Ramble House Books
LightNews LightNews
ramblehouse.bsky.social
Ramble House Books
@ramblehouse.bsky.social
59 followers 32 following 77 posts
Ramble House is a tiny two-person publishing outfit, selling books from ramblehouse.com. We specialize in pulp, weird and out-of-print work. We helped popularize Harry Stephen Keeler. Please take a look at our books! (Many NSFW)
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
ramblehouse.bsky.social
Ramble House Books @ramblehouse.bsky.social · Apr 18
Ramble House is working on a rerelease of Fatal Accident, a Boscobell mystery from 1936 by the character's creator Cecil Wills. ramblehouse.com/fatalacciden...
The cover to the Ramble House edition of FATAL ACCIDENT, mostly black with the title words making a T-shape crossing on the A. Cecil M. Wells, A 'Boscobell' Adventure. A Ramble House Mystery.
ramblehouse.bsky.social
Ramble House is working on a rerelease of Fatal Accident, a Boscobell mystery from 1936 by the character's creator Cecil Wills. ramblehouse.com/fatalacciden...
The cover to the Ramble House edition of FATAL ACCIDENT, mostly black with the title words making a T-shape crossing on the A. Cecil M. Wells, A 'Boscobell' Adventure. A Ramble House Mystery.
April 18, 2026 at 3:08 AM
ramblehouse.bsky.social
Aah we're back! Ramble House is back for 2026 with the website finally updated for HTTPS, and a new book, a reprint of Robert Chamber's classic (or at least halfway so) work of weird horror THE KING IN YELLOW! You can get it here: ramblehouse.com/thekinginyel...
The cover to the Ramble House "Forbidden Inversion" edition of The King in Yellow. The cover image, by our own Gavin O'Keefe, is of a yellow recreation of a playing card King of Hearts, with the title and author's name over it, the upside-down King is more or less normal, the rightside-up version though the king has a skull, and it looks like his sword is thrust into it!
February 10, 2026 at 9:35 PM
ramblehouse.bsky.social
We're still alive! Hopefully I can get a new post up soon!
December 6, 2025 at 3:04 PM
ramblehouse.bsky.social
The other new book from Ramble House is also by Francis Nevins, Judges & Justice & Lawyers & Law: Exploring the Legal Dimensions of Fiction and Film. www.ramblehouse.com/Judges.htm
The cover to Judges & Justice & Lawyers & Law: Exploring the Legal Dimensions of Fiction and Film, by Francis M. Nevins.
July 18, 2025 at 5:51 AM
ramblehouse.bsky.social
Ramble House has two new books out! The first is Ellery Queen: The Art of Detection, compiled by Francis Nevins, two-time winner of The Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award. www.ramblehouse.com/EQ.htm
The cover to Ellery Queen: The Art of Detection by Francis M. Nevins. More text reads "The story of how two fractious cousins reshaped the modern detective novel." The cousins are pictured: Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee.
July 18, 2025 at 5:38 AM
ramblehouse.bsky.social
The Anthologist's Folly is a collection of eldritch horror stories curated by award-winning editor Johnny Mains. It collects stories from Bram Stoker, Algernon Blackwood, Oswell Blakeston, A.J. Alan, and other horror authors. Its page on Ramble House's website: www.ramblehouse.com/Anthologists...
The cover of the book The Anthologist's Folly, edited by Johnny Mains. It shows an illustration of a stone tower in the woods being struck by lightning.
June 8, 2025 at 5:57 PM
ramblehouse.bsky.social
Other work has gotten in the way lately, but we're still around! Expect a new post soon.
June 8, 2025 at 5:34 PM
ramblehouse.bsky.social
A new book from Ramble House, His Beautiful hands: The Short Fiction of Oscar Cook, collected and edited, with great effort, by Johnny Mains! www.ramblehouse.com/HisBeautiful...
A sepia-tone photograph of British author Oscar Cook, on the cover of the Ramble House book His Beautiful Hands: The Short Fiction of Oscar Cook, Edited & Introduced by Johnny Mains
March 29, 2025 at 7:39 PM
ramblehouse.bsky.social
Arkham House published mystery and horror writer Richard Lupoff's (RIP 2020) Lovecraft's Book in 1985, but it was a heavily cut down version of a much larger version called Marblehead. Marblehead was lost until 2012 when Ramble House published the complete novel: www.ramblehouse.com/marblehead.htm
The cover to Marblehead: A Novel of H.P. Lovecraft, by Richard A. Lupoff. Three faces look forth from the cover. The face in back wears a swastika pin, and a copy of Mein Kampf is in the upper-left. Yikes!
March 6, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Reposted by Ramble House Books
harryskeeler.bsky.social
[“As he fed the cat with Executive Mansion cutlery, the First Lady asked: “Don’t you think it is shameful for Mr. Lincoln to feed tabby with a gold fork?” Her husband replied: “If the gold fork was good enough for Buchanan I think it is good enough for Tabby” and continued feeding the cat.”]
February 24, 2025 at 1:56 AM
ramblehouse.bsky.social
John Dickson #Carr was a master of what's called the "locked room mystery," in which a detective solves an apparently impossible case. For aficionados of Carr, and those who would like to be, Ramble House publishes James Keirans' The Carr Companion: www.ramblehouse.com/jdccompanion...
The cover of The John Dickson Carr Companion, a brown background bearing an image of a door, with a large ornate key overlaid on it. The author is James E. Keirans.
February 23, 2025 at 1:04 AM
Reposted by Ramble House Books
brian-goldstone.bsky.social
In preparation for today’s Super Bowl in New Orleans, state police forced over 100 homeless men and women onto buses under threat of arrest, dumping them in an unheated warehouse. Tents destroyed, belongings lost. Press are barred from the warehouse.

The price tag for this cruelty? $17.5 million
Louisiana coerced unhoused people into an unheated warehouse – and paid $17.5m for it
Dozens of New Orleanians were bused to a site with insufficient heating and blankets days before the city is to host the Super Bowl
www.theguardian.com
February 9, 2025 at 2:48 PM
ramblehouse.bsky.social
Notorious filmmaker Ed Wood, director of some consider the worst movies ever made, was also a writer, and his written works are of a piece with his movies. Muddled Mind by David Hayes is a celebration of his writing, and contains a few of his short stories. www.ramblehouse.com/muddledmind....
The cover, title depicted in dripping blood, of the book Muddled Mind, by David C. Hayes and Hayden Davis, PhD.
February 9, 2025 at 3:33 AM
Reposted by Ramble House Books
caseyjohnston.bsky.social
Also a reminder that if you are reading good coverage, share/post those links, a lot has shifted and people need to know where to find information
hamiltonnolan.bsky.social Hamilton Nolan @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social · Feb 2
There are literally not enough journalists employed in the US to cover the bad shit that is happening right now. We are now going to experience the social consequences of a weakened news industry--which are the same as the benefits of a weakened news industry, to those who weakened it.
February 3, 2025 at 5:19 PM
ramblehouse.bsky.social
Harry Stephen Keeler is best known for his strange and idiosyncratic mysteries, but for 21 years he edited a magazine called 10-Story Book, "A Magazine for Iconoclasts." In this book published by Ramble House, Chris Mikul collects 35 of its best stories. www.ramblehouse.com/bestof10stor...
The cover to the Ramble House collection "The Best of 10 Story Book, Harry Stephen Keeler's Spicy Magazine 1919-1940 Edited by Chris Mikul" It has a hand-drawn illustration of a topless redhead woman holding a gun and leaning against a skull. The back cover text reads: "A Magazine for Iconoclasts. 'The mind of the editor of an average American magazine is a ludicrous wilderness of taboos. He edits his magazine with a craven blue pencil. He lives in horror of printing something that will offend one of his advertisers. His nights are tortured with dreams of letters in the business office of his publication, raising hell with them for having an author pull God's whiskers or remark disparagingly upon this mess of a democracy of ours. 'After years of readactorship with a blue pencil the average American editor has come to the point where he will buy only half a dozen stories. Safe stories he calls them. Take any magazine but 10-Story Book and see how all of the stories fall monotonously into half a dozen well known formulas and threadbare situations. '10-Story Book has never published formula stories.' 'Harry Stephen Keeler, Editor, 10-Story Book'" There are quotes from fans too but they're a little too small to transcribe here.
February 4, 2025 at 6:02 AM
ramblehouse.bsky.social
R.R. Ryan wrote (according to Karl Wagner of Twilight Zone magazine) three of the greatest horror novels of all time, but is nearly entirely unknown today. Ryan was also, secretly, a woman named Denice Bradley-Ryan writing under her father's name. The story: www.ramblehouse.com/subjugatedbe... 1/4
The Cover to the Ramble House edition of R.R. Ryan (Denice Jeanette-Ryan)'s horror novel The Subjugated Beast. The image is black-and-white with red outlining around the title. The illustration is a drawing of a horrified young woman holding a cat. Behiind her stand two stern-faced adults. Cover illustration by Gavin L. O'Keefe.
January 25, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by Ramble House Books
fendronicus.bsky.social
Ramble House books are so much cheaper if you order directly from www.ramblehouse.com. You can also sign up for a newsletter called The Rambler which has lots of book sales in it.
RH Home Page
Celebrating 25 Years of Independent Publishing
www.ramblehouse.com
January 19, 2025 at 11:02 AM
ramblehouse.bsky.social
Delton Prouse is a semi-Robin-Hood: he steals from the rich and gives to charity, but he keeps half for himself. His weapons are pepper spray and a syringe of knock-out drug that he'll use against enemies or friends alike. Read about it in The Crimson Clown: www.ramblehouse.com/crimsonclown...
The back and front cover to The Crimson Clown, by Johnston McCulley. The front cover has the title and author's name on it, and an illustration of the head of a red-cloaked figure wearing a white eye mask. The back has a similar illustration, depiction the cover of the 1931 edition.
January 19, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Reposted by Ramble House Books
signalstation.bsky.social
Mail call! Keeler and his bizarre circus! Lura-Lora, the double-headed girl! Crimes against written clarity! All courtesy of @ramblehouse.bsky.social
A book: The Case of the Two-Headed Idiot by Harry Stephen Keeler and Hazel Goodwin Keeler. The cover illustration is of a two-headed blonde girl in front of a multi-colored circus tent. Each girl's neck has a matching necklace. Chapter 1 - REPORT CONFIDENTIAL! "Well, Lura-Lora, the double-headed idiot girl, for whom we'd pay our souls around here to get hold of for a few minutes, is alive! A-L-I-V-E, and not dead and buried--as claimed. Nor merely dead, period, as recently hypothesized by--well, you know who! So what to do--now?" The reddish-haired, oval-faced man of 46 or so, in impeccable grey suit and tie, who listened to these words, from behind his desk in the small green-plush carpeted office high up in Washington, D.C., leaned forward over the glass-topped piece of mahogany furniture unbelievingly. Directing his words to the stocky, black-eyed man of 40 or so, in the brown suit and brown derby hat. "You mean--you mean," the older man ejaculated, "that you have conclusive proof--that the double-headed idiot girl IS alive? Absolute--proof? Why--why--why" "Correct!" nodded the other man, with dignified satisfaction.
January 16, 2025 at 11:10 PM
ramblehouse.bsky.social
"Harry Keeler wrote over 70 novels [...] but thanks to a conspiracy among publishers and Freshman Composition 101 teachers worldwide, he has been totally forgotten by the masses." A To Izzard is a celebration of his work. More info and purchase links: www.ramblehouse.com/atoizzard.htm
The cover and spine to the Ramble House book A to Izzard: A Harry Stephen Keeler Companion. At the bottom it says Edited by Fender Tucker. It shows an illustration of a blonde man, flanked by a variety of things, not all of which I can make out, but including a skull with goggles, a cat with a fishbone in its mouth, and the King of Clubs from a deck of cards. The spine says the same things, but with a couple of hands framing the subtitle, another skull, and the letters RH at the bottom.
January 7, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Reposted by Ramble House Books
signalstation.bsky.social
Hey, it's Ramble House! The folks I have to blame for my Harry Stephen Keeler appreciation!

If you want to be introduced to a writer whose books feature strangulation-via-baby-in-helicopter or detectives who can see the 4th dimension and the like, start here:
www.ramblehouse.com/atoizzard.htm
January 2, 2025 at 8:02 PM
ramblehouse.bsky.social
In 1939, the last year of his life, Ernest Vincent Wright wrote Gadsby, a novel about the people of the town of Branton Hills, where he sensed that the young people were growing listless. And he decided to do it without using the letter E. (Which is not even the case of this description.)
January 1, 2025 at 12:02 AM
ramblehouse.bsky.social
It was through Ramble House that many people first found out about Harry Stephen Keeler, certainly the most original (in good and bad senses) mystery writer of all. It can be ordered from Amazon or Lulu, but contact us for a good price: www.ramblehouse.com/Daniel%20Eus...
The cover to the Ramble House edition of Daniel Euston, with a business card that --I think-- reads Daniel Euston, Locator of Business Leaks. There's also an illustration that I can't quite describe, like a side-view of a bridge that's up, over a sunset. Hey, I tried.
December 23, 2024 at 10:29 PM
ramblehouse.bsky.social
The Anthony Boucher Chronicles, edited by Francis M. Nevins, contains every review that Boucher wrote as fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle, from 1942 to 1947. It includes an index to every author of the hundreds he reviewed and has explanatory annotations. #AnthonyBoucher
The front and back covers, as well as the spine, to Ramble House's edition of The Anthony Boucher Chronicles: Reviews and Commentary 1942-1947. edited by Francis M. Nevins. The front cover has an artist's illustration in ink of Boucher's head, facing down, B&W with a red bow tie. The back cover has a face-forward illustation in a similar style, with red hair and bow tie, and this text: During the years 1942 to 1947 Anthony Boucher was the popular fiction reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle. In this book mystery scholar / author Francis M. Nevins has collected dozens of Boucher's reviews from this Golden Era for your enjoyment. Nevins also provides an informative introduction about the man to whom American literature owes so much. Ramble House is proud to be the publisher of this work."
December 19, 2024 at 10:09 PM
ramblehouse.bsky.social
There's a new issue of the Ramble House newsletter, The Rambler out! Information on a compilation of Fender's own writing, a book sale, and more! gem.godaddy.com/p/7b798b1
A banner image with the tastefully-scrawed Ramble House logo.
December 19, 2024 at 9:58 PM