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Basil Copper

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Basil Copper
Occupationnovelist, short story writer
NationalityUK
Genrefantasy, horror, Detective fiction

Basil Copper (born 1924) is a prolific English writer and former journalist and newspaper editor. He became a fulltime writer in 1970. In addition to horror and detective fiction, Copper is perhaps best-known for his series of Solar Pons stories continuing the character created as a tribute to Sherlock Holmes by August Derleth. Married, Copper is a longterm resident of Sevenoaks in Kent.

Copper had his very first short story "The Curse" published when he was 14 years old; however his first professionally published short story was "The Spider" in the Fifth Pan Book of Horror Stories(1964). His first book was the Mike Faraday novel The Dark Mirror (1966).

The first of Copper's stories published by editor August Derleth was "The House by the Tarn" in Dark Things (1971). Copper went on to have a long-lived relationship with Derleth's Arkham House, who published his collections From Evil's Pillow (1973) and And Afterward, the Dark (1977) and his novels Necropolis (1980) and The House of the Wolf. His work drew praise from Donald Wandrei who said of him:"He beguiles the mind as he lures the imagination beyond the outposts of reality." Copper's work was also champoined by editor Peter Haining.

Copper's best-known macabre tales include: "The Academy of Pain", "Amber Print", "The Recompensing of Albano Pizar" (dramatised by [[BBC Radio]] 4) "The Candle in the Skull' (read over Hallowe'en on BBC Radio 4), "Better Dead" the acclaimed Lovecraftian novella "Beyond the Reef", "Bright Blades Gleaming" and "Ill Met by Daylight".

Copper is also noted for his Cthulhu Mythos story "Shaft Number 247" in New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos (1980).

Copper's novel The Great White Space (1975) features a character called Clark Ashton Scarsdale who appears to be an affectionate tribute to Clark Ashton Smith.

Though his important work is in the domain of the macabre, he has also written the long-running novel series featuring hard-boiled Los Angelesprivate detective "Mike Faraday" (58 novels from 1966 to 1988).

Copper's interests include swimming, gardening, travel, sailing and historic film material. One of England's leading film collectors, his private archive contained almost one thousand titles (at 1977). He founded the Tunbridge Wells Vintage Film Society and has often given talks at various film organisations in London. [1] He has been a member of the British Film Society and the Vintage Film Circle of London. [2]

Copper's work has been translated into many languages , reprinted in leading anthologies and filmed for television by Universal Pictures. [3] The TV adaptation was of his well-known macabre story "Camera Obscura", filmed as an episode of Rod Serling's Night Gallery in 1971.

His novels Necropolis (a crossover between a Victorian Gothic and a detective story) and The House of the Wolf (a novel of lycanthropy) were both illustrated by Stephen Fabian. Necropolis received a 1981 nomination for the Locus Award Best Fantasy novel category.

Copper edited a 1982 two-volume omnibus collection of Derleth's stories of the 'Pontine' canon, published by Arkham House, a publishing firm founded by Derleth himself and chiefly publishing weird fiction (such as Cthulhu Mythos tales); in that edition, Copper "edited" most of the tales in ways that many Solar Pons aficionados found objectionable[citation needed]. A later omnibus, The Original Text Solar Pons Omnibus Edition, was issued in 2000 under the imprint of Mycroft & Moran (a name which is itself a Holmesian jest); Mycroft & Moran was long a subsidiary of Arkham House (but is no longer so).

Copper has received many honours in recent years. In 1979, the Mark Twain Society of America elected him a Knight of Mark Twain for his outstanding "contribution to modern fiction", while the Praed Street Irregulars have twice honoured him for his work on the Solar Pons series. He has been a member of the Crime Writer's Association for over thirty years, serving as chairman in 1981/82 and on its committee for a total of seven years.

In early 2008, a bio-bibliography was published on him: Basil Copper: A Life in Books, compiled and edited by Stephen Jones. The volume received the 2009 British Fantasy Award for Best Non-Fiction.

In March 2010, Darkness, Mist and Shadow: The Collected Macabre Tales of Basil Copper was launched at the Brighton World Horror Convention as a two-volume set by PS Publishing.

Works

Mike Faraday

  1. The Dark Mirror (1966)
  2. Night Frost (1966)
  3. No Flowers for the General 1967
  4. Scratch on the Dark 1967
  5. Die Now, Live Later 1968
  6. Don't Bleed on Me 1968
  7. The Marble Orchard 1969
  8. Dead File 1970
  9. No Letters from the Grave 1971
  10. The Big Chill 1972
  11. Strong-Arm 1972
  12. A Great Year for Dying 1973
  13. Shock-Wave 1973
  14. The Breaking Point 1973
  15. A Voice from the Dead 1974
  16. Feedback 1974
  17. Ricochet 1974
  18. The High Wall 1975
  19. Impact 1975
  20. A Good Place to Die 1975
  21. The Lonely Place 1976
  22. Crack in the Sidewalk 1976
  23. Tight Corner 1976
  24. The Year of the Dragon 1977
  25. Death Squad 1977
  26. Murder One 1978
  27. A Quiet Room in Hell 1979
  28. The Big Rip-Off 1979
  29. The Caligari Complex 1980
  30. Flip-Side 1980
  31. The Long Rest 1981
  32. The Empty Silence 1981
  33. Dark Entry 1981
  34. Hang Loose 1982
  35. Shoot-Out 1982
  36. The Far Horizon 1982
  37. Trigger-Man 1983
  38. Pressure-Point 1983
  39. Hard Contract 1983
  40. The Narrow Corner 1983
  41. The Hook 1984
  42. You Only Die Once 1984
  43. Tuxedo Park 1985
  44. The Far Side of Fear 1985
  45. Snow-Job 1986
  46. Jet-Lag 1986
  47. Blood on the Moon 1986
  48. Heavy Iron 1987
  49. Turn Down an Empty Glass 1987
  50. Bad Scene 1988
  51. House-Dick 1988
  52. Print-Out (1988)


  1. ^ Back cover blurb, And Afterward the Dark by Basil Copper (Arkham House, 1977)
  2. ^ Back cover blurb, From Evil's Pillow by Basil Copper (Arkham House, 1973).
  3. ^ Back jacket flap blurb, Necropolis by Basil Copper (Arkham House, 1980).


See also

  • Copper, Basil (1977). And Afterward, the Dark. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. ISBN 0-87054-079-3.
  • Reginald, Robert (1992). Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature 1975-1991. Detroit: Gale Research. p. 206. ISBN 0-8103-1825-3.
  • Sullivan, Jack (1986). The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural. New York: Viking Press. p. 96. ISBN 0-670-80902-0.
  • Tuck, Donald H. (1974). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Chicago: Advent. p. 117. ISBN 0-911682-20-1.


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