Weird Factoid of the Day

I just found out that while working for Eyre and Spottiswoode— surely my favourite British publisher, just for the name alone— Graham Greene edited the first novel of a man better known as a fantasy illustrator:

“Greene scrupulously hammers Mervyn Peake for the facetiousness, prolixity, and overwriting in the original manuscript of Titus Groan. Peake, after reeling from the shock, reworked his book, now regarded as one of the summits of modern fantasy.”

Wow. It was even more overwritten, prolix, and facetious in its first draft!

I’m not sure what to make of the author of End of the Affair and The Power and the Glory laboring to better illuminate the tale of Lord Sepulchrave, Doctor Prunesquallor, Steerpike, and the Seventy-Seventh Earl of Groan.