Essential Solitude: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and August Derleth

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

In this two-volume set, H. P. Lovecraft's relations to one of his most prominent colleagues and disciples, August Derleth (1909-1971), are recounted in the hundreds of letters they exchanged between 1926 and 1937. The youthful Derleth first wrote to Lovecraft, via Weird Tales magazine, in regard to an obscure work of weird fiction, and their subsequent correspondence deals extensively with the history of weird fiction, the two authors' ongoing attempts to publish stories in pulp magazines, Derleth's evolution into a sensitive writer of regional fiction and of detective stories, and debates over such issues as spiritualism, occultism, the literary use of coincidence, points of language and style, and other matters. Especially noteworthy are several letters by Lovecraft that Derleth interpreted as giving him permission to elaborate upon Lovecraft's pseudomythology, which Derleth named the Cthulhu Mythos. Nearly 400 of Lovecraft's letters and postcards are printed; only about 40 of Derleth's replies are extant. In an appendix, several of Derleth's early articles about Lovecraft are reprinted, describing Derleth's championing of Lovecraft and his foundation of Arkham House. All the letters are exhaustively annotated by David E. Schultz and S. T. Joshi.
A two-volume hardcover set; individual volumes not sold separately.

884 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

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

[Wilum Pugmire]

This is one of the growing library of the Collected Letters of H. P. Lovecraft that are being published by Hippocampus Press. Having long been an August Derleth fan, I was especially interested in reading these two volumes, for I knew that in them I would find Lovecraft (and sometimes Derleth, although there are not many of his letters that were preserved) discussing the matters of reading and writing weird fiction. These letters do not have the intellectual and philosophical attributes of Lovecraft's finest correspondence, and yet they reveal much that it fascinating about his life as the author of the finest weird fiction since Poe. Highly recommended!

[Henrik]

The first time I read (or notice, at any rate) that HPL has read "The Yellow Wall Paper" by Gilman, probably the single most original and disturbing "haunted house and/or insane protagonist" story ever written!

Actual review coming when I am done with the volumes and have digested them properly; so don't hold your breath;-)

Received my copies of this 2-vol hardcover set March 2, 2009.

[Isidore · Rating 2 out of 5]

This massive collection of Lovecraft's letters to August Derleth is very likely the least interesting of the comprehensive collections of HPL's letters to specific correspondents which has so far been published--a fact not without considerable irony, given Derleth's zealous appropriation and guardianship of Lovecraft's literary legacy following the latter's death (a legacy which HPL had in fact conferred on the rapidly-sidelined Robert Barlow). It's very evident that the relationship between the two men was without great depth, or even mutual understanding: it's depressing to see them, after years of correspondence on the matter, rehashing the same arguments about the existence of psychic phenomena. Lovecraft, as a materialist, rejected scientifically unsubstantiated claims, although sometimes his insistence on appealing to scientific authority leads him to a trap, as when he cites Jung as an example of the first-class scientific minds who reject the existence of the supernatural.

Given that their relationship was cordial but not deep, Lovecraft almost never engages in the complex philosophizing, self-revelation, or delightful banter which characterizes his correspondence with intimate friends. So what, apart from the existence/non-existence of the occult, do they talk about? Derleth mostly rambles on with stupefying tedium about his immense literary output, without much sensitivity to Lovecraft's obvious distress at his own failure to get his work published. Fortunately HPL kept very few of Derleth's letters, so they make up only a small portion of this collection. On Lovecraft's side, there is much good-natured encouragement of Derleth's literary efforts, superficial commentary on his activities and those of mutual friends, and some interesting discussions of weird literature. With this last, one encounters an annoying problem with the collection's layout. When the contents of an issue of "Weird Tales" comes under discussion, notes are not provided giving the specifics of author, title of story, and so on: to find this information one must consult a table found at the end of the second volume. This means, when reading volume one, one must keep open volume two, an absurdly cumbersome arrangement. Moreover, it is not always easy to identify which issue of the pulp magazine is being referred to: the lists of contents are given in the table by date of publication, which usually differs from the date of the magazine's appearance on the news stand, and the date of the letters discussing it, by months.

The collection is now pretty much out of print, but for the record, it is an item for specialists, who will find useful matter in even comparatively weak Lovecraft letters. Of much greater general interest is the forthcoming assembly of the complete correspondence of HPL and Robert E. Howard, due from the same publisher later this year. This will almost certainly be as lively and informative as this collection is repetitive and dull--terms I never thought I'd apply to a collection of Lovecraft's letters.

[Forrest · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me three years of intermittent reading to finish both volumes, but I finally did it. Next up: A Means to Freedom: the Letters of H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard...

[Arthur B · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Hippocampus Press volumes of Lovecraft's letters are sufficiently repetitive (and, in parts, repellent) to make them not worth your time unless you are engaged in serious research, though the interactions between Lovecraft and Derleth are interesting given Derleth's future influence over Lovecraft fandom. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/202...