Walter De LA Mare

Lots of people know that Walter de la Mare was a fantastic poet, but his weird fiction is much less well known. It shouldn't be -- he was a marvelous fantasist, and The Return is a heck of a book. Arthur Lawford, recovering from a long bout with influenza, takes a fateful walk in an old cemetery one afternoon, returning a changed man who neither his wife, nor his friends, nor himself -- recognizes. . . . (Jacketless library hardcover.)

The publication of "Short Stories1927-1956" celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of Walter de la Mare's death. It is also the culmination of a major literary enterprise. For many people Walter de la Mare (1873-1956) is as great a writer of fiction as of poetry. But the majority of his short stories, of which there are a hundred, have long been unavailable. "Short Stories" brings them all together in three volumes in the first comprehensive collection to be published. De la Mare's earliest published works were stories, and he continued writing and rewriting stories throughout the rest of his life. There was always a creative counterpoint between the themes and imagery of his prose and his poetry - such as the dream, childhood, the house, night, love lost and regained, solitude and the traveller. A full understanding of either is impossible without knowledge of both.

The publication of "Short Stories 1895-1926" celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of Walter de la Mare's death. It is also the culmination of a major literary enterprise. For many people Walter de la Mare (1873-1956) is as great a writer of fiction as of poetry. But the majority of his short stories, of which there are a hundred, have long been unavailable. "Short Stories" brings them all together in three volumes in the first comprehensive collection to be published. De la Mare's earliest published works were stories, and he continued writing and rewriting stories throughout the rest of his life. There was always a creative counterpoint between the themes and imagery of his prose and his poetry - such as the dream, childhood, the house, night, love lost and regained, solitude and the traveller. A full understanding of either is impossible without knowledge of both.

The definitive text for Walter de la Mare's poetry contains all the poems de la Mare published in book form during his lifetime, plus all the uncollected poems that have been found and a selection of unpublished poems.