Basil Copper

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). Copper's work was also championed 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's novel The Great White Space (1975) describes an expedition into a remote part of Asia to discover the location of the mysterious Old Ones. The Great White Space was influenced by Edgar Allan Poe and Lovecraft and includes elements of the latter author's Cthulhu Mythos stories. 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; in that edition, Copper "edited" most of the tales in ways that many Solar Pons aficionados found objectionable. A later omnibus, The Original Text Solar Pons Omnibus Edition, was issued in 2000 under the imprint of Mycroft & Moran. 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==

• Not After Nightfall (Four Square Books, 1967) • ''From Evil's Pillow'' (Arkham House, 1973) • The Vampire: In Legend, Fact and Art (Robert Hale, 1973) • The Great White Space (Robert Hale, 1974) • When Footsteps Echo (Robert Hale, 1975) • The Curse of the Fleers (Harwood-Smart, 1976) • And Afterward, the Dark (Arkham House, 1977) • The Werewolf: In Legend, Fact and Art (Robert Hale, 1977) • Here Be Daemons (Robert Hale, 1978) • Voices of Doom (Robert Hale, 1980) • Necropolis (Arkham House, 1980) • Into the Silence (Sphere Books, 1983) • The House of the Wolf (Arkham House, 1983) • The Black Death (Fedogan & Bremer, 1991). Illustrations by Stefanie Kate Hawks. • Whispers in the Night: Stories of the Mysterious & Macabre (Fedogan & Bremer, 1999) • Cold Hand on My Shoulder (Sarob Press, 2002). Nine stories, four previously unpublished. Limited ed of 352 copies comprising 300 trade hardcovers and 52 signed lettered copies in slipcase. • Darkness, Mist and Shadow: The Collected Macabre Tales of Basil Copper Volumes 1, 2, and 3 (PS Publishing, 2010) Solar Pons • The Dossier of Solar Pons (Pinnacle, 1979) • The Further Adventures of Solar Pons (Pinnacle, 1979) • The Secret Files of Solar Pons (Pinnacle, 1979) • The Uncollected Cases of Solar Pons (Pinnacle, 1979) • The Exploits of Solar Pons (Fedogan & Bremer, 1993) • The Adventure of the Singular Sandwich (Fedogan & Bremer, 1995) • The Recollections of Solar Pons (Fedogan & Bremer, 1995) • ''Solar Pons Versus The Devil's Claw'' (Sarob Press, 2004) • Solar Pons: The Final Cases (Sarob Press, 2005) Mike Faraday The Phantom • The Slave Market of Mucar (Avon, 1972; as Lee Falk) • The Scorpia Menace (Avon, 1972; as Lee Falk) ==Honours==

Copper received many honours over the 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 twice honoured him for his work on the Solar Pons series. He was a member of the Crime Writers' Association for over thirty years, serving as chairman in 1981/82 and on its committee for a total of seven years. At the 2010 World Horror Convention in Brighton, he was awarded the first WHC Lifetime Achievement Award. ==See also==