by Robert W. Chambers
Also published online by The Project Gutenberg
Title: The King in Yellow Author: Robert W. Chambers
Banner Artwork above by Joe Broers.
Illustration for THE PROPHET'S PARADISE by Eric York,
taken from the collection Carcosa Tenement Blues by Edward Morris
Artwork for THE STREET OF THE FOUR WINDS by VeryScaryCarnival
Artwork for THE STREET OF OUR LADY OF THE FIELDS by Shasta Lawton.
I dug out my old ACE paperback copy of the nefarious tome and examined the collection. It features ten stories, most of which are in several parts, so I counted the parts and came up with thirty-one, plus the dedication. "This will serialize daily right through March," I thought to myself. Now here we are.
First I want to thank everyone at the Project Gutenberg that were involved in transcribing and uploading the text online here three years ago on Christmas eve, apparently. Thanks to Chuck Greif for rendering the HTML version. My gratitude extends to Suzanne Shell, Beth Trapaga, Charles Franks, and the entire Online Distributed Proofreading Team over at the Project Gutenberg for doing such a fine job transcribing the material to the internet for us.
Thanks to Joe Broers for his permission to use his stunning cover art which resembles a burnished copper plate. Follow the hyperlink from his name here to see his virtual gallery of amazing weird sculptures and artwork. He specializes in Lovecraftian and Chambersian sculptures, and is known as "zombiequadrille" over on Deviantart.com. Thank you to Mona Kimbrough (VeryScaryCarnival) for having once sold a painting whose one detail remaining has now been used twice in the Freezine.
My appreciation also goes out to Eric York, whose stylized artwork is immediately recognizable and perfectly conjures the decadence associated with The King In Yellow. The illustration he provided for "The Prophet's Paradise" is the same one used for the cover of Edward Morris's collection Carcosa Tenement Blues, available now in a Kindle edition. Thanks to both Eric and Edward for participating in our serialization of this ancient book.
Finally, I'd like to thank my wife Shasta Lawton for her contribution towards illustrating this digital serial version of Chambers' classic. Follow the hyperlink from her name to see one of the virtual galleries of the FREE ZINE ZONE, our sister site which features no words only the artwork featured in every issue; each artist's work displayed hyperlinks directly to the story or installment in which it was used.
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Author John Shirley's never-before published novella SKY PIRATES kicked off the inaugural issue five years ago in July, it's still archived of course for your reading pleasure. And you really should go out of your way to read it, check the Blog Archive in the right margin and open up 2009. You'll see it there in sixteen installments. They all hyperlink together to maximize your easy reading enjoyment.
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