View Full Version : Looking for an old story
I'm wondering if anyone can point me to a website or forum that discusses old horror anthologies. I'm looking for a story that I read back in high school (c.1975). I don't have a title or author, just a brief description of the plot. It really creeped me out and still gives me nightmares 30 years later. The weird thing is that nothing much happens in the story - just someone walking through a forest that seems "wrong", finding a dead spot and experiencing an overwhelming sense of dread, and realizing it's too late to make it back to safety before dark. For some reason I seem to think the author was European...don't know for sure. Any leads?
noctuary
06-15-2006, 02:29 AM
Hmmm... that's not really a whole lot to go on... but from your description, sounds like it could be:
Ramsey Campbell
Robert Aickman
M.R. James
From the time period, I'd say that Campbell or Aickman are the most likely culprits.
Yes, the description is really thin. I know it's not Ramsey Campbell - he also wrote a piece that gave me nightmares and I'd have remembered if he was the author.
The_Return
06-15-2006, 11:43 AM
Ive read this one, in fact I have it in a collection that's lying on my floor. Give me a minute, and I'll have it.
The_Return
06-15-2006, 11:46 AM
Originally posted by The_Return
Ive read this one, in fact I have it in a collection that's lying on my floor. Give me a minute, and I'll have it.
This might not be it now that I read some of it, sounds too complicated for your discrption.....but it has strong similarities.
Fishhead by Irvin S. Cobb...it was written LONG before the time period though.
Jacob Singer
06-15-2006, 12:43 PM
Maybe it could be a short tale of Ambrose Bierce
The_Return
06-28-2006, 07:27 PM
You know, I kinda wish this guy would come back. I just re-read Fishhead, and Im pretty sure thats the one he's looking for. Would like to know if I was right...
By the way, Fishead is a really cool story, I recomend it.
evil_deadman
06-28-2006, 08:10 PM
I have a story,that i have only read once by Ramsey Campbell,that i think could b the story in question.. Its from an anthology i have titled Night Visions:The Hellbound Heart and also has that story of Clive Barkers which,by the way Hellraiser was based on. Anyway the anthology has3 stories by Lisa Tuttle and 7 stories by Ramsey Campbell in it and if i am not mistaken it is the first story by RC titled "In the trees" that i think may be the story, altho eden does not think it is.I may re-read it tonite to find out..however..even if its not the story ,it is fairly similiar.,and as with many of Ramsey's stories,very bizarre and eerie,in the style only he can write!
evil_deadman
06-28-2006, 08:14 PM
My bad.."In the trees" is copyright 1986..wrong time period i guess..but..still..very similiar story!
Thanks for the suggested titles - next time I'm online buying used books (which is often) I'll get both stories. I'm always up for Ramsey Campbell, since he's already scared the hell out of me once. I don't remember why I thought the author was European (Swedish? Norwegian?). Must have been something in the author's name or the story setting.
BTW - Has anyone read "The Hollow Man" by Norman Partridge? Short but tres scary.
Tom Piccirilli
07-22-2006, 11:59 PM
Sounds like it could be "The Willows" by Algernon Blackwood.
evil_deadman
07-23-2006, 05:36 AM
Originally posted by Tom Piccirilli
Sounds like it could be "The Willows" by Algernon Blackwood.
That could be right..i have it as wellin an old anthology,but its been a long time since i read it, so i forgot the storyline.,but yea.that does sound like it could b it
Not to change the subject,but has anyone who has read Algernon Blackwood ever read "Lenigen vs the ants"?.i think that was the title of it. Its not exactly horror. More sci fi or action elements in it, but a hell of a story nonetheless!
I've checked out all Ramsey's Campbell's "The Darkest Part of the Woods", Cobb's "Fishhead" and Blackwoods' "The Willows" - none of them are the one I'm looking for. If I remember correctly, the story is told in first person and the narrator/protagonist is the only character. So far, Cobb comes the closest in style.
Wendigo06
07-26-2006, 02:16 PM
I think is an Algernon Blackwood story but its not The Willows. The story i mean is in "Best Ghost Stories of Algernos Blackwood" The plot is exactly as described but i dont remember the title. I will look for it and post it.
Thanks - when you post I'll look for it.
Eden
The_Return
07-26-2006, 05:48 PM
Just out of curiosity, what did you think of Fishhead? Too bad it wasnt what you're looking for, but did you enjoy it?
Actually, I liked it a lot. Not so much as a horror piece, but I used to spend a lot of time out on Florida rivers in my kayak and thought the descriptions of the landscape were really evocative. I'm usually a big fan of the unforseen ending, but a story like this proves that even when you know where you're headed, a good writer can make the journey worthwhile. My favorite - "all the riffle and dunnage of a quiet eddy." I used to spend a lot of time floating over a big crystal spring with sunken trees, watching the fish and pairing them up in a sort of aquatic dating service. When I got bored with that I'd just watch the water spin things around. Weird but true.
Wendigo06
07-27-2006, 07:48 AM
The Blackwood story is "Ancient Lights". Is about a walker who is a surveyorīs clerk looking for a little wood that a client want to cut down to have a better view.
He found it and decided to walk througt it for a short cut to the clientīs house. He inexplicably got lost and in his head he heard "No, itīs not his wood. Itīs ours". He saw strange visions, got scared, run, tumble, just to end up in the same place, with the bushes and trees closing in, and then a few more vague visions.
Iīm not gonna spoil the ending. I think this may be your story.
Hope i helped !!
I read it, but it's not the one I'm looking for. I appreciate your help though.
The more reread some of my husband's Lovecraft anthologies, the more I realize that the story was definitely in the Lovecraft vein - lots of atmosphere and a deep sense of foreboding. I don't remember that the ending was spelled out, but you knew that the protagonist was beyond saving just by the description of the place.
Thanks for the lead.