Foreign Finches

Sent to the printer... Foreign Finches in Captivity (1899 reprint) with 60 full-color plates.

The Heroic Milton

Sent to the printer. Collects Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes.

Tourmalines

Sent to the printer: The Tourmaline / The History of Mount Mica of Maine, U.S.A. Two book reprint collection (short books, comes out to about 194 pages at 5.5 x 8.5) with full color drawings of variously colored tourmalines. Color books always take a bit longer to put out, as LSI requires I get a proof copy before approving. Should be available mid-August.

On a related note, I'm trying to cut down on green cover books (as that color is supposed to be poor for sales, go figure), but I went with the mint green with pink circle, as a nod towards "watermelon" tourmaline, a very interesting mineral.

A Few More Reprints

Besides the other material, I'm working on several other reprints as I get time.

1) John Milton's Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes, collected together (with Gustave Doré's illustrations for the first).

2) A collection of two short books on the Mount Mica, Maine, tourmaline deposits, by A. C. Hamlin, with his full-color illustrations.

3) Almost finished with the eight earliest novels and collections of the old Hamilton Cleek mysteries.

A copy more I'm scanning, may or may not get to anytime soon: Moore's Ancient Mineralogy, and The Book of Buried Treasure.

John Silence (Algernon Blackwood)

I always wished Blackwood had done more John Silence stories. In any case, this is a collection of the six (often lengthy) stories he wrote. Sent to the publisher, available soon. It is priced competitively with the old Dover edition.

Ancient and Medieval Dyes

Sent to the printer. A brief but informative and easy-to-read text on the various animal and vegetable dyes used before modern chemical synthetic dyes.

Darby O'Gill

The two-book compilation in one volume: The Adventures of Darby O'Gill ..., sent to the printer. These are great stories, though most are written in Irish tongue, so take a little getting use to.

Chesterton Vols. 4-6

Sent to printer. Same basic cover as the first three volumes. It will be interesting to see if these do as well as the mostly fiction volumes.

Volume 4: Heretics, Orthodoxy, What's Wrong with the World

Volume 5: All Things Considered, Tremendous Trifles, Alarms and Discursions

Volume 6: The Defendant, Varied Types, A Miscellany of Men, Other Stories

Foolish Questions

Sent to the printer. I wish I was able to offer this as a smaller format book, as at 7 x 10, with a single panel on each page, I wasn't able to fit two on a page, and there's a lot of white space under each one. Still, it's better than not putting it out at all -- I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with some horizontal format golf comics I scanned years ago. The back cover, btw, just has two 1913/1914 color postcards with the same theme that I added; the inside comics are all black-and-white. See book details at Foolish Questions.

End of Month Update

Or, maybe better as a beginning of month update: Finishing up another 3-volume set of Chesterton's material, mostly his essays. Also, just waiting for one more image for the back cover of Foolish Questions. Scanned the two books that make up the Darby O'Gill stories, will work on that this month. Still working on Varmints; I have the bulk of the sightings portion done. Planning to scan a text on medieval dyes. Still waiting on a few texts by a few other authors.

William Hope Hodgson

Uploaded to the printer, a collection of Hodgson's fantasy novels: The Boats of the "Glen Carrig," The House on the Borderland, The Ghost Pirates, and The Night Land.

I've been trying to stick to a 5 books a month schedule, but ended up with 4 this month, as I merged the planned two volumes of Hodgson's fiction into one title. This one is the full maximum for POD, 828 pages.

Update: Bordercrossings, by William Hope Hodgson now available

The Wit, Whimsy, and Wisdom of G. K. Chesterton

Sent to the printer, volumes 1, 2, and 3. Details soon...
Used the classic 1912 Vanity Fair caricature for the covers.

Update: Volume 1 here, Volume 2 here, Volume 3 here

Poe After Dark

Sent to the printer... Poe After Dark: 18 Tales of Mystery, Madness, and the Macabre.

Update: Book details here.

Lewis Carroll

Sent to the printer: includes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass, Phantasmagoria, The Hunting of the Snark, and the two-part Sylvie and Bruno.

Update: Book details here.

Frank Aubrey Omnibus

Uploaded to the printer yesterday, and I should be able to approve it for printing early next week. Volume includes A Queen of Atlantis, and The Devil-Tree of El Dorado. (The latter is considered a loose sequel, as it recounts the ongoing adventures of the character, Monella.)

Update: Book details here.

Weird Classics, Volume 1

Uploaded and approved for printing, will be available soon: a two book omnibus, including Bram Stoker's The Jewel of Seven Stars (with original ending) and Richard Marsh's The Beetle.

Legend of Croquemitaine

Uploaded to printer over the weekend, approved and will be available from bookstores soon...

Update

I've just about finished up a few more reprints. The text block for The Legend of Croquemitaine is finished, and the omnibus containing The Jewel of Seven Stars and The Beetle. Just need to do the covers for those this weekend. Almost finished with the dinosaur/pterosaur/whatevermasaur anthology of early scifi/fantasy, just waiting to hear back on a possible reprint permission. Shouldn't be too much longer on the two book omnibus of The Queen of Atlantis and The Devil-Tree of El Dorado. Devil-Tree is a bit of a sequel to the former, at least in regards to one character.

I've been surprised by how few early saurian-type creature stories there are (pre-1920s); right now, the collection includes 14 short stories and the classic novel, The Lost World. Actually, one of the short stories is more of a novella, written by Ivan T. Sanderson.

Regarding my personal cryptozoology-related texts, still working (slowly) on the Varmints book; also, am thinking that when I start working on the cryptozoology atlas, I may break that up into multiple smaller volumes. Given that it will be in color POD, it could get expensive for a larger atlas. Breaking it up into sections will allow individuals to acquire those that are of greatest interest at a cheaper price. I plan to start utilizing color POD for more books, including a few future volumes by other cryptozoology writers (in discussions). It is certainly a bit more expensive, but it does look much better to have full color images.

Mitaine

A sample from a soon-to-be-reprinted title...

Raffles

And, finally (for now), the criminal escapades of Raffles, Gentleman Thief.

Thinking Machine

And, a two volume set of Jacques Futrelle's Thinking Machine stories.

Mysteries Uploaded

Four classic mystery volumes have been uploaded to the printer. First, a collection of Edgar Allan Poe's three Dupin mysteries, along with The Gold-Bug and Thou Art The Man!

Phantom Bouquets: Skeletonizing Leaves

Sent to the printer... Book information here.

Pym

Sent to the printer: Pym, which includes both Poe's A Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (including all figures, not found in several recent Gutenberg-based reprints), and Jules Verne's sequel, An Antarctic Mystery.

Proof Approved

I just approved the proof for my reprint of Gosse's A Year at the Shore. Overall, I'm very pleased with the way it turned out. Colors look good, and the paper is a sturdy white, a bit thicker than the standard creme used for b/w. My only minor reservation was that the inside margin is perhaps a bit too narrow. I've seen discussions on this subject that argue for "less is more," but I think in the future I'll increase the inside margin just a tad. I also went with a smaller leading for the font (I think it was size 9, leading 11). Usually I use a 3 point difference, but to save some space, went with 2 points here. It actually looks better than I expected; might need to keep that in mind for future books even when page count isn't an issue.

A Year at the Shore will be available from online bookstores soon.

A Year at the Shore: Cover

And the wraparound for the cover. Nothing fancy. This is a small book, 5.5 x 8.5, but runs about 182 pages or so. Being a "color" book (to allow for the color plates) it is a tad more expensive than most of my titles, but it's a book that is rarely reprinted. (The only other available right now is little more than a black-and-white photocopy...)

Catching Wild Beasts

Sent to the printer: Catching Wild Beasts Alive.

Humbugs of the World

Sent to the printer: Barnum's Humbugs of the World.

The Rational Creation

Another title just uploaded. This is from the same era as Paley's Natural Theology and similar science/theology books, but includes discussion from both nature and direct revelation regarding man, angels, and God's plan for redemption. Brodie was a Scott minister with the Bow of Fife Free Church, and is very readable. I was pleasantly surprised when I first came across it. I think this is the very first reprint of the title since it's initial publication in 1855.

Now that I'm looking at it, I don't think I like my cover layout quite so much, the image needs more "greenspace" around it, and the top seems a little unbalanced, but it will have to do for now. I might like it better once I've seen a print copy.

This is another title that will have a 55% wholesale discount, from a list price of $19.95, so should be reduced from that on the online bookseller's websites.

The Rational Creation
Rev. James Brodie

Title will be available by end of October.

Lincoln's Own Stories

I've just uploaded this title to the printer. There are a few other publishers reprinting this book, also -- one came out in September -- but my edition will be a fair bit less expensive. I'm also going to test the 55% discount, which may open up some direct brick-and-mortar bookstore sales, and should put up a decent discount on the online bookstore list prices.

Lincoln's Own Stories
Ed., Anthony Gross

Title should be available ($11.95 list price) by end of October.

Rational Creation

Another reprint I'm working on (text and inside layout are finished), is the Rev. James Brodie's The Rational Creation, published in 1855. Looking to add a few more titles to accompany Paley's Natural Theology.