Fancies and Goodnights

This is the first time I have ordered a book as acceptable for condition and they were not kidding! The corner of cover is torn off, the cover is so aged that it cracked right off as soon as I tried to open it and the pages are no better, aged, fragile and ready to break as if it were made of crackling. Oh well live and learn. I won't be ordering acceptable condition ever again! Certainly not worth the few bucks you save.

The book comes as a revelation. One simply does not expect such invention on such a scale and with such constant intensity. These short stories ought to be strictly rationed so that one will read no more than a single example per day. This way the maximum pleasure can be obtained and that sly, wry smile of the connoisseur will surface often. Collier can do more with a paragraph than King does in a whole volume. This is what truly excellent writing is all about.

Never has there a writer who has written so many brilliant and exquisite short stories. Each one is a gem. Better than Saki. The tongue in cheek humour and satirical presentation of human behaviour in his stories is unique. Check out the brilliant movie where he wrote the screenplay, "The War Lord" starring Charlton Heston. Also, I Am A Camera, Elephant Man, African Queen, etc. John Collier's books should be republished and studied in universities. No doubt the liberal humanities departments of today who prefer the feminist and political correct claptrap to real writing will not look at his writings.

John Collier has the distinction of being the only writer who wrote a short storywhich I read decades ago, and remembered for years _as having been a novel_.The story was "Youth from Vienna" and it is only twenty pages long. I find that quite a few people remember individual John Collier stories which have been burned indelibly into their minds, without, alas, remembering the name of the author. "Oh, the story of the people living in the in the department stores..." "Oh, the one where Helen of Troy says 'here I am on a bearskin again.'" My continuing quest to replace worn-out, falling-apart paperbacks with new hardbounds continues to frustrate. How can this book possibly be available on cassette, but not in print?