Books published by Heathen Editions

Robert William Chambers (1865-1933) was an American illustrator and writer, best known for The King in Yellow, his influential and odd collection of ten macabre and French short stories first published in 1895. The title refers to a fictional play featured in four of the stories, and to a mysterious and malevolent supernatural entity within that play who may very well exist outside of it. It is whispered that the play leaves only insanity and sorrow in its wake; it tempts those who read it, bringing upon them hallucinations and madness . . .Influencing the works of H.P. Lovecraft, Raymond Chandler, George R.R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, and Nic Pizzolato (creator and writer of HBO's True Detective), and described by critics as a classic in the field of the supernatural, The King in Yellow - with its dashes of fantasy, mystery, mythology, romance, and science fiction - is a staple of the early gothic and Victorian horror genres.

William Hope Hodgson (1877-1918) was an English author best known for The Night Land (1912) and, this, his second novel, The House on the Borderland. Noted by H. P. Lovecraft as "a classic of the first water," it is considered a literary milestone that signaled a radical departure from the typical Gothic fiction of the late 19th century, ushering in a newer more realistic and scientific cosmic horror that left a marked impression on those who would become the great writers of weird tales of the mid-twentieth century.The story within the story is a hallucinatory account of an old recluse and his very strange house in which he experiences attacks by supernatural swine-beasts, travels to otherworldly dimensions, and bears witness to the destruction of the solar system - "it is galactic adventure, prophetic fantasy, macabre romance, and drugless trip, and brilliantly unites its many disturbing elements, easily equalling, if not surpassing, all predecessors and contemporaries."

Edwin Abbott Abbott (1838-1926) was an English clergyman, schoolmaster, Shakespearean scholar, and theologian best known as the author of the 1884 satirical novella Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. Written pseudonymously as "A Square," the book used the fictional two-dimensional world of Flatland to parody the puritanical hierarchy and rigid stratification of Victorian culture, especially the low status of women.An underground favorite since its publication, inspiring many novel sequels and films, the story's most enduring contribution is its examination of dimensions, which introduced aspects of relativity and hyperspace years before Einstein published his famous theories. An illuminating mathematical treatise, Flatland has experienced a revival in popularity, especially among sci-fi and cyberpunk fans, due to its sharp social satire and challenge to our most basic perceptions of everyday reality "that seems to have been written for today."

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was an English journalist, poet, biographer, historian, debater, radio personality, and novelist who wrote more than 100 books on a wide variety of subjects. He is best known for his beloved Father Brown series of detective stories and The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare, his genre-defying masterpiece that centers on poet-turned-detective Gabriel Syme in turn-of-the-century London as he infiltrates and pursues members of an anarchists' society who call themselves by the names of the days of the week. Button your frock coat and hold tight to your bowler hat as Chesterton plunges you through philosophical discourse, surreal allegory, metaphysical thriller, detective farce, dystopian fairy tale, and gothic romance in a madcap rollick that is, above all, wildly entertaining!

Upton Sinclair (1878-1968), "a self-described socialist propagandist," was an American writer who wrote nearly one hundred books and other works in several genres. Sinclair's work was well known and popular in the first half of the twentieth century due to his desire to expose what he referred to as "the 'wage slavery' of workers," acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle (1906), which exposed labor and sanitary conditions in the U.S. meatpacking industry, causing a public uproar that contributed to the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. After hearing of the deadly Colorado Fuel and Iron strike, also known as the Ludlow Massacre on April 20, 1914, a strike identified as "one of the most grueling, longlasting industrial conflicts in the history of the United States," Sinclair focused his attention on the coal mining industry with King Coal, resulting in what scholar R.N. Mookerjee refers to as a "very successful and effective fusion of journalistic excellence and creative imagination," and believes it "is undoubtedly one of Sinclair's more artistic achievements."

George Slatyer Barrett, B.A. (1839-1916) was for 45 years (1866-1911) the minister of Prince's Street Congregational (now United Reformed) Church in Norwich, which under his tutelage was considered "one of the most influential Congregational churches in England." He was educated at University College, London; trained for the ministry at Lancashire Independent College, Manchester; was invested with the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity at the University of St. Andrew's; and was the 1894 Chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales. As an author, he made several important contributions to theological literature, including his best-known work as editor of The Congregational Church Hymnal (1887).With The Temptation of Christ, Barrett (ever the Nonconformist) challenges traditional thinking concerning Jesus' time in the wilderness by focusing his attention on its perceived psychological problems, positing "if instead of such a mechanical and literal interpretation of the narrative, we suppose that our Lord was tempted by doubts as to His own Divine plan?" An analysis that has been lauded as "wisely and reverently and spiritually interpreted, with ever fresh pertinence and power."