Tartarus Press

publishers

Occult Territory

An Arthur Machen Gazetteer

edited by

R.B. Russell

 

This Gazetteer lists those places in which Arthur Machen lived, worked, wrote, ate, drank and worshipped. It is also a guide to sites that influenced his life and his work. It is illustrated, often with contemporary photographs, and includes quotes from Machen, and those that knew him.

 

There is much to be gained from wandering around the lanes and footpaths of Machen’s family home in Llanddewi, Gwent, because the landscape is essentially unchanged from when he lived there as a boy. Arthur Machen’s London is rather different. Machen experienced it as a city of delight and wonder when he first visited it in 1880, but when he lived there in the mid 1880s it was the backdrop to poverty and hardship, doubt and frustration. However, after this dark period, it was the anvil upon which some of his most important friendships and relationships were forged, and where he had the most strange and mysterious encounters.

 

With over 160 entries, this is an indispensible volume for any admirer of the work of Arthur Machen, author of The Great God Pan, The Hill of Dreams, and other works of sorcery and sanctity.

 

Review:

Featured in the Times Literary Supplement

'...a delightful pictorial scrapbook' The New York Review

'... a beautifully produced and richly illustrated guide to places Machen lived, worked, drank and ate at in England and Wales' Los Angeles Review of Books

'This long-planned labour of love will be welcomed by Machen readers interested in the links between locale and literature.' The Fortean Times

'... it’s an enchanting guide through a life less ordinary.' Horla