BOOKS AROUND MACHEN

No. 4: The Menace from the Moon: Dale Nelson treats us to a review of a forgotten science fiction novel by Bohun Lynch, Machen’s caricaturist.

Noted Scholar Douglas A. Anderson has published an article on the centenary of The Shining Pyramid by Arthur Machen.

NEW POETRY

Brief As Memory by Joshua Alan Sturgill

Jesse K. Butler has published at the Blue Unicorn.

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

The Critics and Mr. Henry James’s Style: The late Mr. George Wyndham once said, and said most beautifully and wisely, that there are certain things which, though perceived by the senses, must be effectually received and laid hold on by faith. These things were, I think, the flaming colour of a rose at dawn, the first kiss of the beloved, and the sudden appearance of an army in array of battle. And to these three objects to be apprehended by faith, I think I must add a fourth— the style of Mr. Henry James.

Congratulations to Richard W. Rohlin on his successful Kickstarter campaign. You can still support his Amboria project.

CATALOG UPDATE

A Reader of Curious Books is now out-of-print. This summer, a second edition will be published alongside a new printing of Dreamt in Fire: The Dreadful Ecstasy of Arthur Machen. Both books will include extra material and will be issued in hardcover and paperback formats. For now, Mist and Mystery and The Great Return are still available for purchase.

NEW POETRY

It Hasn’t Seen by Joshua Alan Sturgill

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

In a Kentish Hop Garden: Below me the great green hop sea, dipping and rising with the ground, a splendid spectacle of fertility; and everywhere the dark green of the leaf was flecked with the hanging, yellowing clusters. I have seen no richer sight amongst the vineyards of France.

Richard W. Rohlin is seeking support for a new project: Amboria: Roleplaying in the World under Starlight. Later this year, Rohlin’s second book will be published by Darkly Bright Press.

NEW POETRY

Based On A True Story by Joshua Alan Sturgill

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

Wonderful London: It was a large square, and it was built entirely in sham Gothic. The walls were of grey brick, the moulding and arches and ornaments were painted a lively cream colour, and, save that three or four numbers has recessed porches, every house was exactly like every other house. Some day, I am to write an exhaustive history of Sham Gothic Architecture, and so, as an expert, I may say that this square was intended to be of the style of 1500. Its stillness was appalling; I suppose the painted mouldings had scored the inhabitants into silence, and I fled shuddering.

NEW POETRY

Used, Good Condition by Joshua Alan Sturgill

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

Sunday Night in London: Below their breath, for they all know that beyond, on the dread stage of war, the flames and the fires of death are blazing, that the doom of the world hangs in the balance, that the thunders are uttering their voices.

NEW POETRY & UPDATES

Prodigal by Joshua Alan Sturgill

Continuing his winning streak, Jesse K. Butler has published in Ekstasis Magazine.

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

Peter Pan: Hence let us gladly suffer “Peter Pan” in Kensington Gardens as a marble reminder of heavenly melodies and their power.

NEW POETRY

The Desert by Joshua Alan Sturgill

GHOST STORIES

The Phantom Ship by E. H. Visiak. This one is in verse!

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

Does the Seaside Hotel Pay?: There is a great chapter in Rabelais entitled, in the admirable English version, “How they chirrupped over their cups.” I was reminded of it yesterday, down at Brighton, as I listened to the tale of the Brighton hotel-keepers and drank their venerable Cognac of 1848.

Recently, Austin Conrad reviewed Akboritha by Richard Rohlin at his blog: Akhelas.com.

NEW POETRY

Closed by Joshua Alan Sturgill

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

Twentieth-Century Village: We were in the peaceful heart of England … There is not a railway station, at Bugbrooke, or within five miles of it. I had driven out from Northampton behind a gently ambling horse, who went slowly up hill because he was tired, and slowly down hill because it was dangerous, and slowly on the level because he felt like it.

NEW POETRY AND UPDATES

Opened by Joshua Alan Sturgill

Congratulations to Jesse K. Butler winner of the third place prize in the Kierkegaard Poetry Competition.

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

The Joy of London I: To the imaginative man, I suppose nothing has so great an attraction as that which has some savour of mystery about it. He who is something more than a new automaton, a mechanical performer of certain mechanical tasks, returning day by day, feels instinctively that he is born to voyage in the unknown, to live always in contemplation of a great perhaps. And here, I think we touch on the secret of one of the most powerful of the many attractions of London.

MACHEN MISCELLANEA

Arthur Machen remembers Maurice Barrès, the French Belloc.

CATALOG UPDATE

As Far As I Can Tell, the debut poetry collection by Joshua Alan Sturgill, is now OUT-OF-PRINT. A few remaining copies may be purchased at Eighth Day Books. Sturgill’s latest book, Now A Major Motion Picture, is still available.

Joshua’s newest poem: Disparate

MACHEN STUDIES No. 44

Fugues and Fish Heads by Dale Nelson: When Machen wrote of “a highly elaborate and elaborated piece of work, full of the strangest and rarest things,” he was referring to a great romance that he never managed to compose.  But he could have been referring to compositions by Bach.

THE WEEKLY MACHEN

Marvels of To-Day’s Flower Show: Here was a bank of the richest purple, brilliant to the point of crudity; here were the trumpet notes of scarlet and bright yellow; and opposed to these daring tones were groups of poppies, not only suggesting sleep and quiet and long dreams by their nature, but by those languorous petals that looked like faded ancient silks that had hung for a hundred years in a forgotten cupboard.