Epistles from the Road--Reading at the Merril Collection
Much smaller crowd tonight, but one of the great experiences of the whole trip, because Lorna and Mary and Annette--the Furies of the Merril--toured me through the Merril Collection. First edition Dracula, anyone?
Gorgeous William Timlin The Ship That Sailed to Mars whose illustrations could--should--hang in galleries showcasing the most haunting fantastical art ever dreamed and executed? How about the first issue of "Amazing Stories", its colors lurid-bright and glowing? Beautiful Lud-in-the-Mist, impossibly elegant, musty old Dunsanys and Machens. Stories about researchers needing to know about the color of the insides of Batman's mouth, about Margaret Atwood holing up in the stacks, told by the Furies,
two of them easily sixty, one of them stuttering, all of them ferociously passionate about and in love with the work they catalog and treasure.
Whether or not this tour, or this book, or any of my books ever "breaks out" (whatever that means)...they are already here. Already nestling in and resting. Sweet little Cthulhu things, among the Old Gods. Right where they belong. Home.
Then of course more fantastic conversation with Carolyn and Michael Kelly, Simon Strantzas (who either has a LOT of gas or else smiles much more easily and often than you people have been letting on), and Bob Knowlton (who acquired many of the Merril's treasures, including the DRAC). A memorable more than a profitable night, perhaps. Which I'll take, every time...
(photos courtesy Michael Kelly)
Gorgeous William Timlin The Ship That Sailed to Mars whose illustrations could--should--hang in galleries showcasing the most haunting fantastical art ever dreamed and executed? How about the first issue of "Amazing Stories", its colors lurid-bright and glowing? Beautiful Lud-in-the-Mist, impossibly elegant, musty old Dunsanys and Machens. Stories about researchers needing to know about the color of the insides of Batman's mouth, about Margaret Atwood holing up in the stacks, told by the Furies,
two of them easily sixty, one of them stuttering, all of them ferociously passionate about and in love with the work they catalog and treasure.
Whether or not this tour, or this book, or any of my books ever "breaks out" (whatever that means)...they are already here. Already nestling in and resting. Sweet little Cthulhu things, among the Old Gods. Right where they belong. Home.
Then of course more fantastic conversation with Carolyn and Michael Kelly, Simon Strantzas (who either has a LOT of gas or else smiles much more easily and often than you people have been letting on), and Bob Knowlton (who acquired many of the Merril's treasures, including the DRAC). A memorable more than a profitable night, perhaps. Which I'll take, every time...
(photos courtesy Michael Kelly)
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