Look, Ma--I'm A Lovecraft 'Scholar'!
In his snippy review of a pro-Derleth book that attack'd him continuously (a book for which I wrote a pro-Derleth foreword), S. T. Joshi wrote: "(The genial W. H. Pugmire, in his preface, now also vaunts Derleth's Mythos tales, but no one takes him seriously as a critic.)" O, sweet ducklings, people were outraged & expected me to be annoy'd with S. T., who is my greatest friend and has encouraged my writing more than any other soul. I wasn't at all annoy'd, I found it all hilarious; too, I understood S. T.'s emotional dislike of Derleth, a complicated issue. Shortly after this incident, Pete Von Sholly asked S. T. if he knew of anyone who cou'd write new essays for the forthcoming LOVECRAFT ILLUSTRATED volumes from PS Publishing, a nine-volume set of wondrously illustrated books, for each of which S. T. had provided the Lovecraft text and penned new Introductions. To my amazement, S. T. suggested that Pete ask me for some new essays. I was delighted and have written new essays of about 1,000 words@ for several volumes. It is a magnificent series, of which six volumes are now in print. I found that I really enjoy'd writing essays about HPL, even though I can never pretend to be a Lovecraft scholar. Thanks to mine beloved S. T. Joshi, I was given ye chance.
I don't suppose Amazon will carry those three volumes. They did the first three at $25 a piece. That's about right against 20 pounds but the shipping makes buying books directly from PS prohibitive. Again thanks for the review.
ReplyDeleteWilum I have always appreciated your critical writings (the few I managed to get hold of here and there) because you know what a good story is and I believe your Internet activity in promoting good weird fiction is very precious, to say the least - especially that in defense of our beloved HPL. If you had a volume published with essays on weird fiction probably S. T. would not care for it but I would run to order it! Greetings,
ReplyDeleteCarlo
Wilum, I concur with Carlo. You have an intimate knowledge not only of HPL but of weird fiction in general, and that, combined with a love for language and good writing makes for lucid commentary. When you talk or write about the structure of story and poetry it comes straight from the heart and seems to show (in common with HPL) a need to see beautiful, precise use of the English Language in the weird branches of literature. I too would rush out and grab a volume of your collected essays... or collected verse... or... hey, anything you write, really. By the way,Mitchell, luckily I live in the UK and can get PS tomes easily, but I agree with you as well - the cost of international postal services either way across the pond is prohibitive - for me, ordering books from the 'States is expensive. All the best, G ;-)=
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