I quite enjoyed The New Arabian Nights - and need to revisit it. I recall a tale, toward the end of the book - something about a fellow who sneaks into a doorway to elude pursuers... and, as I have recommended it, best get around to The Dynamiters (there is a prologue to the A. Nasier document which damns the recommnder of books he has not read to the depths of Hell). Don't pay anything for one of the cheaply made but dearly offered Kessinger bindings of AN's Three Impostors; you can download it free of charge from various sites on the web. Happy reading and many thanks for the mention of Guy Boothby - I'm off to investigate!

posted by benwaugh at 10:12 am (EST) on Mar 27, 2007

Yes - the Hecht illustrations Smith did were in that Blaine-Beardsley decadent theme - though in their lurid detail, much more self-consciously absurd (there is an amusing screed by DH Lawrence somewhere on the web directed at Smith's illustrations... where Lawrence gets all cranky and serious about human sexuality, averring that he is comfortable with his private parts and has no trouble uttering their proper names - in the course of condemning Smith & Hecht's utter commitment to playfulness with said parts and their display).

The Nasier thing I found on my own - keep meaning to re-read it and Impostors and see if there is correlation. The Nasier doc, I think, is 18th century - Moses, Christ and Mohammad, the three. Alcofribus Nasier was, of course, a source Rabelais mentioned in his novel (and an anagram of his own name).

I have a modern reissue of Poe's Tales with Clarke's illustration. I love all that eerie, languid, decadent artwork - and have a bit of it hanging in the library, where all my manias are confined by cohabitants of more sensible tastes.

Pape did a couple for Anatole France - I have one, though the title escapes at the moment. Another interesting 19th-early 20th c. illustrator to look out for, an American, is "Majeska." I believe he was New York based. His work was used in limited run novels of the "mauve decade": James Huneker's Painted Veils and Pierre Louys' Psyche are two that come to mind.

The two Stevenson things I mentioned are structured in the 1001 nights mode - like Machen's novel - one tale blending into another, etc. I have not yet read the collection "The Dynamiter," but New Arabian Nights contains the most of the stories Tartarus Press has re-issued in its Stevenson collection, "Suicide Club".

posted by benwaugh at 9:15 am (EST) on Mar 21, 2007

The frontispiece in that Covici edition of The Shining Pyramid was dome by the same artist responsible for the illustrations in Ben Hecht's Fantazius Mallare - which got them both a bit of good notoriety in the 1920s midwest. Hecht was one of several American authors at the time responding to Machen's decadent-occult theme.

As opposed to other decorative artists of the age, Frank Pape and Beresford Egan, for example, very little is known about Wallace Smith - his work, his life. Apologies for the trivia deluge....

posted by benwaugh at 11:42 am (EST) on Mar 20, 2007

Yes, I quite like Three Impostors - I find the idea that the city itself might be a sort of malign intelligence interesting. Have you read Stevenson's Dynamiters collection, or New Arabian Nights? Another interesting document is The Three Impostors of "Alcofribus Nasier." I have not pursued the matter, but can only assume Machen read it.

posted by benwaugh at 11:33 am (EST) on Mar 20, 2007

Nice Machen collection! You are also a member of The Friends of?

posted by benwaugh at 9:53 am (EST) on Mar 15, 2007