Bits and Pieces from the web

I regularly scour the internet for new Hodgson related items. Here are a few of the newest ones I’ve found:

 

GOODREADS has a page for William Hope Hodgson!

THESE FANTASTIC WORLDS has a nice essay on WHH and the blurb at the end mentions a forthcoming edition of THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND from Flame Tree 451. I am not familiar with this. Can anyone shed some light on this edition or publisher?

WORMWOODIANA gives a nice mention about the second issue of SARGASSO which everyone reading this has ordered, right? 😉

Dani Zweig gives a nice review of some Hodgson titles. I particularly like this closing paragraph:

As I indicated with respect to “The Night Land”, I can only give an ambivalent recommendation. If you like plot-driven fantasy, Hodgson’s books don’t have much in the way of plot. If you like character-driven fantasy, you’re in no better shape. If you’re attracted by the prospect of seeing a talent which can work language so as to shape and sustain a mood across hundreds of pages, you’ll want to read Hodgson — because there’s virtually nobody else.

TVtropes has a listing for Hodgson which I found very amusing!

James Bojaciuk pointed me to a very interesting article called “Physics in Carnacki’s Investigations“.

I may have mentioned this one before but James also reminded me of the entertaining “Carnacki Cinematograph“.

Bobby Derie, author of SEX AND THE CTHULHU MYTHOS, started a reddit conversation about Hodgson which is much appreciated!

Now that Mike Bukowski has completed posting his drawings of Hodgsonian monsters at his blog (yog-blogsoth), it’s the perfect time to revisit the blog and see any that you might have missed! The one of the monster from “A Tropical Horror” is my favorite!

As always, if you know of any interesting Hodgson bits floating around the net, please let me know!

 

 

 

 

 

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WILLIAM HOPE HODGSON!

Today is the 137th birthday of William Hope Hodgson!

WHH was born in 1877 and led a life of almost amazing adventure. Running away from home at the age of 13, he joined the Merchant Marine, sailed around the world and won an award for saving the life of a crewmate who had fallen overboard in shark-infested waters. But Hodgson found life on the sea to be cruel, hard and economic slavery so he left the sea as the new century began.

Hodgson had long been an advocate and eager student of physical culture and had even begun this practice while at sea. After returning to a life on land, WHH parlayed this interest into a school of physical culture but this enterprise would not last long. After a legendary encounter with Houdini failed to save the school, it was closed and Hodgson turned his attention to writing.

Although he had enjoyed some early success with articles about physical culture, it would not be as easy writing fiction. For several years, Hodgson approached his new trade with the same ferocity and single-minded focus that he had used with every other endeavor. During that time, he wrote all four of his novels, many of what would be his most famous stories and possibly created his ghost-detective character, Carnacki. Hodgson approached his writing as a business, keeping careful records of where he had submitted work, the result and how much he was paid. The connection between selling work and survival was a painfully obvious one for Hodgson. When his work finally DID begin to sell, he would be frustrated and disappointed by the lack of appreciation and limited funds that resulted. Still, he would continue writing up until the time of his death which shows that this was not an entirely financial occupation to Hodgson.

It was not until the age of 36 that Hodgson would finally marry. Shortly after, he and his wife moved to France in an effort to economize that ended when the Great War began in 1914. They returned to England where Hodgson enlisted in the Officer Training Corps and would later be assigned as a Lt. in the Royal Field Artillery which shipped over to France and faced dreadful battles. Despite several chances at going home due to injuries, Hodgson stayed in the war and eventually, on April 19th, 1918, suffered a direct hit from a German shell and was blasted to pieces.

Since his death, Hodgson has had a difficult literary legacy. As shortly as 16 years later, in 1934, Hodgson had been forgotten by all but a few devoted readers of weird literature. It was in that year that H. P. Lovecraft was introduced to Hodgson’s works by his friend, H. C. Koenig, who had been waging a one man campaign to rescue Hodgson from obscurity. Due to Koenig’s influence, Lovecraft included Hodgson in a later draft of his ground breaking essay, “Supernatural Horror in Literature”, and convinced August Derleth to publish an omnibus edition of Hodgson’s novels. These two events kept Hodgson’s works alive so that they could be discovered by later generations such as ourselves.

So, today, we remember William Hope Hodgson on the date of his birth and thank him for the stories he left us.

(The illustration at the top of this post is by the talented artist Dave Felton who has done portraits of many of the great weird literature writers from history. I am honored to have this portrait of Hodgson by him on today’s blog.)

Currently Available Hodgson Books

It’s a good time for Hodgson. In addition to the books I mentioned the other day including SARGASSO #2, there are several other excellent collections that are still available through Amazon.

Probably the best single collection of Hodgson’s work is this edition from Centipede Press. Edited by S.T. Joshi as part of their “Centipede Press Library of Weird Fiction“, this volume includes two of Hodgson’s novels (The House on the Borderland and The Ghost Pirates) along with 22 short stories including Hodgson’s masterpiece, “The Voice in the Night”, the Carnacki tales and many others. I have reviewed this book before in this blog and my esteem for it continues to grow. This many be the most important Hodgson collection published since Arkham House’s 1947 omnibus The House on the Borderland and Other Novels which kept Hodgson from falling into complete obscurity. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

 

 

The long awaited WILLIAM HOPE HODGSON: VOICES FROM THE BORDERLAND from Hippocampus Press is being reported to me by several people as arriving in their mailboxes. I have yet to receive a copy but was honored to help Massimo Berrutti and S.T. Joshi in the compilation of some of these items. This collection contains many of the important early essays on Hodgson’s life and work as well as some thrilling new essays by leading writers in the field. It also includes, at long last, the extensive bibliography of Hodgson’s work. Amazon is currently listing this title as “out of stock” but you can order it from the publisher here: http://www.hippocampuspress.com/mythos-and-other-authors/nonfiction/william-hope-hodgson-voices-from-the-borderland

 

 

Still available, although I’m not sure for how long, is Night Shade Book’s 2012 collection of Hodgson’s work; The Ghost Pirates and Others: The Best of William Hope Hodgson. This excellent collection is a great introduction to Hodgson for those looking for something a little less expensive than the Centipede Press book. It contains the title novel and a good selection of Hodgson’s short stories.  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

 

 

I would be seriously remiss if I didn’t also recommend William Meikle’s fine collection of Carnacki stories, CARNACKI: HEAVEN AND HELL. This is a truly splendid collection. Meikle manages to recreate Hodgson’s legendary character to such an extent that one would think that these had actually been written by Hodgson himself! I truly believe that it is thanks to this book (as well as A.F. Kidd & Rick Kennett’s excellent No. 472 Cheyne Walk: Carnacki, the Untold Stories) that Carnacki is as popular as he is today. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

 

I was amused to see that Amazon has an author’s page for Hodgson! You can find it here. This lists some of the most recent books other than the ones I listed above. You can just search Amazon by author’s name and that will also bring up many Kindle editions as well as some POD editions which I mention but can’t really recommend as I’ve never seen them.

 

So that’s a lot of Hodgson currently out there! Indeed, between these and the online free editions, the bulk of Hodgson’s fiction is available!

New Book on Hodgson Available

Laurent Quievy writes to tell us his new book about Hodgson is now available!

Called “Qui suis-je? Hodgson”, it is a new French publication about our favorite writer. So once again the French appreciate a writer of weird literature before we do here in America. Although there are collections of articles about Hodgson (including the new Hippocampus Press collection due out soon), there has not been a full-length book study of Hodgson.

Unfortunately, I cannot read French but I hope that an English translation will be forthcoming soon.  You can read more about it at this like: http://williamhopehodgson.wifeo.com/

Laurent also sent along this flyer. Perhaps someone kind reader of this blog could translate the highlights of this text?

 

 

A Plethora of Hodgson

As it’s Hodgson’s birthday week, I’d like to remind everyone of the WHH related books I currently have available. (I will be doing a post later this week of non-Gafford Hodgson books as well!)

As previously reported, the second issue of SARGASSO: The Journal of William Hope Hodgson Studies is now available. It contains essays, fiction, art and poetry about and inspired by Hodgson. There’s a lot of great stuff here and I think that Mark Valentine’s photo-essay about Borth is one of the major highlights of the issue. You can order it here: http://www.amazon.com/Sargasso-Journal-William-Hodgson-Studies/dp/0692323325/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415724226&sr=8-1&keywords=sam+gafford

It is also available in Kindle.

The first issue of SARGASSO is currently available in Kindle here: http://www.amazon.com/Sargasso-Sam-Gafford-ebook/dp/B00G7WH5JE/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1415724226&sr=8-3&keywords=sam+gafford

I am currently considering doing a second edition of this first issue which would be available through Amazon. The first issue only had a print run of 100 copies and has been sold out for some time. If you’d be interested in this reprint, please let me know by leaving a comment below.

The all-new anthology, CARNACKI: THE NEW ADVENTURES is also still available through Amazon! This collection holds new stories about everyone’s favorite Ghost-Finder by writers such as William Meikle, Amy Marshall, Josh Reynolds, Jim Beard, Buck Weiss and more! This book can be ordered here: http://www.amazon.com/Carnacki-The-Adventures-Sam-Gafford/dp/0615943004/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1415724226&sr=8-4

Lastly, a collection of my essays about Hodgson including many of the posts from this blog is still available. I selected these to give new readers an introduction to Hodgson and his work. It is available here: http://www.amazon.com/Hodgson-Collection-Essays-Sam-Gafford/dp/0615858724/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1415724226&sr=8-5&keywords=sam+gafford

Your patronage is deeply and humbly appreciated. Sales from these books will help fund my future publications including THE COMPLETE POETRY OF WILLIAM HOPE HODGSON, CARNACKI: THE LOST TALES and THE COMPLETE CARNACKI. Thank you for your continued support. Together we help keep WHH’s memory and work alive.

A WHH Birthday Tribute

It’s birthday week for Hodgson starting today! His actually birthday is on the 15th (Saturday) but we’re not the only ones celebrating this event!

Michael Bukowski will be featuring artwork based on Hodgson’s creatures all this week on his blog, Yog-Blogsoth (which, I think, is probably the coolest name ever for a blog!).  Every day will be a different creature and he’s started the week off with what is probably Hodgson’s most famous creature: the Swine! Here’s a sneak peak:

Be sure to check his blog every day this week for a new Hodgson creature!

 

 

SARGASSO #2 NOW AVAILABLE!

The second issue of SARGASSO is now available from Amazon!  It’s a little earlier than I had planned but no reason to make anyone wait any longer.

It can be ordered through Amazon at this link:
http://www.amazon.com/Sargasso-Journal-William-Hodgson-Studies/dp/0692323325/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1415465302&sr=8-4&keywords=sam+gafford

There’s a Kindle edition available here:
http://www.amazon.com/Sargasso-2-Sam-Gafford-ebook/dp/B00PCSRYDG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1415480809&sr=8-2&keywords=sam+gafford

If you can’t order it through those links, let me know.

To contributors, I’m awaiting my own copies to arrive after which I’ll start mailing them out as quickly as I can.

Thanks again to everyone who has contributed to this issue and made it another great read!  I’d love to hear any comments about the issue!

 

 

 

 

Rare Captain Gault book cover!

Eagle-eyed Joey Zone pointed me towards this one! It’s an item currently available from bookseller L. W. Currey. This is the only time I’ve ever seen a book cover for this edition which is the 1918 U.S. first edition of CAPTAIN GAULT. The book itself is not all that rare and good condition copies can usually be found for around $100 or so. Still, rarity aside, I’m not sure if that makes this worth the asking price!

Here’s the link in case you want to check out the listing:
http://www.lwcurrey.com/pages/books/149962/william-hope-hodgson/captain-gault-being-the-exceedingly-private-log-of-a-sea-captain

I think you have time though as I doubt it’ll sell very quickly even though Currey states that this is not the first time they’ve sold this particular book.

 

 

SARGASSO #2 COMING SOON

I apologize for the lack of new posts on this blog but I have been very busy working on various Hodgson projects. These are beginning to come to fruition now so I hope to be able to get back to regular posting soon.

One of these projects is the second issue of SARGASSO: The Journal of William Hope Hodgson Studies!

Just in time for Hodgson’s birthday on November 15, comes the second issue of this popular journal. It is currently in the final proof stages and should be available to order on Amazon on November 15h for both print and Kindle readers. The Table of Contents is:

“Under the Skin: A Profile of William Hope Hodgson” by Jane Frank

“Carnacki Pastiche: A Bibliography” by James Bojaciuk

“Contemporary Views: Pieces on William Hope Hodgson from the Idler and the Bookman” by Phillip A. Ellis

“A Home on the Borderland: William Hope Hodgson and Borth” by Mark Valentine

“A Concluding Oink: An Abnormal Flight of Fancy” by James Bojaciuk

“Foreshadowing Carnacki: Algernon Blackwood’s ‘Smith: An Epistle in a Lodging House” by Robert Hinton

“Dust and Atoms: The Influence of William Hope Hodgson on Clark Ashton Smith” by Scott Connors

Poetry

“Dead Seamen Gone in Search of the Same Landfall” by Phillip A. Ellis

“House on the Borderland I & II” by Charles Lovecraft

“Come, Dream of the Ocean” by Phillip A. Ellis

“Ocean Rain” by Phillip A. Ellis

“The Devil Mists, What Do They Hide?” by Charles Lovecraft

“Coral Seas” by Phillip A. Ellis

“The Burning Ship” by Phillip A. Ellis

“And the Worried Waters Laughed” by Charles Lovecraft

Fiction

“Low the Ascomycotan Sky” by Deborah Walker

“The Flames of the Drakkar” by John B. Ford

“After ‘The Voice in the Night’” by Laurie Needell

“The Shop on the Borderland” by Robb Borders

The cover art is once again by the very talented artist, Robert H. Knox.

It’s another full issue and sure to be very popular. Over 170 pages of quality material about and inspired by Hodgson. The article by Mark Valentine presents, for the first time, pictures of some of the houses that Hodgson and his family lived in towards the end of his life.

I’m very excited about this issue and about the resurgence in Hodgson overall. I hope you will enjoy the issue.