The Opener of the Way

The British mass market paperback edition shewn in the 1976 Panther edition, and it is excellent! It publishes the first half of the original Arkham House collection and includes those tales that I consider the finest in the book. Bloch began to write weird fiction at the suggestion of his pen-pal, H. P. Lovecraft, and many of these early stories shew a strong Lovecraftian influence. The Cthulhu Mythos tales in this paperback ("The Opener of the Way," "The Mannikin," "The Faceless God") shew Bloch's take on the Mythos when it was first being created by Lovecraft and members of the Lovecraft Circle of writers who usually submitted their stories to WEIRD TALES. Most of the editions offered here, however, seem to be the 1974 Neville Spearman British hardcover reprinting of the entire 1945 Arkham House edition, Bloch's first book. I used to own it, and I remember that the NS hardcover editions seemed to have very small and faint typeface. But, gawd!, what an excellent collection! The contents are: By Way of Introduction The Cloak Beetles The Fiddler's Fee The Mannikin (perhaps my favorite Robert Bloch weird tale) The Strange Flight of Richard Clayton Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper The Seal of the Satyr The Dark Demon The Faceless God The House of the Hatchet The Opener of the Way Return to the Sabbath The Mandarin's Canaries Waxworks The Feast in the Abbey Slave of the Flames The Shambler from the Stars Mother of Serpents The Secret of Sebek The Eyes of the Mummy One Way to Mars. "Return to the Sabbeth" is a magnificent tale. Alfred Hitchcock filmed it for his television series, with Christopher Lee playing the main character -- an outstanding production. "Waxworks" and "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" were both excellently filmed for tv's Boris Karloff's Thriller, and I recall -- dimly -- a film version of "The Cloak" starring luscious Ingrid Pitt. A second Panther pb edition, THE HOUSE OF THE HATCHET, contains the last half of the book, publishing those tales not included in the pb edition of THE OPENER OF THE WAY. Bloch's first two Arkahm House collections were both published in one glorious volume by Fedogan & Bremer, in an edition entitled EARLY FEARS -- a fabulous edition that is well worth hunting for and may often be found in the dealer's rooms of Fantasy & science fiction conventions.