The venerable British SF author Brian Stableford has passed away. I can’t speak to his fiction, though I recall reading his SF books in the early 1980s and I know his range later included Lovecraftian Mythos tales (The Innsmouth Heritage and Other Sequels, etc al), fantasy tales (collected in Fables & Fantasies from Necronomicon Press) and acclaimed genre pastiche and mash-ups (Sherlock Holmes and others). Here I try to piece together a very basic overview of his scholarly works. Others will doubtless do a far better job in time, for one of the most prolific British writers. One hopes they’ll also say a word or two about the fine cover-artists he must have enjoyed having from time to time…
In 1979 he made his name as a critic with a study of the works of fellow SF author James Blish, A Clash of Symbols: The Triumph of James Blish. So far as I can tell, he never wrote on Lovecraft but a taste of his wide range of interest can be found in the contents list for his Slaves of the Death Spiders and Other Essays on Fantastic Literature (2017). With essays on H.G Wells and Dracula, SF of the 1980s, and also the infamous British 1990s censorship case of Lord Horror, plus his musings on the modern profession of science-fiction writing as a profession. He wrote at length on the latter topic in Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction. Several other essay collections on the craft, and DIY guides to writing SF, can also be found.
He was most interested in the deep roots of science-fiction, and became the authority of seminal but forgotten figures in the early ‘scientific romance’ such as Birmingham’s Sydney Fowler Wright (Deluge, The World Below and others), writing introductions to new editions, collecting and publishing S. Fowler Wright’s Short Stories, and editing books with a wider scope such as Scientific Romance: An International Anthology of Pioneering Science Fiction, the multi-volume scholarly book-series Scientific Romance in Britain 1890-1950; plus the later New Atlantis: a narrative history of the scientific romance.
He was also interested in the intersections with decadence, with historical collections such as Decadence and Symbolism: A Showcase Anthology, and at least two volumes of the Dedalus Book of Decadence. Exemplary early drug literature he collected in Snuggly Tales of Hashish and Opium. Recently he produced the representative collection Weird Fiction in France, and The Dedalus Book of British Fantasy (19th century).
He collected sea tales of alluring sirens in The Snuggly Sirenicon and Fays of the Sea, made an anthology of early femme-fatalle stories, and in Tales of Enchantment and Disenchantment wrote a history of faerie as a lead-in to “exemplary anthology” of such early tales and with a focus on the female ‘fay’.
In his later years he produced anthologies of proto-science fiction such as News from the Moon, and volumes of translations of early French science fiction such as Nemoville. His translations of early French imaginative authors would fill a small library, and his The Plurality of Imaginary Worlds: The Evolution of French Roman Scientifique provides the guide-book. Side-interests included early proto-robots, evidenced by the book Automata which collected stories from the 19th century featuring such ‘automata’ devices.
I see he had bibliographic articles published in the Book & Magazine Collector, introducing collectors to the likes of R.E. Howard and M.P. Shiel.
One can also find his name as editor (and probably also writer) on volumes such as The A to Z of Fantasy Literature; Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia; the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction Literature; Dictionary of Science Fiction Places, and others.
Being British he was also interested in our own SF history, as seen in pieces such as “A Brief Economic History of British SF magazines” (in Space, Time, and Infinity: Essays on Fantastic Literature, 2007). Possibly there are more such out there.
That’s it for a brief survey. Doubtless I’ve missed a lot, but hopefully I’ve also given others some clusters to build on. Or just titles to read. He wrote a lot, but was not publicised a lot — and so you may well find titles above that you had no idea existed.
Brian Stapleford’s many achivements included translations of novels by Felicien Champsaur, and it is in that connection that I write as ask whether you (or perhaps Mr. Stapleford’s executors or heirs) happen to know of a collection or repository of Champsaur’s papers. I ask because I am currently researching the career of the French bookbinder Louis Deze (1858-1930) who I believe was a friend of Champsaur and therefore might have corresponded with him. Deze bound four of his novels including his personal annotated copy of JEUNESSE and a copy of L’HURLUBERLU which is signed by them both and contains a pen sketch of them together. My short article on Deze in the winter number of THE BOOK COLLECTOR ([454]-469)–which I would be glad to forward to you–might help to clarify my reasons for seeking Champsaur’s papers. I will, of course, be most grateful for any suggestions you may care to offer.
Felicien Champsaur died in Paris in 1934, so I would have thought his papers would be gone into a special collection at a Paris university or institute. Indeed, yes… I see 0.6 metres of his manuscripts held at the Department of Performing Arts of the National Library of France (arts-spectacle@bnf.fr). https://archivesetmanuscrits.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cc102647q/ca59740270939282 No letters(?) though, which is likely what you require. I do however see a couple of U.S. (Yale etc) collections that contain letters (seeming routine business letters?) from him to the subject of their archives. That’s all I can dig up. Hope it helps.