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Horror Gems, Volume One, Carl Jacobi and Others
Armchair Fiction presents extra large paperback collections of the best in classic horror short stories. "Horror Gems, Vol. One" features works by August Derleth, Carl Jacobi, Seabury Quinn, Emil Petaja, H. Beam Piper, Donald Wandrei, Gregory Luce, and others. This is a brand new anthology of nostalgic horror fiction. Join heralded authors like August Derleth and Carl Jacobi on their never-ending quest to provoke our fears of the creaks and squeaks that we sometimes hear in the black of the night.
- GenresHorror
224 pages, Paperback
First published April 7, 2011
1 person is currently reading
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About the author
Carl Jacobi
144 books17 followersLibrarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Carl Richard Jacobi was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1904 and lived there throughout his life. He attended the University of Minnesota from 1927 to 1930 where he began his writing career in campus magazines.
His first stories were published while he was at the University. The last of these, "Moss Island", was a graduate's contribution to The Quest of Central High School, and "Mive" in the University of Minnesota's The Minnesota Quarterly. Both stories were later sold to Amazing Stories and Weird Tales respectively and marked his debut in professional magazines. "Mive" brought him payment of 25 dollars.
He joined the editorial staff of The Minnesota Quarterly, and after graduation in 1931, he became a news reporter for the Minneapolis Star, as well as a frequent reviewer of books and plays. He also served on the staff of the Minnesota Ski-U-Mah, a scholastic publication.
After years with the Minneapolis Star, he was the editor for two years of Midwest Media, an advertising and radio trade journal. Later, he devoted himself full-time to writing. He owned his own private retreat, a cabin at Minnewashta in the Carver country outlands of Minneapolis. His intimate familiarity with the terrain and environment there provided the setting for many of his most distinguished stories. Jacobi was a lifelong bachelor.
He wrote scores of tales for all the best known magazines of fantasy and science fiction and was represented in numerous anthologies of imaginative fiction published in the United States, England and New Zealand. His stories were translated into French, Swedish, Danish and Dutch. Many of his tales were published in anthologies edited by Derleth, and Arkham House published his first three short story collections. Stories also appeared in such magazines as Short Stories, Railroad Magazine, The Toronto Star, Wonder Stories, MacLean's magazine, Ghost Stories, Strange Stories, Thrilling Mystery, Startling Stories, Complete Stories, Top-Notch and others. Though best known for his macabre fiction, Jacobi also wrote science fiction, weird-menace yarns and adventure stories.
From Wikipedia
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Carl Richard Jacobi was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1904 and lived there throughout his life. He attended the University of Minnesota from 1927 to 1930 where he began his writing career in campus magazines.
His first stories were published while he was at the University. The last of these, "Moss Island", was a graduate's contribution to The Quest of Central High School, and "Mive" in the University of Minnesota's The Minnesota Quarterly. Both stories were later sold to Amazing Stories and Weird Tales respectively and marked his debut in professional magazines. "Mive" brought him payment of 25 dollars.
He joined the editorial staff of The Minnesota Quarterly, and after graduation in 1931, he became a news reporter for the Minneapolis Star, as well as a frequent reviewer of books and plays. He also served on the staff of the Minnesota Ski-U-Mah, a scholastic publication.
After years with the Minneapolis Star, he was the editor for two years of Midwest Media, an advertising and radio trade journal. Later, he devoted himself full-time to writing. He owned his own private retreat, a cabin at Minnewashta in the Carver country outlands of Minneapolis. His intimate familiarity with the terrain and environment there provided the setting for many of his most distinguished stories. Jacobi was a lifelong bachelor.
He wrote scores of tales for all the best known magazines of fantasy and science fiction and was represented in numerous anthologies of imaginative fiction published in the United States, England and New Zealand. His stories were translated into French, Swedish, Danish and Dutch. Many of his tales were published in anthologies edited by Derleth, and Arkham House published his first three short story collections. Stories also appeared in such magazines as Short Stories, Railroad Magazine, The Toronto Star, Wonder Stories, MacLean's magazine, Ghost Stories, Strange Stories, Thrilling Mystery, Startling Stories, Complete Stories, Top-Notch and others. Though best known for his macabre fiction, Jacobi also wrote science fiction, weird-menace yarns and adventure stories.
From Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 17, 2020
Mediocre. My first time reading a story about a steam-shovel. Hmm.
December 25, 2020
Good God, this was an uneven experience! Gems? Gems!?
To the good we have Seabury Quinn's romantic astral-projection story “Fling the Dust Aside”, H. Russell Wakefield's demonological “A Black Solitude”, and Leah Bodine Drake's regional “Whisper Water”. H. Beam Piper's “Dearest” is worth a giggle, although it is dated in some of the more tragic senses and is hardly the best I've read from him.
To the bad... well... the rest of the collection! Alice Farnham's canine “Black as the Night”, Emil Petaja's dotty “The Insistent Ghost”, Allison V. Harding's drab “The Murderous Steam Shovel” and especially the fanzine opener, “Return of the Shoggoth” written by the editor, are all dull off-the-rack ghost or low-rent supernatural horror.
Manly Banister's “Song in the Thicket” is almost an Arthur Machen or Dunsany type story, although largely destroyed by it's 1950s lens. It loses the horror thread towards the end and opts to change to the rules of a generic thriller, despite the fact that it contains supernatural water fae. We keep meeting guys with one-syllable names in that one and their generic suburban-ness helps to undo any interest the mystery might have had.
Carl Jacobi's “The Spanish Camera” has some alright notions, but is also bogged down in the routine. August Derleth's “The Ebony Stick” is also very generic, and desperately tame.
I don't think you can honestly claim to be gathering “Horror Gems” if you keep your focus on the 1950s. Post-war Britain and Ike-era USA aren't exactly scary in that way. Square Brits living by the seaside, biddies dealing with beatnik artists, joe-schmos murdering to work a steam-shovel... am I wrong not to give a shit?
People, horror is fantasy, it should not be so mired in the mundane!
To the good we have Seabury Quinn's romantic astral-projection story “Fling the Dust Aside”, H. Russell Wakefield's demonological “A Black Solitude”, and Leah Bodine Drake's regional “Whisper Water”. H. Beam Piper's “Dearest” is worth a giggle, although it is dated in some of the more tragic senses and is hardly the best I've read from him.
To the bad... well... the rest of the collection! Alice Farnham's canine “Black as the Night”, Emil Petaja's dotty “The Insistent Ghost”, Allison V. Harding's drab “The Murderous Steam Shovel” and especially the fanzine opener, “Return of the Shoggoth” written by the editor, are all dull off-the-rack ghost or low-rent supernatural horror.
Manly Banister's “Song in the Thicket” is almost an Arthur Machen or Dunsany type story, although largely destroyed by it's 1950s lens. It loses the horror thread towards the end and opts to change to the rules of a generic thriller, despite the fact that it contains supernatural water fae. We keep meeting guys with one-syllable names in that one and their generic suburban-ness helps to undo any interest the mystery might have had.
Carl Jacobi's “The Spanish Camera” has some alright notions, but is also bogged down in the routine. August Derleth's “The Ebony Stick” is also very generic, and desperately tame.
I don't think you can honestly claim to be gathering “Horror Gems” if you keep your focus on the 1950s. Post-war Britain and Ike-era USA aren't exactly scary in that way. Square Brits living by the seaside, biddies dealing with beatnik artists, joe-schmos murdering to work a steam-shovel... am I wrong not to give a shit?
People, horror is fantasy, it should not be so mired in the mundane!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews