Wormwood: Literature of the fantastic, supernatural and decadent

[tartarusrussell]

Issue 15, Autumn 2010, is now at the printers, with publication due mid-November.
It contains:
Stephan Zechowski: A Pilgrim of the Infinite by Brian Banks
Wilfred Rowland Mary Childe by Jonathan Wood
Gerard de Nerval: Exotic Voyager, Hashish Dreamer, Accursed Suicidalist by Adam Daly
Arthur Johnson: Another Sense of the Past by Robert Eldridge
Threshold in the First Half of the Tenth Chapter of Lucius Shepard's Viator by Adam Golaski
Under Review by Reggie Oliver
Late Reviews by Douglas A. Anderson
Camera Obscura

Reggie Oliver's Under Review is a new column which will review contemporary publications. This issue considers:
Remember You’re a One-Ball by Quentin S. Crisp, Chomu Press, 2010.
Apartment 16 by Adam Nevill, Pan Books, 2010.
The Black Cupboard by Claude Seignolle, Ex Occidente, 2010.
The Man Who Collected Machen & Other Stories by Mark Samuels, Ex Occidente, 2010.

All best wishes,

Ray

[nomis]

Looking forward to the new issue, Ray.

[kobaia]

An impressive lineup of contents for the new issue; I look forward to Reggie Oliver's new column. The one glaring omission is Brian Stableford's The Decadent World-View, which series I find to be an essential part of Wormwood.

[tartarusrussell]

Quote Originally Posted by kobaia

An impressive lineup of contents for the new issue; I look forward to Reggie Oliver's new column. The one glaring omission is Brian Stableford's The Decadent World-View, which series I find to be an essential part of Wormwood.

I'm very sorry to report that, for personal reasons, Brian is no longer able to contribute his Decadent World-View column. As Mark Valentine writes in his Introduction to the new Wormwood, Bian's column was "a magisterial sequence providing fine insights into the key figures of the Decadent movement. His column helped in a major way to give Wormwood its distinctive character."

Brian's contributions will be sorely missed.

All the best

Ray

[Sand]

Wormwood 18 is due to be published shortly. It will include an overview of the strange fiction of Frances Oliver, by Paul Newman; the second part of Joel Lane's study of H.P. Lovecraft, which also looks at Lovecraft's most significant followers; an essay on The Pagan Review, the journal edited and written by William Sharp (otherwise known as the Celtic romancer Fiona Macleod); Philip Challinor's essay on a Robert Aickman story, "Letters to the Postman"; Mike Barrett's look at the uncanny stories of F. Marion Crawford; and a note on Randolph Stow's The Girl Green as Elderflower. In our regular columns, Doug Anderson reveals some of the very rarest and weirdest work in "Late Reviews", and Reggie Oliver considers an Aleister Crowley biography, a study of The Exorcist, and more.

[Sand]

I have just posted on the Wormwoodiana blog a short note about Percival Landon (of "Thurnley Abbey" fame), and a possibly unsuspected, unusual work of fiction.

Wormwoodiana

[Sand]

A Cage for the Nightingale by Phyllis Paul is just out from The Sundial Press - I received my copy today, and I have posted a note about it on the Wormwoodiana blog. Her books are hard to find, and anyone curious to know why she has such a determined following can now find out. Elizabeth Bowen, a writer with whom she has some affinities, caught her adroitly when she evoked her "vehement inner poetry", while her rediscoverer, Glen Cavaliero, describes her work as "Vivid, eerie, complex, compassionate and disturbing...". In her world, every thing is complicit in small deeds of evil, and many in greater, and all exist under a spiritual penumbra.

[Sand]

[Reposting this as it has disappeared from view for some of us]

A Cage for the Nightingale by Phyllis Paul has just been reissued by The Sundial Press - I've received my copy, and have posted about it on the Wormwoodiana blog. It is introduced by Glen Cavaliero, her rediscoverer, who describes her work as "vivid, eerie, complex, compassionate and disturbing", while Elizabeth Bowen (with whose writing she has some affinity) noted her "vehement inner poetry". In her remorseless vision, everyone is tainted by complicity with lesser or greater evils, and her characters all seem to exist under a spiritual penumbra.

[G. S. Carnivals]

I can't decide whether I prefer the phantom post or the corporal post. I see them both glowing in the dark.

[Nemonymous]

I've ordered the Phyllis Paul book. Looks unmissable. Thanks for the news about it.
Des