Introductions

Carter, Angela.  "Preface." Memoirs of a Midget.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.

A superb introduction to de la Mare's novel of a beautiful young woman who happens to be a midget.  The first-person narrative of her twentieth year shows her as an outsider, but it is actually the society in which she lives that is defective.

Freedman, Barnett.  "Introduction."  Ghost Stories. London: Folio Society, 1956.

Hopkins, Kenneth.  "Introduction."  Walter de la Mare:  A Selection from His Writings.  London: Faber, 1956.

A very fond, appreciative and enthusiastic introduction to a sampling of de la Mare's works.  Maintains that de la Mare will be remembered and that his writing may take a place with the literary greats.

Joshi, S.T. "Introduction."  The Return.  Mineola, NY: Dover, 1997.

Regards the novel as a novel of possession that is really more than that. As in so many of de la Mare's supernatural works, the protagonists undergo a terrifying and supernatural-like identity crisis.  The central question is--does Arthur Lawford's physical change bring about a psychological change?  The question is not easily, if at all, answered in the novel.  It is thus really about many things, and is a masterpiece of weird fiction.

Valentine, Mark. "Introduction."  Strangers and Pilgrims.  Leyburn, North Yorkshire:  Tartarus Press, 2007.

An excellent introduction to the volume that contains stories that are not obviously ghost stories in addition to those often described as such.  Valentine perceptively says in de la Mare "usually fear, and despair, come from absence, not presence;  they come, not from malevolent purpose, but from an empty sense of purposelessness," what de la Mare called "the icy summons of some dreadful nothing."

Wagenknecht, Edward.  "Introduction."  Eight Tales.  Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1971.

An excellent historical and  biographical introduction to this volume, which contains de la Mare's previously uncollected tales.  Wageknecht perceptively remarks, "Evil itself is a supernatural power in de la Mare, and a very terrible one, all the more terrible because, besides crawling out of the nethermost pit, it crawls, too, out of your heart and mine."  A landmark collection.