The next day’s coverage of the Silver Bridge disaster includes a report on the continuing search for bodies and Mary Hyre’s account of the funeral of Paul and Lillian Wedge, who died in the collapse. There’s also a UFO report from Shade, Ohio, 33.6 miles from Point Pleasant.
As a writer specializing in strangeness, John naturally received many strange letters. Here, for example, is a letter sent to Saga in October, 1968, from someone claiming to represent a group called VOK, “which is an acronym.” The subject of UFOs was then, as always, filled with hoaxes, pranks, and misinformation. I don’t know who was behind VOK, or if the story went further than this letter.
The Athens Messenger continues its coverage of the Silver Bridge disaster, with updates on recovery operations and attempts to determine the cause of the collapse. Mary Hyre’s column is, sadly, mostly devoted to listing the dead. Once again, I apologize for the loss of a line of text in scanning these fragile newspapers.
And here’s the last part of John’s proposal for an unrealized book called Stendek. I’m obliged to be a spoilsport and point out that the story of Rudolph Fentz came not from the NYPD, but from the short story “I’m Scared,” by Jack Finney, published in Collier’s, September 15, 1951.
It’s an intriguing proposal. We can only wonder what the finished book would have been like.
Here’s the second part of John’s proposal for an unrealized book to be called Stendek.
We have here a proposal for a book that was to be called Stendek. Judging from the references in it, John wrote it sometime around 1973. The title comes from a famous incident in which an airplane disappeared, as John explains later in the text. He also used the title for a column in The Woodstock Times in 1973.
There are fifteen pages; I’ll post it in three parts.
Here is the next day’s coverage of the Silver Bridge disaster, from The Athens Messenger of December 19, 1967.
John apparently sold the article “Carnarvon’s Curse” to Man’s Conquest. I can find no record of it online. However, he included a tear sheet of part of it in his pitch for a proposed book, Strange Exits. Here, then, is the beginning of a fugitive piece about the curse of King Tut’s tomb.
I’ll continue to post the local coverage of the Silver Bridge disaster, but I might as well break it up with other material for the sake of variety.
Here’s the next day of The Athens Messenger‘s coverage of the Silver Bridge disaster. Again, I apologize for the loss of a line of type at the fold. These old papers aren’t easy to scan.
The Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, collapsed on Dec. 15, 1967. As John’s readers know, the tragedy played an important part in The Mothman Prophecies. He not only visited Point Pleasant and corresponded with one of the local journalists, Mary Hyre, but collected much of the local coverage, especially from The Athens Messenger.
I’ll post some of it here, since it’s hard to find otherwise. The earliest paper he kept was from December 17. The papers are too large for my scanner, so I’m afraid you’ll miss a few lines of antique newsprint.
And a personal note: I’ve neglected this site for the last couple of months. I’m back to a weekly schedule now. Keep reading!
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