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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