Friday 9 October 2015

Fishhead: The Darker Tales of Irvin S. Cobb

I am currently working on getting Fishhead: The Darker Tales of Irvin S. Cobb ready for publication by Parallel Universe. Irvin S. Cobb was a famous humorist, journalist, editor and occasional actor, whose stories were amongst the most popular in American letters during the first half of the twentieth century. In 1935 he hosted the Oscars and appeared in a number of early movies.
Only occasionally did his fiction delve into darker areas. One of his most famous, Fishhead, went on to inspire H. P. Lovecraft’s Shadow Over Innsmouth, while The Unbroken Chain gave Lovecraft the idea behind The Rats in the Walls. H. P. Lovecraft wrote of Fishhead in his essay Supernatural Horror in Literature: “banefully effective in its portrayal of unnatural affinities between a hybrid idiot and the strange fish of an isolated lake.”
Here for the first time are collected fourteen of Irvin S. Cobb’s darkest tales:
The Escape of Mr. Trimm
The Gallowsmith
Mr. Lobel's Apopexy
Fishhead
The Unbroken Chain
The Second Coming of the First Husband
The Masterpiece
January Thaw
Cabbages and Kings
We Can't All Be Thoroughbreds
Queer Creek
Ace, Deuce, Ten Spot, Joker
Balm of Gilead
Faith, Hope, and Charity


Irvin S. Cobb on the cover of All-Story Weekly
Irvin S. Cobb presenting the Oscars 1935

No comments:

Post a Comment