Of Mrs. Radcliffe's countless imitators, the American novelist Charles Brocken Brown stands the closest in spirit and method. Like her, he injured his creations by natural explanations; but also like her, he had an uncanny atmospheric power which gives his horrors a frightful vitality as long as they remain unexplained. He differed from her in contemptously discarding the external Gothic paraphernalia and properties and choosing modern American scenes for his mysteries; but this repudiation did not extend to the Gothic spirit and type of incident. Brown's novels involve memorably frightful scenes, and excel even Mrs. Radcliffe's in describing the operations of the perturbed mind. "Edgar Huntly" starts with a sleep-walker digging a grave, but is later impaired by touches of Godwinian didacticism. "Ormond" involves a member of a sinister secret brotherhood. That and "Arthur Mervyn" both describe the plague of yellow fever, which the author had witnessed in Philadelphia and New York. But Brown's most famous book is "Wieland; or, the Transformation," (1798) in which a Pennsylvania German, engulfed by a wave of religious fanaticism, hears "voices" and slays his wife and children as a sacrifice. His sister Clara, who tells the story, narrowly escapes. The scene, laid at the woodland estate of Mittingen on the Schuykill's remote reaches, is drawn with extreme vividness; and the terrors of Clara, beset by spectral tones, gathering fears, and the sound of strange footsteps in the lonely house, are all shaped with truly artistic force. In the end, a lame ventriloquial explanation is offered, but the atmosphere is genuine while it lasts. Carwin, the malign ventriloquist, is a typical villain of the Manfred or Montoni type. (Next month Mr. Lovecraft takes up "The Apex of the Gothic Romance.") * * * * * SIDE GLANCES by F. Lee Baldwin Frank B. Long, Jr. has studied at New York University and Columbia College. Writing is his sole occupation and he lives with his father and mother, the former being a dentist. Long Jr. is 31. * * * * * E. Hoffman Price is 35, a World War veteran, a West Pointer, and a former cavalry officer; also superintendant of an acetylene gas machinery plant until 2 years ago. He now has a garage in Pawhuska, Okla., and writes fiction at leisure. * * * * * WEIRD WHISPERINGS by Schwartz and Weisinger