Tartarus Press is a small, international award-winning, independent small press

Small press

Small press is a term often used to describe publishers with annual sales below a certain level. Commonly, in the United States, this is set at $50 million, after returns and discounts...

 run by R.B. Russell

R.B. Russell

R.B. Russell is an English publisher, editor, author and illustrator.Russell runs the award-winning Tartarus Press with Rosalie Parker. Tartarus publish the Guide to First Edition Prices, edited by Russell, and which is now in its eighth edition. As an author he has recently had two collections of...

 and Rosalie Parker

Rosalie Parker

Rosalie Parker is an award-winning editor, and author of short stories. She runs the Tartarus Press with R.B. Russell.-Works:Works edited*Strange Tales III, Tartarus Press, 2009*Strange Tales II, Tartarus Press, 2007...

. It has two distinct specialities.

The first is their reference book, a Guide to First Edition Prices, which is now in its eighth edition and has been described as an extremely valuable book. Edited by R.B. Russell

R.B. Russell

R.B. Russell is an English publisher, editor, author and illustrator.Russell runs the award-winning Tartarus Press with Rosalie Parker. Tartarus publish the Guide to First Edition Prices, edited by Russell, and which is now in its eighth edition. As an author he has recently had two collections of...

, the present edition gives the values of over 50,000 sought after books. It has distribution through Vine House.

The second speciality of the Tartarus Press is their publication of classic works of curious and macabre fiction. They aim for the highest production values with their collectable, limited edition hardbacks bound in sewn sections and printed lithographically on acid-free paper. Most titles have original dust-jacket artwork and many have decorated, embossed boards. Tartarus publishes classic supernatural fiction by Arthur Machen

Arthur Machen

Arthur Machen was a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. His novella The Great God Pan has garnered a reputation as a classic of horror...

, M. P. Shiel

M. P. Shiel

Matthew Phipps Shiel was a prolific British writer of West Indian descent. His legal surname remained "Shiell" though he adopted the shorter version as a de facto pen name....

, Hugh Walpole

Hugh Walpole

Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole, CBE was an English novelist. A prolific writer, he published thirty-six novels, five volumes of short stories, two plays and three volumes of memoirs. His skill at scene-setting, his vivid plots, his high profile as a lecturer and his driving ambition brought him a large...

, Gustav Meyrink

Gustav Meyrink

Gustav Meyrink was the pseudonym of Gustav Meyer, an Austrian author, storyteller, dramatist, translator, and banker, most famous for his novel The Golem.-Childhood:...

, Oliver Onions

Oliver Onions

George Oliver Onions was a significant English novelist who published over forty novels and story collections. Originally trained as a commercial artist, he worked as a designer of posters and books, and as a magazine illustrator, before starting his career in writing...

, and more modern authors such as Sarban

Sarban (author)

John William Wall , pen name Sarban, was a British writer and diplomat. Wall's diplomatic career lasted more than thirty years, but his writing career as Sarban was brief and not prolific, ending during the early 1950s...

, Robert Aickman

Robert Aickman

Robert Fordyce Aickman was an English conservationist and writer of fiction and nonfiction. As a writer, he is best known for his supernatural fiction, which he described as "strange stories".-Life:...

 and David Lindsay

David Lindsay (novelist)

David Lindsay was a Scottish author now most famous for the philosophical science fiction novel A Voyage to Arcturus .-Biography:...

, alongside contemporary writers including Quentin S. Crisp

Quentin S. Crisp

Quentin S. Crisp is a British writer of supernatural fiction. Unlike the better-known personality of the same name, this Quentin Crisp was given the name at birth but, being younger, must use his middle initial to disambiguate. Originally from North Devon, Crisp now lives in South Devon in Totnes...

, Mark Valentine

Mark Valentine

Mark Valentine is an English author, biographer and editor.Valentine’s short stories have been published by a number of small presses and in anthologies since the 1980s, and the exploits of his series character, "The Connoisseur", an occult detective, were published as The Collected Connoisseur in...

, Mark Samuels and Rhys Hughes

Rhys Hughes

Rhys Henry Hughes , is a Welsh writer and essayist.Born in Cardiff, Hughes is a prolific short story writer with an eclectic mix of influences, which include Italo Calvino, Milorad Pavić, Jorge Luis Borges, Stanisław Lem, Flann O'Brien, Felipe Alfau, Donald Barthelme and Jack Vance...

. Wormwood

Wormwood (journal)

Wormwood: Writings about fantasy, supernatural and decadent literature is a magazine of literature and literary criticism, edited by Mark Valentine, and published semi-annually since 2003 by Tartarus Press....

, a twice-yearly journal, is devoted to discussion of fantastic, supernatural and decadent literature.

Tartarus won the World Fantasy Award

World Fantasy Award

The World Fantasy Awards are annual, international awards given to authors and artists who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in the field of fantasy...

 "Special Award: Professional" for their publishing in both 2002 and 2004, and Strange Tales, their anthology of new short fiction, won the 2004 World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology

World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology

This World Fantasy Award is given to the fantasy anthology voted best by a panel of judges, and presented each year at the World Fantasy Convention.-2004:WFC 2004 was held in Tempe, Arizona...

 of the year. The Horror Writers Association

Horror Writers Association

The Horror Writers Association is a worldwide non-profit organization of professional writers and publishing professionals dedicated to promoting the interests of Horror and Dark Fantasy writers. It was formed in the 1980s with the help of many of the field's greats, including Joe Lansdale, Robert...

 gave Tartarus Press the "Excellence in Speciality Press Publishing" award for 2009.

Further reading

• Michael Dirda
  Michael Dirda
  Michael Dirda , a Fulbright Fellowship recipient, is a Pulitzer Prize–winning book critic for the Washington Post.-Career:Having studied at Oberlin College for his undergraduate degree, Dirda took a Ph.D. from Cornell University in comparative literature. In 1978 Dirda started writing for the...
  
  , "Ghost Stories", Washington Post, Oct. 31, 2004, p. BW15.
• Ben Stanley, Speculative Fiction Junkie Interview
• Ian Macmillan, "Discover the Darker Side of the Dales", Yorkshire Post, May 1, 2009.