The Heart Of Earth

The Heart Of Earth first appeared in The Saturday Review,  London,  July 1909.  It was one of the stories we at Pegana Press were privileged to add to our collection of previously uncollected works entitled Lost Tales Volume 1 by Lord Dunsany.

It begins thus.

As the poet walked through the moist, grey town thinking of Faëry and imperious Death, he saw the unthought-of pavement, monotonous, wet, clad with dirt, desolate.  And, thinking of the long time that they had lain there under unheeding feet, unprotected by soil or grass against the will of the rain, he, being at peace because it was now evening, pitied the old grey stones.  And the pavement felt his pity.  Every stone felt it; stone told it unto stone for quite a mile.  It had been trodden on for two hundred years by dogs as well as men, it had been spat upon and covered with filth, but had not before been pitied.
     Deep in it's core it felt the poet's pity; it had felt an earthquake less.


Lord Dunsany shares through his potent writing the ability of creating a portal which transports us into the very setting of the story itself.  Anyone who has walked a lonely road lost in thought will recognize this realm. The smell of the wet pavement - rain on stone.  The feel of footsteps meandering as the mind follows its own fancy.  The power of connection that is the very fabric of reality - that which communicates the feeling of the poet through a network of stone conveying information further down the road.

We are told the poet's thoughts go wandering off into other realms, while the pavement fairly bristles with indignation.


     "What is this that dares to pity the heart of Earth?  A thing of a few years and the toy of Time!

     Is not Earth's heart of the lineage of the stars?..."


And we are allowed audience as the Earth waxes poetic about what it has seen throughout time.

     "...What love should Earth's heart have for the hearts of men, who have chosen cities as their foster-mothers, rejecting Earth?..."


Lord Dunsany was a story teller who could make his point in under 1000 words and he wrote a wealth of material in short story format.

The Heart Of Earth appears in Lost Tales Volume 1 published by Pegana Press; by arrangement with the Dunsany Estate.  This book contains 10 stories written by Lord Dunsany which have not been in print since their original magazine appearances about 100 years ago.

If you wish to own a copy of the book, please visit Pegana Press Books.

     "...Am I not the heart of wandering Earth, child of the sun?

     Who?  Who has pitied me?..."

A Dreamer's Tales: A New Google Community

We'd like to extend an invitation to those of you who have a deep appreciation for the work of Lord Dunsany to join A Dreamer's Tales, a Google Community to encourage renewed interest in the work of Lord Dunsany.

Come on over and let's talk about your favorite stories and what draws you to this author's work.  When did you first discover Lord Dunsany?  What was the first Dunsany book or short story or play you read?

If you're just discovering this author, you're in for a treat, and if you are well acquainted with the writing of Lord Dunsany, then come on over and help encourage others to discover this master story teller.

We look forward to the conversation.

And don't forget to join us at Pegana Press, as we prepare to release Lord Dunsany's Lost Tales Volume 3, this Autumn.

Lost Tales Volume 1 Deluxe Edition?

We've had many requests to create a deluxe binding for this book.  So here it is.  Lost Tales Volume 1.  The original printing with a deluxe binding.

This is a great companion to the deluxe Lost Tales Volume 2.  I used a Dubletta cotton cloth in Teal for the binding and the Lama Li Tiger paper in black for the end papers.  Letterpress title on spine and inset paste down on front cover.

I will be binding this book in small batches starting next week.  You may order it on our website to reserve your copy.  

Happy Birthday Lord Dunsany

Happy Birthday Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett 18th Baron of Dunsany.

Born July 24, 1878

We celebrate your extraordinary creative life.

And the wonders of Elfland, Shadow Valley, Pegana and the Billiards Club.

We're grateful you shared your vision of these things with us.

"And little he knew of the things that ink may do, how it can mark a dead man's thoughts for the wonder of later years, and tell of happenings that are gone clean away, and be a voice for us out of the dark of time, and save many a fragile thing from the pounding of heavy ages; or carry to us, over the rolling centuries, even a song from lips long dead on forgotten hills."  --Lord Dunsany

Pegana Press StoryCast: The Ghost of the Valley

Mike took a little time off from printing Lord Dunsany: Lost Tales Volume 3 to record a new StoryCast.

We are doing The Ghost of the Valley, because it was one we had hoped to put in Volume 3.  Fortunately, just before setting type for this story, Mike found it had already appeared in The Ghosts Of The Heaviside Layer and Other Fantasms.

Although we were disappointed to lose such a wonderful story, we were grateful that Mike discovered it before investing the time to typeset, and even more importantly, before it became part of the book.

It's such a great story that we wanted to do a reading for our PeganaPress StoryCast series.  We have a copy of the typewritten manuscript and found as we were reading from both the book and the manuscript that there were one or two variances.  

If you don't already have a copy of The Ghosts Of The Heaviside Layer, then find a copy.  And if you do have one, read along with us. Headphones are highly recommended as the ghost voice may be hard to distinguish on laptop/computer speakers.

We hope you enjoy our newest StoryCast, The Ghost of the Valley.

Last Call for Poseidonis Cycle 1: The Age of Malygris

Pegana Press is pleased to announce that our most current book is about to sell out.  I am currently binding 8 copies for a customer.  And will be binding the last 10 copies in mid July.

If you want a copy of this hand bound letter press edition of Clark Ashton Smith stories (limited to 55 copies), please don't miss your opportunity.

The Real Reason Behind The Name Pegana Press

If you spend long enough collecting Dunsany titles in different editions as I have, you can run into curious differences between these editions.  Different illustrations between U.S and UK releases, changes in story order, names of illustrations, etc.  When I knew very little about publishing and the art of printing books these differences seemed magical and mysterious.  They also spurred on my desire to collect alternate versions of books I already had because of the hidden treasures, even small, I might find in them.

After acquiring the 1st American Luce edition of The Gods of Pegana I began to look at other editions.  The first English edition of 1905 by Elkin Mathews would of course have to be purchased.  Unfortunately the $500 plus pricetag prevented me from buying it even to this day.

But I stumbled upon listings for a 2nd edition released by Pegana Press in 1911 that appeared to be identical in construction and covers to the Elkin Mathews books I was familiar with.  The title page showed a different address for Pegana Press as the publisher than Elkin Mathews used.  I've never found another title ever released under the Pegana Press imprint and was very intrigued.  Why this one edition?  Why the difference when they appeared to be made by the same people?  There seemed to be an unusual story behind this book.

I decided then I would revive the mysterious Pegana Press to release new material when I was ready.

It seemed appropriate to give its Spirit more work to glue and mutter over.

I suspect now it had to do with a copyright issue of some kind as most of the differences between editions can be traced to .  But really, there's no mystery in that answer, and I prefer the enigma to the answer.

I still don't know the answer even though the curator probably knows and would tell me but somehow we're always busy with other matters when we communicate. I hope to ask him over a pint in a Dublin pub some day. 

As for us, the mystery and shadow of that Spirit ,we hope, will continue to imbue our books and breathe life into them for a time.

Mike Tortorello

Pegana Press 

(the younger)

The Gods Of Pegana 2nd edition pictured.

(we don't actually own this lovely book)