Most readers of Dunsany agree that his first eight collections: The Gods of Pegana (1905), Time and the Gods (1906), The Sword of Welleran (1908), A Dreamer's Tales (1910), The Book of Wonder (1912), Fifty-One Tales (1915), The Last Book of Wonder (1916) and Tales of Three Hemispheres (1919), contain the finest original fantasy short stories ever written in the English language. This omnibus collects those eight volumes, in addition to some previously uncollected tales, making for an essential book in every fantasy reader's library. Also included are all the original fantastic illustrations by Sidney Sime (1867-1941), who was in a real sense a collaborator with Dunsany, for after Sime complained to Dunsany that publishers didn't ask him to illustrate the best scenes in Dunsany's stories, Dunsany had Sime draw the illustrations first and then wrote the stories afterwards Sime's illustrations are highly sought after, and this special feature of this new omnibus is sure to please Dunsany fans. Introduction by Douglas A. Anderson, author of The Annotated Hobbit and series editor for Cold Spring Press fantasy classics.COVER ARTIST BIO: Mike Dringenberg is one of the top illustrators in the fantasy/scifi genre. He has done covers for DelRey (three Tolkien covers for The Silmarillion, Sir Gawain & The Green Knight, and The Tolkien Reader); for Bantam (Jeff Vandermeer, Veniss Underground, a World Fantasy award nominee, Best Novela), for Tor (Kij Johnson, Fudoki, a World Fantasy award nominee, Best Novel); as well as covers for Night Shade and other publishers. Driingenberg was a co-creator of the Sandman series of books with Neil Gaiman and has also done recordalbum and CD covers, and associated promotional art, for clients as diverse as The Legendary Pink Dots and Tori Amos.QUOTES: ?Lord Dunsany wrote small tales of imaginary gods and thieves and heroes in distant kingdoms ? The writing is beautiful ., his words sing, like those of a poet who got drunk on the prose of the King James Bible, and who has still not yet become sober.? ? Neil GaimanDunsany is a poet in the truest sense, but it is in prose rather than in verse that his finest work has been done. No one has ever approached his skill in suggesting, so flawlessly and with such economy of means, that theworld is not exactly as we suppose. No one can make the blood run cold with a simpler phrase, no one can suggest so much while saying so little. His stories sparkle with ideas, often single sentences that challenge the mind with vertiginous implications. Under the magic of his art, the commonest things become enchanted, and when his imagination soars away from earth, we enter realms of fantasy indeed. ? Arthur C. Clarke?Inventor of a new mythology and weaver of surprising folklore, Lord Dunsany stands dedicated to a strange world of fantastic beauty ? no amount of mere description can convey more than a fraction of Lord Dunsany's pervasive charm.? ? H. P. Lovecraft ?Dunsany's stories are a priceless possession for any lover of fantasy. Like first-rate poetry, they are endlessly rereadable. Those who have not read them have something to look forward to ? Dunsany is the foundation stone of any fantasy collection.? ? L. Sprague de Camp ?He has but transfigured with beauty the common sights of the world.? ? William Butler Yeats