent, but over-sentimental, and the author in this volume at least is unable to create male characters. 1288. BY FIRELIGHT Heinemann; London 1947 American title, BY THIS STRANGE FIRE. * The strange paths of love in a neo-Gothic situation. * Claire Falchon, an emotionally cold woman who has never had strong feelings for anything or anyone, has just become widowed. She decides to return to her former occupation of writing. She buys an old schoolmaster's house in the West Country and settles down. Here the story takes two paths. Claire becomes friendly with the previous owner of the property. He, a Gabriel Oak type, falls in love with her, but she cannot respond. In the second path, Claire becomes the vehicle for recording a forgotten bit of history from the early 17th century. At that time, the schoolmaster Salathiel Drury, a Byronic type, was framed for witchcraft and burned at the stake.

PARGETER, EDITH (The punishment is historically sound, since petty treason was involved.) Drury was loved too strongly by his mistress housekeeper, and when he cast her off, she sought revenge. * Back in the present, love continues its strange ways. The nephew of the previous owner, also in love with Claire, murders his uncle. * Literate, despite the panting animus types involved, but without the ability to convey a feeling of period. The author may have intended a parallelism between the two stories, but all that emerges is murder for the sake of love. PARRISH, J[OHN] M[AXEY] and CROSSLAND, J[OHN] R. British anthologists. AS EDITORS: 1289. MAMMOTH BOOK OF THRILLERS, GHOSTS AND MYSTERIES Odhams Press; London [1936] A large volume containing mostly mystery and supernatural fiction, * Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE DIVER, A. J. Alan, [b] POWERS OF THE AIR, J. D. Beresford. [c] KEEPING HIS PROMISE, Algernon Blackwood. [d] DEARTH'S FARM, Gerald Bullett. [e] THE CUPBOARD, Jeffery Farnol. [f] GUESTS FROM GIBBET ISLAND, Washington Irving. [g] THE MEZZOTINT, M. R. James. [h] ROOUM, Oliver Onions. [i] THE LOOKING GLASS, Walter de la Mare. [j] THE SEVENTH MAN, A. T. Quiller-Couch. [k] LAURA, Saki. [1] THE MAHATMA'S STORY, May Sinclair. [m] THE ISLAND OF VOICES, R. L. Stevenson. [n] THE INEXPERIENCED GHOST, H. G. Wells. [0] THE CONFESSION OF CHARLES LINKWORTH, E. F. Benson. [p] THE MOONLIT ROAD, Ambrose Bierce. [q] A VISITOR FROM DOWN UNDER, L. P. Hartley. [r] MAJOR WILBRAHAM, Hugh Walpole. [s] THE SHADOW OF A SHADE, Tom Hood. [t] THE IRON PINEAPPLE, Eden Phillpotts. [u] THE HOSTELRY, Guy de Maupassant. Alternate title for THE INN. [v] THE QUEEN OF SPADES, Alexander Pushkin. * Also [w] HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER, W. W. Jacobs. Murder, betrayed by somnambulism and unconscious actions, perhaps ultimately supernatural and external in origin. [x] THE OTHER SENSE, J. S. Fletcher. The diary of a young man gifted with the second sight, but considered mad. He sees a ghost and by following it uncovers a murder. Nicely told in Fletcher's undramatic way. [y] GHOST OF HONOUR, Pamela Hansford Johnson. The ghost of Jeremiah, who used to be a music hall performer and actor, plays the organ nightly. He is visible, but according to his dying words, he will never show his face to a mortal. But when Jeremiah comes during the night to Robertson's room, he seems to be breaking his promise. Told with nice irony. [z] ROADS OF DESTINY, O. Henry. (Pseud. of William Sydney Porter) France, perhaps the late 17th or early 18th century. The shepherd poet David leaves his flocks and his native village and travels. He comes to three crossroads. He takes the left branch, and meets death from the pistol of the Marquis de Beaupertuys. He then takes the right branch, and again meets death, now by uncovering (unwittingly) a plot

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PARRY, DENNIS against the king. The third branch, leads to the same end. Discouraged as a poet, he buys a weapon and commits suicide-- with the pistol of the Marquis de Beaupertuys. [aa] THE TRAPDOOR, C. D. Heriot. When Staines moved into the old-fashioned country pub, he was morbidly curious about the trapdoor in the ceiling of his room. He hears tapping, listens to local gossip, and then opens the trap. It is long before he recovers. The original situation was probably murder. ebb] THE DEMON KING, J. B. Priestley. A music hall performance in which the Devil plays the part of the Demon King in the pantomime. He does it quite well. [cc] MAN OF THE NIGHT, Edgar Wallace. George Thomas, a habitual small thief, has been turned in to the police by his wife. He decides to kill her, since she has played on his weakness and driven him to crline. As he walks home with a stolen knife he is joined by a stranger, who even comes into the flat with him. Thomas changes his mind. The stranger was presumably Jesus. [dd] HONOLULU, W. Somerset Maugham. Set somewhere in Polynesia. The story is told in a frame. Captain Butler bought a young woman on one of the islands and took her with hlin. His kanaka mate, however, is madly in love with her and works magic against Butler, who gradually wastes away. The woman in turn kills the mate with what amounts to mirror magic. Nicely told. [eel A TALE OF A GAS-LIGHT GHOST, Anonymous. (NEW CHRISTMAS ANNUAL 1867) Gregory Barnstake falls into cataleptic states during which he feels that his heart has been seized. A stranger comes to town, makes sinister predictions, and disappears. When the pond is drained, the stranger's skeleton is found. Barnstake is dead, with marks over his heart. He had murdered the man. [ff] THE COAT, A. E. D. Smith. France. A tourist takes shelter in an abandoned house. There is something strange-- an old coat that becomes animated and attacks him. It had belonged to a very sadistic Napoleonic soldier. [gg] PRESENTIMENTS, P. C. Wren. French Foreign Legion. The legionnaire Max Linden tells a horrible story, of how he let his father be executed for a drunken murder when he might have saved him. Supernatural in that Linden has a presentiment that he will die next day. [hh] BERENICE, E.A. Poe. Described elsewhere. PARRY, DENNIS [ARTHUR] (1912British author. 1290. THE SURVIVOR Robert Hale; London [1940] Character study, in terms of supernaturalism. * Indefinite time, but probably the near future, when a highly dangerous form of flu is epidemic in Great Britain. Dr. James Marshall, a brilliant physician and epidemologist living in retirement, also happens to be a sadist. He lets his sister, his brother, and his adopted daughter Olive live with him mostly, it would seem, so that he can torment them. Since he has the family money, the situation is perhaps unavoidable. Marshall dies during the epidemic, but his spirit returns to poss-

PARRY, DENNIS ess Olive periodically. Olive is revealed to be Marshall's illegitimate daughter, and Marshall continues his tormenting by bringing into the family situation the woman who had born Olive. (It is revealed that he had drugged and raped her.) There seems to be only one remedy: death for all of them. * Many good touches and flashes of wit, but the plot creaks and the author is not up to convincing the reader that Marshall is really wicked. With the exception of the rape, he seems ~ore like an amusing dog. PATER, ROGER (pseud. of HUDLESTONE, Dom GEORGE ROGER, O. S. B.) (1874-1936) British Benedictine, series editor of works of Juliana of Norwich, St. Francis of Assisi, and other mystical authors. 1291. MYSTIC VOICES, BEING THE EXPERIENCES OF THE REV. PHILIP RIVERS PATER, SOUIRE ANO PRIEST. 1834-1913 Burns, Oates and Washbourne; London 1923 Supernatural stories, religious in basis, formed upon the experiences of Father Pater, a Benedictine who also happens to be an English squire. Several of the stories are motivated by "direct speech," a special faculty which gives the priest supernatural information. * [a] THE WARNINGS. Father Pater tells of the voice which speaks to him and informs him of such things as deaths in the family. [b] THE PERSECUTION CHALICE. When Father Pater says mass with a certain old chalice, he hears the tumult of a mob around him. The chalice had been used in prison, during the Terror in France. [c] IN ARTICULO MORTIS. Guided by his "direct speech," Father Pater agrees to visit an Austrian castle to hear the confession of a dying man. He is surprised to find the man healthy in appearance, though later he hears the sounds of a body being dumped into the castle moat. He later learns that the penitent was a ghost, a suicide ten years before. [d] THE PRIEST'S HIDING PLACE. A collateral ancestor was a martyr. Father Pater hears a ghostly mass and finds the long-lost priest's hole. [e] DE PROFUNDIS. Father Pater's gift is of use in extirpating an unlawful cultus which a group of nuns had established. The ghost of the nun whom the other nuns venerated appears. [f] "OF SUCH IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN." A girl has mystical experiences in which the Virgin appears and promises to accept her for Jesus. The appearance emerges from a door that is closer each year, and the mystic knows that when the last door is reached, she shall die. [g] THE ASTROLOGER'S LEGACY. A Cellini vessel with a crystal ball atop it was used for nameless neo-pagan rites during the Renaissance. It seems possessed. A Spiritualist, on looking at the vessel, sees an evil ceremony being performed in the past. [h] A PORTA INFERI. The priest visits a madhouse and finds the Spiritualist of [g], now possessed by another personality. The priest recognizes the situation and performs a successful exorcism. [i] THE TREASURE OF THE BLUE NUNS. A pillow that heals

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PEAKE, MERVYN illness miraculously is opened. It is full of relics of the Martyrs, including the collateral ancestor of [d]. [j] THE WATCHMAN. A young intellectual undergoes clinical death in a hospital. When he recovers, he is a changed man and leads a life of service. [k] IN THE FOOTSTEP OF THE AVENTINE. The footstep is that of a 17th century English priest who wants some papers burned. The papers are found. [1] THE SCAPEGOAT. To shield his brother, a countryman permits himself to be executed for murder. But he dies well, for, claims Father Pater, he has been prepared for death by God himself. The rewards of self-sacrifice. [ml OUR LADY OF THE ROCK. Travelling in Italy the squire is guided by his voices to a longlost image of the Virgin, which he digs up. [n] THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. The prayers of an old Quaker and his wraith-like appearance at a mass show Pater that all religions have truth. * [c] and [e] are best. Some of the other stories are naive and saccharine. PATTEN, WILLIAM (1868-1936) American illustrator, editor. Managing editor of the HARVARD CLASSICS. AS EDITOR: 1292. GREAT SHORT STORIES. VOLUME II. GHOST STORIES P. F. Collier; New York 1906 Described elsewhere, [a] LA MORTE AMOREUSE, Theophile Gautier, [b] THE RED ROOM, H. G. Wells. [cl THE PHANTOM 'RICKSHAW, Rudyard Kipling. [d] THE ROLL CALL OF THE REEF, A. Quiller-Couch. [e] THE HOUSE AND THE BRAIN, E. Bulwer-Lytton. Short version. [f] THE DREAM WOMAN, Wilkie Collins. [g] GREEN BRANCHES, Fiona Macleod. [h] THE SIGNAL-MAN Charles Dickens. [i] THE FOUR-FIFTEEN EXPRESS, Amelia B. Edwards. [j] THRAWN JANET, R. L. Stevenson. [k] A CHRISTMAS CAROL, Charles Dickens. [1] THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM, Washington Irving. [m] MR. HIGGINBOTHAM'S CATASTROPHE, Nathaniel Hawthorne. [n] THE WHITE OLD MAID, Nathaniel Hawthorne. [0] WANDERING WILLIE'S TALE, Sir Walter Scott. [p] THE MYSTERIOUS SKETCH, Erckmann-Chatrian. * Also [q] A BEWITCHED SHIP, William Clark Russell. A haunted ship, rationalized as ventriloquistic pranks. [r] OUR LAST WALK, Hugh Conway. A wife is led to her husband's remains by his spirit. * Probably the best collection of its period. PEAKE, MERVYN (1911-1968) British artist, author. Born in China. Excellent illustrator of books. Author of Gormenghast trilogy, TITUS GROAN (1946), GORMENGHAST (1950), TITUS ALONE (1959). While these are sometimes considered to be fantasy, there is no supernaturalism in them. 1293. MR. PYE Heinemann; London 1953 An overdrawn fantasy of goodness. * Mr. Pye, a fat little man, arrives at the island of Sark determined to bring everyone over to love and the Great Pal. Since he is remarkably gifted at gamesmanship, he establishes a sway over certain of the islanders, while his selfsatisfaction grows. But he notes that he is

PEAKE, MERVYN growing wings. This disturbs him, and to cause the wings to atrophy he sets out to perform minor evil acts, like conjurations and magical practices '!lith a goat. The wings Ji;;-. appear, but horns sprout from his forehead. He eventually achieves an apotheosis of a sort. * Some nice verbal touches, but overlong. It might have been successful as a nouvelle. The illustrations are superior to the ·text. PEARCE, J[OSEPH] H[ENRY] (1854 ? British author. 1294. DROLLS FROM SHADOWLAND Lawrenc.~ and Bullen; London 1893 Short pieces based on Cornish folklore and general supernatural fiction. Including [a] THE MAN WHO COINED HIS BLOOD INTO GOLD ~ A miner, on breaking into a new chamber, finds a devil awaiting him. The devil offers to let him coin blood-- a sovereign a drop. The miner is so greedy that he bleeds to death. [b] AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY. Preston, thrown out of a cab accidentally, enters another cab, and then a boat, which tends toward the sea. He is going home-- to death. [c] THE MAN WHO COULD TALK WITH THE BIRDS. A Cornishman enters a dolmen with an ancient man. His one wish is to understand the language :,f the birds. This is granted to him, but the conversation of the birds is trivial. He emerges an old man. [d] A PLEASANT ENTERTAINMENT. A showman at a carnival enables a bum and a whore to see what their lives would have been had they not been beaten by fate. They find the vision intolerable. [e] THE MAN WHO DESIRED TO BE A TREE. A student is transformed into a tree and is happy as such. [f] THE MAN WHO HAD SEEN., Borderline supernatural. After two days in a trance, the man tries to explain his revelation to bishop, king, and magistrate, but is rejected. [g] THE UNCHRISTENED CHILD. It turns into a seal and later accuses its father, wh~ tries to help it. [h] THE MAN WHO MET HATE. Borderline supernatural. Elijah finds Hate lurking in the passage tomb, and hopes to have Hate injure his enemies. [i] THE HAUNTED HOUSE. Borderline supernatural. A dying wife, who has pondered all her life about the house, joins the ghosts. [j] GIFTS AND AWARDS. Ironical.· Death awarded characters to Rick and Dick at their birth. On dying, Rick is sent to Heaven, while Dick goes to Hell-- presumably the wrong place for each. But Dick, being good, could tolerate Hell, while Rick, a perpetual carper, would not be happy there. [k] FRIEND OR FOE? Cruel, wicked Sir Edward is reincarnated as a horse so that he can build up some merit to offset his sins. [1] THE COMEDY OF A SOUL. A young man gives his soul to his sweetheart and discovers that it is still possible to live. He becomes a bishop. * Short, undeveloped material, occasionally with interesting ideas, but not fulfilled. Stories [a], [cl, [g] are based on folklore and use Cornish dialect. There are explanatory footnotes.

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PEATTIE, ELlA PEASE, HOWARD (1863 ? British author. 1295. BORDER GHOST STORIES Erskine Macdonald; London [1919] Historical and supernatural fiction suggested by the work of Sir Walter Scott. * Including [a] IN THE BLACKFRIARS WYND. Brownie is possessed by an evil spirit that makes him commit crimes. [b] BY PEDEN'S CLEUCH. Ghosts of the Covenanters still ride. [c] "ILL-STEEKIT" EPHRAIM. A corpse that sits up in its coffLn when the murderer enters. [d] T~ COCK-CROW. A ghost disappears at cock-crow. [e] THE LORD WARDEN'S TOMB. A haunted tomb, possible possession. [f] THE MUNIMENT ROOM. A lady ghost reveals where her lover's skeleton lies. [g] IN THE CLIFF LAND OF THE DANE. A village halfwit, possessed by the spirit of an ancient Dane, becomes a reiver. [h] IN MY LADlE'S BEDCHAMBER. A ghost that poisons the living. [i] THE WARLOCK OF GLORORUM. A hidden wizard's chamber with a giant Nepenthes plant that eats visitors. [j] THE HAllliTED ALEHOUSE. A ghost and revenge. [k] KITTY'S BOWER. Phantasm of the living. * Unremarkable. The non-supernatural stories in the book are superior. PEATTIE, [MRS.] ELlA WILKINSON (1862-1935) American journalist, newspaper woman in Chicago and Omaha. 1296. THE SHAPE OF FEAR AND OTHER GHOSTLY ~ Macmillan; New York 1898 Brief short stories and narratives. * [a] THE SHAPE OF FEAR. Tim O'Connor, a drunken newspaper man, is both a gifted writer and a man of honor and sensibility. He lives in terror of the dark, for in it he sees the Shape of Fear. This, it is revealed to a friend who also sees it, is the good that O'Connor might have been. [b] ON THE NORTHERN ICE. Hagedorn, in Canada, skating to his friend's wedding, is lured from the route he had planned to take. A phantom skater. His life is thereby saved, for the ice had broken elsewhere. The woman he loved had just died, and it was her spirit. [c] THEIR DEAR LITTLE GHOST. Little Elsbeth died, but her ghost returned at Christmas and was hurt that no stockings or toys had been provided. [d] A SPECTRAL COLLIE. A homesick young Englishman is farming in Kansas. When he is sick, his life is saved by the ghost of his dog, which fetches the neighbors. [e] THE HOUSE THAT WAS NOT. Some people can see the house across the farm lands. It is not there, but a crime was committed in it years earlier, before it burned down. [f] STORY OF AN OBSTINATE CORPSE. The strong-willed old Jewish lady did not like photography and pictures cannot be taken of her corpse. [g] A CHILD OF THE RAIN. An apparition of a child on a streetcar, perhaps a symbol of dead love, but anticipatory, since it is run over soon after. [h] THE ROOM OF THE EVIL THOUGHT. An irresponsible minister, who ran away and later turned criminal, evoked the evil thought which haunts the room and drives one to criminal actions. [i] STORY OF THE VANISHING PATIENT. The doctor

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PEATTIE, ELlA visits th~~ gh,1St of a dying woman. [j] THE PIANO NEXT DOOR. It is heard playing, but it is not there. It used to be played by a musician who later starved to death. [k] AN ASTRAL ONION. An author who is sick and starving is saved by a ghost onion prepared by the ghost of his foster rr.other, who had been an excellent cook. [1] FROM THE LOOM OF THE DEAD. An Icelandic crone in the Middle West tells a moral tale. A stepmother was cruel to her stepchildren. She is visited by the ghost of the natural mother and forced to relent. [m] A GRAMMATICAL GHOST. The ghost of Miss Lydia Carew, a very refined, cultured lady, haunts the house. She is pleasant personally, but something of a nuisance. The inhabitants notice that she winces at bad English. A double negative expels her. * Usually light in tone, either journalistic or fin de si~cle in expression; capable within this range. PEEKE, MARGARET B[LOODGOOD] (1838-1908) American author. 1297. BORN OF FLAME A ROSICRUCIAN STORY Lippincott; Philadelphia 1892 A somewhat tangled, eccentric occult novel. In the asylum of Dr. Aubrey Grotius, a mystical psychiatrist of sorts, is Clothilde Van Guilder, whom he loves. When she dies, she leaves a letter for him, telling about her mother Gabrielle. Gabrielle, who had lived at Lone Lake, was not only gifted with great paranormal abilities, but was periodically visited by SuI-Mal, a mahatma from India. Her effects are preserved in a haunted house, and a vital force shocks those who touch her books. Her ghost walks the countryside. Hugo Dana, a materialistic friend of Grotius's, goes to Lone Lake to investigate, and discovers that the reports are correct. He also meets a young woman from India (Elfreeda Cathmore) with whom he forms a romantic attachment. They pierce the defences of the haunted house. Grotius, who has arrived, is blown to glory with Clothilde in a psychic explosion, and Dana is converted. Behind the story lies a cosmological and historical miscellany: the first people in America were tiny dwarfs, man first came from the moon, divine guidance exists at all times, etc. * Astonishing that a major publisher could have printed this. The author's other work, ZENIA, THE VESTAL (1893) is on the same level.

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PEl, MARIO (1901-1978) American (born in Italy) educator (Professor of Romance Philology, Columbia University). Author of many popular and technical articles on language, miscellaneous topics. Best-known work, THE STORY OF LANGUAGE (1965). C.U.O.M. (Italy) . 1298. THE SPARROWS OF PARIS Philosophical Library; New York 1958 Crime, international conspiracy, drugs, theriomorphy, against a background of comparative philology. * Professor Jackson, who seems to have been modelled upon the author, is approached by his friend Deputy Chief Inspector

PERKINS, F. B. Santini of the New York police, who has photostats of six medieval and Renaissance documents stolen from the Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris. The documents offer specific information about celebrating the Black Mass and offer recipes for theriomorphy. These documents lead Professor Jackson to a criminal organization, the Sparrows of Paris. Headed by a renegade ccmporative philologist, the Sparrows plan to subvert American culture by means of drugs. (The Russians are somehow involved, too.) The drugs, however, are not the usual ones, but involve theriomorphy. The Sparrows habitually cavort about as wolves, although their leader, a woman, takes the form of a beautiful white cat. In additi.on to the national menace, there is a personal factor, for Santini's daughter has been given the changing drug and runs about as a cat. The police slaughter all the criminals and the formulas are destroyed. Civilization has been saved from a horrible peril. * Ne sutor ultra crepidam. PENNY, FANNY EMILY (n~e FARR) (c. 1870- 1939) British author, resident in India 1877-1901. Husband chaplain at Madras. Author of several novels dealing with aspects of Dravidian Indian life, Anglo-Indian social novels, historical works. 1299. THE MALABAR MAGICIAN Chatto and Windus; London 1912 An episodic work of fiction concerning Police Inspector Hillary and a native magician called the Kurumba from the name of his tribe. The locale is a primitive area of South India. * Hillary saves the Kurumba from a wounded tiger, and the magician is grateful. On several occasions he saves Hillary by means of his supernatural powers. Magic includes supernatural communications; shape changing into a dog-like animal; visions and ocular deception; divination of guilt; causing a man to act like a monkey; and a crystal that is used for clairvoyance. * The background is good, but the fictional vehicle is too amorphous. PERKINS, FREDERICK (or FREDERIC) BEECHER

(1828-

1899) America'! librarian, occasional author. Librarian Connecticut Historical Society, Boston Public Library, San Francisco Public Library. Apparently very important in the development of scientific librarianship. 1300. DEVIL-PUZZLERS AND OTHER STUDIES Putnam; New York 1877 Material reprinted from various sources. Including [a] DEVIL-PUZZLERS. Dr. Hicok, a physician of Scottish origin, has such a high opinion of his mental and philosophical abilities that he believes he can outreason the Devil. He undertakes a long course of reading and settles on three questions that he can pose to the Devil in the traditional venture. The Devil accepts the challenge and appears as Mr. Apollo Lyon (Apollyon). After some conversation back and forth the doctor propounds two questions which have puzzled the sages: how can freedom of will be reconciled with predes-

PERKINS, FREDERICK tination; how can evolution be reconciled with the "responsible immortality" of the soul. The Devil answers easily (though his solutions may not please the modern reader), and the doctor seems lost. But the doctor's wife er.ters and take.s part in the discussion, although she dces not know what is involved. She asks, Where is the front of my bonnet? The Devil is beaten. * A local twit against female clothing, like the poem "Nothing to Wear." * [b] THE COMPEN'SATION' OFFICE. The narrator observes events in an office that promises compensation for various psychological injuries. Among those who appear are a wife who thinks she is neglected, a snobbish clergyman, an unsuccessful author. In each case the merchant offers nothing. A good theme, if handled by Hawthorne, but here, a nothing. * Also present is the early science-fiction story "The Man-ufactory." PERUTZ, LEO (1884-1957) Austrian author. Born in Prague, lived most of life in Vienna. Well-regarded novelist, author of several plays, most successful, A TRIP TO FRESSBl~G, produced by Max Reinhardt (1930). Also translated, novel THE MASTER OF THE DAY OF JUDGME~"'T, exce llent s- f and detective story dealing with hallucinogens. In addition to writings in German, also wrote in Hebrew and Yiddish. 1301. FROM NINE TO NINE Viking; New York 1926 ZWISCHEN NEUN UND NEUN (1918). Translated from German by Lily Lore. * A mystery novel based on a series of Viennese types, with considerable irony on the bourgeoisie. The plot is the Owl Creek Bridge theme. * Stanislaus Demba cannot use his hands and must gnaw at his sandwich like a dog. Reasons are suggested by the types that he meets: paralysis, lack of hands, hashish, concealed weapons. But they are all wrong. Demba is handcuffed. A student, he had been trying to dispose of books stolen from the university library, and barely escaped from the police by leaping out a window. After a full day of embarrassment and quarrels, Demba is again chased by the police. He hears again the strokes of the clock that he heard when escaping the previous night, and again leaps out a window. It is then revealed that he is dead, killed by the fall. His adventures of the day had been point-of-death fantasies. * The mystery is well sustained and the mixture of frivolity and despair form an effective combination with the morbid ending. 1302. THE MAROUIS DE BOLIBAR John Lane; London [1926] DER MARQUES DE BOLIBAR.(1920). Translated from German by Graham Rawson. In part a Schicksalsroman-- even death cannot suppress liberty. * During the Peninsular Campaigns a German regiment is fighting on the side of the French. The military situation is very bad, what with the British armies and heavy guerilla activity. The Germans, who are characterized as a group of bestial scoundrels more concerned with womanizing and drinking than with military matters, learn the master plan for the guerilla

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PHILLIPS, ALEXANDER M. forces. This plan has been devised by the Marquis de Bolibar, who will also put it into operation. In essence, when certain signals are given, a popular uprising will take place, together with a full-scale assault by the Allies. By "chance," however, the marquis is executed by the Germans. He had been disguised as a muleteer, and happened to be present when the German officers were boasting of their sexual relations with the colonel's wife. They are in a panic lest their exploits come to the colonel's ears, and shoot the marquis. Yet this killing does not hinder the uprising, for the signals are given, and the Germans are wiped out. * The Wandering Jew also appears in the story, courting death in defiance of the Divine Will. His presence, too, damned the Germans. The mechanism for giving the signals is partly Fate and partly the unconscious doing of the narrator, who (though completely unaware of it until the end of the book) has been possessed by the spirit of the dead marquis. As the story ends, he is completely possessed and is assuming the physical appearance of the dead man. * Excellent atmosphere, good plotting, but a few anachronisms. PHELPS, ELIZABETH STUART (marriage name WARD, MRS. HERBERT DICKINSON) (1844-1911) American (Massachusetts) novelist, poet. Highly regarded in 19th century for THE GATES AJAR (1868), a detailed account of the afterlife in a syrupy heaven. It undoubtedly profited from Civil War bereavement. Married Ward in 1888, and usually known thereafter as Mrs. Elizabeth Ward. 1303. MEN, WOMEN AND GHOSTS Fields, Osgood; Boston 1869 Short stories, including [a] THE DAY OF MY DEATH. Spiritualism. Gertrude Fellows comes to visit the narrator and his wife. She is an ardent Spiritualist, and phenomena soon ap~ pear: raps, objects flying through the air, disturbed bedclothing, etc. The spirits, through Gertrude, also deliver a death notice, which turns out to be incorrect. [b] WHAT WAS THE MATTER? Selphar, a servant girl, has clairvoyant abilities. She is good at finding lost articles. When Aunt Alice, who is supposed to. come on a visit, does not appear, Selphar uses her ability to locate her-- out west. [c] KENTUCKY'S GHOST. Kentucky is a boy stowaway. A brutal mate sends him aloft in a high ,.ind, and Kentucky falls to his deach. His ghost avenges itself on the mate. * [a] and [b] are mildly humorous. PHILLIPS, ALEXANDER M[OORE] (1907American (Philadelphia) occasional author, architectural draughtsman. 1304. THE MISLAID CHARM Prime Press; Philadelphia 1947 Humorous fantasy in the mode of Thorne Smith. A glorious night's drunk. * The unemployed and unsuccessful author Henry A. Pickett has sold his first manuscript and decides to celebrate. He has the misfortune to be in a bar when a miner imp from upstate who has stolen

PHILLIPS, ALEXANDER M. a potent charm comes by. The malicious imp first gets Pickett drunk by teleporting large quantities of whiskey into his stomach, then, hearing pursuit drawing near, inserts the charm into Pickett's chest. The charm at first limits itself to fulfilling wishes for Pickett, after a fashion, but then begins to function independently, causing endless mischief. The worst prank is animating the tropical decorations, apes and all, in a nightclub. The rightful owners of the charm finally catch up with Pickett and retrieve the mischief-maker, but not before Pickett has entangled himself with a young woman he picked up in the bar. Marriage is to be his punishment. * Light, derivative, and unconvincing. PHILLIPS, L[UNDERN] M. American. Author of two novels. F. Tennyson Neely; New 1305. THE MIND READER York 1896 An eccentric novel that mixes mahatmas, theosophy, astral manifestations, and -hypnotism with a blood and thunder Western story. A romance between two characters called Vasselah and Interice occupies the occult section of the novel. Dime novel influence. PHILLPOTTS, EDEN (1862-1960) British author, born in India. One of longest productive careers in quality English literature, with contributions in many genres. Best work generally considered to be his Dartmoor novels, which have been compared to work of Hardy. Wrote mystery novels under pseudonym Harrington Hext. Has written a fair amount of material that is borderline supernatural, but little that is unequivocably so. An excellent craftsman. 1306. PAN AND THE TWINS Grant Richards; London 1922 Semiallegorical short novel set in 4th century Rome. * While the old gods are growing weaker, they are not yet dead, and Pan can still do much. Arcadius, a slave boy expelled by a cruel master, encounters Pan, who accepts him as a loyal worshipper and instructs him. The boy, it is revealed, is the illegitimate son of a wealthy, otherwise childless Roman, Marcus Pomponius. Pomponius accepts Arcadius as his son and makes him his heir. Arcadius grows up, inherits the estates when his father dies, and marries a suitable pagan wife., One day, however, he meets a Christian anchorite, who wants to live in a cave on Arcadius's property. The Hermit Hilarion, it soon turns out, is Arcadius's long-lost twin brother. The two men live peacefully, although each finds his world crumbling. Civil war has broken out, Pan is growing weaker, and Hilarion feels the power of love. Pan advises them both to abandon their ivory towers, to enter the world, and to do service to others. * Other supernatural elements include Arcadius's ability (given by Pan) to converse with animals. 1307. THE LAVENDER DRAGON Grant Richards; London 1923 Irony on intolerance and excess rationalism,

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PHILLPOTTS, EDEN in terms of a medieval dragon legend. * Sir Jasper de Pomeroy and his squire are questing for wrongs to right when they come to the village of Pongley-in-the-Marsh, in Yorkshire. Nearby, they are told, is the horrible Lavender Dragon, which has been raiding the villages and devouring the inhabitants. Jasper rides out to fight the dragon, which is sleeping nearby. He awakens it and challenges it. The dragon speaks fairly and courteously, refuses to fight at that time, but promises to meet him the next day. On the day promised, however, the dragon swoops down and seizes Jasper and his horse, and flies away with them. Jasper is outraged, but when they land the dragon urges him to suspend judgment. They continue on to Dragonsville, a walled town hidden in the forest, where dwell all the people the dragon is supposed to have eaten. All are happy and healthy, for the dragon has established a rational utopia, with full allowance and toleration for individual oddities. Jasper accepts the dragon's institutions, finds a wife, and settles down, as does his squire. Shortly thereafter the dragon, who is old and gouty, dies. He is remembered with reverence and love only for a short time, after which he is forgotten, as is his experimental state. * Nicely told, with moments of charm and humor. 1308. THE MINIATURE Watts; London 1926 Ironic comments on the history of mankind, certain institutions and frames of reference, told mostly in colloquies among the Olympian gods. * Zeus, at a meeting of the bored Olympians, announces a new project: establishing an intelligent race in the image of gods. The gods visit earth and set evolution in motion. They then comment on historical developments up through our near future. The Ancient Greeks, understandably, get,a large play. The gods interpret human culture from several points of view. Athene considers it possible that the gods might improve themselves by following the moral teachings of humanity; Dionysius expresses a common sense point of view; Ares and Aphrodite are disappointed with mankind. Earth disappears in a gigantic explosion when the atom is split, and the gods go on to examine more interesting forms of life than deceased humanity. * Without the charm of the two books previously described. 1309. PEACOCK HOUSE AND OTHER MYSTERIES Hutchinson; London [1926] Short stories, including la] PEACOCK HOUSE. Jane Campbell, who has the second sight, visits her father's old army friend (and her godfather) General Goodenough. While wandering about the countryside, she comes upon a house, in front of which stands a yew cut in the form of a peacock. On looking at the window, she sees a double murder being committed. But when she returns to the house later, she finds only ruins. Her godfather tells of the historical circumstances of the crime, but a chance glimpse of an old photograph reveals to her that the general had been the murderer, many years before. * The theme is common enough in the literature, but the frame and the specula-

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PHILLPOTTS, EDEN tions about motives are well handled. [b] CRAZYWELL. Partly in Devon dialect. Woodman Wickett left for New South Wales, or 50 it seemed. But Henry Borlase is tormented by a ghost. "We make our own ghosts, and there surely ain't no others." [c] THE ASTRAL LADY. A traveller on a train sees what seems to be an astral form hovering in his railway carriage. On investigation he finds the body of a woman who has been strangled. He succeeds in reviving her, and her attacker is captured. [d] THE IRON PINEAPPLE. Perhaps not intended as supernaturalism, despite the claim for divine inspiration, but simply madness. A grocer in a resort town is beset by two strong compulsions: an iron pineapple which he has stolen from a building project, and a fat artist. He commits murder with the pineapple. [a] is best. 1310. ARACHNE Faber and Gwyer; London [1927] A redirection of a Greek myth, ironically told as a vehicle for theories of art, philosophy, and life. Arachne, the daughter of a Lydian Greek dyer, is a remarkable intuitive artist. She is taken as a protege by Athene, the greatest weaver among the gods, and is taught the celestial technique. From the very beginning of the instruction, there is a clash between the goddess and the mortal over aesthetic principles. Athene, as intellect, is patronizing, cerebral, naturalistic, academic, and utilitarian. Art for her is only a way to the Mysteries. Arachne, on the other hand, is a pure aesthetic ian who sees art for its intrinsic color and form, is anti-traditional, emotional, intuitive, and highly personal in her concept of what art should be. After one clash Athene bids Arachne travel ani learn before receiving more instruction. Arachne wanders the Classical world meeting demigods and seeing the wonders of nature. When she returns, she declares her independence, and in a moment of supreme self-confidence challenges Athene to a competition. Defeat means death. Zeus, Dionysus, and Hermes are the judges, and they award victory to Arachne, since her mortal way of seeing things is more interesting than Athene's timeless view. Athene, in a rage, causes Arachne's web to be destroyed, and Arachne, thinking she has lost, tries to commit suicide. She is saved by Hebe. Here Phillpotts departs from the traditional story: Arachne is not turned into a spider; she lives out her life under a new name. Centuries later Athene forgives her. Cleverly handled, if one overlooks the leaden expression. This work is typical of a series of books that the author wrote during the 1920's and 1930's: retellings of Classical myths as Expressionist documents.

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[ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 1311. THE PLAYBOY BOOK OF SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY SELECTED BY THE EDITORS OF PLAYBOY A Playboy Press Book; New York 1966 Short stories, including [a] BLOOD BROTHER, Charles Beaumont. (1961) Mr. Smith goes to

PLAYBOY BOOK OF SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY a psychiatrist. His girl friend Dorcas has bitten him, and he has become a vampire. [b] A FOOT IN THE DOOR, Bruce Jay Friedman. (1960) Gordon is able to get his wishes by making small sacrifices to Mr. Merz, a foot-in-thedoor salesman of insurance, who is, of course, only the agent for a much larger organization. Gordon balks when a much younger Merz appears and starts fulfilling his own wishes with Gordon's wife. [c] THE NEVER ENDING PENNY, Bernard Wolfe. (1960) Mexico. Diosdado, fruit picker and agricultural laborer, needs more money. He wishes down the well for the never ending penny. As soon as he takes it out of his pocket, another penny takes its place. [d] A MAN FOR THE MOON, Leland Webb. (1960) The first flight to the moon, and Evans, before take-off, is visited by one of Columbus's companions. [e] THE NOISE, Ken W. Purdy. (1959) Barnaby Hackett consults a psychiatrist because his gift of telepathy, which used to be limited and occasional, has expanded enormously and is threatening his life and sanity. When Hackett tries to curb the input, the result is disastrous to those around him. [f] THE KILLER IN THE TV SET, Bruce Jay Friedman. (1961) Mr. Ordz hears a personalized TV broadcast telling him that he is marked for death. Nicely done. [g] JOHN GRANT'S LITTLE ANGEL, Walt Grove. (1964) Grant, an ad exec, has an affair with the wife of his major client and is worried about it. A partly fallen angel that he happens to meet in a bar is a little bit comforting. [h] HARD BARGAIN, Alan E. Nourse. (1958) Preisinger has a bond with the Devil; the Devil must keep him in money and women. But Preisinger is getting bored since all the women are experienced. He makes a further agreement: he will forfeit his remaining time if the Devil brings him a woman who has never even thought carnally of a man. [i] DOUBLE TAKE, Jack Finney. (1965) When the motion picture company uses the bus from the 1920's as a prop, it ventures into the past. A man and a woman confront one another. Back in the present the incident serves as a life-moulding shock. [j] THE DOT AND DASH BIRD, Bernard Wolfe. (1964) Hollywood hack writer Walter J. Commice has trouble both with his writing and the other occupants of his apartment. The key: if humans feel something strongly, it is picked up telepathically. In this instance, Morse Code, with a destroying message. [k] SOUVENIR, J. G. Ballard (1965) Absurdist fiction. When a gigantic human corpse is washed ashore,the best that the natives can do is shred him and make use of his parts. Allegory on greatness? Also titled THE DROWNED GIANT. [k] is the best story in the book; [e], [f], [i] are also good. PLAYBOY was highly regarded by the science-fiction and fantasy writers of this period, since it paid much more than other fiction outlets open to them and offered an opening to other markets. There was also more freedom with regard to subject matter. Edited by Ray Russell.

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THE PLAYBOY BOOK OF HORROR AND THE

SUPERNATUR~L

[ANONYMOUS ANfHOLO:;Y] 1312. THE PLAYBOY BOOK OF HO~ROR AND THE SUPERNATURAL Playboy Press; Chicago 1967 Including [a] SOFTLY WALKS THE BEETLE, John Collier. (1960) At the sidewalk cafe in Paris the fat, elderly gentleman approaches, marks his prey, and obtains a signature on a contract. It is notorious that almost anyone will sell his soul to get into the motion pictures. [b] NASTY, Fredric Brown. (1959) Walter Beauregard, now 65 years old, had been an accomplished lecher. The demon Nasty gives him a magical garment to restore his virility, but it might as well be a chastity belt. [c] SORCERER'S MOON, Charles Beaunont. (1959) Carnaday must be rid of the magical paper and return it to its owner. [d] FIRST ANNIVERSARY, Richard Matheson. (1960) At his first wedding anniversary, Norman notices that his senses no longer convey his wife's presence to him. The situation becomes worse and worse until Norman learns that he is held in existence only by his wife's will. [e] THE JAM, Henry Slesar. (1958) After death. Stuck in a traffic jam for eternity. [f] BEELZEBlfd, Robert Bloch. (1963) Haunted by a fly, and death. [g] THE PARTY, William F. Nolan. (1967) Hell is a gigantic co-op or apartment hotel, with perpetual dull parties, where there is no sex and the liquor has no kick. [h] BURNf TOAST, Mack Reynolds (1955) Sheriff plays a double or death game with the demon. If he selects the wrong cocktail, he is poisoned; if he wins, he receives double the previous stake. He gets up to over two hundred thousand dollars. [i] RENDEZVOUS, John Christopher. (1966) Possessive love reaching from beyond death. But it is curiously limited in place. For Cynthia it comes only at high altitude, and Cynthia avoids planes. [j] THE SEA WAS AS WET AS WET CAN BE, Gahan Wilson. (1967) The sinister world of the walrus and the carpenter. [k] HEY, LOOK AT ME! Jack Finney. (1962) The deceased author Max Kingery is compelled to return to continue his literary work, and his compulsion affects his friends. [1] FOR THE RICH THEY SING-- SO~ETIMES, Ken W. Purdy. (1962) Mary Kennedy has premonitory v~s~ons of the future. Nicely woven into a romance and a denouement. [m] I'M YOURS, Charles Schafhauser. (1954) Sophie Lambert, well-proportioned young witch, knows how to get inside a man. [n] DOUBLE EXPOSURE, John Reese. (1965) A new photographer, industrial disaster, and a photograph of a dead girl. [0] NO SUCH THING AS A VAMPIRE, Richard Matheson. Described elsewhere. [p] BLACK COUNfRY, Charles Beaumont. (1954) Jazz musicians, personality clashes, death, and possession. [q] THE TRAVELING SALESMAN, Robert Bloch. The ever-familiar travelling salesman of the jokes has a serious complaint. [r] COMET WINE, Ray Russell. (1967) Letters from Russia tell of musical soirees at the apartment of Rimsky-Korsakov. Present there is the unrecognized, but great musician Cholodenko. The narrator is present when Cholodenko first reveals his genius. Everyone present is astonished, since

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POE, EDGAR ALLAN Cholodenko had been considered without talent. The cause for his sudden flowering is connected with Balakirev's illness. This is much Russell's best story. * A stronger volume than the science-fiction and fantasy counterpart, with several good stories, [a], [d], [g], [i], [j], [ 1], and [r]. POE, EDGAR ALLAN (1809-1849) Great American poet, fiction writer, critic, essayist. His life and achievements are so familiar and data are so easily obtainable, that details are not necessary here. Born Boston, Mass.; orphaned, reared by John Allan of Richmond, Va., whence the Allan in his name; attended University of Virginia for one year; enlisted in U.S. Army and served for about two years; entered West Point, court martialed and expelled for disciplinary reasons; earned precarious living as freelance writer and editor, mostly in Philadelphia and N·ew York. Died in Baltimore, circumstances of death questionable, but probably cerebral oedema due to alcoholism, alcohol perhaps forcibly administered by toughs associated with voting frauds. Persona 1 life has often been analyzed psychologically, what with severe problem with alcoholism, irritability, marriage to his fourteen-year old cousin, etc. ,', A very remarkable, complex literary figure. Work is characterized by high analytical ability, great creativity, remarkable clarity, preoccupation with surface texture, mythopoetic ability, limited range of subject matter, great skill at "window dressing," wide intellectual range, overconfidence in matters outside his knowledge, theatricality. In addition to many outstanding works, an important figure in literary history. Theoretician and creator of the modern short story, creator of the modern detective story, aesthetic theoretician, pioneer in proto-science-fiction and proto-symbolism. Perhaps the first American author of great international significance, especially in France. 1313. THE NARRATIVE OF ARTHUR GORDON PYM OF NANTUCKET, COMPRISING THE DETAILS OF A MUTINY AND ATROCIOUS BUTCHERY ON BOARD THE AMERICAN BRIG GRAMPUS. ON HER WAY TO THE SOUTH SEAS [etc.] Harper; New York 1838 (published anonymously) Sea adventure ending in fantasy. It is based in part on contemporary factual accounts of Antarctic sea voyages. * Arthur Gordon Pym, a young man from Nantucket, stows away aboard a whaler. He emerges from hiding to find the ship in a state of mutiny, with factions of of the mutineers quarreling among themselves. The mutiny is followed by heavy winds and seas, hunger and thirst, cannibalism, and great hardship, until only pym and Dirk Peters, one of the mutineers, survive. They are fortunate enough to be picked up by a sealer. The sealer, which is headed for Antarctic waters, works its way southward, eventually reaching about 84 0 , The climate gradually becomes warmer again, and they come upon a hitherto unknown island, Tsalal, which is inhabited by natives

POE, EDGAR ALLAN who are roughly on the same level of civilization as Melanesians. Tsalal, however, is no ordinary place: its zoology is strange, the water is viscous and multicolored, and the color white is completely absent. Even the teeth of the natives are black. When the inhabitants of Tsalal see white things from outside, they fall into fits, crying, "Tekeli-li, tekeli-li!" They prove treacherous and murder all the sealers except pym and Peters who escape to the south in a stolen canoe. As they move toward the Pole, they observe that the sea becomes milky-white, and the hitherto lacking color white appears naturally. Gigantic birds fly overhead, screaming, "Tekeli-li." The ocean current carries them ever more rapidly southward, a cataract of mist seems to pour from the sky ahead of them, and as they rush into chasms, before them arises "a [white] shrouded human figure, very far larger in its proportions than any dweller among men." The story ends abruptly, but pym obviously returned safely, to discuss his adventures with Poe. * There has been considerable conjecture about the meaning of the final portions of this work. Ignoring metaphysical speculations, I shall mention two theories about Tsalal and points farther south. According to J. o. Bailey, the events of Poe's novel may be explained in part by A VOYAGE TO SYMZONIA, an early 19th century novel of unknown authorship, published under the pseudonym Adam Seaborn. This novel (based ironically on the theory of John Cleves Symmes, a crank scientist) is essentially a political satire on American parties, but it describes a polar opening in the Antarctic, leading to a hollow, inhabited earth. According to Bailey, pym and Peters sailed into a polar depression that connected to the inner surface of the earth. The black natives, according to this interpretation, would be exiles from the civilized lands inside the globe. * While Poe obviously had in mind a polar depression rather than an Antarctic continent, Symzonia does not seem adequate to explain the strange ties between man and land in Tsalal, nor the absence of white, nor the inscriptions that pym found and Poe reproduces. (Actually, these "inscriptions" are simply examples of Poe's playfulness, or "diddling," as he called it. They are scrambled versions of Pym and Edgar Allan Poe!) I would suggest that Poe had in mind the Lost Tribes and the concept of the Antarctic area as Eden. Creation there proceded by polarities in accordance with the diluted Schellingian philosophy that Poe adhered to in matters of cosmology. * A good adventure story, which has long been underrated. * The two best-known sequels to Poe's novel, AN ANTARCTIC MYSTERY by Jules Verne and A STRANGE DISCOVERY by Charles R. Dake are not supernatural. 1314. TALES OF THE GROTESQUE AND ARABESOUE Lea and Blanchard; Philadelphia 1840 2 vol. Stories and essay-stories, including [a] MORELLA. (1835) The narrator is married to the beautiful and learned Morella. At first fas-

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POE, EDGAR ALLAN cinated by her power of intellect and will, he comes to fear and hate her. As his love for her wanes, so does her health. As she lies dying, she reveals to him that her life shall continue in the child which she is about to bear. The child, a girl, remains nameless, but grows up a prodigy, with obvious identity (unconsciously) with Morella. The narrator long refused to give her a name, but when under pressure, he consents to her baptism, at the font she recognizes herself as Morella and falls dead. The tomb of the first Morella is found to be empty. Based, as Poe indicates, on German Romantic philosophical sources, presumably mostly Fichte. There may well be a personal note, since it was written in the year that Poe married Virginia Clemm. [b] WILLIAM WILSON. (1840) The narrator, throughout his life, from days at school in England, in cardsharping at Oxford, in devious schemes on the Continent, is confronted and "persecuted" by another William Wilson, who was born at the same time and place, and looks like him. The narrator, when about to be exposed as an adulteror by Wilson kills him, and then is told that when he murdered Wilson, he murdered himself. He is now dead to heaven and hope. A fine treatment of the dissociated personality and doppelganger of the Romantics, together with a Schellingian note on the emergence of identity. It obviously contains a personal note, since it describes Poe's school in England and gives as Wilson's date of birth, January 19, 1813, a fictitious date that Poe usually cited as his own birthday. [c] MS. FOUND IN A BOTTLE. (1833) With this story, which won a prize of $50.00 from the Baltimore SATURDAY VISITER, Poe's literary career effectively begins. The narrator, on a derelict boat, is run down by a gigantic, ancient vessel, upon which he is hurled by the force of the collision. The boat, which is abnormal in certain ways, is manned by ancient men in outmoded garb, and bears associations with old Spain. As the manuscript ends, the ship is about to disappear into a South Polar orifice. The story as a whole is apparently an allegory on geographical discovery. The captain of the ship is sometimes identified with Christopher Columbus, but this seems too specific. [d] LIGEIA. (1838) One more statement of the death-marriage, in this combined with the Fichtean concept of Will, which in the German philosophy of the early 19th century often amounted to the principle of Divine Creativity. Ligeia, one of Poe's typical morbid blue stockings, declares, despite the fact that she is dying of tuberculosis, that she will not die, because her Will is to live. Die she does, after extracting an oath from the narrator that he will remain faithful to her. When he breaks his oath and marries again, Ligeia must be reckoned with. The second wife turns ill and dies. Her corpse struggles to regain life, succeeds, and is transformed into the living Ligeia. * Stated in simple terms, the memory of a first love is too strong to be broken. [e] THE DEVIL IN THE BELFRY. (1839)

POE, EDGAR ALLAN Topical fantasy, heavy-handed humor. In the somnolent Dutch village of Vonderwotteimittiss, where there is stasis of time, the Devil comes. He upsets things by causing the clock to strike 13. * Interpretations of the story vary, but it is probably an attack, with referrents that are now obscure, on the contemporary Knickerbocker school of literature. This piece is typical of several of Poe's fantasies in considering, rather obscurely, a topical matter of minor importance. [f] BON-BON. (1832) Topical humor on rationalistic philosophy. The French restaurateur Bon-Bon fancies himself a metaphysician. He receives a visit from the Devil, who holds a long discussion with him, while Bon-Bon grows drunker and drunker. After comments on souls as culinary material, the Devil scornfully refuses to buy Bon-Bon's soul. [g] BERENICE. (1835) Not supernatural, but in its day probably considered fantastic. A horror story based on abnormal psychology: fetishism, somnambulism, and compulsions. [h] METZENGERSTEIN. (1832) Poe's first published story. Germany. For centuries a feud has existed between the neighboring baronies of Metzengerstein and Berlifitzing. The present Baron Metzengerstein is a most dissolute, most depraved young man. He commits arson, destroying both his enemies and Castle Berlifitzing. But a strange demonic horse manifests itself, emergent from an anxient tapestry. Metzengerstein's fate is sealed, as the ancient curse prophecied. The horse destroys him. The most Gothic of Poe's stories. [i] THE SIGNORA ZENOBIA and [j] THE SCYTHE OF TIME. (1838) Topical humor based on contemporary journalism, with a parody of a sensational story of the day. The point is the same as that of Poe's article HOW TO WRITE A BLACKWOOD'S ARTICLE. The Signora is interviewed by the editor and receives a list of themes and treatments. The story that she then writes, [j] ends in a fantastic dismemberment. Poe, of course, wrote such "Blackwood's" tales. [k] SHADOW--A PARABLE. (1835) A short prose poem, Classical in setting. The Shadow symbolizes the dead. [1] SILENCE-- A FABLE. (1838) Also titled SlOPE. A demon speaks, in wild imagery, of the lot of Man, facing nature. Silence is the most horrible fate of all. Point not clear. [m] THE DUC DE L'OMELLETTE. (1832) Heavy-handed humor at French or pseudo-French cultural patterns. When an improperly prepared roasted bird is served to him, the duke dies of horror. He finds himself in Hell, but is unwilling to accept his fate. He offers to duel with the Devil, but the Devil does not duel. He then offers to play cards with the Devil, and by cheating wins his release from Hell. The story ends with a Gallic flourish. [n] THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER. (1839) One of Poe's great atmospheric stories, whereby house, mankind, nature are all united in a weird identity. The story-line is so familiar that it need not be detailed beyond saying that the decadent Roderick Usher's fate is intertwined with that of his ancient house; that his sister

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POE, EDGAR ALLAN is subject to catalepsy; and that events in an intercalated tale parallel those of the main story, a technique similar to that used by Ann Radcliffe in THE CASTLE OF UDOLPHO. This story presents in clearest form the curious world in which many of Poe's fantasies are set: the pallid, dying woman; the weak, defeated male; the world of death in which they live; and its utter collapse. The implications are obvious. [0] LOSS OF BREATH. A TALE NEITHER IN NOR OUT OF BLACKWOOD. (1832) Grotesque parody of the sensational stories published in the British magazine. Loss of breath is taken literally, and the narrator wanders about being killed, reanimated, hanged, etc. before recovering his breath. A very inventive manipulation of a figure of speech. [p] CONVERSATION OF EIROS AND CHARMION. (1839) Retrospect science-fiction with a supernatural background. Two disembodied spirits in Aidenn-- interplanetary space-- converse about the destruction of the earth. A comet came too close, drew off the nitrogen in the atmosphere, and the remaining atmosphere, being nearly pure oxygen, took fire. * Of these stories [b], [d], [n] are Poe the major writer. The others are interesting in the sense that anything by a figure of Poe's stature is important. 1315. TALES OF EDGAR A. POE Wiley and Putnam; New York 1845 Editorial selection by Evert Duykinck. * Including, [a] THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER. l b] THE CO~VERSATION OF EIROS AND CHARMION. * [c] THE BLACK CAT. Insanity and guilt. The narrator, obviously a homicidal madman, tells of his ambivalent feelings toward the family cat. In momentary rage he goudges out one of its eyes, then, taking um"brage since the cat is no longer affectionate, hangs it. But he suffers from the opposed force of conscience, and adopts another cat. Again his hatred grows, especially when a mark on the eat's chest grows into a semblance of a gallows. He murders his wife, walls her body up, but unwittingly walls the cat with her, and is doomed. The cat, of course, is symbolic, both of the narrator's disordered mind and of the evocation of evil. [d] MESMERIC REVELATION. (1844) Much t\e same idea as was later developed into a stronger fictional vehicle in THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR. The mesmerized subject continues to speak long after physiological death has set in. This concept is used for revelations on the nature of the universe and of happiness. The key issue is that happiness is not in itself a primary, positive state, but a state that exists only in contrast to pain. [e] THE COLLOQUY OF MONOS AND UNA. (1841) Read closely, this seems to be sequel to CONVERSATION OF EIROS AND CHARMION. Two spirits converse, after the holocaust has struck earth and wiped out the old human race; a new, improved earth has developed, with a superior race of humans. Monos reminisces on the circumstances of his death, of the gradual departure of his senses, as his body decays, and achievement of what

POE, EDGAR ALLAN amount to Kantian space and time. MESMERISM "IN ARTICULO MORTIS" AN ASTOUNDING AND HORRIFYING NARRATIVE Short and Co.; London 1846 Original publication in the AMERICAN WHIG REVIEW, December 1845. This is first book publication, as a small pamphlet, of THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR, which is often reprinted under such short titles a8 THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR or M. VALDEMAR. * New York. The narrator, who is an experimenter in mesmerism, is curious to see whether mesmerism can ward off death from a dying person. He mesmerizes Valdemar, who is in the terminal stages of consumption. The process does keep Valdemar from dying for a couple of days, and Valdemar responds to mesmeric passes with occasional speech and movement. But, one day Valdemar announces that he is dead. It is true; he is clinically dead. For months Valdemar lies there, technically dead, moving occasionally, speaking occasionally, without decaying. But when the narrator releases Valdemar from the trance, Valdemar cries, "For God's sake! Put me to sleep," and dissolves instantly into a mass of corruption. * A good example of a form that Poe occasionally affected, the hoax story, which is developed with great circumstantiality and plausibility. The theme has had great influence in the development of modern supernatural· fiction, particularly that of the school of Lovecraft. 1317. THE WORKS OF THE LATE EDGAR ALLAN POE WITH NOTICES OF HIS LIFE AND GENIUS BY N. P. WILLIS, J. R. LOWELL, AND R. W. GRISWOLD John Redfield; New York 1850-56 4 vol. The posthumous, "authorized" edition of Poe's works, edited by Rufus Griswold, with Griswold's malicious and uncharitable biography of Poe. The edition was first announced as two volumes, but a third volume appeared in 1850, and a fourth and final volume in 1856. * Including all the material previously described: [a] THE NARRATIVE OF ARTHUR GORDON PYM. [b] MORELLA. [c] WILLIAM WILSON. [d] MS. FOUND IN A BOTTLE. [e] LIGEIA. [f] THE DEVIL IN THE BELFRY. [g] BON-BON. [h] BERENICE. [i] METZENGERSTEIN. [j] THE SIGNORA ZENOBIA. [k] THE SCYTHE OF TIME. ll] SHADOW-- A PARABLE. [m] SILENCE A FABLE. [n] THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER. [0] LOSS OF BREATH. [p] THE CONVERSATION OF EIROS AND CHARMION. [q] THE BLACK CAT. [r] MESMERIC REVELATION. [s] THE COLLOQUY OF MONOS AND UNA. [t] THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR. [u] THE DUC DE L'OMELETTE. * Also [v] A TALE OF THE RAGGED MOUNTAINS. (1844) Mesmerism, repeated patterns in fate. Bedloe, wandering in the Ragged Mountains of Virginia, experiences a waking dream of an incident in India, about fifty years earlier, during Clive's abuses of power. He sees a young Englishman that resembles himself killed by a poisoned arrow that strikes him in the temple. When Bedloe tells his friends of his vision, his doctor, who has been treating him mesmerically, reveals that the incident happened, and that the Englishman was named Oldeb-- or

1316.

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POE, EDGAR ALLAN Bedloe reversed. The doctor further reveals that he recorded Bedloe's dream telepathically. Some time later Bedloe dies as the result of a poisonous leech that is attached to his temple. Poe's intention, beyond parallels of fate, is obscure. The time gap would permit reincarnation, and the story may be taken literally. Some scholars, however, interpret the story as an inverse story: that the doctor really transmitted the whole episode telepathically to Bedloe, by means of mesmeric contact. But this seems unnecessarily subtle. [w] NEVER BET THE DEVIL YOUR HEAD. (1841) One of Poe's jeux d'esprit. Toby Dammit, whose favorite exclamation is, "I'll bet the Devil my head," finds his wager accepted and lost. The Devil makes off with his head. It has been suggested that the tale figures ~ dog or horse. [x] THE ANGEL OF THE ODD. AN EXTRAVAGANZA. (1844) Poe, after stupefying himself by a course of heavy reading, lights upon a newspaper article describing a freak accident. He exclaims against the possibility of such events, and is immediately visited by the Angel of the Odd, a Germanic sprite who proceeds to torment him. The point seems to be double: irony on the hapax of life and German philosophizing which loses the actual in its quest for the ideal. [y] THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH. (1842) Hypostatization of abstractions. When the Red Death rages, Prince Prospero and his followers wall themselves up in a fortified monastery and determine to amuse themselves until the plague has run its course. In the midst of-a costume ball, a horrible figure appears, a corpse of one who has died of the red death-- so called because its victims bleed from their pores. But it is not a costume; it is the Red Death. Death and horror cannot be evaded by irresponsible, ostrich-like behavior. [z] ELEANORA. (1842) Told in decorative prose, in Poe's dream world. The narrator is happy in the Valley of the Many-Colored Grass until Leonora dies. Before her death, he vows to her that he will never marry another. When he leaves the valley, he falls in love-- and the ghost of Leonora absolves him from his vow. Personal. [aa] SOME WORDS WITH A MUMMY. (1845) A curious work which embodies Poe's philosophy of history, satire, and a scientific motif, The mummy, Count Allamistakeo, comments fluently on the high state of science in Ancient Egypt, human longevity (a thousand years or so, then), the nature of historicgraphy, the age of the world, transcendentalism, and democracy, but boggles at patent medicine. The story closes with the narrator's intention of getting himself mummified and awakening in 2045, to see what has happened. * The above descriptions from 1313 on have been based on a modern reprinting of this set, which furnishes the texts ordinarily used in commercial reprints. Poe perpetually revised his work, and the student who is concerned with variant readings may consult THE COMPLETE WORKS OF EDGAR ALLAN POE (THE VIRGINIA EDITION) (New York 1902), 17 volumes, edited by James A. Harrison. Such

POE, EDGAR ALLAN variants, however, are seldom significant except to the specialist. Poe's works are currently being: reprinted by Harvard University Press in what will undoubtedly be the definitive edition. POHL, FREDERIK (1919American science-fiction writer, editor. Best-known work THE SPACE MERCHANTS (1952), in collaboration with Cyril Kornbluth. Editor of GALAXY magazine and IF, 1961-1969. An important writer in science-fiction. AS EDITOR: 131&. STAR SCIENCE FICTION STORIES Ballantine Book's; New York 1953 paperbound The STAR SCIENCE FICTION volumes, numbers of which appeared irregularly, contained new fiction, some of it excellent. Emphasis, as can be expected from the title, was on science-fiction, but occasional stories were included that edged over into supernaturalism. On the whole the selection avoided the heavy science or engineering poles of science-fiction. In the later volumes the editor concentrated on stories dealing with paranormal abilities, and in many cases it is difficult to classify stories as science-fiction or supernatural fiction. STAR SCIENCE FICTION STORIES, NO.3 (1954) contained no supernatural fiction. * Including [a] THE NINE BILLION NAMES OF GOD, Arthur C. Clarke •. The head lama of a Tibetan monastery buys computer time. A Mark V computer is programmed to print out all possible letter combinations in Tibetan-- barring absurdities. The rationale is that when all the names of God have been listed, there will be no more reason for the universe to exist. The monk is right. Unusual as a fantasy by an author who usually writes hard-core sciencefiction. [b] A SCENT OF SARSAPARILLA, Ray Bradbury. The wonders of memory and retreat into the past. Old William Finch decides to return to the world of 1910 via the stored memories in his attic. His wife has no faith and refuses to join him. One of Bradbury's finest stories. * Also present, though not supernatural, is Fritz Leiber's amusing parody of Mickey Spillane, "The Night He Cried." * This collection has been reprinted as STAR SCIENCE FICTION STORIES, NO.1. 1319. STAR SCIENCE FICTION STORIES. NO.2 Ballantine Books; New York 1953 paperbound Including [a] FYI. James Blish. Borderline science-fiction. After a discussion of transfinite numbers, a medium gets a message (somewhat garbled) which indicates that great cosmic forces are changing the physical parameters of the universe. [b] IT'S A GOOD LIFE, Jerome Bixby" Perhaps science-fiction; the mechanism is not explained. Anthony, a vicious, almost psychotic boy, has the powers of a god. He can work transformations, create, destroy. One small village is the scene of his activities. It floats alone. It is not known whether Anthony has destroyed the rest of the universe or has just isolated the village. Everyone in the village must be happy, or else Anthony, who is very, very sensitive,

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POLIDORI, JOHN becomes unhappy. * A modern classic. 1320. STAR SCIENCE FICTION STORIES. NO.4 Ballantine Books; New York [1958] paperbound Short stories, including [a] THE LONG ECHO, Miriam de Ford. Dutch Schultz's dying words were, "A boy has never wept, or dashed a thousand krim. • ." The explanation and context come from a planet of Alpha Centauri, A.D. 3935, from a poem composed by a bright young man. No explanation. [b] SPACE-TIME FOR SPRINGERS, Fritz Leiber. The kitten Gummitch is a superkitten with an IQ of 160. When he sees the retarded older child of the family about to injure the baby, he transfers his personality to the older child, making it a normal human. * Both stories borderline science-fiction. 1321. STAR SCIENCE FICTION STORIES. NO. 5 Ballantine Books; New York 1959 paperbound Including [a] A TOUCH OF GRAPEFRUIT, Richard Matheson. Los Angeles is alive, and like a disease it overruns the country, and eventually the world. Humor. Alternate title THE CREEPING TERROR. [b] THE SCENE SHIFTED. Arthur Sellings. Borderline .science-fiction. Mammoth Studios, Hollywood, is in a panic. Someone has been tampering with the films, releasing travesties of the originals. Sleuthing tracks down the culprit, a man who is fed up with the garbage that Mammoth and the other studios are releasing, and has been mentally projecting what he wants_to see. 1322. STAR SCIENCE FICTION. NO.6 Ballantine Books; New York [1959] paperbound Short stories, including [a] ANGERHELM, Cordwainer Smith. (Pseud. of Paul M. Linebarger) The Russians retrieve a mysterious tape from one of their satellites. At first it seems to be empty, but eventually a listener can catch a name (Tice Angerhelm) and an address. The Russians suspect that the tape is an American practical joke, but turn over a copy of the tape. Tice Angerhelm, investigations reveal, is a perfectly average man. But his brother had died not too long before the tape was retrieved. The tape contains a message from the dead brother, who talks about the small heavens and hells of life after death. An interesting story. It is regrettable that Smith did not write more supernatural fiction. POLIDORI, JOHN WILLIAM (1795-1821) British physician, occasional poet, writer of fiction. Attended Lord Byron on famous junket to Switzerland culminating in meeting with the Shelleys at Geneva. While by no means a skilled writer, very important historically for popularizing the vampire theme created by Byron. The ultimate cause of a minor industry in motion pictures and modern letters. Apparently a very difficult personality. Suicide because of general despair and gambling debts. 1323. THE VAMPYRE A TALE Sherwood, Neely, and Jones; London 1819 (published anonymously) A short story or capsulated nouvelle written as a result of the meetings between Byron and

POLIDORI, JOHN WILLIAM the Shelleys in Switzerland, June 1816. After an evening of ghost stories it was decided that each person present should write a supernatural story. Mary Shelley eventually wrote FRANKENSTEIN, while Byron began a vampire novel which he never finished. Polidori, who was soon discharged by Byron and returned to England, adapted Byron's idea and wrote THE VAMPYRE, which was at first fraudulently attributed to Byron, perhaps with Polidori's connivance. * Greece and England. Aubrey, a young man of good family, becomes acquainted with Lord Ruthven and makes the grand tour with him. In Greece Ruthven's true n.ature, as a vampire, is revealed when he is responsible for the death of a peasant girl whom Aubrey loved. Aubrey has a break down. When he returns to England he discovers that his own sister is engaged to Ruthven and is to become his victim. Aubrey is bound by oath not to reveal Ruthven's secret. The situation is too difficult for him, and he dies a madman. * Intrinsically of no great quality, but the first significant vampire story in English. It went through stage adaptations and started the chain of development to DRACULA and the present. * For modern editions with editorial matter see THREE GOTHIC NOVELS edited by E.F. Bleiler and THE VAMPYRE. A TALE WRITTEN BY DOCTOR POLIDORI, edited with introduction by Donald K. Adams (Grant Dahlstrom; Pasadena 1968) • [ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 1324. POPULAR TALES AND ROMANCES OF THE NORTHERN NATIONS Simpkin, Marshall; London 1823 3 vol. Anonymous translations, German originals for the following stories. * Including [a] THE TREASURE SEEKER, J. K. Musaeus. (DER SCHATZGRABER, 1782-7) The Master Spirit of the Blocken tells a shepherd where a great treasure is hidden, but the shepherd is not interested. Instead, Peter Block, local drunkard and ne'erdo-well, follows the instructions and attains to the treasure. To open the sealed doors, however, he must first obtain the fabulous spring root. [b] THE BOTTLE-IMP, Friedrich de la Motte Fouque. (DAS GALGENMANNLEIN, 1814) This is a little devil enclosed in a bottle. It brings wealth and fulfills the desires of its owner, but woe to the man who dies with it in his possession. It can only be disposed of by sale, and at a price lower than its last purchase price. Richard seems to be trapped, but he finally sells the imp to a man who has already disposed of his soul to the Devil and has nothing to lose. [c] THE SORCERERS, J. L. Tieck, attributed author. The beautiful but unpleasant Antonia, daughter of the Voyvod Zochanowski, is likely to remain an old maid because of her sour disposition. When she sees another woman about to marry the man she loves, she joins the local witch cult for revenge. Her French governess, who is partly responsible for Antonia's personality, by instilling for false values of the Enlightenment, is a member of the coven. Antonia

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POPULAR TALES AND ROMANCES sells her soul for a familiar and powers, but learns that evil cannot touch good. Her revenge is not really effective. She repents, is sent into supernatural exile by the coven, and her governness assumes her form and takes her station in life. But at Antonia's full repentance, the devils rip the governess to shreds, and Antonia goes on pilgrimage. [d] AUBURN EGBERT, J. L. Tieck. (DER BLONDE ECKBERT, 1796) Alternate title for ECKBERT THE FAIR-HAIRED. Eckbert begs his wife Bertha to tell the curious story of her early life to Walther, a visiting friend. Bertha, after running away from an unhappy childhood home, had been taken in by an old woman who had a wonderful dog and a bird that produced jewels. Bertha served the old woman faithfully for a time, but then yielded to temptation and ran off with the bird and its gems. She sold them, became acquainted with Eckbert, and married him. After she has told her strange story, she realizes with horror that Walther knew the name of the dog, and that she has been traced supernaturally. She gradually dies of terror and chagrin. As Bertha lies dying, Eckbert, anxious that the story should go no further, murders Walther. Some time later Eckbert becomes acquainted with Hugo, an affable young man, to whom he tells this history. He then sees Hugo assume the form of Walther. Eckbert returns to his castle, wondering what is dream and what is reality. He meets the old woman of Bertha's childhood, who reveals that she had been Walther and Hugo, and that Bertha failed her. Bertha married her own brother. [e] THE SPECTRE BARBER, J. K. Musaeus. Alternate title for DUMB LOVE, described elsewhere. [f] THE COLLIER'S FAMILY, F. de la Motte Fouqu~. Alternate title for BERTHOLD, described elsewhere for context. [g] THE FIELD OF TERROR, F. de la Motte Fouqu~. (DAS SCHAUERFELD, 1814) It is haunted by an evil spirit who harasses the husbandman. [h] ELF INLAND , J. L. Tieck. (DIE ELFEN, 1811) Alternate title, THE ELVES. Close by the prosperous farms of the peasants lies a dark, ill-favored fir wood, which the peasants believe is inhabited by Gipsies and other dangerous undesirables. Mary, however, wanders into the wood and finds herself in a delightful fairy land. She stays there for a short time, whereupon she is told that she must leave, never revealing what she has experienced. When she returns to the outside world, she learns that years have passed. She grows up, marries, and has children. Her little girl, indeed, plays with a fairy. But when, in an argument with her husband, she reveals her experiences, the fairies leave en masse and the land changes to near desert. [i] THE MAGIC DOLLAR, F. de la Motte Fouqu~, attributed author. It always returns after being cashed. [j] THE TALE, J. W. von Goethe. (DAS MARCHEN, 1808) A very complex, symbolic story, filled with Renaissance and Baroque motifs, that does not lend itself to summary, since i t is the details that are significant. [k] THE FATAL MARKSMAN, J. Apel. Alternate title for DER FREISCHUTZ, described elsewhere. [1]

POPULAR TALES AND ROMANCES THE ENCHANTED CASTLE, J. L. Tieck. (DAS ZAUBERSCHLOSS 1828) 16th century East Prussia. The castle is haunted by a black coach with headless passengers. It holds the ghost of the shrewish, wicked Gertrude who poisoned her son rather than return money that had been entrusted to the family. A parody of Hoffmann and Gothics. [m] WAKE NOT THE DEAD, attributed to Tieck. Medieval Burgundy. Walter, married to the proud, selfish, domineering Brunhilda, on her death marries Swanhilda. But he mourns for Brunhilda. At her tomb he encounters a sorcerer who can raise the dead. He strikes a bargain with him, despite warnings of evil, and divorces Swanhilda. He welcomes the resurrected Brunhilda. But it soon becomes obvious that Brunhilda is a vampire. The countryside is ravaged until only Walter is left for her to devour. He consults the sorcerer again and learns how to kill her, but when she returns in her most horrible form, he fails. * This story refutes Mario Praz's statement that there are no stories "about female vampires in the early 19th century. [n] THE HOARD OF THE NIBELUNGEN, Anonymous. A garbled, Romantic version of the story of Kriemhilda, here called Grimhilda, with much ceremonial magic. [0] THE ERL-KING'S DAUGHTER, Anonymous. A magical island, enchantments, and the daughter of the Erl-King. * The editors have attributed [i] to Fouque and [c] and [m] to Tieck. A search through the complete works of both men has failed to uncover German originals. It is possible that these are minor, uncollected pieces, but it is also possible that the attributions are not correct. THE MAGIC DOLLAR is a variant of THE BOTTLE IMP. THE SORCERERS and WAKE NOT THE DEAD do not have the levels of secondary meaning usually to be found in Tieck's work. They are, however, competent period work. Best stories are [b], [d], [h], [j]. [ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 1325. THE POST READER OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION Doubleday; Garden City, N. Y. 1964 Stories originally published in the SATURDAY EVENING POST. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] DOCTOR HANRAY'S SECOND CHANCE, Conrad Richter. [b] THE VOICE IN THE EARPHONES, Wilbur Schramm. [c] ISLAND OF FEAR, William Sambrot. * Also, [d] THE PHANTOM SETTER, Robert Murphy. (1961) Barlow, a lumber entrepreneur, at first pays no heed to the strange setter, but when he goes hunting, since he is an enthusiastic hunter of grouse, he takes the dog along with him. His kill is fantastic, but there are mysterious happenings in the background. The explanation is that the dog is a ghost; that it takes men back into the past; and that a single hunt turns a man into a monomaniac. [e] THE BIG WHEEL, Fred McMorrow. (1961) Difficult to summarize, but themes of life and death in terms of classic antique cars. [f] MOON CRAZY, William Roy Shelton. Ralph Teeler can dissociate his personality from his body and soar into the sky. [g] THE LITTLE TERROR, Will

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POTOCKI, COUNT JAN F. Jenkins. (1953) When Grandfather does coin tricks, he uses the magical word Oogledeboo to make coins vanish. When six-year old Nancy uses the same word, people and things really disappear. It becomes a problem until a countertactic is worked out. [h] THE ANSWER, Philip Wylie. (1955) An American H-bomb kills an angel. The information is suppressed. Then a Russian H-bomb kills another angel. The obvious questions arise: were they real angels, visitors from another planet, or what? The answer is to be found in a small book, printed on leaves of gold, which the first angel passed on before it died. * An uneven collection. Best pieces are [a] and [e]. POTOCKI, [COUNT] JAN HRABIA (1761-1815) Pronounced Pototsky. Polish nobleman and scholar. A serious contributor to many branches of science. Wrote on the archeology of Russia, antiquities of Egypt, general chronology. Also prepared several good ethnographic and geographical travel books, notably those based on travels in the Caucasus. 1326. THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT A COLLECTION OF WEIRD TALES Orion Press; New York 1960 Originally written in French, MANUSCRIPT TROUASARAGOSSE; translated by Elisabeth Abbott. Edited, with preface, by Roger Caillois, noted French scholar of supernatural fiction. At the time that Caillois prepared this edition, the whole work had not yet been printed, much of it being still in manuscript. * Selections (a long sequence plus fragments) from a series of interlocked tales arranged on a framework somewhat in the manner of the DECAMERON. * Spain and Italy, early to middle 18th century. The protagonist of the framework is Alfonso van Worden, a young Spanish officer of partly Flemish, partly Moorish descent. While travelling through Spain to his post, he has a series of equivocal adventures which mayor may not be supernatural. Most important of these is his becoming acquainted with two beautiful young women, members of an underground Moslem population, who claim to be his cousins. He falls in love with them and becomes their lover, but after each meeting with them he usually awakens beneath a gallows, between two hanged corpses. He is not sure whether the young women are vampires or whether his experiences are being stage managed to test his constancy and loyalty. Other supernatural elements include a Jewish cabalist who is trying to evoke the daughter of Solomon to be his bride, and his learned sister, who is eager to marry two angels who are equivalent to the Gemini. Intercalated narratives include the long and interesting history of Zoto, a Neapolitan bravo and bandit; the story of Giulio Romati, who is deceived by ghostly enchantment; and others. * The question of supernaturalism cannot be resolved from this volume alone. Potocki's narrative is written in imitation of the BAITAL PACHISI, or similar work, but the general Gothic mode would demand explanation and rationalization of the seeming supernatural. In any case, a fascinating work, very

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POTOCKI, COUNT JAN aptly translated, with a fine sense of color, humor, and exotic background. All in all, one of the Romantic masterpieces of the day. Zoto's tale is particularly excellent. * In 1966 the remainder of the work was translated as THE NEW DECAMERON, FURTHER TALES FROM THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT. While it is amusing and interesting in its religious speculations, it contains very little supernatural material and at the very end rationalizes all the wonders of the first volume. POTTER, ROBERT Australian author. 1327. THE GERM GROWERS THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF ROBERT EASTERLEY AND JOHN WILBRAHAM Hutchinson; London 1892 Science-fiction with occult concepts in the background. * After the Red Sickness breaks out in Wales, it is traced to a deliberate carrier, whom Easterley and Wilbraham follow to Australia. There, in the desert, they find an unknown land and are captured by a being known as Signor Ravelli. Ravelli, who is not human, controls the wills of his subjects and possesses many superscientific devices, such as invisibility paint. He also has beds of germs, where he grows plagues to release on the outside world. Ravelli reveals that he is an extraterrestrial and cannot be killed. When the situation looks most hopeless, another extraterrestrial appears, the good spirit Leafar, who helps the two men to escape. * A literate, pre-Wellsian novel with considerable imagination. * There is also an Australian edition, credited to Easterley and Wilbraham, which I have not seen. POWELL, F. INGLIS British author. 1328. THE SNAKE John Lane; London 1912 Anglo-Indian adventure set in the middle 19th century. * A manuscript accompanies a stuffed snake. Diana, conscienceless young Anglo-Indian woman, loves her cousin's fianc~ and determines to have him by any means. She makes a bond with a yogi, pledges herself to Kali, and her soul possesses a giant snake. Thereafter the snake ravages the land, while Diana lies in catalepsy. When the snake is killed, Diana, too, dies, but her soul is imprisoned in the stuffed snake, until released, years later, by the reader of the manuscript. * Dated. [ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 1329. POWERS OF DARKNESS Philip Allan; London 1934 A member of the CREEPS SERIES. * Commercial fiction, including [a] THE COAT. A.E.D. Smith. France, an empty chateau, and a hostile, animated coat. [b] THE THIRD TIME, Kenneth Ingram. Malevolent ghosts from the past try to induce Mabel to join their company. Fascination is combined with horror. The third attempt is fatal. [c] NOVEMBER THE THIRTEENTH, Russell Thorndike. Village characters, including the ghost of a murderous

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POWYS, T. F. gravedigger and his horse. [d] THE MINIATURE IN BLACK, L. A. Westney. The shrunken corpse of a witchdoctor from South America and supernatural revenge. [el THE TEMPLE SERVANT, E. R. Morrough. Memories of reincarnation in the temple at the oasis of Siwa. [f] A NICE CUP OF TEA, Maureen E. Shaw. Miss Timmins disposes of a vulgar neighbor by turning him into a canary. * ·Mostly negligible, but [e] is a notch above the other stories, with some characterization and good detail. * Edited by Charles L. Birkin. POWYS, J[OHN] C[OWPER] (1872-1963) British novelist, educator. Taught in U.S.A., where occasionally resident. Along with brothers Llewelyn and Theodore formed a minor school of writing in the 1920's and 30's, noted for great originality, off trail religiosity, high imagination, overwriting, balanced by occasional stylistic brilliance. All three are now undeserved1y forgotten. J. C. Powys's best-known work is probably WOLF SOLENT (1929). 1330. MORWYN, OR THE VENGEANCE OF GOD Cassell; London 1937 A Tendenzroman against vivisection and comparable cruelty, combined with such odd elements as the DIVINE COMEDY, the Grail legend, old Celtic mythology, Classical mythology, and modern psychology. * The narrator (a former army officer), Morwyn (the Beatrice he lusts after on the literal level), and her father (a vivisectionist) are climbing a mountain when a meteorite strikes and precipitates them into a literal Hell within the hollow, cavern-filled earth. The narrator and Morwyn escape death, but the vivisectionist is killed. But his ghost immediately assumes his role and takes up with the ghost of Torquemada as a kindred spirit. The underworld is a dreary place filled with sadistic or masochistic spirits who watch gigantic television screens showing torments and tortures on earth. This is the Hell that our culture has created. For the first section of the book the narrator and Morwyn are guided by the ghost of the Marquis de Sade. In the middle section they are guided by the legendary Welsh bard Taliesin, who occasionally harrows Hell, but is not damned. The third and final section is governed by Socrates and Rhadamanthus. The narrator and Morwyn flee before the sadistic spirits; take refuge at Merlin's resting place and that of Cronos; and observe the infernal judges trying a vivisectionist who represents Zeus and Jehovah. After a passage in the Elysian Fields the narrator returns to earth, although, like Amfortas, he has a never-healing wound in his groin. * The theme of the novel is that modern scientific research is worse than the emotional cruelty of the past, since there is no saving element of passion. A strange and remarkable work, with a welter of dark symbolism, written in a powerful, image-filled style reminiscent of old Welsh polemic literature. POWYS, T[HEODORE] F[RANCIS] (1875-1953) British novelist. See comments about J. C.

POWYS, T. F. Powys. Work differs from that of J. C. Powys in being less exuberant, less profound, more concernen with mystical religiosity. 1331. MR. WESTON'S GOOD WINE Chatto and Windus; London 1927 Fantasy novel. As if Hardy's Wessex stories had been adapted by the editors and authors of MAD. Grotesquely humorous, sometimes powerful, sometimes mildly irritating; strong West Country dialect. * Mr. Weston (God), whose identity is immediately made obvious, and a handsome young man named Michael visit the small hamlet of Folly Down. There Weston announces himself as a wine merchant trying to place Weston's Good Wine, which, in two varieties, is Love and Death. The novel then shifts to a succession of bestially humorous villagers who scurry about in half-witted fashion, bed one another under the village oak, talk scandal, and besot themselves at the village pub. Weston straightens out various entanglements. A seduced girl is given her good-for-nothing lover as husband. The local minister, who does not believe in God, is given back his faith and meets death. The preacher's daughter, who has been languishing to mate wi.th an angel, is bedded by Michael. Jenny Bunce, the daughter of the local innkeeper, gets the lover she wants, and many smaller situations are improved. Weston and Michael thereupon leave. There are also a few miracles, such as stopping time in the village and turning water into wine. * Well worth reading, especially if one has been on a diet of routine, conventional fiction. 1332. UNCLAY Chatto and Windus; London 1931 Much like MR. WESTON'S GOOD WINE. Love and death, comedy and horror in a grotesque West Country setting, with strange village types, meandering development, and dialect. * Before the story begins, Death has been sent from God with a parchment bearing the names of two persons whom he is to "unclay," or kill. But he loses the parchment somewhere near the village of Dodder. He assumes human form and searches for it, but his search is desultory and much hindered by an equal quest for love. Various villagers and gentry meet John Death. Some of the natives are twisted and warped in vicious ways; others are harmless malformations of humanity, like Joe Bridle's aunt, who firmly believes that she is a camel, and lives in terror of being sold at the bazaar. There are many plot threads; the strongest, in which Death is directly concerned, is the unfulfilled romance between Joe Bridle and Susie Dawe. The situation is complicated by her impending marriage to Farmer Mere, who is eagerly looking forward to torturing her to death. Horror, humor follow one another closely until the parchment is restored to Death and he knows who his victims are to be. * A work of great originality and imagination, but formally com.plicated and with too many divagations. PRAED, ROSA CAMPBELL (nee PRIOR, ROSA MURRAY) (1851-1935) British novelist, born in Queensland, Austra-

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PRAED, ROSA CAMPBELL lia. Spent early life in semi-primitive surroundings in the bush. Removed to England on marriage to Campbell Praed, 1886 or 1887. A very gifted woman who never realized her full writing potential, since so much of her work consists of shoddy sensational fiction. Did excellent work in the social novel and comedy of manners. In later life obsessed with occultism, particularly with the Roman incarnation of her friend Nancy Harwood. These experiences recorded in NYRIA, otherwise not supernatural enough to be considered here. 1333. AFFINITIES A ROMANCE OF TO-DAY Bentley; London 1885 2 vol. Society fiction, partly roman ~ clef, with a supernatural basis. * Major Graysett, returned from India, visits his old friend Colonel Rainshaw, who has married into money. Soon after Graysett's arrival he has a very vivid dream that he is sure is meaningful: He sees a young woman, in a strangely decorated and furnished house, being murdered by a powerful man. During the ensuing house party and its aftermath, he recognizes the young woman as Judith Fountain, a fellow guest, and the man as Esme Colquhoun, a decadent poet (who is obviously modelled upon Oscar Wilde). Graysett and Miss Fountain are attracted to one another, and she admits that the strangely decorated house is hers. It is also revealed that Miss Fountain is in some fashion psychically defective in lacking a protective aura, and that Colquhoun has learned black magic during his American visit. Graysett is injured while hunting and is unable to prevent certain developments while he is recuperating. Colquhoun uses Miss Fountain as a medium, establishes psychic control over her, and marries her for her money. When Graysett hears what has been happening from a female occultist (who is obviously based on Madame Blavatsky), he realizes that Judith is in danger. But it is too late. Colquhoun mounts a psychic attack on her and kills her. * Excellent society material, good discussions on occult and intellectual topics, but a weak supernatural mechanism. 1334. THE BROTHER OF THE SHADOW A MYSTERY OF TODAY Routledge; London 1886 A short occult novel based on Theosophy. It is set on the Riviera. * Dr. Lemuel Lloyd, a British physician who specializes in the mesmeric treatment of nervous disorders, is also a keen student of occultism. He has long been looking for a perfect medium, and believes that he has found one in Antonia (Toni) Vascher, the wife of a friend. Mrs. Vascher, in addition to being mediumistic, suffers from severe neuralgia. Lloyd falls in love with her, and she reciprocates to some degree. When Lloyd magnetizes her, she envisions an Egyptian magician, who visits Lloyd that evening in astral body. The Egyptian, Murghab, tempts Lloyd, telling him that good and evil are relative, that dualism is necessary to the universe, and that Lloyd should follow his biological impulses. Lloyd is later warned by Ananda (a resident protege who is studying telepathically

PRAED, ROSA CAMPBELL with a mahatma in the Himalayas) that Murghab is a black magician, but Lloyd cannot resist Murghab's lures, especially when Murghab tells him that his present incarnation embodies his last chance to win Toni. Lloyd invokes elementals to kill Toni's husband, but the intervention of Ananda's Master upsets the magic of Lloyd and Murghab. Toni's love for her husband reawakens, and Lloyd dies, killed by the elementals he called up. * Probably Mrs. Praed's best occult work. It is short and to the point, and if it is sometimes sensational, it is vivid, honest, unencumbered with extraneous material, and accurate from an occult point of view. 1335. THE SOUL OF COUNTESS ADRIAN A ROMANCE Trischeler and Co.; London 1891 An occult society novel. * Bernard Lendon, a fashionable young artist, and Miss Beatrice Brett, a budding young American actress, come to London at the same time and form two points of a sexual triangle. The third point is Countess Agnes Adrian, a femme fatale, who has studied occultism in the East. The countess falls madly in love with Bernard, who does not reciprocate. Beatrice's career advances. She successfully plays the part of the Duchess in Webster's THE DUCHESS OF MALFI. And she becomes engaged to Bernard. The countess has a heart condition, and she suddenly dies in Beatrice's arms. When Beatrice next plays the duchess, it is noted that the role is no longer dignified and virginal, but wanton and erotic. A great occultist thereupon arrives supernaturally from the Near East, confronts Beatrice, and reveals that she is possessed by the soul of Countess Adrian. Backed by his Masters, the White Brotherhood, he expels the countess and explains matters. * Stodgy and conventional in handling the triangle, but surprisingly vivid in describing London drawing rooms in circles concerned with occultism. These conversations are probably based on Mrs. Praed's ~wn experiences. 1336. "AS A WATCH IN THE NIGHT" A DRAMA OF WAKING AND DREAMING IN FIVE ACTS Chatto and Windus; London 1901 Occult development, romance, society. * Dorothea Queste, a middle-aged artist, has long had visions and psychical experiences of a previous life, probably in Ancient Rome. Her visions are sometimes full and detailed. She speaks of them to Augustus Charafta, who stands high in an occult organization that amounts to the Theosophical mahatmas. In previous lives he had been her father or teacher. She learns that her cycle of incarnations is not balanced. In her last life she committed a wicked act, and she must balance it out in this life by self-sacrifice. * The romance and societal part of the novel concern her involvement with parliamentary leaders, one of whom is her lover. He, however, is really in love with a young woman who is half Australian aborigine. The young woman in turn is loved by Dorothea Queste's son. Dorothea first commits a despicable act, then atones for it by renunciation. Her cycle is now presumably balanced. * While the occultism and the romance are

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PRATT, AMBROSE maundering and somewhat silly, the societal parts are handled convincingly. 1337. THE INSANE ROOT A ROMANCE OF A STRANGE COUNTRY T. Fisher Unwin; London 1902 Potpourri novel with supernatural moments. * London. Isadas Pacha, the ambassador from Abaris (Turkey) is dying. In his entourage are Rachel Isadas, his ward, who is usually considered his illegitimate daughter; Rue 1 Bey, his secretary; and Dr. Lucien Marillier, his personal physician. Before he dies, Isadas Pacha gives Marillier a mandrake root that has an animal-like life. On Isadas's death, Marillier anticipates that Rachel will marry the caddish Ruel Bey. Partly to protect her and partly because of his own love for her, he uses the magical powers of the mandrake to take over Ruel's body and marry Rachel. Ruel's disembodied spirit fights to regain possession of its body, and Marillier eventually realizes the immorality of his action. Death is the only solution for Rachel and Marillier. * The supernatural material, which includes traditional mandrake lore, is buried in a welter of romance, political intrigue, and busy action. 1338. THE BODY OF HIS DESIRE A ROMANCE OF THE SOUL Cassell; London 1912 Occult novel. * Van Dreen, an American occultist in London, attends a sermon given by the great Anglican preacher Chalmers. To his surprise he sees in Chalmers's aura the figure of a beautiful, exotic-looking woman. Van Dreen tries to discuss this with Chalmers, but there is no ground for agreement. The Englishman is too orthodox to believe that he is manufacturing a tulpa and rejects Van Dreen's accusation of unconscious black magic. But some time later Chalmers, now worn and exhausted, summons the occultist. Chalmers has accepted the presence of the woman and has built an Egyptian shrine for her. It is learned that she is from Ancient Egypt, and that Chalmers had wronged her in a previous incarnation. Chalmers is about to commit suicide to be rid of her, when she appears and tells him that she has been converted to Christianity by his sermons and will no longer bother him. * Not very good. PRATT, AMBROSE (1874-1944) Australian author. Most noted work LORE OF THE LYREBIRD, which went through several editions. Also NATIONAL HANDBOOK OF AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIES. 1339. THE LIVING MUMMY Ward, Lock; London [1910] Muscle-bound adventure, romance, and the supernatural (curiously qualified at the end). Egypt and England. * The hero, Dr. Pinsent, a young archeologist whom today we would call a vicious blackguard of the Bulldog Drummond type, is excavating in Egypt. The famous Dr. Ottley and his beautiful daughter May approach him and ask to borrow workmen for a day or two. Ottley has found the tomb of the priest Ptahmes of the 18th Dynasty, reign of Ikhnaton. Ptahmes was a great magician and was

PRATT, AMBROSE munmified in a peculiar way. * The story now moves off into great complexity. In brief, the mummy seems to come alive and attack several of the characters. Ottley turns out to be an occultist crank, who is associated with a rogue and black magician, Dr. Belleville. Ottley and Belleville impel sendings on the herculean Pinsent, who fights them off. They return to England. Belleville wants to marry May and destroys her fiance. Belleville learns the secret of magical invisibility. Belleville sends the mummy's detached hand to strangle Pinsent. Belleville captures everyone. But Pinsent and May finally win out. * The story moves by perpetual character clashes, but ends discordantly when it is revealed that the m~~y has a modern double who has been responsible for much of the mischief. Unconvincing and confusing. Strong on incident, but otherwise without merit. PRATT, [MURRAY] FLETCHER (1897-1956) American historian, military expert, -translator, science-fiction author. Translated German science-fiction for Gernsback's magazines. Perhaps the foremost American civilian military analyst; it has been said that his system of game analysis of naval operations was better than that used by U. S. Navy. Important as an influence in the development of American science-fiction. In supernatural fiction, of interest only in collaborations with L. Sprague de Camp. See also Fletcher, George. AS EDITOR: 1340. WORLD OF WONDER AN INTRODUCTION TO IMAGINATIVE LITERATURE Twayne Publishers; New York [1951] Foreword by Edith Mirrielees. Introduction, THE NATURE OF IMAGINATIVE LITERATURE, by Pratt. An anthology of science-fiction and supernatural fiction. Including, described elsewhere, [a] ROADS OF DESTINY, O. Henry. [b] THE FINEST STORY IN THE WORLD, Rudyard Kipling. [c] ETAOIN SHRDLU, Fredric Brown. [d] THEY, Robert A. Heinlein. [e] METAMORPHOSIS, Franz Kafka. [f] THE MARK OF THE BEAST, Rudyard Kipling. * Also, [g] MISTAKE INSIDE, Jim Blish. (STARTLING STORIES, 1948). Levels of consciousness externalized. "Outside is where roots of significant mistakes are imbedded; inside is where they flower." Dr. Tracey mistakenly thinks his wife is committing adultery and is prepared to shoot her lover, but a brief stay in an other-world shows him his error and the way to correct it. [h} PRIVATE-KEEP OUT, Philip MacDonald. When a man is erased, all memory of him is removed by malevolent fate. This happens, as the protagonist hears, to the great actor Adrian Archer. Will the narrator also disappear? [i] MUSEUM PIECE, Esther Carlson. Uncle George admires the virile aspects of a reconstructed Java man in a museum and assumes some of his characteristics. An old maid has similar feelings about Java man's mate. * [g] has excellent ideas, but really should have been a nouvelle or short novel. * Pratt offers analyses of each story, not especially perceptive.

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PRATT, FLETCHER AND DE CAMP, L. SPRAGUE WITH DE CAMP, L. SPRAGUE 1341. LAND OF UNREASON Henry Holt; New York [1942] Fantastic adventure. (UNK 1941) * Fred Barber, American diplomat in England during World War II, is suddenly transported to an otherworld, the fairyland of Oberon and Titania. He is the official changeling who is to be the peace offering from Titania to Oberon. As he soon discovers, although the land was set up by Oberon as a land of perpetual happiness, it is being disfigured by "shapings" or unpleasant aberrations that disrupt the magical law of the land. The fairies attribute these shapings to the kobbolds, who have possession of Titania's sceptre and Barber is sent, willynilly, to retrieve it, since he can handle iron-- an ability which otherwise only the kobbolds share. Barber's quest leads him through a series ot adventures which include encounters with hostile and amorous wood sprites; transformation into a frog and a mission to the territory of the leeches; and an aerial battle with two-headed eagles who are trying to prevent him from accomplishing his mission. Along with the adventures runs a pattern of purpose. Barber, as he recognizes after a time, is not a free agent. He is being routed along a predetermined path. Three points must be touched, says the rhyme he often hears, before Barbarossa will return and save the land. When Barber reaches the final touch point in the Wartburg, he is transformed into Frederick Barbarossa, the magical emperor. His ability to utilize iron and Oberon's magic law now retrieve the world from evil. * One of the better semihumorous heroic fantasies, a good child of PHANTASTES, with clever integration of incident and theme, despite an unnecessary episode. * At the end of the book is bound the first portion of THE INCOMPLETE ENCHANTER, which was published as by de Camp and Pratt. 1342. TALES FROM GAVAGAN'S BAR Twayne Publishers; New York 1953 Short narratives, rather than developed stories, set in the frame situation of a New York neighborhood bar. Customers tell tales to a group of more or less permanent clients and the bartender. * Including [a] THE GIFT OF GOD. (MFSF 1950) A writer of bad pious verse is in the horrible situation of having some of her purple lines come true. [b] CORPUS DELECTABLE. An otherwise ordinary man has the unusual property of being a desirable object for undertakers. [c] THE BETTER MOUSETRAP. (MFSF 1950) The magician Abaris performs various services for Gavagan's clients, including a small dragon to rid an apartment of mice. [d] ELEPHAS FRUMENTI. (MFSF 1950) Tiny elephants designed as pets. [e] BEASTS OF BOURBON. (MFSF) Van Nest's drunken visions take solid forms as zany zoology. [f] THE STONE OF THE SAGES. A crystal that transmutes other metals to gold. [g] "WHERE TO, PLEASE," (WT 1952) A strange cab translates one back to 1859. [h] THE PALIMPSEST OF ST. AUGUSTINE. A surviving ms. by St. Augustine, plus highly

PRATT, FLETCHER AND DE CAMP, L. SPRAGUE questionable psychic phenomena within the Church. [i] MORE THAN SKIN DEEP. (FSF 1951) Mme. Lavoisin's beauty parlor is really using love magic for its clients. [j] NO FORWARDING ADDRESS. Occult powers. An ancient Atlantean survives, working as a librarian. [k] WHEN THE NIGHT WIND HOWLS. (WT 1951) The voice of an evangelical preacher attains an urgency that is supernatural. [1] MY BROTHER'S KEEPER. The Corsican brothers situation, with a humorous touch. [m] A DIME BRINGS YOU SUCCESS. Baggot signs up for a course on the development of will power-and acquires the evil eye. [n] THE RAPE OF THE LOCK. (MFSF 1952) An amulet that opens locks also transports one in time and space. [0] ALL THAT GLITTERS. A leprechaun and ward politics. [p] HERE, PUTZI! A Transylvanian periodically changes into a dachshund. [q] GIN COMES IN BOTTLES. A dim-witted messenger, told to get gin for cocktails, brings a jinn in a bottle. [r] THE BLACK BALL. (MFSF 1952) A crystal ball that works the numbers racket. [sl THE GREEN THUMB. (MFSF 1953) Magic by an Australian Bushman causes everything that Dotty cooks to turn out on cordon bleu level. [t] CAVEAT EMPTOR. (WT 1953) The legal aspects of selling one's soul. [u] THE EVE OF ST. JOHN. A fairy gift-- never to win a bet. [v] THE ANCESTRAL AMETHYST. (MFSF 1952) It has the traditional power of keeping its owner sober. * Another story, "The Love-nest," about an oviparous woman, is really science-fiction. * Best items are [a], [c], [e], and [g]. PRATT, THEODORE (1901-1969) American playwright, fiction writer. Columnist for VARIETY, NEW YORKER. Best-known work probably the play THE BIG BLOW (1938). 1343. MR. LIMPET Knopf; New York 1942 Topical fantasy of World War II. * While at Coney Island admiring the fish, Mr. Henry Limpet leaps or falls into the water and is transformed into a giant fish-- with spectacles. He is able to talk to fish of his own species and to humans. Since he is very patriotic, he is soon working with the U.S. Navy (commissioned as a lieutenant) locating German submarines. He is so successful that Hitler personally tries to win him over to the German side. On the personal level, he decides to abandon his fat, querulous shore wife and take off with Ladyfish, an attractive female of his new species. * The war fantasy is a difficult subgenre to handle well, and the present example is very feeble. Forty years later the values are so absurd that the story is irking rather than amusing. PRICE, E[DGAR] HOFFMANN (1898 ) American writer (mostly resident in California). Graduate of West Point; service in U. S. Army. Frequent contributor to pulp magazines, specializing in Oriental adventure with authentic background. Full-time writer until early 1950's, at which time turned to photography. A member of the Lovecraft circle, with excellent reminiscences.

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PRICE, E. HOFFMANN 1344. STRANGE GATEWAYS Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1967 Short stories, including [a] THE FIRE AND THE FLESH. (FANTASTIC UNIVERSE, 1953). Indonesia. Harmon, working with strains of dryland rice, has to cope with the ever-present problem of the volcano Merah. When it is not threatening to erupt, fumes damage his plants. The natives tell him that it is necessary to propitiate the goddess with offerings. Harmon does so, meeting a fascinating young Indian woman, Agni Deva (sic), within the crater. When he is forced to leave his home because of domestic problems (his wife and her lover want to certify him as insane) he takes refuge with Agni Deva and soon learns that she is the volcano. [b] GRAVEN IMAGE. (ADVENTURE 1964) China, World War II. Jensen, an unsuccessful missionary, comes to terms with Kuang Ti, the Chinese god of heaven. Madness, only borderline fantasy. [c] THE STRANGER FROM KURDISTAN. (WT 1925) A black mass and a congregation of devil worshippers. A stranger appears, Melek Taus, or the Yezidee form of Lucifer. He disowns the mummery and pays his respects, as a worthy adversary, to God. [d] THE GIRL FROM SAMARCAND. (WT 1929) To Clarke, an expert collector of Oriental carpets, is sent from Samarkand a marvelous antique carpet. It brings back memories of an old romance with the Yellow Girl in Central Asia, and is an entry to a land beyond deach, with her. She had woven it in a previous incarnation. [e] TARBIS OF THE LAKE. (WT 1934) According to legend, Tarbis, ancient queen of Ethiopia, came to France and settled near Lourdes. Rankin is currently having an affair with her. What is she? He destroys her mummy. [f] BONES FOR CHINA. China, World War II. yang is carrying his grandfather's bones back to Ming T'ien for burial and is caught between the Japanese and the local defenders. His grandfather's bones give good advice. [g] WELL OF THE ANGELS. (UNK 1940) Dave Cooper, desperately unhappy engineer at MosuI, is willing to do almost anything to shorten his term of work. When he learns that two renegade angels, Harut and Marut, are imprisoned in the old hidden tower in the desert, and that they will give magical help to those who ask, he loses no time in seeking them out. He pays no heed to supernatural warnings to the effect that fate cannot be altered. [h] STRANGE GATEWAY. (UNK 1939) Extreme fatigue, nervous strain lower the narrator's mental 'barriers enough that he witnesses a murder that took place about a year earlier. [i] APPRENTICE MAGICIAN. (WT 1939) Vaguely linked to R.E. Howard's Western humor about the Buckner clan. Panther Warfield Buckner comes to California to become an apprentice to his Uncle Simon, who is a magician. While Simon is extremely skilled as a sorcerer, Panther, because of his youth and sexual attractiveness, is much more successful in making the acquaintance of the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet than old Simon ever has been. [j] ONE MORE RIVER. (STRANGE STORIES, 1941)

PRICE, E. HOFFMANN Two friends who had quarreled about a woman many years before resume their friendship after death. * Competent commercial fiction, although the collection is not as strong as it might have been. Best stories are [d], which handles sentimentality well, and [g]. 1345. FAR LANDS OTHER DAYS Carcosa; Chapel Hill, North Carolina 1975 A selection of Price's fantasies and Oriental adventure stories f,:om various sources. About two thirds of the contents of this enormous volume are fantastic in one way or another. * The first five stories, set in France, are built around the personality of Pierre d'Artois, elderly, invincible master of the sword, who is often embroiled with the supernatural. [a] THE WORD OF SANTIAGO. (WT 1926) Artois and the great Spanish swordsman Santiago have decided on a duel to the death. Santiago prays to Malik Taus for victory, but is rejected by the god-demon. In anger Santiago disavows Malik Taus, appears at the dueling ground, and after an incredible combat is overcome by Artois. But, as is learned later, Santiago had been killed in an automobile accident hours before the duel. [b] THE PEACOCK'S SHADOW. (WT 1926) Artois becomes entangled with the Marquis de la Tour de Maracq and worshippers of Malik Taus. The marquis, under pretence of conducting occult initiations, plans to sacrifice a beautiful young woman. Slight supernatural elements, with suggestion of reincarnation from Ancient Egypt. [c] GRAY SPHINX. (STRANGE DETECTIVE STORIES, 1934) Artois and Barrett act against Don Jose, who is reviving the black magic of ancient Atlantis. Included are a materialized, demonic monster; a highly advanced adept, Sidi Abdurrahman; a debt from a previous incarnation; and assorted magical effects. [d] SATAN'S GARDEN. (WT 1934) Artois against a modern counterpart of the ancient Assassins; an evil adept who offers a garden of paradise with drugs and houris; Tibetan adepts; and perhaps resurrection of the dead. This last point is not clear; the circumstances maybe fraudulent. Told as episodic adventure, with much slaughter, disguise, and peril. A short novel. [e] QUEEN OF THE LILIN. (WT 1934) Graf Erich has been using the magic of a circle of adepts to evoke Lilith. He is successful, but she is quite evil and something of a nuisance. Even killing the adepts does not drive her back to her own world. * [f] A JEST AND A VENGEANCE. (WT 1939) The Sultan Schamas ad Din, faced with the rebellion of his treacherous nephew and the threat of British intervention and occupancy, descends into the ancient pit in the ruins of Atlanaat, seeking magical aid. He finds there a symbolic representation of dead-living kings and "Shaitan's little sister," who controls the Master of the World-- the sleeper whose dreams we all are. [g] THE HAND OF WRATH. (WT 1935) The Sultan Zahireddin, caught in a serious rebellion, vows vengeance when his beloved Jauhara is killed by an enemy bullet. He asks the old hermit from Central Asia for revenge, and he

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PRICE, E. HOFFMANN is told that during his lifetime he will kill all but one of his enemies. The last enemy he can kill only after his own death. The prophecy is fulfilled. His severed hand, worked upon magically, fulfills his wish. [h] WEB OF WIZARDRY. (SPICY MYSTERY STORIES, 1942) A triangle, fate magic in the Near East. Baylor, who lusts for the wife of a friend, asks old Aisha to change the web of fate in the carpet that she weaves magically in a cave. The theme is indicated in the Arabic expression, "I betake me to the Lord of the Daybreak for refuge from Satan • • • and from the spells of women who blow cn knots." [i] KHOSRU'S GARDEN. (WT 1940) Bayne, a wealthy man, owns a garden carpet-- and discovers that he can walk into it, away from the troubles of the world, including an adulterous wife. It is also a good place to leave her and her lover. [j] SNAKE GODDESS. (STRANGE STORIES, 1939) Southeast Asia. In the deserted Hindu temple in the jungle lives a naga, who is also the wondrously beautiful woman Yasmini. While she kills quite a few of the natives and interferes with Warren's plantation, she desires Warren as a lover. She is very jealous of Warren's fiancee. An odd cultural mixture. [k] HOUSE O~ THE MONOCEROS. Alternate title THE OLD GODS EAT. (SPICY MYSTERY STORIES, 1941) An odd, not very successful mixture of hardboiled private eye business and the haunting of an ancient Cornish castle by a monoceros-- a monster with one horn. It has been responsible for several deaths. Also women. [1] WOMAN IN rHE CASE. (SPICY MYSTERY STORIES, 1938) Egypt. Mummies, ghosts, possession, Copts, bloodshed. [m] SELENE WALKS BY NIGHT. (SPICY MYSTERY STORIES, 1940) The young stocking salesman who lusts for Selene Felixe Brown learns, first, that she lives with a household of over-intelligent, over-protective cats, and second, that she herself • • • Told in the titillating SPICY manner. [n] PRAYER TO SATAN. (SPICY MYSTERY STORIES, 1942) Mason, field chief of an expedition to the Yezidee country, has problems controlling his drunken, insensitive expedition members. A beggar gives him magical sight. Also Layla, the daughter of Lilith. [0] SHADOW CAPTAIN. (SPEED MYSTERY, 1943) World War II, N3rth African campaign. Captain Rowan is sensitive enough to be approached by ancient Egyptian ghosts who complain that bombardment and battle are destroying their tombs. He is particularly attracted to Maatkara, a young lady ghost, and joins her. [p] PEACH BLOSSOM PARADISE. (ARGOSY, 1944) Also titled SANCTUARY. Japanese-occupied Philippines. Cooper, one of the American guerillas operating in the hills is unable to stand the stress and surrenders to the Japanese, by whom he is well treated. He continues to work for the underground and meets a Chinese who has the power to transport people into the glaze of a gigantic ceramic vessel. Cooper, who is not especially heroic and is a weak lot in some ways, finally dies a hero's death. [q] THE HANDS OF

PRICE, E. HOFFMANN JANOS. (SPEED MYSTERY, 1944) Janos, professional magician, discovers that no one is interested in his art. But each magician has the power to perform one supernatural act. At the request of a very seedy Devil, Janos turns his power over to an unhappy man-- but cannot change fate. Janos thereupon decides to use his manual dexterity in a defense plant. [rl THE SHADOw OF SATURN. (WT 1950) Serious astrology, a sexual triangle, and resolution. [sl THE INFIDEL'S DAUGHTER. (WT 1927) Landon wants to conjure up the Infidel's Daughter, an Islamic demon-figure of great erotic power. Her final kiss exhausts male victims. According to astrological information, the conjuration is best done in the Southern United States. But Landon runs afoul of the Knights of the Saffron Mask, a fictional organization based on the K.K.K. Price, in his new introduction to this volume, apologizes to the Klan and expresses regret for "civil rights idiocies and extremes." * Price was a conscientious craftsman who researched his stories well (with occasional exceptions like [jl) and tried to embody sound workmanship in each. While the stories from the SPICY magazines are meretricious, they are interesting from a cultural point of view. * The best stories in the volume, however, are occasional adventure stories based on character studies, like "Heart of a Thief" and "Vengeance in Samarra." * Price's introduction is good. PRIESTLEY, J[OHNl B[OYNTONl (1894British novelist, essayist, miscellaneous writer. Early work mostly comedy of manners. Best-known work probably THE GOOD COMPANIONS (1929), sympathetic fictional treatment of vaudeville circuit in Great Britain, with suitable character studies. Successful playwright, most interesting work being so-called "time plays," based more or less on Dunne's theory of serial time. Has done excellent popular cultural history, including a study of Regency England •. 1346. THE OTHER PLACE AND OTHER STORIES OF THE SAME SORT Heinemann; London 1953 Short stories, including [al THE OTHER PLACE. Lindfield, doing engineering work in the West Country, saves the life of Sir Alaric Foden, an eccentric old man. As a reward Foden offers to let Lindfield go to the Other Place. After staring at a stone and passing through a door, Lindfield finds himself in a pleasant place, with many people whom he knows. It is not Paradise, but it is extraordinarily pleasant. He meets a woman with whom he falls in love, and then finds himself back in Floden's library. He has been gone only three minutes. He tries to find the Other Place, but with no success and the people whom he met there do not know what he is talking about. He thinks that he has seen the woman again, but he cannot be sure. [bl THE GREY ONES. Patson goes to a psychiatrist. He has been greatly disturbed by what he has seen. Aliens are trying to take over the world and transform man into the equivalent of a social insect. Patson has

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PRIESTLEY, J. B. spied on a meeting of the Grey Ones, in which they sloughed off their human shapes and appeared as semitransparent toad-like beings. The psychiatrist listens calmly until Patson describes the meeting. [cl UNCLE PHIL ON TV. Phil dies of a heart attack. His pills had been too far for him to reach. His family buys a television set with his insurance money, but Phil appears on the set too often, and what he says hurts. [dl GUEST OF HONOR. Sir Bernard Clipter's car almost runs down a man. When Sir Bernard rudely shouts, '~hy don't you look where you're going?" the man retorts, "Tonight you look where you are going." Clipter had been going to a dinner party as guest of honor, but he finds it an especially horrible hell. When the party is over, he finds himself back in time, at the near accident, but now he is polite to the stranger. tel LOOK AFTER THE STRANGE GIRL. Mark Denbow finds himself back in pre-Titanic times with foreknowledge of what will happen. There had been a swimming accident. But there is another person from the future along with him, the girl Ann. Also titled THE STRANGE GIRL. [fl THE STATUES. Voley, a newspaper man, has occasional visions of titanic statues. When he sees the entire cityscape of London transformed, he collapses. The future? [gl THE LEADINGTON INCIDENT. Sir George Cobthorn, pompous government minister, has a dispute with a stranger on a train. When Cob thorn boasts that two thousand people will attend, the stranger replies that they will all be asleep or dead. And so Cob thorn finds them. [hl NIGHT SEQUENCE. Luke and Betty Gosforth engage in a nasty quarrel when their car is trapped in a ditch. They seek shelter in a nearby house and find themselves in a world of the past (of sorts). Luke finds the niece of the house his ideal woman, while Betty is similarly impressed with Sir Edward. The illusions are suddenly shattered, however, and they find themselves alone in an empty house. But they have learned lessons from their projections. * Another story, "Mr. Strenberry's Tale," is science-fiction. * [dl is excellent for its horrors; [hl is very interesting, as is [el 1347. THE MAGICIANS Heinemann; London 1954 Values, good vs. evil in the cosmic plan. Sir Charles Ravenscroft, director of an electrical engineering firm, is forced out of.his position by a cabal and is at loose ends. As might be expected, he is bitter at what might be called a betrayal of ideals. He is approached by Lord Mervil, a powerful newspaper owner and capitalist, who wants Ravenscroft to assist in the manufacture and distribution of a marvelous tranquilizer. It is soon apparent that Mervil is attracted not only by the financial aspect of the drug, but by the possibilities of fascistic social control. * Three extremely odd men now force themselves on Ravenscroft: a British engineer from the Middle East, a Balkan merchant, and a French horologist. These men, who refer to themselves as magicians, have supernatural powers

*

PRIESTLEY,

J. B.

and serve a good power opposed to the evil power for which Mervil works. Their abilities are based on an understanding of the nature of time. They enable Ravenscroft to relive a cr1S1S in his past, and they outmanoeuvre Mervil and his associates. Ravenscroft joins the three magicians and is given a chance at happiness. * A competent, interesting adventure with an intellectual component. PROSPERO AND CALIBAN (pseud. of ROLFE, FREDERICK WILLIAM and PIRIE-GORDON, CHARLES HENRY) Rolfe (1860-1913), better-known as Baron Corvo, was a remarkable eccentric, with touches of both paranoia and genius. Rejected from the Roman Catholic priesthood for moral reasons, he became embittered and devoted much of his life to attempts both in his fiction and in reality to justify himself and bring down his enemies. He was a disreputable, unsavory person, but at times a brilliant writer. His best known work is HADRIAN VII, a projective fantasy of himself as pope. * Pirie-Gordon, usually known as Harry Pirie-Gordon (1883-1) was an occasional friend of and collaborator with Rolfe. On several occasions Rolfe entered into literary partnerships of a sort in which the other party wrote first draft, after which Rolfe rewrote completely, turning the work into his "jewelled prose." 1348. THE WEIRD OF THE WANDERER BEING THE PAPYRUS RECORDS OF SOME INCIDENTS IN ONE OF THE PREVIOUS LIVES OF MR. NICHOLAS CRABBE [etc.) W. Rider; London 1912 Supernatural fantasy about an apotheosis. Apparently becoming pope was not sufficient for Rolfe. * Nicholas Crabbe (an alterego of Rolfe's who appears in other works) is extremely skilled in ceremonial magic. Going to Egypt, he undertakes magical ordeals which culminate in great power, including the acquisition of an Ancient Egyptian priest as a familiar. But in a ceremony to attain supreme power, he drops his magical wand (which the gods had heated) and is tossed into the past, shortly before the Christian era. Here he begins a new cycle of adventures, for it is revealed to him that he is Odysseus (Odysseys, as Rolfe spells it) and that he is destined to remove the treasure from Hades. The treasure is Helen of Troy. With the blessing of the Greek gods Crabbe invades Hades, and after some difficulties escapes with Helen. He is welcomed on Olympus, where he marries Helen. His marriage is followed by visits to other pantheons and a triumphant war against the Roman gods. But Olympus palls on him and he returns to earth with Helen, becoming King of Moxoene (present-day Armenia). As the novel ends he sees a star, packs a casket of aromatics, and goes as one of the three kings to welcome the Savior. * The narrative has been translated from papyri that have been found in an undisturbed site in Armenia, together with 19th century coins, a gold watch, and a revolver, all of which Crabbe took into the past with him. * More restrained stylistically than works done by

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PUDNEY, JOHN Rolfe alone.

A very dull, forced work.

PUDNEY, JOHN (1909 British writer of fiction, poet, journalist, editor. Associated with BBC in 1930's; later a director of Putnams, Ltd., England. Contributor to various newspapers and periodicals, both British and American. Several of the stories in the follOWing descriptions have been broadcast as plays in Great Britain and America. 1349. UNCLE ARTHUR AND OTHER STORIES Longmans, Green; London 1939 Short stories, usually about lower middle class types in towns and small cities; sometimes fragment of life approach, sometimes metaphoric fantasy. * Including [a) UNCLE ARTHUR. Arthur, who is a talking elephant, moves in with the Albions and proceeds to devour their substance. Obvious political implications. [b) A DECENT FACE ON IT. The abandoned wife in the barroom puts a decent face on things. But she also has premonitory visions in tea leaves. [c) BEWARE OF CATS' EYES. Alf, a garage man who is a simple soul, has a premonitory vision of Nellie. She comes to him on her bike, head bloody, having been killed with a hammer. But Alf staves off fate very simply. [d) EDNA'S FRUIT HAT. Edna, who has tended her selfish invalid mother for years, does not mourn at the funeral, but wears a fruit hat. But the fruit and flowers come to life. It is an emanation of her goodness. [e) DUNWORTHY 13. Mr. Mullins, at the new telephone exchange at Dunworthy, receives a nuisance call from a murderer who wants to talk about his deed. Mullins summons the police and learns that the murder was in the past, and that the line has been dead for a year. [f) PILGRIM'S WAY. Joe Trump is compelled for economic reasons to dress like a medieval pilgrim, to advertise an inn. He meets a troop of real pilgrims from Chaucer's time. [g) FEATHERING THE NEST. Miss Fanny accidentally sits on her cat Oliver and crushes him. Oliver is buried in the tulip bed. When the gardener digs the bed, the next spring, since the cat's corpse seems to have killed all the flowers except the tulips, he finds a neatly written note saying that Oliver will be reincarnated as a bird. A duck, if the story is to be believed literally. [h) THE NAKED MAN. He stands behind a hedge, and the women of the village talk to him. When fat Mrs. Fragrass dies, she is seen riding in a landaulette with the naked man. Pan? * Best story is [c). 1350. IT BREATHED DOWN MY NECK A SELECTION OF STORIES John Lane; London [1946) American title, EDNA'S FRUIT HAT. * Short stories, including, described above, [a) EDNA'S FRUIT HAT. [b) UNCLE ARTHUR. lc) DUNWORTHY 13. * Also [d) THE BOY WHO SAW THROUGH. He could see through walls, but his parents did not believe him. [e) GEORGE'S GOOD DEED. A talking dog. [f) A CHRISTMAS TALE. A talking lion comes and spends Christmas with Lord Trellis. A political allegory of a sort, like UNCLE ARTHUR. [g) THE LOVER OF NATURE. Mrs. Salver, a bird lover, when

PUDNEY, JOHN performing owl calls, attracts a male owl who refuses to leave her. There is a suspicion that it is her late husband.

[ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 1351. QUAKES A COLLECTION OF UNEASY TALES Philip Allan; London [1933] One of the CREEPS SERIES. * Short stories, including [a] THE MAN IN THE MIRROR. P. Beaufoy Barry. Magic. Clancy believes that the dead can be controlled by forcing one's will on a mirror. He evokes a psychopathic killer. [b] THE SPIRIT OF HIGGINS, H. Glynn-Ward. Higgins, web-handed half-caste Chinese, dogs Heath's footsteps after Heath seduces his daughter. Heath murders him, but he is reincarnated, webbed hands and all, as Heath's child and will take revenge. The author is carried on the contents page as Glyn-Ward. [c] LITTLE SMITH , Hester Gorst. Littlesmith is a small clerk in Bunbury's office. When Bunbury dies, he leaves his fortune to Littlesmith on condition that he spend one night alone with the corpse. Bunbury, a student of black magic, transfers himself to Littlesmith's body. [d] THE TERROR BY NIGHT, Ismay Trimble. A terribly haunted room and a ghost that laughs. [e] THE PEOPLE OF DARKNESS, Douglas Newton. Australia. An earthquake and subsidence into enormous unknown caverns release bat-people with a supercivilization who plan to exterminate surface man. Borderline science-fiction. [f] DEAD MEN'S BONES, Edith Olivier. When the new church was built, bones from the old graveyard were removed and put together in one sarcophagus. A dying old woman recalls hearing the dead protest against the intermingling of bones. [g] THE CUPBOARD OF DREAD, Elliott O'Donnell. A haunted cupboard from a morgue in Spain. Clothing in it assumes human shape and forces suicide. [h] QUEER, Charles Cullum. The human cannonball in a circus, supernatural double existence, and death. * [f] is best, otherwise rather crude stories of material horror. * Edited by Charles L. Birkin. QUICK, DOROTHY (1900-1962) American writer, occasional contributor to pulp magazines. Perhaps better known for traditional poetry than for fiction. 1352. STRANGE AWAKENING House of Field; New York 1938 Erotic fantastic adventure, presumably written for teen-aged girls. * Iva (a young woman) suddenly finds herself teleported to Venus, where the men are 6 1/2 feet tall, built like Apollo, and (for the most part) charming and deferential. She is found by Ota, King of the Blue Land (Venus is divided into four lands, each separately ruled, Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, and the inhabitants are of that color), who in-

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QUILLER-COUCH, ARTHUR T. stantly marries her, although he does not consummate the marriage. It seems that the total ruler of Venus, the tremendous being known as the Great Mind, has been responsible for bringin5 Iva to Venus, and he wants her for himself. He is tired of Venusian women, who can no longer arouse his jaded desires. He will presumably have his will of Iva, then cast her into a flaming pit and watch her combust. King Ota is the son of the Great Mind, but there is no such thing as familial feeling on Venus, since the Venusians procreate in a rather odd way. For a long time Ota has been planning to wrest control from the Great Mind and has been building up magical power. He also relies on an ancient prophecy that seems to apply to him and Iva. Emissaries from the Great Mind kidnap Iva, and there are escapes and recaptures before she is taken to Gecca, the capital town of the Great Mind. He is about to subject her to the fate worse than death when Ota, armed with new weaponry, bursts in: He wrestles with the Great Mind and forces him into the fiery pit. Iva will now be queen of all Venus. * Nothing to recommend. QUILLER-COUCH, ARTHUR T[HOMAS] (1863-1940) British author, educator. Early work printed under pseudonym Q. Associated with publisher Cassell, editor of political journal, THE SPEAKER. Active politically and awarded knighthood in 1910. Appointed Edward VII Professor of English Literature, Cambridge, 1912. A fine lecturer and inspirational teacher who did much to modernize curriculum. Works ON THE ART OF WRITING and ON THE ART OF READING, based on Cambridge lectures, should be read by all. Fiction mostly romantic and historical, often centered on native Cornwall. An excellent stylist, master of very clear, limpid English. Best-known works, editorship of THE OXFORD BOOK OF ENGLISH VERSE and the Christmas carol, I SAW THREE SHIPS. 1353. NOUGHTS AND CROSSES STORIES AND SKETCHES ~ Cassell; London 1891 (published as by Q) Short stories, mostly Cornish in setting, includip.g [a] ''DOUBLES'' AND QUITS. A bitterly stubborn husband and wife, after quarreling for ten years, decide to separate for another decade and then meet again. Ten years later their ghosts return and resume the ancient battle. [b] BESIDE THE BEE-HIVES. Folkloristic magic. Telling the bees about family events, doll magic, and at least an attempt at magical murder. [c] THE DARK MIRROR. Borderline supernatural. Perhaps only a figure of speech. The mirror from the old parsonage shows (in the mind's eye of the narrator) the previous owners the Brontes. [d] THE MAGIC SHADOW. A fable. Literary talent. AND OTHER WINTER'S 1354. "I SAW THREE SHIPS" Cassell; London 1892 (published as by Q) Short stories, including [a] A BLUE PANTOMIME. A fairly long short story. The mirror in the blue room shows the Rev. S. Wraxall an 18th century murder, but the victim looks

QUILLER-COUCH, ARTHUR T. much like him. Further, Wraxall is supernaturally conducted to where the boay was hidden. [bj THE HAU:-:ITED DRAGOON. The dashing sergeant helps his mistress to murder her husband, saves his own life by perjury, and abandons her to her fate. He is followed about later by the ghost of her ana her child. 1355. WANDERING HEATH STORIES, STUDIES. AND SKETCHES Cassell; London 1895 (published as by Q) Short stories set in Cornwall. Including, [aj THE ROLL-CALL OF THE REEF. Nap:>leonic wars. Two ships are wrecked off the coast. The only survivors are a trunpeter, whom a blow on the head has rendered somewhat defective mentally, ana a drummer boy fro~n the marines. They strike up a friendship, but the boy goes off to the wars again. Some years later the boy's ghost returns, greets the trumpeter, and together they go to the sea, where they conduct a roll-call of the dead. Material proof is found later in a six-letter combination lock. [bj MY GRANDFATHER, HENDRY WATTY. A DROLL. A Cornish tall-tale of a dream. Hendry Watty undergoes folkloristic magic and supernatural carryings-on at sea. [cj WIDDERSHINS. A DROLL. Farmer Joby, who has a very bad squint, asks To~ny Warne, the local conjurer, to remove it. The process involves much folkloristic magic. Rationalized. [dj THE LEGEND OF SIR DINAR. Chivalric Middle Ages. Sir Dinar, in quest of the Grail, shoots M~rgan Ie Fay's falcon and she takes supernatural revenge. He is forced to dance with a vampiric figure that turns him into an old man and never releases him. Galahad rescues hL~ by turning him into a leaf. * [aj is excellent, one of the best costume ghost stories. The remaining material is mediocre. 1356. OLD FIRES AN0 PROFITABLE GHOSTS A BOOK OF STORIES Cassell; London 1900 Short stories, including [aj OCEANUS. The narrator's friend Harry has been killed in Africa ana the narrator mourns him. But Harry appears, invites him for a ride, and takes him to a Hell that figures the torments of the universe. Harry points out as consolation that God, behind a curtain, weeps incessantly; his tears presumably symbolize O~eanus, the river around the world. Small consolation. [bj THE SEVENTH MAN. Six men winterbound in a cabin in the Arctic. A seventh man is buried outside. Cabin fever may explain the seventh man. [cj THE LADY OF THE SHIP. 1526, Cornwall. A Portuguese ship is wrecked, and the Lady Alicia of Bohemia is among the few survivors. Unfortunately, although a beautiful and pleasant woman, she is a witch whose spirit wanders at night. One of the local gentry marries her and tries to save her, but in vain. A Moor comes, and it is obvious that he is the Devil. Lady Alicia and her husband are both dead, and the Moor leaves with a dog. Perhaps it is the husband. [dj A PAIR OF HANDS. A house haunted by the ghost of a girl who does all the housework. She appears only as a pair of hands. [ej THE MYSTERY OF JOSEPH LAQUEDEM.

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QUILLER-COUCH, ARTHUR T. The Wandering Jew in Cornwall. Joseph Laquedem, who sets up in business, finds in Julia, a half-witted local girl, a reincarnation of a woman of Ancient Rome. She was a princess and he was a Christianized Jew in the arena with the lions. He is killed while smuggling. * Perhaps Q's best single book. 1357. THE LAIRD'S LUCK Cassell; London 1901 Short stories, including, [aj THE LAIRD'S LUCK. Napoleonic wars, Scotland and the fields of Waterloo. Told through the commander of the Moray Highlanders. Young Ardlaugh, although seemingly personable, is cordially disliked by his neighbors. The colonel enlists him for the wars, and the same pattern emerges: his fellow officers do not like him. An accusation of cheating at cards and the death of Ardlaugh at Waterloo lead to an explanation of his unpopularity. He is attended by a brownie of a sort, the spirit of a dead half-brother. The spirit, in the belief that it is helping Ardlaugh, commits thefts and other dishonest acts, which are laid to Ardlaugh's door. Nicely told. [bj PHOEBUS ON HALZAPHRON. The chance collapse of a cliff reveals the remains of a small temple of Roman date. Q then relates the historical background-- the sunken land of Lyonesse (which is much like that of Ys in Britanny). When the sea rose and destroyed the land, the wicked princess almost escaped with the king, her father, but the spirits pulled her down. Her ghost was thereupon responsible for shipwrecks and drownings. Apollo came, and with his songs eased sorrows. He in turn was ousted by a Christian saint. * [aj is excellent. [bj attempts too much. 1358. THE WHITE WOLF AND OTHER FIRESIDE TALES Methuen; London 1902 Short stories, including [aj THE MIRACLE OF THE WHITE WOLF. Borderline fantasy. A document found in the 14th century, on an icebound, deserted ship. The document tells of a romance, an elopement, starvation and thirst in the desert arctic, and then, finally, a vision of plenty on Christmas. [bj THE HAUNTED YACHT. A YARN. The narrator answers an advertisement selling a small yacht, inspects it, and sees a ghost on board. This is the lead-in for a complicated series of identity changes, both ship and man. [cj JOHN AND THE GHOSTS. Illyria. Modernized fairy tale. A version of "The Man Who Could Not Shudder." To win the princess one must spend a night alone in the haunted house. John does, without fearing the ghosts, but must swear to return on his wedding night to spend another evening. He fits the house up as a theatre and requests the ghosts to perform. The request destroys their zeal. [dj THE TALKING SHIPS. Borderline fantasy, a figure of speech. A boy hears the ships talking of their past great histories. The romance of the sea. 1359. TWO SIDES OF THE FACE MIDWINTER TALES Arrowsmith; Bristol 1903 Short stories, including [aj THE HORROR ON THE STAIR. Early 18th century. Mrs. Johnstone,

QUILLER-COUCH, ARTHUR T. before her marriage, caused a death by making an accusation of witchcraft. She is now in terror of supernatural revenge. The servant girl Kirstie comes to live with her and sees Mrs. Johnstone's terror when she hears that a black man is in town. They run off to Edinburgh, where Mrs. Johnstone, on seeing another black man, hangs herself. Kirstie tries to cut her down, but is hampered by a Black-who is suddenly not there. * Much not explained or accounted for; without the usual clarity of Q's other fiction. 1360. O'S MYSTERY STORIES TWENTY STORIES FROM THE WORKS OF SIR ARTHUR QUILLER-COUCH Dent; London 1937 Including [a] THE ROLL-CALL OF THE REEF. [b] THE LAIRD'S LUCK. [c] A PAIR OF HANDS. [d] THE SEVENTH MAN. [e] THE MIRACLE OF THE 'WHITE WOLF.' [f] PHOEBUS ON HALZAPHRON. [g] OCEANUS. * Also [h] THE BEND OF THE ROAD. (from MERRY GARDEN). Sir John tells Mr. Molesworth of a repetitive dream that he has had. Their train breaks down, and while" waiting for a relief engine, Molesworth takes a walk. He soon finds himself in the area described by Sir John, and witnesses Sir John's death. But it has all been delirium after a train accident in which Sir John was killed. Material proof, however, is to the contrary. Nicely handled. [i] NOT HERE, 0 APOLLO! A CHRISTMAS STORY HEARD AT MIDSUMMER. Around 1700 the stranger Luke was shipwrecked on Cornwall, a handsome youth who is obviously Apollo. Before he leaves, he creates a marvelous SCUlpture of a pair of lovers. Years later, Luke returns and shows a pair of wreckers, the models for the sculpture, what their evil has done. Around 1700 the church catches fire, the sculpture is burned, and Apollo is seen. (from NEWS FROM THE DUCHY). [j] MUTUAL EXCHANGE, LIMITED. (from CORPORAL SAM). Markham, a wealthy banker, falls into the sea, and Rendal, a young sailor, leaps in to save him. Both are fished out unconscious. When they regain consciousness, interchange of personality. Another ducking restores them. * Of the new material, [h] is best. QUINN, SEABURY [GRANDIN] (1889-1969) American writer, attorney, editor. Member of the Bar, District of Columbia, sometime in Federal employ. Concerned with mortuary law and editor of trade magazine for undertakers. Prolific contributor to WT, where was one of most popular authors, especially for series about occult detective Jules de Grandin. 1361. ROADS Conrad H. Ruppert; New York 1938 paperbound (200 copy edition) A short nouvelle, a weird Christmas story. (WT 1938) * Klaus the Norseman is the finest gladiator in King Herod's troupe around the beginning of the Christian era. He is also a man of mercy and justice. When Herod's soldiers are massacring the innocents, Klaus, in an incredible feat of arms, beats off a band that threaten an old man, a young woman, and a baby. The baby, whose identity is obvious, speaks to Klaus and promises him eternal life.

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QUINN, SEABURY To escape Herod's vengeance, Klaus joins the Roman legions, and about thirty years later he is aide de camp to Pontius Pilate. He is present at the judgment of Jesus and supervises the crucifixion, not guessing the identity of Jesus. When he mercifully drives the lance into Jesus's side, he receives thanks. During the commotion surrounding the resurrection, Klaus saves a Tyrian girl, and at the bidding of the invisible voice marries her. Together they live up through the ages. Many centuries later, the exact date is not revealed, Klaus and Unna are forced to leave civilization, due to persecution, and head north, toward now deserted Valhalla. Along the way they meet elves who have been driven out by men. They join forces, and become-- Santa Claus and his little helpers. * This story was reissued in a revised edition by Arkham House (Sauk City, Wisc.) in 1948. Mawkish. 1362. THE PHANTOM-FIGHTER THE MEMOIRS OF JULES DE GRANDIN. SOMETIMES MEMBER OF LA SURETE GENERAL [sic). LA FACULTE DE MEDICINE [sic) LEGAL [sic) DE PARIS [etc.) Mycroft and Moran; Sauk City, Wisc. 1966" Short stories, reprinted from WT. Jules de Grandin, occult detective, criminologist, physician, was long the most popular series character in WT. His adventures against ghosts, vampires, sadistic German scientists, werewolves, elementals and similar supersensory riffraff eventually amounted to more than 90 stories. Ceremoniously courteous, vain, egotistical, dapper, witty, ruthless Grandin is a stage Frenchman, while his colleague and stooge, Dr. Trowbridge, a New Jersey G.P., remains the eternally obtuse sceptic, unknowing after half a lifetime with the occult. Not all their adventures are supernatural; some are simply action stories against odd criminals. * [a] TERROR ON THE LINKS. (1925) Grandin's first adventure, although Trowbridge appeared in one earlier story in THRILL BOOK magazine. Horrible murders. The "entirely detestable Dr. Otto Beneckendorff" has sera for transforming men into apes and vice versa. [b] THE DEAD HAND. (1926) In life Katherine O'Brien was the assistant of Professor Mysterio, criminal magician; she was also a shoplifter. Her severed hand, years after her death, is still capable of theft and murder. [c] CHILDREN OF UBASTI. (1929) The Beras from Libya are classical ghouls, catbeings descended from the cat goddess of Ancient Egypt. [d] THE JEST OF WARBURG TANTAVUL. (1935) Tantavul was an extremely unpleasant man, and the reve~"ge that he plotted against his son and daughter was nasty and partly successful. Grandin takes care of his ghost in a novel way. [e] THE CORPSE-MASTER. (1929) Mysterious crimes, a missing corpse, zombies. [f) THE POLTERGEIST. (1929) Girl cousins, abnormally close to each other, swear suicide together. When one ignores the pact, the evil spirit of the other takes revenge. Jules uses mistletoe to good advantage. [g] THE WOLF OF SAINT BONNOT. (1930) During a seance the spirit of a notorious Renaissance

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werewolf appears and possesses one of the sitters. Grandin finds it difficult to dispossess the spirit. A second seance and ceremonial magic are necessary. [h] RESTLESS SOULS. (WT (1928) Vampires, including a lady vampire of extraordinary principle and high sentiment. [i] THE SILVER COUNTESS. (1929) The tomb effigy of an exceptionally wicked medieval French countess has an unholy life of its own: control, crime, vampirism. [j] THE DOOM OF THE HOUSE OF PHIPPS. (1929) In Puritan New England a French girl captive is abused and finally murdered. Her dying curse is that in each generation of the Phipps family the birth of a son shall cause the death of the father. And so it has been. * Commercial fiction, with moments of imagination and even a little humor, but monotonously similar and often with resolutions that are a little silly. It is a sad fact that Quinn, in 90 odd tries, was never able to lift a single Grandin story above mediocrity. These comments fit the other Grandin stories covered in volUmes below. 1363. IS THE DEVIL A GENTLEMAN? THE BEST FICTION OF SEABURY QUINN Mirage Press; Baltimore 1970 Short stories. Described elsewhere, [a] UNCANONIZED. [b] GLAMOUR. * Also [c] THE GLOBE OF MEMORIES. (WT 1937) New York and medieval Italy. When Montague looks into the little snowing globe he is transported to the body of Friar Albertus in medieval Italy. As Albertus made more virile he wins the love of the beautiful Lady Fulvia and joins a partisan revolutionary movement. But he and Fulvia are captured, and he finds himself back in the 20th century. On returning to medieval Italy he finds Fulvia in a dungeon and sees her death by stoning. She had always thought him a devil, but a loveable devil. His life seems ruined but he meets her reincarnation in New York. [d] THE GENTLE WEREWOLF. (WT 1940) 13th century Near East. Sylvanette, cursed by an ancient witch, is transformed into a werewolf. Her lover, degraded because he seems to have abandoned her or made away with her, is expelled from the Christian kingdoms. He rises high at the Mongol court. When he is sent as ambassador to the Assassins, Sylvanette saves him and he transforms her back to humanity by kissing her. [e] THE CLOTH OF MADNESS. (YOUNG'S MAGAZINE, 1920) Jamison Alvarde discovers that his wife and a friend are having an affair. A cloth from India provides him with revenge. Designed for a vindictive rajah, its pattern drives the beholder mad. Alverde uses it for a wallpaper design. Lf] THE MERROW. (WT 1948) After World War II McKelvy, an American G.I., comes to Ireland and marries a local young woman. In the background is the merrow, a female sea demon of incredible beauty who seduces young men and kills them by sucking their breadth. McKelvy cannot resist her. [g] IS THE DEVIL A GENTLEMAN? (WT 1942) Colonial New England, as told from the present. When Captain Maltby saves Kundre from the sea off Portugal, he does not know that the young Swedish woman has es-

QUINN, SEABURY caped from witch trials. He marries her, and they are happy. But jealousy causes trouble. Maltby is murdered in a foreign land and Kundre is burned as a·witch. ·When her daughter, who is in love with the son of her enemy, is also in danger, dead Kundre offers supernatural aid. It is effective, but is it proper to accept it? The point of the story is that working with evil is sometimes justifiable. [h] MASKED BALL. (WT 1947) Mardi Gras, New Orleans. Holloway meets a wonderful pick-up outside the old cemetery and has a glorious time with her until he is forced to fight a duel. Then he learns that the dead regard the living with as much horror as the living do with the dead. [i] BON VOYAGE, MICHELE. (WT 1944) Occupied Germany, somewhat in the future. When Captain apKern and Dr. Michele Mikhailovitch meet, the result is a grand passion. But there are problems. A German uprising is plotted; Michele has been turned into a werewolf by German revanchists; and the wolves are after apKern. * Mostly undistinguished, but [c] is entertaining romantic nonsense and [g] has areas of interest. 1364. THE ADVENTURES OF JULES DE GRANDIN Popular Library; New York 1976 paperbound Edited with afterword by Robert Weinberg; introduction by Lin Carter. * More adventures of Jules de Grandin. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] TERROR ON THE LINKS. [b] THE DEAD HAND. * Also [c] THE TENANTS OF BROUSSAC. (WT 1925) Too many of the tenants of the Chateau de Broussac come to a bad end, crushed and chewed as if by a giant snake. Grandin and Trowbridge investigate and learn that in the middle ages Sieur Raymond de Broussac had been a very wicked man. An abbess turned him into a snake and he still lives in his tomb. [d] THE MAN WHO CAST NO SHADOW. (WT 1927) Baron Lajos Czuczron of Transylvania, roughly six hundred years old, must renew his life every hundred years with the blood of a virgin. He does not reflect in mirrors. Also present is a native American vampire who is held in her grave by the garlic planted around it. [el THE BLOOD-FLOWER. (WT 1927) When Mrs. Evander howls back at dogs outside, and bounds through the window, Grandin suspects lycanthropy. It was caused by a certain flower from Transylvania and a wicked "uncle." The werewolf outside is easily dismissed, but curing Mrs. Evander is difficult and calls for a formal exorcism. [f] THE CURSE OF EVERARD MAUNDY. (WT 1927) Maundy is an evangelical preacher. Certain of his listeners are driven to suicide, as figures from their consciences assume reality. Trowbridge almost succumbs. Grandin recognizes the cause as an elemental. Armed with his sword cane he duels with the elemental, which has animated a corpse to attack him. The ultimate cause was a curse. * A seventh story, "The Isle of Missing Ships" is Oriental adventure. 1365. THE CASEBOOK OF JULES DE GRANDIN Popular Library; New York 1976 paperbound Introduction by Robert A. E. Lowndes. Afterword by Robert Weinberg. * Including, described

QUINN, SEABURY elsewhere, [a] CHILDREN OF UBASTI. [b] THE SILVER COUNTESS. [c] THE CORPSE-MASTER. * Also [d] ANCIENT FIRES. (WT 1926) Grandin and Trowbridge answer an ad to unhaunt a haunted house in upstate New York. While tracking down the ghost, they discover that the uncle of the present tenant of the mansion had abused a Hindu woman who loved him. The several threads of the story are pulled together by double reincarnation and possession. [e] THE CHAPEL OF MYSTIC HORROR. (WT 1928) The Cloisters, an ancient castle transported from Cyprus to New Jersey by an overenthusiastic millionaire. was once held by the Knights Templar. One of the guests at the house party is mediumistic, and the spirits of the ancient wicked knights materialize and renew their evil practices: murder, the Black Mass, and assorted manifestations. Grandin is in time to prevent human sacrifice. He dispels the ghosts with the holy thorn of Glastonbury and radium. * The other two stories are not supernatural. 1366. THE DEVIL'S BRIDE Popular Library; New York 1976 paperbound Edited with postscript by Robert Weinberg. Originally a six-part serial in WT, 1932. The only lengthy adventure of Jules de Grandin, it is not a true novel but a clumsy juxtaposition of shorter works. * Strange events in Harrisonville, New Jersey. A young bride, descended from a Yezidee high priest, is snatched away from the altar. She is to serve as the new high priestess of the cult, since other lines of descent have failed. Among her duties are officiating at human sacrifices and marrying the Devil. * Other phenomena include mysterious murders, a crucifixion, and raids by a pack of controlled wolves. Grandin, Trowbridge and a British lord high in the colonial service of Sierra Leone battle the forces of evil. It is all a world-wide conspiracy of Yezidee adepts from Kurdistan, Leopardmen in Africa, European diabolists, and Communists. The wicked plot is foiled by a mass slaughter of devotees among Roman ruins in Sierra Leone. While much of the seeming supernatural is explained by mysterious drugs, ventriloquism, and twinning, a certain amount remains, notably Yezidee long-distance control of the will. * The background includes the exploits of Aleister Crowley in England and William Seabrook's romantic account of the Yezidees in ADVENTURES IN ARABIA. * This was considered an unsuccessful jumble of material when it first appeared, and there is no reason to change that verdict. 1367. THE HELLFIRE FILES OF JULES DE GRANDIN Popular Library; New York 1976 paperbound Edited with afterword by Robert Weinberg. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] RESTLESS SOULS. [b] THE WOLF OF ST. BONNOT. * Also [c] THE DEVIL-PEOPLE. (WT 1929) Trowbridge and Grandin meet Mutina, a beautiful Malaysian who is half human and half rakshasa. (A rakshasa is a very etiolated version of the Hindu raksha-- a demon.) Her relatives on the supernatural side are a bloody nuisance.

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QUINN, SEABURY Jules is more than a match for them. He and the police sprinkle the rakshasas with lime juice, which is a caustic poison to them. This last motif, ridiculous though it may 'sound, is ethnographically accurate. [d] THE HAND OF GLORY. (WT 1933) Old Professor Wickwire believes that he has the original meteorite that was the Magna Mater in Roman times. Certain evil adepts agree with him. They use a hand of glory to invade his study and steal the meteorite. Grandin and Trowbridge defeat them. The professor turns out to be wholly irresponsible and perhaps half mad. This story is unfortunate, for it has the best beginning of the Grandin stories, but fizzles out very badly. * More of the same. 1368. THE SKELETON CLOSET OF JULES DE GRANDIN Popular Library; New York 1976 paperbound Edited with afterword by Robert Weinberg. Introduction by Manly Wade Wellman. * More horrors and monstrosities around Harrisonville, New Jersey, with their hashes settled by the dapper little Frenchman and his materialistic associate. * Including [a] THE DOOM OF THE HOUSE OF PHIPPS. Described above. [b] THE DUST OF EGYPT. (WT 1930) When Uncle Absalom violated the Egyptian tomb, he set off thought patterns that led to his own death, the possession of his niece by a goddess, and the presence of the ghost of an Ancient Egyptian priest. Grandin remedies the situation by invoking the memory of Cyril of Alexandria. [c] THE BRAIN-THIEF. (WT 1930) The wicked Hindu Chanda Lal preys on women, not only sexually, but criminally. He has powers of supernatural fascination until Grandin takes a hand. [d] BRIDE OF DEWER. (WT 1930) Back in the Middle Ages Sir Guy de Quimper made a bargain with a nasty little demon: victory in a battle for whatever the demon should ask. He asked for droit de seigneur for all heirs, until a woman can face him down. Dewer is now around, demanding his feudal right from Whitney's wife. Can she say no? [e] DAUGHTER OF THE MOONLIGHT. (WT 1930) The beautiful Dolores FitzPatrick is really a witch who periodically "dies" and returns to life. She mangles her victims while kissing them, and can also assume the form of a gigantic owl. * The sixth story is not supernatural. 1369. THE HORROR CHAMBERS OF JULES DE GRANDIN popular Library; New York [1977] paperbound Edited with afterword by Robert Weinberg. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE POLTERGEIST. [b] THE JEST OF WARBURG TANTAVUL. * Also, [c] THE GODS OF EAST AND WEST. (WT 1928) Idoline Chetwynde, a patient of Trowbridge's, is mysteriously wasting away. Grandin rules out traditional vampirism, since the classical symptoms are not present. Instead, he concentrates on a mysterious Indian idol that is growing larger as Idoline shrinks. It is Kali. To be rid of Kali, Grandin asks the aid of an American Indian medicine man. He in turn invokes the Great Spirit, who smashes Kali. [d] A GAMBLE IN SOULS. (WT 1933) Twins. One is good, the other, dastardly. The evil twin commits murder and frames the good

QUINN, SEABURY twin, who is about to be executed for the crime. Trowbridge and Grandin can do nothing in a material way, but Grandin's friend Dr. Hussein Obeyid, presumably a Druse adept, interchanges souls between the two men. The innocent man thus escapes. * The other stories are not supernatural.

RADCLIFFE, ANN (nee WARD) (1764-1823) British writer of fiction poet, editor, miscellaneous writer. The foremost practitioner of the early, pure Gothic novel. Best-known work THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO, which for decades served as thrill-provoking literature to young women. A very capable author who has long been underestimated. Her other novels THE CASTLES OF ATHLIN AND DUNBAYNE, THE ROMANCE OF THE FOREST, A SICILIAN ROMANCE-are all Gothic, but unsuitabh for inclusion here. See 1771 for GASTON DE BLONDEVILLE. 1370. THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO G. G. and J. Robinson; London 1794 4 vol. A long Gothic novel set in 16th century France and Italy. * Emily St. Aubyn, a sensitive, imaginative young woman, goes to Toulouse to live with her silly, vain aunt, Madame Cheron. There Emily first meets evil in the person of Montoni, a sullen, brutal Italian who marries Madame Cheron. Emily is compelled to accompany the couple to Montoni's castle at Udolpho, a gloomy and forbidding stronghold in the Apennines, where Montoni is assembling a horde of cutthroats and adventurers in order to carry out a revolution. Montoni and his rogues ravage the countryside. He soon shows his true character to the two women. He drives Emily's aunt to her death and subjects Emily to brutal treatment, forcing her to sign over to him her inheritance from her aunt. All this takes place to repeated supernatural phenomena: strange shadowy figures, a ghost on the battlements, mysterious hollow voices, and a nameless horror behind a black veil. With the help of a young Frenchman who has been held prisoner in the castle, Emily escapes and makes her way to the Castle of Villeroi in France, where she meets with more supernatural phenomena: strange events in the haunted apartments and strains of sweet, spectral music from the haunted woods. Emily finally secures her inheritance, several plots are uncovered and corrected, Montoni is taken by the Italian authorities, and all is well. All the supernatural effects are explained rationally. * This novel and THE ITALIAN are Mrs. Radcliffe's most important works, and are in the top rank of Romantic novels. She has long been renowned for the splendor of her landscape descriptions, and her treatment of the supernatural is masterly. Continually mounting horrors, each subtly diminished to

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RAMUZ, C. F. offer ground for a new horror, gradually rise to an emotional height that is not excelled in the pure Gothic novel. In other words, consUlllIllate teasing. 1371. THE ITALIAN: OR. THE CONFESSIONAL OF THE BLACK PENITENTS A ROMANCE T. Cadell and W. Davies; London 1797 3 vol. Gothic novel set in 18th century Italy, showing the results of superstition and of insane vengefulness. In this tale of passion and hatred, Vincentio di Vivaldi, a wealthy young man, loves Ellena Rosalba, a young woman in only moderate circumstances. He plans to marry her, but his proud mother objects to the union and schemes with Father Schedoni to separate the couple. Schedoni, a saturnine villain who secretly hates the Vivaldi family, tricks the mother into proposing murder, while his confederates kidnap Ellena and carry her off to a convent, where she is held prisoner. After a series of seemingly supernatural incidents with a phantom monk, Vivaldi rescues Ellena and flees with her through the horrible underground dungeons of the convent. But the implacable Schedoni pursues Vivaldi and denounces him to the Inquisition, by whom he is seized and put on trial. Vivaldi's situation seems hopeless until he is prompted by a seemingly supernatural voice to denounce Schedoni for past crimes. Schedoni is taken up, and he is so entangled in his own plots that he is powerless and dies of exhaustion. The seemingly supernatural monk and the voice at the process in the vaults of the Inquisition are revealed to be an enemy of Schedoni's. Ellena is discovered to be of noble birth, and she and Vivaldi marry. * A strong story, with a heavy atmosphere, lurking menace and horror, and the usual felicitous landscape descriptions. This is generally considered to be Mrs. Radcliffe's finest work. RAMUZ, CHARLES FERDINAND (1878-1947) Swiss (French) author of international reputation. Fiction usually regionalistic or symbolic. While his work has now slipped out of sight, it was highly regarded duriGg the 1920's and '30's. He ie. also the author of an apocalyptic science-fiction novel, THE E~~ OF ALL MEN. 1372. THE REIGN OF THE EVIL ONE Harcourt, Brace; New York [1922] (LE REGNE DE L'ESFRIT MAL, 1917). Translated from French. * A small, backward village in French Switzerland, time indeterminate, but perhaps 19th century. A stranger who calls himself Branchu (Horned) cernes to town and sets himself up as a shoemaker. Not only is he a remarkable craftsman, but he is a dynamic:, charismatic personality who soon sets the village agog. Not long after arrival, hovlever, things begin to go wrong: accidents happen, people sicken and die, cattle waste away, and crimes break out. One of the peasants claims that Branchu is the source of the evil, but the accusation is scorned and the peasant dies as a result of mistreatment. Branchu now reveals that he has the power to heal, and he is

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accepted as a semisupernatural being, although he denies that he is either God or the Devil. Evil continues to hover over the village and conditions become worse. A group of peasants decidas that Branchu must really be the cause of the troubles. They drag him along in a mock passion and crucifixion, but as he is being crucified, he reveals his supernatural nature. He now returns to the village and establishes himself with a small, chosen group of disciples. The dead arise from their graves, and Branchu announces that there is no longer good or evil, simply the powers of earth. His reign seems fulfilled. But when he is confronted by an innocent young woman, his power dissolves and he disappears. Evil has left the village. * A combination of several motifs: the Devil in a small village; peasant saturnalia; and a diabolic reversal of the mission, passion, and resurrection of Christ. What the ultimate significance of Branchu is, is not clear. The story is well-told, with a wealth of peasant types and folkways. Such stylistic virtues as the French text has are, of course, untranslatable. READ, [SIR] HERBERT [EDWARD] (1893-1968) D.S.O. British art critic, aesthetician, literary figure. Assistant Keeper, Victoria and Albert Museum. Mellon Lecturer, Harvard University. Contributor to modern aesthetic theory. Best-known work THE MEANING OF ART (1931). Knighted 1953. 1373. THE GREEN CHILD A ROMANCE Heinemann; London 1935 Philosophical novel. The fantastic element is borderline science-fiction. * Circa 1860. About two thirds of the text is devoted to the experiences of Olivero, an Englishman who chances to become involved in a South American revolution and becomes dictator of Roncador. Olivero and his associates set up a benevolent despotism, which might be characterized as a mild socialism oriented toward the material aspects of life. After a time Olivero recognizes that his work, while preferable to the lawlessness of the past, has resulted in stagnation. He stages a mock assassination and returns to England, discouraged with the human element in social control. In his native village in England he chances on the "green child," a woman who had been found after a seismic disturbance in the area. Her skin is green; her intelligence is limited or alien; and she seems to subsist vegetatively. Olivero and the green woman follow a stream to its source and enter a world of caverns where the green people live in a spiritual, wu-wei existence that consists of harmony with the formative forces of nature. In their life cycle the green people first live a sensual life; then provide service for others; and then collect and polish crystals for contemplation. The last evolution is to solitary, meditating sages who attain final harmony with existence. Olivero follows this path and never emerges from the cave world. * The contrasting utopias are fascinating. The motif of the green

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REYNOLDS, FREDERIC MANSEL child derives from English folklore. The best edition is the Grey Walls (London 1945) edition, with watercolor illustrations by F. Kelly. REEVE, CLARA (1729-1807) British novelist, popularizer of history. Her most important work (although not well regarded critically) was very popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. 1374. THE CHAMPION OF VIRTUE W. Keymer; Colchester 1777 (published as by the editor of THE PHOENIX) Almost universally known by the retitling of the second printing, THE OLD ENGLISH BARON. A Gothic novel derivative from Horace Walpole's THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO, embodying a conscious attempt to restrain Walpole's exuberant supernaturalism and to describe Medieval life somewhat realistically. * The plot is the typical plot of Gothic novels, and need not be described in detail. It tells of a displaced heir, Edmund Lovel, and his final attainment of his birthright. Included are a romance, a tournament, an avaricious murdering uncle, and some supernaturalism in the haunted chambers of the castle. * Literate, but very du11. REID, FORREST (1876-1947) British art critic, literary figure, occasional novelist. Prepared pioneer studies of W. B. Yeats and Walter de la Mare. Best-known work excellent study of Victorian artists, ILLUSTRATORS OF THE '60'S. 1375. PENDER AMONG THE RESIDENTS Collins; London [1922] An overlong romance with a little supernaturalism buried in a welter of words. Pender, recuperating after illness, is staying in the house belonging to Mrs. Burton. In one room of the house he has the feeling that the past is present and is trying to tell him something. He checks judiciously into the family history and finally with the aid of a twelveyear old poet finds a hidden bundle of letters. They reveal that a sordid bit of family history was not what tradition thought it to be. Also an interminable romance. Anemic haunting. REYNOLDS, FREDERIC MANSEL (c. 1800 - 1850) British editor, author, son of dramatist Frederic Reynolds. Well-known in middle 19th century for novel MISERRIMUS (1832), crime story suggested by legend on tombstone in Worcester. Editor of the KEEPSAKE, one of better Victorian annuals. AS EDITOR: 1376. THE KEEPSAKE FOR MDCCCXXIX Hurst, Chance, and Co.; London [1828] A Christmas gift book including poetry, essays, fiction, and illustrations. While many noteworthy authors are present, including Mary Shelley, the volume is of interest for two important short stories by Sir Walter Scott. * [a] MY AUNT MARGARET'S MIRROR, by the Author of Waverley. A long introductory section

REYNOLDS, FREDERIC MANSEL and a brief epilogue. 18th century Edinburgh. Lady Forester has become worried at the prolonged absence of her husband abroad. All other sources of information proving fruitless, she and her sister-in-law, Lady Bothwell, consult the celebrated Paduan magician, Dr. Baptista Damiotti. Damiotti shows them a vision in a mirror: the missing man is being married in a Calvinist church on the Continent. The vision is later proved true, but somewhat misleading. Forester intended to perf.orm a bigamistic marriage, but the ceremony was halted. Scott claimed that the incident was based in part on family history, although it is not clear whether he was referring to mirrors or bigamy. * The story is occasionally anthologized with the frame situation omitted. [b] THE TAPESTRIED CHAMBER. General Browne, back in England after the American Revolution, stays with his old friend Lord Woodville in the West Country. His stay is short, however, for on his first night, a hellish hag appeared in his bedchamber. Told with a restraint and dignity unusual in the genre for this period. * Two excellent stories. REYNOLDS, G[EORGE] W[ILLIAM] M[ACARTHUR] (18141879) Important figure in British sub-culture of mid-19th century. Influential member, onetime leader of Char·tist movement; early socialist and worker for social amelioration; proprietor and editor of REYNOLDS'S MISCELLANY, popular magazine, REYNOLDS'S WEEKLY, labor newspaper that survived until 1950's. Undoubtedly the most important writer of "bloods" or sensational fiction for the working classes and the young. Best-known works THE MYSTERIES OF LONDON and THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURTS OF LONDON, which set off many imitations and plagiarisms. For only modern study of this interesting man and a resolution of his very complex bibliography see the Dover edition of WAGNER, THE WEHR-WOLF. 1377. FAUST A ROMANCE OF THE SECRET TRIBUNALS George Vickers; London 1847 A long, complex Victorian Gothic blood. It has little to do with the traditional history of Dr. Faust. * 1493-1517, Germany, Austria, Italy. * Wilhelm F8.ust, a young student, is in prison under sentenee of death on the wheel because he dared to love the daughter of an unscrupulous nobleman. A demon visits Faust and offers a bargain, which Faust accepts: 24 years of youth, power, supernatural aid, after which the Devil receives Faust's soul. Faust must also sacrifice to the Devil his firstborn son. As the new Count of Aurana, with limitless wealth, Faust prospers. He marries Theresa, the woman for whose sake he was put into prison. When their first child comes, a son, he exchanges babies, substituting a girl, thus intending to defraud the Devil. Faust's character degenerates, and he leaves Germany and Austria with his new love, Ida, and wanders down into Italy. Ida becomes jealous of a beautiful Italian woman whom Faust seems to find attractive, but the woman

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REYNOLDS, G. W. M. happens to be Lucreza Borgia, poison ring and all. Ida is soon dead, and Faust associates himself with the Borgias. Murders, plots, escapes continue until 1517, at which time the Devil collects his bond, hurling Faust into Vesuvius. * More important than the Faust subplot is the subplot concerned with the Vehmgericht, which extends from Germany into Italy. Other plots involve romances and revealed identities. * Fast-moving, competent commercially, but a story of shreds and patches from Dumas, Sue, Maturin and others. 1378. WAGNER, THE WEHR-WOLF John Dicks; London [1857?] (REYNOLDS'S MAGAZINE 1846-7) Long, complex Victorian Gothic blood. * 16th century Germany, Italy, Turkey, the Mediterranean. Fernand Wagner, the former servant and associate of Faust (although he is not mentioned in 1377) is now a feeble, old man. The Devil approaches him and offers him restored and perpetual youth and certain powers if he is willing to become a werewolf one day a month at full moon. Wagner accepts the offer, and the story then moves through many bloody and violent adventures along several loosely connected subplots. Wagner is captured by the Inquisition in Italy and escapes as a werewolf. He finds himself on a desert island with the beautiful murderess Nisida, who becomes his lover. During this period he is tempted thrice by the Devil, who offers to help him out of peril in exchange for his soul. Each time Wagner refuses. Eventually, in Syracuse, he meets Christian Rosenkreutz, the venerable, almost immortal Rosicrucian, and learns that he soon will be released from the curse of being a werewolf and will die peacefully. Other subplots concern the crimes and machinations of Nisida; adventures with Italian bandits and Turkish raiders; tortures in convents; episodes in the life of Ibrahim the Greek, a historical personage at the court of Suleiman II. * The best edition is the Dover 1976 reprint. l379. THE NECROMANCER John Dicks; London [1857?] Victorian Gothic blood, with an enormous canvas of persons and places. (REYNOLDS'S MISCELLANY, 1851-2) * In 1390 Lord Danvers sold his soul to the Devil, receiving in exchange perpetual youth, the ability to travel instanteously over great distances, immunity to weapons, and 150 years of life. There is an escape clause to his contract: if he can find six virgins who love him more than their souls and are willing to transfer their souls to him, he will be free. As the story opens in the early 16th century, Danvers is searching for Number Six, while at the same time evading the revenge of the families of the five girls whom he has murdered. His candidate for Number Six, Musidora Sinclair, is of stronger will and more realistic than the previous five young women, and time is running short for Danvers. Danvers assumes the form of Henry VIII, marries Musidora (who bears him a child), but is forced to leave when the real Henry VIII appears. Some years later

REYNOLDS, G. W. M. when Danvers is desperately trying to persuade a new young woman, Musidora interferes and thwarts him. At the very last minute Danvers repents, tells Musidora how to release the souls of the five young women, and withers away. * A weak rehash of MELMOTH, THE WANDERER. * This novel has been published in the United States under the title MUSIDORA, OR THE NECROMANCER. * There are small elements of supernaturalism in Reynolds's other novels: THE CORAL ISLAND, an ancestral curse; OMAR, the White Lady of the Hohenzollerns; THE BRONZE STATUE, a demonic knight-- rationalized into Jan Hus: RHODES, W[ILLIAM] H[ENRY] (1822-1876) American attorney, author. Born in North Carolina; Harvard Law School; practiced law in Texas. Removed to California in 1850. Contributed to local journalism. 1380. CAXTON'S BOOK A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS, POEMS. TALES AND SKETCHES BY THE LATE W. H. RHODES A. L. Bancroft; San Francisco 1876 Edited by Daniel O'Connell. Preface, IN MEMORIAM, by W. H. L. B[arnes]. * Posthumous book publication, including [a] THE AZTEC PRINCESS. While exploring in the ruins of Palenque, the narrator descends a secret passage in the Palacio and emerges into unknown ruins. The spirit of an ancient princess takes him to a revivified Maya city, where he stays for a long time, studying Maya lore. When the Maya capture a white man and plan to sacrifice him, the narrator decides to rescue him and leave the city. Here the "manuscript is defective," but the narrator is back in his own time, and sees carved in stone the image of his princess. Confused in presentation and unrealized. [b] LEGENDS OF LAKE BIGLER. Indian lore. Mermaids and mermen, crosses with humans -- Pol-i-wogs. A dream. Of no great interest. [c] A PAIR OF MYTHS. Black Hal bowls with Odin, betting his blood and losing. * There are also three stories that amount to proto-science-fiction, two of which, "The Case of Summerfield" and "The Earth's Hot Center" are more significant than the supernatural stories described above. * Minor work. RHYS, ERNEST [AND LARIGOT, M.] Rhys (1859-1946) was an important British editor and literary figure. Most significant as the editor of EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY, which came to over 900 volumes under his editorship. Nothing is known about Larigot, except that Rhys in his introduction generously states that the selection of material was due to Larigot. AS EDITOR: 1381. THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS Daniel O'Connor; London [1921] The fiction section includes, described elsewhere, [a] THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS, E. Bulwer-Lytton. Long version. [b] THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, E. A. Poe. [c] THE OLD NURSE'S TALE, George MacDonald. A fragment from THE PORTENT. [d] THE GHOST OF

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RHYS, ERNEST AND DAWSON-SCOTT, C. A. LORD CLARE NCEUX, Arnold Bennett. A fragment from THE GHOST. [e] WANDERING WILLIE'S TALE, Sir Walter Scott. [f] THE LIANHAN SHEE, William Carleton. [g] DR. DUTHOIT'S VISION, Arthur Machen. Alternate title for THE LITTLE NATIONS. * Also [h] THE SUPERSTITIOUS MAN'S STORY, Thomas Hardy. A nice coordination of folk beliefs, all of which indicate the impending death of William Privett. A swarth left his bedroom at night. He was "church-porched" on Old Midsummer Eve. A moth issued from his mouth while he lay sleeping, etc. [i] A STORY OF RAVENNA, Boccaccio. A young man sees a half-naked woman pursued by a knight and his dogs, and sees the woman murdered. The knight tells him that this is her punishment for having been a tease during her life. The man takes profit by relating the tale to suitable young women. [j] TEIG O'KANE AND THE CORPSE, Douglas Hyde, translator. From Irish Gaelic. Teig, a drunkard, meets the Little Men, who take control of him and force him to carry a corpse around the countryside until he finds a churchyard that will accept it. [k] THE BOTATHEN GHOST, R. S. Hawker. The West Country, c. 1650. An unquiet spirit haunts the path. Parson Rudall obtains permission from his bishop to exorcise it. After questioning it, he remedies the human situation that caused it to sin and suffer. [1] THE SEVEN LIGHTS, John Wilson. From TALES OF THE BORDER. Scotland. A strange woman is given shelter at McPherson's, and she sits rocking, obviously very unhappy. McPherson later sees her with seven lights, which are extinguished. As the events of the next few days show, the lights were the members of the family and she was the Scottish equivalent of a banshee. [m] THE SPECTRAL COACH OF BLACKADON, Anonymous. The vicar of Talland is summoned to face a ghost and a spectral coach-- black with headless horses. [n] THE SPECTRAL BRIDEGROOM, William Hunt. Cornish folklore. Two young women try to draw a man's soul from him, for purposes of love, but their magic backfires. [0] THE HAUNTED COVE, Sir George Douglas. The ghost of a girl murdered by her lover. * Of the new material, [h], [i], [j], [k] are excellent. * Roughly half the book is devoted to "local records, folk lore, and legend." This is an excellent collection of material, but outside the limit of interest of this study. WITH DAWSON-SCOTT, C. A. 1382. TALES OF MYSTERY STARTLING STORIES OF THE SUPERNATURAL Hutchinson; London 1927 Anthology of fiction and material from psychic research, including, described elsewhere, [a] BEWITCHED, Edith Wharton. [b] THE VICTIM, May Sinclair. [c] THE HORLA, Guy de Maupassant. [d] THE CHILD'S STORY, Arthur Machen. A fragment from THE WHITE PEOPLE. [e] NOT ON THE PASSENGER LIST, Barry Pain. [f] THE GHOUL, E. W. Blashfield. [g] THE SHADOW OF A MIDNIGHT, Maurice Baring. [h] FROM THE LOOM OF THE DEAD, Elia Peattie. [i] THE BAROMETER, Violet Hunt. [j] THE APPARITION OF MRS. VEAL, Daniel Defoe. [k] THE STRANGER, Ambrose Bierce.

RHYS, ERNEST AND DAWSON-SCOTT, C. A. [1] THE GHOST-SHIP, Richard Middleton. [m] ROOUM, Oliver Onions. [n] THE MOTH, H. G. Wells. [0] WHAT WAS IT? Fitz-James O'Brien. [p] THE MYSTERIOUS BRIDE, James Hogg. [q] THE FOUR-FIFTEEN EXPRESS, Amelia B. Edwards. * Also [r] THE VOICE, Zona Gale. (From YELLOW GENTIANS AND BLUE, 1927) Bassett listened to an inner voice and did not sail on the "Titanic." His story is so probed and ridiculed that he loses faith and disregards the voice on the next occasion that it speaks. He is drowned. [sJ THE INTERVAL, Vincent O'Sullivan. The war widow tries to contact her husband through mediums. She sees him, and they go off together-- she taking her slippers. Material evidence. [t] PETER, Herman Ould. A control named Peter, supposed at first to be the spirit of a dead friend, is unmasked when it is learned that the friend is still alive. Perhaps a factual account of seances, since Mrs. Dawson-Scott is involved? [u] A CRY IN THE NIGHT, C. A. Dawson-Scott. The doings of a British folkloristic witch, with mirror magic and second sight. [v] DREAM FULFILMENT, Edward J. O'Brien. A childhood dream of a beautiful landscape, seen as an adult in Nova Scotia. [w] THE FETCHES, John Banim and Michael Banim. Early 19th century origin. Ireland. A very short story of a death appearance. [x] GRACE CONNOR, Letitia Maclintock. A very short story, set in Ireland,. of an honest ghost. Mrs. Connor, a widow who earns a living as a peddler of cloth and clothing, dies leaving accounts unsettled and material undelivered. She tells her sister. [y] THE GRAY MEN, Rebecca West. III at a nursing home the narrator sees gray men from a gray limousine remove a person in a peculiar envelope. A death, psychically seen. Perhaps intended to be factual? * Also some material from psychic research and folklore. ~< The American edition, 26 MYSTERY STORIES OLD AND NEW BY TWENTY SIX AUTHORS omits [0], [p], [q].

RICHARD SON, WARREN American author. 1383. DR. ZELL AND THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RELATION OF ADVENTURE IN THE LIfE OF A DISTINGUISHED MODERN NECROMANCER, SEER, AND THEOSOPHIST L. Kabis and Co. New York 1892 Eccentric occult novel. * Dr. Zell studies magic under "Madame" Aurelian, a transvestite who forces the doctor to assume woman's clothing. Later Zell goes to a German court, where the Princess Charlotte happens to be an occultist. Zell changes bodies with the prince and assumes the rule of the land at a time of crisis. The princess dies and Zell returns to his own body. * A curiosity, as an occult anticipation of THE PRISONER OF ZENDA. The book contains many advertisements and presumably served as a sales document for a minor cult. RIDDELL, MRS. J[OSEPH] H. (nee COWAN, CHARLOTTE E. L.) (1832-1906) British author, editor, born in Northern Ire-

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RIDDELL, MRS. J. H. land. Renowned in her lifetime as the novelist of the "City," for early business novels like GEORGE GEITH OF FEN COURT, which has been compared to the early work of G. B. Shaw. With the exception of J. S. LeFanu the foremost British High Victorian author of supernatural fiction. Work is characterized by excellent writing, very concrete detail, good characterizations, moral understanding of the supernatural. 1384. FAIRY WATER Routledge; London 1872 Victorian ghost story, with domestic second plot. * Crow Hall has the reputation of being haunted by the ghost of a woman. Residents do not retain their health long. The narrator, who does not see the ghost although others do. feels a presence near him and gradually wastes away. When the premises are thoroughly searched, a hidden chamber containing a skeleton and some jewelry is found. The second, romantic plot, concerns a young woman whose dead husband worded his will so that she would be severely punished if she married again. The story thus belongs to the category of Victorian novels concerned with the unjust inheritance laws. * Well developed, closely written, but inferior to THE UNINHABITED HOUSE and THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MR. JEREMIAH REDWORTH. ,~ It has been reprinted under the title THE HAUNTED HOUSE AT LATCHFORD. 1385. FRANK SINCLAIR'S WIFE AND OTHER STORIES Tinsley; London 1874 3 vol. Short stories, including [a] FOREWARNED, FOREARMED. Early 19th century England. A prophetic dream that prevents a murder. [b] HERTFORD O'DONNELL'S WARNING. O'Donnell, a clever, rising young surgeon, has his moral duty revealed to him when the family banshee bewails the death of his illegitimate son. Alternate title, THE BANSHEE. * [a] is excellent. 1386. THE UNINHABITED HOUSE Routledge's Christmas Annual 1875 Supernatural novel. * River Hall, a fine mansion, has one flaw. It is badly haunted and no tenant is willing to stay in it long. There are supernatural footsteps, and the figure of a man counting money is often seen in the library. After a lawsuit against a tenant who refused to fulfil his lease because of the haunting, young Patterson, a clerk to the solicitors who rent the house for the orphaned Miss Elmsdale and her strange aunt, Miss Blake, becomes interested in the house and determines to solve its mystery. According to report, Mr. Elmsdale committed suicide in the library. Patterson investigates without much success. A resolution is forced when the ghost appears and confronts its murderer-for murdered Mr. Elmsdale had been. It is then revealed that Patterson had had narrow escapes, for the murderer, fearing discovery of evidence, had been watching him. A romance is also included. * Fairly long, well developed, peopled with interesting characters (including the shrewish Miss Blake), probably (apart from THE HAUNTED BARONET) the finest High Victorian supernatural novel.

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1387. THE HAUNTED RIVER Routledge's Christmas Annual; London 1877 Supernatural novel. The Misses Vernon, impoverished young half-sisters, would like to rent a house near London. After much searching they come upon Mill House, a semi-decayed old house with an ancient mill nearby, on a bend of the Thames in Surrey. The women take a lease and settle in and see various supernatural manifestations, including the reenactment of a crime. Some investigation reveals that a supposed suicide in the past had been a murder, and the murderer is indicated. Among excellent secondary elements are Mr. Lauston, the miserable landlord, who is determined to both swindle and seduce Peg, the narrator. Mill House itself is said to have been based on a house that the Riddells once inhabited. 1388. WEIRD STORIES James Hogg; London [1882] Short stories. [a] WALNUT-TREE HOUSE. Whel\ Edgar Stainton returns from the colonies as heir to Walnut-Tree house, he finds it deserted and almost uninhabitable. It is haunted by the ghost of a boy. Stainton, roughing it, sees the ghost, which is looking for something. By investigating he learns a sordid story of child abuse, and is able to correct an injustice. [b] THE OPEN DOOR. Ladlow Hall is haunted: there is a certain door in it which will not remain closed. It is connected with an unsolved murder that took place a few years back. Young Sandy, a clerk in a London real estate office, undertakes to solve the mystery, and does, though not through his own doing. A ghost. [c] NUT BUSH FARM. The narrator, a city man, decides to try his hand at being a gentleman farmer. He rents an excellent farm, but discovers that someone walks in the nut bushes. It may be the ghost of the last tenant, who is said to have run off with a pretty village girl. But it is a nuisance, since the local men will not work on the farm. A fine story, until the very ending, when Mrs. Riddell does not do justice to the theme. [d] THE OLD HOUSE IN VAUXHALL WALK. Young Graham, who has quarreled with his father, is fortunate enough to meet an old family servant who serves as a watchman in a deserted house. The house is haunted. An old miserly woman was murdered there, and her ghost still walks. So do her murderers, who are looking for her hoard. [e] SANDY THE TINKER. Scotland. Moral culpability. Morison, a minister, tells the story of Cawley, a fellow clergyman. Cawley has been walking out by the Witch's Hollow, when his further progress is barred by a formidable figure. This is the Devil, who takes Cawley into the rocks to Hell, and will not release him unless he swears to return. Or, if he provides a substitute by Wednesday evening. In a panic Cawley names Sandy the Tinker, a harmless old wanderer. The Devil releases Cawley, who returns home and summons Morison, in an agony of terror. When the time set by the Devil has passed, Cawley thinks he is clear-- but it is learned that Sandy has just died. [f] OLD MRS. JONES. Mr. and Mrs.

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RIDDELL, MRS. J. H. Tippens, who conduct a rooming house, rent the house which had formerly been inhabited by Dr. Jones. Jones and his wife had suddenly disappeared, and their departure has been a neighborhood mystery. But as the Tippenses soon learn, the house is haunted by the ghost of the vicious old Mrs. Jones. She pesters the servants, frightens the children, and is a terror to Mrs. Tippens's cousin. A partial solution comes when the ghost causes the cousin to walk somnambulistically to the place where Dr. Jones is hiding in disguise, but even finding Mrs. Jones's corpse does not stop the haunting. Fire alone will do it. A landmark volume. Read in the 1947 reprint with introduction by Herbert Van Thal. 1389. IDLE TALES Ward and Downey; London 1887 Short stories, including [a] THE LAST OF SQUIRE ENNISMORE. Ireland. The squire, who was a hard, wicked man, broached a cask of brandy which had been found as flotsam on his beach. Its diabolical owner, however, came along and no more was seen of the wicked squire. A very effective little story. 1390. THE NUN'S CURSE. A NOVEL Ward and Downey; London 1888 3 vol. Social and economic matters in 19th century Ireland. A prologue, however, offers a supernatural explanation for what follows. About three hundred years earlier, an ancestral Conway usurped the estates from an abbey, slaughtering the inmates. A single nun who escaped was tcacked down by Conway and his hounds. As she lay dying, she cursed the family: there shall ever be dissension among the Conways, and no son shall succeed his father to the estates. Much like Maule's curse, the Conway curse continues into the 19th century as a young Conway tries to hold his heritage. Mrs. Riddell, however, also suggests a rational cause for the Conway turmoils: the Conways were all irresponsible. Good Victorian realism, with a wealth of data about 19th century life and mores. One of Mrs. Riddell's two or three best mainstream novels. 1391. PRINCESS SUNSHINE AND OTHER STORIES 'Ward and Downey; London 1889 2 vol. Short stories, including [a] A TERRIBLE VENGEANCE. The wet footprints of a child ghost follow its murderer everywhere and drive him to death. Told very effectively through the personality of a servant who watches his master decay. [b] WHY DR. CRAY LEFT SOUTHAM. Told by the doctor. One of his patients hasa mysterious illness. Awaking from a strange dream, he realizes that the patient's husband has been poisoning her. But there is no proof. 1392 • HANDSOME PHIL AND OTHER STORIES F. V. White London 1899 Short stories, including [a] CONNKILREA. Kilrea, black sheep of a good Irish family, hears the supernatural death summons of his ancestors and believes that fate has caught up with him. But he is unexpectedly spared, and the experience causes his reformation. [b] DIARMID CHITTOCK'S STORY. Blackstone Castle, in rural Ireland, is a tranquil country house,

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RIDDELL, MRS. J. H. its seasonal tenant from London discovers, except for the old dining room, which is beset with a storm of inexplicable noises. Investigation reveals murder hidden behind the walls. A fine regional story. 1393. THE· COLLECTED GHOST STORIES Dover Publications; New York 1977 All the short fiction that can definitely be attributed to Mrs. Riddell. * Described elsewhere, [a] NUT BUSH FARM. [b] THE OPEN DOOR. [c] THE LAST OF SQUIRE ENNISMORE. [d] THE OLD HOUSE IN VAUXHALL WALK. [e] SANDY THE TINKER. [f] FOREWARNED, FOREARMED. [f] HERTFORD O'DONNELL'S WARNING. 19] WALNUT-TREE HOUSE. [h] OLD MRS. JONES. [i] WHY DR. CRAY LEFT SOUTHAM. [j] CONN KILREA. [kj DIARMID CHITTOCK'S STORY. [1] A TERRIBLE VENGEANCE. * [m] A STRANGE CHRISTMAS GAME. (BROADWAY ANNUAL, 1868) When the Listers inherit the estate of Martingdale, they also acquire ghosts who put on a tableau for them. On Christmas Eve an 18th century ghostly quarrel and murder are reenacted. * Also included is a long introduction by the editor, E. F. Bleiler, MRS. RIDDELL, MID-VICTORIAN GHOSTS, AND CHRISTMAS ANNUALS, and a bibliography that brings S. M. Ellis's up to date. RIDLER, ANNE (nee BRADBY) (1912 British poet, playwright, editor of modern verse. Best-known ~ork, SHAKESPEARE CRITICISM 1919-1935. AS EDITOR: 1394. BEST GHOST STORIES Faber and Faber; London 1945 Described elsewhere, [a] NARRATIVE OF THE GHOST OF A HAND, J. S. LeFanu. [b] THE DREAM WO~N, Wilkie Collins. [c] THE FRIENDS OF THE FRIENDS, Henry J~~es. [d] THE CANTERVILLE GHOST, Oscar Wilde. [e] THE TRIUMPH OF NIGRf, Edith Wharton. [f] LOST HEARTS, M. R. James. [g] THE INEXPERIENCED GHOST, H. G. Wells. [h] THE FACE, E. F. Benson. [i] WITH INrENr TO STEAL, Algernon Blackwood. [j] THE OPEN ·wINDOW, Saki. [k] CREWE, Walter de la Mare. [1] THE TOOL, W. F. Harvey. [m] OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS, Philip MacDonald. [n] THE APPLE TREE, Elizabeth Bowen. [0] THUS I REFUrE BEELZY, John Collier. [p] WHO KNOWS? Guy de Maupassant. [q] THE HOUSE SUaGEO~, Rudyard Kipling. * Also, [r] BLIND MAN'S HOOD, Carter Dickson. (Pseud. of John Dickson Carr) On Christmas eve, between seven and eight, people tend to stay away from Clearlawns. There had been a presumable murder there years ago and the ghost comes around, talking about it. RITCHIE, LEITCH (1800? - 1865) Scottish novelist, editor, miscellaneous writer. Edited and wrote fairly elaborate travel books with steel engravings, and in later life was editor for CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL. 1395. THE MAGICIAN Macrone; London 1836 3 vol. Historical novel in the manner of Walter Scott. ~, France, circa 1440. Very slow moving, choked with historical detail, romantic in incident, strongly nationalistic and chauvinistic.

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ROBBINS, TOO This describes the adventures of a group of young Scots in France during the time of Giles de Retz. The supernatural aspect of the novel centers around de Retz, with an old Jewish alchemist and the magician Orosmandel. Orosmandel leads a double life. He pretends to be a wise old ascetic with gifts in natural magic, yet is really prelati, a demonic, unvanquishable knight who fights in black armor. The alchemist offers lives to the Devil in exchange for a bond of i~~ortality, and Or osmandel tries to invoke fiends to restore de Retz's wasted revenues and estates. The author's point of view is rationalistic, and almost all of Orosmandel's magic is later stated to be legerdemain. * Extraordinarily dull. RIVES, AMELIE (married to TROUBETZKOY, PRINCE PIERRE) (1863-1945) American author, member of so-called "emotional school," torrid novels of passion told in restrained, Victorian manner. Best-known work, THE QUICK, OR THE DEAD? (1889). 1396. THE GHOST GARDEN Stokes; New York [1918] Sentimental neo-Gothic horror. * In colonial Virginia, Melany Horsemanden was renowned for her remarkable beauty, which was enough to turn the head of a British landed duke. She was also remarkable for her selfishness, wilfulness, and vicious disposition. She built herself a house that reflected her personality (Her Wish), drove away the man that loved her, and died young. Her ghost still haunts the deserted mansion. * Evan Radford, a Northerner, comes into the area and hears the story. On first approaching the estate he knows all the complex paths (suggesting a theme of reincarnation that is not developed) and feels a great interest in and empathy for the old history. Staying with the Warrengers, he falls in love with the daughter of the house, another Melany. The dead Melany hates the living Melany and persecutes her. Radford decides to protect Melany Warrenger and goes to live at Her Wish. He sees the ghost on several occasions and falls into its power as it vampirically drains his vitality. On the eve of his wedding to Miss Warrenger, the ghost draws him out to her grave, and even though Melany Warrenger tries to save him, he falls dead. The doctor certifies his death, but fortunately he is not subjected to a post mortem or to embalming, for, at the call of the living Melany, he awakens a couple of days later. He has been in the land of the dead, and he is now completely, almost soullessly under the sway of the ghost, to whom he wants to return. Living love cannot save him, but arson practiced on Her Wish expels the ghost and releases him. ~, The chills of wandering through the deserted house, with noises, life-like portrait, and misty appearances are well handled, but otherwise, the other woman in supernatural terms. ROBBINS, TOD (i.e. ROBBINS, CLARENCE A.) (18881949) American author, long resident abroad in Great

ROBBINS, TOD Britain and France. Contributor to pulp magazines in period after World War I. Author of THE UNHOLY THREE, source for two films starring Lon Chaney, Sr., grotesque horrors of circus freaks. 1397. SILENT. WHITE AND BEAUIIFUL AND OTHER STORIES Boni and Liveright; New York [1920] Introduction by Robert H. Davis, better known as Bob Davis, the great editor of pulp magazines. * Short stories, including [a] WHO WANTS A GREEN BOTTLE? Scotland. The Laird of Lochleaven sees a tiny man trying to steal a gold piece, captures it, and discovers that it is the soul of his miserly dead uncle. The uncle takes him through various perils into Hell, and inadvertently reveals that the only way that a soul can escape Hell is by being in a green glass bottle. [b] WILD WULLIE, THE WASTER. Scotland. Nocturnal billiards games between two Scottish ghosts. Told from the point of view of the ghosts, describing the quarrel and killing that caused the haunting, and its aftermath. [c] FOR ART'S SAKE. Essentially a nouvelle about a murder mystery, but with a fantastic element: the works of Burgess Martin, novelist, stimulate the reader to horrible crimes. * The first two are good pulp fiction, with a note of whimsy and sophistication that is unusual in the form. The third is a bore. 1398. WHO WANTS A GREEN BOTTLE? AND OTHER UNEASY TALES Philip Allan; London 1926 Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] WHO WANTS A GREEN BOTTLE? [b] WILD WULLIE THE WASTER. * Also, [c] TOYS. The small shopkeeper sells a model of his village to Mr. Fate, who is what his name indicates. Horrors-- fires, accidents, earthquake-- for Fate is not benevolent. [d] A BIT OF A BANSHEE. Ireland. Shaemas O'Shea, penniless, carefree poet, is married by the old witch Widow Malone to her beautiful daughter Bridget. Bridget, however, is a banshee who must howl before deaths. O'Shea turns the gift to practical advantage. [e] A SON OF SHAEMAS O'SHEA. Sequel to [d]. Bridget has died, and Shaemas has married the witch girl Monica who specializes in remarkable animal transformations. Shaemas is disturbed, for Monica is pregnant and he is not sure whether the child will be a dog, cat, rabbit, pig, or human. It turns out to be a cherub. Like [d], basically Irish black humor. [f] COCKCROW INN. Late 18th century? Tibbit, who has hanged the notorious pirate and scoundrel Whitechapel Willie, has his eye on Nancy Greer and the inn. But on Hallowe-en Willie, who is a terrible womanizer, descends from the gallows, enters the inn, drinks and duels with Tibbit, and abducts Nancy. * Excellent commercial fiction, with good little touches. ROBERTS, [SIR] CHARLES G[EORGE] D[OUGLAS] (18601943) Canadian poet, novelist, editor, educator. Taught English at Kings College, Nova Scotia. Considered important as a Canadian regionalist. Knighted 1935.

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ROBERTS, R. ELLIS 1399. EARTH'S ENIGMAS A VOLUME OF STORIES Lamson, Wolffe; Boston and New York 1896 Short stories about animals, lumberjacks, squatters, and similar denizens of the wilds. Reminiscent (in the animal stories) of the work of Ernest Seton Thompson, but more purple in writing. * Including [a] THE PERDU. This is a small lake, a trapped river section. It has a bad reputation for being both bottomless and haunted. Reuben and Celia, two children who live nearby, see strange appearances in its water. This culminates years later, when Reuben is returning home after working away for a time, and sees a death portent. [b] THE HILL OF CHASTISEMENT. A fable-like, semi-allegorical story. The sinner, leaving his cave, passes horrors and emerges to see ahead of him, not a cross as he had hoped, but a gallows. [c] THE BARN ON THE MARSH. The narrator, passing the old barn, sees hanging in the doorway the corpse of his neighbor, as he had seen it years before. He approaches it and sees that it is just a piece of equipment-- but it reverts to a corpse again. Memory. [d] THE STONE DOG. Presumably a European or Latin American setting. The stone dog rests just on the edge of the fountain. The narrator, despite the latent menace of the sculpture and several warnings as it seems to threaten him, pries too much-- and is bitten. He is fortunate to escape with his life. * [c] and [d] are effective. * The enlarged edition (L. C. Page; Boston 1903) does not add new supernatural material. ROBERTS, R[ICHARD] ELLIS (1879-1953) British editor, miscellaneous writer. Associated with the NEW STATESMAN, TIME AND TIDE. Translator of Ibsen's PEER GYNT. 1400. THE OTHER END Cecil Palmer; London 1923 Supernatural stories in the tradition of Algernon Blackwood. * [a] THE HILL. A tourist sees the Hill, which reminds him of a Biblical high place. When he tries to climb it, he hears discordant music and must force his way through supernatural obstacles. A local boy, who is about to sacrifice a dog, tries to stop him, but the tourist, battling mentally against the evil of the place, releases the dog. Pan had been present, and the boy had been a doppelganger or simulacrum of a local youth. [b] THE RABBIT ROAD. Once a year at full moon the weakest and smallest of the imps can harry the rabbits, if aided by a human. The protagonist and his girl friend are caught up in the situation. [c] THE WIND. A Scottish young woman has the wind for a lover. She invokes it with· a Latin formula and dies in its embrace. [d] UNDER THE SUN. A frustrated young woman becomes acquainted with and falls in love with Penhaligon, who talks and acts strangely. He is the incarnation of an ancient Greek god whose benevolence has been greatly overstated by sentimental moderns. [e] THE GREAT MOTHER. When a college student goes to a grove to worship the Great Mother of the Gods, the Powers

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come and the farmer's field is trampled. [f] THE OTHER END. Told through the personality of a snobbish, lickspittle tutor. Terence Burke, who is badly treated by his sadistic uncle, talks to an invisible woman who promises to take him to the O~her End. She may be a dryad. [g] THE MINOTAUR. Rationalization in modern terms of Theseus and the Minotaur. Theseus is a clever politician; Ariadne is a snobbish young fIapper; and the Minotaur is a self-taught philosopher who sails to Athens to dispute with the sages. [h] THE CAGE. 19th century. Tom Barnes, who accidentally killed his adulterous wife, is sentenced to die of starvation in a cage. Merciful St. Candida visits him. [i] ROBIN. Robin Goodfellow comes among humans. Spirits of his sort are permitted to enter hUlnan life once. If they remain, they become hunan. Robin finds love. * [b] and [c] are excellent. The others are of varying quality. ROBERTSON, MORGAN [ANDREW] (1861-1915) American author; spent much of early life in merchant marine. An untaught, primitive writer, occasionally very effective in realistic stories about life asea. Wrote several stories that hover on the edges of science-fiction and supernatural fiction, the most important selection of which is considered below. Also wrote sea humor stories. Achieved posthumous fame for FUTILITY (1898), a prophetic account of the destruction of a great, new ocean-liner, the Titan, on its maiden voyage. It hit an iceberg. (The Titanic sank in 1912.) 1401. OVER THE BORDER M,:Clure' s Magazine and M,~tropolitan Magazine; New York [1914] Stories concentrating in the area among abnormal psychology, occultism, fate, and sciencefiction. Including [a] OVER THE BORDER. Hypnotic suggestion that one is a dog, and the suggestion is seemingly impossible to remove. [b] THE BABY. Arrested development cured by the vital energy of another person. [c] THE GRINDIN3 OF THE MILLS. Parallel fates are based on astrological premises; two persons DOLO ,gt tDC' S&77C' til1lC'.

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Prenatal marking. Miss Mayhew, whose mother was frightened by a cat, is a violent ailurophobe. Her lover, on the other hand, is a cat lover. The woman's condition is changed by a blood transfusion. [e] THE TWINS. Supersensitivity. [f] THE MATE OF HIS SOUL. Complex links between the narrator and Freddy, including projection of a dream monster, exchange of aggressiveness, etc. [g] THE SLEEPWALKER. His wife, when asleep, often attacks him sometimes with a knife. She seems to thi~k that she is Henry Morgan the buccaneer, and he, Lady Isobel. The doctor interprets it not as reincarnation, but as telepathy and cryptomnesia. [h] THE VOICES. Reincarnation, romance, shipboard matters. [i] THE BROTHERS .and [j] KISMET, supersensitivity and fate. * Robertson's sea stories are much better. ROBINET, LEE (pseud. of BENNET, ROBERT AMES) (1870-1954)

ROHMER, SAX American author, contributor to pulp magazines, mostly adventure stories. Wrote under own name and pseudonyms. 1402. THE FOREST MAIDEN Browne and Howell; Chicago 1913 . The Nietzschean Overman in the backwoods of British Columbia. * Kenmore, on a hunting trip, stumbles upon a lost land where a madman gifted with enormous paranormal powers has set up a new Garden of Eden. Adam, as he is called, can control animals by will power, can submerge human personality, and can use others for scrying. Along with Adam are Eve, his wife, her child, and Lilith. Both women are from outside but Adam's psychic power has submerged their memories and they think of him as a quasi-supernatural being. Kenmore, for reasons that are not adequately explained, goes along with Adam's lunacies, and on several occasions barely escapes death from the vicious madman. Although he fights off Adam's psychic attacks, otherwise he is completely inept. The crisis comes when Adam plans to sacrifice his child and then Kenmore. Kenmore, the women, and Kenmore's Indian guide (who had been held in suspended animation by Adam for some time) flee, while Adam pursues them, miraculously running atop the water. Adam's power fails momentarily, and he is eaten by a shark. His death releases the minds of the women. * A very curious story, not so much for its plot, which is suggestive of a scenario for an early motion picture serial, as for the strange psychologies. ROCK, JAMES (pseud. of PATTEN, CLINTON A.) American writer, druggist. Pseudo given in WHO GOES THERE by James A. Rock. 1403. THRO' SPACE New England Druggist Publishing Co.; Boston 1909 Science-fiction and occultism. * Rock, while out hunting, has an accident and becomes acquainted with Isadore D'Arville, who has invented an antigravity space ship. Rock and D'Arville first go to the moon, then proceed on a long visit to Venus, which contains bWDaooLds wbo lLve LO a mzldly soczalzsCIc utopia. The travellers also stop at a point outside earth, where they see the "ceaseless trudge," or the stream of human souls quitting the earth for their next stage on the cosmic plan. They then return to earth. * A very rare curiosity. ROHMER, SAX (pseud. of WARD, ARTHUR HENRY; later known as WARD, ARTHUR SARSFIELD; later name change to ROHMER, SAX) (1883-1959) British author (American resident in later life) of sensational thrillers. Renowned as the creator of Fu Manchu, undoubtedly the foremost Oriental villain in the literature, some of whose adventures are science-fiction of a sort. Also wrote adventure stories, mystery stories, and stories with some supernaturalism • Apparently was seriously interested in the occult and belonged at one time to the Order of the Golden Dawn. His novels are usually presented as thrillers, episodically, with hor-

ROHMER, SAX rible villains, captivities and escapes, houris, exotic deaths, etc. At best his work is fast moving and brisk, but it is usually flimsy and formula-ridden. See also FUREY, MICHAEL (pseud .) 1404. BROOD OF THE WITCH-OUEEN C.A. Pearson; London 1918 Episodic supernatural adventure, England and Egypt. 1914. * Antony Ferrara, the adopted son of a great Egyptologist and occult scholar, is as unwholesome a young man as is imaginable, first as a college student, then as a man about town in digs. He is plotting to gain his rich foster father's fortune, and for this he commits several murders and attempted murders by magical means: projecting hands that strangle, projecting swarms of beetles, controlling dreams, sending a fire elemental, etc. Against Ferrara, in a very ineffectual way, are the colorless Dr. Cairn and his son Robert. The story proceeds in a series of magical attacks on the Cairns, who escape as much by luck as skill. In an Egyptian episode Fertara controls the khamsin, brings plague to Cairo, and conducts a magical ceremony (including human sacrifice) in the pyramid at Meidun. The story ends when the Cairns locate Ferrara's hideout, steal his magical book (the Egyptian Book of Thoth) and leave him without protection. When Ferrara next calls up his elemental, it turns on him and rends him. Cairn reveals Ferrara's identity, which he had tantalizingly refused to do earlier. Years before, Cairn and Ferrara, Sr., had found a mummy, the son of a witch queen and the high priest of a diabolic cult in Ancient Egypt. They reanimated the child mummy, and the result was Antony Ferrara. * The episodic structure, for reasons of serial publication, disturbs what might have been a better thriller. 1405. TALES OF SECRET EGYPT Methuen; London [1918] Short stories. * The first five are concerned with Abu Tabah, a mysterious figure with a hypnotic gaze, who is in some sense the real ruler of Cairo. Only one story is adequately supernatural. [a] THE DEATH-RING OF SNEFERU. Abu Tabah warns Kernaby Pasha, the British protagonist of the five stories, not to meddle with artifacts that have a certain hieroglyphic mark on them. The artifact turns out to be the ring of the Pharaoh Sneferu, which had been hidden in the Great Pyramid and just rediscovered. An elemental goes along with it and kills the bearer. Abu Tabah's sister also is a good medium. * [b) LORD OF THE JACKALS. As the old Frenchman tells it, while staying with the Bedouins he happened to save a feeble old man from the camp dogs. In gratitude, when .the Frenchman has run away with one of the Arab women, the old man, who is the Lord of the Jackals, uses his supernatural control of the jackals to save him. [c) IN THE VALLEY OF THE SORCERESS. The marks of Queen Hatasu have been chiseled off most monuments, for she was a notorious witch. In the present, excavating her tomb is impossible, for in the guise of an Arab woman, she distracts and hin-

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ROHMER, SAX ders workers, supernaturally forcing them to replace what they have excavated. Neville, working alone at the site when all others have fled, is surrounded by a horde of cats and forced to work with a shovel. * Routine. 1406. THE OUEST OF THE SACRED SLIPPER C. A. Pearson; London 1919 Episodic thriller with supernatural elements. * The slipper of Mohammed is one of the sacred relics of Islam. It is guarded by the modern descendants of the ancient Assassins, headed by Hassan of Aleppo, a benevolent-looking, white-bearded old man who controls an arsenal of natural and supernatural vengeance devices. A somewhat unscrupulous Orientalist has stolen the slipper and is bringing it to England. He is followed by Hassan with a coterie of strange dwarfs armed with remarkable weapons. Also concerned is the American master thief Earl Dexter, who is determined to seize the slipper and hold it for ransom. One problem is that Hassan cuts off the right hand of any giaour who touches the slipper. There seems to be no limit to Hassan's ability in this respect. The slipper goes back and forth between Dexter, the museum, and Hassan. Dexter loses his right hand. The slipper is finally returned to Hassan on condition of amnesty. * Supernatural elements include a strange light cast by the slipper, and remarkable prevision on Hassan's part. * A little confused. It is difficult at times to determine who's got the slipper. 1407. THE DREAM DETECTIVE Jarrolds; London [1920] Detective stories with a fantastic element. * Moris Klaw, London antique dealer and authority on occult matters, undertakes criminal investigations in an unusual way. He sleeps at the place of the crime, whereupon his mind produces a psychic photograph of what was in the mind of another person. With this knowledge he is enabled to solve many otherwise impenetrable crimes. If his mode of work is supernatural, many of his cases are not, being only routine crimes. * Including [a] THE CRUSADER'S AXE. The axe of Crusader Black Geoffrey of the Crespie family protects the family's honor. [b) THE BLUE RAJAH. Klaw has established a periodicity in the crimes surrounding a wonderful diamond, the Blue Rajah. [c) THE HEADLESS MUMMIES. Occult in implication. In the head of one of the mummies from a certain temple is hidden the magical Book of the Lamps. The book, unfortunately, does not figure in the story. [d) CASE OF THE VEIL OF ISIS. Brearley has found a papyrus describing the initiation of an Egyptian priest into the cult of Isis. He performs the conjurations and achieves the expected response: Isis, after a fashion. * The American edition (Doubleday, Page, Garden City, N.Y. 1925) contains an additional story, [e) CASE OF THE CHORD IN G. A strangulation murder. When Klaw sleeps he hears a chord so widely spread that it would be impossible to play. Except by one man. * The other stories are not fantastic except in Klaw's antics. * Unexceptional work.

ROHMER, SAX 1408. THE GREEN EYES OF BAST Cassell; London 1920 Mystery novel with supernatural elements. >~ Addison, explorer and journalist, becomes involved in investigating the mysterious murder of Sir Marcus Coverly. Sir Marcus's corpse has been found in a large wooden box, together with an Ancient Egyptian figurine of a cat. A cat has also been roughly painted on the box. The mystery progresses. Addison encounters a mysterious person whose eyes glow in the dark and has superhuman agility, and Addison is marked for death by persons (almost) unknown. After escapes from mortar shells propelled into his room and mysterious Chinese drugs, Addison and his friends from Scotland Yard learn the solution of the crime (and others) from Dr. Damar Greefe, a sinister Eurasian biologist. Greefe, years earlier, had been investigating "psychic hybrids," or persons who have animal characteristics. The child born to Sir Marcus's uncle had been prenatally marked by a cat, and was born with claws and a nictivating eye membrane. Since the child was abnormal, its parents did not want it and turned it over to Greefe, who reared it. As it grew up, it developed many feline characteristics and in Egypt, during the time of the Feast of Bast, it behaved as if possessed by Bast. Dogs howled as she went by. This woman, Nahemah, is bitter at having lost her inheritance and with the occasional help of Dr. Greefe has been murdering the Coverly family. She finally turns on Greefe and kills him with a rare Chinese poison, she herself presumably dying of tuberculosis not long afterward. * Starts out nicely, but fizzles into plot cliches. 1409. THE HAUNTING OF LOW FENNEL C. A. Pearson; London [1920] Short stories, including [a] THE HAUNTING OF LOW FENNEL. Literary folklore to the contrary, Low Fennel is not a lewd Eurasian courtesan, but a haunted ho.use. A recurrent manifestation: a nude figure, sliding along the floor, with a face distorted into the most evil expression. The occult detective who is investigating the case finds a semi-rational explanation. The house, which is built atop a barrow, can be permeated, in very hot weather, by an effluvium which causes a specific response-sliding, nude, along the floor with a face distorted into the most evil expression. [b] THE VALLEY OF THE JUST. Burma. An area where no unjust person can survive the night. Moreen Fayne is a just woman; Ramsa Lala, her father's servant, will survive; but Moreen's brutal, drunken cad of a husband does not have a chance. Not only has he shot an old flame of Moreen's, he has also looted the temple treasure. [c] THE MASTER OF HOLLOW GRANGE. Dr. Kassimere, who looks much like Thoth, uses the beautiful young Phryne to lure men into his power. He is working on a recipe from an almost unknown work of Paracelsus's. Just what he is trying to do is not revealed, but it is probably creation of life. [d] THE CURSE OF A THOUSAND KISSES. Egypt. A manuscript, written on papy-

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ROHMER, SAX rus. Saville Grainger, on an inexplicable impulse, kisses an ugly old woman who is hobbling along the streets of Cairo. He receives a reward: a gem, a recognition, and as the manuscript ends, an incredibly beautiful woman According to the legend, Scheherazade, daughter of the governor of Egypt around 800 A.D., played her lover false. A magician cursed her ~'7ith unspeakable ugliness, which would remain on her until one thousand men voluntarily kissed her. Grainger was number one thousand. * Routine work. 1410. TALES OF CHINATOWN Cassell; London [1922] Short stories, including [a] TCHERIAPIN. The foul-mouthed violinist Tcheriapin, composer of The Black Mass, is struck and killed by the painter Colquhoun. To conceal the crime a friend of Colquhoun's submits the corpse to a shrinking, petrifying process that results in a tiny statuette. But the ghost of Tcheriapin bothers Colquhoun, even to playing The Black Mass. [b] THE HAND OF THE MANDARIN QUONG, The despicable Sidney Adderley abducted the favorite wife of Quong, who by some geographical oddity is a mandarin in Johore. Quong sends Adderley his shriveled hand, which strangles him. 1411. GREY FACE Cassell; London 1924 A catch-as-catch-can collection of thriller motives centering around the figure of Trepniak, remarkable man of great wealth, who looks exactly like Cagliostro. Among concepts piled on helter skelter are: a glandular method of rejuvenation, which changed an 80 year old German biologist into Trepniak; the secret of making artificial gold, which Trepniak and the Communists plan to exploit; a technique for enlarging diamonds and other gems; a secret organization of adepts with incredible supernatural powers, who watch over the mental health of the world; ancient secrets from Egypt and elsewhere; a gigantic beryl globe, with which Trepniak forces his will on others; a young secret service investigator who learns that his mind is being picked by Trepniak's hypnotic powers; a beautiful demimonde, half Russian, half Circassian; her long-lost amnesiac husband; a psychiatrist who is a practicing occultist. * The ingredients are not too well blended, and the transitions are jarring, but some of the individual scenes, as in Trepniak's menage, are well-handled. 1412. SHE WHO SLEEPS A ROMANCE OF NEW YORK AND THE NILE Doubleday, Doran; Garden City, N.Y. 1928 Legerdemain masked as ancient Egyptian wisdom. * Young Barry Cumberland, son of the wealthy collector of Egyptian antiquities John Cumberland, cracks up his Rolls in New Jersey on seeing a very beautiful young woman. When he recovers, he tries to find her, but without success. In the meanwhile Cumberland, Sr., is preparing an archeological expedition. The dealer and archeologist Danbazzar has sold him a papyrus which indicates that the Ancient Egyptians had the secret of suspending anima-

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ation and that there is record of a priestess who was awakened periodically over centuries. Danbazzar has also found her tomb and has prepared ingredients for awakening her, should the tomb, on excavation, be tenanted. The expedition proceeds to Egypt, and in a short time excavates the tomb, finding She Who Sleeps but Who Will Awake, in a perfect state of preservation. Everything goes successfully, and the young woman (Zalithea) awakes. To Barry, who believes that she looks exactly like his mystery woman of New Jersey, is assigned the pleasant task of introducing her to modern life. The Cumberlands smuggle Zalithea out of Egypt, and take her to New York. All is well for a time, when she suddenly disappears. Later, in Paris Barry chances to encounter her, and she reveals in a letter that the whole situation had been a hoax and a fraud perpetrated by Danbazzar, partly for revenge, partly for gain. Forgiveness is mutually exchanged. More juvenile in approach than Rohmer's other work. In general Rohmer has no trouble in attaining suspension of disbelief, no matter what his other flaws as a writer may be, but this story is utterly incredible. 1413. TALES OF EAST AND WEST THIRTEEN LITTLE MASTERPIECES OF DEATH AND FEAR AND TERROR The Crime Club, Doubleday, Doran; Garden City, New York 1933 Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] THE VALLEY OF THE JUST. [b] THE CURSE OF A THOUSAND KISSES. [c] THE HAUNTING OF LOW FENNEL. [d] THE MASTER OF HOLLOW GRANGE. Also [e] THE CARDINAL'S STAIR. The house is said to be haunted by the ghost of Cardinal Wolsey. It also contains a fortune in plate and art, which burglars covet. The burglars falsify a ghost, but the real cardinal appears. Routine. Also present is the science-fiction story "Light of Atlantis," which does not seem to be available elsewhere. The British edition of the same title (Cassell; London 1932) does not have the same contents, lacking [a], [b], [c], and [d], but offers other stories. It has not been seen. 1414. THE BAT FLIES LOW Crime Club, Doubleday, Doran; Garden City, N. Y. 1935 Adventure, with an occult background. Lincoln Hayes, young President of Western Electric, is eager to discover the perpetual light that the Ancient Egyptians (according to Rohmer) had. His agent steals a fragment of the Book of Thoth which reveals enough about the lamp that experimentation seems possible and profitable. Unfortunately, there are other parties, Simon Lobb, Hayes's business rival, and Mohammed Ahmes Bey, a mysterious Egyptian of great charismatic power. While Hayes and his associates are examining the papyrus, they are overcome by an artificially produced darkness and the papyrus is removed. The trail leads to Egypt. At this point it might be well to anticipate Rohmer. In Egypt there exists a monastic brotherhood who preserve the Ancient Wisdom, with, among their secrets, the lamp. Ahmes Bey is the head of this organization. Through a lifetime of study and training

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ROLT, L[IONEL] T[HOMAS] C[ASWELL] (1910 British author; railways engineer and executive; lecturer, radio broadcaster; memher of Science Museum advisory council. 1415. SLEEP NO MORE Constable; London 1948 Short stories. [a] THE MINE. There has been much trouble on the new level of the mine. When Joe Beecher comes up in the cage, the narrator's mate (who apparently has second sight) sees a horror atop the cage that chases Joe to his death in a nearby quarry. [b] THE CAT RETURNS. Stranded honeymooners are put up for the night by a Mr. Hawkins, a gentleman who acts strangely. They believe that he is a servant posing as master of the house. They take a phone call for Hawkins, and inform him of the message: that someone will call for him next morning. Hawkins is found dead, presumably a suicide. But the phone had long been disconnected. Murder in the past? [c] BOSWORTH SUMMIT POUND. An unpleasant area along an inland waterway. Boatmen do not anchor there. In the 19th century one of the local gentry murdered a pregnant Gipsy woman and disposed of her body there. He, in turn, was summoned by the dead woman. Ghosts seen. [d] NEW CORNER. A racing car track, with a new section added. It was necessary to run the track through an ancient stone circle. Drivers see a robed figure in their way, and accidents take place. [e] CWM GARON. Wales. There is something odd about the valley. At first it seems beautiful, then horrible. Professor Elphinstone, the noted folklorist, hopes to find the secret. He does, and is found at the foot of a cliff. Carfax, too, sees the secret-- little people A la Arthur Machen. Two of them follow him. [f] A VISITOR AT ASHCOMBE. Bingley, the retired industrialist, is a very hard, tough, fearless man, but even he must succumb to the horrors at Ashcombe. In the closed-off Arms room there is a peculiarly placed mirror that does not always reflect, and can be an entry for horrors from elsewhere. [gJ THE GARSIDE FELL DISASTER. The men do not like the railroad tunnel. It is inexplicably hot.

ROLT, L. T. C. When a serious fire breaks out in the tunnel, involving two trains, some believe that the sensation of heat was an omen, others that it was connected with the sacred nature of the mountain in the past. It wanted human sacrifices. lh} WORLD'S END. The old man reveals that he has had a vision of himself as a suicide. It is fulfilled. The narrator had a similar vision of himself in the past. [i} HEAR NOT MY STEPS. A haunted room and a psychic researcher. He sees the corpse on the bed and is impelled to strangle himself with the cord. [j} AGONY OF FLAME. A ruined castle in Ireland, horribly haunted. Supernatural influences remove the access boat. One of the party is stricken deaf, dumb, and blind. [k} HAWLEY BANK FOUNDRY. The old, abandoned foundry is restored to use during World War II. There was a mystery about it in the past. Its owner disappeared and his successor (presumably a murderer) was dogged supernaturally, and committed suicide. In the present, the casting sands are frequently disturbed. When a large casting is being made, a corpse is seen through the melt, and maggots the size of serpents. [I} MUSIC HATH CHARMS. Cornwall. In the 18th century the house was inhabited by Count Henneze, a fierce and murderous smuggler. A music box that once belonged to him is found in a sealed cupboard. The result is possession of a sort, not brutality, but decadence. * Unremarkable stories. ROSCOE, THOMAS (1791-1871) British journalist, author, editor, translator. Author of several volumes of THE LANDSCAPE ANNUAL (illustrated travel books) and editor of JUVENILE KEEPSAKE. Translated, in addition to works below, MEMOIRS OF CELLINI, ITALIAN NOVELISTS, SPANISH NOVELISTS, and others. AS EDITOR AND TRANSLATOR: 1416. THE GERMAN NOVELISTS TALES SELECTED FROM ANCIENT AND MODERN AUTHORS IN THAT LANGUAGE Colburn; London 1826 4 vol. A fairly large selection of material, not all equally significant, from various areas of German literature. * Including, described elsewhere, [a} THE DUMB LOVER, J. Musaeus. Alternate title for DUMB LOVE. [b} THE FIELD OF TERROR, F. de la Motte Fouque. [c} AUBURN EGBERT, J. L. Tieck. Alternate title for ECKBERT THE FAIR-HAIRED. [d} THE MANDRAKE, F. de la Motte Fouque. Alternate title for THE BOTTLE IMP. [e} THE APPARITIONIST, J. F. von Schiller. Alternate title for THE GHOST-SEER. Full text. [f} DOCTOR FAUSTUS, Anonymous. Abridgment of FIRST PART OF THE VERITABLE HISTORY OF THE LAMENTABLE AND EXECRABLE SINS AND PUNISHMENT, TOGETHER WITH MANY WONDERFUL AND RARE ADVENTURES OF DR. JOHANNES FAUSTUS, A FAR-FAMED SORCERER AND PRACTITIONER IN THE BLACK ART [etc.J, G. Widman. Original, Hamburg, 1599. A rather full chapbook version of Faust's adventures. [g} TREACHERY ITS OWN BETRAYER, C. A. Eberhard. An Oriental tale of a wily dervish who tricks the king into exchanging bodies. [h} HEAD MASTER RHENFRIED AND HIS FAMILY,

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ROSE, F. HORACE F. de la Motte Fouque (attributed author). A rather complex narrative, but essentially the story of an elopement. A disgruntled lover uses a magic mirror and invokes the aid of the ghost of a Venetian magician to locate the woman involved. Although Roscoe assigns this story to Fouqu~, I have not found it in his collected works in German. [i} LOVE MAGIC, J. L. Tieck. (LIEBESZAUBER, 1811) Renaissance Germany. Emilius is the prey of love magic worked by a beautiful young woman and a vile old witch. Human sacrifice is involved. When Emilius learns what has taken place, tragedy. [jJ THE FAITHFUL ECKART AND THE TANNENHAEUSER, J. L. Tieck. (DER GETREUE ECKART, 1799) Eckart, a noble-minded knight, has pledged fealty to the Duke of Burgundy, and despite the Duke's crimes against him remains loyal. Eckart's last feat is combat against supernatural evil. From the Venusberg emanates a strange music which seduces men and drags them down to destruction. Eckart battles off the dwarfs responsible, and his spirit remains as a guard to warn humans against this small hell. In the second part of the story, set four hundred years later, in the 13th century, young Tannenhaeuser brushes past Eckart and makes his way into the Venusberg, where he indulges in the activities for which he has become famous. He emerges many years later, discovers that his memories have been illusions created by evil spirits, commits a murder, and returns to the arms of Venus. * There is also quite a bit of folkloristic material which is beyond the scope of this book. * Fluent translations, but sometimes a little careless. ROSE, F[REDERICK} HORACE (1876 - ? South African novelist, newspaper editor (NATAL WITNESS). Author of several novels. Perhaps occasionally resident in Great Britain. 1417. PHAROAH'S [sic} CROWN Duckworth; London [1943 J African adventure and supernaturalism in the school of Haggard. * Hararli, as the natives call an Englishman, helps an Egyptian sage and his daughter to escape from Bantus who have been holding the girl captive as a prophetess. After some difficulties they reach Egypt, at which time it is revealed that the Egyptian is a custodian of the sacred crown of the pharaohs. The three penetrate an ancient tomb. The young woman and her father are trapped, but Hararli escapes, mad, living out the curse that had been on the tomb. * Some interesting material on Islamic Egyptian daily life, but otherwise unremarkable. 1418. THE NIGHT OF THE WORLD Duckworth; London [1944} World War II propaganda novel with supernatural aspects. * Ken Favery is with the British forces in North Africa; much of the book is a fairly realistic description of battle conditions. Favery is blown up, and after a short period of time finds himself with a group of immortal watchers from all ages, who are viewing the war in North Africa and Europe

ROSE, F. HORACE from a lost oasis. Favery writes down his visions, and eventually his body is found with the manuscript. * Unremarkable. RUDWIN, MAXIMILIAN J[OSEF] (1885-1946) American educator, scholar, born in Poland. Taught at Swarthmore College and University of Wyoming. Author of monographs on medieval German literature, particularly drama. AS EDITOR: 1419. DEVIL STORIES AN ANTHOLOGY Knopf; New York 1921 A collection of fiction dealing with the Devil. The approach is scholarly, but the scholarship involved is purely literary, with no reference to folklore or history of religions. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE DEVIL AND TOM WALKER, Washington Irving. [b] BON-BON, Edgar Allan Poe. [c] DEVIL-PUZZLERS, Frederic Beecher Perkins. [d] THE DEMON POPE, Richard Garnett. [e] MADAM LUCIFER, Richard Garnett. [f] THE DEVIL AND THE OLD MAN, John Masefield. * Also, [g] THE DEVIL IN A NUNNERY, translated from Latin, adapted by Francis Oscar Mann. Medieval England. A wandering minstrel offers to perform a few sacred airs as payment for hospitality. But his music stirs sexual memories and desires. The abbess expels him by prayer. [h] BELPHAGOR, OR THE MARRIAGE OF THE DEVIL, Nicolo Macchiavelli. (1549) Translated from Italian. A mixture of folkloristic themes. The devils in Hell wonder why all new arrivals blame their presence on their wives. They appoint Belphagor to be incarnated, married, and to report back to Hell. While on earth Belphagor has difficulty with his creditors, and in exchange for help from a rustic agrees to dispossess demoniacs so that the peasant will get the credit. [i] FROM THE MEMOIRS OF SATAN, Wilhelm Hauff. (1825) A strange Italian, presumably the Devil, enters into a doppelganger situation and destroys an old eccentric. [j] THE DEVIL'S WAGER, W. M. Thackeray. Sir Roger de Rollo is being transferred from Purgatory to Hell. He can escape if a single person on earth will sayan ave for him. It is done, but narrowly. [k] THE PAINTER'S BARGAIN, W. M. Thackeray. Simon Gambouge, poverty-stricken artist, signs a diabolic bond: seven years, and release only if he can set the Devil an impossible task. The Devil is asked to live with Simon's wife. [I] THE PRINTER'S DEVIL, Anonymous. (1836) Asmodeus takes the narrator on a tour of Hell, which is occupied by literary men. Various liberal, philosophical, and supernatural writers are preeminent, but worst of all is paperback publishing, for which the devils have had to open a special branch of Hell. [m] THE DEVIL'S MOTHER-IN-LAW, Fernan Caballero. (Pseud. of Cecilia Bohl de Faber) (1859) Translated from Spanish. Old Mother Holofernes curses her slovenly daughter to marry the Devil. Mother Holofernes then traps the Devil in a bottle and disposes of it. A soldier finds the bottle, and relens(!s the Devil on condition that he help in dispossessing demoniacs.

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RUSSELL, BERTRAND [n] THE GENEROUS GAMBLER, Charles Baudelaire. (LE DIABLE, 1864) Translated from French by Arthur Symons. A boulevardier meets the Devil, who promises him many good things. The Frenchman prays to God to let the Devil keep his promises. [0] THE THREE LOW MASSES, Alphonse Daudet. (LES TROIS MASSES BASSES, 1869) The Reverend Dom Balaguere, a 17th century glutton, rushes through the Christmas Eve masses in order to indulge in turkey stuffed with truffles, trout, etc. He dies of a surfeit and is condemned to say 300 Christmas Eve masses. [p] THE DEVIL'S ROUND, Charles Deulin. (1868) Translated from French by Isabel Bruce, with a folkloristic preface by Andrew Lang. A Flemish golf enthusiast pleases visiting saints, who give him a golf club that cannot be beaten, an apron from which one cannot be moved, and a bench from which one cannot stir. He uses these to defeat the Devil and Death. [q] LUCIFER, Anatole France. (from LE PUITS DE ST. CLAIR, 1895) Translated by Alfred Allinson. The Devil rebukes an Italian Renaissance painter for taking liberties with his image, and making him look like a monster. [r] THE DEVIL, Maxim Gorky. Anonymous translation from Russian. The Devil and the skeleton of a dead author converse. The author's widow is living on the royalties of the dead man's work-- with her second husband. RUSSELL, BERTRAND [ARTHUR WILLIAM] (1872-1970) Third Earl Russell. Major British mathematician, philosopher, social and political thinker. Nobel Prize for literature 1950. This remarkable man started a career in fiction while in his 80's. His first collection of stories, SATAN IN THE SUBURBS (1953), although listed in bibliographies, is not supernatural in our sense. 1420. NIGHTMARES OF EMINENT PERSONS AND OTHER STORIES Bodley Head; London 1954 There are nine NIGHTMARES, all fantastic in one way or another, but only five of them are supernatural in our sense. A brief introduction by Lord Russell offers a justification of them similar to the faggot theory of truth: isolated passions are insane, but a synthesis of insanities is sanity. Each story illustrates a passion. Including [a] THE QUEEN OF SHEBA'S NIGHTMARE. After leaving Solomon's court she is exclaiming at its wonders, when she meets Beelzebub. He invites her to his underground domain, where she is trapped, to be a queen only until the arrival of Cleopatra. Her problem is failure to face facts, vanity. [b] THE PSYCHOANALYST'S NIGHTMARE. An amusing takeoff on Freudian analysis of literary works. In the Limbo Rotary Club Macbeth, Othello, Lear, Romeo, and Mark Antony tell how their problems were removed by psychoanalysis. They have since led happy normal lives, but without aspiration or dream. Only Hamlet, who has undergone the same treatment, has doubts. But these doubts save him. Simplistic solutions. [c] THE METAPHYSICIAN'S NIGHTMARE. If evil is negation and the Devil is the utmost of negation, there are certain philosophical problems in talking about him. Professor Bumblowski is

RUSSELL, BERTRAND confronted by these problems in Hell. His solution is to avoid the concept of negation in his speech. [dj THE EXISTENTIALIST'S NIGHTMARE. To prove his own existence he must suffer. Accompanied by Poe's raven he exposes himself to the horrors of the 20th century: Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, Communist China. [ej THE MATHEMATICIAN'S NIGHTMARE. A spoof on Sir Arthur Eddington's numerical manipulations and various numerical constants postulated. Living numbers, most interestingly handled. * All very amusing. RUSSELL, RAY[MOND] ) (1924 American author, editor, musician, motion picture scenarist. Editorial positions with PLAYBOY MAGAZINE (executive editor, 1960-5). Responsible for major development in American science-fiction, acceptance of s-f in major magazines. See also THE PLAYBOY BOOK OF HORROR AND THE SUPERNATURAL and THE PLAYBOY BOOK OF SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY, which Russell edited anonymously. 1421. SARDONICUS AND OTHER STORIES Ballantine Books; New York 1961 paperbound Title nouvelle plus short stories, including [aj THE EXPLOITS OF ARGO. 30th century, outer solar system. The black elixir renders one invulnerable for seven days, but them kills one. It has obvious military uses. The deposed Emperor of the Asteroids, to escape the elixir, asks the Last Wizard to transform him into a were-creature. He becomes a vampire on a planet where there is no blood, no wood stakes, no silver, and no daylight. [bj BOOKED SOLID. Lilith Kane, ruthless motion picture actress, murders her husband. She discovers that her adviser for years has been one who is skilled at tempting. She is booked solid in the afterlife. [cj I AM RETURNING. The Battle in the Heavens, the Fall of Lucifer, the rise of humanity in terms of sciencefiction. * The other stories, including the title story, are contes cruels with occasional elements of science-fiction. RUSSELL, W[ILLIAMj CLARK (1844-1911) British author (born New York), educated in Great Britain, served several years in merchant marine. Held various journalistic positions, wrote prolifically on sea topics. An influential voice in improving lot of seamen. Highly regarded as novelist in his day, but now rightly considered a minor writer of adventure fiction. Best-known work THE WRECK OF THE GROSVENOR (1877). 1422. THE FROZEN PIRATE Sampson, LOW, Marston; London 1887 2 vol. Sea fiction with fantastic elements. * Circa 1800. The Laughing Mary, a light ship sailing from Callao to Cape Town via the Straits of Magellan, runs into storms and is hard hit. The only survivor of the crew is Paul Rodney, narrator, who is blown southward toward Antarctica in a small boat. Ice floes come into sight and he sees imbedded in the ice an antique-appearing vessel. Rodney boards it and finds that its crew is lying about, frozen,

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RUTTER, OWEN but that the vessel is seaworthy. He soon sees that it was a pirate ship, for there is much loot aboard. He builds a fire, eats, and makes himself comfortable. (Why the pirates could not have done the same is passed over silently.) He tosses most of the corpses overboard, but one is so contorted that he cannot take it through the cabin doorway. He hopes that the heat of the fire will thaw it enough so that it can be moved. The heat, however, brings the pirate to life, and Rodney find& that he has a shipmate, a man about fifty years old, a French pirate named Jules Tassard. He is an unpleasant, bloodthirsty rogue. Conversation reveals that Tassard has been frozen for about 48 years, but he will not accept the fact. Rodney devises a scheme for freeing the vessel from the ice surrounding it, by setting off charges of gunpowder. While he is doing this, Tassard suddenly ages, collapses into senility, and dies. He ages 48 years in a couple of days. Rodney continues alone; meets a Yankee ship from whom he borrows sailors; smuggles the loot ashore in England; and settles down. * Minor work. 1423. THE DEATH SHIP A STRANGE STORY Hurst and Blackett; London 3 vol. Sea adventure and romance, circa 1800. * Young Geoffrey Fenton, sailing aboard the Saracen, hears much talk about the Flying Dutchman. There is thus consternation when the Dutchman is seen-- a mouldy, ancient vessel that is luminous. Fenton has the misfortune to fall overboard and is abandoned by his terrified companions. But he is rescued by the crew of the spectral vessel, He discovers that the ship is captained by Vanderdecken, who believes that it is still 1653, and talks of returning to his family in the Netherlands. A parrot persistently screams, in Dutch, "We are all damned!" Vanderdecken and certain members of his crew have their sinister sides, and Fenton must tread carefully. Aboard the vessel is also a young Englishwoman, Imogene Dudley, with whom Fenton falls in love. Life aboard the Dutchman takes up most of the book: storms, the approach of other ships, events of daily life, obtaining provisions from derelicts, boarding by French pirates, etc. Fenton and Imogene plot to escape. They manage to get a boat, not too far from land, but Vanderdecken shoots at them as they leave and Imogene is killed. * Weak characterizations, much to-do about activities, inordinate length, falling between adventure and realism. 'I, In reprint editions often titled THE FLYING DUTCHMAN. RUTTER, OWEN (1899-1944) British author, colonial administrator, naval expert, historian, businessman. Born in New York. Long resident in Malaysia; newspaper editor, magistrate British North Borneo. Edited many volumes on history of navigation, best-known being those dealing with Captain Bligh and the mutiny on the Bounty. Partner in Golden Cockerel Press, one of foremost private presses of 1930's.

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Ernest Benn; London 1424. THE MONSTER OF MU [1932] Adventure story with lost-race elements. * The island of Mu in the Pacific is the last remnant of a once mighty continent that held a high civilization. Colin and Jill come to Mu seeking treasure. They encounter pygmies and white priests skilled in ancient magic. The natives of Mu are i~~ortal and are guarded by a frightful monster. Colin and Jill are captured but rescued by a rival expedition, although most of the Europeans die. The island sinks beneath the sea. * Considering the author's qualifications, a poor job. RYARK, FELIX Presumably a British author. Nothing known. 1425. A STRANGE LAND Hutchinson; London 1908 Mystical novel. Cambodia and the land beyond the "veil." * After the death of his mother, Denis keeps a promise that he had made to her on her deathbed: he plays certain. music for seven nights in succession in Cambodia. The music opens a gateway to a strange land into which Denis passes. There, death does not exist, but people suddenly disappear in conjunction with haunting music. After an uneventful stay Denis returns to earth. * Literate, with a dreamy, timeless atmosphere, but lifeless.

S. M. C. (i.e. SISTER MARY CATHERINE OF THE ENGLISH DOMINICAN CO~GREGATION OF SAINT CATHERINl OF SIENA) 1426. BROTHER PETROC'S RETURN Chatto and Windus; London 1937 Religious novel contrasting the "religion of faith" of the late Middle Ages with the modern "religion of the intellect." * Brother Petroc, a Benedictine of the early 16th century, dies of a heart attack, is buried, and remains in suspended animation for about four hundred years. During this time the Benedictine Order is expelled from England, and then permitted to return. In the 20th century the Benedictines buy their old ruined monastery, find Petroc, and revive him. Much then follows on Petroc's reaction to changed views on religion. But, like the Frozen Pirate, Petroc unexpectedly ages almost instantly, living barely long eenough to be ordained as a priest. Presumably his supernatural mission has been accomplished, and there is no more need for his presence on earth. * Written with a tenderness and charm that do much to conceal the doctrinary harshness inherent in the ideas. ST. CLAIR, HENRY Presumably American. AS EDITOR: 1427. TALES OF TERROR: OR, THE MYSTERIES OF MAGIC

ST. CLAIR, HENRY A SELECTION OF WONDERFUL AID SUPERNATURAL STORIES C. Gaylord; Boston 1835 2 vol. in 1 An anthology of Gothic and Romantic stories, most of which are fantastic. * Including, (a] THE MAGIC DICE, AN AWFUL NARRATIVE, [Thomas De Quincey]. Also titled THE DICE. Possib~ ly a translation from German. Schroll accepts magic dice from the Devil and eventually loses his soul. Fully developed. [b] THE GORED HUNTSMAN, Anonymous. A hunter forces entry into a fairy mansion, despite supernatural warnings, and is later gored to death by a stag. Also a flower token. Presumably of German origin. [c] THE NIKKUR HOLL, Anonymous. Shetland Islands. One hundred years earlier the ship Carmilhan was wrecked with much gold on board. The dead sailors occasionally march ashore from the ship. Folk magic almost retrieves the gold, but Trosk, the treasure seeker, is too greedy, and becomes mate among the dead. Essentially the same story as Hauff's CAVERN OF STEENFOLL. Both stories may have a common folkloristic origin. [d] DER FREISCHUrZ; OR, THE MAGIC BALLS, J. Apel. Described elsewhere. [e] THE STORY OF JUDAR, Anonymous. Cairo. An Oriental tale, combining elements of Aladdin and Joseph and his brethren. Judar aids Moroccan wizards to gain a treasure and is given a magical ring that fulfills wishes. [f] THE BOARWOLF, [J. Apel]. The boarwolf, a fabulous monster, haunts the Bergstrasse. A hunter makes a bond with the Devil so that he can kill the boarwolf and win a woman. He succeeds in his hunt, but is himself transformed into a new boarwolf, which is killed by his rival in love. [g] THE CAVERN OF DEATH, Anonymous. Black Forest. Chivalry; very Gothic, with visions, ghost, murder, and usurpation. [h] THE MYSTERIOUS BELL, Anonymous. Sailors hear a bell at sea and see it on the protruding mast of a sunken ship. When a nearby line is pulled, the Shrouded Demon comes up, a gigantic corpse wrapped for burial at sea. [i] THE DERVISE ALFOURAN and [j] HASSAN ASSAR, OR THE HISTORY OF THE CALIPH OF BAGDAT, [Charles Morell, pseudo of James Ridley]. From TALES OF THE GENII. Linked Oriental tales with magic and gen~~. [k] THE ASTROLOGER OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, [L. Flammenberg]. The first portion of THE NECROMANCER, covering seemingly supernatural incidents in Germany. Described elsewhere. [1] THE FLYING DUTCHMAN, Anonymous. Willis and his comrades meet the Flying Dutchman. He wants them to take letters home. If they refuse, bad luck; if they agree, bad luck. [m] PETER RUGG, THE MISSING MAN, [William Austin]. The first part only. Described elsewhere. [n] THE HAUNTED FOREST, Anonymous. Normandy. It is ruled by evil spirits. Alphonso rescues Lusette, a beautiful girl. He becomes engaged to her and swears to accept her father's terms for marriage. She transforms into a hideous witch and chains him to her chariot, along with other suitors, scourging them with serpents. His sister rescues him with a talisman obtained from a holy hermit. * The present collection was reprinted with additional stories as EVENING TALES FOR THE

ST. CLAIR, HENRY WINTER (R. Marsh; New York 1856). The new stories include [0] NINA DALGOROOKI, Anonymous. Russian setting. A necromancer, magic, love. [p] THE PROPHECY, Rev. Henry Cauntner. Prophecy and suicide. The new stories are Victorian and sentimental, and do not fit well with the earlier material. The 1835 collection is an excellent selection for its day, with much material that is not generally available elsewhere.

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ST. LUZ, BERTHE (pseud. of ROBERTSON, ALICE (1871 ?) ALBERTHE) American author. 1429. TAMAR CURZE R. F. Fenno; New York [1908] Shopgirl theriomorphy. A tiger hunt in Assam, and something mysterious happens. It is not revealed. About twenty years later in England. The story is told mostly through two characters, Olivia Longnus, a governess, and Dr. Felix Rossiter. Lord and Lady Glandour receive a letter from their cousin, Tamar Curze, informing them that she is coming to live with them. She arrives, a very beautiful but nasty young woman, whose sexual magnetism is so great that men cannot resist her-- including Sir Lionel Glandour. At the same time, some mysterious beast of prey seems to be operating around the estate, killing other animals. No one suspects Tamar until the arrival of Professor D'Herbelot, who had been on the tiger hunt in Assam years before, and had shot a cheetah. He immediately recognizes Tamar and her ayah for what they are: a were-animal and a witch. Tamar, in cheetah or leopard form, is wounded by D'Herbelot and Rossiter. Later, she kills Sir Lionel while Rossiter watches helplessly. What happens to her is not clear, since after killing Lord Glandour she escaped in animal form. Nor is it clear whether Tamar was an elemental or whether she was inhabited by the soul of the pet cheetah that D'Herbelot shot in Assam twenty years before. Low level material.

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SAKI (pseud. of MUNRO, HECTOR HUGH) (1870-1916) British (born in Burma) journalist, foreign correspondent, author of witty short stories. Worked at WESTMINSTER GAZETTE; foreign correspondent for London MORNING POST, spending about six years in Russia and the Balkans. Killed in World War I. A very fine craftsman in cameolike sardonic, cruel, whimsical stories about life among the upper crust. At best very amusing in sadistic way, but values and obvious psychological quirks are sometimes repellant. 1430. REGINALD IN RUSSIA AND OTHER SKETCHES Methuen; London 1910 Short stories and sketches including [a] GABRIEL-ERNEST. Van Cheele, wandering through his woods, comes upon a strange naked youth lying near a pool. The youth laughingly tells him that he sleeps during the day and eats at night-- rabbits, hares, poultry, and an occasional baby. The boy later appears at Van Cheele's house, where he is welcomed by Van Cheele's aunt. When he leaves, it is with a child, for he is a werewolf. By an irony of fate, the situation is not recognized by others. [b] THE SAINT AND THE GOBLIN. Statues in a church, the pathetic fallacy. Irony on morality. [c] THE SOUL OF LAPLOSHKA. He is a strange sort of miser: he will not give to the poor, but has no hesitation in giving to the rich. He dies suddenly, with the narrator indebted to him for a small amount. His ghost haunts the narrator until he manages to give two shillings to a millionaire. [a] is good.

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SAKI 1431. THE CHRONICLES OF CLOVIS John Lane; London [1911] Short stories, including [a] TOBERMORY. Mr. Cornelius Appin has spent most of his life in developing a method for teaching animals how to talk. His first success is with the cat Tobermory. Since Tobermory has a sharp tongue, no inhibitions, and since cats go everywhere and see everything, his new ability causes great dismay. [b] SREDNI VASHTAR. Probably not intended as a supernatural story, though it is often read as such. Conradin, a sickly little boy living with a wholly unsympathetic female guardian, builds a religion out of a ferret that he keeps in the garden shed. He worships it like a god, praying to it, and offering sacrifices. The ferret does what Conrad in wants it to do. [c] THE MUSIC ON THE HILL. When Sylvia marries Dead Seltoun, the circumstances are not wholly pleasant. She has her way in many things, and they go off to live in the country. But on the estate a naked youth is seen; there is hidden laughter; and the horned animals behave strangely. Her punishment is terrible. Pan. [d] THE PEACE OF MOWSLE BARTON. Lockyer is taking a rest cure in the country, after years of city life. But he is soon caught between two feuding folkloristic witches. The water will not boil for tea; the ducklings are drowned; and there are further misfortunes in store. [e] "MINISTERS OF GRACE." The Duke of Scaw, who is religious in a peculiar way, must have the ear of Heaven. He replaces the major British politicians with angels in their likeness, and imprisons the politicians in appropriate animal form. [f] THE REMOULDING Of GROBY LINGTON. Lington assumes the characteristics of whatever pet he happens to be attached to. First it was a parrot, then a mischievous monkey. In both cases Lington behaved abominably. His latest pet is a turtle. * Excellent stories. [a] is one of the classics of fantastic humor. [b] is said to be largely autobiographical. 1432. BEASTS AND SUPER-BEASTS John Lane; London 1912 Short stories. The title is a hint at G. B. Shaw's MAN AND SUPERMAN. * Including, [a] THE SHE-WOLF. At the house party, a poseur who has travelled turns the talk to Siberian magic, which he claims to know. Clovis takes him down by rigging a good case of lycanthropy. [b] LAURA. As Laura, a thoroughly nasty person, lies dying, she announces that she will return after death to harass her relatives and acquaintances. She hopes to return as an otter and as a naked Nubian boy. She does. [c] THE OPEN WINDOW. Framton, who has had a nervous breakdown, hopes that the country will be quiet. But he learns that his hostess believes that her husband and brother, who were drowned in the bog, will return with their dog. He sees them coming. A classic irony starring the young woman whose speciality was "romance at short notice." [d] THE COBWEB. On the farm, old Martha, who is in her nineties, has dominated the kitchen for decades and has outlasted generations of farm owners. When she suddenly

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SALTEN, FELIX announces her death because of a series of portents, the owner's wife is overcome with pity. Old Martha was only partly right, though the omens were valid. [e] THE SEVENTH PULLET. Bleukinthrope, who felt bitterly his lack of small talk on the commuting train, embarks on a series of wonderful lies and tall-tales, to the admiration of his hearers. But when life, with a death solitaire, furnishes him with a genuine supernatural incident, he has the poor taste to tell of it, and is thereafter shunned. * Amusing stories. 1433. THE TOYS OF PEACE AND OTHER PAPERS John Lane; London 1919 Short stories, including [a] THE WOLVES OF CZERNOGRATZ. When a member of the ancient race of Czernogratz dies in the schloss, the wolves assemble for miles and howl, and a tree falls down in the park. The last Czernogratz is a governess in the castle, in the employ of parvenus. [b] THE HEDGEHOG. A ghost that sometimes appears in the form of a gigantic white hedgehog. * [aJ is excellent. Ironic. 1434. THE SQUARE EGG AND OTHER SKETCHES John Lane; London [1924] Sketches and stories, including [a] THE INFERNAL PARLIAMENT. Various branches of Hell, including one where an enormous file of publicity clippings is kept. The letter "s" is missing, and the hell is being prepared for a certain dramatist. SALTEN, FELIX (1869-1945) Austrian novelist, born in Budapest, but spent most of life in Vienna. Left at time of Nazi persecutions, settled in America, later Switzerland. Best-known for Bambi books, BAMBI (1928) and BAMBI'S CHILDREN (1939). 1435. THE HOUND OF FLORENCE Simon and Schuster; New York 1930 (DER HUND VON FLORENZ, 1923) Translated from German by Huntley Paterson. * Humiliation. If you are poor, you must spend half your life as a dog in order to spend the other half as a man. * 18th century Vienna and Florence, and places between. Lucas Grassi, the orphaned son of an Italian sculptor, is stranded in Vienna. He desperately wants to go to Florence to learn the arts, but is destitute. ~t this time the Habsburg archduke is leaving for a visit to Italy. Lucas, watching his cortege departing, sees a coach dog leaping along beside the vicious duke's carriage, and wishes that he could go along, even as a dog. By chance or fate he makes his wish while touching a magic ring that is set in his garret window and he is transformed into the dog. On alternate days he becomes human again. The cortege winds its way down into Italy, with Lucas taking beatings and abuse from the Austrians on one day, and on others exploring the art treasures along the way. In Florence Lucas attaches himself to the studio of the great painter Bandini and becomes part of the Florentine social milieu. His enchantment is almost over when, while a dog in the rooms of the beautiful courtesan Claudia, he attacks the archduke and is seriously stabbed. As the book ends, he is free from

SALTEN, FELIX enchantment. If he lives, the career of an artist is ahead of him, but he mayor may not live. * Nicely told, with good characterizations, background, and incident. SALTOUN, [LADY] M. British author. 1436. AFTER Duckworth; London 1930 A moralistic novel, comparable in some ways to a medieval visit to Hell. * Alban Grier, a selfish, egotistical man, awakens in' the city of the dead, which is not quite Hell, but close to it. In this town the demons permit all sorts of sensual gratifications and living comforts in order to exhaust such stock of goodness as remains in persons like Grier. When this goodness is exhausted, there is the Pit, the real Hell of eternal pain and labor. There are varied reactions to this situation: some try to steal goodness from others; others hoard their goodness, living as hermits. Grier mingles in the social life for a time, but gradually comes to see his predicament. He considers himself too harshly punished for his sins, and decides both on repentance and escape through the chasms. He enters one of the accessible chasms, struggles against evil forces that try to hold him back, and reawakens back on earth. It is not stated whether his experience has been a dream or whether he has been given a second chance at life. * A little crude at times, but the personalities of the demons and lost souls are well done, and the intensity with which Hell is imagined is unusual. Derivative from Mrs. Oliphant's Little Pilgrim series, but far more vividly handled. SAMBROT, WILLIAM (1920 ) American author. Also writes under pseudo William Ayes. Birthdate sometimes given as 1930 is incorrect. 1437. ISLAND OF FEAR AND OTHER SCIENCE FICTION STORIES Pocket Books; New York 1963 paperbound Short stories, mostly science-fiction, but including [a] ISLAND OF FEAR. (SATURDAY EVENING POST 1958) Aegean islands. Wonderful statuary on a tabued area of a small island. Elliot, after great difficulty, bribes a boy to take him there by sea and learns that he heard incorrectly when he heard the name Gordon. [b] THE MAN WHO KNEW. (TIGER, 1957) When a tank ran over Sheldon's head, the displacement of bone resulted in a new paranormal ability: tomcat power, over women. He does not mind the gift, but it leads him into very dangerous situations, when he thinks that he is dreaming, but is not. [c] THE SECOND EXPERIMENT. The genius MacPhee has invented a new space drive that permits a trip to Venus in something like half an hour. He returns with a terrible message: the divine creation on this planet has gone wrong, and God has started allover again on Venus. Man's days are numbered. [d] A DISTANT SHRINE. (SATURDAY EVENING POST, 1961) Alternate title for CATHEDRAL OF MARS. The Russian rocket team

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SANTESSON, HANS STEFAN discovers that Mars is inhabited by earthmen, descendants of children taken there 750 years ago by the Pied Piper. He was a Martian. Not in itself supernatural, but based on a supernatural folktale. * Capable work. SAMPSON, ASHLEY (1900 British author, editor of books of sermons, religious anthologies; also studies of psychology and religion. 1438. THE GHOST OF MR. BROWN Fortune Press; London [1941] A short moral novel. Told from the point of view of the ghost. * Mr. Brown is a ghost, and is condemned to haunt a house for reasons which he does not fully understand. He is lonely, and he tries to approach some of the living tenants, falling in love with a young woman whom he has watched grow up. When she becomes engaged to another man, in a fit of jealousy he kills the fiance and is now more damned than before. * A literate examination of sin and evil, the ghost situation being symbolic. SANDOZ, MAURICE (1892-1958). Swiss physicist, writer, not to be confused with Mari Sandoz. 1439. FANTASTIC MEMORIES Doubleday; Garden City, New York 1944 Short stories, usually narratives rather than developed fictions, largely based on (supposititious?) family traditions and memories. * Including [a] THE CRUTCHES OF UNCLE CELESTIN. He walked with two aluminum crutches. When he died and was placed in his coffin, the narrator's father thought that the crutches should not be buried with him, but by supernatural means the crutches were placed with the corpse. [b] SOUVENIR OF HAMMAN MESKOUTINE. Nor th Africa. The narrator, staying at a hotel, has a dream of a mummy-like being in his room, but a much smaller room. A vision of the past, when soldiers burned by flame throwers were treated there. [c] THE VISITATION. Gabrielle is almost a saint, what with her self-sacrificing work among the poor and sick. She receives a visitation from St. Theresa, a few rose petals in an envelope. [d] THE ENCHANTED ISLAND. Gravesand, a Scottish island, is dreaded as the abode of the little people. To set foot on it is very dangerous. Sir John, steaming by in his yacht, insists on landing. He is not treated harshly, but the little people make it clear that his invasion is known and not welcomed. Fine illustrations by Salvador Dali. * The later Guildford (London) edition contains additional stories that are not supernatural and does not include the Dali illustrations.

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SANTESSON, HANS STEFAN (1914 - 1975) American (born in Paris) author, editor, Editor of FANTASTIC UNIVERSE MAGAZINE, THE SAINT MYSTERY MAGAZINE, THE UNICORN MYSTERY CLUB. A good editor who was never supported sufficiently by the front office. AS EDITOR: 1440. THE FANTASTIC UNIVERSE OMNIBUS Prentice-

SANTESSON, HANS Hall; Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey [1960] Stories selected from FANTASTIC UNIVERSE magazine. Introduction by Lester del Rey. * Including [a] SHE ONLY GOES OUT AT NIGHT, William Tenn. (1956) A weird epidemic hits the youth of Groppa Country. A dropped handkerchief implicates Tatiana Latianu, who is a vampire, but Tatiana is in love with Steve and is willing to commit suicide to stop the epidemic. Modern medicine has better answers. Borderline science-fiction. [b] THE MUTED HORN, Dorothy S. Davis. (1957) In an intensely puritanical village, Jeb tries to awaken a more liberal attitude, with only partial success. The town has a peculiar history: a century or so earlier, the church elders had assembled in chains, to avoid yielding to temptation, surrounded an evil-doer, and burned him as a witch. The symbolic chains remain. By chance or fate Jeb blows the horn which the witch had owned, and the chains come off the town. Semiallegorical. [c] MEX, Larry M. Harris. (1957) Racial prejudice along the Mexican border. A young Mexican youth is insulted by nonMexicans in a saloon and threatens them with supernatural punishment. His sister is a witch; his father, a ten-foot giant; and he, in night form [d] MY FATHER, THE CAT, Henry Slesar. (1957) A young Frenchman whose father was a white Angora cat. His mother was a fairy changeling. A new American wife has to meet them. [e] TITLE FIGHT, William C. Gault. (1956) A championship boxing match between a human and a robot ends with the robot as the vehicle for a divine revelation. * The other stories are science-fiction. * [d] is outstanding; [b] excellent. SARBAN (pseud. of WALL, JOHN W.) (1910British diplomat, author, long stationed in the Middle East. 1441. RINGSTONES, AND OTHER STORIES Peter Davies; London 1951 Title nouvelle and short stories, including [a] CAPRA. Pukka sahibs, a love triangle, a masquerade ball, and the ruined Temple of Pan. When the would-be adultress slips off to meet her lover at the temple, the expected happens. [b] CALMAHAIN. World War II. Ruth and Martin, evacuated children, play at travel games, creating Dunsanean dream worlds in which marvelous things happen. Their foster parents are not sympathetic, and the children decide to build a boat and explore their new world. Construction goes on apace in the garage of a friendly neighbor; the boat is beautifully made; and the children disappear. The neighbor finds artifacts that puzzle him but will be patent to the reader. [c] THE KHAN. Luristan, Iran. Ranhild, wife of a Norwegian engineer, is somewhat estranged from her husband. A crisis in their relationship comes when she insists on keeping a pet bear that has mauled him. When she is walking in the woods and gets lost, she comes to a fairly palatial native establishment owned by the "Khan." When the Khan comes, he is a bear. The narrator is also involved in the story to some extent, and there may be ad-

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SARBAN umbrations that do not come across. [d] RINGSTONES. Nouvelle. Daphne Hazel, student games mistress, is offered a job at Ringstones, somewhere in the north of England, as summer sports teacher for three children. She arrives at Ringstones, which is named for a local stone circle, and discovers that the establishment is Near Eastern in personnel, and that the children are very odd. Particularly strange is Nu'aman, who is an attractive but puckish adolescent. Daphne is simple and sincere, and tries to be empathetic, but one disturbing thing after another strikes her, and she decides that she must leave. The roads twist and she is unsuccessful. She barely escapes a horrible experience. Fairies, occult practices. Set in a time-disruption frame that is rather good. * Intelligent stories, often with novel twists to standard themes. Considerable pains have been taken with background. While the stories are sometimes a little overdeveloped, they are certainly worth reading. 1442. THE DOLL MAKER Ballantine Books; New York 1960 paperbound Supernatural fiction based on concepts of art and maturation: the horrors of an absolutely contramoral aesthetic and the necessity of abandoning childhood. * Clare Lydgate, an intelligent young woman of eighteen, is reading for her Oxford scholarship examination at a boarding school in the West Country, and is suffering from feelings of inadequacy and rebelliousness. Her tutor has suddenly died of what is diagnosed as infantile paralysis, and Clare is left to her own resources, which are not adequate for the task. Evenings she creeps out of the school, over the wall, into the neighboring estate, where she becomes acquainted in rather thrilling circumstances with Niall Sterne, the young landowner, and his mother. When visiting with the Sterns, (for Mrs. Sterne had agreed to help her with her studies), Clare enters a strange world of Renaissance Islamic magic which an ancestor of Niall's had brought from North Africa. A park of dwarf trees, planted three hundred years earlier, and a tiny castle are the scene for beautiful parades and demonstrations with animated dolls under Niall's control. Clare is under some sort of glamour and does not examine the matter of the dolls too critically, but as she falls more and more under Niall's will, she recognizes that they are animated magically with something that is taken from the human after whom the doll is modelled. She permits Niall to take blood from her and is on the edge of joining the doll world when doubts assail her. She recognizes her dead tutor among the dolls, connects other deaths with the dolls, and, worst of all, discovers that Niall does not really love her. He has ensnared another of her schoolmates. As Niall works his magic, it is a race between Clare's rebellion and her death. In a sensational ending, she destroys the doll world with fire, in effect rejecting the lifeless perfection of the dolls for the imperfections and decay of life. * Excellent. A somewhat unlikely conclusion, but

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this is a small flaw. * The first edition (Peter Davies; London 1953), not seen, contains two additional stories, perhaps fantastic. SAYERS, DOROTHY [LEIGH] (1893-1957) Important British mystery story writer, scholar, dramatist, best-known for series of novels and short stories about Lord Peter Whimsey. In the context of this volume, a very important anthologist who demonstrates a sound knowledge of the fields of crime and supernatural fiction, as well as good taste. To my knowledge she wrote only one completely supernatural story, "The Cyprian Cat," which is described elsewhere. AS EDITOR: 1443. GREAT SHORT STORIES OF DETECTION. MYSTERY AhTI HORROR Gollancz; London 1929 American title, THE OMNIBUS OF CRIME. * Gigantic, very well chosen collection of stories dealing with crime and the supernatural. An excellent historical introduction on the evolution of the detective story. * Inc-luding, described elsewhere, [a] THE OPEN DOOR, Mrs. Margaret Oliphant. [b] STORY OF THE BAGMAN'S UNCLE, Charles Dickens. [c] THE TRIAL FOR MURDER, Charles Dickens and Charles Collins [sic]. Miss Sayers misread an ambiguous footnote and attributed this story to Dickens and Collins, which is, of course, incorrect. Dickens alone was responsible for it. Sayers corrected the error in her second collection, but delving anthologists have repeated her error, and it is still occasionally found in modern collections. [d] MARTIN'S CLOSE, M. R. James. [e] HOW LOVE CAME TO PROFESSOR GUILDEA, Robert Hichens. [f] THE OPEN WINDOW, Saki. [g] THE NOVEL OF THE BLACK SEAL, Arthur Machen. [h] TCHERIAPIN, Sax Rohmer. [i] THE MONKEY'S PAW, W.W. Jacobs. [j] THE HAIR, A. J. Alan. [k] MRS. AMWORTH, E. F. Benson. [1] THRAWN JANET, R. L. Stevenson. [m] AUGUST HEAT, W. F. Harvey. [n] WHERE THEIR FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED, May Sinclair. [0] GREEN TEA, J. S. LeFanu. [p] THE MISANTHROPE, J. D. Beresford. [q] THE BAD LANDS, John Metcalfe. [r] NOBODY'S HOUSE, A. M. Burrage. [s] THE SEVENTH MAN, Arthur Quiller-Couch. [t] SEATON'S AUNT, Walter de la Mare. [u] THE GENTLEMAN FROM AMERICA, Michael Arlen. [v] PHANTAS, Oliver Onions. ,[w] FATHER MEURON'S TALE, R. H. Benson. [x] THE END OF A SHOW, Barry Pain. * Also [y] THE AVENGING OF ANN LEETE, Marjorie Bowen. Many, many years before, Ann had been murdered by the young doctor. Her lover, the now aged jeweller, had by psychic force compelled the astral body of the murderer to emerge and reveal the location of the corpse. Just before he dies, her ghost is visible. Nicely handled. [z] THE ANTICIPATOR, Morley Roberts. Two authors, one gifted, the other in some inexplicable way the psychic recipient of the gifted author's ideas before he can put them into being. The relationship persists even up to murder. Told in a very purple way. [aa] THE BRUTE, Joseph Conrad. Borderline supernatural. The ship has a dark personality that results in mishaps and deaths, far beyond the

SAYERS, DOROTHY expectations of probability. A fine sea story. [bb] PROOF, Naomi Royde-Smith. Agnes, whose husband is a civil servant with much confidential information, pesters him for information, which he sometimes foolishly gives. When he dies, and his spirit is contacted, its genuineness is revealed by the message, "I am not allowed to tell." Loose and gushy. [cc] THE MA~ WITH A MALADY, J. F. Sullivan. Psychological horror. Foreknowledge of the future. * The American edition omits [v], [w], [cc], and adds [dd] LUKUNDOO, E. L. White, described elsewhere. * Much good material, particularly in the mystery section. 1444. GREAT SHORT STORIES OF DETECTION. MYSTERY AND HORROR. SF.COND SERIES Gollancz; London 1931 American title, THE SECOND OMNIBUS OF CRIME, THE WORLD'S GREAT CRIME STORIES. Stamped on the spine, THE WORLD'S GREAT CRIME STORIES. * A large volume including, described elsewhere, [a] MY ADVENTURE IN NORFOLK, A. J. Alan. [b] THE LEECH OF FOLKESTONE, Thomas Ingoldsby. [c] THE ROOM IN THE TOWER, E. F. Benson. [d] THE DAMNED THING, Ambrose Bierce. [e] SECRET WORSHIP, Algernon Blackwood. [f] THE WAXWORK, A. M. Burrage. [g] MAD MONKTON, Wilkie Collins. [h] THE HAUNTED SHIPS, Allan Cunningham. [i] NO.1 BRANCH LINE, THE SIGNAL-MAN, Charles Dickens. [j] THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS, W. F. Harvey. [k] THE PFAYER, Violet Hunt. [1] THE WELL, W. W. Jacobs. [m] MR. JUSTICE HARBOTTLE, J. S. LeFanu. [n] THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS, E. Bulwer-Lytton. Long version. [0] THE GREAT RETURN, Arthur Machen. [p] THE DOUBLE ADMIRAL, John Metcalfe. [q] THE LIBRARY WINDOW, Mrs. Margaret Oliphant. [r] BERENICE, E. A. Poe. [s] THE ROLL-CALL OF THE REEF, A. Quiller-Couch. [t] SREDNI VASHTAR, Saki. [u] THE MORTAL IMMORTAL, Mary Shelley. [v] ROSE ROSE, Barry Pain. [w] THE INEXPERIENCED GHOST, H. G. Wells. [x] LUKUNDOO, E. L. White. [y] A. V. LAIDER, Max Beerbohm. [z] THE IRON PINEAPPLE, Eden Phillpotts. * Also [aa] THE SECOND AWAKENING OF A MAGICIAN, S. L. Dennis. A circus magician whose wife has been seduced by the strong man sells his soul for supernatural strength. A dream. [bb] THE OLD MAN, Holloway Horn. A newspaper from tomorrow has both good and bad news for a racing tout. [cc] NO. 17, Mrs. H. Bland (Edith Nesbit). A group of commercial travellers tell ghost stories. One tells of a room haunted by a ghost that frightens men into cutting their throats while shaving. The narrator survives because he has a safety razor. [dd] THE QUEER DOOR, Douglas O. Browne. An old pub is called The Queer Door, perhaps because of a haunted door that opens by itself, or perhaps the name [eel comes from the family name Coeur Dore. RIESENBERG, Ford Madox Ford. A German sanitarium, formerly a convent, lies across the mouth of a valley which no one is permitted to enter. Very strange sights are seen, and a doctor who had been in the valley years before tells of what is concealed. Two titanic figures from Norse mythology still live and play there.

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Nicely told, with a good puzzle element. [ff] THE RESURGENT MYSTERIES, Edgar Jepson. Survival and recrudescence of cults that demand a divine king to sacrifice, even in London. Borderline fantastic. [gg] ANTY BLIGH, John Masefield. The hanged pirate repents, returns to his mother, who lays his corpse out. [hh] CALLED TO THE RESCUE, Henry Spicer. Possibly a "factual" account. The young Cambridge man hears a supernatural voice that directs him to a trial, where his evidence saves an innocent man from a murder charge. * The American edition is a somewhat different selection, and lacks [a], [c], [g], [h], [i], [j], [u], [x], [aa], [dd], and [ff]. Of the new material, [eel and [gg] are best. 1445. GREAT SHORT STORIES OF DETECTION. MYSTERY AND HORROR. THIRD SERIES Gollancz; London 1934 American title, THE THIRD OMNIBUS OF CRIME. Crime fiction, supernatural fiction, and horror stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] THE WENDIGO, Algernon Blackwood. [b] THE MISTAKEN Fury, Oswald Couldrey. [c] THE DIARY OF MR. POYNTER, M. R. James. [d] TIME-FUSE, John Metcalfe. [e] A PAIR OF HANDS, A. T. Quiller-Couch. [f] THE HILL, R. Ellis Roberts. [g] THE FRONTIER GUARDS, H. R. Wakefield. [h] THE STORY OF THE LATE MR. ELVERSHAM, H. G. Wells. [i] THE BOOK, Margaret Irwin. * Also [j] THE BARGAIN, A. M. Burrage. An old book of sermons, purchased for a song at an auction, contains a fine stamp collection-- but the ghost of an old man goes along with it. [k] THE SONG IN THE HOUSE, Ann Bridge. (Pseud. of M. D. O'Malley) When strangers move into an ancient Elizabethan house and give an Elizabethan music recital, ancient memories are awakened. A ghost romance. [lJ SOPHY MASON COMES BACK, E. M. Delafield. A murder and a revenant in France, with good local color. The murderer, returning years later, is so Americanized that he has no more contact with the past. [m] THE SCOOP, Leonora Gregory. Newspaper office. The man who announces his own death theme. Probably intended to be supernatural. [n] THE HOUSE OF DESOLATION, Alan Griff. A dead man invites his enemies to a banquet. [0] ANNIVERSARY, Clarence Winchester. Early aviation. Perhaps a mirage that resulted in a crash a year ago; perhaps it is a ghost plane that almost results in a crash a year later. [p] "YOU'LL COME TO THE TREE IN THE END," Cyril Landon. Jerry Snooks, Chicago gunman, comes to the same end as did his forefathers in England. The gallows. [q] DECAY, J. C. Moore. Mr. Cotter, about to die, wanders in a strange world where everything is rotten and fungoid; his vision is symbolic of his condition. [r] THE PATTERN, Naomi Royde-Smith. Nouvelle, overwritten. Death apparition. [s] WHAT CAN A DEAD MAN DO? Herbert Shaw. Vengeance from beyond death. [tJ NO SHIPS PASS, Eleanor Smith. An island somehow isolated by a space warp, where a few castaways live, apparently immortal. An early 19th century pirate and his mistress, a man from the Titanic,

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SCARBOROUGH, DOROTHY and others. There is no escape. * The American edition omits [k], [n], [p}, and [s}, but adds [u] CLAY-SHUTTERED DOORS, Helen R. Hull. An automobile accident on the bridge, and a doctor, who happens to be at hand, pronounces Thalia dead. But Winchester, her husband, calls her back to life. If it is life-she is obviously changed. The reason is that only love can recall life and Winchester's call was based on selfishness. Niceiy handled. * Also present in the American edition are two science-fiction classics, "The People of the Pit" by A. Merritt and "The Head" by Manuel Komroff. * Of the new material [j}, [I}, [q], [t] are best. SCARBOROUGH, DOROTHY (1877-1935) American educator (Columbia University), novelist, anthologist, folklorist. Wrote first important survey of supernatural fiction in English, THE SUPERNATURAL IN MODERN ENGLISH FICTION (1917). Now remembered mostly for studies of Black American folk music. AS EDITOR: 1446. FAMOUS MODERN GHOST STORIES Putnam; New York 1921 Introduction, THE IMPERISHABLE GHOST. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE WILLOWS, Algernon Blackwood. [b] THE SHADOWS ON THE WALL, Mary Wilkins Freeman. [c] THE MESSENGER, R. W. Chambers. [d] THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS, W. F. Harvey. [e] WHAT WAS IT? FitzJames O'Brien. [f] THE MIDDLE TOE OF THE RIGHT FOOT, Ambrose Bierce. [g] LIGEIA, E. A. Poe. [h] THE BOWMEN, Arthur Machen. [i] A GHOST, Guy de Maupassant. [j} THE MASS OF THE SHADOWS, Anatole France. * Also [k] LAZARUS, Leonid Andreyev. Translated from Russian by Abraham Yarmolinsky. Pseudo-Biblical style. Lazarus has returned from the dead, but he is much like a living corpse. He cannot or will not tell of his after-death experiences, and his presence is disconcerting and horrifying. Looking at him destroys all pleasure in life. He is sent to Augustus in Rome, who is barely able to withstand his aura. Lazarus's second death is a relief to all. [1] THE SHELL OF SENSE, Olivia Howard Dunbar. (1908) Told by a ghost. She watches love grow between her widower and her sister, and would like to encourage them, but her actions cause fear and guilt. Resolved. [m} THE WOMAN AT SEVEN BROTHERS, Wilbur Daniel Steele. A lighthouse, a triangle, a revenant from the sea. [n} AT THE GATE, Myla Jo Closser. Ghosts of dogs, waiting for the humans they loved. [0] THE HAUNTED ORCHARD, Richard LeGallienne. (1902) A French song in the orchard, a young lady ghost, letters buried beneath the apple tree. * A good early collection. 1447. HUMOROUS GHOSTS putnam; New York 1921 Introduction, THE HUMOROUS GHOST. * Described elsewhere, [a] THE TRANSFERRED GHOST, Frank Stockton. [b] THE CANTERVILLE GHOST, Oscar Wilde. [c] THE MUMMY'S FOOT, Theophile Gautier. [d] THE WATER GHOST OF HARROWBY HALL, J. K. Bangs. [e] BACK FROM THAT BOURNE, [E. P. Mitchell]. [f] THE GHOST SHIP, Richard

SCARBOROUGH, DOROTHY Middleton. [g] THE SPECTER BRIDEGROOM, Washington Irving. [h] THE SPECTER OF TAPPINGTON HALL, R. H. Barham. [i] THE RIVAL GHOSTS, Brander Matthews. * Also [j] THE GHOST-EXTINGUISHER, Gelett Burgess. (1905) The Japanese have a technique for solidying ghosts, capturing them, and storing them. The narrator improves on it and sets himself up in business. Everything collapses when he captures a troop of Napoleonic cavalry and, out of spite, releases them in a rest home. [k] "DEY AIN'T NO GHOSTS," Ellis Parker Butler. Black dialect. Little Mose, sent to the pumpkin patch meets (in fancy) many ghosts, all of whom assurp. him that "dey ain't no ghosts." [1] THE TRANSPLANTED GHOSTS, A CHRISTMAS STORY, Wallace Irwin. When a business tycoon buys an old English castle and reassembles it in Ohio, he is annoyed because the family ghost did not come along with it. A descendant of the British family (by recurrent pattern of fate) stirs up the old ghost. [m] THE LAST GHOST IN HARMONY, Nelson Lloyd. (1907) No one pays any heed to the ghosts. The minister is driven out. [n] THE GHOST OF MISER BRIMPTON,Eden Phillpotts. Some dialect. A spectacular haunting is rigged up to provide a swain with enough money (via buried treasure) to marry the woman he loves. He is too proud to marry her otherwise. [0] THE HAUNTED PHOTOGRAPH, Ruth McEnery Stuart. (1909) A photo taken of the old summer hotel before it burned down, with her husband in it. She can sometimes see him working in the photograph, pulling shades, etc. On death she joins him. [p] IN THE BARN, Burges Johnson. The narrator in the old barn is telling horror stories about death, impelled suicide, and while so doing revives an old haunting. What he thought he was inventing really happened. [q] THE GHOST THAT GOT THE BUTTON, Will Adams. Rationalized into a sleepwalker. [r] A SHADY PLOT, Elsie Brown. Revelations via the ouija board, and the ghost of Helen of Troy-- Troy, New York-- materializations, etc. [s] THE LADY AND THE GHOST, Rose Cecil O'Neill. Erotic ghost. * It is very difficult to assemble a collection of good humorous supernatural fiction. Most of the new content is very feeble. SCARBOROUGH, HAROLD (1897-1935) American journalist. London correspondent, later European Editorial Manager, New York HERALD TRIBUNE, Paris edition. Author of several novels. 1448. THE IMMORTALS T. Fisher Unwin; London 1924 Science-fiction with a fantasy element. * Dr. Brusilov, a Russian emigr~ scientist, has discovered that old age is caused by a germ and has developed an inoculation against it. The discovery is treated calmly, although the moguls in charge of insurance and undertaking are temporarily upset. A much more serious objection is offered by the Wandering Jew, who is old and feeble, and for centuries has desperately been trying to die. He begs Brusilov not to curse man with immortality, and in a scuffle accidentally kills him. Brusilov's

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SCHILLER, FRIEDRICH daughter and her fiance, Brusilov's assistant, thereupon decide to suppress the discovery, for much the same reasons as the Wandering Jew put forth. * Adult and literate, but not very imaginative. SCHILLER, [JOHANN CHRISTOPH] FRIEDRICH VON (1759-1805) Great German poet, dramatist, aesthetician. Important in our context as the author of works which despite philosophical preoccupations had enormous influence on the low-brow popular literature of the day. DIE RAUBER (1778, THE ROBBERS), read as story of gentleman bandit, and DER GEISTERSEHER (1786-8), liked for secret societies, persecutions, and illusory supernaturalism. 1449. THE GHOST SEER Verner and Hood; London 1795 (DER GEISTERSEHER, part 1, in THALIA, 1786) Translated from German by Daniel Boileau. Only the first portion of Schiller's novel. * Epistolary novel set in Venice. A German princeling and his companions are the center of mysterious phenomena, as unknown forces play around them. An Armenian (i.e., a man in Near Eastern garb) acts as a seemingly supernatural protector to the prince. The Armenian is responsible for the arrest and execution of an enemy who would have assassinated the prince, and he brings the prince news, with inexplicable rapidity, that one of the prince's relatives has died, and that the succession to the major title is now close. The Armenian also intervenes when the prince is about to be taken in by an occult swindle performed by a Sicilian (modelled on Cagliostro). Some time before, a friend of the prince's had died while speaking to the prince, and the prince wishes to know his friend's last request. In an elaborate ceremony, the Sicilian conjures up the ghost of the prince's friend, but another spirit appears, the Sicilian's plot is exposed, and it is seen that the Armenian, in another disguise, has taken a hand. Later the prince interrogates the Sicilian in prison. The Sicilian explains the legerdemain by which he attained his supernatural effects, and tells a little about the Armenian. The Armenian, he claims, is apparently ageless, subject to a coma once a day, and has supernatural powers. * (It is at this point that the fragmentary reprintings of THE GHOST-SEER as in Haining's GOTHIC TALES OF TERROR and in A CENTURY OF GHOST STORIES stop.) * But a short while later the prince reasons out that the Armenian and the Sicilian were really confederates. * It should be pointed out that this is the prince's conclusion, and that Schiller does not express an opinion. (Second Part, THALIA, 1788). This is not included in Boileau's translation, but first appears in English in THE ARMENIAN (London, 1800), translated by W. Render. By the time Schiller started the second portion of DER GEISTERSEHER his aesthetic had changed and he was no longer interested in writing a Gothic thriller. Instead, he concentrated on the

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psychology of the characters, without supernaturalism. In the second part of the novel, the prince's character deteriorates. Yielding to Venetian freedom, he discards, on the one hand, his former Lutheran rigidity in favor of rationalism, and on the other moves toward superstition. New characters enter. As the section ends, the prince is in bad repute with his native land, and his allowance has been stopped. He is in danger from Italian entanglements of honor and love. He has dueled with his former closest friend, who is at the edge of death. His mistress has been poisoned. And the prince, apparently under the control of the Armenian, has converted to Catholicism. It seems likely that a new incursion of the seemingly supernatural is to take place. At this point Schiller ended the fragment and wrote no more. Various reasons have been given for his action: dissatisfaction with the story, which he had come to feel was rubbish, annoyance with the popular reception of the sensational aspects of the first part. - It is not known how Schiller planned to finish the story, but the majority opinion is that the prince will continue to degenerate, even to procuring murder to attain his German realm; that his actions result from manipulation by secret forces who wish to control him, possibly the Jesuits, possibly the Illuminati; that much of what has been described is illusion. While most scholars take the Armenian to be an impostor, others identify him with the Wandering Jew, Christian Rosenkreutz, or similar semi-supernatural figures. During Schiller's lifetime a continuation of DER GEISTERSEHER was written independently by E. F. Follenius. This was translated (with Schiller's portion) as THE ARMENIAN (London, 1800), and is the text reprinted as THE GHOSTSEER in Hazlitt's ROMANCIST AND NOVELIST'S LIBRARY. F01lenius's portion begins in the middle column, page 15. It does not have the literary quality of Schiller's beginning, and it is not especially convincing, but it at least has the advantage of period attitudes, which was not the case with a conclusion written by the 20th century German author Hanns Heinz Ewers. * Roscoe's text in THE GERMAN NOVELISTS reverts to Schiller's complete text, but is occasionally inaccurate. A very interesting story, of great historical importance in the development of the secret society branch of the Gothic and Romantic novel.

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SCOTT, G[EORGE] FIRTH Presumably Australian. 1450. THE LAST LEMURIAN A WESTRALIAN ROMANCE James Bowden; London 1898 Exuberant, somewhat ludicrous semi-juvenile adventure romance set in Western Australia. The plot is too complex to be summarized in limited space, but it involves a series of confrontations between Australian white adventurers and Tor Ymmothe, the semi-immortal Queen of Lemuria. Motifs include a lost race of Lemurians who live around an extinct volcano; a bunyip-- a monster with a human head, crocodile body, and

SCOTT, JEREMY assorted appendages; a sleeping beauty who awakens but later crumbles into dust; a curse laid on the land by a mistreated missionary; semi-vampirism and bondage; alchemical gold; and a ghost. * If one reads the queen's name backwards, one ,can see the author's attitude toward the work. The reader will probably agree. SCOTT, JEREMY (pseud. of DICK, KAY) British anthologist. AS EDITOR: 1451. THE MANDRAKE ROOT AN ANTHOLOGY OF FANTASTIC TALES- Jarrolds; London 1946 Stories arranged according to six varieties of fantastic: extravagant, grotesque, bizarre, fanciful, quaint, eerie. Not all the stories are fantastic in our sense, and the classification cited is highly personal. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE MAN WHO WAS MILLIGAN, Algernon Blackwood. [b] THE STRANGER, Richard Hughes. [c] THE LAST LAUGH, D. H. Lawrence. [d] THE LEECH OF FOLKESTONE, Thomas Ingoldsby. [e] THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS, Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Long version. [f] THE HORLA, Guy de Maupassant. [g] AN AIR RAID SEEN FROM ABOVE, Stella Benson. An excerpt from LIVING ALONE. [h] THE OPEN WINDOW, Saki, [i] THE BELL OF SAINT EUSCHEMON, Richard Garnett. [j] THE STORY OF A PANIC, E. M. Forster. [k] "OH, WHISTLE AND I'LL COME TO YOU, MY LAD," M. R. James. [1] THE FAMILIAR, J. S. LeFanu. * Also [m] CHANGELING, Dorothy K. Haynes. Seven year old Moreen is always afraid of the witch that sits on the gargoyle visible from the window in her house. She is taken to fairyland, where she is unhappy, but is expelled since she will not play with the cruel fairies. She returns to her home (now perhaps thirty years later) and encounters the changeling clod that has taken her place. Well told, with much larger referents than are indicated in the plot summary. [n] WHO KNOCKS AT THE DOOR? Olive Schreiner. A dream vision of a strange medieval banquet, turmoil, death, followed by perhaps a better era. Semi-allegorical. [0] ALTARWISE BY OWL-LIGHT, Pamela Hansford Johnson. Murder fancifully told, as two daughters gradually poison their aged father. He is too clever for them. Fanciful in surface texture and in death personified. [p] THE DEATH OF WILLIAM CARPENTER, John Atkins. Attempted murder. The supernatural aspect enters in that the would-be murderer keeps a diary in which he tries to establish the facts of a haunting and possession. [q] WINTER, Walter de la Mare. The narrator wanders in the churchyard, reading many fine epitaphs, some conventional some penetrating, and muses. As he is about to leave, he encounters a stranger, probably Death. * [m], [0], [q] are excellent. 1452. AT CLOSE OF EVE AN ANTHOLOGY OF NEW CURIOUS STORIES Jarrolds; London [1947] Introduction by Daniel George. Mostly mandarin fiction, needlessly obscure, over-written, and pretentious. * Including [a] SLOAN SQUARE, Pamela Hansford Johnson. Repeti-

SCOTT, JEREMY tive visionary experience on the London underground (subway), in which dream and reality are blended in a horrible train ride. [b] TIME CAN FRISK, Louis Marlow. Murder, together with time links much like Dunne's serial time. [c] IS THERE A LIFE BEYOND THE GRAVY, Stevie Smith. Presumably movement back through time, perhaps after death, as a result of the London blitz. [d] THE CHATEAU OF THE SINGING STREAM, James Laver. A ghost inn, horrible personnel. It was destroyed long ago. [e] THE ONE WHO WAS WAITING, Reginald Moore. Psychopathology, presumably dream experiences as a young man tries to murder his girl-friend. [f] THOU SHALT NOT SUFFER A WITCH Dorothy K. Haynes. Folkloristic witchcraft. The little girl Jinnot, physically repulsive, somewhat defective mentally, is used as a tool in a vicious village triangle. The real witch goes unscathed, while Jinnot is killed. [g] NINE DAYS' WONDER, David Green. The dead rise from their graves and wander about. [h] THE SWAN, John HeathStubbs. Central Europe. A young woman has an affair with a handsome swan man. [i] SAILORS, BEWARE OF WITCHES, Fred Urquhart. World War II. Personalities of pantomime and literature work in a war plant, Long John Silver being foreman. To an American reader, prolonged pointlessness. [j] MR. EDWARD, Norah Lofts. The boarding school housekeeper, after a breakdown, takes a position readying a haunted house for occupancy. A satyriac old ghost. [k] BERLIN FANTASIA, William Montgomery. PostWar Berlin. Elaborate personality interchanges, presumably empathy in figurative form. [1] ART THOU LANGUID, Frank Baker. Two lopped and pruned lives, the partners of the music shop in a small cathedral town. Haunting after death. * [h] is the best story, but [a], [d]; [f], and [j] are good. The non-fantastic content is weak. SCOTT, [SIR] WALTER (1771-1832) Great Romantic poet, novelist, international cultural influence. Important in our study not only for his own work, but for introduction of German supernaturalism and for sponsorship of James Hogg and Charles Maturin. For two of his most important stories see item 1376. 1453. THE MONASTERY Constable; Edinburgh 1820 3 vol. (published as by the author of WAVERLY) Religion, politics, personal advancement in the backwoods of Scotland, c. 1560. The plot is complex and need not be summarized beyond saying that the most important thread is the life history of Halbert Glendinning, a fiery young man who rises in the wake of the Scottish Regent, the Earl of Murray. Glendinning becomes associated in a luke-warm way with the Reformation, largely through the doings of the White Lady of Avenal. The White Lady is a banshee-like figure associated with the high house of Avenal. She wails before deaths and intercedes on occasion in human affairs. She is also interested in religion, for she protects a manuscript translation of the Bible. She plays tricks on members of the Church and

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SCRYMSOUR, ELLA M. is a water spirit. Her appearance was not taken kindly by the critics and the reading public, and in THE ABBOT, the sequel to THE MONASTERY, the White Lady does not appear, and is referred to only in one passage. Most critics have felt that THE ABBOT is superior to THE MONASTERY. 1454. REDGAUNTLET A TALE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY Constable; Edinburgh 1824 3 vol. Scotland, around 1765. The body of this novel does not concern us, since it skirts a (fictitious) episode in the life of Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender. Buried in the complicated political plotting and familial problems among the Redgaunt1ets is [a] WANDERING WILLIE'S TALE, long accounted one of the early masterpieces of the English short story. Two generations earlier Steenie, a tenant of Sir Robert Redgaunt1et's, had paid his rent, but received no receipt, since the laird died in torments immediately after seeing Steenie. Faced with eviction and worse, since he could produce no evidence of having made payment, Steenie braves the terrors of Hell to confront the ghost of the wicked Redgaunt1et and obtain his due. His soul, however, is imperilled, and he must tread carefully thereafter. * The story has often been anthologized, and it reads well in isolation, but in the novel it serves much the same purpose as a marchen in a Gerillan Romantic novel: isolating the basic themes of the whole work and foreshadowing a resolution. In this case Steenie's predicament anticipates that of young Arthur Redgauntlet. 1455. CHRONICLES OF THE CANONGATE Cadell and Co.; Edinburgh 1827 2 vol. This is of interest for [a] THE TWO DROVERS, which is primarily a study in contrasting cultural personalities of Northern English and Highland Scot. * Harry Wakefield and Robin Oig, cattle drovers, are fairly close friends and are accustomed to drive their cattle to market together. Before they leave, Robin's old aunt, who has the second sight, prophecies tragedy and begs Robin to leave his dirk behind, since it will have English blood on it. He temporizes, giving the dirk to a friend to hold, and the two drovers set off together. Along the way they have a conflict of interest over pasture, and the Englishman considers himself badly used. His solution is a bout of fisticuffs to remove the bad blood. The Celt, who cannot box, refuses, whereupon the Englishman, feeling that his honor would be stained if he did not strike Robin, knocks him down. The Celt, on arising, knows that he cannot live under this insult, fetches his dirk, and kills Wakefield. The prophecy has been fulfilled. * A fine story, which might have been even stronger without the supernaturalism. SCRYMSOUR, ELLA M. (1888 - ? British writer, contributor to women's magazines of 1930's. Author of several volumes of popular fiction.

SCRYMSOUR, ELLA M. 1456. THE PERFECT WORLD Eveleigh Nash; London [1922] Fantastic adventure for teen-agers, built on religious principles, much like the work of John Mastin. * Two young Englishmen, Desmond and Alan, working as miners, through various circumstances are captured by purple horned men who live in cave worlds underground. These purple men, who are descended from Korah and his followers (swallowed by the earth after being cursed by Moses), worship a flame inside the earth, and make sacrifices to it. The flame occasionally breaks forth on the surface, capturing surface people, including one of the two youths. When the flame dies, the purple men say, the world will end. Desmond and Alan are not satisfied with their lot, for they have been put into the harem of the purple queen. After her death in the flame, they escape and make their way through caverns, emerging in Australia. The second episode begins when they return to England. A friend has invented a marvelous new antigravity-aircraft. While they are aloft, the earth explodes (for the flame has died). They make their way to Jupiter, which is inhabited by humans who have not fallen from the edenic state. * Rubbish. SEARCH, PAMELA (first name MARION?) British editor. AS EDITOR: 1457. THE SUPERNATURAL IN THE ENGLISH SHORT STORY Bernard Hanison, Ltd.; London 1959 Described elsewhere, [a] THE APPARITION OF MRS. VEAL, Daniel Defoe. [b] WANDERING WILLIE'S TALE, Sir Walter Scott. [c] GREEN TEA, J. S. LeFanu. [d] WEREWOLF, Frederick Marryat. [e] THE DREAM WOMAN, Wilkie Collins. [f] THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS, Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Long version. [g] THE JUDGE'S HOUSE, Bram Stoker. [h] LIGEIA, E. A. Poe. [i] THE CHIMES, Charles Dickens. [j] MARKHEIM, R. L. Stevenson. [k] THE CANTERVILLE GHOST, Oscar Wilde. [1] THE UPPER BERTH, F. Marion Crawford. [m] SAMBO, W. F. Harvey. [n] HOW LOVE CAME TO PROFESSOR GUILDEA, Robert Hichens. [0] THE ROCKINGHORSE WINNER, D. H. Lawrence. [p] THE BECKONING FAIR ONE, Oliver Onions. [q] THE MUSIC ON THE HILL, Saki. [r] A PORTA INFERI, Roger Pater. [s] THE YELLOW CAT, Michael Joseph. [t] THE DIARY OF MR. POYNTER, M. R. James. [u] THE WENDIGO, Algernon Blackwood. SERLING, ROD [MAN] (1924-1975) American radio and television writer, producer. Best-known for series TWILIGHT ZONE. The two anthologies are said to have been ghost-edited by Gordon Dickson. 1458. STORIES FROM THE TWILIGHT ZONE Bantam Books; New York 1960 paperbound Spinoffs from the television series. Including, [a] ESCAPE CLAUSE. • • Walter Bedeker, malingerer and hypochondriac, bargains with the Devil and gets an indefinite span of life-- until he wants to end it. That moment comes sooner than he expected. He goes on a rampage of accidents, culminating in a murder trial, and sentence to life imprisonment. [b] WALKING

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SERLING, ROD DISTANCE. Martin Sloan, prematurely tired, psychically imprisoned rat-race executive, walks back into his childhood town and finds himself twenty years in the past. The experience awakens him to new life. [c] THE FEVER. Franklin Gibbs, rigid, middle-aged banker,and his wife go to Las Vegas, where Gibbs goes berserk over the one dollar slot machine. He pours thousands of dollars into it, and is hauled away when he has no more money. But the machine comes to visit him. [d] WHERE IS EVERYBODY? The young man awakens to a completely deserted city, in which he wanders for days. When he collapses, he awakens to learn that he was the subject of a simulated lunar trip, and that his experience was all fantasy. But in his pocket is material evidence. * Other stories are science-fiction. Superior to most spinoffs; sensational on commercial level. 1459. MORE STORIES FROM THE TWILIGHT ZONE Bantam Books; New York 1961 paperbound Spinoffs, like 1458. * Including [a] A THING ABOUT MACHINES. Finchley has a pathological hatred for all things mechanical and electronic. All things mechanical and electronic reciprocate and finally kill Mr. Finchley. [b] THE BIG, TALL WISH. Bolie Jackson, almost washed-up fighter, has hurt his hand before the fight and is being badly beaten. Bolie is offered a second chance by fate: a small boy wishes with all his faith, and Bolie wins. But Bolie cannot accept wishes and miracles, and his chance is cancelled. [c] A STOP AT WILLOUGHBY. Gart Williams, unhappy advertising exec, has an unpleasant job, an intolerable boss, and a frigid, nasty wife. He sees an edenic station named Willoughby on his commuting run-- 1880's, perpetual summer, everyone happy-- and after several misses, gets off. His corpse is found later and taken away by Willoughby and Son, Funeral Home. [d] DUST. Young Gallegos is about to be hanged for murdering a child. A profiteer sells Gallego's father magical dust that will create so much love that the execution will be halted. * Like 1458, better than most spinoffs; reasonable commercial work. * Further volumes are beyond the time limit of this survey. AS EDITOR: 1460. TRIPLE W WITCHES, WARLOCKS AND WEREWOLVES Bantam Books; New York 1963 paperbound Including, described elsewhere, [a] YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN, Nathaniel Hawthorne. [b] THE MARK OF THE BEAST, Rudyard Kipling. [c] WOLVES DON'T CRY, Bruce Elliott. * Also, [d] THE AMULET, Gordon Dickson. (MFSF 1959) Clint, murderous fugitive and drifter, becomes entangled in a sisterly feud between two witches in the mountain country. He engages to steal a magical book, fails to fulfill the requirements, and becomes a familiar. [e] THE STORY OF SIDI NONMAN, Anonymous. Arabian Nights subject matter. Sidi Nonman marries a ghoul, who, when confronted, transforms him into a dog. He has his revenge when a friendly white witch restores him to human form and turns his

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wife into a horse, which Nonman treats appropriately. The name "Norunan" is not allegorical, but is the phonetic representation of an Arabic name. [f] THE FINAL INGREDIENT, Jack Sharkey. (MFSF 1960) From childhood on, Katie has been trying to become a witch and work magic. Success comes when at the grave of her sweetheart she renounces love, even of herself. [g] BLIND ALLEY, Malcolm Jameson. (ASTOU~­ ING STORIES, 1943) Vicious old Feathersmith, capitalist scoundrel, makes a pact with the Devil to be put back forty years into his past, knowledge unimpaired. But he does not read the contract closely enough. [h] HATCHERY OF DREAMS, Fritz Leiber. (FANTASTIC, 1961). Giles Wardwell, proper Bostonian working for an ad agency that worries about Communism, finds a note from his wife saying that she has left him. As he tries to find her, since he does not believe that the note is genuine, he comes upon a witch cult with familiars, magic, and countermagic. Nicely written, but too much for a short story. [i] AND NOT QUITE H~N, Joe L. Hensley. (BEYOND, 1953) The Arcturians raid earth and destroy humanity, except for a few people whom they are taking back to their home planet. The earthlings take over the ship, since they are vampires. [j] THE BLACK RETRIEVER, Charles G. Finney. (MFSF) 1958) A phantom black dog terrorizes the suburban neighborhood, springing from the walls onto pets, biting children. It is, perhaps, Miss Betty, one of the neighbors? Nicely told. * Some good material: [d], [f], [j] of the nE'W material. 1461. ROD SERLING'S DEVILS AND DEMONS Bantam Books; N:w York 1967 paperbound Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE MONTAVARDE CAMERA, Avram Davidson. [b] THE COACH, Violet Hunt. [c] THE BOTTLE-IMP, Robert L. Stevenson. [d] THE ADVENTURE OF THE GERMAN STUDENT, Washington Irving. [e] THE FOUR-FIFTEEN EXPRESS, Amelia B. Edwards. [f] THE BISARA OF POOREE, Rudyard Kipling. * Also [g] ADAPTED, Carol Emshwiller. (MFSF 1961) The narrator is a middle-aged woman whose initial impulses toward a personal aesthetic and life style have been beaten out of her by her childhood, marriage, and establishment of her own family. When she spies a kindred spirit, he does not recognize her because she has adapted herself. While details suggest that she is in some way from another planet, the author does not say so explicitly, and the story may be only a character study of feminine slavery. [h] DEATH CANNOT WITNESS, Judith Merril. (MFSF 1959) Carried on the copyright page as by Merril and Algis Budrys, but elsewhere as by Merril alone. The story of a devouring, dominating woman who has shaped everything around her, including her husband. He disappears, accidentally killed (it is later learned) by a hunter, but he is forced to remain in the area as a ghost, since she has not released him emotionally. His return is very physical, and after several years of an incubus relationship, she discovers that she is pregnant by him. He, she, and their child will haunt the pool where

SHEEHAN, PERLEY POORE their bodies lie. Nicely handled. The opposite idealogical situation to [g]. [i] A TIME TO KEEP, Kate Wilhelm. (MFSF 1962) Harrison, elderly professor, finds himself stepping through doors into bizarre, fantastic experiences. It is because he has never made anything of himself. [j] BROTHER COELESTIN, Emil Frida. A monastery, Satan, temptation, a magic flute. * Also included is the short play "The Blue Sphere" by Theodore Dreiser. * Of the new material [g] and [h] are excellent. ) SHECKLEY, ROBERT (1928 American science-fiction writer. 1462. UNTOUCHED BY HUMAN HANDS THIRTEEN STORIES Ballantine Books; New York 1954 paperbound Mostly science-fiction stories, including [a] THE ALTAR. (FANTASTIC, 1953) A suburban bedroom community in New Jersey seems to be turning into a hotbed of weird cults: the temple of Baz-Matain, the Dark Mysteries of Isis, etc. But only certain people can perceive this. Mr. Slater discovers that he is more deeply involved that he had realized. [b] THE KING'S WISHES. (MFSF 1953) An appliance store is raided by a demon from the past. He doesn't worry about disturbing the sequence of history in transporting refrigerators and washing machines, for the appliances are going to Atlantis. [c] WARM. (GALAXY 1953) A small voice begs Anders for help, but he does not know where it is or how he can help, and the voice cannot tell him. The ultimate solipsism. [d] THE DEMONS. (FANTASTIC FICTION, 1953) Arthur Gammet, walking along Second Avenue, suddenly vanishes, conjured into another world by a demon who is practicing magic. The demon demands tons of gold as a ransom. Gammet finds a novel way out of the situation. * Good, competent stories, although Sheckley's sciencefiction is better. 1463. CITIZEN IN SPACE Ballantine Books; New York 1955 paperbound Science-fiction and supernatural stories, including, [a] THE MOUNTAIN WITHOUT A NAME. The Engineering Team on Work Order 35 on Umgcha is have problems with accidents. Sabotage is suspected, but the answer is that the planet is a living organism. Other planets, including earth, are living, and they awaken. [b] THE ACCOUNTANT. Described elsewhere. [c] THE BATTLE. (IF, 1954) It is Armageddon, and the Generals counter the forces of Hell with robot armies. A great victory is won by the forces of good, and the resurrection takes place. But the robots are resurrected. * Good stories. * The edition used was the later Ballantine Bal-Hi printing, with a preface by Richard H. Tyre.

SHEEHAN, PERLEY POORE (1875-1943) American journalist, writer of fiction. Onetime managing editor, Paris edition of the New York HERALD TRIBUNE. Writer of film scripts and frequent contributor to the pulp magazines.

SHEEHAN, PERLEY POORE 1464. THE ABYSS OF WONDERS Polaris Press; Reading, Pa. 1953 1500 copy edition First published in ARGOSY, 1915. * Introduction, PERLEY POORE SHEEHAN--THE SHADOW MAKER, by P. Schuyler Miller. * Lost race novel based in large part on Blavatsky's Theosophy. * Strange destinies emerge from a small Midwestern town. John McGoff, a young man, is in some inexplicable wayan incarnation of Shan Makaroff, a legendary Central Asiatic shaman, and he finds two friends to help him achieve this role in full: Charley, a learned Chinese laundry man, and Ivan, a widely travelled Russian cobbler. The two older men have been in the area around the Gobi Desert, and know the legends concerning it: that it contains the tomb of Genghis Khan, a hidden oasis with an unknown people, and strange, seemingly supernatural guardians of the land. After John demonstrates his shamanistic power by summoning the spirit of another Shan Makaroff, the three men form a small secret society, the Sons of the Blue Wolf, and determine to solve the mystery of the Gobi. John has a further incentive: visions of a beautiful young woman. The three men make their way to the Gobi, and after adventures individually and collectively find the ancient city of Yerek-Kuruk, which is inhabited by the Golden Race (or, in Theosophical terminology, the Sinzars). John also finds there the Princess Ai-Yuruk, the woman of his dreams. Not all the Golden Race take kindly to the strangers, and a rebellion breaks out, involving a heat ray. The Sinzars, although decadent, are heirs to a science greater than ours. The travellers and their women leave, and behind them the city collapses into ruin, its population wiped out. Ai-Yuruk dies in the desert, and John returns horne. His experience as a shaman, however, seems to have awakened him erotically, for he accepts the local woman who loves him as the equivalent of the dead Ai-Yuruk. * Curiously imprecise and wavery, with a fairy tale atmosphere; weakly planned, with many unsatisfactory elements. A curiosity only. SHELLEY, MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT (1797-1851) British novelist. Daughter of William Godwin, novelist and social theorist, and Mary Wollstonecraft, pioneer in women's liberation. Mistress, later wife to poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Best-known work FRANKENSTEIN (1818), enormously important early science-fiction novel. Also author of THE LAST MAN (1826), story of Byronic survivor in world emptied by plague. Much less important as a writer of supernatural fiction. 1465. COLLECTED TALES AND STORIES WITH [THE) ORIGINAL ENGRAVINGS Johns Hopkins University Press; Baltimore and London 1976 Edited with introduction and notes by Charles E. Robinson. * Mary Shelley wrote a considerable amount of short fiction which was published in periodicals and yearbooks of the day. It is for the most part very minor work, in no way as significant as her novels. * Short stories, including [a) [ROGER DODS-

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SHELLEY, PERCY BYSSHE WORTH: THE RE-ANIMATED ENGLISHMAN). Written in 1826, first published 1863. This is first reprinting. An essay-like paper commenting on one of the hoaxes of the day, the claim that an Englishman had been found frozen in a Continental glacier, thawed out, and restored to society. [b) VALERIUS: THE RE-ANIMATED ROMAN. First publication from a fragmentary manuscript. Valerius, a Roman from the days of Cicero and Cato, lives in a state of depression since he has seen the ruins of his once great city. A Scottish lady in Italy takes him under her protection in an effort to restore his zest for life. The fragment does not reveal either her success or the way in which the Roman reached the 19th century. [cl TRANSFORMATION. (THE KEEPSAKE, 1831) Italy. Guido, an unhappy, vindictive, and hot-tempered young man, is wandering along the strand when he sees a shipwreck. The sole survivor is a deformed, demonic dwarf, who has an air of the supernatural about him. The dwarf offers to exchange bodies with Guido for three days. Guido accepts the offer, since he feels bitter at the way he has been treated. But when the three days are past, the dwarf-in-Guido has not returned, and Guido-in-the-dwarf goes to the court to find him. He stabs the dwarf-in-Guido and awakens in his own body, severely wounded. He recovers, but is a changed man. On later reflection he believes that the dwarf may have been an angel sent to destroy his pride. [d) THE MORTAL IMMORTAL. (THE KEEPSAKE, 1834) The psychology of love under unusual circumstances, perhaps an allegory of overshadowing, with respect to the late Percy B. Shelley. The narrator, an assistant to the Renaissance magician Cornelius Agrippa, drinks the elixir of youth that Agrippa had intended for himself and becomes immortal, or, as he later realizes, since he drank only half of the draught, half-immortal. He marries the woman he loves, but finds that his immortality is horrible to her since she ages and he does not. After some three hundred years he believes that he has found a way to break the power of the elixir: exposure to the elements. tel THE DREAM. Borderline supernatural. Visions, presumably intended to be semi-allegorical. * [dl is worth reading. The other material is trivial. * The present edition has been cited since it is the first edition to reprint full, correct texts. The earlier edition of Mary Shelley's shorter works (TALES AND STORIES, edited by Richard Garnett, W. Paterson; London 1891) includes only [cl, [dl, and tel. SHELLEY, PERCY BYSSHE (1792-1822) Great British Romantic poet. As a very young man Shelley was fascinated by Gothic fiction. He tried his hand at writing fiction, and before he was 19 had published, at his own expense two short Gothic romances. One, ZASTROZZI (1810) is not fantastic, but is a bloody tale of Italian revenge. The other: 1466. ST. IRVYNE: OR. THE ROSICRUCIAN A ROMANCE J. J. Stockdale; London 1811 published as by a Gentleman of the University of Oxford.

SHELLEY, PERCY BYSSHE Gothic novel, reminiscent at various moments, of Schiller's DIE RAUBER, Lewis's THE MO~K, and Rajcliffe's THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO. * Switzerland and Italy. Wolfstein, a mysterious proto-Byronic figure, joins a Swiss robber banj, but on falling in love with one of their captives (the beauteous Megalena de Metastasio) escapes with her, after murdering the robber chief. He is aided in his escape by an even more Byronic figure, Ginotti, who extracts a vow of future help from W::>lfstein. The escaped lovers flee to Italy, where their romance falters, since Megalena happens to be rather bloody-minded. Ginotti now appears and offers Wolfstein eternal life if he will assume his bargain with the Evil One. Wolfstein refuses at the last minute and both men are killed by lightning. A secondary plot is concerned with the fate of Wolfstein's sister Eloise, who has been seduced by the disguised Ginotti. * Gary, but of some interest in foreshadowing Shelley's later sexual ethics. Inflated in conversational passages, but surprisingly clean in narrative sections, with occasional moments of humor. The consensus about this novel has been, too little self-criticism, too much money, even for a very young man. SHIEL, M[ATTHEW] P[HIPPS] (1865-1947) British author born (as SHIELL) in Montserrat, B.W.I., but resident mostly in Great Britain. Crowned (by father) as King Felipe of the Kingdom of Redonda, Leeward Islands, but claim not internationally recognized. Journalist for a time, professional writer, ghost writer for Louis Tracy and perhaps others; sometimes highly regarded for stylistic brilliance in fin de siecle manner. N,=ver fulfilled promise of early years. Most important works SHAPES IN THE FIRE and THE PURPLE CLOUJ. 1467. SHAPES IN THE FIRE BEING A MID-WINTERNIGHT'S ENTERTAINMENT IN TWO PARTS ANJ AN INTERLUDE John Lane; London 1896 Short stories, partly derivative in theme and subject matter from Poe, told in an elaborate word lapidarism. * Including [a] XELUCHA. A restatement, after a fashion, of Poe's LIGEIA; the power of the feminine. Set in a Baghdadian London that out-orientalizes both Machen and Stevenson. Merimee, Destroyer of Women, has received a last letter from his dead friend Cosmo, a fellow sybarite, who speaks of the Eternal Feminine, Xelucha, now dead. 0':1 the streets Merimee picks up a remarkable woman, goes with her to her temple-like abode, and discourses metaphysically with her. By a slip of the tongue she reveals that she knows him, and he recognizes her as the dead Xelucha. He swears that he will clasp her, but she disappears in a puff of corruption, and he finds himself alone in an empty, squalid room. Brilliantly handled. [b] VAlLA. A restatement, after a fashion, of THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER. The narrator visits his old university friend Harfager at the Harfager ancestral home in one of the far northern islands of Great Britain. Harfager, who suffers from hypertrophied hearing, is obviously half mad, as are

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SHIEL, M. P. his aunt and Aith, their strange servitor. The house is a strange structure made of brass, chained to the storm-swept island. According to family records, it was built as the result of a fraternal clash of about 500 years before, and it embodies a curse. It contains a gravity clock that emits little lead balls. When the clock is empty, the house shall perish, the race with it. It would seem (though Shiel does not render this explicit) that Aith is one of the quarreling brothers of 500 years earlier, come to witness his final revenge. The curse takes effect, and the narrator is fortunate to escape the doom of the Harfagers. A mad, remarkable achievement. [c] TULSAH. A scorched Indian manuscript. Narrated by an Indian rajah who found himself alive, but without memory, by the empty sarcophagus of the former rajah. He learns that he is an everreconstituted being, who first angered the gods during the time of Abraham by stealing a temple maiden. In each of his incarnations he repeats his crime, stealing a woman, speculating on the mysteries of the universe, and perishing miserably through the snake deity. In this incarnation, despite good intentions, he follows out his fate when he takes the beautiful woman Tulsah from a suttee pyre. [d] PHORFOR. Setting reminiscent of Poe's Auber landscapes. In this instance the mood is not supernatural horror, but a languid, mildly erotic fantasy. * In the season called Opora, Numa returns to his ancestral home to learn that his cousin and friend Sergius has just died. Numa is in love with Sergius's sister Areta, but Sergius's death has apparently destroyed Areta's love for him. She mourns the dead Sergius, and, under the manipulation of the sinister Elder Theodore, attaches herself to the dead, blaming Numa for seeming slights and attacks on the memory of Sergius. Numa clashes with Theodore, who is apparently motivated by greed, but wins Areta. Theodore perishes when his tower is blown up, revealing himself to be a semi-human monstrosity. Numa's victory is due in part to his mystical interpretation of an illustration of a key from Goethe's WILHELM MEISTER and a poem left by Sergius. He so manipulates matters that the poem is taken to be a presage of himself. * Shiel's work is not to everyone's taste. His egotistical personality and his wilful and bizarre use of language repel many readers. But if one accepts the conventions of the cultural episode, this book is one of the high points of the decorated style. In their virtuosity, artifice, and sonority; in their closely hewn metaphysics of horror; and their implementation of odd corners of mystical thought these stories are sui generis. One of the landmark books of the genre. 1468. THE PURPLE CLOUD Chatto and Windus; London 1901 An intensely imagined fantasy about the last man on earth. * Adam Jeffson, half-murderer and last survivor of an Arctic expedition, is the first man to reach the North Pole. There he finds a body of open water and in the center

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M. P.

sees a rock formation like a pillar, on which he fantasizes writing. (While Shiel leaves this motif in the background, man, by attaining to the Pole, has committed an unpardonable act of hybris and will be punished.) When Jeffson returns to civilization, he finds only desolation and ruin. All animal life is dead, and he is the only surviving man. A volcanic outburst of poisonous gases, hydrocyanic acid gas, has taken place, and only his presence at the Pole has saved him. For years he wanders about the world in an orgy of sensation. He constructs a building out of gold bricks, forms a lake of wine, fires many of the great cities, and performs other desperately extravagant actions. In Istanbul, however, he finds another survivor, a young woman, who has been preserved in an underground oubliette. At this point it becomes clear that he and the woman are the semivoluntary tools of two cosmic powers, White and Black, good and evil, who are striving for dominion. Black wants the human race to end and urges him to kill the girl. But White and biology triumph, and a new, better race is promised. * Despite some vagueness in ultimate causation, a remarkable work, easily Shiel's best novel, imagination run wild. The 1929 reissue is somewhat altered, but not improved. 1469. THE PALE APE AND OTHER PULSES T. Werner Laurie; London ·[1911] Short stories, including [a] THE PALE APE. A governess reports on strange events in the household of the Listers. There are tame apes; a chuckling waterfall that is called The Ape; a murderous, shambling monstrosity that is occasionally seen and seems to be a white ape. It is Sir Philip. Psychopathology and prenatal marking from the waterfall. While this story is usually taken seriously, I think it is a parody of shopgirl fiction of the day. [b] HUGUENIN'S WIFE. Delos, Greece. A beautiful woman, she is followed by trains of animals and is a remarkable artist. She believes in transmigration after death and hints at strange forms of life mercifully hidden from man. According to her, a unique personality would be reincarnated as a unique entity. Huguenin kills her in a brawl, and some time later, from her tomb emerges a horrible feathered cheetah. [c] THE HOUSE OF SOUNDS. A revised version of VAlLA. Most readers prefer the earlier version. [d] THE SPECTRE SHIP. Old Norse setting. Crime, plots, prophecy, usurpation. The Vala prophecies that Gurth need not fear the living, only the dead. True. [e] THE GREAT KING. An explanation for the madness of Nebuchadnezzar. His wife Nitocris is subject to fits of catalepsy. When she is undergoing an attack, he slashes her throat. In pursuit of a new woman for his harem he visits an old sorceress, who intends to work upon him with a fraudulent v~s~on. But the true supernatural emerges, with the dead Nitocris. [f] THE BRIDE. Horrors among the Cockneys. Walter is entangled with two sisters, Rachel and Annie. Although he is engaged to Rachel, he jilts her at the

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SHIEL, M. P. last moment and decides to marry Annie. Rachel dies of rage and chagrin, and her corpse is laid out in the house shortly before the wedding. That evening, Walter awaits his bride, to consummate the marriage, but Rachel's corpse enters and rapes him. * Of the new material [b] is good; [f] is somewhat confusing, but horrible. Best of all is the crime story about Cummings King Monk, "He Take s a Hand." 1470. HERE COMES THE LADY Richards Press; London [1928] Short stories in a framework, including [a] THE TALE OF HENRY AND ROWENA. High life among the Overmen in Italy. Lord Henry falls in love with the married Rowena, and persuades her to a suicide pact. As they talk, a panther, escaped from a zoo, confronts them. Henry cuts off his arm and flings it to the beast, which is thereupon satisfied and does not attack them. But, Rowena oversleeps and decides against suicide. She sends a message to Lord Henry, but it is too late. He has poisoned himself. His ghost comes and (presumably with only one hand) strangles her. * While this story is often taken at face value, to me it seems like a very obvious attempt at parodying a shopgirl romance. 1471. THIS ABOVE ALL Vanguard; New York 1933 British title ABOVE ALL ELSE (Lloyd Cole; London 1943). Probably suggested by the Viereck and Eldridge books about the Wandering Jew and his companions. * Background: at least four persons still survive from the beginning of the Christian era. These are the girl (sometimes called Tabitha) whom Jesus raised from the dead; Lazarus; the man Jesus raised in the village of Nain; and Jesus himself. In the world of the 1920's and early 1930's, these persons are known respectively as Rachel Jeshurah; Prince Surazal; Aaron Ephrath; and Raphael. Jesus-Raphael resides in a monastery in Tibet and occasionally corresponds with the others. In addition to having eternal youth (with a yearly death and reanimation) the other three persons are entangled with Fate. Rachel and Surazal would like to mate, since they are sterile with mortals, because of cellular formation rate. But Fate repeatedly prevents their union, and Aaron, a sour fanatic, tries to assist Fate. * At the moment, the hindrance to their match is one Dr. Schrapps, a theoretical physicist of great genius, who apparently has a Lolita complex and is madly in love with Rachel. He will commit suicide unless she becomes his mistress. Since Rachel, like Shiel, has the utmost respect for science, she is psychologically compelled to leave Surazal at the altar and run off with Schrapps, even though she does not want to. * This is the plot in simplest form. The story is told in a group of diaries and letters, with interspersed essay-like speeches on Shiel's philosophy of religion and science, with episodes of high life and adultery in Anglo-French society, French politics (a topic which for some reason fascinated Shiel), and is at times almost unpenetrable. The verbal brilliance of the old days is occasionally present, but is hampered.

SHIEL, M. P. 1472. THE BEST SHORT STORIES OF M. P. SHIEL Gollancz; London 1948 Foreword by John Gawsworth. * Including [a] XELUCHA. [b] VAlLA. [c] TULSAH. [d] PHORFOR. [e] HUGUENIN'S WIFE. [f] THE BRIDE. All described elsewhere. 1473. XELUCHA AND OTHERS Arkham House; Sauk City; Wisc. 1975 Introduction by Shiel in his plain style. Presumably submitted to Arkham House when the book was first announced in the 1940's. * Including la] XELUCHA. [b] THE HOUSE OF SOUNDS. [c] THE BRIDE. [d] THE TALE OF HENRY AND ROWENA. [e] HUGUENIN'S WIFE. [f] THE PALE APE. [ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 1474. SHIVERS Philip Allan; London 1932 A member of the CREEPS SERIES. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] THE 17TH HOLE AT DUNCASTER, H. R. Wakefield. [b] WILD WULLIE, THE WASTER, Tod Robbins. [c] "AND HE SHALL SING. "H. R. Wakefield. [d] WHO WANTS A GREEN BOTTLE? Tod Robbins. [e] THE DEATH MASK, Mrs. H. Everett. * Also [f] THE GHOST IN THE RING, Elliott O'Donnell. The ghost of a dead boxer defeats the rival who murdered him. Also ghost radio. Crude horror. 19] THE POPLAR TREE, Philip Murray. She should not have given the order to cut down the old poplar tree. The tree resented it. * Edited by Charles L. Birkin. [ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 1475. SHUDDERS Philip Allan; London 1932 A member of the CREEPS SERIES. * Including, "[a] OR PERSONS UNKNOWN, H. R. Wakefield. [b] THE THIRD COACH, H. R. Wakefield. [c] THE CRIMSON BLIND, Mrs. H. Everett. [d] THAT DIETH NOT, H. R. Wakefield. [e] PROFESSOR POWNALL'S OVERSIGHT, H. R. Wakefield. [f] TOYS, Tod Robbins. * Also [g] ACCUSING SHADOWS, Elliott O'Donnell. Germanic background. The tourist" sees ghostly hands hammering a nail, and this enables him to indicate a murderess. [h] THE TRUNK, Philip Murray. Used centuries ago as the receptacle for the corpse of an executed criminal, it sometimes reproduces the image of the corpse. [i] THE HAUNTED SPINNEY, Elliott O'Donnell. Psychopathology, a murder, ghosts, a phantasm of the living. Trick ending. [j] THE PATCH, Philip Murray. A premonitory vision of a corpse beneath the bed. * [f] and the Wakefield stories raise this above the level of most of the volumes in the series. * Edited by Charles L. Birkin. SIMMS, WILLIAM GILMORE (1806-1870) American (Charleston, South Carolina) author, popular during his lifetime, but now undeservedly forgotten except to specialists. Much of his work is regionalistic, best-known books being GUY RIVERS (1834) and THE YEMASSEE (1835). Poe considered his short story "Grayling" (THE GIFT, 1842) the best ghost story he had read. 1~76. CASTLE DISMAL; OR. THE BACHELOR'S CHRISTMAS A DOMESTIC LEGEND Burgess, Stringer, and Co.; New York" 1844 (published as by the author of GUY RIVERS)

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SINCLAIR, MAY Romantic supernaturalism set nicely in Carolina regionalism. * The narrator, Ned Clifton, is spending his Christmas with his friends the Ashleys, who live on a plantation that Ashley jokingly calls Castle Dismal, since the ancient building is fortress-like. As Clifton has declared himself a rationalist, his hostess puts him in the haunted chamber, which is so disturbed that no one is willing to spend the night there. It is truly haunted. On successive nights Ashley sees a ghostly reenactment of a sexual triangle and murder. He sees the injured husband, outside in the sinister wood, push a tree down on the guilty lover, and he sees the ghost of the wife dripping water, as if drowned. Clifton is not quite sure what to do about his visions until one day, while out on a hunt with his hosts, he sees an ancient Methodist preacher. He immediately recognizes him as the murderer. Clifton then tells his hosts what he has seen, and his visions are aligned with events in the past. They confront the old man, who admits his guilt, and later, during a service, denounces himself as a murderer. Justice has been served. * Although the plot summary sounds sombre, the story is very lightly told, with a good romance, many humorous touches, and excellent local color. SIMS, GEORGE R[OBERT] (1847-1922) British journalist, playwright, novelist. Fairly important as early writer of detective stories. Much of his fiction has a social message. 1477. THE DEVIL IN LONDON Stanley Paul; London [1908] Sentimental social reform offered in the guise of a tour conducted by the Devil. * Young Alan Fairfax, millionaire, is kind to a decrepit French actress, who gives him a ring with which he can call up the Devil. The Devil, who is suave and Mephistophelean, escorts him through slums and criminal environments, white slave rings, theatrical agencies that are rings of prostitution, etc. When Fairfax reveals that he intends to compel the Devil to take a grou? of M. P.'s over the same route, the Devil finds a way to evade the power of the ring. * LeSage did it better. Only a curiosity. SINCLAIR, MAY (1865-1946) British novelist, active in feminist and social service causes. Best-known work THE DIVINE FIRE (1904). An underrated writer. 1478. UNCANNY STORIES Hutchinson; London 1923 Supernaturalism as a vehicle for psychological analysis, mostly of love. * [a] WHERE THEIR FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED. Harriott's first love drowned, and she found no other man who could love her in the same fashion. She has an affair with Oscar Wade, a married man, an affair which is not completely satisfactory to either partner, since he is sensual and she is selfishly sentimental. After death Harriott is placed in a hell. No matter where she goes,

SINCLAIR, MAY she enters the room in which she and Wade made love. She is finally told by Wade, "It is because that is what you made of love." [b] THE TOKEN. Dunbar's wife believes that he thinks more highly of a paperweight that George Meredith gave to him than of her. After her death, her spirit haunts the house. Her sister sees it and understands that the ghost is unquiet because it doubts Dunbar's love. To prove his love, Dunbar smashes the paperweight and sees the ghost for a moment, before it finds rest. A statement of selfishness. lc] THE FLAW IN THE CRYSTAL. Nouvelle. Agatha Verrall believes that she can place herself in harmony with a Power and heal the mentally disturbed. She thinks that she acts as a crystal for focusing the Power. But the crystal has a flaw, or is it her delusion? [d] THE NATURE OF THE EVIDENCE. Rosamund, Marston's dead wife, had urged him to remarry after her death, but added that he must select a suitable woman. The dead Rosamund does not approve of Pauline, the second wife, and interferes so much that the marriage is not consummated. The situation is rendered impossible when Rosamund's very physical ghost takes Marston aside and has intercourse with him. A surprising story for the period. [e] IF THE DEAD KNEW. A mother complex. Hollyer's life was controlled by and built around his mother. After her death he still feels under her sway, but her ghost appears and releases him, offering a catharsis. [f] THE VICTIM. The chauffeur, who is something of a brute, murders his elderly employer because he (wrongly) believes that the employer broke up his impending marriage. The dead man returns and absolves the chauffeur. Love has conquered everything, despite misdirections. [g] THE FINDING OF THE ABSOLUTE. Spalding, who has lost his faith because his wife ran off, dies and goes to an elite heaven for those philosophically inclined. He meets Kant, has a mystical vision, and experiences the formation of a new universe. The theme of divine creativity is developed. * The central idea for these stories is that ghosts, which usually symbolize memory, are intimately connected with life and can offer aid in solving the conflicts of life. Horror is internally objectified. * Excellent, though [c] is overdeveloped for its slender theme. 1479. THE INTERCESSOR. AND OTHER STORIES Hutchinson; London 1931 Including [a] THE MAHATMA'S STORY. Rama Dass has magical powers. When the perpetually bickering Varleys, who also have economic problems, ask him to shift their personalities to the wealthy and successful Reeves, he obliges. But weaknesses continue. "A man's estate is what his se If is." [b] JONES'S KARMA. The Mahatma tells of a snob with a conscience. Jones, partly because of weakness, partly through circumstance, dropped a lower-class friend who had helped him. Jones also seduced and betrayed his pregnant lover, and deserted a friend on the battlefield. He is told that he can relive his life and avoid his previous errors if he concentrates on this on his deathbed. He

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SLE IGH , BERNARD relives his life and carefully avoids each of the crimes of his first life, but on later occasions he commits similar faults. The point is that individual actions are only facets of karma. Facets may change, but karma does not. [c] HEAVEN. Nouvelle. Sessions, pampered by his mother, at death is placed in her heaven, a vulgar, unpleasant place where he is very unhappy. It is all a swindle. But he is saved, extricated by the psychic power of a young woman who loves him. He is placed in her heaven, but is it better? [d] THE INTERCESSOR. A very sordid family history told in terms of supernaturalism. Garvin, staying for a time with the Falshaws, a peasant family in the North of England, sees and hears the ghost of a little girl. His experience serves as a catalyst to resolve a complex series of hates and guilts. [e] THE VILLA DESIREE. Described elsewhere. * Excellent mainstream material. [dj is very fine. SLEIGH, BERNARD (1872 - ? ) British writer, artist, art teacher. Author of several books of art instruction, especially wood engraving. Also occasional writer of fiction. 1480. THE GATES OF HORN BEING SUNDRY RECORDS FROM THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF FAERY FACT AND FALLACY Aldine House; London 1926 A tongue-in-cheek collection of stories purportedly written seriously for a (mythical) society, but actually poking fun at A. C. Doyle's acceptance of fairies. Individual stories are set in Wales, are loosely interconnected, and deal with human-sized fairies in the Celtic tradition. * [a] ANDREW HOOGAN. Early 19th century. Hoogan, an early student of folklore, rescues a wounded sea-woman from the waves. She lives with him as his mistress, but is obviously unhappy. Speechless, alien, after a time she escapes back to the sea. [b] MARCHLYN FARM. To Owen's farm comes a strange young woman who obviously has fairy blood in her. She stays with the Owens for a time, working for her keep, and repulses the attentions of the farmer's son. One of her own kind, she says, shall be her husband. It turns out to be the local kelpie, and she disappears with him. [c] MIDSUMMER EVE. Midsummer Eve. In the city, where the fairy lore has been forgotten, the good people are insulted, and very soon a changeling takes the place of the child. But there is a country relative who knows what to do about such things. [d] THE JERRY-BUILDER. A contractor foolishly builds cheap housing in a valley consecrated to Pan in Roman times. His venture is supernaturally beset-- flood, lightning, funguses-- and he himself is carried bodily away by the good people. [e] MESCAL. Sir Edward comes into possession of mescal buttons. When he takes them, his spiritual perceptions are opened and he sees the good people. A fairy woman sets her cap at him and takes him away into fairyland. [f] MATTER OF FACT. Essay-like material on cases where supernatural help has

SLEIGH, BERNARD been received from leprechauns and fairy-like folk. [g} KILMENY OF THE COTSWOLDS. The reference is to James Hogg's poem "Kilmeny." Marygold Morton, wandering in the meadows, sees a gay folk dancing and enjoying themselves. She joins them and is not seen again by mortals for a long time. She suddenly appears at her home one night and says that she has been in fairyland, where she has married and born a child. The child, which she has along with her, is an obvious fairy-human hybrid. Her husband summons them both back. [hI THE GIRL IN THE TRAMCAR. The narrator hears her play fairy music, which he recognizes intuitively. She is a music teacher, but refuses to talk about the music. [i} THE VICAR AND THE DRYAD. The Rev. James Minshull, walking alone at night, sees a fairy maiden. He is enticed into the fairy dance, falls in love with her, and marries her. She adjusts nicely to human life. [j} A REPORT OF THE FAERY INVESTIGATION SOCIETY BY BERTRAM JUNE, SECRETARY. Two anecdotes: a fairy woman and romance, and a naturalist who sees a faun. * Individual stories are entertaining, although the vehicle of a society for psychical research is obtrusive and rather pointless. Considerable Welsh dialect. 1481. WITCHCRAFT The Oriole Press; Berkeley Heights, New Jersey 1934 106 copy edition Like 1480 material purportedly from the Faery Investigation Society; with a tongue-in-cheek introduction by "Bertram June." * Supernatural nouvelle. Scotland. Lawrence Chalfont visits the farm Grailwyn Towers, where he stays with the Ferguses. Among the residents are Jessamy, the young daughter of the house, with whom Chalfont falls in love, and old Mrs. Moule and her son Crinal. Mrs. Moule, who wears the traditional Welsh garb we associate with witches, is really a witch of considerable power. The neighborhood lives in fear of her. A problem arises with the romance between Chalfont and Jessamy, for Mrs. Moule wants Jessamy for her son, mostly for the sake of the real estate involved. She warns off Chalfont, with no success, then bewitches Jessamy. The local doctor brings into the case Professor Molineaux, a psychic doctor of great power, who recognizes Mrs. Moule for what she is and undertakes to combat her. Molineaux, Chalfont, and others go to the ruined tower where Mrs. Moule works magic, break through her magical defences, and defeat her. She drops dead and ages enormously, for she was about 120 years old. * Routine and insipid. * This seems to be the only publication of this work, and it is not known why Sleigh, a British artist, should be represented from an American private press. SLOANE, WILLIAM M[ILLIGAN} (1906-1974) American publisher, novelist, playwright. Held positions at various times with Longmans Green, Farrar and Rinehart, Henry Holt; head of Rutgers University Press. Associated with wartime activities to provide servicemen with books. 1482. THE EDGE OF RUNNING WATER Farrar and Rinehart; New York [1939}

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SMITH, CLARK ASHTON Difficult to categorize, perhaps best termed weird science-fiction. * Professor Richard Sayles, a psychologist specializing in electroencephalography, receives an urgent invitation to visit his former teacher and friend, Dr. Julian Blair, whom he has not seen for several years. He finds Blair, a worn shadow of himself, living in a coastal area of Maine, hated and feared by the rustic natives, who suspect him of working on a death ray. Blair is very secretive, but finally reveals that he is working on an electronic device for contacting the world of the dead. In association with a medium, he has created a piece of equipment that projects a black void that sucks things into it. From the void emerge massive sounds that Blair takes to be the many voices of the dead. (What the apparatus really does is questionable.) Against this background take place a romance, an accidental death that is concealed and causes a great deal of trouble, and Blair's destruction of himself and his apparatus while temporarily insane. * A good mystery, with apt characterizations and local color, but not quite so successful as the author's sciencefiction mystery, TO WALK THE NIGHT. SMITH, CLARK ASHTON (1893-1961) American (California) poet, author of weird fiction and science-fiction. Achieved early local recognition, largely through enthusiasm of George Sterling, for traditional Swinburnian verse, which Smith handled with some facility. In 1930's a fairly frequent contributor to the supernatural fiction and science-fiction magazines, where work was both popular and controversial, some readers objecting to his violation of pulp traditions and morbidness. Member of Lovecraft circ le, where was second only to Lovecraft in general esteem and importance. Self educated. A very difficult author to evaluate. Was obsessed with enrichment of vocabulary, sometimes garishly and insensitively applied, but original in a narrow range: modern version of decorated prose of fin de si~cle period. Sciencefiction unusual in its day for considering philosophical and psychological points, sometimes excellent in idea, but badly written. Weird fiction generally macabre in subject matter, gloatingly preoccupied with images of death, decay, and abnormality. Central theme of much of his work is egotism and its supernatural punishment. Sometimes his work is effective; at other times, simply pretentious. * Most of Smith's weird fiction falls into four series set variously in Hyperborea, Poseidonis, Averoigne, and Zothique. Hyperborea, which is a lost continent of the Miocene period, and poseidonis, which is a remnant of Atlantis, are much the same, with a magical culture characterized by bizarreness, cruelty, death, and post-mortem horrors. Averoigne is Smith's version of pre-modern France, comparable to Cabell's Poictesme. Zothique exists millions of years in the future. It is "the last continent of earth, when the sun is dim and tarnished." Otherwise it is much like

SMITH, CLARK ASHTON Hyperborea or Poseidonis, not a pleasant place to live unless one is a sadist with great magical powers. 1483. THE DOUBLE SHADOW AND OTHER FANTASIES [Printed by the Auburn Journal Press and published by Smith; Auburn, California 1933] paperbound 1000 copy edition Large pamphlet with six stories. * [a] THE VOYAGE OF KING EUVORAN. Zothique. The king, a nasty petty tyrant, enrages a wandering magician who causes the stuffed gazolba bird on the king's head to flyaway with his crown. Since the bird is the king's symbol of office, the king sails in quest of it and undergoes many humiliating adventures. [b) THE MAZE OF THE ENCHANTER. Set on the planet Xiccarph, in an alien system. The magician Maal Dweb has summoned the girl AthIe to his harem, and Tiglari, her lover, follows. He penetrates the magician's maze and evades some of his guards, but is trapped and partly transformed into an animal. AthIe, like other women taken by Maal Dweb, is turned into a statue by means of a magic mirror. Maal Dweb is bored. Usually reprinted as THE MAZE OF MAAL DWEB, with a slightly different text. A good example of a theme Smith often employed: the powerlessness of the individual against raping, supernatural horrors. [c) THE DOUBLE SHADOW. Poseidonis. The magician Pharpetron finds in the sea a curious tablet with indecipherable hieroglyphs. He and his fellow magician Avyctes try to read it, and succeed only by sending a ghost back in time to the land of the serpent men. It is a magical formula, although what it evokes is unknown. The two magicians and Oigos, an animated mummy, perform the proper ceremony, but it seems that nothing happens. Some time later, however, a monstrous second shadow is seen to be creeping up toward Avyctes. Magic is powerless to avert the horrible doom that befalls the two magicians and the mummy. Don't meddle. [d) A NIGHT IN MALNEANT. At all times the town of Malneant prepares for the funeral of the Lady Mariel. Conscience. [e) THE DEVOTEE OF EVIL. Averaud theorizes that evil is an ultimate, monistic essence, and he designs an experiment to invoke it. He is successful, but is turned to a statue for his pains. Ultimate evil paralyzes. [f) THE WILLOW LANDSCAPE. China. Shih Liang, to pay family debts and to pay for his brother's education, gradually strips himself of the family possessions. He bitterly regrets having to part with the last piece, a willow landscape painted on a roll of silk, for he loves it. He is permitted to enter the landscape as a picture, and the new purchaser sees a figure talking to the maiden on the bridge. * [b) and [c) are richer than they sound in summary and are worth reading. 1484. OUT OF SPACE AND TIME Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1942 Brief introduction by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei. * Including, described elsewhere, [a] A NIGHT IN MALNEANT. [b) THE DOUBLE SHADOW. * Al so [c) THE END OF THE STORY. (WT 1930) 18th century Averoigne. Christophe, a young law student, finds hospitality in a

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SMITH, CLARK ASHTON monastery, and in the library (despite his host's prohibition), reads an ancient document that describes surviving pagan delights in the area. He betakes himself to nearby ruins, descends to worlds below, and finds a voluptuous WGman awaiting him. She is a serpent woman and a lamia. The abbot saves him on this occasion, but Christophe will return to the lamia. [d) A RENDEZVOUS IN AVEROIGNE. (WT 1931) When Guerard is wandering through the forest to meet Fleurette, he is lured from his path by magic and becomes a guest of the Sieur du Malinbois and his wife. Vampires. [e] THE CITY OF THE SINGING FLAME. A combination of two short stories, THE CITY OF THE SINGING FLAME (WONDER STORIES, 1931) and BEYOND THE SINGING FLAME (WONDER STORIES, 1931). Borderline science-fiction. Dimensional doors lead to an other-world where a gigantic flame-like phenomenon is the entrance to states of bliss. The flame and the city surrounding it are under attack, and it is questionable if the earthmen will survive. Drugs? [f) THE UNCHARTED ISLE. (WT 1930) Borderline science-fiction. The shipwrecked narrator comes to an uncharted island inhabited by barbaric people who perform strange actions, apparently completely unaware of him. The skies are different. After watching a seemingly living monstrous idol, he tries to escape and is picked up at sea. Is there a time fault in the Pacific? [g) THE SECOND INTERMENT. (WT 1932) Premature burial told from the point of view of the buried person, with horrible illusions and dreams. Probably not intended to be supernatural. [h) THE CHAIN OF AFORGOMON. (WT 1935) Ages ago, on another planet, the priest Calaspa's magic thrust the whole world back an hour in time so that he could reexperience the love of his dead Belthoris. His punishment, the god Aforgomon (Time) decrees, is death by a white-hot chain, reincarnation always separated from Belthoris. He will know that he is released when once again he dies of the white-hot chain. [i) THE DARK EIDOLON. (WT 1934) Zothique. The beggar boy Narthos, trampled by Prince Zotulla, vows revenge. He leaves the land, studies magic under the greatest master, vows himself to Thasaidon (the god of evil), and returns as the magician Namirrha. He plans a horrible revenge on Zotulla, who has now become emperor, and the whole land, but learns to his astonishment that Thasaidon will not help him. In his fury Namirrha turns to deities from Outside. He attains his revenge, but Thasaidon is angry and Namirrha, too, is punished. [j] THE LAST HIEROGLYPH. (WT 1935) Zothique. Nushain the astrologer sees a portent in the sky and learns that he must undertake a journey. Accompanied by his slave and his dog he passes through earth, water, and fire to the abode of Vergama, or Destiny. There he meets the same fate as all of us-- a record on the pages of a book. [k] SADASTOR. (WT 1930) In Ancient Egypt the demon Charnadis comforts the lamia, who is lonely, by telling her of the death of the planet Sadastor and of a mermaid who lived in its seas. [1] THE DEATH OF ILALOTHA. (WT 1937) While Thulos is

SMITH, CLARK ASHTON away, Ilalotha, lady in waiting to Queen Za:ntlicha, suddenly dies. On returning, Thulos insists on viewing her corpse and hears her voice inviting him to visit her in the tomb at midnight. A demon awaits him. Perhaps set in Zothique. [m] THE RETURN OF THE SORCERER. (WT 1931) The narrator, who acts as assistant to Carnby, learns that Carnby is a student of magic. According to the Necronomicon, a wizard of strong will can arise from the dead. Carnby's twin brother, whom he murdered, also a magician, returns. [n] THE TESTAMENT OF ATHAMMAUS. (WT 1932) Hyperborea. Told by the headsman of Commorion. Like certain other Hyperborean stories, with touches of grisly humor. He has to decapitate the vicious criminal Knygathin Zhaum several times, for Zhaum keeps returning to life, each time more monstrous physically. It is finally necessary to abandon the city to him. [0] THE WEIRD OF AVOOSL WUTHOQQUAN, (WT 1932) Hyperborea. Also with touches of grisly humor. Avoosl Wuthoqquan is the most miserly of moneylenders, and when one of the fine emeralds the stranger left as security rolls away, the moneylender must follow it-- to a pit full of jewels, in which squats a horror that eats him. [p] UBBO SATHLA. (WT 1933) Paul Tregardis, student of occultism, obtains the magic crystal of an ancient Hyperborean wizard. The crystal takes him back to Hyperborea, and finally to Ubbo Sathla, the ultimate, where Tregardis and the wizard, as parts of the same entity, assume a horrible amoebic form. [q] FROM THE CRYPTS OF MEMORY (BOHEMIA, 1917) and [r] THE SHADOWS (from EBONY AND CRYSTAL, 1922), two short prose poems. * The other stories are science-fiction. * til and [0] are the best stories. 1485. LOST WORLDS Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1944 Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] THE MAZE OF MAAL DWEB. Alternate title for THE MAZE OF THE ENCHANTER. * Also [b] THE TALE OF SATAMPRA ZEIROS. (WT 1931) Hyperborea. Satampra Zeiros and Tirouv Ompallios, two thieves, decide to loot the kingly treasures of the deserted city of Commorion. They violate the temple of Tsathoggua, with dire results. Tirouv Ompallios is eaten and Satampra Zeiros is fortunate to escape with the loss of a hand. [c] THE DOOR TO SATURN. (STRANGE TALES, 1932) Hyperborea. The sorcerer Eibon (whose Book of Eibon has since become famous as a prop in the Cthulhu Cycle) is in danger from the religionist Morghi, who plans to seize and torture him. Eibon escapes through a dimensional door given to him by the god Zhothaqquah, and finds himself on Saturn. Saturn is inhabited by a few gods like Zhothaqquah and several races of natives, among whom Eibon, who has been joined amicably by Morghi, settles. Occasional humorous nOLes. [d] THE SEVEN GEASES. (WT 1934) Hyperborea. Ralobar Vooz disturbs a spell being performed by the great magician Exdagor, who in annoyance puts a geas on him: he must offer himself to Tsathogguah as a sacrifice. Tsathogguah has just eaten and has no use for him, but passes him along, as

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SMITH, CLARK ASHTON do others. Ralibar Vooz visits the spider god, the prehuman wizard Haon-Dor, the scientific serpent people, the Archetypes of humanity, and Abhoth-- the final ultimate. He, like the others, is disgusted with Ralibar Vooz's appearance, and bids him return to the outside world. But after escaping the horrors of the universe, Ralibar Vooz succumbs to chance. tel THE COMING OF THE WHITE WORM. (STIRRING SCIENCE 1941) Hyperborea. The white worm (as the symbol of impending glaciation and the death of the old world) dwells on an iceberg, and freezes mankind wherever it goes. It wishes to be accompanied by human priests, and Evagh the warlock is selected for its company of priest-worshippers. But the white worm is is not entirely frank: it also devours its priests. [f] THE LAST INCANTATION. (WT 1930) Poseidonis. The great magician Malygris calls up the shade of the beloved Nylissa, but it is not the Nylissa he remembers. He has learned a lesson. The deficiency is not in his magic, nor in the shade, but in himself. He cannot regain his lost youth and its enthusiasms. [g] A VOYAGE TO SFANOMOE. (WT 1931) Poseidonis. Two Atlantean scientists create a space ship and journey to Venus, where they arrive as old men. But they are absorbed into the planet's vegetable life almost as soon as they land. [h] THE DEATH OF MALYGRIS. (WT 1934) In the city of Sus ran the king and the magicians wonder if Malygris, the greatest of sorcerers, who has dominated the area, is dead. Magical viewing shows that he has been sitting motionless in his chair for over a year. Two magicians enter his palace, explore its wonders, and are about to take a ring from Malygris's finger, when his snake familiar destroys them, as they hear Malygris's voice. As a second attempt, other magicians rot Malygris's corpse by magic, but when they enter his chamber, the dead Malygris places a powerful curse on them. The moral, as occasionally expressed by Smith, is that a dead magician can be more dangerous than a living magician. til THE HOLINESS OF AZEDARAC. (WT 1933) Averoigne, circa 1275. To protect himself against a special inquisition, the magician Azedarac causes the monk Ambrose (who is bearing strong evidence against him) to be hurled back in time to Druidic days. There he is saved from sacrifice by the sorceress Moriamis, who finds him a comely man. Moriamis also has the potion for time travelling, and she uses it to good advantage. [j] THE BEAST OF AVEROIGNE. (WT 1933) C. 1370. When the red comet blazes in the sky, a horrible monster appears in Averoigne, causing many deaths. The wizard Ie Chaudronnier consults the demon imprisoned in the ring of Eibon, and learns how the monster can be destroyed. Possession is involved. [k] THE EMPIRE OF THE NECROMANCERS. (WT 1932) Zothique. Two necromancers come to the dead land of Cincor, which is a desert land filled with mummies. They raise the dead and establish their empire. Most of the dead are zombie-like, but Illeiro, the last king of the land, has a spark of individuality and learns the way to overcome the necromancers. [1]

SMITH, CLARK ASHTON THE ISLE OF THE TORTURERS. (WT 1933) Zothique. When the Silver Death strikes the land of Yoros, all die except the King, Fulbra, who is protected by a magic ring, and three slaves. They take to sea to find a new land, but are captured by the magic of the men of Uccastrog, the Isle of Torturers. Here they are tormented horribly until Fulbra, by a subterfuge, tricks his torturers into removing his ring, whereupon the Silver Plague is released. [m] NECROMANCY IN NAAT. (WT 1936) Zothique. Yadar, shipwrecked off the notorious island of Naat, is rescued from the sea by an animated corpse controlled by three magicians, Vacharn and his two sons. The corpse happens to be Yadar's drowned sweetheart. The magicians maintain an easy life with enslaved animated corpses, but Vacharn must offer a living man to his familiar demon once a month. Yadar is to be the next victim. The magicians quarrel and Yadar is killed in the melee, but he is reanimated to serve in a shadowy love along with his sweetheart, long after all the magfcians are dead. [n] XEETHRA. (WT 1934) Zothique. The goatherd Xeethra wanders into one of Thasaidon's deceptive hells and eats the fruit there. This awakens him to his previous incarnation, as King Amero of Calyz. He goes to seek his kingdom, but discovers only centuries-old ruins in the desert. Thasaidon offers to restore Calyz in exchange·for Xeethra's soul, but the bond is to be forfeit if Amero regrets the deed. [0] THE FLOWER-WOMEN. (WT 1935) Sequel to [a], on a planet near Xiccarph. Maal Dweb is bored, but examining his magical orrery, he sees an interesting situation on another planet. Divesting himself of all but the simplest magical protections, he battles lizard sorcerers that might have become a danger to him had they continued to advance in their art. Also vampiric plant-women. [p] THE DEMON OF THE FLOWER. (ASTOUNDING STORIES, 1933) On the planet Lophai the Voorqual, a demonic flower that lives on human sacrifices, must be appeased. Lunithi, to save the woman he loves, plans to destroy the Voorqual and enlists the aid of another demon. He is successful, but the result is worse than before. [q] THE PLANET OF THE DEAD. (WT 1932) Francis Melchior leads a double life, as an antique dealer on earth, and as the poet Antarion on a planet whose sun is doomed. Dunsanean. [r] THE GORGON. (WT 1932) The old man offers the narrator a mirror glimpse of the gorgon's head. The studio is filled with statuary. [s] THE HUNTERS FROM BEYOND. (STRANGE TALES, 1932) Cousin Cyprian sculpts horrors based on demonic entities that he evokes. They make off with his model and return her soulless. [t] THE TREADER OF THE DUST. (WT 1935) Quachil Uttaus is the utmost dissolver, turning body to dust and soul nothing. Few mages are hardy enough to summon him, but he often comes of his own accord. * Best stories are [d], [1], [m], which may well be Smith's three best weird stories. * The remaining stories are science-fiction, occasionally with weird motifs.

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SMITH, CLARK ASHTON 1486. GENIUS LOCI AND OTHER TALES Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1948 Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] THE WILLOW LANDSCAPE. * Also [b] GENIUS LOCI. (WT 1933) There is something odd about the old Chapman place, particularly the filthy pool in the mead. The artist catches this mood, and it is as if a horrible face peers from his landscapes. The pool and its inhabitants have an attraction that cannot be resisted, even by the narrator. [cl THE NINTH SKELETON. (WT 1928) The narrator, waiting in a graveyard for his friend Guenevere, sees the graves disgorge a succession of skeletons, each of which holds a skeleton baby. The ninth, without a baby, approaches him and solicits him. Love and dea~h. [d] THE PHANTOMS OF THE FIRE. (WT 1930) Jonas McGillicuddy, who deserted his wife and children during the Depression, returns to their shack and sees them for a moment, then is overcome by a blast of heat. The house disappears, and he learns that his family died in a fire days before. [e] THE PRIMAL CITY. (THE FANTASY FAN, 1934) Andes. The explorers, trying to reach the peak on which stand the ruins of the primal city, are dissolved by supernatural cloud-like beings. [fj THE DISINTERMENT OF VENUS. (WT 1934) Averoigne. The monks disinter a Roman statue of Venus, whose sexual influence disrupts the monastery. [g] THE COLOSSUS OF YLOURGNE. (WT 1934) Averoigne. The infamous sorcerer Nathaire has a grudge against the people of Vyones. He leaves the city secretly and sets up operations in the deserted castle of Ylourgne. From all around, corpses leaves their graves and march toward the castle. Gaspard du Nord, a former pupil of Nathaire's, has reuounced evil and is concerned at what is going on. He spies on Nathaire, is captured, and learns what the dying Nathaire is doing. With the aid of his pupils and demons, he is assembling from the corpses a hundred-foot-high giant, which he plans to animate with his own soul. Gaspard escapes, defeating the giant as it is about to to lay Vyones waste. [h] THE SATYR. (WT 1931) Averoigne. The wife of Comte Raoul is committing adultery with a young poet. As the count watches, she is seized and carried off by a satyr. [i] THE GARDEN OF ADOMPHA. (WT 1938) Probably Zothique. King Adompha and his court magician Dwerulas maintain a magic garden in which Dwerulas creates monstrosities out of parts of Adompha's discarded harem and various plants. At the moment Dweru.las is grafting the hands of Thuloneah onto a plant, since Adompha liked the way Thuloneah used her hands in the act of love. On an inexplicable impulse Adompha kills Dwerulas, but his turn comes when he is trapped in the garden, caressed by the hands of Thuloneah and torn by the other plants, led by a.n emergent Dwerulas. [j] THE CHARNEL GOD. (WT 1934) Probably Zothique. In the city of Zul-Bha-Sair the dead are the property of the god Mordiggian and his priests •. This situation affects the traveller Phoriom, whose wife

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lies in a cataleptic trance, and the magician Abnon-Tha, who plans to steal a reanimated young woman. The god takes a hand. Also ghouls. [k] THE BLACK ABBOT OF PUTHUUM. [WT 1936) Probably Zothique. Two soldiers and a eunuch who are escorting a girl to the harem of the king have the r;,isfortune to accept the hospitality of Ujuk, Black Abbot of Puthuum. As is revealed, he is the son of a demon and a sorcerer whose living skeleton lies imprisoned in the vaults. [1] THE WEAVER IN THE VAULT. (WT 1934) Ccrpse-eating spiderlike monster in a tomb. Probably Zothique. 'k Best stories are [c], [d], which is wellhandled i f trite in theme, and Ul. Some of the other stories are derivative * Also present are three sci.ence-fiction stories, two of which have points of interest: "The Eternal World," a world of essences beyond time, and ;;A Star-Change," altered senses and modes of experience. If crude in development, unusual in ideA.. 1487. THE ABOMINATIONS OF YONDO Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1960. Short stories, including, described elsewhere, La] THE DEVOTEE OF EVIL. [b] THE WHITE SIBYL. lc] THE VOYAGE OF KING EUVORAN. * Also [d] THE NAMELESS OFFSPRING. (STRANGE TALES, 1932) Lady Agatha Tremoth was buried alive and was rescued by a white "thing" that disappeared. Nine months later she bore a monstrous child. Now, twenty-years later, when Sir John Tremoth dies, the ghoul-like offspring breaks loose. le] THE WITCHCRAFT OF ULUA. (WT 1934) Zothique. The youth Amalzain goes to the corrupt court of Famorgh as cupbearer. His sorcerer uncle gives him a token to preserve him from the wiles of the lecherous princess Ulua. It works, but is powerless against foul sendings. The land is destroyed for its evil. [f] THE EPIPHANY OF DEATH. (WT 1942) Alternate title, WHO ARE THE LIVING? Probably Zothique. Tomeron tells Theolus that the time has come for a revelation. He takes Theolus into the vaults, then asks him to leave for a short time. When Theolus returns, he finds a longdead corpse, presumably animated by Tomeron's spirit. 19] A VINTAGE FROM ATLANTIS. (WT 1933) The buccaneers of the Black Falcon find a strange earthenware jar which is identified as from Atlantis. The buccaneers drink the wine in the jar, see visions of lost Atlantis, and are drawn irresistibly away. [h] THE ABOMINATIONS OF YONDO. (OVERLAND MONTHLY, 1926) The narrator, whose speech has profoundly offended the priests of Ong, is first tortured, then released into the desert of Yondo, which makes the tortures seem pleasant. [i] THE ICE-DEMON. (WT 1933») King Haalor and the wizard Ommum-Vog declared war on the polar ice and were defeated. Their frozen forms are still to be seen in an icy cavern. Generations later Quanga the hunter and two jewellers determine to raid the frozen corpses. But the glaciation is a living thing, and none escapes. Hyperborea. [j] THE MASTER OF THE CRABS. (WT 1948) Zothique. Mior Lumivix and his assistant determine to acquire the treasure of Omvor,

SMITH, CLARK ASHTON but the hostile wizard Sarcand has been there before them. He has acquired power over the sea and its denizens through a ring that he has found. [k] THE ENCHANTRESS OF SYLAIRE. (T.JT 1941) Averoigne. Anse lme pas ses through the dolmens with the enchantress Sephora, into an other-world, where they make love. Also present is a previous lover, the werewolf Malachie, who can assume human form at times. He warns Anselme, but Anselme prefers love to knowledge, refusing to see Sephora's true appearance in a mirror. More obviously in imitation of Cabell than is usual with Smith. [1] THE THIRD EPISODE OF VATHEK. THE STORY OF THE PRINCESS ZULKAIS AND THE PRINCE KALILAH. (LEAVES, 1937) This is Smith's continuation and conclusion of William Beckford's unfinished narrative from THE EPISODES OF VATHEK. Kalilah dies, and Zulkais, to revive him, pledges fealty to Eblis. Smith's continuation, which begins on page 212, with "Muffled hissings appeared. "is unremarkable, and does not capture either the mood or the imagination of the original. * A weak collection. 1488. TALES OF SCIENCE AND SORCERY Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1964 An excellent memoir by E. Hoffmann Price. Mostly science-fiction, but including [a] THE MAKER OF GARGOYLES. (WT 1932) Averoigne. Master Stone Carver Reynard's gargoyles are horrible to see. They come alive and several deaths resuIt. [b] MOTHER OF TOADS. (WT 1938) Averoigne. Mere Antoinette, an old witch, develops a passion for young Pierre, the apothecary's apprentice. She transforms herself into a beautiful young woman, but Pierre sees her true form and tries to escape from her. Hordes of frogs and toads hold him back, and he discovers, the hard way, that she is a gigantic toad. [c] THE TOMB-SPAWN. (WT 1934) Zothique. The tomb of Ossaru contains treasures, also the body of Nioth Korghai, a monster from the stars. Two thieves penetrate the tomb. ld] SCHIZOID CREATOR. (FANTASY FICTION, 1953) The demon Bifrons is evoked by Dr. Moreno (presumably cryptomnesia on Smith's part), who wants to cure the demon's "schizophrenia" by shock treatment. The demon pretends to be cured and to have become angelic, but reports back to the Devil-who is also God. [e] SYMPOSIUM OF THE GORGON. (FANTASTIC UNIVERSE, 1958) The narrator is present in the hall of the gorgons when Perseus arrives and kills Medusa. The narrator receives a chill from Medusa's glance, but seems otherwise unaffected. Pegasus drops him off on a tropical isle, peopled with cannibals. The narrator then learns that he has immunity to heat. [f] THE THEFT OF THE THIRTY-NINE GIRDLES. (SATURN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY, 1958) Alternate title, THE POWDER OF HYPERBOREA. The master thief Satampra plans to steal the gold, jewel-encrusted chastity belts of the temple prostitutes. In exchange he receives a magical powder. [g] MORTHYLLA. (WT 1953) Zothique. Belzain the poet, jaded with love, decides to try the charms of a lamia. He finds Morthylla, with whom he falls in love, but learns that she is an impostor. He has a sec-

SMITH, CLARK ASHTON ond chance with the real M3rthylla. * By and large afterthoughts and leftovers. 1489. OTHER DIMENSIONS Arkham House; Sauk City; Wisc. 1970 Short stories, including [a] THE NECRO~~NTIC TALE. (WT 1931) When Sir Roderick Hagdon assumes the ancestral title and lands, he becomes curious about his early 17th century ancestors Roderick and Elinore, who are slighted in the records. He finds a manuscript account of their being burned as witches. This find opens a passage through time for both Rodericks to merge, and for the 17th century Hagdon to escape the pyre. [b] THE RESURRECTIO~ OF THE RATTLESNAKE. (WT 1931) The stuffed snake comes to life for a moment. [c] THE SUPERNUMERARY CORPSE. (WT 1932) The narrator poisons Trilt, but Trilt's wife reports that Trilt died at horne at the same time. There is an extra corpse which is incorruptible and indestructible. [d] THE MANDRAKES. (WT 1933) Averoigne. When sorcerer Gilles Grenier murders his shrewish wife and buries her among the wtld mandrakes, the roots assume her form, and one of them, kept in his house, can utter shrill sQunds. Love potions made from them cause hatred. [e] THIRTEEN PHANTASMS. (FANTASY FAN, 1936) As Alvington lies dying, he protests that he has been true to dead Elspeth, but thirteen phantasms, in her likeness, testify to other women. [of] AN OFFERING TO THE MOON. (WT 1953) Marquesas. What begins as an archeological investigation ends as a journey into the past. Moon worship in Mu. [g] MONSTERS IN THE NIGHT. (MFSF 1954) Alternate title, A PROPHECY OF MONSTERS. In the 21st century werewolves and vampires still survive, protected by scepticism. A werewolf has the misfortune to attack a humanoid robot. [h] THE GHOST OF MOHAMMED DIN. (OVERLAND MONTHLY, 1910) India. I t reveals its murderer. [i] A TALE OF SIR JOHN MAIDIDEVILLE. (FANTASY FAN, 1933) Alternate title, THE KINGDOM OF THE WORM. Sir John wanders off his route and is captured by gigantic muffled figures who are ruled by a hypertrophied corpse worm. [j] THE GHOUL. (FANTASY FAN, 1934) During the days of the Caliph Vathek. NQureddin is captured after a series of atrocious murders. His explanation: to save the corpse of his beloved Amina from a ghoul, he agreed to supply the ghoul with eight meals. * Inferior work, gathered to complete Smith's corpus. SMITH, LADY ELEANOR [FURNEAUX] (1902-1945) British writer, daughter of first Earl of Birkenhead. Society reporter and film critic for various London newspapers. Claimed Gipsy ancestry; an enthusiast for Gipsy culture in England. Best-known work, in America, FLAMENCO (1931) 1490. SATAN'S CIRCUS AND OTHER STORIES Gollancz; London 1932 Short stories, including [a] SATAN'S CIRCUS. The Circus Brandt, which is a fine professional organization, is regarded with horror and fear by performers, none of whom stay with it long. The reason: the Brandts, who are vam-

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SMITH, MRS. J. GREGORY piric. The story describes the sad fate of an Alsatian deserter from the French Foreign Legion. [b] MRS. RAEBURN'S WAXWORK. The new guard at the mwax museum sees and talks to an evil old lady. It is the soul of the notorious Mrs. Raeburn, who was executed. [c] CANDLELIGHT. The Gipsy woman, who had been lurking in the shrubbery, gives readings and predictions that are all too true. Rottenness. [d] LYCEUM. Ashford, a dramatist, notices the beautiful woman and the vicious-looking old man in an opposite box at the theatre. The woman sends him a note; he takes her away in a taxi, while she tells him of a murder. Actually she, the victim, the murderer are characters in search of a dramatist to give them renewed life. [e] WHITTINGTON'S CAT. Martin, who is writing a book on pantomime, attends the theatre frequently. The cat leaves the stage and accompanies him home, soon taking over his life. What was it? An elemental? Delusion? [e] TAMAR. Balkans. The Devil meets Tamar, a Gipsy woman, and tells her that he will take her to wife, since she is the wickedest woman he knows. Tamar poisons him, but the Devil is still with her. [g] THE BROTHERS. The Brothers Konsky, acrobats. Sympathy beyond normality. Capable, interesting stories. 1491. LOVERS' MEETING Hutchinson; London 1940 Egotism and love, with probably more than a hint from Dunne's AN EXPERIMENT WITH TIME. * The supernatural rationale of the novel is an ancient book of spells which permits travel in time. In a prologue set in 1812, a young Englishwoman, Lady Harriet Vane, and her would-be lover, George Taylor, a tutor in her family, use the spell, hoping that it will free them from the social bonds that prohibit their love. This, though a minor episode, opens a channel to their future. * Venice and England, 1934-8. When Lord George Barradale meets Captain Sholto Forest and his young daughter Martina in Venice, he knows that the captain is an adventurer and probably a scalawag, but finds him amusing. The entertainment is worth £150. The episode is almost forgotten three years later when Barradale is married and living in England. His marriage is not entirely happy. He believes, with some reason, that his wife and his father have been trying to govern his life, and since he is somewhat selfish and egotistical, he cannot forgive his wife, even though she has come to respect his wishes. Thus, when he encounters Forest and Martina in London acting as card sharks, it is no surprise that he and Martina fall in love. Barradale's wife will not give him a divorce; his father cuts off his funds; and George and Martina run off to one of his estates. He knows of the book of spells and uses it. * They awaken in 1812 with their social positions reversed. Martina is now Harriet Vane, and George is Taylor the tutor. They retain their 20th century memories, but there are odd gaps and weaknesses. Under the social circumstances of 1812 their romance is ham-

*

SMITH, LADY ELEANOR pered, especially since the Vane family is aware of a previous escapade between the true Harriet Vane and the true Taylor. George hates 1812, but Martina enjoys the luxury and is unwilling to leave immediately via the magical book. Life becomes complex. During a drunken carousal George reveals too much about the future, and is regarded with suspicion, the more ignorant considering him either Satan or a Satanist. Harriet, who is considered a spoiled virgin, has limited marriage options, and her family is trying to force her into an unwanted marriage for money. George and Martina agree to leave, but circumstances are against them. Part of their plan is overheard. George is ignominiously expelled from the estate, while Martina is held captive by her brother and her would-be husband. George does not know that Martina is unable to meet him and assumes that she is still reluctant to leave the period. He returns alone to the 1930's, and after a breakdown makes peace with his wife. His egotism shuts out a pitiful attempt by Martina to rejoin him after she died in the Regency period. * There are also repeated patterns in time and examples of reincarnation. * While the time mechanism is fudged and the Barrie-like dramatic structure is somewhat unnecessary, the personalities are well handled, as are the excellent coriversation and period detail. A relief from the usual sugary romances of this sort. SMITH, MRS. J. GREGORY (nee BRAINARD, ANN ELIZA) (1818-1905) American (New England) author. Best-known work, apart from ATLA, NOTES OF TRAVEL IN MEXICO AND CALIFORNIA (1886). 1492. SEOLA Lee and Shepard; Boston; C. T. Dillingham, New York 1878 (published anonymously) A strange potpourri of the Bible, Hinduism, and fantasy. * In a mountain of Syria is found a tomb, within which is a large amethyst cylinder. It contains a manuscript, the journal of Seola, the wife of Japhet, the son of Noah. In the days before the Flood, the earth was ruled by Lucifer and other fallen angels, whom Mrs. Smith terms devas. Lucifer's capital is Sippara, an incredible, magical Oriental city. The fallen angels lust after the daughters of men, and Lucifer, after killing Seola's father, persuades the widow .to marry him. Similarly, Hesperus, Lucifer's rival in power, falls in love with Seola and wants to marry her. Seola rejects him, but her virtue converts Hesperus back to allegiance to God. After a fair amount of miscellaneous supernaturalism, the devas war against Heaven and are crushed. Seola meets Noah, who has been working on his ark for the past century, marries Japhet, and the events of the Biblical Flood take place. Seola dies about 700 years later. * A curious work. 1493. ATLA A STORY OF THE LOST ISLAND Harper; New York 1886

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SMITH, THORNE Romance against a pseudo-historical background. One of the outgrowths of Ignatius Donnelly's ATLANTIS, THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD, upon which it is frankly built. * The Kingdom of Atlantis is ruled by King Kron, who has a beautiful and pleasant daughter, Astera, and a scheming brother, Thalok. Other characters are Atla (a beautiful blond girl of Viking parentage; her mother was saved from shipwreck, but died almost immediately in childbirth); Prince Herakla of Phoenicia (he visits Atlantis and falls in love with Atla); Prince Zemar (an honest youth, son of the wicked Thalok). With the aid of a sorceress Thalok murders Kron and usurps the throne. Earthquakes strike the land, which sinks beneath the sea. Zemar and Astera flee to New Atlantis (presumably Yucatan) and set up a new kingdom; Herakla and Atla flee to Phoenicia. All the villains die. * Supernatural elements include visions, a magical opal, and a Theosophical philosophy of history expounded at the end of the novel. The style is imitation Biblical. * A curiosity only. SMITH, [JAMES] THORNE [JR] (1893-1934) American author, son of Commodore James Thorne Smith; born at U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis. First achieved fame during World War I with series BILTMORE OSWALD in service paper, later in book form. In later life humorous novelist, writer for motion pictures. Best-known for TOPPER and TOPPER TAKES A TRIP, which became patterning works for a particular type of topical fantasy and also were sources for series of films and television programs. Significant in cultural history for voicing (in dionysiac fashion) both the dissatisfactions of Depression and Prohibition America and the disillusionment and despair of the middle-aged American male. Remedy suggested for all evils is a modern version of wine, women, and song. Work very uneven. Some novels both amusing and thought-provoking, others obviously hastily thrown together for commercial reasons. Despite erratic artistry, a man who saw problems and had something to say. It is an error to categorize him as would-be soft porn of the 1930's. 1494. TOPPER AN IMPOSSIBLE ADVENTURE McBride; New York 1926 Male liberation of the roaring twenties. * Cosmo Topper, commuting banker resident in New Jersey, lives in marital and suburban boredom, and is, in general, a good man going to waste. He is taken in hand by a group of immoral ghosts who introduce him to speed, alcohol, and sexual freedom. The ghosts include Marion Kerby, who insists that "until death do you part" is meant literally, and her jealous husband, who takes the opposite point of view. Topper first meets them when he buys their old car , in which they had been killed while driving drunkenly. With them he engages in riotous escapades, which culminate in his leaving horne with Marion Kerby for an extended vacation upstate. There they meet other, similarly depraved ghosts-- Colonel Scott and his

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and their semi-invisible dog Oscar. Oscar, who has not quite gotten the hang of materialization, usually manifests himself in fractions, rear half first. The adventure ends much as it began. Topper crashes his car into the same tree that had killed the Kerbys. When he recovers, he is willing to return home, although his life will now be enhanced by memories of his former freedom. Marion Kerby, too, leaves, evolving into a higher sphere of existence. * Better and more significant than it is usually rated. While S~ith's later works sometimes degenerated into slackly written slapstick, TOPPER is relatively tightly written, humorous rather than titillating, thought-provoking, and even a little pathetic. 1495. DREAM'S END M::Bride; N,=w York 1927 Not the usual raucous, bawdy humor, but a sentimental romance mixed with heavy, literal eroticism. A somewhat weak young man finds himself torn between two loves, sacred and profane. One cannot say that he is trapped, since he yields to profane only once, even though the woman in question habitually wanders about nude and throws herself at him regularly. * D3vid L3ndor, repressed young poet, goes to a seashore settlement to stay with an elderly artist friend. The artist is painting a new Maja, and Scarlet, his model, can only be called lascivious, malicious, and teasing. She sets her cap at Landor, but Landor falls in love with Hilda, the wife of one of the neighbors. Hilda is a somewhat ethereal woman who has accepted her drunken husband's abuse for several years. She reciprocates Landor's love in a lukewarm way. A supernatural element enters when an abnormal empathy develops between them during Landor's dreams. Hilda's husband rapes her; she leaves him and dies-- Landor knowing this through their paranormal sympathy. * Twenty years later Landor returns to the area. Old memories arise, he senses Hilda's presence, and as he dies, finds her with him. * A wasted effort. The humorist occasionally tries to emerge, but is immediately repressed. 1496. THE STRAY LAMB Cosmopolitan Book Corp.; New York 1929 P2rsonality release. * Mr. Lamb, a middleaged inv~stment banker, although a man with much potential, has settled in a rut with a stodgy life style and an adulterous wife. He obtains a certain amount of sympathy from his liberated daughter, but he needs a strong external impulse. This comes from two sources, Sandra, an underwear model who is his daughter's friend, and a little russet man who is a pixie of some sort. Sandra persistently tries to seduce him, while the little man offers him transformations for new experiences. Lamb, at will, successively becomes a horse, a seagull, a kangaroo, a goldfish, a dog, a cat, a lion, and a composite beast. The last monster is too much for the local citizenry, and Lamb is stoned and left for dead. When he revives, the little man explains that Lamb has now been delivered from the curse of respectability. * Alcohol and courtroom confrontations, without the verbal panache of Smith's better books.

*

SMITH, THORNE 1497. THE NIGHT LIFE OF THE GODS Doubleday, Doran; Garden City, N. Y. 1931 Fantastic humor. Freedom through alcohol, sex, and riot. * Hunter Hawk, wealthy but repressed inventor, discovers two rays. One will turn flesh into marble; the other will reverse the process. While on a drunken spree, he meets Meg (short for Megaera), a descendant of the Greek Furies, who has the complementary magical secret of turning statues into human beings. Meg, who is wildly uninhibited, decides to awaken Hawk, and takes up with him. After a small initial resistance, Hawk succumbs to her charms and his own impulses, and the two embark on wild riotous actions involving petrifying local suburbanites, harassing the police, and disrupting courtrooms. Meg and Hawk invade the Metropolitan Museum and release several Greek gods and demigods (including Perseus with the Gorgon's head), and the whole company goes on a seemingly endless binge and sex frolic. After a time, however, the raucous uproar becomes tiresome to even the Olympians and they are willing to be returned to the state of statues. Hawk and Meg, too, decide that life is more than they can cope with, and Hawk's last action is to petrify them both in the act of love, in the Metropolitan Museum. * Padded and formula, but with some very amusing moments. 1498. TURNABOUT Doubleday, Doran; Garden City, N. Y. 1931 Sex roles and self-realization. * Tim and Sally Willows are a typical modern couple of the jazz age: disoriented, unfulfilled, unhappy in some vague way that works itself out in perpetual quarrels and bickering. Each thinks that the other has a sinecure, while he or she is enslaved. And each has a problem with sexual desires. Listening to the perpetual warfare is Mr. Ram, an Ancient Egyptian idol, whom both Willows are fond of. Ram decides to take a hand. One morning Tim and Sally awaken in interchanged bodies. After moments of horror and despair, they decide to continue their daily routine. Sally-in-Tim goes to work, to the ad agency where Tim is a copywriter, and Tim-in-Sally stays at home with the bottle. * The situation established, Smith now plays on all the aspects of transvestism and homosexuality permissible in the 1930's. An attempted seduction of Tim-in-Sally; the drunken escapades of Sally-in-Tim with a client; an orgified church supper, and similar adventures culminate in the discovery that Tim-in-Sally is pregnant and in the final destruction of a would-be lecher. * Perhaps the most amusing horseplay in Smith's fantasies. 1499. TOPPER TAKES A TRIP Doubleday, Doran; Garden City, N. Y. 1932 Sequel to TOPPER. * Topper, now retired, and his wife have rented a villa on the Riviera. Marital life has deteriorated again, and Topper looks back with longing on his escapades with Marion Kerby and the other ghosts. It is no surprise, therefore, when the ghosts reappear and the antics begin again. Marion, it

SMITH, THORNE seems, was unfit for life on a higher plane and and was sent back to earth, while there never was any question of evolution for her husband, Col. Scott, and Scott's mistress. The story progresses through cartoon-strip Frenchmen, "English as she is spoke," bathing beach antics, lechery, boozing, troubles with the police, but without the charm of the first book. 1500. SKIN AND BONES Doubleday, Doran; Garden City, N. Y. 1933 Fantastic humor. * Quintus Bland, a photographer, accidentally mixes up a batch of chemicals which react with the alcohol normally in his system and transform him into a skeleton. He is not simply transparent; his flesh is no longer present, although-- as a mystery-- he can still drink large quantities of whiskey. His condition is not permanent, and he shifts back and forth from a normal flesh body to a skeleton. This is the idea behind adventures which involve a drunken undertaker, a coffin, a beard, sexually jealous gangsters, and finally a lynch mob. Bland's dog, too, is affected. * Improbable slapstick, but often very amusing. 1501. THE GLORIOUS PQQL Doubleday, Doran; Garden City, N. Y. 1934 Rejuvenation via sex and alcohol. * Rex (60 years old) and Spray, his mistress, who is a little younger, are comfortable, but mildly dissatisfied in their old age. Somewhat outside the situation is Sue, Rex's wife. In Spray's garden stands a statue of a voluptuous woman, which Rex refers to as Baggage, because of its obvious loose morality. Baggage comes to life and leaps into the garden pool, thereby charging it with the power to restore youth. Typical escapades follow, including involvement with the fire department and a hook and ladder, as Rex, Spray, and Sue make use of the pool. A second plunge in the pool turns Rex temporarily into a baby. As the book ends, Rex has two beautiful young women and has discovered that he will be able to face old age better when it returns. * Some good verbal plays, which Smith milks, but the best thing in the book is the Japanese fairytale on page 50ff. WITH MATSON, NORMAN: 1502. THE PASSIONATE WITCH Doubleday, Doran; Garden City, N. Y. 1941 When Smith died in 1934, he left the present work in partial manuscript, which was finished by Norman Matson. Although no exact information is available, it seems likely that Smith wrote large sections of copy, but that Matson finished the work. The book is unusual in associating sexuality with evil, the opposite point of view from the earlier books. One might guess that this is Matson's contribution. * T. Wallace Wooly, Jr., a prosperous, middleaged businessman, is a somewhat pompous and puritanical widower who has not had much fun out of life. He becomes prey to Jennifer Broome, a witch who is well-endowed, both physically and magically. Wooly is under some sort of glamour and marries her, but he gradually recognizes that she is a witch. Among

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SNOW, JACK other things, she would ride a goat, nude, into the orchard nights, and converse with a limping man. They have a bitter quarrel. Jennifer works evil magic around the town, but is killed by a falling cross from a church that she had magically fired. Before her death, however, she had placed on Wooly the curse of hearing, which means that willy-nilly he hears the thoughts of those around him. His only way of evading the curse is by getting drunk, which temporarily suspends it. At Jennifer's death the curse stops for a time, then returns, and Wooly discovers that Jennifer has reincarnated herself into his riding horse. She is as malicious as ever and seems inescapable, until she falls into a street excavation and impales herself. This fulfills the classic requirements of staking at a crossroads. Wooly is now free to marry his secretary. * Essentially a horror plot bedizened with court scenes, erotic titillation, and double-entendres. * Rather limp. This volume and its sequel by Matson alone (BATS IN THE BELFRY) were the source for the motion picture I MARRIED A WITCH. SNOW, JACK (1907- 1957?) American journalist, radio figure, remembered for several excellent sequels to L. Frank Baum's Oz books. Much more at home in children's fantasy than in adult works. 1503. DARK MUSIC AND OTHER SPECTRAL TALES Herald Publishing Co.; New York 1947 Short stories. [a] DARK MUSIC. Borderline supernatural. The narrator has become acquainted with an eccentric old hermit who uses the forces of nature to create his own macabre music: small whistles inserted in the throats of bats. Old Aaron conducts his musical bats in a horrible, evil symphony. [b] CORONATION. On the 75th anniversary of her coronation, the aged queen reenacts the original ceremony. But always in front of her is a little girl-- herself as of 75 years earlier. [c] THE ANCHOR. Ailil anchors his cabin cruiser and suddenly sees a beautiful young woman sitting in his boat. She is gone at dawn. When Ailil raises his anchor, he finds her remains. [d] "THE PENHALE BROADCAST." The ghost of the great singer Sonya Parrish sings from the graveyard. [e] THE MONARCH. Old blind Nahum, musician, plays before the monarch in the castle. He is really playing to Death. [f] SEED. (WT 1946) Borderline science-fiction. Woman explorer Myra Bradshaw lies dying, and doctors cannot identify her illness. She reveals it. In an obscure African tribe, a maiden is chosen to swallow the seed of a sacred plant. It sprouts and grows through her body, killing her. Myra swallowed the unique seed. [g] "THE ROPE." When Nicholas Carter saves the life of an Indian yogi, he asks as a reward the secret of the rope trick. He climbs the rope into a weird land. [h] FAULTY VISION. Mavis and her mother move around George, but he is spectreblind. [i] NIGHT WINGS. (WT 1927) Nerle soars and flies from the tower, but next morning his broken body is found at the foot of the tower.

SNOW, JACK [j] THE DIMENSION OF TERROR. Setting foot on the new island in the lake precipitates one into a horrible, alien desert. Little twisting abominations gradually eat one. [k] POISON. (WT 1925) Crispin poisons himself with prussic acid and departs to a heavenly meadow. But there was no poison. [1] "LET'S PLAY HOUSE." Miniaturization. Two children, who love a doll house, die of diphtheria. They are seen playing in the tiny house. [m] THE CHINA TEA CUP. When Deeping fills the cup with liquid, the face of a beautiful woman is to be seen in the cup. "You have swallowed my soul," she says, when he has drunk the tea. He joins her in teacup land. [n] BUSINESS HOURS. Johnny, a bum, is invited in by an antique dealer and is permitted to experience the pleasures of life, meted out by clock. He is found dead the next morning. [0] THE DICTATOR. The great dictator, staring at a map, finds himself reduced in size and in a strange land. Coming toward him like an automaton is the animated desk ornament of a storm trooper, with bayonet. [p] THE MOUNTAIN. Cabin on a mountain. The men have a feeling that the mountain is trying to tell them something. It is warning them to leave the cabin: avalanche. [q] THE SUPER ALKALOID. It increases blood flow to certain brain cells, permitting wonderful romances and visions. The narrator undertakes a trip to China, but finds that the drug has physical effects. [r] MIDNIGHT. (WT 1946) John Ware, diabolist, performs a ceremony that unites his consciousness with evil. He is trapped in perpetual midnight evil. * Occasionally unusual ideas, not always matched by technique. Dated at times. * Best stories are [j] and [n]. SOANE, GEORGE (1790-1860) British literary figure. Translator, prolific author of stage works. Best-known work FAUSTUS (1825), with music by H. R. Bishop. Also prepared stage version of UNDINE. Very important in early 19th century popular stage. AS EDITOR AND TRANSLATOR: 1504. SPECIMENS OF GERMAN ROMANCE G. B. Whittaker: London 1826 3 vol. Mostly routine material, but including [a] THE MANTLE, B. Naubert. (DER BEZAUBERTE MANTEL) A fictionalization of the Child ballad about the chastity test that befell the court of King Arthur. A dwarf enters bearing a mantle, which he challenges the women to wear. Only a pure woman can wear it, he says; it will shear when placed on a whore. All the women fail except one. [b] MASTER FLEA, E. T. A. Hoffmann. (MEISTER FLOH, 1822) One of Hoffmann's delightful fairy tale extravaganzas linking fantasy and reality. In the "land" of Famagusta, which is reminiscent of Atlantis in THE GOLDEN POT, the great magical king Sekakis, manifesting himself into phenomenality, loses his identity and becomes incarnated as a human being. His beautiful daughter, the Princess Gamaheh, who has been kissed by the evil Leech Prince, dies of its poison and not

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SOUTHWORTH, E. D. E. N. all the arts of the Genius Thetel or the Thistle Zeherit can revive her. But the devices of the scientists Leeuwenhoek and Swammerdam (secretly aided by the Master Flea) bring her back to a semblance of life and she, too, is incarnated as a human. * On earth in Frankfurt Peregrine Tyss, a wealthy young recluse, breaks into this strange situation when he encounters the fair Princess Gamaheh in the person of Doertje Elverdink, the niece of the microscopist Leeuwenhoek. Leeuwenhoek, although dead for a century and a half, is still alive and active. Tyss meets other persons in this strange drama, chief of whom is the Master Flea, the lord of all fleas, by whose magical arts Leeuwenhoek manages a flea circus. The Master Flea escapes to Tyss, bringing with him a telescope by means of which Tyss can read thoughts. The flea also shows Tyss the true heart of the situation. Eventually the great carbuncle which lies hidden in the heart of Sekakis (and is Sekakis) resumes life. The primal situation in the otherworld is restored. Tyss is revealed to be King Sekakis and he wins a bride. His friend Pepusch is the cactus prince Zeherit, and so on. Among the fine moments in the story are the duel which Leeuwenhoek and Swammerdam conduct with magical projective microscopes, and the insane squabble between the incarnated Leech Prince and the Genius Thetel in an inn. * [a] is trivial. The ballad is better. [b] is one of Hoffmann's finest works, with much whimsy that does not lend itself well to summary. Hoffmann's contemporaries occasionally asked, in bewilderment, whether the story was about fleas, young lovers, or ghosts. The answer is that there is a hidden allegory in which Gamaheh-Doertje stands for passion; another character for love; Pepusch for anger; Leeuwenhoek and Swammerdam for the lower reaches of intellect (Verstand) and the Master Flea for insight or reason (Vernunft). But one certainly need not follow the allegory. SOUTHWORTH, E[MMA] D[OROTHY] E[LIZA] N[EVITTE] (nee NEVITTE) (1818-1899) American author. Washington, D.C. in early career; later Yonkers, New York. Prolific and very popular writer of trashy sentimental fiction for women, often set in the South. Bestknown work probably ISHMAEL. 1505. THE HAUNTED HOMESTEAD: AND OTHER NOUVELLETTES T. B. Peterson; Philadelphia [1860] Short stories, including [a] THE HAUNTED HOMESTEAD. A Christmas visit to the Legare estate at Wolfbrake, Virginia. There is a haunted chamber. The narrator sees a ghostly figure on several evenings, and identifies it with a portrait of one of the former owners of the estate. There is also a door that opens by itself, even after being locked. The door is explained by a visiting Yankee as a matter of mechanics, but the ghost is demolished by simply calling it, without explanation, an optical illusion. This is cheating! [b] THE SPECTRE REVELS. A TALE OF ALL HALLOW'S EVE.

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Aunt Madeleine's ghost story. A haunted cottage. All a practical joke. WITH BADEN, MRS. FRANCES HENSHAW: 1506. THE SPECTRE LOVER T. B. Peterson; Philadelphia 1875 Short stories. O~ly the title story is by Mrs. Southworth, the others being by her sister Mrs. Baden. >~ Including [a] THE SPECTRE LOVER. Reminiscences of a woman, with some reference to Spiritualism. During her childhood the narrator had several horrible experiences with the ghost of an old woman who used to visit her bedside. As an adult, shortly after the Civil War, she is visited by the ghost of a long-forgotten beau. * Negligible. SPECTORSKY, A[UGUSTE] C[OMTE] (1910-1972) American author, editor (French birth), associated with various book publishers. AS EDITm.: 1507. MAN INTO BEAST STRANGE TALES Ol TRANSFORMATION Doubleday; Garden City, N.Y. 1947 A theme anthDlogy, transformation into other forms of life. * Described elsewhere, [a] THE ADVENTURES OF PROFESSOR EMMETT, Ben Hecht. Ant. [b] GREEN THOUGHTS, John Collier. Orchid. [c] MR. SYCAMORE, Robert Ayre. Tree. [d] LAURA, Saki. Otter. [e] THE MONKEY, Isak Dinesen. Monkey. [f] THE KING OF THE CATS, S. V. Bene t • Cat, although, strictly speaking, not a transformation. [g] MR. LIMPET, Theodore Pratt. Fish. [h] THE CYPRIAN CAT, Dorothy Sayers. Cat. [i] TARNHELM, Hugh Walpole. A treacherous, vicious little street cur. * Also [j] METAMORPHOSIS, Franz Kafka. A Czech turns into a cockroach, is rejected by his family, and dies miserably. The point seems to be an absurdist treatment of the limitations of love ani understanding. SPENCE, [JAMES] LEWIS (1874-1955) Scottish antiquarian, fiction writer, author of occult books. Best-known for series of books about Atlantis, in which an attempt was made to adjust classical (Donnelly's) theory of Atlantis to more modern knowledge. Earlier work in folklore fairly reasonable, but in later life wrote extravagantly about magic and occult to?ics. 1508. THE ARCHER IN THE ARRAS AND OTHER TALES OF MYSTERY ~Grant and Murray; Edinburgh [1932] [1932] Short stories, mostly supernatural, including, [a] THE ARCHER IN THE ARRAS. Caught in a storm while wandering in France, a young Briton takes refuge in a chateau owned by a family which had once feuded with his own. He is shot by an archer from a tapestry that hangs in his bedroom. [b] THE GREEN MIRROR. Scotland. An undine uses a mirror to drown her lover. [c] THE HUDART. A Scottish girl with the second sight sees a shadow following her in the future. It is the hudart, a demon evoked against James VI of Scotland. The witch who evoked it made a bond that included her descendants. [d] COCK LOREL'S BOAT. A room in an old Scottish hotel is shaped like a boat. There is a legend, "To Elfame bourne gif ye would flote, then maun ye

SPENCER, R. E. tak' Coke Lorel's bote." The narrator awakens and finds himself in a boat surrounded by elves. [e] HUN-BAATZ. Spain, 16th century. A curse from Yucatan. [f] ENCHANTMENT ON THE UNICORN. After Flodden Field a Scottish ship comes to Yucatan, where a fanatical Lollard member of the crew smashes an idol. The natives, who cherish a jaguar cult, bite him and the ship is thereafter bothered with werewolves. [g] THE GUARDIAN. A Scottish soldier from the American wars is haunted by the guardian spirit of an Indian whom he had sold to the Hessians to be tortured. [h} THE TEMPLE OF THE JAGUARS. A young man in a peyote den is saved by an American girl who had married a local lycanthrope. Theriomorphy is caused by a virus. [i} THE SORCERESS IN STAINED GLASS. A figure in a stained glass window moves. It is a sorceress who used knot magic centuries earlier for controlling winds and wrecking ships. [j} THE CARPET WITH A HUNDRED EYES. Central America. Aztec. It kills the man who killed its owner. [k] THE STAFF OF DOCTOR DOMINGO. A nagual priest kills with a stick shaped like a snake. The stick comes to life, but when it is killed, the nagual dies. [1] THE GHOST IN "HAMLET." A real ghost. [m] THE RED FLASKET. An old Scot, whose life had been preserved by Helmont's alchemy, retains his vitality with the heart blood of virgins. Helmont's ghost breaks his flask. [n} THE SIEGE OF SERGULATH. A haunted chair, elementals, ghosts. [0] THE HORN OF VAPULA. A folklorist is haunted by a demon imprisoned in a mobile stone gargoyle. [p} THE HAME-COMER. An unintelligible tale in Scots that mayor may not be supernatural. [q} THE STANE FINGER. Scots. Supernatural death. [r] MAISTER MUDIE. Scots. A warlock whose soul is in a picture. [s] HIMSEL'. Scots. Christ appears and heals a leper woman. * Uneven. Most of the stories are in the rawhead and bloody bones tradition, but the folkloristic snippets are sometimes interesting. [c] and [d} are best. Some of the other stories should not have been published. SPENCER, R[OBIN] E[DGERTON] (1896-1956) American author, male. Playwright. 1509. THE LADY WHO CAME TO STAY Knopf; New York 1931 Sophisticated ghosts representing modes of emotion. Told in four chronologically separate episodes, probably with stage presentation in mind. * When the widowed Katherine learns that she has a terminal illness, she forgets old grudges for the sake of her small child, Mary, and moves in with her late husband's wealthy old maid sisters. The situation is not altogether pleasant. Phoebe almost immediately takes a pathological dislike to Katherine and Mary, while Milly, who is sly and nasty, tries to corrupt the child. Katherine dies trying to protect Mary, and it seems as if the child is without protection, but when the sisters abuse the child, they find that they must contend with Katherine's ghost. Terror forces Milly to reform, while the ghost kills the horror figure of Phoebe. But now Phoebe's ghost con-

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SPOFFORD, MRS. HARRIET ELIZABETH (nee PRESCOTT) (1835-1921) American (Maine) writer. Frequent contributor to the quality magazines of the 19th century. Author of poetry, fiction, books on household management, similar topics. 1511. SIR ROHAN'S GHOST A ROMANCE J. E. Tilton; Boston 1860 (published anonymously) Retribution; a wicked English baronet, told with the baronet as the center of the story. * Sir Rohan for years has been haunted by a ghost: that of a woman whom he loved, whom he betrayed and (as he thought) killed when he learned she was pregnant. The ghost is almost ever-present with him, and it has the power to manipulate objects. When Rohan falls in love with young Miriam, the adopted daughter of a friend, the situation rapidly changes. The ghost becomes more active, and detective work by a scoundrel (Arundel) uncovers the shameful past. Defying the ghost, Rohan confesses his crime to Miriam, who is his daughter. He is struck dead by the ghost. Perhaps conscience, perhaps something more supernatural. * A standard Victorian situation, but told in a heated, luxuriant prose, with occasional good touches.

Crane, A. B. Houghton, and others. * Including, [a] DEVEREUX'S DREAM, Anonymous. Devereux has a prophetic dream: he is in a railroad carriage and sees a man stabbing a woman. Some years later his wife is stabbed under such circumstances and he vows to find the murderer, whom he identifies with the man of his dream. He does. [b] CATHERINE'S QUEST, Anonymous. After a powerful dream Catherine requests that the dais in the laundry be removed. In it is found a chest with human bones. Catherine had seen the reenactment of murder in the 17th century. [cl AN AMERICAN GHOST, Anonymous. Presumably of American origin. British settlers in Wisconsin, and a triangle. Clapp murders Hosmer in order to have Hosmer's wife. Years later, the ghost strikes him down with the murder axe. [d] HAUNTED, Anonymous. Charleston, South Carolina. A ghost approaches Colonel Demarion and gives him full particulars of its murder. The Colonel is to notify the authorities so that they can capture the culprit. [e] PICHON & SONS, OF THE CROIS ROUSSE, Anonymous. Lyons, the French Revolution. M. de Senanges, an aristocrat, has been entrusted to the Pichons, who are stone masons, for refuge. But the Pichons murder him for his money. His fianc~e sees his death portent. Some time later when the Pichons set up a scaffold near the place where the corpse is hidden, the scaffold collapses supernaturally and they are killed. [f] MRS. BROWN'S GHOST-STORY, Anonymous. Reminiscences about a ghost, told in Cockney dialect. [g] FALCONEST, Anonymous. Linda is married to Mr. Falconer of Falconest. Her close friend Cissie first sees death portents, then Linda's ghost, and eventually finds Linda's murdered corpse beneath the chapel floor. [h] THE PHANTOM FOURTH, Anonymous. On a railroad line in northern France three teetotalers cut loose. But they discover that there is a fourth person present who outdoes them in indulgence and riot. The narrator, whose sympathies are dry, explains it as a projection of their group personality. [i] THE SPIRIT'S WHISPER, Anonymous. The narrator hears a ghostly voice bidding him to follow Captain Cameron. The captain has murdered his wife. Her ghost appears. [j] THE OLD GENTLEMAN'S STORY. Melodramatic. Lady Margaret has pushed her rival Rosamond Price into a well. As Lady Margaret lies dying, the ghost of Rosamond appears to her. Borderline supernatural; perhaps conscience. [kJ DR. FEVERSHAM'S STORY, Anonymous. In the north of England the Collinghams have the equivalent of a banshee, a murdered ancestress who appears, screams, and warns of impending death. The current Miss Collingham also has a good vision of a death taking place elsewhere. * Typical fiction of the day, ranging from low level commercial to quite competent. * [a] and [h] are best.

[ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 1512. A STABLE FOR NIGHTMARES Trusley Brothers; London [1867] A Christmas volume; supernatural and sensational fiction and poetry, illustrations by Walter

[ANONYMOUS ANTHOLOGY] 1513. A STABLE FOR NIGHTMARES OR WEIRD TALES BY J. SHERIDAN LE FANU •• SIR CHARLES YOUNG, BART • • • • AND OTHERS New Amsterdam Book Co.; New York 1896

tinues the feud, and Mary grows up as a battleground between the two ghosts, Phoebe threatening her, Katherine protecting her. Time passes. Mary marries and has a son. Phoebe would like to lure the young people back to the house, so that she can work on the child, but Milly, the last living sister, fights her off. The book ends with all the sisters dead. Evil has not been destroyed, but it has been restrained by the stronger power of good. * Well written and enjoyable. 1510. FELICITA Bobbs-Merrill; Indianapolis and New York [1937] Fictionalization of the death quest. * Malcolm, a writer on aesthetic topics, undertakes to spend several months in a house owned by a friend. He is alone, except for a family of servants. He soon discovers that the house has a bad reputation, for residents waste away and die for no obvious reasons. "Six weeks," says the old butler. Malcolm likes the house and speculates on its past inhabitants, deciding to write a poetic, tender story about one such person. He creates a character, a young woman, who comes into being before his mind's eye; accepts existence; and gradually becomes endowed with personality, history, and life. As they converse, she reveals that she is in love with him, and he falls in love with her. And, like the previous inhabitants of the house, Malcolm wastes away. When he finally accepts Felicita as his lover, he accepts death. * Developed with sensitivity and tenderness.

A STABLE FOR NIGHTMARES A partial reissue of the supernatural fiction from A STABLE FOR NIGHTMARES published in 1867. * [a) DEVEREUX'S DREAM, Anonymous. [b) CATHERINE'S QUEST, Anonymous. [c) HAUNTED, Anonymous. [d) PICHON & SONS, OF THE CROIX ROUSSE, Anonymous. [e) THE PHANTOM FOURTH, Anonymous. [f) THE SPIRIT'S WHISPER, Anonymous. [g) DR. FEVERSHAM'S STORY, Anonymous. * Also [h) DICKON THE DEVIL, J. S. LeFanu. [i) WHAT WAS IT? Fitz-James O'Brien. * Also [j) A DEBT OF HONOR, perhaps by Sir Charles Young. A young man has been swindled out of his inheritance by a murder committed a generation earlier. A missing will. A romance. An aunt's ghost that tells Westcar that the Mere is his; and his father's ghost, who confronts the murderer and forces a confession of the crime. * A nicely produced little book. STAPLEDON, [WILLIAM) OLAF (1886-1950) British educator (University of Liverpool), philosopher, writer. Important author of science-fiction. Major works are LAST AND FIRST MEN (1930), STAR MAKER (1937), ODD JOHN (1935), SIRIUS (1935). Work is characterized by strong social interests, good imagination, somewhat weak novelistic skills. 1514. STAR MAKER Methuen; London 1937 Just as LAST AND FIRST MEN describes the attempt of mankind (in the largest sense) to achieve fulfillment .through evolutionary peaks and slumps, STAR MAKER is the history of intelligence throughout the cosmos and intelligence's quest for ultimate meaning. Since ultimate meaning is quasi-supernatural, STAR MAKER is more readily classed as mystical fiction than as science-fiction. * The narrator, in a cosmic vision, leaves his body on earth and wanders through space and time, visiting and merging with other intelligences. At the beginning of his voyage his receptivity is limited because of his human origin, and his first contact with another intelligence is with a humanoid, the so-called Other Men. His experience deepens and he proceeds through the cosmos meeting and merging with intelligences more and more remote from the human pattern. As he explores space and time with an ever-larger intelligence group, he recognizes that the reconciliation of two opposed needs-- individualism and group consciousness-- occupies the most serious efforts of all intelligence in the cosmos. Vegetable intelligence, non-material intelligence, cycloid intelligence, and most important of all, symbiotic inte lligences, contribute their share to this problem. Finally, a greater problem is approached, the mystical perception of the Star Maker. After experience has been enlarged to include the stars and their strange dance, the intelligences of the galaxies, and finally the pregalactic plasma, the assembled intelligences of the universe pierce reality to meet, in a single blinding moment, the Star Maker Himself. Since He is incomprehensible, little can be said save that as Natura naturans He creates and Himself evolves by creation, and is making or has made many universes. Our present universe is one of His nearly mature at-

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STAPLEDON, OLAF tempts. This mystical meeting over, ending in shock, the intelligences meditate on it. As entropy progresses, the cosmos gradually dies, and the last life consists of strip-like primitive worms crawling about dead giant stars. * While the earlier section on the Other Men contains some misplaced mild satire that disturbs the otherwise almost religious mood of the narrative, STAR MAKER is one of the richest books in fantastic literature. It is much more profound than LAST AND FIRST MEN, and also much more readable. 1515. DARKNESS AND LIGHT Methuen; London 1942 Borderline science-fiction: a future history which is to "give a symbolic expression to two dispositions in conflict in the world," darkness and light. * After World War III the Chinese and Russians control most of the world. The Tibetans, however, remain independent, and in Tibet a new order of lamas, the Servants of Light, emerges. They are able to provide spiritual answers to the problems of the world. * The future bifurcates here. In the first future Tibet plays Russia and China off against each other for a time, but war breaks out, and the Servants of Light are exterminated. The Chinese dominate the world, and it is a horrible place: the unemployed are placed in suspended animation, thought control and recording devices are inserted into the brain, raw materials give out, the sun changes, mankind becomes extinct, and giant rats overrun the world. * In the second future, that of Light, the Tibetans are more aggressive and maintain their independence. The great empires crumble and a Federation of Mankind emerges with a culture of compromise: Tibetan spiritual wisdom combined with American restrained capitalism, handcrafts reconciled with industrialization. A great spiritual attempt is then made to see if the philosophy of Light is in harmony with the universe. Surprisingly enough, it is not. The universe turns out to be a "snowflake trampled by titans," with great and obscure forces confusedly unaware of mankind. The spiritual organizations set a sacred year to battle the titans with spiritual weapons, in order to save all universes, but the project collapses when fearful plagues erupt and the crust of the earth shifts. This is presumably counterattack from the titans. A new human race emerges from the chaos. * Imaginative and insightful, but very dull. 1516. DEATH INTO LIFE Methuen; London 1946 Mysticism in semi-fictional form, based on ideas from STAR MAKER. * During World War II a rear-gunner on a plane is killed over Germany, along with the rest of the crew. His spirit hovers over the war wreckage for a time, and he reviews his past life with increased understanding. As he grows spiritually, he comes into contact with the spirits of his comrades, who are at first repelled by each other's past life, but grow to understanding and acceptance. They merge into a community of spirit and move on, combining with ever larger groups, eventually to include non-humans. * Also much topical reference. * Not as profound as STAR MAKER, but nicely written.

STAPLED ON , OLAF 1517. THE FLAMES Secker and Warburg; London 1947 Nouvelle; borderline science-fiction; Stapledon's usual concerns about socialization and the purpose of the universe. Told as a letter and an epilogue. * On an impulse Cass picks up a stone, brings it home, and places it in his fire grate. A flame-being emerges from the stone and establishes telepathic communication with him. It describes its origin in the sun; its isolation on earth, when a portion of the sun's matter was pulled out to become the planets; and its history on earth. He also overhears the flame-being's conversation with other flame-beings, which can emerge only under great heat. The salamander offers Cass a symbiosis between flames and humans: the flames are to obtain heat, while the humans will be given psychic guidance. Cass is favorable toward the offer until he learns that the flames, aware of his potential at telepathy, had driven him into psychic research and had deliberately destroyed his marriage. Cass reacts with outrage when he learns this, and pours a pitcher of water on the salamander, killing it. The flame had also threatened as the alternative to hu~an cooperation, psychic control into atomic wars and devastation. * In the epilogue, however, Cass is reconciled to the flames and learns of the cosmic quest. He is, of course,· mad. * Nicely told, going far to make the incredible credible. O~Le might criticize the ambivalence of the flames, but this is not important. STARRETT, [CHARLES] VINCENT (1886-1974) American newspaper man (China, Chicago), mystery story writer, bibliomath. In crime fiction important for Jimmy Lavender stories, also for publicizing Chinese detective stories. Often called America's last bookman in the traditional sense. 1518. COFFINS FOR TWO Covici-McGee; Chicago 1924 Short stories, mostly in the Stevensonian Arabian Nights tradition. Including [a] THE ELIXIR OF DEATH. Irony about two undertakers, one of whom prepares an Elixir of Life, the other an Elixir of Death. [b] THE HEAD OF CROMWELL. Cromwell's skull, after he was posthumously hanged, has a life of its own and rolls about England. [c] COFFINS FOR TWO. Irony of fate ends with two ghosts in comradeship. [d] THE PLEASANT MADNESS OF THE FACULTY. A painting by a pupil of Leonardo's has the property of arousing lust. In a school. * The best story is the crime story "The Fugitive." 1519. THE QUICK AND THE DEAD Arkham House; Sauk City, Wisc. 1965 Short stories, including, described elsewhere, [a] THE HEAD OF CROMWELL. [b] PENELOPE. [c] THE ELIXIR OF DEATH. [d] COFFINS FOR TWO. [e] THE QUICK AND THE DEAD. * Also [f] THE SINLESS VILLAGE. Old Traherne visited Heaven when he was clinically dead for a short time, but he refuses to talk about what he experienced. He promised St.--- he would not tell. He dies, and his manuscript is burned, the se-

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cret lost. [g] THE TATTOOED MAN. Ruthven the explorer has.been on Roraima Plateau, which is inhabited by a lost race of Egyptians who have developed magical powers. On his body is tattooed a gigantic snake, which he wants removed. The physician tries to remove it, but without success. But Ruthven is found dead, his body completely clear, and a gigantic snake in the room.

STEAD, CHRISTINA [ELLEN] (19Q2 Australian novelist, sometime resident in Great Britain and the United States. Well regarded critically in the 1930's for intellectually oriented psychological fiction, but never very popular in the U.S.A. 1520. THE SALZBURG TALES Peter Davies; London 1934 A situation like THE DECAMERON. Various persons are assembled at Salzburg for the music festival and tell stories within a framework. Individual stories, which are usually narratives rather than developed, formal short stories, are told in varied styles. * Including [a] DON JUAN IN THE ARENA. The great lover is also a remarkable bull fighter. The bull that causes his death, however, is not an ordinary bull, but an incarnation of the Commendatore. [b] THE GOLD BRIDE. When Carlos's wife Zelis commits suicide to avoid the unwelcome advances of a friend, Carlos has portions of her body inserted in a life-sized golden statue of her. The statue has a life of its own. [c] THE DEATH OF SVEND. Death is seen as a horrible old woman. [d] SILK-SHIRT. The Raeburn picture of the boy. The boy leaves the picture. [e] THE MIRROR. Supernatural properties of a mirror, which is fancifully personalized as Metternich. [f] THE TRISKELION. At times of crisis the living device is seen. [g] THE CENTENARIST'S TALES, III. A version of the legend of Orpheus. Ailu descends to Hell. Before he can return to earth he needs a substitute. [h] THE SENSITIVE GOLDFISH. Goldfish, of Chinese imperial origin, who indicate financial matters to their owner and have other supernatural properties. [i] SAPPHO. The poetess Sappho, in Heaven, looks for Eve, for sexual purposes, but Eve is back on Earth. [j] THE CENTENARIST'S TALES, V. Episodes in the legendary life of Albertus Magnus, the magLcLan. Albertus undertakes the investigation of a series of sex murders. Diabolic. [k] THE CENTENARIST'S TALES, VII. An ancestral doctor wishes his skeleton to be kept by his descendants. Attempts to be rid of it cause supernatural difficulties. * [e] and [h] are best. Many of the non-supernatural tales are superior to those considered above. STEELE, WILBUR DANIEL (1886-1970) American (born in North Carolina) author. Was most highly rated for his short stories, although also wrote novels and plays. Work is usually hard-textured and psychological. 1521. THE MAN WHO SAW THROUGH HEAVEN AND OTHER STORIES Harper; New York 1927 Short stories, including [a] SOOTH. Told by

STEELE, WILBUR DANIEL indirection, through cultural clash. Mathilda, gin-soaked flapper of the Roaring Twenties, is desperate for a new sensation and decides to shoot one of the protected seals out on the reef. Roboam, illiterate young Black roustabout, wanders around the world, perpetually changing his name, trying to escape the fate that Zara the Great foretold for him. Paths cross. * A good story, suggestive of early Faulkner. STEPHENS, JAMES (1882-1950) Irish poet, writer of fiction, cultural figure. Important in attempted reestablishment of Gaelic language in Eire. At his best a very or i- . ginal, whimsical writer. 1522. THE CROCK OF GOLD Macmillan; London 1912 A work with mixed levels of interpretation: satire on aspects of contemporary Ireland, folk humor, admiration for the heroic past of the mythic cycles, and an allegory of freedom and the intellect. * The plot line: In the pine wood called Coilla Doraca there live two philosophers, their wives, and their two children. The philosophers know everything that is to be known on a rational basis, plus much that is not rational, while their shrewish wives are semi-supernatural beings in contact with the ancient nature forces of Ireland. One of the philosophers discovers that there is nothing more to be learned or experienced, and commits suicide magically, his wife following his example. The surviving philosopher buries them under the hearthstone and thinks no more of it. * The main theme of the story begins with a local peasant, whose cat has killed a bird belonging to the leprechauns of Cloca Mora. The leprechauns, in revenge, steal his wife's washboard, and the peasant asks the philosopher for advice. Following the philosopher's instructions, the peasant finds a pot of gold belonging to the leprechauns and makes off with it, burying it under a rowan tree, whence it cannot be recovered by the fairy folk. This incenses the leprechauns against the philosopher. Their first impulse is to kidnap the children, but they decide against this, since the Thin Woman, the philosopher's wife, is a member of the most powerful clan of the Shee. Instead, they inform the police that the philosopher has committed murder and buried the corpses under the hearthstone. The police drag the philosopher off to jail and things look bad, for the philosopher is defenceless against such tactics. But his wife appeals to the god Angus Og, who works his release. The children happen to find the pot of gold and return it to the leprechauns, and the grudge is cancelled. As a secondary plot the god Pan appears in Ireland and runs off with a local young woman. The philosopher invokes the god Angus Og to rescue her. The young woman, asked to choose between Pan and Angus Og, chooses the Irish god, and Pan leaves. * A delightful book. The philosopher's diatribes are most amusing, as are the various characterizations. Told in beautiful Irish English. Angus Og can be forgiven.

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STEPHENS, JAMES 1523. IN THE LAND OF YOUTH Macmillan; London 1924 Three stories from the Old Irish heroic cycles, told in an odd mixture of the ancient noble style and modern pixy-like humor. * This is the world of Irish legendry, where the worlds of the mortals and the Shee (adult-sized Fairies, identified as the Tuatha de Danaan) interpenetrate at certain points (like dimensional worlds in science-fiction). On certain occasions mortals and Shee can move from one world to the other. In both worlds the culture is that of almost Homeric Iron-Age heroism, with ruthlessness, chivalry, intense preoccupation with matters of rank and etiquette, magic, and love. Ireland is still ruled by a high king, and the world of the Shee is similarly organized. The stories are not titled. * [a] [THE TALE OF NERA]. At Samhain the courtiers of Queen Maive and King Ailil of Connacht remain indoors for fear of the wandering Dana, who are free to enter our world on this night. Nera, a brave warrior, is the only man bold enough to venture out, and on what amounts to a dare he agrees to visit a corpse on the gallows. His reward is to be the king's sword. When he reaches the gallows, the corpse begs for a drink of water, and Nera obligingly carries the corpse to water. But when he returns to the king's hall, he discovers that the Shee of King Ethal Anbual have invaded the land and slaughtered the court. For lack of anything better to do Nera accompanies the Shee back to their own world, where the king permits him to live and assigns him a role in life. Nera and a young woman fall in love, and he is happy, but he is bitter at not receiving the sword he had earned. His wife now informs him, to his amazement, that the slaughter in Ireland was all illusion, a projection of Ethal Anbual's mind, a "dress rehearsal" for a raid next year. Nera returns to Ireland, warns Maive and Ailil, receives his sword, and rejoins his wife in the land of the Shee. [b] [THE ROMANCE OF ANGUS OG AND CAER]. A story told by Queen Maive on Nera's return to her court. In the land of the Shee the young god Angus Og is sickening for love, because of a vision of a beautiful young female Shee. The various magicians of the Shee have difficulty in identifying her, but she is finally discovered to be Caer, the daughter of King Ethal Anbual. This poses a problem, since the two Shee clans are hostile. Angus's party turns to mortals for help, and Queen Maive agrees to aid them. In one of the very few mortal victories over the Shee, Maive invades Fairyland, captures Ethal Anbual, and renders the marriage possible. While the raid is forgiven by the Shee, there will be repercussions in Connacht. [cl [THE STORY OF MIDIR AND ETAIN] One of the more familiar stories from Ancient Irish literature. After a very jumpy, semicomic beginning, the classical tale unfolds, but with many variant details. The two wives of the Shee king, Midir, cause problems. Both are in love with Angus Og, and Fuamnach, presumably first wife, em-

STEPHENS, JAMES ploys a magician to wither Etain to almost nothing and blow her out of the land of the Shee. In Ireland she is born again, grows up, and is married to Eochain Airem, the High King of Ireland, who loves her deeply. Since time passes differentially between earth and Fairyland, it is only a matter of minutes before Midir finds her as a woman on earth. He tries to arouse her memories, but fails. His next tactic is to challenge Eochain, who also happens to be chess champion of Ireland, to a match, the winner to name the stakes. After a bad beginning Midir wins and demands Etair as his prize. Eochain yields ungraciously, hoping to withstand Midir (whose identity he does not know), but Midir awakens Etain's memories and they fly off as swans. * The blend of thatched hut coyness, irony, and heroic splendor is jarring, although there are excellent moments. 1524. ETCHED IN MOONLIGHT Macmillan: London 1928 Short stories, including [a] DESIRE. The husband saves a person (perhaps an angel?) from being struck by a car and is offered a single wish. He ponders over the matter and decides to be preserved as he is, at age 48, indefinitely. During the night his wife has a horror dream of the Arctic, caused by her husband's cold corpse. There is only one way to stop time. [b] ETCHED IN MOONLIGHT. A vaguely medieval world experienced in a dream. The narrator is a lover rejected in favor of a friend. While the three of them are walking about in the ruins of an ancient building, he traps the other two in a tower, closing the door on them. The assumption is that they will not be found and will die. He leaves the land and for years suffers from remorse. Years later he returns to the land, and finds his friends alive and happy. They welcome him as if nothing had happened. But on his wedding night they take him for a walk and place him in the same situation. He is trapped. Hours later they return and release him. In neither his case nor the previous case was there any problem: the door did not lock. Obviously allegorical in import. A beautiful handling of dreamy atmosphere. STERLING, JOHN (1806-1844) British journalist, writer; one-time owner of the ATHENAEUM. A member of the Cambridge Apostles. Friend of Coleridge. Subject of a life by Carlyle, who regarded him and his work highly. 1525. ESSAYS AND TALES J. W. Parker; London 1848 2 vol. Miscellaneous material, including [a] THE ONYX RING, a novel. Maturation novel, said to have been in part at least autobiographical and A clef. Arthur Edmondstone, a young lawyer, is unhappy, and exclaims at the impossibility of changing places with others more happy. He happens to be looking at a book of necromancy when h~ makes this point, and on looking up, sees an old man who offers him an onyx ring and what he desired: once a week he can change places with another person, losing the ability if he returns to his own body. For one hour

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STERN, PHILIP VAN DOREN he will have memory of what has happened. Arthur accepts the ring and experiences various personality and occupational types: vulgar, dissolute baronet; solid farmer; adventurous traveller; clergyman; poet; recluse; old man. He finds happiness nowhere, and decides to return to his own body. But it has all been delirium-- although there is an element of saving doubt. * For the specialist in Victorian literature only. * The first separate publication seems to be as THE ONYX RING (Whittemore, Niles, and Hall; Boston, Mass. 1856). STERN, PHILIP VAN DOREN (1900American author, historian, advertising figure, anthologist. Best-known works, novel THE DRUMS OF MORNING, historical work AN END TO VALOR. A tasteful anthologist. AS EDITOR: 1526. THE MIDNIGHT READER GREAT STORIES OF HAUNTING AND HORROR Holt; New York [1942] Short stories, described elsewhere: [a] THE BECKONING FAIR ONE, Oliver Onions. [b] THE MEZZOTINT, M. R. James. [c] TARNHELM, Hugh Walpole. [d] THE WILLOWS, Algernon Blackwood. [e) THE MARK OF THE BEAST, Rudyard Kipling. [f] COUCHING AT THE DOOR, D. K. Broster. [g] THE FAMILIAR, J. S. LeFanu. [hI THE UPPER BERTH, F. Marion Crawford. [i] THE YELLOW WALL PAPER, Charlotte Perkins Gilman [Stetson]. [j} AFTERWARD, Edith Wharton. [k] FULL FATHOM FIVE, Alexander Woollcott. [1] THE TURN OF THE SCREW, Henry James. [m] AUGUST HEAT, W. F. Harvey. * Also [m] THE MILLVALE APPARITION, Louis Adamic. Perhaps fiction, perhaps folklore. An anecdote of a ghost which appeared in a small church in Pennsylvania. 1527. THE MOONLIGHT TRAVELER GREAT TALES OF FANTASY AND IMAGINATION Doubleday, Doran; Garden City, N. Y. 1943 Including [a] THE CELESTIAL OMNIBUS, E. M. Forster. [b} THE MAN WHO COULD WORK MIRACLES, H. G. Wells. Short version. [c} THE BOTTLE IMP, R. L. Stevenson. [d} ALL HALLOWS, W. de la Mare. [e} SAM SMALL'S BETTER HALF, Eric Knight. [f} MR. ARCULARIS, Conrad Aiken. [g] WILLIAM WILSON, Edgar Allan Poe. [hI THE MOST MADDENING STORY IN THE WORLD, Ralph Straus. [i} PHANTAS, Oliver Onions. [j] ROADS OF DESTINY, O. Henry. [k} "WIRELESS," Rudyard Kipling. [1] THE MUSIC ON THE HILL, Saki. [m] ENOCH SOAMES, Max Beerbohm. [n} ADAM AND EVE AND PINCH ME, A. E. Coppard. [oj DESIRE, James Stephens. * Also [pI LORD MOUNTDRAGO, W. Somerset Maugham. (from THE MIXTURE AS BEFORE, 1929) Mountdrago, a cabinet member, comes to Dr. Audlin, a psychotherapist, for help. Mountdrago, who is an incredibly arrogant, brutal, snobbish man, is having horror dreams which involve a man whom he has injured, a Welsh labor M. P. of low social class. A further problem is that Griffiths, the M.P., seems to be having the same dreams, and the dreams have physical effect. Audlin interprets the situation as conscience, but the reader may have doubts when Mountdrago and Griffiths die on the same day. [q} COBBLER, COBBLER, MEND MY SHOE, Jan Struther. St. Crispin is the patron saint of cobblers,

STERN, PHILIP VAN DOREN and on his name day he tries to get one of his sandals fixed in modern London. It is difficult. * Of the new material [pI is excellent. As always with Stern, a tasteful anthology. 1528. TRAVELERS IN TIME STRANGE TALES OF MAN'S JOURNEYS INTO THE PAST AND THE FUTURE Doubleday; Garden City, N. Y. 1947 A theme anthology which oddly enough does not contain any material from modern science-fiction. * Including, described elsewhere, [al ELSEWHERE AND OTHERWISE, Algernon Blackwood. [bl ENOCH SOAMES, Max Beerbohm. [cl THE ROCKING-HORSE WINNER, D. H. Lawrence. [dl ON THE STAIRCASE, Katharine F. Gerould. [el AUGUST HEAT, W. F. Harvey. [fl THE ANTICIPATOR, Morley Roberts. [gl THE ROUSING OF MR. BRADEGAR, H. F. Heard. [hI A VIEW FROM A HILL, M. R. James. [il OPENING THE DOOR, Arthur Machen. [jl PHANTAS, Oliver Onions. [kl THE HOMELESS ONE, A. E. Coppard. [11 BETWEEN THE MINUTE AND THE HOUR, A. M. Burrage. [ml THE OLD MAN, Holloway Horn. [nl THE TAIPAN, W. Somerset Maugham. [01 "THE FINEST STORY IN THE WORLD," Rudyard Kipling. [pI THE SILVER MIRROR, A. Conan Doyle. [ql NO SHIPS PASS, Lady Eleanor Smith. [rl THE CLOCK, A.E.W. Mason. [sl THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, F. Scott Fitzgerald. [tl ETCHED IN MOONLIGHT, James Stephens. * Also, [ul A FRIEND TO ALEXANDER, James Thurber. Andrews has repetitive, connected dreams in which he is a friend of Alexander Hamilton's and is forced to watch Aaron Burr's provocative conduct, including the shooting of Hamilton. He practices with a pistol for the time when he has to duel with Burr, but one morning he is found dead, his hand clenched as if holding a weapon. Perhaps intended to be fantastic. * A good selection, those stories which really are not concerned with time offering variety. STETSON, CHARLOTTE ANNA (nee PERKINS) (18601935) American writer, prominent figure in various social movements: Bellamism, feminism, socialism (Fabian variety), social welfare, peace movement. First marriage to Stetson (18841893); second marriage to Gilman (1900), whence often carried biographically as Mrs. Gilman. 1529. THE YELLOW WALL PAPER Small, Maynard; Boston 1901 Short story. (NEW ENGLAND MAGAZINE, 1892) Madness, with or without supernatural accompaniments. * The narrator and her physician husband are staying in a neglected colonial mansion while their home is being remodelled. The wife is on the edge of a breakdown, but her insensitive husband, a sprain and pill materialist, insists that there is nothing wrong with her. She is emotionally disturbed by the bedroom wall paper, a dingy yellow paper with an irregular pattern. She fancies that the pattern moves, and as her mind deteriorates, believes that people are behind the paper. As the story ends, she believes that she is the woman behind the paper and scuttles around the floor of her locked bedroom. * It is common knowledge that this story is at least partly

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STEVENS, FRANCIS autobiographical, based on the author's breakdown after a year or so of marriage, and that the husband reflects Mr. Stetson and Dr. S. Weir Mitchell. This origin, obviously, does not mean that the story is no more than reminiscence. Many readers have taken the story, as written, to have supernatural implications, for there are hints that the wife is repeating the behavior of a previous resident. In such an interpretation predisposition to mental illness is exacerbated by a haunting of a sort. * On the covers of this little book artist E. B. Bird has tried to render the horrible pattern. STEVENS, FRANCIS (pseud. of BENNETT, MRS. GERTRUDE, nee BARROWS) (1884 - ? ) American occasional writer of pulp fiction, flourished second and third decades of this century, disappeared mysteriously around 1940. Not a skilled writer, but ideas are sometimes interesting. 1530. THE HEADS OF CERBERUS Polaris Press; Reading, Pa. 1952 1500 copy edition Biographical introduction by Lloyd A. Eshbach. * (THRILL BOOK, 1919) A good example of one of the minor subgenres of the day combining adventure, science-fiction, metaphysics, and social thought. * In the crystal vial said to have been carved by Benvenuto Cellini is a gray dust which some claim to be the Dust of Purgatory, brought back by Dante. Trenmare (a gigantic, hot-tempered Irishman), Drayton (an unjustly disbarred lawyer), and Viola (Trenmare's sister) breathe the dust when the vial is opened and find themselves transported to a dream-like land peopled with supernatural entities. This proves to be an antechamber to other worlds, and they arrive at alternate time track Philadelphia, where material culture is that of 1918, though calendar date is 2118. The state of Pennsylvania is a sealed world ruled by a murderous, sadistic, utterly corrupt oligarchy called Penn Service. All civil liberties have been lost; citizens must wear identifying badges; and the penalty for the slightest infraction is death in the Pit. The government is formed by a mockery of civil service in which completely fraudulent competitions are held to fill such positions as Strongest, Most Beautiful, Cleverest, Quickest. Those who fail end in the Pit. The three earthlings, too, are destined to the Pit, since they have no badges, but they hope to survive by playing one faction of Penn Service against the other. Their ultimate recourse may be sounding the Bell. When Penn Service was formed, the Liberty Bell was recast with a new metal that embodied a disintegration factor, so that if the Bell were struck, the land would disappear. The rulers use the threat of the Bell to hold the populace in check. When all else fails, Trenmare strikes the bell, the land is disintegrated, and the three earthlings (and a burglar who had accompanied them) find themselves back in their own Philadelphia. * The author deliberately leaves the nature of the alternate world unclear. At one point she re-

STEVENS, FRANCIS fers to it as a parallel world, branching off from ours at a specific point, while elsewhere Scarboro, who is in a position to know, states that the experiences have been illusion from the drug. According to the second explanation, the Dust of Purgatory is a modern product, and the corrupt world was caused by corruption in the minds of the three travelers. * The ideas are much more interesting than the execution, which is flawed. STEVENSON, BURTON E[GBERT) (1872-1962) American author, anthologist, journalist (NEW YORK TIMES). Founder and director, American Library in Paris. Now remembered for various reference collections of poetry, especially THE HOME BOOK OF VERSE (1912), which has gone through many editions. 1531. A KING IN BABYLON Small, Maynard; Boston [19171 Romance, reincarnation, repeated patterns of fate, and the motion picture industry. The story was suggested by W. E. Henley's poem, irA King in Babylon." * Warren Creel and his associates decide to make a motion picture about love and death in Ancient Egypt: an ancient pharaoh thought that his favorite had been untrue to him and killed her, learning to his embarrassment later that he had been wrong. The company proceeds to Egypt, where Dr. Davis, an archeologist; is to provide suitable surroundings. As the team approaches Egypt, however, it soon becomes apparent that other factors than a motion picture are involved, and that in some way the ancient world is manifesting itself in the actors. The film script is reproducing an event in Egyptian history, as is corroborated by the discovery of the tomb of the Hyksos king, mummies of the king and his favorite, and all. A confusion of past and present personalities takes place, complicated by the activities of a being which may be either the animated mummy of the favorite Tina or a wild chimpanzee. As the story ends, the male lead departs, whip in hand, errant leading lady/ancient favorite in tow. Ancient and present personalities have been integrated. * In 1955 the author prepared a play version (Baker and Taylor; Hillside, N. J., 500 copy edition) with a simplified plot and an ending that suggests tragedy. * A period piece only. STEVENSON, ROBERT LOUIS (1854-1894) British writer, born Edinburgh, died in Samoa. Excellent children's poet (A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES); fine essayist. Brought mainstrear,l standards to adventure subgenre with succession of good novels, notably TREASURE ISLAND (1883), KIDNAPPED (1886). THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (occult-mystery) is one of the great patterning works in supernatural fiction, with scores of imitations, In addition to the works described Stevenson" wrote a few fables in the Victorian manner. 1532. THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE George Munro; New York [1886) This American pirated edition preceded the

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STEVENSON, ROBERT LOUIS British (Longmans) edition. * Fantastic shocker with allegorical elements. It is narrated as a mystery, but the solution is so widely known that there will be no harm in revealing Stevenson's secret. * Dr. Jekyll (apparently pronounced Jee-kill), a physician of great ability and probity, discovers a drug that will dissociate his personality, permitting his suppressed evil tendencies to assume control of his body and mind. This evil self (with appropriate physical changes in Jekyll's body) emerges as Mr. Hyde, who is as vicious as Jekyll is good. The two personalities alternate, with Hyde behaving abominably, until Jekyll learns that Hyde is growing too strong for him. * Said to have been based on dreams, with an earlier version which Stevenson destroyed, but the germs are to be found in Bulwer Lytton's A STRANGE STORY. * An excellent story, although some modern readers might find the dated mannerisms and idiosyncratic development a little obtrusive. 1533. THE MERRY MEN AND OTHER TALES AND FABLES Chatto and Windus; London 1887 Short stories, including [a) WILL 0' THE MILL. A fabular study of utter selfishness or utter independence, take it as one wills. The innkeeper has built himself a private psychological world and will not venture out of it, even to marry a woman he loves. When he is 72 Death appears to him and they converse for a time. [b) MARKHEIM. A modern Prodigal Son. Markheim, a wastrel, has just murdered an elderly pawnbroker for his money. A stranger enters and converses with Markheim, who thinks it is the Devil. The stranger offers him advice and protection, but Markheim refuses, saying that though he has done evil, it is in his power to stop doing evil. The stranger is obviously an angel. Ultimately anti-Calvinistic. [c) THRAWN JANET. Early 18th century Scotland, told in heavy dialect. The minister takes as his servant Janet, who has a very bad reputation as a witch. The minister is at first skeptical about her ill repute, but when he sees the Black Man around the manse and Janet's corpse hanging by a thread-- to be reanimated later-- he changes his opinion. The word "thrawn" means misshapen. * Excellent craftsmanship, although the moralistic tone of the first two is annoying. 1534. ISLAND NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENTS Cassell; London 1893 Short novel and two short stories, including [a) THE BOTTLE IMP. A restatement, for a Polynesian market, of Fouqu~'s story. Hawaii. Keawe, a Hawaiian, buys the magical bottle, which has the usual conditions: it will grant wishes; it can be passed only by being sold at a price less than that of its last purchase; and it will bring eternal hellfire to anyone who dies with it in his possession. Keawe uses the bottle, passes it on, reacquires it, but finally escapes. Nicely told in terms of local folkways, bringing in the contrary forces of selfishness and love. There was a belief among the Samoans that Stevenson owned such a bottle. [b) THE ISLE OF VOICES.

STEVENSON, ROBERT LOUIS Keola, a fairly shiftless young man, has a great magician for a father-in-law. On one occasion the magician transports them to the Isle of Voices, where coins are to be picked up like shells on a beach. But Keola presumes on his knowledge, and the magician decides to be rid of him. During a magical journey, he drops Keola into the sea, but the young man is fortunate enough to be picked up by a passing ship. After some mishaps, including another visit to the Isle of Voices, he escapes back to Hawaii with the magical aid of his wife. * Excellent. 1535. THE BODY-SNATCHER The Merriam Company; New York [1895] Short story. (PALL MALL CHRISTMAS EXTRA, 1884) First publication in book form. * Edinburgh, probably the 1820's, around the time of Burke and Hare, upon whom the story is obviously based. * Fettes, a medical student, was the second demonstrator for the anatomy classes held by Dr. K---, and it was one of his functions to accept and pay for corpses brought in by resurrection men. His immediate superior was Toddy Macfarlane, a more intelligent, cynical, and ruthless man than the naive and opportunistic Fettes. Their first confrontation with crime comes when they recognize a corpse. It is that of a local prostitute, and they know that she must have been murdered. They agree to close their eyes to the situation. At a later time Fettes witnesses Macfarlane's humiliation by Gray, a low criminal type who is obviously blackmailing him, and a day or two later sees Gray's corpse, murdered by Macfarlane. Again, he weakly yields to Macfarlane's arguments. On the third occasion the two students are stealing a corpse on their own. As they are driving away, they chance to open their sack and see the corpse of the long dead, long dissected Gray. The story is told within a half-frame, as Fettes, now an old drunkard, life ruined by what he saw, meets the suave, prosperous Macfarlane. * Very nicely told. STITZER, DAN (i.e. DANIEL) A[HRENS] (1869 - ?) American author. 1536. STORIES OF THE OCCULT Richard G. Badger; Boston [1917] Vanity publication, a nouvelle and two short stories based on the current occult theory of objective (unconscious) vs. subjective (conscious) minds. * [a] DUAL PERSONALITY. Nouvelle. Amnesia. The narrator awakens from a train accident without memory. Long adventures then follow, including gold hunting in Alaska, visions of the future and clairvoyance produced by the objective mind. [b] THE OCCULT HAND. The narrator, who has lost a hand, comes under the sway of an evil hypnotist, the Professor, who causes him to grow a new hand. Violent personality disturbances. [c] THE RESURRECTION. Faith healing of a child via the objective mind. * Subliterate curiosities. STOCKTON, FRANK (i.e. FRANCIS) [RICHARD] (18341902)

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STOCKTON, FRANK Popular American writer of humorous fiction in the light, genteel tradition. Associated with various periodicals, including VANITY FAIR, SCRIBNERS MAGAZINE, ST. NICHOLAS. Much of his work was written for a juvenile market, where whimsical imagination and light touch were useful. Much less successful in adult supernatural fiction. Best work for adults lies in contrived, folksy, small-people comedy of manners. Most famous work short story, THE LADY, OR THE TIGER? (1882), which can still arouse debate. 1537. THE LADY, OR THE TIGER? AND OTHER STORIES Scribner; Ne~ York 1884 Short stories, including [a] THE TRANSFERRED GHOST. Old Mr. Hinckman's ghost, who has been assigned to haunt the house, is embarrassed because Hinckman is still living, and he is in terror of meeting Hinckman. The ghost is finally transferred to Russia. It also unintentionally acts as an obstacle in a romance. [b] THE SPECTRAL MORTGAGE. Sequel to [a]. The young man and woman are married, her sister Belle is living with them, and Hinckman has just died. The new ghost assigned to the house is a rake of about 50 years earlier, one Buck Edwards, and he tries to establish a romance with Belle. * Smooth, slick, but very artificial. 1538. STOCKTON'S STORIES. SECOND SERIES THE CHRISTMAS WRECK AND OTHER STORIES Scribner; New York 1886 Short stories, including [a] A BORROWED MONTH. Switzerland. The tourist narrator, who has been laid up with crippling rheumatism, discovers that by force of will he can abstract energy and vitality from his absent friends. The vehicle for a romance. 1539. THE BEE-MAN OF ORN AND OTHER FANCIFUL TALES Scribner; New York 1887 Fabular pieces indecisively juvenile and adult, ironical and moralistic. Stories are set in a fantasy-land, but are not necessarily supernatural. * Including [a] THE BEE-MAN OF ORN. The bee-man wanders about with a portable hive, surrounded by a haze of bees, and has even corne to look something like a bee larva. A junior sorcerer wonders what the bee-man originally was before he became a travesty of humanity, and the bee-man, curiosity aroused, decides to find out. After underground adventures with gnomes and a dragon, he decides that he wants to be a baby. He is suitably transformed, but several decades later he is the bee-man again. [b] THE GRIFFIN AND THE MINOR CANON. The griffin, a fearsome specimen of its sort, has heard that there is a stone image of it on the cathedral. It comes to town to see the image, and only the minor canon is brave and altruistic enough to meet the griffin. The two become friendly, although the griffin would probably have eaten the minor canon at the autumnal equinox, if the townsmen had not driven the canon out. The griffin restores him and the canon's virtues are recognized. But the griffin pines away. [c] OLD PIPES AND THE DRYAD. Old Pipes is becoming senile and can no longer summon the

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cattle from the pastures. But he releases a trapped dryad, and her kiss rejuvenates him. Also present is a malicious echo-dwarf. * [b] is one of the better Victorian fables; [c] while syrupy, has an appeal. 1540. AMOS KILBRIGHT HIS ADSCITITIOUS EXPERIENCES WITH OTHER STORIES Scribner; New York 1888 Title nouvelle and short stories. Including [a] AMOS KILBRIGHT: HIS ADSCITITIOUS EXPERIENCES. Told by Richard Colesworthy, attorney at law. The narrator becomes acquainted with a diffident young man who speaks a little strangely, yet is obviously an American. The young man, Kilbright, reveals his secret. He is a materialization effected by a local group of Spiritualists; he had drowned in 1785. He is trying to make a living, though without much success since things are so different, but he is threatened with immediate dissolution, for the Spiritualists are trying to dematerialize him. Colesworthy expostulates with the head of the Sp1ritualists, but with no·success, for the Spiritualists are determined to use Kilbright as a repeated demonstration at seances, alternately materializing and dematerializing him. A German expert, Dr. Hildstein, is crossing the Atlantic to accomplish the dematerialization. In the meanwhile Kilbright adjusts to life, taking up his old profession of civil engineer. He is· about to be married when Hildstein dematerializes him. Colesworthy's wife saves the situation by threatening the German with a lynch mob, and Kilbright is brought back. * Amusing in the ironic contrast between the stiff, mannered narrative, and the odd events. One of Stockton's better pieces. 1541. THE STORIES OF THE THREE BURGLARS Dodd, Mead; New York 1889 The householder is greatly concerned about burglars and sets out drugged wine as a trap. He captures three burglars, who tell stories to exculpate themselves. Including [a] [THE STORY OF THE THIRD BURGLAR]. The young journalist is vacationing in Karinthia, where he becomes acquainted with his future wife, the beautiful Marie. Also involved are her former suitor, the murderous Colonel Kaldhein, and an invisible entity that has a head like a dog's and a long serpentine body, perhaps scores of feet long. It is entirely friendly, benevolent, and very intelligent. A lie, of course. 1542. THE WATCHMAKER'S WIFE AND OTHER STORIES Scribner; New York 1893 Short stories, including [a] THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELATIVE EXISTENCES. A dream-like story of a town across the river. It has been built by an eccentric who insisted that the town be completely finished, churches, schools, and all, before inhabitants would be permitted. He died, and the town has stood empty, except for strange hauntings. The narrator and a friend venture into the haunted town and find it peopled by ghosts of the future, who are extraordinarily timid where mortals are concerned. But perhaps we are ghosts of the past. A curious fabular statement of land development in America. [b] THE KNIFE THAT KILLED PO HANCY.

STOCKTON, FRANK Po Hancy was a Burmese dacoit of exceptional vigor, agility, and savagery. The narrator happens to have a large native knife with stains of the life blood of Po Hancy. He accidentally cuts himself with the knife. Some of the Burman's blood finds its way into the cut, and the narrator assumes the characteristics of the dacoit. As he later reasons: If inoculation to prevent disease is effective, why shouldn't inoculation with human blood also have an effect? Blood from a placid woman reverses the change; he becomes remarkably docile. Borderline science-fiction. [c] THE CHRISTMAS SHADRACH. In metallurgy a shadrach is a piece of ore that passes through the furnace without melting. In folklore, it has the property of cooling hot passions. The narrator buys such a shadrach and finds that his romance goes up and down as the shadrach is transferred from person to person. It finally saves him from a raging bull. * [a] is unusual. The other two stories are trivial. 1543. A STORY-TELLER'S PACK Scribner; New York 1897 Short stories, including [a] THE MAGIC EGG. Loring, who has been travelling in the Orient, has hired a small theatre and is giving a private showing of "Korean fireworks." These are really light effects created by moving pieces of colored glass. He follows this with a remarkable exhibition of either legerdemain or supernatural magic: he produces an egg, hatches it, grows it into a large rooster, reduces it back to chick, and into the egg again. But it is all hypnosis. The "fireworks" were a hypnotic device; there was no egg or chicken. He was simply testing suggestibility. All well and good, but Loring did not observe that his fiancee came too late to see the lights and saw only his hypnotic activities. She is so horrified at his violation of personality (including her own, if she had come on time) that she breaks the engagement and never speaks to him again. [b] THE BISHOP'S GHOST AND THE PRINTER'S BABY. Fabular and sentimental. The ghost of the bishop is sealed out of its tomb when a mason repairs it, but is offered shelter by a friendly young woman ghost, who thereupon incarnates herself as a baby. When she grows up, she and the ghost have many conversations. [c] STEPHEN SKARRIDGE'S CHRISTMAS. A parodic imitation of Dickens's A CHRISTMAS CAROL IN PROSE. Skarridge, a most mean miser, is converted to new benevolence by a talking mackerel, a fairy, a dwarf, and a giant. * [a] has a solid point, though it is treated somewhat shallowly, but the best story in the book is the non-fantastic ''The Widow's Cruise." 1544. AFIELD AND AFLOAT Scribner;. New York 1900 Short stories, including [a] OLD APPLEJOY'S GHOST. Christmas is approaching and no preparations have been made for celebrating. The ghost of great grandfather Applejoy is offended and stirs things up. [b] THE GREAT STAIRCASE AT LANDOVER HALL. The narrator buys a fine old house with furnishings, and on Christmas Eve is visited by a ghost, a beautiful young woman who

STOCKTON, FRANK died of a fall, perhaps a hundred years earlier. She is allowed to visit for one hour each Christmas Eve. He falls in love with her, but settles for a descendant of hers who resembles her. [c] THE GHOSTS IN MY TOWER. Fabular approach. The ghosts run up and down the lightning rod and annoy the narrator. He greases the rod, which helps somewhat, but is not completely rid of the ghosts until a demon moves into the tower. * Trivial. 1545. JOHN GAYTHER'S GARDEN AND THE STORIES TOLD THEREIN Scribner; New York 1902 Stories told mostly by John Gayther, a superior gardener in charge of a fine old garden. * Including [a] WHAT I FOUND IN THE SEA. When a young man, Gayther went to sea. While in the Caribbean his brig stove a hole and came to rest on the wrecks of 17th century ships, an English ship, and a Spanish ship. Gayther descends in a diving suit and finds gold, but on his second trip, his air hose is cut by a villainous stock broker. Gayther utilizes air trapped in the hogsheads in the English ship to save his life. But when he returns to the surface he swears and demeans himself like an Elizabethan Englishman. [b] THE LADY IN THE BOX. Florence, Italy. Dr. paltravi's wife is subject to cataleptic trances. He learns how to control them and gets the brilliant idea of letting her sleep for fifty years so that she can experience a sleeper-awakes situation. Actually only forty years pass before she awakens. She is horrified at her husband's action as well as at his aged appearance. A church separation seems inevitable and a young poet and a middle-aged doctor seem possible new husbands, but the lady suddenly ages rapidly and in a short time is 71 years old and reconciled with her husband. [c] THE CONSCIOUS AMANDA. Told by one of the young ladies of the house. Amanda, dying of consumption, wills to awaken fifty years in the future. She does so, as a disembodied spirit. She overhears the story of her nephew's machinations in marriage matters, and is somewhat more content. Supernaturalism is used only as a device to tell a story in retrospect. * [a] is amusing. The other stories have some social interest as survival of late Victorian mores. STOKER, BRAM (i.e. ABRAHAM) (1847-1912) Irish author. Graduate of Trinity College; studied for bar; entered journalism as drama critic; became manager of Sir Henry Irving's dramatic company for remainder of Irving's life. Wrote a fair amount of fiction and miscellaneous work (including a life of Irving), but now remembered for DRACULA, easily the most famous and most influential va1l1?ire story, the exploitation of which has become a small industry in itself. Although DRACULA, despite technical weaknesses, is a remarkable book, Stoker's ot~2r fiction does not reach the same level, and he is essentially a one-book author. An early collection of fables, UNDER THE SUNSET (1882), is one of those curious books that the Victorians considered children's literature, and is therefore not described here.

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STOKER, BRAc'1 1546. DRACULA Constable; London 1897 Certainly the best-known and most influential supernatural novel of modern times. The story is told in the manner of Wilkie Collins via a succession of letters, memoirs, diaries, and newspaper clippings. The first portion of the novel deals with the experiences of Jonathan Harker, member of a British estate agency, who visits Count Dracula in his castle in Transylvania and encounters all the wonders now associated with classical vampires. The second section covers Dracula's presence in England, beginning with the transportation of his coffins by sea. The final sections concern a band of Englishmen and a woman (plUS an American from the prairies) who set out, under the guidance of Professor van Helsing, to track down and destroy Dracula. * Althou6h it is based in part on the crude VARNEY, THE VAMPYRE and the superior CARMILLA by LeFanu, DRACULA remains the definitive treatment of the classical vampire, a work of great imagination and conviction. While it is generally conceded that it has technical weaknesses-- wooden characters, sentimental writing, needless complexity-its virtues overweigh its flaws and it is one of the great classics of superi1atural fiction. 1547. THE HYSTERY OF THE SEA A NOVEL Heinemann; London 1902 Adventure and romance, with background supernaturalism. Elements are: Archibald Hunter, the narrator, on visit to Cruden Bay, near Aberdeen. Without being hitherto aware of it, he has the second sight and can see impending deaths. Gormala, an old Scottish woman, well-practiced in the second sight. Marjory Anita Drake, a young American. A redhot patriot, she hates Spaniards and has presented a warship to the American navy. Treasure, of 16th century Spanish origin, hidden in the area. Don Bernadino, a gentlemanly Spanish nobleman, descended from the men who hid the treasure. He feels a sacred obligation to deliver the treasure to the Pope, but first he must find it. Blackmailers and kidnappers from America, who are after Ms. Drake. The Spanish-American War, about which Stoker feels strongly. Lammastide supernaturalism, when the spirits of those drowned in Cruden Bay emerge and wander on land to a holy well. * Hunter finds documents with cryptographic material on them. This enables him to find the treasure. He and Ms. Drake are married. Marjory is kidnapped. Hunter uses the second sight of the dying and dead Gormala to locate Marjory. Almost everyone else dies. * Begins interestingly, but degenerates into vapid romance and chases. 1548. THE JEWEL OF SEVEN STARS Heinemann; London 1903 A somewhat confusing supernatural novel told in the mode of a mystery story. * Trelawney, learned amateur Egyptologist, has been assaulted in his horne. He lies in a trance, with severe wounds like cat marks. The properties which lead to a solution of the mys-

*

STOKER, BRAM tery are: the mummy of Queen Tera, an Ancient Egyptian witch queen who had prepared herself for awakening in the North around 1900 A.D.; her astral body, which wanders about; the mummy of her giant pet cat familiar; the cat's astral body; and Trelawney's daughter Margaret, who is in some way "a phase of Queen Tera herself." Most of the book is concerned with the seemingly supernatural events that take place while Trelawney lies in a trance. Much occult lore is imparted. The investigators, obtaining the approval of the Tera facet of Margaret after Trelawney's awakening, undertake to revive the mummy. It is understood that if the experiment fails, Queen Tera will be finally and irrevocably dead. But something goes wrong during the ceremony. The original ending is sketchy and unclear, but it seems as if all the experimenters are killed. * Apparently there must have been complaint about this ending, for the 1919 (Rider; London) reissue has a different ending, in which, though the experiment has failed, Trelawney, 'Margaret, and the others survive. It is not known who prepared this second ending, which sits jarringly on preceding events. It has been attributed to Stoker, but I have found no evidence for this and the date renders Stoker unlikely. * Carelessly written and poorly developed, despite interesting ideas. 1549. THE LADY OF· THE SHROUD Heinemann; London 1909 A rather clumsy attempt to combine vampirism, Ruritania, and current events in the Balkans. * The story is told in documents, beginning with a report from the JOURNAL OF OCCULTISM: a ship passing along the (present-day) coast of Yugoslavia passes a floating coffin in which a woman in white stands. This is followed by a very complicated mesh of family squabbles, the upshot of which is that Rupert St. Leger (sometimes also spelled Sent Leger and pronounced Sellenger) inherits a colossal fortune from his uncle on certain conditions. He is to reside in his uncle's castle in Vissarion in the Land of the Blue Mountains (presumably a parallel to Montenegro) and interest himself in local affairs. When Rupert is settled in the castle, a beautiful young woman in a shroud appears at his window one evening and converses with him. She has to leave at dawn. Her visit is repeated, under the same circumstances. Since Rupert had previously been an occult investigator, he recognizes that the lady is probably a vampire, an opinion which is strengthened when he sees her body asleep in a coffin during the day. But he refuses to yield to vulgar prejudice and marries her-- one evening. * At this point the story takes a different turn. It is revealed that the young woman is Teuta Vissarion, the daughter of the local voivode; that she is not a vampire, but suffers occasionally from catalepsy; and that much of her milieu had been staged to interest and influence Rupert. St. Leger is delighted. He takes on responsibilities in the Land of the Blue Mountains; rescues Teuta from Turks who have kidnapped her; is

479 hailed as King of the Blue Mountains; sets up a Balkan conglomerate state, Balka, of ,.hich he becomes overlord. * True supernaturalism enters with the second sight of Rupert's Aunt Janet, who usually sees what is happening elsewhere and elsewhen. * Little to recommend. 1550. THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM Rider; London [1911 ] Stoker's last significant work, which reads at times more like the summary of a bad dream than an organized work of fiction. The story is built around the White Worm, an evil serpent of incredible age and size. It lives underground, emerging through an ancient wellhead. In intelligence it is at least equal to a human, and it also has strange abUities. It can assume the form of Lady Arabella March, a beautiful woman. Stoker does not analyze the situation, but the relationship between tne White Worm and Lady Arabella seems to involve identity yet separate existence, an individualized projection in human form. It does not seem to be routine possession. * The present purpose of the Worm is assault, both sexual and murderous. After many complications and plots, the Worm, including Arabella, is destroyed by dynamite charges dropped down into its lair. There is also a mesmerist with remarkable powers. * Stoker was old and very ill when he wrote THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM, and he obviously was not in complete control of his material. It is regrettable that he could not have written it twenty years earlier. 1551. DRACULA'S GUEST AND OTHER WEIRD STORIES Routledge; London 1914 Preface by Florence Stoker, widow of the author. A posthumous collection of previously published stories. Including [a] DRACULA'S GUEST. A fragment omitted from the novel DRACULA. Jonathan Harker, on his way to Transylvania, on Walpurgisnacht wanders about the haunted countryside. He sees a female vampire struck by lightning and is attacked by a werewolf. He is saved by a telegram from Dracula, alerting the authorities. An interesting fragment, but the editors were wise in not including it in the novel. [b] THE JUDGE'S HOUSE. Dublin. The young student of mathematics spends nights in a haunted house where suicides of supernatural causation have occurred. Involved is a supernatural rat, which is also the ghost of a very vicious hanging judge. Modelled on LeFanu's HOUSE ON AUNGIER STREET, but well worth reading on its own account. [c] THE SECRET OF THE GROWING GOLD. The corpse of Margaret Delandre, buried beneath a hearthstone, traps her killer. Her hair grows out from beneath the stone. Borderline supernatural, presumably based on the folk belief that hair continues to grow significantly after death. [dJ A GYPSY PROPHECY. The fortuneteller sees a severed wedding ring and blood. This means, she says, that Joshua will murder his wife. The prophecy is literally fulfilled. [e] THE COMING OF ABEL BEHENNA. Cornwall. Abel is allowed to die (manslaughter by negligence) by a rival in love, but Abel's

STOKER, BRAM corpse is washed ashore on the date set for his return and marriage. [f] A DREAM OF RED HANDS. A murderer dreams that his hands are red with blood. When he gives his life to save another person, his hands are clean. [g] CROOKEN SANDS. Seemingly a doppelganger in Scotland. Rationalized. Rather intolerant humor. * Much the best story is [b], which has a certain power. The other stories are negligible. * H. Ludlam in his A BIOGRAPHY OF DRACULA (London, 1962) mentions a special edition of DRACULA'S GUEST printed in 1925 for the 250th performance of the British stage version of DRACULA. The book contained a little spring-operated bat that leaped up when the cover of the book was opened! STOt-l""E, MARY E. American author. 1552. A RIDDLE OF LUCK Lippincott; Philadelphia 1893 Sentimental occult novel. * Richard Dartmouth, a young, would-be author on-the tramp, settles in an abandoned haunted house. The ghost, who also happens to be an author, approaches him, and they make a bargain. Allan Joyce, the ghost, is to dictate a novel to Dartmouth, and in exchange Dartmouth will permit Joyce to occupy his body six months out of each year. Joyce's novel is successful, and Dartmouth, with his new prosperity, marries a local young woman. When he is unwilling to fulfill his end of the bargain, Joyce drugs him and occupies his body for six months. But Joyce is.a lecher and a drunkard, and he soon alienates Dartmouth's wife, so that when Dartmouth returns to his own body his marital situation is desperate. He explains the situation to his wife, and they try to find an occult means of preventing Joyce's return. A Theosophist provides a recipe. But Joyce does not come back, and they are later informed that he has renounced this plane of existence. * Little to recommend. STONG, PHIL[IP] [DUFFIELD] (1899-1957) American newspaper man, periodical editor. Born Iowa. Author of many books, best-known of which is STATE FAIR (1932). Has achieved a historical position as the first editor to publish American science-fiction in mainstream collection. The selection was representative only of certain trends. AS EDITOR: 1553. THE OTHER WORLDS W. Funk; New York [1941] Anthology based on current pulp fiction, including [a] THE CONSIDERATE HOSTS, Thorp McClusky. (WT 1939) A traveller, beset by bad weather, takes shelter in a haunted house. The ghosts, man and wife, tell him that they plan to take revenge on the district attorney who railroaded the man for murder. But the ghosts have human feelings, too. A good twist to an old theme. lb] THE MAN IN THE BLACK HAT, Michael Fessier. (ESQUIRE 1934) Fortune, personified as an old man. The narrator, a gambler and grifter, receives a stake from the man in

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STONG, PHIL the black hat. The final appearance of the man is after his execution for murder. Not explained. Brisk, irrational. [c] NAKED LADY, Mindret Lord. (WT 1934) A vicious millionaire art collector plans revenge on his runaway, golddigger wife. A most realistic portrait is painted and used as a voodoo doll. She suffers when the portrait is exposed. [d] THE HOUSE OF ECSTASY, Ralph Milne Farley. (Pseud. of Roger S. Hoar) Voyeurism. Told as a plea to the reader, remember! A wicked hypnotist absorbs emotions vicariously. [e] ESCAPE, Paul Ernst. (WT 1938) Gannet, in an asylum, works very hard to build his invisible apparatus. His actions are proof of his insanity, but he escapes by means of the apparatus. [f] THE WOMAN IN GRAY, Walker G. Everett. (WT 1935) Bill, not at all seriously, claims_that he has a woman in gray whom he can use as a sending against those whom he hates. When the claim proves valid, he momentarily hates himself. Hate hypostatized. [g] THE PIPES OF PAN, Lester del Rey. (UNK 1940) Pan, surviving from Classical days, adjusts to the modern world as a jitterbug king. [h] AUNT CASSIE, Virginia Swain. Senile Aunt Cassie annoys the relatives she lives with by perpetually talking to the air. Ghosts, she says. But when Neddy is killed in an accident and returns home, he discovers that she was not mad. [i] A GOD IN A GARDEN, Theodore Sturgeon. (UNK 1939) Kenneth, compulsive truth stretcher, unearths a remarkable stone god while digging for a rock garden. The god, being good natured, offers Kenneth a gift: everything he says will be true. It works nicely, except that Kenneth's wife has little to do with the god's truth. Paradox ending. [j] THE MAN WHO KNEW ALL THE ANSWERS, Donald Bern. (AMAZING STORIES, 1940) Nasty capitalist Scuttlebottom has bought a book which gives him the ability to read minds. The power is of no great advantage and it eventually kills him. [k] A PROBLEM FOR BIOGRAPHERS, Mindret Lord. An ancient ring, found on Corfu, conveys infinite sex attraction to the person who wears it. [1] IN THE VAULT, H. P. Lovecraft. (WT 1932) Horrible experiences; locked in with the animate dead. [m] SCHOOL FOR THE UNSPEAKABLE, Manly Wade We1lman.(WT 1937) A boy newly arrived at a boarding school learns that it is a horrible place where Devil worship still flourishes and the students have long been dead. He is saved in an unusual manner. In] THE MYSTERY OF THE LAST GUEST, John Flanders. (Pseud. of Jean Ray) (WT 1935) Horror in a summer resort when the footsteps of Death are heard. [0] SONG OF THE SLAVES, Manly Wade Wellman. (WT 1940) A slaver who has thrown the slaves overboard when a patrol vessel came in sight is overtaken by supernatural punishment. [p] THE PANELLED ROOM, August Derleth. (WESTMINSTER MAGAZINE, 1933) When one sees the panels starting to move, it is time to leave. [q] THE GRAVEYARD RATS, Henry Kuttner. (WT 1936) An early work. Giant rats and living corpses in an old graveyard. Written under

STO:-lG, PHIL the influence of Lovecraft. [r] THE RETURN OF ANDREW BENTLEY, August Derleth and Mark Schorer. (WT 1933) The narrator discovers that his uncle was a black magician. The dead uncle had murdered Bentley, and Bentley's spirit and familiar are trying to get the dead uncle's body. The familiar will remain as long as its patron's body exists. * An incongruous selection, but with occasional good material: [a], [b], [c], [i], em]. STONIER, G[EORGE] W[ALTER] (1903 British critic, journalist associated with the NEW STATESMAN. 1554. THE MEMOIRS OF A GHOST Grey Walls Press; London 1941 This is not the same work as the short story of the same title published in Asquith's THE SECOND GHOST BOOK, even though the themes are similar. The life history of the individual and the narrative mode differ. The short story is conventional, while the book is written in experimental, sensationist ~rose. * The narrator is killed during the bombing of London in World War II and discovers that he is a ghost. After a time he merges back into life, but discovers that "the ghost lives on his own energy; he must draw the lines of every perspective, mould every curve, distribute form, animation and colour." In the end his energy is exhausted. A few scenes haunt him, "scenes that can never have taken place." * Nicely imagined in detail, stylistically superior, but unclear in intention. It is possible that the author is simply discussing problems of readjustment during and after the war. STOWE, HARRIET [ELIZABETH] BEECHER (1811-1896) Famous American writer, daughter of Lyman Beecher. Fairly prolific writer, but all her other work is overshadowed by UNCLE TOM'S CABIN (1852), based in part on the reminiscences of Josiah Henson. Possibly the 19th century American book that achieved widest world renown. 1555. OLD TOWN FIRESIDE STORIES James R. Osgood; Boston 1871 Regionalistic fiction. Narratives told to children, mostly by Sam Lawson; setting is early 19th century Massachusetts. Told in varying degrees of local dialect. * Including, [a] THE GHOST IN THE MILL. Peddler Lommedieu disappeared quite a while ago. One wild night old Ketury, an Indian witch woman, comes to the mill house, calls up into the chimney and summons a ghost, which appears in fragments. It is Lommedieu, murdered by the miller and his father. [b] THE SULLIVAN LOOKING-GLASS. When the old general died on a visit to England, his will could not be found. Ruth Sullivan has a mirror vision, showing an ancient room with high cupboards and the missing will. [c] CAPTAIN KIDD'S MONEY. A rock with private marks on it is assumed to be a locater for Kidd's treasure. Excavation reveals a kettle, probably filled with treasure, but supernatural forces intervene and the kettle flies back into

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STRIBLING, T. S. the ground, which closes over it. Spirits. [d] THE GHOST IN THE CAP'N BROWN HOUSE. A questionable story. Did Cinthy dream when she saw a ghost in her bedroom, or did Sally Dickerson dream when she saw a mysterious, unknown woman emerge from the house? The answer is not known. eel HOW TO FIGHT THE DEVIL. Fraudulent supernaturalism. Three yokels try ~o frighten old Sarah Bunganuck, an Indian woman. One of them disguises himself as the Devil, horns and all, but Sarah is too much for him. * The 1881 reprint (Houghton, Mifflin; Boston) is titled SAM LAWSON'S OLD TOWN FIRESIDE STORIES and adds two more supernatural stories. [f] TOM TOOTHACHE'S GHOST STORY. Up at the Grand Banks the Albatross accidentally runs down a small schooner, all of whose crew are lost. The ghosts of two men appear on the Albatross, trying to warm themselves at a fire. [g] A STUDENT'S SEA STORY. Anecdotes: a death apparition, a poltergeist, a ghost that appears at sea and tells its son what to do. This story is not narrated by Sam Lawson and is not in dialect. * Competent commercial work of the period. STRIBLING, T[HOMAS] S[IGISMUND] (1881-1965) American regionalist (Tennessee, Alabama) writer. Pulitzer Prize for THE STORE (1932), member of trilogy spanning Civil War to the near past in Deep South. Important in history of detective story for stories about Dr. Poggioli. A good satirist who never wrote the great novel that he should have. 1556. EAST IS EAST L. Harper Allen Co.; New York; Consolidated Book Publishers, Inc.; Chicago [1928] Adventure fantasy set around Algiers, with a strong element of satire. Stribling was one of the first to write about foolish ugly-Americans abroad. * Jimmy Million is in Algiers looking for a parasite to control the cotton boll weevil. He becomes entangled in romance, desert adventure, and (in the background) the supernatural. He falls madly in love with an Arab girl and plans to steal her from Count Nalaczi, her guardian, and he also helps a Tuareg kidnap his own wife back from Nalaczi's harem. (The Tuareg had lost her to Nalaczi at gambling.) A maze of adventures follows, with kidnappings, desert chases, gun battles, until Million, wounded by the Arab girl, comes to his senses. In the background is the Eye of Allah, a mysterious crystal, which can change hands only by gift, and offers sight of the future. It apparently works. * Action fiction written for a living. Too much pistoling and punching, but the satirical aspects are sometimes amusing. 1557. THESE BARS OF FLESH Doubleday, Doran; Garden City, N. Y. 1938 Satire on American political institutions, college life, academic pursuits, and science; based in part on Stribling's brief stint at teaching the American novel at Columbia university a few years before. * Andrew Barnett, a small-time cotton farmer and politician from Georgia, comes to the great university at

STRIBLING, T. S.

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Megalopolis to get a college degree. It is a state law that country school superintendents must have such a degree, and by an irony of fate it was Barnett himself who introduced the law. At the university Barnett meets the full range of campus types and activities: student agitation, feminism, sexual freedom, academic politics, Communism, and the researches of Professor Myron Fyke. Fyke, who is a brilliant scholar but also an academic charlatan, is working on an enormous project investigating survival after death. He is conducting word association tests with the students and anyone else who will submit, and is also employing a medium (who is no better than she should be) to converse with the dead. The theory is that should a ghost claim to be a particular person, it should be able to match the word association test and thereby prove its identity. Such positive results as have been obtained Fyke dismisses as telepathy and clairvoyance, At the end of the book, as Fyke is scheduled to deliver his final report that there is no evidence for survival, a test received by the medium matches a recorded score. It is Fyke's. He has just been shot and killed. * A very amusing novel thI Davies, Fred The Stranger Child * Hoffmann, E. T. P The Stranger from Kurdistan * Price, E. H.

STRANGER THINGS * Cram, Mildred Stranger Things * Cram, Mildred Strangers and Pilgrims * de la Me.re, Walter THE STRP.TAGEM >I Crowley, Aleister Strategy at the BilliardG Club * Dunsar.y, Lord THE STRAY LP~ Smith, Thorne A Stray Reveler * Dawson, Emn~ STRAYERS FROM SHEOL >I Wakefield, H. R. The Street * Lovecraft, H. P. THE STREET OF QUEER HOUSES >I Knowles, Vernon The Street of Queer Houses * Knowles, Vernon THE STREEl OF THE EYE * Bullett, Gerald The Street of the Eye * Bullett, Gerald The Striding Place * Atberton, Gertru( The Striking of the Geng * Howard, R. E. THE STRING OF PEARLS * James, G. P. R Strong in the Arms * Knight, Eric The Stronger Spell * de Camp, L. S. THE S'I'UOEtojT * Bulwer-Lytton, E. G. A Student's Sea Story * Stowe, H. B. STUDIES IN LOVE AND TERROR >I Lowndes, Mrs. Belloc A Study in Darkness * Jacobi, Carl A Study in Psychology * Currmins, H. O. A Study in Smoke * Leslie, Shane Sub Specie * Capes, Bernard The Subletting of the Mansion, * Fortune, Dion SUGGESTION * Collins, Mabel Suggestions for a Reading Guide * Lovecraft, H. P. THE SUICIDE'S GRAVE * Hogg, James The Suitable Surroundings * Bierce, Ambrose

*

TITLE INDEX The Sullivan Locking-Glass * Stowe,

712

A SYSTEM OF MAGIC * Defoe, Daniel

H. B.

The Summer-House * Burrage, A. M. SL'II'lllerland * Da.vidson, Avram The Summons * Evans, Don THE SUN QUEEN * Kaner, Hyman The Sundial * Malden, R. H. SVNDRY ACCOL~S * Cobb, I. S. The Sunken Land * Leiber, Fritz The Sunset Harp * Bradbury, Ray The Super Alkaloid * Sncw, Jack Supernatural Horror in Literature * Lovecraft, H. P. THE SVPERNATL~AL IN THE ENGLISH SHORT STORY * Search, pamela THE SI:PERtiATURAL O~NIBUS * SUlluuers, Mcntague . THE SU~ERNATURAL READER * Conklin, Groff and Lucy The Supernumerary Corpse * Smith, C. A. The Superstitious Man's Story * Hardy, Thomas The Supper at Elsinore * Dinesen, Isak The Suppressed Edition * Curle, Richard THE SURLY SULLEN BELL * Kirk, Russell The Surly Sullen Bell * Kirk, Russell Surprise Item * Wakefield, H. R. The Surprising Adventures of Allan Gordon * Hogg, James The Survivor * Lov.ecraft, H. P. and Derleth, August THE SURVIVOR * Parry, Dennis THE SURVIVOR AND OTHERS * Lovecraft, H. P. and Derleth, August The Survivors * Blackwocd, Algernon A Suspicious Gift * Blackwood, Algernon The Sutor of Selkirk * Ancnymous The Swan * Heath-Stubbs, John The Swap * Heard, H. F. The Swarthy Man's Story * Hawthorne, Julian The Sweeper * Ex-Private X SkEET CEARIOT * Baker, Frank Sweet Grass * Whitehead, H. S. Sweet Rocket * Johnston, Mary Sweet Sixteen * Bloch, Robert Sweetheart Primeval * Burroughs, E. R.

Sweets to the Sweet * Bloch, Robert A Swiss Legend * Anonymous SwITCH ON THE LIGHT * Thomson, C.C. The Sword and the Idol * Dunsany, Lord THE SWORD IN THE STONE * White, T. H. The Sword in the Stone * White, T. H. The Sword of Avalon * Malory, Thomas THE SwORD OF CONAN * Howard, R. E. THE SWORD OF WELLERAN * Dunsany, Lord The Sword of Welleran * Dunsany, Lord SWORDS AND SORCERY * de Camp, L. S.

A Sworn Statement * Dawson, Emma Sylvia * Kyffin-Taylor, Bessie Symposium of the Gorgon * Smith, C.A.

The Table~ Turned * Kellett, E. E. The Taipan * Maugham, W. S. "Take My Drum to England •• "* Bond, Nelson Take Your Partners * Blythe, Ronald Taking up Piccadilly * Dunsany, Lord The Tale * Goethe, J. W. von Tale for a Chimney Corner * Hunt, Leigh Tale of a Conjurer * Anonymous A Tale of a Gas-Light Ghost * Anonymous A Tale of an Empty House * Benson, E. F.

The Tale of Henry and Rowena * Shiel, M. P.

The Tale of Kosem Kesamtm * BulwerLytton, E. G. A Tale of London * Dunsany, Lord A Tale of Mystery * Anonymous The Tale of Satampra Zeiros * Smith, C. A.

A TALE OF SECOND SIGHT * Johnson, M. T. A Tale of Seccnd Sight * Johnson, M. T. A Tale of Sir John Mandeville * Smith, C. A. A Tale of the Martyrs * Hogg, Jam.E.s The Tale of the Mysterious Mirror * Scott, Walter Tale of the Piper * Byrne, Donn The Tale of the Porcelain-God * Hearn, Lafcadio A Tale of the Ragged Mountains * Poe, E. A. A Tale of Two Pictures * Holmes, C. H. The Tale That the Ming Bell Told * Ccrley, Donald Talent * Bloch, Robert Talent * Sturgeon, Theodore TALES AND SKETCHES OF THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD * Hogg, James TALES AND STORIES * Shelley, M. W. TALES BEFORE MIDNIGHT * Benet, S. V. TALES BY WILHELM HAUFF * Hauff, Wilhelm TALES FOR CHRISTMAS EVE * Broughton, Rhoda TALES FOR WINTER NIGHTS * Anonymous Anthology TALES FRCM A MOTHER-OF-PEARL CASKET * France, Anatole TALES FROM GAVAGAN'S BAR * Pratt, Fletcher and de Camp, L. S. TALES FROM NIGHT'S DARK AGENTS * Leiber, Fritz TALES FROM THE GERMAN * Oxenford, John and Feiling, C. A. TALES FROM THE PHANTASUS * Tieck, J. L.

TALES FROM UNDERWOOD * Keller, D. H. TALES OF A TRAVELLER * Irving, Washington THE TALES OF ALGERNON BLACKWOOD * Blackwood, Algernon TALES OF ALL NATIONS * Anonymous Anthology TALES OF CHINATOWN * Rohmer, Sax

TITLE INDEX TALES OF CCNAN * Ho.ward, R. E. and de Camp, L. S. TALES OF E. A. POE * Poe, E. A. TALES OF EAST AND WEST * Rohmer, Sax TALES OF FACT AND FANTASY * Matthews, Brander TALES OF FAIRYLAND * Tieck, J. L. TALES OF FEAR * Anonymous Anthology TALES OF GOOSEFLESH AND LAUGHTER * Wyndham, John TALES OF HOFFMANN * Hoffmann, E. T. A. TALES OF HORROR AND THE SUPERNATURAL * Machen, Arthur TALES OF MEN AND GHOSTS * Wharton, Edith TALES OF MYSTERY * Rhys, Ernest and Dawson-Scott, C. TALES OF OTHER DAYS * Akerman, J. Y. TALES OF PIRACY, CRIME, AND GP.OSTS * Defoe, Daniel TALES OF SCIENCE AND SORCERY * Smith, C. A. TALES OF SECRET EGYPT * Rohmer, Sax TALES OF SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS * Bierce, Ambrose TALES OF SPACE AND TIME * Wells, H. G. TALES OF TERROR * Donovan, Dick TALES OF TERROR * Karloff, Boris TALES OF TERROR * Muspratt, Rosalie TALES OF TERROR * St. Clair, Henry TALES OF THE UNDEAD * Anonymous Anthology TALES OF THE GENII * Morell, Charles TALES OF THE GROTESQUE * Lewis, L. A. TALES OF THE GROTESQUE AND ARABESQUE * Poe, E. A. TALES OF THE RUG AND THE CAMP * Doyle, A. C. TALES OF THE UNDEAD * Blaisdell, Elinore TALES OF THE UNEASY * Hunt, Violet TALES OF THE WILD AND THE WONDERFUL * Anonymous Anthology Tales of the Wisdom of the Ages * Anonymous TALES OF THE WONDER CLUB * Dryasdust TALES OF THREE HEMISPHERES * Dunsany, Lord TALES OF WAR * Dunsany, Lord Tales of Widow Weeks * Mayor, F. M. TALES OF WONDER * Dunsany, Lord TALES TO BE TOLD IN THE DARK * Davenport, Basil The Talisman * Alexander, S. B. The Talisman,* de la Mare, Walter The Talisman * Field, Eugene The Talismans * Garnett, Richard THE TALKERS * Chambers, R. W. THE TALKING HORSE AND OTHER TALES Anstey, F. THE TALKING HORSE * Anstey, F. THE TALKING IMAGE OF URUR * Hartmann, Franz The Talking Ships * Quiller-Couch, A.

T. The Tall Ghost * Alarcon, Pedro de The Tall One * Van Doren, Mark Tall Tales but True * Caldecott, Andrew THE TALL VILLA * Malet, Lucas The Tall Woman * Alarcon, Pedro de Tamar * Smith, Eleanor TAMAR CURZE * St. Luz, Berthe Tanhuser and the Gods * Lee, Vernon The Tannenhaeuser * Tieck, J. L.

TITLE INDEX The Tapestried Chamber * Scott, Walter Tarbis of the Lake * Price, E. H. The Tarn * Walpole, Hugh The Tarn of Sacrifice * Blackwood, Algernon and Wilson, Wilfred Tarnhelm * Walpole, Hugh The Tattooed Man * Starrett, Vincent Tatuana * Asturias, Miguel Taureke's Eyes * Bolitho, Hector Tcheriapin * Rohmer, Sax Tea Leaves * Whitehead, H. S. Technical Slip * Harris, J. B. Teig O'Kane and the Corpse * Hyde, Douglas The Telegram * Hunt, Violet The Telepather * Hering, H. A. The Telephone,* Treadgold, Mary The Telephone in the Library * Derleth, August Tell Your Fortune * Bloch, Robert The Temple * Benson, E. F. The Temple * Lovecraft, H. P. The Temple of Death * Benson, A. C. THE TEMPLE OF DREAMS * Bo'ld, Paul The Temple of Jaguars * Spence, Lewis The Temple Servant * Morrough, E. R. The Temptation of Harringay * Wells, H. G. The Temptation of the Clay * Blackwood, Algernon TEN MINUTE STORIES * Blackwood, Al gernon Ten O'Clock * MacDonald, Philip TEN OF US * Alexander, S. B. Ten Percenter * Brown, Fredric The Tenants * Tenn, William The Tenants of Broussac * Quinn, Seabury Tendebant Manus * Buchan, John Terence O'Flaherty * Macnish, Robert The Terrible Answer * Gallico, Paul A Terrible Night * Anonymous The Terrible Old Man * Lovecraft, H. P.

The Terrible parchment * Wellman, M. W.

A Terrible Vengeance * Riddell, Mrs. J. H. The Terrible Voyage of the "Toad" * Mitchell, E. P. TERRIBLE TALES * Anonymous Anthology THE TERROR * Machen, Arthur Terror * Maupassant, Guy de TERROR BY GASLIGHT * Lamb, Hugh The Terror by Night * Benson, E. F. The Terror by Night * Lister, Lewis The Terror by Night * Trimble, Ismay TERROR IN THE MODERN VEIN * Wollheim, D. A. The Terror of the Devereux Vaults * Nicholson, John The Terror of the Twins * Blackwood, Algernon

713 Terror on the Links * Quinn, Seabury The Terror on Tobit * Lloyd, Charles TERRORS * Anonymous Anthology A Test of Courage * Leadbeater, C. W. The Testament of Athammaus * Smith, C. A.

The Testament of Claiborne Boyd * Derleth, August The Testament of Magdalen Blair * Crowley, Aleister That Dieth Not * Wakefield, H. R. That Haunting Thing * Abdullah, Achmed That Hell-Bound Train * Bloch, Robert THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH * Lewis, C. S. That Low * Sturgeon, Theodore That of Granny Magone * Bierce, Ambrose That Receding Brow * Brand, Max That's What Happened to Me * Fessier, Michael The Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles * Smith, C. A. Their Dear Little Ghost * Peattie, Elia There Is a Tide * Finney, Jack THERE IS ANOTHER HEAVEN * Nathan, Robert "There Shall Be Light at Thy Death" * Mayor, F. M. There Shall Be No Darkness * Blish, James THERE WAS A DOOR * Mundy, Talbot THERE WAS A LITTLE MAN * Jones, Guy and Constance There Was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard * James, M. R. There Was an Old Woman * Bradbury, Ray THERE WERE TWO PIRATES * Cabell, J. B. THESE BARS OF FLESH * Stribling, T. S. THESE CHARMING PEOPLE * Arlen, Michael These Doth the Lord Hate * Wellman, M. W.

THESE WILL CHILL YOU * Wright, Lee and Sheehan, R. G. They * Heinlein, R. A. "They" * Kipling, Rudyard They Bite * Boucher, Anthony THEY CHOSE TO BE BIRDS * Dearmer, Geoffrey They Come for Their Own * Claxton, A. H.

They Found My Grave * Shearing, Joseph THEY RETURN AT EVENING * Wakefield, H. R. They Shall Rise * Derleth, August and Schorer, Mark THEY WALK AGAIN * de la Mare, Colin THEY WENT * Douglas, Norman The Thief * de la Mare, Walter THE THIEF OF BAGDAD * Abdullah, Achmed The Thief's Taper * Campbell, Gilbert Thieves' House * Leiber, Fritz Thimgs [sicl * Cogswell, T. R. A Thin Gentleman with Gloves * Derleth, August A THIN GHOST AND OTHERS * James, M. R.

A Thing about Machines * Serling, Rod The Thing at Nolan * Bierce, Ambrose THE THING FROM THE LAKE * Ingram, E. M.

TITLE INDEX The Thing from the Pit * Aylmer, A. S. THE THING IN THE CELLAR * Ke ller, D. H. The Thing in the Forest * Capes, Bernard The Thing in the Hall * Benson, E. F. The Thing in the Moonlight * Lovecraft, H. P. The Thing in the Upper Room * Morrison, Arthur THE THING IN THE WOODS * Williams, Harper The Thing Invisible * Hodgson, W. H. The Thing on the Doorstep * Lovecraft, H. P.

The Thing on the Roof * Howard, R. E. The Thing That Smelt * Blayre, Christopher The Thing That Walked on the Wind * Derleth, August "Things'll Reach out for You" * Gloag, John The Thinking Cap * Bloch, Robert The Third Coach * Wakefield, H. R. The Third Episode of Vathek (Conclusion) * Smith, C. A. THE THIRD EYE * Cogswell, Theodore THIRD FROM THE SUN * Matheson, Richard THE THIRD GHOST BOOK * Asquith, Cynthia THE THIRD LEVEL * Finney, Jack The Third Level Finney, Jack THE THIRD OMNIBUS OF CRIME * Sayers, Dorothy The Third Performance * Gittins, Anthony The Third Person * James, Henry Third Person Singular * Dane, Clemence The Third Shadow * Wakefield, H. R. The Third Time * Ingram, Kenneth THIRTEEN * Austin, F. B. Thirteen at Table * Dunsany, Lord THIRTEEN O'CLOCK * Benet, S. V. Thirteen O'Clock * Kornbluth, Cyril Thirteen Phantasms * Smith, C. A. 13 SECONDS THAT ROCKED THE WORLD * Meyer, John J. The Thirteenth Tree * Malden,iR. H. Thirty * Preston, Guy The Thirty and One * Keller, D. H. THIRTY STRANGE STORIES * Wells, H. G. THE THIRTY-FIRST OF FEBRUARY * Bond, Nelson THIS ABOVE ALL * Shiel, M. P. This Is All * Pain, Barry THIS MAN'S WORLD * Cobb, I. S. THIS MORTAL COIL * Asquith, Cynthia THIS WAS IVOR TRENT * Houghton, Claude This Way to the Regress * Knight, Damon Those Who Seek * Derleth, August Those Whom the Gods Love * Hughes, Hilda Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch * Hughes, D. K. Though One Rose from the Dead * Howells, W. D. The Thought * Hartley, L. P. The Thought Monster * Long, A. B. Thrawn Janet * Stevenson, R. L. Three and One Are One * Bierce, Ambrose Three Coffins * Burks, A. J. ::: * Hepworth, George THREE FANTASTIC TALES * Houghton, Claude THE THREE GENTLEMEN * Mason, A. E. W.

*

TITLE INDEX

714

Three Gentlemen in Black * Derleth, August The Three Gods * Knowles, Vernon THREE GOTHIC NOVELS Bleiler, E. F. THREE HEARTS AND THREE LIONS * Anderson, Poul The Three Hermits * Tolstoi, Leo Three Hours with H. P. Lovecraft * Walter, D. C. THE THREE IMPOSTORS * Machen, Arthur The Three Infernal Jokes * Dunsany, Lord THREE LINES OF OLD FRENCH * Merrit, A. Three Lines of Old French * Merrit, A. The Three Low Masses * Daudet, Alphonse Three Marked Pennies * Counselman,

*

M. E.

The Three Marvels of Hy * Macleod, Fiona THREE MIDNIGHT STORIES * Drake, Alexander Three Miles Up * Howard, E. J. The Three Nails * Jackson, Charles Loring Three, or Four, for Dinner * L. P. Hartley The Three Palaces * Garnett, Richard Three Pennyworth of Luck * Murray, Basil The Three Sailors' Gambit * Dunsany, Lord The Three Sisters * Jacobs, W. W. The Three Sleeping Boys of Warwickshire * de la Mare, Walter Three Stories for Christmas EVeJerome, J. K. THREE SUPERNATURAL NOVELS OF THE VICTORIAN PERIOD * Bleiler, E. F. The Three Swans Anonymous THREE TALES * 0' Connor, W. D. The Three Wishes * Carleton, William Three Young Ladies Stoker, Bram A Threefold Cord * Blackwood, A. The Threepenny Piece * Stephens, J. Threesie * Cogswell, T. R. Threshold * Kuttner, Henry THRILLS * Anonymous Anthology THRILLS, CRIMES AND MYSTERIES * AI.onymous Anthology THRO' SPACE * Rock, James The Throme of the Erril of Sherill * McKillip, P. A. "Through" * Benson, E. F. Through Hyperspace with Brown Jenkin * Leiber, Fritz Through the Dragon Glass * Merritt,

*

*

A. -

Through the Eyes of a Child * Ex-Private X Through the Gate of Dreams * Sullivan, T. R. Through the Gates of Horn * Austin, F. B.

Through the Gates of the Silver Key * Lovecraft, H. P. THROUGH THE RED-LITTEN WINDOWS * Hertz-Garten, Theodor Through the Red-Litten Windows * Hertz-Garten, Theodor

TITLE INDEX

Through the Veil * Doyle, A. C. THRU THE DRAGON GLASS * Merritt, A. The Thug Beck, L. A. THE THUNDER DRAGON GATE Mundy, Talbot THUNDER ON THE LEFT Morley, Christopher Thunderbolt * Stuart, Mi~anda Thurlow's Christmas Party * Bangs, J. K. Thurnley Abbey * Landon, Perceval Thursday Evenings * Benson, E. F. Thus I Refute Beelzy * Collier, John Thus Spake the Prophetess * Burks, A. J. Tibby Hislop's Dream * Hogg, James Tibby Johnston's Wraith * Hogg, James The Tiger * Walpole, Hugh Tiger Dust * Morgan, Bassett Time and Space * Lovecraft, H. P. TIME AND THE GODS * Dunsany, Lord Time and the Gods * Dunsany, Lord Time and the Tradesman * Dunsany, Lord THE TIME BARGAIN * Anstey, F. Time Can Frisk * Marlow, Louis TIME MUST HAVE A STOP * Huxley, Aldous A Time to Keep * Wilhelm, Kate Time Trammel * DeFord, M. A. Time-fuse * Metcalfe, John TIMELESS STORIES FOR TODAY AND TOMORROW * Bradbury, Ray The Tincture of Success * Sullivan, T. R. The Tinkle of the Camel's Bell * Owen, Frank THE TINTED VENUS * Anstey, F. The Tipster * Marsh, Richard TITAN, SON OF SATURN * Burroughs, J. B. Titania's Faretqell * Besant, Walter and Rice, James Title Fight * Gault, W. C. To Arkham and the Stars * Leiber, Fritz To Be Accounted For * Abdullah, Achmed To Be Let Unfurnished * Vallings, Gabrielle TO BE READ AT DUSK * Dickens, Charles To Be Read at Dusk * Dickens, Charles To Be Taken with a Grain of Salt * Dickens, Charles To Fell a Tree * Young, R. F. To Fit the Crime * Matheson, Richard To Lamoir * Arlen, Michael "TO LET" * Croker, B. M. "To Let" * Croker, B. M. To Saragossa or Back" to the Pond * Caballero, Fernan To Starch a Spook * Benedict, Andrew TO THE DEVIL--A DAUGHTER * Wheatley, Dennis To the New York Public * "Raymond, Henry J." To Whom This May Come * Bellamy, Edward Tobermory * Saki Tobias Martin, Master Cooper * Hoffmann, E. T. A.

*

*

*

THE TOE AND OTHER TALES * Harvey, Alexander The Token * Sinclair, May TOLD AFTER SUPPER * Jerome, J. K. TOLD IN THE DARK * Van ThaI, Herbert The "Toll-House" * Jacobs, W. W. TOM OSSINGTON'S GHOST * Marsh, Richard Tom Toothache's Ghost Story * Stowe, H. B.

Tomas and Pepina * Gilbert, William TOMATO CAIN * Kneale, Nigel The Tomb * Lovecraft, H. P. The Tomb from Beyond * Jacobi, Carl The Tomb of Heiri * Benson, A. C. The Tomb of Pan * Dunsany, Lord The Tomb of Sarah * Loring, F. G. The Tombling Day * Bradbury, Ray The Tomb-Spawn * Smith, C. A. Tommy's Hero * Anstey, F. Tomorrow Is Forever * Cave, H. B. The Tomtom Clue * Morgan, Cecil and Jarvis, Scudamore TONGUES OF CONSCIENCE * Hichens, Robert TONGUES OF FIRE * Blackwood, Algernon Tongues of Fire * Blackwood, Algernon Tony's Drum * Capes, Bernard Too Far * Brown, Fredric The Tool * Harvey, W. F. The Tooth of Tuloo * Dehan, Richard The Topley place Sale Munby, A. N. TOPPER * Smith, Thorne TOPPER TAKES A TRIP * Smith, Thorne TOPPLETON'S CLIENT * Bangs, J. K. The Tortoise-Shell Cat * La Spina, Greye The Totem-Pole * Bloch, Robert Totteridge Priory * Neele, Henry A Touch of Grapefruit * Matheson, Ric~ ard THE TOUCH OF NUTMEG * Collier, John The Touch of Pan * Blackwood, Algernon A Touch of Strange * Sturgeon, Theodore A Tough Tussle * Bierce, Ambrose TOURMALIN'S TIME CHEQUES * Anstey, F. The Tower * Laski, Marghanita The Tower * Pain, Barry The Tower Gargoyle * Couldrey, Oswald The Tower of Moab * Lewis, L. A. The Tower of the Elephant * Howard,

*

R. E.

Toys

* Robbins,

Tod

* Saki The Tractate Middoth * James, M. R. The Tradition * Blackwood, Algernon The Tradition of the Tea-Plant * Hearn, Lafcadio TRADITIONAL TALES OF THE ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH PEASANTRY * Cunningham, Allan TRAFFICS AND DISCOVERIES * Kipling, Rudyard The Tragedy at the "Loup Noir" * Stern, G. B. The Tragedy of the Gnomes * Holmes, THE TOYS OF PEACE

I

C. H.

The Tragedy of the White Tanks * Cory, C. B. THE TRAIL OF CTHULHU * Derleth, Augu~ The Trail of Cthulhu * Derleth, Augu~ The Traitor * Hart, J. S. The Transfer * Blackwood, Algernon The Transferred Ghost * Stockton, Frank

I

TITLE INDEX

715

Transformation * Shelley, M. G. THE TRANSIENTS * Van Doren, Mark Transition * Blackwood, Algernon The Transition of Juan Romero Lovecraft, H. P. TRANSMIGRATION * Collins, Mortimer The Transmutation of Ling * Bramah, Ernest The Transplanted Ghosts * Irwin, Wallace The Trap * Whitehead, H. S. The Trapdoor * Heriot, C. D. Traumerei * Beaumont, Charles THE TRAVEL TALES OF MR. JORKENS * Dunsany, Lord TRAVELERS IN TIME Stern, P. v. D. The Traveling Salesman * Bloch, Robert The Traveller * Benson, R. H. The Traveller * Bradbury, Ray The Travelling Companion * Jackson,

*

*

C. L.

THE TRAVELLING COMPANIONS * James, Henry THE TRAVELLING GRAVE * Hartley, L. P. Travels * Mandeville, Jehan de The Travels of Prince Acbar * James, G. P. R.

Treachery Its Own Betrayer * Eberhard, C. A. The Treader of the Dust * Smith, C. A. The Treasure of Abbot Thomas * James, M. R. THE TREASURE OF HO * Beck, L. A. The Treasure of the Blue Nuns * Pater, Roger TREASURE OF THE LAKE * Haggard, H. R. The Treasure of Tranicos * Howard, R. E. and de Camp. L. S. The Treasure Seeker * Musaeus, J. K. TREASURY OF VICTORIAN GHOST STORIES * Bleiler, E. F. The Tree * Lovecraft, H. P. The Tree of Death * Pain, Barry The Tree of Life * Moore, C. L. A TREE OF NIGHT * Capote, Truman The Tree-Man * Whitehead, H. S. The Tree's Wife * Counselman, M. E. The Tregannet Book of Hours * Mumby, A. N. The Tregethen's Curse * Anonymous The Tress * Maupassant, Guy de The Tress of Hair * Maupassant, Guy de The Trial for Murder * Dickens, Charles A Trick or Two * Novotny, John The Tricolour Death * Muspratt, Rosalie The Triflin' Man * Miller, W. M. TRILBY * DuMaurier, George The Trimmer * Newton, Douglas TRIPLE W * Serling, Rod A Triple Warning * Leadbeater, C.

W.

The Triptych * Meyerstein, E. H. W. The Triskelion * Stead, Christina Triton * Hubbard, L. Ron TRITON AND BATTLE OF WIZARDS * Hubbard, L. Ron THE TRITONIAN RING * de Camp, L. S. The Tritonian Ring * de Camp, L. S.

The Triumph of Death R.

The The The The

TITLE INDEX

* Wakefield, H. * Wharton, Edith

Triumph of Night Trod Blackwood, Algernon Troll * White, T. H. Trouble in Leafy Green Street * Dunsany, Lord Trouble with Water * Gold, H. L. The True Legend of Prince Bladud * Dickens, Charles A TRUE RELATION OF THE APPARITION OF ONE MRS. VEAL [etc} * Defoe, Daniel The Trumpet * de la Mare, Walter The Trunk * Murray, Philip The Trusty Eckhart * Tieck, J. L. The Truth * Carter, Frederick The Truth about Pyecraft * Wells, H.

*

G.

Truth and Her Companions * Garnett, Richard The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth * Broughton, Rhoda Try This for Psis * Bloch, Robert The Tryst * Blackwood, Algernon T'sais * Vance, Jack The Tsantsa in the Parlor * Derleth, August The Tudor Chimney * Munby, A. N. Tug of War * Lie, Jonas Tulsah * Shiel, M. P. Turjan of Miir * Vance, Jack The Turn of the Screw * James, Henry TURNABOUT * Smith, Thorne TURNING ON * Knight, Damon THE TURTLES OF TASMAN * London, Jack Twelve O'Clock * Whibley, Charles TWELVE STORIES AND A DREAM * Wells, H. G.

TWELVE TALES * Allen, Grant TWELVE TALES OF SUSPENSE AND THE SUPERNATURAL * Grubb, Davis TWENTY-FIVE GHOST STORIES * Holland, W. Bob 25 MODERN STORIES OF MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION * Stong, Phil TWENTY-FIVE SHORT STORIES * Benet, S. V.

26 MYSTERY STORIES, OLD AND NEW

*

Rhys, Ernest and Dawson-Scott, C.

A. TWENTY-TWO STRANGE STORIES J. L.

*

Hardie,

TWICE-TOLD TALES * Hawthorne, Nathaniel THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS * Garnett, Richard The Twilight of the Gods * Garnett, Richard Twilight of the Gods * Hamilton, Edmond TWILIGHT TALES * Broughton, Rhoda The Twins * Kyffin-Taylor, Bessie The Twins * Robertson, Morgan TWISTED Conklin, Groff Twister * Counselman, M. E. Two Actors for One Role * Gautier, Theophile Two and a Third * Harvey, W. F. TWO AND TWO MAKE FIVE * Knowles, Vernon Two Black Bottles * Talman, W. B. TWO BOTTLES OF RELISH * Burnett, Whit

*

Two TWO Two The TWO

Comments * Lovecraft, H. P. DESTINIES * Collins, Wilkie Doctors * James, M. R. Two Drovers * Scott, Walter HUNDRED MILLION A. D. * van Vogt,

A. E.

Two Lighted Candles * Hichens, RObert Two Little Red Shoes * Kyffin-Taylor, Bessie The Two Lovers * Gilbert, William THE TWO MAGICS * James, Henry Two Military Executions * Bierce, Ambrose The Two Old Women * Meik, Vivian The Two Selves * Knowles, Vernon TWO SIDES OF THE FACE * Quiller-Couch, A. T.

TWO SOUGHT ADVENTURE * Leiber, Fritz TWO STORIES OF THE SEEN AND UNSEEN * Oliphant, Mrs. M. TWO TALES * de la Mare, Walter THE TWO TOWERS * Tolkien, J. R. R. Two Trifles * Onions, Oliver Typewriter in the Sky * Hubbard, L. Ron

Ubazakura * Hearn, Lafcadio Ubbo-Sathla * Smith, C. A. Ugly Sister * Struther, Jan Ulad of the Dreams * Macleod, Fiona Ulan Dhor Ends a Dream * Vance, Jack The Ultimate Adventure * Hubbard, L. Ron The Ultimate Wish * Hull, E. M. Ultor de Lacy * LeFanu, J. S. An Unbidden Guest * Anonymous The Unbolted Door * Lowndes, Mrs. Belloc The Unbroken Chair * Cobb, I. S. Unburied Bane * Dennett, N. The Uncanny Bairn * Baldwin, Mrs. Alfred The Uncanny Guest * Hoffmann, E. T. A. UNCANNY STORIES * Sinclair, May UNCANNY TALES * Crawford, F. M. UNCANNY TALES * Molesworth, Mrs. M. Uncanonized * Quinn, Seabury The Uncharted Isle * Smith, C. A. The Unchristened Child * Pearce, J. H. UNCLAY * Powys, T. F. Uncle Abraham's Romance * Nesbit, E. UNCLE ARTHUR * Pudney, John Uncle Arthur * Pudney, John Uncle Einar * Bradbury, Ray Uncle Ezekiel's Long Sight * Burke, Thomas Uncle Isaiah * Kirk, Russell Uncle Phil on"TV * Priestley, J. B. An Uncomfortable Night * Jackson, C. L. THE UNCOMMERCIAL TRAVELLER * Dickens, Charles The Uncommon Prayer-Book * James, M. R. An Uncommon Sort of Spectre * Mitchell, E. P. Uncovenanted Mercies * Kipling, Rudyard The Undead Soldier * Wellman. M. W. UNDER THE HERMES * Dehan, Richard Under the Hermes * Dehan, Richard Under the Knife * Wells, H. G.

TITLE INDEX

716

Under tne Lens * Austin, F. B. Under tne Mistletoe * Caldecott, Andrew Under tne Sun * Roberts, R. E. Under Which King? * Benson, 'R. H. Underground * Bloch, Robert The Undertaker * Pushkin, A. N. THE UNDESIRED PRINCESS * de Camp, L. S.

The Undesired Princess

*

de Camp,

L. S.

UNDINE * Fouque, F. de la Motte An Undiscovered "Isle in the Far Sea" * Jackson, C. L. THE UNDYING MONSTER * Kerruish, J. D. The Undying Thing * Pain, Barry UNEASY FREEHOLD * Macardle, Dorothy Uneasy Lie the Drowned * Wand rei, Donald THE UNEXPECTED * Margulies, Leo An Unexpected Journey * Pearce, J. H.

Unexplained * Moleswortn, Mrs. M. An Unexplained Miracle * Housman, Laurence An Unfair Exchange * Holmes, C. H. The Unfinished Game * Pain, Barry An Unfinished Race * Bierce, Ambrose , THE UNFORTUNATE FURSEY * Wall, Mervyn The Unhappy Body * Dunsany, Lord The Unholy Compact'Abjured * Pigault-Lebrun, Charles The Unholy Grail,* Leiber, Fritz UNHOLY RELICS * Dare, M. P. Unholy Relics * Dare, M. P. THE UNINHABITED HOUSE * Riddell, Mrs. J. H. THE UNINVITED * Macardle, Dorothy The Uninvited Face * Asquith, Michael Union in Gehenna * Bond, Nelson The Unknown! * Anne of Swansea THE UNKNOWN * Bensen, D. R. The Unknown * Maupassant, Guy de THE UNKNOWN FIVE * Bensen, D. R. Bousfield, The Unknown Island

*

H. T. W.

The Unknown Patient * Fouque, F. de la Motte Punshon, E. The Unknown Quantity

*

R.

Tne Unnamable * Lovecraft, H. P. Tne Unpardonable Sin * Hawthorne, Natnaniel THE UNPLEASANT PROFESSION OF JONATHAN HOAG * Heinlein, R. A. Tne Unpleasant Profession of Jonatnan Hoag * Heinlein, R. A. The Unquiet Grave * Mayor, F. M. An Unrecorded Instance * Lowndes, Mrs. Belloc An Unrecorded Test Match * Dunsany, Lord Unrehearsed * Wakefield, H. R. The Unseen Man's Story * Hawthorne, Julian The Unseen Power * Pain, Barry Unseen-Unfeared * Stevens, Francis The Unspeakable Betrothal * Bloch, Robert

The Untimely Toper * Pratt, Fletcher and de Camp, L. S. Unto Babes * Benson, R. H. Unto Salvation * Forrest, Julian Unto the Fourth Generation * Asimov, Isaac UNTOUCHED BY HUMAN HANDS * Sheckley, Robert The Unwanted * Counselman, M. E. Unwinding * Harvey, W. F. Up Under the Roof * Wellman, M. W. UPON THE MIDNIGHT * Bull, R. C. THE UPPER BERTH * Crawford, F. M. The Upper Berth * Crawford, F. M. Used Car * Wakefield, H. R. Usher II * Bradbury, Ray Usury * Dunsany, Lord UTINAM * Arkwrignt, William The Uttermost Farthing * Benson, A. C.

TITLE INDEX The Vengeance of Ai * Derleth, August and Schorer, Mark The Vengeance of Men * Dunsany, Lord The Vengeance of the Dead * Barr, R. S. Venus * Baring, Maurice The Venus of Ille * Merimee, Prosper Vera * Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Jean Vermont: A First Impression * Lovecraft, H. P. Le vert galant * Anonymous The Very Last Day of a Good Woman * Ellison, Harlan 'The Very Old Folk * Lovecraft, H. P. Vessels of Clay * Housman, Laurence The Vial Genie * Fouque, F. de la Motte The Vicar and the Dryad * Sleigh, Bernard The ''Viccolo'' of Madam Lucrezia * Merimee, Prosper VICE VERSA Anstey, F. The Victim * Sinclair, May A Victim of Higher Space * Blackwood, Algernon A Victim of Medusa * Caldecott, Andrew VICTORIAN GHOST STORIES * Summers, Montague VICTORIAN NIGHTMARES * Lamb, Hugh The Victorian Room and James * Hughes, Richard VICTORIAN TALES OF TERROR * Lamb, Hugh The Victor's Wreath * Fouque, F. de la Motte The View * Aickman, Robert A View from a Hill * James, M. R. The Villa Desiree * Sinclair, May The Village Apparition * Anonymous The Village Bully * LeFanu, J. S. A Vine on a House * Bierce, Ambrose VlNEGAR-- AND CREAM * Bousfield, H.

*

The Vacant Lot * Freeman, M. W. The Vacation * Bradbury, Ray Vaila * Shiel, M. P. VAIN OBLATIONS * Gerould, K. F. VALDAR THE OFT-BORN * Griffith, George Valdrwulf * Anonymous Vale of the Corbies * Burks, A. J. Valerius * Shelley, M. W. VALIANT DUST * Gerould, K. F. Valley of Bones * Keller, D. H. The Valley of the Eeasts * Blackwood, Algernon and Wilson, Wilfred The Valley of the Just * Rohmer, Sax The Valley of the Worm * Howard, R. E.

The Valley Was Still * Wellman, M. W. The Valor of Cappen Varra * Anderson, Poul rhe Va~pire * Gautier, Theophile The Vampire * H::lffma'::.n, E. T. A. THE VAMPIRE * Horler, Sydney The Vampire Neruda, Jan The Vampire Maid * Nisbet, Hume THE VAMPYRE * Polidori, John Vandy, Vandy * Wellman, M. W. The Vanished Prime Minister * Hering, H. A. The Vanishing American * Beaumont, Charles The Vanishing House * Capes, Bernard The Vanishing Trick * Davy, Charles VARIATION ON A THEME * Collier, John VARNEY, THE VAMPYRE * Anonymous VATHEK * Beckford, William VEENI THE MASTER * Lamport, R. E. The Veiled Portrait * Grant, James VEILS OF FEAR * Meik, Vivian The Veldt * Bradbury, Ray A Venetian Ghost Story * Muspratt, Rosalie THE VENETIAN GLASS NEPHEW * Wylie, Elinor "Vengeance Is Mine" * Blackwood, Algernon and Wilson, Wilfred The Vengeance of a Tree * Lewis, Eleanor

*

T. W.

THE VINTAGE * West, Anthony A Vintage from Atlantis * Smith, C•. A. The Violet Apple * Lindsay, David THE VIOLET APPLE AND THE WITCH * Lindsay, David The Violin * Marsh, Richard The Virgin as Nun * Keller, Gottfried The Virgin of the Seven Daggers * Lee, Vernon A Virtuoso's Collection * Hawthorne, Nathaniel VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE * Benson, E. F. Vision and Television * Megroz, R. L. The Vision of Bruce * Macnish, Robert The Vision of Campbell of Inverawe * Lauder, Sir Thomas The Vision of Charles XI * Merimee, Prosper A Vision of Judgment * Wells, H. G. A Vision of Learning * Dilke, E. F. A Vision of Purgatory * Maginn, Willia. The Vision of the Dead * Hearn, Lafcadio The Vision of Tom Chuff * LeFanu, J. S.

The Vision of Yin * Bramah, Ernest Visions of the Night * Bierce, Ambrose A Visit at Midnight * Steiner-Prag, Hugo A Visit to the Clerk of the Weather Hawthorne, Nathaniel The Visitation * Sandoz, Maurice

*

TITLE INDEX

717

A Visitor at Ashcombe * Rolt, L. T. C. A Visitor from Down Under * Hartley, L. p. A Visitor from Egypt * Long, F. B. Viy Gogol, Nicolai The Voice * Alan, A. J. The Voice * Capes, Bernard The Voice * Gale, Zona A Voice from the Pit * Capes, Bernard The Voice in the Dark * Christie, Agatha The Voice in the Earphones * Schramm, Wilbur The Voice in the Night * Hodgson,

*

W. H.

The Voice in the Night * Wintle, W. J. THE VOICE OF DASHIN * Ganpat The Voice of En-Lil * Howard, R. E. The Voice of God * Holtby, Winifred The Voices * Robertson, Morgan Voodoo * Brown, Fredric The Vow * Fouque, F. de la Motte The Vow * Hoffmann, E. T. A. The Voyage of King Euvoran * Smith, C. A. A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS * Lindsay, David A Voyage to Sfanomoe * Smith, C. A.

W. S. * Hartley, L. ·P. A Wager and a Ghost * O'Donnell, Elliott WAGNER, THE WEHRWOLF * Reynolds, G. W. M. WAILING WELL * James, M. R. Wailing Well * James, M. R. Wake Not the Dead * Tieck, J. L. WAKE UP SCREAMING * Wright, Lee and Sheehan, R. G. Waldeck * Anonymous Waldo * Heinlein, R. A. WALDO, AND MAGIC, INC. * Heinlein, R. A. A Walk in the Night * Dunsany, Lord Walk Like a Mountain * Wellman, M. W. The Walk to Lingham * Dunsany, Lord A WALK WITH THE BEAST * Collins, C. M. The Walker in the Picture Gallery * Nicholson, John Walking Aunt Daid * Henderson, Zenna Walking Distance * Serling, Rod WALKING SHADOWS * Noyes, Alfred Walks with H. P. Lovecraft * Eddy, C.

M. THE WALL AROUND THE WORLD T. R.

The Wall around the World

* *

Cogswell, Cogswell,

T. R.

WALL OF SERPENTS * de Camp. L. S. and Pratt, Fletcher Wall of Serpents * de Camp, L. S. and Pratt, Fletcher The Walled-in Door * Hoffmann, E.

T. A. The Walled-up Door

T. A.

*

Hoffmann, E.

TITLE INDEX

Walnut-Tree House * Riddell, Mrs. J. H. THE WANDERER'S NECKLACE * Haggard, H. R.

*

WANDERING GHOSTS Crawford, F. M. WANDERING HEATH * Quiller-Couch, A.

T.

THE WANDERING JEW * Sue, Eugene Wandering Willie's Tale * Scott, Walter WAR IN HEAVEN * Williams, Charles The Wardrobe * Mann, Thomas The Warlock of Glororum * Pease, Howard Warm * Sheckley, Robert Warm, Dark Places * Gold, Horace The Warning * Anonymous The Warning * Dunsany, Lord The Warning of the Sword * Campbell, Gilbert A WARNING TO THE CURIOUS * James, M. R.

A Warning to the Curious

*

James,

M. R.

The Warnings * Pater, Roger Warrior in Darkness * Wellman, M. W.

Was It a Dream? * Maupassant, Guy de THE WASHER OF THE FORD * Macleod, Fiona The Washer of the Ford * Macleod, Fiona Waste Manor * Beck, L. A. The Watch * Knowles, Vernon WATCH THE NORTH WIND RISE * Graves, Robert The Watcher * Benson, R. H. The Watcher * LeFanu, J. S. THE WATCHER AND OTHER WEIRD STORIES * LeFanu, J. S. A Watcher by the Dead * Bierce, Ambrose THE WATCHER BY THE THRESHOLD * Buchan, John The Watcher by the Threshold * Buchan, John The Watcher from the Sky * Derleth, August The Watcher in the Green Room * Cave, H. B. The Watcher in the Hill * Wintle, W. J.

A Watcher of the Dead * Guinan, John The Watchers * Bradbury, Ray The Watchers * Derleth, August THE WATCHMAKER'S WIFE * Stockton, Frank The Watchman Pater, Roger The Watch-Tower * Dunsany, Lord THE WATER GHOST * Bangs, J. K. The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall * Bangs, J. K. The Water Lady * Anonymous THE WATER OF THE WONDROUS ISLES * Morris, William The Water Spectre * Lathom, Francis The Water Spirit * Anonymous A Water Witch * Everett, Mrs. H. D. The Waters of Death * ErckmannChatrian THE WAVE * Blackwood, Algernon Wave Length * Gloag, John The Waxen Image * Dryasdust

*

The Waxwork * Ex-Private X Waxworks * Bloch, Robert The Way He Died * Preston, Guy A Way Home * Sturgeon, Theodore The Way It Came * James, Henry THE WAY OF ECBEN * Cabell, J. B. THE WAY OF STARS * Beck, L. A. A Way of Thinking * Sturgeon, Theodore Wayfarers * Blackwood, Algernon The Ways of Ghosts * Bierce, Ambrose WE ARE FOR THE DARK * Howard, E. J. and Aickman, Robert We Print the Truth * Boucher, Anthony The Weaver in the Vault * Smith, C. A. WEAVERS AND WEFT * Braddon, M. E. THE WEB OF EASTER ISLAND * Wand rei, Donald Web of Wizardry * Price, E. H. The Wedding * Matheson, Richard Wednesday's Child * Tenn, William The Weeping God * Knowles, Vernon THE WEIGHER OF SOULS * Maurois, Andre THE WEIRD GATHERING * Curran, Ronald The Weird Gilly Leslie, Shane The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan * Smith, C. A. The Weird of the Walfords * Baldwin, Mrs. A. THE WEIRD OF THE WANDERER Pro spero and Caliban THE WEIRD SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH * Lovecraft, H. P. WEIRD STORIES * Riddell, Mrs. J. H. The Weird Tailor * Bloch, Robert WEIRD TALES * Hoffmann, E. T. A. WEIRD TALES * Margulies, Leo WEIRD TALES, AMERICAN * Anonymous Anthology WEIRD TALES, ENGLISH * Anonymous Anthology WEIRD TALES FROM NORTHERN SEAS * Lie, Jonas WEIRD TALES, GERMAN * Anonymous Anthology WEIRD TALES, IRISH * Anonymous Anthology WEIRD TALES OF TERROR AND DETECTION * Heard, H. F. WEIRD TALES, SCOTTISH * Anonymous Anthology WEIRD TIT-BITS, AMERICAN· * Anonymous Anthology WEIRD TIT-BITS, ENGLISH * Anonymous Anthology WEIRD TIT-BITS, GERMAN * Anonymous Anthology WEIRD TIT-BITS, IRISH * Anonymous Anthology WEIRD TIT-BITS, SCOTTISH * Anonymous Anthology The Weird Woman * Anonymous The Well * Jacobs, W. W. THE WELL AT THE WORLD'S END * .Morris, William Well of the Angels * Price, E. H. THE WELL OF THE UNICORN * Fletcher,

*

*

G. U.

Welldean Hall * Hogg, James WELSH RAREBIT TALES * Cummins, H. O. The Wendigo * Blackwood, Algernon Wentworth's Day * Lovecraft, H. P. and Derleth, August The Werewolf * Field, Eugene

TITLE INDEX THE WERE-WOLF * Housman. Clemence The Werewolf * Marryat. Frederick THE WEREWOLF OF PARIS * Endore. Guy THE WEREWOLF OF PONKERT * Munn. H. W. The Werewolf of Ponkert * Munn. H. W. The Werewolf Snarls * Wellman. M. W. The Werewolf's Daughter * Munn. H. W. The Were-Snake * Long. F. B. Werewoman * Moore, C. L. WEST INDIA LIGHTS * Whitehead. H. S. West India Lights * Whitehead. H. S. The Western Islands * Masefield, John What Became of the Ghost of Mike O'Flynn * de Camp. Etta What Became of the Money * Holmes. C. H.

What Can a Dead Man Do? * Shaw, Herbert "What Dreams May Come" * de la Mare, Walter What Fell out in the Ancient Keep of Caldicot * Machen. Arthur What I Found in .the Sea * Stockton. Frank What Shadows We Pursue * Kirk. Russell What the Moon Brings * Lovecraft. H. P.

What Was in the Box * Matheson. Richard What Was It? * Campbell, Gilbert What Was It? * O'Brien. Fitz-James What Was the Matter * Phelps, E. S. What's in a Name * Caldecott. Andrew WHAT'S IT LIKE OUT THERE * Hamilton. Edmond The Wheelbarrow Boy * Parker. Richard WHEN CHURCHYARDS YAWN * Asquith, Cynthia When Glister Walked * Cook. Oscar When I Was Dead * O'Sullivan, Vincent When It Was Moonlight * Wellman. M. W.

When Old Gods Wake * Merritt. A. When Reginald Was Caroline * Van Zile. E. S. When That Sweet Child Lay Dead * Pain, Barry When the Gods Slept * Dunsany. Lord When the Graves Were Opened * Burks. A. J. When the Night and the House Are Still * Derleth. August When the Night Wind Howls * Pratt. Fletcher and de Camp. L. S. When the Sea King's Away * Leiber. Fritz When the Twilight Fell * Wintle, W. J.

WHEN THE WORLD SHOOK * Haggard, H. Rider When the World Was Young * London. Jack When Time Stood Still'* Wintle, W. J.

"Where Angels Fear • • ." * Wellman. M. W. Where Is Everybody? * Serling. Rod Where the Tides Ebb and Flow * Dunsany. Lord

718

Where the Woodbine Twineth * Grubb. Davis Where Their Fire Is Not Quenched * Sinclair, May "Where To. Please" * Pratt. Fletcher and de Camp. L. S. Whessoe * Barker. Nugent WHICH HATH BEEN * McLaren. Mrs. Jack Whiffs of the Sea * Caldecott. Andrew The Whimpus * Robbins, Tod The Whippoorwills in the Hills * Derleth. August The Whirlpool * Dunsany. Lord The Whisperers * Blackwood. Algernon The Whisperers * Cave. H. B. The Whispering Gallery * Temple. W. F. Whispering Leaves * Glasgow. Ellen THE WHISTLING ANCESTORS * Goddard. R. E.

The Whistling Room * Hodgson, W. H. The White and the Black * ErckmannChatrian The White Ape * Lovecraft. H. P. The White Cat of Drumgunniol * LeFanu. J. S.

The White Doe * Anonymous The White Dog * Austin. F. B. The White Egbert * Tieck, J. L. The White Flag * Baring-Gould, Sabine White Goddess * Seabright. Idris The White Hare * Capes. Bernard White Horse with Wings * Kersh. Gerald White Man's Magic * Dehan. Richard The White Moth * Asquith, Cynthia The White Moth * Derleth, August The White Old Maid * Hawthorne. Nathaniel THE WHITE PEOPLE * Burnett. F. H. The White People * Machen. Arthur The White Powder * Machen, Arthur White Rabbits * Carrington. Leonora The White Road * Merritt. A. THE WHITE ROBE * Cabell. J. B. White Roses * Jacks, L. P. The White Sack * Munby. A. N. The White Shadow * Chambers, R. W. The White Ship * Lovecraft. H. P. The White Sleep of Auber Horn * Rice. Richard The White Sybil * Smith. C. A. THE WHITE SYBIL BY CLARK ASHTON SMITH AND MEN OF AVALON BY DAVID H. KELLER * Anonymous Anthology The White Villa * Cram. R. A. THE WHITE WITCH OF ROSEHALL * de Lisser. Herbert THE WHITE WOLF * Gregory. Franklin THE WHITE WOLF * Quiller-Couch. A. T. The White Wolf of Kostopchin * Campbell. Gilbert The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains * Marryat. Frederick White Zombie * Meik, Vivian Whitewash * Macaulay, Rose Whittington's Cat * Smith. Eleanor Who Are the Living * Smith. C. A. Who Believes in Ghosts * London. Jack Who Can Tell? * Maupassant. Guy de WHO FEARS THE DEVIL? * Wellman. M. W.

TITLE INDEX Who Is Sylvia * Asquith. Cynthia WHO KNOCKS? * Derleth. August Who Knocks at the Door * Schreiner. Olive Who Knows? * Maupassant, Guy de "Who Shall I Say Is Calling" * Derleth. August WHO WANTS A GREEN BOTTLE * Robbins, Tod Who Wants a Green Bottle * Robbins, Tod WHO WILL REMEMBER * Irwin. Margaret Why Dr. Cray Left Southam * Riddell. Mrs. J. H. Why I Have Given up Writing Novels * Anstey. F. Why I Write Ghost St~ries * Wakefield. H. R.

Why New Houses Are Haunted * Keith. Elwyn Wicked Captain Walshawe. of Wauling * LeFanu. J. S. A Wicked Voice * Lee. Vernon WIDDERSHINS * Onions, Oliver Widdershins * Quiller-Couch. A. T. The Widow Flynn's Apple Tree * Dunsany. Lord The Widow He Lost * de Camp. Etta The Widower * Pain. Barry The Wife of King Tolv * Anonymous The Wife of Lochmaben * Hogg, James A Wig for Miss De Vore * Derleth. August WILD AND WEIRD * Campbell. Gilbert The Wild Ass's Skin * Balzac, Honore de Wild Grapes * Derleth. August WILD LOVE * Fouqu~. F. de la Motte The Wild Wood * Clingerman, Mildred Wild Wullie. the Waster * Robbins, Tod Will 0' Phaup * Hogg. James Will 0' the Mill * Stevenson. R. L. Will You Wait? * Bester. Alfred William Riley and the Fates * Benet., S. V.

William Tyrwhitt' s "Copy" * Capes, Bernard William Wilson * Poe. E. A. WILLMOTH THE WANDERER * Dail, C. C. The Willow Landscape * Smith, C. A. The Willow Tree * Rice. Jane The Willows * Blackwood. Algernon The Wind * Bradbury. Ray The Wind * Roberts, R. E. THE WIND BETWEEN THE WORLDS * Brown. Alice THE WIND BLOWS OVER * de la Mare, Walter The Wind from the River * Derleth. August The Wind in the Lilacs * Derleth, August The Wind in the Portico * Buchan. John THE WIND IN THE ROSE-BUSH * Freeman. M. W.

The Wind in the Rose-Bush M. W.

*

Freeman,

The Wind in the Woods * Kyffin-Taylor. Bessie The Wind of Dunowe * Everett, Mrs. H. D. The Wind That Is in the Grass * Barlow. R. H. THE WIND THAT TRAMPS THE WORLD * OWen. Frank

The Wind That Tramps the World * Owen, Frank The Wind-Gnome * Lie, Jonas WINDSOR CASTLE * Ainsworth, W. H. The Wine of pantinelli * Cummins, H. O.

WINGS * Abdullah, Achmed Wings * Abdullah, Achmed WINGS ABOVE THE CLAYPAN * Upfield, Arthur WINGS ABOVE THE DIAMANTINA * Upfield, Arthur Wings in the Night * Howard, R. E. The Wings of Horus * Blackwood, Algernon THE WINGED BULL * Fortune, Dion Winged Death * Heald, Hazel THE WINK * Bennett, Kem Winter * de la Mare, Walter WINTER EVENING TALES * Hogg, James WINTER'S TALES * Dinesen, Isak Winthrop's Adventure * Lee, Vernon Wireless * Christie, Agatha "Wireless" * Kipling, Rudyard Wireless Confusion * Blackwood, Algernon and Wilson, Wilfred A Wireless Message * Bierce, Ambrose A Wisconsin Balzac * Bishop, Z. B. The Wisdom of the East * de Camp, L. S.

WISDOM'S DAUGHTER * Haggard, H. R. The Wish * Dahl, Roald The Wishes We Make * Hull, E. M. The Wishing Well * Benson, E. F. The Witch * Gogol, N. The Witch * Lindsay, David The Witch * van Vogt, A. E. The Witch Caprusche * Ellet, Mrs. E. F.

The Witch from Hell's Kitchen * Howard, R. E. WITCH HOUSE * Walton, Evangeline The Witch in the Fog * Altschuler, Harry THE WITCH IN THE WOOD * White, T. H. Witch In-Grain * Gilchrist, Murray The Witch of Eye * Baculard d'Arnaud, Francois The Witch of Laggan * Stewart, W. G. THE WITCH OF PRAGUE * Crawford, F, M. The Witch of Roseberry Topping * Anonymous The Witch of the Willows * Dunsany, Lord A Witch Shall Be Born * Howard, R. E. Witch War * Matheson, Robert Witchcraft * Machen, Arthur WITCHCRAFT * Sleigh, Bernard The Witchcraft of Ulua * Smith, C. A. Witches in the Cornfield * Jacobi, Carl The Witches of Traquair * Hogg, James WITCHES THREE * Anonymous Anthology WITCHES, WRAITHS AND WARLOCKS * Curran, Ronald THE WITCHING TIME * Norman, Henry The Witch's Cat * Wellman, M. W. A Witch's Den * Blavatsky, H. P. The Witch's Vengeance * Seabrook, W.

TITLE INDEX

719

TITLE INDEX

THE WITCH-WOMAN * Cabell, J. B. With Dyed Garments * Benson, R. H. With Intent to Steal * Blackwood, Algernon The Withered Arm * Hardy, Thomas The Withering of a Rose * Corelli, Marie WITHOUT SORCERY * Sturgeon, Theodore The Witness * Hunt, Violet Witnessed by Two * Molesworth, Mrs. M. THE WIZARD OF THE MOUNTAIN * Gilbert, William WIZARDS AND WARLOCKS * Ghidalia, Vic Wizards and Warriors * de Camp, L. S. Woe Water * Wakefield, H. R. Wolf * Fouqu~, Karoline de la Motte THE WOLF IN THE GARDEN * Bill, A. H. The Wolf of Saint Bonnot * Quinn, Seabury Wolf Pack * Miller, W. M. Wolfert Webber * Irving, Washington WOLFERT'S ROOST * Irving, Washington Wolfie * Cogswell, T. R. THE WOLF-LEADER * Dumas, Alexandre THE WOLF" S BRIDE * Kallas, Aino Wolfshead * Howard, R. E. Wolmar * Horne, R. H. Wolverden Tower * Allen, Grant Wolves beyond the Border * Howard, R. E. and de Camp, L. S. Wolves Don't Cry * Elliott, Bruce The Wolves of Czernogratz * Saki THE WOLVES OF GOD * Blac~yood, Algernon and Wilson, Wilfred The Wolves of God * Blackwood, Algernon and Wilson, Wilfred The Woman at Loon Point * Derleth, August and Schorer, Mark The Woman at Seven Brothers * Steele,

The Wooden Woman * Cunningham, Allan The Wooden-Legged Ghost * Waters, John The Wooing of Master Fox * BulwerLytton, E. G. A Word from Our Sponsor * Brown, Fredric The Word of Santiago * Price, E. H. The Words of Guru * Kornbluth, Cyril The Workman * Dunsany, Lord The World the Children Made * Bradbury, Ray THE WORLD, THE FLESH AND THE DEVIL * Braddon, M. E. The World-Dream of Mr. McCallister * Blackwood, Algernon THE WORLD'S DESIRE * Haggard, H. R. and Lang, Andrew The World's End * Christie, Agatha World's End * Rolt, L. T. C. THE WORLD'S GREAT CRIME STORIES * Sayers, Dorothy WORLD'S GREAT MYSTERY STORIES * Cuppy, Will THE WORLDS OF ROBERT F. YOUNG * Young, Robert F. WORLDS OF WEIRD * Margulies, Leo WORLDS OF WONDER * Pratt, Fletcher THE WORM OUROBOROS * Eddison, E. R. Worms of the Earth * Howard, R. E. WORSE THINGS WAITING * Wellman, M. W. WOVEN IN DARKNESS * Fenn, W. W. The Wraith of Barnjum * Anstey, F. Wrastler's End Burrage, A. M. The Writer * Gorki, Maxim THE WRONG ENVELOPE * Molesworth, Mrs.

*

M.

The Wrong Station * Burrage, A. M. WULFHEIM * Furey, M.

W. 'D.

The Woman from Purgatory * Lowndes, Mrs. Belloc The Woman in Black * George, Daniel The Woman in Gray * Everett, W. C. Woman in the Case * Price, E. H. Woman in the Mirror * MacDonald, George The Woman in the Road * Pain, Barry The Woman in the Way * Onions, Oliver The Woman in the Wood * Merritt, A. The Woman of Stone * Barr, Robert A Woman of the Streets * Maupassant, Guy de The Woman Who Thought She Could Read * Davidson, Avram The Woman's Ghost Story * Blackwood, Algernon A Woman's Hair * Maupassant, Guy de The Women of the lvood * Merritt, A. Wonder As I Wander * Wellman, M. W. THE WONDERFUL ADVENTURES OF PHRA THE PHOENICIAN * Arnold, Edwin The Wonderful Cat of Cobbie Bean * Carleton, B. O. The Wonderful Corot * Mitchell, E. P. THE WONDERFUL VISIT * Wells, H. G. The Wonderful Window * Dunsany, Lord The Wonders in the Spessart * Immermann, Karl The Wondersmith * O'Brien, F.-J. THE WONDROUS TALE OF ALROY * Disraeli, Benjamin The Wood of the Dead * Blackwood, Algernon

Xeethra * Smith, XELUCHA * Shiel, Xelucha * Shiel, XINGU * Wharton,

C. A. M. P. M. P. Edith

The Yarn of Lanky Job * Masefield, John Ye Impys of Helle * Burks, A. J. THE YEAR THE YANKEES LOST THE PENANT * Wallop, Douglass THE YEAR'S GREATEST SCIENCE-FICTION AND FANTASY * Merril, Judith Yegor's Portrait * Hepworth, George The Yellow Cat * Joseph, Michael The Yellow Curtains * Burrage, A. M. The Yellow Dwarf * Anonymous Drake, Alexander The Yellow Globe THE YELLOW GOD * Haggard, H. R. Yellow Magic * Austin, F. B. The Yellow Paw * Konstanz, Zayn The Yellow Sign * Chambers, R. W. THE YELLOW WALL PAPER * Stetson, C. P. The Yellow Wall Paper * Stetson, C. P. Yesterday Street * Burke, Thomas Yesterday Was Monday * Sturgeon, Theodore YEZAD * Babcock, George YONDER * Beaumont, Charles You Could Be Wrong * Bloch, Robert You Know Willie * Cogswell, T. R.

*

TITLE INDEX You ~ Telephone from Here * Blackwood, Algernon YOU NEVER KNOW, DO YOU? * Coppard, A. E.

"You'll Come to the Tree in the End" * Landon, Cyril YOU'LL NEED A NIGHT LIGHT * Thomson, C. C. THE YOUNG DIANA * Corelli, Marie The Young Englishman * Hauff, Wilhelm

720

Young Goodman Brown * Hawthorne, Nathaniel Young Strickland's Career * Beresford, J. D. Young-Man-With-Skull-at-His Ear * Wellman, M. W. You're Another * Knight, Damon YOURS TRULY, JACK THE RIPPER * Bloch, Robert Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper * Bloch, Robert Yuki-Onna * Hearn, Lafcadio Yvala * Moore, C. L.

TITLE INDEX Zachary Crebbin's Angel * Kneale, Nigel ZACHERLEY'S MIDNIGHT SNACKS * Zacherley ZANONI * Bulwer-Lytton, E. G. Zero * Pain, Barry ZERUB THROOP'S EXPERIMENT * Whitney, Mrs. A. D. T. Zicci * Bulwer-Lytton, E. F. ZISKA * Corel Ii, Marie ZOFLOYA * Dacre, Charlotte ZOTZ! * Karig, Walter

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Barron, Neil. Anatomy of Wonder. A Critical Guide to Science Fiction. R. R. Bowker Co.; New York 1981. Second edition. Bleiler, Everett F. The Checklist of ScienceFiction and Supernatural Fiction. Firebell Books; Glen Rock, N. J. 1978. Revised enlarged edition of The Checklist of Fantastic Literature, Chicago 1948. ___ (Editor) Science. Fiction Writers. Charles Scribner's Sons; New York 1982. Boyle, Andrew. An Index to the Annuals. Volume 1, The Authors. Andrew Boyle, Ltd.; Worcester [England] 1967. Cockcroft, T. G. L. Index to the Weird Fiction Magazines [Author] Lower Hutt, New Zealand. Vol. 1, Index by Titles, 1962. Vol. 2, Index by Author, 2nd edition, 1967. Cole, W. R. A Checklist of Science Fiction Anthologies. [Author; Brooklyn, N. Y.] 1964. Contento, William. Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections. G. K. Hall; Boston [1978]. Currey, L. W. Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors. A Bibliography of First Printings o~f_T~h~e::i~r_FL:i~c~t=i~o~n. G. K. Hall; Boston, 1979. Day, Bradford M. The Checklist of Fantastic Literature in Paperbound Books. Wehman Bros.; Hackensack, N. J. 1965. ___ An Index on the Weird and Fantastica in Magazines. [Author] South Ozone Park, N. Y. 1953. ___ The Supplemental Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Science-Fiction and Fantasy Publications; Denver, New York 1963. Day, Donald B. Index to the Science-Fiction Magazines 1926 * 1950. Perri Press; Portland, Oregon 1952, Doyle, Brian. Who's Who of Boys' Writers and Illustrators. Brian Doyle; London 1964. Flanagan, Graeme. Robert Bloch. A Bio-biblio~. [Author] Canberra City, A.C.T., Australia 1979. 723