Strange Maine

by Charles G. Waugh (Editor), Martin H. Greenberg, F. McSherry (Editor)

Contents
7 • The Children of Noah • (1957) • short story by Richard Matheson
23 • The Phantom Farmhouse • (1923) • novelette by Seabury Quinn
45 • Longtooth • (1970) • novelette by Edgar Pangborn
77 • One for the Road • (1977) • short story by Stephen King
93 • Four Dreams of Gram Perkins • (1926) • short story by Ruth Sawyer
105 • Circumstance • (1860) • short story by Harriet Prescott Spofford
115 • The Last Cruise of the Judas Iscariot • (1882) • short story by Edward Page Mitchell
123 • The Prevaricator • (1976) • short story by Carlos Baker
137 • One Old Man, With Seals • (1982) • short story by Jane Yolen
145 • Safe Harbor • (1986) • novelette by Donald Wismer
165 • Mood Wendigo • [Howie Wyman] • (1980) • short story by Thomas A. Easton
177 • Death is a White Rabbit • non-genre • (1942) • short story by Fredric Brown
195 • Yesterday House • (1952) • novelette by Fritz Leiber
219 • Three Day Magic • (1948) • novella by Charlotte Armstrong

Genres: Short Stories

295 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 1986

About the author

Charles Gordon Waugh was born in Philadelphia, PA, in 1943.
He has published over 261 books, most of which are SF, fantasy, or horror anthologies and he has taught at Syracuse University, Ithaca College, Kent State University, and the University of Maine at Augusta.

Waugh is known primarily as a co-editor (with Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg) of the “Mammoth Book” series of genre anthologies.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

7 • The Children of Noah • (1957) • short story by Richard Matheson *** Guy gets pulled over for speeding late at night in the middle of nowhere in Maine; turns out they are cannibals and they are going to eat him
23 • The Phantom Farmhouse • (1923) • novelette by Seabury Quinn **** I don't usually like werewolf stories, but for some reason, maybe the hypnotic writing, I loved this one. A man convalescing in a treatment center in the woods in Maine takes a walk and discovers a farm house, where the denizens are lovely people, but somewhat strange. His fellows recovering in the sanitarium say there's no house nearby, and the main character does not correct them, since he's falling in love with the daughter, and finds his time with the family to be the happiest he has. Strange, tailless dogs begin to kill sheep nearby. It's becoming clear to the reader, the family are loup garou, who were long dead, their house burned. He confesses his love to the daughter, who rescues him from being eaten by her parents, and asks the protagonist to say a prayer over their unmarked graves. When he does, the house disappears.
45 • Longtooth • (1970) • novelette by Edgar Pangborn **** A story in which a man and his wife live in a rural farm in Maine. A local, who knows them, gets stuck in the snow in a blizzard, and has to pass the night with them. The man who owns the house starts telling a strange story about sounds he's heard, and things he's seen, and the protagonist listens, but tries to find logical explanations. Eventually, though, the sounds start, and the creature (yeti-esque) attacks the house to steal chickens. When the two men shoot at it to protect them, they hear a crash in the upstairs bedroom, and find that the man's wife is gone, and their small dog has been crushed to death. The police suspect the man, but don't arrest him, assuming they'll find a body eventually. The man and the protagonist decide to go into the woods after the creature, walking many miles, and eventually finding a cave. The wife is inside, mad and wild. The man shoots her in the head, then leaps on the yeti with a knife, stabbing it fatally, as the beast stabs him with one of its long fangs. They both die in a heap. The protagonist stumbles away, and has a stroke(?). Eventually, he is found, nursed to health, but cannot talk for several weeks. When he can, he tells what he knows. A search is made, but because it's been so long, nothing is found.
77 • One for the Road • (1977) • short story by Stephen King *** Having never read Salem's Lot, I assume this is a sequel, but maybe it's a first draft of the idea. Maybe if I had read it, this story would have been better for me, but as it is, it was kind of meh. Two old men, a drinker and a barkeep, are at a bar during a blizzard. A man stumbles in, half frozen, saying his car got stuck in the snow in Salem's Lot, and his wife and daughter are waiting for him to get help. The old men know the deal with the Lot (vampires), and so they drive the man there, in case they aren't dead/tranformed already. Of course, they are. Man dies, they get away, seeing little girl vampire.
93 • Four Dreams of Gram Perkins • (1926) • short story by Ruth Sawyer *** This one started out fantastic. A town all knows about the four dreams of Gram Perkins, except for the protagonist, who is exceedingly curious. Many warn her away from asking questions; they say she doesn't want to know about the dreams. Eventually, she comes across the person who dreamed the four dreams throughout his lifetime. They were increasingly insistent risings of dead Gram Perkins, standing up, moving etc. Maybe a product of its time, but certainly not scary to modern sensibilities.
105 • Circumstance • (1860) • short story by Harriet Prescott Spofford *** This one was very much like an old fable or fairy tale. A woman is out in the woods, and get grabbed up by a horrible beast/jersey devil. She cries out, and the sound echoes of the cavern in just such a way that it distracts and soothes the beast, so it listens instead of attacking her. She decides to sing to save her life. She sings for hours, thinking about her life, about God, about her husband and baby, and wondering about her family. Her husband, missing her after she'd been gone so long, straps his baby to his chest, and goes out to find his wife. Eventually, he hears her voice, which he follows, and just as her voice is going to give out, he shoots the beast. The three make their way back to the village, which had been burned to the ground by native americans while they were away.
115 • The Last Cruise of the Judas Iscariot • (1882) • short story by Edward Page Mitchell ** This one gets points docked mostly because boat stories are boring to me, and ones that have too much accent written into the dialog are difficult to understand. A ship that has no reason to be a bad ship has a history of sinking with its cargo, faring terribly in storms, etc. The captain can't sell her, and can't even give her away. He insists ships have souls, and this one is rotten. He decides to sink her, weights down the hold with stones in a larger load than she's ever carried, and sails her out with a tug nearby to take the crew back. She suddenly starts behaving beautifully, so he makes is crew disembark, ties the wheel straight, and cuts a hole in her hull, then disembarks himself. He watches her sail away, and assumes she'll sink. She eventually stopped, but right offshore of his town.
123 • The Prevaricator • (1976) • short story by Carlos Baker *** A man who has been known his whole life for spinning tall tales, even though he stopped lying when he was a child, sees a sea monster, but can't tell anyone for fear he'll be called a liar. He comes back and sees a man who he grew up with, who always teases him about being a liar, and says that he, too, saw the beast! The main character mocks him for spinning tall tales.
137 • One Old Man, With Seals • (1982) • short story by Jane Yolen *** An old woman lives in a lighthouse on a remote island, and meets an old man sleeping among seals. She holds his shoulder to assess whether he's okay, and it turns to flames, then a snake, then several other forms. With New England stubbornness, she holds on through several shape changes. She discovers this is a mythological god that will tell you the future if you can hold on through all the changes, so she returns to him.
145 • Safe Harbor • (1986) • novelette by Donald Wismer *** In a future where satellites and computers monitor every person through an implant behind their ear, the main character sets up a remote sanctuary of cabins on the Maine shore to rent out to people seeking solitude and quiet. Two visitors, a combative man and a sweet woman in an "airchair", do not have implants. The man, who is wealthy and powerful, but still has something to prove, tries to show how much he can rough it, chopping wood (with the wrong kind of axe), insisting the heat be turned off in the cabin, wanting to take a boat out into dangerous waters. The owner tries to keep the two safe through the man's attempts; clearly he is forming an attachment to the woman. A storm rolls in, and the owner has to evacuate all his tenants. The man and the woman insist on staying behind, despite the warnings of the wind and flooding, and the fact that because they're not bugged, the satellite will not be able to be used to find them again. The owner tries to persuade them several times, leaving, then coming back through the storm. Eventually, in order to overcome the man's pride, he waits until he collapses from exhaustion and freezing before picking them up on the side of the road to take them to safety.
165 • Mood Wendigo • [Howie Wyman] • (1980) • short story by Thomas A. Easton *** A teacher insists on going to seek the wendigo, traveling into the woods with two students and the mayor. They hear the tell-tale scream of the wendigo at night, and one of the students and the teacher run after it in the woods, and are not seen again. When the mayor and student get back to town, the mayor discovers the teacher was picked up the previous afternoon, ranting about a train. It turns out the wendigo is actually an FTL train that comes at night, and that the people who have disappeared have traveled to space, or as the teacher did, traveled in time.
177 • Death is a White Rabbit • non-genre • (1942) • short story by Fredric Brown ****
195 • Yesterday House • (1952) • novelette by Fritz Leiber **
219 • Three Day Magic • (1948) • novella by Charlotte Armstrong *****

[Vincent D · Rating 5 out of 5]

The quintessential short story book for Maine based horror literature. Really hits the nail on the head with stories such as "Children of Noah" and "Jerusalem's Lot". If an interested reader happens to be a Maine native like myself, this is a must!

[Brock · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fabulous collection of short stories, all in the horror genre. I loved the smattering of topics and it is easy for me to choose my favorite (Longtooth) because I love reading about creatures in the Maine woods.

One for the Road is simply superb but I have read this one before.

The last one, while fun, was a VERY odd choice as it did not take place in Maine. Very senseless addition in my mind (liked the story but the title of the collection is Strange Maine, not Strange New York)

[Abbey · Rating 4 out of 5]

BOTTOM LINE: Edited by Charles G. Waugh, Martin H. Greenberg and Frank D. McSherry Jr.; illustrated by Peter Farrow, this is a very good anthology filled with creepy short stories, all set in Maine, many of which are deservedly considered to be classics.

Nice collection of fourteen oddball little stories, many from masters of the genre, most unanthologised for many years. Unfortunately, there isn’t any introduction or blurbs about each story, although there is “A Note on the Authors” section at the end. The best stories IMO include Richard Mattheson’s cruel (and funny) “Children of Noah”; the sly “One Old Man, with Seals”, Jane Yolen; the oddly prescient “Yesterday House”, Fritz Leiber; and a funny/sweet novella by Charlotte Armstrong, “Three Day Magic”.

Also includes stories by Carlos Baker, Fredric Brown,Thomas Easton, Stephen King, Richard Mattheson, Edward Page Mitchell, Edgar Pangborn, Seabury Quinn, Ruth Sawyer, Harriet Prescott Spofford, Donald Wismer.


Armstrong, Charlotte, “Three-Day Magic”, 1952
— gently loony novella about a nice young man and his girl, and a bag of magical items

Baker, Carlos, “The Prevaricator”, 1976
— sneakily good bit about a tall tale teller and a sea serpent

Brown, Fredric, “Death is a White Rabbit”, 1942
— fast moving mad scientist tale with a creepier twist than usual

Easton, Thomas, “Mood Wendigo”, 1980
— indian superstition mixed with scifi

King, Stephen, “One for the Road”, 1977
— Jerusalem’s Lot, in winter, not a good thing

Leiber, Fritz, “Yesterday House”, 1952
— amazingly powerful mad scientist story, very moody

Mattheson, Richard, “The Children of Noah”, 1957
— superb little-town-gone-bad story, very creepy AND funny, excellent last twist

Mitchell, Edward Page, “The Last Cruise of The Judas Iscariot, 1882
— a captain’s tall tale about a cursed ship, excellent of its type

Pangborn, Edgar, “Longtooth”, 1970
— longwinded classic yetti story, with pathos and a good narrative voice

Quinn, Seabury, “The Phantom Farmhouse”, 1923
— a sickly vicar meets an odd family; oft-anthologized, and rightly so

Sawyer, Ruth, “The Four Dreams of Gram Perkins”, 1926
— nice string-a-long Yankee tale, mild

Spofford, Harriet Prescott, “Circumstance”, 1860
— 18th century farm family meets up with a devil; excellent last twist

Wismer, Donald, “Safe Harbor”, 1986
— creepy scifi about a tourist camp in rural Maine

Yolen, Jane, “One Old Man, With Seals”, 1982
— superb mix of old age and mythology