Born on this day – William Lindsay Gresham:

William Lindsay Gresham

Writer

August 20, 1909 – September 14, 1962

Credits:

Books:

Grindshow: The Selected Writings of William Lindsay Gresham (2013); Houdini: The Man Who Walked Through Walls (1959); Limbo Tower (1949); Monster Midway: An Uninhibited Look at the Glittering World of the Carny (1954); Nightmare Alley (1946); The Book of Strength: Body Building the Safe, Correct Way (1961).

Movies and television:

Checkmate (1961); Nightmare Alley (1947 / 2021).

Born on this day – H. P. Lovecraft:

H. P. Lovecraft

Writer

August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937

Credits:

Books:

100 Fiendish Little Frightmares (1997); 100 Ghastly Little Ghost Stories (1993); 100 Hair-Raising Little Horror Stories (1993); 100 Wild Little Weird Tales (1994); 30 Occult & Supernatural Masterpieces You Have to Read Before You Die (2019); 50 Classic Novellas (2011); 65 Great Spine Chillers (1982); A Means to Freedom: The Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard (2017); A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson (1917); At the Mountains of Madness & Other Weird Tales (2009); At the Mountains of Madness (1936); At the Mountains of Madness and Other Tales of Terror (1931); At the Mountains of Madness and Other Works of Weird Fiction (2011); Azathoth (1938); Below the Stairs: Tales from the Cellar (2017); Beneath the Waves: Tales from the Deep (2018); Beyond Midnight (1976); Beyond the Infinite: Tales from the Outer Reaches (2018); Beyond the Wall of Sleep (1919); Beyond the Wall of Sleep and Other Strange Tales (2018); Bound for Evil: Curious Tales of Books Gone Bad (2008); Brooklyn Noir 2 (2005); Canopic Jars: Tales of Mummies and Mummification (2013); Cat Tales: Fantastic Feline Fiction (2007); Celephais (1922); Clark Ashton Smith: Letters to H.P. Lovecraft (1987); Classic Cat Stories (2020); Collected Essays (2008); Collected Essays of H.P. Lovecraft, Vol. 1: Amateur Journalism (2004); Collected Essays of H.P. Lovecraft, Vol. 2: Literary Criticism (2004); Collected Essays of H.P. Lovecraft, Vol. 3: Science (2005); Collected Essays of H.P. Lovecraft, Vol. 4: Travel (2005); Collected Essays of H.P. Lovecraft: Philosophy; Autobiography and Miscellany (2006); Cool Air (1928); Creeping Dementia (2007); Dagon (1919); Dagon and Other Macabre Tales (1965); Dagon Rising (2019); Dancing with the Dark (2009); Dark Adventure Radio Theatre (2007); Dreams and Fancies (1962); Dreams in the Witch-House (1933); Eerie Archives; Vol. 3 (2010); Eldritch Tales: A Miscellany of the Macabre (2011); Essential Solitude: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and August Derleth, Vol. 1 (2009); Essential Solitude: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and August Derleth, Vol. 2 (2009); Ex Oblivione (1921); Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family / The White Ape (1921); Fireside Ghost Stories for Christmas Eve (2015); Fireside Horror Stories About Supernatural Cats (2017); Fossil Lake II (2015); From Beyond (1934); Fungi from Yuggoth and Other Poems (1920); Great Fantasy (1983); H. P. Lovecraft's Book of the Supernatural (2006); H.P. Lovecraft: The Fiction (2008); H.P. Lovecraft's Book of Horror (1993); H.P. Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror (2012); He (2017); Herbert West: Reanimator (1922); History of the Necronomicon (1938); Horror for the Holidays (2011); Hypnos (1923); Ibid (1938); In the Vault (1925); Legacy of the Reanimator (2015); Letters to Alfred Galpin (2002); Letters to Elizabeth Toldridge and Anne Tillery Renshaw (2014); Letters to F. Lee Baldwin, Duane W. Rimel, and Nils Frome (2016); Letters to Henry Kuttner (1991); Letters to J. Vernon Shea, Carl F. Strauch, and Lee McBride White (2016); Letters to James F. Morton (2011); Letters to Rheinhart Kleiner (2005); Letters to Richard F. Searight (1992); Letters to Robert Bloch (1993); Letters to Robert Bloch and Others (2015); Letters to Samuel Loveman & Vincent Starrett (1994); Lord of a Visible World (2000); Lovecraft at Last: The Master of Horror in His Own Words (1927); Lovecraft Mythos New & Classic Collection (2020); Marginalia (2020); Memory (1919); More Annotated Lovecraft (1999); Mysteries of Time and Spirit: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and Donald Wandrei (2002); Necronomicon (1930); Nightmares on Congress Street, Part V (2006); Nyarlathotep (1920); Old Bugs (1959); Pickman's Model (1927); Polaris (2020); Red Sky (2014); Rod Serling's Night Gallery Reader (1987); Sea Tales of Terror (1974); Sea-Cursed (1994); Selected Letters I, 1911-1924 (1964); Selected Letters II, 1925-1929 (1965); Selected Letters III, 1929-1931 (1971); Selected Letters IV, 1932-1934 (1976); Selected Letters V, 1934-1937 (1976); Shadows of Death (2005); Shadows Over Innsmouth (1994); Something About Cats and Other Pieces (1949); Stranger: Dark Tales of Eerie Encounters (2002); Summoned From The Tomb (1973); Supernatural Horror in Literature (1927); Sweet Ermengarde (1943); Swords & Sorcery (1963); Tales of Cosmic Terror (2023); Tales of H.P. Lovecraft (1935); Tales of Horror & Suspense (2015); Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, Vol. 1 (1969); The Alchemist (1916); The Ancient Track: The Complete Poetical Works of H. P. Lovecraft (1983); The Annotated H.P. Lovecraft (1997); The Baen Big Book of Monsters (2014); The Beast in the Cave (1918); The Best of H. P. Lovecraft (2021); The Big Book of Classic Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction (2013); The Book (1938); The Call of Cthulhu (1928); The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories (1926); The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Tales (2011); The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1941); The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (2013); The Cats of Ulthar (1920); The Colour Out of Deathlehem (2021); The Colour Out of Space (1927); The Complete Works of H. P. Lovecraft (2020); The Crawling Chaos and Others (2011); The Cthulhu Mythos Megapack (2012); The Dead That Walk (2009); The Descendant (1938); The Doom That Came to Sarnath (1920); The Doom That Came to Sarnath and Other Stories (1920); The Dover Anthology of Cat Stories (2015); The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1970); The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories (2004); The Dunwich Horror (2017); The Dunwich Horror and Other Weird Tales (2020); The Dunwich Horror and Others (1945); The Evil Clergyman (1939); The Festival (1925); The Giant Book of Zombies (1993); The Greatest Ghost and Horror Stories Ever Written: volume 3 (2019); The Haunter of the Dark (1936); The Haunter of the Dark and Other Tales (1935); The Haunter of the Dark and Other Tales of Horror (1977); The Horror at Red Hook (1927); The Horror in the Museum (2009); The Hound (1924); The Little Glass Bottle (1959); The Lovecraft Anthology, Volume 1 (2011); The Lovecraft Anthology, Volume 2 (2012); The Lurker at the Threshold (1945); The Lurking Fear / Cry Horror! (1937); The Lurking Fear and More Stories (2018); The Lurking Fear and Other Early Terrors (2021); The Lurking Fear and Other Stories (1923); The Mammoth Book of Body Horror (2012); The Mammoth Book of Fantasy All-Time Greats (1988); The Mammoth Book of Folk Horror (2021); The Mammoth Book of Zombies (1993); The Moon-Bog (1926); The Music of Erich Zann (1922); The Mysterious Ship (1959); The Mystery of the Grave-Yard (1959); The Nameless City (1921); The Necronomicon (1996); The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft (2014); The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft: Beyond Arkham (2019); The Other Gods (1933); The Outsider (1926); The Outsider and Others (1939); The Peabody Heritage (1957); The Picture in the House (1921); The Poetical Works of Jonathan E. Hoag (1923); The Quest of Iranon (1935); The Rats in the Walls (2017); The Secret Cave (1959); The Shadow Out of Time (1936); The Shadow Out Of Time and Other Tales of Horror (1968); The Shadow Over Innsmouth (1936); The Shadow Over Innsmouth and Other Stories Of Horror (1936); The Shunned House (1937); The Shuttered Room and Other Pieces (1959); The Silver Key (1929); The Starry Wisdom: A Tribute to H.P. Lovecraft (1994); The Statement of Randolph Carter (1920); The Strange High House in the Mist (1931); The Street (1920); The Survivor and Others (1957); The Tales of Inspector Legrasse (2005); The Temple (1925); The Terrible Old Man (1921); The Thing on the Doorstep (1937); The Tomb (2017); The Transition of H. P. Lovecraft (1996); The Transition of Juan Romero (1944); The Tree (1921); The Tree on the Hill (1934); The Ultimate Short Story Bundle (2020); The Unnamable (1925); The Very Old Folk (1940); The Watchers Out of Time (1974); The Weird Fiction Collection #1 (2018); The Weird Shadow Over Innsmouth and Other Stories of the Supernatural (1944); The Whisperer in Darkness (2020); The White Ship (1919); Thoughts and Pictures (2020); Through the Gates of the Silver Key (1934); Uncollected Letters (1986); Under The Pyramids (1924); Weird Legacies (1977); Weird Poems (2015); Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth (2005); Weird Tales 1 (1981); Weird Tales 2 (1981); Weird Tales 3 (1981); Weird Tales 4 (1983); Weirder Shadows Over Innsmouth (2013); Weirder Shadows Over Innsmouth (2013); Werewolves and Shape Shifters: Encounters with the Beasts Within (2010); What October Brings: A Lovecraftian Celebration of Halloween (2018); What the Moon Brings (1922); Wonder and Glory Forever (2020); Zombies!: Tales of the Walking Dead (2013).

Movies and television:

13 Weird Stories (2015); A estranha casa na bruma (2018); Alienation (2021); Alle Montagne Della Follia (2022); Alone in the Dark (1992); An Imperfect Solution: A Tale of the Re-Animator (2003); Ancient Lore (2023); Angry and Moist: An Undead Chronicle (2004); Arcana (2019); Asleep in the Deep (2005); At the Mountains of Madness (2016 / 2018 / 2021 / 2022); Azathoth (2016); Backwoods (2019); Banshee Chapter (2013); Behind (2018); Beyond Lovesauce (2007); Beyond Re-Animator (2003); Beyond the Dunwich Horror (2008); Beyond the Wall of Sleep (2006 / 2021); Black Goat (2020); Blasted Heath (2018); Bleeders (1997); Bride of Re-Animator (1990); Call Girl of Cthulhu (2014); Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (2005); Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Comet (1993); Call of Cthulhu: The Official Video Game (2018); Calls for Cthulhu (1996); Castle Freak (1995 / 2020); Chaos from the Old World. Part II (2020); Chilean Gothic (2000); Chill (2007); Cineficción Radio (2019–2024); City of the Living Dead (1980); Color Out of Space (2019); Colour from the Dark (2008); Cool Air (1999 / 2006); Corporate Monster (2019); Corpse-O-Rama (2001); Cthulhu (2000 / 2007); Cthulhu Aventures (2018–2020); Cthulhu Wore Tennis Shoes (1996); Ctulhu 2. Battle for the future (2021); Ctulhu. Rise from the sea (2021); Curious Matter Anthology (2019); Dagon (2001); Dagon: by H. P. Lovecraft (2021); Dark Heritage (1989); Dead Meat Podcast (2020); Dead Tongues (2016); Die Musik des Erich Zann (2005); Die, Monster, Die! (1965); Dissociation (2023); Doctor Stein (2019); Doug Bradley's Spine Chillers: The Outsider (2008); Dunwich (2006); El Extraño (2021); El modelo de Pickman (2014); Epikindyni zoni (1988); Ex Oblivione (2009 / 2023); Ex Oblivione by H. P. Lovecraft / Reading (2015); From Beyond (1986 / 1997 / 2006 / 2014 / 2016); From the Dark (2009); Fyren (2010); Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities (2022); H. P. Lovecraft's the Dunwich Horror and Other Stories (2007); H. P. Lovecraft's the Old Ones (2024); H.P. Lovecraft: Schatten aus der Zeit (1975); H.P. Lovecraft's Celephaïs (2023); H.P. Lovecraft's From Beyond (1999); H.P. Lovecraft's the Beast in the Cave (2016); H.P. Lovecraft's the Silver Key (2011); H.P. Lovecraft's the Terrible Old Man (2007 / 2017); Haunters of the dark (2021); Herbert West: Re-Animator (2017); Howard Lovecraft & the Undersea Kingdom (2017); Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom (2016); Howard Lovecraft and the Kingdom of Madness (2018); Hunters of the Dark (2011); Hypnos (2016); In Between (2012); Innsbay (2010); Innsmouth (2015); Innsmouth Legacy (2004); Innsmouth x (2019); Insumasu o ouu Kage (1992); Josephine (2017); Justice League (2003); Kadath (1979); Kalyazin. City of the Ctulhu (2022); Kammaren (2007); La chiave d'argento (1982); La maison de la sorcière (2019); La mansión de los Cthulhu (1992); La noche del océano (2015); Lake Vostok: At the Mountains of Madness (2017); L'Appel de Cthulhu (2015); L'Appel de Cthulhu: L'île (2017); Le Montagne Della Follia (2008); Le peuple ancient (2001); Les Aliénés de Cthulhu (2017); Lurking Fear (1994); Markham (2020); Marquis: Into the Murky Depths (2013); Masking Threshold (2021); Masters of Horror (2005); Memory (2014); Memory: The Origins of Alien (2019); Miskatonic 1927 (2018); Miskatonic University (2014); Mr. Noyes (2010); Muerte cerebral (2012); Mystery of the Necronomicon: Book of the Dead (1999); Necronomicon: Book of Dead (1993); Nekromania (2010); Night Gallery (1971); Night Gaunts (2012); Night-Gaunts (2023); Nyarlathotep (2001); Out of Mind: The Stories of H.P. Lovecraft (1998); Pat Boone in Hollywood (1967); Pickman's Model (1981 / 2003 / 2008 / 2012 / 2022); Pickman's Muse (2010); Portal to Hell!!! (2015); Psychopompos (2018); Pulse Pounders (1988); Pyos (2017); Read Me a Story (2005); Re-Animator (1985); Re-Animator: 1942 (2008); ReCreation (2005); Relatos Clásicos de Misterio y Terror (2021); Return to Innsmouth (1999); Return to Providence (2016); Road Book (2021); Rough Magik (2000); Sandra Munt's Adventure (2016); Saturneers (2024); Scary Stories Around the Fire (2022); Scratches (2006); Shadow Beyond Time (2011); Shadow of the Unnamable (2011); Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened (2006); Skuggan över Innfyr (2017); Sound from the Deep (2017); Splatterhouse 2 (1992); Splatterhouse 3 (1993); Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti (1989); Strange Aeons (2014–2015); Strange Aeons: The Thing on the Doorstep (2005); Subb Niggurath (2013); Suitable Flesh (2023); Tähdet ovat väärin (2010); Tales from the Grave: The Movie (2020); The Abyss of the Soul (2021); The Beast in the Cave (2024); The Beyond (1981); The Black Tome of Alsophocus (2020); The Book (2008); The Book in the House (2021); The Call of Cthulhu (2005); The Chilling Tales of Yuletide (2021–2022); The Color Out of Space (2010); The Colour Out of Space (2017); The Craft: Based on the Life & Work of H.P. Lovecraft (2015); The Creepypasta Episodes (2016); The Crimson Cult (1968); The Curse (1987); The Curse of Yig (2011); The Deep End (2014); The Deep Ones (2013 / 2020); The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (2003); The Dunwich Horror (1970 / 2008); The Estate (2022); The Evil Clergyman (2012 / 2002); The Fantasmagori (2017); The Garden (2019); The Ghost Writer Show - The Call of Cthulhu (2020); The Greater Evil (2015); The Halfway House (2004); The Haunted Palace (1963); The Haunter of the Dark (2015); The Haunter of the Dark II (2017); The Haunter of the Dark III (2020); The Horror of H.P. Lovecraft (2006); The Horror Vault 2 (2009); The Horror Vault 3 (2010); The Hound (1997 / 2022); The House by the Cemetery (1981); The Island of the Fishmen (1979); The Last Case of August T. Harrison (2015); The Miskatonic Files (2017); The Mountains of Madness (2006); The Music of Erica Zann (2002 / 1980 / 2009 / 2016 / 2019); The Music of Jo Hyeja (2012); The Nameless City by H.P. Lovecraft (2022); The Oohs (2012); The Other Gods (2006); The Outsider (1993 / 1994 / 1998 / 2019); The Pain of Creation (2011); The Picture in the House (2003 / 2009 / 2010); The Rats in the Walls (2006); The Resurrected (1991); The Shadow Out of Time (2012); The Shunned House (2003); The Shuttered Room (1967); The Silver Key (2010); The Statement (2007); The Statement of Randolph Carter (2005 / 2008 / 2019); The Strange Case of Lucio Belmonte (2016); The Stranger Who Came from the Deep (2015); The Terrible Old Man (2012 / 2015 / 2019); The Terrible Old Man by H.P. Lovecraft (2022); The Terror at Blue John Gap (2019); The Testimony of Randolph Carter (1987); The Thing on the Doorstep (2003); The Tomb (2007); The Transition of Juan Romero (2017); The Unnamable (1988); The Unnamable II: The Statement of Randolph Carter (1992); The Valdemar Legacy (2010); The Valdemar Legacy II: The Forbidden Shadow (2010); The Whisperer in Darkness (1975 / 2007 / 2011); Three Shadows (2010); Till A' the Seas (2020); Tomb of Terror / Segment: Infinite Evil (2004); Unknown Beyond (2001); Unspeakable: Beyond the Wall of Sleep (2024); Vägen till Necronomicon (2017); Vallenegro (2007); Vampirismus (1982); Vigor Mortis (2010); What the Polaris Moon Brings (2024); When the Earth Gives Up the Dead (2022).

Recommended reading - Blood Music, by Greg Bear (1985):

Blood Music

By Greg Bear.

Published in 1985.

ISBN-10: 1497637023

ISBN-13: 978-1497637023

Book cover description:

“A Childhood’s End for the 1980s, replacing aliens and mysterious mental evolution with the effects of genetic engineering run wild … Like Arthur Clarke, Bear goes to the limits.” – Locus.

Vergil Ulam is a brilliant but unorthodox researcher working to develop biochips – the next quantum leap in computer technology, using the complexities of cellular structure (notably DNA) as a means of information processing. But Vergil goes several steps further, and soon has produced intelligent clumps of cellular material, able to outperform rats in laboratory tests. In doing so, he has exceeded, without authorization, guidelines laid down for genetic research, and when he is found out he loses his job and is told to destroy his experimental material.

Determined to salvage something, he injects himself with part of the culture – intending to retrieve it later – and walks out of the laboratory carrying within him a seed that will develop far beyond the limits of his brilliant but blinkered imagination.

Based on his Hugo and Nebula Award winning story, Blood Music is an extraordinary novel which establishes Greg Bear among the new masters of science fiction. From its firm grounding in current research, the novel unfolds vistas of imaginative possibility, logical yet surprising, which demand comparison with the best of Arthur C. Clarke, and with Olaf Stapledon.

“Only seldom does a brilliant short story give rise to an even better novel, but in blood Music, Greg Bear has made it happen. A dazzling flight of disciplined imagination.” – Poul Anderson.

C. S. Lewis, on writing:

You can make anything by writing.

- C. S. Lewis.

On this day in movie history - Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014):

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For,

directed by Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez,

written by Frank Miller,

based on the graphic novels by Frank Miller,

was released in the United States on August 19, 2014.
Music by Robert Rodriguez and Carl Thiel.

Cast:
Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rosario Dawson, Bruce Willis, Eva Green, Powers Boothe, Dennis Haysbert, Ray Liotta, Christopher Meloni, Jeremy Piven, Christopher Lloyd, Jaime King, Juno Temple, Stacy Keach, Marton Csokas, Jude Ciccolella, Jamie Chung, Julia Garner, Lady Gaga, Alexa PenaVega, Patricia Vonne, Bart Fletcher, Alejandro Rose-Garcia, Samuel Davis, Mike Davis, Kimberly Cox, Alcides Dias, Billy Blair, Mickey Rourke, Rob Franco, Daylon Walton, Eloise DeJoria, Bob Schreck, Lawrence Varnado, Jimmy Gonzales, Tommy Townsend, Robert Lott, Gregory Kelly, Patrick Sane, Greg Ingram, Will Beinbrink, Dimitrius Pulido, John Wirt, Emmy Robbin, Luis Albert Acevedo Jr., Christian Bowman, Johnny Reno, Holt Boggs, Shane Bryant, Scott K. Butler, Gene Cervenka, Mike Lobo Daniel, Maria Engler, Rob Faubion, Heaven Fearn, Osvaldo Fernandez, Rebecca Franchione, Sylvia Froman, Oliver George, Callie Hernandez, Lacey Hernandez, Kea Ho, Breona Horne, Holly Jee, Duane Johnson, Stephen Latham, Chris Lemchi, Lindsey Lemke, Johnny Lozano, David Maldonado, Robin McGee, Frank Miller, Dan Murphy, Jay Pennington, Darryl Perrilloux, Tanner Priest, Robert Rodriguez, Jenna Saab, Alex Sparrow, Gary Teague, Brian Thornton, Heath Young.

On this day in movie history - Electra Glide in Blue (1973):

Electra Glide in Blue,

directed by James William Guercio,

written by Robert Boris,

based on a story by Robert Boris and Rupert Hitzig,

was released in the United States on August 19, 1973.
Music by James William Guercio.

Cast:
Robert Blake, Billy "Green" Bush, Mitchell Ryan, Jeannine Riley, Elisha Cook, Royal Dano, Hawk Wolinski, Peter Cetera, Terry Kath, Lee Loughnane, Walter Parazaider, Joe Samsil, Jason Clark, Michael Butler, Susan Forristal, Nick Nolte.

On this day in movie history - The Barton Mystery (1949):

The Barton Mystery,

aka Le mystère Barton,

directed and written by Charles Spaak,

based on the play The Barton Mystery by Walter C. Hackett,

was released in France on August 19, 1949.
Music by Daniel Lesur.

Cast:
Françoise Rosay, Fernand Ledoux, Madeleine Robinson, Georges Lannes, Nathalie Nattier, Loleh Bellon, Jacques Torrens, Maurice Teynac, Jean Marchat, Victor Vina, Régine Dancourt, Jacques Mattler, Robert Moor, Geneviève Morel.