Short Stories 1895-1926: Volume I

The publication of Short Stories 1895-1926 celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of Walter de la Mare’s death. It is also the culmination of a major literary enterprise. For many people Walter de la Mare (1873-1956) is as great a writer of fiction as of poetry. But the majority of his short stories, of which there are a hundred, have long been unavailable. Short Stories brings them all together in three volumes in the first comprehensive collection to be published. The first volume, Short Stories 1895-1926 , starts with Broomsticks and Other Tales of 1925 , with its twelve stories, and continues with The Lord Fish of 1933 with seven stories. The famous story called ‘The Riddle’ is also included as it is a story that appeals equally to adults and children. De la Mare’s earliest published works were stories, and he continued writing and rewriting stories throughout the rest of his life. There was always a creative counterpoint between the themes and imagery of his prose and his poetry - such as the dream, childhood, the house, night, love lost and regained, solitude and the traveller. A full understanding of either is impossible without knowledge of both.