Is The White Road worth it?

[Evans]

Good afternoon folks

Since Mark S brought up Ron Weighell up a little ago I thought it might be a good time to ask a bit more about his stories. I was rather interested in getting hold of a copy of his Ghost Story Press collection The White Road. Now Ghost Story Press stuff isn't exactly cheap and easy to find so I'm interested to know if anyone else here has had particular feelings about that collection. (I know it contains a large section of antiquarian ghost stories, some none fiction articles about Monty James and a couple of Machen inspired stories* Weighell wrote for Aklo back in the early nineties.)

*Says the person who has just spent a while trying to figure out how you pronouce the phrases "Hôn, Thôn, Fedar, Fen".

[tartarusrussell]

I remember enjoying The White Road, and it is quite a substantial volume. As I recall it is all fiction. I'm not sure it is worth the $450 one dealer is offering it for at the moment! At least, it wouldn't be worth that to me.
(I don't know if it has any bearing on your deliberations, but it was only printed in an edition of 287 copies, not 400 as the limitation states.)

There was talk some time ago of The White Road being reprinted, but that doesn't seem to have come off. I believe that Ron is writing again, and is perhaps putting together a new collection, but I know no details. He's certainly a decent writer and deserves to be in print.

[Evans]

There was talk some time ago of The White Road being reprinted, but that doesn't seem to have come off. I believe that Ron is writing again, and is perhaps putting together a new collection, but I know no details. He's certainly a decent writer and deserves to be in print.

I heard he might be going to have an Ex Occidente collection this year.(Some where roughly in the middle)
The Man Who Collected Machen and Other Stories - Page 2 - THE NIGHTMARE NETWORK (http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=3673&page=2)

I remember enjoying The White Road, and it is quite a substantial volume. As I recall it is all fiction.

Hmm, after looking at David Tibet's website it seems I muddled the title of a section in The White Road with an similarly named article he wrote about magic in the ghost stories of M.R. James.

[Soukesian]

Great news that Weighell is writing again, and a new collection would be wonderful. The White Road is divided into three sections, all fiction:

I. GODS AND STRANGERS: Summonings by Theurgy

The Lycurgus Cup
Carven of Onyx
China rose
The Ghosting from Channel 19
The Secret Place
Some Day I'll Find You
Second Death
Shadow of the Wolf
The Tunnel of Saksaksalim
Mater Dolorosa: A Fragment
Lock Fast The Lock
The Boat Called Millions of Years
The Greater Arcana
In The Shaft
Laid down and Guarded
Which Way I Fly
The Stryx
Necropolis
Byerly Mount

II. DARK DEVOTIONS: Antiquarian Horrors

The Circle of the Hieroglyphs
An Empty House
Diminish Like The Word
'Bishop' Asgarth's Chantry
The Box Parterre
Againbite
The Resurrection Brass
The First Turning of the Second Stair
The Ram Head Ring
The Case of the Fiery Messengers

III. SORCERY AND SANCTITY: Machenesque Fantasies

Hon, Thon, Fedar, Fen
The Fire of theWise
The Chestnut Husk
The White Road

Sections II and III are stories influenced by MRJ and Machen respectively. Previously published stories appeared in AKLO, Ghosts and Scholars, and All Hallows, and illustrations from these publications are included. It's a great collection. $450 is more than I have to spend on any book, but then again, I wouldn't part with my copy for that much.

If you want a taste of Ron's writing, The Case of the Fiery Messengers and Shadow of the Wolf appear in "The Irregular Casebook of Sherlock Holmes" with three other Holmes pastiches, and this should be easier to find.

[MadsPLP]

I would love to own it myself, because of my Current 93 fandom and because there is a story in it called "The Boat Called Millions of Years" in it: on the Black Ships Ate the Sky album there is a song called The Dissolution Of The Boat "Millions of Years". Although the story and the song are not related, according to David Tibet:
"the boat millions of years" was one of the egyptian names for the
boat that carried the sun-god Amen-Ra through the sky!".

Anyway, where was I...

I was told by Tibet that the GSP book he thought to be the best was the L.A. Lewis volume; the others, it seemed, he didn't think was really worth the exorbitant prices they collect nowadays.

If I had the money, I would naturally buy them anyway.

Weighell has a Sherlockian pastiche in the recommended Mark Valentine-edited book The Werewolf Pack from Wordsworth Editions. Not all stories in it are essential unless one is interested in werewolf fiction, but it does contain Weighell, a Stenbock story, two very good stories by Steve Duffy (which I should have mentioned in the Winter Horror topic) and Ray B. Russell, respectively, along with some other interesting stories (Barry Pain, Vasile Voiculescu).

[Evans]

Sections II and III are stories influenced by MRJ and Machen respectively. Previously published stories appeared in AKLO, Ghosts and Scholars, and All Hallows, and illustrations from these publications are included. It's a great collection. $450 is more than I have to spend on any book, but then again, I wouldn't part with my copy for that much.

Thanks for all the information Soukesian, I wonder if the price of The White Road will change much when his new collection comes out.

Great news that Weighell is writing again, and a new collection would be wonderful.

I would mail Dan over at Ex Ociddente Press and ask about it but I'm slightly embarrassed to email after all the trouble it took him to get my book through.


Weighell has a Sherlockian pastiche in the recommended Mark Valentine-edited book The Werewolf Pack from Wordsworth Editions. Not all stories in it are essential unless one is interested in werewolf fiction, but it does contain Weighell, a Stenbock story, two very good stories by Steve Duffy (which I should have mentioned in the Winter Horror topic) and Ray B. Russell, respectively, along with some other interesting stories (Barry Pain, Vasile Voiculescu).

Hmm thanks MadsPLP I had seen that Wordsworth collection a few times* but I didn't know about the contents. I'll go check if the Duffy stories overlap with The Night Comes On.

*Far to many times actualy, it crops up en mass whenever I go hunting for the great lost Rite of Trebizond, the only one of Mark Valentine's collections I can't lay my hands on. (One of the best bits of luck I had last year was finding a copy of In Violet Veils for £30.)

[Soukesian]

Weighell seems to have read pretty deeply in magick and mystical traditions, and weaves this knowledge through his work, which should commend him to many here. Although his pastiches of Doyle, Machen and James are excellent, his real strength as a writer is his ability to deliver his own, equally literate, allusive style to modern subjects. Fun though "Irregular Casebook" was, I've been waiting for a follow-up to "White Road" since it came out, and I look forward to more news from Ex Occidente. New stories would be marvellous, but as Ray says, Ron's writing deserves to be in print, and a retrospective anthology would be a very fine thing.

[Evans]

Apparantly he has a new story appearing in the Mikhail Bulgakov tribute collection...

Weighell seems to have read pretty deeply in magick and mystical traditions...

I was rather hoping that might be the case after reading his article about the occult in James' stories.


Although his pastiches of Doyle, Machen and James are excellent, his real strength as a writer is his ability to deliver his own, equally literate, allusive style to modern subjects.

Happily Machen, James and Doyle happen to be three authors I'm extremely fond of.

[MadsPLP]

Weighell has a Sherlockian pastiche in the recommended Mark Valentine-edited book The Werewolf Pack from Wordsworth Editions. Not all stories in it are essential unless one is interested in werewolf fiction, but it does contain Weighell, a Stenbock story, two very good stories by Steve Duffy (which I should have mentioned in the Winter Horror topic) and Ray B. Russell, respectively, along with some other interesting stories (Barry Pain, Vasile Voiculescu).

Hmm thanks MadsPLP I had seen that Wordsworth collection a few times* but I didn't know about the contents. I'll go check if the Duffy stories overlap with The Night Comes On.

*Far to many times actualy, it crops up en mass whenever I go hunting for the great lost Rite of Trebizond, the only one of Mark Valentine's collections I can't lay my hands on. (One of the best bits of luck I had last year was finding a copy of In Violet Veils for £30.)

Unfortunately, the table of contents does not give away the names of the authors, though these authors are listed when their story starts. Rather annoying. The Duffy story is called "The Clay Party". I really wish I had read more by Duffy than this and the one in the latest Years Best Horror anthology. Those two stories are brilliant.

You are a lucky man regarding Mark Valentine; I only (it shouldn't really be "only" - it's such a gem) own The Nightfarers. Sometimes I'm lucky in finding older oop Tartarus titles rather cheaply (I got AKLO and The Lost Stradivarius for around £20 each), but I wish it would happen more often.

[Soukesian]

I've been dipping into The White Road since pulling it out to transcribe the contents. In his fascinating autobiographical introduction, Ron reveals that he had been writing for some considerable time before the stories in the collection came about, and describes no less than four unpublished novels "taken to varying degrees of completion":

The Many and the Known: "a novel of Crowleyan magick, incorporating many of my experiences as a backpacker on an extended journey through Egypt" [A brief extract appears in the collection as Mater Dolorosa]
The Serpent's Nest: "which told of how the Egyptian god Thoth concealed his book of magic within seven boxes, and how each box was found and opened . ."
The Pharos Light: " telling of a lighthouse that exists simultaneously in three worlds"
Boundless Time: ". . a children's novel [. .] in which a statue of an ancient Gnostic deity of that name had been broken and scattered through the Ages . ."

These all sound most intriguing. I'd like to think that perhaps some day one or more of these titles might see print.

[MadsPLP]

The book AKLO published by Tartarus Press and Caermaen Books also has a piece by Weighell called "Into the Mysteries", a 20 page excerpt from what I presume is a larger work (maybe Ray knows something about which work it is a part of).

It is a piece of fiction. I have not yet read neither the text nor the book, though it looks very promising, judging from the table of contents. It also contains David Tibet's interview with Thomas Ligotti, as well as four (five with the postscript) pieces by Ligotti called "Paradoxes From Hell". I don't think they are available elsewhere.

[Milvus]

The White Road is one of the best collections of supernatural fiction to be published in the last few decades, in my opinion, and I will never part with my copy! Weighell is a very fine writer indeed. I would love to see more of his fiction in print.

[tartarusrussell]

Having just read Ron Weighell's "The World Entire" in Cinnabar's Gnosis, I'd say he is firing on all cylinders. It's a fine story, and a new collection of that calibre would be a joy.

[Nemonymous]

Having just read Ron Weighell's "The World Entire" in Cinnabar's Gnosis, I'd say he is firing on all cylinders. It's a fine story, and a new collection of that calibre would be a joy.

The World Entire - Ron Weighell
"The junk shops and dustbins were overflowing with discarded treasures, leaving the houses free for the incoming tide of ugly, cold, soulless furnishings that were the latest fashion."
Here the book's Meyrinkian reality is cleverly transported, amid Lovecraftian miscegenations of hatred and envy, into the English reader's heritage of Richmal Crompton and 'Just William'. The Meyrinkian power of this book is to open a Cabbalistic synaesthesia of tongues and loosely cousined religions and literary decadence within even our most mundane or once youthful readerly minds that have forgotten how old one must be to be erudite or sensitive enough.
The come-uppance of the boys described in 'rusty ink' takes its textural toll as text. I find it difficult to forgive even the sympathetic I-protagonist let alone the nasty boy who accompanies him on this mischievous foray into a private Semitic domain as accessed from the city's roofscape. All brilliantly described by a narrator who has lexic power beyond his apparent youth. Only the retrocausality and insight of hindsight and of later learning can summon such detailed boyish antiquarianism. And a wonderful half-glimpsed stone monster.
des

[Evans]

Hmmm I feel depressed, sounds like a good excuse for extravagent spending to me! All right I'll go for a copy.

[Justin Case]

Weighell seems to have read pretty deeply in magick and mystical traditions, and weaves this knowledge through his work, which should commend him to many here. Although his pastiches of Doyle, Machen and James are excellent, his real strength as a writer is his ability to deliver his own, equally literate, allusive style to modern subjects. Fun though "Irregular Casebook" was, I've been waiting for a follow-up to "White Road" since it came out, and I look forward to more news from Ex Occidente. New stories would be marvellous, but as Ray says, Ron's writing deserves to be in print, and a retrospective anthology would be a very fine thing.


I understand Ash Tree Press is planning on doing an omnibus retrospective that would be inclusive of The White Road but with many new and / or previously uncollected stories as well - can't wait. I simply love Ash Tree Press standards!

[Evans]

I understand Ash Tree Press is planning on doing an omnibus retrospective that would be inclusive of The White Road but with many new and / or previously uncollected stories as well - can't wait. I simply love Ash Tree Press standards!

Hey Justin were did you find that out? Save for the mention of a Pleasing Terror reprint Ash-tree have seemed stangely inactive recently. I always assumed it was because of Barbara Roden's new collection.

[MadsPLP]

Excellent news, Justin Case!

Re: Ash-Tree: They have just published Exotic Gothic vol. III.

Line up:

CONTENTS:
Oceania and Australasia
'Behind Dark Blue Eyes' by Robert Hood
'Sanguma' by Lucy Taylor
'The Gaze Dogs of Nine Waterfall' by Kaaron Warren
Asia
'Bruhita' by Dean Francis Alfar
'Two Steps Along the Road' by Terry Dowling
'The Suicide Wood' by Steve Duffy
'Keramat' by Tunku Halim
'Extended Family' by Tina Rath
'From the Lips of Lazarus' by Stephen Volk
'Mine' by Simon Clark
'Mami Wata' by Simon Kurt Unsworth
Europe
'The Stranger' by Isobelle Carmody
'The Orange & Lemon Café' by Denana Dimitrijevic
'Profanities' by Paul Finch
'To Forget and Be Forgotten' by Adam L. G. Nevill
'Meeting with Mike' by Reggie Oliver
From Paper Theater by Milorad Pavic
'Citizen Komarova Finds Love' by Ekaterina Sedia
From Amarcord by Zoran Zivkovic
North America
From Freak House by James Cortese
'The Dismal Mirror' by Brian Evenson
'The Haunted House in Etobicoke' by Barbara Roden
From Deadfall Hotel by Steve Rasnic Tem
Biographical Notes


I read somewhere that they have five or so collections ready for the WHC.

[Justin Case]

I understand Ash Tree Press is planning on doing an omnibus retrospective that would be inclusive of The White Road but with many new and / or previously uncollected stories as well - can't wait. I simply love Ash Tree Press standards!

Hey Justin were did you find that out? Save for the mention of a Pleasing Terror reprint Ash-tree have seemed stangely inactive recently. I always assumed it was because of Barbara Roden's new collection.

Hi Evans,

I was blessed to have been able to talk to Chris on several occasions and a new Ron Weighell project is fully planned - timetable currently unknown, of course. I was informed it would include not only the entire contents of The White Road but many as yet new / uncollected material as well.

Yes, ATP is also expected to have several titles ready by WHC and I know Chris have been very, very busy. Barbara too has had her hand full with her new collection so we're all hoping for a All Hallows to appear soon.

I've seen the beautiful cover art for Gary McMahon's Pieces of Midnight done somewhat collabratively by Keith Minnion and Jason Van Hollander. The collection will have an introduction by Steve Duffy as well. Hope this helps... :)

Best Regards,
Justin

[Justin Case]

Excellent news, Justin Case!

Re: Ash-Tree: They have just published Exotic Gothic vol. III.

Line up:

CONTENTS:
Oceania and Australasia
'Behind Dark Blue Eyes' by Robert Hood
'Sanguma' by Lucy Taylor
'The Gaze Dogs of Nine Waterfall' by Kaaron Warren
Asia
'Bruhita' by Dean Francis Alfar
'Two Steps Along the Road' by Terry Dowling
'The Suicide Wood' by Steve Duffy
'Keramat' by Tunku Halim
'Extended Family' by Tina Rath
'From the Lips of Lazarus' by Stephen Volk
'Mine' by Simon Clark
'Mami Wata' by Simon Kurt Unsworth
Europe
'The Stranger' by Isobelle Carmody
'The Orange & Lemon Café' by Denana Dimitrijevic
'Profanities' by Paul Finch
'To Forget and Be Forgotten' by Adam L. G. Nevill
'Meeting with Mike' by Reggie Oliver
From Paper Theater by Milorad Pavic
'Citizen Komarova Finds Love' by Ekaterina Sedia
From Amarcord by Zoran Zivkovic
North America
From Freak House by James Cortese
'The Dismal Mirror' by Brian Evenson
'The Haunted House in Etobicoke' by Barbara Roden
From Deadfall Hotel by Steve Rasnic Tem
Biographical Notes
I read somewhere that they have five or so collections ready for the WHC.

Yes, all of the Exotic Gothic anthologies are very good and have been nicely reviewed by Ellen Datlow and others. The first EG anthology had a mix of old and new stories while EG #2 and #3 have all new stories... and quite the line up as you can see. Some very good new titles will be forthcoming by ATP (hopefully by WHC but not definite) and should include a new collection of novellas by Steve Duffy, another by Don Tumasonis, Lisa Tuttle, and a new editon of Christopher Woodforde's The Pad in the Straw. As well as other reprint projects. t

[Evans]

Hi Evans,

I was blessed to have been able to talk to Chris on several occasions and a new Ron Weighell project is fully planned - timetable currently unknown, of course. I was informed it would include not only the entire contents of The White Road but many as yet new / uncollected material as well.

Yes, ATP is also expected to have several titles ready by WHC and I know Chris have been very, very busy. Barbara too has had her hand full with her new collection so we're all hoping for a All Hallows to appear soon.

I've seen the beautiful cover art for Gary McMahon's Pieces of Midnight done somewhat collabratively by Keith Minnion and Jason Van Hollander. The collection will have an introduction by Steve Duffy as well. Hope this helps... :)

Best Regards,
Justin

Yes, yes that helps. Alot. (Two hundreds pounds worth of "alot" to be more specific.)

Thats great news about Ash-Tree Justin, do you think will they be attending the convention in Brighton? I'm glad All Hallows is getting back on track too.

[Justin Case]

Hmmm I feel depressed, sounds like a good excuse for extravagent spending to me! All right I'll go for a copy.

Hi Evans - did you pick up a copy of The White Road? If so what do you think of it?

[Evans]

Hi Justin, no I did'nt order one - I was about to. (There was one copy floating about on Abebooks and Alibris for about £290 but I was planning to use Cold Tonnage's offline search featureto check if they knew of a copy going for any less.)

[Justin Case]

Hi Justin, no I did'nt order one - I was about to. (There was one copy floating about on Abebooks and Alibris for about £290 but I was planning to use Cold Tonnage's offline search featureto check if they knew of a copy going for any less.)

It's probably definitely worth $300USD if you can get one for that. Otherwise you might just wait for the Ash Tree omnibus edition - I'm sure its coming but it may be a bit of a wait. Keep us posted. :)

Best Regards,
Justin

[Evans]

Hmm just finished The World Entire from Cinnabar's Gnosis. This maybe a strange question ask but would you say it is fairly exemplary of his "modern" type fiction?

I am wondering if a possible Ash-Tree reprint would also collect his non-fiction articles - they seem worth waiting for along. He seems to know a great deal about alchemical language and symbolism which something I find very interesting and quite beautiful in itself. (I got to meet Barbara Roden at this year's World Horror Convention but stupidly I forgot to ask about this)

I've read one or two of his non fiction related magical articles and they are interesting too, though I don't always agree with some of the sentiments. I hope I can get hold of more of his writings. Any one know if he is active on the All Hallows group? He would be fascinating to speak with.

[Soukesian]

I don't think Ron is on All Hallows, unless he's using a pseudonym.

[Evans]

Please stand, the White Road awaits! Glory to the sons of Thanu and glory to the Rose that is immortal...

I don't think Ron is on All Hallows, unless he's using a pseudonym.

Thanks Soukesian, oww well it would have been interesting. I wish him luck with the Ash-tree project.

[starrysothoth]

Any update on the Ron Weighell book from Ash-Tree? I recently read a story of his in an old volume of Aklo, and I liked it pretty well. Incidentally, this is the same issue that contains an interview with Ligotti by David Tibet, and five short vignettes by him reprinted from other sources under the heading "Paradoxes from Hell."

It would be nice to see these rare TL shorts reprinted too. It's getting harder and harder to track down an affordable copy of this Aklo volume. Glad I got mine when I did.

[Evans]

Yes Into the Mysteries wasn't it?

[MadsPLP]

Yes Into the Mysteries wasn't it?
That's the one.

[Soukesian]

How are you getting along with The White Road, Evans?

[Evans]

Ahh just finished it last weekend. It is a interesting collection; his prose style varies greatly from story to story; a few of them don't work so well (Which Way I Fly or The White Road for instance) but overall I'm really glad I managed to lay my hands on a copy.
The placing of some of the tales is interesting - I would say Laid Down and Guarded and The Greater Arcana are certainly Jamesian style stories, more Jamesian than some of stories in The Dark Devotions section. His historic fiction like Carven of Onyx and The Ram Head Ring works very well. Of the pastiches he is probably most successful with the James ones - the Machen ones do not work very well for some reason (strangely the best Machen one in my eyes was The Chestnut Husk in which he goes back to a more natural prose style) The Doyle ones were pretty fun though - if the stories get reprinted allong with The Curse of Nectanebo and The Black Heaven I guess they will want to add another section specifically for them.

The stories I enjoyed most in terms of style and prose were:

The Ram Head Ring
Carven of Onyx
The Circle of The Hieroglyphs
The Lycurgus Cup
Byerly Mount
The Secret Place
The Boat Called Millions of Years
The Stryx

If anyone is intested I have thrown together a list of his critical articles on folk-lore and mystisism in the works of varius authors:

Faunus #7 Perfume of the Trellised Vine
Ghosts & Scholars #7 Rennes le Chateau and the Magdalen Mystery (http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/%7Epardos/GSArchive.html)
Arthur Machen: Artist and Mystic: The Spagyric Quest of Arthur Machen
Avallaunius #2 Arthur Machen and the Hermetic Mystery
Ghosts & Scholars #6 The Dark Devotions: M.R. James and The Magical Tradition (http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/%7Epardos/ArchiveDark.html)
Avallaunius #5 Arthur Machen and the Abyss of Nature

I hope that one day he may finish The Pharos Light.

[Freyasfire]

Like many, if not most, things in my life I stumbled upon this thread a little bit late. I almost wish I hadn't, because Ron Weighell sounds quite intriguing, and now I must add him to my list of authors to further explore. I will most likely try to hold out until Ash Tree hopefully publishes their planned Weighell collection, as any available copies of The White Road seem a little bit too pricey at the moment for a writer who's work I have not yet read.

[Evans]

Have you read his story in Cinnabar's Gnosis? I think in terms of prose it's a pretty good example of Weighell at his best - not overly Meyrink but that doesn't matter to much given the plot. Another story; Suburbs of the Black Lyre will be in the Buglakov tribute anothology which is probably worth looking out for once Dan lashes another tribe of printers into producing it.

I've enjoyed The White Road, thank you very much to everyone who reccomended it

[Freyasfire]

Alas, I am still awaiting my copy of Cinnabar's Gnosis, so I have not been able to read Weighell story within its pages yet. It probably will be the first story by him I do read, unless I end up getting The Master in Cafe Morphine first. Its good to know that it is a good example of some of his better work. I just hope its not too good, or I just might be forced to pay an exorbitant amount for The White Road!

[MadsPLP]

Evans, can you please tell something more about the story "The Boat Called Millions of Years"?

The reason I'm asking is that there seems to be a Current 93 connection (the song 'The Dissolution of 'The Boat Millions of Years'' from Black Ships Ate the Sky). I asked Tibet about any possible connections, but he told me that "The Boat Millions of Years" was another name for Ra. Still, I'm rather intrigued by the title of that story.

[Evans]

Certainly MadsPLP, I'll pm you a brief synopsis when I get home later if that's alright. I believe The Boat Called Millions of Years is the name for the vessal that carried Amon-Ra and some of the other gods into the west with the setting of the sun.

[MadsPLP]

Thanks a lot!

Regarding the boat's function, you're absolutely right.

[Justin Case]

Just a quick heads up. Ash Tree has now officially (semi-officially) announced the reprint of The White Road. I am copying the email I recieved just a little while ago below:

"Glad to announce that we're in the throes of finalising arrangements with Ron Weighell for a new edition of THE WHITE ROAD. It won't follow the format of the GSP edition. Instead, we'll be adding additional stories and some of Ron's fine articles to make this a two-volume set. With luck, the first volume should be available in the first half of 2011"

This is more great news!