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Post by andydecker on Jun 19, 2019 10:53:27 GMT
Weird! Just yesterday I got my order of Haining's Terror!, which features this drawing. And I thought how I much I like this.
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Post by helrunar on Jun 19, 2019 13:06:10 GMT
Golly, James, this is fascinating. I'd never heard that Waite was a fancier and collector of this kind of literature. Many thanks, Maestro Humgoo, for that excerpt!
It's really interesting how so many occultists turn out to be fans of horror fiction, of various types and genres....
cheers, Steve
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Post by helrunar on Jun 19, 2019 15:17:32 GMT
By the way, James, can you, or anyone, explain more about the Order of the Companions of the Eighties?
I presume Frater Sacramentum may have been a title held by Waite in the Golden Dawn, though their titles were usually longer mottoes, such as "Foi pour Devoir" or "Dio non Fortuna."
H.
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Post by humgoo on Jun 19, 2019 16:09:34 GMT
George Locke and R.A. Gilbert published Waite's articles on them in this large format book Marvelous! Is that "fierce" cover from The Skeleton Horseman; Or, the Shadow of Death or some other blood? Many thanks, Maestro Humgoo, for that excerpt! I'm glad you like it Steve.
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Post by Dr Strange on Jun 20, 2019 12:40:58 GMT
Golly, James, this is fascinating. I'd never heard that Waite was a fancier and collector of this kind of literature. Many thanks, Maestro Humgoo, for that excerpt! cheers, Steve The aforementioned R.A. Gilbert wrote a biography of Waite ( A.E. Waite: Magician of Many Parts, 1987) that has a chapter covering Waite's interest in Penny Dreadfuls, and also discusses some stories that Waite wrote himself. Here's a passage quoted there, taken from Waite's (never published) The Fall of the House of Morland - 'See, see,' I cried, 'It has life: it is moving.' My father started back horror-struck, for the assassin had risen - risen upon his hands and knees, and was crawling towards us. The mask had fallen from his face, revealing features of appalling hideousness. I shrieked with terror as I gazed upon it. 'Here, here is fatality,' cried my father, 'The death-blow only reveals their faces.' 'It means us harm, father. Beware, beware! Surely that cannot be human. Let us fly.' There was a yell; the monster had leaped upon us and had clutched my father. From its own torn and bleeding side it had wrenched the dagger, and raised it aloft. My love for my parent gave a man's strength to my frame. I seized and held the descending arm, striving for possession of the weapon. A moment only the contest lasted. The assassin's arm dropped, the pallor of death overspread his countenance, and he fell back upon the grass. He uttered some words in a language which I did not understand, and was dead.He wrote other stories with titles like Tom Trueheart, or the Fortunes of a Runaway ( The Idler, July 1878), Hamet the Moor, a Romance of Old Granada ( Green Leaves, May 1879), and Paul Dactyl, or the Travelling Merchant's Story ( The Story-Teller, 1878). I also came across this quote from his Dealings in Bibliomania (1904) - "The best impressions concerning certain literatures are not derived actually by reading them".
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Jun 20, 2019 13:00:22 GMT
I also came across this quote from his Dealings in Bibliomania (1904) - "The best impressions concerning certain literatures are not derived actually by reading them". This could mean many different things, but I like all of them.
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Post by Dr Strange on Jun 20, 2019 15:04:15 GMT
By the way, James, can you, or anyone, explain more about the Order of the Companions of the Eighties? I presume Frater Sacramentum may have been a title held by Waite in the Golden Dawn, though their titles were usually longer mottoes, such as "Foi pour Devoir" or "Dio non Fortuna." H. I'm pretty sure this is just some good-natured piss-taking on Machen's part - although he was (briefly) a member of the Golden Dawn, he ended up thinking it was all a load of nonsense. In his autobiography Things Near And Far (1923), he said about the Golden Dawn that it was "pure foolishness concerned with impotent and imbecile abracadabras. It knew nothing whatever about anything and concealed the fact under an impressive ritual and sonorous phraseology". I think "Companions of the Eighties" is probably a straightforward reference to the 1880s (when Machen and Waite would have first met, and maybe when this adventure took place), and "Sacramentum" seems to mean something like "sacred oath" - again, I think he is just lampooning the whole idea of "initiatory" occult orders. It has been claimed that Waite was a member of more "secret societies" than anyone before or since, and he described himself (perhaps jokingly) as "the most initiated man in Europe".
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Post by andydecker on Jun 20, 2019 15:25:21 GMT
Another one I bought for the cover. Don't know if I will ever read this. 498 pages in the tradition of Anne Rice? Frances Gordon: Blood Ritual (Headline 1994, 498 p.) If I had a gothic castle and a cavernlike dining room with a good table, I would also buy this candleholder :-)
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Post by helrunar on Jun 20, 2019 17:43:53 GMT
That's a marvelous quote, Dr Strange. Thanks!
H.
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Post by helrunar on Jun 20, 2019 17:44:23 GMT
Waite's story seems so schlocky. I guess it was good fun, though.
H.
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Post by jamesdoig on Jun 20, 2019 21:33:10 GMT
He wrote other stories with titles like Tom Trueheart, or the Fortunes of a Runaway ( The Idler, July 1878), Hamet the Moor, a Romance of Old Granada ( Green Leaves, May 1879), and Paul Dactyl, or the Travelling Merchant's Story ( The Story-Teller, 1878). I've got to confess to owning similar things: And my favourite caption to a penny dreadful illustration: "The door flew open and disclosed a ghastly skeleton."
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Post by helrunar on Jun 20, 2019 23:21:11 GMT
Those are amazing, James. Very cool!
H.
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Post by cromagnonman on Jun 28, 2019 7:28:32 GMT
Made a return visit to the marvellous Walden Books in Camden yesterday. First time I've been there when it wasn't pouring with rain and so walked right past it (not registering it without its awning down). Spent a delightful hour mooching among the trollies, in the company of the shop's cat who eventually curled himself up atop one of the trollies and joined the ranks of paperbacks gently broiling in the sun. Then the friendly owner appeared and we got into a conversation about Arthur Machen. I mean, how more civilised can a bookshop visit be? You're absolutely right Steve; is it any wonder people get such a buzz from getting their second-hand books from bricks and mortar outlets. Abe can't deliver anything to rival an experience like this. Picked up these while I was there and was delighted to find the Evans signed.
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Post by helrunar on Jun 28, 2019 12:39:46 GMT
Lovely finds! At first I thought "Crabapple Crisp" was a nom de guerre of the good Doctor, but then I realized it must be one of the story titles. Ha ha!
All that goodness plus a sweet puss to keep you company! Sounds like the ideal bookshop experience to me!
cheers, Steve
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Post by helrunar on Jun 28, 2019 12:41:24 GMT
I'm reading the second story title as "Watchtowers Cum"--I am afraid my powers of holographic decipherment are failing me, alas.
Steve
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