Your Friendly Neighborhood Magician is the only collection of the extremely rare early poems and song lyrics of Peter S. Beagle. Here you’ll find the blending of bittersweet romance, sly wit, and gorgeous lyricism that only this true magician can conjure. This limited edition chapbook was produced to celebrate Tachyon’s eleventh anniversary.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Magician is the only collection of the extremely- rare early poems and song lyrics of Peter S. Beagle. Here you’ll find the blending of bittersweet romance, sly wit, and gorgeous lyricism that only this true magician can conjure. This limited edition chapbook was produced to celebrate Tachyon’s eleventh anniversary.
Peter S. Beagle is the best-selling author of The Last Unicorn, which has sold a reported five million copies since its initial publication in 1968. His other novels include A Fine & Private Place, The Innkeeper’s Song, and Tamsin. His short fiction has been collected in four volumes by Tachyon Publications, including The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche, The Line Between, We Never Talk About My Brother, and Sleight of Hand. He has won the Hugo, Nebula, Mythopoeic, and Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire awards and the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Praise for Peter S. Beagle
“One of my favorite writers.”
—Madeleine L’Engle, author of A Wrinkle in Time and A Swiftly Tilting Planet
“Peter S. Beagle illuminates with his own particular magic such commonplace matters as ghosts, unicorns, and werewolves. For years a loving readership has consulted him as an expert on those hearts’ reasons that reason does not know.”
—Ursula K. Le Guin, author of A Wizard of Earthsea and The Left Hand of Darkness
“…the only contemporary to remind one of Tolkien.”
—Booklist
“Peter S. Beagle is (in no particular order) a wonderful writer, a fine human being, and a bandit prince out to steal readers’ hearts.”
—Tad Williams, author of Tailchaser’s Song and The Very Best of Tad Williams
“It’s a fully rounded region, this other world of Peter Beagle’s imagination….”
—Kirkus
“[Beagle] has been compared, not unreasonably, with Lewis Carroll and J. R. R. Tolkien, but he stands squarely and triumphantly on his own feet.”
—The Saturday Review
“Not only does Peter Beagle make his fantasy worlds come vividly, beautifully alive; he does it for the people who enter them.”
—Poul Anderson, author of The High Crusade
“Peter S. Beagle is the magician we all apprenticed ourselves to. Before all the endless series and shared-world novels, Beagle was there to show us the amazing possibilities waiting in the worlds of fantasy, and he is still one of the masters by which the rest of the field is measured.”
—Lisa Goldstein, author of The Uncertain Places and The Red Magician
“Peter S. Beagle would be one of the century’s great writers in any arena he chose; we readers must feel blessed that Beagle picked fantasy as a homeland. Magic pumps like blood through the veins of his stories. Imparting passionately breathing, singing, laughing reality to the marvelous is his great gift to us all.”
—Edward Bryant, author of Cinnabar
Praise for Sleight of Hand
“Multiple Hugo and Nebula Award–winning Beagle opens readers’ eyes to wonder with his latest collection of 13 short stories. Each piece bridges the rich intersection of fantasy and fairy tale, reality and possibility, exploring predestination, fate, and the power of love through characters that come to vivid, three-dimensional life within a few short pages. Beagle’s lyrical writing is set in a wide range of landscapes both familiar and fresh, with twists on Jack and the Beanstalk, monsters and dragons, a singing enchantress, ghostly photographs, and a modern werewolf tale. ‘The Bridge Partner’ is more noir than fantasy yet fits within the collection quite well, as does the deeply chilling, experimental, and dark ‘Dirae.’ ‘The Woman Who Married the Man in the Moon’ features two lost children and an encounter with an early version of Schmendrick the Magician from his classic novel, The Last Unicorn. Each story is introduced with some background about its origin.”
—Library Journal
“This bittersweet collection of 13 recent stories pays tribute to the complicated power of family ties…. Fans of The Last Unicorn will also appreciate ‘The Woman Who Married the Man in the Moon,’ a Schmendrick prequel in classic bittersweet Beagle style.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Satisfying.”
—Washington Post Book World
“This 13-story anthology will entice even the most jaded reader to read long hours into the night…. Sleight of Hand will beguile and enchant.”
—New York Journal of Books
“Beagle still has the power to surprise…a new collection of stories by one of the all-time greats.”
—The Guardian
“Sleight of Hand is a strong collection by an author whose skill has only improved with time…a must-have.”
—Tor.com
“Few can match [Beagle] when it comes to a particular mix of the fantastic and the ordinary, with a tinge of nostalgia. As one character observes, the magic is in the telling, always.”
—Interzone
“Demonstrates yet again why [Beagle’s] perhaps the finest fantasy writer at short lengths working today.”
—Locus
“…not only one of our greatest fantasists, but one of our greatest writers, a magic realist worthy of consideration with such writers as Marquez, Allende, and even Borges.”
—The American Culture
“Engaging and wide-ranging selection of fantasies…the perfect book.”
—Strange Horizons
“There’s quiet power here, and delicate craftsmanship, and, most of all, a genuine emotional response that few short-story collections can generate.”
—Green Man Review
Praise for A Fine & Private Place
“One of literature’s most beautiful works about ghostly times and places…told with wit, charm, and a sense of individuality.”
—New York Times Book Review
“Both sepulchral and oddly appealing…[Beagle’s] ectoplasmic fable has a distinct mossy charm.”
—TIME Magazine
“A Fine & Private Place is just as wonderful as I remembered it to be: beautifully written, the characters warmly drawn, the pages filled with conversations that run the gamut of the human condition…. [I]t’s a great book in a lovely affordable package.”
—Fantasy & Science Fiction
“Delightful!”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“A sweet, sad, and smart novel about life, death, and love…a book that has endured for a reason.”
—The Agony Column
“A wonderful work of literature…a gem of a novel.”
—BookLoons
Stable of Dragons
Constructive Criticism
Lilith
North Country Ballad
Thais’ Lullaby
Persephone in September
The Ferret Speaks Under William Blake’s Window
Very Plaintive Song
Part II: Songs
Illahee
The Ballad of Christian X, King of Denmark 1912-–1947
Your Friendly Neighborhood Magician
The Roving Garbageman
The Dinosaurs
The Ballad of Mary Read
Song for a Married Lady
The Dracula Rag
Magicians’ Wives
Homecoming Song
Prince Lir’s Song
The Innkeeper’s Song
Animal Song
Untitled
Stay Out of My Dreams
The Day They Struck Oil in Harlem
Still Got Me
Your Friendly Neighborhood Magician
Peter S. Beagle
Your Friendly Neighborhood Magician is the only collection of the extremely rare early poems and song lyrics of Peter S. Beagle. Here you’ll find the blending of bittersweet romance, sly wit, and gorgeous lyricism that only this true magician can conjure. This limited edition chapbook was produced to celebrate Tachyon’s eleventh anniversary.
$20.00
Out of stock
Your Friendly Neighborhood Magician
by Peter S. Beagle
ISBN: N/A
Published: 2007
Available Format(s): Limited Chapbook
Your Friendly Neighborhood Magician is the only collection of the extremely- rare early poems and song lyrics of Peter S. Beagle. Here you’ll find the blending of bittersweet romance, sly wit, and gorgeous lyricism that only this true magician can conjure. This limited edition chapbook was produced to celebrate Tachyon’s eleventh anniversary.
Peter S. Beagle is the best-selling author of The Last Unicorn, which has sold a reported five million copies since its initial publication in 1968. His other novels include A Fine & Private Place, The Innkeeper’s Song, and Tamsin. His short fiction has been collected in four volumes by Tachyon Publications, including The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche, The Line Between, We Never Talk About My Brother, and Sleight of Hand. He has won the Hugo, Nebula, Mythopoeic, and Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire awards and the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Praise for Peter S. Beagle
“One of my favorite writers.”
—Madeleine L’Engle, author of A Wrinkle in Time and A Swiftly Tilting Planet
“Peter S. Beagle illuminates with his own particular magic such commonplace matters as ghosts, unicorns, and werewolves. For years a loving readership has consulted him as an expert on those hearts’ reasons that reason does not know.”
—Ursula K. Le Guin, author of A Wizard of Earthsea and The Left Hand of Darkness
“…the only contemporary to remind one of Tolkien.”
—Booklist
“Peter S. Beagle is (in no particular order) a wonderful writer, a fine human being, and a bandit prince out to steal readers’ hearts.”
—Tad Williams, author of Tailchaser’s Song and The Very Best of Tad Williams
“It’s a fully rounded region, this other world of Peter Beagle’s imagination….”
—Kirkus
“[Beagle] has been compared, not unreasonably, with Lewis Carroll and J. R. R. Tolkien, but he stands squarely and triumphantly on his own feet.”
—The Saturday Review
“Not only does Peter Beagle make his fantasy worlds come vividly, beautifully alive; he does it for the people who enter them.”
—Poul Anderson, author of The High Crusade
“Peter S. Beagle is the magician we all apprenticed ourselves to. Before all the endless series and shared-world novels, Beagle was there to show us the amazing possibilities waiting in the worlds of fantasy, and he is still one of the masters by which the rest of the field is measured.”
—Lisa Goldstein, author of The Uncertain Places and The Red Magician
“Peter S. Beagle would be one of the century’s great writers in any arena he chose; we readers must feel blessed that Beagle picked fantasy as a homeland. Magic pumps like blood through the veins of his stories. Imparting passionately breathing, singing, laughing reality to the marvelous is his great gift to us all.”
—Edward Bryant, author of Cinnabar
Praise for Sleight of Hand
“Multiple Hugo and Nebula Award–winning Beagle opens readers’ eyes to wonder with his latest collection of 13 short stories. Each piece bridges the rich intersection of fantasy and fairy tale, reality and possibility, exploring predestination, fate, and the power of love through characters that come to vivid, three-dimensional life within a few short pages. Beagle’s lyrical writing is set in a wide range of landscapes both familiar and fresh, with twists on Jack and the Beanstalk, monsters and dragons, a singing enchantress, ghostly photographs, and a modern werewolf tale. ‘The Bridge Partner’ is more noir than fantasy yet fits within the collection quite well, as does the deeply chilling, experimental, and dark ‘Dirae.’ ‘The Woman Who Married the Man in the Moon’ features two lost children and an encounter with an early version of Schmendrick the Magician from his classic novel, The Last Unicorn. Each story is introduced with some background about its origin.”
—Library Journal
“This bittersweet collection of 13 recent stories pays tribute to the complicated power of family ties…. Fans of The Last Unicorn will also appreciate ‘The Woman Who Married the Man in the Moon,’ a Schmendrick prequel in classic bittersweet Beagle style.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Satisfying.”
—Washington Post Book World
“This 13-story anthology will entice even the most jaded reader to read long hours into the night…. Sleight of Hand will beguile and enchant.”
—New York Journal of Books
“Beagle still has the power to surprise…a new collection of stories by one of the all-time greats.”
—The Guardian
“Sleight of Hand is a strong collection by an author whose skill has only improved with time…a must-have.”
—Tor.com
“Few can match [Beagle] when it comes to a particular mix of the fantastic and the ordinary, with a tinge of nostalgia. As one character observes, the magic is in the telling, always.”
—Interzone
“Demonstrates yet again why [Beagle’s] perhaps the finest fantasy writer at short lengths working today.”
—Locus
“…not only one of our greatest fantasists, but one of our greatest writers, a magic realist worthy of consideration with such writers as Marquez, Allende, and even Borges.”
—The American Culture
“Engaging and wide-ranging selection of fantasies…the perfect book.”
—Strange Horizons
“There’s quiet power here, and delicate craftsmanship, and, most of all, a genuine emotional response that few short-story collections can generate.”
—Green Man Review
Praise for A Fine & Private Place
“One of literature’s most beautiful works about ghostly times and places…told with wit, charm, and a sense of individuality.”
—New York Times Book Review
“Both sepulchral and oddly appealing…[Beagle’s] ectoplasmic fable has a distinct mossy charm.”
—TIME Magazine
“A Fine & Private Place is just as wonderful as I remembered it to be: beautifully written, the characters warmly drawn, the pages filled with conversations that run the gamut of the human condition…. [I]t’s a great book in a lovely affordable package.”
—Fantasy & Science Fiction
“Delightful!”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“A sweet, sad, and smart novel about life, death, and love…a book that has endured for a reason.”
—The Agony Column
“A wonderful work of literature…a gem of a novel.”
—BookLoons
Visit the Peter S. Beagle website.
Contents
Part I: Early Poetry
Stable of Dragons
Constructive Criticism
Lilith
North Country Ballad
Thais’ Lullaby
Persephone in September
The Ferret Speaks Under William Blake’s Window
Very Plaintive Song
Part II: Songs
Illahee
The Ballad of Christian X, King of Denmark 1912-–1947
Your Friendly Neighborhood Magician
The Roving Garbageman
The Dinosaurs
The Ballad of Mary Read
Song for a Married Lady
The Dracula Rag
Magicians’ Wives
Homecoming Song
Prince Lir’s Song
The Innkeeper’s Song
Animal Song
Untitled
Stay Out of My Dreams
The Day They Struck Oil in Harlem
Still Got Me
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