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Chaos, v. 1, issue 4, April 1945
Page 12
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DERLETH, AUGUST SLEEP NO MORE Publisher : Farrar & Rinehart, New York, $2.50. 374 pages, illustrated by Lee Brown Coye in black & white. Criticism : It does this author's heart good to see names like Bob Bloch, Robert Howard, Carl Jacobi & Frank Belknap Long put on the same page with accepted greats such as Blackwood, M R James, and M P Shiel. Derleth has done a more than competent job of editing this book, and it rests on my shelf against Laing's Ghost Story Omnibus & Wise's Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural. Fortunately for the passing reader, Derleth has neglected to include any of his own indifferently conceived fantasies, and has been satisfied with the job of editing the volume. Derleth has carefully skirted the well-known and by now almost unbearably familiar classics, such as Blackwood's The Wendigo or Poe's William Wilson or W W Jacobs' The Monkey's Paw, & instead chosen the less known but equally excellent tales : Count Magnus, M R James; The Occupant of the Room, Algernon Blackwood; The Return of the Sorcerer, Clark Ashton Smith; Johnson Looked Back, Thomas Burke; The Hand of the O'Mecca, Howard Wandrei; Thus I Refute Beelzy, John Collier; The Mannikin, Robert Bloch; Two Black Bottles, Wilfred Blanch Talman; The House of Sounds, M P Shiel; The Cane, Carl Jacobi; The Horror in the Burying Ground, Hazel Heald; The Hennel, Maurice Level; The Yellow Sign, Robert W Chambers; The Black Stone, Robert E Howard; Midnight Express, Alfred Noyes; A Gentleman from Prague, Stephen Grendon; The Black Druid, Frank Belknap Long; & The Rats in the Walls, H P Lovecraft. Invariably, the story chosen to represent Lovecraft is good Lovecraft, but not him at his best. He should be presented in the best light possible, to offset the huge amounts of degrading pulp and hackneyed tripe he pounded out. Either the Rats in the Walls story is chosen, or the Music of Erich Zann. While both are, as we remarked, good Lovecraft, there are better HPL stories which might have been chosen. We would suggest either The Colour Out of Space of Pickman's model. Though the latter is not too representative of HPL's repetitious technique, it is consistent & double readable. Collier's tale is thoroughly delightful, one of Johnny's best. His yarns have the "I was there!" ring of actuality to them which makes them -- well -- frightful. Restraint & style are combined here to produce a refreshingly unusual story. Not the least valuable bit of prose in the book is Derleth's Forward, which frankly admits -- thank god for Derleth's integrity! -- that Sleep No More is an old fashioned anthology, but which also gladly admits that the weird tale and terror story have undergone a change during the past 15 years -- and not for the worst! We have encountered too many persons who refuse to recognize the gradual metamorphis of the weird yarn from the "What is it?" stage to the "Why is it?" theme. In other words, the growing interest of the fantasy author in what caused the phenomenon, rather than just the simple phenomenon itself. Too, Derleth recognizes the psychological angle, though he is more or less inclined to overlook the psychotic tale in his anthology. We think he missed a few bets there -- such as Long's Johnny on the Spot or many other of the Unknown stories. However, all considering, Derleth is to be congratulated on the volume. We're only sorry that it couldn't have been longer. --- Maliano in CHAOS #3 --
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DERLETH, AUGUST SLEEP NO MORE Publisher : Farrar & Rinehart, New York, $2.50. 374 pages, illustrated by Lee Brown Coye in black & white. Criticism : It does this author's heart good to see names like Bob Bloch, Robert Howard, Carl Jacobi & Frank Belknap Long put on the same page with accepted greats such as Blackwood, M R James, and M P Shiel. Derleth has done a more than competent job of editing this book, and it rests on my shelf against Laing's Ghost Story Omnibus & Wise's Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural. Fortunately for the passing reader, Derleth has neglected to include any of his own indifferently conceived fantasies, and has been satisfied with the job of editing the volume. Derleth has carefully skirted the well-known and by now almost unbearably familiar classics, such as Blackwood's The Wendigo or Poe's William Wilson or W W Jacobs' The Monkey's Paw, & instead chosen the less known but equally excellent tales : Count Magnus, M R James; The Occupant of the Room, Algernon Blackwood; The Return of the Sorcerer, Clark Ashton Smith; Johnson Looked Back, Thomas Burke; The Hand of the O'Mecca, Howard Wandrei; Thus I Refute Beelzy, John Collier; The Mannikin, Robert Bloch; Two Black Bottles, Wilfred Blanch Talman; The House of Sounds, M P Shiel; The Cane, Carl Jacobi; The Horror in the Burying Ground, Hazel Heald; The Hennel, Maurice Level; The Yellow Sign, Robert W Chambers; The Black Stone, Robert E Howard; Midnight Express, Alfred Noyes; A Gentleman from Prague, Stephen Grendon; The Black Druid, Frank Belknap Long; & The Rats in the Walls, H P Lovecraft. Invariably, the story chosen to represent Lovecraft is good Lovecraft, but not him at his best. He should be presented in the best light possible, to offset the huge amounts of degrading pulp and hackneyed tripe he pounded out. Either the Rats in the Walls story is chosen, or the Music of Erich Zann. While both are, as we remarked, good Lovecraft, there are better HPL stories which might have been chosen. We would suggest either The Colour Out of Space of Pickman's model. Though the latter is not too representative of HPL's repetitious technique, it is consistent & double readable. Collier's tale is thoroughly delightful, one of Johnny's best. His yarns have the "I was there!" ring of actuality to them which makes them -- well -- frightful. Restraint & style are combined here to produce a refreshingly unusual story. Not the least valuable bit of prose in the book is Derleth's Forward, which frankly admits -- thank god for Derleth's integrity! -- that Sleep No More is an old fashioned anthology, but which also gladly admits that the weird tale and terror story have undergone a change during the past 15 years -- and not for the worst! We have encountered too many persons who refuse to recognize the gradual metamorphis of the weird yarn from the "What is it?" stage to the "Why is it?" theme. In other words, the growing interest of the fantasy author in what caused the phenomenon, rather than just the simple phenomenon itself. Too, Derleth recognizes the psychological angle, though he is more or less inclined to overlook the psychotic tale in his anthology. We think he missed a few bets there -- such as Long's Johnny on the Spot or many other of the Unknown stories. However, all considering, Derleth is to be congratulated on the volume. We're only sorry that it couldn't have been longer. --- Maliano in CHAOS #3 --
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