[PW] ?short story id

[Dennis Lien]

At 09:59 AM 1/29/2007, you wrote:
>I remember a very creepy short story about a man discovered in a rowboat.
>He is covered with fungus/mold and relates his story to a ship's crew. He
>refuses to come on board for fear of infecting them but asks for food to
>take back to his wife (?) who has also been infected.  I remember that was
>in a collection of Alfred Hitchcock stories but, sorry, I don't remember the
>author or title.


That one is "The Voice in the Night" by William Hope Hodgson.  It was reprinted
in the July 1989 issue of ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE; I don't recall
offhand (and don't have a quick way to check at the moment) if it was also in
one of the Hitchcock anthologies, though I'd not be surprised.  It can also
be found in the following anthologies, among others, and in many collections
of Hodgson's stories:

* The Voice in the Night, (ss) Blue Book Nov 1907

     * Beyond Time and Space, ed. August Derleth, Pellegrini Cudahy 1950
     * Best Tales of Terror 2, ed. Edmund Crispin, London: Faber & Faber 1965
     * Science Fiction by Gaslight, ed. Sam Moskowitz, World 1968
     * The Avon Fantasy Reader, ed. Donald A. Wollheim & George Ernsberger, 
Avon 1969
     * Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone Magazine Special #1 1984
     * Dark Company: The Ten Greatest Ghost Stories, ed. Lincoln Child, St. 
Martin's 1984
     * 65 Great Spine Chillers, ed. Mary Danby, Octopus 1982
     * Tales of the Dark, ed. Lincoln Child, St. Martin's 1987
     * The Book of Dracula, ed. Leslie Shepard, Wings 1991
     * The Dracula Book of Classic Horror Stories, ed. Leslie Shepard, 
Robert Hale 1992

But as noted, it's probably not the story sought, though the theme is similar
(and there are other old fantasy/horror stories on the same theme, such as
"Fungus Isle" by Philip Fisher and, I think, "Moss Island" by Carl Jacobi).
I'll dig around and see if I can track down the one recalled from a
Hitchcock anthology later today.

Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // d-lien at umn.edu