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There Shall Be No Darkness
"There Shall Be No Darkness" is a horror story by the American writer James Blish that was published in 1950. It concerns a group of people on a remote country manor who discover that one of their number is a ravenous werewolf. The story was adapted for the screen in 1974 as '' The Beast Must Die''. Blish himself described the story as "a schoolboy pastiche of ''Dracula''". The story originally appeared in '' Thrilling Wonder Stories''. It was first published in book form by Twayne Publishers in 1952 in the fantasy anthology ''Witches Three'', a volume that also included Fritz Leiber's '' Conjure Wife'' and Fletcher Pratt's ''The Blue Star ''The Blue Star'' is a fantasy novel by the American writer Fletcher Pratt, the second of his two major fantasies. It was first published by Twayne Publishers in 1952 in the fantasy anthology '' Witches Three'', a volume that also included Fritz ...''. The story attempts to offer a scientific explanation for lycanthropy. One of the charact ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horror Fiction
Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which is in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian J. A. Cuddon, in 1984, defined the horror story as "a piece of fiction in prose of variable length... which shocks, or even frightens the reader, or perhaps induces a feeling of repulsion or loathing". Horror intends to create an eerie and frightening atmosphere for the reader. Often the central menace of a work of horror fiction can be interpreted as a metaphor for larger fears of a society. Prevalent elements of the genre include ghosts, demons, vampires, werewolves, ghouls, the Devil, witches, monsters, extraterrestrials, dystopian and post-apocalyptic worlds, serial killers, cannibalism, cults, dark magic, satanism, the macabre, gore and torture. History Before 1000 The horror genre has ancient origins, with roots in folklore ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fletcher Pratt
Murray Fletcher Pratt (25 April 1897 – 10 June 1956) was an American writer of history, science fiction, and fantasy. He is best known for his works on naval history and the American Civil War and for fiction written with L. Sprague de Camp. Life and work According to de Camp, Pratt was born near Tonawanda, New York. The son of Robert M. and Alice Horton Pratt, he attended public schools in Buffalo and graduated from high school in 1915 at the Griffith Institute in Springville, New York, where his father operated a trucking delivery service between Springville and Buffalo. Following high school he attended Hobart College in Geneva, New York for one year. In February 1916 the Associated Press reported that he had been arrested for burglary in Geneva after a series of midnight cash drawer robberies that allegedly netted him less than $25. He was reported to have told police that his father did not supply him with enough funds to survive at Hobart. On February 23 the ''Buffa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Werewolf Written Fiction
In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (; ; uk, Вовкулака, Vovkulaka), is an individual that can shapeshift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature), either purposely or after being placed under a curse or affliction (often a bite or the occasional scratch from another werewolf) with the transformations occurring on the night of a full moon. Early sources for belief in this ability or affliction, called lycanthropy (), are Petronius (27–66) and Gervase of Tilbury (1150–1228). The werewolf is a widespread concept in European folklore, existing in many variants, which are related by a common development of a Christian interpretation of underlying European folklore developed during the medieval period. From the early modern period, werewolf beliefs also spread to the New World with colonialism. Belief in werewolves developed in parallel to the belief in witches, in the course of the Late Middle Ages and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Short Stories By James Blish
Short may refer to: Places * Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon * Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place People * Short (surname) * List of people known as the Short Arts, entertainment, and media * Short film, a cinema format (also called film short or short subject) * Short story, prose generally readable in one sitting * '' The Short-Timers'', a 1979 semi-autobiographical novel by Gustav Hasford, about military short-timers in Vietnam Brands and enterprises * Short Brothers, a British aerospace company * Short Brothers of Sunderland, former English shipbuilder Computing and technology * Short circuit, an accidental connection between two nodes of an electrical circuit * Short integer, a computer datatype Finance * Short (finance), stock-trading position * Short snorter, a banknote signed by fellow travelers, common during World War II Foodstuffs * Short pastry, one which is r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1950 Short Stories
Year 195 ( CXCV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Scrapula and Clemens (or, less frequently, year 948 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 195 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Emperor Septimius Severus has the Roman Senate deify the previous emperor Commodus, in an attempt to gain favor with the family of Marcus Aurelius. * King Vologases V and other eastern princes support the claims of Pescennius Niger. The Roman province of Mesopotamia rises in revolt with Parthian support. Severus marches to Mesopotamia to battle the Parthians. * The Roman province of Syria is divided and the role of Antioch is diminished. The Romans annexed the Syrian cities of Edessa and Nisibis. Severus re-establish his head ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horror Short Stories
Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction **Japanese horror, Japanese horror fiction **Korean horror, Korean horror fiction *Horror film, a film genre *Horror comics, comic books focusing on horror *Horror punk, a music genre *Horrorcore, a subgenre of hip hop music based on horror *Horror game, a video game genre **Survival horror, a video game subgenre of horror and action-adventure *Horror podcast, a podcast genre Films * ''Horror'' (2002 film), an American film by Dante Tomaselli * ''#Horror'', a 2015 American film by Tara Subkoff *''Horror'', Italian title for the 1963 Italian-Spanish film ''The Blancheville Monster'' Fictional characters * Horror (''Garo''), fictional monsters in the Tokusatsu series ''Garo'' *Horror icon, a significant person or fictional character in a horror genre Music Groups and labels * Ho99o9 (pronounced Horror), an American hip hop group * The Horrors, an English rock band Albums and EPs * ''H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silver Bullet
In folklore, a bullet cast from silver is often one of the few weapons that are effective against a werewolf or witch. The term ''silver bullet'' is also a metaphor for a simple, seemingly magical, solution to a difficult problem: for example, penicillin circa 1930 was a "silver bullet" that allowed doctors to treat and successfully cure many bacterial infections. In folklore Some authors asserted that the idea of the werewolf's supposed vulnerability to silver dates back to the Beast of Gévaudan, a man-eating animal killed by the hunter Jean Chastel in the year 1767. However, the allegations of Chastel purportedly using a gun loaded with silver bullets are derived from a distorted detail based primarily on Henri Pourrat's ''Histoire fidèle de la bête en Gévaudan'' (1946). In this novel, the French writer imagines that the beast was shot thanks to fictitious medals of the Virgin Mary, worn by Jean Chastel in his hat and then melted down to make bullets. An account of a Jämt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Blue Star
''The Blue Star'' is a fantasy novel by the American writer Fletcher Pratt, the second of his two major fantasies. It was first published by Twayne Publishers in 1952 in the fantasy anthology '' Witches Three'', a volume that also included Fritz Leiber's ''Conjure Wife'' and James Blish's "There Shall Be No Darkness". Its first publication as a stand-alone novel was in paperback by Ballantine Books in May 1969, as the inaugural volume of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. The Ballantine edition included an introduction by Lin Carter; it was reprinted twice, in 1975 and 1981. It has also been translated into French, German, Italian and Spanish. Plot The novel is set in a parallel world in which the existence of psychic powers has permitted the development of witchcraft into a science; in contrast, the physical sciences have languished, resulting in a modern culture reminiscent of our eighteenth century. Witchcraft is hereditary but the ability to use it can be held by only o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conjure Wife
''Conjure Wife'' (1943) is a supernatural horror novel by American writer Fritz Leiber. Its premise is that witchcraft flourishes as an open secret among women. The story is told from the point of view of a small-town college professor who discovers that his wife is a witch. This novel was the first by Fritz Leiber and was first published in the April 1943 edition of ''Unknown''. It is said to have been the inspiration for at least three films: ''Weird Woman'' (1944), ''Night of the Eagle'' (also known as ''Burn, Witch, Burn!'') (1962), and '' Witches' Brew'' (also known as ''Which Witch is Which?'') (1980). In 2019, the novel was awarded the "Retro" Hugo Award for Best Novel. Plot Tansy Saylor is the wife of an up-and-coming young sociology professor at a small, conservative American college. She is also a witch. Her husband, Norman, discovers this one day while rummaging through her dressing table: he finds vials of graveyard dirt, packets of hair and fingernail clippings ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Blish
James Benjamin Blish () was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He is best known for his ''Cities in Flight'' novels and his series of ''Star Trek'' novelizations written with his wife, J. A. Lawrence. His novel ''A Case of Conscience'' won the Hugo Award. He is credited with creating the term "gas giant" to refer to large planetary bodies. Blish was a member of the Futurians. His first published stories appeared in ''Super Science Stories'' and ''Amazing Stories''. Blish wrote literary criticism of science fiction using the pen name William Atheling Jr. His other pen names included Donald Laverty, John MacDougal, and Arthur Lloyd Merlyn. Life Blish was born on May 23, 1921, at East Orange, New Jersey. While in high school, Blish self-published a fanzine, called ''The Planeteer'', using a hectograph. The fanzine ran for six issues. Blish attended meetings of the Futurian Science Fiction Society in New York City during this period. Futurian members Damon Knight a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fritz Leiber
Fritz Reuter Leiber Jr. ( ; December 24, 1910 – September 5, 1992) was an American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theater and films, playwright, and chess expert. With writers such as Robert E. Howard and Michael Moorcock, Leiber is one of the fathers of sword and sorcery and coined the term. Life Fritz Leiber was born December 24, 1910, in Chicago, Illinois, to the actors Fritz Leiber and Virginia Bronson Leiber. For a time, he seemed inclined to follow in his parents' footsteps; the theater and actors feature in his fiction. He spent 1928 touring with his parents' Shakespeare company (Fritz Leiber & Co.) before entering the University of Chicago, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received an undergraduate Ph.B. degree in psychology and physiology or biology with honors in 1932. From 1932 to 1933, he worked as a lay reader and studied as a candidate for the ministry, without taking a degree, at the General Theolog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Witches Three
''Witches Three'' is an anthology of three original fantasy stories, edited by the uncredited Fletcher Pratt and published in hardcover by Twayne in 1952. No further editions of the anthology were issued, but each of the stories was later republished. ''Witches Three'' was the second and last in the publisher's "Twayne Triplets," a series of science fiction and fantasy anthologies of which each was to be written by a trio of writers on a common theme. The theme for ''Witches Three'' is witches and witchcraft. Contents *"Introduction" by John Ciardi. the opening piece discusses "the symbolism of witches, in these stories and in folklore generally."Davenport, Basil. "Out of This World," in ''The New York Times'', Dec. 14, 1952, p. BR16. *''Conjure Wife'', by Fritz Leiber *"There Shall Be No Darkness", by James Blish *'' The Blue Star'', by Fletcher Pratt Reception Basil Davenport, reviewing the anthology in ''The New York Times'', called the book "an unusually generous omnibus, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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