faber finds

enh. i dislike faber and the idea of a printed-on-demand catalogue from them isn't making me like them much more.

I like the idea, but it's a bit uninspiring. The only thing that leaps out at me from a presumably unfinished list on the site is Louis MacNeice's translation of Faust.
Hmmm. Checking on Amazon suggests some problems. £15 is not a tempting price when second-hand copies of these books are often < £5. I should try to see one - maybe they are very handsome.
Guardian article makes it sound a little better - big list, not just Faber stuff, more sensible prices. I'd still worry that long-taily books are taken care of by libraries, Amazon and Abebooks, but good to see other options developing I suppose.

yeah it is kind of weird when they make it sound like the books they're re-printing were impossible to get hold of

Some of them even still seem to be in print with other publishers (like books by William Gerhardie). But there's stuff in the firs tlot which I love, and am pleased to see being made available again, even if in limited form.

£15? Enh.

How does copyright on print-on-demand work? (Most of this stuff might be out of copyright anyway, I don't know.) Faber's total lack of critical apparatus on most everything they keep in print really bugs me; thus any expansion of their line makes the situation worse. Of course it's possible I don't understand book-publishing enough and thus am totally wrong.

i notice i've used the non-word "enh" twice in this thread. i don't know why i've done that

I wrote to them asking them to reprint Patrick Hamilton's very rare first novel, 'Monday Morning', and they said...

"Patrick Hamilton is definitely an author that we're looking at, and I
see that we are provisionally hoping to publish 'Monday Morning' later
this year. Nothing is confirmed yet though I'm afraid - the Faber Finds
list is ever-growing, and a lot depends on negotiations with literary
estates and agents. We hope to be able to give updates on what might
appear back in print once we launch the Faber Finds website in June."

Cool!

They just got back to me too. I suggested getting some Jocelyn Brooke back in print: they say they've got the Orchid Trilogy coming up, and will look into the novels (am trying to get word out about Image of a Drawn Sword), so that's cool.

Yay re the Orchid Trilogy--I've got the Penguin edition, and was sad to see it go OP.

Anyone seen one of these yet? I am hearing bad reports. A friend who's ordered a couple (a Newby and something I've forgotten) says their claim that "The texts have all been re-set" is untrue: they're just photostatted, and not with much sensitivity to the format (gaping margins). He's down on the white covers too: both of his came dirty, one with a thumbprint on the front.

I want to order a couple, but Faber's website says they only deliver to the UK, and I'm not ordering through Amazon where you have to pay a hefty surcharge. I'm hoping they'll turn up at the Book Depository (though no luck yet).