Back in 1998-1999 I had a 12-month contract at Penguin Classics. While there, I pitched three potential additions to their ever-expanding canon: 1. The Kalevala. This suggestion was rejected on the perfectly reasonable grounds that Oxford Worlds Classics already owned the state-of-the-art English translation. 2. The Risala of ibn Fadlan, a 10th-century road trip during which the Arab ibn Fadlan hung out with some Swedish Vikings in Russia and witnessed a ship burial (the only eye-witness account!). I was told this was too obscure, but 14 years later they went ahead and published it! (Something for you, Pyndah?) 3. The best short stories of Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961). The American chapter of Penguin Classics had just begun publishing what I consider to be the definitive editions of the short stories of H.P. Lovecraft (three excellent volumes thus far) and I realized the time was ripe to give Smith the same treatment. I pitched the idea to a like-minded soul at Penguin in the US but he said his masters would never give the go-ahead. I went ahead and reread all the short stories of Smith I could get my hands on, selected a personal best of, and sent them to Penguin USA anyway. 15 years later, this slim but tantalizing libram slithered through my letterbox...
Posted on: Wed, 16 Apr 2014 06:55:10 +0000