August Derleth in Scribner's (Sept. 1936)

SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE * September 1936 *

Sam Moskowitz and Lin Carter Side by Side

Worlds of Tomorrow Nov 1966 featuring Moskowitz & Lin Carter

Carter Story:
Crown of Stars [Hautley Quicksilver], (nv) Worlds of Tomorrow Nov 1966

Includes Stephen Tall story:
Seventy Light-Years from Sol [Stardust], (nv) Worlds of Tomorrow Nov 1966; also as “A Star Called Cyrene”.

Frederick Pohl:
The World of Today, (ed) Worlds of Tomorrow Nov 1966

Patrick Stewart Sees Ghost

Patrick Stewart, right, saw a ghost while performing Waiting for Godot with Sir Ian McKellen, left
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Chrispy is a major Trek fan. And it's an antiquraian story to a certain extent.
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Patrick Stewart saw ghost performing Waiting for Godot

Patrick Stewart has told fellow actors that he saw a ghost in what is reputed to be one of Britain's most haunted theatres.
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He saw the apparition while performing Waiting for Godot with Sir Ian McKellen.

Stage hands believe he saw the ghost of John Baldwin Buckstone, who was actor-manager of the Theatre Royal Haymarket in the mid 19th century and a friend of Charles Dickens.

Upon coming offstage for the interval, Stewart told his co-star that he saw a man standing in the wings wearing what looked like a beige coat and twill trousers.

Sir Ian asked him: "What happened, what threw you?"

"I just saw a ghost. On stage, during Act One," Stewart replied.

The episode was related in a documentary about the Theatre Royal Haymarket, produced by television channel Sky Arts.

However, it appears cameramen failed to capture images of the ghost itself.

Buckstone had a long association with the Theatre Royal, first as a comic actor, then as a playwright and finally as its actor-manager from 1853 to 1877, during which time it put on some 200 productions. The house became the leading comic theatre of the day.

He did not die in the building, passing away peacefully at home in Sydenham, Kent, after a long illness in 1879 aged 77. But theatre lore professes that he nevertheless haunts the place to the present day.

Nigel Everett, a director of the theatre, said: "Patrick told us all about it. He was stunned. I would not say frightened, but I would say impressed."

Appearances of Buckstone were not that frequent, Mr Everett said, with the last being by a stage hand about three or four years ago.

He added: "The last time an actor saw him would have been I think Fiona Fullerton, playing in an Oscar Wilde, 10 or 12 years ago.

"The ghost tends to appear when a comedy is playing."

While he said he did not consider Waiting for Godot to be a comedy, he thought their production did have comic aspects.

"I think Buckstone appears when he appreciates things," he added. "We view it as a positive thing."

C M Eddy, Jr. Writer, HPL & Houdini Friend.

Thanks, C, for mentioning this article to me. :)
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Pulp-era horror is resurrected in book of tales
By Doug Norris/Features Editor

NARRAGANSETT - A close friend to H.P. Lovecraft and Harry Houdini, lifelong Rhode Islander C.M. Eddy Jr. is perhaps best known for his stories in Weird Tales. Eddy's tales of horror, the supernatural and detective mystery appeared in several pulp magazines in the early 20th century.
Just in time for Halloween, a partial collection of his work, "The Loved Dead and Other Tales," consisting of 13 stories from the pulps, has been compiled and published by his grandson, Jim Dyer, owner of Fenham Publishing of Narragansett."He was a pack rat," said Dyer of his grandfather. "He kept all of his stories, letters, notes. It's something that runs in the family."This is the second collection of Eddy's tales that Dyer has published. Fenham Publishing's first venture into the Eddy oeuvre was "Exit Into Eternity, Tales of the Bizarre and Supernatural," a collection of five stories, including one novelette and one unfinished fragment titled "Black Noon." Dyer later edited and published "The Gentleman from Angell Street, Memories of H.P. Lovecraft," which included writings from his grandfather and his grandmother, Muriel, who both knew Lovecraft well."My grandparents became friends with Lovecraft in the early 1920s," Dyer said. "He used to walk to their house in Fox Point and stay late into the night. My grandfather and he would take late-night walks in the streets of Providence, looking for interesting places or just talking about ideas for stories. My grandmother typed some of his manuscripts."Dyer said that Lovecraft encouraged Eddy's writing, offering advice and editing, as he did with many writers of the day."He wasn't competitive at all," Dyer said, adding that, according to his grandmother, "Lovecraft had a hand in a lot of stories that he never got any credit for. He had a circle of friends, who would mail each other different stories and make comments.""The Loved Dead," the opening story in the new collection, was so controversial in its day that it almost didn't get published. It deals with the subject of necrophilia."His agent said no one would touch it in America," Dyer said. "He told my grandfather to try to publish it in France. He thought it might find an audience in Paris, where they had the Grand-Guignol, a theater of the bizarre. Eventually Weird Tales published the story in 1924, even though the editor still had his doubts. As it turned out, the controversy helped sell more copies of the magazine." The story is even credited with helping Weird Tales avoid bankruptcy.Seven stories first published in Weird Tales make up part of the new collection. Dyer's favorite of these is a tale titled "The Ghost-Eater.""It's a werewolf story," Dyer said, "but it's an offbeat werewolf story, about a ghost werewolf."Eddy wrote horror and supernatural tales, along with detective mysteries such as "Sign of the Dragon," first published in Mystery Magazine in 1919 and re-published here. Other stories describe mad scientists, Neanderthals, phantoms and ancient curses."Supernatural had to do with something not of this world, like werewolves, vampires," Dyer said. "The horror story was more based in real life, but just scary. But I don't think they differentiated back then with all of the subcategories. That came later.""It's the kind of writing he liked to do," Dyer added. "Magazines like Weird Tales published stories that didn't fit into the other magazines of the day. My grandfather called his stories his 'brainchildren.' "In addition to pulp fiction writing, Eddy was a composer of lyrics and melodies, whose songs included "Dearest of All," "When We Met by the Blue Lagoon," "Underneath the Whispering Pine," "Sunset Hour" and "Hello, Mister Sunshine (Goodbye, Mister Rain).""People used to send him their poems and he'd put them to music," Dyer said.Eddy became a theatrical booking agent in Providence, which was his residence throughout his life (except for a short stint in East Providence). He befriended a number of famous vaudevillians and performers, including the great Houdini, one of the most popular entertainers of his time."He worked as a ghostwriter and an investigator for Houdini," Dyer said. "Houdini paid writers to write stories that had his name on them in popular magazines. He also used to go around the country breaking up seances and exposing mediums as fakes. My grandfather would travel to a town ahead of him and find out everything he could. He'd figure out how the voices were coming from the walls, how the table might be moving. Then he'd type up a report for Houdini, who would show up with all of the newspapers and expose the act as if he was doing it on the spot.""The Loved Dead and Other Tales" costs $16.95 and is available at local bookstores or through the publisher's Web site, www.fenhampublishing.com.

Bradbury Manuscript Seen

Bradbury, Ray. "Watchful Poker Chip of M. Matisse, The" [Short Story]. TYPED MANUSCRIPT SIGNED (TMsS). 17 leaves of letter-size bond, typed on rectos only, signed by Bradbury on first leaf. The setting copy, with many minor edits in pencil, as well as typographical instructions. One of Bradbury's better-known stories, appearing first in Horace L. Gold's BEYOND in 1953, and collected in THE OCTOBER COUNTRY (1955). The story concerns a "terrifyingly ordinary man" named George Garvey, whose very banality makes him a camp darling of the avant garde -- but they watch in true horror as he unconsciously manifests one genuinely hip trend after another, the final phase being his decision to replace his body parts, one by one, for artistic objects: a bird cage in an artificial leg, a hand of jade and copper, and, most notably, a false eye consisting of a poker chip with an eye painted on it by Matisse. "Bradbury's target in this uncharacteristic excursion into cultural satire is trendy intellectualism, which finds itself always one step behind the ingenious banality of George Garvey, as he moves from campy nostalgia to florid romantic decadence." - Mogen, Ray Bradbury (1986), p. 55. It belongs to the period, from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, that most critics consider Bradbury's most fruitful. On the front page is a pencil notation: "Vouchered 8/17/53 $400." Gold's BEYOND lasted for just ten bi-monthly issues from 1953-1955. Bradbury's story is a good example of the ironic tone that Gold preferred. A bit rumpled and smudged, with a ragged hole in upper right corners of each leaf from former brad binding, generally very good. (#128346)
Price: $4,500.00