BOOK DETAILS
Trade paper ISBN-13: 978-1939140425 List Price: $17.99 U.S. Pages: 226 Published: 2013 |
The Hunger and Other Stories (1957)
Charles Beaumont With a new introduction by Bernice M. Murphy Book Description
When The Hunger and Other Stories (1957) appeared, it heralded the arrival of Charles Beaumont (1929-1967) as an important and highly original new voice in American fiction. Although he is best known today for his television and film scripts, including several classic episodes of The Twilight Zone, Beaumont is being rediscovered as a master of weird tales, and this, his first published collection, contains some of his best. Ranging in tone from the chilling Gothic horror of “Miss Gentilbelle,” where an insane mother dresses her son up as a girl and slaughters his pets, to deliciously dark humor in tales like “Open House” and “The Infernal Bouillabaisse,” where murderers’ plans go disastrously awry, these seventeen stories demonstrate Beaumont’s remarkable talent and versatility. This new edition of The Hunger and Other Stories, the first in more than fifty years, includes a new introduction by Dr. Bernice M. Murphy, who argues for reconsideration of Beaumont alongside the other greats of the genre, including Shirley Jackson, Ray Bradbury, and Richard Matheson. |
reviews
“A memorable first book of fiction, one which belongs on any shelf of the best contemporary weird tales.” - August Derleth, Chicago Tribune
“[E]xtraordinary . . . gives Mr. Beaumont undeniable stature as an artist.” - N. Y. Herald Tribune
“Charles Beaumont was a genius . . . and one hell of a storyteller.” - Dean R. Koontz
“The name of Charles Beaumont will be honored and recognized for generations yet to come.” - Robert Bloch
“[E]xtraordinary . . . gives Mr. Beaumont undeniable stature as an artist.” - N. Y. Herald Tribune
“Charles Beaumont was a genius . . . and one hell of a storyteller.” - Dean R. Koontz
“The name of Charles Beaumont will be honored and recognized for generations yet to come.” - Robert Bloch
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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Charles Beaumont was born Charles Leroy Nutt in Chicago in 1929. He dropped out of high school in the tenth grade and worked at a number of jobs before selling his first story to Amazing Stories in 1950. His story “Black Country” (1954) was the first work of short fiction to appear in Playboy, and his classic tale “The Crooked Man” appeared in the same magazine the following year. Beaumont published numerous other short stories in the 1950s, both in mainstream periodicals like Playboy and Esquire and in science fiction and fantasy magazines.
His first story collection, The Hunger and Other Stories, was published in 1957 to immediate acclaim, and was followed by two further collections, Yonder (1958) and Night Ride and Other Journeys (1960). He also published two novels, Run from the Hunter (1957, pseudonymously, with John E. Tomerlin), and The Intruder (1959).
Beaumont is perhaps best remembered for his work in television, particularly his screenplays for The Twilight Zone, for which he wrote several of the most famous episodes. His other screenwriting credits include the scripts for films such as The Premature Burial (1962), Burn, Witch, Burn (1962), The Haunted Palace (1963), and The Masque of the Red Death (1964).
When Beaumont was 34, he began to suffer from ill health and developed a baffling and still unexplained condition that caused him to age at a greatly increased rate, such that at the time of his death at age 38 in 1967, he had the physical appearance of a 95-year-old man. Beaumont was survived by his wife Helen, two daughters, and two sons, one of whom, Christopher, is also a writer.
Beaumont’s work was much respected by his colleagues, and he counted Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, and Roger Corman among his friends and admirers. His work is in the process of being rediscovered with new editions of several of his works recently appearing from Centipede Press and this new edition of The Hunger from Valancourt Books.
His first story collection, The Hunger and Other Stories, was published in 1957 to immediate acclaim, and was followed by two further collections, Yonder (1958) and Night Ride and Other Journeys (1960). He also published two novels, Run from the Hunter (1957, pseudonymously, with John E. Tomerlin), and The Intruder (1959).
Beaumont is perhaps best remembered for his work in television, particularly his screenplays for The Twilight Zone, for which he wrote several of the most famous episodes. His other screenwriting credits include the scripts for films such as The Premature Burial (1962), Burn, Witch, Burn (1962), The Haunted Palace (1963), and The Masque of the Red Death (1964).
When Beaumont was 34, he began to suffer from ill health and developed a baffling and still unexplained condition that caused him to age at a greatly increased rate, such that at the time of his death at age 38 in 1967, he had the physical appearance of a 95-year-old man. Beaumont was survived by his wife Helen, two daughters, and two sons, one of whom, Christopher, is also a writer.
Beaumont’s work was much respected by his colleagues, and he counted Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, and Roger Corman among his friends and admirers. His work is in the process of being rediscovered with new editions of several of his works recently appearing from Centipede Press and this new edition of The Hunger from Valancourt Books.