Category Archives: Hugh B. Cave

Cave’s “Black Gargoyle”

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Pulpster Hugh B. Cave (1910-2004)  was born on this date, July 11. Cave wrote for a variety of pulps in the 1930s, including Black Mask and Weird Tales. He was prolific enough that he used multiple pen names, the most famous being Justin Case. He was a war correspondent during WWII. After the war he bought a coffee plantation in Jamaica. During this period his writing shifted from the pulps, which were fast on their way out, to writing for the slicks, primarily what would be called “women’s fiction” today and was considered romance at the time.

Karl Edward Wagner’s Carcosa published some of Cave’s stories from the horror and fantasy in Murgunstrumm and Others in the 1970’s. This opened the door to him returning to weird fiction. Cave was experiencing something of a renaissance in the early 2000’s, with collections of his pulp stories from Fedogan and Bremer and Ash-Tree Press, among others, in addition to a steady output of novels. He passed away shortly after his autobiography, Cave of a Thousand Tales, was published.

For his birthday, I read “The Black Gargoyle”. It was the cover story for the March 1934 issue of Weird Tales.   It is available in the collection of the same name. Continue reading →

And Still More Birthdays

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Before I look at several folks born on this date, please indulge me by allowing me to explain one of the reasons I do these posts.

No, it’s not because I have nothing else to say.  Anyone who has been reading this blog for a while should know that usually isn’t the case.  (Well, okay, maybe a little.)

One of the main reasons I do these posts are for historical reasons.  The fields of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and weird fiction have long histories. Aside from a few well-known authors such as Lovecraft, Howard, Asimov, Clarke, and a few others, most of the writers of the past are unknown to the general reading public.

Why does this matter, you ask?  Because every few years some new writer will write a novel/short story/screenplay/ransom note/etc that young readers, critics, and other writers will hail as original and groundbreaking.  Only it won’t be.  It will have been done years or decades before by someone else.  And usually done better, although YMMV as to how much better.  The new work will be shinier, have more up to date technology, and express the correct sociopolitical opinions du jour.  But the central conceit will be anything but original.

IOW, those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.  Case in point the undead myth that women weren’t represented in the field before [insert year of speaker’s birth here].  This is one of those myths that just won’t die, in spite of some of us trying to put a stake in its heart.

There was a conversation that came across my Twitter feed yesterday (and is probably still going on for all I know; I am on Twitter sporadically these days) in which someone stated that Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein came to dominate the science fiction field in their later years while many writers contemporary to the time these three did their most well-known work and were just as admired and respected became forgotten.  And while this topic is better suited for another post, part of what I’m trying to do with these birthday posts is to prevent some of these formerly well-respected but now obscure writers from being completely forgotten.

So, with that in mind, here are today’s birthdays. Continue reading →

More Bookstore Closing Acquisitions

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I posted recently about one of the local used bookstores (currently there are 4: 2 good, 1 decent, 1 not worth bothering with) closing and some of the titles I picked up.

You know I went back.  The store will be open for a little while yet.  Here’s what I picked up this time.

More AcquisitionsI couldn’t resist the cover of the Howard pastiche by Offutt, even though I doubt I’ll read it.  The People of the Mist is an upgrade of my existing copy.  The Starfollowers of Coramonde is a later edition, but the Darrell K. Sweet cover matches the one on the first novel in the series.

I loved Sean Stewart’s Galveston some years back, but I haven’t read any of his other books.  The Tanith Lee speaks for itself.  The third row contains the first 3 of 4 in Lawrence Watt-Evans Lords of Dus series.

The last row is a reading copy of one of Evangeline Walton’s books that was part of the BAF series.  The Zahn is part of a series that looks like a lot of fun.  And the Paul Preuss because I wanted some solid science fiction in the old style.

But the gem of this little collection is the volume in the upper left of the picture.  It’s Whispers, edited by Stuart David Schiff.  It’s a collection of stories published in his groundbreaking small press magazine of the same title.  I’ve got a copy of this already, but I couldn’t pass this one up.  The contents include “Sticks” by Karl Edward Wagner, “The Barrow Troll” by David Drake, “The Dakwa” by Manly Wade Wellman, plus stories by Robert Bloch, Fritz Leiber, William F. Nolan, Hugh B. Cave, Dennis Etchison, Joseph Payne Brennan, Ramsey Campbell, Richard Christian Matheson, Brian Lumley, and many others.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go reread “Sticks”.

RIP, April Derleth

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April Derleth, daughter of Arkham House founder August Derleth and current president and CEO of the publishing house, has died at the age of 56.  No cause of death has been announced.  Arkham House was founded by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to promote the works of H. P. Lovecraft and other Weird Tales authors, as well as author who wrote in a similar vein for other publications, including volumes by Ray Bradbury, Clark Ashton Smith, William Hope Hodgson, and Robert E. Howard.  Upon August Derleth’s death, Wandrei and then James Turner ran the publishing company.  When April Derleth became CEO, she tried to return to the company’s roots by publishing more weird fiction.  During her tenure, she published volumes by Nelson S. Bond, Hugh B. Cave’s autobiography Cave of a Thousand Tales,and  the anthology Arkham’s Masters of Horror, among other volumes.  Arkham House has temporarily suspended all sales and unfilled orders.