Centenary Folio Society Edition of Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter

I recently learned that the Folio Society has published an illustrated centenary edition of The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany. Illustrated by Julie Dillon, and with an Introduction by Erin Morgenstern, and a reprinted introduction (from the 1999 Ballantine trade paperback edition) by Neil Gaiman. 

The Folio Society webpage for the book includes a 50 second video highlighting the production. It can be seen here. 

While the artist is clearly very talented, I confess her visions for the novel do not particularly appeal to me. 

Lord Dunsany's The Curse of the Wise Woman

The Dublin Review of Books has an interesting article by Robin Wilkinson on Lord Dunsany, particularly covering The Curse of the Wise Woman (1933). It is titled "Dunsany's Careless Abundance" and is available here. 

A snippet:

In his autobiographical Patches of Sunlight (1938), Dunsany recalls the day he discovered the tales of Edgar Allan Poe in the school library, and straightway read them all, enthralled by ‘the haunted desolation and weird gloom of the misty mid-region of Weir’. He salutes his American cousin once again in The Curse of the Wise Woman, which includes Poe’s description of ‘soulless dissipation’ at Eton, the English boarding school that Poe himself did not attend, although as it happens both Charles [a character in The Curse of the Wise Woman] and Dunsany did. The passage he quotes is taken from William Wilson, Poe’s doppelgänger tale of a young man of noble ancestry haunted by his unrelated twin, a second self who follows him everywhere, much as Charles follows in the footsteps of his creator.

Lord Dunsany's Re-Wilding: An Update

A year and a half ago, I noted the current Lord Dunsany, Randal Plunkett (the 21st Baron Dunsany), and his efforts at rewilding a portion of the Dunsany Estate. (The link is here.)  I found a few video updates recently about the continuing process. A short, six-minute one, "Lord of the Wild: Rewilding Dunsany Estate", can be found here.  A longer (22+ minutes) and more in-depth video, "Does Rewilding Work: Measuring Carbon and Biodiversity Gains at Dunsany Castle", can be found here. As an additional enticement to the rewilding study, I can recommend the many views of Dunsany Castle and the surrounding Estate.  Here the 18th Baron Dunsany wrote many masterpieces of fantasy literature.

Re-wilding by Lord Dunsany

The current Lord Dunsany, Randal Plunkett the 21st Baron Dunsany, is re-wilding a part of the land of the Dunsany estate. The Irish Independent gave it a somewhat reasonable write up here, but it takes The Guardian to snark it up into a caricature. (If you must compare, the link is here.)

Dunsany in a Strange Place

 A friend recently pointed out the following poem in Christopher Morley's volume The Middle Kingdom: Poems 1929-1944 (1944).  Dunsany is rarely the subject of a poem, and here is one that plays on his names (his surname is pronounced dun-SAY'-nee, and does indeed rhyme with "zany"):

“A Night at an Inn”
(Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany - Who’s Who)

To BEDWARD, says EDWARD.
I’m on, cries JOHN.
It helps to shorten the night, quoth MORETON.
Just a glass of port, to relax, says DRAX.
And now we’ve drunk it, mumbles PLUNKETT,
Come on, old zany.
And so all five, with yawns and snorts,
Having partaken their Cinque Ports,
Are merged in bed as LORD DUNSANY.