Dead Houses AND The Village Green by Edith Miniter

Buy both volumes together and save $5

For Edith Miniter (1867-1934), daughter of a poet and a mathematician, the undercurrent of isolation and ancient whispers always persists. Her friend H. P. Lovecraft compared Mrs. Miniter’s fiction with that of Jane Austen, yet despite her genius, Edith Miniter’s literary heritage has – until now – lain neglected in forgotten amateur journals, magazines and newspapers.

DEAD HOUSES AND OTHER WORKS collects much of her finest work in short fiction, including the short story from which this collection draws its name. One of Mrs. Miniter's ancestresses in the early nineteenth century was a suspected witch; and her “Wonted Fires” is as dark a piece of gothic fiction as the aficionado might desire. Also included are her amateur writings, including the delightful Lovecraftian parody, “Falco Ossifracus.” Her essays mine a rich vein of information about amateurdom in general and Lovecraft in particular; he was one of very few she admitted to her confidence. Rounding out the monumental, 380-page volume are essays about her life and work by Lovecraft and other of her contemporaries, as well as modern scholarship on Mrs. Miniter – revealing her as a fascinating emblem of a vanished period in literature.

In THE VILLAGE GREEN AND OTHER PIECES, editors Faig and Donnelly renew their determination to establish Mrs. Miniter in her rightful place as a New England Regionalist. Three unfinished novels form the core of this volume, together with numerous short stories. Two unusual items round out the collection: "A Rearward Glance," an autobiographical summary of a life in amateur journalism; and "How to Dress on $40 a Year," a humorous piece displaying Miniter's characteristic wit.