Some argue that cowboy meat is too tough to be served any other way, especially since the spices tend to kill the taste of whatever the donor may have been smoking, drinking, or chewing. Others discount this argument, but agree that Chili is a practical, quick way to serve Man in well-disguised form. Meat of 1 reasonably well-muscled Cowboy, ground coarsely -- 15 pounds onions, chopped -- 10 cloves garlic, crushed -- 1/2 cup cooking oil -- 25 pounds pre-cooked kidney beans -- 25

This book is a how-to-do-it of black and white magic, and a how-it-is-done record, showing the magic at work of other times, peoples, places. Within these pages, you'll find special sections on methods of healing, matters of love, the divining arts, how to deal with demons, how to alter the form, how to gain wealth and importance, how to use talismans and how to use magic to create mischief. Here are charms that will chill your bones, answer your most intimate questions, and draw you deeper into the lore of magic than you've ever been before.

The culmination of more than thirty years of research, Olympians of the Sawdust Circle is an attempt to identify every major and minor player in the American circus world of the nineteenth century. This A-Z guide lists: surname, given name, dates of birth and death (if known), type of entertainment (and function) with which the individual was associated, and the companies and dates by whom the person was employed. Every researcher and library interested in American circus history will need this seminal guide. An absolutely astonishing piece of scholarship.

Although the problems of writing fantasy and science fiction include all those pertaining to the writing of any kind of fiction, particular problems arise in stories in which unprecedented things can and do happen, as well as stories that often involve unhuman characters of various sorts, and that might require the elaborate design of entire imaginary worlds. This book provides an elementary introduction to problems of those kinds, and the ways in which they modify the general problems of writing fiction. It also suggests strategies that might enable the problems to be handled constructively and productively. The author has published more than seventy novels in the field, more than twenty short story collections, and more than twenty related works of non-fiction; he has, as the saying goes, been there, done that, and chewed his t-shirt in relevant frustration.

Robert Reginald says: An absolutely first-rate guide to writing fantastic literature. Stableford has much to say that potential writers of ALL fiction might find valuable, interesting, and highly illuminating. His reasonable discussion and dissection of the basic issues facing authors of creative fiction--and the solutions to be found to each problem--are dollops of solid gold advice, in this editor's humble opinion. Every would-be author should read this book--and more than once

Lord Darcy and Master Wizard Sean O Lauchlainn return in this authorized sequel to the stories of Randall Garrett. In 1988, in an alternate universe in which the Plantagenets still rule Britain, France, and the New World, and where magic has displaced science, King John IV's chief detectives are called in to investigate a series of impossible murders of accomplished sorcerers. As the bodies pile up, and the monarch himself is threatened, Darcy and Sean must race against the clock to find the killer before the political balance of Europe is upset. Great fantasy (and mystery) adventure

The legend of the Cyhyraeth is sometimes conflated with tales of a monstrous Welsh spirit in the shape of a hideously ugly woman with a harpy-like appearance: unkempt hair and wizened, withered arms with leathery wings, long black teeth and pale corpse-like features. She approaches the window of the person about to die by night and calls their name or travels invisibly beside them and utters her cry when they approach a stream or crossroads.

Wirt Sikes's 1881 tome defines and records Welsh fairy legends as they existed -- still vital, alive, not just a mordant mythology but living folklore in that year. Like many texts of the time, it treats the subject mechanically, detailing fairy legends with such care and precision as to leach away a measuyre of the magic. But all the same, there's plenty of magic here: this is the myth that modern fasntasy grows from and the truth is that it's not to be found elsewhere still alive. (Jacketless library hardcover.)

Australia has a long tradition of weird fiction, stretching back to colonial times. The stories in this anthology showcase the richness and variety of Australia horror and supernatural stories in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Among the authors included are: Mary Fortune, Lionel Sparrow, Marcus Clarke, Guy Boothby, B. L. Farjeon, J. E. P. Muddock, Ernest Favenc, Hume Nisbet, Rosa (Mrs. Campbell) Praed, Fergus Hume, James Francis Dwyer, and Dulcie Deamer. Editor James Doig has unearthed a rare and compelling collection of Australian horror classics that have remained largely undisturbed in the pages of old books and periodicals. With settings that range from the Australian Outback to Europe, India, and the South Pacific, these 23 unique and imaginative tales feature horrors and hauntings that are sure to appeal to lovers of the macabre everywhere

The poem follows an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search for her lost love Gabriel, set during the time of the Expulsion of the Acadians. The idea for the poem came from Longfellow's friend, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Longfellow used dactylic hexameter, imitating Greek and Latin classics, though the choice was criticized. It became Longfellow's most famous work in his lifetime and remains one of his most popular and enduring works.

Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961) was a major writer of fantasy and science fiction during the first half of the twentieth century. Together with H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, Smith was one of the Three Musketeers of legendary Weird Tales magazine, and contributed some of the most distinctive (and controversial) fantastic fiction to ever appear in Hugo Gernsback's Wonder Stories. His City of the Singing Flame and Vaults of Yoh-Vombis are acknowledged classics in the field, but represent only two selections from a career that produced more than one hundred short stories and over five hundred poems. His imagination roamed the exotic realms of Zothique, Poseidonis, and Averoigne, settings for piquant and colorful tales of beauty and death--stories that value image and atmosphere over plot and action, told in a richly ornate prose-style that has won him ardent admirers, and has influenced such writers as Ray Bradbury, Jack Vance, and Bruce Sterling. This Second Edition of the first book-length study of Smith--a substantial examination of his life and works, his artistic evolution and literary heritage--includes a supplementary suite of essays that delve into the most interesting aspects of Smith's fiction, plus Smith's own tale of Mars, Mnemoka, unpublished in his lifetime, but resurrected here from the fragments of its burned manuscript. Drawing on unpublished materials and correspondence, and conversations with surviving friends and colleagues, critic Steve Behrends paints a portrait of Clark Ashton Smith as a gifted, stubborn iconoclast, one of the last surviving Romantics in the heyday of Realism--a man born outside his time, whose escape lay in the dream-journeys of his fiction and poetry.

The definitive critical guide to the life and works of H.P. Lovecraft, the premier writer of horror fiction in the first half of the 20th century, written by the world's foremost Lovecraft scholar. (Horror Fiction / Literary Criticism)

A facsimile reprint of the Second Edition (1994) of this genealogical guide to 25,000 descendants of William Burgess of Richmond (later King George) County, Virginia, and his only known son, Edward Burgess of Stafford (later King George) County, Virginia. Complete with illustrations, photos, comprehensive given and surname indexes, and historical introduction.

Morals by Seneca is a collection of essays that delve into Stoic philosophy, offering timeless wisdom on ethical living, self-control, and inner peace. Seneca's profound reflections provide practical guidance on managing emotions, making virtuous choices, and finding contentment in simplicity. His eloquent prose and insightful anecdotes encourage readers to cultivate resilience and maintain moral integrity amidst life's challenges. This work remains a foundational text in philosophy, inspiring readers to pursue a life of virtue and reason.

This volume contains Morals of a Happy Life (Benefits, Anger, and Clemency), an essay on Seneca's life, an essay on Seneca's writing, and a new Introduction by Karl Wurf. Translated by Sir Roger L'Estrange.

Before DRACULA came CARMILLA A Strange Agony. The exquisite and deadly vampire Carmilla haunts J. Sheridan LeFanu's influential novel. A Gothic tale of blood and terror, Carmilla inspired later classics by Bram Stoker and Robert Louis Stevenson, ever shadowed by a love that dare not say its name.

Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was an Irish writer of Gothic tales and mystery novels. He was the leading ghost-story writer of the nineteenth century and was central to the development of the genre in the Victorian era.

M. R. James described Le Fanu as absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories.

First published as a serial in The Dark Blue (1871-72), the story is narrated by a young woman preyed upon by a female vampire named Carmilla, later revealed to be Mircalla, Countess Karnstein (Carmilla is an anagram of Mircalla). The story is often anthologized and has been adapted many times in film and other media. Carmilla is the book that set the text for Dracula, that threw the light on our morbid fascination with the vampire legend.

This is the story of the survival of American circuses throughout one of the most perilous periods in our nation's history: 1860-1865. This was a period of transition for traveling exhibitions. The size of equipment and personnel had leveled off, performances were fixed, and the number of proprietors had reached a peak that would not be exceeded until the early 1870s. But still the show had to go on Complete with notes, index, bibliography, and contemporaneous illustrations.

In the tradition of the old Ace Doubles (flip the book over to read the second title), here's the thirtieth Wildside Double: THE JEWELS OF APTOR: A SCIENCE FANTASY NOVEL, by Samuel R. Delany. What was the strange impetus that drove a group of four widely different humans to embark on a fear-filled journey across a forbidden sea to a legendary land? This was Earth still, but the Earth of a future terribly changed after a planet-searing disaster, a planet of weird cults, mutated beasts, and people who were not always entirely human. As for the four who made up that questing party, they included a woman who was either a goddess, a witch, or both; a four-armed boy whose humanity was open to question; and two more men with equally wild talents. The story of their voyage, of the power-wielding jewels they sought, of the atomic and post-atomic terrors they encountered, is a remarkable science-fiction odyssey of the days to come. CAPTIVES OF THE FLAME: A SCIENCE FANTASY NOVEL, by Samuel R. Delany. The Empire of Toromon had finally declared war. The attacks on its planes had been nothing compared to the final insult--the kidnapping of the Crown Prince. The enemy must be dealt with, and when they were, Toromon would be able to get back on its economic feet. But how would the members of this civilization--one of the few that had survived the Great Fire--get beyond the deadly radiation barrier behind which the enemy lay? And assuming they got attained their goal, how would they deal with that enemy--the Lord of the Flames--whose very presence was unknown to the people among whom he lived? Two great SF adventures in a far-future world.

This] novel has immense power in its climax, said The Encyclopedia of Fantasy about Darrell Schweitzer's 1982 novel, THE SHATTERED GODDESS. Now, at last, here's the companion volume to that work, a cycle of eleven stories set in the time of the death of the Goddess. This is an Earth of the far future, when the planet has declined into chaos, and darkness looms at the end of human history. Here you'll meet...a dadar, a wizard's shadow attempting to become a man; two sorcerers grotesquely transformed by their fratricidal hatred; a musician who becomes the lord of death; a boy-priest consumed by divine visions; and a witch who loves a god, among many others. Here's strangeness, wonder, and terror in the tradition of Clark Ashton Smith's Xothique or Jack Vance's The Dying Earth. Schweitzer is a master fantasist, whom anthologist Mike Ashley once called today's supreme stylist. Great fantasy reading, now collected into book form for the first time

Pierre-Alexis Ponson du Terrail was one of the two leading exponents of the roman feuilleton--serial fiction published in newspapers--active during the French Second Empire, along with Paul Féval. At his peak Ponson was writing five daily serials simultaneously, making them up as he went along--and he really did write them, unlike many feuilletonists, including Féval, who dictated to an amanuensis. The Chambrion and Other Stories collects four of his shorter tales, including a Christmas fantasy; a deal-with-the-devil story; one of his earliest serials, which illustrates his willingness to change the direction of his stories repeatedly; and the title short novel, a fast-paced and convoluted tale of vengeance revolving around the belated revelation of the truth behind a scandalous double murder. Ponson was one of the writers who pioneered the narrative techniques of popular fiction, and these stories illustrate his zestful discovery and primary exploitation of those techniques.

Uhtatse becomes the One Who Smells the Wind for his Anasazi clan, and sends his mind searching outward for enemy tribes in the Great Plains. When he finally senses peril, he fails to convince his Elders to seek shelter. The attack, when it comes, decimates the Anasazi, forcing them finally to build their cliffside cave dwellings at Mesa Verde. Ardath Mayhar is superb at creating an alien world from another time and place--Robert Reginald.

California Ranchos is a thorough reworking of a 1942 WPA project, listing the land grants issued during the Spanish and Mexican periods of California history. Entries include: rancho name, record number, present-day county, area of grant, grant date, recipient(s), acreage, new patent date, new recipients' names, and location. Entries are arranged by county and rancho name. Several comprehensive indexes make the material completely accessible. The first place to go for research into California land holdings.