{"id":4215,"date":"2017-07-15T22:58:02","date_gmt":"2017-07-15T22:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/?p=4215"},"modified":"2017-08-22T11:54:45","modified_gmt":"2017-08-22T11:54:45","slug":"the-many-identities-of-mr-carnacki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/the-many-identities-of-mr-carnacki\/","title":{"rendered":"The Many Identities of Thomas Carnacki"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, dear listener, we make a point, show off some fantastical art from the 1940s, and then mention a new book coming from that ace storyteller Willie Meikle<\/strong>. It’s all a bit Carnacki and William Hope Hodgson<\/strong> here again, for a brief moment. Oh, and the WHH covers gallery has been updated, under Weird Media<\/strong> (all art copyright its creators\/owners)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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I am Carnacki! No, I am Carnacki! The crowd erupts into a frenzy of self-sacrifice, at which point the Cistercian Abbot Amalric says \u201cKill them all. God will know which are his,\u201d and then realises that he’s in the wrong film.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, thousands of Roman soldiers and a cohort of jobbing plumbers, who thought someone said ‘cisterns’, get out their copies of Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki the Ghost Finder<\/em> and try to find out where they come in.<\/p>\n

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The Truth<\/h1>\n

Thomas Merton Carnacki, dubbed the Ghost Finder by the popular press, was a man troubled by the role in which he found himself. Much of his brusque procedure was designed to cover up his own awkwardness. His own lack of any dramatic psychic ability made him prone to nagging doubts, and his true interests were fine dining and exploring the new world of electrical inventions.<\/p>\n

As everyone knows, Carnacki died a mysterious death in the first decade of the Twentieth Century. His funeral was held at Steeton, near Keighley, close to the rambling house which he maintained up there, Hathering. Some said at the time that the mistress of Hathering, a Miss Catherine Weatherhead, was also mistress to the Ghost Finder. This was never publicly confirmed.<\/p>\n

In his will, Carnacki left 472 Cheyne Walk and its contents to his chronologer Henry Dodgson, veteran of the Boer Wars and illegitimate son of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson<\/strong>, aka Lewis Carroll<\/strong>. With some reluctance, Dodgson took on the mantle of the Ghost Finder, relying on other associates to make up for his lack of ab-natural knowledge. It was to be a mantle he never managed to shed, and the true tale unfolds through Mr John Linwood Grant’s<\/strong> series ‘Tales of the Last Edwardian’<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Despite the above being very clear, and a matter of public record, interfering folk such Joshua M Reynolds, Willie Meikle<\/strong> and Brandon Barrows<\/strong> (amongst others) have insisted on various re-interpretations of Carnacki’s life, and of those who followed him. Oh, their work is fine and dandy, and most enjoyable, but one wonders if they ever question the liberties they have taken.<\/p>\n

For example, whilst Mr Reynolds has woven a charming succession of talented Royal Occultists, and Mr Meikle has added to the range of astonishing paraphernalia which might be employed in Ghost Finding, their bravado sometimes shocks. As for Mr Barrows, he is perhaps more restrained in his addition of further almost canonical events, but is no less culpable.<\/p>\n

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We are gracious, though. Joshua M Reynolds is rumoured to be gathering a new collection of his Royal Occultist<\/em> stories, and is also available on Patreon for discerning folk.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/posts\/roaring-ship-12760969<\/a><\/p>\n

And Brandon Barrows’ collection The Castle-Town Tragedy<\/em> is now widely available on Amazon, after an initial limited edition release:<\/p>\n

\"Castletown\"the castle-town tragedy<\/a><\/p>\n

We shall come back to Mr Meikle later below, but first – an interlude…<\/p>\n

Famous and Fantastic<\/h1>\n

Let’s have some of those illustrations, from Famous Fantastic Mysteries<\/strong><\/em>. FFM<\/em> was an American SF and fantasy pulp magazine, edited by Mary Gnaedinger<\/strong> and published between 1939 to 1953, first by the Munsey Company and then by Popular Publications.<\/p>\n

\"Argosy_1906_04\"<\/a>Incidentally, Frank Munsey<\/strong>, the Victorian founder of the former company, also started the famous Argosy magazine, which lasted until the late seventies.<\/p>\n

FFM<\/em> published a range of short stories and reprinted novels included G. K. Chesterton’s<\/strong> The Man Who Was Thursday<\/em>, H. G. Wells’<\/strong> The Island of Dr. Moreau<\/em>, Rider Haggard’s<\/strong> The Ancient Allan<\/em>, and works by Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany,<\/strong> and Arthur Machen<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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In the process, it reprinted at least three works by William Hope Hodgson \u2013 his novels The Ghost Pirates<\/em> and The Boats of the Glen Carrig<\/em>, plus his story ‘The Derelict’<\/em>. With illustrations.<\/p>\n

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