An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia

In 1931 Wright gravely offended HPL by rejecting At the Mountains of Madness,which HPL considered his most ambitious work. Although HPL felt the short novel was suited for serialization by simply dividing after Chapter 6, Wright felt that it was “‘too long,’ ‘not easily divisible into parts,’ ‘not convincing’—& so on” (SL 3.395). For the next five and a half years HPL submitted only one story to WT,even though Wright repeated asked him to do so and reprinted several earlier tales. (August Derleth submitted “The Shadow over Innsmouth” in 1933 and “The Dreams in the Witch House” in 1934 without HPL’s knowledge or permission; the former was rejected, the latter accepted.) In 1932 Wright further angered HPL by urging him not to deal with Carl Swanson, who was attempting to form a magazine, Galaxy,that Wright regarded as a potential rival to WT. HPL grudgingly submitted “The Thing on the Doorstep” and “The Haunter of the Dark” to Wright in the autumn of 1936; they were promptly accepted. After HPL’s death Wright published many of HPL’s stories that he had previously rejected. He edited WTuntil his death, when Dorothy McIlwraith took the helm. See E.Hoffmann Price, “Farnsworth Wright,” Ghost(July 1944); rpt. AnubisNo. 3 (1968); rpt. Etchings and OdysseysNo. 3 (1983); in Price’s The Book of the Dead(Arkham House, 2001).

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Y

“Year Off, A.”

Poem (44 lines in quatrains); written on July 24, 1925. First published in BWS HPL imagines voyaging to various exotic lands, but then decides that his imaginative journey was sufficient and that he need not actually travel anywhere. The poem was written for a Blue Pencil Club meeting in which amateurs were asked to prepare literary contributions on a stated theme.

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Z

Zamacona y Nuñez, Panfilo de.

In “The Mound,” a member of Coronado’s expedition who leaves the party and goes on to explore the mound region of Oklahoma, hoping to find Xinaián, a legendary underground realm of great wealth. An Indian guide leads him there, but he is soon enslaved by the inhabitants; his later attempt to escape from them is unsuccessful. His narrative of his adventures, discovered by the narrator, constitutes the body of the story.

Zann, Erich.

In “The Music of Erich Zann,” the mute, possessed composer and cellist who is the subject of the story. His garret room does not overlook the streets of Paris, but “the blackness of space illimitable,” the apparent inspiration for his weird music.

Zimmer,———.

In “The Temple,” a seaman on the German submarine U-29 who apparently commits suicide to escape the horrors he thinks are besetting his vessel.

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General Bibliography

PRIMARY SOURCES

The Ancient Track: Complete Poetical Works.Edited by S.T.Joshi. San Francisco: Night Shade Books, 2001.

The Annotated H.P.Lovecraft.Edited by S.T.Joshi. New York: Dell, 1997.

The Annotated Supernatural Horror in Literature.Edited by S.T.Joshi. New York: Hippocampus Press, 2000.

At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels.Selected by August Derleth; Texts Edited by S.T.Joshi. Sauk City, Wis.: Arkham House, 1985.

Beyond the Wall of Sleep.Collected by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei. Sauk City, Wis.: Arkham House, 1943.

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories.Edited by S.T.Joshi. New York: Penguin, 1999. Commonplace Book.Edited and annotated by David E.Schultz. West Warwick, R.I.: Necronomicon Press, 1987. 2 vols.

Dagon and Other Macabre Tales.Selected by August Derleth; Texts Edited by S.T. Joshi. Sauk City, Wis.: Arkham House, 1986.

The Dunwich Horror and Others.Selected by August Derleth; Texts Edited by S.T. Joshi. Sauk City, Wis.: Arkham House, 1984.

The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions.Edited by S.T.Joshi. Sauk City, Wis.: Arkham House, 1989.