WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES #32: THE FIEND IN YOU Edited By Charles Beaumont

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

25 thoughts on “WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES #32: THE FIEND IN YOU Edited By Charles Beaumont

  1. Steve Oerkfitz

    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.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      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.

      Reply
      1. Jerry House

        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.

      2. Todd Mason

        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.

  2. Jeff Meyerson

    A lot of authors I like here – Ellin (I’ve read his complete stories), Bradbury (ditto), Matheson (ditto), Bloch, Beaumont. Good collection.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Jeff, I really think Ellin is still underrated after all these years. I have a couple of his novels still to read for FFB.

      Reply
  3. Byron Bull

    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.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      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.

      Reply
      1. Jerry House

        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.

      2. george Post author

        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!

      3. Todd Mason

        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).

  4. Fred Blosser

    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.

    Reply
  5. patti abbott

    Specialty of the House has always stayed with me but perhaps as a TZ episode more than a story.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      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!

      Reply
  6. tracybham

    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.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Tracy, I spaced out my reading of the collected Stanley Ellin stories to make them last as long as possible. Brilliant performances!

      Reply

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