THE SCARY BOOKS

 


age 12-15.....i read several books that were a far cry from Captains Courageous, Black Beauty and Treasure Island.....I had read the Rick Blaine Scientific Adventures and a few 50's science fiction novels; but, my interest in John Ackerly's "SHOCK THEATRE", which played at 10:15 on friday or saturday nights, detoured my interest to books about gouls, werewolves, mad scientists and vampires........After seeing the Lugosi "DRACULA", seated alone at the run-down Central Theatre, i stopped by a junk store and discovered a copy of Mary Shelley's "FRANKENSTEIN" and a copy of the book pictured above.......They were as literary as the other stuff that I had read, and my vivid imagination brought Guy Endore's 1930's twisted misanthrophic creations to life......such excitement.......blood drinking, flesh eating, incest and Bertrand Caillet! I read nothing other than Lovecraft, Poe, Wells and popular science fiction, "Mad Magazine" and "Famous Monsters of Filmland".........then college! a different fare, altogether.......my interests shifted, then, to 17th century metaphysical poetry and intricately detailed novels about the interior lives of introspective poets and tragic heros....
I was never interested in books or films about ordinary folks.......Walter Mitty types, when there was a grand world of cosmic proportions and quadruple meanings to explore.........After watching a dozen Ingmar Bergman films, I gave up reading novels....almost completely.......and began to write poetry and study the films of Cocteau, Brunuel, Antonioni, and Fellini...........Visconti's masterpieces replaced ponderously detailed novels.....the camera could, in a few seconds, capture pages of intricate description......
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