Now celebrated as the finest English writer of ghost stories, MR James was known to his contemporaries as the scholarly Provost of King?s College Cambridge and later of Eton. This first published collection of his letters ? deciphered from his notoriously difficult handwriting ? includes affectionate boyhood missives to his parents, discussions of academic politics with colleagues, and chatty notes to friends revealing his fear of spiders and love of cats.

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Bibliographic Details

Title: Casting the Runes
Publisher: Unbound
Publication Date: 2023
Language: English
ISBN 10: 1800181752
ISBN 13: 9781800181755
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

The much-loved author Montague Rhodes James is best known today for his ghost stories. Their popularity has kept them in print since the first collection was issued in 1931, and they've earned a cult following. But for all this literary success, his lifetime's correspondence has remained inaccessible in a Cambridge University archive – until now.

This first ever collection of his personal letters has been meticulously curated, transcribed and annotated by Jamesian scholar Jane Mainley-Piddock to offer an unprecedented and overdue insight into a great and singular mind. Through notoriously illegible handwriting, we learn of James's fear of spiders and his love of cats; his musings on the work of other contemporary authors; and a whole life's thoughts on a host of subjects – which shed light on the man himself: his family, his work, his relationships and preoccupations.

Essential reading for any fan, *Casting the Runes *brings at last to the fore a writer adored for his fiction who himself has long remained in the shadows.

About the Author

Jane Mainley-Piddock is a British writer, blogger and book reviewer. She specialises in the ghost stories of M. R. James and the literature of the late Victorian period. She blogs on her website janemainley-piddock.com, where you will also find her poetry and short stories. She is based in Shropshire.@jmainpidd

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