William Scott Home

[Druidic]

Thanks Paul, your comments about Home made my day. Glad you enjoyed the Keller. He was a master who seems sadly neglected these days.
I may post another link to an Online Classic soon.

[Druidic]

I think you could create a remarkable trilogy of ghoulishness with Lovecraft's "The Hound," Home's "A Cobweb of Pulsing Veins" and de la Mare's "A;B;O."

David J. Schow's "Bunny Didn't Tell Us" is a clever modern riff on grave robbers getting more than they bargained for...but not in the same league as those other works.

[Shadenuat]

There was a bunch of Weirdbook scans available on the Internet Archive for some time. They were all removed recently
https://archive.org/details/Weirdbook_16_1982
which, I suppose, tells all there is to be known about the legality of their presence there.
I did manage to go trough a few of them before they were taken down, and I've read a couple of this dude's stories in the process."The Hell of Black Lines" is my favorite. Effective and atmospheric wilderness horror novella: bunch of workers in the middle of jungle are being stalked by... something, with the sense of inescapable doom hanging over everything. I had no issues with its prose, believe it or not, with some exceptions. All the characters talk in some sort of annoying mangled English. That reminded me of one pulp writer I have been reading recently, Mary Elizabeth Counselman with her love of annoying over the top ebonics. There are some references to obscure local folklore too, easy enough to google now
http://www.bigfootencounters.com/creatures/duende.htm
but back then it must have meant empty, meaningless words for 99% of his readers since he doesn't bother to provide any background for them in his story.
Other than that, story is pretty readable. Nothing particularly original, but very good at what it does. Ending is pretty memorable. Not in the twist or what is happening, but in the exact imagery he employs (clue is in the title ;) ).

[njhorror]

I ordered the collection if just for the uniqueness. The author does seem like an interesting fellow, and I wish that he would write more horror/fantasy. That said, I have books.

Lots of books.

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

This thread convinced me to spend a silly amount of money on Home's collection and the majority of the original Weirdbook run.

I could imagine Hippocampus making a collection someday.

[Druidic]

Good for you, Robert! I don't think you'll be disappointed. As Ben said, the Fabian illos are worth the price of Home's collection alone.
WB published a lot of good stuff with good variety.

(A Hippocampus collection is an excellent idea.)

Enjoy!

[Druidic]

For me, Home's stories have always read like a mad drug-drenched collaboration between Poe, M. P. Shiel and Baudelaire.
Hardly a bad thing.
And their wicked plots for me make as much sense as anything in Poe or Lovecraft. Their horrors are as visceral as anything in early Michael Shea.

[Shadenuat]

I've ended up ordering that collection in the end.
That article from earlier on mentions this: "However, in spring 2015, on the revival of Weirdbook, Home resumed contact with Paul Ganley and others and started producing a fresh burst of stories and poems."
Several issues of that Weirdbook reboot were released since then, here's hoping that there is still some hope for them publishing either his new stories or some of his unpublished material.

[Druidic]

I'd like to read some new fiction by Home. It's been a long time and this guy is one of a kind. His style is dense and reads more like poetry than fiction. His stories are intensely atmospheric with strong elements of both visceral and intellectual horror.

Talk about a fevered imagination.

Not an easy read--hardly!-- but more than worthwhile in my opinion.

[Michael]

Thanks Zaharoff for resurrecting this thread!