Why I am Tracking William Scott Home
In 2015, I corresponded with horror fantasy writer
William Scott Home (also published as W. S. Home and Scott Home) to get
detailed information for a Wikipedia article on
his life and works. It soon became clear that there was a wealth of information
in Scott’s letters and drafted biography that would never make it into Wikipedia,
mostly due to poor or absent sources.
The Wikipedia project was the brainchild of Scott’s
sister, Ruth. She had seen a post by blogger Bill, on his site The Kind of Face You Hate,
that wondered aloud whatever had become of Scott, and she began thinking of
ways to make Scott better known. I offered to help. Researching Scott’s publications was exhilarating. Not only did I know very
little about his work when I began, I knew very little about the entire horror
/ dark fantasy genre. Following the connections, reading the works, getting to know the players
(virtually, that is, and mostly posthumously — rather fitting, given the genre) — it was one of the more
interesting projects I had ever taken on. Also, Scott himself is delightfully entertaining and wickedly smart, so it has been a pleasure to try and bring his work to the attention of more readers.
Given how unique, and yet largely overlooked, Scott Home
is, it seemed important to create a web presence for him that more accurately
reflected his life and interests, as well as his writings, than was allowed by
Wikipedia’s format and rules. Thus, this site, which provides his general biography (see the post Some History) and some colorful background on his writings. If you like dark fantasy (and we’re not
talking Twilight, here — this is mad,
dark Poe territory all the way), you, too, will want to track down some of his
published works.
So, if you found this site because you were looking
for Scott, Welcome! Now wipe all 8
of your little feet and play nice.
hello! Thank you fir creating a blog about the writer William Scott Home. I have been a huge fan if Home's work since I read A Cobweb of Pulsing Veins in the Karl Edward Wagner edited collection of The Years Best Horror Stories. I tried to track down Hollow Faces Merciless Moons for many years, but it wasn't till the age of the Internet that I managed to snag myself a copy. I have managed to get more of his work over the years, but the small publications his work has appeared in over the years is both hard to obtain and sometimes very expensive too. An essay by Home and a short story by him too appear in two supplements to the Meade and Penny Frierson publication HPL. So far I have not managed to get a hold of them. His work also appears in two editions of a small fanzine called From Beyond The Dark Gateway. Home's stories are like little gems that turn up now and then! Yes his work is difficult, complex, ambiguous and recondite, but then again some practitioners of the weird tale can be accused of having similar stylistic qualities in their writings, ie Robert Aickman and Thomas Ligotti to name but two. I hope you continue your blog on Home, and can possibly provide a fuller bibliography of his work as other tales if his are brought to light, as well as new or unpublished takes that might emerge in the future. All the best!
ReplyDeletehello! Thank you fir creating a blog about the writer William Scott Home. I have been a huge fan if Home's work since I read A Cobweb of Pulsing Veins in the Karl Edward Wagner edited collection of The Years Best Horror Stories. I tried to track down Hollow Faces Merciless Moons for many years, but it wasn't till the age of the Internet that I managed to snag myself a copy. I have managed to get more of his work over the years, but the small publications his work has appeared in over the years is both hard to obtain and sometimes very expensive too. An essay by Home and a short story by him too appear in two supplements to the Meade and Penny Frierson publication HPL. So far I have not managed to get a hold of them. His work also appears in two editions of a small fanzine called From Beyond The Dark Gateway. Home's stories are like little gems that turn up now and then! Yes his work is difficult, complex, ambiguous and recondite, but then again some practitioners of the weird tale can be accused of having similar stylistic qualities in their writings, ie Robert Aickman and Thomas Ligotti to name but two. I hope you continue your blog on Home, and can possibly provide a fuller bibliography of his work as other tales if his are brought to light, as well as new or unpublished takes that might emerge in the future. All the best!
ReplyDeleteGood to meet another fan. I, too, would like to see his work compiled, and new works published!
DeleteHello! I'm a writer in Canada, working on a book about the Kingdom of Redonda. Would it be possible for you to put me in touch with William Scott Home? I'd love to learn more about his claim to the kingdom and how it fits into the larger Redondan legend. My email is hingston@gmail.com. Thanks—hope to hear from you.
ReplyDeleteSo sorry about the delay, but I just saw this request. I will forward your interest and email to Scott, but as he gets his messages only when he is in town, it may be a while before he replies.
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