Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The Dark Legacy of Evil Books

The subject of ancient grimoires continues to fascinate both readers and writers of the classic weird tale. A few of the anthology shows that proliferated the airwaves during the fifties and sixties adapted stories featuring evil books. The Twilight Zone gave us Manly Wade Wellman's "Still Valley" (based on "The Valley Was Still") in 1961. Boris Karloff's Thriller presented August Derleth's "The Return of Andrew Bentley" and John Tomerlin's Lovecraftian episode "Dark Legacy", both in 1961. Here's the complete video of "Dark Legacy" starring Harry Townes and Henry Silva.

My Shirley Jackson Award-nominated anthology Bound for Evil contains 67 fantastic stories featuring diabolical books and ancient libraries, crazed collectors and loony librarians, reckless readers and doomed writers!



Writer's Quote:
"The business of the poet and novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things, and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things." --Ray Bradbury

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