Dunsany's Works Catalogued

book Reviews them): for some reason, Mikolyzk generally (though not entirely) ignores this important source of material; hence, the researcher could miss, for example, dozens of citations by consulting merely the indexes. Such a deficiency requires one to go through the entire book searching for titles or persons. With more inclusive indexes, the agony of research could have been transformed into the ecstasy of discovery. Finally, typographical errors abound, as though proofreading had been dispensed with. In addition, one rather embarrassing error appears dozens of times in connection with WUde's plays: Mikolyzk constantly refers to the premier of a play rather than the première. At the list price of $69.50, greater damage control should have been exercised throughout the book. Despite aU of its deficiencies, Mikolyzk's bibliography remains a fascinating grab bag of material that is potentially rewarding—that is, if one approaches it with extreme caution. Karl Beckson ______________ Brooklyn College, CUNY Dunsany's Works Catalogued S. T. Joshi and Darrell Schweitzer. Lord Dunsany: A Bibliography. Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, 1993. xxiv + 363 pp. $42.50 LORD DUNSANY (1878-1957) was one of the most prolific and popular writers of his era, but is strangely neglected today, with very few of his many books stiU in print. He certainly was not a part of the Irish Literary Revival, as sometimes stated, although four of his plays, written at the behest of William Butler Yeats, were produced by the Abbey Theatre and some of his earliest stories were published in Schanachie and Irish Homestead. Later he contributed to the Irish Review, but most of his work was published outside of Ireland and he considered himself an English author, totaUy unsympathetic to the aspirations and glorification of the Celtic movement and strongly opposed to the thrust for an independent Ireland. He was born Edward John Moretón Drax Plunkett in London, a member of an old Anglo-Irish famUy, which traced its origins back to the Norman conquest in the twelfth century, with a castle and estate near Tara in County Meath in central Ireland. WhUe his f amUy and title are Irish (the latter one of the oldest in the British Empire), there is little that can be called distinctly Irish about the 18th Baron Dunsany, who lived the greater part of his life outside of Ireland, was a most loyal 273 ELT 38:2 1995 subject of the British crown and served with distinction as a British officer in both the Boer and first World Wars. Yeats considered him a "genius" and vainly sought his active participation in the Celtic renaissance. Dunsany, however, was far more Anglo than Irish and looked not to Gaelic myths for inspiration. Instead in his earliest writings he created a geography and theogony of his own reminiscent of the Arabian Nights that reveals a world of exotic fantasy. His stories and plays of this type are considered forerunners of the works of Lovecraft and Tolkien. As Joshi and Schweitzer note, "this prolific writer worked in nearly every modern literary mode (short story, novel, essay poem, play, letter), published in a bewUdering wide array of periodicals, issued books from 1905 to 1954, and has had his work reprinted in countless periodicals and anthologies." Today, Dunsany is perhaps most remembered, if ataU, for the popular tongue-in-cheek tell tales relating the exploits of Joseph Jorkens, that literary descendent of Baron Munchausen, as the author of the much anthologized The Two Bottles of Relish," and as a playwright, with successful productions in Dublin, New York and, at one time, concurrent runs in London, Prague and Moscow. The authors note that in 1916 he "became the only playwright ever to have five plays running simultaneously on Broadway." At least three of his plays, If, Gods of the Mountains and A Night at the Inn are stUl occasionally produced by regional theaters and amateur groups. The word bibliography has various connotations ranging from a simple reading list to a far more ambitious description of books written by an individual author or those on a specific subject. This volume, No. 90 in the Scarecrow Press Author Bibliographies, departs from the norm of author bibliographies...