Many years passed before I paid attention to the authors whose works had been adapted into films or television shows, and I was glad finally to read "Boomerang." It was not frequently reprinted, and I suppose I must have read it in A Century of Creepy Stories (1934). About twenty years ago, John Pelan of Midnight House was contemplating doing a volume of Cook's stories, and one of Thomson's stories--or a best of both in one volume. I put together bibliographies of both, and did some research on their lives, but the plans came to nought. More recently I learned Johnny Mains was planning a Cook omnibus, so I sent him the bibliography I had compiled years earlier. Johnny added to it considerably, and it is now published in his omnibus (where Johnny generously kept my name as part of the byline).
His Beautiful Hands: The Short Fiction of Oscar Cook has now been published by Ramble House, and it is a thick compilation, containing around forty stories (plus some nonfiction, etc.), and the results of Johnny's researches appear in various introductions and appendices. There is even a short Foreword by Cook's grandson.
Our knowledge of Cook has thus been considerably advanced, and anyone interested in British horror fiction from between the First and Second World Wars will find this volume essential.
I remember Night Gallery as a kid and that episode is precisely the one that stuck in my own little brain. The idea of it still gives me the heebie-jeebies. So to found out the source after all these years is wonderful. Discovering these unknown authors (at least to me) is why I booked passage on this ship! Thanks Douglas!
ReplyDeleteThe other episode that really stayed in my memory was "The Boy Who Predicted Earthquakes"--from a story of the same title by Margaret St. Clair. It was the first episode of Season 2, broadcast on 15 September 1971. I've never seen it (or "The Caterpillar") since, and I'm torn about watching them again after a half a century. The Suck Fairy has done her job on so many things I knew from that age!
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