The Way to Attain". Author's Autograph Manuscript, signed ("Arthur Machen, Sept 27, 1922"), a reminiscence of the origins of his book, Fantastic Tales; or, The Way to Attain

[N.p., London], 1922. 3 leaves, pencil on ruled wove paper, with one holograph deletion. 1 vols. 8vo. Fine. 3 leaves, pencil on ruled wove paper, with one holograph deletion. 1 vols. 8vo. 'the queerest book in the world'. A choice Machen manuscript, written in the years of his greatest fame, and looking back to his early years as a literary drudge before he composed the supernatural tales for which he is best remembered. In 1889, the Dryden Press printed some sheets of his translation of The Way to Attain before abandoning the project; an edition was issued in 1890 with the title Fantastic Tales; or, the Way to Attain.

Machen outlines the circumstances of the book's evolution (reading in part): "In 1888, cataloguing for Messrs. Robson & Karslake, then of Coventry street, I came upon a little dumpy book dated 1610. It was called 'Le Moyen de Parvenir', by Beroalde de Verville & looking into it, I perceived that it was, almost if not quite, the queerest book in the world. In 1922 this would be a reason for having nothing more to do with it; in 1888 the queerness was a fatal attraction. And so I set about translating a book the French of which is so difficult, obscure, &, I would say, cantankerous ... the grossness of much of the text appalled the printers: one after another refused to print it. ... Later I 'modified' Beroalde's freedoms, and made a new version ..."

A few phrases from this short essay can de detected in Machen's "annotations" to the entries on The Way to Attain in Danielson's 1923 Bibliography; a completely rewritten essay, dated April 1923 and retaining only a few different sentences from this manuscript, was published as the introduction to the 1923 Boni & Liveright printing; as Goldstone & Sweetser note, that introduction was not reprinted. An attractive and largely unpublished manuscript, boldly signed by Machen and dated Sept 27, 1922, on the last page. See Goldstone & Sweetser 57e