December 14 is the birthday of R. R. Ryan (1882-1950), whose real name was Evelyn Grosvenor Bradley. Ryan was the author of the novel Echo of a Curse. I’m sure you’ve heard of it.
What’s that? You haven’t?
Well, truthfully I’m not surprised. This is a rather obscure novel. So why am I bringing it up?
Well, if you read the post on Karl Edward Wagner, you’ll recall l mentioned Wagner had three lists of best horror novels. Echo of a Curse was on the list of Supernatural Horror.
It’s currently available in both paperback and hardcover. The image is from the Midnight House edition published in 2002. It’s out of print and expensive if you can find a copy. I’m going to try to work it in over the next few weeks and report back. I might make trying to read through Wagner’s lists a project over the next few years, not like I need anything else to do.
I’ll be curious to read your thoughts. I have not read her. Ryan is one of those lost authors with no ebooks, though I believe all three of her books on the Wagner lists are available in paperback.
I think you’re correct on the other books being available in paper.
“Evelyn” is one of those names that is sometimes bestowed on male children; that seems to be the case here. All the websites I checked use masculine pronouns to describe this author. Not definitive, but indicative that he was male.
Interesting. The introduction in the Midnight House edition treats Ryan as a woman. I’ve not read all of it yet. It’s quite lengthy. There is a discussion of Ryan’s gender. I’ll report back on this.