H.P. Lovecraft

Library of Weird Fiction

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

H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) is widely recognized as the twentieth century’s greatest master of weird fiction. Drawing inspiration from such of his predecessors as Edgar Allan Poe, Lord Dunsany, and Arthur Machen, Lovecraft evolved a highly original pseudomythology — later named the Cthulhu Mythos — that underlies many of his most powerful tales. Envisioning the coming to earth of immensely powerful alien entities from the farthest reaches of the universe, this pseudomythology underscored the cosmic perspective that Lovecraft made his signature contribution to weird fiction.

This volume contains such major tales as "The Call of Cthulhu," "The Whisperer in Darkness," "At the Mountains of Madness," and "The Shadow out of Time." In addition, important early tales such as "The Outsider" and "The Rats in the Walls" are included, presenting the full range of Lovecraft’s stories from the beginning to the end of his career. The most accurate and authoritative texts are used, and the volume concludes with a bibliography of first appearances of all the items included.

The volume is edited by S. T. Joshi, a leading authority on weird fiction. Joshi is the author of The Weird Tale (1990), The Modern Weird Tale (2001), and Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction (2012), and he has prepared editions of the work of H.P. Lovecraft, Lord Dunsany, Arthur Machen, Ambrose Bierce, and many other weird writers.

900 pages, Hardcover

First published May 13, 2014

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