John Collier (May 3, 1901-April 6, 1980) was a British-born author and screenplay writer best known for his short stories, many of which appeared in The New Yorker during the 1930s, '40s, and '50s. They were collected in a 1951 volume, Fancies and Goodnights, which is still in print. Individual stories are frequently anthologized in fantasy collections. John Collier's writing has been praised by authors such as Anthony Burgess, Ray Bradbury, and Neil Gaiman. is the 123rd day of the year (124th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1901 (MCMI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday [1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... is the 96th day of the year (97th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar). ... This article is in need of attention. ... For other uses, see New Yorker. ... Anthony Burgess (February 25, 1917 – November 22, 1993) was a British novelist, critic and composer. ... Ray Douglas Bradbury (born August 22, 1920) is an American literary, fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer best known for The Martian Chronicles, a 1950 book which has been described both as a short story collection and a novel, and his 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, is widely considered... Neil Richard Gaiman () (born November 10, 1960) is an English author of science fiction and fantasy short stories and novels, graphic novels, comics, and films. ...

Early life

Born in London in 1901, John Collier was privately educated by his uncle Vincent Collier, a novelist.^[1] When, at the age of 18 or 19, Collier was asked by his father what he had chosen as a vocation, his reply was, "I want to be a poet." His father indulged him: over the course of the next ten years, Collier lived on an allowance of two pounds a week, plus whatever he could pick up by writing book reviews and acting as a cultural correspondent for a Japanese newspaper.^[1] During this time, being not overly burdened by any financial responsibilities, he developed a penchant for games of chance, conversation in cafes, and visits to picture galleries.^[2] He never attended a university. ^[3]

From Poetry to Novels and Short Stories

For ten years Collier attempted to reconcile the intensely visual experience opened to him by the Sitwells and the modern painters, with the austerer preoccupations of those classical authors who were fashionable in the 1920s.^[2] He felt that his poetry was unsuccessful, however: he was not able to make his two selves (whom he oddly described as the "archaic, uncouth, and even barbarous" Olsen and the "hysterically self-conscious dandy" Valentine) speak with one voice.^[3] From left: Edith Sitwell (1887 - 1964), Sir George Sitwell, Lady Ida, Sacheverell Sitwell (1897-1988), and Osbert Sitwell (1892-1969). ...

Being an admirer of James Joyce, it was in Joyce's Ulysses that Collier found a solution: "On going for my next lesson to Ulysses, that city of modern prose," he wrote, "I was struck by the great number of magnificent passages in which words are used as they are used in poetry, and in which the emotion which is originally aesthetic, and the emotion which has its origin in intellect, are fused in higher proportions of extreme forms than I had believed was possible."^[3] The few poems he wrote during this time were afterwards published in a volume under the title Gemini.^[2] While he had written some short stories during the period in which he was trying to find success as a poet, his career did not take shape until the publication of His Monkey Wife in 1930--it enjoyed a certain small popularity and critical approval that helped to sell his short stories.^[1] As a private joke, Collier wrote a decidedly cool four-page review of His Monkey Wife, describing it as an attempt "to combine the qualities of the thriller with those of what might be called the decorative novel," and concluding with the following appraisal of the talents of its author: "From the classical standpoint his consciousness is too crammed for harmony, too neurasthenic for proportion, and his humor is too hysterical, too greedy, and too crude." ^[4] This article is about the writer and poet. ... Ulysses is a novel by James Joyce, first serialized in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on February 2, 1922, in Paris. ... Ulysses is a novel by James Joyce, first serialized in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on February 2, 1922, in Paris. ...

His stories may be broadly classified as fantasies, but are really sui generis. They feature an acerbic wit and are usually ironic or dark in tone. Like the stories of P. G. Wodehouse, they are perfectly constructed and feature a brilliant literary craftsmanship that can easily escape notice. His stories are memorable; people who cannot recall title or author will nevertheless remember "the story about the people who lived in the department store" ("Evening Primrose") or "the story in which the famous beauties that the man magically summons all say 'Here I am on a tiger-skin again'" ("Bottle Party"). Pelham Grenville Wodehouse KBE (October 15, 1881 – February 14, 1975) (IPA: ) was an English comic writer who has enjoyed enormous popular success for more than seventy years. ...

A characteristic point of his style is that the titles of many of his stories reveal (or at least telegraph) what would otherwise be a surprise ending.

Two examples, both from "Over Insurance," may illustrate his style. The story opens:

Alice and Irwin were as simple and as happy as any young couple in a family-style motion picture. In fact, they were even happier, for people were not looking at them all the time and their joys were not restricted by the censorship code. It is therefore impossible to describe the transports with which Alice flew to embrace Irwin on his return from work, or the rapture with which Irwin returned her caresses.... It was at least two hours before they even thought about dinner.... Whatever was best on his plate, he found time to put it on hers, and she was no slower in picking out some dainty tidbit to put between his eager and rather rubbery lips.

They become distressed at the possibility of each others' death, and agree that their only consolation would be to cry. However, they decide that it would be better to cry in luxury. Irwin observes:

"I would rather cry on a yacht," said he, "where my tears could be ascribed to the salt spray, and I should not be thought unmanly. Let us insure one another, darling, so that if the worst happens we can cry without interruption. Let us put nine-tenths of our money into insurance...."

"And let us," cried she, "insure our dear bird also," pointing to the feathered cageling, whom they always left uncovered at night, in order that his impassioned trills might grace their diviner raptures.

"You are right," said he, "I will put ten bucks on the bird."

Other Media

In the succeeding years, Collier traveled between England, France, and Hollywood.^[1] While he did continue to write short stories, as time went on he would turn his attention more and more towards writing screenplays.

Having moved to Hollywood in 1935, Collier wrote most prolifically for film and television. He contributed notably to the screenplays of The African Queen along with James Agee and John Huston, the Elephant Boy, The War Lord, I Am A Camera originally Goodbye to Berlin remade later as Cabaret, Sylvia Scarlett, Her Cardboard Lover, Deception, Roseanna McCoy, etc. He received the Edgar Award in 1952 (for the story "Fancies and Goodnights") and the International Fantasy Award in 1952. His short story "Evening Primrose" was the subject of a 1966 television musical by Stephen Sondheim, and adapted for radio for the series Escape, and by BBC Radio. Several of his stories were adapted for the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. ... The African Queen is a 1951 film made by Horizon Pictures and Romulus Films, and distributed by United Artists. ... James Rufus Agee (November 27, 1909 – May 16, 1955) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, screenwriter, journalist, poet, and film critic. ... John Marcellus Huston (August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director and actor. ... Elephant Boy could refer to: Elephant Boy, a 1937 film based on a story from Kiplings Jungle Book. ... The War Lord is a 1965 film starring Charlton Heston. ... I Am a Camera was a 1951 play by John Van Druten, inspired by Christopher Isherwoods The Berlin Stories, which in turn went on to inspire the Cabaret (musical)|musical]] and film Cabaret. ... Goodbye to Berlin is a short novel by Christopher Isherwood. ... Cabaret is a form of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue — a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting around the tables (often dining or drinking) watching the performance. ... Sylvia Scarlett is a 1935 romantic comedy film, directed by George Cukor. ... This article or section includes a list of works cited but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... The Edgar Allan Poe Awards (popularly called the Edgars), named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America. ... The International Fantasy Awards were given out in 1951--1955 and in 1957. ... Stephen Joshua Sondheim (b. ... Escape was radios leading series of high adventure, airing on CBS from July 7, 1947 to September 25, 1954. ... BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. ... Alfred Hitchcock Presents was an anthology television series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. ...

Death

John Collier died in 1980 in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California. Near the end of his life, he wrote, "I sometimes marvel that a third-rate writer like me has been able to palm himself off as a second-rate writer." ^[4] Pacific Palisades is a district within the U.S. city of Los Angeles, California, located between Brentwood to the east, Malibu to the west, Santa Monica to the southeast, the Santa Monica Bay to the southwest, and the Santa Monica Mountains to the north. ...

Bibliography

Novels

• His Monkey Wife: or Married to a Chimp (1930) (currently in print, ISBN 0-9664913-3-5)
• No Traveller Returns (1931)
• Tom's a-Cold (1933) (published in the U.S. as Full Circle)
• Defy the Foul Fiend: or The Misadventures of a Heart (1934)

Short Story Collections

• Green Thoughts (1932)
• The Devil and All (1934)
• Variations on a Theme (1934)
• Presenting Moonshine (1941)
• The Touch of Nutmeg (1943)
• Fancies and Goodnights (1951) (paperback reprint currently in print, ISBN 1-59017-051-2) (Note: later editions have more stories than earlier ones. The one presently in print is the latest version including all later additions. (The John Collier Reader and The Best of John Collier contain a few stories not in any edition of Fancies and Goodnights.)
• Pictures in the Fire (1958)
• The John Collier Reader (1972) (includes His Monkey Wife in its entirety, chapters 8 and 9 of Defy the Foul Fiend, and selected stories)
• The Best of John Collier (1975) (precisely the same as The John Collier Reader, except that His Monkey Wife is not included)

Other Works

• Gemini (1931) Poetry collection
• Paradise Lost: Screenplay for Cinema of the Mind (1973) An adaptation from Milton that was never produced as a film. Collier changed the format slightly to make it more readable in book form.
• Sleeping Beauty: This short story was used as the basis for James B.Harris' 1973 fantasy film Some Call It Loving AKA Dream Castle, the screenplay written by Zalman King.

Selected Short Stories

• "Another American Tragedy" — A man murders an aged rich relative and impersonates him to change the will in his own favor- only to discover he isn't the only one who wants the old man dead...
• "Bottle Party" — A jinn (genie) tricks a man into taking his place in the bottle.
• "The Chaser" — A young man buying a genuine love potion cannot understand why the seller sells love potions for a dollar, but also offers a colorless, tasteless, undetectable poison at a much, much higher price.
• "Cancel All I Said" — A couple's young daughter takes a screen test. The couple's lives are torn apart by the studio head's verbal offer to make the child a star.
• "Evening Primrose" — Probably his most famous; about people who live in a department store, hiding during the day and coming out at night.
• "Interpretation of a Dream" — A man experiences disturbing and serial dreams of falling from the thirty-ninth story of the skyscraper in which he works, passing one story every night. In his dreams he looks through the window and makes detailed and veridical observations of the real-life inhabitants as he passes.
• "Over Insurance" — A loving couple puts nine-tenths of their money into life insurance and becomes so impoverished that each decides to poison the other, unaware that the other has made the same decision.
• "Special Delivery" — A man falls into love with a department-store mannequin.This was later adapted for an episode of the 1960's TV series Journey to the Unknown,retitled "Eve",which starred Dennis Waterman and Carol Lynley.
• "The Steel Cat" — Inventor uses his pet mouse to demonstrate his better mousetrap to an insensitive prospect who insists on seeing the mouse actually die.
• "Three Bears Cottage" — A man tries unsuccessfully to poison his wife with a mushroom as retaliation for serving him a smaller egg than the one she served herself.
• "The Touch of Nutmeg Makes It" — A man tried for murder and acquitted for lack of motive tells his story to sympathetic friends.
• "Youth from Vienna" — A couple, whose careers (tennis player and actress) depend on youth, are forced to deal with a gift of a single dose of rejuvenating medicine that cannot be divided or shared.
• "Thus I Refute Beelzy" — An odiously rational father is confounded by the imagination of his small son.

For other uses, see Genie (disambiguation). ... Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around the world. ... Journey To The Unknown was a British TV anthology series made in 1968, with a fantasy, science fiction and supernatural theme. ... Dennis in The Sweeney For the character in Little Britain, see Dennis Waterman (Little Britain). ... Carol Lynley (born Carole Ann Jones on February 13, 1942 in New York City, New York) is an American actress. ...

Footnotes

1. ^ ^{a b c d} The Editors of Time Life: "Editors' Preface", Fancies and Goodnights, pages viv-xii. Time Life Books, 1965
2. ^ ^{a b c} Editor: jacket blurb, Defy the Foul Fiend, back cover. Penguin Books UK, 1948.
3. ^ ^{a b c} Hoyle, Fred: "Time Reading Program Introduction", Fancies and Goodnights, page xv-xix. Time Life Books, 1965
4. ^ ^{a b} Paul Theroux, Sunrise with Seamonsters. Houghton Mifflin Books (1986): 303.

Paul Edward Theroux (born April 10, 1941) is an American travel writer and novelist, whose best known work is The Great Railway Bazaar (1975), a travelogue about a trip he made by train from Great Britain through Europe and South Asia, then South-East Asia, up through East Asia, as...

References

• Bleiler, Everett (1948). The Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Chicago: Shasta Publishers, 80. 
• Clute, John; John Grant (1997). The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. New York: St. Martin's Press, 210.