Reggie Oliver and the "Hitler Symphonies"

There was a recent discussion over at Thomas Ligotti Online about contemporary weird fiction authors. Inevitably, one of the rarer titles came up: Reggie Oliver's short story collection, The Complete Symphonies of Adolf Hitler and Other Strange Stories. This was the second full collection by an underground writer who has already garnered a reputation for excellence, a new cult figure in the literary movement of weird fiction--which often enjoys success mining the underground. The Hitler Symphonies book was a valuable commodity from the outset, due to a pricey limited edition release of only 250 copies in 2005. It was also Oliver's second collection of short tales, selling out rapidly via the admirer base gained from the release of his first collection, The Dreams of Cardinal Vittorini.

What of the man? Oliver is a graduate of Britain's illustrious schools, Eton and Oxford. His high intellectual and literary capacity shows in his chosen artistic projects, which previously included acting and theater writing, in addition to the production of weird fiction. Not surprisingly, he is a follower of the greats in supernatural literature. Oliver won an award from the Friends of Arthur Machen Society for a short story penned in Machenian style. More importantly, however, he's worked on both media and fictional projects in memory and imitation of M.R. James, a writer whom reviewers at Weird Tales have drawn parallels with Oliver. His weird stories often involve terrors of an existential, post-modern nature lurking behind the veil of reality, a feature that has also gotten him compared with Thomas Ligotti. Additionally, he shows no shortage of talent at weaving terrors involving bleak, but more tangible oddities, as in his title piece where Adolf Hitler became a composer instead of a dictator, filling the world with spectral music. For those unlucky enough to have just heard of Oliver, or those already embarked on the near-impossible search for his rare short story collections, only the sentiments of Weird Tales reviewer Scott Conners can be echoed:

Here is a writer who bears watching by all aficionados of the genre, and whose work will I hope become more generally available.

Fortunately, readers have a timely opportunity to try Oliver later this month, by ordering his new collection of shorts from Ash-Tree Press. Masques of Satan: Twelve Tales and a Novella will be Oliver's first new collection since the Hitler Symphonies, and probably another that will sell out rapidly and become quite collectible, even with a wider printing of this one and a $50 price tag. The Ghost Story Society has posted a podcast of Reggie Oliver reading "Puss Cat," one of the upcoming tales from this collection.

-Grim Blogger