Sargasso #2 Read online

  Sargasso:

  The Journal of William Hope Hodgson Studies

  Vol. One, Number Two

  Dedicated to the memory of Andy Robertson and Ken Neily.

  Volume One, Number Two

  Fall 2014

  Published by

  624 Metacom Ave,

  Warren, RI 02885

  E-Mail: [email protected]

  Website: ultharpress.com

  Sargasso © 2014 by Sam Gafford

  “Under His Skin: A Profile of William Hope Hodgson” © 2014 by Jane Frank

  “Carnacki Pastiche: A Bibliography” © 2014 by James Bojaciuk

  “Contemporary Views: Pieces on William Hope Hodgson from the Idler and the Bookman” © 2014 by Phillip A. Ellis

  “A Home on the Borderland: William Hope Hodgson and Borth” © 2014 by Mark Valentine

  “A Concluding Oink: An Abnormal Flight of Fancy” © 2014 by James Bojaciuk

  “Foreshadowing Carnacki: Algernon Blackwood’s ‘Smith: An Epistle in a Lodging House’” © 2014 by Robert Hinton

  “Dust and Atoms: The Influence of William Hope Hodgson on Clark Ashton Smith” © 2014 by Scott Connors

  “Low the Ascomycotan Sky” © 2014 by Deborah Walker

  “The Flames of the Drakkar” © 2014 by John B. Ford

  “After ‘The Voice in the Night’” © 2014 by Laurie Needell

  “The Shop in the Borderland” © 2014 by Robb Borders

  “Dead Seamen, Gone In Search of the Same Landfall”, “Come, Dream of the Ocean”, “Ocean Rain”, “Coral Seas”, “The Burning Ship”

  © 2014 by Phillip A. Ellis

  “House on the Borderland I & II”, “The Devil Mists, What Do They Hide?”, “And the Worried Waters Laughed” © 2014 by Charles Lovecraft

  No part of this publication may be reproduced without the permission of the editor and publisher.

  Editorial correspondence should be addressed to:

  Sam Gafford, 624 Metacom Ave., Warren, RI 02885.

  email: [email protected]

  Sargasso cover logo and masthead copyright by Jason C. Eckhardt

  Front and Back Cover art by Robert H. Knox

  Interior spot illustrations by Allen Koszowski

  Contents

  Introduction

  Essays

  “Under the Skin: A Profile of William Hope Hodgson”

  by Jane Frank

  “Carnacki Pastiche: A Bibliography”

  by James Bojaciuk

  “Contemporary Views: Pieces on William Hope Hodgson from the Idler and the Bookman”

  by Phillip A. Ellis

  “A Home on the Borderland: William Hope Hodgson and Borth”

  by Mark Valentine

  “A Concluding Oink: An Abnormal Flight of Fancy”

  by James Bojaciuk

  “Foreshadowing Carnacki: Algernon Blackwood’s ‘Smith:

  An Episode in a Lodging House”

  by Joseph Hinton

  “Dust and Atoms: The Influence of William Hope Hodgson on Clark Ashton Smith”

  by Scott Connors

  Poetry

  “Dead Seamen Gone in Search of the Same Landfall”

  by Phillip A. Ellis

  “House on the Borderland I & II”

  by Charles Lovecraft

  “Come, Dream of the Ocean”

  by Phillip A. Ellis

  “Ocean Rain”

  by Phillip A. Ellis

  “The Devil Mists, What Do They Hide?”

  by Charles Lovecraft

  “Coral Seas”

  by Phillip A. Ellis

  “The Burning Ship”

  by Phillip A. Ellis

  “And the Worried Waters Laughed”

  by Charles Lovecraft

  Fiction

  “Low the Ascomycotan Sky”

  by Deborah Walker

  “The Flames of the Drakkar”

  by John B. Ford

  “After ‘The Voice in the Night’”

  by Laurie Needell

  “The Shop on the Borderland”

  by Robb Borders

  Gallery

  Sebastian Cabrol

  Chris Farman

  Axel WeiB

  Herve Scott Flament

  Misc.

  Andy Robertson, R.I.P.

  On The Shelf

  Staff

  Sam Gafford, editor and publisher

  S.T. Joshi, co-editor

  Introduction

  The study of Hodgson marches on!

  Since the publication of our first issue, Hodgson continues to receive more critical attention and readers. Centipede Press has published a hardcover collection of WHH’s novels and stories (reviewed in this issue) and Hippocampus Press will shortly be issuing a collection of classic and new critical articles which includes the long-awaited Hodgson bibliography! Slowly, but surely, attention is turning towards Hodgson and we will be seeing more and more publications and material released as we get closer to the centennial of Hodgson’s death in 2018.

  This issue, I am pleased to present another collection of both work about Hodgson and work inspired by Hodgson. Jane Frank and Mark Valentine provide biographical material while poets Phillip A. Ellis and Charles Lovecraft present Hodgsonian verse in honor of WHH. Not to be forgotten, we have fiction inspired by Hodgson’s characters and concepts.

  Lastly, we also bid farewell to Andy Robertson, whose Night Land website has inspired so many, and to fan Ken Neily, who encouraged my early interest in this forgotten writer so many years ago. Smooth sailing, mates.

  Sam Gafford

  Warren, RI

  Andy Robertson, R.I.P.

  (1955-2014)

  The world of Hodgsonian scholarship lost a major voice with the passing of Andy Robertson on April 17, 2014. Andy was the driving force behind the popular website THE NIGHT LAND (http://www.thenightland.co.uk) which was devoted to Hodgson’s unique and ground-breaking novel.

  Andy lived and worked much of his life around the town of Lewes, near Brighton on the south coast of England. He worked a day job in IT, but the work of William Hope Hodgson was one of his major passions. Andy was subeditor for the major British sf magazine, Interzone during David Pringle's tenure, leaving with a change of ownership and devoting more time to THE NIGHT LAND website. With Paul Brazier, he set up the publisher Three Legged Fox (http://www.threeleggedfox.co.uk), with the imprint Utter Tower devoted to Hodgson in particular.

  With THE NIGHT LAND, Andy developed a community of writers and enthusiasts who shared his dedication to Hodgson and weird literature. Brett Davidson recalls:

  Andy was the perfect editor, not merely filtering good from bad stories or just correcting errors; he knew his art, and he loved to foster talent. He became my mentor as a writer, and my friend and we constantly exchanged mail and brainstormed over stories together. A little while later, in 2003, I was able to meet him in person and over a pub meal we dreamed up more stories that were to come in the following years. Our friendship became strong over those years, and as I said, he taught me to write - and he trusted me to help him too, all the while bringing new writers from promise to creation.

  SMS/Smuzz writes: “Andy Robertson was the Thinking man's Brian Blessed. A large, athletic man of massive love and enthusiasm who embraced a deep understanding of science, a love of Nature and a passion for literature – most especially the finer SF.”

  Friends and colleagues are working to keep THE NIGHT LAND website and publishing alive as a tribute to this extraordinary man.

  Andy is survived by his four children and second wife. A memorial is being planned in Lewes on April 18, 2015.

  Dead Seamen, Gone in Search

  of the Same Landfall

  By Phillip A. Ellis

>   When the sea casts the corpses

  of its drowned men,

  we know they have gone

  in search of the same landfall:

  another shore

  that has never been touched by light,

  and from which no mariner

  has come back alive and well.

  But the sea never lisps,

  but grasps their softened flesh,

  and toys with them as with dice, in the rush

  of tides dying on sand and stone,

  and, one by one we retrieve them

  under the passing of the moon and the sun.

  Under His Skin: A Profile of

  William Hope Hodgson

  Jane Frank

  (Artwork by Ned Dameron)

  Ever since starting my studies on William Hope Hodgson, I’ve wondered what made him “tick.” In short, what sort of man was “Hope” (as he was known to family and friends)? What aspects of his early life or upbringing, what experiences or events could, or would, have shaped—possibly even have compelled—such creativity? If we investigated his life, interests, and writings, for clues, would we be able to develop a sort of psychological portrait of the man?

  I am by no means the first Hodgson fan to be drawn to this question. Writers before me have described his relatively disadvantaged (both economic and parental) childhood, his running away to join the Merchant Marine, his obsession with his physique, noted his late marriage, pondered his desire to join the Army at thirty-six (and then return to service after serious wounding), and on and on. Clearly, his early sea going and experiences there gave him the background (and fodder) for writing stories based on “the sea,” and many admirers of his writing (including this author) have marveled at his handling of fantasy imagery. Editors have remarked on his eccentric personality . . . but

  was he eccentric? We have collectively combed through

  stories and documents and records and correspondence so as to establish timelines, identify recurring themes, add to the accuracy of details, or (inevitably) support analyses or critiques of his writing in hopes of determining Hodgson’s literary merit. Books, articles, and commentary by R. Alain Everts, Sam Moskowitz, Sam Gafford, and others have been invaluable in that regard, yet our curiosity persists: how would or could a man with so meager an upbringing and limited educational resources accomplish what he did in so short a lifetime? And would a better understanding of Hodgson’s background and personality bring us closer to explaining his attraction to the “horrors of the unknown”?

  What makes judgments about Hodgson more difficult is the challenge of separating behaviors that stem from familial and sociocultural influences, in childhood and as an adult, from those that derive from his own peculiarities of character. People are complicated, ever-evolving, and generally—to some degree—strange. Hodgson surely no less so than others. Yet there are interviews with the last surviving Hodgson siblings, Chris and Mary, research that has uncovered the family history and chronology of events in his life, and letters written to and from Hodgson. If we were to summarize all that we know so far and indulge in some reasoned extrapolation, might any new and interesting thoughts and theories emerge?

  Let us presume Hodgson was born with an intellect sufficient to fuel his curiosity and drive him to question easy answers to difficult questions. Then add a large dollop of sensitivity; the emotions of a sensitive mind who must react to his environment. What environment was that? And what was the result?

  Culturally, we know this time period echoed the same two worlds that Hodgson was trying to navigate in his personal life: one incredibly conservative, repressive, and keen on preserving social order and status (Victorian),

  and the other morally looser and economically more

  They're Coming For Us

  expansive (Edwardian). Hodgson’s writings and interests show how he tried to manage in both worlds. His strivings to achieve social status beyond his humble roots by starting up his own business, and his willingness to take chances, to expand his horizons by joining the ranks of successful authors, were a demonstration of that Edwardian influence, as was his interest in using the inventions that soon became part of the modern world but which then were new: typewriters and cameras among them. Both of these he used “at sea” as well as devices for furthering story plots. At the same time, the rigid moral convictions of his father and socially dictated norms of behavior (i.e., the “refined sensibilities” that define Victorians) were early influences that later experiences could diminish but not entirely erase.

  We know he lived in two worlds, because Hodgson—by all accounts bright, clever, precocious—also had the misfortune to be born to parents with whom he had nothing in common. His father, Samuel Hodgson, an Anglican priest who became a “roving Evangelist,” was described by Everts as “an ascetic, pallid and sternly religious man” whose temperament, it is conjectured, contributed to the instability of his career. His mother was well-educated but deferential (it is reported that she idolized her husband and spoke of him in “hushed whispers”) and religious, and no doubt too busy raising nine (surviving) children to give Hodgson the attention he craved. It is no wonder that Hodgson, with his dark good looks, natural athleticism, and robust curiosity, would chafe against an intellectually stultifying and emotionally repressive upbringing.

  Hodgson’s early childhood also was marked by loss; in between the birth of his older brother in 1876 (the Hodgsons’ first son, “Chad”) and Hodgson’s birth in 1877, there was another brother, Lawrence, who died at nineteen months (no birth or death date available). And two more boys—in 1879 and 1880—also died before the age of two. Therefore, by the age of five “Hope” had already lost three brothers and was old enough to be aware of that. Moreover, he was saddled with a middle name—it is said, to distinguish him from his grandfather, also named William—that had strong religious and social connotations. While there was nothing uncommon about William, a name that would undoubtedly sound as good to his parents as the name Mary (which they used for two of their daughters), that was not the case for Hope. According to a site (www.britishbabynames.com), which documents baby names for 1900, 1890, 1880, and 1870, William and Mary were #1 of the top 200 names for boys and girls in all those decades. However, during that time period Hope was not among the top 200 and by the time it appeared on any list, it was definitely considered a girl’s name. Therefore, and given his highly religious parents, “Hope” was likely named after one of three saints representing theological virtues, which in Christian philosophy are the character qualities associated with salvation: faith, hope, and charity. Hope represents the expectation of and desire of receiving; refraining from despair and the capability of not giving up. It would be interesting to learn whether “Hope” was baptized with this name and when “Lawrence” died. Could it be that his parents were wishing for a girl, or that “hope” was high that this baby would persevere, and thrive?

  Hodgson was in boarding school by the time he was eight, had moved five times by the time he graduated from school at thirteen, and had run away “several times” by the age of fourteen. Through various pranks and other acts of childish rebellion, among them ones involving climbing trees and refusing to come down, he had by that time shown himself to be “somewhat temperamental and unruly, and with his father, rebellious and disobedient.” (See Everts, Gafford website, Part 1.) No surprise, therefore, to learn that after a failed attempt, the “mature and sturdily built” Hodgson was finally successful in “running off” to sea at fourteen . . . by pretending he was fifteen. With his uncle’s help, and against his father’s wishes, he signed on as apprentice in the Merchant Marine. A year later his father died at age forty-six, and by the time “Hope” was nineteen, his family was destitute and his older brother Chad had gone into the Army. By twenty-three Hodgson had left the Navy, bitter and with a hatred for “the sea” so deep and dark that it would echo through his stories for years. By that time he perhaps realized he had left the frying pan only to land
in the fire, and felt betrayed. It was not the life he had dreamed of as a boy: a life of freedom, physicality, and excitement. It was, instead, miserable: a life of poor conditions and bad treatment.

  The hardships were made worse by Hodgson’s smaller stature, the consequences of which he became acutely aware of when he first went to sea. He was bullied, and to avoid further problems with the “brutes” (as he later would often refer to sailors in his stories) he took up bodybuilding, or “physical culture” as it was called at the time. His obsession with exercise and strength training became a lifelong pursuit, and he was fond of showing off his muscles through feats of strength (e.g., his challenge to Houdini, which has been written about elsewhere), and various stunts and pranks reported by family members. It is also reported that he had a strong interest in sports and was a good horseman. Nevertheless, he could not get over being short, and his own writings support this.

  Hodgson uses his height to lend credence to his body-building enterprise: “[I am a] small chap . . . 5 ft. 4½ in.,” he tells us in the fictional ‘interview’ in his “Physical Culture: A Talk with an Expert.” And he uses it to establish rapport, as in a letter to the writer Coulson Kernahan in 1906: “you are also interested in strength, as I can tell from that one little line in our letter regarding your height and muscularity—My dear Sir, let us shake hands on this further matter; for strength has been, and is still—spite of indifferent health—a thing of tremendous interest to me.” Hodgson goes on to disclose his height as “something under 66 [inches] . . . With such length I refused to be content, so make it up in breadth and muscularity” (my emphasis; from Frank, Wandering Soul, 12).