Nightside of Eden - republication

[Michael Staley]

As part of the programme for bring all volumes of the Typhonian Trilogies back into print, work has been underway for some weeks now in preparing Nightside of Eden for republication in December.

As with the previous republications, the book is being freshly typeset, with the Skoob errata incorporated. Additionally, further corrections are being made on the basis of notes in Kenneth Grant's personal copy of the book.

[Babaluma]

Fantastic news, they are coming quicker and quicker!

[Michael Staley]

There was an substantial and interesting review by David Hall of Nightside of Eden published in 1978 in the magazine Sothis.

I'm pleased to say that with the permission of the surviving editors and publishers of Sothis, as well as that of the copyright-holder of David's work, this review has now been made available on the Starfire Publishing website. It is available via a link on the web-page for the forthcoming republication of Nightside of Eden.

The review can be directly accessed at www.starfirepublishing.co.uk/nightside_review.htm



Michael Staley,
Starfire Publishing Ltd.

[Vadge Moore]

I just finished reading my old copy of Nightside this morning. Such a powerful, beautiful work of art.

[yokai]

Any updates on this one? Such a beautifully dark work, I could stare at Steffi's cover art for days.

[Michael Staley]

Yes, there is. I've recently been dealing with proofs from the printers. There were a few problems to sort out with the print reproduction quality of some of the plates. These were finally resolved at the end of last week, and print production is under way. I am expecting the standard edition to be delivered in the last week of this month, March.

[yokai]

I saw the facebook post! Excellent news indeed

[Ad Finem]

Brings back memories as I was a subscriber to Sothis all those years ago! Thanks for the link Michael as it's great to be able to read period review of the work.

Alchemi

[Michael Staley]

It's an excellent review, and I was pleased to be able to link to it from the Nightside web page. There are some great articles by David Hall throughout the issues of Sothis, all of them worthy of being made available again. The article by him in the first issue Time and the World was an earlier version of a chapter in Beelzebub and the Beast. I remember particularly The Amulet of the Abyss which I reread only a few months ago. I hope these and others will one day be included in a "Best of Sothis" volume or volumes.

[N0T 2]

I am strongly impressed by the new enhanced Starfire deluxe edition of Nightside of Eden.

It is an astoundingly beautiful object, and does full justice to the depth of its monumental and singular contents in its design, which is intensely Artful, virtuosic, a clearly focussed physical appearance of the essential Primordial Grimoire or Book of Shadows of which this title is but one incarnate ray.

The exterior of the deluxe edition is gloriously sensual and unsettlingly lovely. It shouldn't move like that, but it does. Every time you look at it. The re-photographed imagery inside is strikingly crisp, and the new colour plates previously published in black and white in previous editions have fresh interest.  There is a fine sense of harmony in the typesetting's proportions which makes every page a true pleasure to the eye, something organic about the way it flows and hangs together - very lovely! Unpretentious, uncluttered, unaffected, yet redolent with the dark, haunted soul of this text in detail, and in whole. The addition of new pictures, a photograph of Kenneth from 1983 and marginal notes from his personal copy of the book are also of interest.

This was one of the "big guns" of the Trilogies in my opinion, particularly the first half. Previous editions have done the job elegantly, but the new Starfire edition really captures the liminal and numinous qualities of the text in a very fine way.

A triumphant achievement in every sense. I know Starfire have only ever made wonderful books, but for me this one is a real milestone, an exemplary expression of the Art of magic books.

They just keep getting better with every vintage.

[Michael Staley]

Many thanks, NOT 2, for your appreciation. The deluxe of Hecate turned out well.

[stephen]

Trawling through my books last week, my copy of The R'lyeh Text attracted my attention.  It was published by Skoob Books in 1995 and I acquired it late that year, and due to circumstances it never received my full attention.  Follow up to THE NECRONOMICON, The Book of Dead Names it was edited by George Hay and introduced by Colin Wilson, but once again the core 'grimoire' was "Researched, transcribed and annotated by Robert Turner".

Reading Turner's commentary on the new Necronomicon passages (not actually a R'lyeh Text, therefore), I came across his response to Kenneth Grant's dismissive assessment of the previous volume in Outside the Circles of Time: it was fairly robust.  He also gave his views on KG's interpretation of the Lovecraftian Gnosis in the Trilogies.  Of course, Skoob were publishing these at that time.

What I liked most was Turner's succinct comment on Nightside of Eden:

"Nightside of Eden may also be consulted at your literary or psychological peril".

Its always good to have an alternative point of view.

(Robert Turner was a founding member of The Order of the Cubic Stone, an occult scholar and author.  He died last year on 15 April).