Robert Aickman, 1914-1981
June 27, his birthday, happily noted. He is one of my favorite authors, a master who took the golden age of the British ghost story into completely new territory, transforming what was previously “understood” in words like ghostly, weird and strange. He wrote about 50 stories, and for some of us they’re a kind of gold standard. If you haven’t yet read his work, treat yourself and try a few.
And if you have already read Aickman and are an admirer of his work, please check out Philip Challinor’s various writings on Aickman. Philip understands Aickman’s fiction better than anyone I know. His most recent work, Akin to Poetry: Observations on Some Strange Tales of Robert Aickman, has just been published by Gothic Press. Go for it.
June 28th, 2010 at 1:41 AM
Many thanks, Tom; it’s very kind of you to say that.
Without disputing Aickman’s originality, what also makes him great is that (like certain others one could mention) he evidently took a good hard look at his predecessors in the field and used many of the traditional plot devices in wonderfully fresh ways: the threatened guest in “The Hospice”, the strange telephone call in “Your Tiny Hand is Frozen”, the haunted dolls’ house in “The Inner Room”. He’s also powerful because, for all the unique elegance and beauty of his prose, he didn’t shrink from the gruesome when he thought it necessary. By far his most anthologised story (and deservedly so) is “Ringing the Changes”, whose plot could have been devised by George Romero.
June 29th, 2010 at 9:48 PM
Okay…you two GOT me! I must go out and search the wilds of PA to find Aickman’s work (or I could just go on Amazon.com…) –Trish
June 30th, 2010 at 4:53 AM
Thanks, Philip. Perfect examples. Another thing that always impresses me in Aickman’s prose is his exquisite tone of voice, delicately balanced and consistent in his best stories. I think this is part of what makes his work so convincing — the reader trusts it, even when uncertainty and strangeness abound.
Trish — you WON’T be disappointed. I just checked Amazon, and you can get hardcovers of PAINTED DEVILS and COLD HAND IN MINE (I’d guess they’re second printings) for $10 or less, and that’s a pretty good chunk of his work. After those two, you’ll see that other volumes/editions get verrrrrry expen$ive.
June 30th, 2010 at 5:07 AM
Oh, and…thanks to you both for NOT mentioning the plain vanilla default format/theme of this blog. I switched because of changes in blog.com’s formatting, which stripped away my beloved London Underground graphic without notice, and left the previous theme looking kind of mutilated. I may change this again, but in the meantime it’s clear and simple, anyway.
June 30th, 2010 at 5:26 AM
I was going to mention it…but figured something was going on. I did check Amazon.com, but got no action when I clicked the two dealers (story of my life)–Trish
June 30th, 2010 at 10:53 AM
There are also two paperback collections called The Wine-Dark Sea and The Unsettled Dust, which came out around 1988 and 1990. The production isn’t great, but they contain much of his best work and shouldn’t be difficult or expensive to find.
July 1st, 2010 at 5:31 AM
Not too difficult, but expensive. Amazon only has a couple of copies of the two paperbacks for sale, at over $80 each. And they have no hardcovers of The Wine-Dark Sea. Both books include Aickman’s novella “The Stains” — Philip, have you written about that story at length? I’d love to know your thoughts on it.
July 1st, 2010 at 10:29 AM
The paperbacks have come out in new, cheap editions over here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=robert+aickman
I haven’t written about “The Stains” yet, and it’s a long time since I read it, but I remember it made an impression. I’ll have to give it another look.
July 7th, 2010 at 4:54 PM
Okay, you two…just got the hardback copy of COLD HAND IN MINE (with an Edward Gorey cover)I ordered. And since I don’t have any new Tessier to read (HINT HINT HINT), I guess I’ll give this a go tonight. –Trish
July 8th, 2010 at 1:59 AM
Thanks for the hints, Trish. Believe me, there are works in progress.
July 8th, 2010 at 6:37 PM
One of the other Good Things about him is that he didn’t title his collections “Such-and-such and other stories”. Besides being one of the best-ever titles for a collection of ghost stories, Cold Hand in Mine is one of his best collections; I don’t think there’s a single weak story in it. The Robinson paperback edition, which came out in the UK in the late 1980s, was almost certainly my first Aickman book and quite possibly my first encounter with his work.
July 8th, 2010 at 9:39 PM
Have started it and am liking it very much. I know it’s the chicken and egg thing here, but I get the same “feel” from his work as I do yours, Tom. Not Tessier, but it’ll do.
July 9th, 2010 at 3:52 AM
Thank you, Trish. I don’t think I belong in the same sentence with Aickman, but if I ever catch a bit of the feel of his work in mine, I’m delighted.
Philip, you’re creating more work for me
If I do not use an “…and other stories” title for my next collection, what addition to the title can I give it? After all, Aickman did put the label “Strange Stories” on both PAINTED DEVILS and COLD HAND IN MINE, and “Strange Tales” on INTRUSIONS.
July 9th, 2010 at 4:16 AM
Naming a collection after one of the stories in it just doesn’t seem like playing the game to me. Ramsey Campbell doesn’t do it, Karl Edward Wagner didn’t do it and I don’t think David Schow does it either. If you can think of an original title for your next collection, you might subtitle it simply “Other Stories”, which would save you the trouble of typing the “and”.
July 9th, 2010 at 3:11 PM
How ’bout this for a title: “A Touch of Tessier”? The perfect addition to a late night drink….
July 25th, 2010 at 9:48 AM
Wow an Aickman discussion. I have been stunned by his work for years and how truly original it feels. The Trains is a personal favorite of mine. Seems a combination of Kafka and Serling. Totally strange! No one has the style that he has. Here comes a wild assertion, I think his tales are better than M.R. James. I’m hoping that someday he has a rebirth the way Philip K. Dick has. Out of print books come back to print and perhaps a successful film adaptation. Thanks for the words and feelings for Aickman. I thought I was alone. My most prized possession is the Attempted Rescue signed by Aickman to his cousin Rosemary, at least I think it’s his cousin! If my house was on fire I grab that book before pants!
July 25th, 2010 at 3:13 PM
Thanks for your comments, Sean. Perhaps Philip knows who Rosemary was. As for MRJ, I love his tales too, but I prefer Aickman’s.
July 26th, 2010 at 8:44 AM
I wonder if she could have been Rosemary Timperley, whose work appeared alongside Aickman’s in at least one anthology and who I believe edited a few of her own. However, I’ve no idea if they were personally acquainted, much less related.
July 26th, 2010 at 6:30 PM
Gary Crawford’s biographical study mentions a cousin, Rosemary Shaw, to whom Aickman was close during their childhood, but her parents became estranged from him when he wrote about them in unflattering terms in The Attempted Rescue.
July 26th, 2010 at 7:53 PM
I have Crawford’s book too. I need to reread it. The inscription on my book says, “To Rosemary with much love, Robert.” Then he also signed it in full and dated it in the year 1977. I’m thinking it must be his cousin. Why would he address something with ‘love’ if it was a fellow author he was anthologized with? Thanks for the info and speculations!
August 7th, 2010 at 10:30 PM
i did my bit by posting a review of The Wine Dark Sea on amazon.com. also included is a review of Finishing Touches by thomas tessier.
August 8th, 2010 at 4:10 PM
Thanks, William!
(William Freeman’s thoughtful and perceptive reviews of books and music appear on Amazon under the ID: case quarter)
September 20th, 2010 at 2:50 PM
On the subject of film adaptations of Aickman, years ago I saw Hungarian film called LONG TWILIGHT, an adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s “The Bus”. I was deeply impressed by the film, and thought the director would be a prime candidate to adapt something of Aickman’s. As luck would have it, I had an opportunity to chat with him after the screening and I told what I thought and recommended that he get hold of a copy of THE WINE-DARK SEA. He seemed to take the suggestion seriously, even wrote down Aickman’s name so as to get the spelling right. That was over ten years ago, and so far nothing, but he’s only made one feature since then so there’s still hope.
September 21st, 2010 at 12:20 PM
I’ll look for LONG TWILIGHT (good title). If anyone knows about it, please pass along information.
September 27th, 2010 at 7:36 PM
There’s some information on the Internet Movie Database, but it’s in Hungarian:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119316/
It does have a link to a nice English review by the San Francisco Chronicle, though:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1998/04/29/DD77785.DTL