Robert Fordyce Aickman (born June 24, 1914— February 26, 1981) was an English conservationist writer of fiction and nonfiction. As a writer, he is best known for his short supernatural fiction, which he described as "strange stories". June 24 is the 175th day of the year (176th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 190 days remaining. ... 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... February 26 is the 57th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2005 est. ... Conservationists are those people who tend to more highly rank the wise use of the Earths resources and ecosystems. ... This article is in need of attention. ... Supernatural fiction is a classification of literature used to describe fiction exploiting or requiring as plot devices or themes some contradictions of the commonplace natural world and materialist assumptions about it. ...

Life

Robert Aickman was the grandson of prolific Victorian novelist Richard Marsh (1857-1915), known for his occult novel The Beetle (1897), a book as popular in its time as Bram Stoker's Dracula. Richard Marsh (1857-1915) was the pseudonym of the British author born Richard Bernard Heldman. ... Abraham Bram Stoker (November 8, 1847–April 20, 1912) was an Irish writer, best remembered as the author of the influential horror novel Dracula. ... Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, and the name of its title character, the vampire Count Dracula. ...

He originally received his training in architecture, the profession of his father, William Arthur Aickman. In the opening lines of Robert Aickman's autobiographical work, The Attempted Rescue he described his father as "the oddest man I have ever known". The Parthenon on top of the Acropolis, Athens, Greece Architecture (from Latin, architectura and ultimately from Greek, αρχιτεκτων, a master builder, from αρχι- chief, leader and τεκτων, builder, carpenter) is the art and science of designing buildings and structures. ... Cover of An autobiography, from the Greek auton, self, bios, life and graphein, write, is a biography written by the subject or composed conjointly with a collaborative writer (styled as told to or with). The term dates from the late eighteenth century, but the form is much older. ...

Aickman is probably best remembered for his co-founding of the Inland Waterways Association, a group devoted to restoring and preserving England's inland canal system. One of his co-founders, L. T. C. Rolt, also produced a volume of twelve supernatural tales entitled Sleep No More (London: Constable 1948). Aickman was married to Edith Ray Gregorson from 1941 to 1957. For a full exposition of the battle for the waterways, David Bolton's book Race Against Time: How Britain's Waterways Were Saved (London: Methuen 1990) is essential, although there are other interpretations. Since 1946 the Inland Waterways Association (IWA), a registered charity, and its over 17,500 members have campaigned for the conservation, use, maintenance, restoration and sensitive development of Britains canals and river navigations. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2005 est. ... Lionel Thomas Caswell Rolt (usually abbreviated to Tom Rolt or L.T.C. Rolt) (1910-1974) was a prolific English writer and the biographer of major civil engineering figures including Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Thomas Telford. ...

Aickman died of cancer on 26 February 1981 after refusing to have conventional treatment. His obituary appeared in ''The Times on 28 February 1981. Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these cells to invade other tissues, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis. ... February 26 is the 57th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Obituary for World War I death An obituary is a notice of the death of a person, usually published in a newspaper, written or commissioned by the newspaper, and usually including a short biography. ... February 28 is the 59th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Writings

Fiction

Altogether, twelve collections of Aickman's "strange stories" have now been published. Of these books, eight are original collections and four are reprint collections (one of which—Painted Devils: Strange Stories—consists of revised versions of stories which had appeared in earlier volumes).

• We Are for the Dark: Six Ghost Stories, London: Jonathan Cape 1951 (a collection containing three stories by Elizabeth Jane Howard and three by Aickman)
• Dark Entries: Curious and Macabre Ghost Stories, London: Collins 1964
• Powers of Darkness: Macabre Stories, London: Collins 1966
• Sub Rosa: Strange Tales, London: Victor Gollancz Ltd 1968
• Cold Hand in Mine: Eight Strange Stories, London: Victor Gollancz Ltd 1975
• Tales of Love and Death, London: Victor Gollancz Ltd 1977
• Intrusions: Strange Tales, London: Victor Gollancz Ltd 1980
• Night Voices: Strange Stories, London: Victor Gollancz Ltd 1985

The reprint collections are: Elizabeth Jane Howard is an English novelist. ...

• Painted Devils: Strange Stories, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1979 (revised stories)
• The Wine-Dark Sea, New York: Arbor House/William Morrow 1988
• The Unsettled Dust, London: Mandarin 1990
• The Collected Strange Stories, Carlton-in-Coverdale: Tartarus Press/Durtro Press 1999 (two volumes)

Many of the Aickman's short story collections published during his lifetime featured the dust jacket drawings by gothic illustrator Edward Gorey. The dust jacket (sometimes dust wrapper, abbreviated dj or dw) of a hardback book is the paper, usually illustrated and including front and back flaps, that protects the binding of the book from scratches. ... Edward St. ...

Aickman published only The Late Breakfasters (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd 1964) and The Model: A Novel of the Fantastic (New York: Arbor House 1987), the latter a novella which had remained unpublished in his lifetime. Another novel, Go Back At Once, remains unpublished. A novella is a short novel; a narrative work of prose fiction somewhat longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. ...

Awards

In 1975, Aickman received the World Fantasy Award for short fiction for his story “Pages from a Young Girl's Journal”. This story originally appeared in February 1973 in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and two years later in the collection Cold Hand in Mine: Eight Strange Stories (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd 1975). In the same year he also won the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement. First awarded in 1975, the World Fantasy Awards are handed out annually at the World Fantasy Convention (WFC) to recognize outstanding achievement in the field of fantasy. ... F&SF April 1971, special Poul Anderson issue. ...

In 1981, the year of his death, Aickman was awarded the British Fantasy Award for his story "The Stains" which had first appeared in 1980 in the anthology New Terrors (London: Pan 1980), edited by his friend and protégé Ramsey Campbell. It subsequently appeared, posthumously, in the lack collection of Aickman's short stories published during his lifetime, Night Voices: Strange Stories. The British Fantasy Awards are administered annually by the British Fantasy Society and were first awarded in 1971. ... John Ramsey Campbell (born January 4, 1946 in Liverpool) is a British writer considered by a number of critics to be one of the great masters of horror fiction. ...

In 2000, the Tarturus Press compilation, The Collected Strange Stories won the British Fantasy Award for best collection.

Nonfiction

Aickman's autobiographical writing consists of The Attempted Rescue (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd 1966) and The River Runs Uphill: A Story of Success and Failure (Burton-on-Trent: Pearson 1986). He also wrote The Story of Our Inland Waterways (London: Pitman, 1955).

Interested in the theatre, ballet and music, Aickman, was also theatre critic for The Nineteenth Century and After as well as the chairman of the London Opera Society. He was also active in the London Opera Club, the Ballet Minerva and the Mikron Theatre Company in London. These reviews remain, to date, uncollected in book form. Serge Sudeikins poster for the Bat Theatre (1922). ... Act 4 of Swan Lake: choreography by Petipa and Nureyev, music by Tchaikovsky. ... crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ... London (pronounced ) is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. ...

Unpublished writings

Aickman also wrote a number of plays, Allowance For Error, Duty and The Golden Round, none of which has yet been published. Two further books, a vast philosophical work entitled Panacea (running to over 1000 pages in manuscript form). This, and the novel, Go Back At Once have also never seen publication. Copies of these items are preserved, along with all of Aickman's other remaining papers, in the Robert Aickman Collection at Bowling Green State University, Ohio. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Bowling Green State University (BGSU) is a public four-year institution located in Bowling Green, Ohio, USA; about 20 miles south of Toledo, Ohio on I-75. ... Official language(s) None Capital Columbus Largest city Columbus Largest metro area Cleveland Area  Ranked 34th  - Total 44,825 sq mi (116,096 km²)  - Width 220 miles (355 km)  - Length 220 miles (355 km)  - % water 8. ...

Career as editor

In addition to his own stories, Aickman edited the first eight volumes of the Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories between 1964 and 1972, selecting six of his own stories for inclusion over the course of the series (the fourth and sixth volumes lack one of his tales). He also added insightful introductions for every volume except the sixth.

Recent interest

A critical essay on Aickman's fiction appears in S. T. Joshi's book The Modern Weird Tale (2001). Christopher Barker of The Haunted River also contributed a detailed essay entitled 'The Stains: Robert Aickman's Swan Song' to an issue of 'Supernatural Tales' in 2003 which argued that the story possessed many autobiographical elements, including references to Elizabeth Jane Howard. Sunanda Tryambak Joshi (b. ... Elizabeth Jane Howard is an English novelist. ...

The original collections of short stories are quite scarce though copies of US edition of 'Cold Hand In Mine' - wonderfully illustrated by Edward Gorey - are very plentiful. Most of his best tales can be found in the equally affordable collections 'The Wine Dark Sea', 'Painted Devils' and 'The Unsettled Dust'. Edward St. ...

Completists who wish to acquire all of his work quickly could purchase the flawed two volume Tartarus Press complete edition mentioned above (the first printing of which features an errata slip detailing 50+ typos). However, the font size is inevitably very small, seven original collections having been crammed into two just books.

In 2001, Tartarus also reissued the first volume of Aickman's autobiography, The Attempted Rescue in a new edition with a foreword by writer and Aickman enthusiast Jeremy Dyson, of British comedy quartet The League of Gentlemen. Jeremy Dyson Jeremy Dyson is one of the UK’s most successful screenwriters and, with Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, makes up The League of Gentlemen. ... See: The League of Gentlemen (novel), by John Boland The League of Gentlemen (film) starring Jack Hawkins and made in 1959. ...

A previously unpublished short story, The Well-Conducted Tour appeared in the Tartarus Press periodical Wormwood in 2005.

Adaptations

In 1968, a television adaptation of "Ringing the Changes", re-titled "The Bells of Hell" appeared on the obscure BBC 2 program Late Night Horror. The first radio adapation of "Ringing the Changes", appeared on the CBC Radio drama series Nightfall on October 31, 1980. BBC Two (or BBC2 as it was formerly styled) was the second UK television station to be aired by the BBC. History The channel was scheduled to begin at 7:20pm on April 20, 1964 and show an evening of light entertainment, starting with the comedy show The Alberts and... CBC Radio is the English language radio division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. ... Radio drama is a form of audio storytelling broadcast on radio. ... Nightfall is the title of a radio serial crossing the supernatural/horror and science fiction genres. ... October 31 is the 304th day of the year (305th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 61 days remaining. ...

A 1997 adapation of "The Swords", directed by Tony Scott appeared as the first episode of the cable original horror anthology series The Hunger (not the same as Scott's film of the same name). See also Tony Scott for the American clarinet jazz musician. ...

Jeremy Dyson has adapted Aickman's work into drama in a number of forms. A musical staging of the Aickman short story "The Same Dog", which Dyson co-wrote the libretto for with Joby Talbot, premiered in 2000 at the Barbican Concert Hall. Also in 2000, with League of Gentleman partner, Mark Gatiss), he adapted into a BBC Radio Four radio play, Aickman's short story "Ringing the Changes". (This aired exactly twenty years after the CBC adaptation, on Halloween, 2000.) Dyson also directed a 2002 short film, based on an Aickman work, "The Cicerones" with Gatiss as the principal actor. A libretto is the complete body of words used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, sacred or secular oratorio and cantata, musical, and ballet. ... Joby Talbot (born 1971) is a British composer. ... Mark Gatiss (born October 17, 1966 in Sedgefield, County Durham, England) is an English actor and writer. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, invariably known as the BBC (and also informally known as the Beeb or Auntie) is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world, employing 26,000 staff in the UK alone and with a budget of £4 billion. ... BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station which broadcasts a wide variety of chiefly spoken-word programmes including news, drama, comedy, science and history. ... Radio drama, which had its greatest popularity in the U. S. and in most other countries before the widespread access to television programming, depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the story in her or his minds eye--in this sense, it resembles reading... Halloween is a tradition celebrated on the night of October 31, most notably by children dressing in costumes and going door-to-door collecting sweets, fruit, and other treats. ... Short subject is an American film industry term that historically has referred to any film in the format of two reels, or approximately 20 minutes running time, or less. ...

External links

• Robert Aickman: An Appreciation
• The Works of Robert Aickman
• Robert Aickman: A Pictorial Bibliography
• Robert Aickman at the Internet Book List
• The Curious Silence - The Missing Aickman Stories & Audio Recordings
• The Bells Of Hell - comprehensive article on this missing-believed-wiped TV adaptation
• The Cicerones - watch the Channel 4 adaptation online

The Internet Book List (IBList) is an online database with information about books, authors, short stories, etc. ...

See Also

• List of horror fiction authors