Part 14

The dust-jacket of Hutchinson’s _Children of the Pool_ carried an “Appreciation” of Machen, one of the finest and most admirable I have ever encountered. To find it on, of all places, a dust-jacket! This is no publisher’s blurb but an analysis that deserves to be included in this or any book about Machen. The author of the following tribute is unknown, to me at least: “Mr. Machen creates his own world. This world is a fusion of the world that is accepted in every day reality—in which events and their causes are explicable by traditional and humdrum interpretations—and one that is distinguished not only by the weird and extraordinary effects. The author does not try to present a state of affairs so topsy-turvy and bizarre that you are intrigued merely by its very madness. The supernatural insinuates itself subtly into these stories. They have an air of common reality until the author develops their mystical undercurrents. And in this blending Mr. Machen’s art is supreme. It has an infinite capacity for producing what E. J. O’Brien describes as “a willing suspension of disbelief” [_this fine phrase has also been attributed to Dr. Canby, Bennet Cerf and, of course, Samuel Taylor Coleridge_]. That Mr. Machen’s faculty in this direction can extend beyond the circle of sympathetic readers and convince masses has been proved by the fact that his imaginative treatment of a very famous occasion was accepted by thousands of men and women as literal description. These stories offer varied excursions into realms simultaneously unfathomable and alluring, and on that account alone they are memorable. But there is also Mr. Machen’s craftsmanship, and his style which is a delight to read. A character in the book says: ‘A man must know the grammar of his business, whatever it is; the rest, if it is to be the first order, must be the work of the hidden flame within.’”

Now and then Machen did an introduction or preface for a book or collection, none of them are of particular importance as Machen “items.” In 1937 Hutchinson brought out Philip Sergeant’s _Witches and Warlocks_ with a preface by Machen. The book was, according to the publisher, suggested to Sergeant by his old friend Arthur Machen. In his introduction Machen quotes some of the theories expressed in _The White People_ and _The Great God Pan_. He hints, in other words, and in justification of his friend’s labours, that there are more things in heaven and earth than mere hawks and handsaws.

4

In the years since the publication of the “yellow books” by Knopf and the attendant enthusiasm for his works, Arthur Machen has been very little in the public eye. The Machen vogue of the 1920’s seemed to exhaust itself almost as soon as the Knopf editions were exhausted. The Caerleon Edition, published in 1923 by Seeker in London, quickly disappeared, and we entered once again upon a lengthy period of “neglect”.

Actually, Machen has not been as neglected as we might suppose. It is true that he has not been accorded the recognition that is his due, but there are hundreds, possibly thousands, who have never neglected nor forgotten Machen. The late Alfred Goldsmith, one of New York’s most amiable booksellers, wrote me, a year or two ago, that there is and always has been a constant, if small, demand for his books. Ben Abramson of the famed Argus Book Shop has his North Wall addicts who are always eager for Machen items. August Derleth, the one-man wonder of mid-western publishing circles, knows the value of a Machen story in a collection issuing from Arkham House. A new generation of booksellers on New York’s Fourth Avenue know Machen by reputation, even though many of them have never seen one of the eagerly sought-after books.

Machen himself went into retirement some years ago. For years there were gatherings at his home in St. John’s Wood, gay parties attended by writers and theatrical people and journalists—and Americans. Machen has always had a tremendous appeal for Americans—possibly because of our Hawthorne and Poe, and possibly because we managed to avoid the stagy school of the Gothic novelists which he so disliked. And Machen liked Americans, too, as Robert Hillyer related in his _Atlantic_ article. It pleased Machen that the majority of the letters he received about his works were from Americans. On one occasion he told Hillyer he would consider it a compliment to be taken “into the fold as a fellow American.”

Later, when Machen retired to Wales, there were picnics on the cliffs overlooking the sea. Robert Hillyer has given us an amusing account of one of these festive occasions in his recent article on Machen. With the coming of the war these visits were impossible, of course. Montgomery Evans, late of the U. S. Army, member of the Salmagundi Club and resident of Greenwich, was the last of Machen’s visitors before the war.

Evans had known Machen since 1923. It was his pleasant practice to give parties with the Machens on such American occasions as the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving. These parties promoted Anglo-American understanding with “American food and French wine” and such guests as Augustus John, Holbrooke Jackson, Tommy Earp and others. Evans happened to be again in England when World War II broke out. Machen had written an introduction for a book Evans was about to publish. Book and introduction went to the bottom of the North Atlantic with the torpedoed _Athenia_ as Evans was bound for home when the war was only a few days old.

Throughout the dark years of the war Machen corresponded with his American friends—Evans, Jordan-Smith, Goldsmith and others. These were unhappy days: Machen’s health was poor, his eyesight was failing rapidly, his son Hilary was in a German prison camp, letters were few and far between and Machen too old to contrive legends as he had done in the darker days of 1915.

After the war Machen was placed on the King’s List—the result of a movement instituted largely through the efforts of Montgomery Evans. In a letter to Robert Hillyer Machen wrote: “Our gracious Sovereign, King George the Fifth, out of his great bounty and kindness, has awarded me a pension.”

Mr. Hillyer’s reflection at this news is worth repeating here: “I had a vision of the fine old man in Bardic raiment, receiving a bag of gold from a mediaeval monarch clad in ermine and silks and with a golden crown on his head.”

Machen’s Street Fleet days were over now, he no longer appeared, a Johnstonian figure, in the streets of London, nor was he ever again to impersonate the great Doctor in pageants. There were occasional articles in magazines and one last book, _The Holy Terrors_, published in 1946.

With the close of the war, correspondence was resumed on a more regular schedule. Machen was failing badly, his eyesight was almost gone, his hand had lost its grace but his letters were, as Montgomery Evans notes, “as charming and Johnstonian as ever.” Hilary had been released from the Germans and returned home. Scarcely had the family been reunited at Amersham, however, when another blow fell—Machen’s wife died. This “ample, easy-going, good natured woman,” as Hillyer describes her, meant much to Machen and their two children. She was, she must have been, a woman of great understanding and of infinite patience. She accepted poverty, hoping always for the recognition she felt was her husband’s due. And of course she knew, as well as he, that what he wrote might interest, at most, comparatively few. After her death Machen declined rapidly. His letters had to be written by his son, but the mind that composed them was still that of “the greatest master of English prose in our time.” Then, in the closing days of the year 1947, in a private hospital in Beaconsfield, Arthur Machen died at the age of 84.

Machen’s passing was not unnoticed. _The New York Times_ (Dec. 16, 1947) printed his photograph and an obituary under the heading: “Author of the Story That Led to ‘Angel of Mons’ Legend Dies at 84—Won Success at 60.” A few other papers in the country carried similar stories—there were no bulletins, no eulogies by electronic commentators. Subscribers to the _Atlantic Monthly_ probably recalled Robert Hillyer’s article on Machen in the May issue. Letters passed between friends expressing regret for there were, as Nathan Van Patten wrote, “some who mourn.”

Chief among these, perhaps, are the members of the Arthur Machen Society. This Society was formed early in the spring of 1948 by Nathan Van Patten, Vincent Starrett, Paul Jordan-Smith, Carl Van Vechten, Montgomery Evans, Robert Hillyer (all names that will long be associated with Machen) as well as August Derleth, Joseph Vodrey, Ben Abramson, James T. Babb, William P. Wreden, Frederick Coykendall, Cyril Clemens, Gilbert Seldes, Ashton Stevens and a score of comparative newcomers in the great society of the admirers of Arthur Machen.

This is an informal group which hopes, in the words of its president, Mr. Van Patten, to stimulate an interest in Arthur Machen’s work. There is to be an exchange of information and privately printed Machen material, with possibly an annual or quarterly publication.

In the summer of 1948 Alfred Knopf issued _Tales of Horror and the Supernatural_, the largest and the best collection of Machen’s stories ever published. Edited by Philip Van Doren Stern, it included a reprint of Hillyer’s _Atlantic_ article. The book was reviewed with interest by Orville Prescott and John Dickinson Carr in the _Times_. _The Nation’s_ reviewer thought the atmosphere of the tales did not “compensate for his failure to explain the inexplicable.” Mr. Knopf’s ad-men, applying modern techniques, exhorted readers to “remember Machen, it rhymes with crackin’.”

The Arthur Machen Society has already begun to make good its promise to stimulate interest in Arthur Machen:

Mr. Joseph Kelly Vodrey of Canton, Ohio, a specialist in Machen bibliography, has printed and distributed to the members of the Society a booklet: _There Are Some Who Mourn_, written by Nathan Van Patten.

Mr. Van Patten, a distinguished professor of bibliography at Stanford University and dean of Machenites, has printed a handsome booklet, limited to fifty copies, of Arthur Machen’s _The Gray’s Inn Coffee House_.

There will be others. At long last something is being done to right the wrongs of which Mr. Cabell wrote so many years ago.

EPILOGUE

One might devote a great amount of time and give considerable thought to the final pages of a book about Arthur Machen. It is not easy for anyone who admires Machen to leave off talking or writing about him.

This book was planned and begun while Arthur Machen still lived. He knew of its creation, its aims and its purpose, and he gave the book his “plenary blessings.” The early chapters were sent in galley form to Amersham. Machen read the proofs or, his sight failing badly, had them read to him by his son Hilary. The proofs were returned with a little note and sometimes with comments or corrections written in the margins.

I have hoped many things for this book—that it would arouse more interest in Machen, that it would bring about a great revival of reading his books. He has been sadly neglected as a writer, we all feel that, and yet Machen writes: “I question whether what you call the neglect of my work is due to any fault of publishers or public—the real cause of it, I believe, is the fact that I have been interested as a writer in a variety of things which only interest a few people. This is a matter of individual constitution: it is incurable.”

We who are incurable, and we are not few, can only hope to interest many people in the variety of things about which Arthur Machen wrote.

FINIS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

“_I am sure that Bibliography is a capital game, but it is not my game._”—_Arthur Machen_

“_I don’t care two pence whether a book is in the first edition or in the tenth, nay, if the tenth is the best edition I would rather have it._”—_Arthur Machen_

A complete and comprehensive and correct bibliography of the works of Arthur Machen would be a wondrous work indeed. It would include such important matters as colors of cloths and types of bindings, the number of pages and the presence of prefaces and plates. It would, one hopes, clearly indicate such dates as were of importance and many other fascinating facts to delight and bedazzle the bibliographer.

There is no such bibliography of the works of Arthur Machen in existence, nor does this one pretend or propose to fill that need. What is also needed, however, and by readers rather than collectors, is a complete listing of the works of Machen, together with notes on their appearance in print and clues to their possible location. Such a listing presents certain typographical problems which I have tried to work out without having to resort to the cabalistic symbols common to certain catalogues and all time tables.

It is my belief that people who like to read Machen like also to read about Machen, therefore I have added a listing of books and articles in which there appears more than a mere mention of Arthur Machen. Furthermore, since I feel that I have not listed all of these, nor all the Works for that matter, I have provided several blank pages for the use of the eventual owner of this book. Such additional information as he may gather may be entered on these pages under the general heading of “Notes.”

This then is the purpose of the unconventional bibliography that follows: to lead and direct the general reader to the work of Arthur Machen, and to direct him to certain books and sources in which may be found material of interest to the admirers of Arthur Machen.

_THE ESSAYS_:

The Essays of Arthur Machen are listed alphabetically below. Machen was, for many years, a practicing journalist, writing for many papers and journals. Obviously not all of his pieces, nor even all of the best of his pieces, have appeared in book form. Obviously, too, it is impossible for anyone to obtain copies of the many papers for which he wrote, or even of the various journals and magazines listed herein. This listing is therefore far from being complete—it lists only those pieces which are available, or should be, or have been, in print. Many of these pieces are undated, except as having appeared between dates that may be a decade apart. This is, unfortunately, unavoidable. There is little we can do about it, except to suggest that someone establish a Fellowship for the sole purpose of investigating and excavating the complete published works of Arthur Machen.

ADELPHI, FAREWELL! an essay first published in the _LYONS MAIL_, appears also in _DOG AND DUCK_, Cape, London, 1924 and Alfred Knopf, New York, 1924.

ADVENTURE OF THE LONG LOST BROTHER, an essay first published in the London _GRAPHIC_, appears also in _DREADS AND DROLLS_, Secker, London, 1926 and Knopf, New York, 1927.

APOSTOLIC IDEAL, THE, an essay, first publication (?), appears in Starrett’s _THE GLORIOUS MYSTERY_, Covici-McGee, Chicago, 1924.

APRIL FOOL! an essay first published in the _LYONS MAIL_, also in _DOG AND DUCK_, Cape, 1924 and Knopf, 1924.

ARS ARTIUM, an essay, first published (?), appears in Starrett’s _THE SHINING PYRAMID_, Covici-McGee, Chicago, 1923.

ART OF DICKENS, THE, an essay, first published (1910?), appears in _THE WAVE_, Chicago, 1922. Also in Starrett’s _THE SHINING PYRAMID_, Covici-McGee, Chicago, 1923.

ART OF UNBELIEF, THE, an essay written for the _LYONS MAIL_ but rejected. Appears in _DOG AND DUCK_, Cape, 1924 and Knopf, 1924.

BEFORE WEMBLEY, an essay written for the London _GRAPHIC_, appears also in _DREADS AND DROLLS_, Secker, 1926 and Knopf, 1927.

BOWMEN AND OTHER NOBLE GHOSTS, THE, a group of essays relating to the story, _THE BOWMEN_, appears in the Simpkins, Marshall 1915 edition, of which there were two issues, and the Putnam 1915 edition.

CAMPDEN WONDER, an essay written for the London _GRAPHIC_, also in _DREADS AND DROLLS_, Secker, 1926 and Knopf, 1927.

CASANOVA IN LONDON, an essay written for the _GRAPHIC_, appears in _DREADS AND DROLLS_, Secker, 1926 and Knopf, 1927.

CEREMONY ON THE SCAFFOLD, an essay written for the _GRAPHIC_, also appears in _DREADS AND DROLLS_, Secker, 1926 and Knopf, 1927.

“CHARACTERS,” an essay written for the _GRAPHIC_, also appears in _DREADS AND DROLLS_, Secker, 1926 and Knopf, 1927.

CHIVALRY, an essay written for the _GRAPHIC_, included in _DREADS AND DROLLS_, Secker, 1926 and Knopf, 1927.

CHRISTMAS MUMMING, an essay written for the _LYONS MAIL_, appears also in _DOG AND DUCK_, Cape, 1924 and Knopf, 1924.

CONCERNING COCKTAILS, an article written for _BOOK NOTES_, London, April, 1928.

CONJURING TIME, essay, first published (?), appears in Starrett’s _THE GLORIOUS MYSTERY_, Chicago, 1924.

“CONSOLATUS” AND “CHURCH MEMBER,” an essay, first appearance in Vincent Starrett’s _THE GLORIOUS MYSTERY_, Chicago, 1924.

CUSTOM OF THE MANOR, an essay written for the _LYONS MAIL_, included in _DOG AND DUCK_, Cape, 1924 and Knopf, 1924.

DARK AGES, THE, an essay, first appearance (?). Appears in Starrett’s collection, _THE GLORIOUS MYSTERY_, Chicago, 1924.

DEADLY NEVERGREEN, an essay written for the London _GRAPHIC_, also included in _DREADS AND DROLLS_, Seeker, 1926 and Knopf, 1927.

DISSENTING LOGIC, an essay, first appearance (?). Included in Starrett’s _THE GLORIOUS MYSTERY_, Chicago, 1924.

DOG AND DUCK, an essay and a punch made famous by Machen. Also title of a collection of essays originally written for the _LYONS MAIL_. Published by Cape, London, 1924 and Knopf, New York, 1924.

DOUBLES IN CRIME, an essay written for the _GRAPHIC_, included in _DREADS AND DROLLS_, Secker, 1926 and Knopf, 1927.

ECCLESIA ANGELICANA, (I-II), essays first published (?), included in Starrett’s collection, _THE GLORIOUS MYSTERY_, Chicago, 1924.

EDUCATION AND THE EDUCATED, an essay, first published in Starrett’s _SHINING PYRAMID_, Covici-McGee, Chicago, 1923. Also appears in Knopf’s _THE SHINING PYRAMID_, 1925.

ENGLISH AND IRISH, an essay included in Vincent Starrett’s collection, _ET CETERA_, Chicago, 1922.

EUSTON SQUARE MYSTERY, THE, an essay first published in the _GRAPHIC_, also included in _DREADS AND DROLLS_, Secker, 1926; Knopf, 1927.

FAITH AND CONDUCT, an essay first published (?), included in Starrett’s _THE GLORIOUS MYSTERY_, Chicago, 1924.

FALSE PROPHETS, an essay first published (?), included in Starrett’s _THE GLORIOUS MYSTERY_, Chicago, 1924.

FRAGMENTS OF PAPER, an essay first published (?), included in Starrett’s _THE GLORIOUS MYSTERY_, Chicago, 1924.

GRAY’S INN COFFEE HOUSE, THE, an essay by Machen, appeared in “Wine and Food,” London, 1938. Published for Members of Arthur Machen Society, by Nathan Van Patten, Stanford, 1949.

HAPPINESS AND HORROR, an essay first published (?) by Vincent Starrett in _THE GLORIOUS MYSTERY_, Chicago, 1924.

HIDDEN MYSTERY, THE, an essay, first appeared in _THE ACADEMY_, London (1907?) Also in Starrett’s _THE SHINING PYRAMID_, Chicago, 1923; _THE COSY ROOM_, Rich & Cowan, London, 1936.

HIGHBURY MYSTERY, THE, an essay written for the London _GRAPHIC_ and included in _DREADS AND DROLLS_, Secker, 1926; Knopf, 1927.

HOW CLUBS BEGAN, an essay written for the _GRAPHIC_, included in _DREADS AND DROLLS_, Secker, 1926 and Knopf, 1927.

HOW THE RICH LIVE, an essay appeared in the _GRAPHIC_ and in _DREADS AND DROLLS_, Secker, 1926 and Knopf, 1927.

HOW TO SPEND CHRISTMAS, an essay first published in the _LYONS MAIL_, included in _DOG AND DUCK_, Cape, 1924 and Knopf, 1924.

IN CONVERTENDO, an essay, first appeared in _THE ACADEMY_, London, 1907. Included in Starrett’s _THE SHINING PYRAMID_, Chicago, 1923 and Knopf, 1925. Part of the book called _THE SECRET GLORY_.

INGENIOUS MR. BLEE, THE, an essay written for the _GRAPHIC_, included in _DREADS AND DROLLS_, Secker, 1926 and Knopf, 1927.

INTOLERANCE, an essay first published (?), included in Starrett’s collection, _THE GLORIOUS MYSTERY_, Chicago, 1924.

ISLINGTON MYSTERY, THE, an essay included in Starrett’s collection, _THE GLORIOUS MYSTERY_ and in _THE COSY ROOM_, Rich & Cowan, London, 1936. Also in _BLACK CAP_, edited by Cynthia Asquith.

JULY SPORT, an essay first published in the _LYONS MAIL_, included in _DOG AND DUCK_, Cape, 1924 and Knopf, 1924.

LA DIVE BOUTEILIE, a fragment surviving from Machen’s Rabelaisian period. Included by Starrett in his collection, _THE GLORIOUS MYSTERY_, Chicago, 1924.

LAMENT FOR LONDON’S LOST INNS, an essay written for the _GRAPHIC_ and included in _DREADS AND DROLLS_, Secker, 1926 and Knopf, 1927.

LITTLE PEOPLE, THE, an essay, first published in the _GRAPHIC_ and included in _DREADS AND DROLLS_, Secker, 1926 and Knopf, 1927.

MADAM RACHEL, an essay written for the London _GRAPHIC_, included in _DREADS AND DROLLS_, Secker, 1926 and Knopf, 1927.

MAN FROM NOWHERE, THE, an essay written for the _GRAPHIC_, included in _DREADS AND DROLLS_, Secker, 1926 and Knopf, 1927.

MAN WITH THE SILVER STAFF, an essay written for the _GRAPHIC_, also included in _DREADS AND DROLLS_, Secker, 1926 and Knopf, 1927.

MANDATUM NOVISSIMUM, an essay first published (?), included in the Starrett collection, _THE SHINING PYRAMID_, Chicago, 1923.

MARCH AND A MORAL, first published in the _LYONS MAIL_, appears also in _DOG AND DUCK_, Cape, 1924 and Knopf, 1924.

MARRIAGE OF PANURGE, an essay, first published (?), appeared in _THE WAVE_, Chicago, 1922.

MARTINMAS, an essay, first appeared in the _LYONS MAIL_, included in _DOG AND DUCK_, Cape, 1924 and Knopf, 1924.

MATTER OF ROMANCE, an essay, first published (?) in Starrett’s _THE GLORIOUS MYSTERY_, Chicago, 1924.

MERRY MONTH OF MAY, THE, an essay written for the _LYONS MAIL_, included in _DOG AND DUCK_. Cape, 1924 and Knopf, 1924.

MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, A, an essay first appearing in the _LYONS MAIL_, included in _DOG AND DUCK_, Cape, 1924 and Knopf, 1924.

MODERNISM, an essay, first published (?) in Starrett’s collection, _THE GLORIOUS MYSTERY_, Chicago, 1924.

MORDUCK THE WITCH, an essay first published in the _GRAPHIC_, included in _DREADS AND DROLLS_, Secker, 1926 and Knopf, 1927.

MORE INNS, an essay first published in the _GRAPHIC_, included in _DREADS AND DROLLS_, Secker, 1926 and Knopf, 1927.

MORNING LIGHT, THE, an essay, first published (?) included in Starrett collection, _THE GLORIOUS MYSTERY_, Chicago, 1924.

MR. LUTTERLOH, an essay first published in the _GRAPHIC_, included in _DREADS AND DROLLS_, Secker, 1926 and Knopf, 1927.

MY MURDERER, an essay, first appearance in London, included in collection by Vincent Starrett, _ET CETERA_, Chicago, 1922.

MYSTIC SPEECH, THE, an essay, first delivered as a lecture in London, between 1915 and 1920. Included in Knopf’s edition of _THE SHINING PYRAMID_, 1922.

NEW LAMPS FOR OLD, an essay, first published (?), included by Starrett in _THE SHINING PYRAMID_, Chicago, 1923.

OLD DR. MOUNSEY, an essay written for the _GRAPHIC_, included also in _DREADS AND DROLLS_, Secker, 1926 and Knopf, 1927.

ON HOLIDAYS, an essay written for the _LYONS MAIL_, included in _DOG AND DUCK_, Cape, 1924 and Knopf, 1924.

ON SIMMEL CAKES, an essay written for the _LYONS MAIL_, included in _DOG AND DUCK_, Cape, 1924 and Knopf, 1924.

ON VALENTINES AND OTHER THINGS, an essay published in _LYONS MAIL_, included in _DOG AND DUCK_, Cape, 1924 and Knopf, 1924.

ONLY WAY, THE, an article, first published (?), appeared also in _PUBLISHERS WEEKLY_, New York, Feb. 16, 1924 and _THE FLYING HORSE_, 1924.

PAGANISM, an essay included in Starrett’s _THE SHINING PYRAMID_, Chicago, 1923, first publication (?).