No, this is not a tale of Art Scott’s golf game. The Horror on the Links is the first volume of the complete tales of Jules de Grandin, Seabury Quinn’s detective of the supernatural. Like the Golden Age investigators like Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot, Jule de Grandin has his methods to solve mysteries. But, his mysteries usually involve magic, or voodoo, or the occult, or the supernatural. This first volume of tales presents the short stories in chronological order so you can see the development of Jules de Grandin as a character and Seabury Quinn as a writer. Many of these stories have been unavailable for years. I applaud Night Shade Books for bringing these wonderful stories back into print. I can’t wait for Volume Two! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
iNTRODUCTION–George A. Vanderburgh and Robert E. Weinberg
1925
The Horror on the Links (Weird Tales, October 1925)
The Tenants of Broussac (Weird Tales, December 1925)
1926
The Isle of Missing Ships (Weird Tales, February 1926)
The Vengeance of India (Weird Tales, April 1926)
The Dead Hand (Weird Tales, May 2926)
The House of Horror (Weird Tales, July 1926)
Ancient Fires (Weird Tales, September 1926)
The Great God Pan (Weird Tales, October 1926)
The Grinning Mummy (Weird Tales, December 1926)
1927
The Man Who Cast No Shadow (Weird Tales, February 1927)
The Blood-Flower (Weird Tales, March 1927)
The Veiled Prophetess (Weird Tales, May 1927)
The Curse of Everard Maundy (Weird Tales, July 1927)
Creeping Shadows (Weird Tales, August 1927)
The White Lady of the Orphanage (Weird Tales, September 1927)
The Poltergeist (Weird Tales, October 1927)
1928
The Gods of East and West (Weird Tales, January 1928)
Mephistophele and Company, Ltd. (Weird Tales, February 1928)
The Jewel of the Seven Stones (Weird Tales, April 1928)
The Serpent Woman (Weird Tales, June 1928)
Body and Soul (Weird Tales, September 1928)
Restless Souls (Weird Tales, October 1928)
The Chapel of Mystic Horror (Weird Tales, December 1928)
Name of a dog! Not too lit’ry, this is pure pulp at its best. I’m a big fan of Quinn’s de Grandin tales and have read about half of the 93 stories. Great stuff! The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box collection of a few years ago was far beyond my reach, money-wise, so I’m looking forward this book and those that follow it.
Jerry, THE HORROR ON THE LINKS is affordable. And a very nice package! You’ll love this volume!
I have the Popular Library editions of the Jules de Grandin stories. I have no idea how many of the stories were included in those reprints, but I read a bunch of them when the books were being published.
Bill, I have the Popular Library collections of the Jules de Grandin stories, too. But I don’t think they’re complete. These new editions are going to bring all 93 stories together.
I never realized how much horror you read until you retired. Good grief.
You could undo the italics any time now…
Thanks for the heads up on the italics, Rick. I”m on it!
Rick, the Trump Administration might have something to do with the increase in my horror reading.
Come on, george!
You have to look at the Trumpanzees as a kind of freak show – one day we will wake up und find it was just a bad dream!
At least I hope so …
I have to confess that this kind of story (Weird Tales generally) doesn’t interest me at all …
Though I know that several well known fantasy/sf authors also wrote there later – but 1928?
Wasn’t there also a kind of depression world wide?
Wolf, there was no TV or Internet. Pulp magazines is were a prime source of entertainment so people found the money to buy them despite the Depression.
This is great stuff. The fact that “The Horror on the Links” is copyright the Quinn estate may mean it’s the modernized version Quinn did for the 1966 collection, “The Phantom Fighter.” Too bad they couldn’t have reprinted both versions. The other stories in volume one are reprinted with “permission from Weird Tales Limited,” but are actually public domain. That may be a holdover from the Battered Silicon Dispatch Box three-volume set from a few years ago.
Lohr, good points! I can’t wait to see the next volumes in this Night Shade series!
Like Bill (and you) I bought the Popular Library paperback of the Quinn books when they came out. I think I only read the first book, and I no longer have them. I’ve been reading other similar type stories recently and I really like the look of this one. I’ll have to check it out. It’s always good to have a complete collection.
Jeff, those Popular Library Seabury Quinn paperbacks are pricey!
According to Amazon, Volume Two will be out in September.
Jeff, I’m pre-ordering it!
I am allergic to purported detective stories that stray into paranormal territory. My affection for the 87th Precinct stories abruptly ceased when I read GHOSTS. I threw Hjortsberg’s FALLEN ANGEL into the trash. However, if the title story has any hints that might salvage my horrifying (horrrendous, horripilating) golf game, currently on suspension due to all the rain we’ve been having, I’m all in.
We drive past the Lake Oswego golf links often, and we’ve seen foursomes out in rain, or just after it. Maybe there’s a special technique to golfing on wet grass, or maybe they just take a lot of “rain mulligans”, or double the par, or something.
We’re only a couple of miles from Dyker Heights, where Tiger Woods learned to golf from his father, who was stationed at Fort Hamilton Army Base at the time.
Art, I think you might enjoy Seabury Quinn. You should at least check out “Horror on the Links.”
George, I have to quit coming to your blog. I’m trying hard to STOP buying books!
Steve, just imagine what it’s like here with stacks and stack of books everywhere! And more arriving from AMAZON.com and other sources every day!
The Great Depression started in 1929!
Bob, there were early signs of Trouble before the Depression hit.
George –
I got this the other day. I also have the Battered Silicon Dispatch Box set. I tend to like Quinn and deGrandin.
Scott, I think it’s great that Night Shade Books is publishing Seabury Quinn’s work. I’m a fan of de Grandin, too!
Re the old Popular Library pb collections — by my count, the five collections reprinted a total of 32 stories, and the one novel (THE DEVIL’S BRIDE) got a separate edition. So all told Popular reprinted a bit over one third of the stories. (Lowndes also reprinted several of the early stories in STARTLING MYSTERY STORIES; I haven’t tried checking to see how much overlap there was between SMS; the Popular pbs; and the one Arkham collection, but there certainly was some, so I’d estimate that at least half of the 93 stories in the series were not reprinted in any of those venues. The Battered Silicon edition tempted me some years ago, but I dithered and never got around to buying it.
I have to say that de Grandin for me is a “read one or two at a time” with intervals in between sort of thing, partly because of the irritation of seeing his Watson character fail to learn from experience — even after a few dozen encounters with vampires, were-things, ghouls, and what-not, Trowbridge keeps scoffing at the supernatural, finds himself proven wrong in each story, then is back to scoffing again by the next story. But I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to resist buying and reading/re-reading all of these anyway.
Denny, I’m with you on reading one or two de Grandin stories at a time. Trowbridge can be annoying and Seabury Quinn’s template can produce a sense of sameness if read in excess. These Night Shade Books edition are affordable, too!
I was not sure I needed yet another set of the little Frog…. but decided to buy the first volume of this series. I hope this is more portable than the first 3 volume version. Yet these appear to be lifted directly from that edition too. I like Seabury Quinn which means I have read all of these stories at least a dozen time over the last 40 years, but why does George Vanderburgh want to shoot himself in the foot? Why not produce his own version?
I wish someone would reprint the original versions from start to finish, complete with the original drawings.
Chris Worthington
Chris, I would buy a set of these Seabury Quinn stories in the original versions with the original drawings if someone would publish it. But, until then, I’ll buy the next best option: these nice Night Shade Books volumes.