NEWS
 

March 2010.

Hanns Ewers 'Alraune' now available,

World Horror Convention, Mrs Molesworth, Side Real website additions, Forthcoming titles and a call for submissions.

Hanns Heinz Ewers 'Alraune' now available.

   Side Real Press is very pleased to announce that  Alraune is now available for pre-order with shipping due to begin March 21st. Details below this news section. Having now seen all the proofs, we believe this will our most beautiful title to date.

World Horror Convention.

    Side Real will be selling their titles at  the World Horror Convention (25-28th March 2010) in Brighton. We look forward to meeting friends old and new.

Mrs Molesworth - Collected Ghost Stories. 16 copies found.

    In digging out boxes of books for Brighton we found ONE box (ie: 16 copies) of the first Side Real Press book 'Collected ghost Stories' by Mrs Molesworth. These really are the last copies of this (long thought) deleted title. We are offering them up to individuals prior to taking them to Brighton. (Cost £30.00 UK; £35.00 elsewhere incl airmail postage). Of course the extra photo will be tipped in.

    We will be astonished if we have any copies remaining after our return from Brighton.

Side Real Website. 

    Visitors to the website will notice it looks somewhat different to the past version. Though it is primarily cosmetic, but you may find the area: 'Side Real Extras', of interest.

    This is for material unique to Side Real Press and not available elsewhere online. Its initial contents will be:

• John Hirschhorn-Smiths introduction to Ewers life and work previously published in 'Nachtmahr' with a few extra illustrations not in the book. We believe it to be the fullest overview in English. 

• Extracts from Hanns Ewers U.S. secret service files. Ewers was investigated by the U.S. authorities for his propaganda spying activites during WW1, and was ultimately interned. Side Real Press have obtained a copy of this file, which runs to just over 100 pages, and post the most interesting portions online. 

• Karin Wikoffs 1995 Masters thesis on Hanns Ewers novel 'Vampire'. 'Vampire' has a very interesting history and this thesis is the fullest account of that to date. We are very grateful to Karin Wikoff for allowing us to reprint it. 

• John Hirschhorn-Smiths introduction to Mrs. Molesworths life and work previously published in 'Collected Ghost Stories'. A useful overview of this Victorian author.

    These will be uploaded by Mar 21st but some are already available.

   Side Real Press would be very interested to hear from others who may wish to contribute to this section of the website. 

Forthcoming titles. 

      We can announce that our next book will almost certainly be Hanns Heinz Ewers' 'The Sorcerers Apprentice'. Joe E. Bandel informs us that Ewers volume was not badly mangled in its original translation, but there are various small ommisions and errors, which he is painstakingly correcting to make this edition the definitive one. It will also, of course, contain extra material. More details to follow.
  

    More importantly he is working towards a new edition of Hanns Ewers 'Vampir'. There are thought to be approximately 100 PAGES MISSING from the only previous translation due to censorship by person(s) unknown. As you might imagine this restoration is some time away. Side Real Press is proud and privilaged to be working in conjunction with this talented and dedicated translator to present this very strange novel in a full, and thus definitive, edition.

    There are also some other (non Ewers) projects in progress.

A call for submissions. 

    Finally, we feel that Ewers is an inspirational writer and are planning an anthology of short stories based around his themes and ideas. Submissions are now being accepted. Closing date 31st October 2010 for publication Dec 2010. Stories should be previously unpublished.

OUR LATEST TITLE
HANNS HEINZ EWERS 'ALRAUNE'

A new, fully restored, uncensored translation by Joe E. Bandel 

available from March 21st

350 numbered copies (with free extras)
Cost for the U.K. is £30.00 incl. postage.
Cost elsewhere is £35.00 which includes airmail postage and packing

    Side Real Press are pleased to announce that its next book, its second in its ongoing Ewers series, is now available for pre-order.

    'Alraune' (first published in 1911) was Ewers' best selling novel, and is a (sort of) melding of the Frankenstein theme & Mandrake legend, injected with Ewers recurring interests in abherrent sexuality, perversity and violence, both physical and moral.

   
    This entirely new translation supercedes the previous edition from the John Day Company (1929), by including passages previously excised (by U.S. censors?) from the Ewers' original German text, as well as a myriad other minor amendments and corrections, which combine to make this new version a far more graphic and intense reading experience.

    It also retains the wonderful Mahlon Blaine endpapers, chapter headings, initial letters and illustrations from the John Day edition, which are generally regarded as some of his best work.

    There are also three new essays illuminating aspects of this volume.

Contents:

• An extra presentation 1929 frontispiece drawing by Mahlon Blaine
• The Root of Evil; Hanns Heinz Ewers and 'Alraune' by Mark Samuels
  
• 'Alraunes' Allure by Tyler Davis
• ‘Translating 'Alraune' by Joe E. Bandel
• ‘Galeotto' -  a previously untranslated poem by Hanns Ewers - Translated by Joe E. Bandel
• ‘Alraune fully restored version translated by Joe E. Bandel
•  Illustrations - from the original 1911 German edition - by Ilna Wunderwald Ewers

      The book is printed in black with red titles and initial letters throughout.
    The cover is printed in three colours directly onto the book cloth and is uniform in design with Side Real Press' previous volume 'Nachtmahr'.

    In addition to this, individuals who order directly from the Press will receive an additional tipped in bookplate designed for Hanns Ewers for his own library embossed with the Side Real logo.

    
This will NOT be available anywhere except for copies via Side Real and Joe Bandel - see below!

   

    Those based in the U.S. wishing 'Alraune' may wish to buy their copy via its translator Joe E. Bandel. He has a limited number of copies available, all of which include the extra bookplate  and will additionally be signed by him.

    He can be reached here, which is also a portal to buy his own volume of Ewers translations as well as purchase Alraune as an e-copy.

ALSO AVAILABLE

Hanns Heinz Ewers

'Nachtmahr - Strange Tales'
(2009)

ISBN: 798-0-9542953-4-9
350 numbered copies (with free extras only available via this website)
Cost for the U.K. is £30.00 incl. postage.
Cost elsewhere is £35.00 which includes airmail postage and packing - this is a heavy book at 349pp.

    Hanns Ewers (1871-1943) wrote some of the strangest tales of the period, including three (vaguely) autobiographical novels and several volumes of short stories many of which refer to his major themes of obsession, transformation, depavity and blood. This was in addition to his extensive travels worldwide, his activities as a propagandist/spy during WWI, screenwriter, poet, playwright, prodigious drug (ab)user and associations with members of Nazi elite. Hitler himself supposedly asked him to write the official biography of Horst Wessel which he did, but was subsequently declared an unperson by the Nazis (he was nationalistic rather than anti-semitic) his books banned and burnt. He died in Berlin of tuberculosis largely forgotten.

    His novels and a few of his stories were translated and published in the 1920s but barring a volume by the Runa Raven press (published 2000) he is largely still unknown to the English speaking world not least because these volumes now command high prices on the second-hand market.

    We are very pleased to announce that, in conjunction with the H.H.E. estate, a new volume of stories, including some newly translated works is now available, together with Ewers essay/paean to Edgar Allan Poe (first published in English in 1917).

Contents:

• Introduction by J. N. Hirschhorn-Smith
  
• ‘Carnival In Cadiz’*
• ‘The Dead Jew’*
• ‘John Hamilton Llewellyn's End’
• ‘Gentlemen of the Bar’*
• ‘The Tophar Bride’*
• ‘The Typhoid Mary’*
• ‘The Spider’
• ‘Fairyland’
• ’From The Diary Of An Orange Tree’
• ‘The Death of Baron Jesus Maria von Friedel’*
• ‘Mamoloi'
• Edgar Allan Poe

*=newly translated.

The book is printed in black with red titles and initial letters throughout.
The cover is printed in three colours directly onto the book cloth.

In addition to this, individuals who order directly from the Press will receive an additional tipped in photo of Ewers embossed with the Side Real logo.

This will NOT be available anywhere but here!

 

PHANTOMS AT THE PHIL

Since 2004, Phantoms at the Phil has become a now-traditional opportunity to hear new ghost stories read by their authors in the atmospheric surroundings of Newcastle's extraordinary private library, the Literary and Philosophical Society. Although guests have on occasion been invited to participate, the classic line-up is Chaz Brenchley, Sean O'Brien and Gail-Nina Anderson.

From 2004-2007 three volumes were issued by Side Real Press, in Conjunction with Northern Gothic. The first two ‘Proceedings’ have the added bonus of CD recordings from the events. The third volume of ‘Proceedings’ marked the end of the book series, though the live readings continue.

Phantoms at the Phil - The Second Proceedings

(2006)

ISBN: 0-9542953-2-3
300 numbered copies w. double CD recording.

Cost worldwide is £18.00 incl surface postage- please add £3.50 for airmail

The stories are:

• It Follows Therefore by Sean O'Brien
  
• The Chapel of St Thomas by Gail-Nina Anderson
  
• The Deadly Space Between by Chaz Brenchley
  
• The Midwife's Assistant by Ann Cleeves
  
• Seeing Things by Simon Morden
  
• The Dead Reckoning by Carol McGuigan
  

Phantoms at the Phil - The Third Proceedings

(2007)

ISBN: 0-9542953-3-1
300 numbered copies. (No CD recording)
Cost worldwide is £15.00 incl surface postage- please add £3.50 for airmail

The stories are:

• The Cricket Match at Green Lock by Sean O'Brien
  
• The Parasol by Gail-Nina Anderson
  
• Summer's Lease by Chaz Brenchley
  
• In the Silence Room by Sean O'Brien
  
• A Garland with Gloves by Gail-Nina Anderson
  
• The House of Mechanical Pain by Chaz Brenchley

DELETED PUBLICATIONS

Collected Ghost Stories by 
Mrs Molesworth
(2002)

ISBN: 0-9542953-0-7.

300 numbered copies.

Contents:

Introduction (by by J.N. Smith), Lady Farquhars Old Lady, Witnessed By Two. Unexplained, The Rippling Train, The Shadow In The Moonlight, The Man With The Cough, At The Dip In The Road, Not Exactly A Ghost Story, Old Gervais, A Strange Messenger and A Ghost Of The Pampas by Bevil Molesworth.

 Phantoms at the Phil

(2005)

ISBN: 0954295315

300 numbered copies w. CD recording.

Contents: 

The Custodian by Sean O'Brien, 

The Dust Jacket by Gail-Nina Anderson,

Another Chart of the Silences by Chaz Brenchley

NEWS 
Jan 2010: Books of the Year 2009

Here at Side Real we read a lot of books and; just for fun, and in no particular order, are the three I have enjoyed most in 2009; Wilfred Thesigar's 'Arabian Sands' , Claude Lorrain's 'Monsieur de Phocas' and Mark Valentine's 'The Nightfarers'.

ORDERING INFORMATION

Please make all cheques payable to J.N. Smith.

Payment made by cheque or money order must be in £s sterling only.

Cash in US$ and UK£ is acceptable, though sent entirely at your own risk.

For those wishing to pay in US$, please convert the price into dollars at the current exchange rate.

Side Real Press accepts PAYPAL. (Please enter Siderealpress@hotmail.com as the recipient's email)

CONTACT 

SIDE REAL PRESS, 34 Normanton Terrace, Newcastle Upon Tyne. 

NE4 6PP. ENGLAND U.K.

E-mail to: Siderealpress@hotmail.com