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| A rare photo of Shiel in 1908 |
Harold Billings is the author of M.P. Shiel: A Biography of His Early Years (2005), and M.P. Shiel: The Middle Years 1897-1923 (2010). We look forward to the third and final volume of this definitive biography
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
The Sesquicentennial of M.P. Shiel
Harold Billings is the author of M.P. Shiel: A Biography of His Early Years (2005), and M.P. Shiel: The Middle Years 1897-1923 (2010). We look forward to the third and final volume of this definitive biography
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I have collected and read the books of M.P. Shiel(even those he wrote under pseudonyms) since first reading a Tartarus reprint of Prince Zaleski. This is no easy feat for someone who hasn't been at this book collecting game for long, especially in the United States where he remains even lesser known than Machen. Mr. Billing's biographies of Shiel, I have no doubt, are brilliant and would add greatly to my understanding of a large part of my personal library, but it seems the two volumes thus far have been printed in very small editions at prices that are steep even for a Shiel collector. I found only one copy of the first volume for sale, at $350. If this is to be the fate of such fine scholarship, I doubt I will ever own these books. Fortunately, I have Reynold Morse's thoughts on Shiel in my collection, which I rather enjoyed, though it seems other Shiel collectors dismiss his scholarship in favor of that of Mr. Billings. At this point, I cannot afford to disagree with them.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note as a collector, many books of "the lost library" sort featured on this blog and in Wormwood are cherished by the kindred spirits who linger here and collect the works mentioned. Most of these books, at least the better copies, are certainly not inexpensive, if they can be found at all. What is most frustrating is when brilliant scholarship is published about these books and their authors by noted members of this band of readers of the obscure in such small and precious editions. Surely there must be more than 100 people interested in reading a thorough biography of M.P. Shiel. If there are 100 people who can easily spend hundreds of dollars/pounds for each volume, then I may be in the wrong field of book collecting. I recently found a biography of another wonderfully strange writer I collect, Arthur Machen, written by Mark Valentine in a used book shop priced firmly at $450. I paid less for my lovely copy of "The Great God Pan" from the Keynotes Series. Were good books ever affordable? Sigh. Thus ends the rant of a young collector. The bizarre and the decadence of the 1890's have ruined me for video games, ironic fashion, cold press coffee and the other cultural cesspools of millennial culture.
I can sympathize with your rant as a young collector--even though I am a middle-aged one. A lot of what I've read and written about are from books I picked up in the 80s and 90s (and 00s), when they were much cheaper. But even considering that, there are a number of authors I've not yet published on because, for love or money, I can't access one or two of their books. In some cases this situation has gone on for many years. Yet in other cases, when I have written about forgotten authors who may have written only one desirable and recommended book, I find that all copies for sale disappear in a very short time after I've published. This even happens with rare books I've given unfavorable reviews! So don't feel alone in your frustration. But I do also feel that in a different sense we are in a golden age of older titles becoming more accessible than they have ever been before, which is a good thing, and it's much easier on the pocketbook to try a Dancing Tuatara Press book and realize it's just as bad as most titles in that line, than to pay out a premium price for a copy of the rare first and only edition and discover the same fact.
DeleteI just picked up The Cloudbuilders by Colin Kapp, one of the Dancing Tuatara Press line from Ramble House, and found it to be excellent. It depends on who is the author rather than the publisher. A lot of their material is reprinted from the pulp magazines, and was designed to be read by pulp fans rather than by persons seeking great literature.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I can also sympathize with the beginning collector of M. P. Shiel. It took me several decades to put together my collection of his science fiction and fantasy. You just have to wait and be patient and put in a lot of work. For instance, a copy of Here Comes the Lady often goes for $200 or more. I got my copy on line for $5 because it was missing the cover spine. It was otherwise a first-rate copy, and re-binding is fairly inexpensive. The Internet also makes it easier to get books than it has ever been before.
The Colin Knapp book is part of the newer series of F&SF, while I was meaning the long-standing unnamed series, now running to about sixty books, of mostly crappy fourth-rate junk, with delusionally effusive praise by the series editor. These include authors such as Richard B. Gamon, Donald Dale, Edmund Snell, James Corbett, Ronald S.L. Harding, etc. Occasionally decent books can be found in this imprint, but mostly not. It wouldn't be so bad if they were just re-published as lost works--it's the editor's promotional b-s that these are lost classics that is galling.
DeleteAs the original poster, thank you all for commenting. As a "millenial" book collector, we begin by searching for books online. The internet is often where we "discover" an author or genre that appeals to us in the first place. This blog has helped me to do that and each issue of Wormwood often becomes a printed shopping list I have to add to a growing list of wants. I feel lucky that I always had the ease and convenience of the internet as a book collector, but there are definite drawbacks to collecting in a virtual marketplace. Being able to look at books in a physical shop adds greatly to one's knowledge, as does developing a relationship with an experienced book dealer. Quality copies of Shiel and Machen, two of the writers I collect, are not terribly common, even online, especially the scarcer titles. My progress as a collector has gone from hunting exclusively online, often for inexpensive reading copies. At this point, you have fallen in love and simply must obtain all the books you are missing. After that, you must find all of the variants of each book. Then you decide you need to upgrade many of your books to better and better examples. You lust for association copies and ephemera. A book inscribed by the author to a member of the Golden Dawn or with a bookplate of the Realm of Redonda laid in? You consider selling your car to buy better books. At this point the internet is not enough and you progress to the antiquarian book fair. There, in booths presided over by the best dealers in the world are the books you dream of finding and those you never knew existed. Their prices make you short of breath. More often than not, the books you strive for are purchased by other dealers at a steep trade discount and then presented again at an even more dizzying price. These are often the dealers who give lectures about how no young people collect books. I hate to say it, but the auction houses are doing a better job at cultivating young collectors.
ReplyDeleteWhat I miss about visiting used book shops is the unexpected finds---something you didn't know you wanted, but it looks interesting and it's worth the gamble of a modest price. You don't get that at all from the online experience, and the few used bookstores that are still open have taken to looking every book up on the internet, and then pricing a shabby copy as much as what a first edition dealer is trying (unsuccessfully) to sell as a fine copy. The serendipity if bookhunting is for the most part gone. Sure, the internet makes up for some of that, but by no means all. Thanks for writing.
DeleteSo true...I have experienced some wonderful used book shops that still provided quality stock at reasonable prices, but they are few and far between and never seem to be nearby.
DeleteWhat you miss about good book shops--that serendipity of discovery--I was fortunate to experience in my university's excellent libraries. Wandering the stacks, often in search of an obscure novel I couldn't find anywhere else, I would always find others that would lead me down ever winding paths of bibliography. I have met other collectors who spent their free time at college in the same way, with a special treat being visits to the rare book room, filling out piles of call slips, and feeling both giddy and somewhat naughty as treasure after treasure was brought to you to enjoy for a few moments before handing it back and receiving another. It is what I imagine the great collectors of history must have felt in their own private libraries. I am an avid reader of bibliographies, but nothing can compete with experiencing the books in person.
Thank you again for this wonderful blog, without which my collecting journey would have missed some fascinating diversions.
I've found that serendipity of discovery in libraries as well, but it means something more when you can take home your own copy of your discovery!
DeleteThanks for writing. Your perspective is always welcome here.