John Collier (writer)
Encyclopedia
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
, many of which appeared in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
from the 1930s to the 1950s. They were collected in a 1951 volume, Fancies and Goodnights
Fancies and Goodnights
Fancies and Goodnights is a collection of fantasy short stories by John Collier, first published by Doubleday Books in hardcover in 1951. A paperback edition followed from Bantam Books in 1953, and it has been repeatedly reprinted over more than five decades, most recently in the New York Review...
, which won the International Fantasy Award
International Fantasy Award
The International Fantasy Award was an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy book and, in 1951-1953, the best non-fiction book of interest to science fiction and fantasy readers. The IFA was given by an international panel of prominent fans and professionals in 1951-1955 and...
and remains in print. Individual stories are frequently anthologized in fantasy collections. John Collier's writing has been praised by authors such as Anthony Burgess
Anthony Burgess
John Burgess Wilson – who published under the pen name Anthony Burgess – was an English author, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. The dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange is Burgess's most famous novel, though he dismissed it as one of his lesser works...
, Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
, Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer, fighter pilot and screenwriter.Born in Wales to Norwegian parents, he served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence agent, rising to the rank of Wing Commander...
, Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
, Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon born May 24, 1963) is an American author and "one of the most celebrated writers of his generation", according to The Virginia Quarterly Review....
and Paul Theroux
Paul Theroux
Paul Edward Theroux is an American travel writer and novelist, whose best known work of travel writing is perhaps The Great Railway Bazaar . He has also published numerous works of fiction, some of which were made into feature films. He was awarded the 1981 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his...
. He was married to early silent film actress Shirley Palmer. His second marriage in 1942 was to New York actress Beth Kay (Margaret Elizabeth Eke). They divorced a decade later. He had one child, a son, from his third marriage.
Born in London in 1901, John Collier was privately educated by his uncle Vincent Collier, a novelist. When, at the age of 18 or 19, Collier was asked by his father what he had chosen as a vocation, his reply was, "I want to be a poet." His father indulged him; over the course of the next ten years Collier lived on an allowance of two pounds a week plus whatever he could pick up by writing book reviews and acting as a cultural correspondent for a Japanese newspaper. During this time, being not overly burdened by any financial responsibilities, he developed a penchant for games of chance, conversation in cafes and visits to picture galleries. He never attended university.
Poetry to novels and short stories
For ten years Collier attempted to reconcile intensely visual experience opened to him by the SitwellsThe Sitwells
The Sitwells , from Scarborough, North Yorkshire, were three siblings, who formed an identifiable literary and artistic clique around themselves in London in the period roughly 1916 to 1930...
and the modern painters with the more austere preoccupations of those classical authors who were fashionable in the 1920s. He felt that his poetry was unsuccessful, however; he was not able to make his two selves (whom he oddly described as the "archaic, uncouth, and even barbarous" Olsen and the "hysterically self-conscious dandy" Valentine) speak with one voice.
Being an admirer of James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
, Collier found a solution in Joyce's Ulysses
Ulysses (novel)
Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
. "On going for my next lesson to Ulysses
Ulysses (novel)
Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
, that city of modern prose," he wrote, "I was struck by the great number of magnificent passages in which words are used as they are used in poetry, and in which the emotion which is originally aesthetic, and the emotion which has its origin in intellect, are fused in higher proportions of extreme forms than I had believed was possible." The few poems he wrote during this time were afterwards published in a volume under the title Gemini. While he had written some short stories during the period in which he was trying to find success as a poet, his career did not take shape until the publication of His Monkey Wife in 1930. It enjoyed a certain small popularity and critical approval that helped to sell his short stories. As a private joke, Collier wrote a decidedly cool four-page review of His Monkey Wife, describing it as an attempt "to combine the qualities of the thriller with those of what might be called the decorative novel," and concluding with the following appraisal of the talents of its author: "From the classical standpoint his consciousness is too crammed for harmony, too neurasthenic for proportion, and his humor is too hysterical, too greedy, and too crude."
His stories may be broadly classified as fantasies but are really sui generis
Sui generis
Sui generis is a Latin expression, literally meaning of its own kind/genus or unique in its characteristics. The expression is often used in analytic philosophy to indicate an idea, an entity, or a reality which cannot be included in a wider concept....
. They feature an acerbic wit and are usually ironic or dark in tone. Like the stories of P. G. Wodehouse
P. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...
, they are perfectly constructed and feature a brilliant literary craftsmanship that can easily escape notice. His stories are memorable; people who cannot recall title or author will nevertheless remember "the story about the people who lived in the department store" ("Evening Primrose") or "the story in which the famous beauties that the man magically summons all say 'Here I am on a tiger-skin again'" ("Bottle Party").
A characteristic point of his style is that the titles of many of his stories reveal (or at least telegraph) what would otherwise be a surprise ending.
Two examples, both from "Over Insurance," may illustrate his style. The story opens:
They become distressed at the possibility of each others' death, and agree that their only consolation would be to cry. However, they decide that it would be better to cry in luxury. Irwin observes:
Other media
In the succeeding years, Collier traveled between England, France and Hollywood. While he did continue to write short stories, as time went on he would turn his attention more and more towards writing screenplays.Having moved to Hollywood in 1935, Collier wrote most prolifically for film and television. He contributed notably to the screenplays of The African Queen along with James Agee
James Agee
James Rufus Agee was an American author, journalist, poet, screenwriter and film critic. In the 1940s, he was one of the most influential film critics in the U.S...
and John Huston
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics: The Maltese Falcon , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , Key Largo , The Asphalt Jungle , The African Queen , Moulin Rouge...
, the Elephant Boy
Elephant Boy
Elephant Boy may refer to:*Elephant Boy , a 1937 film based on a story from Kipling's Jungle Book* "Elephant Boy", the nickname of Fred Schreiber, of The Howard Stern Shows The Wack Pack...
, The War Lord
The War Lord
The War Lord is a 1965 film starring Charlton Heston, Richard Boone, Rosemary Forsyth, Guy Stockwell, Maurice Evans, Niall MacGinnis, Henry Wilcoxon and James Farentino, with Jon Alderson, Allen Jaffe, Sammy Ross, and Woodrow Parfrey. The film was directed by the future Oscar winning Director...
, I Am A Camera
I Am a Camera (film)
I Am a Camera is a British comedy-drama film released in 1955. Based on The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood and the play I Am a Camera by John Van Druten, the film is a fictionalized account of Isherwood's time living in Berlin between the World Wars...
(adapted from The Berlin Stories
The Berlin Stories
The Berlin Stories is a book consisting of two short novels by Christopher Isherwood: Goodbye to Berlin and Mr Norris Changes Trains. It was published in 1945....
and remade later as Cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
), Sylvia Scarlett
Sylvia Scarlett
Sylvia Scarlett is a 1935 romantic comedy film starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, based on The Early Life and Adventures of Sylvia Scarlett, a novel by Compton MacKenzie. Directed by George Cukor, it was notorious as one of the most famous unsuccessful movies of the 1930s...
, Her Cardboard Lover
Her Cardboard Lover
Her Cardboard Lover is a 1942 American comedy film directed by George Cukor. The screenplay by Jacques Deval, John Collier, Anthony Veiller, and William H. Wright is based on the English translation of Deval's play Dans sa candeur naïve by Valerie Wyngate and P.G. Wodehouse...
, Deception
Deception
Deception, beguilement, deceit, bluff, mystification, bad faith, and subterfuge are acts to propagate beliefs that are not true, or not the whole truth . Deception can involve dissimulation, propaganda, and sleight of hand. It can employ distraction, camouflage or concealment...
and Roseanna McCoy
Roseanna McCoy
Roseanna McCoy is a 1949 American drama film directed by Irving Reis. The screenplay by John Collier, based on the 1947 novel of the same title by Alberta Hannum, is a romanticized and semi-fictionalized account of the Hatfield-McCoy feud.-Plot:...
. He received the Edgar Award
Edgar Award
The Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...
in 1952 for the short story collection "Fancies and Goodnights" which also won the International Fantasy Award
International Fantasy Award
The International Fantasy Award was an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy book and, in 1951-1953, the best non-fiction book of interest to science fiction and fantasy readers. The IFA was given by an international panel of prominent fans and professionals in 1951-1955 and...
in 1952. His short story "Evening Primrose" was the subject of a 1966 television musical by Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
, and it was also adapted for the radio series Escape
Escape (radio program)
Escape was radio's leading anthology series of high-adventure radio dramas, airing on CBS from July 7, 1947 to September 25, 1954. Since the program did not have a regular sponsor like Suspense, it was subjected to frequent schedule shifts and lower production budgets, although Richfield Oil signed...
and by BBC Radio
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
. Several of his stories, including "Back for Christmas," "Wet Saturday" and "De Mortuis" were adapted for the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...
.
Death
John Collier died in 1980 in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, CaliforniaPacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California
Pacific Palisades is an affluent neighborhood and district within the U.S. city of Los Angeles, California, located among Brentwood to the east, Malibu and Topanga to the west, Santa Monica to the southeast, the Santa Monica Bay to the southwest, and the Santa Monica Mountains to the north. The...
. Near the end of his life, he wrote, "I sometimes marvel that a third-rate writer like me has been able to palm himself off as a second-rate writer."
Novels
- His Monkey Wife: or Married to a Chimp (1930) (currently in print, ISBN 0-9664913-3-5)
- No Traveller Returns (1931)
- Tom's a-Cold (1933) (published in the U.S. as Full Circle)
- Defy the Foul Fiend: or The Misadventures of a Heart (1934)
Short story collections
- Green Thoughts (1932; the story inspired Little Shop of HorrorsThe Little Shop of HorrorsThe Little Shop of Horrors is a 1960 American comedy film directed by Roger Corman. Written by Charles B. Griffith, the film is a farce about an inadequate young florist's assistant who cultivates a plant that feeds on human flesh and blood. The film's concept is thought to be based on a 1932...
) - The Devil and All (1934)
- Variations on a Theme (1934)
- Presenting Moonshine (1941)
- The Touch of Nutmeg, and More Unlikely Stories (1943)
- Fancies and Goodnights (1951) (paperback reprint currently in print, ISBN 1-59017-051-2) (Note: The first edition contains fifty stories, as do some paperback editions, including the Bantam paperback and the paperback edition currently. The one presently in print is the latest version including all later additions. (Note that Pictures in the Fire and The John Collier Reader contain a few stories not in any edition of Fancies and Goodnights. There is also a story that appears in both The Devil and All and The Touch of Nutmeg, but is in no later collection.)
- Pictures in the Fire (1958)
- The John Collier Reader (1972) (includes His Monkey Wife in its entirety, chapters 8 and 9 of Defy the Foul Fiend, and selected stories)
- The Best of John Collier (1975) (paperback containing all the short items from The John Collier Reader, but without His Monkey Wife, which was issued as a separate volume)
Other works
- Gemini (1931) Poetry collection
- Paradise Lost: Screenplay for Cinema of the Mind (1973) An adaptation from Milton that was never produced as a film. Collier changed the format slightly to make it more readable in book form.
- Sleeping Beauty: This short story was used as the basis for James B.Harris' 1973 fantasy film Some Call It Loving AKA Dream Castle, the screenplay written by Zalman KingZalman KingZalman King is an American film director, writer, actor and producer. His directing and writing productions are known for incorporating erotica as a centerpiece to plots which are nevertheless about greater issues.-Acting:As a young man in 1963 he played a gang member on Alfred Hitchcock Presents...
.
Selected short stories
- "Another American Tragedy" — A man murders an aged rich relative and impersonates him to change the will in his own favor- only to discover he isn't the only one who wants the old man dead.
- "Back for Christmas" — originally published in the 13 December 1939 issue of The Tattler this story has been dramatised many times: once for Alfred Hitchcock PresentsAlfred Hitchcock PresentsAlfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...
, three times for the SuspenseSuspense (radio program)-Production background:One of the premier drama programs of the Golden Age of Radio, was subtitled "radio's outstanding theater of thrills" and focused on suspense thriller-type scripts, usually featuring leading Hollywood actors of the era...
radio series (Peter LorrePeter LorrePeter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M...
portrayed the main character in the first broadcast in 1943, the 1948, and 1956 broadcasts both starred Herbert MarshallHerbert MarshallHerbert Marshall , born Herbert Brough Falcon Marshall, was an English actor.His parents were Percy F. Marshall and Ethel May Turner. He graduated from St. Mary's College in Old Harlow, Essex and worked for a time as an accounting clerk...
), as well as once for an episode of Tales of the UnexpectedTales of the Unexpected (TV series)Tales of the Unexpected is a British television series originally aired between 1979 and 1988, made by Anglia Television for ITV. Filming began in 1978.The series was an anthology of different tales...
. - "Bottle Party" — A jinnGenieJinn or genies are supernatural creatures in Arab folklore and Islamic teachings that occupy a parallel world to that of mankind. Together, jinn, humans and angels make up the three sentient creations of Allah. Religious sources say barely anything about them; however, the Qur'an mentions that...
(genie) tricks a man into taking his place in the bottle. - "The Chaser" — A young man buying a genuine love potion cannot understand why the seller sells love potions for a dollar, but also offers a colorless, tasteless, undetectable poison at a much, much higher price.
- "Wet Saturday" — Stuck in doors on a wet Saturday a family must deal with a problem. The problem turns out to be murder. Dramatised in the Suspense radio series broadcast on June 24, 1942.
- "Cancel All I Said" — A couple's young daughter takes a screen test. The couple's lives are torn apart by the studio head's verbal offer to make the child a star.
- "Evening Primrose" — Probably his most famous; about people who live in a department store, hiding during the day and coming out at night.
- "Interpretation of a Dream" — A man experiences disturbing and serial dreams of falling from the thirty-ninth story of the skyscraper in which he works, passing one story every night. In his dreams he looks through the window and makes detailed and veridical observations of the real-life inhabitants as he passes.
- "Over Insurance" — A loving couple puts nine-tenths of their money into life insurance and becomes so impoverished that each decides to poison the other, unaware that the other has made the same decision.
- "Special Delivery" — A man falls into love with a department-store mannequin. This was later adapted for an episode of the 1960s TV series Journey to the UnknownJourney to the UnknownJourney To The Unknown was a British TV anthology series made in 1968, by Hammer Film Productions Ltd. It has a fantasy, science fiction and supernatural theme. It featured both British and American actors...
, retitled "Eve", which starred Dennis WatermanDennis WatermanDennis Waterman is a British actor and singer, best known for his tough-guy roles in television series including The Sweeney, Minder and New Tricks.-Early life:...
and Carol LynleyCarol LynleyCarol Lynley is an American actress and former child model.-Life and career:Lynley was born Carole Ann Jones in New York City, the daughter of Frances , a waitress, and Cyril Jones. Her father was Irish and her mother, a native of New England, was of English, Scottish, Welsh, German, and Native...
. - "The Steel Cat" — Inventor uses his pet mouse to demonstrate his better mousetrap to an insensitive prospect who insists on seeing the mouse actually die.
- "Three Bears Cottage" — A man tries unsuccessfully to poison his wife with a mushroom as retaliation for serving him a smaller egg than the one she served herself.
- "The Touch of Nutmeg Makes It" — A man tried for murder and acquitted for lack of motive tells his story to sympathetic friends.
- "Youth from Vienna" — A couple, whose careers (tennis player and actress) depend on youth, are forced to deal with a gift of a single dose of rejuvenating medicine that cannot be divided or shared. This story was the basis for The Fountain of YouthThe Fountain of Youth (film)The Fountain of Youth is a 1956 TV pilot for a proposed Desilu TV series which was never produced, and was subsequently televised once, on September 16, 1958 for NBC's Colgate Theatre...
a 1956 TV pilot for a proposed anthology series, produced by Desilu and written, directed, and hosted by Orson WellesOrson WellesGeorge Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
. - "Thus I Refute Beelzy" — An odiously rational father is confounded by the imagination of his small son.
External links
- John Collier Collection at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at AustinUniversity of Texas at AustinThe University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
- A Guide to Supernatural Fiction: John Collier