Happy Birthday, Seabury Quinn

Seabury Grandin Quinn was born on New Year’s Day in 1889.  He passed away on Christmas Eve in 1969.  Now where have I heard that name “Grandin” before?

Oh, yeah.  Jules de Grandin, the French occult detective.  He appeared in over 90 stories and one novel in Weird Tales beginning in 1925.  The last story was published in 1951.  They are currently being reprinted in hardcover by NightShade Books.  Four of a projected five volumes have been published as of this writing.

Quinn wrote other stories that didn’t feature de Grandin.  The first Quinn story I ever read was “The Phantom Farmhouse”.

Given how prolific he was, I’m surprised he isn’t better remembered today.  Hopefully someone will publish a collection of his non-de Grandin work in an affordable edition.

8 thoughts on “Happy Birthday, Seabury Quinn

  1. Manly Reading

    There are a couple of comparatively inexpensive collections called Demons of the Night and Someday I’ll Kill you! which are non-de Grandin. Not too bad, either, although some were rewritten as de Grandin stories, I think.

    Reply
    1. Keith West Post author

      I reviewed Demons of the Night when I was blogging for Amazing Stories. Here’s the link: https://amazingstoriesmag.com/2013/06/demons-of-the-night-early-stories-by-seabury-quinn/ The link wouldn’t work for me when I tried it, but our internet has been sketchy today.

      Someday I’ll Kill You is on my wish list. There’s also an ebook called The Monkey God; I’ve only read the first story. It was a detective tale. I thought it was pretty good.

      Ash-Tree Press published a collection of his non-de Grandin stories that is available in ebook: https://www.amazon.com/NIGHT-CREATURES-Seabury-Quinn-ebook/dp/B007G17UWM/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1546393309&sr=1-1&keywords=ash+tree+press+quinn

      The Vagabond at Arms collects stories from Magic Carpet and Golden Fleece.

      Reply
  2. Carrington Dixon

    There was a series of de Grandin paperbacks issued a few decades ago. I read a bunch of them then.

    I suspect that Quinn’s most famous non-de Grandin story is Roads. I remember one edition has illustrations by Virgil Finlay. Those illos, if not the story, have been republished a number of times.

    Reply

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