“The Wolf-Woman” by Bassett Morgan is a strange Northern that uses several Pulp cliches, the body frozen in the ice and the wolf-siren who runs with a pack. The story appeared in Weird Tales, September 1927. The novella was the cover feature and received three illustrations by Hugh Rankin. Cover by C. C. Senf.
Bassett Morgan (1884-1977) was one of the women of Weird Tales, along with Greye laSpina, Mary Elizabeth Counselman, G. G. Pendarves, Dorothy Quick and Leah Bodine Drake. Her real name was Grace Ethel Jones of Chatham, Ontario. She later emigrated to California in 1918 with her husband, Thomas Morgan. (As far as I can tell she was not related to Susan Carleton Jones, the earlier Canadian Pulpster.) “Bassett” was her father’s middle name. Later in life she published as Grace Jones Morgan. Her thirteen stories in Weird Tales (between 1926-1936) were all as Bassett Morgan.
The story takes place at Mount Logan in the Yukon. A team of scientists/mountain climbers are searching for the body of their dead colleague. Professor Stamwell has brought with him the chemicals for an experimental revival if Morsey’s body is frozen. They fail to find the missing climber but their guide, Baptiste, leads them to the shack of a half Indian/half Eskimo carver named Jo. The old man shows them his ivory works including an almost life-size carving of a naked woman. When they ask what model he used, Jo offers to take them the mountain to the secret ice cavern where he found his subject.
The men go up to the ice cave and see an amazing sight: a frozen mammoth, the source of the ivory Jo used, seven gigantic white hounds and a blond-haired beauty of a girl. Lieutenant Cressey is the second in command of the expedition. He is reluctant to assist Stamwell when he gets the idea to revive the woman and her dogs. The men dig out the forms, thaw them, inject them with special chemicals then feed them beef broth as they revive. Eventually, all seven dogs are awake, kept on chains down at Jo’s cabin.
It is time to awaken their master, the wolf-woman. She revives slowly but once she has enough energy to move she lures Cressey siren-like into her arms. She feeds on the blood of his neck. Stamwell interrupts them, giving the woman an injection to sleep. After this, Cressey is haunted by the blond woman.
The next day Cressey comes back to the ice grotto to find Stamwell dead. The wolf-woman has drained his body of blood then gone off naked into the cold. Her hounds break their chains and join her. The siege begins. Every night the pack, or Chasse du Diable, comes to Jo’s cabin with the men locked inside. Cressey is drawn irresistibly to the woman’s call. Only Baptiste’s crucifx, pressed hard on his face and heart, saves him. The guide gives the necklace to Cressey to protect him. Later when Cressey goes looking for her, she leaves him untouched because of the cross at his chest.
Baptiste sends men to go for help. These men are savagely killed in the night. Still, there is hope. Two more expeditions are coming to Mount Logan to climb. Johnson and his men show up and Cressey explains what has happened. Naturally they want to see the ice grotto. Johnson gets it into his head to excavate the mammoth and revive it. Cressey helps him to do this, only to have the beast join the wolf-woman. (Readers shake their heads and say, tsk-tsk.)
A state of siege follows. Baptiste and his native men pick windflowers, said to be made when angels’ tears touch the ground. Along with wooden crosses, a barrier is made to keep the hunters back. During the day, the men work on rafts to escape on. Evil creatures can’t cross running water, so the river is perfect for a getaway. One night, Johnson accidentally crosses the barrier line. The wolf-woman grabs him and starts drinking his blood. Cressey, who has broken her spell with much work, rescues him. Johnson raves that Cressey wants the woman for himself. Cressey uses the crucifix on him, giving the necklace to Johnson. Jo, the Inuit carver, spends his days and nights carving a second statue of the wolf-woman. Cressey offers him a half million for it but the man won’t sell. He has another purpose in mind.
Things finally come to a head. Johnson slips the crucifix off and steals Jo’s new statue. He rushes out passed the barrier to his death. He drops the statue and the mammoth steps on it by accident. The spirits of the wolves, mammoth and woman all separate from their flesh and float off into the starry sky. The next morning all the flesh is putrid and rots away, leaving only skeletons. Of the statue, only the head survives and Jo puts that over the door of his cabin.
It is not quite over yet. Being a true Pulpster, Morgan hedges her bets by implying a sequel is possible. Baptiste warns Cressey that the wolf-woman tasted his blood. Even dead, she might have some power over him. It is best if he wears the crucifix for the rest of his days. He does. And Bassett Morgan never wrote another.
Two Pulp classics came to mind when I read this story: “The Wolf-Woman” by H. Bedford-Jones and “The Resurrection of Jimber-Jaw” by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Both appeared after Morgan’s tale, August of 1939 and August of 1937. Morgan wrote her frozen body story ten years earlier. Both of these stories embody Pulp cliches: the woman who runs with wolves. I wonder if Morgan may have been inspired by Francis Stevens’ The Citadel of Fear (Argosy, September 14-October 26, 1918), which featured white dogs. The fact that the author was a woman may have attracted her to the novel. A. Merritt’s Dwellers in the Mirage (Argosy, January 23-February 27, 1932) is another.
The body resurrected from the ice has been around since the 1901expedition to the Beresovca River, where frozen Mammoth remains were found. Pulpsters (and later comic book writers) have played with the idea of reviving these icy specimens. Morgan may have been the first.
