I am also due to give papers on various subjects around Tolkien and Language Invention in Fiction at
- The 'Ponying the Slavos' language invention conference in Coventry UK in March. The name of this conference comes from the a posteriori invented language of Nadsat from Anthony Burgess's dystopian novel A Clockwork Orange and means 'Understanding the Words'
- My third Tolkien paper at the International Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo, Michigan
- Papers for both the UK Tolkien Society and Leeds IMC Medieval Congress in July (which thanks to Dr. Fimi's brilliant work is the second year Tolkien will be represent in Leeds - where he himself was a Reader in the early 1920's.
2016 marks the 50th Anniversary of this unique pioneering show which debuted on June 27, 1966. Americans had never before encountered on day-time television (the domain of game shows and weepy soap operas) this unique gothic tale which thanks to a dedicated team of writers and a stellar company of actors and actresses (many playing multiple roles in various time periods) created one of the most complex liminal worlds for a televisions series which had its focus on the brooding mansion on the hill - Collinwood - the great house which hosted ghosts, phoenixes, witches, vampires, werewolves and zombies.
All of these texts and inter-texts work together in the minds of watchers and fans to create what I characterise as 'the mythos of Collinwood'. This is an example of what Mark J.P. Wolf explores in his seminal text Building Imaginary Worlds: The Theory and History of Subcreation; namely how different layers of 'texts' (in all forms) work together to build a secondary-world - in this case not an immersive world (like in Tolkien's legendarium) nor a portal world (as in C.S. Lewis's Narnia series) but a liminal world - in our world but not quite (for example, why were there no televisions at Collinwood in the 'modern-day story-lines?).
What I thought would be interesting would be to go back and explore some of the earliest para-texts that were developed around the broadcast of the original television series (as audiences at the same time became familiar with the characters and story line). One of the earliest examples of this extension of the narrative of the day-time television show - is a series of Paperback Library books. Starting in December 1966 they began issuing books based on the TV series Dark Shadows which had just begun broadcasting in June of that year. Paperback Library published 33 novels in this series through 1972 - all written by Marilyn Ross which is a pen name for William Edward Daniel Ross - a Canadian writer - who wrote mysteries, westerns and gothic fiction under many various pen names. For the Dark Shadows novels Dan Ross (as he was known) used his wifes name Marilyn. In the 1990's the author of the excellent Barnabas and Company Craig Hamrick interviewed him - he said he watched enough of the show 'to keep up'.
The first book in the series is appropriately called 'Dark Shadows' and was published in December 1966 and reprinted several times - my edition is April 1969 (the eighth printing).
The cover of my edition clearly draws from the television series but what I found interesting is the cover has Jonathan Frid as Barnabas Collins and Alexander Moltke as Victoria Winters with a good grabber headline 'Mysterious Footsteps in the night terrify Victoria Winters at Collins House - a mansion haunted by legends of murder, madness and evil'. Funny enough Barnabas Collins never appears in this story (apparently Willie Loomis had not unchained his coffin yet!), the picture is clearly taken in the Old House and in the text the name of the house on the hill in not 'Collinwood' but Collins House! The picture itself looks like it comes from the post-1795 timeline when Barnabas bites Vicky (notice the scarf on her neck) to make her forget about her travel to 1795 and attempts to take her away (only to have an automobile accident and be 'cured' of his vampirism for a time by Dr. Lang). 
According to the Paperback Library notes the first edition was printed with an illustrated cover (left) and then re-released in 1967 with a cover that had Victoria and Louis Edmonds (Roger Collins) who is in the novel on it (right).
By the edition I have (from April 1969) the publishers were clearly using the popularity of the reluctant vampire Barnabas Collins to sell books (and the same would happen in later books with David Selby as Quentin Collins).
Interestingly the same picture from the eighth edition (from a slightly different angle) was used on another volume in the series - Strangers at Collins House (to be reviewed in an upcoming post!)
The text of this novel is a slightly revised telling of Victoria Winters arriving in Collinsport from the television series. Ross sets the gothic mood from the start with 'The Ominous clouds of the October afternoon had warned of bad weather on the way and now the threat was being fulfilled' (5) (an echo of the shows leitmotiv of their never being good weather at Collinwood!). The same themes of Victoria coming to Collinsport from the New York Foundling Home (placed there years before and possibly linked to the Collins) having been mysteriously offered a position to be the governess of the rascal David Collins by the matriarch of 'Collins-House' - Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (who herself has not left 'Collins House' for 18 years!) is all taken from the original plot of the television series. Just as on the television series we have the scene of Victoria talking to the waitress Maggie Evans who tells Victoria 'I mean Collins House is a real kookie place!' (7) and she introduces Victoria, and the reader, to the cast of characters living at the mansion on the hill. Historical depth in the narrative is established when Maggie tells Victoria that Jeremiah Collins built Collins House in 1830 (although entirely inconsistent with the later story-line of Joshua Collins building the 'New House' in 1795-6). Later Elizabeth Collins tells Victoria as she looks at his picture in the drawing room of 'Collins House' 'that's the man who built Collins House, my great-grandfather, Jeremiah Collins. He was one of the most outstanding of our line. It was he who began the fishing firm as well.' (23) The 'confusion' between Jeremiah and Joshua Collins as the founding patriarch is clearly taken from the earlier story-lines of Dark Shadows before the 1795 story-line which established Joshua Collins (played brilliantly by Louis Edmonds) as the patriarch and father to Barnabas Collins. The first Collins to land from the Mayflower Isaac Collins is mentioned by Roger Collins as well (26).
In terms of history one of the most interesting passages Ross writes actually goes to the heart of why there is a curse on the Collins Family (long before Judah Zachary and Miranda DuVal were thought up) and it is around the place of all tragedy in Dark Shadows - Widows' Hill:
It seems the curse had power. None of the families have been happy here.
An interesting passage grounding the curse that would plague the Collins family in the Widows (who are heard in the television series wailing 'Elizabeth!') Also notice the use of Jeremiah/Josette story line which would become fleshed out and revised by the arrival of Barnabas and the 1795 story line (by the time this book was first published Josette has appeared as a ghost in the Old House in episode 70 broadcast on September 30, 1966).
While most of the characters remain the same as the television series (although the caretaker Matthew Morgan is known as Matt Morgan!). Carolyn is written very much with the vivacious actress Nancy Barrett in mind, David is his early series mischievous self and there are brief mentions of 'his mother' (hinting at the Lara Colllins Phoenix story line which clearly Ross did not want to engage with in this novel). Roger comes off a bit more sleazy than the way Louis Edmonds played him (although both the book and television Roger both endulge in the drawing room brandy snifter). There are brief peripheral appearances for more involved television characters such as Joe Haskell and the mysterious Burke Devlin (who Ross brings in towards the end of the novel as a possible link to Victoria's own secret).
This first story is a good engaging Gothic thriller that certainly draws from Jane Eyre for its spine tingling conclusion (there is more in Collins House than meets the eye!). Readers would have recognised many of the characters and story-lines from the television series but this text not only offers a novelisation of the early story-line of the television series but also builds new texts into the mythos (such as the character of Ernest Collins). Ross also established Victoria Winters at 'Collins-House' and sets up further stories with the concluding paragraph -
'In the meantime she would go on as governess to David. She would live on here in this quaint village and try to pry further into her secret past. She could not easily forget her meeting with the mysterious Burke Devlin and wondered if he might be able to help her. The Collins family had come to seem like her own - perhaps one day she would discover this to be true. In any event, she looked forward to the weeks and months ahead. She could cope with Roger. Carolyn was loveable, and she could get to know the gracious Elizabeth Collins Stoddard better in the strange old mansion by the sea, Collins House!' (159)
My 50th Anniversary Dark Shadows exploration has begun!
1 comment:
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