The Guardian on Arthur Machen

Arthur Machen recently received some mainstream attention--quite an unexpected surprise for a long deceased master of weird fiction--from Britain's online and print news source "The Guardian." The paper's Damien Walter gives a rundown of Machen's critical works and influence on weird fiction. Among other things, the article references Tartarus Press, H.P. Lovecraft, and William Hope Hodgson. This isn't anything approaching an exhaustive expose on weird literature, but it ought to be a burst of welcome publicity for all of the individuals and enterprises involved.

Moreover, it's easily the most notable Arthur Machen press of the year--barring some huge revelation or magnificent study breaking in 2009's final months. Unfortunately, it seems that British titans of the strange like Machen, Blackwood, and others are not normally well publicized even in their native countries--though the same tragic analogy can be drawn in the US with the lack of attention H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe receive.

For classic weird scribes like Arthur Machen, almost any press is good press, but it's as though Fortune smiles down on his literary legacy when a major outlet like "The Guardian" is kind enough to spotlight weird literature in this way. Now, we just need more of it.

-Grim Blogger