An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia

Short-story writer, poet, artist, sculptor, publisher, collector, scholar, and HPL’s literary executor. When Barlow began corresponding with HPL in 1931, he concealed from HPL the fact that he was only thirteen. Among his early fantasy writings are “Annals of the Jinns” ( Fantasy Fan,October 1933–February 1935), “The Slaying of the Monster” (1933), and “The Hoard of the Wizard-Beast” (1933); the first were gathered as Annals of the Jinns(Necronomicon Press, 1978); the latter two (revised by HPL) as The Hoard of the Wizard-Beast and One Other(Necronomicon Press, 1994). Other tales appeared in various magazines of the NAPA, which Barlow joined at HPL’s suggestion; “Eyes of the God” ( Sea Gull,May 1933) won the story laureateship for that year. Barlow attempted to bind and distribute HPL’s The Shunned House(1928), but bound only a few copies (HPL’s was in leather). He invited HPL to visit him at his home in De Land, Fla., in the summer of 1934, and HPL stayed from May 2 to June 21. At that time the two wrote the spoof “The Battle That Ended the Century” and two poems under the general title “Bouts Rimés,” and HPL drew his celebrated portrait of Cthulhu. HPL revised Barlow’s “‘Till A’ the Seas’” ( Californian,1935) in January 1935, when Barlow was visiting colleagues in New York. Barlow again invited HPL to Florida in the summer of 1935, and HPL remained from June 9 to August 18. At that time they wrote an unfinished parody, “Collapsing Cosmoses,” and set type for Frank Belknap Long’s poetry collection, The Goblin Tower,which Barlow issued from his Dragon-Fly Press. Barlow also typed HPL’s “The Shadow out of Time.” He wrote a superb HPL-influenced tale, “A Dim-Remembered Story” ( Californian,Summer 1936; rpt. Necronomicon Press, 1980), apparently without HPL’s assistance. He visited HPL in Providence in the summer

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