Buchanalia
The photograph above shows my main John Buchan Collection; there are further shelves which contain books about him and his family's (sister, wife, children, grandchildren) works - mainly fiction. I first read a Buchan novel aged ten - I think it was The Island of Sheep - and have been an avid reader and then collector ever since. From around 1978, I collected with vigour! The result is contained in the 82-page booklet below; there are no illustrations, unlike all my other booklets, but simply the date, title and format. The books/pamphlets are all in first edition, many of them signed and nearly all of them with their original dust wrappers, if they ever had them.
With his family - O. Douglas, his sister; Susan his wife; his brother Walter; his children, Johnnie, Alice, William and Alastair; and his grandchildren, Perdita, Ursula and James; I have amassed one of the largest collections of Buchanalia in the world. My favourite novel? The Blanket of the Dark. My favourite non-fiction work? Montrose.
Close behind in interest (but not in profusion of works) is John Meade Falkner. Again, it was one of his (three) novels which caught me when young - Moonfleet, read by our Headmaster, with just a table light to pierce the winter darkness in the school hall. I founded the John Meade Falkner Society in 1999 and it still exists, small in numbers but great in quality! My Collection has first editions of all his works and many subsequent printings. Several of the books are signed by the author.
What young boy could fail to find the swashbuckling adventures of Stanley Weyman exciting? He was one of the most successful authors in his day and I have all of his novels in first edition, some 26 of them, a few of them signed. I first read him from the same school library that furnished me John Buchan, Rider Haggard and Tolkien. Happy days! Once enamoured with the French tales, more recently I have favoured those set in England - Chippinge, Starvecrow Farm, The Castle Inn and The Great House.
An author probably few would have heard of these days, apart from one or two passionate about the North East of England, Northumbria in particular, is Robert Henry Forster. He wrote 11 Historical novels, 7 books of poetry and books and articles on Archaeology. I have them all in first edition but, I must admit, I still have a few to read. He was a respected man in the rowing fraternity as well as being a dedicated amateur archaeologist.
Often linked with John Buchan and seen as Ireland's answer to the Scot, was Maurice Walsh. When we were in Ireland some years back, we stopped by the wayside to take photographs of the small homestead where he was born. He was an Irish nationalist and, much to his credit, loved red-haired women. My wife would agree! I have all 20 of his novels, in first edition and in dust wrappers. His early works - The Key Above the Door, While Rivers Run, The Small Dark Man and The Road to Nowhere, are perhaps his best.
So far, the majority of my collection has revolved around men. There are two Regional Novelists, whom
I admire greatly for the quality of their writing. If I was 30 years' younger, I would probably set up a Constance Holme Society (like my John Meade Falkner Society). However, I doubt whether I would reach half-a-dozen members. Although she was the only living author at one time to have all her books published in the delightful Oxford World's Classics series, she is all but forgotten these days. I read her The Old Road from Spain in the Sixth Form and recall my pleasure to this day. I started to collect her works towards the end of the last century and now have all her eight novels in first edition, many of them signed and in their dust wrappers. I have her booklet of Plays and several pieces of ephemera. Above all, I have her last, unpublished, novel, The Jasper Sea, in ALS and a score of short stories and articles mainly in written form but some typed; and a large selection of her letters. I have the full set of the nine works in the Oxford World's Classics series - all signed first editions in dust wrappers. A Treasure Trove!
Secondly, there is Mary Webb, who did for Shropshire what Holme did for Westmorland. I read, possibly her most famous work, Gone to Earth whilst still a teenager, but it is only this century that I started to collect her books. I now have all her six novels, and The Chinese Lion, in both UK and USA first editions. I also have a dozen books about the author. Nearly all of my collection are in dust wrappers if so issued. I have yet to compile a Bibliographical booklet on her.
Finally, in this Blog, Alfred Duggan - another novelist who was much admired by authors such as Evelyn Waugh, but who seems to have fallen out of favour these days. I recall reading his first novel, Knight with Armour, at school and much enjoying it. I had a burst of collecting him some 20 years' ago and now have all his works in first edition and in dust wrappers. I haven't read them all and hope to one day! There are 25 books, 17 of them are novels.
The Collector's Cornucopia III will deal with two or three more Novelists and the 'sets'/series which I collect.
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