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Peake's Progress
was published in 1981 in the USA by The Overlook Press it includes the complete The Wit to Woo and much poetry and many illustrations and sketches of theatre sets and costumery. For many years I had a copy of the Penguin Mr Pye but was at last able to secure a hardbound Overlook Press edition published in the USA in 1984.Below is the cover of the programme of a stage adaptation of the Gormenghast books by John Constable and David Glass and performed by The David Glass Ensemble on tour in 1992. I saw the performance at a packed Cambridge Arts Theatre Saturday 31 January (or was it 1 February I don't have that diary at hand) And wonder of wonders I have a clipping of an article by Sarah Hemming from the arts pages of The Independent of Wednesday 22 January 1992. I actually managed to get Kathy to come along though she'd not read any of the books.
"Mervyn Peake (1911-1968) was a playwright, painter,poet, illustrator, short story writer, and designer of theatrical costumes as well as a novelist. His first book of poems, Shapes and Sounds, was published in 1941. He also wrote Rhymes Without Reason (1944), Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor (1945), The Craft of the Lead Pencil (1946), Letters from a Lost Uncle (1948), Mr Pye (1953), The Wit to Woo, a play (1957) and The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb (1962). In addition, he illustrated several classics including The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, Alice in Wonderland, Treasure Island and The Hunting of the Snark."
In 1982 Overlook Press published the Gormenghast trilogy with the original cover illustrations made by the author for the first British editions of Titus Groan (1946), Gormenghast (1950) and Titus Alone (1959).
The first two number among the few books I have read more than once.