THE RAMBLE HOUSE RAMBLER #27
October 11, 2004
The headlines:
~ New Classic - THE
CRIMSON CLOWN by Johnston McCulley
~ New Hot Classic - Sex Slave by Dion LeClerc
~ Ramble House Tackles Norman Berrow Soon
~ Ramble House Madness: New Old Books for Old Old Books!
~ The Catchy Tune o' Th' Day
~ Projects In Progress
And now, the details:
~ Thanks to Gavin O'Keefe,
Ramble House has added a classic superhero novelist to its sanctuary of loons:
Johnston McCulley. His episodic 1927 work, THE CRIMSON CLOWN is now available
for $18 only From Ramble House. Long forgotten, but one of the very first
superheroes of crime-novels, the Crimson Clown is a suave man-about-town (the
town is London) who lives to steal from the rich and larcenous and give half to
the poor through charities. Jewelry is his preferred swag but he'll take
negotiable stocks and bonds. His gimmick is to do all his robbing of the rich in
a silk full-body clown's costume with a red cowl and white mask. He carries a
pistol filled with tear gas -- no real violence for our hero -- and a vial of
acid. The acid he uses to destroy his costume when it's no longer needed or
becomes dangerous to have on his person. Unlike the hyper-buff Superman or
Batman, the Crimson Clown wears his costume OVER his clothes. But his main
weapon of choice is a hypodermic needle filled with a drug that causes his
victims to become unconscious for about fifteen minutes. He seems to love
injecting people -- always in the wrist! -- and occasionally diverts suspicion
from himself by jabbing his own wrist. Gavin has scanned, OCRed, edited and
provided a beautiful dust jacket for this 313-page book that I am proud to add
to the Ramble House catalog.
~ If you're in for a little salacious history, may I recommend the latest
Ramble House novel, Dion LeClerc's 1966 potboiler, SEX SLAVE. Chock full of
virgins -- at least at the beginning -- sold on the slave block, it tells the
historical story of Cybele and her introduction into the Vestal Virgins in Rome
in the days of Brutus, Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. Obviously LeClerc spent
hours of research into the sexual mores of the time, because he goes into some
detail when describing the various seductions, betrayals and machinations of the
powerful rulers of the ancient world. The 180-page book is $18 and available for
the first time since 1966. Gavin O'Keefe's dust jacket may be a bit much for
children and small pets.
~ I've come into the possession of three books by Norman Berrow, who may
become the next Harry Stephen Keeler if I can find more of his very-hard-to-find
mysterious novels. Try to find a book by Berrow -- any book -- on eBay or at
ABEBooks or Amazon and you'll see what I mean. The three I have are: DON'T GO
OUT AFTER DARK (1950), THE BISHOP'S SWORD (1948) and THE GHOST HOUSE (1978
revision of a 1940 novel of the same name). They should be ready in about a
month. For various reasons these three books may be ones that you'll have to
contact me for, rather than my advertising them. So check out Berrow and if you
want to read these three -- and more as I find them -- get in touch with me and
we'll deal.
~ Ramble House Madness: New Old Books For Old Old Books! It sounds crazy
but that's what I'm offering. Ramble House has over 160 new old books in its
catalog and I'm offering your choice of them for every old old book you send me.
Here's the deal.
I'm looking for old beat-up copies of odd, weird, forgotten, controversial,
subversive, decadent, anti-all-that-we-hold-holy books that you may have in your
library. Not just any old odd, etc. book, but one that I can scan, OCR and
publish in the Ramble House style. Because it's probable that I will tear the
book page from page I'm especially looking for books that are unsellable, even
though they are full of great words. Even hardbacks I will rip the cover off and
then slice the spine off with my trusty paper cutter.
If you think you have such a book, don't send it. First e-mail me and let's
find out if Ramble House can really use it. I'll want to do a copyright search
in many cases. If I can use it, we'll work out a swap deal based on how badly I
want that book.
What kinds of books are we talking about? Well, there are several reference
books that list the paperbacks that have sold for $100 or more in the past ten
years. Those are the kind of paperbacks I'm looking for. Of course the copies
that sold for $$$ are usually mint condition copies. Don't send me those! Sell
them yourself if you need the money. I want old, ragged, pages-loose copies that
even collectors wouldn't want. I prefer books written before 1950. Anything
gritty from the pulps. Nothing by anyone famous or still in print like Erle
Stanley Gardner, Agatha Christie, F. Scott Fitzgerald and that crowd. Cult
writers or forgotten writers only.
Instead of saving up for Ramble House's $18 books you may have some decaying
masterpiece on your shelf right now that you can trade. Think about it. And keep
an eye out in used bookstores and flea markets. A book may be too smelly and
stained for your tastes but it's right down my alley. Buy it for $1 and trade it
for an $18 Ramble House book.
~ I finally figured out how to check the traffic at the Ramble House web
site and found that I am using about 1% of my allowed bandwith. So I have
started a new musical thing on the opening page of the Ramble House site called
THE CATCHY TUNE O' TH' DAY. Every day -- except the days I forget -- I'll put up
a new song you can listen to from the catalog of Knees Calhoon. These are all
original songs written by Knees back in the 60s and 70s when he was a guitar
picker in the slovenly dives of Durango Colorado and Farmington and Las Cruces
New Mexico. They're all short -- in time and download -- MP3s and are easy to
hear. Just click on the link and the song will be downloaded. At cable modem
speeds, it takes less than five seconds. A player module on your computer will
play the song for you. Save it if you want. I don't care.
I've been doing this for about two weeks now and since I'm doing the songs in
chronological order, I'm up to about 1972 when Knees was finally out of the army
and totally immersed in the cannabis-riddled bar scenes of Durango at its
headiest. Go to www.ramblehouse.com and
check out Knees' songs, recorded by me in the early 90s on my home 4-track
studio. Four tracks -- just like Sergeant Pepper!
~ IN PROGRESS -- I'm still slowly plugging away at three books by Joel
Townsley Rogers (LADY WITH THE DICE, ONCE IN A RED MOON, NEVER LEAVE MY BED and
THE STOPPED CLOCK (longer version of NEVER LEAVE MY BED)). Also, THE AFFAIR OF
THE BOTTLED DEUCE and STREET OF 1000 EYES by Harry Stephen Keeler. More news on
them as it happens.
And here the Ramble House Rambler mercifully ends.