Hopfrog
07-26-2011, 04:03 PM
Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937) has long been considered a curiosity of the American pulp magazine era. In his lifetime he had but one steady professional market, the magazine Weird Tales. Lovecraft is now considered one of the three giants among the magazines writers, the other two being Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith. Lovecraft's influence grew when he was alive and he influenced many young writers who began to write stories under his influence, perhaps the most famous being Robert Bloch, who became a writer because Lovecraft suggested that Bloch try to write horror fiction for Weird Tales; and then Bloch went on to write novels, short stories, teleplays and screenplays, and his fame became secured when Alfred Hitchcock filmed Bloch's novel, Psycho.
After Lovecraft's death, two of his friends tried to sell an omnibus of his weird fiction to various publishers, but none were interested. And so Donald Wandrei and August Derleth created Arkham House, a publishing house that specialized in collections and anthologies of weird fiction and verse. Their first book, The Outsider and Others by H. P. Lovecraft, now sells for thousands of dollars per edition. However, the editions of Lovecraft's works from Arkham House contained many misprints and some very odd errors that resulted from people being unable to read Lovecraft's handwriting or perhaps intentional changes introduced into the Works by Derleth himself. Eventually, Arkham House hired the world's leading Lovecraft scholar, S. T. Joshi, to re-edited all of Lovecraft's fiction in four volumes of Corrected Text Editions. Joshi's texts also served for the three volumes of Lovecraft's fiction that have now been published by Penguin Classics (with all of the stories fully annotated by editor Joshi; and these Penguin editions are by far the finest editions of Lovecraft available). Then Lovecraftian history was made when Peter Straub edited a volume of Lovecraft's Tales for The Library of America.
Although Lovecraft wrote for the pulps, he was over-concerned with the Art of Fiction, and his was an attempt to write works of Literature, the finest stories he could compose. He sometimes comes very close to achieving this, yet his tales are often uneven and some rather poor. Yet even Lovecraft's weakest works have their staunch defenders. At the time that Lovecraft was writing, science-fiction was a new genre, and one aspect of Lovecraft's work is that he blended supernatural horror with cosmic horror, thus creating tales that are a blend of genres. But Lovecraft wrote all kinds of things. He wrote what are called his Dunsany tales, influenced by his love for the fantasies of Lord Dunsany. Lovecraft declaimed that Poe was his "god of fiction," and Poe's influence is evident throughout Lovecraft's work, especially in such tales as "The Outsider."
Lovecraft was a man of many contradictions. He was a confirmed racist, and yet he married a Jewish woman. Some of his best friends in the literary scene were homosexual, but all speculation that Lovecraft was queer is unfounded and probably mistaken. He lived in poverty, but his approach toward writing was such that he would not write for any market but only to satisfy his artistic need, which resulted in his writing less and less stories as he aged. He is one of the world's greatest letter writers and collections of his selected correspondence are numerous; it has been said that his published Letters may be his finest achievement as a writer. His Collected Essays have been published in five volumes.
S. T. Joshi's Lovecraft--A Life is the finest single volume biographical account. It has since been republished in two volumes, restoring some 150,000 words of excised text, as I Am Providence--The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft.
One aspect of Lovecraft's legacy is what has been termed the Cthulhu Mythos. The name is not Lovecraft's but August Derleth's. I am one of hundreds of Lovecraft admirers who are so obsessed with Lovecraft's ideas, his mythical towns and cities, his Great Old Ones, that there are now legions of writers who write tales of Lovecraftian horror. My full-time profession is now the writing of such books. This practice has been condemned by many as the poor writings of unimaginative and unoriginal fan-boys who merely ripoff Lovecraft's ideas, characters and settings. Yet the writing of such tales is not only alluring, it's addictive. Lovecraft is a potent Muse, and I feel that I will be able to write book after book under his influence for the rest of my little life.
After Lovecraft's death, two of his friends tried to sell an omnibus of his weird fiction to various publishers, but none were interested. And so Donald Wandrei and August Derleth created Arkham House, a publishing house that specialized in collections and anthologies of weird fiction and verse. Their first book, The Outsider and Others by H. P. Lovecraft, now sells for thousands of dollars per edition. However, the editions of Lovecraft's works from Arkham House contained many misprints and some very odd errors that resulted from people being unable to read Lovecraft's handwriting or perhaps intentional changes introduced into the Works by Derleth himself. Eventually, Arkham House hired the world's leading Lovecraft scholar, S. T. Joshi, to re-edited all of Lovecraft's fiction in four volumes of Corrected Text Editions. Joshi's texts also served for the three volumes of Lovecraft's fiction that have now been published by Penguin Classics (with all of the stories fully annotated by editor Joshi; and these Penguin editions are by far the finest editions of Lovecraft available). Then Lovecraftian history was made when Peter Straub edited a volume of Lovecraft's Tales for The Library of America.
Although Lovecraft wrote for the pulps, he was over-concerned with the Art of Fiction, and his was an attempt to write works of Literature, the finest stories he could compose. He sometimes comes very close to achieving this, yet his tales are often uneven and some rather poor. Yet even Lovecraft's weakest works have their staunch defenders. At the time that Lovecraft was writing, science-fiction was a new genre, and one aspect of Lovecraft's work is that he blended supernatural horror with cosmic horror, thus creating tales that are a blend of genres. But Lovecraft wrote all kinds of things. He wrote what are called his Dunsany tales, influenced by his love for the fantasies of Lord Dunsany. Lovecraft declaimed that Poe was his "god of fiction," and Poe's influence is evident throughout Lovecraft's work, especially in such tales as "The Outsider."
Lovecraft was a man of many contradictions. He was a confirmed racist, and yet he married a Jewish woman. Some of his best friends in the literary scene were homosexual, but all speculation that Lovecraft was queer is unfounded and probably mistaken. He lived in poverty, but his approach toward writing was such that he would not write for any market but only to satisfy his artistic need, which resulted in his writing less and less stories as he aged. He is one of the world's greatest letter writers and collections of his selected correspondence are numerous; it has been said that his published Letters may be his finest achievement as a writer. His Collected Essays have been published in five volumes.
S. T. Joshi's Lovecraft--A Life is the finest single volume biographical account. It has since been republished in two volumes, restoring some 150,000 words of excised text, as I Am Providence--The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft.
One aspect of Lovecraft's legacy is what has been termed the Cthulhu Mythos. The name is not Lovecraft's but August Derleth's. I am one of hundreds of Lovecraft admirers who are so obsessed with Lovecraft's ideas, his mythical towns and cities, his Great Old Ones, that there are now legions of writers who write tales of Lovecraftian horror. My full-time profession is now the writing of such books. This practice has been condemned by many as the poor writings of unimaginative and unoriginal fan-boys who merely ripoff Lovecraft's ideas, characters and settings. Yet the writing of such tales is not only alluring, it's addictive. Lovecraft is a potent Muse, and I feel that I will be able to write book after book under his influence for the rest of my little life.