Demons by Daylight

Last updated
Demons by Daylight
Demons by daylight.jpg
Dust-jacket illustration by Eddie Jones.
Author Ramsey Campbell
Cover artist Eddie Jones
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Fantasy, horror
Publisher Arkham House
Publication date
1973
Media typePrint (hardback)
Pages153

Demons by Daylight is a collection of stories by English author Ramsey Campbell. Released in 1973, it was the author's second short story collection, after The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants . Like the earlier book, it was published by Arkham House.

Contents

Campbell had completed work on the stories for it by 1968, and it was scheduled for publication in 1971; however, due to the 1971 death of editor and Arkham House co-founder August Derleth, the collection was delayed a further two years; it finally saw print in 1973. It was published in an edition totaling 3,472 copies and with dust jacket art by Eddie Jones, commissioned by Campbell.

A variant edition was published by Jove/HBJ in May 1979. In the section 'Relationships', this edition omits "The Second Staircase" and adds "Reply Guaranteed" and "The Telephones".

The 1990 Carroll & Graf paperback reproduces the contents of the original Arkham House edition.

Critical response

Campbell has acknowledged that the stories in the book were written primarily under the stylistic influence of Vladimir Nabokov. Campbell was attempting to move away from his dependence on the influence of H.P. Lovecraft, and the style of these stories is radically different from the Cthulhu Mythos tales found in his first collection.

The book's first appearance induced T. E. D. Klein to write an extensive and highly positive review, "Ramsey Campbell: An Appreciation" in Nyctalops magazine and critic S. T. Joshi has stated [1] that:

its ... allusiveness of narration; careful, at times even obsessive focusing on the fleeting sensations and psychological processes of characters; an aggressively modern setting that allows commentary on social, cultural and political issues - all conjoin to make Demons by Daylight perhaps the most important book of horror fiction since Lovecraft's The Outsider and Others .

Contents

Demons by Daylight contains the following stories, grouped into three sections:

  1. Nightmares
    • "Potential"
    • "The End of a Summer's Day"
    • "At First Sight"
  2. Errol Undercliffe: a tribute
  3. Relationships
    • "The Sentinels"
    • "The Guy"
    • "The Old Horns"
    • "The Lost"
    • "The Stocking"
    • "The Second Staircase"
    • "Concussion"
    • "The Enchanted Fruit"
    • "Made in Goatswood"

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">August Derleth</span> American writer

August William Derleth was an American writer and anthologist. He was the first book publisher of the writings of H. P. Lovecraft. He made contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos and the cosmic horror genre and helped found the publisher Arkham House. Derleth was also a leading American regional writer of his day, as well as prolific in several other genres, including historical fiction, poetry, detective fiction, science fiction, and biography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clark Ashton Smith</span> American author (1893–1961)

Clark Ashton Smith was an American writer and artist. He achieved early local recognition, largely through the enthusiasm of George Sterling, for traditional verse in the vein of Swinburne. As a poet, Smith is grouped with the West Coast Romantics alongside Joaquin Miller, Sterling, and Nora May French and remembered as "The Last of the Great Romantics" and "The Bard of Auburn". Smith's work was praised by his contemporaries. H. P. Lovecraft stated that "in sheer daemonic strangeness and fertility of conception, Clark Ashton Smith is perhaps unexcelled", and Ray Bradbury said that Smith "filled my mind with incredible worlds, impossibly beautiful cities, and still more fantastic creatures".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramsey Campbell</span> English author

Ramsey Campbell is an English horror fiction writer, editor and critic who has been writing for well over fifty years. He is the author of over 30 novels and hundreds of short stories, many of them winners of literary awards. Three of his novels have been adapted into films.

Arkham House is an American publishing house specializing in weird fiction. It was founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin, in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to publish hardcover collections of H. P. Lovecraft's best works, which had previously been published only in pulp magazines. The company's name is derived from Lovecraft's fictional New England city, Arkham, Massachusetts. Arkham House editions are noted for the quality of their printing and binding. The colophon for Arkham House was designed by Frank Utpatel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Belknap Long</span> American novelist, short story writer, and poet

Frank Belknap Long Jr. was an American writer of horror fiction, fantasy, science fiction, poetry, gothic romance, comic books, and non-fiction. Though his writing career spanned seven decades, he is best known for his horror and science fiction short stories, including contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos and Shoggoth alongside his friend, H. P. Lovecraft. During his life, Long received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the First Fandom Hall of Fame Award (1977).

Theodore "Eibon" Donald Klein is an American horror writer and editor.

<i>The Lurker at the Threshold</i> Novel by August Derleth and H. P. Lovecraft

The Lurker at the Threshold is a horror novel by American writer August Derleth, based on short fragments written by H. P. Lovecraft, who died in 1937, and published as a collaboration between the two authors. According to S. T. Joshi, of the novel's 50,000 words, 1,200 were written by Lovecraft.

Peter H. Cannon is an H. P. Lovecraft scholar and an author of Cthulhu Mythos fiction. Cannon works as an editor for Publishers Weekly, specializing in thrillers and mystery. He lives in New York City and is married with three children.

A Cthulhu Mythos anthology is a type of short story collection that contains stories written in, or related to, the Cthulhu Mythos genre of horror fiction launched by H. P. Lovecraft. Such anthologies have helped to define and popularize the genre.

<i>The Dunwich Horror and Others</i> Short story collection by Howard Phillips Lovecraft

The Dunwich Horror and Others is a collection of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories by American author H. P. Lovecraft. It was originally published in 1963 by Arkham House in an edition of 3,133 copies.

<i>Dagon and Other Macabre Tales</i> 1965 short story collection by H. P. Lovecraft

Dagon and Other Macabre Tales is a collection of stories by American author H. P. Lovecraft, which also includes his essay on weird fiction, "Supernatural Horror in Literature". It was originally published in 1965 by Arkham House in an edition of 3,471 copies. Unlike some other first editions of Lovecraft collections issued by Arkham House in the mid-sixties, the true first edition is bound with head- and tailbands.

<i>Out of Space and Time</i> Book by Clark Ashton Smith

Out of Space and Time is a collection of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories by American writer Clark Ashton Smith. It was released in 1942 and was the third book published by Arkham House. 1,054 copies were printed. A British hardcover appeared from Neville Spearman in 1971, with a two-volume paperback reprint following from Panther Books in 1974. Bison Books issued a trade paperback edition in 2006.

<i>The Survivor and Others</i>

The Survivor and Others is a collection of fantasy and horror short stories by American writer August Derleth. It was released in an edition of 2,096 copies. It was reissued in paperback by Ballantine Books in 1962 and 1971. The stories were based on and inspired by unused ideas of H. P. Lovecraft, and billed as "posthumous collaborations" with him. Derleth was in fact Lovecraft's literary executor after the latter's death in 1937.

<i>Dark Mind, Dark Heart</i>

Dark Mind, Dark Heart is an anthology of horror stories edited by American writer August Derleth. It was released in 1962 by Arkham House in an edition of 2,493 copies. The anthology was conceived as a collection of new stories by old Arkham House authors. The anthology is also notable for including the first Cthulhu Mythos story by Ramsey Campbell.

<i>The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants</i>

The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants is a collection of fantasy and horror short stories by British author J. Ramsey Campbell, who dropped the initial from his name in subsequent publications. It was released in 1964 by Arkham House in an edition of 2,009 copies and was the author's first book. The stories are part of the Cthulhu Mythos. Campbell had originally written his introduction to be included in the book The Dark Brotherhood and Other Pieces under the title "Cthulhu in Britain". However, Arkham's editor, August Derleth, decided to use it here.

<i>Travellers by Night</i>

Travellers by Night is an anthology of horror stories edited by American writer August Derleth. It was released in 1967 by Arkham House in an edition of 2,486 copies. None of the stories had been previously published.

<i>The Arkham Collector</i>

The Arkham Collector was an American fantasy, horror fiction and poetry magazine first published in Summer 1967. The magazine, edited by August Derleth, was the second of two magazines published by Arkham House, the other being the Arkham Sampler. Each issue of The Arkham Collector had an approximate print run of 2,500 copies. Its headquarters was in Sauk City, Wisconsin.

<i>Alone with the Horrors: The Great Short Fiction of Ramsey Campbell 1961–1991</i>

Alone with the Horrors: The Great Short Fiction of Ramsey Campbell 1961–1991 is a collection of fantasy and horror stories by British author Ramsey Campbell. Released in 1993 in an edition of 3,834 copies, it was the author's fourth collection of stories to be published by Arkham House. The contents consist of 39 of Campbell's previously uncollected tales along with a selection of works drawn from each of Campbell's Arkham collections as well as the mass-market collections Dark Companions (1982), Scared Stiff (1986) and Waking Nightmares (1991).

<i>Arkhams Masters of Horror</i>

Arkham's Masters of Horror is an anthology of fantasy and horror stories edited by Peter Ruber. It was released by Arkham House in an edition of approximately 4,000 copies in 2000. The book includes an introductory essay by Ruber before each story and about its author.

Fedogan & Bremer is a weird fiction specialty publishing house founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1985 by Philip Rahman and Dennis Weiler. The name comes from the nicknames of the two founders when they were in college.

References

  1. Joshi, S. T. Ramsey Campbell and Modern Horror Fiction (2001), p.56

Sources