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.
3 comments:
I read Saki as a kid. I probably need to reread Saki. More and more of Fredric Brown's works are becoming available by small presses and ebooks. Brown was one of my favorite SF writers. Later, I became found of Brown's mystery novels.
Todd, thanks very much for mentioning my post on Simenon — much appreciated. That's an awful lot of stories by Fredric Brown, Robert Arthur and Saki, writers I'm familiar with but haven't read in a big way though I'm trying to reverse that. Your presentation does make me want to read their tales straight away. Often, covers are enough to entice me into reading books and I particularly liked the Brown and Arthur jackets upfront.
I first read all these guys in my youth, and they certainly made an impression...all at times savage humorists, all with a strong sense of what will hook young readers and adults with the same texts. And I certainly still mean, even at this late date, to actually get down some thoughts on their further significance and that of these collections...croggling to me that the Arthur, for example, was the only collection of his short fiction he published, iinm...all stories first published in such adult-oriented magazines as ARGOSY and WEIRD TALES, and yet the book is marketed pretty hard to young readers alone...
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