Thu 28 Jun 2007
GOTHIC ROMANCES and CRIME FICTION IV.
Posted by Steve under Authors , Collecting , Covers , Crime Fiction IV[8] Comments
I don’t know if you know this, but I collect gothic romances. Nobody’s publishing them today. They’re dead in the water as far as today’s publishing world is concerned, as dead as can be, but from the mid-60s on into the later 1970s, they were as hot a category in bookstores and newsstands across the country as anything you can imagine, except for Harry Potter.
In the later 70s, the so-called bodice-ripper romances began to take over, and the gothics, which themselves on occasion verged into the supernatural, either continued on in that direction into occult fiction of various kinds, eventually becoming the very popular paranormal romances of today, complete with vampires, werewolves and all kinds of sexy shape-changers. Or, to continue on with the “either” in the preceding sentence, they became novels of romantic suspense, still very much a common category today.
I recently had the opportunity, while striving to “clean out” my basement, to go through a box of gothic romances I have – the ones having covers with a girl in the foreground and a spooky house in the background with a light on in a second story window – in order to add anything I find that’s new to add to Al Hubin’s Addenda for Crime Fiction IV. Most of these additions are in the form of previously unknown settings, but once in a while a brand new previously unknown title comes to fore, as happens once in the ten titles below.
All of this data is in Part 16 of the ongoing Addenda, which I’ve just uploaded this afternoon. As for Al, he’s still working and Part 17 is well under way. But please take a special look at the covers, if you would. I’m sorry they’re small enough that you can’t make out all of the details, but for variations on a theme, you probably couldn’t ask for much more than this, from a small sample of size ten.
JAN ALEXANDER. The Glass House. Add setting: Cape Breton Island (Nova Scotia)
LOUISE BERGSTROM. The Pink Camillia. Add setting: Washington state (San Juan Islands)
THERESA CHARLES. The Man for Me. U.S. title: The Shrouded Tower. Ace, 1966. Add setting: England.
SUSAN HUFFORD. The Devil’s Sonata. Add setting: Massachusetts [South Egremont].
PAULE MASON. The Shadow. US title: The Man in the Garden. Add setting: London (England).
SARAH NICHOLS. ADD: Grave’s Company. Popular Library, pbo, 1975. Setting: Ohio; past.
MARY KAY SIMMONS. Smuggler’s Gate. Add setting: Maine.
FRANCES PATTON STATHAM. Bright Star, Dark Moon. Note: Author’s full name is used on this book. Add setting: South Carolina (Charleston); 1883.
SHARON WAGNER. Dark Waters of Death. Add setting: Montana.
DAOMA WINSTON. A Visit After Dark. Add setting: Texas.
June 29th, 2007 at 7:11 am
I heart gothics, too.
When I was around 11 or 12, I got hooked on Barbara Michaels’ books. I always loved the supernatural and her gothics (most times) mixed the supernatural with mystery and romance, always in a fantasically gothic setting. I adored her books.
June 29th, 2007 at 8:50 am
Her real name is Barbara Mertz, and she has to be one of very few writers of gothics who’s still active today. She’s also probably the most well-known, but as Elizabeth Peters, her other pen name.
It’s hard to believe, but she’ll be 80 years old this year. The most recent book in her Amelia Peabody series was Tomb of the Golden Bird, which came out in 2006.
You’re not the only one who likes her books as Barbara Michaels, though. They’re being reissued constantly, not as gothics, but as “romantic suspense.” Her first book was The Master of Blacktower, which was published in hardcover in 1966, and it’s still in print.
June 29th, 2007 at 9:05 am
Yeah, I wish she still wrote the Michaels’ books. I tried an Elizabeth Peters and it just wasn’t for me.
July 3rd, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Kim, I came by Michaels from exactly the opposite direction. I loved Peters’s Amelia Peabody books and started looking for the non-Peabody books. I now own 13 of them.
July 3rd, 2007 at 2:05 pm
Other gothics authors from the 60s and 70s I can think of immediately: Victoria Holt, Phyllis Whitney, Mary Stewart.
July 3rd, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Yes, these are the ladies that more or less helped to create the genre. Not only that, but they outlasted the boomlet of the 60s and 70s as well. In the 80s the marketers began to call their books “romantic suspense,” but whatever they wrote, their fiction was a whole lot tamer than the books you’ll find in the same category today.
Add Daphne du Maurier, author of Rebecca, to your list, include Barbara Michaels, and you have the giants in the field.
July 3rd, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Tamer, but at least in Stewart’s case, better, in my opinion. She can (I think she’s still living) write rings around most of the current practicers of the trade.
I found a copy of Rebecca for $0.25 at a local library recently, but I haven’t yet gotten to it.
August 11th, 2007 at 11:02 am
I have a 1953 copy of Theresa Charles’ “Fairer Than She”, and I’ve always loved it. The heroine is psychic,and TC is such a good writer. Would like to buy her other books but there is never a plot description on Amazon or eBay so it’s buying blind. I don’t like the Nurse in love with Doctor books. How do I get a description before I buy? And does anyone know of a bio of Ms. Charles? Would like to read about her. Thanks.
>> I’ve posted my reply to Donna as a separate blog entry. See https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=362. — Steve