The Danish Dr Nikola

Michael Böhnhardt recently got in touch about a German translation he hopes to publish of Reginald Hodder's lost race novel, Daughter of the Dawn. Michael has already published German translations of several of Guy Boothby's Dr Nikola novels, which you can find mentioned on his blog here. While researching Boothby, Michael found that Danish director, Vigo Larson, made three Nikola films in 1909: Dr. Nikola I - III. Stills from the films can be found on the homepage of the Dansk Filminstitut here.

The Other David Lindsay, and more Lesser-Known Writers

Just a  quick cross-post to call attention to some recent entries in my Lesser-Known Writers series that might be of interest to readers of Wormwoodiana, including:

The Other David Lindsay, as distinct from the author of A Voyage to Arcturus

Colin de la Mare, one of two sons of Walter de la Mare

Oscar Cook, contributor to the "Not at Night" series, and to Weird Tales, husband of Christine Campbell Thomson

Virginia Swain, author of the odd novel The Hollow Skin (1938)

Julian Kilman, early contributor to Weird Tales 

Ronald S. L.Harding, writer of weird menace library novels

For more see the Lesser Known Writers front page, and check out the labels function at the right, where entries can be located alphabetically by the subject.

Evangeline Walton's ABOVE KER-IS AND OTHER STORIES

A quick note here to call attention to the announcement of a new volume collecting all ten of Evangeline Walton's fantasy short stories, four of which are published for the first time.  The details are posted at the new publisher's website, Nodens Books.

Nigel Tourneur, "Hidden Witchery"

Nigel Tourneur has acquired some cachet for his volume of short stories, Hidden Witchery, a late flowering of English decadence published by Leonard Smithers in 1898 in an edition of 450. The work is available for free download here though I notice some POD publishers are charging handsomely for print copies. Tourneur published stories, articles and novels under this and other pseudonyms, but none under his real name. Here is a short tidbit that appeared in the June 11, 1898 issue of The Outlook:

"Nigel Tourneur," the author of "Hidden Witchery" (Smithers), the latest contribution to symbolistic literature, is a Scot, and a literary critic of advanced and independent views. He calls "Hidden Witchery" a "tentative" book, and there seems little doubt that the writer's undoubted power will sooner or later find a very different artisitic outlet. But the present volume, curious mixture that it is, has touches of exceptionally happy artistry.

Lesser-Known Writers of Weird Fiction

I just want to take this opportunity to call some attention to some recent entries at one of my other blogs, on Lesser-Known Writers.  Most of the entries are illustrated with photographs and dust-wrappers. There should be (I would think) a considerable overlap of interest with readers of Wormwoodiana, in that many of the authors covered wrote supernatural fiction and are today fairly forgotten.  Some of the authors wrote for Weird Tales (e.g., Bassett Morgan, and Lyllian Huntley Harris).  Others wrote supernatural novels (Marion Fox, and C. Bryson Taylor).  Interested in cricket fantasies?  Check out the entry for Alan Miller.  The "Labels" function in the right-hand column I use as a kind of index to the blog itself. But here are direct links to some entries of interest to readers of Wormwoodiana:

Vivian Meik (with newly discovered information), author of Devil's Drums (1933)

C. Bryson Taylor, author of the vampire novel In The Dwellings of the Wilderness (1904)

Marion Fox, author of Ape's Face (1914) and The Mystery Keepers (1919)

Blanche Bloor Schleppey, author of The Soul of a Mummy (1908)

Alan Miller, author of Phantoms of a Physician (1934) and Close of Play (1949)

Lyllian Huntley Harris, author of one known short story in Weird Tales, the subject of a later-day fraud

Bassett Morgan, prolific Weird Tales author

And many others, with more to come.

Archives of British Publishers/Keith Fleming

Publishers' archives are valuable but underutilised sources of information about writers and their books, particularly writers who are little-known, or who worked under pseudonyms.

As far as I know, the largest archive of British publishers records is housed at the University of Reading, in the archive of publishers and printers.

An important set of archives that is more accessible than most is the Archives of British Publishers, which comprises the records of nine publishers copied to microfilm and microfiche, including George Rutledge, Elkin Mathews, Grant Richards, and Richard Bentley. It can be found in many major libraries.

A good example of how publishers' archives can be used is the case of the nineteenth century supernatural fiction writer, Keith Fleming. Fleming wrote three works of supernatural fiction published by George Routledge between 1889 and 1891, Can Such Things Be?, By the Night Express, and At the Eleventh Hour. The specialty publisher, Sarob, reprinted the first two in 2001 in a nice limited edition volume.

The George Rutledge papers in the Archives of British Publishers includes the contracts for the three Keith Fleming books. The signature on all three contracts is K.E. Fitzpatrick, indicating that ‘Keith Fleming’ was in fact a pseudonym. Two of the books also appear in Rutledge's book production ledgers. Can such things Be? was printed in a run of 4000 and 25 pounds was paid to “Miss Fitzpatrick”. At the Eleventh Hour was also printed in a run of 4000 and 25 pounds was paid for the copyright.

It turns out that "Keith Fleming" was in fact Kathleen Fitzpatrick, born in Ireland in 1858 or 1859, and who lived for much of her life with her widowed mother in Wales, not to be confused with the Kathleen Fitzpatrick who wrote The Weans of Rowallan.

New Issues of LE VISAGE VERT

The year 2011 has brought us not one but two new issues of the excellent French magazine on the fantastic, Le Visage Vert.  Issue 18 came out this summer, and issue 19 has just recently appeared.

one of the supplementary cards

Issue 18 (June 2011) begins with a translation by Anne-Sylvie Homassel of Howard Pyle's "The Salem Wolf", with the original illustrations from the December 1909 appearance in Harper's Monthly Magazine. This is followed by Michel Meurger's essay on the Salem witches in American literature. Other work translated from English into French include Robert Barr's "The Vengeance of the Dead" (with illustrations from its English Illustrated Magazine appearance in May 1894) and Amelia B. Edwards's "A Railway Panic" (1856). Two stories reprinted in their original French are "Une heure d'express" and "Le Roi du Léthol", both by Georges Price (1853-1922), from his volume La Rançon du sommeil (1910). The first story seems a direct descendant of the Amelia Edwards story.  And two stories by Alexander Moritz Frey (1881-1957), along with an essay on him by Robert N. Bloch, are translated from the German. A full contents-listing for this issue can be found here.  

A supplementary envelope that comes with this issue includes three cards, printed in color on both sides, showing some of the dynamic illustrations in full color, including three pages with illustrations by Howard Pyle for his own story.  

Issue 19 (November 2011) is another bountiful volume.  It includes stories by René Thévenin (French, 1867-1967), Harry de Windt (British, 1856-1933), Rhoda Broughton (British, 1840-1920), Ernst Raupach (German, 1784-1852), and the contemporary H.V. Chao (American, the pseudonym of translator Edward Gauvin). Criticism by Michel Meurger and François Ducos.  A full list of contents can be found here.  And there is similarly a supplementary envelope with colored cards.   

Personally, the item of greatest interest to me is the fantasy story by the forgotten German dramatist Ernst Raupach, whose famous vampire story "Wake Not the Dead" (published 1822, translated into English without attribution in 1823) has long---in English---been misattributed to Ludwig Tieck.  Raupach's story, "Die Wanderung", is a fairy tale very much like the ones that would be written afterwards by George MacDonald. 

All of the publications of Le Visage Vert are elegantly and tastefully produced.  You can see a full list (and order via Paypal) at this link.  (Scroll down for the current and back-issues of Le Visage Vert).  

The Victorian Hugos: 1885+

Over at io9.com, Jess Nevins has been publishing a fascinating series on which novels and stories might have won Hugo awards--if there had been Hugo awards back in the 1880s.  His discussions range around works of (proto-) science fiction, fantasy and horror, and are well worth reading. He intends the series (eventually) to cover the years 1885 to 1930, and he's off to a good start with five years already covered in the last couple of months.  Here are the direct links to each year: 

The Victorian Hugos: 1885

The Victorian Hugos: 1886

The Victorian Hugos: 1887

The Victorian Hugos: 1888

The Victorian Hugos: 1889 

And another recent article by Jess will likely interest readers of Wormwoodiana (and it's nice to see the very strange novel Doctor Transit get some attention): 

Sex Change in the Pulps: Demonic Shapeshifters, Feminist Conspiracies, and Wacky Erotic Shenanigans

All recommended!