Masters of the Weird Tale -- ranking, thoughts, etc.

My favorite CP books are the Masters of the Weird Tale.

I started with CP many many years ago, and had some of the early tomes such as Poe, Hodgeson, etc. At one point, I had them all :)

So, how "good" are the early tomes? Not nearly as good as they are now. I'm not talking about the writing of course, but the actual layouts, illustrations, etc. The early Masters were among other things, not signed. I'm not trying to fling mud or anything, naturally, as you work on something the quality only improves, and so it is with CP. By the way, the Kuttner book has the worst quality, while releases today are of high quality. I asked Jerad at one point to please consider re-releasing the earlier works -- Lovecraft, Poe, Hodgson. For various reasons it sounds like it will never happen at least in the same luxurious format as the MotWT. That said, I do hope we see more such books. I would love love love to see a Shirley Jackson edition amongst others!

As for favorite? Well, I really don't have a favorite. They are all lovely works and fun reading. Although if I had to pick one, perhaps Machen.

I really regret not buying these when they were released, especially the Fritz Leiber and Robert Aickman collections. Secondhand copies of any of the MotWT sets are few and far between, and usually at the ridiculous prices most CP titles command on the aftermarket.

From past newsletters, Jerad is working on collections from Charles L. Grant and Ramsey Campbell, both of which he anticipates being two volumes, and a collection from the Polish Poe- Stefan Grabiński. Piotr Jabłoński posted some of the artwork he’s done for the Grabiński collection, and it’s fantastically creepy- https://www.behance.net/gallery/35017445/Stefan-Grabinski-Masters-of-the-Weird-T...

That post is 3 years old now, so hopefully the actual book is close to being done.

Personally, I’d love to see a MotWT collection for T.E.D. Klein. While he hasn’t had the largest output, he certainly deserves the title ‘master of the weird tale’, and his stories are just ripe for the illustrated treatment.

I really regret not buying these when they were released, especially the Fritz Leiber and Robert Aickman collections. Secondhand copies of any of the MotWT sets are few and far between, and usually at the ridiculous prices most CP titles command on the aftermarket.

From past newsletters, Jerad is working on collections from Charles L. Grant and Ramsey Campbell, both of which he anticipates being two volumes, and a collection from the Polish Poe- Stefan Grabiński. Piotr Jabłoński posted some of the artwork he’s done for the Grabiński collection, and it’s fantastically creepy- https://www.behance.net/gallery/35017445/Stefan-Grabinski-Masters-of-the-Weird-T...

That post is 3 years old now, so hopefully the actual book is close to being done.

Personally, I’d love to see a MotWT collection for T.E.D. Klein. While he hasn’t had the largest output, he certainly deserves the title ‘master of the weird tale’, and his stories are just ripe for the illustrated treatment.

With reference to ridiculous prices I note that the 2 vol Fritz Leiber recently came up twice on ebay and went for more than £900 about a fortnight ago and more than £1000 early this morning. It is likely that the second seller capitalised on the success of the first one and I wonder if others might follow. Given the initial price of this set (£227 at today’s exchange rate) the temptation to sell is irresistable. However wise I might be at the swings and roundabouts of this market-place I was astonished at these prices - should I have been?

4: I'm pretty astonished myself. Most of the Masters books I would say are around $400 or so. Not sure why the Fritz Leiber is so expensive. However, if Leiber regularly sell for that price obviously there is demand.