“The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane”, by Robert E. Howard, illustrated by Gary Gianni

 

 

414 pages, Del Rey, ISBN-13: 978-0345461506

 

In the early oughts, Del Rey began producing the complete works of Robert E. Howard; The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane, illustrated by Gary Gianni, was the second volume to be published. All of the tales featuring Howard’s uncompromising and unstoppable Puritan crusader are to be found here, again printed in the order they were written and published: Skulls in the Stars, The Right Hand of Doom, Red Shadows, Rattle of Bones, The Castle of the Devil, The Moon of Skulls, The Blue Flame of Vengeance, The Hills of the Dead, Hawk of Basti, Wings in the Night, The Footfalls Within and The Children of Asshur, along with the poems The One Black Stain, The Return of Sir Richard Grenville, Solomon Kane’s Homecoming (and a variant), a fragment of a story called Death’s Black Riders, a short biography of Robert E. Howard and notes on the original Howard text and a moving In Memoriam by H. P. Lovecraft to his friend and fellow literary genius.

 

I think I have always liked Solomon Kane as much (if not more) than Conan, no doubt because of his semi-historical status in our own world. In many ways our dour Puritan protagonist is a prototypical swashbuckling hero-type – just what one would expect from a pulp novelist from back in the day – but in many other ways he isn’t, what with all of the occult horrors and mythical races he encounters and combats (most sinister of all is his left-handedness, once thought to be devilish in itself – and I know you picked up on my play of words, you clever foolscap, you). But one thing Kane has in common with Conan is his larger-than-life status, being suitably fearless and totally bad-ass as he travels the world – especially Darkest Africa, circa the 17^th Century – fanatically rooting out evil in all of its guises, as any good Puritan would. But as with all good, well-rounded characters, Kane isn’t perfect, as we see him battling his personal demons; a Man of God who is also a man of violence, Kane in an interesting conundrum as he seeks to quell his inner conflict with an outer crusade against Evil.

 

If you are a fan of old-school pulp fiction and semi-historical characters and events (Sir Francis Drake even makes an appearance!), then I think you’ll really dig Solomon Kane, written by a master of the genre. Not all of the tales are of equal quality, to be sure, but I never once felt cheated by any of the tales here told (always a risk with any anthology). These are some of Howard’s best works (perhaps he felt liberated from Conan?), with vivid imagery as Kane fights duels in England, pursues bandits in France, slaughters flying beasts in Africa and strikes at ghosts and demons and what-not. But it is always Kane’s zealous pursuit of justice in contrast with Conan’s happy-go-lucky wandering that makes such an impression. Howard could write long and absolutely outstanding curses and loud and blood-curdling booming threats, but few cut so deep as Kane’s quiet statement of fact as he stands over a dead, desecrated child: “Men shall die for this”. You believe him when he says it.

“The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home”, by Denise Kiernan

 

416 pages, Atria Books, ISBN-13: 978-1476794051

The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home by Denise Kiernan is about the designing, building, maintaining and legacy of Biltmore, the largest private home in the United States, by its proprietor, George Washington Vanderbilt. Such as it is, The Last Castle is an interesting look into how the Other Half lives, and we see during the contruction of this megalith how the builder grew right along with his house, as Vanderbilt is educated by those he has hired about new ideas and ways of advancing notions of preservation, forestry, agriculture, farming and the harnessing of the local natural resources. He, and later his bride Edith, become engaged in advancing local arts and crafts as a way of bringing economic growth and opportunity to the people that were now their neighbors.

To tell a complete tale, Kiernan goes on at length about Biltmore even after the death of GW, and you will find that a good deal of the Biltmore story, rightfully, centers on George’s widow Edith and her efforts to make Biltmore profitable once it becomes clear that such Gilded Age castles, of which Biltmore is the supreme example, is of a time past, never to return. Edith guides the house’s transformation into something that will sustain itself and keep it viable as the times change. From Edith the baton passed to her daughter, Cornelia, and from her to Edith’s grandsons, the Cecil brothers, who own the house still. Thus, The Last Castle is a history of more than a great house: it is about a family and a community that all changed to meet the challenges life presented them with.

Kiernan has written about building a monument to a dying era and way of life, and how that monument is transformed into an example of successful evolution. We are informed of George Washington Vanderbilt’s life, a brief history of his family and the source of their wealth and George’s place in that family and way of life. His decision to remove himself and his mother to the wilds of North Carolina to build this enormous edifice in the middle of nowhere is difficult to understand, especially considering the daunting logistical challenges that the project entails (I would certainly have enjoyed reading about how those challenges were met, but while the building of the house and the grounds is discussed, it is not discussed in the detail the title would lead you to believe). I think it is fair to say that this book is not about the building of the house, but about the process of building and the effect on the owner and those around him, and especially on the community in which this structure is sited.

Kiernan did exhaustive research to tell us all about George and Edith Vanderbilt and their daughter, Cornelia. We hear about their travels, their spending (vast amounts) of money, their love affairs, their extended families and everything else you could want in an historical account. One lasting accomplishment of George was that he cared for the thousands of acres of forest surrounding his castle and that he hired fine stewards who nurtured the wilderness back to health and established a school of forestry – the first in the nation – and that the Biltmore Estate is the ancestor of the Pisgah National Forest. We hear about that almost more than we hear about George himself. But I never, ever got a sense of what this house he built must have been like when it was actually occupied; it never became a home in my eyes, just a place to build and show off – then again, perhaps that was all it was meant to be.

“Tales of Mystery & Imagination”, by Edgar Allan Poe, illustrated by Harry Clarke

 

384 pages, ISBN-13: 978-1789509397, Arcturus Publishing

Two creative geniuses separated by several decades are brought together in this beautiful edition – and cheap, too: $5.00 marked down to $4.50! Since Edgar Allan Poe’s stories of suspense and horror were first compiled as Tales of Mystery and Imagination in 1902, many gifted artists have tried their hand at illustrating them (notably Gustave Doré, Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac). But it is perhaps Irishman Harry Clarke who has come closest to evoking the delirious claustrophobia and frightening inventiveness of Poe’s feverish stories. For the 1919 edition of Tales, Clarke created the twenty-four monochrome images whose nightmarish, hallucinatory quality makes you wonder if he was on something, until you remember the stories.

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor and literary critic, best known to us today for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. Widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and of American literature as a whole, Poe was one of the United States’ earliest practitioners of the short story; he is also considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre, and his character, Le Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin, is considered by many to be the model for other literary detectives to come after, from Sherlock Holmes to Hercule Poirot. Lastly, Poe was the first well-known American writer to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career, as any author alive today could tell you.

Henry Patrick “Harry” Clarke was a leading figure in the Irish Arts and Crafts Movement and a stained-glass artist and book illustrator; his work was influenced by both Art Nouveau and Art Deco, while his stained glass was particularly informed by the French Symbolist movement. His work as a book illustrator began with commissions for Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock; neither piece was completed and, tragically, much of his work was destroyed during the 1916 Easter Rising. These aborted projects were followed by an edition of Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales and thence by his work on Tales of Mystery & Imagination, the work that would cement his reputation as an artist of the first order.

Interestingly, both Poe and Clarke died at the age of 40.

If you are a fan of Poe then you cannot help but admire the works of Clarke that compliment his chilling work. While separated by generations, it is obvious that Clarke could grasp the darkness and horror that Poe conjured up, his grim pictures more than just additions to the dread words, but equal compliments to the same. If one did not know that several decades separated Edgar Allan and Henry Patrick, one would be excused for thinking that the American author had commissioned the Irish artist to compliment his work, so well do they fit with the stories – then again, perhaps he did: I can imagine a tale dreamt up by Poe in which the ghost of an author whispers his directions in to the receptive ears of an artist who is thence driven to an early grave attempting to convey the darkness only he can hear…perhaps, perhaps…

“Hidden History of Detroit”, by Amy Elliott Bragg

 

160 pages, The History Press, ISBN-13: 978-1609492694

I read Hidden History of Detroit by Amy Elliott Bragg in conjunction with Detroit: A Motor City History (reviewed on November 7^th, 2022) and, between the two, Bragg’s book was more entertaining, if not necessarily more enlightening. This breezy, fun look at Detroit’s past is not so much a straight-up history of the Motor City as it is a series of engaging topics and personalities, some of whom even I had never heard of before. This is the Motor City before the motor: a muddy port town full of grog shops, horse races, haphazard cemeteries and enterprising boot-strappers from all over the nation and even the world, many of whom were eccentric characters after whom the major streets of the city are named.

Some chapters ruminate on themes – bars, streets and cemeteries – and some on personalities – such as the fugitive who founded the city, the tobacco magnate who haunts his shuttered factory, the gambler prankster millionaire who built a monument to himself and the historians who created the story of Detroit as we know it: one of the oldest, rowdiest and most enigmatic cities in the Midwest. Often jumping backward and forward decades at a time, Bragg has a knack for highlighting memorable moments that you’ll almost certainly retell over a drink, from Detroit’s ill-fated experiment with wood roads to Jefferson Avenue’s naming (after Lewis Cass’ friend TJ) to the story of Vernor’s namesake – there’s not a dull page.

While not by any means the most comprehensive history you’ll find on Detroit, these funny, warm and surprisingly personal essays are an entertaining and well-assembled introduction to Detroit’s murky origins.

“Detroit: A Motor City History”, by David Lee Poremba

160 pages, Arcadia Publishing, ISBN-13: 978-0738524351

On July 24^th, 1701, Antoine de La Mothe Cadillac stood in the heart of the wilderness on a bluff overlooking the Detroit River and claimed this frontier in the name of Louis XIV by founding the trading post of Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit, later to become the city of Detroit; thus began the story of Detroit, a city marked by pioneering spirits, industrial acumen, and uncommon durability, all of it documented in Detroit: A Motor City History by David Lee Poremba (part of The Making of America Series). While Detroit is known worldwide as the City that Put the World on Wheels, what is not widely known is that, prior to the birth of the automobile, a tremendous diversity of manufactured goods transformed Detroit from a frontier town into a great industrial city. What is also not widely known is that, over the course of its 300+ year history, Detroit has been sculpted into a city unique in the American experience by its extraordinary mixture of diverse cultures: American Indian, French, British, American colonial, and a variety of immigrant newcomers.

Poremba documents the major events that shaped this once-small French fur-trading outpost across three centuries of conflict and prosperity. Through a collection of remarkable images that are among the oldest of the city, all linked by informative text, Detroit is revealed as a thriving, bustling manufacturing town that served as the world’s leader in a number of important industries. Readers experience firsthand the struggles of the nascent village against raiding Indian tribes and the incessant political and military tug of war between the colonial French and English, and then American interests. Bessemer steel, iron, steel rails, freight cars, stoves, lumber, drugs and cigars are just a few of the products that helped the city build the capital that was later needed to prosper during the automobile era. Detroit played a pivotal role in establishing the country’s economic and industrial power in the 19^th and 20^th Centuries, serving as a center for its well-known civilian and military mass-production resources.

Detroit: A Motor City History examines it all from the foundation through the modern day, and its evolution into a leading industrial center of the Midwest. This visual history provides insight into Detroit’s rapid evolution from a hamlet into a metropolis against a backdrop of important community and national affairs: the decimating fire of 1805, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution, the Great Depression, both world wars, the industrial dominance of the 50s, the riots of the 60s, the decline of the 70s and the unknown future shown in the 80s.

“The Russian Five: A Story of Espionage, Defection, Bribery and Courage”, by Keith Gave

 

Gold Star Publishing, 288 pages, ISBN-13: 978-1949709582

June 13^th, 1997, will go down in history as one of the Darkest Days in the history of the Detroit Red Wings, for that is the day that the career of Vladimir Nikolaevich Konstantinov, one of the best defensemen ever to lace up skates for the Winged Wheel – hell, one of the best defensemen ever to lace up skates EVER – came to a crashing halt when the limousine being driven by Richard Gnida (you son-of-a-bitch) crashed into a tree and caused irreparable brain damage to the Russian hockey star (Russian hockey legend Viacheslav Fetisov and team masseur Sergei Mnatsakanov were also injured; Fetisov recovered from his wounds, while Mnatsakanov did not). It ended also the grand experiment in a different kind of hockey in the NHL, of Russian hockey, as recounted in detail by Keith Gave in The Russian Five: A Story of Espionage, Defection, Bribery and Courage.

As a life-long Detroiter and Wings fan, I already knew much of the story behind Detroit’s acquisitions of the five Russian hockey players – Viacheslav Alexandrovich Fetisov, Igor Nikolayevich Larionov, Vladimir Nikolaevich Konstantinov, Sergei Viktorovich Fedorov and Vyacheslav Anatolevich Kozlov – in the 90s was an interesting one, but the previously untold details in this well-written book reveal danger and intrigue beyond anything I expected. For The Russian Five is the true story of immigrants that became American heroes, teammates that became family and a scrappy, resilient city that became home to the Stanley Cup Champions…twice. It’s a story about hopes and dreams becoming reality, and the harsh reality of dreaming big. The names of the Russian Five are legendary now in the Motor City and their influence is still felt throughout the National Hockey League today as team after team tried, and failed, to emulate what the Wings had done.

Granted, the non-linear style of the book can grate at times, especially for those who are unfamiliar with the players and the topic, but when you are basically compiling five mini-bios, plus a brief history of a hockey team and a sports league, a little jumping ‘round is rather a necessity. Sadly, reading The Russian Five was rather like reading the epitaph of a dear friend; the thrill has gone, the times have changed (damn the Salary Cap) and the players have all moved on. I still love and root for my beloved Winged Wheel, but I don’t know if we will ever see an era like the seasons described by Gave. Mores the pity.

“The Big 50: Detroit Red Wings”, by Helene St. James, forward by Chris Osgood

 

Triumph Books, 336 pages, ISBN-13: 978-1629377773

Evidently, there are a bunch of these The Big 50 books out there featuring sports teams like the Cincinnati Reds or New York Giants, but the one that concerns us today is The Big 50: Detroit Red Wings by Helene St. James, who has covered the team for the Detroit Free Press since 1996, with a forward by Chris Osgood, the sometimes cheered and sometimes maligned former goalie for the Wings for a number of years. What you get are a series of 50 profiles of the men who made (and in some cases, unmade) the Greatest Team in Hockey (screw you, Leafs – and Canadiens, for that matter). There is more to it than that, however, with several little side trips and deviations from the theme.

Such as some hard-to-answer questions about the Wings, like: What if Marguerite Norris had kept control of the Red Wings? Would there never have been a 42-year Stanley Cup drought? Or what if Colleen Howe had brokered a deal with Gordie to play with teenaged sons Mark and Marty in Detroit? How about what if the Wings had stuck to their guns and drafted Pavel Bure in the 1989 draft to go with Lidstrom, Fedorov and Konstantinov? Or even better, what if they had drafted Jaromír Jágr third overall in 1990 rather than Keith Primeau? (Or Derian Hatcher? Or Keith Tkachuk? Or Martin Brodeur? Or…anyone else?) St. James discusses it all from all eras of the Hockeytown franchise.

Probert vs. Kocur. McCarty vs. Lemieux. Everybody vs. Roy. The Fabulous Fifties. The Russian Five. The Captain. It’s all here, a mini-encyclopedia about the Detroit Red Wings that relives their years of glory and gives hope for better days ahead.