Valancourt Books tells me that their exciting reprint of The Other Passenger by John Keir Cross will be released on December 12.Exciting for at least two reasons:
1. It's the first time this landmark collection of supernatural and weird fiction has been reprinted in its entirety since its original publication in 1944. In 1961 an abridged reprint of nine stories, omitting half of the total 18 tales in the original, was released by Ballantine Paperbacks.
2. This edition has a new introduction by some know-it-all genre fiction expert named J. F. Norris. He sure gets around.
They dared to put my name on the front cover. Such a honor. And if you get out a magnifying glass you can even see it!
I had a lot of fun researching this one. Learned all about Keir Cross' juvenile mystery and fantasy fiction (discussed in my The Other Side of Green Hills post), his career as a radio program scriptwriter, and his influence on other genre fiction writers.
Go order your copy (hardcover, paperback or digital) today! Please. Click here to go to the Amazon page for the book.
Do you have a link?
ReplyDeleteAdded one in the post above, Jamie.
DeleteWell, I have to get this, obviously - well done chum :)
ReplyDeleteWow John! Very pleased for you.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on this to yourself, but what great news in general. I grew up regarding the name JKC on a radio broadcast as a sure drop-everything-must-listen indicator. It was a bit later (late teens, maybe) that I got to his printed fiction, which I liked less well but still well enough to grab anything I could lay hands on, which wasn't all that much. This collection -- of which I think I read a UK abridgement -- sounds to be a mouthwatering way of reintroducing myself to JKC's work.
ReplyDeleteIt's one of Valancourt 's true publishing coups, I think. Macabre fiction devotees have been clamoring for a new reprint of all 18 stories for decades. More posts on this book's previous editions and a few teasers about the stories are coming...
DeleteAfter reading your review, I obtained the Ballantine edition and have already read one of the stories The Last Of The Romantics. It is very good, the ending coming as a shock
ReplyDeleteMy favorites are The Glass Eye, Hands, Esmeralda, The Little House and -- his sublime masterpiece, I think -- Music When Soft Voices Die. But then my tastes lean towards the dark and disturbing
DeleteAll the above stories excepting Esmeralda are available in the Ballantine edition.
DeleteNo surprise there. That Ballantine volume was meant to capitalize on the horrific tales."Petronella Pan", another freakishly weird story, is oddly not in that edition. But it should be.
DeleteI have since read The Glass Eye. But I remembered this superb story. I had seen it in Alfred Hitchcock Presents (season 3, episode 1)
DeleteHey, well done. Sounds an intriguing book... I haven't come across it before.
ReplyDelete