Fifty-One Tales is a collection of fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 short stories by Irish

Irish literature

For a comparatively small island, Ireland has made a disproportionately large contribution to world literature. Irish literature encompasses the Irish and English languages.-The beginning of writing in Irish:...

 writer Lord Dunsany, considered a major influence on the work of J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...

, H. P. Lovecraft

H. P. Lovecraft

Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....

, Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin is an American author. She has written novels, poetry, children's books, essays, and short stories, notably in fantasy and science fiction...

 and others. The first editions, in hardcover

Hardcover

A hardcover, hardback or hardbound is a book bound with rigid protective covers...

, were published simultaneously in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 by Elkin Mathews and Mitchell Kennerly, respectively, in April, 1915. The British and American editions differ in that they arrange the material slightly differently and that each includes a story the other omits; "The Poet Speaks with Earth" in the British version, and "The Mist" in the American version.

The collection's significance in the history of fantasy literature was recognized by its republication (as The Food of Death: Fifty-One Tales) by the Newcastle Publishing Company

Newcastle Publishing Company

The Newcastle Publishing Company was a Southern California-based small trade paperback publisher founded by bookstore owner Al Saunders, active from July 1971 through October 1992, under the editorial direction of Robert Reginald and Douglas Menville, formerly the editors of the speculative fiction...

 as the third volume of the Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Library

Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Library

The Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Library was a series of trade paperback books published by the Newcastle Publishing Company between 1973 and 1980...

in September, 1974. The Newcastle edition used the American version of the text.

The book collects fifty-one short stories by the author.

Contents

• "The Assignation"
• "Charon"
• "The Death of Pan"
• "The Sphinx at Gizeh"
• "The Hen"
• "Wind and Fog"
• "The Raft Builders"
• "The Workman"
• "The Guest"
• "Death and Odysseus"
• "Death and the Orange"
• "The Prayer of the Flowers"
• "Time and the Tradesman"
• "The Little City"
• "The Unpasturable Fields"
• "The Worm and the Angel"
• "The Songless Country"
• "The Latest Thing"
• "The Demagogue and the Demi-Monde"
• "The Giant Poppy"
• "Roses"
• "The Man with the Golden Ear-rings"
• "The Dream of King Karna-Vootra"
• "The Storm"
• "A Mistaken Identity"
• "The True History of the Hare and the Tortoise"

• "Alone the Immortals"
• "A Moral Little Tale"
• "The Return of Song"
• "Spring in Town"
• "How the Enemy Came to Thlūnrāna"
• "A Losing Game"
• "Taking Up Piccadilly"
• "After the Fire"
• "The City"
• "The Food of Death"
• "The Lonely Idol"
• "The Sphinx in Thebes (Massachusetts)"
• "The Reward"
• "The Trouble in Leafy Green Street"
• "Furrow-Maker"
• "Lobster Salad"
• "The Return of the Exiles"
• "Nature and Time"
• "The Song of the Blackbird"
• "The Messengers"
• "The Three Tall Sons"
• "Compromise"
• "What We Have Come To"
• "The Tomb of Pan"
• "The Poet Speaks With Earth" (English version only)
• "The Mist" (American version only)