To Charles Fort, with Love [Hardcover]

Caitlin R. Kiernan (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Kiernan ranks as one of today's finest practitioners of "the art of disquiet," as Ramsey Campbell notes in his perspicacious afterword to this remarkable collection. Her enigmatic short stories are written in lyrical prose that sweeps the reader completely into strange dark worlds where characters choose to embrace madness over the mundane and nightmares offer guidance as well as fear. Even when subtly alluding to H.P. Lovecraft, as many of these stories do ("So Runs the World Away," "The Dead and the Moonstruck," etc.) Kiernan's voice remains unique. In these evocative tales, bathrooms can transport you to an alien sea ("Onion"), paleontology can lead to damnation ("Valentia"), and even a mud puddle can touch on the unknowable and its terrors ("Standing Water"). The volume's sole original entry, "La Peau Verte," weaves a multiplicity of truths and the attractions of the forbidden into a small masterpiece of mystery. Exquisite interior illustrations by Richard Kirk enhance these 13 "love letters" to Charles Fort, collector of strange and anomalous phenomena.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Now largely forgotten, except as inspiration for the title of the glossy monthly, Fortean Times, Charles Fort (1874-1932) was an ardent skeptic who devoted himself to studying paranormal phenomena and eventually publishing his findings as The Book of the Damned (1919). In homage to him, Kiernan's third story collection presents 13 explorations of the less-reputable fringes of science. More than a few focus on anomalies that have mirror images in the real world. In one story, paleontologists discover on an Irish isle the fossilized tracks of fairylike creatures that predate the dinosaur era--similar tracks were actually documented in 1994. Other tales look into the dark possibilities of summoning spirits via a Ouija board and of a spectral animal haunting the hallways in a young couple's apartment. Each story is steeped in Kiernan's masterfully evocative, eerie prose, which echoes the best of Lovecraft. Fans of horror fiction who are just discovering Kiernan's rare gifts should use this volume as a stepping-stone to her equally brilliant novels (e.g., The Dry Salvages, 2004). Carl Hays
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 270 pages
• Publisher: Subterranean Press; First Edition edition (September 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596060344
• ISBN-13: 978-1596060340
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,101,046 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Caitlin R. Kiernan was born near Dublin, Ireland, but has spent most of her life in the southeastern United States. In college, she studied zoology, geology, and palaeontology, and has been employed as a vertebrate palaeontologist and college-level biology instructor. The results of her scientific research have been published in the JOURNAL OF VERTEBRATE PALAEONTOLOGY, THE JOURNAL OF PALAEONTOLOGY and elsewhere. In 1992, she began writing her first novel, THE FIVE OF CUPS (it remained unpublished until 2003). Her first published novel, SILK (1998), earned her two awards and praise from critics and such luminaries as Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Peter Straub, and Poppy Z. Brite. Her next novel, THRESHOLD (2001), was also an award-winner, and since then she has written LOW RED MOON (2003), MURDER OF ANGELS (2004), DAUGHTER OF HOUNDS (2007), and, forthcoming, THE RED TREE. She is a prolific short fiction author, and her award-winning short stories have been collected in TALES OF PAIN AND WONDER (2000), WRONG THINGS (with Poppy Z. Brite; 2001), FROM WEIRD AND DISTANT SHORES (2002), and TO CHARLES FORT, WITH LOVE (2005), ALABASTER (2006), FROG TOES AND TENTACLES (2005), TALES FROM THE WOEFUL PLATYPUS (2007), and, most recently, the sf collection, A IS FOR ALIEN (2009). She has also scripted comics for DC/Vertigo, including THE DREAMING ('97-'01), THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE DEATH ('98), and BAST: ETERNITY GAME ('03). Her short sf novel THE DRY SALVAGES was published in 2004, and has published numerous chapbooks since 2000. Caitlin also fronted the goth-rock band Death's Little Sister in 1996-1997, once skinned a lion, and likes sushi. She lives in Providence, RI with her partner, Kathryn, and her two cats, Hubero and Smeagol. Caitlin is represented by Writer's House (NYC) and United Talent Agency (LA).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential story collection, October 5, 2005

By 

E.J. - See all my reviews

This review is from: To Charles Fort, with Love (Hardcover)

This book is a treasure; buy a copy while you have a chance. The stories are gripping and the prose masterful. The tales linger in the memory and will surely reward future re-reading.

Kiernan's wonderful short fiction has won numerous honors and awards, and the reasons are quickly apparent.

The attention to excellence throughout the book goes beyond the wonderful tales and prose to the physical product and details like interior illustrations, dusk jacket design, and a gripping introduction that eases into an unsettling personal anecdote, as memorable and fascinating as many of the tales themselves.

This book is filled with writing to be savored.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Really an exceptional collection, December 7, 2005

By 

Cherie Priest "Cherie Priest" (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews

This review is from: To Charles Fort, with Love (Hardcover)

I was given this (impossibly beautiful) Subterranean edition a few weeks ago, and I am mighty grateful for it. By and large, this is one of the strongest short story collections I've ever gotten my hands on - and I highly recommend it for a bit of late-night reading over a glass of wine.

It was my personal (and by no means authoritative) opinion that the first and last few stories are the strongest in the compilation; I felt a little let down by a few of the middle ones. One or two felt like filler, and a couple others read like some brilliant beginnings to much longer pieces that I was disappointed not to have at my disposal. But this is absolutely the worst that can be said for it.

Beware of purchasing it as a gift. You might be reluctant to pass it on to its intended recipient.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's that good., December 28, 2005

By 

Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Lakewood, OH) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: To Charles Fort, with Love (Hardcover)

Caitlin R. Kiernan, To Charles Fort, with Love (Subterranean Press, 2005)

Once again Subterranean exceeds expectations by having constructed a beautiful book. It's amazing how much difference there can be between a book from a major publisher and one from a small press; pick up just about any title from Subterranean, Ziesing, Prime, etc., and the difference will immediately be obvious. The beauty of the construction alone is enough that any Subterranean Press book I've ever come across starts off in a better place, from the standpoint of reviewing it, than most.

Inside this one, in particular, are the stories of Caitlin R. Kiernan, whose work, in my experience, has never once failed to do justice to the labor-of-love construction one finds at Subterranean. Kiernan's work is never less than excellent. It is sometimes difficult, sometimes confusing (in a good way), always thought-provoking. If you've been a fan for a while, you've probably read one or two of these (most likely "Standing Water" and "Onion," both of which are well worth the re-read), but unless you're a fanatic with far more money than I, there will be a few in here that are likely new to you. I always seem to come back to comparing Kiernan's work to Candles for Elizabeth, and of course that was where my head went immediately upon finishing this collection; many of these stories are just as good as the work in that chapbook, which, from my POV, ranks them among the best of her stuff that I have yet come across.

Wonderful. You want this. **** ½