My house is still full of brown boxes! Why didn't this stuff put itself away while I was on vacation? It started raining last night, and is still trickling on. The Autumn leaves are turning fast in this corner of Montana, as they were in Utah.

Sitemeter Sez: Visitors from Cary, North Carolina; Makati, Phillipines; Frisco, Texas and Brooklyn, New York (Stozo Da' Klown, perhaps).

Remembering my friend George-O at: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris -- from my first jet-lagged day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
Spitfires of the Spaceways
Wilma Deering & Dale Arden to the rescue; Bodacious Princess Aura I; Hapless Aura II; The fiery Emperor Ming; The Orson Welles Rumor Debunked; and BOTH incarnations of Jean Rogers!





Thanks to Jim Keefe (Visit his Website) -- the LAST Flash Gordon illustrator of the 20th Century, and Flash's first illustrator of the 21st, for his recommendations -- HERE!

Charity Alert: Keep that Resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day. Also check into Terra Sigilata blog -- donate $$$ to cancer patients just by clicking onto the site.

In The Community: Back to work! Many public events at the Hockaday Museum of Art AND Flathead Valley Community College this week -- several associated with the Inuit Art exhibit.

Media Watch: REAL Books -- Joy Chant's Red Moon and Black Mountain with a Frazetta cover. It was originally published as part of Ballantine Books "Adult Fantasy" series. J.R.R. Tolkien's impressive success with Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit apparently convinced Ballantine to take some risks. They had done well with Edgar Rice Burroughs earlier, and reprinted some amazing works by E.R. Eddison, Mervyn Peake, David Lindsay, and Peter S. Beagle in paperback too. Since I was working a full-time industrial job and going to college, I sure liked having a century's worth of Fantasy Literature on the racks to preserve my sanity when I had time to read. Here's a listing of the series itself (thanks to Wikipedia):
1. The Blue Star, Fletcher Pratt (May 1969)
(Never read it, didn't like this author)
2. The King of Elfland's Daughter, Lord Dunsany (Jun. 1969) EXCELLENT!
3. The Wood Beyond the World, William Morris (Jul. 1969) EXCELLENT!
4. The Silver Stallion, James Branch Cabell (Aug. 1969) EXCELLENT!
5. Lilith, George MacDonald (Sep. 1969) EXCELLENT!
6. Dragons, Elves, and Heroes, Lin Carter, ed. (Oct. 1969) (nope -- just didn't read it)
7. The Young Magicians, Lin Carter, ed. (Oct. 1969) (wasn't impressed)
8. Figures of Earth, James Branch Cabell (Nov. 1969) EXCELLENT!
9. The Sorcerer's Ship, Hannes Bok (Dec. 1969) (Great artist, lousy writer)
10. Land of Unreason, Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague de Camp (nope)
11. The High Place, James Branch Cabell (Feb. 1970) EXCELLENT!
12. Lud-in-the-Mist, Hope Mirrlees (Mar. 1970) EXCELLENT! -- One of the very best.
13. At the Edge of the World, Lord Dunsany (Mar. 1970) (never saw it)
14. Phantastes, George MacDonald (Apr. 1970) VERY EXCELLENT!
15. The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, H. P. Lovecraft (May 1970) (Well, I liked it)
16. Zothique, Clark Ashton Smith (Jun. 1970) (Lovecraft's friend, but crappy book)
17. The Shaving of Shagpat, George Meredith (Jul. 1970) (nope)
18. The Island of the Mighty, Evangeline Walton (Jul. 1970) EXCELLENT!
19. Deryni Rising, Katherine Kurtz (Aug. 1970) (I wasn't impressed, but my vote hardly counted -- the whole series was a big success.)
20. The Well at the World's End, Vol. 1, William Morris (Aug. 1970) and
21. The Well at the World's End, Vol. 2, William Morris (Sep. 1970) EXCELLENT!
22. Golden Cities, Far, Lin Carter, ed. (Oct. 1970) (tedious)
23. Beyond the Golden Stair, Hannes Bok (Nov. 1970) (nope)
24. The Broken Sword, Poul Anderson (Jan. 1971) (A big disappointment)
25. The Boats of the "Glen Carrig", William Hope Hodgson (Feb. 1971) (never saw it)
26. The Doom that Came to Sarnath and Other Stories, H. P. Lovecraft (Feb. 1971) (some good, some bad)
27. Something About Eve, James Branch Cabell (Mar. 1971) (got tired of him)
28. Red Moon and Black Mountain, Joy Chant (Mar. 1971) EXCELLENT!
29. Hyperborea, Clark Ashton Smith (Apr. 1971) (nope)
30. Don Rodriguez: Chronicles of Shadow Valley, Lord Dunsany (May 1971) (didn't finish it)
31. Vathek, William Beckford (Jun. 1971) (almost unreadable, abandoned)
32. The Man Who Was Thursday, G. K. Chesterton (Jul. 1971) EXCELLENT!
33. The Children of Llyr, Evangeline Walton (Aug. 1971) EXCELLENT!
34. The Cream of the Jest, James Branch Cabell (Sep. 1971) (actually liked it)
35. New Worlds for Old, Lin Carter, ed. (Sep. 1971) (no more of these)
36. The Spawn of Cthulhu, Lin Carter, ed. (Oct. 1971) (see above)
37. Double Phoenix, Edmund Cooper and Roger Lancelyn Green (Nov. 1971) (nope)
38. The Water of the Wondrous Isles, William Morris (Nov. 1971) EXCELLENT!
39. Khaled, F. Marion Crawford (Dec. 1971) (nope)
40. The World's Desire, H. Rider Haggard and Andrew Lang (Jan. 1972) (good names, bad book)
41. Xiccarph, Clark Ashton Smith (Feb. 1972) (nope)
42. The Lost Continent, C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne (Feb. 1972) (never saw it)
43. Discoveries in Fantasy, Lin Carter, ed. (Mar. 1972) (nope)
44. Domnei, James Branch Cabell (Mar. 1972) (nope)
45. Kai Lung's Golden Hours, Ernest Bramah (Apr. 1972) (nope)
46. Deryni Checkmate, Katherine Kurtz (May 1972) (nope)
47. Beyond the Fields We Know, Lord Dunsany (May 1972) (nope)
48. The Three Imposters, Arthur Machen (Jun. 1972) (nope)
49. The Night Land, Vol. 1, William Hope Hodgson (Jul. 1972) and
50. The Night Land, Vol. 2, William Hope Hodgson (Jul. 1972)
(never finished, wished I didn't start it)
51. The Song of Rhiannon, Evangeline Walton (Aug. 1972) EXCELLENT!
52. Great Short Novels of Adult Fantasy I, Lin Carter, ed. (Sep. 1972) (nope)
53. Evenor, George MacDonald (Nov. 1972) (never saw it)
54. Orlando Furioso: The Ring of Angelica, Volume 1, Ludovico Ariosto, translated by Richard Hodgens (Jan. 1973) (nope)
55. The Charwoman's Shadow, Lord Dunsany (Feb. 1973) (nope)
56. Great Short Novels ... II, Lin Carter, ed. (Mar. 1973) (nope)
57. The Sundering Flood, William Morris (May 1973) EXCELLENT!
(nope to all below)
58. Imaginary Worlds: the Art of Fantasy, Lin Carter (Jun. 1973)
59. Poseidonis, Clark Ashton Smith (Jul. 1973)
60. Excalibur, Sanders Anne Laubenthal (Aug. 1973)
61. High Deryni, Katherine Kurtz (Sep. 1973)
62. Hrolf Kraki's Saga, Poul Anderson (Oct. 1973)
63. The People of the Mist, H. Rider Haggard (Dec. 1973)
64. Kai Lung Unrolls His Mat, Ernest Bramah (Feb. 1974)
65. Over the Hills and Far Away, Lord Dunsany (Apr. 1974)

Series "left-overs," June-November 1974
1. Merlin's Ring, H. Warner Munn (Jun. 1974) (nope)
2. Prince of Annwn, Evangeline Walton (Nov. 1974) EXCELLENT!

I might give Lord Dunsany another chance today. I enjoyed every George MacDonald book I ever read. Thanks to those prolific paperback publishers of the 60's and 70's, there is an official Fantasy Genre now, with new fans and writers blossoming seasonally like Mallorn Trees in Lothlorien.


An illustration from William Morris' elaborate Wood Beyond the World (1894 edition). J.R.R. Tolkien was free with his written appreciation of Andrew Lang and other fantastic storytellers. Somehow he didn't mention Morris much, if at all, but their writing styles were SO similar -- in both poetry and prose.