- Dear Dead Women
- the
weird stories of
- by Edna W. Underwood
- Introduction by S.T. Joshi
-
- These
nine tales represent the sum total of American writer
Edna
Underwood's foray into the decadent and
supernatural. Best known for her historical novels and
her translations, Underwood was born in Maine in 1873. A
gifted linguist, she read widely in European literature,
and lost her first teaching job because of her propensity
to read decadent, yellow-bound books.
-
- Few are
aware of Edna Underwood's solitary collection of short
fiction, A Book of Dear dead Women (1911), and even
fewer of the excellent long horror story 'An Orchid of
Asia', reprinted here for the first time since its
appearance in Asia magazine in 1920. And yet
the collection received good reviews, the Philadelphia
Press noting that the stories had 'something
of the fantastically imaginative power of Hawthorne,
combined with a gorgeousness of imagery that a writer
fresh from the puritanical traditions could hardly have
attained to . . .' The mingling of beauty and terror is
the hallmark of her best work and links it with the
writing of several of her contemporaries, including Oscar
Wilde, Lafcadio Hearn, Lord Dunsany, and Robert W.
Chambers. It is hoped that this collection will introduce
readers to a long-neglected writer who deserves more
recognition in the genre.
-
- Contains: "Introduction" by S.T. Joshi,
"The Painter of Dead Women", "The Mirror of La Granja",
"Liszt's Concerto Pathétique", "Sister Seraphine",
"The Sacred Relics of Saint Euthymius", "The Opal Isles",
"The House of Gauze", "The King", "An Orchid of Asia",
"Bibliography".
-
- ISBN
978-1-905784-21-9
-
- Dear
Dead Women is a sewn hardback of 237+xiv pages,
printed lithographically, with silk ribbon marker, head
and tailbands, and d/w and decorated boards.
-
- Limited
to 300 copies.
-
- Price
£27.50/$50 inc. p&p.
-
-
- Review:
- "...a
welcome set of stories from an accomplished writer who
has been curiously neglected" - Paul Kane,
The
Compulsive Reader
Page updated
5th September 2009
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