FFB: GHOSTS AND MORE GHOSTS by Robert Arthur (Random House, 1963); TALES OF TERROR by Ida Chittum (Rand McNally, 1975)

The Horrific Price of Nostalgia...

• Ghosts and More Ghosts
• Robert Arthur
• Date: 1963
• Publisher: Random House
• Cover and illustrations by Irv Docktor
• Do You Believe in Ghosts? • (1941) • short fiction by Robert Arthur (variant of "The Believers", Weird Tales, July 1941)
• Don't Be a Goose • [Murchison Morks] • (Argosy, 3 May 1941) • short story by Robert Arthur
• Footsteps Invisible • (Argosy, 20 January 1940) • short story by Robert Arthur
• Hank Garvey's Daytime Ghost • (1962) • short fiction by Robert Arthur (variant of "Garvey's Ghost", The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1962)
• Mr. Dexter's Dragon • (1942) • short fiction by Robert Arthur (variant of "The Book and the Beast", Weird Tales [Canadian Edition] September 1942)
• Mr. Milton's Gift • [Murchison Morks] • (1953) • short story by Robert Arthur (variant of "The Man with the Golden Hand", Blue Book, July 1953)
• Obstinate Uncle Otis • [Murchison Morks] • (Argosy, 19 July 1941) • short story by Robert Arthur
• The Rose-Crystal Bell • short story by Robert Arthur (variant of "Ring Once for Death", Amazing Stories, March 1954)
• The Marvelous Stamps from El Dorado • [Murchison Morks] • short story by Robert Arthur (variant of "Postpaid to Paradise", Argosy, 15 June 1940)
• The Wonderful Day • (Argosy, 6 July 1940) • novelette by Robert Arthur

Tales of Terror by Ida Chittum; illustrated by Franz Altschuler (Rand McNally & Co. 1975)

11  By The Author (an introduction)
15  The House the Dovers Didn't Move Into
23  Vision of Roses
31  Uncle Ned Kunkle
36  The Twins
42  The Snipe Hunt
51  The Yellow Cat
54  Giant
58  The Feather Reader
67  The Woman Who Turned To Paper
71  Sod Miller's Money
77  Print On The Window
79  The Haunted Well
85  The Special Gift
95  Bring Back My Teeth
100  The Lovers
108  The Cruel Girl
111  The Twisting Wind
118  Courtland Wethers And The Pit

124  About the Author

A brief precis as I have to attend to other tasks before I set down my longer analysis of these two books, one I loved in my youth and one I missed altogether even though it was published when I was still young and it has a following which has driven prices of the scattered used copies through the roof. 

Robert Arthur published no actual collections of his own fiction aimed at adult readers during his lifetime, and no one has bothered to do so since, which verges on the ridiculous in both cases. All of the stories collected in his Ghosts and More Ghosts were originally published in adult-reading markets, as one can see above in the table of contents index, and there is no compelling reason for his work to be all but forgotten in YA literature as well...even given how much of his late efforts were largely devoted to one Alfred Hitchcock-branded franchise or another, including the original version of the Three Investigators book series, which he devised and oversaw before his early death in 1969. (A fair amount of his other fiction was collected in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents:  and YA "Hitchcock" volumes he ghost-edited for Random House (and the AHP: volumes for paperback reprint, in two volumes each, by Dell), among some other projects; he would include occasionally at least two of his own stories under his real name and one or more of his pseudonyms.) 

Ida Chittum's volume is keyed to her Ozark Mountains childhood, and while the copies of various editions of the Arthur can be expensive on the secondhand market, copies of Chittum's first book for the young readers' horror market are ridiculous (I picked up mine as a library discard for perhaps 50c in perhaps 1990; I'd guess by the current market I could sell it pretty easily for $75-100 in its goodish condition with library markings). Those who might've been hoping for a slightly westerly correspondent to Manly Wade Wellman's tales of the Appalachian supernatural are likely to be disappointed, as I was; these are raw, young folktales, often retold rather gracefully and with some wit, and very well illustrated by Franz Altschuler (I have to wonder if the illustrations are less available for this book to be reprinted at some level for its obviously passionate niche audience), but they lack in nearly every instance the complication that makes for compelling fiction (also despite some having lovely titles). In these tales, Something bad happens, and it continues, and there might be a twist, but not much of one. The End. Chittum's previous volumes of humorous anecdotes probably were at least as good...her sense of what's necessary for a story, versus a joke or anecdote, wasn't quite where it needed to be to make this more than mildly interesting reading. But one does get the same sense of isolated and "high lonesome" existence as one might in the Wellman and other better work in this bailiwick. 

A Friday's Forgotten Books and Friday Fright Night entry. 

FFB: Robert Arthur's Young Readers' Ghosted Anthologies, Continued: ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S GHOSTLY GALLERY (Random House, 1962) and ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S SPELLBINDERS IN SUSPENSE (RH, 1967): Friday Fright Night

Previous blog entries from the Random House YA anthology series:

Muriel Fuller, ed.: Alfred Hitchcock's Haunted Houseful (1961) (noted in passing)

Robert Arthur, ed.: Alfred Hitchcock's Monster Museum (1965); and here, as a partial Dell reprint

...and here, with other books for young readers

Henry Veit, ed.: Alfred Hitchcock's Witch's Brew (1977)

Other volumes in the Random House YA series:

Robert Arthur, editor:

Alfred Hitchcock's Sinister Spies (1966)

Alfred Hitchcock's Daring Detectives (1969)

Robert Arthur, author:

Alfred Hitchcock's Solve-Them-Yourself Mysteries (1963)

the initial AH and the Three Investigators novels (beginning 1964)

Henry Veit, editor:

Alfred Hitchcock's Supernatural Tales of Terror and Suspense (1973)

• Alfred Hitchcock's Ghostly Gallery • anthology edited by Robert Arthur [as by Alfred Hitchcock] 
• Date: 1962
• Publisher: Random House
• Pages: vii+206
• Alfred Hitchcock's Ghostly Gallery • interior artwork by Fred Banbery
• v • Introduction (Alfred Hitchcock's Ghostly Gallery) • essay by Robert Arthur [as by Alfred Hitchcock]
• 1 • Miss Emmeline Takes Off • short fiction by Walter Brooks (ss) The Saturday Evening Post Sep 8 1945
• 13 • Housing Problem • short story by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore [as by Henry Kuttner] 
Charm [October 1944]
• 20 • The Valley of the Beasts • (1921) • novelette by Algernon Blackwood and Wilfred Wilson [as by Algernon Blackwood] (ss) from The Wolves of God, Cassell 1921
• 43 • The Haunted Trailer • short story by Robert Arthur; variant of Death Thumbs a Ride (ss) Weird Tales Jan 1942
• 64 • The Upper Berth • (1885) • novelette by F. Marion Crawford (nv) The Broken Shaft: Unwin’s Annual for 1886, ed. Sir Henry Norman, T. Fisher Unwin 1885; also as “What Was in the Upper Berth?”
• 88 • The Wonderful Day • (1940) • novelette by Robert Arthur as Miracle on Main Street (nv) Argosy Jul 6 1940
• 120 • The Truth About Pyecraft • (1903) • short story by H. G. Wells (ss) The Strand Magazine Apr 1903
• 151 • In a Dim Room • [Jorkens] • (1945) • short story by Lord Dunsany (ss) The (London) Evening News Jul 18 1945
• 156 • Obstinate Uncle Otis • [Murchison Morks] • (1941) • short story by Robert Arthur (ss) Argosy Jul 19 1941
• 167 • The Waxwork • (1931) • short story by A. M. Burrage (ss) in Someone in the Room, Jarrolds 1931
• 182 • The Isle of Voices • (1893) • novelette by Robert Louis Stevenson (ss) The National Observer Feb 4 1893
  

• Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbinders in Suspense
• published in 1967 in the USA by Random House (hardback)
• edited by Robert Arthur
• illustrated by Harold Isen
• x + 206 pages

Contents

i • Frontispiece blurb by Robert Arthur (as by Alfred Hitchcock): These are mystery-suspense stories. Some will keep you on the edge of your chair with excitement. Others are calculated to draw you along irresistibly to see how the puzzle works out. I have even included a sample or two of stories that are humorous, to show you that humor and mystery can also add up to suspense.

So here you are, with best wishes for hours of good reading.

v • A Brief Message from Our Sponsor • Robert Arthur (as by Alfred Hitchcock) • introduction

1 • The Chinese Puzzle Box by Agatha Christie [Hercule Poirot], (ss) The Sketch Oct 3 1923, as “The Case of the Veiled Lady”

11 • The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell (nv) Collier’s Jan 19 1924

22 • The Birds by Daphne du Maurier (nv) Good Housekeeping Oct 1952

65 • Puzzle for Poppy by "Patrick Quentin" (Richard Webb and Hugh Wheeler) (ss) Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Feb 1946

79 • Eyewitness by Robert Arthur (ss) Detective Fiction Weekly Jan 28 1939; as "Eye Witness"

94 • Man from the South by Roald Dahl (ss) Collier’s Sep 4 1948; as "Collector's Item"

105 • Black Magic by Sax Rohmer [Bazarada], (ss) Collier’s Feb 5 1938

119 • Treasure Trove by F. Tennyson Jesse [aka Wynifried Margaret Tennyson Jesse] [Solange Fontaine], (ss) McCall’s Apr 1928

126 • Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper by Robert Bloch (ss) Weird Tales Jul 1943

146 • The Treasure Hunt by Edgar Wallace [J. G. Reeder], (ss) Flynn’s Nov 22 1924

162 • The Man Who Knew How by Dorothy L. Sayers [Pender], (ss) Harper’s Bazaar Feb 1932; also as “The Man Who Knew”

175 • The Dilemma of Grampa Dubois by Clayre Lipman and Michel Lipman (ss) The American Family a 1952 issue

182 • P. Moran, Diamond-Hunter by Percival Wilde [P. Moran], (nv) Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Apr 1946

Robert Arthur, having inherited the editorship of the Random House "Alfred Hitchcock" anthologies aimed at adult readers either with or just after 1959's Alfred Hitchcock Presents: My Favorites in Suspense (in the spot where Arthur would be credited in his later volumes, Patricia Hitchcock under her married name is cited instead), had produced another volume in that series, 1961's AHP: Stories for Late at Night (and might also at least helped put together 1957's AHP: Stories They Wouldn't Let Me Do on TV at Simon & Schuster) before Random House decided they also might have a market for a juvenile-readers' series, and tapped veteran children's editor Muriel Fuller to assemble the nicely illustrated and designed Alfred Hitchcock's Haunted Houseful (1961). However, Fuller's book was somewhat lacking in punch; a quarter of the text was taken up with a long excerpt from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, excellent material but even better in context and while suspenseful, not exactly the kind of thing kids picking up a Haunted AH book might be looking for. A chestnut of a Doyle Sherlock Holmes story was mixed with stories a bit more on point from some good writers, such as Manly Wade Wellman, but nearly all of those stories were from young readers' magazines Boy's Life and Story Parade. This was the kiddie roller-coaster.

By the time the second AH volume for young readers was released, Arthur had the gig. None of his selections were from magazines aimed at kids, yet all were accessible to young readers. Perhaps the self-indulgence of Fuller in running the Twain excerpt for much of her book was seen as more off-putting than Arthur including three of his own stories, if good ones, as a means of presumably supplementing his take of the editorial budget (or perhaps he sold rights to himself for budget prices to allow for only two stories in the public domain to be included). This was definitely a full-strength anthology for little monster-lovers. While Arthur was never afraid to run a chestnut in his YA books as well (such as "The Upper Berth", certainly, and to a lesser extent the Burrage, Wells and Stevenson stories), he was also offering fairly recent stories for 1962, in the Kuttner and Moore (even if it was dealing in its outre manner with an early postwar situation) and most of the others.

By the time of the 1967 suspense volume, the success of both Random House series was assured, as was that of the third series Arthur had launched with them, the Three Investigators novels. Unfortunately, Arthur's health was beginning to fail by this time, even if his ability to assemble an entertaining anthology was undiminished; the mix of impressive chestnuts young readers might not've yet encountered (such as cover story "The Most Dangerous Game", probably the most plagiarized short story in the 20th Century in English; I find myself disagreeing with Friday Fright Night host Curtis Evans in his relative assessment of the original story and the first film made from it, by largely the same folks behind the first King Kong; I prefer the original text) and even slightly more "edgy" newer stories such as Roald Dahl's "Man from the South". Of course, I'd also take slight issue with the notion that Robert Bloch's "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" (another remarkably widely-plagiarized story!) is a realistic mystery/suspense story so much as horror...Daphne Du Maurier's "The Birds" wanders up to the edge of that divide, as well...though including either the Dahl, which had already become one of the most famous of Alfred Hitchcock Presents: tv episodes, nor "The Birds", source story for the inferior 1963 Hitchcock film, probably wasn't too much a matter of controversy around the Random House offices. 

I certainly loved this series of anthologies as a young reader, and inhaled them along with the Random House adult-oriented volumes from about 1974 onward (and the Dell paperbacks taken from them and their similarly-packaged series of best-ofs from Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine), the RH volumes as edited by Arthur up till his death in 1969, and the adult series continued by Harold Q. Masur from the next volume till the death of Hitchcock himself in 1979; Henry Veit was to produce the two YA anthologies cited above after Arthur's last.

Curtis Evans will have the links for this week's, possibly the last Friday Fright Night this year?, at his blog tonight, and I'll have a fortnight's worth of Friday's "Forgotten" Books at my blog sometime tonight as well, with others added as I find them tomorrow.

 

FFB: Simenon week; Fredric Brown, Robert Arthur, Saki

As with my non-review of Margaret Millar in Millar week, I am undone by the the dispersed and partially packed-up nature of my library...my Georges Simenon works are in boxes somewhere, and even my backup plan, on this week full of work and health distractions, hitting The Title Page for something new to me, a fine if jumbled store on the edge of Villanova and Bryn Mawr, was foiled by rather worse things for them, as a water-main break flooded their large space and the smaller collectibles store behind it (which I wasn't aware of)...the Mercury and Bestseller Mystery issues I'd been judiciously going through the last several times I was in, including a Simenon or two I'd thought I'd purchased, were among the lowest-shelf victims. (Actually, they were on a little display shelf on the floor in front of the crime-fiction shelves...I fear most of what survived from that shelf is what I'd bought over the last several months.)

So, I can currently only point to the fine, small US public television network MHz Worldview's continuing International Mysteries wheel, which still offers at least one Maigret film, from the series of adaptations starring Bruno Cremer, every month...unfortunately, as of this hour, it looks as if the "live stream" webcast of the channel programming is dark...but potentially, those without access to the network in the 30+ television markets it currently broadcasts/cablecasts in can watch the Cremer films and the diverse other programming there (webcast at the first link above).

Meanwhile, at at the ReaderCon, Fredric Brown was cited as the 2012 Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award writer, to help draw attention to the overlooked in the sf and fantasy field...at least one juror for that award has noted that while Brown is certainly eligible on grounds of literary quality and influence, he's vastly less forgotten or overlooked than most of the previous recipients of the award, with at least a fair amount of Brown's crime and fantastic fiction still in print and his reputation secure.

Which nudges me into further consideration of the collections I read as a youngster, including what might still be Brown's career best-selling, rather eclectic collection Nightmares and Geezenstacks, and Brown's collaborator Robert Arthur's somewhat more focused (both in content and audience) Ghosts and More Ghosts, and their inspiration Saki's three collections, the first two I owned (a Scholastic Book Services item first published in 1974, and the 1970s edition of the Dell Laurel Leaf item below) and his first one-volume Complete Works, a public library-borrowing favorite back when and since added to my library (the small pleasures of adulthood often include being able to spoil one's self thus, at least some of the time)...Noel Coward introduction and all.

For more reviews, of actual Simenon works (and Prashant Trikannad's search for same in the market in India) and of other books, please see Patti Abbott's blog.

Courtesy the Locus Index:
Fredric Brown, Nightmares and Geezenstacks (pagination from the omnibus And the Gods Laughed, Phantasia Press 0-932096-47-6, Oct ’87
260 · Imagine, a Proem · pp F&SF May ’55
261 · Nasty · vi Playboy Apr ’59
263 · Abominable · vi Dude Mar ’60; Portfolio, gp
266 · Rebound [“The Power”] · vi Galaxy Apr ’60
269 · Nightmare in Gray · vi Dude May ’61; Five Nightmares, gp
271 · Nightmare in Green · vi Nightmares and Geezenstacks, Bantam, 1961
273 · Nightmare in White · vi Nightmares and Geezenstacks, Bantam, 1961
275 · Nightmare in Blue · vi Dude May ’61; Five Nightmares, gp
277 · Nightmare in Yellow · vi Dude May ’61; Five Nightmares, gp
279 · Nightmare in Red · vi Dude May ’61; Five Nightmares, gp
281 · Unfortunately · vi F&SF Oct ’58
283 · Granny’s Birthday · vi AHMM Jun ’60
286 · Cat Burglar · vi Nightmares and Geezenstacks, Bantam, 1961
288 · The House · vi Fantastic Aug ’60
291 · Second Chance · vi Nightmares and Geezenstacks, Bantam, 1961
293 · Great Lost Discoveries I - Invisibility · vi Gent Feb ’61; Three Part Invention, gp
295 · Great Lost Discoveries II - Invulnerability · vi Gent Feb ’61; Three Part Invention, gp
297 · Great Lost Discoveries III - Immortality · vi Gent Feb ’61; Three Part Invention, gp
299 · Dead Letter [“The Letter”] · vi EQMM Jul ’55; Killers Three, gp
301 · Recessional · vi Dude Mar ’60; Portfolio, gp
303 · Hobbyist · vi Playboy May ’61
305 · The Ring of Hans Carvel · vi Nightmares and Geezenstacks, Bantam, 1961; retold and somewhat modernized from the works of Rabelais
307 · Vengeance Fleet [“Vengeance, Unlimited”] · vi Super Science Stories Jul ’50
310 · Rope Trick · vi Adam May ’59
312 · Fatal Error [“The Perfect Crime”] · vi EQMM Jun ’55; Killers Three, gp
314 · The Short Happy Lives of Eustace Weaver I, II, & III [“Of Time and Eustace Weaver”] · ss EQMM Jun ’61
320 · Expedition · vi F&SF Feb ’57
322 · Bright Beard · vi Nightmares and Geezenstacks, Bantam, 1961
324 · Jaycee · vi Nightmares and Geezenstacks, Bantam, 1961; this story is given as being from F&SF 1955 in The Best of Fredric Brown and from F&SF Oct ’58 in bibliographies, but has not been found in F&SF.
326 · Contact [“Earthmen Bearing Gifts”] · vi Galaxy Jun ’60
329 · Horse Race · vi Nightmares and Geezenstacks, Bantam, 1961
332 · Death on the Mountain · vi Nightmares and Geezenstacks, Bantam, 1961
335 · Bear Possibility · vi Dude Mar ’60; Portfolio, gp
337 · Not Yet the End · vi Captain Future Win ’41
340 · Fish Story · vi Nightmares and Geezenstacks, Bantam, 1961
343 · Three Little Owls (A Fable) · vi Nightmares and Geezenstacks, Bantam, 1961
346 · Runaround [“Starvation”] · ss Astounding Sep ’42
351 · Murder in Ten Easy Lessons [“Ten Tickets to Hades”] · ss Ten Detective Aces May ’45
360 · Dark Interlude · Fredric Brown & Mack Reynolds · ss Galaxy Jan ’51
368 · Entity Trap [“From These Ashes”] · ss Amazing Aug ’50
384 · The Little Lamb · ss Manhunt Aug ’53
396 · Me and Flapjack and the Martians · Fredric Brown & Mack Reynolds · ss Astounding Dec ’52
404 · The Joke [“If Looks Could Kill”] · ss Detective Tales Oct ’48
413 · Cartoonist [“Garrigan’s Bems”] · Fredric Brown & Mack Reynolds · ss Planet Stories May ’51
421 · The Geezenstacks · ss Weird Tales Sep ’43
431 · The End [“Nightmare in Time”] · vi Dude May ’61; Five Nightmares, gp


Courtesy: WorldCat and ISFDb:
Ghosts and more ghosts.
Author: Robert Arthur; Irv Docktor (illustrator)
Publisher: New York, Random House [1963]
Contents
Footsteps Invisible • (1940) • shortstory by Robert Arthur
Mr. Milton's Gift • [Murchison Morks] • (1953) • shortstory by Robert Arthur (aka The Man with the Golden Hand)
The Rose-Crystal Bell • (1954) • shortstory by Robert Arthur (aka Ring Once for Death)
The Stamps of El Dorado • [Murchison Morks] • shortfiction by Robert Arthur (aka Postpaid to Paradise 1940 )
The Wonderful Day • (1940) • novelette by Robert Arthur
Don't Be a Goose • [Murchison Morks] • (1941) • shortstory by Robert Arthur (aka Don't Be a Goose!)
Obstinate Uncle Otis • [Murchison Morks] • (1941) • shortstory by Robert Arthur
Do You Believe in Ghosts? • (1941) • shortfiction by Robert Arthur (aka The Believers)
Mr. Dexter's Dragon • (1943) • shortfiction by Robert Arthur (aka The Book and the Beast)
Hank Garvey's Daytime Ghost • (1962) • shortfiction by Robert Arthur (aka Garvey's Ghost)


Courtesy: Fantastic Fiction:
Incredible Tales A collection of stories by Saki (Dell Laurel Leaf, 1966)
contents:
Sredni Vashtar,
The Boar-Pig,
The Schwarz-Metterklume Method,
The Story-Teller,
The Lumber Room,
The Toys of Peace,
The Reticence of Lady Anne,
Mrs Packletide's Tiger.
The Unrest-Cure,
The Quest,
The Secret Sin of Septimus Brope,
The Seventh Pullet,
The Hen,
The Brogue,
The She-Wolf,
The Holiday Task,
The Blind Spot,
Louise,
Fibroid Studge,
Gabriel-Ernest,
Tobermory,
The Mouse,
The Lost Sanjak,
The Background,
The Easter Egg,
The Peace of Mowsle Barton,
Laura,
Dusk,
The Interlopers,
The Open Window,
The Image of the Lost Soul.

Courtesy: Paperback Swap:
Humor, Horror, and the Supernatural: 22 Stories Author: H. H. Munro (Writing as Saki) Scholastic 1974
Contents: Gabriel-Ernest --
The bag --
Tobermory --
Mrs. Packletide's tiger --
Sredni Vashtar --
The Easter egg --
Filboid Studge --
Laura --
The open window --
The Schartz-Matterklume method --
A holiday task --
The storyteller --
The name day --
The lumber room --
The disappearance of Crispina Umberleigh --
The wolves of Cernogratz --
The guests --
The penance --
The interlopers --
The mappined life --
The seven cream jugs --
The gala programme.

Courtesy Evergreen/PALibrary:
The complete works of Saki (introduction by Noel Coward) New York: Doubleday, 1975
Table of Contents:
The unbearable Bassington
When William came
The Westminster Alice
The death-trap
Karl-Ludwig's window
The watched pot.Reginald : on Christmas presents
on the academy
at the theatre
peace poem
choir treat
worries
House-parties
Carlton
Besetting sins
drama
tariffs
Christmas revel
Rubaiyat
The innocence of Reginald
Reginal in Russia
The reticence of Lady Anne
The lost Sanjak
The sex that doesn't shop
The blood feud of Toad-water
A young Turkish catastrophe
Judkin of the parcels
Gabriel-Ernest
The saint and the goblin
The soul of Laploshka
The bag
The strategist
Cross currents
The baker's dozen
The mouse
The chronicles of Clovis : Esme
The match-maker
Tobermory
Mrs. Packletide's tiger
The stampeding of Lady Bastable
The background
Hermann the irascible : a story of the great weep
The unrest cure
The jesting of Arlington Stringham
Sredni Vashtar
Adrian
The chaplet
The quest
Wratislav
The Easter egg
Filboid Studge, the story of a mouse that helped
The music on the hill...The story of St. Vespaluus
The way to the dairy
The peace offering
The peace of Mowsle Barton
The talking-out of Tarrington
The hounds of fate
The recessional
A matter of sentiment
The secret sin of Septimus Brope
"Ministers of Grace"
The remoulding of Groby Lington
The she-wolf
Laura
The boar-pig
The brogue
The hen
The open window
The treasure-ship
The cobweb
The lull
The unkindest blow
The romancers
The Schartz-Metterklume method
The seventh pullet
The blind spot
Dusk
A touch of realism
Cousin Teresa
The Yarkand manner
The Byzantine omelette - The feast of nemesis
The dreamer
The quince tree
The forbidden buzzards
The stake
Clovis on parental responsiblities
A holiday task
The stalled ox
The story-teller
A defensive diamond
The elk
"Down pens"
The name-day
The lumber-room
Fur
The philanthropist and the happy cat
On approval
The toys of peace
Louise
Tea...The disappearance of Crispina Umberleigh
The wolves of Cernogratz
Louis
The guests
The penance
The phantom luncheon
A bread and butter miss
Bertie's Christmas eve
Forewarned
The interlopers
Quail seed
Canossa
The threat
Excerpting Mrs. Pentherby
Mark
The hedgehog
The mappined life
Fate
The bull
Morlvera
Shock tactics
The seven cream jugs
The occasional garden
The sheep
The oversight
Hyacinth
The image of the lost soul
The purple of the Balkan kings
The cupboard of the yesterdays
For the duration of the war
The square egg
Birds on the Western Front
The gala programme
The infernal parliament
The achievement of the cat
The old town of Pskoff
Clovis on the alleged romance of business
The comments of Moung Ka
The unbearable Bassington
When William came
The Westminster Alice
The death trap
Karl-Ludwig's window
The watched pot.

Short Story Wednesday: ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS: STORIES FOR LATE AT NIGHT Robert Arthur, editor (Random House, 1961); and various paperback abridgments (Dell, Pan)

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories for Late at Night "ed. Alfred Hitchcock" (ghost edited by Robert Arthur) (Random House, 1961, $5.95, 469pp, hc)
Derivative anthologies: Alfred Hitchcock Presents: 12 Stories for Late at Night, Alfred Hitchcock Presents: More Stories for Late at Night, Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories for Late at Night, Part I and Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories for Late at Night, Part II.
• 3 · Death Is a Dream · Robert Arthur · ss Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine Jun 1957
• 13 · It’s a Good Life-- · Jerome Bixby · ss Star Science Fiction Stories #2, ed. Frederik Pohl, Ballantine 1953
• 30 · The Whole Town’s Sleeping · Ray Bradbury · ss McCall’s Sep 1950; Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Jun 1954
• 45 · Lady’s Man · Ruth Chatterton · ss 1961 (originally published here)
• 60 · Evening Primrose · John Collier · ss 1940 (Presenting Moonshine, The Viking Press, "officially" published January 1941)
• 71 · The Sound Machine · Roald Dahl · ss The New Yorker Sep 17 1949
• 84 · The Cocoon · John B. L. Goodwin · ss Story Sep/Oct 1946
• 100 · Vintage Season · C. L. Moore · na Astounding Sep 1946, as by Lawrence O’Donnell
• 141 · Pieces of Silver · Brett Halliday · ss Argosy Jul 30 1938; Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Mar 1948
• 154 · The Whistling Room [Carnacki] · William Hope Hodgson · ss The Idler Mar 1910
• 170 · Told for the Truth · Cyril Hume · ss Street of the Malcontents and Other Stories, Doran 1927
• 185 · The Ash-Tree · M. R. James · ss Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, Edward Arnold 1904
• 198 · Side Bet · Will F. Jenkins · ss Collier’s Jul 31 1937
• 207 · Second Night Out · Frank Belknap Long · ss Weird Tales Oct 1933, as “The Black, Dead Thing”
• 216 · Our Feathered Friends · Philip MacDonald · ss When Churchyards Yawn, ed. Cynthia Asquith, London: Hutchinson 1931
• 225 · The Fly · George Langelaan · nv Playboy Jun 1957
• 256 · Back There in the Grass · Gouverneur Morris · ss Collier’s Dec 16 1911
• 270 · The Mugging · Edward L. Perry · ss Murder Dec 1956, as “A Mugging at Midnight”
• 275 · Finger! Finger! · Margaret Ronan · ss Unknown Worlds Oct 1941
• 283 · A Cry from the Penthouse · Henry Slesar · ss Playboy Nov 1959
• 293 · The People Next Door · Pauline C. Smith (Robert Arthur) · ss The Mysterious Traveler Magazine Jun 1952
• 298 · D-Day · Robert Trout · ss Saturday Review of Literature Oct 27 1945
• 301 · The Man Who Liked Dickens · Evelyn Waugh · ss Hearst’s International Sep 1933
• 315 · The Iron Gates · Margaret Millar · n. Random House 1945

The degree to which these volumes were Robert Arthur's painless education in the joys of suspense, mystery, horror, fantasy and science fiction would be hard to overestimate, and any time I look upon them it's difficult not to be reminded that these were among the greatest of the "books of gold" in my early literate life, a phrase employed by writer Gene Wolfe in one of his essays to describe  guideposts into the range of literature available but not always accessible, particularly to young readers who might not have first-rate used bookstores nor large libraries available to them. But they might just have a decent-sized public or school library, where the librarians were sensible enough to procure and keep books such as these anthologies on the shelves. Of course, Arthur was kind to his talented friends and old colleagues in the fiction magazines of the 1930s-60s, as well as looking out for #1 (running as he does two of his own stories, one under his Pauline Smith pseudonym--reprinted, as it was, from a magazine he had edited), and there is no lack of chestnuts here--he knew who was likely to be reading these books, young readers (such as myself) or casual ones approaching these fields, or, as the marketing was meant to snare, those who simply enjoyed the television series and hoped for More of Same in prose. Only to be rewarded with a much better selection than even the good choices made for adaptation by producer Joan Harrison and co. And, also to be fair, some of these stories became chestnuts After publication in the various AHP: anthologies...and a few presumably because other editors had them drawn to their attention by Arthur (and his successor in the adult line of Random House anthologies, Harold Q. Masur). And some aren't too well known now, any more than they were then...the Ronan is not the first story one thinks of when one thinks of Unknown: Fantasy Fiction, retitled Unknown Worlds hoping to snag some sf readers as well by the time it published her story. Nor the Long story among Weird Tales reprints, even given he was more a stalwart contributor to that magazine. The Chatterton story being first published in this volume was a rarity in this series--perhaps she was having difficulty placing it elsewhere.

As you glance over the paperback reshuffles of the contents below, you can see how much better the hardcovers were to have--and not solely because the Margaret Miller novel The Iron Garden is missing, presumably because another publisher still had a paperback edition out or at least rights to have one out--often in later volumes, the paperbacks would replace Arthur's novels or long novellas with stories from his YA anthologies from Random House, leading me to wonder if Arthur was given the opportunity to make the reshuffling in the Dell paperbacks himself...or if some functionary at Dell or RH was tasked with this. (Though as noted below, the first edition Dell paperback for the second volume of reprinting Late at Night sports a cover derived from the first RH YA volume in the series, edited by YA specialist Muriel Fuller rather than Arthur, and less successfully than Arthur would approach the same tasks, as a veteran of writing and anthologizing for young readers as well as adults, himself).

The writers this volume would Not have introduced 8- or probably 9yo me to would run only to Arthur himself, Bradbury, Collier, Dahl (running in fine alphabetical sequence--oddly, it seems Arthur was arranging the stories alphabetically by author or pseudonym, except for Millar's novel as last entry as was his custom with the Long Story in his volumes, but for some reason broke his own sequencing with the Moore story), and Bixby and Moore and Jenkins, since I had read their "It's a Good Life--" and "Mimsy were the Borogoves" and "First Contact" in my father's copy of The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One a few weeks or months before....the others in earlier-discovered kidlit and/or horror anthologies. One thing these anthologies lacked was headnotes for the stories, or similar addenda, so I would, for example, not learn of Robert Trout's work as as a CBS radio and early tv newsman for a couple of decades.

• Alfred Hitchcock Presents: 12 Stories for Late at Night
  
• Editor: Robert Arthur
• Date: 1962-07-00
• Catalog ID: 9178
• Publisher: Dell
• Price: $0.50
• Pages: 223
• Format: paperback
• 9 • Death Is a Dream • (1957) • short story by Robert Arthur
• 23 • The Whole Town's Sleeping • [Dandelion Wine] • (1950) • short story by Ray Bradbury
• 43 • Evening Primrose • (1940) • short story by John Collier
• 57 • The Cocoon • (1946) • short story by John B. L. Goodwin
• 77 • Vintage Season • (1946) • novelette by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore [as by Lawrence O'Donnell]--but usually accorded, as here, as primarily by Catherine L. Moore
• 131 • The Ash-Tree • (1904) • short story by M. R. James
• 147 • Side Bet • (1937) • short story [originally published as by Murray Leinster] by Will F. Jenkins
• 159 • Second Night Out • (1933) • short story by Frank Belknap Long (variant of The Black, Dead Thing)
• 171 • Our Feathered Friends • (1931) • short story by Philip MacDonald
• 193 • Back There in the Grass • (1911) • short story by Gouverneur Morris
• 201 • D-Day • (1945) • short story by Robert Trout
• 205 • The Man Who Liked Dickens • (1933) • short story by Evelyn Waugh

• Alfred Hitchcock Presents: More Stories for Late at Night
  
• Editor: Robert Arthur
• Date: 1962-12-00
• Catalog ID: 5815
• Publisher: Dell
• Price: $0.50
• Pages: 207
• Format: pb
• Cover by or a variation on Fred Banbery's from Alfred Hitchcock's Haunted Houseful, edited by Muriel Fuller, Random House Young Readers Books 1961
• 7 • It's a Good Life-- • (1953) • short story by Jerome Bixby
• 31 • Lady's Man • (1961) • short story by Ruth Chatterton
• 51 • The Sound Machine • (1949) • short story by Roald Dahl
• 69 • Pieces of Silver • (1948) • short story
  
  by Brett Halliday
• 85 • The Whistling Room • [Carnacki (William Hope Hodgson)] • (1910) • short story by William Hope Hodgson
• 107 • Told for the Truth • (1927) • short story by Cyril Hume
• 127 • The Fly • (1957) • novelette by George Langelaan (trans. of La mouche)
• 169 • The Mugging • (1956) • short story by Edward L. Perry
• 175 • Finger! Finger! • (1941) • short story by Margaret Ronan
• 187 • A Cry from the Penthouse • (1959) • short story by Henry Slesar
• 201 • The People Next Door  • (1952) • short story by Pauline C. Smith (I)

published in the UK under the

Max Reinhardt imprint, 1962

• Alfred Hitchcock Presents Stories for Late at Night: Part I 
• Editor: Robert Arthur
• Date: 1965-00-00
• Catalog ID: X344
• Publisher: Pan Books
• Price: 3/6
• Pages: 285
• Format: pb
• Cover: Glenn Steward
• 9 • Death Is a Dream • (1957) • short story by Robert Arthur
• 21 • It's a Good Life • (1953) • short story by Jerome Bixby
• 41 • The Whole Town's Sleeping • [Dandelion Wine] • (1950) • short story by Ray Bradbury
• 58 • Lady's Man • (1961) • short story by Ruth Chatterton
• 75 • Evening Primrose • (1940) • short story by John Collier
• 88 • The Cocoon • (1946) • short story by John B. L. Goodwin
• 106 • Vintage Season • (1946) • novella by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore [as by C. L. Moore]
• 155 • Pieces of Silver • (1948) • short story by Brett Halliday
• 170 • The Whistling Room • [Carnacki (William Hope Hodgson)] • (1910) • short story by William Hope Hodgson
• 188 • Told for the Truth • (1927) • short story by Cyril Hume
• 205 • The Ash Tree • (1904) • short story by M. R. James (variant of The Ash-Tree)
• 219 • Side Bet • (1937) • short story by Murray Leinster [as by Will F. Jenkins]
• 229 • Second Night Out • (1933) • short story by Frank Belknap Long (variant of The Black, Dead Thing)
• 239 • Our Feathered Friends • (1931) • short story by Philip MacDonald
• 250 • The Fly • (1957) • novelette by George Langelaan (trans. of La mouche)

• Alfred Hitchcock Presents Stories for Late at Night: Part II
• Editor: Robert Arthur
• Date: 1965-00-00
• Catalog ID: X457
• Publisher: Pan Books
• Price: 3/6
• Pages: 285
• Format: pb
• Cover: Glenn Steward
• The Iron Gates • (1945) • novel by Margaret Millar
• Finger! Finger! • (1941) • short story by Margaret Ronan
• The Man Who Liked Dickens  • (1933) • short story by Evelyn Waugh
• The People Next Door • (1952) • short story by Pauline C. Smith (I)
• A Cry from the Penthouse • (1959) • short story by Henry Slesar
• The Mugging • (1956) • short story by Edward L. Perry
• D-Day • (1945) • short story by Robert Trout

for more Short Story Wednrsday entries, 

please see Patti Abbott's blog