A Dreamer & A Visionary; H.P. Lovecraft in His Time

Chapter Sixteen: Non-supernatural Cosmic Art (1930–31) 293

Chapter Seventeen: Mental Greed (1931–33) 313

Chapter Eighteen: In My Own Handwriting (1933–35) 329

Chapter Nineteen: Caring about the Civilization (1929–37) 346

Chapter Twenty: The End of One’s Life (1935–37) 364

Epilogue: Thou Art Not Gone 389 Notes 393 Index 411

To David E. Schultz

… from earliest childhood I have been a dreamer and a visionary. —H. P. Lovecraft, ‘The Tomb’ vii

The Time Machines

Preface

I do not believe that much needs to be said here regarding the scope and overall purpose of this volume. I have sought to trace, in some detail, the life of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, to supply some account of his major writings, and to give at least an outline of the philosophical thought that structures his work and in accordance with which he led his life. All these features have been treated in more detail elsewhere, but readers may find their fusion in this work of some benefit.

I have been involved in the study of Lovecraft for two and a half decades, and in that interim have incurred more debts of gratitude from colleagues than I could possibly repay or even record. When I first began to take a scholarly interest in Lovecraft, I was guided by Dirk W. Mosig, J. Vernon Shea, and George T. Wetzel; other colleagues such as R. Boerem, Kenneth W. Faig, Jr, Richard L. Tierney, Scott Connors, Matthew H. Onderdonk, Peter Cannon, and David E. Schultz also helped me considerably. Marc A. Michaud’s Necronomicon Press offered me abundant opportunities to expand my interests into realms I might otherwise not have pursued.

Much of my work on Lovecraft has of course been done at the John Hay Library of Brown University, the largest repository of Lovecraft material in the world. Its assistant librarian, John H. Stanley, has been of invaluable assistance in countless ways, as have such other librarians there as Jennifer B. Lee and Jean Rainwater. I have also done much work at the Rhode Island Historical Society, the Providence Public Library, the New York Public Library, the New York University Library, the Columbia University Library, and elsewhere.

The entire manuscript of this book has been read by Kenneth W. Faig, Jr, and Steven J. Mariconda, both of whom (but Faig in particular) offered a great many useful suggestions. Other facts, large and small, have been supplied by Donald R. Burleson, Stefan Dziemianowicz, Perry M. Grayson, T. E. D. Klein, Dan Lorraine, viii PREFACE

Donovan K. Loucks, M. Eileen McNamara, M.D., Marc A. Michaud, Sam Moskowitz, Robert M. Price, David E. Schultz, A. Langley Searles, and Richard D. Squires. A Note on Sources

Because of the ready availability of most of Lovecraft’s work, I have not seen the need to cite editions of his tales, essays, and poems in this book, or indeed to supply a bibliography at all. Works by Lovecraft are chiefly cited from the editions listed below; full bibliographical information on works about Lovecraft is given in the notes.

Lovecraft’s juvenile fiction and poetry (1897–1905) is contained in my edition of Juvenilia (1984). The juvenile nonfiction (scientific periodicals and treatises) has not been published, but most of it can be found in the John Hay Library of Brown University. The following four volumes, edited by me, contain the great majority of Lovecraft’s stories and revisions:

The Dunwich Horror and Others (1984)

At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels (1985) Dagon and Other Macabre Tales (1986)

The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions (1989)

The remaining fiction is contained in my edition of Lovecraft’s Miscellaneous Writings (1995). Lovecraft’s poetry is contained in my edition of The Ancient Track: Complete Poetical Works (2001).

Lovecraft’s essays are not very readily available, but a large selection is contained in Miscellaneous Writings. There are many editions published by Necronomicon Press of select bodies of his work, of which note can be made of the following:

The Conservative: Complete (1976)

Writings in The United Amateur (1976)

The Californian (1977)

Uncollected Prose and Poetry (1978–82; 3 vols)

In Defence of Dagon (1985)

Autobiographical Writings (1992)

Other editions containing essays are August Derleth’s various miscellany volumes, Marginalia (1944), Something about Cats and Other Pieces (1949), The Shuttered Room and Other Pieces (1959), and The PREFACE ix Dark Brotherhood and Other Pieces (1966), as well as L. Sprague de Camp’s edition of To Quebec and the Stars (1976).