Tag Archives: Joseph Payne Brennan

Christmas Ghosts: “The Green Parrot” by Joseph Payne Brennan

“The Green Parrot”
Joseph Payne Brennan
available in Nine Horrors and a Dream
paperback $9.95
ebook $7.96

Today’s post serves two purposes. Not only is it a ghost story, but today, December 20, is the birthday of Joseph Payne Brennan (1918-1990).

“The Green Parrot” is a brief little tale. The unnamed narrator, whom the reader will probably assume to be an alter ego of Brennan since the story is in first person, is a writer who has moved to a small inn in the hills of Connecticut to finish a book. In late November he decides to take an afternoon off since he is on schedule and drive about the countryside.

And on the way back he takes a shortcut…

These types of things are never a good idea. Continue reading

A Look at Joseph Payne Brennan’s “An Ordinary Brick House”

“An Ordinary Brick House”
Joseph Payne Brennan
originally appeared in Shadows 9, Charles L. Grant, ed.

A lot of great short fiction appeared in the Shadows series, and much of it has never been reprinted.  “An Ordinary Brick House” is a perfect example.  An that’s a shame because it’s an interesting haunted house story. Continue reading

We Need a Joseph Payne Brennan Retrospective

Today, December 20, marks the centenary of the birth of Joseph Payne Brennan.  Brennan only wrote  one novel, which was published by a small press.  Most of his output was in the form of short fiction and poetry.   Several volumes of both have been published, and are readily available on the secondary market.  They ain’t gonna be cheap.

For example, The Shapes of Midnight, a paperback published by Berkley in 1980 shows eighteen copies available under a search on ABE.  They cheapest is $27.63.  The prices rise from there to a high of $176.04.  That is not a typo.  Someone is asking one hundred seventy-six dollars and four cents for a paperback.  I don’t remember how much I paid for my copy, but it wasn’t anywhere near $27, let alone $176.

Brennan was a good writer.  He was one of the last writers to write for the original incarnation of Weird Tales.  I’ve liked everything I’ve read by him, which, granted, isn’t much.  But that’s mainly because his work hasn’t been collected in a readily accessible form.  Most of his books were published in limited print runs by small presses.  It would probably be easier and cheaper to track down his stories in their original publications than to buy some of his books.

I would hope that Wildside or Centipede Press would do a large retrospective.  While Centipede would do Brennan Justice by putting his work inside some very nice hard covers, the book would probably be out of nearly everyone’s reach due to the price.  Not that I wouldn’t try to scrape the cash together.  On the other hand, a couple of Megapacks of his work from Wildside would be great.  There aren’t any electronic versions of Brennan’s work.  Maybe one of these publishers will put something together soon.  I would love to read some of Brennan’s poetry.

Joseph Payne Brennan’s Birthday

Joseph Payne BrennanJoseph Payne Brennan was born 98 years ago on this date, December 20, 1918.  Brennan was a consistent writer of horror, dark fantasy, and weird fiction.  He passed away in 1990.  Primarily a short story writer and poet, Brennan’s work has fallen out of print.  While it’s not impossible to find copies of his work, much of it is moderately expensive.  It might be easier and/or cheaper to get copies of anthologies in which his work appeared.

I reviewed one of Brennan’s collections, the paperback Shapes of Midnight a few years ago.  I was amazed when I looked up how much it cost on the secondary market at the time.  It doesn’t appear to have gotten any more affordable.

Brennan’s work is worth seeking out.  It tends to be of the more quiet style of horror rather than the grisly and gore drenched variety.

The Shapes of Midnight by Joseph Payne Brennan

Shapes of MidnightThe Shapes of Midnight
Joseph Payne Brennan
Berkley, 1980
mass market paperback, $2.25, 176 p.
Introduction by Stephen King

Joseph Payne Brennan has sadly become one of the more neglected writers of fantasy and horror from the second half of the 20th Century.  Fortunately there are were copies of his work available at reasonable prices.  Which is why a couple of weeks ago, after I’d read about half the stories in this book, I bought them.  By reasonable prices, I mean in the $10-25 dollar range for used hardcovers.  (Brennan created an occult detective named Lucius Leffing; I managed to snag a signed collection of some of those stories.)

When I did a search on Advanced Book Exchange for The Shapes of Midnight, the cheapest copy I found (there were only 4 of them at the time) was nearly $60.  Ouch.  Continue reading

More Bookstore Closing Acquisitions

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”.