Walter de la Mare, Short Stories 1895-1926

Walter de la Mare (1873-1956) was one of the leading poets and novelists of the twentieth century. His writings are known throughout the world, and have been translated into numerous languages. He wrote poetry and fiction for both adults and children. He is loved and admired equally by the young and the old. Together with the Complete Poems, published in 1969 and shortly to be brought back into print -- and also edited by Giles de la Mare -- Short Stories I, II and III provide the definitive text of Walter de la Mare's creative writings. De la Mare was in addition an anthologist of genius and an outstanding literary critic, serving as the main critic on the TLS for many years.

• "The Riddle" and other stories (1923): "The Almond Tree"; "The Count's Courtship"; "The Looking-Glass"; "Miss Duveen"; "Selina's Parable"; "Seaton's Aunt"; "The Bird of Travel"; "The Bowl"; "The Three Friends"; "Lispet, Lispett and Vaine"; "The Tree"; "Out of the Deep"; "The Creatures"; "The Riddle"; "The Vats". Ding, dong bell (1924): "Lichen"; "Benighted"; "Strangers and Pilgrims"; "Winter". "The Connoisseur" and other stories (1926): "Mr Kempe"; "Missing"; "The Connoisseur"; "Disillusioned"; "The Nap"; "Pretty Poll"; "All Hallows"; "The Wharf"; "The Lost Track". Uncollected stories, 1895-1920: "Kismet"; "The Hangman Luck"; "A Mote"; "The Village of Old Age"; "The Moon's Miracle"; "The Giant"; "De Mortuis"; "The Rejection of the Rector"; "The Match-Maker"; "The Budget"; "The Pear-Tree"; "Leap Year"; "Promise at Dusk"; "Two Days in Town".

"'What strikes one most about [them] is how truly peculiar they are... it is good to see these dark and disquieting stories back in print.' TLS on Short Stories 1895-1926 and Short Stories 1927-1956 'He was so... "great" that, like all the greatest, his greatness functions as an assumption that goes hardly even recognized...the chief emotion is, as it should be, one of immense gratitude.' Martin Seymour-Smith in Scotland on Sunday on Short Stories 1895-1926 'Beautiful, enigmatic and disquieting stories.' Lord David Cecil 'De la Mare is a master of mise-en-scene...Prose with the most vivid and unsettling intensity, which resembles some of what the surrealists were producing in France...' Angela Carter"