Into the Archive: A Comedy of Injustice

I suppose this one is really on me: on my greed, my folly, and my haste. This will make the fourth copy of Jurgen I have bought.

The first was the terrible paperback by a publisher that thought of it as an erotic classic; the second was a cheap Dover reprint (though it came with all of Frank C. Pape’s illustrations); and then there was the rather plain volume from the Storisende edition. I came across this copy on eBay while I was researching prices for Cabell books, and it caught my attention. Fifty dollars? That was much cheaper than the $100 that it had been going for. Illustrated? Who could that be by, other than the great Frank C. Pape himself?

Well, it could be by Ray F. Coyle, that’s who, and if I had slowed down a bit and done a little more research I might have realized it. Ray Coyle was a short-lived (1885 – 1924) artist whose work in pen and ink has been compared to Aubrey Beardsley. Not a style I’m particularly fond of. Only when I have one of those black hardcovers by McBride with pictures by Frank C. Pape can I finally stop buying Jurgen.

The Real McCoy (Not McCoyle)

It’s not like it’s even my favorite Cabell (that would be The Silver Stallion), nor do I reread it often. Although it might be Cabell’s most famous book, its reputation is, indeed, a little embarrassing.

Also arriving today was the copy of The Monk by Matthew G. Lewis that I had been considering. A little battered, but inexpensive and serviceable; it only needed a little care to make it presentable.

But the gem of the day must be Tiffany Aching’s Guide to Being a Witch. Put together by Terry Pratchett’s daughter Rhianna and Gabrielle Kent, an author of juvenile fantasy, and copiously illustrated by Paul Kidby, it’s a beautiful little book in both a slipcase and a book jacket. I’m wondering exactly where it fits on Terry Pratchett’s dictum ‘no more Discworld when I’m gone’; it seems to be a kind of a gathering of everything he wrote about Witches on the Discworld compiled into a sort of a scrapbook, just put together a little more seamlessly into the form of, well, a written guide (rather than a novel or a story) by one of the characters within that world. I imagine there must be some kind of new writing not by Terry to segue everything together. “I could not wish it undone, the issue of it being so proper.” Or at least, proper looking. It’s surprising to realize Terry Pratchett has been gone for almost a decade.

"They Keep Pulling Me Back In!": Coming Soon

 

A Stroke of the Pen: The Lost Stories, by Terry Pratchett; Foreword by Neil Gaiman (Expected publication October 10, 2023) 240 Pages.

All quotes from the official release and Wikipedia.

“Twenty early short stories by one of the world's best loved authors, each accompanied by exquisite original woodcut illustrations” – though they fail to name the artist. It is being touted as 'a positively final appearance' of Pratchett's personal works.

“None are set in the Discworld, but they hint towards the world he would go on to create, containing his trademark wit, satirical wisdom and fantastic imagination.”

“Sir Terry wrote the stories for a regional newspaper under the pseudonym Patrick Kearns in the 1970s and 80s. They had not previously been attributed to him but have now been collected after a search by "a few dedicated fans", publishers Penguin said.”

“In June 2015, [Rhianna Pratchett] said that her father's 41st Discworld novel The Shepherd’s Crown, to be published posthumously later that year, would mark the end of the series, and that no further novels or books of unfinished work would be authorized for publication.” Since these tales were all previously published and are not Discworld, this book falls under the wording of the act, but what of this next volume?

Tiffany Aching’s Guide to Being a Witch, Rhianna Pratchett and Gabrielle Kent (Expected October 26, 2023), YA Fiction, 208 Pages.

Although it is too early to tell, I imagine that this volume will be a 'stitch': a gathering of what Terry Pratchett has written about Discworld witches and witchcraft in other books, a scrapbook companion surrounded by a framing device. Although it is advertised as 'Fiction', I imagine it can be termed as such because it is a guide to an aspect of a fictional world, rather like Nanny Ogg's Cookbook. Furthermore it is illustrated by the great Paul Kidby, adding much to its air of authenticity.

Rhianna Pratchett (Terry's daughter) is renowned for her work in script writing and narrative design for video games, for which she also wrote several book tie-ins. Perhaps that is from where she knows her co-author, Gabrielle Kent. 

"Gabrielle worked as a graphic artist on videogames. Now a full-time author [of YA fiction], her work includes Alfie Bloom – a series about a boy who inherits a castle and a whole load of magical problems, and Knights and Bikes – a series based on the video game of the same name." 

I've never read anything from either series, so I don't know what to expect of her contribution. Needless to say, this autumn should prove very interesting.