Books

Juan Aneiros · 11th July 2001, 03:28 AM

I'm starting to update the books page. Will need help with this one, book titles by CL or any books related to him and/or his films.

Please e-mail me any information or links you can contribute. I want to finish this one soon so I can start on the Merchandise.

11th July 2001, 02:04 PM

Juan, I don't know if you're getting a lot of e-mail about the books, or if everyone just assumes Charles will do it (grin). I know I don't want to duplicate someone else's effort, and neither would others, so I'm posting what little I know. Others can add to it.

Christopher Lee: Tall, Dark and Gruesome. Christopher Lee.

The Films of Christopher Lee. Robert W. Pohle Jr. and Douglas C. Hart.

Christopher Lee: The Authorised Screen History. Jonathan Rigby.

Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing and Horror Cinema: A Filmography of Their 22 Collaborations. Mark A. Miller.

The Cult Films of Christopher Lee. Jonathan Sothcott.

Good luck with the list. The site is really getting buff!

Juan Aneiros · 11th July 2001, 02:27 PM

Thank you for the titles. I'll add them right now.

**Alfonso Casal** · 12th July 2001, 06:57 AM

Don't forget the anthology of horror stories Mr. Lee co-edited in the 70s. It was published as Christopher Lee's X-Certificate in the UK, I believe. And under the title Christopher Lee's From the Archives of Evil in the US.

**Charles Prepolec** · 12th July 2001, 11:06 PM

Excellent list Rebecca!

Here are just a few more bits and pieces that might be of interest.

Mr. Lee contributed forewords to:

The Hammer Story. By Marcus Hearn and Alan Barnes. Titan Books, London, 1997.

The Facts About a Feature Film (Making To the Devil a Daughter). By Marjorie Bilbow. Andre Deutsch, London, 1978.

Interview pieces or profiles appear in:

The House of Horror: The Story of Hammer Films. By Alan Eyles, Robert Adkinson and Nicholas Fry. Lorrimer Publications, London, 1973 and The Third Press, New York, 1974.

The same piece appears in a later edition:

House of Horror: The Complete Hammer Films Story(Updated). By Jack Hunter. Creation Books, London, 1994, 1995 (second printing), 1996 (second revised and expanded edition).

A full chapter on Mr. Lee appears in each of the following:

The Horror People. (p.159-179) By John Brosnan. St. Martin's Press, New York, 1976.

Horror Film Stars. (p. 91-107) By Michael R. Pitts. McFarland, Jefferson, 1981.

Cheers,

**Charles Prepolec** · 12th July 2001, 11:18 PM

Oops! I should have added this to my previous post.

For anyone with an interest in books about Hammer, including film crit and tie-in paperbacks, do yourself a favour and visit Jon Older's excellent site The Hammer Books Library. Some great film tie-in cover art is on display. You'll also find images of most of the books mentioned in this thread (CL bios, PC bios, etc...), with the exception of X-Certificate and its variations.

Cheers!

13th July 2001, 12:14 AM

My goodness! What a dazzling list! (And of course you taught me about most of the handful I threw in.) :)

Juan Aneiros · 13th July 2001, 02:53 AM

My thanks to the 3 of you. I haven't been able to do any work on the book section today, but I can assure you that with your help they will all be there.

I was going to say "I love you", but perhaphs is too strong.

**Charles Prepolec** · 13th July 2001, 06:33 PM

Glad to be useful!

So what next? Books that feature Mr. Lee on the cover (picture just about every British horror-film related book of the last 40 years)? Magazines with major interviews and articles about Mr. Lee (Cinefantastique, Famous Monsters, Scarlet Street, Shivers, Hammer House of Horror, Filmfax, Castle of Frankenstein, Star Wars Insider, etc...)? All the Audiobooks he's done (Doyle, Jack Higgins, Poe, etc...)?

LOL. Quite mind-boggling when you start to think of the market penetration of Mr. Lee's image alone, but add text based stuff and it becomes positively stunning. What a huge amount of reference stuff that would be...

You do know I'm only joking here? Right? Right?

Juan Aneiros · 20th July 2001, 07:01 AM

Mr Lee has turned out to be a dark horse, the amount of books he has writen or done introductions for must be larger than his filmography. At the moment, I'm just finding out about old titles all over the place. The main problem is to locate pictures of book covers, ISDNs and availability. To complicate things further there is that other CL in the way, "the historian" .

I might be better off getting the books into a database, otherwise the pages will take ages to load.

:s9:

"Archives of Evil" was published in London by W.H.Allen,1977. Same as his original Autobiography which never reached the US. Are there different publications of this book?

Anyone knows anything about "The Dark Dominion"?

"The Madrigal", Mr Lee's first novel?

TALL, DARK AND GRUESOME.
Author: LEE, Christopher.:
Condition: First Edition. Hardcover. The true first edition of this English actor'sbiography which was re-issued in 1997. Christopher Lee is a noted bookcollector himself and must derive some amusement from the reverenceaccorded to this very scarce edition of his book. There is a small andfaint stain to the slightly browned fore-edge, otherwise very near Finein dustwrapper. A colour photograph of the actor which he has SIGNED isincluded with the book.
Format: Hardcover / First Edition / Dust Jacket / Signed
Associated Dealer: Reigate Rare Books Reigate, SU
Our Price: $373.90
More Info...

Funny, I think Colin payed £10 for it.

**Charles Prepolec** · 20th July 2001, 05:51 PM

Very funny Juan! The Christopher Lee that wrote The Madrigal, is also the author of numerous other books including The Killing of Cinderella, The Killing of Sally Kreemer, The Bath Detective, etc... A short bio of this other Christopher Lee follows:

Christopher Lee was BBC correspondent in Moscow and covered defence and foreign affairs before taking up research in contemporary history at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. It was there that he began writing his history of Britain, which became the award-winning Radio 4 series, This Sceptred Isle. He is a scriptwriter for The Archers, and his own political drama series for radio, The House, ran for six years. He is now writing the second part of his Radio 4 thriller series, Colvil & Soames. He is the author of ten books and has edited four others. Christopher Lee lives in Somerset.

**Charles Prepolec** · 20th July 2001, 06:09 PM

Juan asked "Anyone knows anything about "The Dark Dominion"?"

Well, not really. All I can tell you is that it is an anthology paperback consisting of 8 vampire and werewolf stories. First published in 1970 as a paperback original by the Paperback Library. As far as I know, Mr. Lee's only connection to the book is that he appears on the cover, which incidentally, I have not seen. I think the book's full title is "The Dark Dominion: Eight Terrifying Tales of Vampires and Werewolves". No editor name is listed.

**Charles Prepolec** · 20th July 2001, 06:48 PM

Juan wrote:

Quote:

"Archives of Evil" was published in London by W.H.Allen,1977. Same as his original Autobiography which never reached the US. Are there different publications of this book?

This one gets tricky, but here is what I've found.

The first versions of this title seem to be American paperbacks published in 1976.

- From the Archives of Evil]. New York: Warner Books, 1976. Edited by Michael Parry. Introduction by Christopher Lee. 11 Stories by Bloch, Leiber, Matheson, & Stoker. ISBN:0-446-76884-7

- From the Archives of Evil Number (2) Two. New York: Warner Books, 1976. Edited by Michael Parry. Introduction by Christopher Lee. "A dozen more tales of the macabre to satisfy your taste for terror!" Stories by: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; H. P. Lovecraft; John Collier; Jack London; Theodore Sturgeon; Henry Slesar; W. F. Harvey; Ray Bradbury; H. R. Wakefield; Saki; M. R. Jones; and Massimo Bontempelli.

In 1977 we see the first UK hardcover published.

- Archives of Evil: Presented by Christopher Lee. London: W.H. Allen, 1977. Collection of classic horror stories, favourites of Christopher Lee, by celebrated authors including : Conan Doyle, Jack London, Ray Bradbury, M. R. James, Saki and others. Introduced by Lee, eleven tales in all. Wrapparound jacket design by Les Edwards.

Later reprints (note that CL's name is now part of the title)include:

- Christopher Lee's Archives of Evil. London: Granada, 1979. Paperback.
- Christopher Lee's Archives of Evil. Mayflower, 1979.

**Colin Bushby** · 20th July 2001, 10:09 PM

Well done Charles, quite impressive, and Juan, I only paid £5!! :D for the 1977 edition, i was very lucky (in the right place at the right time) but, alas not a first edition, i don`t think. If you need a scan of it you only need to ask. If copyright alows it.

Juan Aneiros · 21st July 2001, 02:19 AM

Thanks Charles, I think a lot of reasearch needs to be done on this before I publish anything else. I'll ask Mr Lee. There are too many titles.

Collin, the 1977 is the first and only edition of that particular book. I may be wrong, nevertheless £5 is a bargain for a collectors item like that. No need for a scanner, I have the book too.