Long Ago and Far Away

The Princess Bride, by William Goldman.

A copy dating from 1974, so years before the movie. I probably wouldn’t have given it a second glance because of the goofy cover, which looked like the Romance novels of the time. But Mr. Fleming encouraged me to read it. He knew I liked Fantasy and was always trying to point me to more literary examples. I got this copy from Half’s. Not only a rollicking story in itself but also a tribute to adventure stories for children as an introduction to whole world of literature, a parody of those ‘classics’ that might need to be edited into a ‘Good Parts Edition’, and a meditation on the adventure of life. “I also have to say, for the umpty-umpth time, that life isn’t fair. It’s just fairer than death, that’s all.”

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Paperback.

The Night Life of the Gods, by Thorne Smith.

“From author Thorne Smith, best remembered for his Topper books, came this tale of a scientist who discovers a ray that allows him to petrify anyone who annoys him. After turning most of his stuffy family to stone, he embarks on an adventure where he meets a leprechaun, falls in love with a Fury, and learns how to bring statues to life. After vivifying several old Greek gods from their figures in a museum, they go on a romp through Prohibition-era America that challenges all the "modern" attitudes of 1930's life. Made into a play and a film in 1935.” I used to have a few other of Smith’s in this Del Rey Fantasy Classic series, but this one was close to my heart because of the autumnal imagery at the beginning. I sold the others. [The Rain in the Doorway and Topper Returns.] Got it when I was still in High School; I remember reading it in Mrs. Hardcastle’s class. It reminds me of those other stories from the thirties, basically comedies where fantasy intrudes into the staid world of the everyday, allowing for romance and freedom and judging the gray congestion of habit. Like “The Circus of Dr. Lao” or a John Kendrick Bangs book, or Cabell.  

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Paperback.

Sinbad’s Seven Voyages and other stories from “The Arabian Nights”, Retold by Gladys Davidson.

A Scholastic book, copyrighted 1974, so that helps date it, and ordered because the cover led us to believe it was connected to one of our favorite movies, “The Golden Voyage of Sinbad”. It is soiled and a little chewed, but the fact that it survives even in this condition would be good evidence (if I needed such) that it was not overly read in its day. But a relic of the Long, Long Ago and of ancient hopes and possibilities.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Legends. Childhood. Paperback.

The Cricket in Times Square, by George Selden. Drawings by Garth Williams.

Another classic quite popular in my childhood (it was made into an animated special by Chuck Jones). A cricket comes to New York and with the help of a cat and a mouse learns a special talent that preserves his life and helps the family that adopts him. Sort of reminiscent of Charlotte’s Web in that way, and the illustrations by Garth Williams help bring that to mind. An image of the struggle but also the opportunity of the big city, and the variety and the tolerance of it at its best (though I think Selden’s portrayal of the Chinese shop keeper, no matter how wise and learned he is, wouldn’t fly today). Got this copy years later secondhand.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Children’s Book. Paperback.

Dr. Syn, alias The Scarecrow, Novelization by Vic Crume. Text Illustrations by Joseph Guarino.

“From the Walt Disney Productions’ film, screenplay by Robert Westerby and based on the book, “Christopher Syn”, by Russell Thorndyke and William Buchanan.” So, quite a few degrees from the source material. “There is also a body of fiction concerning people who adopt a scarecrow persona for their own ends. In 1915 Russell Thorndike began a series of books featuring a character called Dr. Syn, who dressed as a scarecrow to hide his identity and strike fear into his enemies. There were two rival adaptations of these works in 1963, one by Disney … I remember the rather chilling screaming laugh of the Disney incarnation.” – Power of Babel. Got this copy for nostalgia’s sake and have never really read it. Vic Crume did a lot of work as a ‘novelizer’ of movies.

Ranking: Dispensable.

File Code: Disney. Novelization. Hardback.

One Hundred and One Dalmatians, by Dodie Smith.

The book the Disney Film is based on, and Disney artwork is on the cover. Interior illustrations are by Janet and Anne Grahme Johnstone. This is a replacement copy, with the cover mended by a little yellow masking tape, for the original beat up book I got back in my wonder year of Fourth Grade. The secret life of dogs (and other animals) and their perspective on humans was the great draw, beyond the adventure of recovering the puppies. I vaguely remembering wanting to name a dog Perdita after the ‘liver-color’ spotted companion of Pongo and Missis. And the episode of the tea and toast shared with the elderly Spaniel cemented, perhaps even idealized, my enjoyment of those simple, everyday delights.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Children’s Book. Novel. Paperback.

The Witch House, and other Tales Our Settlers Told, by Joseph and Edith Raskin. Illustrations by William Sauts Bock.

It is an old Scholastic book, got many years after we were out of McQueeney; John bought it, I think. “Here are fourteen tales of magic and mystery from colonial times, when fears and superstitions went hand in hand.” I had already had the American Fantasy dream, but this was just the sort of book that helped me get some further inspiration for mood and period.

Ranking: Essentialish.

File Code: Legend. Anthology. Paperback.

Topper, by Thorne Smith.

A Del Rey Fantasy Classic, more or less kept for the archives and never read. Some damage to the cover. The story of the discontented bourgeois Topper and the two ghosts who help him learn how to live is too well-known to need further explicating.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Fantasy/Satire. Novel. Paperback.