Lovecraftian Horror



This is the working draft jacket for volume one of THE VARIORUM LOVECRAFT.  I am utterly entranc'd.  It has such delicious mood.  The touch of having E'ch-Pi-El gaze from out a haunted mirror is pure genius; and I love that Lovecraft's notes and etching for At the Mountains of Madness were incorporated, as well as. in ye margins, one of Grandpa's epistles.  Even the photo of ye book's editor is colour-coordinated with the entire tone of the piece.  Magnificent.  Oh, my darlings--how my eyes itch to read these three first volumes (they will be follow'd by a fourth volume of Lovecraft's revisions and collaborations)!!  I was hoping that publication wou'd happen in November, but nigh it has been pushed up to January.
       From ye Hippocampus site at Facebook:  After much consideration, we decided to key the first three volumes to Lovecraft's "tripartite nature" quote.  So, the cover of the first volume embodies the strange and fantastic.  Volume 2 will represent abstract truth and scientific logick, volume 3 the ancient and the permanent.  All will be done in Fergal Fitzpatrick's very atmospheric style, tastefully rendered for this scholarly edition.
"I should describe mine own nature as tripartite, my interests consisting of three parallel and dissociated groups--(a) Love of the strange and the fantastic. (b) Love of the abstract truth and of scietific logic. (c) Love of the ancient and the permanent.  Sundry combinations of these strains will probably account for all my odd tastes and eccentricities."  --H. P. Lovecraft

Do you remember S. T. Joshi's old attitude concerning ye Cthulhu Mythos?
"I still don't know what would possess anyone to write a 'Cthulhu Mythos' story; surely there must be something better to do with one's time--like staring off into space?"  Ah, how delightfully people can change.  S. T. is now ye author of a Mythos novel, and has penned a new tale set in Innsmouth.  & this morning's poft hath brought this first volume of his new Mythos anthology, The Madness of Cthulhu.  The use of "Cthulhu" in ye book's title is because ye publisher, Titan Books, insists on including the name in such anthologies, to ye point where they have changed the original title of Black Wings to Black Wings of Cthulhu.  I regret that the name of Lovecraft's Great Old One is far more famous than HPL's own byline--but I am overjoy'd to see, on this cover, "H. P. Lovecraft" in large letters above ye book's title.  On ye back cover we have this: "Fourteen brand-new stories of the macabre, plus two rare works inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness.  With its terrifying account of a doomed scientific expedition, Lovecraft's masterpiece has influenced many of the finest authors in modern fiction.  Inspired by his dark mythos of cosmic abominations clawing at the edge of our reality, these writers have enthusiastically embrace. . ."  & it ends thus, abruptly, like some Mythos tale in which ye doomed victim writes to ye very end of narrative, and continues writing as he is being dragged to death by whatever monstrous thing hath been evoked.  THE MADNESS OF CTHULHU features new original tales by Heather Graham, Lois S. Gresh, Caitlin R. Kiernan, J. C. Hoch, Melanie Tem, K. M. Tonso, Harry Turtledove, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., Michael Shea, John Shirley, William Browning Spencer, Jonathan Thomas, Donald Tyson; plus two long-lost classics of Lovecraftian weirdness by Arthur C, Clarke and Robert Silverberg.  With a Foreword by Jonathan Maberry and an Introduction by S. T. Joshi.

Dang, and I have just started reading A MOUNTAIN WALKED.  How odd, so much Mythos fiction to read, all in books edited by S. T.  And just this moment S. T. has sent me ye proofs for my next book from Hippocampus Press, MONSTROUS AFTERMATH, and I need to go over those and try and catch typos.  Ah, whut a busy writer's life!!



Comments

  1. The S. T. Joshi quote is a funny one! Is that included in one of his essays or articles online? How can one find the original source?

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  2. The quote is from S. T.'s review of CTHULHU'S HEIRS, found in LOVECRAFT STUDIES 31. The line is then reprinted on page 221 of CLASSICS & CONTEMPORARIES (Hippocampus Press 2009).

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