Dust jacket by Michael Wm Kaluta
When New York Times Bestselling writer Tad Williams described Peter S.Beagle as a 'bandit prince out to steal reader's hearts' he touched ona truth that readers have known for fifty years. Beagle, whose workhas touched generations of readers around the world, has spun rich,romantic and very funny tales that have beguiled and enchanted readersof all ages.
Undeniably, his most famous work is the much loved classic, The LastUnicorn, which tells of unicorn who sets off on quest to discoverwhether she is the last of her kind, and of the people she meets onher journey. Never prolific, The Last Unicorn is one of only fivenovels Beagle has published since A Fine and Private Place appeared in1960, and was followed by The Folk of the Air, The Innkeeper's Song,and Tamsin.
During the first forty years of his career Beagle also wrote a smallhandful, scarcely a dozen, short stories. Classics like 'Come LadyDeath', 'Lila and the Werewolf', 'Julie's Unicorn', 'ProfessorGottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros', and the tales that make up GiantBones. And then, starting just five years ago, he turned hisattention to short fiction in earnest, and produced a stunning arrayof new stories including the Hugo and Nebula Award winning follow upto The Last Unicorn, 'Two Hearts', WSFA Small Press Award winner 'ElRegalo', and wonderful stories like the surrealist 'The Last andOnly', the haunting 'The Rabbi's Hobby' and others.
Mirror Kingdoms: The Best of Peter S. Beagle collects the very best ofthese stories, over 200,000 words worth, ranging across 45 years of his career from earlystories to freshly minted tales that will surprise and amaze readers.It's a book which shows, more than any other, just how successful thisbandit prince from the streets of New York has been at stealing ourhearts and underscores how much we hope he'll keep on doing so.
