Casting the Runes : The Letters of M. R. James

The much-loved author Montague Rhodes James is best known today for his ghost stories.Their popularity has kept them in print since the first collection was issued in 1931, and they've earned a cult following.But for all this literary success, his lifetime's correspondence has remained inaccessible in a Cambridge University archive - until now. This first ever collection of his personal letters has been meticulously curated, transcribed and annotated by Jamesian scholar Jane Mainley-Piddock to offer an unprecedented and overdue insight into a great and singular mind.Through notoriously illegible handwriting, we learn of James's fear of spiders and his love of cats; his musings on the work of other contemporary authors; and a whole life's thoughts on a host of subjects - which shed light on the man himself: his family, his work, his relationships and preoccupations. Essential reading for any fan, Casting the Runes brings at last to the fore a writer adored for his fiction who himself has long remained in the shadows.