Extollager
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Russell Kirk (1918-1994) expounded conservatism as a political philosophy. His writings in this vein remain a resource for a dissident tradition in American thought, not well represented by the Republican Party but evident in blogs such as Front Porch Republic.
Kirk's fiction was mostly in the genre of the ghost story and the Gothic novel. His ghost stories appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and Whispers, etc., and are collected in Ancestral Shadows, after most appeared appeared earlier in two volumes published by Arkham House. "'There's a Long, Long Trail a-Winding'" won the 1977 World Fantasy Award for best short story. "Sorworth Place" was adapted for TV's Night Gallery.
Here is a bibliography:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Kirk_bibliography#Individual_stories
I've scanned a rare 1985 interview with Kirk that focuses on the ghostly in life and fiction. It is copyright (c) 2015 by Dale Nelson. The interview (first two scans) appeared in a non-official campus newspaper. The third scan is further material on Kirk, derived from his letters and from details of the interview that did not appear in the newspaper write-up. The interview was reprinted and the additional comments posted as a March 1993 contribution to The Everlasting Club, an amateur press association devoted to the discussion of stories in the M. R. James tradition.
To help get the conversation started:
I think Kirk's achievement in fiction is variable. To the first-time reader of Kirk's tales, I would commend "Behind the Stumps," "Sorworth Place," and "'There's a Long, Long Trail a-Winding,'" in that order. Good eerie stories usually (always?) have a strong sense of place, and that's a feature of the first story. The second may be the definitive Russell Kirk ghost story. The third shows why Kirk playfully associated his stories with Henry James, M. R. James, and even Jesse James. I like plenty of other stories by Kirk, but these should be good ones to start with.
I found "The Princess of All Lands" creepy, although not without defect in the portrayal of the evil girl.
Old House of Fear was entertaining, but I didn't manage to finish Lord of the Hollow Dark.
Kirk's autobiography, The Sword of Imagination, had much of interest.
Kirk helped to arrange publication of Canon Basil Smith's The Scallion Stone with the publisher Donald M. Grant, by the way. Another small-press connection is that, as well as appearing in two Arkham House volumes, Kirk's stories appeared in limited editions from Ash-Tree Press.
Kirk's fiction was mostly in the genre of the ghost story and the Gothic novel. His ghost stories appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and Whispers, etc., and are collected in Ancestral Shadows, after most appeared appeared earlier in two volumes published by Arkham House. "'There's a Long, Long Trail a-Winding'" won the 1977 World Fantasy Award for best short story. "Sorworth Place" was adapted for TV's Night Gallery.
Here is a bibliography:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Kirk_bibliography#Individual_stories
I've scanned a rare 1985 interview with Kirk that focuses on the ghostly in life and fiction. It is copyright (c) 2015 by Dale Nelson. The interview (first two scans) appeared in a non-official campus newspaper. The third scan is further material on Kirk, derived from his letters and from details of the interview that did not appear in the newspaper write-up. The interview was reprinted and the additional comments posted as a March 1993 contribution to The Everlasting Club, an amateur press association devoted to the discussion of stories in the M. R. James tradition.
To help get the conversation started:
I think Kirk's achievement in fiction is variable. To the first-time reader of Kirk's tales, I would commend "Behind the Stumps," "Sorworth Place," and "'There's a Long, Long Trail a-Winding,'" in that order. Good eerie stories usually (always?) have a strong sense of place, and that's a feature of the first story. The second may be the definitive Russell Kirk ghost story. The third shows why Kirk playfully associated his stories with Henry James, M. R. James, and even Jesse James. I like plenty of other stories by Kirk, but these should be good ones to start with.
I found "The Princess of All Lands" creepy, although not without defect in the portrayal of the evil girl.
Old House of Fear was entertaining, but I didn't manage to finish Lord of the Hollow Dark.
Kirk's autobiography, The Sword of Imagination, had much of interest.
Kirk helped to arrange publication of Canon Basil Smith's The Scallion Stone with the publisher Donald M. Grant, by the way. Another small-press connection is that, as well as appearing in two Arkham House volumes, Kirk's stories appeared in limited editions from Ash-Tree Press.
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