FANTASIAS. London: "Clarion" Office, 1895. Octavo, pp. [1-9] 10-170 [171-172: ads] [note: this issue has ads for "Clarion" publications printed on recto and verso of first leaf and inserted pair of conjugate leaves at rear with ads printed on final leaf (this leaf excised in hardbound issues)], original gray paper wrappers, printed in orange. Second, expanded, edition, paperbound issue. The book was also issued in two cloth versions, one more ornate than the other. Blatchford, under his "Nunquam" pseudonym, edited the weekly socialist newspaper, the CLARION. The first edition of this title appeared in 1892 (London: John Heywood) with fourteen pieces, six of which are omitted from the present edition, which adds fourteen others (for a total of twenty-two pieces). A mixed collection of essays, poems and stories, some of which have fantastic elements, including "The Studio," a ghost story, and "Romeo," an animal fable. Of the new material added to this edition, "Bob's Fairy" is a deft and bitter social fable, while "Ali's Luck" is an Oriental meditation on the vagaries of Fortune. "The airy and sophisticated tone of the sketches does not suit the author well; but his fiction manages to blend idealistic sincerity with an ironic awareness of human limitations (the latter hinted at by the author's pseudonym, 'Nunquam,' Latin for 'never'). The material is better than one might have expected from an axe-grinding crusader; and certainly better than his 1907 utopian romance, THE SORCERY SHOP. Worth a look." - Robert Eldridge. Tuck, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy, p. 50. Bleiler (1948), p. 54. Rear panel of fragile paper cover detached and chipped along fore edge with some loss of text (ads for other Clarion publications), top inch of spine panel chipped away, front panel has slight marginal loss and a few minor blemishes, the text block, printed on a good quality paper stock, is in very good condition. (#74713).
Price: $75.00
No statement of printing.