The reprinting of the Typhonian Trilogies starts with The Magical Revival, which went to the printers last week and is presently in the stage of printers' proofs. Publication will be in October, and will be available in both hardback and paperback formats. Ordering in advance of publication is now open.
For more information, one could do a lot worse than peruse the relevant pages of the Starfire Publishing website:
http://www.starfirepublishing.co.uk/The_Magical_Revival_advance.htm
The reprints of subsequent volumes in the Typhonian Trilogies will also be in paperback as well as hardback formats. Work will be starting shortly on preparing Outside the Circles of Time for reprint. That will be followed by Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God and the subsequent volumes.
It seems as if the "de luxe" editions are not to be included in the republishing programme? A shame if so, as although expensive, these were lovely artistic pieces of production.
Also, would it be completely impractical to have for example a softback edition of each of the Trilogies in a separate volume (i.e., combining volumes 1-3, 4-6 and 7-9)? I imagine they would be rather large in comparison (with the single volumes), although precedence has been set and even larger compendiums do exist (for example of "The Equinox")
(Seeming to have pressed a stray strange button and altered the settings),
Appreciatively yours,
Norma N Joy Conquest
Yeah Jamie's on it !
Has the point been missed that the artistic factor in the books pours an agency that speaks to a wider range of vision than mere information; or is there some sort of utilitarian pinchfist data production at work ?
yours parvenu ing ly
The 2010 edition is a better version of than the 1991 edition but i don’t know how that compares to the "de luxe" editions which have the 118 impressions on them.
It seems as if the "de luxe" editions are not to be included in the republishing programme? A shame if so, as although expensive, these were lovely artistic pieces of production.
The idea of the reprints is simply to get the books back in print. As such, these are essentially reprints of the Starfire editions, which started in 2008 with Outside the Circles of Time, continued in 2010 with The Magical Revival and then marched relentlessly through the remaining volumes of the Trilogies, culminating in The Ninth Arch in 2016.
I'm very fond of deluxe editions myself, and love designing them. But I don't think there would be sufficient demand for a deluxe edition of a reprint. There will be third editions of the Trilogies volumes later this decade, and those editions will have deluxes. Who wouldn't cling to life at such a prospect a few years hence?
"Also, would it be completely impractical to have for example a softback edition of each of the Trilogies in a separate volume (i.e., combining volumes 1-3, 4-6 and 7-9)? I imagine they would be rather large in comparison (with the single volumes), although precedence has been set and even larger compendiums do exist (for example of 'The Equinox')"
Yes, in my opinion it would be impractical. You'd have volumes which were larger than The Ninth Arch or The Incoming of the Aeon of Maat, either of which are, to my way of thinking, just a bit too lengthy as it is. So no, it won't be happening.
Has the point been missed that the artistic factor in the books pours an agency that speaks to a wider range of vision than mere information; or is there some sort of utilitarian pinchfist data production at work ?
The deluxe edition is simply bound more luxuriously. Sewn but unbound book blocks go from the printers (in this case, CPI Antony Rowe) to the specialist bookbinders (in this case, Ludlow Bookbinders). There is no artistic factor in the standard edition which is not in the deluxe edition.
I don't think any of the books published by Starfire betoken "some sort of utilitarian pinchfist data production", and the reprints will be likewise. The paperbacks will be printed on the usual quality paper (90 gsm Munken), will be bound as sewn sections, and the card used for the cover will be sturdier than most paperback covers.
The 2010 edition is a better version of than the 1991 edition but i don’t know how that compares to the "de luxe" editions which have the 118 impressions on them
The 2010 edition was freshly typeset, took account of the Skoob errata, corrected a few more anomalies, added some artwork, and had plates rephotographed where possible and printed in colour where appropriate. The deluxe edition was printed as a run-on from the standard edition; the only difference was in the binding. The deluxe edition ran to 118 numbered copies; the bookbinders had producded a few more than specified, and these were sold as ex-limitation when the numbered copies had all been sold.
@michael-staley
Jamie got me going; thinking the deluxe had better art reproductions which brought to mind the beautifully executed Carfax monographs. The 2010 edition is awesome !
“ The paperbacks will be printed on the usual quality paper (90 gsm Munken), will be bound as sewn sections, and the card used for the cover will be sturdier than most paperback covers. “
nice !
“ The deluxe edition ran to 118 numbered copies; the bookbinders had produced a few more than specified, and these were sold as ex-limitation when the numbered copies had all been sold. “
With a rite conjunction permeating them, hallowed, signed and touched; by spinners of the wheel; generating the dazzling serpentine force seeping into the human region and the physical substance; weaving the shapes that exalt O sirius into the human light wave.
Jamie got me going; thinking the deluxe had better art reproductions which brought to mind the beautifully executed Carfax monographs. The 2010 edition is awesome !
Yes, they are beautifully executed. A few years ago I remember looking at ten or so examples of the same Monograph, and was interested to see the variations in Steffi's paintings. I had thought beforehand that she might have used a template, but that clearly wasn't the case. She told me that she did a few paintings for the same Monograph at a time, rather than doing at once the 100 copies of the same Monograph.
Thank you for the appreciative remarks about the 2010 edition. I was able to go through the Muller and Skoob editions with a fine tooth-comb, recommending to Kenneth the changes that we might make, the final decision being his of course. Steffi had archived the original artwork for the 1972 edition, and I had items rephotographed where reproduction could now be in colour, or where rephotography would be an improvement.
The Grants had wanted to include a self-portrait by Spare in The Magical Revival, but couldn't locate a suitable one. Thus I suggested 'Self Portrait with Rodent', a watercolour from 1924 which I consider one of the loveliest self-portraits by Spare. The plate section benefitted enormously from the colour content in general - the reproduction of 'Black Eagle', for instance, with its rich reds. Back in the 1970s, the cost-differential between colour and black-and-white reproduction was still significant enough for Muller to stick to black-and-white. A few years later, the difference had shrunk, as I realised when seeking a costing for the second edition of Outside the Circles of Time. It was a few hundred pounds, which when spread across 1500 copies was really very little.
Whatever happened to Skoob?
Did they only print:
Some Typhonian Grant works
The two Necronomicon books
Occult Review (1) ?
And wasn't the owner another Chris, who had some article about seeing UFOs or something?
Seems like it was an interesting press.
Skoob were and still are a second-hand book business, and the publishing was only ever a sideline. No, they printed more titles than you specify. For instance, they republished Victor Neuberg's The Triumph of Pan. There were others too, whose titles escape me for the present. But you can probably find out via a Google search.
At the time of publishing the Grant material, they were owned by Ike Ong. Chris Johnson was an employee of his, who together with Caroline Wise edited, for instance, the Skoob Occult Review.
It was Caroline Wise (now my wife) who brought about the publishing relationship between Kenneth Grant and Skoob. One day a box of second-hand books which had just been bought came into the shop. Someone worked through them and came to a number of curious-looking pamphlets, and wondered what they were. Caroline recognised them as the Carfax Monographs. She suggested that it would be a good idea to republish them, and that they should write to Kenneth Grant suggesting this. He was keen on this proposal, and this led to Hidden Lore, the publication of the Monographs as a single volume; and subsequently to Remembering Aleister Crowley. After that, Skoob reissued the volumes of the Typhonian Trilogies up to and including Nightside of Eden, and published Hecate's Fountain and Outer Gateways.