Tag: Castalia Library

The Endpapers of Empire

As Castalia Shipping reminds us that WAR AND PEACE is starting to ship out from the warehouse and flexes its new pallet jack, Castalia Library has both revealed the unique endpapers for THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF BYZANTIUM Volume One as well as shown off the newly bound-and-warehouse-bound STUDIES IN THE NAPOLEONIC WARS.

The HYPERGAMOUSE campaign is within sight of its third stretch goal and John C. Wright has published the first book in his 12-book Star Quest series, Space Pirates of Andromeda. You can also watch the recent Arkhaven Nights in which we discussed his new book.

Space Opera must be Great! Gallant! Gigantic! Grandiose!
This tale told by a Grandmaster vows to return the glory that was lost!
Remember the days gone by, when science fiction was fun?
Now new hope is here!
If you are weary of weak, wan, woke and wasted works, your wait is ended!
Here is an epic, as grand as any tale of old — here you will hear wonders told!

Of course there is a Space Princess, and Space Pirates galore, and an Evil Galactic Empire.

Of course there is a super-weapon known only as the Great Eye of Darkness!
Here meet Athos Lone, Ace of Star Patrol, in his one-man mission of vengeance!
The Ancient Mariner, like an iron ghost, when slain, seems to rise again!
The mysterious spymaster called Nightshadow walks in dark worlds but serves the light!
An Imperial Deathtrooper must reverse his loyalties, and fight his own clone-brothers!

Fate has set these unlikely heroes against the Four Dark Overlords
An utmost evil the unwary galaxy thinks long dead!
Can Darkness fail and Light prevail?
Read On! For All True Tales are but Part of a Greater!

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The Question of a Christian Library

Over on the Castalia Library substack, we’re taking a poll about the possibility of launching a new Christian-themed subscription in 2025. We’re well aware of the various pros and cons; the details concerning what we’re contemplating are spelled out over there. So, if you’d be kind enough to let us know if it’s potentially of interest to you, and if so, what books you’d like to see us produce, please share your metaphorical two cents with us.

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History Number Seven

Yesterday we announced that the October-November-December 2024 book for Castalia History, Book Seven in the series, will be A Bibliography of English Military Books up to 1642 and of Contemporary Foreign Works. With an Introductory Note by Charles Oman. Edited by H.D. Cockle. For more details of why we selected this excellent and extremely rare book, visit the Castalia Library substack. Below is an image from one of the 900 books listed that was published in 1625.

In other news, the Hypergamouse campaign is soldiering on toward its second stretch goal. Lacey is wrapping up the cover and we’re selecting a pair of artists for potential alternative covers.

And the September-October Library/Libraria book is JANE EYRE by Charlotte Brontë. We’ve heard back from the bindery in Tennessee, and while several roads are washed out and they’ve repeatedly lost power, everyone is all right, our books are dry, and the schedule for both WAR AND PEACE and STUDIES IN THE NAPOLEONIC WARS should be more or less on time.

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DER KNOCHENTHRON

“Wer bist du?”

Ahenobarbus starrte auf das verblichene Gemälde in dem vergoldeten Rahmen vor ihm an der Wand. Die flackernden Kerzen warfen einen unheimlichen Schein auf die Szene: Sechs bewaffnete Männer standen über dem Leichnam eines weiteren Mannes. Ahenobarbus, oder wie andere ihn ehrfürchtig nannten, Seine Heiligkeit Barmherzigkeit IV, konnte den Blick nicht von ihm wenden. Das Opfer war nackt. Sechs Mörder waren auf dem Bild zu sehen, aber der Körper wies sieben Wunden auf. Einer hatte zweimal zugestochen.

“Warum haben sie dich getötet?”

– DER KNOCHENTHRON

Thanks to the intrepid efforts of a gentleman who shall only be noted as H until such time as he wishes to take public credit, we are rapidly approaching the completion of the German translation of A THRONE OF BONES, a vast and mighty endeavor indeed. Hardcover and ebook editions of both it and the German translation of SUMMA ELVETICA will be released in the new year, and we also anticipate a very limited leatherbound print run from Éditions Alpines after the German language HEIDI is finally shipped to backers of the bindery. Finnish editions will also be published in hardcover and ebook.

We have therefore added an Alpines section to the Castalia Library substack for those who wish to keep up to date on the various foreign language leatherbound editions, and as a bonus for those who wish to follow it, we are offering a daily serialization of DER KNOCHENTHRON in that section. Since we don’t wish to bombard English-only speakers with foreign language emails, it is necessary to opt in to the Alpines emails even if you are already a Castalia Library substack subscriber. You can do so in your Subscription Notifications for Castalia Library as shown below:

Now that the bindery is going operational, we’re finally going to start doing some of the things we’ve been planning to do for the last four years. Among them are a) The Iliad and The Odyssey, b) Chinese classics, c) Heidi, Der Knochentron, and other German books, d) French classics, and e) sets and one-offs for modern authors and publishers. We also expect to get completely caught up on the Library subscription as we already are on the History subscription.

In addition to completing the last two books in the Junior Classics next year, we are also contemplating the possibility and practicality of adding two additional volumes to the set.

And if there are any native French or Italian speakers with a flair for literature and a bit of a masochistic streak who happen to be feeling ambitious, we’d certainly welcome any volunteers. Unfortunately, the massive size of the books combined with the smaller markets don’t allow the economics of hiring professional translators to work at this point.

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The Last Nine

Just a low-stock alert for STUDIES IN THE NAPOLEONIC WARS by Charles Oman. There are nine eight left of the print run of 600, so if you want one, you should probably act quickly. The print run of 600 is now sold out. Both the stamp and the hub tests have been successfully completed. As a result of the imminent fourth-straight History sellout, we’ll be increasing the print run to 650 for the two-volume Byzantium set.

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Castalia History Goes Worldwide

Thanks to the geniuses at Castalia Shipping, we are now able to offer what was the Castalia History European subscription to book collectors in Australia, Asia, and other countries around the world. Unfortunately, due to global shipping restrictions, we cannot currently accept subscriptions from Belarus, Russia, or Ukraine.

We’re also pleased to confirm that both volumes of THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF BYZANTIUM will be the first Castalia books to feature the full grain Spanish cowhide that we’ve been testing at the bindery.

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The September Books

  • Castalia Library Book 30: JANE EYRE by Charlotte Brontë
  • Castalia History Book 6: THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE

For more detail on both of these books, their expected print runs, and the title pages of the latter two-volume set, check out the Castalia Library substack.

In other news, the UATV devs tracked down the bug that was recently preventing new subscriptions on Unauthorized. Note that this did not affect renewals.

Unauthorized.TV patch – Sep. 2nd 2024
This weekend, we patched an issue which was preventing many of you from reactivating your UATV subscription or taking out new ones. If you recently encountered a “server error” page while trying to manage your subscription, that problem has now been resolved.

If you’re not subscribed to UATV yet, make an account and sign up for a subscription!

We will be launching the long-awaited crowdfund campaign for the HYPERGAMOUSE book and the SIGMA GAME book next week. It will be a 60-day campaign, and we expect both books to be ready to ship at the end of the campaign. Speaking of campaigns, the AH:Q books are now in the warehouse and we’ll start sending them out to the backers next week.

And finally, we appear to be on a track to get the bindery fully operational in October. This is the first book to be cased, stamped, and cased-in by the newly-repaired machines; it was just completed yesterday. As you can see from the picture, we’ve been experimenting with improving both the thickness of the boards and the overhang now that these details are under our control. The key thing here is that the leather is the Italian cowhide that our previous press did not have the tonnage to stamp cleanly. Obviously, that problem has been resolved by our new 73-year-old Swiss-made beast.

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History Notes

A few notes for History subscribers as we’re rolling a more books into the final stages of the production process.

  1. The new Spanish cowhide leather will make its Castalia debut with the CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF BYZANTIUM volumes 1 & 2. There will be no additional charge. We’re not sold out quite yet, but there won’t be very many extras, so keep that in mind if you’re contemplating a History subscription.
  2. We have improved the quality of our paper. Previously we were using the same paper that Folio Society does, but starting with DRACULA for Library and BYZANTIUM for History, we’re moving up to the highest quality offered by the same manufacturer. Neither Easton nor Folio will be competitive with the quality of the materials Castalia is offering by this winter.
  3. The first high-quality bonded leather has arrived at the bindery. We’re still sorting out how our lower-cost line of Signature Society books will be presented, but if you’ve got a book you’d like to see offered in that line, let us know at SG.
  4. Many Annual History subscribers need to renew their subscriptions. Since we changed payment processors, we cannot automatically renew your subscription. If you’re not sure if your subscription has lapsed or not, please email library AT castaliahouse DOT com. Since the History subscription has grown to the point that it is approaching Library print runs, we seldom have any extra books.
  5. NAPOLEONIC WARS is scheduled to be bound on October 1st.
  6. BYZANTIUM Vols 1 & 2 are expected to be bound in November. As is Dracula.
  7. We MAY offer a few goatskin BYZANTIUMs if we have any extras from the sets we are binding for Cambridge.
  8. SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON may – MAY – be out in time for Christmas.
The front endpapers for NAPOLEONIC WARS

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DWFC: 25 for 25

Dorking Wanderers Football Club – of whom Castalia Library is a sponsor – has announced a new ownership program called 25 for 25, which involves the sale of 25 shares of the club plus a special limited edition retro jersey. Here’s a video of Marc White himself announcing the program and here is the link if you’d like to join the ownership club and join what I can attest is truly an absolutely fascinating ride.

I can also announce something that will not yet be apparent, since it was only settled this morning, but the limited edition 25th Anniversary retro jerseys will, like the three 2024-25 season jerseys, sport the Castalia Library logo on the back. It’s a smaller logo above the number, since there is no need to leave that space for the players names.

It would certainly make for a very cool and unusual Christmas gift, even if you’re not into English soccer. The price of the shares and shirt is around $460 at current exchange rates, which is a very good price for being able to genuinely tell people that you own a real English football team with short, but already legendary history.

Forget Wrexham. Imagine when DWFC makes it to the Premiership in 15 years or so…

UPDATE: Here is the retro jersey. The logo on the back signifies that it is truly elite.

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