Laura Riding Books

Fiction. Edited by George Fragopoulos. Introduction by Mark Jacobs and George Fragopoulos. A nearly impossible text to categorize--is it a collection of short stories, prose poems, manifestos or something else entirely?--EXPERTS ARE PUZZLED is one of Laura Riding's earliest and most intense examinations of poetry's and language's relationship to truth. In essayistic examinations such as the titular piece, "Introduction to a book on Money," and "An Address to America," Riding seeks to articulate a higher, more poetic notion of truth and truth telling, a project that would later result in her famous renunciation of poetry itself. As such, EXPERTS ARE PUZZLED stands as an essential text in better understanding why it is that Riding rejected poetry and stopped writing it altogether in the late 1930s. While excerpts and selections from EXPERTS have been published before, most notably in Riding's The Progress of Stories, the entirety of the collection has not appeared in print since its initial publication by Jonathan Cape in 1930.

Makes up the collaborative study of 'Modernist' poetry by two of the twentieth century's most important and original poets. The authors produce a contemporary reaction to the early experimentation of writers such as Eliot, Pound and E E Cummings.

Exploring high modernist poetics, this landmark collection of essays by Laura Riding presents a counter-history that challenges conventional narratives. The new edition delves into the intricacies of contemporary literary culture and the social dynamics of artistic expression, highlighting Riding's unique perspective and critical insights. Readers can expect a thought-provoking examination of the tensions between artistic ambition and societal expectations.

The book explores Laura (Riding) Jackson's philosophical shift away from poetry, emphasizing her belief in the necessity of precise and unambiguous language. Structured in 62 numbered sections, it serves as a pivotal work that advocates for truth-speaking as a means to achieve human fulfillment, reflecting her quest for deeper understanding in language.

Fiction. Edited and with an introduction by George Fragopoulos. Originally published under the pseudonym Madeleine Vara in 1936 by Laura Riding's and Robert Graves's Seizen Press, CONVALESCENT CONVERSATIONS is one of Riding's least known works, and one of her most wonderfully idiosyncratic. A novel unfolding almost entirely in dialogue form, CONVALESCENT CONVERSATIONS tells the story of Adam and Eleanor, two patients recovering from unknown maladies in a nondescript sanitarium. Through a series of increasingly esoteric philosophical conversations regarding topics such as God, love, and the meaning of illness, Adam and Eleanor come to tell the stories of who they are and what they are suffering from. While not strictly an allegorical work, it is difficult to not see historical parallels between the suffering of the protagonists and the state of the world in the late 1930s. 1936 was also the year Riding and Robert Graves had to flee Mallorca, Spain following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.