Yeah, I remember that about Alexander. And I'll have to look for the letters. I'll have to do some digging - you know how things get moved around.

As for a blog....yeah, I'd like that. Never had the gumption to do it on my own. It would be nice to have it.

YES!!!!!

Library "meals" are intended to be returned. These...well, you get what you pay for.

As for the secret inside......I don't know, I didn't write it. Yeah, that may be a fatal flaw in it.

It's interesting that some (but not all) of the most highly regarded fantasy works are, in a sense, children's fiction. This has had the unfortunate response of a lot of fantasy - if not the whole genre in total - being considered "not serious literature" and consigning it to a metaphorical literary ghetto. It's only recently, in a rather relative sense, that critics are giving it a new appraisal, though some stigmatization persists. But there are a good number of "children's books" that are genuinely good and still hold the imagination captive, and for today's entries, I'd like to list a few of the finest.

ALAN GARNER (1934- )
He insists that his work was never meant to be children's fiction, but he got labeled as such regardless. Drawing on the folklore and history of his native Cheshire, Garner made a name for himself with The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, set in the town of Alderley Edge, in which two children must help a wizard retrieve a mystic pendant stolen ages ago before the minions of a dark spirit find it; this was followed by a sequel, The Moon of Gomrath. Then came Elidor, an otherworldly tale of four children entrusted with sacred treasures, and The Owl Service, an adaptation of the Welsh legend of Blodeuwedd set in modern times. One more fantasy followed - Red Shift, which spans a thousand years in the history of Cheshire - before moving on to contemporary fiction. However, only recently, he turned out the long-awaited third installment of his Alderley Edge trilogy, Boneland.

Offsite resource:
Wikipedia entry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Garner)
Encyclopedia of Fantasy (http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=garner_alan)
The Unofficial Alan Garner Website (http://alangarner.atspace.org/index.html)



LLOYD ALEXANDER (1924-2007)
One of the most acclaimed writers of children's fiction, Alexander is best known for The Chronicles of Prydain, in which elements of Welsh mythology are appropriated to tell the life story of Taran, an impetuous Assistant Pig-Keeper. His other series include the Westmark trilogy of European fantasies and the globetrotting exploits of Vesper Holly. His other single novels shouldn't be disregarded, either, ranging from animal tales (Time Cat), picaresques (The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian), and foreign cultures such as Greek (The Arkadians), Chinese (The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen), Hindu (The Iron Ring), and Arabian (The First Two Lives of Lukas-Kasha, The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio).

Offsite resource:
Wikipedia entry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd_Alexander)
Encyclopedia of Fantasy (http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=alexander_lloyd)



MADELEINE L'ENGLE (1918-2007)
Although she has quite a number of books to her name, most of them being young adult stories of adolescent life, Mrs. L'Engle is known primarily for her "Kairos" science fantasy series of novels regarding a group of siblings and their friend discovering the phenomenon of folding space and time and the consequences that such actions bring. The series is chronologically divided into two "generations," the first under the Murry name (A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters) while the second follows the O'Keefes (The Arms of the Starfish, Dragons in the Waters, A House Like a Lotus), and the two come together in the last book (An Acceptable Time).

Offsite resource:
Wikipedia entry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_L%27Engle)
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/lengle_madeleine)
Official website (http://www.madeleinelengle.com/)



SUSAN COOPER (1935- )
One can only wonder what may have gone through people's heads when Over Sea, Under Stone appeared in 1965. The novel tells of three children who, under the supervision of their wise uncle, discover the hidden location of the Grail, so essential to the Matter of Britain. It's a suspenseful mystery with fantastic subtext...but eight years later, Susan Cooper would continue the story into full blown fantasy, detailing the struggle of the mystic Old Ones, servants of the Light, against the forces of the nebulous Dark. The four books that followed - The Dark Is Rising, Greenwitch, The Grey King and Silver on the Tree - would gain critical recognition and place Mrs. Cooper in the minds of many a fan.

Offsite resource:
Wikipedia entry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Cooper)
Encyclopedia of Fantasy (http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=cooper_susan)
The Lost Land: The Official Site of Susan Cooper (http://thelostland.com/)



DIANA WYNNE JONES (1934-2011)
Not many fantasy writers known today can claim to have attended lectures by either Lewis or Tolkien. Diana Wynne Jones sat under both of them. Something of a precursor to J. K. Rowling, Jones's work mixes traditional fantasy with warm humor and sharp social criticism. Important works of note include the Chrestomanci series (Charmed Life, The Magicians of Caprona, Witch Week, The Lives of Christopher Chant, Mixed Magics, Conrad's Fate and The Pinhoe Egg), the Dalemark Quartet (The Spellcoats, Cart and Cwidder, Drowned Ammet and Crown of Dalemark), the Moving Castle series (Howl's Moving Castle, Castle in the Air and House of Many Ways), the short Derkholm series (Dark Lord of Derkholm and Year of the Griffin) and many single novels such as Dogsbody, Eight Days of Luke, Power of Three, The Time of the Ghost, Archer's Goon, Fire and Hemlock, A Tale of Time City, A Sudden Wild Magic and Hexwood.

Offsite resource:
Wikipedia entry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_Wynne_Jones)
Encyclopedia of Fantasy (http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=jones_diana_wynne)
The Diana Wynne Jones Fansite (http://www.leemac.freeserve.co.uk/)



ROBIN McKINLEY (1952- )
Wife of the late Peter Dickinson (writer of the "speculative natural history" The Flight of Dragons), Mrs. McKinley's goal has been to provide an alternative for female readers where there previously were none (but, of course, I don't mean to insinuate that she has nothing left to offer). She is well known for her two novels set in the mythic land of Damar (The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown), as well as retellings of classic fairy tales with feminist perspectives (Beauty, Rose Daughter and Spindle's End).

Offsite resource:
Wikipedia entry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_McKinley)
Encyclopedia of Fantasy (http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=mckinley_robin)
Official website (http://robinmckinley.com/)


There are others I could go into, including some who have influenced the modern development of children's literature.....but that's best saved for another entry.

Where do bookworms go to feast? Keep in mind that they don't intend to merely rent their meals...

Sort of. But books don't have branches. They can be found on branches, of course. And once you take them, they're yours...for a price.

A stamp.

How about this?

I have wood but no bark,
leaves that don't fall,
I am made up of branches,
and I come in sizes of all.
I am completely devoured many times,
over and over by a worm of a kind.
If you desire to know the answer of mine,
look for the secret that I've stored inside.
What am I?

Funny thing is I saw this while looking for my own riddle...and now I've forgotten it. I know the corner is metaphorical. I have this feeling like it's a place...

I think I got it: Australia.

Which Eddie is this? Is that Edward Bauer III? Or some other Eddie that I don't know of? If that's the case, you get the distinction of being called "Second Eddie." You're welcome.

As in Tom ******* [Edited for last name: he who was known as Sgread]? Does he have any social media contacts? If he has the time, it would be great if he could pop in occasionally.

Those are the best types of articles - they make you think about things, and it sticks with you long after. It may even change your life.

Here's a few more authors - just five this time.

DAVID LINDSAY (1876-1945)
Something of a "missing link" between his fellow Scot George MacDonald and the modern day surrealists (in Scotland), Lindsay is best remembered for a single work: A Voyage to Arcturus, a philosophical sci-fi/fantasy mindbender recounting one man's journey to an alien world orbiting the star Arcturus, where philosophical concepts take physical form. It has since become something of an underground classic, having earned high praise from the likes of Lewis and Tolkien. The rest of his rather small output is sorely neglected, though The Haunted Woman is also regarded as particularly special.

Offsite resource:
Wikipedia entry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lindsay_(novelist))
TV Tropes entry on A Voyage to Arcturus (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/AVoyageToArcturus)
Encyclopedia of Fantasy (http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=lindsay_david)
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/lindsay_david)
Violet Apple: The Life and Works of David Lindsay (http://www.violetapple.org.uk/index.php)



CHARLES WILLIAMS (1886-1945)
Similar to the state of Clark Ashton Smith in the shadow of H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, Charles Williams doesn't really have the immediate recognition of his fellow Inklings, Lewis and Tolkien. However, he was nonetheless a great author in his own right, turning out a number of "supernatural thrillers" focusing on themes such as the intersection of the spiritual world and the physical world and the dangerous, sometimes beneficial, nature of power. His most famous works include the novels War in Heaven, Many Dimensions, The Place of the Lion, The Greater Trumps, Descent into Hell and All Hallows' Eve. He was also a respected essayist, dramatist and poet, publishing two volumes of Arthurian poetry in his lifetime, among many other works.

Offsite resource:
Wikipedia entry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Williams_(British_writer))
TV Tropes entry (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/CharlesWilliams)
Encyclopedia of Fantasy (http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=williams_charles)
The Charles Williams Society (http://www.charleswilliamssociety.org.uk/)



STEPHEN R. DONALDSON (1947- )
You've probably heard of Donaldson. While he's written a couple of other series (Mordant's Need and the Gap Cycle), he's most famous for The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, a rather bleak, psychologically heavy deconstruction of high fantasy, in which the fate of an enchanted world is placed in the hands of a curmudgeonly leper. It's a large series, having finished only recently, and its morbid tone may not be for everyone. But for the patient reader, it may hold quite a few surprises.

Offsite resources:
Wikipedia entry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_R._Donaldson)
TV Topes entry on Thomas Covenant (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheChroniclesOfThomasCovenant)
Encyclopedia of Fantasy (http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=donaldson_stephen_r)
Official website (http://www.stephenrdonaldson.com/)



JOHN CROWLEY (1942- )
He began by writing three science fiction novels of considerable note (The Deep, Beasts and Engine Summer), but Crowley really made a name for himself with the outstanding fantasy Little, Big, which follows an eccentric American family whose ordinarily sized house is a portal to the expansive and unpredictable world of Fairy; it is regarded as one of the most significant fantasy novels, garnering praise from the likes of famous literary critic Harold Bloom. His other major work is the four-volume Ægypt, a metafictional story of a historian writing a manuscript on Hermeticism (at least that's how I can best describe it at this time.).

Offside resource:
Wikipedia entry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Crowley)
Encyclopedia of Fantasy (http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=crowley_john)
John Crowley's LiveJournal (http://crowleycrow.livejournal.com/)



ROBERT HOLDSTOCK (1948-2009)
Like Crowley, Holdstock began with science fiction before breaking on the scene with a sequence of novels centered in the imaginary English woodland of Ryhope Wood, a microcosm in which the mythic archetypes of humanity's collective subconscious come to life. The series - Mythago Wood, Lavondyss, The Bone Forest, The Hollowing, Merlin's Wood [UK only], Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn and Avilion - is a Jungian exploration of the nature of fantasy itself, associated with the subgenre of mythic fiction, which draws from the tropes and settings of myths and fairy tales. Holdstock himself is regarded as one of the best practitioners of post-Tolkien fantastic fiction.

Offsite resource:
Wikipedia entry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Holdstock)
Encyclopedia of Fantasy (http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=holdstock_robert_p)
Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood (http://robertholdstock.com/)

It's always nice to look for major online literary publications or at least sites primarily devoted to the subject. Sometimes the big book publishers will have blogs and such that point out titles worth mentioning. Personally, I also look for the literary awards, three in particular - the Hugo, the Nebula and the World Fantasy Award; looking at the history of the awards is also a gauge on what was popular then and now, not to mention the honors given for lifetime achievement. Science fiction may be the primary purpose in some cases, but fantasy often gets blanketed in. Now, yes, the downside of narrowing your search this way is the risk of neglecting what may otherwise be good books in their own right as well as possibly overglorifying some works (or even the awards themselves), but at least it's a starting point.

Here's the Wiki links for info on the awards; some of the references will take you to their official sites.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebula_Award
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Fantasy_Award

Then there are book series - meaning themed collections meant to organize authors who have or are standing out. One of the most influential came from Ian and Betty Ballantine in 1969, where they assigned Lin Carter the task of compiling a number of authors who had fallen out of print at the time; it remains pretty influential in putting a lot of names back into the public consciousness. Here's some information on it, as well as a couple of similar noteworthy collections.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballantine_Adult_Fantasy_series
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newcastle_Forgotten_Fantasy_Library
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_Masterworks

Also, here's a couple of the lists that I've used for reference material myself.

http://www.fantasyliterature.com/reviews/modern-fantasy-the-100-best-novels-1946-1987/
https://thestrangersbookshelf.wordpress.com/lists/top-100-fantasy-novels/

Finally, I just like to get lost in a subject. See, if you just type in "fantasy" on Wikipedia or TV Tropes, you'll find a LOT of areas to cover, including subgenres and history. The online Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, which has its own separate Encyclopedia of Fantasy section (I've linked to it several times in the Authors topic), is practically indispensable. If you have any spare time with nothing else to do, you should try it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_fantasy
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Fantasy
http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php

A tree.

Who makes it, has no need of it.
Who buys it, has no use for it.
Who uses it can neither see nor feel it.
What is it?

Fear.

These are quite amazing. Of course, they're completely impractical for me, but it's nice to see other people's work.