Black Heart, Ivory Bones

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Once upon a time there were two girls who dearly loved fairy tales … and as they grew, they never lost their taste for magical, mythical stories. The girl with hair as black as night loved the dark and tragic tales best — the ones where birds weep tears of blood, the wicked dance in red-hot shoes, and poor little match girls die in the cold embrace of winter. She grew up to be an editor of horror fiction, and lived in a New York City apartment filled with cats and stones and polished bones and art by Edward Gorey. The girl with hair as light as day loved bright tales of transformation — where seal maidens dance on moonlit shores and stubborn girls weave coats of nettles for men turned into swans. She grew up to be an editor of fantasy fiction, and lived in a thatched-roof English cottage covered with roses red and white, like an Arthur Rackham painting come to life. Ten years ago these women discovered they shared a love of fairy tales — the old versions, sensual and dark, before modern children’s books and cartoons turned them simple and saccharine — as well as a love for adult literature based on fairy tale themes. They decided that the time had come to rescue fairy tales from the nursery and bring them back to adult readers — and so, along with artist Thomas Canty (whose beautiful painting graces this book), they created a six-volume library of stories inspired by classic tales. The first volume in the series was Snow White, Blood Red, published in 1993. It was followed by Black Thorn, White Rose; Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears; Black Swan, White Raven; and Silver Birch, Blood Moon. The final volume, Black Heart, Ivory Bones, you now hold in your hands.

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