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Acolyte, v. 3, issue 4, whole no. 12, Fall 1945
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In 1904 he published his first eight stories in book form under the appropriate title of Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, with the four illustrations by his friend James McBryde which inspired their publication, "the first of which was drawn from a photograph of St. Bertrand de Comminges, and contains an easily recognizable sketch of Monty himself; the bend of the knee alone would identify it." (3) Having promised to bring out a second volume when enough additional Christmases had elapsed, he published More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary in 1911, and year by year it became more evident that his tales were unique in their creepiness and artistry. "Already when he was installed as Provost of Eton their fame was such that Rawlins, then Vice-Provost, alluded pointedly to them in his speech on Chapel steps; and at the words 'Lemures istos' a grim smile for a second curved the lips of the new Provost." (3) The third volume, A Thin Ghost and Others, appeared in 1919, containing only five stories, none of which was entitled "A Thin Ghost." Probably this title was meant to refer to the initial tale, "The Residence at Whitminster," in which the aphorism, "A withered heart makes an ugly thin ghost," is quoted twice. Also in 1919 appeared a Norse translation by Ragnhild Undset of four stories from Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, under the title of Aander og Trolddom. The fourth collection, A Warning to the Curious, and Other Ghost Stories, came out in 1925, and was extensively reviewed and praised, it being well recognized by now that James was the leading ghost story writer of modern times. His output, however, slackened henceforth in both quantity and quality, perhaps from lack of time, perhaps from a failure of interest or inventiveness. When Edward Arnold, his publisher throughout the years, brought out the definitive Collected Ghost Stories of M. R. James in 1931, it included four new stories and an essay ("Stories I Have Tried to Write"), as well as a prediction that there would be no more ghost stories from his pen. Ill-advisedly he yielded subsequently to the importunities of friends and dashed off two brief tales, "The Experiment" and "A Vignette", which deservedly have never reprinted from their original periodical publication. But his fame rested soundly on his earlier work and stemmed from both his books and his Christmas readings. As Lubbock says, His reading of them aloud was---like his reading of the Bible---entirely untheatrical and immensely effective. In his later years, when the supply of new stories had ceased, he could generally be persuaded to read one of the old ones on Christmas night at King's, especially as it was youth, in the shape of some choral scolar, that would thrust a volume of them into his hand. He dined at King's on the Christmas night of 1934 and read us the Punch and Judy story; and that was the last. (4) In order better to assess the significance of James's work and the innovations it brought to its genre, it might be well to remind ourselves of the kind of weird fiction that predominated in the nineteenth century. First there were the Gothic romances, which flourished prodigiously at the end of the eighteenth century and for several decades at the beginning of the nineteenth, leaving behind a sensational legacy of haunted castles, sheeted ghosts, noisome dungeons, bleeding statues, gloomy defiant villains, pale heroines, faithless nuns, medieval tortures, secret passageways, and all the other familiar trappings of unabashed spectral Romanticism, eventually these tales of terror exhausted themselves by their own excesses, and public taste turned away from them, but they had considerable influence both -- 5 --
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In 1904 he published his first eight stories in book form under the appropriate title of Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, with the four illustrations by his friend James McBryde which inspired their publication, "the first of which was drawn from a photograph of St. Bertrand de Comminges, and contains an easily recognizable sketch of Monty himself; the bend of the knee alone would identify it." (3) Having promised to bring out a second volume when enough additional Christmases had elapsed, he published More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary in 1911, and year by year it became more evident that his tales were unique in their creepiness and artistry. "Already when he was installed as Provost of Eton their fame was such that Rawlins, then Vice-Provost, alluded pointedly to them in his speech on Chapel steps; and at the words 'Lemures istos' a grim smile for a second curved the lips of the new Provost." (3) The third volume, A Thin Ghost and Others, appeared in 1919, containing only five stories, none of which was entitled "A Thin Ghost." Probably this title was meant to refer to the initial tale, "The Residence at Whitminster," in which the aphorism, "A withered heart makes an ugly thin ghost," is quoted twice. Also in 1919 appeared a Norse translation by Ragnhild Undset of four stories from Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, under the title of Aander og Trolddom. The fourth collection, A Warning to the Curious, and Other Ghost Stories, came out in 1925, and was extensively reviewed and praised, it being well recognized by now that James was the leading ghost story writer of modern times. His output, however, slackened henceforth in both quantity and quality, perhaps from lack of time, perhaps from a failure of interest or inventiveness. When Edward Arnold, his publisher throughout the years, brought out the definitive Collected Ghost Stories of M. R. James in 1931, it included four new stories and an essay ("Stories I Have Tried to Write"), as well as a prediction that there would be no more ghost stories from his pen. Ill-advisedly he yielded subsequently to the importunities of friends and dashed off two brief tales, "The Experiment" and "A Vignette", which deservedly have never reprinted from their original periodical publication. But his fame rested soundly on his earlier work and stemmed from both his books and his Christmas readings. As Lubbock says, His reading of them aloud was---like his reading of the Bible---entirely untheatrical and immensely effective. In his later years, when the supply of new stories had ceased, he could generally be persuaded to read one of the old ones on Christmas night at King's, especially as it was youth, in the shape of some choral scolar, that would thrust a volume of them into his hand. He dined at King's on the Christmas night of 1934 and read us the Punch and Judy story; and that was the last. (4) In order better to assess the significance of James's work and the innovations it brought to its genre, it might be well to remind ourselves of the kind of weird fiction that predominated in the nineteenth century. First there were the Gothic romances, which flourished prodigiously at the end of the eighteenth century and for several decades at the beginning of the nineteenth, leaving behind a sensational legacy of haunted castles, sheeted ghosts, noisome dungeons, bleeding statues, gloomy defiant villains, pale heroines, faithless nuns, medieval tortures, secret passageways, and all the other familiar trappings of unabashed spectral Romanticism, eventually these tales of terror exhausted themselves by their own excesses, and public taste turned away from them, but they had considerable influence both -- 5 --
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