''The Early Long'' is a collection of stories by
Frank Belknap Long
Frank Belknap Long Jr. (April 27, 1901 – January 3, 1994) 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 k ...
. Released in 1975, more than 50 years after the start of Long's career, it contains some of Long's best stories, together with an introduction which casts light on his early life and work. Many of the stories had appeared in
Weird Tales
''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, printe ...
and other pulp magazines and had helped establish Long's reputation as one of the classic writers of the horror and science fiction genres in the early twentieth century. The book was one of a series of retrospective collections of early stories with autobiographical commentary by major sf and fantasy writers that Doubleday published in the 1970s, beginning with
The Early Asimov
''The Early Asimov or, Eleven Years of Trying'' is a 1972 collection of short stories by American writer Isaac Asimov. Each story is accompanied by commentary by the author, who gives details about his life and his literary achievements in the pe ...
(1972) and continuing with ''The Early del Rey'' (1975), ''The Early Williamson'' (1975), ''The Early Pohl'' (1975), and ''The Early Long''.
The book has essentially the same story contents as the Arkham House edition of
The Hounds of Tindalos (book), save that it omits four stories: "Bridgehead"; "A Stitch in Time"; "Golden Child" and "The Black Druid". It is not merely an abridged edition, however, since it includes a long autobiographical introduction by Long, and extensive story notes by the author on all 17 stories which did not appear in the Arkham House volume.
In the introduction, Long discusses his indebtedness to greats such as
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...
,
Poe,
Hawthorne,
H.P. Lovecraft,
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov ( ; – April 6, 1992) was an Russian-born American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. H ...
,
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury ( ; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, Horror fiction, horr ...
,
Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon (; born Edward Hamilton Waldo, February 26, 1918 – May 8, 1985) was an American author of primarily fantasy fiction, fantasy, science fiction, and Horror fiction, horror, as well as a critic. He wrote approximately 400 ...
and
Robert Bloch
Robert Albert Bloch (; April 5, 1917September 23, 1994) was an American fiction writer, primarily of crime fiction, crime, psychological horror fiction, horror and Fantasy Fiction, fantasy, much of which has been dramatized for radio, cinema and ...
. Long also wrote a brief intro to each of the stories.
A British edition was published by
Robert Hale in 1976. An American paperback edition was published by
Jove Books
Jove Books, formerly known as Pyramid Books, is an American paperback and eBook publishing imprint, founded as an independent paperback house in 1949 by Almat Magazine Publishers (also known as Almat Publishing Corporation) (Alfred R. Plaine an ...
in 1978, under the title ''The Hounds of Tindalos''. (The same title was used for Long's 1946
Arkham House
Arkham House was 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 ...
collection; all of the stories in this volume also appeared in the earlier book.)
''The Early Long'' was nominated for a
World Fantasy Award
The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the best fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention, the awards are given each year at the eponymous ann ...
for best collection in 1976.
Locus Index to SF Awards
Contents
''The Early Long'' contains the following:
# "Introduction"
# "A Visitor from Egypt"
# "Dark Vision"
# "Death-Waters"
# "Fisherman's Luck"
# "Grab Bags Are Dangerous"
# "It Will Come to You"
# "Second Night Out"
# "Step Into My Garden"
# "The Census Taker"
# "The Dark Beasts"
# "The Elemental"
# "The Flame Midget"
# "The Hounds of Tindalos"
# "The Ocean Leech"
# "The Peeper"
# "The Refugees"
# "The Space-Eaters"
References
* Long, Frank Belknap. ''The Early Long''. NY: Doubleday, 1975 ; London: Robert Hale, 1975 .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Early Long, The
American short story collections
1975 short story collections
Doubleday (publisher) books