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Publisher's Weekly
After the death in 1987 of legendary pulp writer and publisher Wandrei, his editors at Fedogan & Bremer collected his SF in Colossus (1989). The author's dark fantasies and horror tales, 26 in all and inspired by Poe, Baudelaire and Lovecraft, appear in this volume, which also includes 12 lush prose poems from Wandrei's youth and his evocative critical essay, "The Imaginative Element in Modern Literature." Wandrei largely abandoned his own writing in 1940 in order to make Arkham House, which he co-founded with August Derleth, a home for quality fantasy for decades to come. (An endnote here by D.H. Olson attempts to untangle the lawsuit against Arkham House that dominated the last 14 years of Wandrei's life and that tarnished his literary reputation.) Today, the "science" of Wandrei's fiction appears hopelessly dated, and his formulaswanderer's tales of nameless primordial terrorsstale. In a few of his nightmare landscapes, however, notably the time-regression story "The Lives of Alfred Kramer" and the shuddery "Strange Harvest," Wandrei's "wizard imagery"his own termcounterpoints his richly chosen language to call up sleep-haunting specters, malignantly glowing jewels and the ashen undead. When his work was at its fearsome peak, Wandrei was very, very scary indeed. Illustrations.
Library Journal
In 1939, Wandrei cofounded Arkham House to publish the work of H.P. Lovecraft. But he also was a writer of sf, horror, and fantasy for the pulp magazines Weird Tales and Astounding Stories. In a companion volume to Colossus: The Collected Science Fiction of Donald Wandrei (Fedogan & Bremer, 1989), editors Philip J. Rahman and Dennis E. Weiler have rescued from obscurity Wandrei's published and unpublished horror and fantasy short fiction, prose poems, essays, and marginalia. Don't Dream contains traditional supernatural horror stories, lighthearted fantasy tales, non-science oriented science fiction, and his short "dream" mood pieces. While some of his pseudo-science is now dated, Wandrei's imaginative use of language renders his fiction worthy of new reading 60 years after it was first published. Highly recommended for libraries lacking the out-of-print collections The Eye and the Finger (1944) and Strange Harvest (1965).
Genre: Horror
After the death in 1987 of legendary pulp writer and publisher Wandrei, his editors at Fedogan & Bremer collected his SF in Colossus (1989). The author's dark fantasies and horror tales, 26 in all and inspired by Poe, Baudelaire and Lovecraft, appear in this volume, which also includes 12 lush prose poems from Wandrei's youth and his evocative critical essay, "The Imaginative Element in Modern Literature." Wandrei largely abandoned his own writing in 1940 in order to make Arkham House, which he co-founded with August Derleth, a home for quality fantasy for decades to come. (An endnote here by D.H. Olson attempts to untangle the lawsuit against Arkham House that dominated the last 14 years of Wandrei's life and that tarnished his literary reputation.) Today, the "science" of Wandrei's fiction appears hopelessly dated, and his formulaswanderer's tales of nameless primordial terrorsstale. In a few of his nightmare landscapes, however, notably the time-regression story "The Lives of Alfred Kramer" and the shuddery "Strange Harvest," Wandrei's "wizard imagery"his own termcounterpoints his richly chosen language to call up sleep-haunting specters, malignantly glowing jewels and the ashen undead. When his work was at its fearsome peak, Wandrei was very, very scary indeed. Illustrations.
Library Journal
In 1939, Wandrei cofounded Arkham House to publish the work of H.P. Lovecraft. But he also was a writer of sf, horror, and fantasy for the pulp magazines Weird Tales and Astounding Stories. In a companion volume to Colossus: The Collected Science Fiction of Donald Wandrei (Fedogan & Bremer, 1989), editors Philip J. Rahman and Dennis E. Weiler have rescued from obscurity Wandrei's published and unpublished horror and fantasy short fiction, prose poems, essays, and marginalia. Don't Dream contains traditional supernatural horror stories, lighthearted fantasy tales, non-science oriented science fiction, and his short "dream" mood pieces. While some of his pseudo-science is now dated, Wandrei's imaginative use of language renders his fiction worthy of new reading 60 years after it was first published. Highly recommended for libraries lacking the out-of-print collections The Eye and the Finger (1944) and Strange Harvest (1965).
Genre: Horror
Used availability for Donald Wandrei's Don't Dream