Liverpool University Press have recently issued a paperback edition of Walter de la Mare: Critical Appraisals edited by Yui Kajita, Angela Leighton and A.J. Nickerson. This is one of the most substantial collection of essays on de la Mare for some years. It covers the full range of his work, including his poetry, stories and novels.
My contribution is 'Walter de la Mare and The Modern Ghost Story', an extended version of my earlier work on this theme. In this, I place de la Mare in the context of other classic ghost story writers and note his particular concern with the idea of absence, expressed through his lonely, haunted figures and the desolate houses and landscapes they inhabit.
Other essays exploring de la Mare's relationship to writers of the supernatural include 'The close, the curious, the deep’: Walter de la Mare and Henry James by Adrian Poole; 'Sharing the Inkpot: Walter de la Mare and Forrest Reid' by Andrew Doyle; ‘That remoter, changeless England’: Walter de la Mare and Edward Thomas' by Guy Cuthbertson; and 'The Lost, the Haunted, and the Holy: De la Mare and the Otherworldly' by Rowan Williams. There are also creative responses to de la Mare from a gallery of poets, composers and essayists.
The paperback edition is available for £23.99 direct from the press, or at similar prices from independent bookshops and the usual outlets.
(Mark Valentine)
No comments:
Post a Comment