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Selected Letters of H.P. Lovecraft #5
Selected Letters V: 1934-1937
The selected letters of Howard Phillips Lovecraft comprise the most varied and extensive group of writings conceived by this renowned American fantasist. Lovecraft was a brilliant epistolarian whose effortlessly erudite correspondence created lasting friendships among many individuals whom he would never meet in person, including August Derleth, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Fritz Leiber, Robert Bloch, C.L. Moore, and countless others. The unlimited extent of Lovecraft's intellectual curiosity is accurately preserved in this illustrated edition, in letters dealing with details of autobiography, fantastic literature, philosophical speculation, dreams and fancies, social commentary, and innumerable other subjects, ranging from the history and vestiges of colonial New England to the outermost abysses of the universe, beyond known space and conjectured time. Cosmic mythmaker, antiquarian recluse, philosophic materialist -- here are the most memorable epistolary writings by this extraordinary gentleman from Providence, who in the years since his death has become a legend.
436 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1976
About the author
H.P. Lovecraft
6,499 books19.7k followersHoward 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
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
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 16, 2014
My copy is copyrite 1965
January 28, 2026
In this final collection of ‘Selected Letters’, covering the summer of 1934, to his untimely death in March of 1937, we find the Lovecraft that will surprise those who have accepted the stereotypical portraits of this complex man. For those who dwell on the lonely, mad author, writing his tales by candlelight, we find a man in his 40’s, riding a bicycle on the island of Nantucket as he thrills in the history and museums of the whaling island. For those who would cancel him, we find a man coming to terms with his maturity – advocating for the New Deal, old age pensions and unemployment insurance, for fairness and equality for women, and even declaring his ongoing shift to the left of politics. “My conversion has by no means been hasty, but has come step by step, as facts have driven me.”
He is forced to look back at previous written opinions “…was I that much of a dub at 33?...there was no getting out of it – I really had thrown all that haughty, complacent, snobbish, self-centred, intolerant bull, and at a mature age when anybody but a perfect damn fool would have known better!”
For his own situation, we lament his inability to find meaningful (paid) work as a writer (despite his constant disregard for his own work) whilst he repeatedly states his refusal to compromise his work :
“The road to print for the serious fantaisiste is through book publication alone…and if one can’t make it …he is better off with his work largely unpublished – able to look himself in the face and know that he has never cringed nor truckled nor sold his intellectual and aesthetic integrity.”
He may never have seen his work properly acknowledged or published (save the literally handful of copies of ‘The Shunned House’ and ‘The Shadow of Innsmouth’) but his books have now sold in the millions, and the earliest works are true collectors items, with the likes of ST Joshi completing herculean efforts to ensure the versions released are exactly as the old man wanted them to be – not the edited versions that appeared in the likes of Weird Tales, or even the very first Arkham House releases.
The first signs of the illness that would ultimately kill him are recorded early in the book and there is a fleeting obsession on the correct pronunciation of names, including his most famous creation – the TWO-syllabled ‘Cthulhu’…
What come through so clearly, in this volume specifically, is his incredible grasp of so many subjects – his ability to write confidently and knowledgeably about seemingly any topic that is thrown at him. In a letter to Emile Petaja, he states “What really ought to be taught people, is the ability to think. Nine tenths of the people in the world never really think on any topic of large scope. They imagine that they have ‘opinions’, but these opinions are so completely the product of irrational emotion, blind heritage and sheer mental indolence, as to be unworthy of the name.” How pertinent that remains almost 100 years later, in the Social Media world.
The suicide of Robert E Howard (Two-Gun Bob) clearly hit HPL hard, and yet again we see another side of this complex gent. The letter to E Hoffman Price (being the only one of ‘the gang’ to have met REH in person), was particularly poignant, and I look forward to the two volume collection of letters that shuttled between New England and Texas. He also opens up, just marginally, regarding his own marriage : “…small similarities did not, as expected, grow greater; nor did the small differences, as expected, grow less.”
Whilst this 5th volume of Selected letters is a mere appetizer for the voluminous work now completed by Hippocampus Press (I eagerly await the release of the FBL letters as the final of their 21 volume series), letters in here offer small insights into just how much we have lost. It is testament that so many people did keep their letters from the Old Gent (the loss of the Sonia Greene letters being the most devastating), he states that he has destroyed far more stories than he ever kept, and that in June of 1936 he undertook a ‘…tremendous file cleaning…and through away about a ton of old letters…’ Like the greedy boy in the sweetshop – I have so many letters to enjoy, but still crave for what has been lost.
And then we are at the end; 5 volumes later we have walked alongside this fascinating man whose impact on his field will never be diminished, and who’s letters, unfortunately, do not seem to be given the same recognition. Certainly, I know that it is these letters that I will turn to in years to come, not the tales, because there is still so much to take from them. His last, unfinished, letter, found on his desk, captures everything that preceded it – the description of two little kittens encountered on one of his last walks. The way he describes them sleeping on his lap, or playing with his watch-charm, and ultimately mewing farewell as he leaves them at the edge of a grove, is more tender than he will ever be given credit for, more powerful than even great Cthulhu himself.
He was, ultimately, a man who loved cats…
He is forced to look back at previous written opinions “…was I that much of a dub at 33?...there was no getting out of it – I really had thrown all that haughty, complacent, snobbish, self-centred, intolerant bull, and at a mature age when anybody but a perfect damn fool would have known better!”
For his own situation, we lament his inability to find meaningful (paid) work as a writer (despite his constant disregard for his own work) whilst he repeatedly states his refusal to compromise his work :
“The road to print for the serious fantaisiste is through book publication alone…and if one can’t make it …he is better off with his work largely unpublished – able to look himself in the face and know that he has never cringed nor truckled nor sold his intellectual and aesthetic integrity.”
He may never have seen his work properly acknowledged or published (save the literally handful of copies of ‘The Shunned House’ and ‘The Shadow of Innsmouth’) but his books have now sold in the millions, and the earliest works are true collectors items, with the likes of ST Joshi completing herculean efforts to ensure the versions released are exactly as the old man wanted them to be – not the edited versions that appeared in the likes of Weird Tales, or even the very first Arkham House releases.
The first signs of the illness that would ultimately kill him are recorded early in the book and there is a fleeting obsession on the correct pronunciation of names, including his most famous creation – the TWO-syllabled ‘Cthulhu’…
What come through so clearly, in this volume specifically, is his incredible grasp of so many subjects – his ability to write confidently and knowledgeably about seemingly any topic that is thrown at him. In a letter to Emile Petaja, he states “What really ought to be taught people, is the ability to think. Nine tenths of the people in the world never really think on any topic of large scope. They imagine that they have ‘opinions’, but these opinions are so completely the product of irrational emotion, blind heritage and sheer mental indolence, as to be unworthy of the name.” How pertinent that remains almost 100 years later, in the Social Media world.
The suicide of Robert E Howard (Two-Gun Bob) clearly hit HPL hard, and yet again we see another side of this complex gent. The letter to E Hoffman Price (being the only one of ‘the gang’ to have met REH in person), was particularly poignant, and I look forward to the two volume collection of letters that shuttled between New England and Texas. He also opens up, just marginally, regarding his own marriage : “…small similarities did not, as expected, grow greater; nor did the small differences, as expected, grow less.”
Whilst this 5th volume of Selected letters is a mere appetizer for the voluminous work now completed by Hippocampus Press (I eagerly await the release of the FBL letters as the final of their 21 volume series), letters in here offer small insights into just how much we have lost. It is testament that so many people did keep their letters from the Old Gent (the loss of the Sonia Greene letters being the most devastating), he states that he has destroyed far more stories than he ever kept, and that in June of 1936 he undertook a ‘…tremendous file cleaning…and through away about a ton of old letters…’ Like the greedy boy in the sweetshop – I have so many letters to enjoy, but still crave for what has been lost.
And then we are at the end; 5 volumes later we have walked alongside this fascinating man whose impact on his field will never be diminished, and who’s letters, unfortunately, do not seem to be given the same recognition. Certainly, I know that it is these letters that I will turn to in years to come, not the tales, because there is still so much to take from them. His last, unfinished, letter, found on his desk, captures everything that preceded it – the description of two little kittens encountered on one of his last walks. The way he describes them sleeping on his lap, or playing with his watch-charm, and ultimately mewing farewell as he leaves them at the edge of a grove, is more tender than he will ever be given credit for, more powerful than even great Cthulhu himself.
He was, ultimately, a man who loved cats…
June 5, 2020
There's something strangely loveable about H. P. Lovecraft. If you list his characteristics and prejudices objectively - racist, intolerant of novelty, reclusive, snobby - he sounds horrible. But when you read his letters en masse you begin to see the genuinely warm - and actually funny - personality which lay underneath.
As you get to know him better, too, you begin to realise how often he was joking, how many of his letters spiral off into absurd monologues designed to provoke his correspondents to spluttering laughter in the midst of their indignation.
I've always liked the extravagance of his fictional work, but reading the whole series of the Selected Letters has brought him to life for me in a quite unexpected way.
As you get to know him better, too, you begin to realise how often he was joking, how many of his letters spiral off into absurd monologues designed to provoke his correspondents to spluttering laughter in the midst of their indignation.
I've always liked the extravagance of his fictional work, but reading the whole series of the Selected Letters has brought him to life for me in a quite unexpected way.
May 17, 2008
lovecraft was as singularly bizarre an individual as was his creative output, although not in the way you'd think...
banality and hyper-erudition are really the two words that sum him up most...the above collection of letters is actually volume III...volumes I and II comprise letters from earlier periods...
i don't think they've ever been re-printed outside Arkham House, but if you can find them, i would highly encourage reading them...
extraordinary stuff...
banality and hyper-erudition are really the two words that sum him up most...the above collection of letters is actually volume III...volumes I and II comprise letters from earlier periods...
i don't think they've ever been re-printed outside Arkham House, but if you can find them, i would highly encourage reading them...
extraordinary stuff...
June 4, 2008
I just got a copy of this for my birthday,and it's a fun read,although sad at times to realize the poverty that Lovecraft lived in at the later parts of his life.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews