Presenting the third title in our Weird Shorts series Arthur Machen's masterpiece The White People.
A discussion between two occult flaneurs, Ambrose and Cotgrave on the nature of evil, of saints and sinners leads Ambrose to reveal the mysterious Green Book he possesses. The book is a dairy like document written by an adolescent girl, telling of her initiation by her nurse into an ancient pagan cult, a world of folklore, black magic and the supernatural traditions and rites of the countryside. It tells of her own spiritualist experiences first hand, in a heightened, mystical reality, with cryptic allusions to what she has witnessed...the white, green and scarlet ceremonies, the aklo letters and Mao games, the Dôls and 'voolas'.
The White People is considered by scholars and devotees of Weird Fiction to be one of the finest stories of the genre, it had a huge influence on H P Lovecraft who shaped many elements of his Cthulhu Mythos around Machen's visions and terminology. It also served as inspiration for T.E.D Klein's epic novel The Ceremonies and has influenced many other writers Alan Moore and Ramsey Campbell to name a few.
Praise for ‘The White People’ by Arthur Machen
"Probably the finest single supernatural story of the century, perhaps in the literature",
E F Bleiler
"If I were to list the greatest supernatural short stories of all time, I would start with Arthur Machen’s 'The White People,' about a young girl’s unknowing initiation into an ancient, otherworldly cult."
Michael Dirda
"a masterpiece of indirection, a Lovecraft plot told by James Joyce’’
S. T. Joshi
"Machen's narrative, a triumph of skilful selectiveness and restraint, accumulates enormous power as it flows on in a stream of innocent childish prattle"
H. P. Lovecraft
Production details:
Only 125 copies of the Limited Edition
These copies are hand numbered 76-200
Printed letterpress, hot metal monotype by Ellen Bills and Pat Randle at Nomad Letterpress on Hahnemühle Biblio 150gsm. A beautiful, watermarked paper with two deckle edges.
The text is set in 12pt Centaur with Apothecary Serif as display
48pp
Hand Bound in quarter forest green cloth with gilt stamped titles to the spine, the boards are covered in exquisite, hand-marbled 'green fantasy' paper by Rachel Maiden. So each book has a unique touch due to the varying marbling patterns.
Title page printed in two colours
Letterpress printed ornaments and illustration borders
With 3 tipped-in illustrations by Samuel Araya
Comes with a limited edition bookmark
