New to me, Ornaments in Jade by Arthur Machen. Now on Librivox as a free 100-minute audiobook read by Chuck Williamson.

Ornaments in Jade is a collection of short narrative experiments from Arthur Machen, ten dreamlike tales that are in equal parts enigmatic, sumptuous, and phantasmagoric…

Interesting. Issued in 1924 by Alfred A. Knopf of New York, in a 1000-copy limited edition. Turn-of-the-century literary decadence was coming back into view at that time, as the taint of the trial of Oscar Wilde faded. With this trend and Knopf’s publicists behind it, one imagines that the bookmen of New York City were at least aware of this edition when Lovecraft first arrived in the city. Lovecraft first discovered Machen’s work in the summer of 1923, so he may well have discovered news of it by himself.

If he was then able to see a copy of Jade must remain debatable. Yet, according to Joshi, he likely learned of Machen through Frank Belknap Long and a letter reveals he was “rereading” Long’s Machen collection in 1926. Long would have had both the savvy and contacts to be aware of the limited-edition being issued on his doorstep in 1924, and would also have had the funds to purchase it. Thus is seems reasonable to suppose that Lovecraft at least perused the book in 1926, if not soon after publication in 1924. It could also have become available for reading circa 1925, in the reading-rooms of the larger libraries in the city. This leads to the possibility that aspects of it may have inspired or influenced his own Dream Quest.

Centipede Press nicely reprinted the book a few years ago, and S.T. Joshi had his copy up for bags at $30 in 2018.