Nine Horrors and a Dream

by Joseph Payne Brennan

Acclaimed by Stephen King as "a master of the unashamed horror tale," Joseph Payne Brennan wrote hundreds of tales of terror, suspense, and fantasy. Collectors and fans will delight in this inexpensive reissue of Brennan's hard-to-find classic, Nine Horrors and a Dream. This collection, originally published by Arkham House in 1958, features stories published by Weird Tales and other pulp magazines of the 1950s — including the much-anthologized "Slime," which inspired the ever-popular thriller The Blob.
Less familiar but equally gripping tales include "Levitation," in which a carnival-goer has an unfortunate encounter with a hypnotist; "The Calamander Chest," the story of a low-priced antique that turns out to be no bargain; "Death in Peru," involving a lethal curse; the darkly humorous "On the Elevator"; and "The Green Parrot," which recounts a Good Samaritan's bad timing. Other selections include "Canavan's Back Yard," featuring a property with a gruesome history; "I'm Murdering Mr. Massington," which tells of a bizarre grasp at immortality; "The Hunt," a playfully creepy yarn about an obsessive chase; and "The Mail for Juniper Hill," in which a tipsy but determined postman refuses to let anything — even death — keep him from his appointed rounds.  

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Collections, Anthologies, Weird Fiction

112 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1958

About the author

Joseph Payne Brennan was an American writer of fantasy and horror fiction, and also a poet. Brennan's first professional sale came in December 1940 with the publication of the poem, "When Snow Is Hung", which appeared in the Christian Science Monitor Home Forum, and he continued writing poetry up until the time of his death.

He is the father of Noel-Anne Brennan who has published several fantasy novels.

Reviews

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Nine Horrors and a Dream" is a collection of Joseph Payne Brennan's best horror tales, and was first published by Arkham House in 1958. The book consists of short stories that, for the most part, first appeared in the classic pulp magazine "Weird Tales" in the early 1950s; indeed, the book is dedicated to that great magazine, which ended its 31-year run in 1954. Prospective readers of Brennan's collection should be advised that this is NOT an easy book to acquire. It's been out of print for many years, and it took me a half dozen attempts at eBay auction before I could get my hands on a decently priced copy. But it was worth the trouble. This is an extremely enjoyable bunch of scary stories, and Brennan turns out to be an exceptionally readable author, writing in a clean and forthright style. The 10 stories in this collection run the gamut from the monstrous to the macabre, with many of them of the ghostly variety.

The book kicks off with a tremendous start with the longest tale, "Slime." In this story, a monstrous blob of submarine goop gets thrown onto land and starts doing what it does best: devouring things. This is one fun story, almost on a par with H.G. Wells' 1896 tale of submarine monsters invading the English coast, "The Sea Raiders" (and if you knew what high esteem I have for Wells, you would realize that this is high praise indeed!). Next up is a short piece on hypnotism gone awry, "Levitation"; it leaves a vivid impression, despite its brevity. In "The Calamander Chest," a man discovers that inexpensive furniture may indeed carry a higher price. This is an excellent ghostly tale; I could easily picture it as an EC comic book! In "Death in Peru," we learn that the practice of voodoo is not confined to Africa and Haiti. This short story leads to an appropriately grisly conclusion. "On the Elevator" and "The Green Parrot" are up next; both are tales of spirits coming back to either harass or perplex the living, and both are finely done. The highly regarded "Canavan's Back Yard" follows, and this story of an accursed piece of real estate is perhaps the creepiest tale in the bunch. Brennan creates a malignant atmosphere with seeming ease in this marvelous piece of sinister witchery. "I'm Murdering Mr. Massington" tells of a man who will do practically anything to be remembered after his death, and the narrator of the tale is, apparently, Brennan himself. This is a simple but clever little story. In "The Hunt," a man finds himself being pursued for no apparent reason by another man. We only learn the tracker's reason at the very end, and it does come as something of a shock. To wind up the collection, there's "The Mail for Juniper Hill," in which a postal worker in turn-of-the-century Connecticut does anything to make sure that the mail does indeed get through. I'm not sure whether this is a ghostly tale or not; it's somewhat ambiguous, but still mighty enjoyable reading.

All in all, my only complaint with "Nine Horrors and a Dream" is its length. At a mere 121 pages, it can hardly be called a generous collection. Most readers will wish, at the book's conclusion, that it were more like "Twenty Horrors and a Dream." The book has been chosen for inclusion in Jones and Newman's excellent overview volume "Horror: 100 Best Books," and I have no problem with that inclusion. It's on the slender side and pulpy as anything, but horror stories don't come much more fun.

[Ben Loory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed all these stories, but especially "Levitation" (which is the basis for the only good Tales from the Darkside episode), "Slime" (which was the basis for (and is better than) the movie The Blob), and "Canavan's Back Yard," which is a wild, wonderful, and truly haunting story marred only by the "oh hey, here's the explanation for all this" bit near the end.

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A late entrant to the classic WEIRD TALES stable, Brennan was no inferior to the likes of Bloch or Leiber. If the 10 tales here sometimes seem predictable it's only because they have become quietly influential over time, or partake of a tradition that was already established and able to sustain variations on themes when Brennan started writing. Like the best pulp writers, Brennan was economical, never just writing to pad out a word count. SLIME is the wonderfully atmospheric inspiration for THE BLOB. I'M MURDERING MR MASSINGTON is very original and delivers a nice nervy tang. LEVITATION is creepy and reminiscent of Doyle's HORROR OF THE HEIGHTS in one way, deftly conveying carny atmosphere at the same time. CANAVAN'S BACK YARD is haunting and echoes MR James while anticipating Robert Aickman. Something in THE HUNT reminds me of Ramsey Campbell, still a sprog at the time this was published. Other stories are less intensely memorable, but always crisp and amply rewarding the time spent reading them. His stories start with the familiar, often focusing on lonely, somewhat hapless characters, before venturing into the shadowlands. Recommended highly. If nothing else, read them to see how horror can be familiar without being domesticated.

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dover Publications has done a singular service to the readers by bringing back these old and seemingly lost stories. The slim collection contains following pieces~
1. Slime: Inspiration of lots of B-movies, this story needs no further description.
2. Levitation: A classic to be read and savoured again and again.
3. The Calamander Chest: Good ghost story.
4. Death in Peru: Fairly routine story involving voodoo.
5. On the Elevator: Story of ghostly revenge.
6. The Green Parrot: Mundane ghost story.
7. Canavan's Back Yard: A deliciously creepy story.
8. I'm Murdering Mr. Massington: An experiment in weirdness.
9. The Hunt: Grim, persistent story of evil.
10. The Mail for Juniper Hill: Another ghost story, but this one inducing a shudder at the end.
Good, clean, compact collection of old-fashioned chills. Recommended.

[Graham P · Rating 3 out of 5]

Highly edible pulp in the classic Weird Tales tradition. You have a disembodied finger creeping out of an old chest; a primordial, flesh-eating blob washed out from the deeps into a Florida swamp; a ghostly apparition haunting a hotel elevator; and a backyard in Connecticut that seems to have no end. Brennan writes in the tempo of a tale told by the fire -- movement and resolution are more important than style and atmosphere. While some tales read too linear, perhaps too easy, it is an essential paperback to all mid-century horror collections. 'The Hunt' is one of the most memorable stories in this. Kind of a cross between the paramount chase scene in the film 'The Third Man', and an episode of 'Night Stalker.'

The cover by Richard Powers is gorgeous.

Still trying to figure out which story is the dream....

[Canavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

✭✭✭½

“Slime” (1953) ✭✭✭½
“Levitation” (1958) ✭✭✭✭✭
“The Calamander Chest” (1954) ✭✭✭✭
“Death in Peru” (1954) ✭✭½
“On the Elevator” (1953) ✭✭✭✭
“The Green Parrot” (1952) ✭✭✭
“Canavan’s Back Yard” (1958) ✭✭✭✭✭
“I’m Murdering Mr. Massington” (1958) ✭✭
“The Hunt” (1958) ✭✭½
“The Mail for Juniper Hill” (1958) ✭✭✭½

[Shane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joseph Payne Brennan's book "Nine Horrors and a Dream" should be on the list of every horror writer to read or to have read. I believe it's out of print now, but it's just an amazing book.

[Kooshmeister · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so glad that Dover has seen fit this month to reprint this after all these years! No more moldering 1960s-era paperbacks that cost an arm and a leg on eBay! :)

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, this collection was great! It’s a tight little collection of brief horror short stories. If you are into classic 50s Weird Tales, these are gems.

Brennan has a workmanlike style, it’s no nonsense but doesn’t forget to paint the picture. Set-up, premise, reveal—be cool and be gone.

It’s just what I want from old school horror stories: haunted artifacts, cursed spaces, an ancient monster, etc.

I’m going to have to read more of Brennan’s work.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was totally in the mood for a dose of straightforward horror and this little 1958 collection of stories originally published in the legendary pulp magazine Weird Tales has finally been reprinted, so voila! Got my fill. Really enjoyed it too, especially "Slime," the story of a horrifying blob that rises from the deepest depths of the sea to terrorize a small marshland community; "Canavan's Backyard," an eerie expanse of weed-choked property that seems to stretch on much further than would ever seem possible; and "The Hunt," a relentless tale of a man pursued by a shadowy, clearly malevolent stranger on a dark, lonely night. Joseph Payne Brennan was one of those horror pros like Robert Bloch or E.F. Benson: his stories were written for entertainment, for thrills and chills—there aren't any deeper meanings or allegories to be sussed from them. They are well-written and fun, just what I needed right now.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of those rare books that are so hard to find, you have to either shell out a ton of bucks or have incredible luck at used book shops. This is a title that has circulated on top critics lists for half a century in Horror circles. Long out of print. It has remained an elusive unicorn. Searched for high and low by fans of horror fiction. Brennan published a couple of other collections, both also long out of print. Both also unicorns. But here's the thing. It's a book that's more talked about for it's rarity that for it's prose.

Now having read a few of these stories I feel a bit cheated. This is what all the hub-bub was about? Obviously written in the 50's. These tales read like slush too weak too make it into EC Comics. Or any horror comic. They read like something a scolded teen would write. Very childish.

[Kathryn Grace Loves Horror · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not all of these stories really worked for me, but two really outstanding ones made up for the ones I didn't love. These two highlights were "On the Elevator," with creepy moments such as a lady seeing a man with no face and the discovery of a mutilated corpse with wounds made by long fingernails, and the classic "Canavan's Backyard" which contains two of my favorite horror tropes, evil witches and humans behaving in ways that are somehow bestial or otherwise unnatural (think Reagan's crab walk or Zelda's twisted movements from Pet Semetary). The latter would make a great (and scary) movie.

[Fraser Burnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have you ever seen the film 'The Blob'? It was ripped off directly from Brennan's tale 'Slime'. Like a bit of the oh-so-groovy Cosmic Horror, then why not take a walk in 'Canavan's Backyard'? And once you escape that, settle down next to 'The Calamander Chest' that you managed to buy for a steal...

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic weird tales

The stories were snappy paced, in atmospheric dread, like listening to them around in campfires. Classics are Slime, Canavan's Backyard, Levitation, On the Elevator, and others. However, a couple were a bit predictable. Still deserves five stars anyway.

[Forked Radish]

Slime: ⭐⭐⭐⭐—A giant liquorish, gummy, mollusk seeks revenge for its horrible flavour. The tragic ending made me weep unctuous tears.

[Niall O'Leary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Efficiently told, occasionally inspired, these tales never outstay their welcome. There is little characterisation, and no real finesse, but when at their best, they achieve a nice frisson and even a level of sublimity.

Out of ten stories it is notable that many have either been filmed or inspired other works. I remember John Carradine in a 'Tales from the Darkside' adaptation of 'Levitation', for instance. Obviously 'The Blob' owes much to 'Slime', but arguably Stephen King's 'The Finger' (another TftD adaptation) has a touch of 'The Calamander Chest', while 'The Fog' owes a little to 'On the Elevator'. I am not sure if it originated with 'Death in Peru', but its premise has been recycled in everything from 'Asylum' to 'The Witches of Eastwick'.

Perhaps this cinematic influence comes from Brennan's direct, simple, and very visual style. In this he owes much to a more oral storytelling tradition, the 'campfire' school, so to speak. He strikes me as a more competent, more enjoyable version of Hugh B. Cave. And like Cave, occasionally he stumbles on to something sublime. For me, that masterpiece is 'Canavan's Back Yard'. It's a great tale hinting at metaphysical distortions and psychological terrors that are cosmic in implication. Still how I wish a slightly more talented writer had tackled it! He tacks on a clichéd 'explanation' that a more courageous author would have left out. When Brennan leaves out the explanations in something like 'The Hunt', his work is all the better for it.

Anyhow there is much to enjoy here. I cannot in good conscience give four stars, but this is better than your average collection and warrants an extra half star. Don't expect any literary treasures, but Brennan's imagination will likely beguile you.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of horror short stories by Joseph Payne Brennan

A friend recommended this book knowing that I am a fan of the works of HPL. Good choice!

This is the list of titles contained within this tome:
“Slime” (1953)
“Levitation” (1958)
“The Calamander Chest” (1954)
“Death in Peru” (1954)
“On the Elevator” (1953)
“The Green Parrot” (1952)
“Canavan’s Back Yard” (1958)
“I’m Murdering Mr. Massington” (1958)
“The Hunt” (1958)
“The Mail for Juniper Hill” (1958)

While all the stories are interesting, clever, and terrifying in their own ways, the one I found most compelling was the first one: SLIME. It was in many ways the same story as THE BLOB which happened to come out in 1958. I wonder if it was related in some way, or perhaps a Hollywood theft, covering it up with a clever and unrelated title.

The stories are mostly pretty short, well developed, and very entertaining!

[Julio Enrique · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cuentos favoritos: “Slime”, “The Calamander Chest”, “Canavan's Back Yard”, “I'm Murdering Mr. Massington”. Varios de estos relatos fueron publicados en Weird Tales en los cincuenta. A diferencia de la narrativa de décadas anteriores de esa revista, aquí no hay prosa púrpura ni horrores cósmicos; es el tipo de terror que uno se encontraba de vez en cuando en “La dimensión desconocida”. “Slime” y “Canavan’s” son sus cuentos más antologados y famosos. No decepcionan. El primero es para fans de “La mancha voraz” y el segundo es un raro ejemplo de un jardín embrujado, aunque no por apariciones. El del baúl es un relato de fantasmas preciso y con un giro irónico. Y el del señor Massington no es de terror, es una pequeña historia “literaria” sobre el miedo al olvido. Les recomiendo conseguirlo ☺️

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent collection from Brennan. His style is precise and lean - a long way from the baroque prose of say, Clark Ashton Smith. This lends a razor sharp edge to these tales. The best on offer here, 'Canavan's yard', 'The hunt' and 'on the elevator' are claustrophobic and brim with a really menacing atmosphere.

[Aki Umemoto · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short but fine collection of eerie short stories. The best are Slime, Levitation, and Canavan's Backyard.

[Amber Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good old fashioned creepiness.

[Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

Canavan’s Backyard was really the only story worth reading. All the others were really bad or very forgettable.

[Williwaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

I simply had to read this book when I discovered that it is not only a rarity, but that is is also highly rated by aficionados of so-called "weird fiction." First published in 1958 by Arkham House, a small specialty press that is famous for reviving the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, this book was eventually reprinted as a Ballantine paperback in 1962.

Since then, nobody has bothered to reprint this book, despite its cult following. Can't publishers recognize a good opportunity when they see one? Today, it would probably cost you at least $200 for the Arkham House edition, and even the Ballantine paperback edition probably can't be purchased for less than $40 (unless you get lucky, like me, and buy it from someone who doesn't have a clue what he is selling).

As a preliminary note, I take no shame in admitting that part of the appeal of this book, for me, was the cover. It's by Richard Powers, a prolific and brilliant painter and designer of book covers whose name deserves to be better known than it is. I like to collect just about any paperback with a Powers cover. I believe he may have been one of the first artists to bring abstract and surrealistic art to mass market paperback covers. And his colors are fabulously psychedelic!

For an introduction to Powers' art, look here or here. You will not regret having a look.

But back to Brennan! Nine Horrors & a Dream is a collection of ten short stories with eerie or fantastical themes. My favorites were "The Calamander Chest" and "Levitation." The first is very creepy, and the second is merely a clever short-short story.

Other notable stories include "Slime" and "Canavan's Back Yard." Apparently, Brennan was the first writer to dream up something like the creature in the cult movie, "The Blob." In fact, I read somewhere that he threatened to sue the studio that made the picture, and claimed that the idea had been stolen from his story, "Slime."

It's hard for me to evaluate a story like "Slime," because the idea seems so unoriginal now. A storm blows a large, primordial slime-entity up from the bottom of the ocean. It slithers into a swamp and begins eating humans, dogs, and other animals. The small-town sheriff investigates after people start disappearing. Eventually, the slime-entity retreats back to the ocean.

The tale is well-told, but my reaction is, "so what?" Perhaps it would have struck me differently if I had not ever heard of or seen "The Blob." Perhaps not. It's hard to tell.

Brennan's style is direct, fluid, and easy to read. Most of these stories are very short, and their architecture is sound. But I have to say that some of the endings are downright juvenile.

What I mean by this is that they are far too formulaic. There's one story called "On the Elevator," which illustrates the formula perfectly. As in "Slime," a big ocean storm stirs up a long-sunken sailing ship from the depths. With the ship comes up a dead sailor, who enters a hotel, leaving a trail of slimy footprints. He gets into an elevator, terrorizes the guests, and kills one. Then he goes back into the ocean. A hotel clerk and some cops investigate the grisly aftermath, and based upon the clues at hand, the clerk surmises that the killer was "something dead that came up out of the sea!"

Even the famous story, "Canavan's Back Yard," which is so much more inventive, suffers from the same problem. In this story, an antiquarian bookseller becomes obsessed with the yard behind his shop. The yard changes shape and dimensionality. He walks out into it and gets lost. Eventually, he employs a spool of string, like the thread of Ariadne in the labyrinth, as a method of finding his way back to his shop. A worried narrator comes looking for the shop owner, only to find the string broken, and the owner raving like a werewolf somewhere out in the multi-dimensional back yard.

I thought that this shape/dimension-changing yard was a very interesting concept. Also, the story is quite well told and the descriptive writing is excellent. But at the end, it is all explained away as a curse laid upon the land by a witch who had been tried and executed for necromancy. It's almost like rationalizing, but I'll call it simple-minded "supernaturalizing."

I'm not sure why every mystery has to be explained away in such a simplistic and disappointing way. Perhaps this is simply part of the Weird Tales tradition (these stories were all originally published in Weird Tales magazine -- a pulp digest -- in the 1950's). Brennan was writing for a particular market when these stories came out, so perhaps they should be viewed in that context.

Despite the obvious faults of these stories, I enjoyed reading them. I did not, however, feel that they all lived up to their cult status. Read these stories if you can find them, but my advice is this: don't pay an arm and a leg to do it!

[Ronald Weston · Rating 5 out of 5]

One fine collection of classic, vintage horror tales with just the right amount of unsettling chill. Brennan wrote hundreds of stories which were accomplished and quite noteworthy. His poems number in the thousands. All of his stories I have read are well-written and memorable. I have two more collections I plan to read and I'm looking forward to reacquainting myself.

When I was a teenager I wrote a letter to Brennan querying about his magazine Macabre. He responded with a typed, signed card containing pertinent details. Foolishly, I never replied; I have always regretted that.

[Jeff Hobbs]

Read so far:

*Slime
*Levitation (aka The rising man)
*The Calamander chest
Death in Peru
On the elevator
*The green parrot
*Canavan's back yard
I'm murdering Mr. Massington
The hunt
The mail for Juniper Hill
***
*The business about Fred
*Fear (aka The nursing home horror)
*The horror at Chilton Castle
*The house on Stillcroft Street
*The jugular man
*Long hollow swamp
*The willow platform
*Zombique

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. A slim volume of eerie tales featuring a nice variety of genre concepts - creatures, ghosts, madness, curses, etc. I felt the writing had a slight unevenness at times, but it's a small complaint when the stories are this effectively creepy; check out collection highlight 'Canavan's Back Yard.'

[Stephen · Rating 1 out of 5]

The best thing about this book was the font used for the titles of the short stories.

[Harvey Dias · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brennan was a master at crafting taut little horror gems. The best ones in this collection are "Slime", "Canavan's Back Yard", "The Hunt", and "The Mail for Juniper Hill".

[Bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read:

Slime - 3/5.
The Horror at Chilton Castle - 3/5