Back in the 1960s, Ballantine Books published high-end SF and fantasy (the low end was occupied by Tower Books, Leisure Books, and Graphic Books). The Fiend in You (1962) edited by Charles Beaumont was one of the books in Ballantine’s “Chamber of Horrors” series. I didn’t find much horror in The Fiend in You, but there’s plenty of suspense.
My favorite story in The Fiend in You is Stanley Ellin’s classic chess tale, “Fool’s Mate.” When George’s employer gives him a chess set, George’s shrewish wife, Louise, disdains the game. That stalemate gets resolved in typical Ellin fashion. I also love Fritz Leiber’s “The Thirteenth Step” with its haunting big black car with its faceless drivers.
The Fiend in You is a solid suspense collection well worth reading. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction / Charles Beaumont — vi
Finger prints / Richard Matheson — 7
Fool’s mate / Stanley Ellin — 14
Big, wide, wonderful world / Charles E. Fritch — 31
The night of the gran baile mascara / Whit Burnett — 35
A punishment to fit the crimes / Richard M. Goredon — 46
The hornet / George Clayton Johnson — 54
Perchance to dream / Charles Beaumont — 59
The thirteenth step / Fritz Leiber — 68
The conspiracy / Robert Lowry — 75
Room with a view / Esther Carlson — 84
The candidate / Henry Slesar — 90
One of those days / William F. Nolan — 98
Lucy comes to stay / Robert Bloch — 103
The women / Ray Bradbury — 110
Surprise! / Ronald Bradford — 121
Mute / Richard Matheson — 127
Introduction to the Ballantine “Chamber of Horrors” Series — 156
Jeff Segal’s review:
https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2010/11/guest-ffb-jeff-segal-on-fiend-in-you.html
It still looks like something I should dig up! The Ballantine horror line of the early ’60s was ever ready to be a bit porous…
“Lucy Comes to Stay” was one of Bloch’s stories which were the direct run-ups to PSYCHO.
Todd, “Lucy Comes to Stay” has a PSYCHO vibe.
I had this as a kid but don’t remember many of the stories except for ones I’ve also read elsewhere-Matheson, Beaumont, Ellin, Bradbury. Ellin has been a longtime favorite of mine. Looks like Beaumont choose a lot of stories by friends of his.
Steve, Beaumont put together a solid anthology. From the short introductions Beaumont wrote for each story, you can tell he knows many of the contributors.
Matheson, Fritch, Bradbury, Johnson, Nolan, Russell, Tomelin, and Bloch were all closely connected California writers who hung out together, some a bit more pertipherally than others. Beaumont was an unacknowledged leader of the group. William F. Nolan produced a good anthology of stories by this California gang — CALIFORNIA SORCERY (1999) — which also included Harlan Ellison, Chad Oliver, and Jerry Sohl.
Jerry, I’m going to order a copy of CALIFORNIA SOCERY right now! Sounds great!
The “Little Bradburys” as the group was occasionally (and dismissively) referred to were also important in the short funs of GAMMA and CHASE magazines in the early/mid ’60s. CALIFORNIA SORCERY is in Archive.org, but I kept being distracted by other business before getting too far with it.
A lot of authors I like here – Ellin (I’ve read his complete stories), Bradbury (ditto), Matheson (ditto), Bloch, Beaumont. Good collection.
Jeff, I really think Ellin is still underrated after all these years. I have a couple of his novels still to read for FFB.
One of my favorite pastimes is combing through the stacks of used book stores for horror anthologies from this era and anything with Beaumont’s hand on it certainly sounds worth checking out. I wonder if he actually edited the collection or the publisher merely paid for his name on the cover and a short intro ala those numerous Hitchcock anthologies (this would have been about the time Beaumont’s health took a turn for the worse and friends like Matheson and Johnson were ghost writing scripts for him).
Lots of great talent here, especially Fritz Leiber who, even more than Stephen King or Richard Matheson, was the writer who really brought horror into the 20th century. I’ll be keeping an eye out for this one.
Byron, from the short introductions that precede each story in THE FIEND IN YOU, I’m guessing Beaumont was involved in the choices. You’re right about Fritz Leiber. Beaumont wrote that Leiber’s CONJURE WIFE was the best novel of the genre.
Beaumont, Richard Matheson, and George Baxt wrote the screenplay for NIGHT OF THE EAGLE (aka BURN, WITCH, BURN!), the 1962 film based on CONJURE WIFE.
Jerry, I have not seen the 1962 version of CONJURE WIFE. I’ll have to track down a DVD of it. Thanks for the heads up!
It’s not up to the novel, but it’s good. Vastly better than the earlier film version, the loose adaptation WEIRD WOMAN (cute actresses and Lon Chaney, Jr. (!) as the Norman Saylor character) and the looser much later comedy WITCH’S BREW (Teri Garr wasted, and not on brew).
I used to have this one, although not fresh off the spinner. Two of the stories, “Perchance to Dream” and “Mute,” aired as TWILIGHT ZONE episodes.
Fred, thanks for the TWILIGHT ZONE references!
Specialty of the House has always stayed with me but perhaps as a TZ episode more than a story.
Patti, I found “Specialty of the House” memorable in both forms. It’s a story I could never have come up with in a thousand years!
It was a Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode with Robert Morley.
Not being much of a horror reader, this probably isn’t my cuppa.
Rick, THE FIEND IN YOU is more suspense than horror.
This looks like an interesting and varied collection. I have only read one of the stories (Perchance to Dream), but am interested in several of the other authors. I do have a volume of the complete stories by Stanley Ellin, but unlike Jeff, I haven’t read all of them yet. Just a small percentage. I do want to try some of Stanley Ellin’s novels too.
Tracy, I spaced out my reading of the collected Stanley Ellin stories to make them last as long as possible. Brilliant performances!
Tracy, Ellin really didn’t take as much care with his novels as he did his short stories.