Mark Valentine

Mark Valentine (born 1959 ) is an English short story author, editor and essayist on book-collecting.

Works

Short stories Valentine's short stories have been published in a number of collections and in anthologies. The Collected Connoisseur (Tartarus Press, 2010) is about the mystical encounters of an aesthete whose real name is never revealed, some written jointly with John Howard. ‘The Descent of the Fire’, a story in this series by Valentine & Howard, was included in the 2004 World Fantasy Award winning anthology Strange Tales edited by Rosalie Parker. Herald of the Hidden (Tartarus Press, 2013) collects stories about Ralph Tyler, a Northamptonshire folklorist.

Other short story collections include Selected Stories (2012) and Seventeen Stories (2013). His story ‘Vain Shadows Flee’ was chosen for Best British Short Stories 2016 edited by Nicholas Royle (Salt Publishing). Secret Europe (2012) and Inner Europe (2018) are shared collections with John Howard of stories set in real and fictional European locations.

Studies and essays He has written studies of Arthur Machen and Sarban. He also wrote numerous articles for Book and Magazine Collector, and his essays on book-collecting, minor writers and related subjects have been collected in Haunted By Books (2015) and A Country Still All Mystery (2017).

As editor Valentine has edited or introduced over forty books, mostly in the supernatural fiction field, including editions of work by Walter de la Mare, Robert Louis Stevenson, Saki, J. Meade Falkner and others. He has also edited anthologies, including The Werewolf Pack (Wordsworth, 2008), The Black Veil (Wordsworth, 2008) and The Scarlet Sin – Stories for Dorian Gray (The Swan River Press, Dublin, 2017).

From 1985 to 1988, he edited Source, a journal about ancient holy wells. He then co-edited (with Roger Dobson) Aklo, a journal of the fantastic, and edited Wormwood, a biannual journal of fantastic literature, from 2003 to 2022.

Publishing In small press publishing, with Roger Dobson he ran Caermaen Books, principally devoted to titles about Arthur Machen and, with Jo Valentine, he has issued handmade artist books under the Valentine & Valentine imprint. Valentine also published the first book by Joel Lane, a chapbook titled The Foggy, Foggy, Dew.

Recordings Valentine has also issued sound recordings. As The Mystic Umbrellas, he contributed "Journey to the West", a keyboard piece, to the Deleted Funtime tape (Deleted Records, Dec 009, 1980), and as Radio Dromedary contributed treated shortwave recordings to National Grid 2 (Conventional Tapes, CON 015, 1981). He also issued The Sound of the Sea/The Sound of Pendeen Watch, a sound recording of the sea and a Cornish lighthouse foghorn (Zennor Hill tapes, 1983).

Online writing He is co-writer of the literary blog Wormwoodiana with Douglas A. Anderson, with occasional contributions from others.

Books

Fiction In Violet Veils, Tartarus Press (Horam, Sussex), 1999 Masques and Citadels, Tartarus Press (North Yorkshire), 2003 The Rite of Trebizond and Other Tales, with John Howard, Ex Occidente Press (Bucharest, Romania), 2008 The Nightfarers, Ex Occidente Press (Bucharest, Romania), 2009. Reprinted Tartarus Press (North Yorkshire), 2020 The Seven Treasures of Bucharest, Ex Occidente Press (Bucharest, Romania), 2009 The Collected Connoisseur, with John Howard, Tartarus Press (North Yorkshire), 2010 The Mascarons of the Late Empire & Other Studies, Passport Levant (Bucharest, Romania), 2010 The Peacock Escritoire, Passport Levant (Bucharest, Romania), 2011 Secret Europe, with John Howard, Ex Occidente Press (Bucharest, Romania), 2012 Selected Stories, Swan River Press (Dublin), 2012 Herald of the Hidden & Other Stories, Tartarus Press (North Yorkshire), 2013 Seventeen Stories, Swan River Press (Dublin), 2013 The Uncertainty of All Earthly Things, Zagava (Germany), 2018 Inner Europe, with John Howard, Tartarus Press (North Yorkshire), 2018 Powers and Presences, with John Howard, Sarob Press (France), 2020 The Fig Garden, Tartarus Press (North Yorkshire), 2022 The Peacock Escritoire, Tartarus Press (North Yorkshire), 2023 Lost Estates, Swan River Press (Ireland), 2024

Poetry

At Dusk, Ex Occidente Press (Bucharest, Romania) 2012 Star Kites: Poems & Versions, Tartarus Press (North Yorkshire), 2013 Astarology, Salò Press (Norwich), 2021

Non Fiction Arthur Machen, Seren Books, 1985 Time, a Falconer: A Study of Sarban, Tartarus Press (North Yorkshire), 2010 Haunted by Books, Tartarus Press (North Yorkshire), 2015 A Country Still All Mystery, Tartarus Press (North Yorkshire), 2017 The Secret Ceremonies: Critical Essays on Arthur Machen (co-edited with Timothy J Jarvis), Hippocampus Press, 2019 A Wild Tumultory Library, Tartarus Press (North Yorkshire), 2019 Sphinxes and Obelisks, Tartarus Press (North Yorkshire), 2021 The Thunderstorm Collectors, Tartarus Press (North Yorkshire), 2024