Birthday greetings to the esteemed
Ramsey Campbell! He was one of the--if not
the--first modern horror writers I began reading in the 1980s that wasn't named King or Barker. First purchased was
Cold Print, a collection of his Lovecraftian tales. Next up for me was 1987's
Scared Stiff, his later collection of stories of "sex and death" or "seduction and terror," with intro by, of course, fellow Liverpudlian
Clive Barker. I haven't revisited
Scared Stiff (heh) since those days, but hope to reread it this year.
I love Ramsey Campbell; I had a bit of an epiphany reading Dark Feasts at the age of fifteen...
ReplyDeleteStill never got hold of a copy of Scared Stiff though.
I still find it a shame and strange that guys like King, Barker, and known by people who aren't even fans of horror or read books but nobody knows who Campbell is. Of course it's going to come down to the lack of film adaptations but...well, what Campbell books would even make good films? What he does and the way his books work, I'm not sure you could translate what's so great about them.
ReplyDeleteCrap. "and Koontz" was supposed to be in there somewhere.
ReplyDeleteThe nameless was adapted to film by spanish Jaume Balagueró
ReplyDeleteAnother great Campbell collection, but not quite as good as his others - Dark Companions, Demons By Daylight, Height of the Scream etc.
ReplyDeleteThe title, when paired with its correct subtitle, 'Tales of Sex and Death', has to be one of the best ever!
Will, do you have 'Alone With the Horrors'? It's an excellent collection of his stories from his first 30 years of writing - early 60's to early 90's.
I don't have either ALONE or HEIGHT! They weren't released as mass market paperbacks... ;-)
ReplyDeleteOh, and my trade copy of SCARED STIFF (at top) was given to me as an Xmas gift in 1988, long before these books were "vintage"!
ReplyDeleteHeight of the Scream was released as a mass market p/b by Star, in the UK. Pretty hard to find though.
ReplyDeleteAlone With the Horrors was reprinted by Tor, in hardcover and p/b - which probably doesn't fit your vintage criteria?
I have a real software spot for Height, even though it's overshadowed by Demons by Daylight.
I have a few UK pbs scattered throughout my shelves: Campbell's DARK COMPANIONS and DEMONS, fair amount of Barker, couple Kings, rando others like Tuttle and at one point Simmons. Will pick it up definitely if I find it! I feel I'm coming back into a Campbell phase.
ReplyDeleteI've got a copy of the Arkham House Height of the Scream but it's in such nice condition, it pretty much lives on the shelf and has for years. I never picked up a copy of Alone since I have pretty much everything in it between my copies of Demons by Daylight, Height, Dark Companions, Cold Print and Waking Nightmares.
ReplyDeleteThe 'Height...' Arkham hardcover is quite hard to find in 'fine' condition - the lettering on the d/j spine is always faded.
ReplyDeleteNice to hear from other Campbell fans, he is so underrated by most horror fans.
what's the difference between a USA paperback and an UK paperback?
ReplyDeleteCover art is usually vastly different. Here, the top edition is a US one; the bottom two, UK. And that's just if the book was published in both places; that's not always the case. Lisa Tuttle's NEST OF NIGHTMARES, David Schow's THE SHAFT, and Campbell's DARK FEASTS have no US counterpart. Alas.
ReplyDelete