Miscellaneous Writings

by H.P. Lovecraft, S.T. Joshi (Editor)

Years in preparation, this massive assemblage of Lovecraftiana is organized into nine sections, each preceded by editor S.T. Joshi's illuminating commentary: Dreams and Fancies, The Weird Fantasist, Mechanistic Materialist, Literary Critic, Political Theorist, Antiquarian Travels, Amateur Journalist, Epistolarian, and Personal. The individual works by Lovecraft -- over eighty in number -- are too numerous to be listed here, but include such central statements as the "Commonplace Book, " "History of the Necronomicon, " "Notes on Writing Weird Fiction, " "The Materialist Today, " "Observations on Several Parts of America, " "Some Notes on a Nonentity, " "Cats and Dogs, " and much, much more.

Genres: Horror, Lovecraftian, Fiction, Anthologies

568 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Howard Phillips Lovecraft, of Providence, Rhode Island, was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction.

Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft has developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Christianity. Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.

Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, his reputation has grown over the decades. He is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe.
See also Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

— Wikipedia

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating read. Good to read something "new" from HPL.

[Conor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well worth the read. Very interesting stuff. I feel like I know Lovecraft much better now, having read this.