Weirdies, Weirdies, Weirdies: A Horrifying Concatenation of the Super-Sur-Real or Almost or Not-Quite Real

by Helen Hoke (Editor), Charles Keeping (Illustrator), H.P. Lovecraft

Weirdies • interior artwork by Charles Keeping
9 • A Creature Imagined (excerpt) • short fiction by C. S. Lewis
11 • The Cocoon • (1946) • short story by John B. L. Goodwin
35 • The Hair • (1928) • short story by A. J. Alan
47 • The Brown Hand • (1899) • short story by Arthur Conan Doyle (variant of The Story of the Brown Hand) [as by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle]
67 • The Nightmare Lake • (1919) • poem by H. P. Lovecraft
70 • Mrs. Manifold • (1949) • short story by August Derleth [as by Stephen Grendon]
86 • The Ancient Track • (1930) • poem by H. P. Lovecraft
88 • The Monster of Baylock • short story by F. H. Lee
94 • Phase Two (excerpt) • short fiction by John Wyndham
109 • The Night Crawlers • poem by H. P. Lovecraft
110 • The Howler • [Fungi from Yuggoth • 12] • (1932) • poem by H. P. Lovecraft
112 • A Crossbreed • [Eine Kreuzung] • (1933) • short story by Franz Kafka (trans. of Eine Kreuzung 1931)
116 • The Mansions of the Dead • (1965) • poem by Robert Blair
117 • Hallowe'en in a Suburb • (1926) • poem by H. P. Lovecraft
119 • The Quest for Blank Claveringi • (1967) • short story by Patricia Highsmith
138 • Wentworth's Day • (1957) • short story by H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth
153 • The Shark-Man Nanaue • short story by E. M. Nakuina
164 • The Monster (excerpt) • short fiction by Edmund Spenser
167 • The Upper Berth • (1885) • novelette by F. Marion Crawford
192 • What Was It? • (1859) • short story by Fitz-James O'Brien

Genres: Horror, Short Stories

244 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Helen Jeanne Lamb Hoke (20 July 1903 - 26 March 1990) was an American author of children's books.

She wrote nearly 100 children's books and set up and ran children's book divisions in five publishing companies. Helen Hoke was well known for her anthologies on children’s humour, but she was also fascinated by the esoteric, the supernatural, and the weird.

In 1945, Hoke married Franklin M. Watts, who owned Franklin M. Watts, Inc., publishers, and became the vice-president and director of international projects.

Franklin Hoke is her grandson.

Reviews

[Meg Powers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was delighted to find this elaborately titled book in a care package sent by a long distance friend last year. Short horror/science fiction story compilations are one of my favorite things to collect;one of my favorite examples is Wolf's Complete Book of Terror, a huge collection that offers its contents in reverse chronological order and represents all sorts spanning the horror spectrum-Shirley Jackson, Richard Mattheson, Lovecraft, Stoker, excerpts from Lautreamont's Maldoror,etc. Weirdies, Weirdies,Weirdies isn't as comprehensive, but it is a special book;the stories within aren't by the standard horror set most often represented (Joyce Carol Oates-blech), they are weird and disturbing without resorting to too many cliches, and they are accompanied by creepy,psychedelic wax relief illustrations. The most upsetting story in this collection is Patricia Highsmith's "The Quest For Blank Claveringi," a story about hubris and giant man-eating snails. I didn't even know Highsmith wrote horror!
If you see this lying around,grab it. It's around two bucks on Amazon and the crazy illustrations alone make it worth keeping around.

[Shawn]

PLACEHOLDER REVIEWS

"The Hair" by A.J. Alan - A man discovers a small metal box in an antique store, which holds a plait made of women's hair. He then accidentally discovers that the hairs hold a strange, malignant ability to cause harm... Eh, another of Alan's "charming" yarns of humorous paranormal oddity. You can tell what you're dealing with by the main character, after testing out his theories about the wounding properties of the hair (with a shrugged off sardonic note about the lives lost), figures to use it to win a bundle at the track. Eh.

In "The Monster Of Baylock" by ye olde Anonymous (seemingly F.H. Lee, we're told a fable about how the Irish will precede the rest of the world into eventual hellfire by a day, as they will be devoured by their own giant, whose history the piece relates. Nice.

[eLwYcKe · Rating 3 out of 5]

My edition is simply titled "Weirdies". Where the other two weirdies went, I haven't a clue.
This is a mostly fun collection, the occasional really creepy tale and twisted gothic poem. The focus seems to be on monsters rather than ghosts; slimy, tentacled things, odd creatures and hybrids. All accompanied by some delicious, delirious Charles Keeping illustrations to relish.

[Anne Wi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be a unique and horrifying compilation of short stories and poems. I would definitely not read this before bed time. Due to when they were written some of the stories were hard to follow with the language but none the less this was a good book.

[Cws]

J823Hok