Carl Jacobi was a prolific contributor to Weird Tales in the 1930s and 1940s. Jacobi had the brilliant ability to create a moody atmosphere and tone with his precise and careful use of language. He was a master of the slow-building crescendo of suspense and terror that leads to an explosive and chilling, final revelation.
“Revelations in Black,” the first story in this collection, is the perfect example of Jacobi’s method. A narrator finds himself attracted to a strange, velvet-bound trilogy of books in an antique shop. Reading the books leads to a meeting with a strange woman dressed in black who hides a hideous secret.
Revelations in Black (1947), Jacobi’s first and most influential collection, contains twenty-one of his best short stories, including such famous tales as “Mive,” “The Satanic Piano,” and “Phantom Brass.”
This new Valancourt Books edition, the first in nearly fifty years, also features a bonus rare Jacobi tale, “Rails of the Yellow Skull,” and an introduction by Luigi Musolino. If you’re in the mood for some weird tales, give Revelations in Black a try. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction by Luigi Musolino — 7
- “Revelations in Black” — 13
- “Phantom Brass” — 34
- “The Cane” — 42
- “The Coach on the Ring” — 55
- “The Kite” — 65
- “Canal” — 75
- “The Satanic Piano” — 91
- “The Last Drive” — 113
- “The Spectral Pistol” — 118
- “Sagasta’s Last” — 132
- “The Tomb from Beyond” — 141
- “The Digging at Pistol Key” — 159
- “Moss Island” — 174
- “Carnaby’s Fish” — 183
- “The King and the Knave” — 194
- “Cosmic Teletype” — 202
- “A Pair of Swords” — 218
- “A Study in Darkness” — 222
- “Mive” — 238
- “Writing on the Wall” — 244
- “The Face in the Wind” — 260
- “Rails of the Yellow Skull” — 283
Acknowledgements — 303
Not to be confused with the German mathematician of the same name (1804-1851), who made contributions to elliptical functions, dynamics, differential equations, determinants, and number theory — all of whish is frightening to me but just isn’t in the same wheelhouse as our Carl.
Our Carl (1908-1997) wrote more thrilling stuff. I’ve read all five of his original collections (both weird stories and adventure pulp fiction), as well as his biography by R. Dixon Smith, LOST IN THE RENTHARPIAN HILLS: SPANNING THE DECADES WITH CARL JACOBI. Count me in as a big fan.