Knygatin Wrote:
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> Dale Nelson Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >
> > Knygatin, please suggest a Merritt novel other
> > than The Ship of Ishtar, which I read in 2011.
> My
> > inclination is to read Dwellers in the Mirage,
> > which I have read, but so long ago that it
> > predates my reading log begun Jan. 1974.
>
> Very difficult, since I am not sure at all our
> literary tastes and preferences are close. I like
> the grotesque and bizarre and weird and colorful,
> while I assume you are more interested in
> something that supports and builds up human
> character in the reader. (I like that too, but it
> is secondary to me when reading fantastic
> literature.)
>
> I have read The Dwellers in the Mirage once, and
> found it slow going, with a few touches of
> excellent fantasy. I mean to reread it some day,
> but then the uncut magazine version.
>
> I could suggest reading the original short-story
> version of "The Moon Pool" which is quite fine,
> and after that continue with the magazine version
> of The Conquest of the Moon Pool,
> [www.isfdb.org]. (It is
> more pulpy, but has some excellent imagery, like
> the dragon worm and underground auroras in
> sparkling colors.) That is what I intend to do
> next.
>
> I am most impressed with The Metal Monster, again
> in the longer magazine version and Hippocampus
> Press edition. And by The Face in the Abyss / The
> Snake Mother, yet again the two novella magazine
> versions, far superior to the truncated and melded
> book version.


Should this be a good version of "The Moon Pool"?

[archive.org]

Dale Nelson Wrote:
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> Should this be a good version of "The Moon Pool"?
>
> [archive.org]
> ries_september_1939/page/n3/mode/2up

Yes, that is the original 1918 version. Great find!

Thanks! I appreciate the verification.

If you have not read A. Merritt's short stories in general, I would strongly recommend doing that. The Fox Woman and Other Stories is the most famous collection of these. [www.isfdb.org]

I printed and bound my own version of that book, which also included "The Moon Pool" (1918), "The Pool of the Stone God" (1923), and Merritt's section in the round-robin story "The Challenge From Beyond" (1935) [www.isfdb.org].

Knygatin Wrote:
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>
> I am most impressed with The Face in the Abyss / The
> Snake Mother, ... the two novella magazine
> versions, far superior to the truncated and melded
> book version.

The Face in the Abyss [www.isfdb.org] [archive.org] (high resolution version [drive.google.com]) and The Snake Mother [www.isfdb.org] [documentcloud.adobe.com]

Dale Nelson Wrote:
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> I'm going to set for myself a list of half a dozen
> fantasy classics to try to read, or reread, by
> (let's say) the end of summer 2023. These
> include:
>
> Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros (a 3rd reading; last
> completed reading 1974)
> Dunsany's The Charwoman's Shadow (a 3rd reading;
> last read 1976)
> Hodgson's The Night Land (I read only half of it)
> Mirrlees's Lud-in-the-Mist (never read)
> Morris's The Sundering Flood (never read)
>
> The Moon Pool, Conquest of the Moon Pool

However, I've been stirred to plan to take up Mrs. Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho again, which may throw off the plan just mentioned. But I mean to read at least some of those within the months to come, including "The Moon Pool."

ED member Ken K. is very enthusiast about Henry Kuttner's Valley of the Flame. Is there anyone else here who has enjoyed it?

Dale Nelson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Dale Nelson Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I'm going to set for myself a list of half a
> dozen
> > fantasy classics to try to read, or reread, by
> > (let's say) the end of summer 2023. These
> > include:
> >
> > Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros (a 3rd reading;
> last
> > completed reading 1974)
> > Dunsany's The Charwoman's Shadow (a 3rd
> reading;
> > last read 1976)
> > Hodgson's The Night Land (I read only half of
> it)
> > Mirrlees's Lud-in-the-Mist (never read)
> > Morris's The Sundering Flood (never read)
> >
> > The Moon Pool, Conquest of the Moon Pool
>
> However, I've been stirred to plan to take up Mrs.
> Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho again, which
> may throw off the plan just mentioned. But I mean
> to read at least some of those within the months
> to come, including "The Moon Pool."


You might also enjoy Henry S. Whitehead, an Anglican minister, who wrote fantastic tales set in the West Indies.

Knygatin, I read some of Whitehead many years ago -- around 1985. My memory is that I probably regarded his writing as "okay." I might have missed some work that would have impressed me more.

Dale Nelson Wrote:
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> Knygatin, I read some of Whitehead many years ago
> -- around 1985. My memory is that I probably
> regarded his writing as "okay." I might have
> missed some work that would have impressed me
> more.

Lovecraft praised particularly "Passing of a God", "The Black Beast", "The Great Circle", and "Hill Drums".

Knygatin, thanks -- I believe I read at least one or two of those back in the early 1980s. I had interlibrary loan access to (among other libraries) the University of Illinois's Carbondale campus, where, it appeared, someone had donated an Arkham House collection. I believe I got hold of both of the AH collections of Whitehead as well as other AH books. My impression is that I came to suspect that quite a bit of AH material was not of great interest to me, but it was fun to have these books in my hands and read around a bit. Quite a bit ended up being read aloud to my wife; we'd been married a couple of years or so and one of the matters we had in common was having been immersed in Lovecraft's fiction, etc.

Anyway, I might give Whitehead another look since you have mentioned him.