HYMN TIME

 Tennessee Ernie Ford.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbnbil9T2SQ

PLANET COMICS #71 (JULY 1953)

Five typical 1950s planetary adventures in this anthology comic book.  The artwork is pretty good and the writing is above average:

• "Invasion?"  [listed as "Invaders from  Alturo" on the cover]  Was the satellite ,launched from Earth a mighty force for peace?  Or was it an invitation for INVASION?  Every six  months a relief ship from Earth brought new personnel to be rotated with those on the distant satellite.  But this time the ship carried green-skinned aliens who overpowered the satellite.  Only Major Joe Vickers, who was stationed on a remote refueling station, was spared; everyone else had become mindless slaves to the aliens' intoxicating hypnotic gas.  Can one man defeat the forces of Alturo that are hell-bent on conquering Earth?
• "The Sandhogs of Mars"  "It was strictly a routine job.  Earthmen were  building a roadway across the blood-red sands for the Martians:  a routine job, that is, until the grinding, jolting halt came so suddenly!"  The sandhogs had hit a huge city that was buried under the Martian sands eons ago in an atomic explosion.  Okay, so...atomic explosion...a city hidden for the surface for millennia ...eons of radiation...gives you deformed, Martian monsters, an entirely different type of Sand Hog!  And they are not friendly.  With the crew is a Martian girl, Urla, who is drop dead gorgeous, with a killer bod and tiny antennae.  And there's a  mutiny among the stranded Earthman and the mutineers are all uncouth shirtless brutes.  Talk about your recipe for excitement!
• "Space Rangers:  The Changelings"  From previous adventures we have Space Rangers Flint Baker and Reef Ryan, now headed to the prison city of Bacarat, with Borlu, the Martian in charge of the mission, and a being with his own agenda.  The Rangers are to pick up a group of parolees and take them back to Earth.  But something is amiss.  Borlu announces that these are not the prisoners that had originally been sent to the prison planet.  It turns out that they are the Changelings from Arcturus, who have taken over the bodies of the prisoners.  Borlu defeats the leader of the Changelings in a battle of mental powers and Earth is saved.  Flint and Reef realize that any suspicions they had about Borlu were ill-founded.
• "Silence from Planetoid X"  [How many times has a Planetoid X appeared in 1950s SF stories, films, and comic books?  If I had a nickel...]   "This was the year 2556.  fifty years ago Arn Guro had led a band of hardy Earthpeople off to colonize a new world in outer space.  For a long time he kept electron-radio contact with Earth.  Then the messages became fewer and fewer.  Now Earth's far-reaching communicators picked up nothing.  There was only...SILENCE FROM PLANETOID X."  Turns out that a rebellion had destroyed the planetoid's civilization and its people reverted back to a caveman-like existence.  I'm not sure what the point of this story was.
• "Hi-Jack on Alpha-7!"  A slave ship is intercepted by an interstellar patrol ship.  the slave ship damaged badly, the cargo of slaves are jettisoned into space to die, and the slave ship limps to the nearest asteroid -- Alpha-7.  Not much is known about Al[ph-7; it never joined the Galactic Union and was a civilization shrouded in secrecy; it is peopled by green, ant-like beings with four limbs -- not six -- and ears.   The slavers hijack one of the ships from Alpha-7, and to their horror, they learn the secret of the asteroid.

A pretty good issue for the most part -- above average, I'd say.  The aet was done by John Belcastro, Maurice Whitman, Bill Discount, Bill Benulis, and -- possibly -- Jim Mooney or Art Peddy.  Every now and then I'd see the influence of Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, and Ed Emshwiller,  but that's just me.

Check it out:

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=102103&comicpage=&b=i

FORGOTTEN BOOK: COSMOS, THE SERIAL NOVEL (1933-1934)

Cosmos (first published in seventeen consecutive parts in Science Fiction Digest, July 1933 to December 1943/January 1935 -- the magazine's title changed to Fantasy Magazine in January 1934, and was published monthly except for the final two issues, which were on a bimonthly schedule; Chapter Two was reprinted as "Volunteers from Venus" in the Otis Adelbert Kline fanzine OAK Leaves, V1N8, Summer 1972; the entire serial was reprinted in 29 parts in the Ace paperback Perry Rhodan series, #32-60, October 1973- December 1974; around 2014 (date uncertain), fan David Ritter produced The Cosmos Project, an online resource that reprinted the entire serial, as well as ancillary items of interest -- https://cosmos-serial.com/;  and reprinted by First Fandom Experience, date uncertain -- which also reprinted in two volumes all 39 issues of Science Fiction Digest/Fantasy Digest)

In July 1933, science fiction as a separate genre was just a .kittle over seven years -- and the term "science fiction" some four years old.  Hugo Gernsback, the original editor of Amazing Stories, had encouraged his young readers -- and they were almost always young, male, and white -- to communicate with each other to discuss the ideas that could be found in his magazine.  And communicate they did.  Soon, the enthusiastic readers were forming clubs, meeting in person, and issuing newsletters and fanzines.  One of the more noted fanzines of the time was Science Fiction Digest, begun in September 1932 and initially published and edited by Maurice A. Ingher;  editorship was taken over by Conrad H. Ruppert in April 1933 and becoming publisher a month later.  Ruppert's young and ambitious staff included Julius Schwartz (age 18) and Raymond A. Palmer (age 23).  they proposed a monumental project for the fanzine: a round robin novel by some of the leading science fiction writers of the day.  Palmer wrote a preliminary outline and they convinced seventeen of the most popular science fiction writers of the time to contribute; to be fair, it did not take much convincing -- writers and fans was closely bound together in those early days.  Palmer himself contributed two chapters, one under his own name and one under a pseudonym.

Thus was born Cosmos, a legendary slam-bang, gee-whiz extravaganza of imagination, derring-do, and super-science, a work that truly has to be read to be fully appreciated.

Expect no sophisticated writing.  But does your twelve-year-old inner child really need sophistication?

The story:

In Chapter One, Dos-Tev is the deposed emperor of a planet in Alpha Centauri.  The usurper, Ay-Artz, is planning to invade and conquer Earth's solar system with the use of newly developed faster than light-speed ships.  In an attempt to stop him, Dos-Tev lands in the Copernicus crater of the moon and attempts to rally the various peoples of the solar system.

Chapter Two takes us Mercury where on e of the wealthiest people on earth has fled to avoid a robot takeover of humanity.  Chapter Three takes us to Jupiter's moon Callisto, which is ruled by women.  We go to Mars in Chapter Four, where the planet is filled with sentient beings that resembles giant flying squirrels.    Saturn's beings in Chapter  Five are cone-like things that communicate by color.

Chapter Six returns to Dos-Tev, who is encountering opposition from a mysterious intelligent force dubbed "the Wrongness of Space."  In Chapters Seven, Eight, and Nine, the people of Neptune (sentient gas-filled balloons), Venus (transplanted Earthmen), and Earth send emissaries to Dos-Tev, but -- SPOILER -- the Earthmen are controlled by their robot masters.

Chapter Ten has Dos-Tev, despite interference from the Wrongness of Space, convincing the representatives of the various planets to build fleets of space ships to fight Ay-Artz.

Chapter Eleven sees the Earthmen overturing their robot masters.  This chapter, written by A. Merritt, was later revised and published as a short story, "Rhythm of the Spheres" (Thrilling Wonder Stories, October 1936).

Chapter Twelve reveals that the Wrongness of Space is an insane interdimensional creature named Krzza of Lxyia, who has allied itself with Ay-Artz.  Dos-Tev tries to defeat the creature and fails.  Krzza hijacks communication equipment to sent the planetary fleets to an intended doom.

The fleets of Earth, Neptune, and Saturn struggle for survival from the misdirection from Krzza in Chapters Thirteen, Fourteen, and Fifteen.  Chapter Thirteen, by E. E. Smith, was revised and reprinted as a shlort story, "Robot Nemesis" (Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1939).

We are in the home stretch now, kiddos.  In the penultimate chapter, Dos-Tev manages to defeat Krzza and heads to join the planetary fleets for the final showdown with Ay-Artz.

In the world-destroying final chapter, an epic space battle destroys the forces of Ay-Artz,  but at a terrible cost.  The outer planets -- Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto -- are completely destroyed, as is the heroic Dos-Tev.

Phew!

The contributors:

• "Ralph Milne Farley" (Chapter One:  Faster Than Light).   The pen name for Roger Sherman Hoar (1887-1963), one-time state legislator and assistant Attorney general for the state of Massachusetts.  He campaigned for women's suffrage and was instrumental in the passage of the Employee Unemployment Benefits Act; he also published landmark works on constitutional and patent law.  He later  moved to Wisconsin, where he was a member of the Milwaukee Fictioneers.  He turned down an offer to become the editor of Amazing Stories, recommending Raymond A. Palmer for the position.  The "Farley" by-line is understood to have been used exclusively for collaborations with his daughter Carolyn, who was a writer (as" Jacqueline Farley") and an engineering student.  Farley's most famous work was The Radio Man (1924; book version, 1948; alternate title An Earthman on Venus); there were several sequels
• David H. Keller, M.D.  (Chapter Two:  The Emigrants).  Keller (1880-1966) was a popular author in the early science fiction and fantasy magazines; his first published story appeared when he was fifteen.  Keller was a neuropsychologist noted for treating shell-shocked soldiers in World War I -- an experience that contributed to the pessimism found in some of his writings, and served as Assistant Superintendent of the Louisiana State Mental Hospital.  Keller wrote recreationally util his wife convinced him to make a profit from his hobby.  Among his classic stories are "Revolt of the Pedestrians," "Stenographer's Hans," "The Ivy War," and "The Thing in the Cellar."  His novels and collections were among those published by the early science fiction specialty press; he underwrote the publication of several of his Arkham House collections, which helped keep he struggling publisher above water.  Hugo Gernsback hired him as editor of his magazine Sexology, a post he held for five years, leading to the publication of the best-selling Sexual Education Series of ten books.
• Arthur J. Burks (Chapter Three:  Callisto's Children).  Burks (1898-1974) was a marine officer and aide-de-camp to Brigadier-General Smedley E. Butler; Burks left the marines after a decade of service, but rejoined during World War II, retiring as a lieutenant colonel.  He was one of the most prolific writers of the pulp era -- by early 1936, he estimated that he had published  some 1400 stories.  Burk was also active as a ghost writer and a writer of nonfiction.  Only a very small portion of his output was ion the science fiction and fantasy fields.  His most memorable early stories were "Earth, the Marauder," "Lords of the Stratosphere," "Manape the Mighty" and sequel "The Mind Master," and "Black Harvest of Moraine."  His ghost writing included seven books for Princess Der Ling, the first lady-in waiting for the Chinese Empress Dowager Cixi; Princess Der Ling became the subject of a Chinese period drama television series in 2006.
• "Bob Olsen" (Alfred Johannes Olsen, Jr.) (Chapter Four:  The Murderer from Mars).  Olsen (1884-1956) ran his own advertising agency while writing humorous science fiction stories from 1927-1936.  His stories were extremely popular, but not very lucrative.  He is noted for his "Fourth Dimension" tales ("The Fourth Dimension Roller-Press" and sequels), "The Ant with a Human Soul," and "Rhythm Rides the Rocket."
• "Francis Flagg" (Henry George Weiss and not George Henry Weiss as is sometimes given) (Chapter Five:  Tyrants of Saturn).  Weiss (1898-1946) published about thirty stories in the SF pulps (mainly Astounding, Wonder, Weird Tales)  He was a correspondent of H. P. Lovecraft.  His most popular story was his first, "The Machine Man of Ardathia," which was followed five years later by a sequel "The Cities of Ardarthia."  In 1947, Fantasy Publishing Company, Inc. [FPCI] released his story The Night People, which became a highly sought-after chapbook.
• John W. Campbell (Chapter Six:  Interference on Luna).   Before he became the stories editor of Astounding and rushing in science fiction's "Golden Age," Campbell wrote  both slam-bang, gosh-wow planet-busting Sf adventure stories (:"The Brain Stealers of Mars," "Invaders from the Infinite," etc.), as swell as sensitive and thoughtful stories under under his "Don A. Stuart" pseudonym ("Who Goes There?," "Cloak of Aesir," "Twilight," etc.).  Because of his non-PC attitudes toward race and his misogynistic leanings, among other things, he has fallen out of favor.  (I still cannot forgive him for being the first to publish and promote L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics.)  Campbell may well be what they claim he is (and I have no reason to doubt that) but, at heart, he was a man who loved to argue and would often pick the  most unpopular side.  whatever the case, his place in the history of science fiction is secure -- even it is tarnished.
• "Rae Winters" (Chapter Seven:  Son of the Trident)  Rae Winters...who is she?  Nobody, it turns out.  Winters was a pen name for Raymond A. Palmer (for which see Chapter Ten, below).  Palmer used this pseudonym for two stories in 1933 and 1934.
• Otis Adelbert Kline & E. Hoffman Price (Chapter Eight:  Volunteers from Venus).  Kline (1891-1946) was an author and literary agent, and an amateur orientalist and student of Arabic (as was Price).  He was most noted for his Edgar Rice Burroughs-like novels, The Planet and The Prince and Port] of Peril, The Swordsman [and The Outlaws] of Mars, Jan of the Jungle, and Jan in India.  He began to concentrate on his literary agency ion the mod-Thirties; perhaps his most  notable client was Robert E. Howard.  Price (1898-1988) was a proud fictioneer of the pulps, writing in a number of genres, but may be most noted for his work in Weird Tales; he has also been called a "real-life soldier of fortune."  He famously co-wrote a story with H. P. Lovecraft and was the writer known to have met Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Clark Ashton Smith in person.  Among his most notable stories were "The Stranger from Kurdistan" --and "The Infidel's Daughter," a 1927 story that satirized the Ku Klux Klan and angered a number of Weird Tales' Southern readers. Price also wrote the popular Solomon Boliver Grimes stories which were humorous fantastic takes on the western story, and a series about Pawang Ali, a Malaysian detective on Singapore.  He co-wrote several of Kline's stories about the Dragoman, Hamad the Atar.
• Abner J. Gelula (Chapter Nine:  Menace of the Automaton).  Gelula (1906-1985) published only six science fiction stories, five of them from 1931 to 1934.  His first story, "Automaton," is noted for creating a lecherous robot who had to be destroyed.  The robot theme was popular enough to be re-used for this chapter of Cosmos.  Not much is known about Gelula, except that he was one of the first radio hams, and worked as a newspaper reporter who work at one time in New York and Atlantic City.  "Automaton" was purchased shortly after publication by Universal Pictures, but  the cost of  bringing the story to the screen was then deemed to be too expensive.  None of his stories have been anthologized.
• Raymond A. Palmer (Chapter Ten:  Conference at Copernicus).  Palmer (1910-1977) was a unique character in science fiction.  A childhood accident crushed his spine, leaving him in adulthood as a hunchback measuring less than five feet.  He found a home on science fiction fandom and was the Associate Editor of Science Fiction Digest from its start; after the fanzine changed its title to Fantasy Magazine, Palmer helped conceive and wrote the preliminary outline for Cosmos.  His first science fiction story was published in 1930.  He became the editor of Amazing in 19238 and immediately give the magazine a lively, albeit more juvenile slant, increasing the magazine's sales significantly.  The following year, he started companion magazine magazine Fantastic Adventures. He filled both magazines with many of his stories written under various pseudonyms.  A shameless promoter, he popularized the infamous Shaver Mysteries, based on the idea that an underground race was controlling humanity through various psi powers; from the Shaver Mystery it was a short step to Scientology and other pseudoscience nonsense such as that of Erik von Daniken.  Palmer went big for the Flying Saucer craze and promoted ilot Kenneth Arnold.  He started the occult-oriented pseudoscience magazines Fate and Mystic (later Search) and the science fiction magazines Other Worlds and Imagination.  Later in life, he promoted a man who claimed to actually be the outlaw Jesse James.  For science fiction readers of the early Thirties, Palmer's name meant non-stop action and imagination.
• A. Merritt (Chapter Eleven:  The Last Poet and the Robots).  Merritt (1884-1943) was (and is) one of the most famous and influential fantasy adventure writers of the early 20th century, author of The Moon Pool, The Ship of Ishtar, The Face in the Abyss, Seven Footprints to Satan, Dwellers in the Mirage, Burn, Witch, Burn!, and Creep, Shadow, Creep!  He was the assistant editor of American Weekly, a Sunday newspaper from 1912 to 1937, and editor from 1937 until his death.  Merritt was also one of the most highly paid journalists of his tine, making $25,00 a year in 1919, and over $100,000 when he died.  He was a much-loved hypochondriac who kept a supply of musical instruments in his office and would play them for his employees; Merritt's employees loved him because he would never fire anyone.  His autobiography-ish book, The Story Behind the Story (1942), gives little mention to the work that made him famous.
• J. Harvey Haggard (Chapter Twelve:  At the Crater's Core).  Haggard (1912-2001) published mainly in the Thirties and Forties, starting with "Faster than Light" (Wonder Stories, October 1930).   He is best remembered for "Through the Einstein Line," which inaugurated his stories about the Earth-Guard Interplanetary Police, "Children of the Ray," "Human Machines," "Thought Crystals," and "The Light That Kills."  Most of his stories, though popular at the time, are pretty mundane.  He also wrote poetry as "The Planet Prince."  A number of his stories ends with "it was only a dream..."   In his professional life, he was evidently a railroad man.
• Edward E. Smith, Ph.D. (Chapter Thirteen:  What a Course!)  "Doc" ("Skylark") Smith (1890-1965) has been called the Father of Space Opera -- pretty nifty for a professional food chemist specializing in doughnuts.  His Skylark of Space set the limits for galaxy-spanning super-science adventure, and was followed by three sequels.  His most ambitious series, the Lensman books, beginning with 1937's Galactic Patrol, and followed by Gray Lensman, Second Stage Lensman, Children of the Lens, Triplanetary, and First Lensman, spanned the universe through time and space and used just about every conceivable superscience trope that ever was.  Smith embraced his young science fiction fans and remained a popular presence at various science fiction conventions.  With the possible exception of A. Merritt, Smith was the most famous of the contributors to Cosmos.
•  P. Schuyler Miller (Chapter Fourteen:  The Fate of the Neptunians).  Miller (1912-1974) is probably best remembered as the book reviewer for Astounding Science Fiction; his reviews began in 1945 and ran regularly from 1951 util his death.  A technical writer by trade, he began publishing science fiction with "The Red Plague" in 1931.  His interest in archaeology informed his classic story "The Sands of Time."  "The Titan" was a noted, albeit uncompleted story in 1934-35; the magazine folded before the final installment -- the full work was finally published in 1952.  A long-time fan, Miller's Alice in Blunderland was a series of linked Science fiction parodies first published in Fantasy Magazine shortly before the magazine began publishing Cosmos.  Miller's one novel, 1950's Genus Homo, was a collaboration with L. Sprague de Camp.  Among his more than forty published science fiction stories, notables include "Old Man Mulligan," "Over the River," "The Frog," and "As Never Was".
• L. A. Eschbach (Chapter Fifteen:  The Horde of Elo Hava).  Lloyd Arthur Eschbach (1910-2003) was a noted science fiction fan, writer, and publisher.  From 1958 to 1962 he was a church publisher, then became a salesman for the Moody Bible Institute until his  retirement in 1975, after which he became a Congregational minister in Pennsylvania.  He started two of the early science fiction small press publishers, Fantasy Press and Polaris Press, and helped create of assist a number of other fan presses, including FPCI, the Buffalo Book Company, and Hadley press, and helped William Crawford launch his magazine Marvel Tales.  His 1947 book Of World Beyond was the first full-length work on science fiction writing from a professional pint of view.  He flooded the science fiction magazines of the 1930s with twenty two stories, including "The Tyrant of Time," "A Voice from the Ether," and "The Kingdom of Thought."  In ;later years he did much to promote E. E. Smith's writings and collaborated with him on the novel Subspace Encounter. Escbach also reported that L. Ron Hubbard told him in 1949, "I'd Like to start a religion.  That's where the money is."
• "Eando Binder" (Chapter Sixteen:  Lost in Alien Dimensions).   At first, "Eando Binder" as the writing brothers Earl (1904-1966) and Otto (1911-1974) [E. and O.] Binder, who wrote  ore than thirty stories together before Earl bowed out of the partnership in late 1935; from that point on the pseudonym referred to Otto alone, although collaborations with Earl would continue to  be printed through 1939.  (A third brother, Jack binder was a science fiction and comic book artist.)  Early Binder stories included "Dawn to Dusk," "The First Martian.," "Murder on the Asteroid," Lords of Creation, and Enslaved Brains.  On his own, Otto wrote the Adam Link robot stories, the Anton York, Immortal stories, the Lieutenant Jon Jarl of the Space Patrol series, and the Via series.  Otto also wrote many comic book stories for Fawcett (including over 880 stories in the Marvel Family universe), DC (where he co-created the Legion of superheroes, the villain Brainiac, Supergirl, and Krypto the Superdog, among others; he also wrote many of the early bizarro stories), and Timely (the precursor to Marvel), where he wrote adventures of Captain America, Sub-Mariner, and the Human Torch.  He also wrote the first Marvel tie-in  novel, The Avengers Battle the Earth-Wrecker (1967).
• Edmond Hamilton (Chapter Seventeen:  Armageddon in Space).  Of course the conclusion to the serial had to be written by "World Wrecker" Hamilton (1904-1977).  It was Hamilton, along with E. E. Smith and Jack Williamson, who set the course for science fiction in those early days.  Among Hamilton's early tales were "The Monster God of Mamurth," "Crashing Suns," "Cities in the Air," "The Man Who Saw the Future," "The Man Who Evolved," "Devolution," and :"He that Hath Wings."  Hamilton wrote 24 of the 27 Captain Future novels.  Like Otto Binder, Hamilton wrote for the comics, he specialized in stories for Superman and Batman.  Hamilton's later writings displayed a sophistication and sensitivity missing from much of his earlier work; books like The Star Kings, The City at World's End, the Star of Life, and The Haunted Stars, and stories such as "What's It Like Out There?," The Stars, My Brothers," and "Sunfire!" have helped to cement his reputation.  Hamilton was married to writer Leigh Brackett and they combined to of their series with "Stark and the Star Kings" (2005).

Cosmos contains a lot of creaky, sometimes laughable, writing  but it also contains the vision and hope that marked science fiction as an important genre.  Reading the serial takes one back to a not-so-distant day when anything was possible and imagination was king.  For those who were raised on science fiction and those, like me, who sat breathless and enthralled on the evening of July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong stepped from the Apollo 11 lunar module, Cosmos provides a historical record of exactly where we came from and a hint of where we are going.  It's not just a nostalgia thing; it is visible evidence that we can dream and hope and aspire, that no barrier is too difficult to overcome, and that we still contain that vital spark of creativity within us.  As such, I submit that Cosmos is a worthwhile place to visit. 

AFTERNOON THEATER: JOSEPHINE TEY'S THE DAUGHTER OF TIME (AUGUST 30, 1982)

 Neville Yeller dramatized one of the most famous novels in detective fiction for the BBC. 

Inspector Alan Grant is laid up in hospital with a broken leg.  He decides to fill his days trying to solve the famous case of the murders of the Princes in the Tower.  Richard III's name has been synonymous with evil, but did the hated hunchback really murder his two nephews?  Or did they actually outlive him?

Directed by Graham Gould, the broadcast starred Peter Gilmore as Alan Grant, and featured Simon Hewitt, Frances Jeater, Jill Lidstone, and Rosalind Shanks.

The Daughter of Time, published in 1951, was the last book that "Josephine Tey" (Elizabeth MacKintosh) published during her lifetime.  Anthony Boucher called the book "one of the best, not of the year, but of all time.."  Dorothy B. Hughes echoed that feeling, saying it was "not only one of the most important mysteries of the year, but of all years of mystery."  The book was number one in Britain's Crime Writers' Association's "Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time" list, and number 4 in the Mystery Writers of America's "Top 100 Mysteries of All Time" list.

Enjoy this most unusual exercise in criminal deduction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg4xETbv0bM

SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE WILD WOLF OF KOSTOPCHIN

"The Wild Wolf of Kostopchin" by Sir Gilbert Campbell  (from Campbell's book Wild and Weird:  or, Remarkable Stories of  Russian Life, 1899; that book was incorporated into the omnibus Wild and Weird:  Tales of Mystery and Imagination , 1899 [which also included Campbell's Mysteries of the Unseen: or Supernatural Stories of English Life, 1899, and Dark Stories from the Sunny South: or, Legends of the Mediterranean, 1899]; reprinted in Upon the Midnight, edited by R. C. Bull, 1957; in Book of the Werewolf, edited by Brian J. Frost, 1973; in The Werewolf Pack, edited by Mark Valentine, 2008; in Wulf:  Tales of Wolves and Werewolves, edited by Chad Arment, 2010; in Terrifying Transformations:  An Anthology of Victorian Werewolf Fiction, 1838-1896, edited by Alexis Easley & Shannon Scott, 2012;  in The Werewolf Megapack, edited  by John Betancourt, 2013; in Black Book of the Werewolf, editor uncredited, 2017; in Silver Bullets, edited by Eleanor Dobson, 2017; in Fireside Horror Stories about Werewolves, edited by M. Grant Kellermeyer, 2017; and in Were Wolf Short Stories, editor unknown, 2025)

Yep.  This is a werewolf story.  This one looks to be a classic, but does mean that it is any good?  let's see.

The author, Gilbert Campbell, 3rd Baronet, was one of the more interesting of the Victorian writers.  Born in 1838, Campbell attended Harrow before joining the army and serving as an officer before the Sepoy Rebellion.  He succeeded his father as baronet in 1870.  He married Esther Selina Maynham.  "The couple had one child, Claude Robert Campbell.  Shortly thereafter, husband and wife separated.  Thereafter, his life descended into a life of crime and literary hackdom.  Of the latter, he began contributing work to various periodicals such as Bow Bells and Judy's Annual, translating French detective fiction, writing sensation fiction, and editing Lambert's Monthly.  Always struggling for money, Campbell initiated or furthered various frauds such as beginning the Carlist Committee to fund a Spanish civil war, attempting insurance fraud, lending his name to various shaky business schemes, and serving on the board of a fake literary society.  The latter drew the attention of Henry Labouchere's newspaper Truth, prompted a criminal trial, and led to conviction in 1892.  Campbell was released from prison in 1894 and went on to publish a collection Through an Indian Mirror (1894).  He died in the second quarter of 1896 in London.  His sone assumed the title before dying himself ion 1900.  One of the more colorful characters in Victorian literary life. [my emphasis]."  

Also note that some sources list his death date as 1899, the same year that five of his books were published.  Other works include In the Shadow of Death (1888), New Detective Stories (1891), and The Vanishing Diamond:  A Story of the Himalayas (1891).

An online check finds that Wild and Weird is listed in eBay for $1200, plus shipping.  (Gulp!)  There is no indication which 1899 version of the book it is. the shorter book, or the omnibus.

About "The White Wolf of Kostopchin":

Paul Sergevitch is the reprobate owner of Kostopchin, an estate in what us now Lithuania.  He spends his time drinking, gambling, and living the high life in Moscow, but his vices are expensive, so has to regularly demand money from the estate, where he has not set foot since childhood.  A drunken argument with the well-connected son of a foreign dignitary led to a duel in which Paul killed the foreigner.  This displeased the Czar, who ordered Paul banished to Kostopshin.  the estate is now in sad disrepair due to Paul's wasteful life.  He is bitter about having to live in such a desolate and poverty-stricken place.  Rather than trying to revive the estate, Paul spends his days hunting, drinking, and cursing both his lot and the Czar.  Eventually Paul marries, but he is a violent and bitter man and his wife dies -- perhaps due to his overt cruelty -- several years later,  but after giving birth to two children.  For some reason, Paul is devoted to his daughter, Katrina, now age five, but he remains bitter and unloving to her brother, Alexis, age seven.

As Paul is about to go hunting one day, Katrina reminds him that he has promised her some gray squirrel pelts.  Paul replies that he will into the woods and find an old poacher, who surely would lead him to the squirrels.  Old Mikhal, the estate manager, who had been a valet for Paul's family for over fifty years, warned him against going into the woods, citing stories of supernatural beings...and of wolves.  Mikhal had recently been in the woods when he was confronted by a large pack of wolves.  Mikhal's crucifix had frightened the pack away, except for the leader, an enormous gray she-wolf, who kept her distance from the crucifix, but was obviously looking for a way to get around it.  The wolf followed Mikal back to estate, constantly looking for a way to attack him.

Paul poo-pooed the old man's warnings, stating that, if the she=wolf actually existing, she would not be about to stand against his shotgun.  Now in the forest, Paul's dog began acting strangely, and led him to a part of the woods he did not recognize.  The dog, obviously in terror, was compelled to lead Paul on to an opening, where he found the body of the old poacher, torn to shreds by some wild beast, lying at the base of a shattered stone cross.  The only animals found in the forests of Russia that were capable of such damage were the bear and the wolf, and near the body, Paul found the large tracks of a wolf.   As he made his way home, Paul felt that some thing, some shadow, was lurking in the distance, watching him.

When Paul had returned  home, he learned that a local girl had gone missing.  Her father was dying from a venomous snake bite and the girl had gone to fetch a priest.  The old man died and the girl never returned.  The girl's body was found on the marsh, killed and savaged by wolves.  The girl had ben mutilated in exactly the same manner as the poacher.  The next day an old man staggered out of the vodki shop on his way home.  He never made it and his mangled body was found nearby.  Then there were three  more deaths -- a little child, an able-bodies laborer, and an old woman.

The serfs demanded that Paul, as master of Kospotchin, do something.

Paul and an army of bearers searched the area thoroughly for the giant white she-wolf with no luck.  then one of the bearers screamed.  Still barely alive, he told Paul that he had been attacked by the white wolf, who ran off into the thicket.  The group was about to set fire to the thicket when a feminine voice called out, asking them tom hold their flames until she exited the thicket.  It was an aristocratic appearing woman, fair of face, with titian hair, and wearing a mantle of white fur.  She said a terrible white wolf had run past her and dived into a cavity in the earth in the center of the thicket.  As Paul ordered his men to dig out the cavity and get to the wolf, he  noticed that the woman's hands were stained with fresh blood, presumably from the wolf as it brushed past her. 

The mysterious woman claims to have been on the run from the police for speaking out on some sensitive subject.  She asks Paul to provide her shelter from the police.  Paul, having been exiled himself and having not fondness for the police, agrees.  In the meantime, Pal's crew fund no trace of the wolf in the newly-dug crevice.

We all know where this is going.  Paul takes her home; the woman gives her name as Ravina.  Katrina, ever trusting, loves her; Alexis, however, dislikes her, as does Mikhal, who says she reminds him of the white wolf.  Paul proposed marriage.  She agrees conditionally:  for a month she will stay there and visit Paul for only two hours a day, and after a month she will make her final decision.  'then, shortly before the month was over, Mikhal tells Paul that he has once again seen the white wolf.  In the house.  Just outside Ravina's apartments.  But Paul is getting more and more infatuated with Ravina's charms.

Things come to a head.  Katrina is in danger.  Paul is uselessly smitten.  Mikhals has been banished by Paul.  But seven-year-old Alexis has a pistol...

An interesting story.  Part fairy tale, part shilling shocker, and part atmospheric thriller.  In answer to my earlier question, is the story any good?, I would have to give a qualified yes. if only because the modern reader would see through the tropes which were not that common a century and a quarter ago.  Also, I have to admit that I had a constant urge to whack Paul on the side of the head with a large stick; but that's just me -- your mileage may differ.

The story can be read at the University of Pennsylvania's Online Books Page.

COLONEL MARCH OF SCOTLAND YARD: THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN (OCTOBER 8, 1955)

Once again let's visit Boris Karloff as Colonel March of "The Department of Queer Complaints," created by John Dickson Carr writing as "Carter Dickson."

"Members of a British mountain climbing club are seemingly terrorized by an abominable snow man after film of the tracks belonging to the creature are released.  March struggles to accpet the nature of the creature, and what its real motivations are."

Directed  by Bernard Knowles and scripted by Leslie Slote.  Also featured are Ewan Roberts, Doris Nolan, Ivan Craig, Olaf Pooley, Alec Mango, and Peter Bathurst.  A minor subplot has a woman (horrors!) applying to join the club, with Colonel March strongly advocating for her.

An interesting bit of nonsense all around.

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3uduVrfmQY

TODAY

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaMbkTQC8_o