From 1922 to 1946 the supernatural horror writer Arthur Machen (1863-1947) corresponded with Alfred F. Goldsmith (1877-1947), a bookseller and Walt Whitman collector whose New York store ‘At The Sign of the Sparrow’ was an institution in the American book trade. The pair began writing to each other following the discovery of Machen’s writing in the US; Machen was finally receiving the critical praise he thought he always deserved (though he remained sceptical of how long the revival would last), while Goldsmith was eager to make contact with a fellow bibliophile.
Published by the good folk at Tartarus Press, Letters to Alfred F. Goldsmith collects over a hundred of Machen’s previously unpublished missives, transcribed from originals held at the Harry Ransom Center, Texas. Co-edited by Sam Kunkel, editor of Faunus, journal of The Friends of Arthur Machen.
