An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia

5. HPL consciously developed his mythology, but died before he could accomplish all he intended to do.But HPL had no such intention; only Derleth seems to have arrived at this conclusion. See, for example, his statement concerning his “posthumous collaboration” with HPL, “The Shuttered Room,” that it is a “wedding of the Innsmouth and Dunwich themes, as manifestly HPL intended to do, judging by his scant notes”

(Derleth to Felix Stefanile, August 11, 1958; ms., SHSW). There is no evidence in HPL of an Innsmouth theme, or a Dunwich theme, or that he intended to join them. Derleth began expounding his view of the Mythos—and attributing it to HPL—as early as the article “H.P.Lovecraft, Outsider” ( River,June 1937), in which he first mentioned the “Cthulhu mythology” and first cited the spurious “All my stories” quotation. He continued to disseminate this view in books, articles, and introductions to HPL’s stories for the rest of his life. He also wrote numerous “posthumous collaborations” with HPL, taking plot germs from HPL’s commonplace book (most of which had no connection with his pseudomythology), making “Cthulhu Mythos” tales of them, and affixing HPL’s name to them. He also wrote numerous “Cthulhu Mythos” tales of his own (e.g., The Mask of Cthulhu [1958], The Trail of Cthulhu[1962]). In some cases he urged other writers (such as Ramsey Campbell and Brian Lumley) to “add” to the “Cthulhu Mythos”; in other cases he threatened legal action against others who sought to do so (e.g., in regard to the pulp writer C.Hall Thompson) when their work did not conform to his interpretation. What is most difficult to comprehend is that Derleth published HPL’s statement to Farnsworth Wright (cited above) in Marginalia(in “Two Comments,” pp. 305–6), as though it were an important statement about HPL’s work; and yet, even though it was diametrically opposed to the conception Derleth had devised, Derleth nevertheless continued to emphasize the less tenable statement—the “black magic” quotation provided by Farnese. Despite research in the 1970s by Richard L.Tierney, Dirk W.Mosig, and others exposing the errors of Derleth’s interpretation, numerous writers continued to write their own takeoffs of the Mythos, a phenomenon that gathered considerable steam in the 1990s with many anthologies of “Cthulhu Mythos” stories assembled by Robert M.Price. Few scholars today, however, regard HPL’s pseudomythology as significant in itself; rather, they see it as one of several ways through which HPL expressed his distinctive cosmic vision.

See Matthew H.Onderdonk, “The Lord of R’lyeh,” Fantasy Commentator1, No. 6 (Spring 1945): 103– 14 (rpt. LSNo. 7 [Fall 1982]: 8–17); George T.Wetzel, “The Cthulhu Mythos: A Study,” in HPL,ed. Meade and Penny Frierson (1972) (rpt. FDOC); Richard L.Tierney, “The Derleth Mythos,” in HPL,ed. Meade and Penny Frierson (1972); Dirk W.Mosig, “H.P.Lovecraft: Myth-Maker,” Whispers3, No. 1 (December 1976): 48–55 (revised version in FDOC); Robert M. Price, “Demythologizing Cthulhu,” LS No. 8 (Spring 1984): 3–9; Will Murray, “The Dunwich Chimera and Others,” LSNo. 8 (Spring 1984): 10–24; Will Murray, “An Uncompromising Look at the Cthulhu Mythos,” LSNo. 12 (Spring 1986): 26– 31; David E.Schultz, “Who Needs the ‘Cthulhu Mythos’?” LSNo. 13 (Fall 1986): 43–53; Thekla Zachrau, Mythos und Phantastik: Funktion und

< previous page page_54 next page > < previous page page_55 next page >

Page 55

Struktur der Cthulhu-Mythologie in den phantastischen Erzäahlungen H.P. Lovecrafts(Peter Lang, 1986); Donald R.Burleson, S.T.Joshi, Will Murray, Robert M.Price, and David E.Schultz, “What Is the Cthulhu Mythos?” (panel discussion), LSNo. 14 (Spring 1987): 3–30; David E.Schultz, “The Origin of Lovecraft’s ‘Black Magic’ Quote,” CryptNo. 48 (St. John’s Eve 1987): 9–13 (revised version in The Horror of It All,ed. Robert M.Price [Starmont House, 1990]); Robert M.Price, H.P.Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos(Starmont House, 1990); Steven J.Mariconda, “Toward a Reader-Response Approach to the Lovecraft Mythos,” in Mariconda’s On the Emergence of “Cthulhu” and Other Observations (Necronomicon Press, 1995); David E.Schultz, comp., “Notes Toward a History of the Cthulhu Mythos,” CryptNo. 92 (Eastertide 1996): 15–33; Chris Jarocha-Ernst, A Cthulhu Mythos Bibliography & Concordance(Armitage House, 1999).

“Curse of Yig, The.”