"I Dream in Fire But Work in Clay" - Arthur Machen

“There are sacraments of evil as well as of good about us, and we live and move to my belief in an unknown world, a place where there are caves and shadows and dwellers in twilight. It is possible that man may sometimes return on the track of evolution, and it is my belief that an awful lore is not yet dead.” 

“I dream in fire but work in clay.” -- Arthur Machen

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Prince of Foxes by Samuel Shellabarger

This novel was first published in 1947.  It’s still in print – or at any rate was reprinted by Bridge Works in 2002, and probably again since.  There are reasons for that.  First, it has all the characteristics of a rip-snortingly readable, fast-moving historical pulp adventure.  Next, it has a great cast of characters.  Last, it is even quality writing!

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The Byronic Man -- Lord Byron at 230

George Gordon Byron, better known as Lord Byron, would be two hundred and thirty years old today. Perhaps "would" is the wrong word. After all, this is the man who inspired and served as the model for Polidori's The Vampyre and likely was a partial inspiration--along with Richard F. Burton--for the titular character in DraculaWho's to say he doesn't live on, walking the nightside, somehow?

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