John Henry Noyes Collier was a British born (3 May 1901 – 1980) brilliant author and screenplay writer who became most known for his short stories. Many of these stories appeared in the New Yorker from the 1930’s to the 1950’s and were collected in a 1951 volume, Fancies and Goodnights. This volume won the International Fantasy Award.

Collier was married to early film actress Shirley Palmer. His second marriage in 1942 was to New York actress Beth Kay (Margaret Elizabeth Eke). They divorced a decade later. He had one child, a son, from his third marriage.

Poetry to novels and short stories

Privately educated by his uncle, Vincent Collier, a novelist, Collier initially wanted to be a poet. It was not until the publication of His Monkey Wife in 1930 that his career began to take shape.

Collier’s perfectly constructed stories are unique in style showing an acerbic wit. The stories are believable, though sometimes unbelievable, fantasies which capture unexpected endings. What makes Collier’s writing such fun is that it is memorable. You may not remember the title or author but you’ll remember ‘the story about the people who lived in the department store’ (Evening Primrose) or ‘the story in which the famous beauties that the man magically summons all say, ‘Here I am on a tiger-skin again’ (Bottle Party).

Other media

Collier traveled between Hollywood, England and France for he had moved to Hollywood in 1935. He continued writing short stories, but turned his attention more and more towards writing screenplays.

He wrote prolifically for film and television, contributing notably to the screenplays of The African Queen along with James Agee and John Huston, The Elephant Boy, The War Lord, I am a Camera (adapted from The Berlin Stories and remade as Cabaret), Sylvia Scarlett, Her Cardboard Lover, Deception and Roseanna McCoy. He also received the Edgar Award in 1952 for the short story collection Fancies and Goodnights. His short story Evening Primrose was the subject of a 1966 television musical by Stephen Sondheim, and it was also adapted for the radio series Escape and by BBC Radio. Several of his stories, including Back for Christmas, Wet Saturday and de Mortuis were adapted for the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Death

In 1980 John Collier died in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California. Towards the end of his life he wrote, “I sometimes marvel that a third-rate writer like me has been able to palm himself off as a second-rate writer.”

Works of John Collier

Novels

1930 His Monkey Wife: or Married to a Chimp

1931 No Traveller Returns

1933 Tom’s a Cold (published in the U.S. as Full Circle)

1934 Defy the Foul Fiend: or The Misadventures of a Heart

Short Story Collections

1932 Green Thoughts

1934 The Devil and All

1941 Presenting Moonshine

1943 The Touch of Nutmeg: and More Unlikely Stories

1951 Fancies and Goodnights

1958 Pictures in the Fire

1961 Of Demons and Darkness

1972 The John Collier Reader

1975 The Best of John Collier

Other Works

1931 Gemini Poetry collections

1931 The Scandal and Credulities of John Aubrey

1973 Paradise Lost: Screenplay for Cinema of the Mind. An adaptation from Milton that was never produced as a film. Collier changed the format slightly to make it more readable in book form.

1973 Sleeping Beauty: This short story was used as the basis for James B. Harris’ 1973 fantasy film. Some Call It Loving AKA Dream Castle

Bottle Party

Franklin Fletcher dreamed of luxury in the form of tiger-skins and beautiful women. He was prepared, at a pinch, to forgo the tiger-skins. Unfortunately, the beautiful women seemed equally rare and inaccessible. At his office and at his boardinghouse, the girls were mere mice, or cattish, or kittenish, or had insufficiently read the advertisements. He met no others. At thirty-five he gave up, and decided he must console himself with a hobby, which is a very miserable second best.

He prowled about in odd corners of the town, looking in at the windows of antique dealers and junk shops, wondering what on earth he might collect. He came upon a poor shop, in a poor alley, in whose dusty window stood a single object: it was a full-rigged ship in a bottle. Feeling rather like that himself, he decided to go in and ask the price.

The shop was small and bare. Some shabby racks were ranged about the walls and these racks bore a large number of bottles, of every shape and size, containing a variety of objects which were interesting only because they were in bottles. While Franklin still looked about, a little door opened, and out shuffled the proprietor, a wizened old man in a smoking cap, who seemed mildly surprised and mildly pleased to have a customer.

He showed Franklin bouquets, and birds of paradise, and the Battle of Gettysburg, and miniature Japanese gardens, and even a shrunken human head, all stoppered up in bottles. “And what,” said Frank, “are those, down there on the bottom shelf?”

“They are not much to look at,” said the old man.

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Fancies and Goodnights

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Works of John Collier

Bottle Party

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