Valancourt Books

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Valancourt Books
Valancourt Books Corporate Logo 2014.png
Founded2005
FounderJames Jenkins
Ryan Cagle
Country of originUnited States
Headquarters location Richmond, Virginia
Publication typesNovels
Fiction genres Gothic fiction
Horror fiction
Gay literature
Official website valancourtbooks.com

Valancourt Books is an independent American publishing house founded by James Jenkins and Ryan Cagle in 2005. [1] [2] The company specializes in "the rediscovery of rare, neglected, and out-of-print fiction," in particular gay titles, Gothic novels and horror novels from the 18th century to the 1980s. [1]

Contents

Overview

Discovering that many works of Gothic fiction from the late 18th and early 19th centuries were unavailable in print, Jenkins and Cagle founded Valancourt in 2005 and began reprinting some of them. [1] Their list includes the "Northanger 'horrid' novels", seven gothic novels lampooned by Jane Austen in Northanger Abbey (1818) and once thought to be fictional titles of Austen's creation. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Eventually the company "expanded into neglected Victorian-era popular fiction, including old penny dreadfuls and sensation novels, as well as a lot of the decadent and fin de siècle literature of the 1890s." [1]

In 2012, Jenkins and Cagle realized that there was 20th century literature as recent as the 1970s or 1980s that was equally difficult to find, and began republishing such modern works, in particular those of gay interest or in the horror/supernatural genre. [1] Valancourt has reprinted many works last published in the 1980s by the now-defunct Gay Men's Press in their Gay Modern Classics series. [1]

Valancourt's reprint editions all have new introductions either by the original authors or by "leading writers or critics." [1]

Valancourt refused to deposit its books with the Library of Congress as required by legal deposit rules and sued the Copyright Office. [8] It lost in first instance, [9] but won on appeal in August 2023. [10]

Notable titles

AuthorWork(s)Description
Eliza Parsons Castle of Wolfenbach (1793)
The Mysterious Warning, a German Tale (1796)		Wolfenbach and Mysterious Warning are two of the "Northanger 'horrid' novels", seven Gothic novels lampooned by Jane Austen in Northanger Abbey and once thought to be fictional titles of Austen's creation. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
Lawrence Flammenberg The Necromancer; or, The Tale of the Black Forest (1794)Another of Austen's Northanger 'horrid' novels. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
Francis Lathom The Castle of Ollada (1795)
The Midnight Bell (1798)		Latham's first novel, The Castle of Ollada, is the story of a young man trying to solve the mystery of the ancient castle.
Midnight Bell is another of Austen's Northanger 'horrid' novels. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
Matthew Lewis The Monk (1796)The Monk, the sinister and violent tale of an increasingly destructive Spanish monk, was praised for its genius and simultaneously condemned for its lewdness, vulgarity and blasphemy by the most important critics of its day. [11] [12] [13] [14] The novel was widely popular because the reading public had been told that the book was horrible, blasphemous, and lewd, and they rushed to put their morality to the test. [11]
Regina Maria Roche Clermont (1798)Another of Austen's Northanger 'horrid' novels. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
Eleanor Sleath The Orphan of the Rhine (1798)Another of Austen's Northanger 'horrid' novels. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu Carmilla (1871)A lesbian vampire tale that influenced Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). [1]
Anonymous The Sins of the Cities of the Plain (1881)
Letters from Laura and Eveline (1883)		A Victorian erotic novel about a male prostitute, set in London around the time of the Cleveland Street Scandal and the Oscar Wilde trials. [1] Letters from Laura and Eveline is its "appendix" or sequel. [2]
Anonymous Teleny, or The Reverse of the Medal (1893)One of the earliest pieces of English-language pornography to explicitly and near-exclusively concern homosexuality, of unknown authorship but often attributed to a collaborative effort by Oscar Wilde and some of his contemporaries. [15] [16] [17]
Francis King Never Again (1947)
An Air That Kills (1948)
The Dividing Stream (1951)
The Dark Glasses (1954)		Never Again is a "heartbreaking" novel based on the author's childhood; An Air That Kills is the story of a malaria-stricken writer who returns from a stint as a colonial administrator in India and forges a relationship with his orphaned nephew. [1] The Dividing Stream won the 1952 Somerset Maugham Award, [18] and in The Dark Glasses a married couple who have lost the spark in their marriage move to Corfu.
Walter Baxter Look Down in Mercy (1951)Celebrated novel about the World War II romance between an officer and an enlisted man. [1] [19] [20] [21]
Rodney GarlandThe Heart in Exile (1953)The first gay detective novel, about a psychiatrist investigating his former lover's suicide. [1]
Kenneth MartinAubade (1957)The story of a teenager's first love, written when the author was 16. [1]
Gerald Kersh Fowler's End (1958)
Nightshade and Damnations (1968)		Fowler's End is a Depression-era Dickensian comedy.
Nightshade and Damnations is a collection of Kersh's short stories edited by Harlan Ellison.
Michael Nelson A Room in Chelsea Square (1958)A "camp" novel about a wealthy gentleman who lures an attractive younger man to London with the promise of an upper crust lifestyle. [1] [22]
Gillian Freeman The Leather Boys (1961)The first novel to focus on love between young working-class men rather than aristocrats. [1]
Michael Campbell Lord Dismiss Us (1967)Story of two gay people at a boarding school: "a teenager unashamedly coming to terms with his identity and a tortured teacher who is unable to accept his own," [1] published in the same year that homosexuality between consenting adults was legalized in the United Kingdom. [23]
Michael McDowell
  • The Amulet (1979)
  • Cold Moon Over Babylon (1980)
  • Gilded Needles (1980)
  • The Elementals (1981)
  • Katie (1982)
  • Blood Rubies (1982) as Axel Young
  • Wicked Stepmother (1983) as Axel Young
  • Toplin (1985)
The Elementals is a horror novel that Poppy Z. Brite has called "surely one of the most terrifying novels ever written," and which led Stephen King to proclaim McDowell "the finest writer of paperback originals in America today." [1] [24]
Michael Talbot The Delicate Dependency (1982)A celebrated vampire novel. [1]

Related Research Articles

<i>Northanger Abbey</i> 1818 novel by Jane Austen

Northanger Abbey is a coming-of-age novel and a satire of Gothic novels written by the English author Jane Austen. Although the title page is dated 1818 and was published posthumously in 1817 with Persuasion, Northanger Abbey was completed in 1803, making it the first of Austen's novels to be completed in full. From a fondness of Gothic novels and an active imagination distorting her worldview, the story follows Catherine Morland, the naïve young protagonist, as she develops to better understand herself and the world around her.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montague Summers</span> English writer (1880–1948)

Augustus Montague Summers was an English author, clergyman, occultist, and teacher. He initially prepared for a career in the Church of England at Oxford and Lichfield, and was ordained as an Anglican deacon in 1908. He then converted to Roman Catholicism and began styling himself as a Catholic priest. He was, however, never affiliated with any Catholic diocese or religious order, and it is doubtful that he was ever actually ordained to the priesthood. He was employed as a teacher of English and Latin while independently pursuing scholarly work on the English drama of the 17th century. The latter earned him election to the Royal Society of Literature in 1916.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minerva Press</span> A publishing house of London in UK

Minerva Press was a publishing house, notable for creating a lucrative market in sentimental and Gothic fiction, active in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was established by William Lane at No 33 Leadenhall Street, London, when he moved his circulating library there in about 1790.

<i>Northanger Abbey</i> (1987 film) 1987 television film directed by Giles Foster

Northanger Abbey is a 1987 made-for-television film adaptation of Jane Austen's 1817 novel Northanger Abbey, and was originally broadcast on the A&E Network and the BBC on 15 February 1987. It is part of the Screen Two anthology series.

Regina Maria Roche (1764–1845) is considered a minor Gothic novelist, encouraged by the pioneering Ann Radcliffe. However, she was a bestselling author in her own time. The popularity of her third novel, The Children of the Abbey, rivalled that of Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho.

Francis Lathom was a British gothic novelist and playwright.

<i>Clermont</i> (novel) 1798 novel by Regina Maria Roche

Clermont, Regina Maria Roche's 1798 novel, "...is arguably the definitive text of the Gothic novel craze during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries". It was first published by Minerva Press.

Eliza Parsons was an English Gothic novelist, best known for The Castle of Wolfenbach (1793) and The Mysterious Warning (1796). These are two of the seven Gothic titles recommended as reading by a character in Jane Austen's novel Northanger Abbey.

<i>The Castle of Wolfenbach</i> 1793 Gothic novel by Eliza Parsons

The Castle of Wolfenbach (1793) is the most famous novel written by the English Gothic novelist Eliza Parsons. First published in two volumes in 1793, it is among the seven "horrid novels" recommended by the character Isabella Thorpe in Jane Austen's novel Northanger Abbey and an important early work in the genre, predating Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho and Matthew Lewis's The Monk.

Dear creature! How much I am obliged to you; and when you have finished Udolpho, we will read The Italian together; and I have made out a list of ten or twelve more of the same kind for you.

Have you, indeed! How glad I am! What are they all?

I will read you their names directly; here they are, in my pocketbook. Castle of Wolfenbach, Clermont, Mysterious Warnings, Necromancer of the Black Forest, Midnight Bell, Orphan of the Rhine, and Horrid Mysteries. Those will last us some time.

Yes, pretty well; but are they all horrid, are you sure they are all horrid?

<i>The Necromancer; or, The Tale of the Black Forest</i> 1794 novel by Ludwig Flammenberg

The Necromancer; or, The Tale of the Black Forest is a Gothic novel written by Karl Friedrich Kahlert under the alias Lawrence Flammenberg and translated by Peter Teuthold that was first published in 1794. It is one of the seven 'horrid novels' lampooned by Jane Austen in Northanger Abbey. It was once thought not to exist except in the text of Northanger Abbey.

<i>The Midnight Bell</i> Gothic novel by Francis Lathom

The Midnight Bell is a gothic novel by Francis Lathom. It was first published anonymously in 1798 and has, on occasion, been wrongly attributed to George Walker. It was one of the seven "horrid novels" lampooned by Jane Austen in her novel Northanger Abbey.

Dear creature! How much I am obliged to you; and when you have finished Udolpho, we will read the Italian together; and I have made out a list of ten or twelve more of the same kind for you.

Have you, indeed! How glad I am! What are they all?

I will read you their names directly; here they are, in my pocketbook. Castle of Wolfenbach, Clermont, Mysterious Warnings, Necromancer of the Black Forest, Midnight Bell, Orphan of the Rhine, and Horrid Mysteries. Those will last us some time.

Yes, pretty well; but are they all horrid, are you sure they are all horrid?

—Northanger Abbey, ch. 6

The Orphan of the Rhine is a gothic novel by Eleanor Sleath, listed as one of the seven "horrid novels" by Jane Austen in her novel Northanger Abbey.

<i>Horrid Mysteries</i> 1796 novel by Carl Grosse

The Horrid Mysteries, subtitled "A Story From the German Of The Marquis Of Grosse" is a translation by Peter Will of the German Gothic novel Der Genius by Carl Grosse. It was listed as one of the seven "horrid novels" by Jane Austen in her Northanger Abbey and also mentioned by Thomas Love Peacock in Nightmare Abbey. It was first published by the sensationalist Minerva Press in 1796. A later, two-volume edition published by Robert Holden and Co., Ltd. in 1927 includes a new introductory essay by Montague Summers. The books were bound in pictorial boards, and feature a period-style "advertisement" for Pears' Soap on the rear cover.

<i>The Mysterious Warning: A German Tale</i> 1796 novel by Eliza Parsons

The Mysterious Warning: A German Tale is a novel by the English gothic novelist Eliza Parsons. It was first published in 1796 and is one of the seven "horrid novels" lampooned in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey.

Dear creature! How much I am obliged to you; and when you have finished Udolpho, we will read the Italian together; and I have made out a list of ten or twelve more of the same kind for you.

Have you, indeed! How glad I am! What are they all?

I will read you their names directly; here they are, in my pocketbook. Castle of Wolfenbach, Clermont, Mysterious Warnings, Necromancer of the Black Forest, Midnight Bell, Orphan of the Rhine, and Horrid Mysteries. Those will last us some time.

Yes, pretty well; but are they all horrid, are you sure they are all horrid?

—Northanger Abbey, ch. 6

Eleanor Sleath was an English novelist, best known for her 1798 gothic novel, The Orphan of the Rhine, which was listed as one of the seven "horrid novels" by Jane Austen in her novel Northanger Abbey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Peyton Cooke</span> American novelist

John Peyton Cooke is an American novelist. He is most notable as a short story writer known for thrillers, often with gay male protagonists and including themes of male homosexuality and psychological suspense.

Karl Friedrich Kahlert also known by the pen names Lawrence Flammenberg or Lorenz Flammenberg and Bernhard Stein was a German author of gothic fiction. He is best known for The Necromancer; or, The Tale of the Black Forest, an English translation by Peter Teuthold of his Der Geisterbanner: Eine Wundergeschichte aus mündlichen und schriftlichen Traditionen, which is one of the seven 'horrid novels' referenced by Jane Austen in Northanger Abbey. Through this work, he was a major influence on gothic literature in England, including Matthew Lewis's The Monk.

<i>The Heroine</i> (novel) 1813 novel by Eaton Stannard Barrett

The Heroine; Or Adventures of a Fair Romance Reader is a novel by Eaton Stannard Barrett, first published in 1813.

Carl Friedrich August Grosse also known as Edouard Romeo Vargas-Bedemar was a German author, translator, aesthetic philosopher, and mineralogist. He is best known for his gothic novel Der Genius, which was translated into English by Peter Will as Horrid Mysteries, subtitled "A Story From the German Of The Marquis Of Grosse" and subsequently referenced by Jane Austen as one of the seven 'horrid novels' in Northanger Abbey. His philosophy focused on the aesthetics of sublimity, following the work of Friedrich Schiller, and provided one of the first philosophical treatments of imagination.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Healey, Trebor (May 28, 2014). "Early Gay Literature Rediscovered". Huffington Post . Retrieved May 31, 2014.
  2. 1 2 Cardamone, Tom (August 21, 2014). "James Jenkins: Publishing Lost Gay Classics". Lambda Literary . Retrieved September 7, 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "About Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey 'Horrid Novels'". Valancourt Books. Retrieved September 7, 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Northanger Canon". University of Virginia. November 13, 1998. Archived from the original on October 16, 2008. Retrieved June 14, 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Frank, Frederick S. (1997). "Gothic Gold: The Sadleir-Black Gothic Collection". Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture. 26: 287–312. doi:10.1353/sec.2010.0119. S2CID   145338217.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Fincher, Max (March 22, 2011). "'I should like to spend my whole life in reading it': the resurrection of the Northanger 'horrid' novels". The Gothic Imagination (University of Sterling). Retrieved April 22, 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Ford, Susan Allen. "A Sweet Creature's Horrid Novels: Gothic Reading in Northanger Abbey". Jane Austen Society of North America. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
  8. ↑ Brittain, Blake (August 29, 2023). "US appeals court curbs Copyright Office's mandatory deposit policy". Reuters . Retrieved August 31, 2023.
  9. ↑ "Valancourt Books, LLC v. Perlmutter". Court Listener. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
  10. ↑ "Valancourt Books, LLC v. Merrick Garland, 21-5203 (D.C. Cir. 2023)". Court Listener. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
  11. 1 2 Peck, Louis (1961). A Life of Matthew G. Lewis . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 23–25, 27–28.
  12. ↑ Coleridge, Samuel Taylor (2006). "Review of The Monk by Matthew Lewis". In Greenblatt, Stephen; Abrams, M. H. (eds.). The Norton Anthology of English Literature . Vol. D (8th ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 603–606.
  13. ↑ Irwin, Joseph (1976). M.G. "Monk" Lewis. Boston: Twayne Publishers. pp.  46, 48. ISBN   0-8057-6670-7.
  14. ↑ Parreaux, André (1960). The Publication of The Monk . Paris: Librairie Marcel Didier. p.  75.
  15. ↑ Nelson, James (2000). Publisher to the Decadents: Leonard Smithers in the Careers of Beardsley, Wilde, Dowson. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania State University Press.
  16. ↑ Gray, Robert; Christopher Keep (2007). "An Uninterrupted Current: Homoeroticism and collaborative authorship in Teleny". In Marjorie Stone; Judith Thompson (eds.). Literary Couplings: Writing Couples, Collaborators, and the Construction of Authorship. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 193. ISBN   978-0-299-21764-8.
  17. ↑ Roditi, Edouard (1986). Oscar Wilde . New Directions Publishing. p.  168. ISBN   0-8112-0995-4.
  18. ↑ "Somerset Maugham Award: Past Winners". The Society of Authors. Archived from the original on June 26, 2016. Retrieved June 15, 2014.
  19. ↑ "Books: Man Under Pressure". Time . March 17, 1952. Archived from the original on January 27, 2008. Retrieved June 13, 2014.
  20. ↑ Granger, Derek (August 28, 1997). "Obituary: Fergus Provan". The Independent . Retrieved January 10, 2013.
  21. ↑ Peyre, Henri (Autumn 1956). "The Most Neglected Books of the Past Twenty-Five Years Selected by Writers, Scholars and Critics". The American Scholar . 25 (4). Phi Beta Kappa Society: 492. JSTOR   41208189.
  22. ↑ Cordova, Steven (June 26, 2014). "A Room in Chelsea Square by Michael Nelson". Lambda Literary. Retrieved September 7, 2014.
  23. ↑ "Sexual Offences Act 1967". Office of Public Sector Information. 1967. Retrieved June 19, 2014.
  24. ↑ Winter, Douglas (1985). Faces of Fear. New York: Berkley Books. p. 177. ISBN   0-425-07670-9.
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