<b>From the front flap of the Oswald Train first edition:</b> "For more than half a century the legion of loyal A. Merritt enthusiasts have read and reread his science-fantasy masterpieces, and have sought for any unpublished remnants or fragments of this work, as well as for information about the man himself.
<p>This book was written to meet that need. It gathers as a marginalia the unpublished or uncollected stories, fragments, poems, articles and oddments. It brings to light the lost, the forgotten, the second thoughts of a master of the genre.
<p>To justify the assembly of so diverse and uneven a quantity of admittedly minor works, Sam Moskowitz, the leading historian of this field of letters, has written the first full length account and critique of A. Merritt, his life, works, sources, influences, hobbies, personality, friends, philosophy, strengths and weaknesses, all in the perspective of his milieu.
<p>The book contains a previously unknown short story, totally unlike any other Merritt tales. There is also a short fantasy that appeared in the <i>American Weekly</i> under a pen name and which has been definitely established as Merritt's work. Among the writer's papers appeared two fragments of fantasies, one containing an outline for at least part of a novel.
<p>There is a section of poetry - 26 items here assembled for the first time - one of them a major fantasy epic called "2000 - The Triple City." Two other long poems - "Runes" and "Sir Barnabas" - reveal Merritt's versatility.
<p>There is a section of Merritt's letters, permitting the reader to enter into the thinking, the personality of the writer as nothing else would. And finally there are letters and essays about Merritt, written by the people who knew him best - the staff members of <i>The American Weekly</i> in whose editorial offices the writer spent so many years. This, with a 16 page photo supplement, rounds out the book."
