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STURBRIDGETIMES
THE CHRONICLE OF STURBRIDGE COUNTRY LIVING

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NOVEMBER 2013

MAGAZINE

Prsrt. Std U.S. Postage PAID Worcester, MA Permit No. 2

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Hand family

BOOKREVIEW
The Loved Dead & Other Tales

Continued from previous page every post on the Pray for Gray site, but we cant respond because there are so many, she said. When you read how this is impacting other people in their own lives, it really puts our circumstances into perspective. In the end, Nate says they are seeing beauty in the ashes of the ugliness of the disease. Our hope is the idea of redemptionthe knowledge of how God takes really bad things and turns them to good. We read the stories on Facebook of how someone was touched by what we wrote and turned it into something meaningful and we are grateful for those things. We know if things dont end up the way we hope, God will take the ashes and turn them into something beautiful. For updates on Grayson on Facebook, search Pray for Gray.

By C.M. Eddy, Jr., paperback, 257 pp.. Fenham, 2008 List $16.95 Amazon: $116.95 By C.M. Eddy, Jr., paperback, 194 pp.. Fenham, 2000 List $14.95 Amazon: Out of Stock

Exit into Eternity:Tales of the Bizarre and Supernatural

A look at two works by C.M. Eddy, Jr.

BY RICHARD MORCHOE
known for stories conjuring the occult. They also were Houdinis ghostwriters, preparing works for his byline. This employment ended with the magician death in 1926. The Lovecraft/Eddy relationship is the subject of The Gentleman From Angell Street: Memories of H.P. Lovecraft. It is a short book recounting the relationship of the Eddys and Lovecraft by Eddy and his wife, Muriel. Also in the same volume, the Eddys daughter recounts the strange mans late night visits to the family home during her childhood. As to Eddys writing, it does contrast with Lovecrafts. In the main, it is not near as dark, though dark it is. It is similar in style and language, but Eddy seems to get to the point quicker. This does not make his work better, just different. The drawn out tales of Lovecraft allow you to lose yourself in his mythology. The more succinct stories of his confrere are no worse for their dispatch. The most famous exploration the two men made was the search for the Dark Swamp In 1927, thought Continued on page 8

Thanks to sponsorship from Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA, Hitchcock Free Academy is offering a "Yoga for Caregivers" class free of charge. The class is being held on Tuesdays, 4:15 - 5:30 on November 5, 12, 19, and December 3. The class will feature gentle movements and postures, with modifications for all levels, and also breathing awareness and brief guided meditation. Anyone who is experiencing uncomfortable stress levels is welcome to attend. Please pre-register by calling Hitchcock Free Academy at (413) 245-9977 or email sue@hitchcockacademy.org. For more information about the class, email Sharon Palmer at palmer00013@gmail.com.

Free Yoga for caregivers

he legacy of Howard Philips Lovecraft is such that the term Lovecraftian is well known among horror fans. Though possessing a following in life, his existence eventually became one of threadbare poverty. Today, he is a giant. Lovecraft comes across as a strange and driven man after a little biographical research. Odd then that he would collaborate with a fellow author whose normal life seems a mirror opposite? Near forgotten now, Charles Martin Eddy, Jr. like Lovecraft, was a Providence native. The stamp of New England is on all his fiction. Unlike Lovecraft, his domestic life was orderly and though not wealthy, Eddy does not appear to have ever been in dire straits. The two authors first met face to face in 1923. Lovecraft was a frequent visitor at the Eddys home. Eddy was part of Lovecrafts circle of friends and authors. The two men edited each others work and traveled and explored together. Interestingly, both men worked as investigators for Harry Houdini. The man was the countrys foremost debunker of spiritualists. The two writers were

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Book review

Continued from page 6 to be between Chepachet, Rhode Island and Putnam, Connecticut. Whether the two men found it is not known. No matter, it would be the background for a story by each of them. It is the locale for Eddys posthumously published Black Noon. Fortunately for one of the storys main characters Eddy did not live to finish it. Another chapter and the man would have had a gruesome death as opposed to a professional disappointment. Eddys notorious, The Loved Dead was a controversy in its day. It is a grisly tale that had trouble getting published. According to his grandson, Jim Dyer, Eddys agent told him no one would touch it in this country and to "try to publish it in France. He

thought it might find an audience in Paris, where they had the Grand-Guignol, a theater of the bizarre. Eventually the pulp horror magazine, Weird Tales published the story in 1924, even though the editor still had his doubts. As it turned out, the controversy helped sell more copies of the magazine." Weird Tales needed the help. It was foundering. The firestorm around the story was such that it was banned in places and that made the forbidden fruit all the more popular. C.M Eddy, Jr. was able to save a journal and scare a country. The Loved Dead is grisly in the extreme. The story is not a tale of filial piety toward the deceased. Rather, it is of a young man who loves, literally, the dead. An undertaker, by trade, he freelances to insure the supply meets his demand. Eventually, he is too reckless and knows

exposure imminent and does to himself what he had done to others. It is in that first story you get the idea of his ability with the turn of the phrase. The protagonist describes his dull upbringing thus, My early childhood was one long prosaic and monotonous apathy. This ability is something he shares with Lovecraft and it enhances all their prose. With the demise of pulp horror magazines, Eddys career went into an eclipse. He did not die relatively young, as did Lovecraft. In Lovecrafts case this almost seems like what Gore Vidal said of Capote, a

good career move. Eddy, however, had a life outside horror. He was employed as a booking agent and a proofreader. Also, he worked for the state and as an officer in professional organizations. It is hard to picture his friend accepting such a life. Grandson Jim Dyer set up Fenham Publishing to produce the work of his ancestor. His website implies there is more to come. Whether the books will join the canon of high literature is doubtful. As pleasures in and of themselves, they more than succeed.

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