Stories Primarily for Adults

'The world Walter de la Mare fixed in his gaze at once veiled and half-disclosed a realm beyond sense and time. The meaning and the reality of things lie off-centre, off stage. What delights and moves him, what mystifies and disturbs him, derives its beauty and power from the unseen and the unknown. [...] De la Mare has the power to penetrate the surface of things and leave the reader dissatisfied with the opacity of a world seen by less piecing eyes.'
                                 

(* denotes main texts)

Walter de la Mare (1873-1956) has always been best known for his poetry, but for many people, W.H. Auden and Graham Greene included, his prose merits comparison with the richness of Henry James and Robert Louis Stevenson. Moreover, Angela Carter notes the resemblance that de la Mare's stories have to the vivid and unsettling intensity of the French Surrealists. Over the years his work has influenced writers from W.H. Auden and William Golding to Russell Hoban and Richard Adams.
Henry Brocken (1904), The Return (1910) and Memoirs of a Midget (1921) are de la Mare's three full-length novels. The main short stories collections from those listed below are The Riddleand Other Stories (1923), Ding Dong Bell (1924), The Connoisseurand Other Stories (1926), On the Edge (1930), The Wind Blows Over (1936), A Beginning and Other Stories (1955) and Walter de la Mare, Short Stories 1895-1926 (1996) and Walter de la Mare, Short Stories 1927-1956 (2000).


*Henry Brocken: His Travels and Adventures in the Rich, Strange, Scarce-Imaginable Regions of Romance, London, J. Murray, 1904; London, Collins, 1924; London, Faber, 1942

*The Return, London, Arnold, 1910; 1922

*Memoirs of a Midget, illustrated by Florence Thompson, London, Collins, 1921; illustrated by Mabel Lapthorn, London, Collins, 1933;  with introduction by Angela Carter, Oxford University Press, 1990; Telegram, 2009

Lispet, Lispett, and Vaine, engravings by W.P. Robins, London, The Bookman's Journal, 1923

*The Riddle and Other Stories, London, Selwyn and Blount, 1923

*Ding Dong Bell, London, Selwyn and Blount, 1924; London, Faber, 1936

Two Tales: The Green-Room, The Connoisseur, London, The Bookman's Journal, 1925

*The Connoisseur and Other Stories, London, Collins, 1926

Seaton's Aunt, wood engraving by Blair Hughes Stanton, London, Faber, 1927

At First Sight, New York, Crosby Gaige, 1928

*On the Edge: Short Stories, wood engravings by Elizabeth Rivera, London, Faber, 1930

Seven Short Stories, illustrated by John Nash, London, Faber, 1931

The Walter De La Mare Omnibus: Henry Brocken, The Return, Memoirs of a Midget, London, Collins, 1933

A Froward Child, London, Faber, 1934

The Nap and Other Stories, London, Nelson, 1936

*The Wind Blows Over, London, Faber, 1936

*Stories, Essays and Poems, edited by M.M. Bozman, London, Dent, 1938

The Picnic and Other Stories, London, Faber, 1941

*Best Stories of Walter de la Mare, London, Faber, 1942 and 1957

The Almond Tree, London, Todd Publishing Co., 1943

The Orgy, London, Todd Publishing Co., 1943

Collected Tales of Walter de la Mare, edited by Edward Wagenknecht, Knopf, 1950

*A Beginning and Other Stories, London, Faber, 1955

Walter de la Mare: A Selection from his Writings, edited by Kenneth Hopkins, London, Faber, 1956

Some Stories, London, Faber, 1962

Eight Tales, Arkham House, 1971

*Walter de la Mare, Short Stories 1895-1926 ,  edited by Giles de la Mare, Giles de la Mare Publishers, 1996

*Walter de la Mare, Short Stories 1927-1956 ,  edited by Giles de la Mare, Giles de la Mare Publishers, 2001

The Return, New York, Dover Publications, 1997

Strangers and Pilgrims, Tartarus Press, 2007

Missing, with foreword by Russell Hoban, Hesperus Press, 2007