Publish and be Damned!

There is nothing like publishing a book for flushing out new information—material it would have been useful to have included!

It was only after my Biography of Robert Aickman was first published that I was contacted by two women who had been important in the author’s life, and who gave me new and interesting information. I had not previously been able to locate either of them, but they saw notices for the biography and came forward.

Since the second printing of the Biography, I’ve come across another female friend of Aickman’s, and I’ve been able to identify ‘Eve’, one of the great loves of his life. We’ve also managed to establish that Aickman’s momentous meeting with L.T.C. Rolt was in the company of three more people than he had previously mentioned.

I am pleased to report that none of the above information invalidates anything written in the Biography. Aickman’s relationships with women, for example, often seem to have followed a similar trajectory: if they were young and pretty he fell romantically in love, but he expected them to remain single for his benefit while he had no intention whatsoever of making a commitment to them. They invariably broke his heart by moving on.

When it came to researching and publishing Robert Aickman’s Letters to his U.S. agent, Kirby McCauley, I checked various references with his friend Ramsey Campbell, but not the ‘Earrings film’ which Ramsey has confirmed, post publication, was Ophuls’ Madame De. Ramsey also pointed out that the author who moved to Crouch End on page 201 was Peter Straub. This has since been discussed by a number of readers on Facebook, many of whom admit that Aickman’s preferences in books and films are less then predictable.

Also unpredictable are Aickman’s political preferences at times. Matthew Cheney's Patreon blog has a great essay on Aickman, making the interesting observation that Aickman probably liked the idea of Norman Mailer being Mayor of New York because he wanted to instigate ‘Sweet Sundays’:

where ‘every form of mechanical transportation – including elevators – would be halted’

Cheney points out that

. . . this must have been terribly appealing to Aickman. Given how attached he was to propriety, I’m surprised the vulgarities of Mailer didn’t put him off, but I suppose that was easy to put aside for a candidate who promised to stop the machines.’

Any other observations by readers will be welcomed!

Robert Aickman: A Biography, by R.B. Russell, Tartarus Press, 2023

Acknowledgements

With thanks to Heather Smith, and Artellus, Ltd.

All photos, unless otherwise stated, are copyright Estate of Robert Aickman/British Library/R.B. Russell, and are not to be reproduced without permission and acknowledgement.