Once Upon A Time

About 2 dozen years ago I read The Kith Of The Elf-Folk for the first time--written by Lord Dunsany.  That story so inspired me and sparked my imagination that I shared it with a friend of mine who was a singer/songwriter.  Upon reading it, inspiration led her to write a song about it.

Mike was working in a recording studio in those days and while we were there recording that song, we found a tiny kitten in the parking lot cold and shivering, who seemed to have come from nowhere.  Somehow he ended up coming home with us and stayed for 14 years.  We called him Wispy.

Just a little reminiscence which led me to pick up this story again, so perfect for reading on these misty October days by the fire, where the view through my window is of red and green dogwood leaves which look like they are lit from within--fixed to their branches for only another day or so.

The Kith Of The Elf-Folk is an absolute work of art, as so many of Lord Dunsany's stories are.  You get the sense that he just sat there on the edge of the marsh and wrote what he saw in real time. 

We are shown the cathedral on the edge of the marsh, and then he writes this...

"So evensong was held, and candles lighted, and the lights through the windows shown red and green in the water, and the sound of the organ went roaring over the marshes.  But from the deep and perilous places, edged with bright mosses, the Wild Things came leaping up to dance on the reflection of the stars, and over their heads as they danced the marsh-lights rose and fell."

And in this way, we are introduced to the Wild Things who are The Kith of the Elf-Folk who all night "dance over the marshes treading upon the reflection of the stars (for the bare surface of the water will not hold them by itself)."

A story definitely worth revisiting.

--I wish you Good Reading

What's New at the Press

This week Mike has been setting type for The Age of Malygris, a collection of stories written by Clark Ashton Smith.  This project was decided upon based on the feed back received from some of you.  We really do appreciate your input and encourage you to communicate with us, either here or on the website.

Rita has continued to bind deluxe copies of The Emperor's Crystal & Other Lost Tales Vol 2 by Lord Dunsany  and should be finishing up before the end of October.

Also In The Works

It's a bit of an experiment, but we would like to incorporate some reading and some discussion into a podcast.  We are also working out the logistics of posting the recording to our site, and who knows how that will go.  We'll announce it here on the blog when it's ready.

That about brings us up to date with life at Pegana Press.

And so for now, we leave you with a quote by Clark Ashton Smith from The Last Incantation...

"And all the vistas of time that had been so full of gold and splendor, the days of triumph that were colored like a soaring flame, the crimson and purple of the rich imperial years of his prime, all these were chill and dim and strangely faded now, and the remembrance thereof was no more than the stirring of dead embers."

Emperor's Crystal Update for October 15, 2013

Good news--I have been busy binding for the last 4 days so that once again we have a small stock of Deluxe Editions of The Emperor's Crystal.  They will start shipping on Thursday October 17th.

I'd like to encourage anyone who wants the Deluxe Edition to bear in mind that they are going fast.

Emperor's Crystal Update For October 10, 2013

We've already gone through our stock of deluxe editions.  I am in the process of binding another 12 to 16 copies which are expected to be ready to begin shipping to their new homes by the middle of next week.  After that, I will continue to bind deluxe copies as the need arises.

We want to thank you for your patience as the binding process does take a little time.

We still have chapbooks available if you prefer that format.



In other news, Mike is working on printing the Clark Ashton Smith project entitled

The Age of Malygris

which we hope to release before the new year.  We will keep you updated.


We want to thank you for your support and encourage you to communicate with us, any thoughts you have for future publication so that we may continue to create books you will enjoy reading for many years to come.

The Emperor's Crystal: Deluxe Edition or Chapbook ?

Pegana Press sets the type for each page laboriously by hand.  To give you an idea, The Emperor's Crystal took over 400 hours just to print and then many more hours to bind.

Once the type is set and the page is printed, the type block is then removed from the press bed and the type is distributed (each letter is put away).  That means if that page is to be reprinted, it needs to be reset all over again.

Which is the reason that once it's done, it can not easily be changed.

The reason I share this with you is by way of explanation for what comes next.

When Mike first began typesetting Lost Tales Volume 2 (as it was called then), he designed the layout of the book to be a chapbook format just as Volume 1 had been.

But feedback from our customers indicated that people would very much be interested in a hard bound edition of the forthcoming book.  And so the idea took shape to give people a choice between a hard binding and a chapbook format.

Since The Emperor's Crystal has already been printed and 92 possible copies exist, and since the page declaring that there are 92 copies had already been printed when this decision was made, we leave it to you ultimately to make the choice about how many of those 92 copies will be deluxe editions with a hard binding, and how many will be chapbook editions.

So for now this is where we're at:

We have decided to set aside 20 copies to be bound in a hardback format, of which we have already bound approximately half of that number, leaving the other half to be bound as needed.  This means that the people buying The Emperor's Crystal will be determining how many hardback editions exist by what they choose to purchase.

Should the deluxe edition prove to be more popular, I will continue to bind according to the demand, since they are being hand bound, one at a time here at Pegana Press anyway.  (Note: This will hold true until I run out of my present stock of Binding Materials.)

Currently we have a stock of both Deluxe and Chapbook Editions in our inventory to choose from.  But no matter which binding you choose, the contents of the book is exactly the same.  We wish you Good Reading.

Please visit us at Pegana Press for details.

Pegana Press and The Emperor's Crystal

Pegana Press is pleased to announce the release of The Emperor's Crystal & Other Lost Tales Volume II by Lord Dunsany.

Included are a previously unpublished story written in the Spring of 1909 and an original line drawing by Lord Dunsany circa 1904 - 1908 as well as 8 stories not published since they appeared in magazine form between 1915 - 1920.  Introduction by Darrell Schweitzer.

This book is available in a deluxe binding in gray cloth and a chapbook with blue paper cover.  Hand set letter press and hand bound.  You may order it directly from Pegana Press.