Imagine this... In 1934, ground-breaking horror writer H.P. Lovecraft is invited to write a story for a subversive underground magazine, all on the condition that a pseudonym will be used. The pay is lofty, and God knows, HPL needs the money; therefore...he agrees. There’s one catch. It has to be a pornographic story... ALL ABOARD TROLLEY NO. 1852 Through the midnight bowels of New York City, the decrepit trolley clatters on, its single yellow headlight illumining one desolate alley and squalid, trash-strewn street after the next, through crumbling ghettos and betwixt drab skyscrapers and labyrinthine edifices–indeed, the very guts of the Depression-ravaged metropolis. The Trolley admits only a special sort of rider, and takes them to a very select destination... THE 1852 CLUB What is the meaning behind the cryptic number, and what is the ghastly truth behind the club’s voluptuous madam? For, yes, the 1852 Club is a bordello of the most macabre discrimination. Destitute academician Morgan Phillips will learn of all the club’s pestiferous secrets but not before he is first subjected to unnameable acts degradation and abuse, and is then thrown body and soul into a morass of erotic abandon, sexual perversion, and gut-churning, brain-warping, inter-dimensional carnality so unspeakable it can scarcely be described... Join horror veteran Edward Lee in this bold homage to his favorite horror author: H.P. Lovecraft. Herein, Lee boldly converts HPL’s obscure fragment “The Thing in the Moonlight” into a full-fledged novella, incorporating as best he can the Master’s rich, singular style and vision, while integrating some of his own lurid tricks and treats...
Author
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. Edward Lee is an American novelist specializing in the field of horror, and has authored 40 books, more than half of which have been published by mass-market New York paperback companies such as Leisure/Dorchester, Berkley, and Zebra/Kensington. He is a Bram Stoker award nominee for his story "Mr. Torso," and his short stories have appeared in over a dozen mass-market anthologies, including THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES OF 2000, Pocket's HOT BLOOD series, and the award-wining 999. Several of his novels have sold translation rights to Germany, Greece, and Romania. He also publishes quite actively in the small-press/limited-edition hardcover market; many of his books in this category have become collector's items. While a number of Lee's projects have been optioned for film, only one has been made, HEADER, which was released on DVD to mixed reviews in June, 2009, by Synapse Films. Lee is particularly known for over-the-top occult concepts and an accelerated treatment of erotic and/or morbid sexual imagery and visceral violence. He was born on May 25, 1957 in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Bowie, Maryland. In the late-70s he served in the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division, in Erlangen, West Germany, then, for a short time, was a municipal police officer in Cottage City, Maryland. Lee also attended the University of Maryland as an English major but quit in his last semester to pursue his dream of being a horror novelist. For over 15 years, he worked as the night manager for a security company in Annapolis, Maryland, while writing in his spare time. In 1997, however, he became a full-time writer, first spending several years in Seattle and then moving to St. Pete Beach, Florida, where he currently resides. Of note, the author cites as his strongest influence horror legend H. P. Lovecraft; in 2007, Lee embarked on what he calls his "Lovecraft kick" and wrote a spate of novels and novellas which tribute Lovecraft and his famous Cthulhu Mythos. Among these projects are THE INNSWICH HORROR, "Trolley No. 1852," HAUNTER OF THE THRESHOLD, GOING MONSTERING, "Pages Torn From A Travel Journal," and "You Are My Everything." Lee promises more Lovecraftian work on the horizon.
