Thursday, October 24, 2024

Sleep No More: The Art of Lee Brown Coye

Sleep No More was the first of three 1940s anthologies of fantasy and horror stories edited by August Derleth and illustrated by Lee Brown Coye. Featuring classics by M. R. James, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Bloch, Jacobi, Collier, Wakefield, Long and many other noted authors of the macabre genre, many of these stories made their initial appearance in "Weird Tales" magazine. The anthology is considered to be a classic of the genre, and is the initial foray by Coye into the field of horror illustration. I'm betting that many of you who visit my blogs have already seen most of these nightmarish images, (and you'll have to figure out which image goes with which tale as I didn't post them below in order with the table of contents-- sorry!) --but have you seen them all, err minus the cover art which is unfortunately missing? CLICK HERE for more info on this book. And a huge thank you goes out to THOIA / AEET friend, JMR, who was kind enough to send me this book along with a lot of other great items slated for future posts. Stay tombed for more...

3 comments:

lord mikolaj said...

I first heard of Coye from Carcosa (Karl Wagner's book publishing) and have loved his art eversince. There is a nice collection of Coye's art, Arts Unknown. There is a signed edition of Carcosa's first publication, with Coye's autograph. I was unware of this book. If I win the lottery I will look for a copy! Thanks for sharing your book!

top_cat_james said...

Wow! Like George Grosz crossed with Jack Cole.

JMR777 said...

I am glad you liked the book, and I am glad it ended up in the hands of someone who would appreciate it even more than I did. It didn't have the cover when I bought it at a thrift store some years back, though if it had, it would have been snatched up before I found it.

Your scans make the illustrations appear even better than what is found between its pages. You did a better job than I could have done.
After seeing your scans, I just noticed that the thirteenth scan, the man in black, holding a book and clutching his cloak, he looks similar to Rondo Hatton.

Hopefully, we will see some more of the images in the future or feature a repost each October.

And once again, thank you for all of your posts on THOIA and AEET.