Some Unknown Gulf of Night

by W.H. Pugmire

With Some Unknown Gulf of Night, Wilum Pugmire continues his aesthetic exploration of the prose-poem and vignette sequence, many of which may be found in his last collection, The Tangled Muse . With this new title from Arcane Wisdom Press we have a book-length sequence of semi-interconnected pieces, all of which are inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's superb sonnet sequence,
Fungi from Yuggoth. Each numbered segment is an imaginative response to that numbered sonnet in Lovecraft's sequence, and Pugmire's Lovecraftian influence is the main force that drives this present work; yet other influences burrow from his fevered brain - Oscar Wilde, Edgar A. Poe, Baudelaire and the Decadents. Like some freakish soul who has lost his place in modern time, Pugmire's style is like that from another era, and yet it too is tainted by his neoteric experience as a punk rock queen and street transvestite. Like his literary heroes such as H.P. Lovecraft and Thomas Ligotti and Henry James, Pugmire strives to create what he does not hesitate to call "literary art" - prose pieces that are beautifully poetic and imaginatively deranged. This perverse concoction is best when sipped slowly, occasionally, and this is not a book to rush through in one sitting. Let it plant its poisoned fungi gradually upon your innocent brain, and thus blemish forever your paltry soul.

Genres: Lovecraftian, Horror, Weird Fiction, The United States Of America

170 pages, Paperback

First published October 8, 2011

About the author

Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire (born William Harry Pugmire, 1951–2019) was a writer of weird fiction and horror fiction based in Seattle, Washington. His works typically were published as W.H. Pugmire (his adopted middle name derives from the story of the same title by Edgar Allan Poe) and his fiction often paid homage to the lore of Lovecraftian horror. Lovecraft scholar and biographer S.T. Joshi described Pugmire as "the prose-poet of the horror/fantasy field; he may be the best prose-poet we have" and as one of the genre's leading Lovecraftian authors.

Wilum lived in Seattle, WA and wrote Cthulhu Mythos fiction full-time. He was the self-proclaimed "Queen of Eldritch Horror". Writing weird fiction was his life, but congestive heart failure slowed his writing. He considered his finest books to be Some Unknown Gulf of Night (Arcane Wisdom Press 2011), Uncommon Places (Hippocampus Press 2012) and The Tangled Muse (Centipede Press 2011).

Reviews

[Romuald · Rating 5 out of 5]

📖 Quote: ”She rose to him, through daemonic darkness, and the splintered lips of her chiseled countenance curled with sardonic ecstasy as, pressed to living flesh, they claimed the poet with their kiss.” (VI)

This book is a little gem. But if you’ve never read Lovecraft and especially his ”The Fungi From Yuggoth” you might not understand anything, and think that this is an abstract nonsense. But know that it is not. This prose-poem and vignette sequence can’t get more aesthetic and decadent than Pugmire makes it. He strives for so-called "literary art" where his fiction is both poetic and imaginatively deranged, and in it he interprets Lovecraft’s ”The Fungi From Yuggoth” with his own semi-interconnected sequence of prose-poems, and does it in such a way that you feel that Oscar Wilde and Edgar Allan Poe are alive again. A masterpiece.

[Jason H · Rating 5 out of 5]

The atmosphere of decadence and nightmare-born morbidity is superbly rendered on every page... in all of his Lovecraftian fiction, W. H. Pugmire captures his muse's style in a way that no one else comes close to, while (of course) drawing from his own unique experiences and personal vision. But he outdid himself with this, an original attempt to use Lovecraft's previous work, The Fungi From Yuggoth, as the germ for a much larger collection of prose.

The final result is a masterpiece, and a fine tribute to Lovecraft’s inspiration, worth every penny of the cost for the limited edition hardcover.

[Stephen Corbett · Rating 5 out of 5]

In order to really appreciate this book you need to read it slowly and soak up the beautiful written word of this marvellous Lovecraftian style little gem.
Steeped in dark,twisted creatures and gods of the eather,this is a little Cosmic horror masterpiece from the late great W.H.Pugmire.