The publication of "Short Stories for Children" celebrates the
fiftieth anniversary of Walter de la Mare's death. It is also the
culmination of a major literary enterprise. For many people, Walter
de la Mare (1873-1956) is as great a writer of fiction as of
poetry. But, the majority of his short stories, of which there are
a hundred, have long been unavailable. "Short Stories" brings them
all together in three volumes in the first comprehensive collection
to be published. The third and last volume, "Short Stories for
Children", starts with "Broomsticks and Other Tales" of 1925, with
its twelve stories, and continues with "The Lord Fish" of 1933 with
seven stories. It includes three distinctive stories, 'Pigtails,
Ltd', 'The Thief' and 'A Nose', that have never been reprinted
since they originally appeared in Broomsticks. Quirky, disparate,
unpredictable, acutely observed, sometimes frightening, and often
preoccupied with states of mind and personal identity, these
stories have much in common with the adult stories. Some of them
are peopled with giants, witches, kind elves, evil and spiteful
fairies, and imprisoned maidens in castles, but most are not.We
find ourselves in railway trains, a mansion in the City of London,
another Elizabethan one in a mysterious tract of country, a remote
farm house near the sea, a waterlogged forest, a drawing-room being
watched by a fly; and, among other things, we encounter a wise
monkey, a haunted cat, a fish magician, a baron transmogrified into
a donkey, a thief desperate to be burgled, a man who believes he
has a wax nose, and a godmother celebrating her 350th birthday. As
in de la Mare's poems, everyday reality may at any time become
undercut by disturbing uncertainty and dark, though not always
malign, forces. A full understanding of the poems and stories is
impossible without knowledge of both. Vivid and timeless, Bold's
original woodcut designs and Rex Whistler's original engravings
have been used to illustrate the two parts of the book.
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