Props for Perky

Speaking of anthologies, I inadvertently stumbled across the contents pages (pdf file) of Jan L. Perkowski's Vampire Lore: From the Writings of Jan Louis Perkowski (2006).

A listing for the book appears on its publisher's (Slavica) website.

I've already got Perkowski's Vampires of the Slavs (1976) and The Darkling: A Treatise on Slavic Vampirism (1989) and a few of his articles. But there's others I don't have.

Even though I prefer original source works, I'm looking at getting a copy of this book for the hell of it. He's right up there with Paul Barber (Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality, 1988) in terms of major contributions to vampire studies, as far as I'm concerned.

That's not to say that his works haven't been met with some criticism.

It's also nice to see that he's still teaching Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Virginia.

More Garza

And speaking of Garza, here's a little quote from him concerning the romanticisation of the vampire in modern times, courtesy of Gina McIntyre's "Fresh Blood for Vampires and Their Followers" for the Los Angeles Times (the quote appears on the second page):

Thomas Garza, a University of Texas professor who has taught a class on the subject, "The Vampire in Slavic Cultures," for the last 12 years, said the metamorphosis of the vampire from repugnant fiend to alluring Lothario was a natural and necessary update for the modern era.

"You see the devil standing before you looking all hideous and grotesque, you're not going to walk over and join him," Garza said. "But if the devil appears to you looking like some romantic character and speaking beautiful British English, you might want to sit down and have a cup of coffee."

He also has something interesting to say about keeping the vampire a frightful figure in Chris Garcia's "Fangs Bared: A Vampire Expert Bites into the Undead Mythology":

On books and movies making vampires more human-like and easy on the eyes (or: What's wrong with today's vampires): "It's exactly the antithesis of where we should be going with vampires. We've been trying slowly but surely to get them away from this count (Dracula) from a faraway country and making him a guy down the street, sort of Joe the Plumber, only a vampire.

"As a movement of the whole mythology of the vampire, it's wrongheaded. The vampire had to be created out of what is not of this earth. These are mortal men who have moved to another plane of existence, another dimension. What made that first great vampire movie 'Nosferatu' so incredibly uncanny was that there is nothing about this creature that's of this world. There's nothing about him we find attractive. He's horrific. That to me is the myth and where the story begins. It's the Dracula story. It's the epitome of how creepy this creature should be.

"As long as we can tap into our xenophobia, then we get into the kind of vampires that make us squeal and jump."

He's also commented on TV series, True Blood in Tara Dooley's "Power, Money and Blood" for the Houston Chronicle:

The theme may not be an entirely new one for vampire stories, though True Blood updates the story line with themes about a vampire rights amendments and interspecies dating. In Season Two, it delves into story lines about the boundaries and bonds of faith, community and cult.

“It also does play on the questions of our concerns about sexuality and what is right, what is ethical and moral,” said Thomas J. Garza, chairman of the Slavic and Eurasian studies department at the University of Texas.

There's also a listing for the book its publisher's site, Cognella. Helpfully, they've also added a pdf "sneak preview" of the book. But somewhat disappointingly, it reveals that the majority of the book's contents are composed of extracts from other works covering the subject.

What we have here, ladies and gentlemen, is an anthology. Ah, dammit.

Still, it could still be useful as a springboard to the original works.

Vampire Book Covers

I've found that eBay isn't just a boon for buying hard-to-get vampire books, but also a decent source for vampire book cover images.

The following dust jacket cover is reproduced in this sale for a fiction anthology, Tales of the Undead: Vampires and Visitants (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1947), collected and illustrated by Elinore Blaisdell:


As it happens, I own a copy of this book, sans dust jacket. Never even knew what its dust jacket looked like.

Till now.

Instead, I've had to contend with this cover (which was also reproduced by the seller):


Incidentally, the seller's asking price is US $39.99.

Everything Old Is New Again

Andrew recently wrote a review for Weird Vampire Tales (1992) after I recommended it to him, a little while ago.

It seems he enjoyed the anthology of pulp fiction vampire stories as much as I did.

However, his description of the stories all being taken from Weird Tales is slightly inaccurate: most of them were. But not all. This site shows which story came from which magazine.

Andrew's review also notes a couple of (now) standard vampire tropes, which may originally have been published in the pulps. For example:

In a visual medium, as far as I know, it was Dan Curtis who brought the concept of the reincarnated love into the vampire genre as a main theme in Dark Shadows. I, the Vampire by Henry Kutner is a much earlier written example of the concept being used – dating back to 1937.

And "William Tenn uses science, and a blood substitute, to enable vampires and humans to coexist, long before True Blood, in She Only Goes Out at Night."

Giving a Little Credit

I was just having a word to Andrew about an anthologist who doesn't get nearly enough credit in the fictional vampire realm.

I'm talking about Martin H. Greenberg.

His entry on Fantastic Fiction shows just how proliferate he is. But, scattered amidst the entries are a swag of vampire anthologies marked by their diverse niches.

Sure, he's edited relatively generic collections like Vampires: The Greatest Stories (1991), A Taste for Blood (1991) with Robert E. Weinberg and Stefan R. Dziemianowicz and 100 Vicious Little Vampire Stories (1995), with the same editors and Vampires: A Collection of Original Stories (1991) and Jane Yolen.

But then, we move onto collections for the female persuasion like Vamps: An Anthology of Female Vampire Stories (1987) with Charles G. Waugh and Girl's Night Out: 29 Female Vampire Stories (1997) with Robert E Weinberg and Stefan R Dziemianowicz.

Probably the same crowd that would dig the erotic and romantic subgenres covered in Love in Vein: Twenty Original Tales of Vampiric Erotica (1994) with Poppy Z. Brite and Single White Vampire Seeks Same (2001) with Brittiany A. Koren, respectively.

Kids get coverage in Children of the Night (1999).

For something a bit more blokey, there's the pulp fiction reprints featured in Weird Vampire Tales (1992) with Robert E. Weinberg and Stefan R. Dziemianowicz.

One could argue that the vampire detective genre (Nick Knight, Mick St. John, Vicki Nelson, etc.) spun-off from the pulps. They're also represented in Vampire Detectives (1995).

Their (generally) sympathetic portrayals have come from the romanticisation of the vampire, spearheaded by writers like Anne Rice and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and most recently, Stephenie Meyer. People who dig those types might be interested in Virtuous Vampires (1996) with Robert E Weinberg and Stefan R Dziemianowicz.

That's not to say there isn't a little room for a bit more traditionalism. That's why the vampire hunters get represented in Vampire Slayers: Stories of Those Who Dare to Take Back the Night (1999) with Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. Although, going by the date and the title, it was probably an attempt to cash in on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003).

Success and fame can be a bit of a drain, so take heart with Celebrity Vampires (1995).

The what-ifs presented in that book are given much greater historical scope in the alternate history collection, Time of the Vampires (1996) with P. N. Elrod.

For something much more geographically-focued, Greenberg and Lawrence Schimel's "American Vampire" series incorporated Blood Lines: Vampire Stories from New England (1997), Southern Blood: Vampire Stories from the American South (1997), Fields of Blood: Vampire Stories of the Heartland (1998) and Streets of Blood: Vampire Stories from New York City (1998).

Greenberg and Esther M. Friesner mingled vampires with culture in Blood Muse (1995), stories "all set in the world of the arts - in painting, sculpture, music, the cinema, the theater and the dance, among others."

Count Dracula gets a lil' competition in Rivals of Dracula (1996) with Robert E Weinberg and Stefan R Dziemianowicz.

And lastly, if you prefer to listen to stories, then there's always the Midnight Mass & Other Great Vampire Stories (2002) audiobook.

Martin Harry Greenberg, I salute you!