Terror in the House: The Early Kuttner, Volume One

Terror in the House:
The Early Kuttner, Volume One

Preface by Richard Matheson
Introduction by Garyn G. Roberts, Ph.D.
Illustrated by Harry V. Parkhurst
ISBN: 9781893887466
$40.00
712 pp. Hardcover
Description
Before his marriage to (and subsequent collaborations with) Catherine L. Moore, Henry Kuttner was a frequent contributor to the pulp magazines that specialized in the weird, supernatural, horror, and science fiction genre. Beginning in 1936, with the minor classic "The Graveyard Rats," Kuttner launched a steady stream of short stories aimed at Weird Tales, Mystery Tales, Thrilling Wonder Stories, and others.

Writing for Weird Tales brought Kuttner into direct correspondence with that magazine's premier contributor. H. P. Lovecraft. Kuttner set several stories in Lovecraft's "Cthulhu Mythos" and several are presented in TERROR IN THE HOUSE including: "The Secret of Kralitz," "The Eater of Souls," "The Salem Horror," The Jest of Droom-Avista," "The Frog," "The Invaders," and "The Bells of Horror."

Given the short lengths of Kuttner's stories, he had to be prolific and he contributed reams of copy to the weird-menace (a sub-genre of horror where a seemingly supernatural plot is resolved with a pedestrian ending) pulps, Thrilling Mystery and Spice Mystery.

It was his specialization for "spicy" or sexed-up stories that led Kuttner to write most (two stories and one novelette) of the first issue of Marvel Science Stories, arguably the first "spicy" science fiction pulp.

TERROR IN THE HOUSE is the first volume in a set collecting many of Kuttner's earliest stories, most of which have never been reprinted.

Table of Contents
Preface by Richard Matheson
Introduction by Garyn G. Roberts, Ph.D.
The Graveyard Rats, Weird Tales Mar ’36
Bamboo Death, Thrilling Mystery Jun ’36
The Devil Rides, Thrilling Mystery Sep ’36
The Secret of Kralitz, Weird Tales Oct ’36
Power of the Snake, Thrilling Mystery Nov ’36
Coffins for Six, Thrilling Mystery Dec ’36
It Walks by Night, Weird Tales Dec ’36
Laughter of the Dead, Thrilling Mystery Dec ’36
The Eater of Souls, Weird Tales Jan ’37
Terror in the House, Thrilling Mystery Jan ’37
The Faceless Fiend, Thrilling Mystery Jan ’37
The Dweller in the Tomb, Thrilling Mystery Feb ’37
I, the Vampire, Weird Tales Feb ’37
Nightmare Woman, Thrilling Mystery Mar ’37
The Salem Horror, Weird Tales May ’37
My Brother, The Ghoul, Thrilling Mystery Jun ’37
I Am the Wolf, Thrilling Mystery Jul ’37
The Jest of Droom-Avista, Weird Tales Aug ’37
Four Frightful Men, Thrilling Mystery Sep ’37
When the Earth Lived, Thrilling Wonder Stories Oct ’37
Terror on the Stage, Thrilling Mystery Sep ’37
Lord of the Lions, Thrilling Mystery Nov ’37
The Bloodless Peril, Thrilling Wonder Stories Dec ’37
Invasion from the Fourth Dimension, Thrilling Mystery Jan ’38
Messer Orsini’s Hands, Spicy Mystery Jan ’38
Worlds' End, Weird Tales Feb '38
The Graveyard Curse, Spicy Mystery Mar ’38
The Unresting Dead, Thrilling Mystery Mar ’38
The Shadow on the Screen, Weird Tales Mar ’38
Hell’s Archangel, Spicy Mystery Apr ’38
My Name Is Death, Spicy Mystery May ’38
Devil’s Masquerade, Mystery Tales Jun ’38
The Dark Heritage, Marvel Science Stories Aug ’38
Dictator of the Americas, Marvel Science Stories Aug ’38
The Disinherited, Astounding Science Fiction Aug ’38
Hands Across the Void, Thrilling Wonder Stories Dec ’38
The Frog, Strange Stories Feb ’39
The Invaders, Strange Stories Feb ’39
The Bells of Horror, Strange Stories Apr ’39
Beyond Annihilation, Thrilling Wonder Stories Apr ’39

Table of Contents
Reviews
Excerpts

Related Books
Detour to Otherness

Download Errata Sheet
w/corrected TOC

Reviews
     I've just finished reading this massive handsomely made collection of Henry Kuttner's early terror and dark suspense stories. As I've mentioned here many times, Kuttner is my favorite of all thirties and forties pulp writers and this book demonstrates why. Just about every single trope of the terror magazines can be found in these stories. Kuttner was part of a group including Robert Bloch who incorporated its idol H.P. Lovecraft's work into their own. A half dozen of these stories reflect that influence.
     To me Kuttner was always at his best when he wrote dark. And these stories qualify as that. Plus they offer an interesting historical viewpoint of Depression America. Garyn G. Roberts writes a long and rich introduction.
     But it is Richard Matheson's shorter piece that contains one of the funniest stories I've ever read. Seems that in the late forties The Fictioneers--the group of pulp writers that later became legend--got into some kind of argument with another group of writers. Bill Cox (William R. Cox) and Bill Gault (William Campbell Gault) decided to go punch it out with them. I knew both of them and that is certainly within the realm of possibility. Kuttner insisted on going along. They were skeptical.
     Every photo I've ever seen of Kuttner shows him to have been a slim extremely well-dressed man. I get the impression he weighed very little and wasn't at all the fighting type. But nobody ever mentioned his attire until Matheson's piece. His first word is "Dapper." All this plays into the fact that he wouldn't take no for an answer. He insisted on going along for the fight. Did it ever come off? Was anybody hurt? How drunk were they when they arrived? The answers are lost to time. Or at least to fuzzy hangover memories. :)
     This is a knock-out collection in every sense. And there is a second volume to come. Grab it now before it goes out of print.
      —Ed Gorman, author of Stranglehold and Noir 13

Haffner Press has done it again! A couple months ago, they published Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore’s fabulous Detour to Otherness. Now, the Haffner Press has brought out the first installment of Henry Kuttner’s out-of-print pulp stories. This massive 712 page tome collects his work from pulp magazines that specialized in the weird, supernatural, horror, and science fiction genres. TERROR IN THE HOUSE is the first volume in a set collecting Kuttner’s earliest stories, most of which have never been reprinted. If you’re a Henry Kuttner fan, this is a must-buy! If you haven’t read any of Henry Kuttner’s wonderful stories, TERROR IN THE HOUSE is the perfect place to start. I can’t wait for Haffner Press to bring out the rest of these Kuttner volumes!
     —George Kelley

Excerpts
TBA