SLEEP NO MORE edited by August Derleth

„SLEEP NO MORE“

Edited by August Derleth

Original „Holt, Rinehart & Winston" Hardback Edition: September 1944.

PantherBooks. December 1964. 188 pages.  Price: 3 ´6

Bantam Books. February 1967. 148 pages. Price: $0.60

                                                                 My Copies front. 

                                             

                                                                 My Copies back.

                                                             

                                                                  Later UK edition.

                                                                      Original Hardback

                                                     WWII "Armed Services Edtion"

Hardback contents:

• "Count Magnus", by M. R. James
• "Cassius", by Henry S. Whitehead
• "The Occupant of the Room", by Algernon Blackwood
• "The Return of the Sorcerer", by Clark Ashton Smith
• "Johnson Looked Back", by Thomas Burke
• "The Hand of the O'Mecca", by Howard Wandrei
• "He Cometh and He Passeth By", by H. Russell Wakefield
• "Thus I Refute Beelzy", by John Collier
• "The Mannikin", by Robert Bloch
• "Two Black Bottles", by W. B. Talman
• "The House of Sounds", by M. P. Shiel
• "The Cane", by Carl Jacobi
• "The Horror in the Burying Ground", by Hazel Heald
• "The Kennel", by Maurice Level
• "The Yellow Sign", by Robert W. Chambers
• "The Black Stone", by Robert E. Howard
• "Midnight Express", by Alfred Noyes
• "A Gentleman From Prague", by S. Grendon
• "The Black Druid", by Frank Belknap Long
• "The Rats in the Walls", by H. P. Lovecraft

Panther “Sleep no More”

Edited by August Derleth

Contents:

• "Count Magnus", by M. R. James
• "Cassius", by Henry S. Whitehead
• "The Occupant of the Room", by Algernon Blackwood
• "The Return of the Sorcerer", by Clark Ashton Smith
• "The Hand of the O'Mecca", by Howard Wandrei
• "He Cometh and He Passeth By", by H. Russell Wakefield
• "Thus I Refute Beelzy", by John Collier
• "The Mannikin", by Robert Bloch
• "The House of Sounds", by M. P. Shiel
• "The Cane", by Carl Jacobi
• "The Horror in the Burying Ground", by Hazel Heald
• "The Yellow Sign", by Robert W. Chambers
• "The Black Stone", by Robert E. Howard
• "Midnight Express", by Alfred Noyes
• "The Black Druid", by Frank Belknap Long

Bantam “Stories from SLEEP NO MORE”

Selected by August Derleth

Contents:

• "Count Magnus", by M. R. James
• "Cassius", by Henry S. Whitehead
• "The Occupant of the Room", by Algernon Blackwood
• "The Return of the Sorcerer", by Clark Ashton Smith
• "Johnson Looked Back", by Thomas Burke
• "The Hand of the O'Mecca", by Howard Wandrei
• "He Cometh and He Passeth By", by H. Russell Wakefield
• "Thus I Refute Beelzy", by John Collier
• "The Mannikin", by Robert Bloch

Hi Folks!

 This weeks books are two paperback editions of „Sleep no More“, another outstanding Anthology edited/selected by the late Mr. August Derleth. What I’ve always enjoyed about anthologies from Mr. Derleth is the fairly wide selection of story styles. They tended to include everything from fairly highbrow Edwardian ghost stories to pure pulp trash from the pages of “Weird Tales” and everything in between. And I can tell you that “sleep no More” is no exception. I’ve yet to read on of Mr. Derleth’s anthologies that failed to deliver plenty of enjoyment. If there is one major drawback to these anthologies then it’s that fact that since most of them were originally published between the 1940s and 1960s, there are many tales that have been anthologised to death since then. Not that I’m not going to loose any sleep over that!

     The UK edition from Panther is the more complete of the 2 paperbacks. It reprints 15 of the original 20 stories from the 1944 hardback, where as the Bantam edition only reprints the first 9 stories from the hardback. To be fair to Bantam though, the called their edition “Tales from SLEEP NO MORE”. What I do find odd is that the UK edition is “edited” by Derleth and the US edition is “selected” by Derleth. That’s a strange choice of words. Even though I think that "selected” may be more accurate. “Edited” can apply that changes have been made and I’ve never read anywhere that Mr. Derleth monkeyed around with others peoples works. Ok, except for maybe a few minor “post humus” collaborations if you know what I mean.

 Have to also admit that the cover on the Bantam edition is no “eye grabber” and wouldn’t impel me to pick it up off the shelf and take a look at it. I like my covers a little bit more obvious.

     Now let’s take a look at some the stories……

"Count Magnus", by M. R. James

     This is a fairly good vampire story by Mr. James. What I love the most about the Stories written by Mr. James is he is a perfect example of the “tell, don’t show or less is more” school of story telling. Think of some old cheap ass horror or SF film where it’s scary as hell  up to the end where they ruin the whole thing by showing the monster. Well Mr. James never show the monster. But everything that is implied is 10x scarier than anything he could shove in your face. It is mostly true that what we don’t see is scarier than what we do see. I consider myself lucky that when I cut my teeth on stuff like this when I was learning to read. Mr. James’ stories, because of his writing style, might be a tiny bit difficult for younger readers to get into these days. Don’t let this discourage you though. Take you time with his stories and read them at a leisurely pace. These are some of the most rewarding horror stories I’ve ever had the pleasure to read.

"Cassius", by Henry S. Whitehead

     I love the stories from Henry S. Whitehead!  His having lived on the Virgin Islands comes through in every word he wrote. I’m also a sucker for half way authentic stories concerning the “Vodun” religion and “Obeah” practices. The writing style is very modern considering that he wrote back in the 1920s. I think that the only  problem younger readers might have is that even though he treats the people of the “West Indies” with great respect and open mindedness that is rare for the time, he can be somewhat condescending  to the island inhabitants and even though acknowledging the evils of Colonialism he seems not too upset by them.. And the only time I’ve ever seen the word “nigger” in one of his stories, Mr. Whitehead was commenting on another’s use of the word. And his portrayal of this person who used it was not very flattering at all.

Anyways, “Cassius” is an early example of the “Body Horror” genre. I don’t want to give too much away. Here’s a hint though. Think of the “Devil doll” story which appeared in the old “Trilogy of Terror” film from the early 70s, but being written and directed by “David Cronenberg”. One of the narrator’s servants has a growth removed from his back and then later becomes terrorized by some small vicious animal at night. Nuff said!

"The Occupant of the Room", by Algernon Blackwood

     Now this is one disturbing story! A teacher on vacation in the Alps stays overnight in an Inn and is given the room currently being booked by an Englishwoman who disappeared 2 days before while mountain climbing but still officially holds the room since she hasn’t checked out. The teacher can’t sleep and is plagued by horrible feeling of hopeless and despair. Since the room isn’t officially his he isn’t allowed to use the locked wardrobe containing the Englishwoman’s belongings. He eventualy develops a strong compulsion to force the lock on the wardrobe and must finally demand the key from the night staff. It still creeps me out just thinking about this story! Yeah Mr. Blackwood!

"He Cometh and He Passeth By", by H. Russell Wakefield

     This is also a great story! It’s the first story I’ve read by Mr. Russell and I find it to be a first class revenge story. It reminds me a lot of “A Casting of Runes” by M. R. James. In Mr. Russells story an English gentle befriends a shady character (based upon “Aleister Crowley”) who turns out to be not just a sponging pervert, but also a Black Magician who places a curse on him without him knowing of it. He subsequently dies and his best friend takes it upon himself to study up on the black arts and fight fire with fire. I enjoyed the hell out of this one.

"Thus I Refute Beelzy", by John Collier

     This is an oft reprinted classic by Mr. Collier. It’s fairly short, but straight to the point.  If you know what is good for you won’t scoff at the imaginary playmates your children bring home!

"The Mannikin", by Robert Bloch

     This is a fun little pulp story by Mr. Bloch when he was still under the influence of H P lovecraft and hadn’t developed his own style yet. It’s another “body horror” story set with in the “CtulhuMythos”. So we get to see words like “eldritch”. It also contains the book of forbidden lore “De Vermis Mysteriis.“, Bloch’s version of the “Necronomicon”.  It’s a variation of the theme that appears in Whitehead’s “Cassius” and would eventually be brought to it’s high point in Tom Reamy’s  “TheDetweiler Boy” forty some years later.

"The Horror in the Burying Ground", by Hazel Heald

     This was actually ghost written by H P Lovecraft on order from Miss Head. It’s a nice liitle story of backwoods New England gothic concerning undertaking, poisoning, reanimation experiments, premature burial and madness. Just the themes you’d expect from Mr. Lovecraft.

"The Black Stone", by Robert E. Howard

This is one of REH’s finest stories where he’s at his manic kinky best. It’s also a great “Cthulhu Mythos” story. I covered it extensively a few months ago when I discussed the the REH anthology “Wolfshead”.

"The Yellow Sign", by Robert W. Chambers

   „The Yellow sign“originally appeared in Mr. Chamber’s collection “The King in Yellow” which describe a play the drives insane anyone who reads it. “The Yellow sign” tells the tale of a creepy old man who is not at all what he appears to be. He’s even worse than you can imagine. He destroys the lives of an artist and his model in a terribly decaying manner! It’s easy to see why Mr. Lovecraft credited this series of stories as a great influence on his own works. Think "Cool Air" and "The Thing on the Doorstep"

“Along the shore the cloud waves break,

The twin suns sink behind the lake,

The shadows lengthen

In Carcosa.

Strange is the night where black stars rise,

And strange moons circle through the skies,

But stranger still is

Lost Carcosa.

Songs that the Hyades shall sing,

Where flap the tatters of the King,

Must die unheard in

Dim Carcosa.

Song of my soul, my voice is dead,

Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed

Shall dry and die in

Lost Carcosa."

—"Cassilda's Song" in The King inYellow Act 1, Scene 2

"The Hand of the O'Mecca", by Howard Wandrei

     This story is one of the oddest and best werewolf stories I’ve every read. It’s the dream like courtship of a farmer and one of his neighbours.  It’s also the earliest story I ever read where a woman’s nipples are describes in an admiring manner. Good story if slightly hindered by a flashback within the flashback.

All in all “Sleep no more” is an excellent anthology with even enough unfamiliar stories for those who read lots of horror.

The only thing missing are the wonderful Illustrations by “Lee Brown Coye” which appeared in the original hardback.

You can see them here at "Old School Records"

the Weird Art of Lee Brown Coye

And on a closing note:

I‘ve made some changes in my Blog introduction. Originally my purpose of writing this was to try and recapture and share some of the joy these books gave me when I was young. It has now become clear that a large number of these stories need to be remembered and brought to people’s attention because many of them have never been reprinted since these anthologies first appeared. And it’s most likely that the will never ever be reprinted again and will thus disappear forever and be forgotten when these books are no longer being read or reread. That’s a very sad thought.

Take care and thanks for taking the time to stop by.

Doug

    

The Lancer Lovecraft editions

The Lancer Lovecrafts: An Author’s Pick!

(Or Purple Edged Eldritch Horror!)

Hey folks,

     Being the self confessed publicity whore that I am, when it comes to this blog that is, I’m always on the lookout for ways to increase the readership. So my newest brilliant idea was to write all the famous writers, artists and editors who I have access to and asked them if they have fond memories of any particular horror anthologies from 50s, 60s or 70s. I even promised to only moderately exploit their kindness my not mentioning their names. And so far several have been very kind and answered. The great Chet Williamson even went out of his way to tell me that he didn’t mind having his name dropped! So here it is……..

CHETWILLIAMSON…..

His writings

His Homepage 

How’s that for impressive! 

Anyways, Mr. Williamson replied that he greatly enjoyed, among several others, the H. P.Lovecraft editions published by Lancer Books. Yes, the folks who gave us the famous Robert E. Howard               " Conan" paperbacks with the iconic Frank Frazetta covers and the controversial editorship of L. Sprague DeCamp and Lin Carter. Those people who gave us paperbacks with purple dyed edges were also the first folks to bring out successful HPL paperbacks. There were a few before, but the Lancers were responsible for introducing HPL to masses of paperback readers. Now if only they had done this for Clark Ashton Smith. To my knowledge there were 3 volumes. They were “The Dunwich Horror”, “The Colour out of Space” and “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”. Since I only own the first two they’ll be the only ones covered today.

If you are reading this blog then I’m pretty sure that you know all about HPL and the “Cthulhu Mythos”. But I’ll go over it real quick just to play it safe in case some of you actually have no idea about what I’m writing about.

So here’s the “Cliff Notes” Lovecraft……

HPL was a reclusive man from Providence Rhode Island who wrote wonderful stories for “Weird Tales” magazine. He invented his own mythology, which forms the backdrop to many of his stories, dealing with a group of ancient powerful god like beings who used to rule the earth gazillions of years ago. They got banished to dimensions unknown and to this day and they, with the help of cultists and human/frog-fish men hybrids, are still trying to come back. Most of these SF Horror tales take place in and around New England. These were written as contemporary stories at the time which gives them a really nifty retro 1920s/1930s groove. Most of Mr. Lovecraft’s protagonists usually ended up dead, insane, mutated or some combination of the 3. They also liked to write journal entries while being eaten alive by unspeakable horrors from other dimensions. Mr. Lovecraft’s stories and life have been psychoanalyzed to death so we won’t go into it here. Mr. Lovecraft has a bazillion imitators since he allowed other writers to add to and to use the already existing pantheon of beings he created for his stories. Mr. Lovecraft liked the words “eldritch” and "batrachian" quite a bit. In Mr. Lovecraft’s universe there were lots of very old books full of forbidden prehistoric lore which were contantly kept under lock and key in big European libraries, but which every inbred hillbilly wizard seemed to have a copy of.  Mr. Lovecraft, who died sick and poor, is now a multi million dollar industry today.

Now back to the books.

I can’t begin to describe how much I love ALL of Mr. Lovecraft’s stories. My first introduction to HPL was through the “Scholastic Book club” and then the post “Lin Carter”/ pre “Michael Whelan”, “John Holmes” editions from the early7middle 1970s.

 They aren’t for everyone and have, sadly, almost become clichéd jokes thanks to critical over emphasis on his writing style and his odd themes and monsters being used for humor. The abundance ofCthulhu references in modern culture  has dulled the over all impact of Mr. Lovecraft's stores and “Cthulhu Plush Toys" hasn’t helped matters either. “Cthulhu” even makes guest appearances on “South Park”. So we have millons of people who know his monsters, but not nearly enough people who actualy know his writings. I find this sad. If you didn’t discovery him as a kid, then I don’t think you could get into him as an adult. Lovecraft was an avid amateur astronomer and (I think) atheist who was fascinated by, at the time, new theories on the immensity and age of the universe. So he didn’t bother writing about ghosts and vampires. He wrote about an immense, unknowable universe that was, if not hostile, then at least totally indifferent to humanity. Great stuff,, which was, for it’s time, totally mind blowing and groundbreaking. I love this stuff so much!! 

(This time I mean it…)

Now back to the books.

 With quickie synopses. 

         

                                    My copies.

The Dunwich Horror

Lancer Books. March 1969. Second edition.

Contents:

     H. P. Lovecraft and His Work by August Derleth

   

  In the Vault

    (I steal from dead people!)

    

 Pickman's Model

     (You are what you pose. or Children shouldn't eat (with) dead things.)

    

 The Rats in the Walls

     (A  moving plea for Veganism.)

     

 The Music of Erich Zann

     (Crazy old man makes crazier music for the Spheres.)

      

The Haunter of the Dark

     (Don’t break into old abandoned churches in the Polish part of town.Don't even bother, just move on down the bloch. .)

    

 The Dunwich Horror

    (If your crazy daddy fixes you up on a blind date with an extra-dimensional monster   god then for god’s sake take a pack of Trojans along!)

    

 The Thing on the Doorstep

    (Transgender fishman-hybrid necrophilia honeymoon. Kinda.)

The Colour Out of Space and Others.

Lancer Books. March 1969. Third edition

Contents:

The Colour out of Space

(Don’t drink the shiny water!)

The Picture in the House

(You eats what you is.)

The Call of Cthulhu

(Don’t answer!!!)

Cool Air

(Without proper refrigeration (dead) things tend to spoil quickly.)

The Whisperer in Darkness

(There’s  fungi lobstermen from Pluto in them thar hills!)

The Terrible Old Man

(Yeah, go ahead and break into the weird old guys house.)

The Shadow Out of Time

(Proves that Cthulhu will not return during mans tenure on this planet!)

These two volumes are more or less an “HPL’s Greatest Hits”. They are a breakdown of “Arkam House’s”  “The Dunwich Horror and Others”. For some stupid reason both “The Outsider” and “The Shadow over Innsmouth” have been omitted. Even though these are a “best of” collection”, they neglect his earlier stuff that is just as good (in my opinion).

As far as the covers go, these are pretty pedestrian. What was coming a few years later from Lin Carter’s “Adult Fantasy Series” from Ballantine would blow these out of the water and set new standards for “Lovecraftian” cover art. All in all though, you have to give Lancer credit for making these available for a mass public and for helping make HPL a household name. At least in better houses that is.

Original Arkham House contents:

1. H. P. Lovecraft and His Work by August Derleth
2. In the Vault
3. Pickman's Model
4. The Rats in the Walls
5. The Outsider
6. The Colour out of Space
7. The Music of Erich Zann
8. The Haunter of the Dark
9. The Picture in the House
10. The Call of Cthulhu
11. The Dunwich Horror
12. Cool Air
13. The Whisperer in Darkness
14. The Terrible Old Man
15. The Thing on the Doorstep
16. The Shadow Over Innsmouth
17. The Shadow Out of Time

Well, that's it for this weeks installment.

Thank you very much for stopping by.

And thank you very much Mr. Williamson!

What's that? There's something breaking through the barrier! It's! Unspeakable!  Tentacles are reaching across tying to draw me through!! Must type faster! Help! Must use the spell! Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!!!!!! ARRRGHHH!!!!!!!!! SLURP!!!! Nom! Nom! nom! Thud!

BERNHARDT J. HURWOOD

BERNHARDT J. HURWOOD,

an unsung Hero of my Childhood.

                         My Collection of books by Mr. Hurwood.

It must have been in 1970 or 71 that I realized that books without illustrations were much better than those with illustrations. Or at least a book with only a few illustrations was better than one full of illustrations. I was only 10 at the time and it wasn’t all that easy to find (young) adult horror books. Be they hardback or paperback. I had almost memorized all of the “Robert J. Arthur” edited anthologies by the end of the 3^rd grade. I had received a whopping $5.00 for my birthday that year and spent it all on paperbacks at the chain bookstore in the Eastland Mall in Columbus. Those 5 bucks purchased me 10 “AceDoubles”! Being the undiscerning young man that I was, I went and picked the books purely by their covers. Sadly, while the covers were actually neat, the books were simultaneously a tad too complicated and not exploitive enough for my unrefined reading tastes. So I ended up being mighty disappointed with my picks.

This was at the time we were being introduced to the “Scholastic Book club” at school. Every few months the teacher would pass out these small 4-5 page flyers with a selection of paperbacks selected and printed by “Scholastic books”. I can’t say that I was overwhelmed by the selection. I remember it being mostly stuff like “Curious George”, Clifford the Big Red Dog” and stuff like that. As luck would have it my friend Rod, who was 2 years ahead of me, showed me the catalog/flyer that the older kids were given. Now this was the good stuff that they were keeping from the 1^st-3^rd graders! This stuff was more to my liking! They had “Encyclopaedia Brown”, “The 3 Investigators”, “Homer Price”, “H.G. Wells and best of all, HORROR STORIES! And not just any Horror Stories, they had “Edgar Allan Poe”,”H P Lovecraft” and “BERNHARDT J. HURWOOD”!!!!!!  Poe was too dry and Lovecraft was too trippy for my 10 year old soul, but Mr. Hurwood hit the spot, scratched the itch, tripped my trigger and blew my gaskets!

     I think it’s a great shame, but Mr. Hurwood isn’t exactly a household name. He deserves to be one though. He was a writer who specialized mostly in the Occult and Erotica during the early 60s to late 70s. Several of his books on the occult were short snappy retellings of European and Asian legends of ghosts, demons and various Monsters such as werewolves and vampires. Several of the collections were cannibalized and repackaged by the Scholastic Book club under such titles as “Ghosts, Ghouls and other Horrors” and “Vampires, Werewolves and other Demons”. Now those are great titles for books being peddled to little kids! But then again this is a publisher who sold Lovecraft to children. Respect!

     Now back to my friend Rod. When I saw the cool books that were available I went and begged the teacher to let me order these instead of the “little kid” books. She finally caved in and allowed me to order the older kid books.  I can’t remember which book I ordered first. It was either the “Vampires and Werewolves” or “Ghosts and Ghouls”. It didn’t matter though. I was in hog heaven regardless. Mr. Hurwood´s genius was that the retellings that he wrote were faitly short. Only 3 to 5 pages long and that they were so entertainingly disgusting that I almost went insane with glee. Here are a few excerpts from the tales…..

“Before long the town was in a state of panic. People were afraid to sleep in their own houses for fear of these nightly assaults, but nothing they did seemed to have any effect on the “vrykolakas”. Abandoning exorcisms and prayers, they took to stabbing the body with repeated sword thrusts, but this too proved fruitless.

     Finally they took the body from it’s coffin, smeared it with tar and pitch, placed it atop a huge pyre, and burned it to cinders”

“Lying on its side, the corpse was ruddy and fresh looking. The hair and nails had grown long, the jaws gaped open, and the lips, damp with blood, glistened as the thick red liquid dribbled down the corners of the mouth.”

“To their horror they found a corpse inside that had the face of a living man. It’s body was covered with hideous white hair, and clutched in it’s hands was the severed head of  the unfortunate Liu. The corpse held the head so tightly that they had to chop of it’s arms in order to free it. When this was done fresh blood gushed out from the arm sockets. Liu’s head, however, was completely dry.”

“The previous occupant of the house had been a senile old man who had grown  incredibly fat. It had been a number of days after his death that he had been found, and even then, his immense size made it impossible to remove his remains without cutting holes in the doorways to permit getting him through them. When this has finally been accomplished, decay and putrification had set in to a considerable extent.”

“The rats had come! This time there was no escape. Dropping to his knees, Hatto began to pray, but his prayers were not answered. When the thousands of furry horrors him his screams were drowned out by the gnawing, the tearing, the squealing and the grinding. And by the time they had finished, there was nothing left of him but a pile of white bones.”

     You can not imagine how much I loved these books. I have all 5 of his Scholastic editions and 3 regular paperback editions. Of the scholastic, 2 are original stories and 3 are retellings of traditional folk tales. The 3 volumes of retelling were mostly originally printed in “Monsters and Nightmares” from Belmont Books and “Vampires, Werewolves and Ghouls” from Ace Books. The collections with original stories are “Haunted Houses”, “Ghost Ghouls and other Horrors” and “Vampires, Werewolves and other Demons”. “Eerie tales of Terror & Dread” and “Chilling Ghost Stories” are original stories written by Mr. Hurwood.

Mr. Hurwood passed away in 1987 of cancer.

Here is his obituary from the New York Times……

Bernhardt Hurwood Is Dead; Wrote on Variety of Subjects

Published: January 26, 1987

Bernhardt J. Hurwood, the author of 64 books on a wide variety of subjects, died of cancer Friday at Beth Israel Medical Center. He was 60 years old and lived in Manhattan.

Mr. Hurwood's most recent book was ''Writing Becomes Electronic: Successful Authors Tell How They Write in the Age of the Computer.'' His earlier works included ''My Savage Muse,'' an imaginary autobiography of Edgar Allan Poe; ''Vampires, Werewolves and Ghouls,'' ''Passport to the Supernatural,'' ''The Golden Age of Erotica'' and ''The Whole Sex Catalogue.''

Mr. Hurwood was born on July 22, 1926, in New York, and attended Northwestern University. He served one term on the board of directors of the Mystery Writers of America. He was also a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Authors Guild, the Computer Press Association and the Writers Guild of America, East.He is survived by his wife, Marci Vitous-Hurwood; and a brother, Theodore, of Pacifica, Calif.

Thank you so much for these wonderful books Mr. Hurwood where ever you are. I am in your debt for all of the wonderful hours of reading pleasure and gory fun!

Here are to "Berhardt J. Hurwood" links:

Bernhardt J. Hurwood at "Fantasic fiction"

Bernhardt J. Hurwood at "ISFDB"

And now for a little “aside”.

A few weeks ago I received a copy of “Eerie Tales of Terror & Dread” from a Canadian book Dealer through Abebooks. When my copy arrived I saw from the inscription on the title page that it was originally owned by a girl named “Roswitha  Pilz” who was in Mr. Campbell’s 5^th grade class.

 While thumbing through the book a small slip of paper feel out. At first I thought it was just a piece of paper that had been used for a book marker. I had a pleasant surprise when I turned it over!

I truly hope that the girls had a good time that day almost 37 years ago.

Take care and thanks for stopping by.

Doug