S. T.

Joshi's Blog
May 22, 2015 Variorum Lovecraft Done!
I am delighted to say that work on Lovecrafts Collected Fiction: A Variorum
Edition is now all but complete. Derrick Hussey, the publisher of
Hippocampus Press, has been incredibly diligent and meticulous in going over
all the texts (as well as my own textual notes) and has saved me from
countless errors. It appears that my own records of textual variants were not at
all as accurate or coherent as they should have been (but remember that I
started doing this work as a callow eighteen-year-old freshman in 1976!). But
now the work is done, and all that remains is to look over the final proofs
before sending them to the printer. Derrick vows that this will be done on or
before June 1, which means that the three-volume edition should be ready by
mid-July. I am a bit mortified that we first announced the edition as appearing
in late 2014but the long delay is well worth it, trust me!
I have recently been told that my edition of Edward Lucas Whites weird tales
(first published asThe Stuff of Dreams by Arcane Wisdom in 2013) will be
reprinted in paperback by Dover. Glad to hear it! I continue to work on my
anthology of weird tales by women writers, tentatively titledThe Cold
Embrace (after a story by Mary Elizabeth Braddon), for Dover. Even though

the deadline is not until October, I hope to finish it before Mary and I go on
our cruise down the Danube (June 1222).
Speaking of Mary, she gave me a fright a while back by contracting
pneumoniaon her birthday (May 9)! We had to rush her to the emergency
room at the University of Washington Medical Center, where they kept her for
seven hours before decreeing that she needed to stay overnight. In fact, she
ended up staying in the hospital for four days, chiefly because her oxygen
intake was quite low. But she is now out and recovering well. Nevertheless,
during the past two weeks I have (as Lovecraft once said when his aunt, Annie
Gamwell, had to go to the hospital for a mastectomy) been a sort of
combined nurse, secretary, market-man, butler, & errand-boy. But, as HPL
also added, it was no doubt far worse on the patient than on me!
I am in receipt of an interesting publication, Windy City Pulp Stories #15,
edited by Tom Roberts. Evidently this is a booklet (actually, a full-size book
of some 204 pages) containing all manner of essays and other matter
pertaining to Weird Tales and also designed to commemorating the 125th
anniversary of H. P. Lovecrafts birth. It contains my article Lovecraft
and Weird Taleswhich is nothing less than a revised version of my
somewhat

combative

introduction

to H.

P.

Lovecraft

in

The

Eyrie (Necronomicon Press, 1979). But Joshi collectors need not seek out
this item, as the essay is already in my Lovecraft and a World in
Transition (2014).

I am also in receipt of proofs of Nicole Cushings first short story

collection, The Mirrors (due out from Cycatrix Press in a month or two),
which I copyedited and for which I wrote a foreword. There is striking cover
art by Zach McCain, and the book, even in this somewhat preliminary state,
exhibits the fine production values of the publisher, Jason V Brock. An item
well worth purchasing when it appears!
I have just sent in the final manuscript of The Madness of Cthulhu, Volume
2 to Titan Books. I imagine it is on schedule to appear in October. I cannot
recall if I have previously supplied the table of contents, but here it is:
Foreword by Kim Newman
Introduction by S. T. Joshi
20,000 Years Under the Sea by Kevin J. Anderson
Tsathogguas Breath by Brian Stableford
The Door Beneath by Alan Dean Foster
Dead Man Walking by William F. Nolan
A Crazy Mistake by Nancy Kilpatrick
The Anatomy Lesson by Cody Goodfellow

 The Hollow Sky by Jason C. Eckhardt

The Last Ones by Mark Howard Jones
A Footnote in the Black Budget by Jonathan Maberry
Deep Fracture by Steve Rasnic Tem
The Dream Stones by Donald Tyson
The Blood in My Mouth by Laird Barron
On the Shores of Destruction by Karen Haber
Object 00922UU by Erik Bear and Greg Bear
Notes on Contributors
I am just about finished editing my immense collection of Robert Aickmans
stories for Centipede Press. Regrettably, the book will not contain much, if
any, matter from a recent volume of Aickman miscellany just published by
Tartarus

Press

under

the

title The

Strangers

and

Other

Writings(http://tartaruspress.com/aickmanstrangers.htm). But I suspect this

volume does not contain anything of truly earth-shattering quality or
importance. Anyway, my editionwhich I imagine will come in at more than
400,000 wordsis plenty big enough on its own!

May 3, 2015 Black Wings V Finished!

I am happy to announce the completoon of Black Wings Va volume that I do
feel is one of the better books in this series. Here is the official table of
contents:
Introduction by S. T. Joshi
Plenty of Irem by Jonathan Thomas
Diary of a Sane Man by Nicole Cushing
The Woman in the Attic by Robert H. Waugh
Far from Any Shore by Caitln R. Kiernan
In Blackness Etched, My Name by W. H. Pugmire
Snakeladder by Cody Goodfellow
The Walker in the Night by Jason C. Eckhardt
In Bloom by Lynne Jamneck
The Black Abbess by John Reppion
The Quest by Mollie L. Burleson

 A Question of Blood by David Hambling

Red Walls by Mark Howard Jones
The Organ of Chaos by Donald Tyson
Seed of the Gods by Donald R. Burleson
Fire Breeders by Sunni K Brock
Casting Fractals by Sam Gafford
The Red Witch of Chorazin by Darrell Schweitzer
The Oldies by Nancy Kilpatrick
Voodoo by Stephen Woodworth
Lore by Wade German
That last item is, of course, a poemfollowing the pattern established
in Black Wings IV by Charles Lovecraft with his striking sonnet sequence
based on The Lurking Fear. Wades poem is a more general riff on the
forbidden book theme.
I was pleased to have the contributions of two British writers. John Reppion
had written one of the more notable stories in Salom Joness Cthulhu

Lives (Ghostwood Books, 2014), and he delivered a powerful story set in a

small town in England. David Hambling always does good work, and his story
here is along the lines of those that will (I trust soon) be released in his PS
book, The Dulwich Horror and Others. Jason C. Eckhardts The Walker in
the Night is a poignant evocation of the figure of Lovecraft himself,
stirringly set during the great hurricane that struck Providence in September
1938.
Pete Crowther, the publisher of PS Publishing, has given me the go-ahead to
assemble a Black Wings VI, but I will not begin work on that book for several
monthsand, of course, it will again be by invitation only. After that, I may
take a break from the Black Wings series and compile a general weird
anthology, which I am inclined to title Apostles of the Weird.
I was pleased to receive a copy of a striking book by Sammy Maine,
titled Necronomicon: Dark Fantasy, Digital Art and H. P. Lovecraft (London:
Flame Tree Publishing, 2015). I wrote the foreword to it. This is a vivid art
book with all manner of striking illustrations derived from the work of
Lovecraft and his successors. It appears the book is only available for sale in
the

UK

(http://www.amazon.co.uk/Necronomicon-Gothic-Dreams-S-T-

Joshi/dp/1783613203/ ), but perhaps copies can be obtained from various US

dealers.

I was somehow not notified that a signature review of a reprint of Gore

Vidals pseudonymous novel Thieves Fall Out (1953), which I wrote
for Publishers Weekly, had appeared in the February 9 issue. I see it is
available online: http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-78116-792-2. This
is a book that Vidal wrote during a period when (in his view) the New York
publishing community was prejudiced against him because he had come out
as gay. It has been reprinted by Titan Bookswhich I hope will allow me to
set up my own imprint of weird/horror titles. My agent has forwarded to Titan
a long list of titles (mostly reprint) that I have proposed for my series.
Hippocampus Press is preparing a revised version of its Ten Years of
Hippocampus Press, 20002010, covering the first fifteen years of its
existence as a publisher. It certainly does contain an impressive list of titles,
and I am writing brief notes on each of its publications to give some
background on them. The publisher, Derrick Hussey, has apparently found
that such a booklet is a good publicity tool, so we hope to have it ready at least
by the NecronomiCon II convention (August 2023), if not much earlier.
Speaking of conventions, I enjoyed CthulhuCon in Portland (April 2426),
even though I felt a cold coming on as we drove down from Seattle and ended
up spending most of the three days in bed. But I managed to participate in
various functions, including a very lively panel on weird poetry (with Wade
German, W. H. Pugmire, Jason V Brock, and Evan Peterson). This convention
was a spinoff of the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival, which will take place in

early October. It will also feature a substantial number of panels and other
events beyond the films it will be showing. I'll keep open the possibility of my
attendance.
Work continues on many frontsmy edition of Robert Aickman for
Centipede Press; a new volume of W. H. Pugmires stories (mostly reprint but
some original) for Centipede; final work on the Variorum Lovecraft (which
should be out around late June or July); reading proofs for the Dennis
Etchison volume (Masters of the Weird Tale) for Centipede; and so on and so
forth. Never a dull moment!

April 13, 2015 A Tribute to Caitln R. Kiernan

I am happy to announce that I am assisting in the preparation of a major
volume of stories, essays, and other matter as a tribute to the work of Caitln
R. Kiernan, who I regard as the leading writer of weird fiction of her
generation. I will be working closely with Caitln and her partner, Kathryn
Pollnac, on the book, which will be published in 2016 by Centipede Press.
Kathryn and I will be the officially designated editors of the book. We have an
impressive lineup of authors and artists who have expressed an interest in
contributing, but I am not at liberty to mention any of their names at this time.
Since it is a Centipede Press publication, readers can be assured that it will be
a superb-looking publication with the highest standards in design, layout,

artwork, and other elements. We intend to title the book Below the Wide,
Carnivorous Sky: A Tribute to Caitln R. Kiernan.
I am also happy to have received, at last, some copies of Black Wings IV: New
Tales of Lovecraftian Horror (PS Publishing). I believe it is one of the most
successful of the books in this series, with outstanding tales by Fred Chappell
(Artifact), Richard Gavin (The Rasping Absence), Ann K. Schwader
(Night of the Piper), Jonathan Thomas (We Are Made of Stars), John
Pelan & Stephen Mark Rainey (Contact), and much else besides.
Regrettably, I only have 2 spare copies to offer to my customers. The list price
in the UK is 25 (about $40), so I will be happy to let these 2 copies go for
$35 on the usual terms.
I am also wrapping up Black Wings V, which has plenty of interesting material
in it also. I am undecided what to do next: whether to go ahead and compile
a Black Wings VI or to compile a general anthology of weird fiction
(tentatively titled Apostles of the Weird). I will ask my publisher, Pete
Crowther of PS Publishing, what he prefers.
I continue to do more work for Dover Publications, which has now signed me
up to assemble a volume of weird tales by women writers. There have been
several such volumes in the past, but I hope that my research into the history
of supernatural writing (embodied in Unutterable Horror) has given me some
insights into lesser-known tales and authors. The compilation begins with

Mary Shelley (there is nothing short by the queen of the Gothics, Ann
Radcliffe) and ends with Virginia Woolf (A Haunted House, 1921)for of
course all the material has to be in the public domain.
Dover has generated a cover for the edition of Maurice Levels Thirty Hours
with a Corpse: here it is!

I was saddened to hear of the death last week of Sherry Austin, the
outstanding author of subtle and superbly written weird tales such as Mariah
of the Spirits and Other Southern Ghost Stories(2002) and Where the
Woodbine Twines (2006). Hippocampus Press was planning an omnibus of her
weird work, and we hope to proceed with this volume, which will include the
material in the two books just mentioned along with several uncollected tales.

April 6, 2015 Lovecrafts Influence on Matheson

Work continues here at its usual hectic pace, chiefly focused on preparing my
immense edition of the complete strange stories of Robert Aickman. But an
interesting new discovery pertaining to Lovecraft has been passed on to me by
a colleague, Stephen Spector. Mr. Spector was kind enough to send me an old
science fiction magazine, Marvel Science Fiction (November 1951), which
contains a rare and (until recently) unreprinted novella by Richard Matheson,
Mountains of the Mind. The importance of this item rests in the fact that it
clearly betrays the influence of Lovecraft, chiefly in its hints of a race of
entities called the Great Ones who appear to have controlled human
development over the millenniaan idea that clearly evokes The Shadow
out of Time. There may also be echoes of At the Mountains of Madness in
other parts of the tale. The story has indeed been reprinted in Matheson
Uncollected, Volume 2 (Gauntlet Press, 2010), but is otherwise very difficult
to find. To be frank, it is not a stellar piece of fiction, although it does develop

a cumulative power as it goes along. But given that this may be the only story
by Matheson that unequivocally shows an influence from Lovecraft, it
remains noteworthy. Congratulations to Stephen Spector for the discovery!
I see that three more volumes of the Illustrated Lovecraft have come out from
PS Publishing: Volume 4 (The Shadow out of Time), Volume 5 (The Shadow
over Innsmouth), and Volume 6 (At the Mountains of Madness). All the
volumes, aside from containing spectacular illustrations by Pete Von Sholly,
contain interesting ancillary matter that makes them well worth securing.
Volume 4 has essays by Paul Montelone, Pete Von Sholly, and W. H. Pugmire.
Volume 5 reprints two key stories that influenced HPLs tale (The HarborMaster by Robert W. Chambers and Fishhead by Irvin S. Cobb), along
with original essays by Pete Von Sholly and Robert M. Price. Volume 6
reprints the hard-to-find story In Amundsens Tent by John Martin Leahy
(from Weird Tales, January 1928) that clearly influenced HPLs novella, along
with original articles by Pete Von Sholly, Robert M. Price, and myself (a brief
discussion of the Leahy story). I regret that I have no spare copies of these
books to sell to customers.
For no accountable reason, I have received from Greenwood Press two copies
of the Hippocampus Press paperback reprint of An H. P. Lovecraft
Encyclopedia (2001), which I wrote in collaboration with David E. Schultz.
As I believe that this is a pretty useful resource for Lovecraftians, I would be

happy to part with these copies for $15 each on the usual terms. Come and get
em!
I have completed the assembly of my next collection of essays, Varieties of
the Weird Tale, due out next year from Hippocampus Press. The great majority
of the contents come from essays or introductions that have appeared in a
wide range of books and magazines. Some of the earlier pieces have been
revised to some extent, but most are pretty much identical to their original
appearances. To some degree the volume can be considered a pendant
to Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction (2012), since I go
into much greater detail on certain authors and works that I could only treat
relatively briefly in that treatise. Here is the final table of contents:

Preface

Introduction: Establishing the Canon of Weird Fiction

I. The Golden Age

Some Notes on Ambrose Bierce

I. Bierce as Political Satirist

II. Bierce as Fabulust

III. What Happens in The Death of Halpin Frayser

A Triumvirate of Fantastic Poets: Ambrose Bierce, George

Sterling, and Clark Ashton Smith

o

Bram Stoker: Dracula and Others

Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: The Domestic Ghost

E. Nesbit: Lying Awake in the Dark

Edna W. Underwood: Dear Dead Women

Things in the Weeds: The Supernatural in Hodgsons Short

Stories

II. The Era of Lovecraft

M. R. James and the Classic Ghost Story

Some Notes on Lord Dunsany

I. The Pegana Mythos

II. Jorkens

III. Christianity and Paganism in Two Dunsany Novels

Sax Rohmer: The Popular Weird Tale

Maurice Level and the Grand Guignol

Irvin S. Cobb and Gouverneur Morris: A Taste for the Weird

Bran Mak Morn and History

The Novels of Donald Wandrei

III. Some Contemporaries

Science and Superstition: Fritz Leibers Modernisation of Gothic

Master and Pupil: August Derleth and Ramsey Campbells First

Book

Thomas Ligottis The Nightmare Factory

Caitln R. Kiernan and Sensuous Prose

Acknowledgments
***
Maybe I should hold a contest to see if readers can identify where all these
items originally appeared!

March 19, 2015 Black Wings III Paperback Arrives

I am at last in receipt of the paperback of Black Wings III, which Titan has
(absurdly) retitledBlack Wings of Cthulhu 3. My copies arrived quite a bit

after the contributors received theirsthe editor is always the last to know! I
have several spare copies available for sale, and would be happy to dispose of
them to interested customers for $15 each.
Speaking of books, I find that sales of the Hippocampus Press books I offered
last time have not exactly been robust. So I am forced to hold a kind of fire
sale even at this early date, just to get the books out of here. In other words, I
am happy to offer the books at a price of two for $25 (or, if you wish one book
and one copy of the second issue of Spectral Realms, you can have them for a
total of $20). I can assure you that you will not be disappointed by any of the
items in question!
I am also in receipt of a copy of That Is Not Dead, a new anthology of
Lovecraftian fiction edited by Darrell Schweitzer and issued by PS Publishing
(http://www.pspublishing.co.uk/that-is-not-dead-hardcover-edited-by-darrellschweitzer-2671-p.asp). This volume contains my story Incident at Ferney,
in which Voltaire encounters Nyarlathotep! The story isnt quite as silly as this
description makes it sound; in fact, I think it rather good. I believe it is the
first publication of a work of fiction by me in quite some timemaybe since
the appearance of my novel The Assaults of Chaos (Hippocampus Press,
2013). I have now been invited to write stories for two other Lovecraftian
anthologies, although I am not certain of my ability to write anything suitable
for one or even both of these. Also, I am contemplating the writing of some

novel-length works, both detection and horror. Well see if they come to
anything.
I have now begun in earnest the editing of the collected weird tales of Robert
Aickman for Centipede Presss Masters of the Weird Tale series. This project
is proving to be most entertaining, and I believe it will be the first time that
Aickmans tales will be presented in chronological order by date of original
publication. The Tartarus Press edition of Aickmans Collected Strange
Stories(1990) attempted a chronological arrangement, but didnt get it quite
right.
I am also working on a large volume of Thophile Gautiers weird and
fantastic tales for Dark Renaissance Books. This volume should be done soon,
although I have no idea when itor the previous books I have assembled for
this publisher (the weird tales of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, E. Nesbit, and [in
one volume] Irvin S. Cobb and Gouverneur Morris)will appear.
I have fashioned the rough contents of a new collection of essays on weird
fiction, to be entitledVarieties of the Weird Tale. This will include essays I
have written over the past decade or more on all manner of authors (Bierce,
Dunsany, Leiber, etc.), as well as some introductions to my editions of various
authors. The book should appear sometime next year from Hippocampus
Press.

PS Publishing should be receiving copies of the hardcover edition of Black

Wings IV any day now, and they will presumably reach me a week or two after
they do so. I will then be able to offer my spare copies for sale to interested
customers. I have almost finished the compilation of Black Wings V and hope
to pass it on to the publisher (for release in the spring of 2016) within a month
or so.

March 3, 2015 A Sheaf of Books from Hippocampus

Press
I have at long last received several of Hippocampus Presss recent titles, and I
am happy to offer them at slight discounts from the list price, as follows:
James Robert Smith, A Confederacy of Horrors ($15)
Rhys Hughes, Bone Idle in the Charnel House ($15)
Donald Tyson, The Lovecraft Coven ($15)
Michael Aronovitz, The Witch of the Wood ($15)
Joshua Kent, The Witch at Sparrow Creek ($15)
Spectral Realms #2 ($10)

The collections by Smith and Hughes are full of interesting matter; Hughes in
particular has one of the most idiosyncratic imaginations of any writer Ive
ever encountered, and his stories are unfailingly piquant and memorable. The
Tyson book is a pair of Lovecraftian novellas, both exceptional. Aronovitzs
short novel and Kents full-length novel (set entirely in rural Appalachia) are
also works that you are not likely to forget. So feel free to snap these up on the
usual terms!
I received my copies of Spectral Realms only yesterday. It is an exceptional
issue, with poems by such notable writers as John Shirley (2 poems!), Gemma
Files, William F. Nolan, Jason V Brock, John C. Tibbetts, W. H. Pugmire,
Mike Allen, Stephanie M. Wytovich, Adam Bolivar, Michael Fantina, and
several others, along with the first part of Leigh Blackmores exhaustive essay
on the poetry of Leah Bodine Drake.
Hippocampus is gearing up to publish a number of interesting books for the
NecronomiCon II convention (Providence, R.I., August 2023), among them
Antonis Antoniadess novel The Necronomicon, my revised Rise, Fall, and
Rise of the Cthulhu Mythos, story collections by Ann K. Schwader (Dark
Equinox and Other Tales of Lovecraftian Horror), Jonathan Thomas (Dreams
of Ys and Other Invisible Worlds), and other volumes.
One of these is Lois H. Greshs Cult of the Dead and Other Weird and
Lovecraftian Tales, which I have just finished going over; I also wrote an

introduction for it. It is an exceptional collection of her tales, and I am proud

to note that I myself published a number of them in my own anthologies.
We are also working on a collection of Donald R. Burlesons essays on
Lovecraft, as assembled by Phillip A. Ellis. This will also be a superlative
book and will bring back into print many of Burlesons splendidly
illuminating articles. Burleson will, I believe, be the Critic [or maybe Scholar]
Guest of Honor at NecronomiCon II.
I was pleased to renew my contract for my compilation of Lovecrafts Against
Religion: The Atheist Writings of H. P. Lovecraft, first published in 2010. The
book

will

remain

available

from

Amazon

(http://www.amazon.com/dp/0578052482/). I do believe this is a fine

collection of material, containing both essays and letters that show Lovecraft
to be a pioneering atheist thinker and polemicist. Well worth securing!
I was tickled to see that Black Wings I has been translated into Czech
(http://www.laser-books.cz/knihy/ant01.html#stjckc). I am hopeful that this
will be only the first of several foreign-language editions for this series;
indeed, I believe a Spanish version is in the works. I am also waiting on
tenterhooks for the massive two-volume German edition of I Am Providence,
the first volume of which is, I think, imminent.
Speaking of Black Wings, I am still waiting for (a) the paperback edition
of Black Wings III(retitled by Titan Books as Black Wings of Cthulhu 3),

which some contributors have apparently already received, and (b) the
hardcover of Black Wings IV from PS, which should appear any day now.
Naturally, I will let readers know at once when these volumes reach me, as I
should have at least a few copies to sell.

February 27, 2015 Robert Dunbar on Lovecraft

My attention has been drawn to yet another attack on Lovecraft, this time by
one Robert Dunbar (https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/7724333hatecraft). I had a bit of difficulty figuring out who Robert Dunbar is, for by
some regrettable accident he has not yet been made the subject of a Wikipedia
entry. It turns out that Mr. Dunbar has written a few supernatural novels
recently, along with a literary novel and (Gawdelpus) some poetry.
Ordinarily I would let this item pass in merciful silence, but it presents such
juicy targets for rebuttal that I cannot resist a response.
Dunbar opens with yet another criticism of Lovecrafts prose style. He quotes
the celebrated final paragraph of The Call of Cthulhu:
Cthulhu still lives, too, I suppose, again in that chasm of stone which has
shielded him since the sun was young. His accursed city is sunken once more,
for the Vigilant sailed over the spot after the April storm; but his ministers on
earth still bellow and prance and slay around idol-capped monoliths in lonely
places. He must have been trapped by the sinking whilst within his black

abyss, or else the world would by now be screaming with fright and frenzy.
Who knows the end? What has risen may sink, and what has sunk may rise.
Loathsomeness waits and dreams in the deep, and decay spreads over the
tottering cities of men. A time will comebut I must not and cannot think!
Let me pray that, if I do not survive this manuscript, my executors may put
caution before audacity and see that it meets no other eye.
In regard to which, Mr. Dunbar writes plaintively: Does that passage truly
inspire anyone to read more? Anyone who hasnt sustained a cranial injury?
Well, as a matter of fact, my own judgment (derived from reading a fair
amount of the great literature in English, Latin, Greek, French, German, and
other languages) is that this is not merely good prose; it is superb prose. I am
getting to the point of thinking that anyone who doesnt think Lovecraft a fine
prose writer is simply an ignoramussomeone who simply doesnt know
anything about prose. It is as if youve put a dunce cap on your head and said
to the world, I dont know the first thing about good writing.
What is more, I would be willing to bet any amount of money that such
writers as Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Peter Straub, Ramsey Campbell,
Caitln R. Kiernan, Laird Barron, and dozens of other contemporary writers in
the weird fiction field have also found this passage powerful and effective.
These and many other writers have all been significantly influenced by
Lovecraft and are happy to admit it. Straub, indeed, edited the 2005 Library of

America edition of Lovecraft that (pace Mr. Dunbar) officially and

permanently placed him in the ranks of canonical American writers.
What does Mr. Dunbar have to counter these authorities? He puts forth one
Peter Damien, who writes that Lovecraft is a godawful writer. He was so bad.
I really cannot stress this enough. I had even more difficulty figuring out who
Peter Damien is than in ascertaining Mr. Dunbars identity; amusingly
enough, a Google search ends up confusing him with Peter Damian, a
Catholic priest in the 11th century! All I can ascertain is that Mr. Damien is
some kind of bloviator who enjoys spouting off on all manner of subjects he
appears to know little about. And yet, Mr. Dunbar quotes him as some eminent
authority on prose style (and of course his meticulous and well-reasoned
comment proves that he must be!).
As for me, I will repeat one more time the views of a real critic (and a real
writer), one Joyce Carol Oates, who I trust is eminent enough even for Mr.
Dunbar. What does she say about Lovecrafts prose? Most of Lovecrafts
talesdevelop by way of incremental detail, beginning with quite plausible
situationsOne is drawn into Lovecraft by the very air of plausibility and
characteristic understatement of the prose, the question being When will the
weirdness strike?There is a melancholy, operatic grandeur in Lovecrafts most
passionate work, like The Outsider and At the Mountains of Madness; a
curious elegiac poetry of unspeakable loss, of adolescent despair and an

existential loneliness so pervasive that it lingers in the readers memory, like a

dream, long after the rudiments of Lovecraftian plot have faded.
But lets keep the focus on Mr. Dunbar. If he thinks Lovecraft is such a bad
writer, he must think that he himself can do better. Lets see if he can. I take a
passage at random from the authors novelWood: Rosaria almost felt sorry
for him. After all, Miss Whatsis could be snippy and officious, even toward
him, or especially toward him. (Except when they imagined themselves to be
unobserved.) He just stood there, grinning, and Miss Whosis had already
started yammering at him.
This is supposed to be good prose, in contrast to Lovecrafts? I would call
attention to the clumsy slang of snippy and yammering, the
ungrammatical sentence-fragment enclosed in the parenthesis, and in general
an utter lack of rhythm, music, and modulation. No wonder I can barely
stomach reading much contemporary prose (with rare exceptions such as
Ramsey Campbell, Caitln R. Kiernan, and a few others)!
It is breathtaking that Dunbar is prepared to dismiss the entire field of weird
fiction as anti-literary. Surely an odd assertion about a field that has seen
contributions by such writers as Daniel Defoe, Ann Radcliffe, Mary Shelley,
Edgar Allan Poe, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Jorge Luis Borges, and dozens
perhaps hundredsof others who strike me as being tolerably literary.
(Question: If the genre is so anti-literary, why is Mr. Dunbar dabbling in it?

Maybe he is trying to uplift it into some level of literariness! Judged by the

passage I quoted above, he isnt doing a very good job of it.)
It should be no surprise that Dunbar fills himself with righteous indignation
about Lovecrafts racism. It now appears that any defenders of Lovecraft are
giving him a free pass on the subject. How so? I myself (who am surely one
of his chief defendersnot to mention a person of colour, which Mr. Dunbar
emphatically is not) have stated in my biography that racism is the greatest
black mark on Lovecrafts character and gone into considerable detail about
how racism affected his life, work, and thought. Just because I dont get
hyperventilated and self-righteous when talking about the subject, or because I
dont append every single utterance I make about Lovecraft with, Oh, and by
the way, Lovecraft was a racist, it would appear that I am giving him a free
pass. Are we giving a free pass to Jack London for not constantly harping on
his yellow peril screeds while we read The Call of the Wild, or on T. S.
Eliots anti-Semitism while reading The Waste Land, or on Roald Dahls
racism and anti-Semitism while reading Someone Like You? (And lets not
even approach the adjacent genre of science fiction. There is abundant
evidence that such figures as John W. Campbell, Jr., Robert A. Heinlein, and
Orson Scott Card were and are racists of a much worse stripe than Lovecraft
but no one is advocating not reading them anymore.)
And why stop there? Why not ban other writers for their erroneous opinions
on other subjects? Lord Dunsany was politically conservative and a member

of the idle hereditary aristocracyso of course we must not read A Dreamers

Tales. Ambrose Bierce was a vicious misogynistso of course we must not
read An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Edgar Allan Poe was a drunkard
and a pedophile (he married his 13-year-old cousin, for Gawds sake)so of
course his poetry and short stories are off-limits.
The details of Mr. Dunbars analysis (I use the word loosely) of Lovecrafts
racism leave much to be desired. He quotes the luminous Charles Baxter as
saying (in reference to Leslie S. KlingersNew Annotated H. P. Lovecraft):
Klinger notes that Lovecrafts support of Hitlers eugenic programs,
including the racial cleansing advocated by Ernest Rdin and others, is well
known. This is wrong on two counts; first, Klinger made no such assertion,
and Lovecraft in fact did notendorse the Nazi eugenic scheme. A letter to
Robert Bloch (22 November 1934) goes on at some length on the subject, but
this passage is representative: The complexity of the laws governing organic
growth is enormousso enormous that the number of unknown factors must
always remain hopelessly great. We can discover & apply a few biological
principlesbut the limit of effectiveness is soon reached. For example
despite all the advances in endocrinology & all the experiments in glandular
rejuvenation, there is no such thing as a permanent or well-balanced stavingoff of senescence & dissolution. What is morethere really is no one idea
of racial excellence. Even if the principle of eugenic control were accepted by
a nation, there would remain a constant struggle among various factions

advocating different goals of development. One group would advocate the

cultivation of this or that group of emotions, or the establishment of this or
that blood mixture, while another would campaign ceaselessly for a directly
opposite result. Thus the Nazis in Germany want to get rid of every trace of
Jewish blood, while other groups believe that the highest intellectual qualities
in all races come through prehistoric & forgotten infusions of Semitic blood!
Amidst such a confusion of objects, what single policy could ever gain an
effective ascendancy?
How odd that rational passages like this are never quoted by Lovecrafts
detractors!
The other strange thing about Dunbars screed is his odd assumption that
everyone who defends Lovecraft on the racism issue must be politically
conservative, while those who exhibit noble sanctimoniousness on the subject
must be politically liberal. I hardly imagine that my liberal bona fides are in
much doubt, given how liberally (pardon the pun) and enthusiastically I
lambaste conservatives in the pages of the American Rationalist, or in such of
my books as The Angry Right: Why Conservatives Keep Getting It
Wrong (2006). But I am not blind to liberalisms flaws, and one of its worst is,
I fear, exactly the kind of political correctness that gets all hot and bothered
about the views of an author nearly a century dead while not doing much to
combat real evils we face today. If Mr. Dunbar is so outraged at Lovecrafts
racism, I wonder what he would say if, fifty years from now, our own society

is crucified for its oversexed, violence-ridden, thoroughly misogynistic culture

as, indeed, it should be. And if Mr. Dunbar thinks that we collectively have
dealt with racism a great deal better than Lovecrafts generation did, he simply
isnt paying attention to what is going on in this country or around the world.
(Dunbar ought to consider himself lucky that no one will bother to probe the
skeletons in his closet when he is dead. Does he deny that he has any
skeletons?)
What is more, Dunbar reveals not the faintest awareness that Lovecraft
himself became (except on the issue of race) not merely a liberal but a
socialistone who enjoyed lambasting the Republicans of his era as
hidebound reactionaries. One such passage, written late in life, should suffice:
As for the Republicanshow can one regard seriously a frightened, greedy,
nostalgic huddle of tradesmen and lucky idlers who shut their eyes to history
and science, steel their emotions against decent human sympathy, cling to
sordid and provincial ideals exalting sheer acquisitiveness and condoning
artificial hardship for the non-materially-shrewd, dwell smugly and
sentimentally in a distorted dream-cosmos of outmoded phrases and principles
and attitudes based on the bygone agricultural-handicraft world, and revel in
(consciously or unconsciously) mendacious assumptions (such as the notion
that real liberty is synonymous with the single detail of unrestricted economic
license, or that a rational planning of resource-distribution would contravene
some vague and mystical American heritage ) utterly contrary to fact and

without the slightest foundation in human experience? Intellectually, the

Republican idea deserves the tolerance and respect one gives to the dead.
Those words are truer now than when they were first written.
Dunbar also seems inclined to the seriously erroneous view that weird fiction
as a whole is somehow a conservative or even a reactionary genre. I have
no idea why or how he could have come to such a view. His own
understanding of politics seems about as crude and undeveloped as his
understanding of literature. My own acquaintance with the leading writers of
this field confirms that a substantial majority of them are politically liberal.
But why that should have any bearing on our evaluation of their purely
literary merits is a query that I happily admit I fail to understand.
To wrap up. I unhesitatingly declare H. P. Lovecraft not merely a good writer
but a great writergreat in his management of prose, great in his imaginative
scope, great in the philosophical and aesthetic underpinnings of his fiction,
and great in the effective construction of a tale that allows it to become so
compellingly readable. His influence is now perhaps greater than that of Edgar
Allan Poe, and on its purely intrinsic merits his work is superior to that of
every writer in the history of weird fiction with the possible exception of
Ramsey Campbell.
And as for Lovecrafts politics, I think it would be vastly better if a certain
amount of rationality and understanding could be brought to bear upon the

subject. Self-righteous indignation may make one feel momentarily virtuous,

but it accomplishes little else. As an atheist I am not much inclined to quote
the Bible as an authority, but one pungent utterance does strike me as
appropriate in this context: Judge not, lest ye be judged.
I wonder why Lovecrafts detractors dont just give up. Their foolish screeds
are so easily refuted that there is really no sport in it anymore. And yet, they
seem unable to resist the temptation to reveal their ignorance and prejudice for
all the world to see.

February 16, 2015 Many Projects in the Works!

Things seem to be even more hectic than usual these days, and I am having
difficulty keeping track oflet alone working onthe multitude of projects I
have committed to completing. But before I go into that, I am happy to see the
appearance of a superb article on Lovearaft by a real critic (one Michael
Dirda, formerly the editor of the Washington Post Book World and a critic
always sensitive to the value of genre fiction), who appreciates Lovecraft
(and, ahem, me) as they deserve. Dont let the whimsical title fool you; it is a
splendid piece, and its appearance in a most noteworthy venue (the
[London] Times Literary Supplement] will get the sour taste of Charles
Baxters

article

out

of

tls.co.uk/tls/public/article1512314.ece.

our

mouths: http://www.the-

On the downside, I was saddened to see Scarecrow Press/Rowman &

Littlefield cancel my series, Studies in Supernatural Literature. The sales of
the published titles have been pretty anaemic, and the publisher is generally
cutting back on the number of titles it publishes. I was not really sorry, for I
had encountered more difficulty than I had expected in coming up with viable
titlesand I was not enthusiastic about signing up books on such popular but
inferior writers as Stephen King (although Stefan Dziemianowicz, who had
thought of submitting a proposal on him, would no doubt have done a
splendid job) and Dean R. Koontz. Some titles that have been contracted
e.g., a monograph on Richard Matheson by June Pulliam and Tony Fonseca,
and an anthology of essays on Weird Tales edited by Jeffrey Shankswill be
published; others have been dropped. One of theseGary William Crawfords
monograph on Robert Aickmanmay be picked up by Hippocampus Press. I
was particularly sorry to see that John C. Tibbettss book on Peter Straub was
cancelled, but I imagine John can place this with an academic press.
I was pleased and surprised to receive a copy of David J. Schows The Shaft,
now available in a beautiful hardcover edition (a reprint of the 1990 UK
edition

from

Maconald)

by

Centipede

Press:http://www.centipedepress.com/horror/shaft.html. I received only one

copy of this book, so interested readers will have to purchase a copy for
themselves. I had made a strong pitch to the publisher to reissue this book,
which I regard as one of the finest novels of the horror boom of the 1970s

1990s; and I scanned the text for the publisher, since the author did not have
an electronic file available. The next step is to ensure that the book is picked
up in paperback, since the limited Centipede Press edition will no doubt go
out of print in short order.
I was amused to see the publication of The Starry Wisdom Library (PS
Publishing), an amusing fake book catalogue featuring descriptions of many
of the forbidden books invented by Lovecraft and others, assembled by Nate
Pederson. The catalogue contains contributions by a remarkable number of
prestigious writers, including Ann K. Schwader, Darrell Schweitzer, Donald
Tyson, Don Webb, F. Paul Wilson, Gemma Files, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., John
Langan, Matt Cardin, Michael Cisco, Nick Mamatas, Ramsey Campbell
(on The Revelations of Glaaki, of course), Richard Gavin, Robert M. Price,
Simon Strantzas, and W. H. Pugmire. I wrote the foreword. A most engaging
compilation! Again, I received only one copy, so I hope readers will hasten to
purchase it from the publisher (http://www.pspublishing.co.uk/the-starrywisdom-library-jhc-edited-by-nate-pedersen-2564-p.asp).
Speaking of PS, I see that Darrell Schweitzers anthology That Is Not Dead is
announced as forthcoming (http://www.pspublishing.co.uk/that-is-not-deadhardcover-edited-by-darrell-schweitzer-2671-p.asp).

This

contains

my

immortal story Incident at Ferney, depicting the encounter of Voltaire with

Nyarlathotep! Absurd as it sounds, I think the story came out reasonably
well. Black Wings IV (http://www.pspublishing.co.uk/black-wings-iv-new-

tales-of-lovecraftian-horror-hardcover-edited-by-st-joshi-2625-p.asp) is also
listed as forthcoming and should be available at any time. I have also heard
that the paperback (from Titan) of Black Wings III (retitledBlack Wings of
Cthilhu 3) is available; indeed, I saw Wilum Pugmires copy the other day.
But I have not received any copies myself as yet.
I was delighted to have done a light copyedit of Nicole Cushings story
collection The Mirrors, which should appear from Cycatrix Press in time for
the World Horror Convention in Atlanta in early May. It is a splendid volume
with some remarkable tales in it. I was pleased and humbled to have written
the foreword. Dont hesitate to pick it up when it comes out!
Apparently a number of new titles from Hippocampus Press have appeared,
but I have not received any copies; the moment I do, I will make them
available for purchase to interested customers. We are planning a number of
provocative titles to appear for the NecronomiCon II convention in
Providence, R.I., in August, among which will be a revised version of my Rise
and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos (2008), now retitled The Rise, Fall, and Rise
of the Cthulhu Mythos. I have just finished preparing the index, although I do
not know whether cover art has been completed, or even begun.
Another hugely important title to appear later this year from Hippocampus
will be nothing less significant than David E. Schultzs long-awaited
annotated edition of Lovecrafts Fungi from Yuggoth. Aside from the fact that

every poem in this 36-sonnet cycle will be illustrated (I believe there are six
different illustrators, each tackling six sonnets), Schultzs commentary may
cover some 200 pages and illuminate both the literary sources of each poem
but their influence on subsequent works by Lovecraft. This is a project that
has been more than thirty years in the making. I remember seeing a draft of it
when I first met Schultz in 1986, at Steve Maricondas wedding; and the
project had been in progress before then. It will no doubt be the last word on
this sonnet cycle!

February 5, 2015 Dreams from the Witch House and

Others
My colleague Lynne Jamneck is undertaking an exciting project
called Dreams from the Witch House, an anthology of all-original
Lovecraftian stories written by women. Lynne is undertaking an Indiegogo
campaign

to

raise

funds

for

the

project

(https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/dreams-from-the-witch-house-womenof-lovecraft). Some nice goodies are being offered for contributions

(see https://www.facebook.com/events/707915729307537/715125678586542)
. Im confident the anthology will be a splendid one, so best to get in on the
ground floor!
Speaking of anthologies, our Gothic Lovecraft volume received a late but
splendid contribution by John Shirley, The Rime of the Cosmic Marinerin

which John perfectly mimics the style and manner of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
while also producing a splendidly chilling Lovecraftian weird tale. Also, we
have decided to go with Caitln R. Kiernans As Red as Red (2010) over her
story Andromeda among the Stones (2002). The latter, while a fine story,
did not seem to us quite to reflect the fusion of Gothic and Lovecraftian
themes we wished, and in any case it has been reprinted a number of times;
but the former story is a brilliant evocation of HPLs The Shunned House
and its allusions to vampire activity in Rhode Island in the 1890s.
My article on Lovecraftian elements in the films of Guillermo del Toro is now
definitely scheduled for publication in the volume The Supernatural Cinema
of Guillermo del Toro, which will be appearing this spring or summer from
McFarland

(http://www.mcfarlandbooks.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-

9595-5). Another essay of mine, on Shirley Jacksons The Sundial, has been
sent back to me for some minor revisions. I cant remember when the book
containing it will appear, but I imagine I will know soon enough.
I have now read proofs of the PS edition of Black Wings IV (due out this
month, perhaps) as well as the proofs of the paperback edition of Black Wings
III (also due out this month from Titan Booksunder the altered title Black
Wings of Cthulhu III). My compilation of Black Wings Vproceeds apace. But
after that, I may take a break from Lovecraftian anthologies (although I am
still negotiating with Titan for Cthulhu Noir) and compile a general weird
anthology. My tentative title for such a book is Apostles of the Weird. The idea

is to present as wide-ranging a volume as possible, to demonstrate the broad

scope and parameters of the weird tale.

January 29, 2015 Charles Baxter on Lovecraft

Again!
I was a bit surprised to see that a highly truncated version of my response to
Charles Baxters article in the New York Review of Books has been published
in the new issue of that paper (dated February 19, 2015). I had sent my
response to the editors of NYRB and was told that only a 400-word letter could
be published. (My full response was ten times that length.) I hastily prepared
such a letter, but then never heard from the editors as to whether it would be
published or not.
Adding to the bizarrerie, Mr. Baxter has appended a reply that addresses, not
the letter as published in NYRB, but my full response! I am not particularly
impressed by Mr. Baxters reply, which I will hereby subject to a sentence-bysentence analysis:
One would think, reading S. T. Joshis response to my book review,
that I had attacked the object of a cult. [If correcting the errors of a
critics analysis of a given writer constitutes defending a cult writer,
then Poe, Melville, Whitman, Bierce, Hemingway, Mencken, and
dozens of other writers are all cult writers. All these writers have faced,

during and after their lifetimes, malicious and error-riddled attacks

exactly along the lines of Baxters screed on Lovecraft.]
His lengthy letter never acknowledges that my review of Lovecrafts
stories was divided into two parts: the first containing my misgivings
about the fiction, the second containing guarded praise. [This is a
deliberate mischaracterisation of Baxters article. In fact, the first part
of it was a grotesque slander against Lovecraft the person (as one who
was a stranger to joy and who was a shut-in, etc. etc.). And while I
could have addressed some errors and distortions in the guarded
praise in the second part of the article, that didnt seem to me
sufficiently important to discuss.]
I am not surprised that Joshi, who has spent much of his life studying
Lovecraft, was affronted by my review, but he doesnt seem to
understand the distinction between matters of fact and matters of
judgment. Readers of Lovecraft can judge for themselves whether
Lovecrafts prose contains infelicities of style, along with misogyny
and racism. [Mr. Baxter stubbornly refused to acknowledge the
numerous errors of fact that he made in his review; and many of his
judgments on Lovecraft are based directly on those errors of fact.]
Joshis argument against the stories misogyny is of the some-of-hisbest-friends-were-women variety, a confusion of the work and the life.

[To call someone a misogynist, as Baxter did in his article, is to make

a fairly clear personal commentor attackon a writers character,
and it is false and disingenuous to claim that the assertion merely
reflects an interpretation of the authors literary work. In any event, I
have clearly established that Baxter has misinterpreted key elements of
the stories in finding a misogynist undercurrent where there is none.]
As for Lovecrafts racism, Joshis defense of Lovecrafts views in his
letter is astonishing in this day and age; he quotes, with apparent
approval, Lovecrafts suggestion of apartheid as a benevolent remedy.
[My whole argument, in discussing HPLs racism, is that it is unfair and
unwise to judge him based on the standards of this day and age
very few (including such known racists and anti-Semites as Jack
London, T. S. Eliot, and Roald Dahl) would come away unscathed from
such scrutiny. In any event, the apartheid that HPL recommended was
one that a number of black leaders of his day (e.g., Marcus Garvey) had
themselves advocated.]
Joshi seems unable to grasp my argument that the racism is at the core
of the stories horror of aliens. [I cant grasp this argument because it
is nonsensical and belied by the plain facts of the case. It is a highly
tortuous and prejudicial reading of Lovecrafts stories to maintain that
any of his extraterrestrial gods and monsterswith the exception of

the Deep Ones in The Shadow over Innsmouthare somehow meant

as stand-ins for ethnic minorities. See more on this below.]
I never denied that the stories have a disturbing power. What readers
should certainly note, however, is that Joshi is territorial; while I grant
him the right to his opinions, he does not grant me a right to mine.
[Now Baxter has descended to whining. It is the last, desperate ploy of
persons losing a debate to plead that their opponents are trying to
silence them. Baxter is free to say anything he wants on Lovecraft;
but surely I am free to rebut his arguments and point out their errors
and fallacies. No one is trying to abridge Baxters freedom of speech;
but freedom of speech does not imply freedom from criticism. Baxter
seems to think he can say anything he wants on Lovecraft and not face
critical scrutinybut that would be a denial of my freedom of speech,
and of the speech of any others who dont agree with him.]
Things get curiouser and curiouser. Another letter published in the NYRB issue
is by one Mark Halpern. It addresses nothing in Baxters own article but
attacks me for some perceived failings in my biography of Lovecraftor,
rather, one failing in particular, to wit: Joshi must have been suffering from
one of his rare moments of fatigue when it came to linking his subjects
attitude toward Jews and other sorts of non-Nordic immigrants to New Yorks
Lower East Side to the emotional source of Cthulhu and his like, because he
writes not one word about the topic in his otherwise painfully detailed

biography. Well, lordy me! I confess to be guilty as chargedbecause

there is little or no connection between Lovecrafts racism and his creation of
the gods and monsters in his fiction.
It is most curious how many recent critics (Charles Baxter, Laura Miller, and
now Mr. Halpern) have put forth this view without providing the slighest
evidence for it. Let us examine the physical properties of Lovecrafts iconic
creation, Cthulhu. When the narrator of The Call of Cthulhu first sees
Wilcoxs bas-relief of the creature, he describes it as follows: If I say that my
somewhat extravagant imagination yielded simultaneous pictures of an
octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature, I shall not be unfaithful to the
spirit of the thing. A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly
body with rudimentary wings; but it was the general outline of the whole
which made it most shockingly frightful. Lovecrafts description of the actual
sight of Cthulhu by Johansen is deliberately vague, but we do have this: The
Thing of the idols, the green, sticky spawn of the stars, had awaked to claim
his own. Uh-ohCthulhu is green! Maybe this means that he is a stand-in
for people of colour! If you believe that, theres a bridge nearby that Id like
to sell you.
It is true that the Cthulhu cultists in Louisiana do symbolise Lovecrafts
disdain of certain types of foreigners: they were men of a very low, mixedblooded, and mentally aberrant type. Most were seamen, and a sprinkling of
negroes and mulattoes, largely West Indians or Brava Portuguese from the

Cape Verde Islands, gave a colouring of voodooism to the heterogeneous

cult. Well and good; but this whole passage (the second section of the story)
is largely an elaborate info dump whereby we learn the basic properties of
Cthulhu and his spawn, as recounted by old Castro. I dont see that there
is anything specifically anti-Semtiic in the passage above. Mr. Halpern (who
predictably refers to Lovecrafts pathological anti-Semitism) will be
surprised to learn that Lovecraft repeatedly declared his belief that Jews in
both America and Europe were in several ways culturally superior to AngloSaxonssomething that could certainly not be said of the Cthulhu cultists in
Louisiana.
How about Lovecrafts other gods and monsters? Azathoth? He is described
in one story as follows: that shocking final peril which gibbers
unmentionably outside the ordered universe, where no dreams reach; that last
amorphous blight of nethermost confusion which blasphemes and bubbles at
the centre of all infinitythe boundless daemon-sultan Azathoth, whose name
no lips dare speak aloud, and who gnaws hungrily in inconceivable, unlighted
chambers beyond time Any racist implications there, people?
Yog-Sothoth, maybe? We hear of him as a congeries of iridescent globes.
There must be a racist implication there somewhere, butGawdelpmeI just
dont have the critical acumen to detect it.

Shub-Niggurath? Well, she is usually mentioned in the same breath as The

Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young. Omigod!black goat! All
right, thats it: she must be a stand-in for HPLs disdain for black women who
breed a lot! What else is possible? Well, wait a minuteHPL does describe
her elsewhere as a kind of sophisticated Astarte, so I guess we can presume
that HPL was prejudiced against the ancient Mesopotamians.
Nyarlathotep also seems very promising. He is first described as having the
bearing of a Pharaoh. OK, no question about itthis must reflect HPLs
prejudice against Arabs! But it seems that Nyarlathotep emerged from the
blackness of twenty-seven centuriesmeaning that he emerged about
thirteen centuries before the birth of Mohammad. But didnt HPL describe
him as the Black Man in The Dreams in the Witch House? Oh, waitthat
was the standard designation for the leader of a witch coven. And HPL states
specifically that the Black Man in that story was devoid of negroid features.
How about the fungi from Yuggoth in The Whisperer in Darkness? Well,
theyre described as half-fungous, half-crustacean creatures from a planet
identifiable as the remote and recently discovered Pluto; so unless we assume
that HPL had a prejudice against mushrooms or crabs, I dont see any racist
undercurrent here.
The Old Ones of At the Mountains of Madness? They are barrel-shaped
creatures with starfish-heads and tentacles. Again I struggle to connect them

with HPLs racism. Anyway, arent they substantially superior to humans in

intellect and many other qualities? What about those loathsome shoggoths? I
suppose something could be made of the fact that they are immense,
amorphous masses of black protoplasm
The Great Race of The Shadow out of Time? They are huge, rugose, coneshaped creatures who are also vastly superior to human beings, since they are
virtually omniscient and have conquered time. Not much racism there, I fear.
I have repeatedly maintained that the only major story by Lovecraft based on
racist presuppositions is The Shadow over Innsmouth. And (pace Mr.
Halpern) I do in fact discuss this matter at length in my biography. Here is
some of what I wrote there: The Shadow over Innsmouth isclearly a
cautionary tale on the ill effects of miscegenation, or the sexual union of
different racesIt is, accordingly, difficult to deny a suggestion of racism
running all through the story. There is much more to this effect, but I trust
that will do.
Our valiant critics have also failed to notice the several stories in which
various unsavoury characters are unmistakably Caucasian. This applies
particularly to the aristocratic Dutch-American family in The Lurking Fear,
the wealthy Anglo-American family in The Rats in the Walls, and even the
decadent inhabitants of Dunwich in The Dunwich Horror. The Dunwich
denizens are clearly a racially homogeneous (white) clan of backwoods New

England farmers; there seem to be no ethnic minorities there. If one didnt

know who wrote these stories, one could easily conclude that their author was
prejudiced against white people!
The plain fact is that most of Lovecrafts gods and monsters are meant to
symbolise the immensityboth spatial and temporalof a universe where
human beings occupy a derisively insignificant place. Their titanic power and
anomalous physical properties are metaphors for the inscrutability of a
universe where things may be very different from the way they are here.
Those hostile critics seeking to maintain some intimate connection between
Lovecrafts racism and the creation of these alien entities will have to put
forth more than mere assertions to make their case. In my mind, the evidence
is overwhelmingly against them.

January 19, 2015 Gothic Lovecraft Done!

I am happy to announce that the anthology that Lynne Jamneck and I have
been assembling for some time, Gothic Lovecraft, is now done. Here is a peek
at the table of contents:
Donald R. Burleson, The Shadow over Lear
Don Webb, The Revelation at the Abbey
Jonathan Thomas, Old Goodman Brown

 Lois H. Gresh, Square of the Inquisition

Mollie L. Burleson, A Yuletide Carol
Donald Tyson, Curse of the House of Usher
Mark Howard Jones, The Rolling of Old Thunder
Nancy Kilpatrick, Always a Castle?
Robert S. Wilson, Four Arches
Gwyneth Jones, The Old Schoolhouse
Orrin Grey, Dream House
Lynda E. Rucker, The Unknown Chambers
Caitln R. Kiernan, Andromeda among the Stones
All the stories save the last are original, and every one is a powerful fusion of
Gothic elements of various sorts with Lovecraftian motifs. A splendid book! It
should be published by Cycatrix Press in time for the World Fantasy
Convention in Saratoga Springs, NY, which I will be attending (as will the
publisher, Jason V Brock).

Meanwhile, I am mortified and dismayed that there has been so little interest
in the Weird Fiction Review, whose bumper-crop fifth issue I announced last
time. I have received very few offers to take my spare copies of the issue off
my hands. So at great personal sacrifice I am offering the issue for a bargain
price of $20. Come one, come all! And, when the issue goes out of print and
begins commanding high prices (as it inevitably will), dont say I didnt give
you a chance!
I am in the process of preparing the index and reading the proofs of my
revised Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythoswhich is now retitled The Rise,
Fall, and Rise of the Cthulhu Mythos. Hippocampus Press hopes to have this
book ready for NecronomiCon II this August, if not earlier. It has now been
significantly expanded in size and may check in at more than 400 pages.
Proofs of Black Wings IV have arrived from the publisher (PS Publishing), and
on the whole they look pretty good. PS had announced the book as being
available in February, and lets hope it is able to keep that promise. The
signature sheets of the signed/limited edition are also beginning to circulate,
so that edition may not be quite as delayed as the one for Black Wings III was.
(As a matter of fact, I never even got a copy of the signed/limited edition, nor
did any of the contributors.) I believe the paperback of Black Wings II will
also come out pretty soon, maybe February or March.

I am contemplating the issuance of e-books of some of my older titles,

specifically The Weird Tale(1990), H. P. Lovecraft: The Decline of the
West (1990), A Subtler Magick: The Writings and Philosophy of H. P.
Lovecraft (1996), and The Modern Weird Tale (2001). These books may or
may not actually be in print (the first three in reprints from Wildside Press; the
fourth from McFarland), but I have retained e-book rights. But since I no
longer have electronic files of these books, such files will have to be generated
a tedious process. But I think it is worth doing. I shall probably let
Hippocampus issue the e-books. Of course, in the process of preparing
electronic files I shall probably do some revision. Indeed, I wish I could slap
on a new title to A Subtler Magick, whose title and subtitle were determined
by the publisher; but I suppose that is not possible.
I have been labouring with a cold/cough ever since my return from Vancouver,
BC (January 811), where I attended the Modern Language Association
conference. Actually, Mary and I spent as little time at the conference as we
could, spending most of the time in exploring this most interesting city. I was
on a panel discussion on weird fiction on Sunday, January 11. I was
dreading the event, because I know from experience that this conference
(attended almost exclusively by academics) can be and usually is insufferably
pompous and stuffy; but our panel, to my surprise, went reasonably well. One
young person professed considerable familiarity with both HPL and my work,
and I encouraged him to attend NecronomiCon II. I also met the poet Wade

German and his charming wife, and we had much lively discussion on various
subjects as well as a nice tour of an anthropological museum. On our own
Mary and I walked around Stanley Park and had a splendid lunch at the Fish
House there. (Pardon us, HPL!)
I cannot leave my readers without commenting on the miraculous conclusion
of the NFC championship game between the Green Bay Packers and the
Seattle Seahawks. The game was going so badly for my Seahawks that I was
going to give up watchingbut Mary said she would watch to the bitter end,
so I decided to stick to it. And Im glad I did. I dont recall a more remarkable
conclusion to a game in all my fifty years of watching football. All I say,
however, is that the Seahawks had better not make so many mistakes if they
expect to win the Super Bowl in two weeks.

January 2, 2015 Weird Fiction Review Arrives

I received copies of Weird Fiction Review No. 5 (2014) a week or so ago. Of
course, it looks splendid from a purely physical perspective, but I believe the
contents are also exemplary. It includes four separate interviews (Dennis
Etchison on Ray Bradbury; Jonathan Johnson on Michael Aronovitz; Jason V
Brock on Al Feldstein; Wayne Edwards on Stuart David Schiff); fiction by
Brian Stableford, Jason V Brock, Donald Tyson, Jonathan Thomas, Robert H.
Waugh, Darrell Schweitzer, and others; and articles by Dennis Etchison (on
Forrest J Ackerman), Jan Vander Laenen, Stefan Dziemianowicz, and others;

poetry by Wade German, Ann K. Schwader, and others; and columns by John
Pelan and Danel Olson. The publisher, Centipede Press, states that the list
price is $35 but is currently offering it for $25. I will follow suit and offer my
spare copies for $25, which includes shipping for US customers.
Well, my threater, promiseto dig out my violin and play it at the
Northwest Chorales play-along/sing-along of Handels Messiah on December
30 turned into a reality, and it was an enthralling experience. I was
substantially assisted by three other violinists (one first violinist and two
second violinists) who covered up my numerous mistakes and bad intonation.
But I know the work so well (from a choral perspective) that I was able to
lead the orchestra quite effectively. I was hoping that my wife, Mary, would
take some pictures of the event, but she was ill and stayed home; however,
some pictures taken by others have been forwarded to me, and I am hoping
that my webmaster can make one of them visible here. I will, however, not
repeat this undertaking or take up the violin on a regular basis: no time and no
real interest!

Continuing on the musical theme, I have heard a rough CD of our choirs

December 13 performance, andaside from the irritant of a crying babyit
turned out reasonably well. We will be able to fine-tune the recording in
various ways to make it better still, and there is a good chance that this one
will in fact be offered for sale commercially, since I am securing permission
for all songs that are still under copyright.
Mary and I took a brief trip to Los Angeles over the Christmas holidays to see
my two sisters and their families. One December 26 I was please to make the
personal acquaintance of two young poets, Kyle (K. A.) Opperman
(whose The Crimson Tome will appear this year from Hippocampus Press) and
Ashley Dioses (who has a poem in the new Weird Fiction Review and is likely
to have a poetry book from Hippocampus sometime in the future). We
engaged in several hours of lively discussion of poetry and other matters.
Indeed, Kyle suggested to me that I encourage Leigh Blackmore to assemble a

volume of the collected weird poetry of Leah Bodine Drake. Leigh has just
written a long article on Drakes poetry (which will appear in two parts in the
next two issues of Spectral Realms)an article that notes that, aside from the
fabulously rare Arkham House book A Hornbook for Witches (1950), Drake
also published a second poetry volume, The Tilting Dust (1956), which has
some weird specimens. In addition, there is a third, unpublished poetry
manuscript, Multiple Clay, among her papers at the University of Kentucky. I
have just asked the library there for a copy or scan of this text. So I hope that a
volume of Drakes poetry, under Leighs editorship, can appear in the next
year or two.
I am just now wrapping up my edition of the weird tales of Irvin S. Cobb and
Gouverneur Morris for Dark Renaissance Books. It will be called Back There
in the Grass, from the title of Morriss most famous story. This is really a very
interesting compilation, and the weird work of these two author is quite
creditable. I think I will then proceed with an assemblage of the weird tales of
Thomas Burke, a writer I have always admired. Jessica Amanda Salmonson
seems to have assembled a pretty comprehensive volume of Burkes weird
tales (The Golden Gong and Other Night-Pieces [Ash-Tree Press, 2001]), but
this book is long out of print and no doubt quite expensive. I may include the
complete contents of Burkes classic collection Night-Pieces (1935), even
though not all the stories are weird; and there are other weird stories scattered
in other collections that I will also include. After I assemble the Burke

volume, I will put together a substantial book of Thophile Gautiers weird

tales.
Lynne Jamneck and I have pretty much completed our assembly of Gothic
Lovecraft, and the volume has come out quite well indeed, with contributions
from Lois H. Gresh, Orrin Grey, Nancy Kilpatrick, Lynda Rucker, Jonathan
Thomas, Donald Tyson, Don Webb, and several others. This will be appearing
from Jason V Brocks Cycatrix Press later this yearperhaps around the time
of the World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga Springs, New York. I am also
helping Jason assemble Nicole Cushings first short story collection, The
Mirrors, which he hopes to bring out for the World Horror Convention in
Atlanta (May 710). I am not sure I will be able to attend that event, as I
would have to miss one of my choir performances (currently set for May 9
and 16).
So this year is likely to be a busy one!