Weird Fiction discussion

I considered nominating Over the Edge, a 1964 anthology of original short story fiction edited by none other than August Derleth, as a monthly group read. The drawback to that notion is that acquiring an electronic or inexpensive copy of the book is impossible. It's been out of print since 1976. Few copies ever get sold for much under $40. It would take serious devotion to old literature for anyone to go out and hunt down a copy of this book to read for mothly group read purposes. So I thought any interested members and I could do this book as an open, standing buddy read.

This anthology was published for the 25th anniversary of Arkham Press's founding in 1939, the year August Derleth decided he was not going to let Lovecraft's work die, and founded a press devoted to republishing Lovecraft and later on other classics of Weird literature. The anthology contains 18 stories, all of which are (or were supposed by Derleth to be) unpublished. All the works are thus original to this anthology.

What's the big deal you ask? Well, many of these authors had been dead a long time before 1964. Derleth as editor of Arkham Press had managed to track down long lost works of some famous authors and decided to debut those stories for this special anthology, which had a limited initial printing run of only 2,520 copies. This was (and still is in my opinion) quite a special event that took place in 1964.

Check out just half of the writers that populate this anthology:
William Hope Hodgson
August Derleth and H. P. Lovecraft
Clark Ashton Smith
Frank Belknap Long
Robert E. Howard and John Pocsik
Fritz Leiber
Mary Elizabeth Counselman
David A. Johnstone
Ramsey Campbell

Hoping there might be some interest in reading this book among our membership, I have decided to create this as a standing buddy read. If this book sounds of interest to you, and you decide to acquire a copy, then you can participate. These topics never die; there is no time limit. Whenever you read a story in the anthology, come on over to this topic and feel free to share your impressions with other interested members.

This anthology was published in three editions:
1) Arkham House, 1964. Hardback with a green and black dustjacket. Print run was just 2,520 copies.
2) Gollancz, 1967. Two printings. Hardback with a rather plain taxicab yellow color cover. Nice quality printing and paper inside.
3) Arrow Books, 1976. Paperback. Cover has painting of some guy screaming because a demon is about to squeeze his head. ISBN: 9780099120100.

Only the first edition has August Derleth's one-page foreword, which precedes the stories. Otherwise all three editions are identical in terms of content. I've noticed all three editions are also about equally rare and thus cost approximately the same in the used book market.

Amazon has several used ones currently listed. I ordered one but it is probably going to be late. If it reaches me after I leave for vacation, I will have to read it in January.

Wonderful, Zina! At least I'll have one buddy reader for this anthology.

I have read the first story, "The Crew of the Lancing," by William Hope Hodgson and found it to be absolutely delightful. It's short, just eleven text pages long, and fairly typical of a lot of Hodgson's short story work--unknown sea menace tries to destroy a ship out at sea while the crew engages in heroic efforts to fight it off. This story was the best of these I have yet read, which perhaps numbers four, because of the nature of the particular menace and the unexpected outcome. I say no more because I want to avoid spoiler territory. I just want to say this tale was written near the end of Hodgson's life and clearly shows he has mastered this form.

There was an aspect of this story I can go into that greatly surprised me. In the introductory notes to it, the editor (August Derleth) states that this Hodgson story was one of three he received from Hodgson's widow, that it had never been published, and was being published for the first time here in his anthology.

I imagine Derleth thought that what he was writing was the truth, but he was mistaken. The leadoff story in Over the Edge was actually previously published in the October 5, 1923 issue of a magazine called Sea Stories under the title "Demons of the Sea." To the best of my knowledge, "Demons of the Sea" was never republished under that title until Necromonicon Press republished it as the titular story of their 1992 Hodgson story collection: Demons Of The Sea. Since the short story, "Demons of the Sea," was published so long ago, it is no longer under copyright and can be found for free on the internet here: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Demons....

The interesting thing is that Derleth's reprinted version, "The Crew of the Lancing," very much under copyright, is almost but not quite the same story. Derleth's version has a number of small changes throughout the text.

As a one-time professional editor myself, I know these text changes to be editorial changes an editor makes to a manuscript in order to make it read better before publication. The reading public never finds out about these editorial changes, and really, that's generally okay. The earlier unedited version is usually inferior.

However, I suspect Mrs Hodgson may have been trying to pull a fast one on Derleth. Hodgson died at the end of World War I in 1918 as the result of an enemy action. Presumably Mrs. Hodgson, wanting to make money from her husband's as yet unpublished work, submitted the story to Sea Stories and was duly paid. Seeing an opportunity to make some further cash, I imagine she gave it to Derleth to publish (again) as an unpublished story in order to make yet more money off the story. Derleth, thinking he could make whatever changes to the text he saw fit, does, and published it in the form we find in this anthology.

For the most part, I agree with Derleth's changes. They are small, mostly insignificant changes that simply enhance the readability of the text. Approximately 98% of the text is exactly the same from version to version.

Here are the first paragraphs for comparison's sake.

Hodgson (1923): "Come out on deck and have a look, Darky!'" Jepson cried, rushing into the half deck. "The Old Man says there's been a submarine earthquake, and the sea's all bubbling and muddy!"

Derleth (1964): "Come out on deck and have a look, Darky!'" shouted Jepson, rushing into the berth. "The Old Man says there's been a submarine earthquake and the sea's all babbling and muddy!"

And the next to last paragraph of Derleth's text:

Hodgson (1923): Six weeks later she returned to report that she had been unable to find any signs, either of the ship herself or of the fearful creatures that had attacked her. And since then nothing, as far as I know, has ever been heard of the four-masted bark Scottish Heath, last seen by us in the possession of creatures that may rightly be called demons of the sea.

Derleth (1964): Six weeks later she returned to report that she had been unable to find any signs, either of the ship herself, or of the fearful creatures that had attacked her. And since then nothing as far as I know has ever been heard of the four-masted barque Lancing, last seen by us in the possession of creatures that may rightly be called the demons of the sea.

But some of the changes do not improve the text in my opinion. For example, I prefer Hodgson's story title to Derleth's new title. I also prefer Hodgson's name for the ship to Derleth's. Hodgson more firmly ties the ship to Scotland. It's vaguer in Derleth's version, which robs the story to an extent of its locale and makes the story seem like it could have taken place anywhere with any crew.

Not everyone realizes these two stories are essentially the same. ISFDB, for example, lists (https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?163) the two as completely separate stories in the short fiction section, one dated 1923 in chronological order, the other 1964.

Anyhow, here's hoping the seventeen stories that follow this wonderful lead-off story truly ARE original stories, and that half of them are this good.

So, the book came a bit late (after I already went away) so I only got it now that I am back home. Looking forward to reading it though.

Read the first story. Way cool! Real gem.

Going super slowly as the semester just started. So far - oh MY this compilation is amazing. I don't think any of the later anthologies of 'lovecraftian' stories quite measure up.
I have finished the first four stories:
"The Crew of the Lancing" by William Hope Hodgson
"The Last Meeting of Two Old Friends" by H. Russell Wakefield
"The Shadow in the Attic" by H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth
"The Renegade" by John Metcalfe

Especially the first three stories were amazing. I somehow do not remember this particular Lovecraft's story - perhaps, I did not read it? Or forgot? and it's a really cool story.
The Renegade's ending made me chuckle.
I wonder why it has not been reprinted again and made onto Kindle. I mean, Hodgson's story would need to be edited a bit for non-PC statements by some crew members (honestly, I think this is such idiocy; a rude guy from back in the day should be expected to say rude things from back in the day; but such is the will of the masses). But other than that, it's a great little compilation.

You are not going as slowly as me, Zina. I am really glad to hear you're enjoying the stories, that I have not made a mistake in featuring the book for our group. (The Peter Straub I have been reading since November 30 is very slow going, and I find I can not recommend that novel; it is 50% digressions. I can only stand it because I have an interest in the Vietnam War, having been alive and aware for the tail end of it.)

I just finished my rereading of the second story in this collection, "The Last Meeting of Two Old Friends" by H. Russell Wakefield. After my first reading, I realized I had retained nothing, and had to go back to read it again. Two long paragraphs, one of which is five pages, the other of which is two, made this story challenging for me. But I got it the second time. Authors just can't go wrong in raising a reader's interest when there's a lover's triangle in the story, no matter how peripheral. I would have liked to maybe know a little more about the menace in this story, its origin, the missing name in Denys's translation from the tablet, but I'm okay with the way it was written too.

In our last poll I nominated what I believe is H. Russell Wakefield's collection of weirdest tales, though admittedly he was more of a ghost story writer than weird tale chronicler. It got two votes, which is encouraging. I didn't vote for it because then we would have had a tie, that, and I liked all the other choices fine, too. That two votes may be enough for me to nominate it again some time, especially given the strength of this story.

The reason you don't see "The Shadow in the Attic" by H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth very often, even if you're a frequent Lovecraft reader, is because every Lovecraft story that has Derleth's name associated with it, and there's a dozen or so I believe, is generally thought to be at least 90% Derleth and less than 10% Lovecraft. Sometimes Derleth wrote entire stories based on a one- or two-sentence idea found in a Lovecraft journal, and then when finished writing the story made Lovecraft the co-author. Good marketing, that, if not entirely honest credentialing. I've no idea how much Lovecraft is in "The Shadow in the Attic" by H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth, but I will research that question when I come to read it. (Before then, I have this month's Lovecraft reading for our group to undertake as well as Not Big Enough, the hardback of which sits on my desk waiting for me to crack it.)

I've just completed the third story (of 18) and regard it as another treasure: "The Shadow in the Attic" by Lovecraft, reportedly only "completed" by August Derleth. Completed, my ass! I know Lovecraft's style, and this isn't it. This is at least 95% a Derleth written story. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Derleth is a wonderful storyteller in his own right.

The story is your basic haunted house story, only with some unexpected twists. I like the nature of the threat in that it's subtle and sneaky, rather unique and not to be found in modern horror, that's for sure. By reducing the horror Derleth really lets the oddness of the situation, a deeply planned posthumous possession, stand out. The role women play in this story, aside from the writing style, is how I know this is not Lovecraft. It has real relationships and normal as well as somewhat weird sexual situations not to be found anywhere in Lovecraft. I never saw the ending coming. This is my favorite story in the book so far.

I agree with what Zina wrote in another topic in that this anthology appears it will truly be a gem. The writers in it may not be writing about recent or modern concerns, given the book was published 60 years ago, and the stories were written even longer ago than that, but my goodness these writers could write!

I am almost done with the book, and most stories are fabulous - with plots that still read fresh and interesting characters and/or developments, and quite well written. The first several - including "Lovecraft's" Derleth story, Howard's, Campbells etc. are my favorite. But they are all pretty good. I now wish to read more of those authors. Towards the end there is a 4-page "Mr. Allucard" by David A. Johnstone that is downright ... oh I don't know - I want to say adorable, you'll know what I mean when you get to it! Maybe this needs to be nominated for the group read one of these days? Funny how such a marvelous anthology has not been put on Kindle.

I considered nominating this book for group read, but the fact it is long out of print and extant copies are so expensive, it would have little chance of winning and few participants if it did win group read. So I am happy doing this as a slow buddy read, one that's always open if another person comes along later and wants to participate.

As for wanting to read more from some of these authors, I say cool. Why not look up some of their works and nominate one of their longer ones? I do that sort of thing often after reading short story anthologies. I really liked Derleth's story here too, and have never read anything else he wrote. I wondered if he has a longer work worth reading, but discovered none of his Weird writing is available in Kindle, unless you count Megapacks where one of the short stories are his. The best bet is probably his Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, Vol 1. There are plenty of print copies available in used books markets for under $10.

Alas, I finished it! Boy, did I enjoy it!

All 18 stories! Awesome. Glad you liked it.

I'm going to read the John Metcalfe, an author I have not heard of, this weekend. Hmm, just checked the GoodReads database and he doesn't have a single work listed in it. He wrote a 1954 novel, The Feasting Dead, reprinted in 2014 by Valancourt Books as part of their 20th Century Classics line. No entry in GR. How odd. This is the isbn for the Valancourt reprint: 978-1-941147-41-2.

Never mind. Just found it. Man this site has become buggy with glitches! Found it here: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...