There are two birthdays today, October 12.  The first is Richard Marsh (1857-1915) and Lester Dent (1904-1959).

Marsh was the grandfather of Robert Aickman.  His most popular work was a horror novel entitled The Beetle, which was published shortly after Bram Stoker’s Dracula and was well-received by the reading public of the day.  He was also an accomplished writer of short fiction, much of which was collected by Ash-Tree Press in The Haunted Chair.  While the original hardcover edition went out of print years ago, Ash-Tree has managed to get most of their catalogue into print in ebooks.

Marsh’s work, including his novels, have been reprinted by various ebook publishers in the last few years, so copies of The Beetle are also readily available.

Lester Dent was the prolific author of the Doc Savage pulp novels.  Original copies are pricey to come by.  Even the Bantam Books reprints can get pricey.  My local comic shop has a complete set for $150.  Fortunately pulp reproductions are readily available is you want to try and recreate the pulp reading experience.  And why wouldn’t you?

Doc has a pretty loyal following.  There’s at least one convention devoted to him each year.  I’ve got some of the reproductions as well as the Bantam reprints and hope to spend some quality time with them later this year over the holidays.

As for today, though, I’ll read a couple of Marsh’s ghost stories.