Peake’s contributions to books in prose
- Vincent Stuart (ed.),
Harvest, Volume 1, Travel. Castle Press, 1948. Black cloth 250
x 188 lettered in gilt down the spine. D/w design by Hans Tisdall.
Also issued bound up with Volume 2, The Household (1950), in light cream cloth of the same size, lettered ‘HARVEST Volumes I & II’ in gilt down the spine.
Contains ‘The Weird Journey’ (pp.58–61), which was not reprinted until it was included in Peake’s Progress (pp.121–125) (A22); now also in Boy in Darkness and other stories (A21c).
Review:
Glasgow Herald (date unknown, so it could date from any time prior to the publication of the Ballantine paperback
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Stefan Schimanski and Henry Treece (eds.), A New Romantic Anthology.
Grey Walls Press, 1949. Red cloth 222 x 147 lettered in gilt across the spine.
Cream d/w printed in red and black designed by Biro.
Also published in America by New Directions (Norfolk, Conn.) 1949.
Contains ‘How a Romantic Novel was Evolved’ (with illustrations), pages 80–89. Not reprinted.
This contribution consists of one page of introduction and five extracts from TG: (1) ‘The Emptiness of Gormenghast’, pp.498–9; (2) ‘Steerpike’s climb up the ivy’, pp.143–5; (3) ‘Flay–Swelter fight’, pp.430–2; (4) ‘The Twins’, pp.246–7; and (5) ‘Branch and Titus’, pp.496–7. [At this point ‘The Thing’ was called ‘Branch’.]
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William Golding, John Wyndham and Mervyn Peake, Sometime, Never: Three Tales
of Imagination. Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1956. Dark green cloth 190 x
127 lettered in gilt across the spine. Black and yellow d/w lettered in red and
black, by Stein.
Contains ‘Boy in Darkness’, pages [155]–224.
Review:
Glasgow Herald, date not known (‘unexpected … only needs illustration to be completely hair-raising’)
British Book News, 1957, p.138
New Worlds, January 1957, no.55, p.127, by L. Flood
A paperback edition was published by Ballantine Books (New York), 1957 (pp.[127]–185).
Reviews:
Nebula Science Fiction, no.20, March 1957, pp.102–3, by K. Slater
Kirkus reviews, 15 May 1957, no.25, p.358 (All three stories ‘are written with taste and talent’)
Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, vol.13, no.3, September 1957, pp.86–7, by A. Boucher
New York Times Book Review, 8 September 1957, p.32, by Rex Lardner
Venture Science Fiction, vol.1, no.6, November 1957, p.84, by T. Sturgeon
Galaxy, vol.15, no.1, November 1957, by F. Gale
Infinity Science Fiction, vol.3, no.2, January 1958, pp.90–1, by D. Knight
Astounding Science Fiction, vol.61, no.1, March 1958, pp.142–43, by P. Miller (‘unclassifiable fantasy’)
Peter Allen assures me that there was also a British paperback edition, but I have found no trace of it. Anyone who can provide firm details is invited to contact Peake Studies.
This text was not reprinted until it was included in Peake’s Progress (A22) (pp.179–233). The version printed in The Inner Landscape (listed below) and the separate edition of the story, Boy in Darkness (A21), were both set from a corrupt typescript. The correct text is now available in Boy in Darkness and other stories (A21c).
- John Carnell (ed.), Weird Shadows from Beyond. Corgi, 1965.
Also published in America by Avon Books (New York), 1965. Both paperback.
Contains ‘Same Time, Same Place’ and ‘Danse Macabre’ which were first published in Science Fantasy (Vol.20, No.60, pp.57–65 and Vol.21, No.61, pp.46–55, respectively) in 1963 (see Part D - prose).
‘Same Time, Same Place’ was reprinted in:
• Terror! edited by Larry T Shaw, Lancer Books, New York, 1966;
• Nightfrights: an anthology of macabre tales that have terrified three generations, edited by Peter Haining, Victor Gollancz, 1972, which was brought out in paperback editions by Taplinger (New York), in the same year (with the title modified to Nightfrights: occult stories for all ages), and by Peacock Books (i.e. Penguin) in 1975, (with the original title);
• Dreamers of Dreams: An Anthology of Fantasy, edited by Doug Menville and Robert Reginald, Arno Press (New York), 1978. In facsimile from Science Fantasy;
• Shudder Again: Twenty-two Tales of Sex and Horror, edited by Michael Slung, Penguin Bks (USA), 1993. pp.[261: introduction] 262–270.
‘Danse Macabre’ was reprinted in:
• The Hell of Mirrors, edited by Peter Haining, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1974, which was republished in 1976 as a paperback from Dent with the new title:
• Everyman’s Book of Classic Horror Stories.
Both stories are reprinted in PP (pp.134–142 and 143–150) (A22) and again in Boy in Darkness and other stories (A21c).
- Mervyn Peake, J. G. Ballard and Brian W. Aldiss, The Inner Landscape. Allison & Busby, 1969. Grey cloth-textured boards 223 x 144 lettered in gilt down the spine. Red and purple d/w by Project Realization.
The first publication of the corrupt text of ‘Boy in Darkness’ (pp.[5]–61) set from an uncorrected carbon copy of the original typescript. The secretary had mis-read Peake’s handwriting and typed, for example, ‘There lay things’ instead of ‘They lay thinly’, which of course makes nonsense of some passages. More details in MPR 13:6–7 and in PS 10: iv (pp.42–43).
Reviews:
Illustrated London News, 17 May 1969, Vol.254, No.6772, p.30, by Dominic Le Foe.
Queen, 28 May 1969, by D. Benedictus (‘the sort of nightmare you have when your liver is upset’)
Reprinted as a collection in the Corgi SF Collector’s Library, 1970.
Review:
Observer, 27 September 1970, p.26 (‘MP’s creepered gothic allegory . . . stands head and shoulders above two efficient bits of Sci.Fi.’).
Reprinted as a Transworld paperback, 1975.
The novella was reprinted in 1976, and again in 1996. In 2007 it appeared as a separate publication (A21). - John Carnell (ed.), Weird Shadows from Beyond. Corgi, 1965.
Please tell me of any corrections or additions to make.
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