Comments on: About This Site

By: Alan Piper

Alan Piper — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:43:00 +0000

“Life and death ! Life and death ! They are the dyes in which I work. Are my hands stained?” Endymion Leer
What I loved about ‘Lud in the Mist’ was the ambiguity of the characters particularily Endymion Leer. Good? Evil? Other? It’s a while since I read Lud but if fairy fruit aren’t simply a metaphor and the story just about the freedom to think and to imagine, the strength to dream – then the significance of fairy fruit as a explicit reference tp psychoactive drugs needs to be addressed. Paris and the lost generation were a hot-bed of drug experimentation in which for example Yeats at least dabbled. “The Violet Apple” by David Lindsay [written 1924 but which never found a publisher in the author's lifetime] is a contemporary example of a novel clearly exploring the significance of what would now be called psychedelic experience. If you don’t address the significance of Bohemian drug culture of the 1920s in connection with fairy fruit I believe you’ll be ignoring the elephant in the room. Lud, Lindsay’s ‘Voyage to Arcturus’ and other turn of the century fantasy were re-published by Ballantine against the background of the 1960′s psychedelic culture and many a well thumbed copy adorned hippy pads. In view of Mirrlees relationship with Jane Harrison, the role of altered states and almost certain use of psychoactive drugs in Graeco-Roman mystery religions may be relevant.

By: Janet

Janet — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 04:12:19 +0000

I was delighted to find your site about Hope Mirrlees. Back in 1993, I processed a small collection of her papers for the University of Maryland’s Department of Special Collections. I remember it being VERY difficult to track down information about her, especially since it was the pre-Internet era. I read some of her works at the time, and confess that I found her friendships more interesting than her writing. However, she was a fascinating woman and she does deserve to be plucked from obscurity.

By: Mike Tortorello

Mike Tortorello — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 15:20:24 +0000

Hello Erin,

I can be reached at peganapress@live.com. I’ve still had no success getting permission to reprint Paris. Sent a registered letter to Dr. John Saunders, one of the executors of Hope’s estate and was undeliverable. Am trying to reach Mrs. Eliot through her agent but have met with no success so far. Nevertheless, I have printed the first two pages of the poem following the spacing from your scan very laboriously. Can see how this must have driven Virginia Woolfe over the edge. Anyway, any help you might give would be appreciated. I’m determined to see this through and get Paris printed.

Mike

By: Erin

Erin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:59:13 +0000

Thanks, Marianne! Fixed. Glad to hear you could find a nice edition locally — we’re a bit hard up for nice editions in the US.

By: Marianne

Marianne — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:16:27 +0000

Hi,
Just a quick note to say that the barnes & noble review has moved – it’s now at http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Library-Without-Walls/Lud-in-the-Mist/ba-p/820

Thanks for an interesting site – I found you via Neil Gaiman’s blog, but I found Lud-in-the-Mist in my local library in the Gollancz edition you mentioned.
Marianne

By: Ben Towle

Ben Towle — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 03:08:01 +0000

Erin – Thanks so much for the information. If you do try to track down the “theoretical rights-holder” (or want any help trying to do so) please contact me via the email address I submitted. Doing a comics/graphic novel adaptation of this work is something I’d really be interested in, if copyright issues could be sorted out. I’ll certainly keep the prospect on my radar for the future–or sooner if an orphan works bill ever makes its way through the legislature.

By: Erin

Erin — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 19:24:07 +0000

Hi Ben,

The tricky thing about Lud‘s copyright is that it was initially published in the UK, and until US copyright law changed in the 1980′s, it was briefly in the public domain. It has since gone back out of the public domain, as far as I can tell — the details are genuinely mindboggling, particularly since there are some pending court cases that could affect its status in at least some parts of the US. That said, there are a couple of print-on-demand and small-press versions that appear not to have been printed with permission (they’re marked copyright the press, not Mirrlees or her representative), so it seems that it’s being reprinted here without any action from the theoretical rights-holder, so you could probably get away with it if you weren’t working with a publisher who was nervous about a lawsuit.

The safest thing would be to consider it to be in copyright until 2019, after which it will definitely be in the public domain—if Disney doesn’t manage to get copyright extended yet again—frustrating as that is. I may eventually try to track down said rights-holder, but the likeliest thing is that it’s an orphan work (that is, the US copyright holder can’t be found) that will nevertheless be considered in copyright—thought I suppose Google may end up with rights to reproduce it.

The mind boggles, really. If I learn anything new or more definite, I’ll post it here, and please do let me know if you get any legal advice or anything. I’d love to see a really nice small press edition with annotations come out before 2019!

By: Ben Towle

Ben Towle — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 18:49:08 +0000

Erin – You mention that the U.S. copyright status of Lud-in-the-Mist is “deeply complicated.” I’m curious if you have done any digging in this area and whether you could share what you’ve found. I ask because I briefly considered working on a graphic novel adaptation of the book, but found trying to figure out what was going on copyright-wise to be daunting.

Great work on the site! The more that’s out there about this fabulous author, the better.

By: Erin

Erin — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 03:00:11 +0000

Hi Mike,

I missed this comment when it came in, and I’ve tried to locate contact info for you, but have been unsuccessful. How can I reach you?

Best,
Erin

By: Mike Tortorello

Mike Tortorello — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:55:11 +0000

Hello Erin,

I’ve been a fan of Lud -In-The-Mist for many years and stumbled upon your website and was introduced to Paris. I have just started up a letterpress shop and am interested in reprinting Paris in chapbook form emulating the Hogarth press edition as it was so important to Mirrlees that the typeset was a certain way. Do you know who I could contact to get permission to reprint the poem ? Also would you be interested in contributing something ?

Many thanks for your time and for introducing me to Paris.

Mike Tortorello
Pegana Press