Gerald Kersh
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Gerald Kersh
Gerald Kersh (26 August 1912– 5 November 1968) was a British and later also American writer of novels and short stories. Biography Born in 1912, Kersh began to write at the age of eight. After leaving school, he worked as, amongst other things, a cinema manager, bodyguard, debt collector, fish and chip cook, travelling salesman, French teacher and all-in wrestler whilst attempting to succeed as a writer. Kersh's first novel, ''Jews Without Jehovah'', an autobiographical tale of growing up poor and Jewish, was published in 1934. Kersh, however, had not sufficiently concealed the identities of some of the characters, and a member of his family sued for libel; as a result, the book was quickly withdrawn. ''Night and the City'' (1938), was more successful and has been filmed twice, with Richard Widmark in 1950 and then in 1992 with Robert De Niro in the lead role (this version transposed the setting from London to New York). Kersh was drafted into the army during the Second Wor ...
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Teddington
Teddington is a suburb in south-west London in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. In 2021, Teddington was named as the best place to live in London by ''The Sunday Times''. Historically in Middlesex, Teddington is situated on a long meander of the Thames between Hampton Wick and Strawberry Hill, Twickenham. Mostly residential, it stretches from the river to Bushy Park with a long high street of shops, restaurants and pubs. There is a suspension bridge over the lowest non-tidal lock on the Thames, Teddington Lock. At Teddington's centre is a mid-rise urban development, containing offices and apartments. Economy Teddington is bisected by an almost continuous road of shops, offices and other facilities running from the river to Bushy Park. There are two clusters of offices on this route; on the edge of Bushy Park the National Physical Laboratory, National Measurement Office and LGC form a scientific centre. Around Teddington station and the town centre are a number o ...
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Detective Story
Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as speculative fiction and other genre fiction in the mid-nineteenth century and has remained extremely popular, particularly in novels. Some of the most famous heroes of detective fiction include C. Auguste Dupin, Sherlock Holmes, and Hercule Poirot. Juvenile stories featuring The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and The Boxcar Children have also remained in print for several decades. History Ancient Some scholars, such as R. H. Pfeiffer, have suggested that certain ancient and religious texts bear similarities to what would later be called detective fiction. In the Old Testament story of Susanna and the Elders (the Protestant Bible locates this story within the apocrypha), the account told by two witnesses broke down when Daniel cross-examines them. In ...
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Ash-Tree Press
Ash-Tree Press is a Canadian company that publishes supernatural and horror literature. The press has reprinted notable collections of ghostly stories by such writers as R. H. Malden, A. N. L. Munby, L. T. C. Rolt, Margery Lawrence, and Eleanor Scott. It also has published newly edited collections of supernatural tales by such writers as John Metcalfe, Marjorie Bowen, Vernon Lee, and Frederick Cowles, and it has produced multi-volume sets of the complete supernatural short stories of Sheridan Le Fanu, E. F. Benson, H. Russell Wakefield, Russell Kirk, and A. M. Burrage. In 2001, the press published a collected edition of M. R. James's ghost stories and related writings. In addition, Ash-Tree Press has published new collections of stories by contemporary authors and a series of original anthologies. Awards for these include the 2002 British Fantasy Award for best collection for ''After Shocks'' by Paul Finch and the 2004 International Horror Guild Award and 2005 World Fantas ...
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Crippen & Landru
Crippen & Landru Publishers is a small publisher of mystery fiction collections, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1994 by husband and wife Sandi and Douglas G. Greene in Norfolk, Virginia, United States, and is named after murderers Dr. H. H. Crippen and Henri Landru. The Greenes's son Eric designed the logo. Jeffrey Marks succeeded Douglas G. Greene as publisher on January 1, 2018, while Dr. Greene remains active as Series Editor. Crippen & Landru publishes two distinct series of single-author short story collections. The Regular Series, generally featuring current authors, is published in two editions: cloth bound, signed and numbered; and trade softcover. The Lost Classics Series features uncollected stories by great mystery and detective writers of the past. It is available in dust-jacketed cloth and trade softcover. Some titles are also available as e-books. Among the authors published by Crippen & Landru are Lawrence Block, Max Allan Collins, ...
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Simon Raven
Simon Arthur Noël Raven (28 December 1927 – 12 May 2001) was an English author, playwright, essayist, television writer, and screenwriter. He is known for his louche lifestyle as much as for his literary output. Expelled from Charterhouse School, he was commissioned in the infantry in National service, before studying at King's College, Cambridge. Unable to earn a living as a writer, he rejoined the Army, but soon resigned, rather than be court-martialled for 'conduct unbecoming' on account of his gambling debts. Declaring that he wrote only for people who shared his own standards, he never attracted the mass market, and had to be rescued by publisher Anthony Blond, who paid him a regular wage on condition that he stayed out of London and concentrated on his writings, many of which Blond published. The arrangement lasted for over 30 years. Raven is remembered for his ten-novel sequence ''Alms for Oblivion'' and its baroque, supernatural sequels ''The Roses of Picardie'' an ...
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On An Odd Note
''On an Odd Note'' is a collection of short stories written by Gerald Kersh, published as a paperback original by Ballantine Books in 1958. No other editions were issued until 2015, when Valancourt Books brought out a new edition with an introduction by Nick Mamatas. Contents * "Seed of Destruction'' (''Esquire'' 1947) * "Frozen Beauty" ''John Bull'' 1941) * "Reflections in a Tablespoon" (''Neither Man Nor Dog'' 1946) * "The Crewel Needle" ''Lilliput'' 1953) * "The Sympathetic Souse" (''Lilliput'' 1954) * "The Queen of Pig Island '' The Strand'' 1949) * "Prophet Without Honor" (original) * "The Beggars’ Stone" (''John O'London's Weekly'' 1941) * "The Brighton Monster ''The Saturday Evening Post 1948) * "The Extraordinarily Horrible Dummy (''Penguin Parade'' 1939) * "Fantasy of a Hunted Man" (''John Bull'' 1942) * "The Gentleman All in Black" (''John Bull'' 1942) * "The Eye (''The Saturday Evening Post'' 1957) "Frozen Beauty", "Fantasy of a Hunted Man" and "The Gentleman All in ...
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The Times Literary Supplement
''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication in 1914. Many distinguished writers have contributed, including T. S. Eliot, Henry James and Virginia Woolf. Reviews were normally anonymous until 1974, when signed reviews were gradually introduced during the editorship of John Gross. This aroused great controversy. "Anonymity had once been appropriate when it was a general rule at other publications, but it had ceased to be so", Gross said. "In addition I personally felt that reviewers ought to take responsibility for their opinions." Martin Amis was a member of the editorial staff early in his career. Philip Larkin's poem "Aubade", his final poetic work, was first published in the Christmas-week issue of the ''TLS'' in 1977. While it has long been regarded as one of the world's pre-emi ...
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The Magazine Of Fantasy & Science Fiction
''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas had approached Spivak in the mid-1940s about creating a fantasy companion to Spivak's existing mystery title, ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine''. The first issue was titled ''The Magazine of Fantasy'', but the decision was quickly made to include science fiction as well as fantasy, and the title was changed correspondingly with the second issue. ''F&SF'' was quite different in presentation from the existing science fiction magazines of the day, most of which were in pulp format: it had no interior illustrations, no letter column, and text in a single column format, which in the opinion of science fiction historian Mike Ashley "set ''F&SF'' apart, giving it the air and authority of a superior magazine". ''F&SF'' qu ...
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Anthony Boucher
William Anthony Parker White (August 21, 1911 – April 29, 1968), better known by his pen name Anthony Boucher (), was an American author, critic, and editor who wrote several classic mystery novels, short stories, science fiction, and radio dramas. Between 1942 and 1947, he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the ''San Francisco Chronicle''. In addition to "Anthony Boucher", White also employed the pseudonym " H. H. Holmes", which was the pseudonym of a late-19th-century American serial killer; Boucher would also write light verse and sign it "Herman W. Mudgett" (the murderer's real name). In a 1981 poll of 17 detective story writers and reviewers, his novel ''Nine Times Nine'' was voted as the ninth best locked room mystery of all time. Background White was born in Oakland, California, and went to college at the University of Southern California. He later received a master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley. After a friend told him that "Willia ...
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Century
A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or centenary is a hundredth anniversary, or a celebration of this, typically the remembrance of an event which took place a hundred years earlier. Start and end of centuries Although a century can mean any arbitrary period of 100 years, there are two viewpoints on the nature of standard centuries. One is based on strict construction, while the other is based on popular perception. According to the strict construction, the 1st century AD began with AD 1 and ended with AD 100, the 2nd century spanning the years 101 to 200, with the same pattern continuing onward. In this model, the ''n''-th century starts with the year that ends with "01", and ends with the year that ends with "00"; for example, the 20th century comprises the years 1901 t ...
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Whatever Happened To Corporal Cuckoo?
"Whatever Happened to Corporal Cuckoo?" is a short story by Gerald Kersh. It is a science fiction story, dealing with a tale of a man who has had immortality thrust upon him in a way that does not benefit him at all. It was first published in Kersh's own collection, ''The Brighton Monster and Other Stories'' (Heinemann, 1953) and later collected in the anthology ''One Hundred Years of Science Fiction'' (Simon & Schuster, 1968), edited by Damon Knight. Plot In July 1945, at the conclusion of the war in Europe, a war correspondent by the name of Kersh is on board the with thousands of American soldiers returning home. He expects to be sent to the Pacific to cover the conflict there. While drinking the last of the whisky he smuggled aboard for the days of the voyage, he is accosted by Corporal Cuckoo, a man apparently about 30 years old covered in battle scars, more than could be had in the latest war, and more than an ordinary man could survive. Cuckoo tells his tale after downi ...
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Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. Robert Bloch, the author of '' Psycho'', described Ellison as "the only living organism I know whose natural habitat is hot water." His published works include more than 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, comic book scripts, teleplays, essays, and a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media. Some of his best-known works include the 1967 '' Star Trek'' episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" (he subsequently wrote a book about the experience that includes his original screenplay), his ''A Boy and His Dog'' cycle, and his short stories " I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" and " 'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman". He was also editor and anthologist for '' Dangerous Visions'' (1967) and '' Again, Dangerous Visions'' (1972). ...
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