A View From Corona #13
Jeremy Lassen | November 24th 2003 at 12:57 pm
“The solitary, steep hill called Corona Heights was black as pitch and very silent, like the heart of the unknown. It looked steadily downward and northeast away at the nervous, bright lights of Downtown San Francisco as if it were a great predatory beast of night surveying its territory in patient search of prey.”
- Fritz Leiber, Our Lady Of Darkness
Given the subject matter of the last few Corona columns, a regular reader might think that this forum is only for complaining about things. Well, it IS for complaining, but it is also for celebrating the good things. In this column… lucky 13, I certainly have something to celebrate.
At the 2003 World Fantasy Convention, Night Shade Books received a World Fantasy Award in the “Special Award, Non-Professional” category. Night Shade had been previously nominated in this category in 2001, and just like then, I did not think Night Shade stood a chance of winning. Night Shade had only been publishing books for 5 years. There were several other very successful, prestigious nominees in our category, and I figured it was someone else’s time to shine in the spotlight. I had completely convinced myself that Night Shade would not be selected.
The shock and surprise I felt upon hearing Night Shade’s name announced at the awards banquet was only exceeded by my partner Jason’s, who nearly choked on an ice cube when the award was announced. Due to this shock, I was utterly unprepared to deliver an acceptance speech. The few words that I managed to stammer out were not sufficient… I did not thank anybody individually, and I was unable to properly articulate the historical perspective that, for me, makes this award particularly important. I’d like to try and do so here.
First and foremost, my wife has put up with me and my publishing antics for 5 years. For that, the award is just as much hers as it is mine. She has contributed in a large way to help make Night Shade what it is today.
This leads into another point that I tried to articulate at the awards banquet. Night Shade Books is only as good as the people who make it possible. It is of course, ultimately, the authors who make the books possible. During the last five years, Night Shade has had the honor of publishing some of the finest writers in the field, and we have been lucky enough to work with some very gifted artists and designers. It may say “Night Shade” on the base of the Howard, but what is really there, to my mind, are the names of every author and artist that Night Shade has had the privilege of working with.
In particular, two authors have been instrumental in making Night Shade what it is today.
They are of course, Manly Wade Wellman, and Karl Edward Wagner. Sadly, I never met either. I was privileged to know Manly through his work as a writer, and was even more intimate with Karl, who’s fiction not only inspired me, but who’s editorial work, and non-fiction inspired me from a very early age.
I have already spoken in this column about how influential the Wagner edited Conan volumes were in my formative years. In addition to this, Karl’s Year’s Best Horror… anthology, with its insightful introductions and author notes made me feel like an insider, even though I had never attended a convention, or met any of the authors he reprinted. His long running column, “A View From Carcosa” was obviously one of the direct inspirations for this column. Karl, through his work, made me feel like part of a community… and this feeling made me want to be an actual member of, and contributor to that community.
One of the first projects Night Shade Books took on… 5 years ago… was to commit to a five volume set of the weird fiction of Manly Wade Wellman. This project was not taken on because we thought it would make money – In fact we expected to loose money on the project – but because Wellman was a critical influence on the owners of Night Shade, we felt it was an important project that simply needed to be done.
Karl had done an excellent job of collecting Wellman’s weird fiction in book form, but by 1998, those editions were incredibly expensive, even for ex-library reading copies. Essentially, Wellman’s work was once again unavailable to a new generation of readers. We expected to sell a few copies to libraries, and a few copies to collectors… and most importantly, a few copies to a new generation of readers who wanted to read some of the primal sources that helped define the genre. Even at $35 dollars, the Night Shade editions were cheaper then anything available.
It turns out there was a large demand for Wellman’s work that was just waiting to be tapped. Many people committed to a subscription to the series long before the first book was released. These peoples faith in Night Shade allowed us to get through some lean times, as did the very solid sales of each volume as we put them out. When nothing else was selling, Wellman sold, and sold enough copies to keep the lights on.
And this is where the circle comes full. Karl won the World Fantasy Award (in the Special Award Non-Professional category) in 1976 (along with Dave Drake and James Groce) for his work at Carcosa. A year earlier, Carcosa’s collection of Manly’s fiction, Worse Things Waiting won the World Fantasy Award for best collection. In 1980, Manly was honored with the World Fantasy award for Lifetime Achievement…
Night Shade Books, during its first five years, has published a five volume set of Manly Wade Wellman’s weird fiction, and has reprinted all of Karl Edward Wagner’s “Kane” fiction in a matching two-volume set. Both of these sets represent the spiritual and financial foundations upon which Night Shade has grown.
It is with this history in mind that Night Shade, with pride, but also with great humility, accepts the World Fantasy Award (in the same category that Carcosa was honored in 18 years earlier) in the names of every author that Night Shade has published, and specifically in the names of Manly and Karl, who, in every way, made Night Shade possible.
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