Kerb Crawler
Closed Fist of the Badlands
A few years ago I was in Lincoln, New Mexico, visiting a "museum" (basically, a restored doctor's office/house from the late 1800's/early 1900's), when curiosity lead me to examine the contents of the long-since-deceased doctor's personal (chickenwire-protected) bookcase/library. A lot of old dusty titles lined the shelves, as you can imagine, but one title in particular jumped out at me instantly: THE HOUSEBOAT ON THE RIVER STYX.
What a dichotomy of wondrous imagery this presented me! A houseboat - a place for living - on the River of Death!
What could this book be? What a fantastic title! How could I find this book for myself!? (Why had I never heard of this before?
Thanks to the convenience of eBay, a copy was secured within pretty short order. (And was a hell of a lot cheaper, too, than trying to source it from the local used book store.)
The Houseboat on the River Styx, by John Kendrick Bangs, copyright 1895, Harper & Brothers Publishing Co., is one of the coolest books I've ever had the pleasure of reading. As soon as I began the 1st page I knew this was going to be a book I would cherish for year's to come:
CHARON MAKES A DISCOVERY
Charon, the Ferryman of renown, was cruising slowly along the Styx one pleasant Friday morning not long ago, and as he paddled idly on he chuckled mildly to himself as he thought of the monopoly in ferriage which in the course of years he had managed to build up.
"It's a great thing," he said, with a smirk of satisfaction--"it's a great thing to be the go-between between two states of being; to have the exclusive franchise to export and import shades from one state to the other, and withal to have had as clean a record as mine has been. Valuable as is my franchise, I never corrupted a public official in my life, and --"
Here Charon stopped his soliloquy and his boat simultaneously. As he rounded one of the many turns in the river a singular object met his gaze and one, too, that filled him with misgiving. It was another craft, and that was a thing not to be tolerated. Had he, Charon, owned the exclusive right of way on the Styx all these years to have it disputed here in the closing decade of the Nineteenth Century? Had not he dealt satisfactorily with all, whether it was in the line of ferriage or in the providing of boats for pleasure-trips up the river? Had he not received expressions of satisfaction, indeed, from the most exclusive families of Hades with the very select series of picnics he had given at Charon's Glen Island? No wonder, then, that the queer-looking boat that met his gaze, moored in a shady nook on the dark side of the river, filled him with dismay.
Upon inspection, this other vessel turns out to be a houseboat owned by the Associated Shades, a gentleman's club for the specter's of the underworld, and it isn't long before Charon is offered the position of janitor by the House Committee, comprised of Sir Walter Raleigh, Cassius, Demosthanes, Blackstone, Doctor Johnson, and Confuciius.
The rest of the book is a series of chaptered vignettes where various shades throughout history meet and discuss all manner of topics, including history, religion, and politics - and even the controversy of whether or not Shakespeare wrote many of his famed plays, much to Shakespeare's frustration!
This book is a wonderful insight into Victorian literary structure and comedy, and it is definitely more humorous than it is scary, but I was instantly atttracted to the otherworldly setting and rich selection of historical figures Bangs chose to use.
The book, too, is wonderful in its portrayal of gender relations as the womenfolk are jealous that they be exluded from this gentleman's club and a couple chapters are devoted to their discussions about it and how they feel about their men.
I will not reveal the ending, but the women do something that results in a cliffhanger ending that leads directly into the sequel THE PURSUIT OF THE HOUSEBOAT, as the men have to try and get their boat back by employing Sherlock Holmes. (Bangs and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle were contemporaries and friends, the sequel even being dedicated to Doyle.)
A brilliant read; innocent, fun, and quite witty, I was forced to seek out other Bangs books, one of my faves being "OLYMPIAN NIGHTS" that deals with an Everyman's journey to Mount Olympus and all that implies.
Bangs wrote a lot of short stories for various publications in the late 1800's/early 1900's, and he was definitely attracted to tales of ghosts and such.
(I would best describe him as a satiritualist!)
Anyway, if you ever get a chance, seek these out. (I noticed, once upon a time, that the entire HOUSEBOAT book was available on-line. As a matter of fact, that's how I acquired his story THE ENCHANTED TYPEWRITER which was kind of a sequel of sorts to the PURSUIT OF THE HOUSEBOAT, but I didn't like it quite as much.)
***
How about you? What are some of your favorite short stories, or spooky tales? Perhaps something you remember reading as a kid, but never found again as an adult, or maybe something you refused to read at night.
SHARE YOUR SHADE STORIES!
What a dichotomy of wondrous imagery this presented me! A houseboat - a place for living - on the River of Death!
What could this book be? What a fantastic title! How could I find this book for myself!? (Why had I never heard of this before?
Thanks to the convenience of eBay, a copy was secured within pretty short order. (And was a hell of a lot cheaper, too, than trying to source it from the local used book store.)
The Houseboat on the River Styx, by John Kendrick Bangs, copyright 1895, Harper & Brothers Publishing Co., is one of the coolest books I've ever had the pleasure of reading. As soon as I began the 1st page I knew this was going to be a book I would cherish for year's to come:
CHARON MAKES A DISCOVERY
Charon, the Ferryman of renown, was cruising slowly along the Styx one pleasant Friday morning not long ago, and as he paddled idly on he chuckled mildly to himself as he thought of the monopoly in ferriage which in the course of years he had managed to build up.
"It's a great thing," he said, with a smirk of satisfaction--"it's a great thing to be the go-between between two states of being; to have the exclusive franchise to export and import shades from one state to the other, and withal to have had as clean a record as mine has been. Valuable as is my franchise, I never corrupted a public official in my life, and --"
Here Charon stopped his soliloquy and his boat simultaneously. As he rounded one of the many turns in the river a singular object met his gaze and one, too, that filled him with misgiving. It was another craft, and that was a thing not to be tolerated. Had he, Charon, owned the exclusive right of way on the Styx all these years to have it disputed here in the closing decade of the Nineteenth Century? Had not he dealt satisfactorily with all, whether it was in the line of ferriage or in the providing of boats for pleasure-trips up the river? Had he not received expressions of satisfaction, indeed, from the most exclusive families of Hades with the very select series of picnics he had given at Charon's Glen Island? No wonder, then, that the queer-looking boat that met his gaze, moored in a shady nook on the dark side of the river, filled him with dismay.
Upon inspection, this other vessel turns out to be a houseboat owned by the Associated Shades, a gentleman's club for the specter's of the underworld, and it isn't long before Charon is offered the position of janitor by the House Committee, comprised of Sir Walter Raleigh, Cassius, Demosthanes, Blackstone, Doctor Johnson, and Confuciius.
The rest of the book is a series of chaptered vignettes where various shades throughout history meet and discuss all manner of topics, including history, religion, and politics - and even the controversy of whether or not Shakespeare wrote many of his famed plays, much to Shakespeare's frustration!
This book is a wonderful insight into Victorian literary structure and comedy, and it is definitely more humorous than it is scary, but I was instantly atttracted to the otherworldly setting and rich selection of historical figures Bangs chose to use.
The book, too, is wonderful in its portrayal of gender relations as the womenfolk are jealous that they be exluded from this gentleman's club and a couple chapters are devoted to their discussions about it and how they feel about their men.
I will not reveal the ending, but the women do something that results in a cliffhanger ending that leads directly into the sequel THE PURSUIT OF THE HOUSEBOAT, as the men have to try and get their boat back by employing Sherlock Holmes. (Bangs and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle were contemporaries and friends, the sequel even being dedicated to Doyle.)
A brilliant read; innocent, fun, and quite witty, I was forced to seek out other Bangs books, one of my faves being "OLYMPIAN NIGHTS" that deals with an Everyman's journey to Mount Olympus and all that implies.
Bangs wrote a lot of short stories for various publications in the late 1800's/early 1900's, and he was definitely attracted to tales of ghosts and such.
(I would best describe him as a satiritualist!)
Anyway, if you ever get a chance, seek these out. (I noticed, once upon a time, that the entire HOUSEBOAT book was available on-line. As a matter of fact, that's how I acquired his story THE ENCHANTED TYPEWRITER which was kind of a sequel of sorts to the PURSUIT OF THE HOUSEBOAT, but I didn't like it quite as much.)
***
How about you? What are some of your favorite short stories, or spooky tales? Perhaps something you remember reading as a kid, but never found again as an adult, or maybe something you refused to read at night.
SHARE YOUR SHADE STORIES!
