Thursday, September 10, 2020

John Masefield, E. A. Wyke-Smith, and Susan Cooper

 

The Midnight Folk, by John Masefield.

Illustrations by Rowland Hilder. Afterword by Madeline L’Engle. A “The New York Review Children’s Collection” book. I believe Alan Peschke had the first copy I ever saw of this book, back when he lived at that apartment down the highway not far from Reilly Road, and I soon got my own copy at St. Andrew’s book store, a Dell Yearling book. T. H. White wrote: “I should have liked {The Sword in the Stone} to be like Masefield's Midnight Folk, a book which I love this side of idolatry.” Susan Cooper admired Masefield as well, and it shows in “The Dark is Rising”. Kay Harker must overcome a conspiracy of witches lead by Abner Brown and Kay’s governess Sylvia Pouncer who want to steal the treasure that Harker’s ancestor protected. Kay wants to return it to the church that it was stolen from, for the honor of the Harker family. At night he enters the world of The Midnight Folk, where animals can talk, toys come alive, pictures on the wall speak, and dreamlike journeys are possible. John Masefield was England’s Poet Laureate for 37 years, and Robert Graves once ran a store at the bottom of his garden.

Ranking: So Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.

The Box of Delights, or When the Wolves Were Running, by John Masefield.

Illustrated by Judith Masefield (his daughter). I first became aware of the Kay Harker books by seeing a BBC adaptation of “The Box of Delights” on Nickelodeon, which I had the good fortune to record. I later got an abbreviated Yearling edition with a cover from the special, which I gave away when I got this. Although it was the usual Christmas pantomime BBC kids’ production, it still somehow (surely a part of it must have been the music) managed to convey the sense of magic and mystery of the Book. Kay returns home from school and finds that the evil Abner Brown and Sylvia Pouncer are up to their old tricks, trying to steal the wondrous Box of Delights from an old showman/magician. Burglaries, kidnappings, black magic, and time travel make this a very busy Christmas holiday indeed. A “The New York Review Children’s Collection” book.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.


The Marvellous Land of Snergs, by E. A. Wyke-Smith. Illustrated by George Morrow.

“Before there was Bilbo the Hobbit there was Gorbo the Snerg, in The Marvellous Land of Snergs, an influence that Tolkien himself gratefully acknowledged. Snergs are a short race who enjoy parties and celebrations, and who live in a land apart rather more like Neverland than Middle-Earth. It is inhabited by witches and ogres, and the Flying Dutchman and his crew have a berth there as well as Miss Watkyns, who supplies a home for superfluous or unwanted children. It is the adventure of two of these children, Joe and Sylvia, their antagonism with the witch Mother Meldrum, and their friend Gorbo, that the book details. This obscure but good little book has only been reprinted lately (for the first time in 70 years or so) because of the revived interest in the "roots" of JRRT.” – Power of Babel. A Dover reprint.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Softcover.

The Dark is Rising: Over Sea, Under Stone; The Dark is Rising; Greenwitch; The Grey King; Silver on the Tree. By Susan Cooper.

This omnibus volume of “The Dark is Rising” sequence is printed by Guild America Books, and has one of the worst covers I’ve ever seen, especially the picture of what’s supposed to be Will Stanton. I used to have them all in separate volumes, the first four in softcover and the last in hardback when it came out. When I got this edition, I gave them to the Floridian Babels. The first one I ever read was “The Dark is Rising”, in middle school. Will Stanton, the fledgling ‘Old One’, servants of the Light, was just my age, 11, and I totally identified with him as he secretly learned about his powers and went on a quest to gather the six ancient signs that would keep the Dark from rising. I followed the series the best I could until I bought “Silver on the Tree” in 1977. I read the first book last. It had been printed in 1965 by a different publisher and was hard to find. When I was in college, I xeroxed THE ENTIRE “The Dark is Rising”, just to have a copy. “The Dark Is Rising series is great; in those books Cooper's conception and writing talent are superior to J. K. Rowling's by far. It is a pity that so many people will only know them through the awful movie The Seeker.” – Power of Babel. All so good (with OSUS being a little slower than the others). The old books had better cover illustrations than this omnibus; I still have xeroxes of their sketchy illustrations, and the art can be found on the web. A foundational fantasy for me.

Ranking: Oh so Essential.

File Code: Omnibus. Fantasy. Novels. Hardback.


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