Latest Friends publications

Due to illness on the committee our publications shipped in December.

Faunus 22 had its usual collection of articles included two fascinating letters from Arthur Machen to Montague Summers the famous demonologist and master of vampire lore regarding their mutual interest in witchcraft. “Fairy Lore and Its Influence on Arthur Machen and Some Other Contemporaneous Gentlemen” by Thos. Kent Miller discusses Machen’s mysterious Little People. “A Patchwork of Digressions: Arthur Machen and The London Adventure” by Nick Wagstaff covered one of Machen’s most curious books which is a keystone of Psychogeography. “Spectre vs. Rector: The Fall and Arthur Machen” by Mark Goodall discussed the longstanding interest of Mark E. Smith in Machen in depth in an article by the author of a major new book on The Fall. And to close Harold Billing revealed the answer to the salacious mystery of whether M.P. Shiel actually slept with Machen’s French maid.

Machenalia Autumn 2010 contains accounts of the FOAM weekend in Abergavenny, and the text of the London vs Gwent debate which was performed there. It has reviews two new important editions of Machen: S.T. Joshi's annotated edition of Machen from Arcane Wisdom, and the two volumes of the Library of Wales paperbacks which bring back Machen into mass market paperback in the UK. It has the usual other Machen related articles covering Machen events on Hay on Wye and Stoke Newington, and various other film and book reviews.

Latest Friends publications

The Friends of Arthur Machen’s hardback journal Faunus (Summer 09) reaches its twentieth issue and as always its fifty-eight pages contain many mysteries. Roger Dobson provides an excellent essay on The Three Impostors and its relation with Stevenson’s works. Neil Wilson examines two of Machen’s earliest and least considered tales and Christopher Josiffe discusses how the mysterious magus Kenneth Grant relates Machen’s work in his Typhonian trilogies to many strange subjects including the dread Necronomicon. Grail hunters will be interested to read the startling contents of Machen’s completely unpublished Graal notebook used in the creation of The Secret Glory. [Don't attempt to look for the Grail without this information!]. This comes alongside a captivating essay by Mark Valentine on the grail in fiction. There is also an essay by Machen on the Grail legend written in February 1914 to celebrate a performance of Wagner’s Parsifal in London which not been published for over ninety years. [Sad to note that six months later Machen along with the rest of London would be heartedly cursing German culture.] Musicians take note Faunus 20 also contains the score for the Angel of Mons valse, a strange piece of music inspired by the Angels of Mons legend which has been unpublished since the Great War.

Machenalia also contains many things beginning with a summary of the Friend’s Annual General Meeting in Whitby. There is an essay exploring the mysterious White Cavalry of Bethune inspired by an investigation by TED Klein, details on the Angels of Mons film from 1915, and a long essay on Machen’s The Canning Wonder and its connection to Josephine Tey’s The Franchise Affair. Other topics featured include Clive Barker, Stewart Lee, Tim Lebbon, Lovecraft, the Bowmen podcast, Lord Dunsany and Imperial Tokay. It also includes book reviews by Mr Arthur Machen revealing his feelings on Persian Poetry! Machenalia also provides full details on the Friend’s 2010 AGM in Abergavenny start planning your attendance today.

Summer 2008 Friends Publications

Faunus Volume Eighteen - Summer 2008 58 pages

Contains amongst other essays “Two Sided Triangles: Machen, Darwin and Suburbia” by Cyril Simsa an interesting essay on Machen’s work and its use of characteristic themes like the boundaries between town and country, the figure of Pan, sexuality and evolutionary thought. Phillip A. Ellis argues in “Of The One Secret: A Defence of Eleusinia” that Eleusinia is better quality poetry for such a young man than Machen’s modesty will allow. Meanwhile "Some Notes on Machen’s ‘Sixtystone’" by Christopher Josiffe discusses the origins of the mysterious artefact from The Three Impostors and reflects on Kenneth Grant’s use of it in his magical works. There is also a reprint of “The Unseen Host” by C.L. Warr a story inspired by The Bowmen first published in 1916 and reprinted many times later.

Machenalia Vol II Issue 7, Summer 2008 52 pages

Has the usual news and reviews with extensive coverage of the Chicago dramatic production of The Great God Pan. It also covers the FOAM AGM in Stratford-on-Avon, details on new Machen translations in Swedish, Polish, and Italian. Also mentions Clive Barker, and Mark E. Smith on Machen, more Angels of Mons sightings, and more on the Little Fables and a trip into the dark heart of Machen's Wentwood. Also the mysterious saga of the Machen photograph which is not actually of Machen is revealed.

We also have shocking news on MP Shiel, who Machen knew well, he was convicted for molesting a young girl and we have a brief review of an article by Kirsten Macleod 'M. P. Shiel and the Love of Pubescent Girls: The Other “Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name”' - Kirsten Macleod, University of Alberta that goes into the specifics.

Latest edition of Friends of Arthur Machen publications

"In the run up to the year the Friends of Arthur Machen went to Stratford upon Avon our latest hard backed publication Faunus 17 features extracts on Machen from Lady Constance Benson's memoirs relating to his time with the famous Bensonian company of Shakespearean actors. Another article relates Machen's own reminiscences of his time upon the stage in Stratford upon Avon. Faunus also contains writer Frank Baker's fascinating extended recollections of Machen from his autobiography. Baker, a sometime actor himself, reflects on the influence of the stage on himself and on Machen, and it provides an enchanting depiction of the power of Machen's works and personality on the shamefully neglected author of Miss Hargreaves and The Birds (1936).

The companion pamphlet Machenalia includes a full set of the recently discovered Little Fables by M published in the late twenties in the literary magazine John O’ London’s Weekly, a periodical which frequently published Machen. Are the Fables a lost work by Machen? Much furious debate on the matter is under way by Machen scholars. There is more news on the Angels of Mons saga, a new stage adaptation of Machen’s The Great God Pan in Chicago, news on a strange rite to summon Pan involving Frank Baker and Crowley which led to a terrible death, details on the terrifying Caerleon catacombs, and another article on music inspired by Machen, alongside the usual reviews of Machen related works.

Plus it contains a cryptic numerological inscription written by Machen, found in a collector’s library. Now known as The Machen Code it is already arousing much interest from cryptoanalysts - proffered solutions to the code have connected it to Aztec sacrifice, Scottish use of occult rituals to destroy the English, a clue that finally reveals the location of the San Graal, or possibly just Machen's record of the results of a drinking game."

To get these fine things subscribe to the The Friends of Arthur Machen at this link.

Faunus 16 - Summer 2007 Collection of Machen letters

The Friends of Arthur Machen commemorated the sixtieth anniversary of Machen’s death and the centenary of the publication of The Hill of Dreams in 1907 with the first ever publication of "John Lane and Arthur Machen: A Correspondence" in Faunus The Journal of the Friends of Arthur Machen, volume 16 (Summer 2007). It covers Machen's correspondence with the important fin de siècle publisher John Lane from 1895-1906. The letters demonstrate Machen’s refusal to censor The Three Impostors in the aftermath of the Wilde trial despite Lane’s requests and Machen’s irritation with the puritanical climate of the time. Machen did agree however to the removal of one terrifying word from the manuscript now put into print for the first time ever. The letters also covers Machen’s difficulties in getting The Hill of Dreams published in the climate of the time, which although written 1896-7 was not published for ten years. Other articles in that issue include Machen scholar Roger Dobson discussing in "The Book in Yellow: How Dorian Inspired Lucian" the connection between Machen’s reading of Wilde’s Dorian Gray and The Hill of Dreams. Paul Fox’s article “On the Matter of Coincidence: 'Though' and 'Why' and 'The Inmost Light.'” discusses the place of that story in Machen's 1890s fiction, and in his ideas of aesthetics. In Machen's 1916 article "The Shade of a Great Man" published for the first time since the war Dr Johnson returns to pontificate to Boswell on the such matters as the Blackout, the coming of “fireships of the air” and Conscientious Objectors.

The most recent Machenalia the newsletter of the society covers the recently finished Caerleon sculpture commemorating Machen, a number of Machen based film scripts in development, more on the Angels of Mons, Machen themed music and in a special Tobacco themed issue reveals that Machen foretold the recent ban on smoking.

The Friends January Posting

The Friends of Arthur Machen start the year in spectacular fashion. Despite failing to win a World Fantasy Award in 2006 the Friends try to live up to the honour of a nomination for this prestigious award by producing more high quality material for their members.

The hardback journal Faunus 15 contains many remarkable things including Machen’s spectacular report of a Baseball match between the US Army and Navy in WWI, essential reading for sports fans. Gwilym Games explores whether Machen’s report hints subtly at strange primeval rites in connection with this wholesome game. There are extracts from one of Machen’s rarest translations Fantastic Tales, by the mad canon of Tours, Beroalde de Verville, and an obituary for Machen biographer Wesley Sweetser who died last year. The adventure of Arthur Machen and the Swiss Roll Factory is revealed. Critical items includes Bob Man’s important investigation of how the events of Machen’s tale Drake’s Drum (1919) became tied into older legends of the Drum and went onto to be quoted as true in published accounts just like The Bowmen inspired tales of the Angels of Mons. William S. Simmons article examines carefully the insightful nature of the Machen’s mystical stories The Green Round and The Secret Glory. Gwilym Games also explores use of Machen’s quotations in the Oxford English Dictionary, including the first ever use of the word Tank in a literary work as a vehicle.

The latest Machenalia has a Decadence theme with a special feature on Pan’s Labyrinth by Brian Showers, alongside firm evidence of Machen’s influence on an early version of the screenplay, if not the final film. There is an article on music inspired by Machen alongside various items on psychogeographic mysteries of interest to Machenphiles including the latest Hawksmoor developments and the newly discovered Lost City of Gwent, the rise of primeval Snake Gods, our usual visions of angels of Mons roundup [the legend never dies], lots of reviews of many books decadent and otherwise, including Kirsten Macleod’s vital new work on the 1890s Decadent Fictions which focuses heavily on Machen, The Decadent Handbook, Rabelais, a book on London Writing which names Machen as one of thirty essential London writers and an incisive review by the famed Dr Stiggins.