Basil Frederick Albert Copper (5 February 1924 – 3 April 2013) was an English writer and former journalist and newspaper editor.[1][2][3][4] He became a full-time writer in 1970. In addition to horror and detective fiction, Copper was perhaps best known for his series of Solar Pons stories continuing the character created as a tribute to Sherlock Holmes by August Derleth. [4]
Copper's interests included swimming, gardening, travel, sailing and historic film material. One of England's leading film collectors, his private archive contained almost one thousand titles (at 1977). He founded the Tunbridge Wells Vintage Film Society and often gave talks at various film organisations in London.[5] He was a member of the British Film Society and the Vintage Film Circle of London.[4] Copper was a longtime resident of Sevenoaks in Kent, and was survived by his French-born wife Annie (née Guerin) to whom he had been married since 1960.[2]
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).[3] His first book was the Mike Faraday novel The Dark Mirror (1966).[4]
The first of Copper's stories published by editor August Derleth was "The House by the Tarn" in Dark Things (1971). Copper went on to have a long-lived relationship with Derleth's Arkham House, which published his collections From Evil's Pillow (1973) and And Afterward, the Dark (1977) and his novels Necropolis (1980) and The House of the Wolf. His work drew praise from Donald Wandrei who said of him: "He beguiles the mind as he lures the imagination beyond the outposts of reality."[6] Copper's work was also championed by editor Peter Haining.
Среди самых известных жутких сказок Коппера: «Академия боли», «Янтарная печать», «Возмездие Альбано Писара» (постановка BBC Radio 4), «Свеча в черепе» (читается во время Хэллоуина на BBC Radio). 4), «Лучше умереть», знаменитые новеллы Лавкрафта «За рифом», «Яркие сияющие клинки» и «Я встретился при дневном свете».
В романе Коппера «Великое белое пространство» (1975) описывается экспедиция в отдаленную часть Азии с целью обнаружить местонахождение загадочных Древних. «Великое белое пространство» создано под влиянием Эдгара Аллана По и Лавкрафта и включает в себя элементы рассказов последнего автора « Мифы Ктулху» . [3] В романе также фигурирует персонаж по имени Кларк Эштон Скарсдейл, который, по-видимому, является нежным уважением к Кларку Эштону Смиту .