Books to keep alive

    

     Just the other day I read Simon's post about a new publishing house and went straight to their website to order a catalogue. Capuchin Classics have launched their first four titles this month - that's of a planned sixteen a year - and offer reprints of "outstanding works which have undeservedly been forgotten or are not easily available in the British market, alongside a choice of literary favourites which are themselves in the classic genre."

     Their categories include fiction, biography, travel and belles lettres, and available now are The Green Hat by Michael Arlen, Pamela Hansford Johnson's An Error of Judgement, Kipling's Plain Tales from the Hills and On Horseback and Other Stories by Guy de Maupassant.

Writers appearing on Capuchin's list in the coming months include Arthur Conan Doyle and John Buchan, A.A. Milne and H.E. Bates, Nancy Mitford and Elizabeth Goudge; I've already got my eye on a few of these prettily distinctive editions with specialist introductions.

    Looking through the list makes me ask: are there any books you would try to "keep alive"? What do you think needs to be rescued or deserves to be better known? I'd vote for this one.

Comments

[Margaret Powling]

Oh yes, three cheers for One Fine Day by Mollie Panter Downes! I love this book, have often searched out 2nd hand copies to give to friends, too. Another book I'd like to keep alive is Cathedral Close by Susan Goodyear who, at the time of writing it (in the 1930s) was the wife of the Dean of Exeter Cathedral. It's a delicious story of love and gossip penned long before Joanna Trollope's own cathedral close story, The Choir.

[Peter the Flautist]

For years it was Bunyard's "Anatomy of Dessert" but that has been recently reprinted (though possibly it is still obscure). There are many books in science which fall out of print, often because they are superceded of course, but many are still useful (and indeed referred to). I'd mention some except that they will be far too specialised I think to generate any interest here.

Dark Puss

[Margaret Powling]

Oh come on, Dark Puss, "far too specialized"? Don't tantalize us like that! Mention a few science books which you think should be kept alive!
I've just ordered a Capuchin Classic ... that didn't take long, did it?

[Peter the Flautist]

Dark Puss responding to Margaret:

H. S. Carlslaw and J. C. Jeager, “Conduction of Heat in Solids"

Polunin, Nicholas
"Circumpolar Arctic Flora"

Pollard, A.F.C. "The kinematical design of couplings in instrument mechanisms"

[Margaret Powling]

Thank you, Dark Puss, considered yourself stroked and given saucer of milk! These sound suspiciously like my husband's bedtime reading: Text-Book (sic) of Physics by Duncan & Stirling; Strength of Materials by F V Warnock, and Applied Heat for Engineers by J-B O Sneeden.

[Lindsay]

I'm all in favour of new publishing houses, but what an odd collection to start with. Plain tales From The Hills is readily available everywhere and pretty much always has been, much as I enjoy it. I wonder what their motivation is - probably to use an out of copyright classic to cast lustre over obscure or difficult offerings? The Arden is such a period piece - a cult book of its time (1920s? early 30s?) but is so dated as to be almost unreadable now (yes, sceptics, I have read it).

[Barbara]

I love One Fine Day! I agree with Lindsay about Capuchin's choice of books. I seem to have read most of the titles already, so they can't be that rare. The Green Hat is a must if you are looking at literature of and immediately after the First World War. I don't know about unreadable: I certainly find Ronald Firbank unreadable, yet he has his admirers. Authors to keep in print? Elizabeth Taylor, E H Young, Joyce Dennys (she wrote more than Henrietta). I see Capuchin are planning to reprint Mr Perrin & Mr Thrale, by Hugh Walpole. I don't like it much but will put in a word for his Jeremy books.

[Peter the flautist]

I don't think Capuchin is a new publishing house, I think it is a new imprint of Stacey International Ltd.

[Simon Thomas]

Beautiful, aren't they? I'm especially excited about the AA Milne 'Two People' - it's a wonderful novel, and will hopefully enable easier access to a writer whose non-Pooh books are nearly all out of print. So glad you're spreading the word, Karen!

[adele geras]

Will have to have a bit of a think about books to keep in print. A bit more difficult-to-get-hold-of Maxwell wouldn't come amiss! But how wonderful to see Pamela H-J back. I loved her books. There was one about a family holidaying in Belgium whose name I can't remember. Any offers? It was super. Also a book about the Moors murders and censorship called 'On Iniquity' I think would be a welcome reprint as far as I'm concerned.

[tara]

These are gorgeous - I'm going to see if they'll send a catalog across the pond.

[Nan]

I love the idea of bringing Bates and Goudge more into the public eye. I've enjoyed both over the years.

[Simon Thomas]

Just to say - there's now a nice interview with lovely Emma Howard (who runs Capuchin) over on my blog.