Literary Horror discussion

Tartarus has been publishing a series of books (hardcovers) called "Faunus, The Journal of the Friends of Arthur Machen" Does anyone have a source for these ? I currently own about 8 issues, and I believe they are up to 23 or 24.

Thank you both for the info. I will follow up.

Oh man.. that is awesome to hear. I am waiting as well for this one.

Randolph wrote: "I just received the new Reggie Oliver from Tartarus today."

WOW - Congrats, the book was published on the 4th today is the 8th. you must have one heck of a source for these from the U.K. I am still holing my breath for its arrival !!!

Just finished the Tartarus anthology Dark World. Anyone else read it? Maybe I just expect too much from Tartarus, but I was a little underwhelmed. A couple of nice tales, but some distinctly average ones too.

I have heard from a few folks that it was pretty average. I haven't purchased it yet.

I am tempted, but have never read any of the Tart Press anthologies before. I'm sure they are all excellent.

Whoa... who was the author of that story, Randolph?

Randolph wrote: "Sejanus' Daughter by Hilbourne Car lone."

Don Tumasonis (under the pseudonym Hilbourne Carlone)

Karl wrote: "Randolph wrote: "Sejanus' Daughter by Hilbourne Car lone."

Don Tumasonis (under the pseudonym Hilbourne Carlone)"

I have read Don Tumasonis before in Shadows and Tall Trees. I remember enjoying it, but not being particularly struck by anything uncomfortably bizarre. Now I really want to read this story... ; )

Yes, me too!

The most 'memorable' story in that kind of sick way that I've read recently is 'Arselicker' by Stephen Volk.

Just wanted to insure everyone interested was aware of " A Guide to Supernatural Fiction" on the Tartarus site

http://tartaruspress.com/database.htm

That's a wonderful resource, and should really be perused by every serious fan of weird fiction; I've lost count of the books I've discovered thanks to it.

I have just noticed on the Tartarus website that they are publishing Secret Europe by Mark Valentine & John Howard. Great to see this highly recommended and previously hard to obtain book reprinted:

http://www.tartaruspress.com/secreteu...

Neil77 wrote: "I have just noticed on the Tartarus website that they are publishing Secret Europe by Mark Valentine & John Howard. Great to see this highly recommended and previously hard to obtain book reprinted..."

Thank you Neil for the heads up , I just ordered my copy

That looks like a nice edition! I'll have to add it to my list.

Valancourt Books wrote: "That looks like a nice edition! I'll have to add it to my list."

It states on the web site that there are 300 copies available, they will most likely go quickly as both authors are excellent. It also states that there is an additional story added to this edition. Tartarus does publish some beautiful books

Mark Valentine has an offering out from Tartarus Press entitled Haunted By Books that looks quite promising. If you’re only familiar with Valentine through his supernatural fiction, you may not be aware of the fact that he’s a rather passionate bibliophile. Haunted is a collection of essays that deal with book collecting, forgotten authors, etc. Thus far, I’ve only had a chance to skim a few of the pieces, but it looks fascinating. The book was released by the publisher on 3 December and — surprisingly for a nonfiction work — the limited edition hardback is already out of print, but epub and mobi versions are available. The Tartarus link is here. Valentine blogs about the book on the Wormwoodiana site here.

Canavan wrote: "Mark Valentine has an offering out from Tartarus Press entitled Haunted By Books that looks quite promising. If you’re only familiar with Valentine through his supern..."

Nice comments Canavan,

This just came out, with no fanfare whatsoever:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
http://www.tartaruspress.com/mcqueen-...
Completely unknown author but, given their trademark high standards, it is very much possible that they've made another discovery.

I'll be purchasing the ebook for certain.

Inner Europe by John Howard and Mark Valentine now available from Tartarus Press:

http://www.tartaruspress.com/howard--...

I noticed that too... I guess I am a bit surprised that there is a real demand for TP... given that Tart has also been making their older out of print HB's available as an e-book. I guess I just don't really see the point of TP if the HB or e-book exists. TP's are so easily damaged and susceptible to decay. I have nearly purged (donated to Good will) the overwhelming majority of my TP's in my library to make space for HB's.
*shrugs* to each his own

The novel The Way Things End by Charles David now available from Tartarus Press:

http://tartaruspress.com/david-the-wa...

News from Tartarus Press:

We are delighted to announce the publication, on the 11th November, of Petals and Violins: Fifteen Unsettling Tales by D.P. Watt. This is a terrific collection of contemporary weird stories by a very fine author. All copies will be signed by the author.

Rhys Hughes' classic first collection for Tartarus Press, Worming the Harpy and Other Bitter Pills, is back in print as a paperback.

I think this is the first collection that Watt has published with Tartarus. I'm definitely picking it up.

Probably just temporary, I was on their site just last night.

It's up as of a minute ago. Welcome back, Randolph!

This is from a recent email from Tartarus Press:

Call for Submissions – Short Stories

It’s Tartarus Press’s thirtieth year in 2020, and we are celebrating by publishing a volume of contemporary literary strange tales. If you would like to be considered for inclusion, then please send one story only to rosalieparker@btinternet.com.
Your submission should be entirely new, unpublished elsewhere, c. 2,000 – 6,000 words, and on the literary strange/horror/supernatural spectrum. Payment will be by a share in profits. Deadline: 10th April 2020. We look forward to hearing from you!

Recent email from Tartarus Press:

We have now reprinted as paperbacks, the two very well received collections of short stories by Jake Wyckoff:

Black Horse and Other Strange Stories
'...these tales are the work of a writer skilled at navigating the twists and turns of his unconventional horror themes.' Publishers Weekly

and

The Hidden Back Room
'His stories abound with surprises that even diehard readers of weird fiction are not likely to anticipate." Publishers Weekly

Ronald wrote: "Recent email from Tartarus Press:

We have now reprinted as paperbacks, the two very well received collections of short stories by Jake Wyckoff:"

I have Black Horse and Other Strange Stories in an ebook edition. I should probably bump it up the queue. Thanks for the reminder, Ronald.

Recent email from Tartarus Press:

We are continuing our programme of making available as print on demand paperbacks out of print Tartarus Press books. These now include:

Dear Dead Women by Edna W. Underwood

Darkscapes by Anne-Sylvie Salzman

We have also made available The House of the Hidden Light by Arthur Machen and A.E. Waite.

Recent email from Tartarus Press:

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new novel, One Morning, by Jessica Hagy. This enjoyable, intriguing and clever Gothic tale takes place over twelve hours, moving in real time as the characters’ lives intertwine, their fates soaked in and stained by the polluted waters of the long-abandoned coal mines that crumble below their town.

It is a smaller format book than usual, similar to the first printings of The White Hands and Dear Dead Women.

Recommended reading!

Postage prices

After thirty years of offering free postage to all of our customers, we are sorry to report that we will now have to start charging overseas customers. Unfortunately, our costs for posting overseas have effectively doubled due to the current world situation

Inland, UK customers are still able to benefit from free postage.

Please take care to use the correct Paypal button on the website when ordering.

No review

Thank you to Michael Dirda, who can't review Past Lives of Old Books by R.B. Russell because he is a co-dedicatee, but who gives it a very nice mention in the Washington Post, calling the book 'highly engaging'.

We would like to wish our customers well.
With all best wishes,
Ray Russell and Rosalie Parker

Recent email from Tartarus Press:

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new, augmented edition of The Nightfarers by Mark Valentine.

In The Nightfarers, you will discover the secret of a remote Lincolnshire island, visit the last official of a seventeenth century company of explorers, and watch for the light from a Moorish heliograph tower.

You’ll encounter a book that speaks for itself, books that aren’t quite books, and a rare book that really draws you in. There’s also the reincarnation of a decadent occult detective and another, reluctant sleuth who investigates an unusual printing press.

Other stories are set in the afterglow of old Empires in interwar Europe, in the same milieu as the author’s work in Secret Europe and Inner Europe (shared volumes with John Howard). They depict apocalyptic dawns, strange faiths, the stare of stone masks, a Prague actuary, an astrologer in Trieste, a scholar of lost languages.

This new edition of The Nightfarers, the first for over ten years, includes twelve of the original stories and adds two more from the same period.

With all best wishes. Stay safe and keep well!

Ray Russell and Rosalie Parker

www.tartaruspress.com

Recent email from Tartarus Press:


Strange Tales: Tartarus Press at 30
Edited by Rosalie Parker

These eighteen entirely new stories have been brought together to celebrate the thirtieth year of Tartarus Press. Representing the best contemporary writing in the fields of the literary strange, supernatural, fantasy and horror, they range from the wry comic fantasy of Jonathan Preece’s ‘Great Dead American Authors Alive and Living in Cwmbran’, to the atmospheric horror of Andrew Michael Hurley’s ‘Hunger’.

Founded in 1990, Tartarus Press has become known for championing both classic and contemporary writers. The stories in this volume sit proudly within that tradition.

Stories by

Rebecca Lloyd, Mark Valentine, Andrew Michael Hurley, N.A. Sulway,

Stephen Volk, Inna Effress, Ibrahim R. Ineke, Eric Stener Carlson,

Jonathan Preece, Tom Heaton, J.M. Walsh, Angela Slatter,

John Gaskin, D.P. Watt, Karen Heuler,

John Linwood Grant, Reggie Oliver

and Carly Holmes

All copies signed by Rosalie Parker and R.B. Russell

*

Phantom Cities by The Sodality of the Shadows

Phantom Cities by the Sodality of the Shadows, with prose vignettes by Mark Valentine, can now be bought direct from the Tartarus Press website. It received play on BBC Radio Six Music last weekend (1:21:35), and the early reviews have been good:

"A soundtrack for the longer nights of encroaching autumn." John Coulthart, Feuilleton
"Have been spending some time this morning with this haunting wonder. And the invoked wraiths of Arthur Machen and A.E. Waite. A soundtrack for a ritual in a forgotten square off the Caledonian Road where, at certain times, when the right words are spoken and the right offerings made, strange vistas can be seen." Tim Jarvis (author of The Wanderer)

"A cohesive yet enigmatic maze of instrumental expression. It’s artistic and literary inspired themes make for an album of cerebral solemnity, a sonora of hauntingly atmospheric music." View from a Bay

The album can be bought digitally at Bandcamp.
Copies of Phantom Cities are now on sale at Watkins Books in London (see above left), and Within Things, 24 N 3rd Ave, Sturgeon Bay, WI 54235, USA (see above right).

In other news...

We regret to report that The Macabre Tales of Edgar Allan Poe is now out of print. The Collected Macabre Stories of L.P. Hartley is very low in stock. You can keep up with the low stock report on the Tartarus Press website here.
With all best wishes.

Ray Russell and Rosalie Parker

Thank you, Ronald, for this update. This is a volume I'm interested in acquiring if they decide to make it available digitally.

On the subject of Tartarus Press, has anyone here read any of their recent single author releases? Works like Londonia, One Morning, and House of the Flight-helpers. I have to admit that none of them seem quite like "horror" based on the descriptions and I'm curious how they fit into the Tartarus fold. I'd love to hear some opinions from readers here who have read them.

Recent news from Tartarus Press:

5th October 2020:

Low stock

A few more books are low in stock and may well sell out before Christmas (these things are difficult to judge), including

The London Adventure by Arthur Machen

Orpheus on the Underground by Rhys Hughes

Pauliska, or, Modern Perversity by Jacques-Antoine Révéroni, baron de Saint-Cyr

Dark World edited by Tim Parker Russell

***

I liked The London Adventure . I found it a humorous autobiography. (Yes, humorous)

Ebay sale of books:

https://mailchi.mp/26e93bd12b54/londo...

Recent notification from Tartarus Press:

The House of Souls by Arthur Machen
New Edition

The House of Souls, first published in 1906, is an omnibus edition of some of Arthur Machen’s best-known, controversial, and curious fiction. It contains ‘The Great God Pan’, his notorious 1890s tale of science and sex, and its accompanying story ‘The Inmost Light’. These appeared first in John Lane’s sensational Keynotes series, as did the portmanteau novel The Three Impostors, containing ‘The Novel of the White Powder’—another story of science gone bad—and the classic folk-horror tale ‘The Novel of the Black Seal’. ‘The Red Hand’ is a ‘shocking’ tale of curious survivals from the past lurking just beneath the surface of everyday London.

Perhaps less well known, and in an altogether more sensitively supernatural vein is ‘A Fragment of Life’, a quietly ambitious and affecting tale of a seemingly ordinary suburban couple who receive intimations of a much more numinous way of life.

But the tour-de-force of the volume is Machen’s occult masterpiece ‘The White People’, a ‘stream-of-consciousness’ tale far ahead of its time, written with the utmost empathy and panache.

Recent notification from Tartarus Press:

New essay collection by Mark Valentine: Sphinxes and Obelisks
With photographs by Joanna Valentine

https://mailchi.mp/98f7d1405d58/5sfjb...

Tartarus has quite a number of quality ebooks available: http://tartaruspress.com/ebooks.html

Ronald wrote: "Recent notification from Tartarus Press:

New essay collection by Mark Valentine: Sphinxes and Obelisks
With photographs by Joanna Valentine

https://mailchi.mp/98f7d1405d58/5sfjb......"

I bought mine this morning!! Can't wait.

Dan wrote: "Tartarus has quite a number of quality ebooks available: http://tartaruspress.com/ebooks.html"

Yes. I recommend Flowers of the Sea and The Dreams of Cardinal Vittorini by Reggie Oliver. I found those ebooks affordable and the stories pretty good. An excellent value.

Recent notification from Tartarus Press:

Occult Territory: An Arthur Machen Gazetteer

Occult Territory: An Arthur Machen Gazetteer by R.B. Russell has just been reprinted in paperback. With over 160 entries, this is an indispensible volume for any admirer of the work of Arthur Machen, author of The Great God Pan, The Hill of Dreams, and other works of sorcery and sanctity.

Reviews:

Featured in the Times Literary Supplement

"...a delightful pictorial scrapbook" The New York Review

"This long-planned labour of love will be welcomed by Machen readers interested in the links between locale and literature." The Fortean Times

"... it’s an enchanting guide through a life less ordinary." Horla

===

The Tallow-Wife

Paula Guran's review of The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales by Angela Slatter is now available to be read in the online edition of Locus:

"Each story stands alone, a gleaming gem to enjoy individually, but they also fit together to become an even richer treasure"

===

Sphinxes and Obelisks

Sphinxes and Obelisks by Mark Valentine is discussed at length by Michael Dirda in The Washington Post. He writes that Valentine is ...

"... an exceptionally genial excavator of half-forgotten and eccentric books."

Many thanks to Michael Dirda for also recommending a number of other Tartarus Press books.

"After you enjoy “Sphinxes and Obelisks,” I recommend seeking out the late Roger Dobson’s “The Library of the Lost,” R.B. Russell’s “Past Lives of Old Books . . . and Joel Lane’s “This Spectacular Darkness.”

===

Ezra Slef

Ezra Slef by Andrew Komarnyckyj receives a great review at Whispering Stories, who write...

"The book is a delight."

===

Out of print

We regret to announce that Tree Spirit and Other Strange Tales by Michael Eisele and House of the Flight-helpers by Philomena van Rijswijk are now out of print as limited edition hardbacks.

With all best wishes,
Ray Russell and Rosalie Parker
www.tartaruspress.com

Recent notification from from Tartarus Press:

A Maze for the Minotaur

On 8th July we will be publishing a new collection of short stories by Reggie Oliver: A Maze for the Minotaur. This is the eighth volume of stories by Reggie Oliver to be published by Tartarus Press and marks the fact that we have published over one hundred of his tales. Oliver’s work is notable for its style, wit, humour and depth of characterisation, and also for its profound excursions into the disturbingly bizarre and uncanny. Behind a façade of classical elegance his stories consistently defy convention.

Contents: ‘The Old Man of the Woods’, ‘Coruvorn’, ‘The Wet Woman’, ‘A Maze for the Minotaur’, ‘Shadowy Waters’, ‘A Fragment of Thucydides’, ‘The Crumblies’, ‘Monkey’s’, ‘Collectable’, ‘Via Mortis’, ‘A Cabinet of Curiosities’, ‘The Armies of the Night’, ‘A Tartarean Century: Author’s note’.

(Please note that although we originally intended to publish 400 copies, 450 were printed, and have been numbered thus.)

New Paperbacks from Tartarus Press

https://mailchi.mp/62c9c99303c2/tarta...

Recent email from Tartarus Press:

Robert Aickman: An Attempted Biography

by R.B. Russell

Robert Aickman (1914-1981) is remembered today as the author of fascinating ‘strange stories’, and also as one of the saviours of Britain’s inland waterways. In Aickman’s mind these two apparently different interests were allied; he was an idealist and a Romantic who sought the ‘world elsewhere’ of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, because the modern world was not for him. Aickman believed that an alternative realm could exist in life and the creative arts, and he sought to offer this in his fiction, and to build a Utopia through the restoration of Britain’s inland waterways.

Aickman wrote two volumes of autobiography, The Attempted Rescue and The River Runs Uphill, and both are full of colourful personal details. However, his own versions of events cannot always be relied upon.

In Robert Aickman: An Attempted Biography, the first full biography of Aickman, R.B. Russell disentangles and examines the myths that have surrounded Aickman and his life. What is revealed is a man of vision and various talents. Determined to realise his ambitions, he often made enemies, but he also had a great capacity for love and friendship. Robert Aickman’s life and attitudes were far from conventional, but his legacy in literature and on the inland waterways of Britain is far-reaching.

Robert Aickman: An Attempted Biography is a sewn hardback book of 396 + vi pages, including an index, and a 20pps plate section. Bound in wibalin cloth stamped in silver and gilt, with silk ribbon marker, head and tailbands, and d/w. Limited to 500 numbered, signed copies. First edition. ISBN 978-1-912586-36-3

We are taking advance orders now. Publication will be 3rd February 2022.

http://tartaruspress.com/russell-aick...

Recent email from Tartarus Press:

Publication Day:

Robert Aickman: An Attempted Biography

We are delighted to announce the official publication of Robert Aickman: An Attempted Biography, the first full biography of this fascinating author. Pre-ordered copies have been posted and have already arrived with some customers!

As a supplement to the biography itself, we have written a number of blog posts giving additional and background information on aspects of Aickman's life and work. These are the ones that have already been published:

The Importance of the Inland Waterways of Britain
Bernard Heldmann/Richard Marsh
Robert Aickman’s Favourite Film: The Blue Light
Robert Aickman: Worton Court
Robert Aickman: A Curious Lack of Honours
Some Thoughts on the Writing of Robert Aickman: An Attempted Biography

Further blog posts are planned on the subject of Aickman at the Barbican, his friendships with Lord Alfred Douglas and Meum Stewart, his father's architectural career, etc.

A brief reading from the Biography can be viewed on Youtube.

Ray has also been interviewed about the Biography by Mark Valentine on Wormwoodiana.

You might be also be interested to know that Ray and Rosalie will be discussing Robert Aickman's Strange Stories, on Zoom, hosted by The Viktor Wynd Museum & The Last Tuesday Society, Thursday 24 March 2022, 20:00 – 21:30 GMT. Tickets are £5-£10.

Finally, if you have a copy of Robert Aickman: An Attempted Biography already, please do consider reviewing it on Goodreads!

With all best wishes,
Ray Russell and Rosalie Parker
www.tartaruspress.com

Recent notification from Tartarus Press:

LITERARY HAUNTINGS
A Gazetteer of Literary Ghost Stories
Edited by R.B. Russell, Rosalie Parker and Mark Valentine

We are delighted to announce the publication of Literary Hauntings, A Gazetteer of Literary Ghost Stories, edited by R.B. Russell, Rosalie Parker and Mark Valentine

Literary Hauntings identifies and describes the real-life locations that have inspired the best fictional ghost stories of Britain and Ireland. Notable examples are the Suffolk beach where M.R. James set his terrifying ‘ “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad” ’, and the ruins of the Scottish mansion featured in Margaret Oliphant’s classic ‘The Open Door’.

This comprehensive gazetteer, consisting of 267 entries by experts and exponents in the genre, identifies the building in Dublin that inspired Joseph Le Fanu’s story ‘The House by the Churchyard’, and the canals where Elizabeth Jane Howard’s eerie ‘Three Miles Up’ is set. Both classic and contemporary ghost stories are included.

Literary Hauntings is designed to help readers track down landscapes, monuments, cities, towns and villages that have haunted writers of ghost stories for at least the last two hundred years. The gazetteer is also a celebration of the insight and craft that goes into writing a really good ghost story, a genre that is still sometimes overlooked today.

Literary Hauntings is a sewn hardback book of 309 pages, printed lithographically, with illustrated boards, head and tailbands, and d/w. 350 copies.

With all best wishes,
Ray Russell and Rosalie Parker
www.tartaruspress.com