In October 1986, three books appeared in trade paperback in the UK, inaugurating the "Allison & Busby Fantastic Fiction Library." Each gives unadorned texts, without any extra matter such as informed introductions or interior illustrations. Each of the three books uses a piece of art (or a portion thereof) from the previous century as cover art. The art is not especially compatible with the book on which it appears, but it isn't horrendously incompatible either. The books are:Lilith, by George Macdonald, with the cover art from "Pandora" by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
The Purple Cloud, by M.P. Shiel, with cover art from"The Scapegoat" by William Holman Hunt
A Voyage to Arcturus, by David Lindsay, with cover art "The Glacier of Rosenlaui" by John Brett. Sadly the text of the novel, though re-set, follows that of the corrupt 1963 Macmillan edition, which was line-edited by the publisher, resulting in literally thousands of changes—some merely punctuational but a large number are word changes and rephrasings that alter Lindsay's text.
And with these initial releases, the series died. Alas. Allison & Busby had been founded in 1967 by Clive Allison and Margaret Busby. In 1987 the firm was acquired by W.H. Allen, Ltd. According to Margaret Busby this represented "finally succumbing to the exigencies of being penniless." Whether the fantasy series died before or after the acquisition is not known.
Very interesting Doug. Regarding Arcturus, do you know if the Ballantine paperback follows the corrupted Macmillan text? The only version I own is a 1974 fourth printing. The book is of course so strangely written to begin with that I would hate to think how bizarrely confusing it would be with corruptions to the text. I would certainly want to acquire a true version of the book if so.
ReplyDeleteHi Mike: Yes, the Ballantine edition follows the corrupted Macmillan text. And it was the Ballantine edition that was put up on the web and from which has been generated countless POD editions. The British editions (like the first, published by Methuen, and the later ones, published by Gollancz) are unaffected.
DeleteDoug,
DeleteI had no notion that many of the Voyage texts were corrupt. From your comment I gather that all American editions--including the hardback I have--are compromised. So, now I have to track down a Gollancz paperback. . . md
Yes, many editions are corrupt. The best is of course the 1920 Methuen edition (and the 1975 Gregg Press edition, which is a facsimile of the 1920 edition), and any of the Gollancz editions (reset, and all, I believe, in hardcovers). I should make a census of texts, as I have nearly all printings, save for the reset POD versions.
DeleteDoug, how about the Bison Books reprint of Voyage?
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid of what you're going to say....
Actually, it appears to have been reset from the British edition, though it has formatting problems and typos all of its own.
DeleteI had vaguely wondered what happened to this series, having purchased the "Lilith" when it first appeared. It had also struck me as a little odd that the cover showed Rossetti's "Pandora" rather than his "Lady Lilith". I did have "The Purple Cloud" at one time but can't now find it - must have had several copies of the novel in those heady days when we were attempting to revive the concept of a (literary and imaginative) Kingdom of Redonda in London, before the whole notion got hijacked by Javier Marias.
ReplyDeleteHi Gail-Nina, forever revered as donor to the Summers gravestone project of decades ago! "Hijacked"?! Ain't Javier the King? He seems to have enabled the issue of Gawsworth bio of Machen, which deserves a tug of forelock at least!
DeletePresume the Savoy edition with Colin Wilson essay is full text? Incidentally, back in the 80s Xanadu started a Colin Wilson supernatural library which folded after the first book: David Lindsay's Sphinx.
ReplyDeleteOn a quick look, the Savoy edition looks to have been based on the Macmillan/Ballantine edition but not-very-thoroughly proofread against the UK text. Some of the markers I always look for as from the corrupted text are present; yet some of them (but by no means all) have been corrected and match the UK text. Odd!
DeleteThe Savoy guys tell me they took the text from an internet site. When they realised there were errors they set about correcting them, but were sorry to find they'd not been as thorough as they'd hoped. It's a stunning looking edition though I must say.
Delete