The Great God Pan

[Demian]

I finished this one By Machen a little while ago and enjoyed it immensely. I believe that he was either an associate or inspiration for Lovecraft. His descriptions of geomancy was fascinating, but without a blurb on the back of the book revealing his penchant for geomancy it could just as easily be seen as a writer's deft imagination hard at work. I read that Goethe was a fan of Geomancy, and was wondering if anyone out there knows which of his works delved into this? Or if anyone else knows Machen, can you suggest another good, ghastly writer to explore? I'm not a huge fan of most modern stuff, but if someone is unconventional, I'll give them a shot (in the dark)...

[PeterL]

Our Lady of Darkness by Fritz Leiber might be something that you would like. He used magic in many of his other books also: Conjure Wife (one of the best novels of the Horror subgenre) and the Fafrd and Mouser stories for example.

[Stieg]

Try Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Montague Rhodes James, Robert Aickman, and Russell Kirk.

I just bought of a volume of A E Coppard tales titled Father Raven. He might be more of what you are looking for.

[JBI]

Isn't this a poem by Elizabeth Barret Browning?

[crisaor]

I finished this one By Machen a little while ago and enjoyed it immensely. I believe that he was either an associate or inspiration for Lovecraft.
Interesting. There's a poem about Pan by Lovecraft that I like very much:

“Seated in a woodland glen
By a shallow reédy stream
Once I fell a-musing, when
I was Iull’d into a dream

From the brook a shape arose
Half a man and half a goat,
Hoofs it had instead of toes
And a beard adorn’d its throat

On a set of rustic reeds
Sweetly play’d this hybrid man
Naught car’d I for earthly needs,
For I knew that this was Pan

Nymphs and satyrs gather’d ‘round
To enjoy the lively sound…

All too soon I woke in pain
And return’d to haunts of men
But in rural vales I’d fain
Live and hear Pan’s pipes again.”
- H.P. Lovecraft, To Pan

You can also read The Great God Pan here (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/389).