Felix John Taylor

A linocut illustrated block of a horned woman in profile with a strange Pagan letters at the base of the composition and a stark woodland background.

G is for ‘The Great God Pan’ in my #folkhorroralphabet published in 1894 by Welsh writer Arthur Machen. The story is complex but I’ve focused on the character Helen Vaughan; a woodland dwelling deviant and daughter of the mythological God Pan.

matpringleillustration.bigcartel.com/product/folk...

Hedgehog amongst autumn leaves by roots of trees, painting.

Hedgehog, Jane Dignum.

Gawsworth, not Galsworthy! I've heard Francis Ford Coppola is apparently Redonda's Duke of Megalopolis

A vintage illustration of several dormice in a tree. Six dormice, specifically the common or hazel dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius), are shown climbing on the branches of a tree or bush. The mice are gathered around a woven nest, with one dormouse partially inside it. The branches are covered with green and brown leaves and clusters of dark berries. The image is a detailed, 19th-century watercolor illustration by Dr. Edward Adrian Wilson.

Dormice, Edward Adrian Wilson, 1910.

Yeah, I think you're right... It's a shame, they would have got on

Why do you think HPL never tried to contact Machen?

A little post about The Unicorn, a magazine that ran for two or three issues in 1895, and published H G Wells and almost (but not quite) Arthur Machen: felixtaylor.org/the-quest-fo...

Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day?

Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚

Who were C L Moore's influences? What pushed her into writing the early pulp tales?

Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/fantasy-th... This is on the 23rd, if you live in or near Oxford and have a long lunch break to fill

Cover of an early edition of Iain Sinclair's Lud Heat. Black and white photograph of a church set within a yellow border with the title and author's name in red lettering.

"There was a whole world of underground activity [in the period that birthed Lud Heat]. Those first years of the 70s were the best for it, because so much of the 60s had been taken up by psychedelic gangsters and chancers”'

#IainSinclair’s Lud Heat At 50

buff.ly/x4m4wMR

Thank you, yes I kept seeing his name crop up in connection to Machen and Waite, but there's nothing too much online about him! What we really need are letters or an undiscovered memoir...

New blog post up on the publisher Ralph Shirley and popular occult journalism in early 20thc London: felixtaylor.org/ralph-shirle...

ICELANDIC FAIRY TALES A.W. HALL • NEW YORK• Green cover and spine, An illustration of a gnome-like figure with a tall, pointed cap and a staff is also present, standing below a star and radiating lines on spine. The front cover is also green and features a prominent illustration of a winged, fairy-like figure with a pointed hat and a wand, standing atop a large, stylized bee or insect. Rays of light emanate from behind the fairy's head.

Book Cover of the Day:

Hear me talk about the Golden Dawn in the setting of an Oxford college:

Ithell Colquhoun exhibition at the Tate recently. Beautiful, & magic(k)al in every sense of the word, given the palpable weird aura coming off some of these

Good point- in fact that whole neighbourhood felt surprisingly open (and green), very different to how I'd imagined it

A month ago today! Still standing

Cover of Lynchian: The Spell of David Lynch by John Higgs

New book announcement! LYNCHIAN: THE SPELL OF DAVID LYNCH, an exploration into why his work has such a profound impact on us. Out in November, pre-order link in bio, some details in my newsletter... It is happening again!

I'm pleased to share my open access article "Decadent Echoes: Arthur Machen, M. John Harrison, K.J. Bishop, and the Ends of Mystery", from a forthcoming issue of the journal Humanities:
www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/14...

The painting portrays a rolling landscape illuminated by moonlight. A traditional-looking house with visible windows is nestled within the landscape, Palm trees and other vegetation, including flowering plants, are prominent. A winding path or track leads through the landscape, bordered by a low wall.

Goodnight.
Full Moon, Cornwall, Morna Rhys.

New blog post up on the Arthur Machen papers at the Harry Ransom Center: felixtaylor.org/arthur-mache...

ft. my essay on what Lovecraft thought of Wales and Welsh people (not flattering, with the exception of Arthur Machen) - whole issue should be online soon!

It's half nine in the evening, fool, quit trying to index a whole book

A short post about my trip to the US to see some Arthur Machen archives (part one of who knows how many?) felixtaylor.org/arthur-mache...

A highlight: the cavernous basement of the Strand bookshop in NYC!

‘For the Dead Remember: The Life of M. R. James’ will be published by Oxford University Press on 10 September 2025. Set your watches, mark your calendars, and spread the word!

How the hell is anyone with a wfh desk job expected to do 10k steps a day? I would LOVE to do 10k steps a day.

Lucia Joyce - daughter of James Joyce and Nora Barnacle - in 1928. Photo by Berenice Abbott, born 17 July.